e ridiculous be excited. The close alliance of these
opposites--they are not contraries--appears from the circumstance, that
laughter is equally the expression of extreme anguish and horror as of
joy: as there are tears of sorrow and tears of joy, so is there a laugh of
terror and a laugh of merriment. These complex causes will naturally have
produced in Hamlet the disposition to escape from his own feelings of the
overwhelming and supernatural by a wild transition to the ludicrous,--a
sort of cunning bravado, bordering on the flights of delirium. For you
may, perhaps, observe that Hamlet's wildness is but half false; he plays
that subtle trick of pretending to act only when he is very near really
being what he acts.

The subterraneous speeches of the Ghost are hardly defensible;--but I would
call your attention to the characteristic difference between this Ghost,
as a superstition connected with the most mysterious truths of revealed
religion,--and Shakespeare's consequent reverence in his treatment of
it,--and the foul earthly witcheries and wild language in _Macbeth_.

Act ii. sc. 1. Polonius and Reynaldo.

In all things dependent on, or rather made up of, fine address, the manner
is no more or otherwise rememberable than the light notions, steps, and
gestures of youth and health. But this is almost everything:--no wonder,
therefore, if that which can be put down by rule in the memory should
appear to us as mere poring, maudlin, cunning,--slyness blinking through
the watery eye of superannuation. So in this admirable scene, Polonius,
who is throughout the skeleton of his own former skill and statecraft,
hunts the trail of policy at a dead scent, supplied by the weak
fever-smell in his own nostrils.

_Ib._ sc. 2. Speech of Polonius:--

"My liege, and madam, to expostulate," &c.

Warburton's note.

"Then as to the jingles, and play on words, let us but look into
the sermons of Dr. Donne (the wittiest man of that age), and we
shall find them full of this vein."

I have, and that most carefully, read Dr. Donne's sermons, and find none
of these jingles. The great art of an orator--to make whatever he talks of
appear of importance--this, indeed, Donne has effected with consummate
skill.

_Ib._--

"_Ham._ Excellent well;
You are a fishmonger."

That is, you are sent to fish out this secret. This is Hamlet's own
meaning.

_Ib._--

"_Ham._ For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog,
Being a