Act iv. sc. 2.—
“Ros. Take you me for a spunge, my lord?
Ham. Ay, Sir; that soaks up the King's countenance, his
rewards, his authorities,” &c.
Hamlet's madness is made to consist in the free utterance of all the thoughts that had passed through his mind before;—in fact, in telling home-truths.
Act iv. sc. 5. Ophelia's singing. O, note the conjunction here of these two thoughts that had never subsisted in disjunction, the love for Hamlet, and her filial love, with the guileless floating on the surface of her pure imagination of the cautions so lately expressed, and the fears not too delicately avowed, by her father and brother, concerning the dangers to which her honour lay exposed. Thought, affliction, passion, murder itself—she turns to favour and prettiness. This play of association is instanced in the close:—
“My brother shall know of it, and I thank you for your good counsel.”
Ib. Gentleman's speech:—
“And as the world were now but to begin
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,