tane away: [Sidenote: fane away,]
And when he's not himselfe, do's wrong _Laertes_,
Then _Hamlet_ does it not, _Hamlet_ denies it:[10]
Who does it then? His Madnesse? If't be so,
_Hamlet_ is of the Faction that is wrong'd,
His madnesse is poore _Hamlets_ Enemy.[11]
Sir, in this Audience,[12]
Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd euill,[13]
Free me so farre[14] in your most generous thoughts,
That I haue shot mine Arrow o're the house, [Sidenote: my]
And hurt my Mother.[15] [Sidenote: brother.[15]]

[Footnote 1: 'it'--death, the end.]

[Footnote 2: His father had been taken unready. 54.]

[Footnote 3: _Point_: 'all. Since'; 'leaves, what'--'Since no man has
anything of what he has left, those who left it late are in the same
position as those who left it early.' Compare the common saying, 'It
will be all the same in a hundred years.' The _Q._ reading comes much to
the same thing--'knows of ought he leaves'--'has any knowledge of it,
anything to do with it, in any sense possesses it.'

We may find a deeper meaning in the passage, however--surely not too
deep for Shakspere:--'Since nothing can be truly said to be possessed as
his own which a man must at one time or another yield; since that which
is _own_ can never be taken from the owner, but solely that which is
lent him; since the nature of a thing that has to be left is not such
that it _could_ be possessed, why should a man mind parting with it
early?'--There is far more in this than merely that at the end of the
day it will be all the same. The thing that ever was really a man's own,
God has given, and God will not, and man cannot, take away. Note the
unity of religion and philosophy in Hamlet: he takes the one true
position. Note also his courage: he has a strong presentiment of death,
but will not turn a step from his way. If Death be coming, he will
confront him. He does not believe in chance. He is ready--that is
willing. All that is needful is, that he should not go as one who cannot
help it, but as one who is for God's will, who chooses that will as his
own.

There is so much behind in Shakspere's characters--so much that can only
be hinted at! The dramatist has not the _word_-scope of the novelist;
his art gives him little _room_; he must effect in a phrase what the
other may take pages to. He needs good seconding by his actors as sorely
as the composer needs good rendering of his music by the orchestra. It