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by George MacDonald
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Title: The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
A Study with the Text of the Folio of 1623
Author: George MacDonald
Release Date: January 5, 2004 [EBook #10606]
Language: English
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THE TRAGEDIE OF
HAMLET,
PRINCE OF DENMARKE
A STUDY WITH THE TEXT
OF
THE FOLIO OF 1623
BY
GEORGE MACDONALD
"What would you gracious figure?"
TO
MY HONOURED RELATIVE
ALEXANDER STEWART MACCOLL
A LITTLE _LESS_ THAN KIN, AND _MORE_ THAN KIND
TO WHOM I OWE IN ESPECIAL THE TRUE UNDERSTANDING OF
THE GREAT SOLILOQUY
I DEDICATE
WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE
THIS EFFORT TO GIVE HAMLET AND SHAKSPERE THEIR DUE
GEORGE MAC DONALD
BORDIGHERA
_Christmas_, 1884
Summary:
The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark:
a study of the text of the folio of 1623
By George MacDonald
[Motto]: "What would you, gracious figure?"
Dr. Greville MacDonald looks on his father's commentary as the "most
important interpretation of the play ever written... It is his intuitive
understanding ... rather than learned analysis--of which there is yet
overwhelming evidence--that makes it so splendid."
Reading Level: Mature youth and adults.
PREFACE
By this edition of HAMLET I hope to help the student of Shakspere to
understand the play--and first of all Hamlet himself, whose spiritual
and moral nature are the real material of the tragedy, to which every
other interest of the play is subservient. But while mainly attempting,
from the words and behaviour Shakspere has given him, to explain the
man, I have cast what light I could upon everything in the play,
including the perplexities arising from extreme condensation of meaning,
figure, and expression.
As it is more than desirable that the student should know when he is
reading the most approximate presentation accessible of what Shakspere
uttered, and when that which modern editors have, with reason good or
bad, often not without presumption, substituted for that which they
received, I have given the text, letter for letter, point for point, of
the First Folio, with the variations of the Second Quarto in the margin
and at the foot of the page.
Of HAMLET there are but two editions of authority, those called the
Second Quarto and the First Folio; but there is another which requires
remark.
In the year 1603 came out the edition known as the First Quarto--clearly
without the poet's permission, and doubtless as much to his displeasure:
the following year he sent out an edition very different, and larger in
the proportion of one hundred pages to sixty-four. Concerning the former
my theory is--though it is not my business to enter into the question
here--that it was printed from Shakspere's sketch for the play, written
with matter crowding upon him too fast for expansion or development, and
intended only for a continuous memorandum of things he would take up and
work out afterwards. It seems almost at times as if he but marked
certain bales of thought so as to find them again, and for the present
threw them aside--knowing that by the marks he could recall the thoughts
they stood for, but not intending thereby to convey them to any reader.
I cannot, with evidence before me, incredible but through the eyes
themselves, of the illimitable scope of printers' blundering, believe
_all_ the confusion, unintelligibility, neglect of grammar,
construction, continuity, sense, attributable to them. In parts it is
more like a series of notes printed with the interlineations horribly
jumbled; while in other parts it looks as if it had been taken down from
the stage by an ear without a brain, and then yet more incorrectly
printed; parts, nevertheless, in which it most differs from the
authorized editions, are yet indubitably from the hand of Shakspere. I
greatly doubt if any ready-writer would have dared publish some of its
chaotic passages as taken down from the stage; nor do I believe the play
was ever presented in anything like such an unfinished state. I rather
think some fellow about the theatre, whether more rogue or fool we will
pay him the thankful tribute not to enquire, chancing upon the crude
embryonic mass in the poet's hand, traitorously pounced upon it, and
betrayed it to the printers--therein serving the poet such an evil turn
as if a sculptor's workman took a mould of the clay figure on which his
master had been but a few days employed, and published casts of it as
the sculptor's work.[1] To us not the less is the _corpus delicti_
precious--and that unspeakably--for it enables us to see something of
the creational development of the drama, besides serving occasionally to
cast light upon portions of it, yielding hints of the original intention
where the after work has less plainly presented it.
[Footnote 1: Shakspere has in this matter fared even worse than Sir
Thomas Browne, the first edition of whose _Religio Medici_, nowise
intended for the public, was printed without his knowledge.]
The Second Quarto bears on its title-page, compelled to a recognition of
the former,--'Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as
it was, according to the true and perfect Coppie'; and it is in truth a
harmonious world of which the former issue was but the chaos. It is the
drama itself, the concluded work of the master's hand, though yet to be
once more subjected to a little pruning, a little touching, a little
rectifying. But the author would seem to have been as trusting over the
work of the printers, as they were careless of his, and the result is
sometimes pitiable. The blunders are appalling. Both in it and in the
Folio the marginal note again and again suggests itself: 'Here the
compositor was drunk, the press-reader asleep, the devil only aware.'
But though the blunders elbow one another in tumultuous fashion, not
therefore all words and phrases supposed to be such are blunders. The
old superstition of plenary inspiration may, by its reverence for the
very word, have saved many a meaning from the obliteration of a
misunderstanding scribe: in all critical work it seems to me well to
cling to the _word_ until one sinks not merely baffled, but exhausted.
I come now to the relation between the Second Quarto and the Folio.
My theory is--that Shakspere worked upon his own copy of the Second
Quarto, cancelling and adding, and that, after his death, this copy
came, along with original manuscripts, into the hands of his friends the
editors of the Folio, who proceeded to print according to his
alterations.
These friends and editors in their preface profess thus: 'It had bene a
thing, we confesse, worthie to haue bene wished, that the Author
himselfe had liu'd to haue set forth, and ouerseen his owne writings;
But since it hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed from
that right, we pray you do not envie his Friends, the office of their
care, and paine, to haue collected & publish'd them, as where (before)
you were abus'd with diuerse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed,
and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of iniurious impostors, that
expos'd them: euen those, are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and
perfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers, as
he conceiued th[=e]. Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a
most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together: And what
he thought, he vttered with that easinesse, that wee haue scarse
receiued from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our prouince, who
onely gather his works, and giue them you, to praise him. It is yours
that reade him.'
These are hardly the words of men who would take liberties, and
liberties enormous, after ideas of their own, with the text of a friend
thus honoured. But although they printed with intent altogether
faithful, they did so certainly without any adequate jealousy of the
printers--apparently without a suspicion of how they could blunder. Of
blunders therefore in the Folio also there are many, some through mere
following of blundered print, some in fresh corruption of the same, some
through mistaking of the manuscript corrections, and some probably from
the misprinting of mistakes, so that the corrections themselves are at
times anything but correctly recorded. I assume also that the printers
were not altogether above the mean passion, common to the day-labourers
of Art, from Chaucer's Adam Scrivener down to the present carvers of
marble, for modifying and improving the work of the master. The vain
incapacity of a self-constituted critic will make him regard his poorest
fancy as an emendation; seldom has he the insight of Touchstone to
recognize, or his modesty to acknowledge, that although his own, it is
none the less an ill-favoured thing.
Not such, however, was the spirit of the editors; and all the changes of
importance from the text of the Quarto I receive as Shakspere's own.
With this belief there can be no presumption in saying that they seem to
me not only to trim the parts immediately affected, but to render the
play more harmonious and consistent. It is no presumption to take the
Poet for superior to his work and capable of thinking he could better
it--neither, so believing, to imagine one can see that he has been
successful.
A main argument for the acceptance of the Folio edition as the Poet's
last presentment of his work, lies in the fact that there are passages
in it which are not in the Quarto, and are very plainly from his hand.
If we accept these, what right have we to regard the omission from the
Folio of passages in the Quarto as not proceeding from the same hand?
Had there been omissions only, we might well have doubted; but the
insertions greatly tend to remove the doubt. I cannot even imagine the
arguments which would prevail upon me to accept the latter and refuse
the former. Omission itself shows for a master-hand: see the magnificent
passage omitted, and rightly, by Milton from the opening of his _Comus_.
'But when a man has published two forms of a thing, may we not judge
between him and himself, and take the reading we like better?'
Assuredly. Take either the Quarto or the Folio; both are Shakspere's.
Take any reading from either, and defend it. But do not mix up the two,
retaining what he omits along with what he inserts, and print them so.
This is what the editors do--and the thing is not Shakspere's. With
homage like this, no artist could be other than indignant. It is well to
show every difference, even to one of spelling where it might indicate
possibly a different word, but there ought to be no mingling of
differences. If I prefer the reading of the Quarto to that of the Folio,
as may sometimes well happen where blunders so abound, I say I
_prefer_--I do not dare to substitute. My student shall owe nothing of
his text to any but the editors of the Folio, John Heminge and Henrie
Condell.
I desire to take him with me. I intend a continuous, but ever-varying,
while one-ended lesson. We shall follow the play step by step, avoiding
almost nothing that suggests difficulty, and noting everything that
seems to throw light on the character of a person of the drama. The
pointing I consider a matter to be dealt with as any one pleases--for
the sake of sense, of more sense, of better sense, as much as if the
text were a Greek manuscript without any division of words. This
position I need not argue with anyone who has given but a cursory glance
to the original page, or knows anything of printers' pointing. I hold
hard by the word, for that is, or may be, grain: the pointing as we have
it is merest chaff, and more likely to be wrong than right. Here also,
however, I change nothing in the text, only suggest in the notes. Nor do
I remark on any of the pointing where all that is required is the
attention of the student.
Doubtless many will consider not a few of the notes unnecessary. But
what may be unnecessary to one, may be welcome to another, and it is
impossible to tell what a student may or may not know. At the same time
those form a large class who imagine they know a thing when they do not
understand it enough to see there is a difficulty in it: to such, an
attempt at explanation must of course seem foolish.
A _number_ in the margin refers to a passage of the play or in the
notes, and is the number of the page where the passage is to be found.
If the student finds, for instance, against a certain line upon page 8,
the number 12, and turns to page 12, he will there find the number 8
against a certain line: the two lines or passages are to be compared,
and will be found in some way parallel, or mutually explanatory.
Wherever I refer to the Quarto, I intend the 2nd Quarto--that is
Shakspere's own authorized edition, published in his life-time. Where
occasionally I refer to the surreptitious edition, the mere inchoation
of the drama, I call it, as it is, the _1st Quarto_.
Any word or phrase or stage-direction in the 2nd Quarto differing from
that in the Folio, is placed on the margin in a line with the other:
choice between them I generally leave to my student. Omissions are
mainly given as footnotes. Each edition does something to correct the
errors of the other.
I beg my companion on this journey to let Hamlet reveal himself in the
play, to observe him as he assumes individuality by the concretion of
characteristics. I warn him that any popular notion concerning him which
he may bring with him, will be only obstructive to a perception of the
true idea of the grandest of all Shakspere's presentations.
It will amuse this and that man to remark how often I speak of Hamlet as
if he were a real man and not the invention of Shakspere--for indeed the
Hamlet of the old story is no more that of Shakspere than a lump of coal
is a diamond; but I imagine, if he tried the thing himself, he would
find it hardly possible to avoid so speaking, and at the same time say
what he had to say.
I give hearty thanks to the press-reader, a gentleman whose name I do
not know, not only for keen watchfulness over the printing-difficulties
of the book, but for saving me from several blunders in derivation.
BORDIGHERA: _December_, 1884.
[Transcriber's Note: In the paper original, each left-facing page
contained the text of the play, with sidenotes and footnote references,
and the corresponding right-facing page contained the footnotes
themselves and additional commentary. In this electronic text, the
play-text pages are numbered (contrary to custom in electronic texts),
to allow use of the cross-references provided in the sidenotes and
footnotes. In the play text, sidenotes towards the left of the page are
those marginal cross-references described earlier, and sidenotes toward
the right of the page are the differences noted a few paragraphs later.]
[Page 1]
THE TRAGEDIE
OF
HAMLET
PRINCE OF DENMARKE.
[Page 2]
_ACTUS PRIMUS._
_Enter Barnardo and Francisco two Centinels_[1].
_Barnardo._ Who's there?
_Fran._[2] Nay answer me: Stand and vnfold yourselfe.
_Bar._ Long liue the King.[3]
_Fran._ _Barnardo?_
_Bar._ He.
_Fran._ You come most carefully vpon your houre.
_Bar._ 'Tis now strook twelue, get thee to bed _Francisco_.
_Fran._ For this releefe much thankes: 'Tis
[Sidenote: 42] bitter cold,
And I am sicke at heart.[4]
_Barn._ Haue you had quiet Guard?[5]
_Fran._ Not a Mouse stirring.
_Barn._ Well, goodnight. If you do meet _Horatio_ and
_Marcellus_, the Riuals[6] of my Watch, bid them make hast.
_Enter Horatio and Marcellus._
_Fran._ I thinke I heare them. Stand: who's there?
[Sidenote: Stand ho, who is there?]
_Hor._ Friends to this ground.
_Mar._ And Leige-men to the Dane.
_Fran._ Giue you good night.
_Mar._ O farwel honest Soldier, who hath [Sidenote: souldiers]
relieu'd you?
[Footnote 1: --meeting. Almost dark.]
[Footnote 2: --on the post, and with the right of challenge.]
[Footnote 3: The watchword.]
[Footnote 4: The key-note to the play--as in _Macbeth_: 'Fair is
foul and foul is fair.' The whole nation is troubled by late events at
court.]
[Footnote 5: --thinking of the apparition.]
[Footnote 6: _Companions_.]
[Page 4]
_Fra._ _Barnardo_ ha's my place: giue you good-night. [Sidenote: hath]
_Exit Fran._
_Mar._ Holla _Barnardo_.
_Bar._ Say, what is Horatio there?
_Hor._ A peece of him.
_Bar._ Welcome _Horatio_, welcome good _Marcellus_.
_Mar._ What, ha's this thing appear'd againe to [Sidenote: _Hor_.[1]]
night.
_Bar._ I haue seene nothing.
_Mar._ Horatio saies, 'tis but our Fantasie,
And will not let beleefe take hold of him
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seene of vs,
Therefore I haue intreated him along
With vs, to watch the minutes of this Night,
That if againe this Apparition come,
[Sidenote: 6] He may approue our eyes, and speake to it.[2]
_Hor._ Tush, tush, 'twill not appeare.
_Bar._ Sit downe a-while,
And let vs once againe assaile your eares,
That are so fortified against our Story,
What we two Nights haue seene. [Sidenote: have two nights seen]
_Hor._ Well, sit we downe,
And let vs heare _Barnardo_ speake of this.
_Barn._ Last night of all,
When yond same Starre that's Westward from the Pole
Had made his course t'illume that part of Heauen
Where now it burnes, _Marcellus_ and my selfe,
The Bell then beating one.[3]
_Mar._ Peace, breake thee of: _Enter the Ghost_. [Sidenote: Enter Ghost]
Looke where it comes againe.
_Barn._ In the same figure, like the King that's dead.
[Footnote 1: Better, I think; for the tone is scoffing, and Horatio is
the incredulous one who has not seen it.]
[Footnote 2: --being a scholar, and able to address it as an apparition
ought to be addressed--Marcellus thinking, perhaps, with others, that a
ghost required Latin.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q._ 'towling one.]
[Page 6]
[Sidenote: 4] _Mar._ Thou art a Scholler; speake to it _Horatio._
_Barn._ Lookes it not like the King? Marke it _Horatio_.
[Sidenote: Looks a not]
_Hora._ Most like: It harrowes me with fear and wonder.
[Sidenote: horrowes[1]]
_Barn._ It would be spoke too.[2]
_Mar._ Question it _Horatio._ [Sidenote: Speak to it _Horatio_]
_Hor._ What art thou that vsurp'st this time of night,[3]
Together with that Faire and Warlike forme[4]
In which the Maiesty of buried Denmarke
Did sometimes[5] march: By Heauen I charge thee speake.
_Mar._ It is offended.[6]
_Barn._ See, it stalkes away.
_Hor._ Stay: speake; speake: I Charge thee, speake.
_Exit the Ghost._ [Sidenote: _Exit Ghost._]
_Mar._ 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
_Barn._ How now _Horatio_? You tremble and look pale:
Is not this something more then Fantasie?
What thinke you on't?
_Hor._ Before my God, I might not this beleeue
Without the sensible and true auouch
Of mine owne eyes.
_Mar._ Is it not like the King?
_Hor._ As thou art to thy selfe,
Such was the very Armour he had on,
When th' Ambitious Norwey combatted: [Sidenote: when he the ambitious]
So frown'd he once, when in an angry parle
He smot the sledded Pollax on the Ice.[8] [Sidenote: sleaded[7]]
'Tis strange.
[Sidenote: 274] _Mar._ Thus twice before, and iust at this dead houre,
[Sidenote: and jump at this]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'horrors mee'.]
[Footnote 2: A ghost could not speak, it was believed, until it was
spoken to.]
[Footnote 3: It was intruding upon the realm of the embodied.]
[Footnote 4: None of them took it as certainly the late king: it was
only clear to them that it was like him. Hence they say, 'usurp'st the
forme.']
[Footnote 5: _formerly_.]
[Footnote 6: --at the word _usurp'st_.]
[Footnote 7: Also _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 8: The usual interpretation is 'the sledged Poles'; but not to
mention that in a parley such action would have been treacherous, there
is another far more picturesque, and more befitting the _angry parle_,
at the same time more characteristic and forcible: the king in his anger
smote his loaded pole-axe on the ice. There is some uncertainty about
the word _sledded_ or _sleaded_ (which latter suggests _lead_), but we
have the word _sledge_ and _sledge-hammer_, the smith's heaviest, and
the phrase, 'a sledging blow.' The quarrel on the occasion referred to
rather seems with the Norwegians (See Schmidt's _Shakespeare-Lexicon:
Sledded_.) than with the Poles; and there would be no doubt as to the
latter interpretation being the right one, were it not that _the
Polacke_, for the Pole, or nation of the Poles, does occur in the play.
That is, however, no reason why the Dane should not have carried a
pole-axe, or caught one from the hand of an attendant. In both our
authorities, and in the _1st Q_. also, the word is _pollax_--as in
Chaucer's _Knights Tale_: 'No maner schot, ne pollax, ne schort
knyf,'--in the _Folio_ alone with a capital; whereas not once in the
play is the similar word that stands for the Poles used in the plural.
In the _2nd Quarto_ there is _Pollacke_ three times, _Pollack_ once,
_Pole_ once; in the _1st Quarto_, _Polacke_ twice; in the _Folio_,
_Poleak_ twice, _Polake_ once. The Poet seems to have avoided the plural
form.]
[Page 8]
With Martiall stalke,[1] hath he gone by our Watch.
_Hor_. In what particular thought to work, I know not:
But in the grosse and scope of my Opinion, [Sidenote: mine]
This boades some strange erruption to our State.
_Mar_. Good now sit downe, and tell me he that knowes
[Sidenote: 16] Why this same strict and most obseruant Watch,[2]
So nightly toyles the subiect of the Land,
And why such dayly Cast of Brazon Cannon
[Sidenote: And with such dayly cost]
And Forraigne Mart for Implements of warre:
Why such impresse of Ship-wrights, whose sore Taske
Do's not diuide the Sunday from the weeke,
What might be toward, that this sweaty hast[3]
Doth make the Night ioynt-Labourer with the day:
Who is't that can informe me?
_Hor._ That can I,
At least the whisper goes so: Our last King,
Whose Image euen but now appear'd to vs,
Was (as you know) by _Fortinbras_ of Norway,
(Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate Pride)[4]
Dar'd to the Combate. In which, our Valiant _Hamlet_,
(For so this side of our knowne world esteem'd him)[5]
[Sidenote: 6] Did slay this _Fortinbras_: who by a Seal'd Compact,
Well ratified by Law, and Heraldrie, [Sidenote: heraldy]
Did forfeite (with his life) all those his Lands [Sidenote: these]
Which he stood seiz'd on,[6] to the Conqueror: [Sidenote: seaz'd of,]
Against the which, a Moity[7] competent
Was gaged by our King: which had return'd [Sidenote: had returne]
To the Inheritance of _Fortinbras_,
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'Marshall stalke'.]
[Footnote 2: Here is set up a frame of external relations, to inclose
with fitting contrast, harmony, and suggestion, the coming show of
things. 273]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'sweaty march'.]
[Footnote 4: Pride that leads to emulate: the ambition to excel--not
oneself, but another.]
[Footnote 5: The whole western hemisphere.]
[Footnote 6: _stood possessed of_.]
[Footnote 7: Used by Shakspere for _a part_.]
