HAMLET                     Sense, sure, you have –

Else could you not have motion. But sure, that sense

Is apoplexed, for madness would not err

Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled

But it reserved some quantity of choice

To serve in such a difference. What devil was’t

That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,

Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,

Or but a sickly part of one true sense

Could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush? (3.4.69-79)

Hamlet is on a roll now, as he admonishes his mother for being a human being (female, middle-aged, possibly menopausal): sense, sure, you have—I mean, I get that you have some feelings, else you could not have motion. You wouldn’t be able to walk and talk if you didn’t! You’re only human! But sure, that sense is apoplexed; you’re confused, paralysed, you don’t know what you’re doing any more! Yes, that’s it. For madness would not err nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled but it reserved some quantity of choice to serve in such a difference. Even if you were insane, even if you were completely out of your MIND—you’d still know that this is a bad choice, a total category error, not to be able to see that this is a terrible idea, that there’s no comparison between these men!

What devil was’t that thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind? Were you bewitched, deceived by a devil; was it some terrible game, are you BLIND? (Were you drunk? This can of course be an additional layer of censoriousness if Gertrude’s drinking in the scene.) Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all—even if you’d taken leave quite literally of all your senses, you surely couldn’t do such a thing, you could not so mope, be such a fool, so utterly without judgement, discretion, common sense. Mum, he’s AWFUL! O shame, where is thy blush? Aren’t you even a bit ashamed of yourself?