e and good,
He likewise giues a frock or Liuery
That aptly is put on]

[Footnote 1: madness 129.]

[Footnote 2: Here is the correspondent speech in the _1st Q._ I give it
because of the queen's denial of complicity in the murder.

_Queene_ Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine.
Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe:
But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen,
I neuer knew of this most horride murder:
But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie,
And for my loue forget these idle fits.

_Ham_. Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours,
It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet.]

[Footnote 3: _Not in Q._]

[Footnote 4: --_time_ being a great part of music. Shakspere more than
once or twice employs _music_ as a symbol with reference to corporeal
condition: see, for instance, _As you like it_, act i. sc. 2, 'But is
there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? is there yet
another dotes upon rib-breaking?' where the _broken music_ may be
regarded as the antithesis of the _healthful music_ here.]

[Footnote 5: _swoln, pampered_: an allusion to the _purse_ itself,
whether intended or not, is suggested.]

[Footnote 6: _bend, bow_.]

[Footnote 7: To _assume_ is to take to one: by _assume a virtue_, Hamlet
does not mean _pretend_--but the very opposite: _to pretend_ is _to hold
forth, to show_; what he means is, 'Adopt a virtue'--that of
_abstinence_--'and act upon it, order your behaviour by it, although you
may not _feel_ it. Choose the virtue--take it, make it yours.']

[Footnote 8: This omitted passage is obscure with the special
Shaksperean obscurity that comes of over-condensation. He omitted it, I
think, because of its obscurity. Its general meaning is plain
enough--that custom helps the man who tries to assume a virtue, as well
as renders it more and more difficult for him who indulges in vice to
leave it. I will paraphrase: 'That monster, Custom, who eats away all
sense, the devil of habits, is angel yet in this, that, for the exercise
of fair and good actions, he also provides a habit, a suitable frock or
livery, that is easily put on.' The play with the two senses of the word
_habit_ is more easily seen than set forth. To paraphrase more freely:
'That devil of habits, Custom, who eats away all sense of wrong-doing,
has yet an angel-side to him, in that he gives a man a mental dress, a
habit, helpful to the doing of the right thing.' The idea of hy