[Page 10]
Had he bin Vanquisher, as by the same Cou'nant
[Sidenote: the same comart]
And carriage of the Article designe,[1] [Sidenote: desseigne,]
His fell to _Hamlet_. Now sir, young _Fortinbras_,
Of vnimproued[2] Mettle, hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, heere and there,
Shark'd[3] vp a List of Landlesse Resolutes, [Sidenote: of lawlesse]
For Foode and Diet, to some Enterprize
That hath a stomacke in't[4]: which is no other
(And it doth well appeare vnto our State) [Sidenote: As it]
But to recouer of vs by strong hand
And termes Compulsatiue, those foresaid Lands [Sidenote: compulsatory,]
So by his Father lost: and this (I take it)
Is the maine Motiue of our Preparations,
The Sourse of this our Watch, and the cheefe head
Of this post-hast, and Romage[5] in the Land.
[A]_Enter Ghost againe_.
But soft, behold: Loe, where it comes againe:
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Bar._ I thinke it be no other, but enso;
Well may it sort[6] that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch so like the King
That was and is the question of these warres.
_Hora._ A moth it is to trouble the mindes eye:
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest _Iulius_ fell
The graues stood tennatlesse, and the sheeted dead
Did squeake and gibber in the Roman streets[7]
As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of blood
Disasters in the sunne; and the moist starre,
Vpon whose influence _Neptunes_ Empier stands
Was sicke almost to doomesday with eclipse.
And euen the like precurse of feare euents
As harbindgers preceading still the fates
And prologue to the _Omen_ comming on
Haue heauen and earth together demonstrated
Vnto our Climatures and countrymen.[8]
_Enter Ghost_.]
[Footnote 1: French désigné.]
[Footnote 2: _not proved_ or _tried. Improvement_, as we use the word,
is the result of proof or trial: _upon-proof-ment_.]
[Footnote 3: Is _shark'd_ related to the German _scharren_? _Zusammen
scharren--to scrape together._ The Anglo-Saxon _searwian_ is _to
prepare, entrap, take_.]
[Footnote 4: Some enterprise of acquisition; one for the sake of getting
something.]
[Footnote 5: In Scotch, _remish_--the noise of confused and varied
movements; a _row_; a _rampage_.--Associated with French _remuage_?]
[Footnote 6: _suit_: so used in Scotland still, I think.]
[Footnote 7: _Julius Caesar_, act i. sc. 3, and act ii. sc. 2.]
[Footnote 8: The only suggestion I dare make for the rectifying of the
confusion of this speech is, that, if the eleventh line were inserted
between the fifth and sixth, there would be sense, and very nearly
grammar.
and the sheeted dead
Did squeake and gibber in the Roman streets,
As harbindgers preceading still the fates;
As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of blood
(Here understand _precede_)
Disasters in the sunne;
The tenth will close with the twelfth line well enough.
But no one, any more than myself, will be _satisfied_ with the
suggestion. The probability is, of course, that a line has dropped out
between the fifth and sixth. Anything like this would restore the
connection:
_The labouring heavens themselves teemed dire portent_
As starres &c.]
[Page 12]
Ile crosse it, though it blast me.[1] Stay Illusion:[2]
[Sidenote: _It[4] spreads his armes_.]
If thou hast any sound, or vse of Voyce,[3]
Speake to me. If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me; speak to me.
If thou art priuy to thy Countries Fate
(Which happily foreknowing may auoyd) Oh speake.
Or, if thou hast vp-hoorded in thy life
Extorted Treasure in the wombe of Earth,
(For which, they say, you Spirits oft walke in death) [Sidenote: your]
[Sidenote: _The cocke crowes_]
Speake of it. Stay, and speake. Stop it _Marcellus_.
_Mar_. Shall I strike at it with my Partizan? [Sidenote: strike it with]
_Hor_. Do, if it will not stand.
_Barn_. 'Tis heere.
_Hor_. 'Tis heere.
_Mar_. 'Tis gone. _Exit Ghost_[5]
We do it wrong, being so Maiesticall[6]
To offer it the shew of Violence,
For it is as the Ayre, invulnerable,
And our vaine blowes, malicious Mockery.
_Barn_. It was about to speake, when the Cocke crew.
_Hor_. And then it started, like a guilty thing
Vpon a fearfull Summons. I haue heard,
The Cocke that is the Trumpet to the day, [Sidenote: to the morne,]
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding Throate[7]
Awake the God of Day: and at his warning,
Whether in Sea, or Fire, in Earth, or Ayre,
Th'extrauagant,[8] and erring[9] Spirit, hyes
To his Confine. And of the truth heerein,
This present Obiect made probation.[10]
_Mar_. It faded on the crowing of the Cocke.[11]
[Footnote 1: There are various tales of the blasting power of evil
ghosts.]
[Footnote 2: Plain doubt, and strong.]
[Footnote 3: 'sound of voice, or use of voice': physical or mental
faculty of speech.]
[Footnote 4: I judge this _It_ a mistake for _H._, standing for
_Horatio_: he would stop it.]
[Footnote 5: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 6: 'As we cannot hurt it, our blows are a mockery; and it is
wrong to mock anything so majestic': _For_ belongs to _shew_; 'We do it
wrong, being so majestical, to offer it what is but a _show_ of
violence, for it is, &c.']
[Footnote 7: _1st Q._ 'his earely and shrill crowing throate.']
[Footnote 8: straying beyond bounds.]
[Footnote 9: wandering.]
[Footnote 10: 'gave proof.']
[Footnote 11: This line said thoughtfully--as the text of the
observation following it. From the _eerie_ discomfort of their position,
Marcellus takes refuge in the thought of the Saviour's birth into the
haunted world, bringing sweet law, restraint, and health.]
[Page 14]
Some sayes, that euer 'gainst that Season comes [Sidenote: say]
Wherein our Sauiours Birth is celebrated,
The Bird of Dawning singeth all night long: [Sidenote: This bird]
And then (they say) no Spirit can walke abroad,
[Sidenote: spirit dare sturre]
The nights are wholsome, then no Planets strike,
No Faiery talkes, nor Witch hath power to Charme:
[Sidenote: fairy takes,[1]]
So hallow'd, and so gracious is the time. [Sidenote: is that time.]
_Hor._ So haue I heard, and do in part beleeue it.
But looke, the Morne in Russet mantle clad,
Walkes o're the dew of yon high Easterne Hill, [Sidenote: Eastward[2]]
Breake we our Watch vp, and by my aduice [Sidenote: advise]
Let vs impart what we haue scene to night
Vnto yong _Hamlet_. For vpon my life,
This Spirit dumbe to vs, will speake to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needfull in our Loues, fitting our Duty?
[Sidenote: 30] _Mar._ Let do't I pray, and I this morning know
Where we shall finde him most conueniently. [Sidenote: convenient.]
_Exeunt._
SCENA SECUNDA[3]
_Enter Claudius King of Denmarke. Gertrude the
Queene, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, and his Sister
Ophelia, Lords Attendant._[4]
[Sidenote: _Florish. Enter Claudius, King of Denmarke,
Gertrad the Queene, Counsaile: as Polonius, and his
sonne Laertes, Hamelt Cum Abijs._]
_King._ Though yet of _Hamlet_ our deere Brothers death
[Sidenote: _Claud._]
The memory be greene: and that it vs befitted
To beare our hearts in greefe, and our whole Kingdome
To be contracted in one brow of woe:
Yet so farre hath Discretion fought with Nature,
That we with wisest sorrow thinke on him,
[Footnote 1: Does it mean--_carries off any child, leaving a
changeling_? or does it mean--_affect with evil_, as a disease might
infect or _take_?]
[Footnote 2: _1st Q_. 'hie mountaine top,']
[Footnote 3: _In neither Q._]
[Footnote 4: The first court after the marriage.]
[Page 16]
Together with remembrance of our selues.
Therefore our sometimes Sister, now our Queen,
Th'Imperiall Ioyntresse of this warlike State, [Sidenote: to this]
Haue we, as 'twere, with a defeated ioy,
With one Auspicious, and one Dropping eye,
[Sidenote: an auspitious and a]
With mirth in Funerall, and with Dirge in Marriage,
In equall Scale weighing Delight and Dole[1]
Taken to Wife; nor haue we heerein barr'd[2]
Your better Wisedomes, which haue freely gone
With this affaire along, for all our Thankes.
[Sidenote: 8] Now followes, that you know young _Fortinbras_,[3]
Holding a weake supposall of our worth;
Or thinking by our late deere Brothers death,
Our State to be disioynt, and out of Frame,
Colleagued with the dreame of his Aduantage;[4] [Sidenote: this dreame]
He hath not fayl'd to pester vs with Message,
Importing the surrender of those Lands
Lost by his Father: with all Bonds of Law [Sidenote: bands]
To our most valiant Brother. So much for him.
_Enter Voltemand and Cornelius._[5]
Now for our selfe, and for this time of meeting
Thus much the businesse is. We haue heere writ
To Norway, Vncle of young _Fortinbras_,
Who Impotent and Bedrid, scarsely heares
Of this his Nephewes purpose, to suppresse
His further gate[6] heerein. In that the Leuies,
The Lists, and full proportions are all made
Out of his subiect: and we heere dispatch
You good _Cornelius_, and you _Voltemand_,
For bearing of this greeting to old Norway, [Sidenote: bearers]
Giuing to you no further personall power
To businesse with the King, more then the scope
Of these dilated Articles allow:[7] [Sidenote: delated[8]]
Farewell and let your hast commend your duty.[9]
[Footnote 1: weighing out an equal quantity of each.]
[Footnote 2: Like _crossed_.]
[Footnote 3: 'Now follows--that (_which_) you know--young
Fortinbras:--']
[Footnote 4: _Colleagued_ agrees with _supposall_. The preceding two
lines may be regarded as somewhat parenthetical. _Dream of
advantage_--hope of gain.]
[Footnote 5: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 6: _going; advance._ Note in Norway also, as well as in
Denmark, the succession of the brother.]
[Footnote 7: (_giving them papers_).]
[Footnote 8: Which of these is right, I cannot tell. _Dilated_ means
_expanded_, and would refer to _the scope; _delated_ means
_committed_--to them, to limit them.]
[Footnote 9: idea of duty.]
[Page 18]
_Volt._ In that, and all things, will we shew our duty.
_King._ We doubt it nothing, heartily farewell.
[Sidenote: 74] [1]_Exit Voltemand and Cornelius._
And now _Laertes_, what's the newes with you?
You told vs of some suite. What is't _Laertes_?
You cannot speake of Reason to the Dane,
And loose your voyce. What would'st thou beg _Laertes_,
That shall not be my Offer, not thy Asking?[2]
The Head is not more Natiue to the Heart,
The Hand more Instrumentall to the Mouth,
Then is the Throne of Denmarke to thy Father.[3]
What would'st thou haue _Laertes_?
_Laer._ Dread my Lord, [Sidenote: My dread]
Your leaue and fauour to returne to France,
From whence, though willingly I came to Denmarke
To shew my duty in your Coronation,
Yet now I must confesse, that duty done,
[Sidenote: 22] My thoughts and wishes bend againe towards toward
France,[4]
And bow them to your gracious leaue and pardon.
_King._ Haue you your Fathers leaue?
What sayes _Pollonius_?
[A] _Pol._ He hath my Lord:
I do beseech you giue him leaue to go.
_King._ Take thy faire houre _Laertes_, time be thine,
And thy best graces spend it at thy will:
But now my Cosin _Hamlet_, and my Sonne?
[Footnote A: _In the Quarto_:--
_Polo._ Hath[5] my Lord wroung from me my slowe leaue
By laboursome petition, and at last
Vpon his will I seald my hard consent,[6]
I doe beseech you giue him leaue to goe.]
[Footnote 1: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: 'Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet
speaking, I will hear.'--_Isaiah_, lxv. 24.]
[Footnote 3: The villain king courts his courtiers.]
[Footnote 4: He had been educated there. Compare 23. But it would seem
rather to the court than the university he desired to return. See his
father's instructions, 38.]
[Footnote 5: _H'ath_--a contraction for _He hath_.]
[Footnote 6: A play upon the act of sealing a will with wax.]
[Page 20]
_Ham._ A little more then kin, and lesse then kinde.[1]
_King._ How is it that the Clouds still hang on you?
_Ham._ Not so my Lord, I am too much i'th'Sun.[2]
[Sidenote: so much my ... in the sonne.]
_Queen._ Good Hamlet cast thy nightly colour off,[4]
[Sidenote: nighted[3]]
And let thine eye looke like a Friend on Denmarke.
Do not for euer with thy veyled[5] lids [Sidenote: vailed]
Seeke for thy Noble Father in the dust;
Thou know'st 'tis common, all that liues must dye,
Passing through Nature, to Eternity.
_Ham._ I Madam, it is common.[6]
_Queen._ If it be;
Why seemes it so particular with thee.
_Ham._ Seemes Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seemes:[7]
'Tis not alone my Inky Cloake (good Mother)
[Sidenote: cloake coold mother [8]]
Nor Customary suites of solemne Blacke,
Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
No, nor the fruitfull Riuer in the Eye,
Nor the deiected hauiour of the Visage,
Together with all Formes, Moods, shewes of Griefe,
[Sidenote: moodes, chapes of]
That can denote me truly. These indeed Seeme,[9] [Sidenote: deuote]
For they are actions that a man might[10] play:
But I haue that Within, which passeth show; [Sidenote: passes]
These, but the Trappings, and the Suites of woe.
_King._ 'Tis sweet and commendable
In your Nature _Hamlet_,
To giue these mourning duties to your Father:[11]
But you must know, your Father lost a Father,
That Father lost, lost his, and the Suruiuer bound
In filiall Obligation, for some terme
To do obsequious[12] Sorrow. But to perseuer
In obstinate Condolement, is a course
[Footnote 1: An _aside_. Hamlet's first utterance is of dislike to his
uncle. He is more than _kin_ through his unwelcome marriage--less than
_kind_ by the difference in their natures. To be _kind_ is to behave as
one _kinned_ or related. But the word here is the noun, and means
_nature_, or sort by birth.]
[Footnote 2: A word-play may be here intended between _sun_ and _son_:
_a little more than kin--too much i' th' Son_. So George Herbert:
For when he sees my ways, I die;
But I have got his _Son_, and he hath none;
and Dr. Donne:
at my death thy Son
Shall shine, as he shines now and heretofore.]
[Footnote 3: 'Wintred garments'--_As You Like It_, iii. 2.]
[Footnote 4: He is the only one who has not for the wedding put off his
mourning.]
[Footnote 5: _lowered_, or cast down: _Fr. avaler_, to lower.]
[Footnote 6: 'Plainly you treat it as a common matter--a thing of no
significance!' _I_ is constantly used for _ay_, _yes_.]
[Footnote 7: He pounces on the word _seems_.]
[Footnote 8: Not unfrequently the type would appear to have been set up
from dictation.]
[Footnote 9: They are things of the outside, and must _seem_, for they
are capable of being imitated; they are the natural _shows_ of grief.
But he has that in him which cannot _show_ or _seem_, because nothing
can represent it. These are 'the Trappings and the Suites of _woe_;'
they fitly represent woe, but they cannot shadow forth that which is
within him--a something different from woe, far beyond it and worse,
passing all reach of embodiment and manifestation. What this something
is, comes out the moment he is left by himself.]
[Footnote 10: The emphasis is on _might_.]
[Footnote 11: Both his uncle and his mother decline to understand him.
They will have it he mourns the death of his father, though they must at
least suspect another cause for his grief. Note the intellectual mastery
of the hypocrite--which accounts for his success.]
[Footnote 12: belonging to _obsequies_.]
[Page 22]
Of impious stubbornnesse. Tis vnmanly greefe,
It shewes a will most incorrect to Heauen,
A Heart vnfortified, a Minde impatient, [Sidenote: or minde]
An Vnderstanding simple, and vnschool'd:
For, what we know must be, and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sence,
Why should we in our peeuish Opposition
Take it to heart? Fye, 'tis a fault to Heauen,
A fault against the Dead, a fault to Nature,
To Reason most absurd, whose common Theame
Is death of Fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first Coarse,[1] till he that dyed to day, [Sidenote: course]
This must be so. We pray you throw to earth
This vnpreuayling woe, and thinke of vs
As of a Father; For let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our Throne,[2]
And with no lesse Nobility of Loue,
Then that which deerest Father beares his Sonne,
Do I impart towards you. For your intent [Sidenote: toward]
[Sidenote: 18] In going backe to Schoole in Wittenberg,[3]
It is most retrograde to our desire: [Sidenote: retrogard]
And we beseech you, bend you to remaine
Heere in the cheere and comfort of our eye,
Our cheefest Courtier Cosin, and our Sonne.
_Qu._ Let not thy Mother lose her Prayers _Hamlet_: [Sidenote: loose]
I prythee stay with vs, go not to Wittenberg. [Sidenote: pray thee]
_Ham._ I shall in all my best
Obey you Madam.[4]
_King._ Why 'tis a louing, and a faire Reply,
Be as our selfe in Denmarke. Madam come,
This gentle and vnforc'd accord of _Hamlet_[5]
Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof,
No iocond health that Denmarke drinkes to day,
[Sidenote: 44] But the great Cannon to the Clowds shall tell,
[Footnote 1: _Corpse_.]
[Footnote 2: --seeking to propitiate him with the hope that his
succession had been but postponed by his uncle's election.]
[Footnote 3: Note that Hamlet was educated in Germany--at Wittenberg,
the university where in 1508 Luther was appointed professor of
Philosophy. Compare 19. There was love of study as well as disgust with
home in his desire to return to _Schoole_: this from what we know of him
afterwards.]
[Footnote 4: Emphasis on _obey_. A light on the character of Hamlet.]
[Footnote 5: He takes it, or pretends to take it, for far more than it
was. He desires friendly relations with Hamlet.]
[Page 24]
And the Kings Rouce,[1] the Heauens shall bruite againe,
Respeaking earthly Thunder. Come away.
_Exeunt_ [Sidenote: _Florish. Exeunt all but Hamlet._]
_Manet Hamlet._
[2]_Ham._ Oh that this too too solid Flesh, would melt,
[Sidenote: sallied flesh[3]]
Thaw, and resolue it selfe into a Dew:
[Sidenote: 125,247,260] Or that the Euerlasting had not fixt
[Sidenote: 121 _bis_] His Cannon 'gainst Selfe-slaughter. O God, O God!
[Sidenote: seale slaughter, o God, God,]
How weary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable [Sidenote: wary]
Seemes to me all the vses of this world? [Sidenote: seeme]
Fie on't? Oh fie, fie, 'tis an vnweeded Garden [Sidenote: ah fie,]
That growes to Seed: Things rank, and grosse in Nature
Possesse it meerely. That it should come to this:
[Sidenote: meerely that it should come thus]
But two months dead[4]: Nay, not so much; not two,
So excellent a King, that was to this
_Hiperion_ to a Satyre: so louing to my Mother,
That he might not beteene the windes of heauen [Sidenote: beteeme[5]]
Visit her face too roughly. Heauen and Earth
Must I remember: why she would hang on him, [Sidenote: should]
As if encrease of Appetite had growne
By what it fed on; and yet within a month?
Let me not thinke on't: Frailty, thy name is woman.[6]
A little Month, or ere those shooes were old,
With which she followed my poore Fathers body
Like _Niobe_, all teares. Why she, euen she.[7]
(O Heauen! A beast that wants discourse[8] of Reason [Sidenote: O God]
Would haue mourn'd longer) married with mine Vnkle, [Sidenote: my]
[Footnote 1: German _Rausch_, _drunkenness_. 44, 68]
[Footnote 2: A soliloquy is as the drawing called a section of a thing:
it shows the inside of the man. Soliloquy is only rare, not unnatural,
and in art serves to reveal more of nature. In the drama it is the
lifting of a veil through which dialogue passes. The scene is for the
moment shifted into the lonely spiritual world, and here we begin to
know Hamlet. Such is his wretchedness, both in mind and circumstance,
that he could well wish to vanish from the world. The suggestion of
suicide, however, he dismisses at once--with a momentary regret, it is
true--but he dismisses it--as against the will of God to whom he appeals
in his misery. The cause of his misery is now made plain to us--his
trouble that passes show, deprives life of its interest, and renders the
world a disgust to him. There is no lamentation over his father's death,
so dwelt upon by the king; for loving grief does not crush. Far less
could his uncle's sharp practice, in scheming for his own election
during Hamlet's absence, have wrought in a philosopher like him such an
effect. The one makes him sorrowful, the other might well annoy him, but
neither could render him unhappy: his misery lies at his mother's door;
it is her conduct that has put out the light of her son's life. She who
had been to him the type of all excellence, she whom his father had
idolized, has within a month of his death married his uncle, and is
living in habitual incest--for as such, a marriage of the kind was then
unanimously regarded. To Hamlet's condition and behaviour, his mother,
her past and her present, is the only and sufficing key. His very idea
of unity had been rent in twain.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'too much grieu'd and sallied flesh.' _Sallied_,
sullied: compare _sallets_, 67, 103. I have a strong suspicion that
_sallied_ and not _solid_ is the true word. It comes nearer the depth of
Hamlet's mood.]
