_Ib._ The style of the interlude here is distinguished from the real dialogue by rhyme, as in the first interview with the players by epic verse.
_Ham._ _So_ I do still, by these pickers and stealers."
I never heard an actor give this word "so" its proper emphasis. Shakespeare's meaning is--"lov'd you? Hum!--_so_ I do still," &c. There has been no change in my opinion:--I think as ill of you as I did. Else Hamlet tells an ignoble falsehood, and a useless one, as the last speech to Guildenstern--"Why look you now," &c.--proves.
"Now could I drink hot blood, And do such business as the bitter day Would quake to look on."
The utmost at which Hamlet arrives, is a disposition, a mood, to do something:--but what to do, is still left undecided, while every word he utters tends to betray his disguise. Yet observe how perfectly equal to any call of the moment is Hamlet, let it only not be for the future.
_Ib._ sc. 3. Speech of Polonius. Polonius's volunteer obtrusion of himself into this business, while it is appropriate to his character, still itching after former importance, removes all likelihood that Hamlet should suspect his presence, and prevents us from making his death injure Hamlet in our opinion.
"O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven," &c.
This speech well marks the difference between crime and guilt of habit. The conscience here is still admitted to audience. Nay, even as an audible soliloquy, it is far less improbable than is supposed by such as have watched men only in the beaten road of their feelings. But the final--"all may be well!" is remarkable;--the degree of merit attributed by the self-flattering soul to its own struggle, though baffled, and to the indefinite half-promise, half-command, to persevere in religious duties. The solution is in the divine _medium_ of the Christian doctrine of expiation:--not what you have done, but what you are, must determine.
"Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying: And now I'll do't:--And so he goes to heaven: And so am I revenged? That would be scann'd," &c.
Dr. Johnson's mistaking of the marks of reluctance and procrastination for impetuous, horror-striking, fiendishness!--Of such importance is it to understand the germ of a character. But the interval taken by Hamlet's speech is truly awful! And then--