Note to Hamlet, 4.4.45: "Sith I have . . . means"


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Hamlet,
Act 4, Scene 4, line 45
At this moment, Hamlet seems not to have means to kill the King. He is headed to England in the company of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whom he suspects of plotting against himself. Furthermore, he returns to Denmark only because of a strange accident: his ship is attacked by pirates, and just as he alone boards the pirate ship, his ship gets away and the pirates turn out to be nice fellows who return him to Denmark.