[Footnote 4: Two months at the present moment.]
[Footnote 5: This is the word all the editors take: which is right, I do
not know; I doubt if either is. The word in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_,
act i. sc. 1--
Belike for want of rain; which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes--
I cannot believe the same word. The latter means _produce for_, as from
the place of origin. The word, in the sense necessary to this passage,
is not, so far as I know, to be found anywhere else. I have no
suggestion to make.]
[Footnote 6: From his mother he generalizes to _woman_. After having
believed in such a mother, it may well be hard for a man to believe in
any woman.]
[Footnote 7: _Q._ omits 'euen she.']
[Footnote 8: the going abroad among things.]
[Page 26]
My Fathers Brother: but no more like my Father,
Then I to _Hercules_. Within a Moneth?
Ere yet the salt of most vnrighteous Teares
Had left the flushing of her gauled eyes, [Sidenote: in her]
She married. O most wicked speed, to post[1]
With such dexterity to Incestuous sheets:
It is not, nor it cannot come to good,
But breake my heart, for I must hold my tongue.[2]
_Enter Horatio, Barnard, and Marcellus._
[Sidenote: _Marcellus, and Bernardo._]
_Hor._ Haile to your Lordship.[3]
_Ham._ I am glad to see you well:
_Horatio_, or I do forget my selfe.
_Hor._ The same my Lord,
And your poore Seruant euer.
[Sidenote: 134] _Ham._ [4]Sir my good friend,
Ile change that name with you:[5]
And what make you from Wittenberg _Horatio_?[6]
_Marcellus._[7]
_Mar._ My good Lord.
_Ham._ I am very glad to see you: good euen Sir.[8]
But what in faith make you from _Wittemberge_?
_Hor._ A truant disposition, good my Lord.[9]
_Ham._ I would not haue your Enemy say so;[10] [Sidenote: not heare]
Nor shall you doe mine eare that violence,[11] [Sidenote: my eare]
[Sidenote: 134] To make it truster of your owne report
Against your selfe. I know you are no Truant:
But what is your affaire in _Elsenour_?
Wee'l teach you to drinke deepe, ere you depart.[12]
[Sidenote: you for to drinke ere]
_Hor._ My Lord, I came to see your Fathers Funerall.
_Ham._ I pray thee doe not mock me (fellow Student) [Sidenote: pre thee]
I thinke it was to see my Mothers Wedding. [Sidenote: was to my]
[Footnote 1: I suggest the pointing:
speed! To post ... sheets!]
[Footnote 2: Fit moment for the entrance of his father's messengers.]
[Footnote 3: They do not seem to have been intimate before, though we
know from Hamlet's speech (134) that he had had the greatest respect for
Horatio. The small degree of doubt in Hamlet's recognition of his friend
is due to the darkness, and the unexpectedness of his appearance.]
[Footnote 4: _1st Q._ 'O my good friend, I change, &c.' This would leave
it doubtful whether he wished to exchange servant or friend; but 'Sir,
my _good friend_,' correcting Horatio, makes his intent plain.]
[Footnote 5: Emphasis on _that_: 'I will exchange the name of _friend_
with you.']
[Footnote 6: 'What are you doing from--out of, _away
from_--Wittenberg?']
[Footnote 7: In recognition: the word belongs to Hamlet's speech.]
[Footnote 8: _Point thus_: 'you.--Good even, sir.'--_to Barnardo, whom
he does not know._]
[Footnote 9: An ungrammatical reply. He does not wish to give the real,
painful answer, and so replies confusedly, as if he had been asked,
'What makes you?' instead of, 'What do you make?']
[Footnote 10: '--I should know how to answer him.']
[Footnote 11: Emphasis on _you_.]
[Footnote 12: Said with contempt for his surroundings.]
[Page 28]
_Hor._ Indeed my Lord, it followed hard vpon.
_Ham._ Thrift, thrift _Horatio_: the Funerall Bakt-meats
Did coldly furnish forth the Marriage Tables;
Would I had met my dearest foe in heauen,[1]
Ere I had euer seerie that day _Horatio_.[2] [Sidenote: Or ever I had]
My father, me thinkes I see my father.
_Hor._ Oh where my Lord? [Sidenote: Where my]
_Ham._ In my minds eye (_Horatio_)[3]
_Hor._ I saw him once; he was a goodly King. [Sidenote: once, a was]
_Ham._ He was a man, take him for all in all: [Sidenote: A was a man]
I shall not look vpon his like againe.
_Hor._ My Lord, I thinke I saw him yesternight.
_Ham._ Saw? Who?[4]
_Hor._ My Lord, the King your Father.
_Ham._ The King my Father?[5]
_Hor._ Season[6] your admiration for a while
With an attent eare;[7] till I may deliuer
Vpon the witnesse of these Gentlemen,
This maruell to you.
_Ham._ For Heauens loue let me heare. [Sidenote: God's love]
_Hor._ Two nights together, had these Gentlemen
(_Marcellus_ and _Barnardo_) on their Watch
In the dead wast and middle of the night[8]
Beene thus encountred. A figure like your Father,[9]
Arm'd at all points exactly, _Cap a Pe_,[10] [Sidenote: Armed at poynt]
Appeares before them, and with sollemne march
Goes slow and stately: By them thrice he walkt,
[Sidenote: stately by them; thrice]
By their opprest and feare-surprized eyes,
Within his Truncheons length; whilst they bestil'd
[Sidenote: they distill'd[11]]
Almost to Ielly with the Act of feare,[12]
Stand dumbe and speake not to him. This to me
In dreadfull[13] secrecie impart they did,
And I with them the third Night kept the Watch,
Whereas[14] they had deliuer'd both in time,
[Footnote 1: _Dear_ is not unfrequently used as an intensive; but 'my
dearest foe' is not 'the man who hates me most,' but 'the man whom most
I regard as my foe.']
[Footnote 2: Note Hamlet's trouble: the marriage, not the death, nor the
supplantation.]
[Footnote 3: --with a little surprise at Horatio's question.]
[Footnote 4: Said as if he must have misheard. Astonishment comes only
with the next speech.]
[Footnote 5: _1st Q_. 'Ha, ha, the King my father ke you.']
[Footnote 6: Qualify.]
[Footnote 7: _1st Q_. 'an attentiue eare,'.]
[Footnote 8: Possibly, _dead vast_, as in _1st Q_.; but _waste_ as good,
leaving also room to suppose a play in the word.]
[Footnote 9: Note the careful uncertainty.]
[Footnote 10: _1st Q. 'Capapea_.']
[Footnote 11: Either word would do: the _distilling_ off of the animal
spirits would leave the man a jelly; the cold of fear would _bestil_
them and him to a jelly. _1st Q. distilled_. But I judge _bestil'd_ the
better, as the truer to the operation of fear. Compare _The Winter's
Tale_, act v. sc. 3:--
There's magic in thy majesty, which has
From thy admiring daughter took the spirits,
Standing like stone with thee.]
[Footnote 12: Act: present influence.]
[Footnote 13: a secrecy more than solemn.]
[Footnote 14: 'Where, as'.]
[Page 30]
Forme of the thing; each word made true and good,
The Apparition comes. I knew your Father:
These hands are not more like.
_Ham_. But where was this?
_Mar_. My Lord, vpon the platforme where we watcht. [Sidenote: watch]
_Ham_. Did you not speake to it?
_Her_. My Lord, I did;
But answere made it none: yet once me thought
It lifted vp it head, and did addresse
It selfe to motion, like as it would speake:
But euen then, the Morning Cocke crew lowd;
And at the sound it shrunke in hast away,
And vanisht from our sight.
_Ham_. Tis very strange.
_Hor_. As I doe liue my honourd Lord 'tis true;
[Sidenote: 14] And we did thinke it writ downe in our duty
To let you know of it.
[Sidenote: 32,52] _Ham_. Indeed, indeed Sirs; but this troubles me.
[Sidenote: Indeede Sirs but]
Hold you the watch to Night?
_Both_. We doe my Lord. [Sidenote: _All_.]
_Ham_. Arm'd, say you?
_Both_. Arm'd, my Lord. [Sidenote: _All_.]
_Ham_. From top to toe?
_Both_. My Lord, from head to foote. [Sidenote: _All_.]
_Ham_. Then saw you not his face?
_Hor_. O yes, my Lord, he wore his Beauer vp.
_Ham_. What, lookt he frowningly?
[Sidenote: 54,174] _Hor_. A countenance more in sorrow then in anger.[1]
[Sidenote: 120] _Ham_. Pale, or red?
_Hor_. Nay very pale.
[Footnote 1: The mood of the Ghost thus represented, remains the same
towards his wife throughout the play.]
[Page 32]
_Ham._ And fixt his eyes vpon you?
_Hor._ Most constantly.
_Ham._ I would I had beene there.
_Hor._ It would haue much amaz'd you.
_Ham._ Very like, very like: staid it long? [Sidenote: Very like, stayd]
_Hor._ While one with moderate hast might tell a hundred.
[Sidenote: hundreth]
_All._ Longer, longer. [Sidenote: _Both._]
_Hor._ Not when I saw't.
_Ham._ His Beard was grisly?[1] no. [Sidenote: grissl'd]
_Hor._ It was, as I haue seene it in his life,
[Sidenote: 138] A Sable[2] Siluer'd.
_Ham._ Ile watch to Night; perchance 'twill wake againe.
[Sidenote: walke againe.]
_Hor._ I warrant you it will. [Sidenote: warn't it]
[Sidenote: 44] _Ham._ If it assume my noble Fathers person,[3]
Ile speake to it, though Hell it selfe should gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you haue hitherto conceald this sight;
Let it bee treble[5] in your silence still: [Sidenote: be tenable in[4]]
And whatsoeuer els shall hap to night, [Sidenote: what someuer els]
Giue it an vnderstanding but no tongue;
I will requite your loues; so, fare ye well: [Sidenote: farre you]
Vpon the Platforme twixt eleuen and twelue,
[Sidenote: a leauen and twelfe]
Ile visit you.
_All._ Our duty to your Honour. _Exeunt._
_Ham._ Your loue, as mine to you: farewell. [Sidenote: loves,]
My Fathers Spirit in Armes?[6] All is not well:
[Sidenote: 30,52] I doubt some foule play: would the Night were come;
Till then sit still my soule; foule deeds will rise,
[Sidenote: fonde deedes]
Though all the earth orewhelm them to mens eies.
_Exit._
[Footnote 1: _grisly_--gray; _grissl'd_--turned gray;--mixed with
white.]
[Footnote 2: The colour of sable-fur, I think.]
[Footnote 3: Hamlet does not _accept_ the Appearance as his father; he
thinks it may be he, but seems to take a usurpation of his form for very
possible.]
[Footnote 4: _1st Q_. 'tenible']
[Footnote 5: If _treble_ be the right word, the actor in uttering it
must point to each of the three, with distinct yet rapid motion. The
phrase would be a strange one, but not unlike Shakspere. Compare
_Cymbeline_, act v. sc. 5: 'And your three motives to the battle,'
meaning 'the motives of you three.' Perhaps, however, it is only the
adjective for the adverb: '_having concealed it hitherto, conceal it
trebly now_.' But _tenible_ may be the word: 'let it be a thing to be
kept in your silence still.']
[Footnote 6: Alone, he does not dispute _the idea_ of its being his
father.]
[Page 34]
_SCENA TERTIA_[1]
_Enter Laertes and Ophelia_. [Sidenote: _Ophelia his Sister._]
_Laer_. My necessaries are imbark't; Farewell: [Sidenote: inbarckt,]
And Sister, as the Winds giue Benefit,
And Conuoy is assistant: doe not sleepe,
[Sidenote: conuay, in assistant doe]
But let me heare from you.
_Ophel_. Doe you doubt that?
_Laer_. For _Hamlet_, and the trifling of his fauours,
[Sidenote: favour,]
Hold it a fashion and a toy in Bloud;
A Violet in the youth of Primy Nature;
Froward,[2] not permanent; sweet not lasting
The suppliance of a minute? No more.[3]
[Sidenote: The perfume and suppliance]
_Ophel_. No more but so.[4]
_Laer_. Thinke it no more.
For nature cressant does not grow alone,
[Sidenote: 172] In thewes[5] and Bulke: but as his Temple waxes,[6]
[Sidenote: bulkes, but as this]
The inward seruice of the Minde and Soule
Growes wide withall. Perhaps he loues you now,[7]
And now no soyle nor cautell[8] doth besmerch
The vertue of his feare: but you must feare
[Sidenote: of his will, but]
His greatnesse weigh'd, his will is not his owne;[9] [Sidenote: wayd]
For hee himselfe is subiect to his Birth:[10]
Hee may not, as vnuallued persons doe,
Carue for himselfe; for, on his choyce depends
The sanctity and health of the weole State.
[Sidenote: The safty and | this whole]
And therefore must his choyce be circumscrib'd[11]
Vnto the voyce and yeelding[12] of that Body,
Whereof he is the Head. Then if he sayes he loues you,
It fits your wisedome so farre to beleeue it;
As he in his peculiar Sect and force[13]
[Sidenote: his particuler act and place]
May giue his saying deed: which is no further,
[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 2: Same as _forward_.]
[Footnote 3: 'No more' makes a new line in the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 4: I think this speech should end with a point of
interrogation.]
[Footnote 5: muscles.]
[Footnote 6: The body is the temple, in which the mind and soul are the
worshippers: their service grows with the temple--wide, changing and
increasing its objects. The degraded use of the grand image is after the
character of him who makes it.]
[Footnote 7: The studied contrast between Laertes and Hamlet begins
already to appear: the dishonest man, honestly judging after his own
dishonesty, warns his sister against the honest man.]
[Footnote 8: deceit.]
[Footnote 9: 'You have cause to fear when you consider his greatness:
his will &c.' 'You must fear, his greatness being weighed; for because
of that greatness, his will is not his own.']
[Footnote 10: _This line not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 11: limited.]
[Footnote 12: allowance.]
[Footnote 13: This change from the _Quarto_ seems to me to bear the mark
of Shakspere's hand. The meaning is the same, but the words are more
individual and choice: the _sect_, the _head_ in relation to the body,
is more pregnant than _place_; and _force_, that is _power_, is a fuller
word than _act_, or even _action_, for which it plainly appears to
stand.]
[Page 36]
Then the maine voyce of _Denmarke_ goes withall.
Then weigh what losse your Honour may sustaine,
If with too credent eare you list his Songs;
Or lose your Heart; or your chast Treasure open [Sidenote: Or loose]
To his vnmastred[1] importunity.
Feare it _Ophelia_, feare it my deare Sister,
And keepe within the reare of your Affection;[2]
[Sidenote: keepe you in the]
Out of the shot and danger of Desire.
The chariest Maid is Prodigall enough, [Sidenote: The]
If she vnmaske her beauty to the Moone:[3]
Vertue it selfe scapes not calumnious stroakes, [Sidenote: Vertue]
The Canker Galls, the Infants of the Spring
[Sidenote: The canker gaules the]
Too oft before the buttons[6] be disclos'd, [Sidenote: their buttons]
And in the Morne and liquid dew of Youth,
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then, best safety lies in feare;
Youth to it selfe rebels, though none else neere.[6]
_Ophe_. I shall th'effect of this good Lesson keepe,
As watchmen to my heart: but good my Brother [Sidenote: watchman]
Doe not as some vngracious Pastors doe,
Shew me the steepe and thorny way to Heauen;
Whilst like a puft and recklesse Libertine
Himselfe, the Primrose path of dalliance treads,
And reaks not his owne reade.[7][8][9]
_Laer_. Oh, feare me not.[10]
_Enter Polonius_.
I stay too long; but here my Father comes:
A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles vpon a second leaue.[11]
_Polon_. Yet heere _Laertes_? Aboord, aboord for shame,
The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile,
And you are staid for there: my blessing with you;
[Sidenote: for, there my | with thee]
[Footnote 1: Without a master; lawless.]
[Footnote 2: Do not go so far as inclination would lead you. Keep behind
your liking. Do not go to the front with your impulse.]
[Footnote 3: --_but_ to the moon--which can show it so little.]
[Footnote 4: Opened but not closed quotations in the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 5: The French _bouton_ is also both _button_ and _bud_.]
[Footnote 6: 'Inclination is enough to have to deal with, let alone
added temptation.' Like his father, Laertes is wise for another--a man
of maxims, not behaviour. His morality is in his intellect and for
self-ends, not in his will, and for the sake of truth and
righteousness.]
[Footnote 7: _1st Q_.
But my deere brother, do not you
Like to a cunning Sophister,
Teach me the path and ready way to heauen,
While you forgetting what is said to me,
Your selfe, like to a carelesse libertine
Doth giue his heart, his appetite at ful,
And little recks how that his honour dies.
'The primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.'
--_Macbeth_, ii. 3:
'The flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire.'
_All's Well_, iv. 5.]
[Footnote 8: 'heeds not his own counsel.']
[Footnote 9: Here in Quarto, _Enter Polonius._]
[Footnote 10: With the fitting arrogance and impertinence of a libertine
brother, he has read his sister a lecture on propriety of behaviour; but
when she gently suggests that what is good for her is good for him
too,--'Oh, fear me not!--I stay too long.']
[Footnote 11: 'A second leave-taking is a happy chance': the chance, or
occasion, because it is happy, smiles. It does not mean that occasion
smiles upon a second leave, but that, upon a second leave, occasion
smiles. There should be a comma after _smiles_.]
[Footnote 12: As many of Polonius' aphorismic utterances as are given in
the 1st Quarto have there inverted commas; but whether intended as
gleanings from books or as fruits of experience, the light they throw on
the character of him who speaks them is the same: they show it
altogether selfish. He is a man of the world, wise in his generation,
his principles the best of their bad sort. Of these his son is a fit
recipient and retailer, passing on to his sister their father's grand
doctrine of self-protection. But, wise in maxim, Polonius is foolish in
practice--not from senility, but from vanity.]
[Page 38]
And these few Precepts in thy memory,[1]
See thou Character.[2] Giue thy thoughts no tongue,
[Sidenote: Looke thou]
Nor any vnproportion'd[3] thought his Act:
Be thou familiar; but by no meanes vulgar:[4]
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tride,[5]
[Sidenote: Those friends]
Grapple them to thy Soule, with hoopes of Steele: [Sidenote: unto]
But doe not dull thy palme, with entertainment
Of each vnhatch't, vnfledg'd Comrade.[6] Beware
[Sidenote: each new hatcht unfledgd courage,]
Of entrance to a quarrell: but being in
Bear't that th'opposed may beware of thee.
Giue euery man thine eare; but few thy voyce: [Sidenote: thy eare,]
Take each mans censure[7]; but reserue thy Judgement;
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy;
But not exprest in fancie; rich, not gawdie:
For the Apparell oft proclaimes the man.
And they in France of the best ranck and station,
Are of a most select and generous[8] cheff in that.[10]
[Sidenote: Or of a generous, chiefe[9]]
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; [Sidenote: lender boy,]
For lone oft loses both it selfe and friend: [Sidenote: loue]
And borrowing duls the edge of Husbandry.[11]
[Sidenote: dulleth edge]
This aboue all; to thine owne selfe be true:
And it must follow, as the Night the Day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.[12]
Farewell: my Blessing season[13] this in thee.
_Laer_. Most humbly doe I take my leaue, my Lord.
_Polon_. The time inuites you, goe, your seruants tend.
[Sidenote: time inuests]
_Laer._ Farewell _Ophelia_, and remember well
What I haue said to you.[14]
_Ophe_. Tis in my memory lockt,
And you your selfe shall keepe the key of it,
_Laer_. Farewell. _Exit Laer_.
_Polon_. What ist _Ophelia_ he hath said to you?
[Footnote 1: He hurries him to go, yet immediately begins to prose.]
[Footnote 2: Engrave.]
[Footnote 3: Not settled into its true shape (?) or, out of proportion
with its occasions (?)--I cannot say which.]
[Footnote 4: 'Cultivate close relations, but do not lie open to common
access.' 'Have choice intimacies, but do not be _hail, fellow! well met_
with everybody.' What follows is an expansion of the lesson.]
[Footnote 5: 'The friends thou hast--and the choice of them justified by
trial--'_equal to_: 'provided their choice be justified &c.']
[Footnote 6: 'Do not make the palm hard, and dull its touch of
discrimination, by shaking hands in welcome with every one that turns
up.']
[Footnote 7: judgment, opinion.]
[Footnote 8: _Generosus_, of good breed, a gentleman.]
[Footnote 9: _1st Q_. 'generall chiefe.']
