Note to Hamlet, 2.2.136: "If I had play'd the desk or table-book"


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Hamlet,
Act 2, Scene 2, line 136
Polonius is explaining that he would have been to blame if he had not said anything about the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet. If he had said nothing he would have "play'd the desk or table-book," that is, acted the part of a desk or notebook by merely receiving information without telling anyone about it.