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.
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