aw both Friend and Foe,
Winner and Looser.[3]

_Laer_. None but his Enemies.

_King_. Will you know them then.

_La_. To his good Friends, thus wide Ile ope my Armes:
And like the kinde Life-rend'ring Politician,[4]
[Sidenote: life-rendring Pelican,]
Repast them with my blood.[5]

_King_. Why now you speake
Like a good Childe,[6] and a true Gentleman.
That I am guiltlesse of your Fathers death,
And am most sensible in greefe for it,[7] [Sidenote: sencibly]

[Footnote 1:

'Who shall _prevent_ you?'
'My own will only--not all the world,'

or,

'Who will _support_ you?'
'My will. Not all the world shall prevent me,'--

so playing on the two meanings of the word _stay._ Or it _might_ mean:
'Not all the world shall stay my will.']

[Footnote 2: swoop-stake--_sweepstakes_.]

[Footnote 3: 'and be loser as well as winner--' If the _Folio's_ is
the right reading, then the sentence is unfinished, and should have a
dash, not a period.]

[Footnote 4: A curious misprint: may we not suspect a somewhat dull
joker among the compositors?]

[Footnote 6: 'a true son to your father.']

[Footnote 7: 'feel much grief for it.']

[Footnote 5: Laertes is a ranter--false everywhere.

Plainly he is introduced as the foil from which Hamlet 'shall stick
fiery off.' In this speech he shows his moral condition directly the
opposite of Hamlet's: he has no principle but revenge. His conduct ought
to be quite satisfactory to Hamlet's critics; there is action enough in
it of the very kind they would have of Hamlet; and doubtless it would be
satisfactory to them but for the treachery that follows. The one, dearly
loving a father who deserves immeasurably better of him than Polonius of
Laertes, will not for the sake of revenge disregard either conscience,
justice, or grace; the other will not delay even to inquire into the
facts of his father's fate, but will act at once on hearsay, rushing to
a blind satisfaction that cannot even be called retaliation, caring for
neither right nor wrong, cursing conscience and the will of God, and
daring damnation. He slights assurance as to the hand by which his
father fell, dismisses all reflection that might interfere with a stupid
revenge. To make up one's mind at once, and act without ground, is
weakness, not strength: this Laertes does--and is therefore just the man
to be the villainous, not the innocent, tool of villainy. He who