otnote 3: Contrast him here with Hamlet.]

[Footnote 4: careless.]

[Footnote 5: _examine_--the word being of general application then.]

[Footnote 6: _unblunted_. Some foils seem to have been made with a
button that could be taken--probably _screwed_ off.]

[Footnote 7: Whether _practice_ here means exercise or cunning, I cannot
determine. Possibly the king uses the word as once before 216--to be
taken as Laertes may please.]

[Footnote 8: In the _1st Q._ this proposal also is made by the king.]

[Footnote 9:

'So mortal, yes, a knife being but dipt in it,' or,
'So mortal, did I but dip a knife in it.']

[Footnote 10: To understand this figure, one must be familiar with the
behaviour of the wick of a common lamp or tallow candle.]

[Footnote 11: 'nothing keeps always at the same degree of goodness.']

[Footnote 12: A _plurisie_ is just a _too-muchness_, from _plus,
pluris--a plethora_, not our word _pleurisy_, from [Greek: pleura]. See
notes in _Johnson and Steevens_.]

[Footnote 13: The sense here requires an _s_, and the space in the
_Quarto_ between the _e_ and the comma gives the probability that a
letter has dropt out.]

[Footnote 14: Modern editors seem agreed to substitute the adjective
_spendthrift_: our sole authority has _spendthrifts_, and by it I hold.
The meaning seems this: 'the _would_ changes, the thing is not done, and
then the _should_, the mere acknowledgment of duty, is like the sigh of
a spendthrift, who regrets consequences but does not change his way: it
eases his conscience for a moment, and so injures him.' There would at
the same time be allusion to what was believed concerning sighs: Dr.
Johnson says, 'It is a notion very prevalent, that _sighs_ impair the
strength, and wear out the animal powers.']

[Page 222]

Vnder the Moone, can saue the thing from death,
That is but scratcht withall: Ile touch my point,
With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,[1]
It may be death.

_Kin_. Let's further thinke of this,
Weigh what conuenience[2] both of time and meanes
May fit vs to our shape,[3] if this should faile;
And that our drift looke through our bad performance,
'Twere better not assaid; therefore this Proiect
Should haue a backe or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proofe:[4] Soft, let me see[5]
[Sidenote: did blast]
Wee'l make a solemne wager on your commings,[6] [Sidenote: cunnings[6]]
I ha'