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PAGE 149 habit with him. Here are some more instances: 'Thrift, thrift, Horatio'; 'Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me'; 'Come, deal justly with me: come, come'; 'Wormwood, wormwood!' I do not profess to have made an exhaustive search, but I am much mistaken if this habit is to be found in any other serious character of Shakespeare.1 And, in the second place -- and here I appeal with confidence to lovers of Hamlet -- some of these repetitions strike us as intensely characteristic. Some even of those already quoted strike one thus, and still more do the following:
Is there anything that Hamlet says or does in the whole play more unmistakably individual than these replies? 2 (2) Hamlet, everyone has noticed is fond of quibbles and word-play, and of 'conceits' and turns of thought such as are common in the poets whom Johnson called Metaphysical. Sometimes, no doubt, he plays with words and ideas chiefly
1It should be observed also that many of Hamlet's repetitions can hardly be said to occur at moments of great emotion, like Cordelia's 'And so l am, I am,' and 'No cause, no cause.'
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