V.ii.216 (335,7) gentle entertainment] Mild and temperate conversation.

V.ii.234 (336,1) Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?] The reading of the quarto was right, but in some other copy the harshness of the transposition was softened, and the passage stood thus:  Since no man knows aught of what he leaves.  For knows was printed in the later copies has, by a slight blunder in such typographers.

I do not think Dr. Warburton’s interpretation of the passage the best that it will admit.  The meaning may be this, Since no man knows aught of the state of life which he leaves, since he cannot judge what others years may produce, why should he be afraid of leaving life betimes?  Why should he dread an early death, of which he cannot tell whether it is an exclusion of happiness, or an interception of calamity.  I despise the superstition of augury and omens, which has no ground in reason or piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction of Providence.

Hanmer has, Since no man owes aught, a conjecture not very reprehensible.  Since no man can call any possession certain, what is it to leave?

V.ii.237 (337,2) Give me your pardon, Sir] I wish Hamlet had made some other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a good or a brave man, to shelter himself in falsehood.

V.ii.272 (338,5) Your grace hath laid upon the weaker side] Thus Hanmer.  All the others read,

  Your grace hath laid the odds o’ the weaker side.

When the odds were on the side of Laertes, who was to hit Hamlet twelve times to nine, it was perhaps the author’s slip.

V.ii.310 (340,7) you make a wanton of me] A wanton was, a man feeble and effeminate.  In Cymbeline, Imogen says,

  “I am not so citizen a wanton,
  To die, ere I be sick.”

V.ii.346 (342,8) That are but mutes or audience to this act] That are either mere auditors of this catastrophe, or at most only mute performers, that fill the stage without any part in the action.

V.ii.375 (344,2) This quarry cries, on havock!] Hanmer reads,

  —­cries out, havock!

To cry on, was to exclaim against.  I suppose, when unfair sportsmen destroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable, the censure was to cry, Havock.

(346) General Observation.  If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety.  The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale.  The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations, and solemnity, not strained by poetical