We may suppose the attempt of Claudius to have been favoured by the lingering influence of the old Norse custom of succession, by which not the son but the brother inherited. 16, bis.]
[Footnote 4: To hunt counter is to 'hunt the game by the heel or track.' The queen therefore accuses them of not using their scent or judgment, but following appearances.]
[Footnote 5: Now at length re-appears Laertes, who has during the interim been ripening in Paris for villainy. He is wanted for the catastrophe, and requires but the last process of a few hours in the hell-oven of a king's instigation.]
[Footnote 6: The customary and polite way of saying leave me: 'grant me your absence.' 85, 89.]
[Footnote 7: grows calm.]
[Footnote 8: In taking vengeance Hamlet must acknowledge his mother such as Laertes says inaction on his part would proclaim his mother.
The actress should here let a shadow cross the queen's face: though too weak to break with the king, she has begun to repent.]
[Footnote 9: fear for.]
[Footnote 10: The consummate hypocrite claims the protection of the sacred hedge through which he had himself broken—or crept rather, like a snake, to kill. He can act innocence the better that his conscience is clear as to Polonius.]
[Footnote 11: 'can only peep through the hedge to its desire—acts little of its will.']