going to fence like friends;
but he, as regards his honour, will not accept it until justified in
doing so by the opinion of 'some elder masters,' receiving from them 'a
voice and precedent of peace'--counsel to, and justification, or example
of peace. He keeps the door of quarrel open--will not profess to be
_altogether_ friends with him, though he does not hint at his real
ground of offence: that mooted, the match of skill, with its immense
advantages for villainy, would have been impossible. He means treachery
all the time; careful of his honour, he can, like most apes of fashion,
let his honesty go; still, so complex is human nature, he holds his
speech declining thorough reconciliation as a shield to shelter his
treachery from his own contempt: he has taken care not to profess
absolute friendship, and so left room for absolute villainy! He has had
regard to his word! Relieved perhaps by the demoniacal quibble, he
follows it immediately with an utterance of full-blown perfidy.]

[Footnote 2: Perhaps _ungorg'd_ might mean _unthrottled_.]

[Footnote 3: 'Come on' _is not in the Q._--I suspect this _Come on_ but
a misplaced shadow from the '_Come one_' immediately below, and better
omitted. Hamlet could not say '_Come on_' before Laertes was ready, and
'_Come one_' after 'Give us the foils,' would be very awkward. But it
may be said to the attendant courtiers.]

[Footnote 4: He says this while Hamlet is still choosing, in order that
a second bundle of foils, in which is the unbated and poisoned one, may
be brought him. So 'generous and free from all contriving' is Hamlet,
(220) that, even with the presentiment in his heart, he has no fear of
treachery.]

[Footnote 5: As persons of the drama, the Poet means Laertes to be foil
to Hamlet.--With the play upon the word before us, we can hardly help
thinking of the _third_ signification of the word _foil_.]

[Footnote 6: 'My ignorance will be the foil of darkest night to the
burning star of your skill.' This is no flattery; Hamlet believes
Laertes, to whose praises he has listened (218)--though not with the
envy his uncle attributes to him--the better fencer: he expects to win
only 'at the odds.' 260.]

[Footnote 7: --not '_by these pickers and stealers_,' his oath to his
false friends. 154.]

[Footnote 8: Plainly a favourite with the king.--He is _Ostricke_ always
in the _Q_.]

[Footnote 9: 'seen you both play'--though not together.]

[Footnote 10: _Point thus_: