pocrisy
does not come in at all. The advice of Hamlet is: 'Be virtuous in your
actions, even if you cannot in your feelings; do not do the wrong thing
you would like to do, and custom will render the abstinence easy.']

[Footnote 9: I suspect it should be '_Of habits evil_'--the antithesis
to _angel_ being _monster_.]

[Page 178]

To the next abstinence. [A] Once more goodnight,
And when you are desirous to be blest,
Ile blessing begge of you.[1] For this same Lord,
I do repent: but heauen hath pleas'd it so,[2]
To punish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their[3] Scourge and Minister.
I will bestow him,[4] and will answer well
The death I gaue him:[5] so againe, good night.
I must be cruell, onely to be kinde;[6]
Thus bad begins,[7] and worse remaines behinde.[8] [Sidenote: This bad]

[B]

_Qu_. What shall I do? [Sidenote: _Ger_.]

_Ham_. Not this by no meanes that I bid you do:
Let the blunt King tempt you againe to bed, [Sidenote: the blowt King]
Pinch Wanton on your cheeke, call you his Mouse,
And let him for a paire of reechie[9] kisses,
Or padling in your necke with his damn'd Fingers,
Make you to rauell all this matter out, [Sidenote: rouell]
[Sidenote: 60, 136, 156] That I essentially am not in madnesse.
But made in craft.[10] 'Twere good you let him know, [Sidenote: mad]
For who that's but a Queene, faire, sober, wise,
Would from a Paddocke,[11] from a Bat, a Gibbe,[12]
Such deere concernings hide, Who would do so,
No in despight of Sense and Secrecie,
Vnpegge the Basket on the houses top:
Let the Birds flye, and like the famous Ape
To try Conclusions[13] in the Basket, creepe
And breake your owne necke downe.[14]

_Qu_. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, [Sidenote: _Ger_.]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto;_--

the next more easie:[15]
For vse almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either[16] the deuill, or throwe him out
With wonderous potency:]

[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto:_--

One word more good Lady.[17]]

[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, after
the custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farce
now: when she seeks the blessing of God, he will beg hers; now, a plain
_good night_ must serve.]

[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of _pleased_. It is here a
transitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sente