[Footnote 10: No doubt the omission of _of a_ gives the right number of
syllables to the verse, and makes room for the interpretation which a
dash between _generous_ and _chief_ renders clearer: 'Are most select
and generous--chief in that,'--'are most choice and well-bred--chief,
indeed--at the head or top, in the matter of dress.' But without
_necessity_ or _authority_--one of the two, I would not throw away a
word; and suggest therefore that Shakspere had here the French idiom _de
son chef_ in his mind, and qualifies the noun in it with adjectives of
his own. The Academy Dictionary gives _de son propre mouvement_ as one
interpretation of the phrase. The meaning would be, 'they are of a most
choice and developed instinct in dress.' _Cheff_ or _chief_ suggests the
upper third of the heraldic shield, but I cannot persuade the suggestion
to further development. The hypercatalectic syllables _of a_, swiftly
spoken, matter little to the verse, especially as it is _dramatic_.]
[Footnote 11: Those that borrow, having to pay, lose heart for saving.
'There's husbandry in heaven;
Their candles are all out.'--_Macbeth_, ii. 1.]
[Footnote 12: Certainly a man cannot be true to himself without being
true to others; neither can he be true to others without being true to
himself; but if a man make himself the centre for the birth of action,
it will follow, '_as the night the day_,' that he will be true neither
to himself nor to any other man. In this regard note the history of
Laertes, developed in the play.]
[Footnote 13: --as salt, to make the counsel keep.]
[Footnote 14: See _note 9, page 37_.]
[Page 40]
_Ophe._ So please you, somthing touching the L. _Hamlet._
_Polon._ Marry, well bethought:
Tis told me he hath very oft of late
Giuen priuate time to you; and you your selfe
Haue of your audience beene most free and bounteous.[1]
If it be so, as so tis put on me;[2]
And that in way of caution: I must tell you,
You doe not vnderstand your selfe so cleerely,
As it behoues my Daughter, and your Honour
What is betweene you, giue me vp the truth?
_Ophe._ He hath my Lord of late, made many tenders
Of his affection to me.
_Polon._ Affection, puh. You speake like a greene Girle,
Vnsifted in such perillous Circumstance.
Doe you beleeue his tenders, as you call them?
_Ophe._ I do not know, my Lord, what I should thinke.
_Polon._ Marry Ile teach you; thinke your self a Baby,
[Sidenote: I will]
That you haue tane his tenders for true pay, [Sidenote: tane these]
Which are not starling. Tender your selfe more dearly;
[Sidenote: sterling]
Or not to crack the winde of the poore Phrase,
[Sidenote: (not ... &c.]
Roaming it[3] thus, you'l tender me a foole.[4]
[Sidenote: Wrong it thus]
_Ophe._ My Lord, he hath importun'd me with loue,
In honourable fashion.
_Polon._ I, fashion you may call it, go too, go too.
_Ophe._ And hath giuen countenance to his speech,
My Lord, with all the vowes of Heauen.
[Sidenote: with almost all the holy vowes of]
[Footnote 1: There had then been a good deal of intercourse between
Hamlet and Ophelia: she had heartily encouraged him.]
[Footnote 2: 'as so I am informed, and that by way of caution,']
[Footnote 3: --making it, 'the poor phrase' _tenders_, gallop wildly
about--as one might _roam_ a horse; _larking it_.]
[Footnote 4: 'you will in your own person present me a fool.']
[Page 42]
_Polon_. I, Springes to catch Woodcocks.[1] I doe know
[Sidenote: springs]
When the Bloud burnes, how Prodigall the Soule[2]
Giues the tongue vowes: these blazes, Daughter, [Sidenote: Lends the]
Giuing more light then heate; extinct in both,[3]
Euen in their promise, as it is a making;
You must not take for fire. For this time Daughter,[4]
[Sidenote: fire, from this]
Be somewhat scanter of your Maiden presence; [Sidenote: something]
Set your entreatments[5] at a higher rate,
Then a command to parley. For Lord _Hamlet_, [Sidenote: parle;]
Beleeue so much in him, that he is young,
And with a larger tether may he walke, [Sidenote: tider]
Then may be giuen you. In few,[6] _Ophelia_,
Doe not beleeue his vowes; for they are Broakers,
Not of the eye,[7] which their Inuestments show:
[Sidenote: of that die]
But meere implorators of vnholy Sutes, [Sidenote: imploratators]
Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile. This is for all:[8] [Sidenote: beguide]
I would not, in plaine tearmes, from this time forth,
Haue you so slander any moment leisure,[9]
[Sidenote: 70, 82] As to giue words or talke with the Lord _Hamlet_:[10]
Looke too't, I charge you; come your wayes.
_Ophe_. I shall obey my Lord.[11] _Exeunt_.
_Enter Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus._ [Sidenote: _and Marcellus_]
[Sidenote: 2] _Ham_. [12]The Ayre bites shrewdly: is it very cold?[13]
_Hor_. It is a nipping and an eager ayre.
_Ham_. What hower now?
_Hor_. I thinke it lacks of twelue.
_Mar_. No, it is strooke.
_Hor_. Indeed I heard it not: then it drawes neere the season,
[Sidenote: it then]
Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walke.
What does this meane my Lord? [14]
[Sidenote: _A flourish of trumpets and 2 peeces goes of._[14]]
[Footnote 1: Woodcocks were understood to have no brains.]
[Footnote 2: _1st Q_. 'How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes.'
I was inclined to take _Prodigall_ for a noun, a proper name or epithet
given to the soul, as in a moral play: _Prodigall, the soul_; but I
conclude it only an adjective used as an adverb, and the capital P a
blunder.]
[Footnote 3: --in both light and heat.]
[Footnote 4: The _Quarto_ has not 'Daughter.']
[Footnote 5: _To be entreated_ is _to yield_: 'he would nowise be
entreated:' _entreatments, yieldings_: 'you are not to see him just
because he chooses to command a parley.']
[Footnote 6: 'In few words'; in brief.]
[Footnote 7: I suspect a misprint in the Folio here--that an _e_ has got
in for a _d_, and that the change from the _Quarto_ should be _Not of
the dye_. Then the line would mean, using the antecedent word _brokers_
in the bad sense, 'Not themselves of the same colour as their garments
(_investments_); his vows are clothed in innocence, but are not
innocent; they are mere panders.' The passage is rendered yet more
obscure to the modern sense by the accidental propinquity of _bonds,
brokers_, and _investments_--which have nothing to do with _stocks_.]
[Footnote 8: 'This means in sum:'.]
[Footnote 9: 'so slander any moment with the name of leisure as to': to
call it leisure, if leisure stood for talk with Hamlet, would be to
slander the time. We might say, 'so slander any man friend as to expect
him to do this or that unworthy thing for you.']
[Footnote 10: _1st Q_.
_Ofelia_, receiue none of his letters,
For louers lines are snares to intrap the heart;
[Sidenote: 82] Refuse his tokens, both of them are keyes
To vnlocke Chastitie vnto Desire;
Come in _Ofelia_; such men often proue,
Great in their wordes, but little in their loue.
'_men often prove such_--great &c.'--Compare _Twelfth Night_, act ii.
sc. 4, lines 120, 121, _Globe ed.]
[Footnote 11: Fresh trouble for Hamlet_.]
[Footnote 12: _1st Q._
The ayre bites shrewd; it is an eager and
An nipping winde, what houre i'st?]
[Footnote 13: Again the cold.]
[Footnote 14: The stage-direction of the _Q_. is necessary here.]
[Page 44]
[Sidenote: 22, 25] _Ham_. The King doth wake to night, and takes his
rouse,
Keepes wassels and the swaggering vpspring reeles,[1]
[Sidenote: wassell | up-spring]
And as he dreines his draughts of Renish downe,
The kettle Drum and Trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his Pledge.
_Horat_. Is it a custome?
_Ham_. I marry ist;
And to my mind, though I am natiue heere, [Sidenote: But to]
And to the manner borne: It is a Custome
More honour'd in the breach, then the obseruance.
[A]
_Enter Ghost._
_Hor_. Looke my Lord, it comes.
[Sidenote: 172] _Ham_. Angels and Ministers of Grace defend vs:
[Sidenote: 32] Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee ayres from Heauen, or blasts from Hell,[2]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_
This heauy headed reueale east and west[3]
Makes vs tradust, and taxed of other nations,
They clip[4] vs drunkards, and with Swinish phrase
Soyle our addition,[5] and indeede it takes
From our atchieuements, though perform'd at height[6]
The pith and marrow of our attribute,
So oft it chaunces in particuler men,[7]
That for some vicious mole[8] of nature in them
As in their birth wherein they are not guilty,[8]
(Since nature cannot choose his origin)
By their ore-grow'th of some complextion[10]
Oft breaking downe the pales and forts of reason
Or by[11] some habit, that too much ore-leauens
The forme of plausiue[12] manners, that[13] these men
Carrying I say the stamp of one defect
Being Natures liuery, or Fortunes starre,[14]
His[15] vertues els[16] be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may vndergoe,[17]
Shall in the generall censure[18] take corruption
From that particuler fault:[19] the dram of eale[20]
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt[21]
To his[22] owne scandle.]
[Footnote 1: Does Hamlet here call his uncle an _upspring_, an
_upstart_? or is the _upspring_ a dance, the English equivalent of 'the
high _lavolt_' of _Troil. and Cress_. iv. 4, and governed by
_reels_--'keeps wassels, and reels the swaggering upspring'--a dance
that needed all the steadiness as well as agility available, if, as I
suspect, it was that in which each gentleman lifted the lady high, and
kissed her before setting her down? I cannot answer, I can only put the
question. The word _swaggering_ makes me lean to the former
interpretation.]
[Footnote 2: Observe again Hamlet's uncertainty. He does not take it for
granted that it is _his father's_ spirit, though it is plainly his
form.]
[Footnote 3: The Quarto surely came too early for this passage to have
been suggested by the shameful habits which invaded the court through
the example of Anne of Denmark! Perhaps Shakspere cancelled it both
because he would not have it supposed he had meant to reflect on the
queen, and because he came to think it too diffuse.]
[Footnote 4: clepe, _call_.]
[Footnote 5: Same as _attribute_, two lines lower--the thing imputed to,
or added to us--our reputation, our title or epithet.]
[Footnote 6: performed to perfection.]
[Footnote 7: individuals.]
[Footnote 8: A mole on the body, according to the place where it
appeared, was regarded as significant of character: in that relation, a
_vicious mole_ would be one that indicated some special vice; but here
the allusion is to a live mole of constitutional fault, burrowing
within, whose presence the mole-_heap_ on the skin indicates.]
[Footnote 9: The order here would be: 'for some vicious mole of nature
in them, as by their o'er-growth, in their birth--wherein they are not
guilty, since nature cannot choose his origin (or parentage)--their
o'ergrowth of (their being overgrown or possessed by) some complexion,
&c.']
[Footnote 10: _Complexion_, as the exponent of the _temperament_, or
masterful tendency of the nature, stands here for _temperament_--'oft
breaking down &c.' Both words have in them the element of _mingling_--a
mingling to certain results.]
[Footnote 11: The connection is:
That for some vicious mole--
As by their o'ergrowth--
Or by some habit, &c.]
[Footnote 12: pleasing.]
[Footnote 13: Repeat from above '--so oft it chaunces,' before 'that
these men.']
[Footnote 14: 'whether the thing come by Nature or by Destiny,'
_Fortune's star_: the mark set on a man by fortune to prove her share in
him. 83.]
[Footnote 15: A change to the singular.]
[Footnote l6: 'be his virtues besides as pure &c.']
[Footnote 17: _walk under; carry_.]
[Footnote 18: the judgment of the many.]
[Footnote 19: 'Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send
forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in
reputation for wisdom and honour.' Eccles. x. 1.]
[Footnote 20: Compare Quarto reading, page 112:
The spirit that I haue scene
May be a deale, and the deale hath power &c.
If _deale_ here stand for _devil_, then _eale_ may in the same edition
be taken to stand for _evil_. It is hardly necessary to suspect a Scotch
printer; _evil_ is often used as a monosyllable, and _eale_ may have
been a pronunciation of it half-way towards _ill_, which is its
contraction.]
[Footnote 21: I do not believe there is any corruption in the rest of
the passage. 'Doth it of a doubt:' _affects it with a doubt_, brings it
into doubt. The following from _Measure for Measure_, is like, though
not the same.
I have on Angelo imposed the office,
Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home
And yet my nature never in the fight
_To do in slander._
'To do my nature in slander'; to affect it with slander; to bring it
into slander, 'Angelo may punish in my name, but, not being present, I
shall not be accused of cruelty, which would be to slander my nature.']
[Footnote 22: _his_--the man's; see _note_ 13 above.]
[Page 46]
[Sidenote: 112] Be thy euents wicked or charitable,
[Sidenote: thy intent]
Thou com'st in such a questionable shape[1]
That I will speake to thee. Ile call thee _Hamlet_,[2]
King, Father, Royall Dane: Oh, oh, answer me,
[Sidenote: Dane, ô answere]
Let me not burst in Ignorance; but tell
Why thy Canoniz'd bones Hearsed in death,[3]
Haue burst their cerments; why the Sepulcher
Wherein we saw thee quietly enurn'd,[4]
[Sidenote: quietly interr'd[3]]
Hath op'd his ponderous and Marble iawes,
To cast thee vp againe? What may this meane?
That thou dead Coarse againe in compleat steele,
Reuisits thus the glimpses of the Moone,
Making Night hidious? And we fooles of Nature,[6]
So horridly to shake our disposition,[7]
With thoughts beyond thee; reaches of our Soules,[8]
[Sidenote: the reaches]
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we doe?[9]
_Ghost beckens Hamlet._
_Hor._ It beckons you to goe away with it, [Sidenote: Beckins]
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.
_Mar._ Looke with what courteous action
It wafts you to a more remoued ground: [Sidenote: waues]
But doe not goe with it.
_Hor._ No, by no meanes.
_Ham_. It will not speake: then will I follow it.
[Sidenote: I will]
_Hor._ Doe not my Lord.
_Ham._ Why, what should be the feare?
I doe not set my life at a pins fee;
And for my Soule, what can it doe to that?
Being a thing immortall as it selfe:[10]
It waues me forth againe; Ile follow it.
_Hor._ What if it tempt you toward the Floud my Lord?[11]
[Footnote 1: --that of his father, so moving him to question it.
_Questionable_ does not mean _doubtful_, but _fit to be questioned_.]
[Footnote 2: 'I'll _call_ thee'--for the nonce.]
[Footnote 3: I think _hearse_ was originally the bier--French _herse_, a
harrow--but came to be applied to the coffin: _hearsed_ in
death--_coffined_ in death.]
[Footnote 4: There is no impropriety in the use of the word _inurned_.
It is a figure--a word once-removed in its application: the sepulchre is
the urn, the body the ashes. _Interred_ Shakspere had concluded
incorrect, for the body was not laid in the earth.]
[Footnote 5: So in _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 6: 'fooles of Nature'--fools in the presence of her
knowledge--to us no knowledge--of her action, to us inexplicable. _A
fact_ that looks unreasonable makes one feel like a fool. See Psalm
lxxiii. 22: 'So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before
thee.' As some men are our fools, we are all Nature's fools; we are so
far from knowing anything as it is.]
[Footnote 7: Even if Shakspere cared more about grammar than he does, a
man in Hamlet's perturbation he might well present as making a breach in
it; but we are not reduced even to justification. _Toschaken_ (_to_ as
German _zu_ intensive) is a recognized English word; it means _to shake
to pieces_. The construction of the passage is, 'What may this mean,
that thou revisitest thus the glimpses of the moon, and that we so
horridly to-shake our disposition?' So in _The Merry Wives_,
And fairy-like to-pinch the unclean knight.
'our disposition': our _cosmic structure_.]
[Footnote 8: 'with thoughts that are too much for them, and as an
earthquake to them.']
[Footnote 9: Like all true souls, Hamlet wants to know what he is _to
do_. He looks out for the action required of him.]
[Footnote 10: Note here Hamlet's mood--dominated by his faith. His life
in this world his mother has ruined; he does not care for it a pin: he
is not the less confident of a nature that is immortal. In virtue of
this belief in life, he is indifferent to the form of it. When, later in
the play, he seems to fear death, it is death the consequence of an
action of whose rightness he is not convinced.]
[Footnote 11: _The Quarto has dropped out_ 'Lord.']
[Page 48]
Or to the dreadfull Sonnet of the Cliffe, [Sidenote: somnet]
That beetles[1] o're his base into the Sea, [Sidenote: bettles]
[Sidenote: 112] And there assumes some other horrible forme,[2]
[Sidenote: assume]
Which might depriue your Soueraignty[3] of Reason
And draw you into madnesse thinke of it?
[A]
_Ham._ It wafts me still; goe on, Ile follow thee.
[Sidenote: waues]
_Mar._ You shall not goe my Lord.
_Ham._ Hold off your hand. [Sidenote: hands]
_Hor._ Be rul'd, you shall not goe.
_Ham._ My fate cries out,
And makes each petty Artire[4] in this body, [Sidenote: arture[4]]
As hardy as the Nemian Lions nerue:
Still am I cal'd? Vnhand me Gentlemen:
By Heau'n, Ile make a Ghost of him that lets me:
I say away, goe on, Ile follow thee.
_Exeunt Ghost & Hamlet._
_Hor._ He waxes desperate with imagination.[5] [Sidenote: imagion]
_Mar._ Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
_Hor._ Haue after, to what issue will this come?
_Mar._ Something is rotten in the State of Denmarke.
_Hor._ Heauen will direct it.
_Mar._ Nay, let's follow him. _Exeunt._
_Enter Ghost and Hamlet._
_Ham._ Where wilt thou lead me? speak; Ile go no further.
[Sidenote: Whether]
_Gho._ Marke me.
_Ham._ I will.
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
The very place puts toyes of desperation
Without more motiue, into euery braine
That lookes so many fadoms to the sea
And heares it rore beneath.]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'beckles'--perhaps for _buckles--bends_.]
[Footnote 2: Note the unbelief in the Ghost.]
[Footnote 3: sovereignty--_soul_: so in _Romeo and Juliet_, act v. sc.
1, l. 3:--
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne.]
[Footnote 4: The word _artery_, invariably substituted by the editors,
is without authority. In the first Quarto, the word is _Artiue_; in the
second (see margin) _arture_. This latter I take to be the right
one--corrupted into _Artire_ in the Folio. It seems to have troubled the
printers, and possibly the editors. The third Q. has followed the
second; the fourth has _artyre_; the fifth Q. and the fourth F. have
_attire_; the second and third Folios follow the first. Not until the
sixth Q. does _artery_ appear. See _Cambridge Shakespeare. Arture_ was
to all concerned, and to the language itself, a new word. That _artery_
was not Shakspere's intention might be concluded from its unfitness:
what propriety could there be in _making an artery hardy_? The sole,
imperfect justification I was able to think of for such use of the word
arose from the fact that, before the discovery of the circulation of the
blood (published in 1628), it was believed that the arteries (found
empty after death) served for the movements of the animal spirits: this
might vaguely _associate_ the arteries with _courage_. But the sight of
the word _arture_ in the second Quarto at once relieved me.
I do not know if a list has ever been gathered of the words _made_ by
Shakspere: here is one of them--_arture_, from the same root as _artus,
a joint--arcere, to hold together_, adjective _arctus, tight. Arture_,
then, stands for _juncture_. This perfectly fits. In terror the weakest
parts are the joints, for their _artures_ are not _hardy_. 'And you, my
sinews, ... bear me stiffly up.' 55, 56.
Since writing as above, a friend informs me that _arture_ is the exact
equivalent of the [Greek: haphae] of Colossians ii. 19, as interpreted
by Bishop Lightfoot--'the relation between contiguous limbs, not the
parts of the limbs themselves in the neighbourhood of contact,'--for
which relation 'there is no word in our language in common use.']
[Footnote 5: 'with the things he imagines.']
[Page 50]
_Gho._ My hower is almost come,[1]
When I to sulphurous and tormenting Flames
Must render vp my selfe.
_Ham._ Alas poore Ghost.
_Gho._ Pitty me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall vnfold.
_Ham._ Speake, I am bound to heare.
_Gho._ So art thou to reuenge, when thou shalt heare.
_Ham._ What?
_Gho._ I am thy Fathers Spirit,
Doom'd for a certaine terme to walke the night;[2]
And for the day confin'd to fast in Fiers,[3]
Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of Nature
Are burnt and purg'd away? But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my Prison-House;
I could a Tale vnfold, whose lightest word[4]
Would harrow vp thy soule, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes like Starres, start from their Spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part, [Sidenote: knotted]
And each particular haire to stand an end,[5]
Like Quilles vpon the fretfull[6] Porpentine [Sidenote: fearefull[6]]
But this eternall blason[7] must not be
To eares of flesh and bloud; list _Hamlet_, oh list,
[Sidenote: blood, list, ô list;]
If thou didst euer thy deare Father loue.
