_Ham._ No, nor mine. Now[11] my Lord, you
plaid once i'th'Vniuersity, you say?

_Polon._ That I did my Lord, and was accounted [Sidenote: did I]
a good Actor.

[Footnote 1: Here follows in _1st Q._

Marke thou the King, doe but obserue his lookes,
For I mine eies will riuet to his face:
[Sidenote: 112] And if he doe not bleach, and change at that,
It is a damned ghost that we haue seene.
_Horatio_, haue a care, obserue him well.

_Hor_. My lord, mine eies shall still be on his face,
And not the smallest alteration
That shall appeare in him, but I shall note it.]

[Footnote 2: I take 'my' to be right: 'watch my uncle with the
comment--the discriminating judgment, that is--of _my_ soul, more intent
than thine.']

[Footnote 3: He has then, ere this, taken Horatio into his
confidence--so far at least as the Ghost's communication concerning the
murder.]

[Footnote 4: a dissyllable: _stithy_, _anvil_; Scotch, _studdy_.

Hamlet's doubt is here very evident: he hopes he may find it a false
ghost: what good man, what good son would not? He has clear cause and
reason--it is his duty to delay. That the cause and reason and duty are
not invariably clear to Hamlet himself--not clear in every mood, is
another thing. Wavering conviction, doubt of evidence, the corollaries
of assurance, the oppression of misery, a sense of the worthlessness of
the world's whole economy--each demanding delay, might yet well, all
together, affect the man's feeling as mere causes of rather than reasons
for hesitation. The conscientiousness of Hamlet stands out the clearer
that, throughout, his dislike to his uncle, predisposing him to believe
any ill of him, is more than evident. By his incompetent or prejudiced
judges, Hamlet's accusations and justifications of himself are equally
placed to the _discredit_ of his account. They seem to think a man could
never accuse himself except he were in the wrong; therefore if ever he
excuses himself, he is the more certainly in the wrong: whatever point
may tell on the other side, it is to be disregarded.]

[Footnote 5: 'bring our two judgments together for comparison.']

[Footnote 6: 'in order to judge of the significance of his looks and
behaviour.']

[Footnote 7: Does he mean _foolish_, that is, _lunatic_? or
_insouciant_, and _unpreoccupied_?]

[Footnote 8: The king asks Hamlet how he _fares_--that is, how he gets
on; Hamlet pretends to think he has asked