"Now, that this last line is really what Shakspeare intended to be noted down, is precisely the point that goes so much "against the stomach of my sense!"

This jotting down by Hamlet, upon a real substantial table, of one of those "generalised truths" which he had just excluded from the table of his memory, would be such a literalising of the metaphor, that it is a great relief to me to feel convinced that Shakspeare never intended it.

In Hamlet's discourse there may be observed an under current of thought that is continually breaking forth in apostrophe. In the present instance it is directed to his uncle:

"O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!

At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark—

So! uncle, there you are!"

Is not all this one continued apostrophe? The second line an admirative comment upon the first, and the fourth line, even in the present day, a common exclamation expressive of misdeeds, or intentions, unexpectedly brought to light? But it is not this most trite reflection, in the second line, that Hamlet wishes to set down. No, it is the all-absorbing commandment:

"And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain,