They foole me to the top of my bent, I will come by and by,
Leaue me friends.
I will, say so. By and by is easily said,
Tis now the very &c.]
[Footnote 2: belches.]
[Footnote 3: —thinking of what the Ghost had told him, perhaps: it was the time when awful secrets wander about the world. Compare Macbeth, act ii. sc. 1; also act iii. sc. 2.]
[Footnote 4: The assurance of his uncle's guilt, gained through the effect of the play upon him, and the corroboration of his mother's guilt by this partial confirmation of the Ghost's assertion, have once more stirred in Hamlet the fierceness of vengeance. But here afresh comes out the balanced nature of the man—say rather, the supremacy in him of reason and will. His dear soul, having once become mistress of his choice, remains mistress for ever. He could drink hot blood, he could do bitter business, but he will carry himself as a son, and the son of his father, ought to carry himself towards a guilty mother—mother although guilty.]
[Footnote 5: Thus he girds himself for the harrowing interview. Aware of the danger he is in of forgetting his duty to his mother, he strengthens himself in filial righteousness, dreading to what word or deed a burst of indignation might drive him. One of his troubles now is the way he feels towards his mother.]
[Footnote 6: —who killed his mother.]
[Footnote 7: His words should be as daggers.]
[Footnote 8: Pretenders.]
[Footnote 9: reproached or rebuked—though oftener scolded.]
[Footnote 10: 'to seal them with actions'—Actions are the seals to words, and make them irrevocable.]