_Ham._ Oh Heauen![8] [Sidenote: God]
_Gho._ Reuenge his foule and most vnnaturall Murther.[9]
_Ham._ Murther?
_Ghost._ Murther most foule, as in the best it is;
But this most foule, strange, and vnnaturall.
_Ham._ Hast, hast me to know it, [Sidenote: Hast me to know't,]
That with wings as swift
[Footnote 1: The night is the Ghost's day.]
[Footnote 2: To walk the night, and see how things go, without being
able to put a finger to them, is part of his cleansing.]
[Footnote 3: More horror yet for Hamlet.]
[Footnote 4: He would have him think of life and its doings as of awful
import. He gives his son what warning he may.]
[Footnote 5: _An end_ is like _agape, an hungred_. 71, 175.]
[Footnote 6: The word in the Q. suggests _fretfull_ a misprint for
_frightful_. It is _fretfull_ in the 1st Q. as well.]
[Footnote 7: To _blason_ is to read off in proper heraldic terms the
arms blasoned upon a shield. _A blason_ is such a reading, but is here
used for a picture in words of other objects.]
[Footnote 8: --in appeal to God whether he had not loved his father.]
[Footnote 9: The horror still accumulates. The knowledge of evil--not
evil in the abstract, but evil alive, and all about him--comes darkening
down upon Hamlet's being. Not only is his father an inhabitant of the
nether fires, but he is there by murder.]
[Page 52]
As meditation, or the thoughts of Loue,
May sweepe to my Reuenge.[1]
_Ghost._ I finde thee apt,
And duller should'st thou be then the fat weede[2]
[Sidenote: 194] That rots it selfe in ease, on Lethe Wharfe,[4]
[Sidenote: rootes[3]]
Would'st thou not stirre in this. Now _Hamlet_ heare:
It's giuen out, that sleeping in mine Orchard, [Sidenote: 'Tis]
A Serpent stung me: so the whole eare of Denmarke,
Is by a forged processe of my death
Rankly abus'd: But know thou Noble youth,
The Serpent that did sting thy Fathers life,
Now weares his Crowne.
[Sidenote: 30,32] _Ham._ O my Propheticke soule: mine Vncle?[5]
[Sidenote: my]
_Ghost._ I that incestuous, that adulterate Beast[6]
With witchcraft of his wits, hath Traitorous guifts.
[Sidenote: wits, with]
Oh wicked Wit, and Gifts, that haue the power
So to seduce? Won to to this shamefull Lust [Sidenote: wonne to his]
The will of my most seeming vertuous Queene:
Oh _Hamlet_, what a falling off was there, [Sidenote: what failing]
From me, whose loue was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand, euen with[7] the Vow
I made to her in Marriage; and to decline
Vpon a wretch, whose Naturall gifts were poore
To those of mine. But Vertue, as it neuer wil be moued,
Though Lewdnesse court it in a shape of Heauen:
So Lust, though to a radiant Angell link'd, [Sidenote: so but though]
Will sate it selfe in[8] a Celestiall bed, and prey on Garbage.[9]
[Sidenote: Will sort it selfe]
But soft, me thinkes I sent the Mornings Ayre; [Sidenote: morning ayre,]
Briefe let me be: Sleeping within mine Orchard, [Sidenote: my]
My custome alwayes in the afternoone; [Sidenote: of the]
Vpon my secure hower thy Vncle stole
[Footnote 1: Now, _for the moment_, he has no doubt, and vengeance is
his first thought.]
[Footnote 2: Hamlet may be supposed to recall this, if we suppose him
afterwards to accuse himself so bitterly and so unfairly as in the
_Quarto_, 194.]
[Footnote 3: Also _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 4: landing-place on the bank of Lethe, the hell-river of
oblivion.]
[Footnote 5: This does not mean that he had suspected his uncle, but
that his dislike to him was prophetic.]
[Footnote 6: How can it be doubted that in this speech the Ghost accuses
his wife and brother of adultery? Their marriage was not adultery. See
how the ghastly revelation grows on Hamlet--his father in hell--murdered
by his brother--dishonoured by his wife!]
[Footnote 7: _parallel with; correspondent to_.]
[Footnote 8: _1st Q_. 'fate itself from a'.]
[Footnote 9: This passage, from 'Oh _Hamlet_,' most indubitably asserts
the adultery of Gertrude.]
[Page 54]
With iuyce of cursed Hebenon[1] in a Violl, [Sidenote: Hebona]
And in the Porches of mine eares did poure [Sidenote: my]
The leaperous Distilment;[2] whose effect
Holds such an enmity with bloud of Man,
That swift as Quick-siluer, it courses[3] through
The naturall Gates and Allies of the Body;
And with a sodaine vigour it doth posset [Sidenote: doth possesse]
And curd, like Aygre droppings into Milke, [Sidenote: eager[4]]
The thin and wholsome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant Tetter bak'd about, [Sidenote: barckt about[5]]
Most Lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth Body.
Thus was I, sleeping, by a Brothers hand,
Of Life, of Crowne, and Queene at once dispatcht; [Sidenote: of Queene]
[Sidenote: 164] Cut off euen in the Blossomes of my Sinne,
Vnhouzzled, disappointed, vnnaneld,[6] [Sidenote: Vnhuzled, | vnanueld,]
[Sidenote: 262] No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head;
Oh horrible, Oh horrible, most horrible:
If thou hast nature in thee beare it not;
Let not the Royall Bed of Denmarke be
A Couch for Luxury and damned Incest.[7]
But howsoeuer thou pursuest this Act,
[Sidenote: howsomeuer thou pursues]
[Sidenote: 30,174] Taint not thy mind; nor let thy Soule contriue
[Sidenote: 140] Against thy Mother ought; leaue her to heauen,
And to those Thornes that in her bosome lodge,
To pricke and sting her. Fare thee well at once;
The Glow-worme showes the Matine to be neere,
And gins to pale his vneffectuall Fire:
Adue, adue, _Hamlet_: remember me. _Exit_.
[Sidenote: Adiew, adiew, adiew, remember me.[8]]
_Ham._ Oh all you host of Heauen! Oh Earth: what els?
And shall I couple Hell?[9] Oh fie[10]: hold my heart;
[Sidenote: hold, hold my]
And you my sinnewes, grow not instant Old;
[Footnote 1: Ebony.]
[Footnote 2: _producing leprosy_--as described in result below.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'posteth'.]
[Footnote 4: So also _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 5: This _barckt_--meaning _cased as a bark cases its tree_--is
used in _1st Q_. also: 'And all my smoothe body, barked, and tetterd
ouer.' The word is so used in Scotland still.]
[Footnote 6: _Husel (Anglo-Saxon)_ is _an offering, the sacrament.
Disappointed, not appointed_: Dr. Johnson. _Unaneled, unoiled, without
the extreme unction_.]
[Footnote 7: It is on public grounds, as a king and a Dane, rather than
as a husband and a murdered man, that he urges on his son the execution
of justice. Note the tenderness towards his wife that follows--more
marked, 174; here it is mingled with predominating regard to his son to
whose filial nature he dreads injury.]
[Footnote 8: _Q_. omits _Exit_.]
[Footnote 9: He must: his father is there!]
[Footnote 10: The interjection is addressed to _heart_ and _sinews_,
which forget their duty.]
[Page 56]
But beare me stiffely vp: Remember thee?[1] [Sidenote: swiftly vp]
I, thou poore Ghost, while memory holds a seate [Sidenote: whiles]
In this distracted Globe[2]: Remember thee?
Yea, from the Table of my Memory,[3]
Ile wipe away all triuiall fond Records,
All sawes[4] of Bookes, all formes, all presures past,
That youth and obseruation coppied there;
And thy Commandment all alone shall liue
Within the Booke and Volume of my Braine,
Vnmixt with baser matter; yes, yes, by Heauen:
[Sidenote: matter, yes by]
[Sidenote: 168] Oh most pernicious woman![5]
Oh Villaine, Villaine, smiling damned Villaine!
My Tables, my Tables; meet it is I set it downe,[6]
[Sidenote: My tables, meet]
That one may smile, and smile and be a Villaine;
At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmarke; [Sidenote: I am]
So Vnckle there you are: now to my word;[7]
It is; Adue, Adue, Remember me:[8] I haue sworn't.
[Sidenote: _Enter Horatio, and Marcellus_]
_Hor. and Mar. within_. My Lord, my Lord. [Sidenote: _Hora._ My]
_Enter Horatio and Marcellus._
_Mar_. Lord _Hamlet_.
_Hor_. Heauen secure him. [Sidenote: Heauens]
_Mar_. So be it.
_Hor_. Illo, ho, ho, my Lord.
_Ham_. Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come bird, come.[9]
[Sidenote: boy come, and come.]
_Mar_. How ist't my Noble Lord?
_Hor_. What newes, my Lord?
_Ham_. Oh wonderfull![10]
_Hor_. Good my Lord tell it.
_Ham_. No you'l reueale it. [Sidenote: you will]
_Hor_. Not I, my Lord, by Heauen.
_Mar_. Nor I, my Lord.
_Ham_. How say you then, would heart of man once think it?
But you'l be secret?
[Footnote 1: For the moment he has no doubt that he has seen and spoken
with the ghost of his father.]
[Footnote 2: his head.]
[Footnote 3: The whole speech is that of a student, accustomed to books,
to take notes, and to fix things in his memory. 'Table,' _tablet_.]
[Footnote 4: _wise sayings_.]
[Footnote 5: The Ghost has revealed her adultery: Hamlet suspects her of
complicity in the murder, 168.]
[Footnote 6: It may well seem odd that Hamlet should be represented as,
at such a moment, making a note in his tablets; but without further
allusion to the student-habit, I would remark that, in cases where
strongest passion is roused, the intellect has yet sometimes an
automatic trick of working independently. For instance from Shakspere,
see Constance in _King John_--how, in her agony over the loss of her
son, both her fancy, playing with words, and her imagination, playing
with forms, are busy.
Note the glimpse of Hamlet's character here given: he had been something
of an optimist; at least had known villainy only from books; at thirty
years of age it is to him a discovery that a man may smile and be a
villain! Then think of the shock of such discoveries as are here forced
upon him! Villainy is no longer a mere idea, but a fact! and of all
villainous deeds those of his own mother and uncle are the worst! But
note also his honesty, his justice to humanity, his philosophic
temperament, in the qualification he sets to the memorandum, '--at least
in Denmark!']
[Footnote 7: 'my word,'--the word he has to keep in mind; his cue.]
[Footnote 8: Should not the actor here make a pause, with hand uplifted,
as taking a solemn though silent oath?]
[Footnote 9: --as if calling to a hawk.]
[Footnote 10: Here comes the test of the actor's _possible_: here Hamlet
himself begins to act, and will at once assume a _rôle_, ere yet he well
knows what it must be. One thing only is clear to him--that the
communication of the Ghost is not a thing to be shared--that he must
keep it with all his power of secrecy: the honour both of father and of
mother is at stake. In order to do so, he must begin by putting on
himself a cloak of darkness, and hiding his feelings--first of all the
present agitation which threatens to overpower him. His immediate
impulse or instinctive motion is to force an air, and throw a veil of
grimmest humour over the occurrence. The agitation of the horror at his
heart, ever working and constantly repressed, shows through the veil,
and gives an excited uncertainty to his words, and a wild vacillation to
his manner and behaviour.]
[Page 58]
_Both_. I, by Heau'n, my Lord.[1]
_Ham_. There's nere a villaine dwelling in all Denmarke
But hee's an arrant knaue.
_Hor_. There needs no Ghost my Lord, come from the
Graue, to tell vs this.
_Ham_. Why right, you are i'th'right; [Sidenote: in the]
And so, without more circumstance at all,
I hold it fit that we shake hands, and part:
You, as your busines and desires shall point you: [Sidenote: desire]
For euery man ha's businesse and desire,[2] [Sidenote: hath]
Such as it is: and for mine owne poore part, [Sidenote: my]
Looke you, Ile goe pray.[4] [Sidenote: I will goe pray.[3]]
_Hor_. These are but wild and hurling words, my Lord.
[Sidenote: whurling[5]]
_Ham_. I'm sorry they offend you heartily: [Sidenote: I am]
Yes faith, heartily.
_Hor_. There's no offence my Lord.
_Ham_. Yes, by Saint _Patricke_, but there is my Lord,[6]
[Sidenote: there is _Horatio_]
And much offence too, touching this Vision heere;[7]
[Sidenote: 136] It is an honest Ghost, that let me tell you:[8]
For your desire to know what is betweene vs,
O'remaster't as you may. And now good friends,
As you are Friends, Schollers and Soldiers,
Giue me one poore request.
_Hor_. What is't my Lord? we will.
_Ham_. Neuer make known what you haue seen to night.[9]
_Both_. My Lord, we will not.
_Ham_. Nay, but swear't.
_Hor_. Infaith my Lord, not I.[10]
_Mar_. Nor I my Lord: in faith.
_Ham_. Vpon my sword.[11]
[Footnote 1: _Q. has not_ 'my Lord.']
[Footnote 2: Here shows the philosopher.]
[Footnote 3: _Q. has not_ 'Looke you.']
[Footnote 4: '--nothing else is left me.' This seems to me one of the
finest touches in the revelation of Hamlet.]
[Footnote 5: _1st Q_. 'wherling'.]
[Footnote 6: I take the change from the _Quarto_ here to be no blunder.]
[Footnote 7: _Point thus_: 'too!--Touching.']
[Footnote 8: The struggle to command himself is plain throughout.]
[Footnote 9: He could not endure the thought of the resulting
gossip;--which besides would interfere with, possibly frustrate, the
carrying out of his part.]
[Footnote 10: This is not a refusal to swear; it is the oath itself:
'_In faith I will not_!']
[Footnote 11: He would have them swear on the cross-hilt of his sword.]
[Page 60]
_Marcell._ We haue sworne my Lord already.[1]
_Ham._ Indeed, vpon my sword, Indeed.
_Gho._ Sweare.[2] _Ghost cries vnder the Stage._[3]
_Ham._ Ah ha boy, sayest thou so. Art thou [Sidenote: Ha, ha,]
there truepenny?[4] Come one you here this fellow
[Sidenote: Come on, you heare]
in the selleredge
Consent to sweare.
_Hor._ Propose the Oath my Lord.[5]
_Ham._ Neuer to speake of this that you haue seene.
Sweare by my sword.
_Gho._ Sweare.
_Ham. Hic & vbique_? Then wee'l shift for grownd, [Sidenote: shift our]
Come hither Gentlemen,
And lay your hands againe vpon my sword,
Neuer to speake of this that you haue heard:[6]
Sweare by my Sword.
_Gho._ Sweare.[7] [Sidenote: Sweare by his sword.]
_Ham._ Well said old Mole, can'st worke i'th' ground so fast?
[Sidenote: it'h' earth]
A worthy Pioner, once more remoue good friends.
_Hor._ Oh day and night: but this is wondrous strange.
_Ham._ And therefore as a stranger giue it welcome.
There are more things in Heauen and Earth, _Horatio_,
Then are dream't of in our Philosophy But come, [Sidenote: in your]
Here as before, neuer so helpe you mercy,
How strange or odde so ere I beare my selfe; [Sidenote: How | so mere]
(As I perchance heereafter shall thinke meet [Sidenote: As]
[Sidenote: 136, 156, 178] To put an Anticke disposition on:)[8]
[Sidenote: on]
That you at such time seeing me, neuer shall [Sidenote: times]
With Armes encombred thus, or thus, head shake;
[Sidenote: or this head]
[Footnote 1: He feels his honour touched.]
[Footnote 2: The Ghost's interference heightens Hamlet's agitation. If
he does not talk, laugh, jest, it will overcome him. Also he must not
show that he believes it his father's ghost: that must be kept to
himself--for the present at least. He shows it therefore no
respect--treats the whole thing humorously, so avoiding, or at least
parrying question. It is all he can do to keep the mastery of himself,
dodging horror with half-forced, half-hysterical laughter. Yet is he all
the time intellectually on the alert. See how, instantly active, he
makes use of the voice from beneath to enforce his requisition of
silence. Very speedily too he grows quiet: a glimmer of light as to the
course of action necessary to him has begun to break upon him: it breaks
from his own wild and disjointed behaviour in the attempt to hide the
conflict of his feelings--which suggests to him the idea of shrouding
himself, as did David at the court of the Philistines, in the cloak of
madness: thereby protected from the full force of what suspicion any
absorption of manner or outburst of feeling must occasion, he may win
time to lay his plans. Note how, in the midst of his horror, he is yet
able to think, plan, resolve.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q. 'The Gost under the stage.'_]
[Footnote 4: While Hamlet seems to take it so coolly, the others have
fled in terror from the spot. He goes to them. Their fear must be what,
on the two occasions after, makes him shift to another place when the
Ghost speaks.]
[Footnote 5: Now at once he consents.]
[Footnote 6: In the _Quarto_ this and the next line are transposed.]
[Footnote 7: What idea is involved as the cause of the Ghost's thus
interfering?--That he too sees what difficulties must encompass the
carrying out of his behest, and what absolute secrecy is thereto
essential.]
[Footnote 8: This idea, hardly yet a resolve, he afterwards carries out
so well, that he deceives not only king and queen and court, but the
most of his critics ever since: to this day they believe him mad. Such
must have studied in the play a phantom of their own misconception, and
can never have seen the Hamlet of Shakspere. Thus prejudiced, they
mistake also the effects of moral and spiritual perturbation and misery
for further sign of intellectual disorder--even for proof of moral
weakness, placing them in the same category with the symptoms of the
insanity which he simulates, and by which they are deluded.]
[Page 62]
Or by pronouncing of some doubtfull Phrase;
As well, we know, or we could and if we would,
[Sidenote: As well, well, we]
Or if we list to speake; or there be and if there might,
[Sidenote: if they might]
Or such ambiguous giuing out to note, [Sidenote: note]
That you know ought of me; this not to doe:
[Sidenote: me, this doe sweare,]
So grace and mercy at your most neede helpe you:
Sweare.[1]
_Ghost_. Sweare.[2]
_Ham_. Rest, rest perturbed Spirit[3]: so Gentlemen,
With all my loue I doe commend me to you;
And what so poore a man as _Hamlet_ is,
May doe t'expresse his loue and friending to you,
God willing shall not lacke: let vs goe in together,
And still your fingers on your lippes I pray,
The time is out of ioynt: Oh cursed spight,[4]
[Sidenote: 126] That euer I was borne to set it right.
Nay, come let's goe together. _Exeunt._[5]
* * * * *
SUMMARY OF ACT I.
This much of Hamlet we have now learned: he is a thoughtful man, a
genuine student, little acquainted with the world save through books,
and a lover of his kind. His university life at Wittenberg is suddenly
interrupted by a call to the funeral of his father, whom he dearly loves
and honours. Ere he reaches Denmark, his uncle Claudius has contrived,
in an election (202, 250, 272) probably hastened and secretly
influenced, to gain the voice of the representatives at least of the
people, and ascend the throne. Hence his position must have been an
irksome one from the first; but, within a month of his father's death,
his mother's marriage with his uncle--a relation universally regarded as
incestuous--plunges him in the deepest misery. The play introduces him
at the first court held after the wedding. He is attired in the mourning
of his father's funeral, which he had not laid aside for the wedding.
His aspect is of absolute dejection, and he appears in a company for
which he is so unfit only for the sake of desiring permission to leave
the court, and go back to his studies at Wittenberg.[A] Left to himself,
he breaks out in agonized and indignant lamentation over his mother's
conduct, dwelling mainly on her disregard of his father's memory. Her
conduct and his partial discovery of her character, is the sole cause of
his misery. In such his mood, Horatio, a fellow-student, brings him word
that his father's spirit walks at night. He watches for the Ghost, and
receives from him a frightful report of his present condition, into
which, he tells him, he was cast by the murderous hand of his brother,
with whom his wife had been guilty of adultery. He enjoins him to put a
stop to the crime in which they are now living, by taking vengeance on
his uncle. Uncertain at the moment how to act, and dreading the
consequences of rousing suspicion by the perturbation which he could not
but betray, he grasps at the sudden idea of affecting madness. We have
learned also Hamlet's relation to Ophelia, the daughter of the selfish,
prating, busy Polonius, who, with his son Laertes, is destined to work
out the earthly fate of Hamlet. Of Laertes, as yet, we only know that he
prates like his father, is self-confident, and was educated at Paris,
whither he has returned. Of Ophelia we know nothing but that she is
gentle, and that she is fond of Hamlet, whose attentions she has
encouraged, but with whom, upon her father's severe remonstrance, she is
ready, outwardly at least, to break.
