[Footnote 7: Not in Quarto.
The true moment, now only, has at last come. Hamlet has lived to do his duty with a clear conscience, and is thereupon permitted to go. The man who asks whether this be poetic justice or no, is unworthy of an answer. 'The Tragedie of Hamlet' is The Drama of Moral Perplexity.]
[Footnote 8: A grim play on the word Union: 'follow my mother'. It suggests a terrible meeting below.]
[Footnote 9: Not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 10: His better nature triumphs. The moment he was wounded, knowing he must die, he began to change. Defeat is a mighty aid to repentance; and processes grow rapid in the presence of Death: he forgives and desires forgiveness.]
[Footnote 11: Not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 12: Note how heartily Hamlet pardons the wrong done to himself—the only wrong of course which a man has to pardon.]
[Footnote 13: supernumeraries. Note the other figures too—audience, act—all of the theatre.]
[Page 272]
But let it be: Horatio, I am dead,
Thou liu'st, report me and my causes right [Sidenote: cause a right]
To the vnsatisfied.[1]