_Osr_. I commend my duty to your Lordship. [Sidenote: _Cour_.]
_Ham_. Yours, yours [18]: hee does well to commend [Sidenote: _Ham_. Yours doo"s well[18]]
it himselfe, there are no tongues else for"s tongue, [Sidenote: turne.]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Hora_. I knew you must be edified by the margent[19] ere you had done.]
[Footnote 1: accompaniments or belongings; things _a.s.signed_ to them.]
[Footnote 2: the thongs or chains attaching the sheath of a weapon to the girdle; what the weapon _hangs_ by. The "_or so_" seems to indicate that Osricke regrets having used the old-fashioned word, which he immediately changes for _carriages_.]
[Footnote 3: imagination, taste, the artistic faculty.]
[Footnote 4: "corresponding to--going well with the hilts,"--in shape, ornament, and colour.]
[Footnote 5: bold invention.]
[Footnote 6: a new word, unknown to Hamlet;--court-slang, to which he prefers the old-fashioned, homely word.]
[Footnote 7: related; "akin to the matter."]
[Footnote 8: He uses Osricke"s words--with a touch of derision, I should say.]
[Footnote 9: I do not take the _Quarto_ reading for incorrect. Hamlet says: "why is this all----you call it --? --?" as if he wanted to use the word (_imponed_) which Osricke had used, but did not remember it: he asks for it, saying "_you call it_" interrogatively.]
[Footnote 10: _1st Q_
that yong Leartes in twelue venies 223 At Rapier and Dagger do not get three oddes of you,]
[Footnote 11: In all printer"s work errors are apt to come in cl.u.s.ters.]
[Footnote 12: the response, or acceptance of the challenge.]
[Footnote 13: Hamlet plays with the word, pretending to take it in its common meaning.]
[Footnote 14: "By _answer_, I mean, my lord, the opposition &c."]
[Footnote 15: "my time for exercise:" he treats the proposal as the trifle it seems--a casual affair to be settled at once--hoping perhaps that the king will come with like carelessness.]
[Footnote 16: the _three_.]
[Footnote 17: To Osricke the answer seems too direct and unadorned for ears royal.]
[Footnote 18: I cannot help here preferring the _Q_. If we take the _Folio_ reading, we must take it thus: "Yours! yours!" spoken with contempt;--"as if _you_ knew anything of duty!"--for we see from what follows that he is playing with the word _duty_. Or we might read it, "Yours commends yours," with the same sense as the reading of the _Q._, which is, "Yours," that is, "_Your_ lordship--does well to commend his duty himself--there is no one else to do it." This former shape is simpler; that of the _Folio_ is burdened with ellipsis--loaded with lack. And surely _turne_ is the true reading!--though we may take the other to mean, "there are no tongues else on the side of his tongue."]
[Footnote 19: --as of the Bible, for a second interpretative word or phrase.]
[Page 260]
_Hor_. This Lapwing runs away with the sh.e.l.l on his head.[1]
[Sidenote: 98] _Ham_. He did Compile[2] with his Dugge before [Sidenote: _Ham_. A did sir[2] with]
hee suck"t it: thus had he and mine more of the [Sidenote: a suckt has hemany more]
same Beauy[3] that I know the drossie age dotes [Sidenote: same breede]
on; only got the tune[4] of the time, and outward [Sidenote: and out of an habit of[5]]
habite of encounter,[5] a kinde of yesty collection, [Sidenote: histy]
which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and doe but blow [Sidenote: prophane and trennowed opinions]
them to their tryalls: the Bubbles are out.[6]
[Sidenote: their triall, the]
[A]
_Hor_. You will lose this wager, my Lord. [Sidenote: loose my Lord.]
_Ham_. I doe not thinke so, since he went into France, I haue beene in continuall practice; I shall [Sidenote: 265] winne at the oddes:[7] but thou wouldest not thinke [Sidenote: ods; thou]
how all heere about my heart:[8] but it is no matter[9]
[Sidenote: how ill all"s heere]
_Hor_. Nay, good my Lord.
_Ham_. It is but foolery; but it is such a kinde of gain-giuing[10] as would perhaps trouble a woman, [Sidenote: gamgiuing.]
_Hor_. If your minde dislike any thing, obey.[11] [Sidenote: obay it.]
I will forestall[12] their repaire hither, and say you are not fit.
_Ham_. Not a whit, we defie Augury[13]; there"s a [Sidenote: there is speciall]
[Sidenote: 24, 125, 247] speciall Prouidence in the fall of a sparrow.[14] If
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_
_Enter a Lord_.[15]
_Lord_. My Lord, his Maiestie commended him to you by young Ostricke,[16] who brings backe to him that you attend him in the hall, he sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with _Laertes_, or that you will take longer time?[17]
_Ham_. I am constant to my purposes, they followe the Kings pleasure, if his fitnes speakes, mine is ready[18]: now or whensoeuer, prouided I be so able as now.
_Lord_. The King, and Queene, and all are comming downe.
_Ham_. In happy time.[19]
_Lord_. The Queene desires you to vse some gentle entertainment[20] _Laertes_, before you fall to play.
_Ham_. Shee well instructs me.]
[Footnote 1: "Well, he _is_ a young one!"]