[Footnote 1: For the moment he has no doubt that he has seen and spoken with the ghost of his father.]
[Footnote 2: his head.]
[Footnote 3: The whole speech is that of a student, accustomed to books, to take notes, and to fix things in his memory. 'Table,' tablet.]
[Footnote 4: wise sayings.]
[Footnote 5: The Ghost has revealed her adultery: Hamlet suspects her of complicity in the murder, 168.]
[Footnote 6: It may well seem odd that Hamlet should be represented as, at such a moment, making a note in his tablets; but without further allusion to the student-habit, I would remark that, in cases where strongest passion is roused, the intellect has yet sometimes an automatic trick of working independently. For instance from Shakspere, see Constance in King John—how, in her agony over the loss of her son, both her fancy, playing with words, and her imagination, playing with forms, are busy.
Note the glimpse of Hamlet's character here given: he had been something of an optimist; at least had known villainy only from books; at thirty years of age it is to him a discovery that a man may smile and be a villain! Then think of the shock of such discoveries as are here forced upon him! Villainy is no longer a mere idea, but a fact! and of all villainous deeds those of his own mother and uncle are the worst! But note also his honesty, his justice to humanity, his philosophic temperament, in the qualification he sets to the memorandum, '—at least in Denmark!']
[Footnote 7: 'my word,'—the word he has to keep in mind; his cue.]
[Footnote 8: Should not the actor here make a pause, with hand uplifted, as taking a solemn though silent oath?]
[Footnote 9: —as if calling to a hawk.]