[Footnote 2: I take 'my' to be right: 'watch my uncle with the comment—the discriminating judgment, that is—of my soul, more intent than thine.']
[Footnote 3: He has then, ere this, taken Horatio into his confidence—so far at least as the Ghost's communication concerning the murder.]
[Footnote 4: a dissyllable: stithy, anvil; Scotch, studdy.
Hamlet's doubt is here very evident: he hopes he may find it a false ghost: what good man, what good son would not? He has clear cause and reason—it is his duty to delay. That the cause and reason and duty are not invariably clear to Hamlet himself—not clear in every mood, is another thing. Wavering conviction, doubt of evidence, the corollaries of assurance, the oppression of misery, a sense of the worthlessness of the world's whole economy—each demanding delay, might yet well, all together, affect the man's feeling as mere causes of rather than reasons for hesitation. The conscientiousness of Hamlet stands out the clearer that, throughout, his dislike to his uncle, predisposing him to believe any ill of him, is more than evident. By his incompetent or prejudiced judges, Hamlet's accusations and justifications of himself are equally placed to the discredit of his account. They seem to think a man could never accuse himself except he were in the wrong; therefore if ever he excuses himself, he is the more certainly in the wrong: whatever point may tell on the other side, it is to be disregarded.]
[Footnote 5: 'bring our two judgments together for comparison.']
[Footnote 6: 'in order to judge of the significance of his looks and behaviour.']
[Footnote 7: Does he mean foolish, that is, lunatic? or insouciant, and unpreoccupied?]
[Footnote 8: The king asks Hamlet how he fares—that is, how he gets on; Hamlet pretends to think he has asked him about his diet. His talk has at once become wild; ere the king enters he has donned his cloak of madness. Here he confesses to ambition—will favour any notion concerning himself rather than give ground for suspecting the real state of his mind and feeling.
In the 1st Q. 'the Camelions dish' almost appears to mean the play, not the king's promises.]
[Footnote 9: In some places they push food down the throats of the poultry they want to fatten, which is technically, I believe, called cramming them.]