This whole speech of Hamlet is profoundly sane—looking therefore altogether insane to the shallow mind, on which the impression of its insanity is deepened by its coming from him so freely. The common nature disappointed rails at humanity; Hamlet, his earthly ideal destroyed, would tear his individual human self to pieces.]
[Footnote 7: This we may suppose uttered with an expression as startling to Ophelia as impenetrable.]
[Footnote 8: He is disgusted with himself, with his own nature and consciousness—]
[Footnote 9: —and this reacts on his kind.]
[Footnote 10: 'all' not in Q.]
[Footnote 11: Here, perhaps, he grows suspicious—asks himself why he is allowed this prolonged tête à tête.]
[Footnote 12: I am willing to believe she thinks so.]
[Footnote 13: Whether he trusts Ophelia or not, he does not take her statement for correct, and says this in the hope that Polonius is not too far off to hear it. The speech is for him, not for Ophelia, and will seem to her to come only from his madness.]
[Footnote 14: Exit.]
[Footnote 15: (re-entering)]