Qu. What shall I do? [Sidenote: Ger.]
Ham. Not this by no meanes that I bid you do:
Let the blunt King tempt you againe to bed, [Sidenote: the blowt King]
Pinch Wanton on your cheeke, call you his Mouse,
And let him for a paire of reechie[9] kisses,
Or padling in your necke with his damn'd Fingers,
Make you to rauell all this matter out, [Sidenote: rouell]
[Sidenote: 60, 136, 156] That I essentially am not in madnesse.
But made in craft.[10] 'Twere good you let him know, [Sidenote: mad]
For who that's but a Queene, faire, sober, wise,
Would from a Paddocke,[11] from a Bat, a Gibbe,[12]
Such deere concernings hide, Who would do so,
No in despight of Sense and Secrecie,
Vnpegge the Basket on the houses top:
Let the Birds flye, and like the famous Ape
To try Conclusions[13] in the Basket, creepe
And breake your owne necke downe.[14]
Qu. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, [Sidenote: Ger.]
[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto;—
the next more easie:[15]
For vse almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either[16] the deuill, or throwe him out
With wonderous potency:]
[Footnote B: Here in the Quarto:—
One word more good Lady.[17]
[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, after the custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farce now: when she seeks the blessing of God, he will beg hers; now, a plain good night must serve.]
[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of pleased. It is here a transitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sentence is, 'pleased it so, in order to punish us, that I must' &c.]
[Footnote 3: The noun to which their is the pronoun is heaven—as if he had written the gods.]