The meaning is, "these men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carried them through the most select and approved judgment. This airy facility of talk sometimes imposes upon wise men." Who has not seen this observation verified? V.ii.201 (335,6) and do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are out] These men of show, without solidity, are like bubbles raised from soap and water, which dance, and glitter, and please the eye, but if you extend them, by blowing hard, separate into a mist; so if you oblige these specious talkers to extend their compass of conversation, they at once discover the tenuity of their intellects. 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!_