Ham. Betweene who?[3]
Pol. I meane the matter you meane, my [Sidenote: matter that you reade my] Lord.
Ham. Slanders Sir: for the Satyricall slaue [Sidenote: satericall rogue sayes] saies here, that old men haue gray Beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thicke Amber, or Plum-Tree Gumme: and that they haue [Sidenote: Amber, and] a plentifull locke of Wit, together with weake [Sidenote: lacke | with most weake] Hammes. All which Sir, though I most powerfully, and potently beleeue; yet I holde it not Honestie[4] to haue it thus set downe: For you [Sidenote: for your selfe sir shall grow old as I am:] your selfe Sir, should be old as I am, if like a Crab you could go backward.
Pol.[5] Though this be madnesse, Yet there is Method in't: will you walke Out of the ayre[6] my Lord?
Ham. Into my Graue?
Pol. Indeed that is out o'th'Ayre:
[Sidenote: that's out of the ayre;]
How pregnant (sometimes) his Replies are?
A happinesse,
That often Madnesse hits on,
Which Reason and Sanitie could not [Sidenote: sanctity]
So prosperously be deliuer'd of.
[Footnote 1: One of the meanings of the word, and more in use then than now, is understanding.]
[Footnote 2: (aside).]
[Footnote 3: —pretending to take him to mean by matter, the point of quarrel.]
[Footnote 4: Propriety.]