[Footnote A: Roger Ascham, in his _Scholemaster_, if I mistake not, sets
the age, up to which a man should be under tutors, at twenty-nine.]
[Footnote 1: 'Sweare' _not in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 2: They do not this time shift their ground, but swear--in
dumb show.]
[Footnote 3: --for now they had obeyed his command and sworn secrecy.]
[Footnote 4: 'cursed spight'--not merely that he had been born to do
hangman's work, but that he should have been born at all--of a mother
whose crime against his father had brought upon him the wretched
necessity which must proclaim her ignominy. Let the student do his best
to realize the condition of Hamlet's heart and mind in relation to his
mother.]
[Footnote: 5 This first act occupies part of a night, a day, and part of
the next night.]
[Page 64]
ACTUS SECUNDUS.[1]
_Enter Polonius, and Reynoldo._
[Sidenote: _Enter old Polonius, with his man, or two._]
_Polon._ Giue him his money, and these notes _Reynoldo_.[2]
[Sidenote: this money]
_Reynol._ I will my Lord.
_Polon._ You shall doe maruels wisely: good _Reynoldo_,
[Sidenote: meruiles]
Before you visite him you make inquiry
[Sidenote: him, to make inquire]
Of his behauiour.[3]
_Reynol._ My Lord, I did intend it.
_Polon._ Marry, well said;
Very well said. Looke you Sir,
Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
And how, and who; what meanes; and where they keepe:
What company, at what expence: and finding
By this encompassement and drift of question,
That they doe know my sonne: Come you more neerer[4]
Then your particular demands will touch it,
Take you as 'twere some distant knowledge of him,
And thus I know his father and his friends, [Sidenote: As thus]
And in part him. Doe you marke this _Reynoldo_?
_Reynol._ I, very well my Lord.
_Polon._ And in part him, but you may say not well;
But if't be hee I meane, hees very wilde;
Addicted so and so; and there put on him
What forgeries you please: marry, none so ranke,
As may dishonour him; take heed of that:
But Sir, such wanton, wild, and vsuall slips,
As are Companions noted and most knowne
To youth and liberty.
[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto._
Between this act and the former, sufficient time has passed to allow the
ambassadors to go to Norway and return: 74. See 138, and what Hamlet
says of the time since his father's death, 24, by which together the
interval _seems_ indicated as about two months, though surely so much
time was not necessary.
Cause and effect _must_ be truly presented; time and space are mere
accidents, and of small consequence in the drama, whose very idea is
compression for the sake of presentation. All that is necessary in
regard to time is, that, either by the act-pause, or the intervention of
a fresh scene, the passing of it should be indicated.
This second act occupies the forenoon of one day.]
[Footnote 2: _1st Q._
_Montano_, here, these letters to my sonne,
And this same mony with my blessing to him,
And bid him ply his learning good _Montano_.]
[Footnote 3: The father has no confidence in the son, and rightly, for
both are unworthy: he turns on him the cunning of the courtier, and
sends a spy on his behaviour. The looseness of his own principles comes
out very clear in his anxieties about his son; and, having learned the
ideas of the father as to what becomes a gentleman, we are not surprised
to find the son such as he afterwards shows himself. Till the end
approaches, we hear no more of Laertes, nor is more necessary; but
without this scene we should have been unprepared for his vileness.]
[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'son, come you more nearer; then &c.' The
_then_ here does not stand for _than_, and to change it to _than_ makes
at once a contradiction. The sense is: 'Having put your general
questions first, and been answered to your purpose, then your particular
demands will come in, and be of service; they will reach to the
point--_will touch it_.' The _it_ is impersonal. After it should come a
period.]
[Page 66]
_Reynol._ As gaming my Lord.
_Polon._ I, or drinking, fencing, swearing,
Quarelling, drabbing. You may goe so farre.
_Reynol._ My Lord that would dishonour him.
_Polon._ Faith no, as you may season it in the charge;[1]
[Sidenote: Fayth as you]
You must not put another scandall on him,
That hee is open to Incontinencie;[2]
That's not my meaning: but breath his faults so quaintly,
That they may seeme the taints of liberty;
The flash and out-breake of a fiery minde,
A sauagenes in vnreclaim'd[3] bloud of generall assault.[4]
_Reynol._ But my good Lord.[5]
_Polon._ Wherefore should you doe this?[6]
_Reynol._ I my Lord, I would know that.
_Polon._ Marry Sir, heere's my drift,
And I belieue it is a fetch of warrant:[7] [Sidenote: of wit,]
You laying these slight sulleyes[8] on my Sonne,
[Sidenote: sallies[8]]
As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'th'working:
[Sidenote: soiled with working,]
Marke you your party in conuerse; him you would sound,
Hauing euer seene. In the prenominate crimes, [Sidenote: seene in the]
The youth you breath of guilty, be assur'd
He closes with you in this consequence:
Good sir, or so, or friend, or Gentleman.
According to the Phrase and the Addition,[9] [Sidenote: phrase or the]
Of man and Country.
_Reynol._ Very good my Lord.
_Polon._ And then Sir does he this?
[Sidenote: doos a this a doos, what was _I_]
He does: what was I about to say?
I was about to say somthing: where did I leaue?
[Sidenote: By the masse I was]
_Reynol._ At closes in the consequence:
At friend, or so, and Gentleman.[10]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q._
I faith not a whit, no not a whit,
As you may bridle it not disparage him a iote.]
[Footnote 2: This may well seem prating inconsistency, but I suppose
means that he must not be represented as without moderation in his
wickedness.]
[Footnote 3: _Untamed_, as a hawk.]
[Footnote 4: The lines are properly arranged in _Q_.
A sauagenes in vnreclamed blood,
Of generall assault.
--that is, 'which assails all.']
[Footnote 5: Here a hesitating pause.]
[Footnote 6: --with the expression of, 'Is that what you would say?']
[Footnote 7: 'a fetch with warrant for it'--a justifiable trick.]
[Footnote 8: Compare _sallied_, 25, both Quartos; _sallets_ 67, 103; and
see _soil'd_, next line.]
[Footnote 9: 'Addition,' epithet of courtesy in address.]
[Footnote 10: _Q_. has not this line]
[Page 68]
_Polon._ At closes in the consequence, I marry,
He closes with you thus. I know the Gentleman,
[Sidenote: He closes thus,]
I saw him yesterday, or tother day; [Sidenote: th'other]
Or then or then, with such and such; and as you say,
[Sidenote: or such,]
[Sidenote: 25] There was he gaming, there o'retooke in's Rouse,
[Sidenote: was a gaming there, or tooke]
There falling out at Tennis; or perchance,
I saw him enter such a house of saile; [Sidenote: sale,]
_Videlicet_, a Brothell, or so forth. See you now;
Your bait of falshood, takes this Cape of truth;
[Sidenote: take this carpe]
And thus doe we of wisedome and of reach[1]
With windlesses,[2] and with assaies of Bias,
By indirections finde directions out:
So by my former Lecture and aduice
Shall you my Sonne; you haue me, haue you not?
_Reynol._ My Lord I haue.
_Polon._ God buy you; fare you well, [Sidenote: ye | ye]
_Reynol._ Good my Lord.
_Polon._ Obserue his inclination in your selfe.[3]
_Reynol._ I shall my Lord.
_Polon._ And let him[4] plye his Musicke.
_Reynol._ Well, my Lord. _Exit_.
_Enter Ophelia_.
_Polon_. Farewell:
How now _Ophelia_, what's the matter?
_Ophe_. Alas my Lord, I haue beene so affrighted.
[Sidenote: O my Lord, my Lord,]
_Polon_. With what, in the name of Heauen?
[Sidenote: i'th name of God?]
_Ophe_. My Lord, as I was sowing in my Chamber, [Sidenote: closset,]
Lord _Hamlet_ with his doublet all vnbrac'd,[5]
No hat vpon his head, his stockings foul'd,
Vngartred, and downe giued[6] to his Anckle,
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a looke so pitious in purport,
As if he had been loosed out of hell,
[Footnote 1: of far reaching mind.]
[Footnote 2: The word windlaces is explained in the dictionaries as
_shifts, subtleties_--but apparently on the sole authority of this
passage. There must be a figure in _windlesses_, as well as in _assaies
of Bias_, which is a phrase plain enough to bowlers: the trying of other
directions than that of the _jack_, in the endeavour to come at one with
the law of the bowl's bias. I find _wanlass_ a term in hunting: it had
to do with driving game to a given point--whether in part by getting to
windward of it, I cannot tell. The word may come of the verb wind, from
its meaning '_to manage by shifts or expedients_': _Barclay_. As he has
spoken of fishing, could the _windlesses_ refer to any little instrument
such as now used upon a fishing-rod? I do not think it. And how do the
words _windlesses_ and _indirections_ come together? Was a windless some
contrivance for determining how the wind blew? I bethink me that a thin
withered straw is in Scotland called a _windlestrae_: perhaps such
straws were thrown up to find out 'by indirection' the direction of the
wind.
The press-reader sends me two valuable quotations, through Latham's
edition of Johnson's Dictionary, from Dr. H. Hammond (1605-1660), in
which _windlass_ is used as a verb:--
'A skilful woodsman, by windlassing, presently gets a shoot, which,
without taking a compass, and thereby a commodious stand, he could never
have obtained.'
'She is not so much at leasure as to windlace, or use craft, to satisfy
them.'
To _windlace_ seems then to mean 'to steal along to leeward;' would it
be absurd to suggest that, so-doing, the hunter _laces the wind_?
Shakspere, with many another, I fancy, speaks of _threading the night_
or _the darkness_.
Johnson explains the word in the text as 'A handle by which anything is
turned.']
[Footnote 3: 'in your selfe.' may mean either 'through the insight
afforded by your own feelings'; or 'in respect of yourself,' 'toward
yourself.' I do not know which is intended.]
[Footnote 4: 1st Q. 'And bid him'.]
[Footnote 5: loose; _undone_.]
[Footnote 6: His stockings, slipped down in wrinkles round his ankles,
suggested the rings of _gyves_ or fetters. The verb _gyve_, of which the
passive participle is here used, is rarer.]
[Page 70]
To speake of horrors: he comes before me.
_Polon._ Mad for thy Loue?
_Ophe._ My Lord, I doe not know: but truly I do feare it.[1]
_Polon._ What said he?
_Ophe._[2] He tooke me by the wrist, and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arme;
And with his other hand thus o're his brow,
He fals to such perusall of my face,
As he would draw it. Long staid he so, [Sidenote: As a]
At last, a little shaking of mine Arme:
And thrice his head thus wauing vp and downe;
He rais'd a sigh, so pittious and profound,
That it did seeme to shatter all his bulke, [Sidenote: As it]
And end his being. That done, he lets me goe,
And with his head ouer his shoulders turn'd, [Sidenote: shoulder]
He seem'd to finde his way without his eyes,
For out adores[3] he went without their helpe; [Sidenote: helps,]
And to the last, bended their light on me.
_Polon._ Goe with me, I will goe seeke the King, [Sidenote: Come, goe]
This is the very extasie of Loue,
Whose violent property foredoes[4] it selfe,
And leads the will to desperate Vndertakings,
As oft as any passion vnder Heauen, [Sidenote: passions]
That does afflict our Natures. I am sorrie,
What haue you giuen him any hard words of late?
_Ophe_. No my good Lord: but as you did command,
[Sidenote: 42, 82] I did repell his Letters, and deny'de
His accesse to me.[5]
_Pol_. That hath made him mad.
I am sorrie that with better speed and Judgement
[Sidenote: better heede]
[Sidenote: 83] I had not quoted[6] him. I feare he did but trifle,
[Sidenote: coted[6] | fear'd]
And meant to wracke thee: but beshrew my iealousie:
[Footnote 1: She would be glad her father should think so.]
[Footnote 2: The detailed description of Hamlet and his behaviour that
follows, must be introduced in order that the side mirror of narrative
may aid the front mirror of drama, and between them be given a true
notion of his condition both mental and bodily. Although weeks have
passed since his interview with the Ghost, he is still haunted with the
memory of it, still broods over its horrible revelation. That he had,
probably soon, begun to feel far from certain of the truth of the
apparition, could not make the thoughts and questions it had awaked,
cease tormenting his whole being. The stifling smoke of his mother's
conduct had in his mind burst into loathsome flame, and through her he
has all but lost his faith in humanity. To know his uncle a villain, was
to know his uncle a villain; to know his mother false, was to doubt
women, doubt the whole world.
In the meantime Ophelia, in obedience to her father, and evidently
without reason assigned, has broken off communication with him: he reads
her behaviour by the lurid light of his mother's. She too is false! she
too is heartless! he can look to her for no help! She has turned against
him to curry favour with his mother and his uncle!
Can she be such as his mother! Why should she not be? His mother had
seemed as good! He would give his life to know her honest and pure.
Might he but believe her what he had believed her, he would yet have a
hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest! If he could but
know the truth! Alone with her once more but for a moment, he would read
her very soul by the might of his! He must see her! He would see her! In
the agony of a doubt upon which seemed to hang the bliss or bale of his
being, yet not altogether unintimidated by a sense of his intrusion, he
walks into the house of Polonius, and into the chamber of Ophelia.
Ever since the night of the apparition, the court, from the behaviour
assumed by Hamlet, has believed his mind affected; and when he enters
her room, Ophelia, though such is the insight of love that she is able
to read in the face of the son the father's purgatorial sufferings, the
picture of one 'loosed out of hell, to speak of horrors,' attributes all
the strangeness of his appearance and demeanour, such as she describes
them to her father, to that supposed fact. But there is, in truth, as
little of affected as of actual madness in his behaviour in her
presence. When he comes before her pale and trembling, speechless and
with staring eyes, it is with no simulated insanity, but in the agonized
hope, scarce distinguishable from despair, of finding, in the testimony
of her visible presence, an assurance that the doubts ever tearing his
spirit and sickening his brain, are but the offspring of his phantasy.
There she sits!--and there he stands, vainly endeavouring through her
eyes to read her soul! for, alas,
there's no art
To find the mind's construction in the face!
--until at length, finding himself utterly baffled, but unable, save by
the removal of his person, to take his eyes from her face, he retires
speechless as he came. Such is the man whom we are now to see wandering
about the halls and corridors of the great castle-palace.
He may by this time have begun to doubt even the reality of the sight he
had seen. The moment the pressure of a marvellous presence is removed,
it is in the nature of man the same moment to begin to doubt; and
instead of having any reason to wish the apparition a true one, he had
every reason to desire to believe it an illusion or a lying spirit.
Great were his excuse even if he forced likelihoods, and suborned
witnesses in the court of his own judgment. To conclude it false was to
think his father in heaven, and his mother not an adulteress, not a
murderess! At once to kill his uncle would be to seal these horrible
things irrevocable, indisputable facts. Strongest reasons he had for not
taking immediate action in vengeance; but no smallest incapacity for
action had share in his delay. The Poet takes recurrent pains, as if he
foresaw hasty conclusions, to show his hero a man of promptitude, with
this truest fitness for action, that he would not make unlawful haste.
Without sufficing assurance, he would have no part in the fate either of
the uncle he disliked or the mother he loved.]
[Footnote 3: _a doors_, like _an end_. 51, 175.]
[Footnote 4: _undoes, frustrates, destroys_.]
[Footnote 5: See quotation from _1st Quarto,_ 43.]
[Footnote 6: _Quoted_ or _coted: observed_; Fr. _coter_, to mark the
number. Compare 95.]
[Page 72]
It seemes it is as proper to our Age, [Sidenote: By heauen it is]
To cast beyond our selues[1] in our Opinions,
As it is common for the yonger sort
To lacke discretion.[2] Come, go we to the King,
This must be knowne, which being kept close might moue
More greefe to hide, then hate to vtter loue.[3] [Sidenote: Come.]
_Exeunt._
_SCENA SECUNDA._[4]
_Enter King, Queene, Rosincrane, and Guildensterne Cum alijs.
[Sidenote: Florish: Enter King and Queene, Rosencraus and
Guyldensterne.[5]]
_King._ Welcome deere _Rosincrance_ and _Guildensterne_.
Moreouer,[6] that we much did long to see you,
The neede we haue to vse you, did prouoke
[Sidenote: 92] Our hastie sending.[7] Something haue you heard
Of _Hamlets_ transformation: so I call it, [Sidenote: so call]
Since not th'exterior, nor the inward man [Sidenote: Sith nor]
Resembles that it was. What it should bee
More then his Fathers death, that thus hath put him
So much from th'understanding of himselfe,
I cannot deeme of.[8] I intreat you both, [Sidenote: dreame]
That being of so young dayes[9] brought vp with him:
And since so Neighbour'd to[10] his youth,and humour,
[Sidenote: And sith | and hauior,]
That you vouchsafe your rest heere in our Court
Some little time: so by your Companies
To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
[Sidenote: 116] So much as from Occasions you may gleane,
[Sidenote: occasion]
[A]
That open'd lies within our remedie.[11]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
Whether ought to vs vnknowne afflicts him thus,]
[Footnote 1:
'to be overwise--to overreach ourselves'
'ambition, which o'erleaps itself,'
--_Macbeth_, act i. sc. 7.]
[Footnote 2: Polonius is a man of faculty. His courtier-life, his
self-seeking, his vanity, have made and make him the fool he is.]
[Footnote 3: He hopes now to get his daughter married to the prince.
We have here a curious instance of Shakspere's not unfrequently
excessive condensation. Expanded, the clause would be like this: 'which,
being kept close, might move more grief by the hiding of love, than to
utter love might move hate:' the grief in the one case might be greater
than the hate in the other would be. It verges on confusion, and may not
be as Shakspere wrote it, though it is like his way.
_1st Q._
Lets to the king, this madnesse may prooue,
Though wilde a while, yet more true to thy loue.]
[Footnote 4: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 5: _Q._ has not _Cum alijs._]
[Footnote 6: 'Moreover that &c.': _moreover_ is here used as a
preposition, with the rest of the clause for its objective.]
[Footnote 7: Rosincrance and Guildensterne are, from the first and
throughout, the creatures of the king.]
[Footnote 8: The king's conscience makes him suspicious of Hamlet's
suspicion.]
[Footnote 9: 'from such an early age'.]
[Footnote 10: 'since then so familiar with'.]
[Footnote 11: 'to gather as much as you may glean from opportunities, of
that which, when disclosed to us, will lie within our remedial power.'
If the line of the Quarto be included, it makes plainer construction.
The line beginning with '_So much_,' then becomes parenthetical, and _to
gather_ will not immediately govern that line, but the rest of the
sentence.]
[Page 74]
_Qu._ Good Gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you,
And sure I am, two men there are not liuing, [Sidenote: there is not]
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To shew vs so much Gentrie,[1] and good will,
As to expend your time with vs a-while,
For the supply and profit of our Hope,[2]
Your Visitation shall receiue such thankes
As fits a Kings remembrance.
_Rosin._ Both your Maiesties
Might by the Soueraigne power you haue of vs,
Put your dread pleasures, more into Command
Then to Entreatie,
_Guil._ We both[3] obey, [Sidenote: But we]
And here giue vp our selues, in the full bent,[4]
To lay our Seruices freely at your feete, [Sidenote: seruice]
To be commanded.
_King._ Thankes _Rosincrance_, and gentle _Guildensterne_.
_Qu._ Thankes _Guildensterne_ and gentle _Rosincrance_,[5]
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed Sonne.
Go some of ye, [Sidenote: you]
And bring the Gentlemen where _Hamlet_ is, [Sidenote: bring these]
_Guil._ Heauens make our presence and our practises
Pleasant and helpfull to him. _Exit_[6]
_Queene._ Amen. [Sidenote: Amen. _Exeunt Ros. and Guyld._]
_Enter Polonius._
[Sidenote: 18] _Pol._ Th'Ambassadors from Norwey, my good Lord,
Are ioyfully return'd.
[Footnote 1: gentleness, grace, favour.]
[Footnote 2: Their hope in Hamlet, as their son and heir.]
[Footnote 3: both majesties.]
[Footnote 4: If we put a comma after _bent_, the phrase will mean 'in
the full _purpose_ or _design_ to lay our services &c.' Without the
comma, the content of the phrase would be general:--'in the devoted
force of our faculty.' The latter is more like Shakspere.]
[Footnote 5: Is there not tact intended in the queen's reversal of her
husband's arrangement of the two names--that each might have precedence,
and neither take offence?]
[Footnote 6: _Not in Quarto._]
[Page 76]
_King._ Thou still hast bin the Father of good Newes.
