And so am I revenged? That would be scann'd,” &c.
Dr. Johnson's mistaking of the marks of reluctance and procrastination for impetuous, horror-striking, fiendishness!—Of such importance is it to understand the germ of a character. But the interval taken by Hamlet's speech is truly awful! And then—
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.”
O what a lesson concerning the essential difference between wishing and willing, and the folly of all motive-mongering, while the individual self remains!
Ib. sc. 4.—
“Ham. A bloody deed;—almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Queen. As kill a king?”
I confess that Shakespeare has left the character of the Queen in an unpleasant perplexity. Was she, or was she not, conscious of the fratricide?