_Pol._ Haue I, my Lord?[1] Assure you, my good Liege,
[Sidenote: I assure my]
I hold my dutie, as I hold my Soule,
Both to my God, one to my gracious King:[2] [Sidenote: God, and to[2]]
And I do thinke, or else this braine of mine
Hunts not the traile of Policie, so sure
As I haue vs'd to do: that I haue found [Sidenote: it hath vsd]
The very cause of _Hamlets_ Lunacie.
_King._ Oh speake of that, that I do long to heare.
[Sidenote: doe I long]
_Pol._ Giue first admittance to th'Ambassadors,
My Newes shall be the Newes to that great Feast,
[Sidenote: the fruite to that]
_King._ Thy selfe do grace to them, and bring them in.
He tels me my sweet Queene, that he hath found
[Sidenote: my deere Gertrard he]
The head[3] and sourse of all your Sonnes distemper.
_Qu._ I doubt it is no other, but the maine,
His Fathers death, and our o're-hasty Marriage.[4]
[Sidenote: our hastie]
_Enter Polonius, Voltumand, and Cornelius._
[Sidenote: _Enter_ Embassadors.]
_King._ Well, we shall sift him. Welcome good Frends:
[Sidenote: my good]
Say _Voltumand_, what from our Brother Norwey?
_Volt._ Most faire returne of Greetings, and Desires.
Vpon our first,[5] he sent out to suppresse
His Nephewes Leuies, which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke,]
But better look'd into, he truly found
It was against your Highnesse, whereat greeued,
That so his Sicknesse, Age, and Impotence
Was falsely borne in hand,[6] sends[7] out Arrests
On _Fortinbras_, which he (in breefe) obeyes,
[Footnote 1: To be spoken triumphantly, but in the peculiar tone of one
thinking, 'You little know what better news I have behind!']
[Footnote 2: I cannot tell which is the right reading; if the _Q.'s_, it
means, '_I hold my duty precious as my soul, whether to my God or my
king_'; if the _F.'s_, it is a little confused by the attempt of
Polonius to make a fine euphuistic speech:--'_I hold my duty as I hold
my soul,--both at the command of my God, one at the command of my
king_.']
[Footnote 3: the spring; the river-head
'The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood'
_Macbeth,_ act ii. sc. 3.]
[Footnote 4: She goes a step farther than the king in accounting for
Hamlet's misery--knows there is more cause of it yet, but hopes he does
not know so much cause for misery as he might know.]
[Footnote 5: Either 'first' stands for _first desire_, or it is a noun,
and the meaning of the phrase is, 'The instant we mentioned the
matter'.]
[Footnote 6: 'borne in hand'--played with, taken advantage of.
'How you were borne in hand, how cross'd,'
_Macbeth,_ act iii. sc. 1.]
[Footnote 7: The nominative pronoun was not _quite_ indispensable to the
verb in Shakspere's time.]
[Page 78]
Receiues rebuke from Norwey: and in fine,
Makes Vow before his Vnkle, neuer more
To giue th'assay of Armes against your Maiestie.
Whereon old Norwey, ouercome with ioy,
Giues him three thousand Crownes in Annuall Fee,
[Sidenote: threescore thousand]
And his Commission to imploy those Soldiers
So leuied as before, against the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke,]
With an intreaty heerein further shewne,
[Sidenote: 190] That it might please you to giue quiet passe
Through your Dominions, for his Enterprize, [Sidenote: for this]
On such regards of safety and allowance,
As therein are set downe.
_King_. It likes vs well:
And at our more consider'd[1] time wee'l read,
Answer, and thinke vpon this Businesse.
Meane time we thanke you, for your well-tooke Labour.
Go to your rest, at night wee'l Feast together.[2]
Most welcome home. _Exit Ambass_.
[Sidenote: Exeunt Embassadors]
_Pol_. This businesse is very well ended.[3] [Sidenote: is well]
My Liege, and Madam, to expostulate[4]
What Maiestie should be, what Dutie is,[5]
Why day is day; night, night; and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste Night, Day and Time.
Therefore, since Breuitie is the Soule of Wit,
[Sidenote: Therefore breuitie]
And tediousnesse, the limbes and outward flourishes,[6]
I will be breefe. Your Noble Sonne is mad:
Mad call I it; for to define true Madnesse,
What is't, but to be nothing else but mad.[7]
But let that go.
_Qu_. More matter, with lesse Art.[8]
_Pol_. Madam, I sweare I vse no Art at all:
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'Tis true 'tis pittie, [Sidenote: hee's mad]
And pittie it is true; A foolish figure,[9]
[Sidenote: pitty tis tis true,]
[Footnote 1: time given up to, or filled with consideration; _or,
perhaps_, time chosen for a purpose.]
[Footnote 2: He is always feasting.]
[Footnote 3: Now for _his_ turn! He sets to work at once with his
rhetoric.]
[Footnote 4: to lay down beforehand as postulates.]
[Footnote 5: We may suppose a dash and pause after '_Dutie is_'. The
meaning is plain enough, though logical form is wanting.]
[Footnote 6: As there is no imagination in Polonius, we cannot look for
great aptitude in figure.]
[Footnote 7: The nature of madness also is a postulate.]
[Footnote 8: She is impatient, but wraps her rebuke in a compliment.
Art, so-called, in speech, was much favoured in the time of Elizabeth.
And as a compliment Polonius takes the form in which she expresses her
dislike of his tediousness, and her anxiety after his news: pretending
to wave it off, he yet, in his gratification, coming on the top of his
excitement with the importance of his fancied discovery, plunges
immediately into a very slough of _art_, and becomes absolutely silly.]
[Footnote 9: It is no figure at all. It is hardly even a play with the
words.]
[Page 80]
But farewell it: for I will vse no Art.
Mad let vs grant him then: and now remaines
That we finde out the cause of this effect,
Or rather say, the cause of this defect;
For this effect defectiue, comes by cause,
Thus it remaines, and the remainder thus. Perpend,
I haue a daughter: haue, whil'st she is mine, [Sidenote: while]
Who in her Dutie and Obedience, marke,
Hath giuen me this: now gather, and surmise.
_The Letter_.[1]
_To the Celestiall, and my Soules Idoll, the most
beautified Ophelia_.
That's an ill Phrase, a vilde Phrase, beautified
is a vilde Phrase: but you shall heare these in her thus in her
excellent white bosome, these.[2] [Sidenote: these, &c]
_Qu_. Came this from _Hamlet_ to her.
_Pol_. Good Madam stay awhile, I will be faithfull.
_Doubt thou, the Starres are fire_, [Sidenote: _Letter_]
_Doubt, that the Sunne doth moue;
Doubt Truth to be a Lier,
But neuer Doubt, I loue.[3]
O deere Ophelia, I am ill at these Numbers: I
haue not Art to reckon my grones; but that I loue
thee best, oh most Best beleeue it. Adieu.
Thine euermore most deere Lady, whilst this
Machine is to him_, Hamlet.
This in Obedience hath my daughter shew'd me:
[Sidenote: _Pol_. This showne]
And more aboue hath his soliciting, [Sidenote: more about solicitings]
As they fell out by Time, by Meanes, and Place,
All giuen to mine eare.
_King_. But how hath she receiu'd his Loue?
_Pol_. What do you thinke of me?
_King_. As of a man, faithfull and Honourable.
_Pol_. I wold faine proue so. But what might you think?
[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 2: _Point thus_: 'but you shall heare. _These, in her
excellent white bosom, these_:'
Ladies, we are informed, wore a small pocket in front of the
bodice;--but to accept the fact as an explanation of this passage, is to
cast the passage away. Hamlet _addresses_ his letter, not to Ophelia's
pocket, but to Ophelia herself, at her house--that is, in the palace of
her bosom, excellent in whiteness. In like manner, signing himself, he
makes mention of his body as a machine of which he has the use for a
time. So earnest is Hamlet that when he makes love, he is the more a
philosopher. But he is more than a philosopher: he is a man of the
Universe, not a man of this world only.
We must not allow the fashion of the time in which the play was written,
to cause doubt as to the genuine heartiness of Hamlet's love-making.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q._
Doubt that in earth is fire,
Doubt that the starres doe moue,
Doubt trueth to be a liar,
But doe not doubt I loue.]
[Page 82]
When I had seene this hot loue on the wing,
As I perceiued it, I must tell you that
Before my Daughter told me, what might you
Or my deere Maiestie your Queene heere, think,
If I had playd the Deske or Table-booke,[1]
Or giuen my heart a winking, mute and dumbe, [Sidenote: working]
Or look'd vpon this Loue, with idle sight,[2]
What might you thinke? No, I went round to worke,
And (my yong Mistris) thus I did bespeake[3]
Lord _Hamlet_ is a Prince out of thy Starre,[4]
This must not be:[5] and then, I Precepts gaue her,
[Sidenote: I prescripts]
That she should locke her selfe from his Resort, [Sidenote: from her]
[Sidenote: 42[6], 43, 70] Admit no Messengers, receiue no Tokens:
Which done, she tooke the Fruites of my Aduice,[7]
And he repulsed. A short Tale to make, [Sidenote: repell'd, a]
Fell into a Sadnesse, then into a Fast,[8]
Thence to a Watch, thence into a Weaknesse, [Sidenote: to a wath,]
Thence to a Lightnesse, and by this declension [Sidenote: to lightnes]
Into the Madnesse whereon now he raues, [Sidenote: wherein]
And all we waile for.[9] [Sidenote: mourne for]
_King_. Do you thinke 'tis this?[10] [Sidenote: thinke this?]
_Qu_. It may be very likely. [Sidenote: like]
_Pol_. Hath there bene such a time, I'de fain know that,
[Sidenote: I would]
That I haue possitiuely said, 'tis so,
When it prou'd otherwise?
_King_. Not that I know.
_Pol_. Take this from this[11]; if this be otherwise,
If Circumstances leade me, I will finde
Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeede
Within the Center.
_King_. How may we try it further?
[Footnote 1: --behaved like a piece of furniture.]
[Footnote 2: The love of talk makes a man use many idle words, foolish
expressions, and useless repetitions.]
[Footnote 3: Notwithstanding the parenthesis, I take 'Mistris' to be the
objective to 'bespeake'--that is, _address_.]
[Footnote 4: _Star_, mark of sort or quality; brand (45). The _1st Q_.
goes on--
An'd one that is vnequall for your loue:
But it may mean, as suggested by my _Reader_, 'outside thy destiny,'--as
ruled by the star of nativity--and I think it does.]
[Footnote 5: Here is a change from the impression conveyed in the first
act: he attributes his interference to his care for what befitted
royalty; whereas, talking to Ophelia (40, 72), he attributes it entirely
to his care for her;--so partly in the speech correspondent to the
present in _1st Q_.:--
Now since which time, seeing his loue thus cross'd,
Which I tooke to be idle, and but sport,
He straitway grew into a melancholy,]
[Footnote 6: See also passage in note from _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 7: She obeyed him. The 'fruits' of his advice were her
conformed actions.]
[Footnote 8: When the appetite goes, and the sleep follows, doubtless
the man is on the steep slope of madness. But as to Hamlet, and how
matters were with him, what Polonius says is worth nothing.]
[Footnote 9: '_wherein_ now he raves, and _wherefor_ all we wail.']
[Footnote 10: _To the queen_.]
[Footnote 11: head from shoulders.]
[Page 84]
_Pol_. You know sometimes
He walkes foure houres together, heere[1]
In the Lobby.
_Qu_. So he ha's indeed. [Sidenote: he dooes indeede]
[Sidenote: 118] _Pol_. At such a time Ile loose my Daughter to him,
Be you and I behinde an Arras then,
Marke the encounter: If he loue her not,
And be not from his reason falne thereon;
Let me be no Assistant for a State,
And keepe a Farme and Carters. [Sidenote: But keepe]
_King_. We will try it.
_Enter Hamlet reading on a Booke._[2]
_Qu_. But looke where sadly the poore wretch
Comes reading.[3]
_Pol_. Away I do beseech you, both away,
He boord[4] him presently. _Exit King & Queen_[5]
Oh giue me leaue.[6] How does my good Lord _Hamlet_?
_Ham_. Well, God-a-mercy.
_Pol_. Do you know me, my Lord?
[Sidenote: 180] _Ham_. Excellent, excellent well: y'are a
Fish-monger.[7] [Sidenote: Excellent well, you are]
_Pol_. Not I my Lord.
_Ham_. Then I would you were so honest a man.
_Pol_. Honest, my Lord?
_Ham_. I sir, to be honest as this world goes, is
to bee one man pick'd out of two thousand.
[Sidenote: tenne thousand[8]]
_Pol_. That's very true, my Lord.
_Ham_.[9] For if the Sun breed Magots in a dead
dogge, being a good kissing Carrion--[10] [Sidenote: carrion. Have]
Haue you a daughter?[11]
_Pol_. I haue my Lord.
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_.
The Princes walke is here in the galery,
There let _Ofelia_, walke vntill hee comes:
Your selfe and I will stand close in the study,]
[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q_.--
_King_. See where hee comes poring vppon a booke.]
[Footnote 4: The same as accost, both meaning originally _go to the side
of_.]
[Footnote 5: _A line back in the Quarto_.]
[Footnote 6: 'Please you to go away.' 89, 203. Here should come the
preceding stage-direction.]
[Footnote 7: Now first the Play shows us Hamlet in his affected madness.
He has a great dislike to the selfish, time-serving courtier, who, like
his mother, has forsaken the memory of his father--and a great distrust
of him as well. The two men are moral antipodes. Each is given to
moralizing--but compare their reflections: those of Polonius reveal a
lover of himself, those of Hamlet a lover of his kind; Polonius is
interested in success; Hamlet in humanity.]
[Footnote 8: So also in _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 9: --reading, or pretending to read, the words from the book
he carries.]
[Footnote 10: When the passion for emendation takes possession of a man,
his opportunities are endless--so many seeming emendations offer
themselves which are in themselves not bad, letters and words affording
as much play as the keys of a piano. 'Being a god kissing carrion,' is
in itself good enough; but Shakspere meant what stands in both Quarto
and Folio: _the dead dog being a carrion good at kissing_. The arbitrary
changes of the editors are amazing.]
[Footnote 11: He cannot help his mind constantly turning upon women; and
if his thoughts of them are often cruelly false, it is not Hamlet but
his mother who is to blame: her conduct has hurled him from the peak of
optimism into the bottomless pool of pessimistic doubt, above the foul
waters of which he keeps struggling to lift his head.]
[Page 86]
_Ham_. Let her not walke i'th'Sunne: Conception[1]
is a blessing, but not as your daughter may [Sidenote: but as your]
conceiue. Friend looke too't.
[Sidenote: 100] _Pol_.[2] How say you by that? Still harping on
my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said [Sidenote: a sayd I]
I was a Fishmonger: he is farre gone, farre gone:
[Sidenote: Fishmonger, a is farre gone, and truly]
and truly in my youth, I suffred much extreamity and truly
for loue: very neere this. Ile speake to him
againe.
What do you read my Lord?
_Ham_. Words, words, words.
_Pol_. What is the matter, my Lord?
_Ham_. Betweene who?[3]
_Pol_. I meane the matter you meane, my
[Sidenote: matter that you reade my]
Lord.
_Ham_. Slanders Sir: for the Satyricall slaue
[Sidenote: satericall rogue sayes]
saies here, that old men haue gray Beards; that
their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thicke
Amber, or Plum-Tree Gumme: and that they haue [Sidenote: Amber, and]
a plentifull locke of Wit, together with weake
[Sidenote: lacke | with most weake]
Hammes. All which Sir, though I most powerfully,
and potently beleeue; yet I holde it not
Honestie[4] to haue it thus set downe: For you
[Sidenote: for your selfe sir shall grow old as I am:]
your selfe Sir, should be old as I am, if like a Crab
you could go backward.
_Pol_.[5] Though this be madnesse,
Yet there is Method in't: will you walke
Out of the ayre[6] my Lord?
_Ham_. Into my Graue?
_Pol_. Indeed that is out o'th'Ayre:
[Sidenote: that's out of the ayre;]
How pregnant (sometimes) his Replies are?
A happinesse,
That often Madnesse hits on,
Which Reason and Sanitie could not [Sidenote: sanctity]
So prosperously be deliuer'd of.
[Footnote 1: One of the meanings of the word, and more in use then than
now, is _understanding_.]
[Footnote 2: (_aside_).]
[Footnote 3: --pretending to take him to mean by _matter_, the _point of
quarrel_.]
[Footnote 4: Propriety.]
[Footnote 5: (_aside_).]
[Footnote 6: the draught.]
[Page 88]
[A] I will leaue him,
And sodainely contriue the meanes of meeting
Betweene him,[1] and my daughter.
My Honourable Lord, I will most humbly
Take my leaue of you.
_Ham_. You cannot Sir take from[2] me any thing,
that I will more willingly part withall, except my
[Sidenote: will not more | my life, except my]
life, my life.[3]
[Sidenote: _Enter Guyldersterne, and Rosencrans_.]
_Polon_. Fare you well my Lord.
_Ham_. These tedious old fooles.
_Polon_. You goe to seeke my Lord _Hamlet_; [Sidenote: the Lord]
there hee is.
_Enter Rosincran and Guildensterne_.[4]
_Rosin_. God saue you Sir.
_Guild_. Mine honour'd Lord?
_Rosin_. My most deare Lord?
_Ham_. My excellent good friends? How do'st [Sidenote: My extent good]
thou _Guildensterne_? Oh, _Rosincrane_; good Lads:
[Sidenote: A Rosencraus]
How doe ye both? [Sidenote: you]
_Rosin_. As the indifferent Children of the earth.
_Guild_. Happy, in that we are not ouer-happy: [Sidenote: euer happy on]
on Fortunes Cap, we are not the very Button. [Sidenote: Fortunes lap,]
_Ham_. Nor the Soales of her Shoo?
_Rosin_. Neither my Lord.
_Ham_. Then you liue about her waste, or in the
middle of her fauour? [Sidenote: fauors.]
_Guil_. Faith, her priuates, we.
_Ham_. In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh,
most true: she is a Strumpet.[5] What's the newes?
[Sidenote: What newes?]
_Rosin_. None my Lord; but that the World's [Sidenote: but the]
growne honest.
_Ham_. Then is Doomesday neere: But your
[Footnote A: _In the Quarto, the speech ends thus_:--I will leaue him
and my daughter.[6] My Lord, I will take my leaue of you.]
[Footnote 1: From 'And sodainely' _to_ 'betweene him,' _not in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 2: It is well here to recall the modes of the word _leave_:
'_Give me leave_,' Polonius says with proper politeness to the king and
queen when he wants _them_ to go--that is, 'Grant me your _departure_';
but he would, going himself, _take_ his leave, his departure, _of_ or
_from_ them--by their permission to go. Hamlet means, 'You cannot take
from me anything I will more willingly part with than your leave, or, my
permission to you to go.' 85, 203. See the play on the two meanings of
the word in _Twelfth Night_, act ii. sc. 4:
_Duke_. Give me now leave to leave thee;
though I suspect it ought to be--
_Duke_. Give me now leave.
_Clown_. To leave thee!--Now, the melancholy &c.]
[Footnote 3: It is a relief to him to speak the truth under the cloak of
madness--ravingly. He has no one to whom to open his heart: what lies
there he feels too terrible for even the eye of Horatio. He has not
apparently told him as yet more than the tale of his father's murder.]
[Footnote 4: _Above, in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 5: In this and all like utterances of Hamlet, we see what worm
it is that lies gnawing at his heart.]
[Footnote 6: This is a slip in the _Quarto_--rectified in the _Folio_:
his daughter was not present.]
[Page 90]
newes is not true.[1] [2] Let me question more in particular:
what haue you my good friends, deserued
at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to
Prison hither?
_Guil_. Prison, my Lord?
_Ham_. Denmark's a Prison.
_Rosin_. Then is the World one.
_Ham_. A goodly one, in which there are many
Confines, Wards, and Dungeons; _Denmarke_ being
one o'th'worst.
_Rosin_. We thinke not so my Lord.
_Ham_. Why then 'tis none to you; for there is
nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
so[3]: to me it is a prison.
_Rosin_. Why then your Ambition makes it one:
'tis too narrow for your minde.[4]
_Ham_. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell,
and count my selfe a King of infinite space; were
it not that I haue bad dreames.
_Guil_. Which dreames indeed are Ambition:
for the very substance[5] of the Ambitious, is meerely
the shadow of a Dreame.
_Ham_. A dreame it selfe is but a shadow.
_Rosin_. Truely, and I hold Ambition of so ayry
and light a quality, that it is but a shadowes shadow.
_Ham_. Then are our Beggers bodies; and our
Monarchs and out-stretcht Heroes the Beggers
Shadowes: shall wee to th'Court: for, by my fey[6]
I cannot reason?[7]
_Both_. Wee'l wait vpon you.
_Ham_. No such matter.[8] I will not sort you
with the rest of my seruants: for to speake to you
like an honest man: I am most dreadfully attended;[9]
but in the beaten way of friendship,[10] [Sidenote: But in]
What make you at _Elsonower_?
[Footnote 1: 'it is not true that the world is grown honest': he doubts
themselves. His eye is sharper because his heart is sorer since he left
Wittenberg. He proceeds to examine them.]
[Footnote 2: This passage, beginning with 'Let me question,' and ending
with 'dreadfully attended,' is not in the _Quarto_.
Who inserted in the Folio this and other passages? Was it or was it not
Shakspere? Beyond a doubt they are Shakspere's all. Then who omitted
those omitted? Was Shakspere incapable of refusing any of his own work?
Or would these editors, who profess to have all opportunity, and who,
belonging to the theatre, must have had the best of opportunities, have
desired or dared to omit what far more painstaking editors have since
presumed, though out of reverence, to restore?]
[Footnote 3: 'but it is thinking that makes it so:']
[Footnote 4: --feeling after the cause of Hamlet's strangeness, and
following the readiest suggestion, that of chagrin at missing the
succession.]
[Footnote 5: objects and aims.]
[Footnote 6: _foi_.]
[Footnote 7: Does he choose beggars as the representatives of substance
because they lack ambition--that being shadow? Or does he take them as
the shadows of humanity, that, following Rosincrance, he may get their
shadows, the shadows therefore of shadows, to parallel _monarchs_ and
_heroes_? But he is not satisfied with his own analogue--therefore will
to the court, where good logic is not wanted--where indeed he knows a
hellish lack of reason.]
[Footnote 8: 'On no account.']
[Footnote 9: 'I have very bad servants.' Perhaps he judges his servants
spies upon him. Or might he mean that he was _haunted with bad
thoughts_? Or again, is it a stroke of his pretence of
madness--suggesting imaginary followers?]
[Footnote: 10: 'to speak plainly, as old friends.']
[Page 92]
_Rosin_. To visit you my Lord, no other occasion.
_Ham_. Begger that I am, I am euen poore in [Sidenote: am ever poore]
thankes; but I thanke you: and sure deare friends
my thanks are too deare a halfepeny[1]; were you
[Sidenote: 72] not sent for? Is it your owne inclining? Is it a
free visitation?[2] Come, deale iustly with me:
come, come; nay speake. [Sidenote: come, come,]
_Guil_. What should we say my Lord?[3]
_Ham_. Why any thing. But to the purpose;
[Sidenote: Any thing but to'th purpose:]
you were sent for; and there is a kinde confession
[Sidenote: kind of confession]
in your lookes; which your modesties haue not
craft enough to color, I know the good King and
[Sidenote: 72] Queene haue sent for you.
_Rosin_. To what end my Lord?
_Ham_. That you must teach me: but let mee
coniure[4] you by the rights of our fellowship, by
the consonancy of our youth,[5] by the Obligation
of our euer-preserued loue, and by what more
deare, a better proposer could charge you withall; [Sidenote: can]
be euen and direct with me, whether you were sent
for or no.
_Rosin_. What say you?[6]
_Ham_. Nay then I haue an eye of you[7]: if you
loue me hold not off.[8]
[Sidenote: 72] _Guil_. My Lord, we were sent for.
_Ham_. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
preuent your discouery of your secricie to [Sidenote: discovery, and
your secrecie to the King and Queene moult no feather,[10]]
the King and Queene[9] moult no feather, I haue
[Sidenote: 116] of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my
mirth, forgone all custome of exercise; and indeed,
[Sidenote: exercises;]
it goes so heauenly with my disposition; that this [Sidenote: heauily]
goodly frame the Earth, seemes to me a sterrill
Promontory; this most excellent Canopy the Ayre,
look you, this braue ore-hanging, this Maiesticall
[Sidenote: orehanging firmament,]
Roofe, fretted with golden fire: why, it appeares no
[Sidenote: appeareth]
[Footnote 1: --because they were by no means hearty thanks.]
[Footnote 2: He wants to know whether they are in his uncle's employment
and favour; whether they pay court to himself for his uncle's ends.]
[Footnote 3: He has no answer ready.]
[Footnote 4: He will not cast them from him without trying a direct
appeal to their old friendship for plain dealing. This must be
remembered in relation to his treatment of them afterwards. He affords
them every chance of acting truly--conjuring them to honesty--giving
them a push towards repentance.]
[Footnote 5: Either, 'the harmony of our young days,' or, 'the
sympathies of our present youth.']
[Footnote 6: --_to Guildenstern_.]
[Footnote 7: (_aside_) 'I will keep an eye upon you;'.]
[Footnote 8: 'do not hold back.']
[Footnote 9: The _Quarto_ seems here to have the right reading.]
[Footnote 10: 'your promise of secrecy remain intact;'.]
[Page 94]
other thing to mee, then a foule and pestilent congregation
[Sidenote: nothing to me but a]
of vapours. What a piece of worke is [Sidenote: what peece]
a man! how Noble in Reason? how infinite in
faculty? in forme and mouing how expresse and [Sidenote: faculties,]
admirable? in Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension,
how like a God? the beauty of the
world, the Parragon of Animals; and yet to me,
what is this Quintessence of Dust? Man delights
not me;[1] no, nor Woman neither; though by your
[Sidenote: not me, nor women]
smiling you seeme to say so.[2]
_Rosin._ My Lord, there was no such stuffe in
my thoughts.
_Ham._ Why did you laugh, when I said, Man
[Sidenote: yee laugh then, when]
delights not me?
_Rosin._ To thinke, my Lord, if you delight not
in Man, what Lenton entertainment the Players
shall receiue from you:[3] wee coated them[4] on the
way, and hither are they comming to offer you
Seruice.
_Ham._[5] He that playes the King shall be welcome;
his Maiesty shall haue Tribute of mee: [Sidenote: on me,]
the aduenturous Knight shal vse his Foyle and
Target: the Louer shall not sigh _gratis_, the
humorous man[6] shall end his part in peace: [7] the
Clowne shall make those laugh whose lungs are
tickled a'th' sere:[8] and the Lady shall say her
minde freely; or the blanke Verse shall halt for't[9]:
[Sidenote: black verse]
what Players are they?
_Rosin._ Euen those you Were wont to take
[Sidenote: take such delight]
delight in the Tragedians of the City.
_Ham._ How chances it they trauaile? their residence
both in reputation and profit was better both
wayes.
_Rosin._ I thinke their Inhibition comes by the
meanes of the late Innouation?[10]
[Footnote 1: A genuine description, so far as it goes, of the state of
Hamlet's mind. But he does not reveal the operating cause--his loss of
faith in women, which has taken the whole poetic element out of heaven,
earth, and humanity: he would have his uncle's spies attribute his
condition to mere melancholy.]
[Footnote 2: --said angrily, I think.]
[Footnote 3: --a ready-witted subterfuge.]
[Footnote 4: came alongside of them; got up with them; apparently rather
from Fr. _côté_ than _coter_; like _accost_. Compare 71. But I suspect
it only means _noted_, _observed_, and is from _coter_.]
[Footnote 5: --_with humorous imitation, perhaps, of each of the
characters_.]
[Footnote 6: --the man with a whim.]
[Footnote 7: This part of the speech--from [7] to [8], is not in the
_Quarto_.]
[Footnote 8: Halliwell gives a quotation in which the touch-hole of a
pistol is called the _sere_: the _sere_, then, of the lungs would mean
the opening of the lungs--the part with which we laugh: those 'whose
lungs are tickled a' th' sere,' are such as are ready to laugh on the
least provocation: _tickled_--_irritable, ticklish_--ready to laugh, as
another might be to cough. 'Tickled o' the sere' was a common phrase,
signifying, thus, _propense_.
_1st Q._ The clowne shall make them laugh
That are tickled in the lungs,]
[Footnote 9: Does this refer to the pause that expresses the
unutterable? or to the ruin of the measure of the verse by an
incompetent heroine?]
[Footnote 10: Does this mean, 'I think their prohibition comes through
the late innovation,'--of the children's acting; or, 'I think they are
prevented from staying at home by the late new measures,'--such, namely,
as came of the puritan opposition to stage-plays? This had grown so
strong, that, in 1600, the Privy Council issued an order restricting the
number of theatres in London to two: by such an _innovation_ a number of
players might well be driven to the country.]
[Page 96]
_Ham_. Doe they hold the same estimation they
did when I was in the City? Are they so follow'd?
_Rosin_. No indeed, they are not. [Sidenote: are they not.]
[1]_Ham_. How comes it? doe they grow rusty?
_Rosin_. Nay, their indeauour keepes in the
wonted pace; But there is Sir an ayrie of Children,[2]
little Yases,[3] that crye out[4] on the top of question;[5]
and are most tyrannically clap't for't: these are
now the fashion, and so be-ratled the common
Stages[6] (so they call them) that many wearing
Rapiers,[7] are affraide of Goose-quils, and dare
scarse come thither.[8]
_Ham_. What are they Children? Who maintains
'em? How are they escoted?[9] Will they pursue
the Quality[10] no longer then they can sing?[11] Will
they not say afterwards if they should grow themselues
to common Players (as it is like most[12] if
their meanes are no better) their Writers[13] do them
wrong, to make them exclaim against their owne
Succession.[14]
_Rosin_. Faith there ha's bene much to do on
both sides: and the Nation holds it no sinne, to
tarre them[15] to Controuersie. There was for a
while, no mony bid for argument, vnlesse the Poet
and the Player went to Cuffes in the Question.[16]
_Ham_. Is't possible?
_Guild_. Oh there ha's beene much throwing
about of Braines.
_Ham_. Do the Boyes carry it away?[17]
_Rosin_. I that they do my Lord, _Hercules_ and
his load too.[18]
_Ham_. It is not strange: for mine Vnckle is
[Sidenote: not very strange, | my]
King of Denmarke, and those that would make
mowes at him while my Father liued; giue twenty,
[Sidenote: make mouths]
[Footnote 1: The whole of the following passage, beginning with 'How
comes it,' and ending with 'Hercules and his load too,' belongs to the
_Folio_ alone--is not in the _Quarto_.
In the _1st Quarto_ we find the germ of the passage--unrepresented in
the _2nd_, developed in the _Folio_.
_Ham_. Players, what Players be they?
_Ross_. My Lord, the Tragedians of the Citty,
Those that you tooke delight to see so often.
_Ham_. How comes it that they trauell? Do
they grow restie?
_Gil_. No my Lord, their reputation holds as it was wont.
_Ham_. How then?
_Gil_. Yfaith my Lord, noueltie carries it away,
For the principall publike audience that
Came to them, are turned to priuate playes,[19]
And to the humour[20] of children.
_Ham_. I doe not greatly wonder of it,
For those that would make mops and moes
At my vncle, when my father liued, &c.]
[Footnote 2: _a nest of children_. The acting of the children of two or
three of the chief choirs had become the rage.]
[Footnote 3: _Eyases_--unfledged hawks.]
[Footnote 4: Children _cry out_ rather than _speak_ on the stage.]
[Footnote 5: 'cry out beyond dispute'--_unquestionably_; 'cry out and no
mistake.' 'He does not top his part.' _The Rehearsal_, iii. 1.--'_He is
not up to it_.' But perhaps here is intended _above reason_: 'they cry
out excessively, excruciatingly.' 103.
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,--_A Lover's Complaint_.]
[Footnote 6: I presume it should be the present tense, _beratle_--except
the _are_ of the preceding member be understood: 'and so beratled _are_
the common stages.' If the _present_, then the children 'so abuse the
grown players,'--in the pieces they acted, particularly in the new
_arguments_, written for them--whence the reference to _goose-quills_.]
[Footnote 7: --of the play-going public.]
[Footnote 8: --for dread of sharing in the ridicule.]
[Footnote 9: _paid_--from the French _escot_, a shot or reckoning: _Dr.
Johnson_.]
[Footnote 10: --the quality of players; the profession of the stage.]
[Footnote 11: 'Will they cease playing when their voices change?']
[Footnote 12: Either _will_ should follow here, or _like_ and _most_
must change places.]
[Footnote 13: 'those that write for them'.]
[Footnote 14: --what they had had to come to themselves.]
[Footnote 15: 'to incite the children and the grown players to
controversy': _to tarre them on like dogs_: see _King John_, iv. 1.]
[Footnote 16: 'No stage-manager would buy a new argument, or prologue,
to a play, unless the dramatist and one of the actors were therein
represented as falling out on the question of the relative claims of the
children and adult actors.']
[Footnote 17: 'Have the boys the best of it?']
[Footnote 18: 'That they have, out and away.' Steevens suggests that
allusion is here made to the sign of the Globe Theatre--Hercules bearing
the world for Atlas.]
[Footnote 19: amateur-plays.]
[Footnote 20: whimsical fashion.]
[Page 98]
forty, an hundred Ducates a peece, for his picture[1]
[Sidenote: fortie, fifty, a hundred]
in Little.[2] There is something in this more then
[Sidenote: little, s'bloud there is]
Naturall, if Philosophic could finde it out.
_Flourish for tke Players_.[3] [Sidenote: _A Florish_.]
_Guil_. There are the Players.
_Ham_. Gentlemen, you are welcom to _Elsonower_:
your hands, come: The appurtenance of [Sidenote: come then, th']
Welcome, is Fashion and Ceremony. Let me
[Sidenote: 260] comply with you in the Garbe,[4] lest my extent[5] to
[Sidenote: in this garb: let me extent]
the Players (which I tell you must shew fairely
outward) should more appeare like entertainment[6]
[Sidenote: outwards,]
then yours.[7] You are welcome: but my Vnckle
Father, and Aunt Mother are deceiu'd.
_Guil_. In what my deere Lord?
_Ham_. I am but mad North, North-West: when
the Winde is Southerly, I know a Hawke from a
Handsaw.[8]
_Enter Polonius_.
_Pol_. Well[9] be with you Gentlemen.
_Ham_. Hearke you _Guildensterne_, and you too:
at each eare a hearer: that great Baby you see
there, is not yet out of his swathing clouts.
[Sidenote: swadling clouts.]
_Rosin_. Happily he's the second time come to [Sidenote: he is]
them: for they say, an old man is twice a childe.
_Ham_. I will Prophesie. Hee comes to tell me
of the Players. Mark it, you say right Sir: for a
[Sidenote: sir, a Monday]
Monday morning 'twas so indeed.[10] [Sidenote: t'was then indeede.]
_Pol_. My Lord, I haue Newes to tell you.
_Ham_. My Lord, I haue Newes to tell you.
When _Rossius_ an Actor in Rome----[11] [Sidenote: _Rossius_ was an]
_Pol_. The Actors are come hither my Lord.
_Ham_. Buzze, buzze.[12]
_Pol_. Vpon mine Honor.[13] [Sidenote: my]
_Ham_. Then can each Actor on his Asse---- [Sidenote: came each]
[Footnote 1: If there be any logical link here, except that, after the
instance adduced, no change in social fashion--nothing at all indeed, is
to be wondered at, I fail to see it. Perhaps the speech is intended to
belong to the simulation. The last sentence of it appears meant to
convey the impression that he suspects nothing--is only bewildered by
the course of things.]
[Footnote 2: his miniature.]
[Footnote 3: --to indicate their approach.]
[Footnote 4: _com'ply_--accent on first syllable--'pass compliments with
you' (260)--_in the garb_, either 'in appearance,' or 'in the fashion of
the hour.']
[Footnote 5: 'the amount of courteous reception I extend'--'my advances
to the players.']
[Footnote 6: reception, welcome.]
[Footnote 7: He seems to desire that they shall no more be on the
footing of fellow-students, and thus to rid himself of the old relation.
Perhaps he hints that they are players too. From any further show of
friendliness he takes refuge in convention--and professed
convention--supplying a reason in order to escape a dangerous
interpretation of his sudden formality--'lest you should suppose me more
cordial to the players than to you.' The speech is full of inwoven
irony, doubtful, and refusing to be ravelled out. With what merely
half-shown, yet scathing satire it should be spoken and accompanied!]
[Footnote 8: A proverb of the time comically corrupted--_handsaw for
hernshaw_--a heron, the quarry of the hawk. He denies his madness as
madmen do--and in terms themselves not unbefitting madness--so making it
seem the more genuine. Yet every now and then, urged by the commotion of
his being, he treads perilously on the border of self-betrayal.]
[Footnote 9: used as a noun.]
[Footnote 10: _Point thus_: 'Mark it.--You say right, sir; &c.' He takes
up a speech that means nothing, and might mean anything, to turn aside
the suspicion their whispering might suggest to Polonius that they had
been talking about him--so better to lay his trap for him.]
[Footnote 11: He mentions the _actor_ to lead Polonius so that his
prophecy of him shall come true.]
[Footnote 12: An interjection of mockery: he had made a fool of him.]
[Footnote 13: Polonius thinks he is refusing to believe him.]
[Page 100]
_Polon_. The best Actors in the world, either for
Tragedie, Comedie, Historic, Pastorall: Pastoricall-
Comicall-Historicall-Pastorall: [1] Tragicall-Historicall:
Tragicall-Comicall--Historicall-Pastorall[1]:
Scene indiuible,[2] or Poem vnlimited.[3] _Seneca_ cannot
[Sidenote: scene indeuidible,[2]]
be too heauy, nor _Plautus_ too light, for the law of
Writ, and the Liberty. These are the onely men.[4]
_Ham_. O _Iephta_ Iudge of Israel, what a Treasure
had'st thou?
_Pol_. What a Treasure had he, my Lord?[5]
_Ham_. Why one faire Daughter, and no more,[6]
The which he loued passing well.[6]
[Sidenote: 86] _Pol_. Still on my Daughter.
_Ham_. Am I not i'th'right old _Iephta_?
_Polon_. If you call me _Iephta_ my Lord, I haue
a daughter that I loue passing well.
_Ham_. Nay that followes not.[7]
_Polon_. What followes then, my Lord?
_Ham_. Why, As by lot, God wot:[6] and then you
know, It came to passe, as most like it was:[6] The
first rowe of the _Pons[8] Chanson_ will shew you more,
[Sidenote: pious chanson]
For looke where my Abridgements[9] come.
[Sidenote: abridgment[9] comes]
_Enter foure or fiue Players._
[Sidenote: _Enter the Players._]
Y'are welcome Masters, welcome all. I am glad [Sidenote: You are]
to see thee well: Welcome good Friends. O my
[Sidenote: oh old friend, why thy face is valanct[10]]
olde Friend? Thy face is valiant[10] since I saw thee
last: Com'st thou to beard me in Denmarke?
What, my yong Lady and Mistris?[11] Byrlady [Sidenote: by lady]
your Ladiship is neerer Heauen then when I saw [Sidenote: nerer to]
you last, by the altitude of a Choppine.[12] Pray
God your voice like a peece of vncurrant Gold be
not crack'd within the ring.[13] Masters, you are all
welcome: wee'l e'ne to't like French Faulconers,[14]
[Sidenote: like friendly Fankner]
flie at any thing we see: wee'l haue a Speech
[Footnote 1: From [1] to [1] is not in the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 2: Does this phrase mean _all in one scene_?]
[Footnote 3: A poem to be recited only--one not _limited_, or _divided_
into speeches.]
[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'too light. For the law of Writ, and the
Liberty, these are the onely men':--_either for written plays_, that is,
_or for those in which the players extemporized their speeches_.
_1st Q_. 'For the law hath writ those are the onely men.']
[Footnote 5: Polonius would lead him on to talk of his daughter.]
[Footnote 6: These are lines of the first stanza of an old ballad still
in existence. Does Hamlet suggest that as Jephthah so Polonius had
sacrificed his daughter? Or is he only desirous of making him talk about
her?]
[Footnote 7: 'That is not as the ballad goes.']
[Footnote 8: That this is a corruption of the _pious_ in the _Quarto_,
is made clearer from the _1st Quarto_: 'the first verse of the godly
Ballet wil tel you all.']
[Footnote 9: _abridgment_--that which _abridges_, or cuts short. His
'Abridgements' were the Players.]
[Footnote 10: _1st Q_. 'Vallanced'--_with a beard_, that is. Both
readings may be correct.]
[Footnote 11: A boy of course: no women had yet appeared on the stage.]
[Footnote 12: A Venetian boot, stilted, sometimes very high.]
[Footnote 13: --because then it would be unfit for a woman-part. A piece
of gold so worn that it had a crack reaching within the inner circle was
no longer current. _1st Q_. 'in the ring:'--was a pun intended?]
[Footnote 14: --like French sportsmen of the present day too.]
[Page 102]
straight. Come giue vs a tast of your quality:
come, a passionate speech.
_1. Play._ What speech, my Lord? [Sidenote: my good Lord?]
_Ham._ I heard thee speak me a speech once, but
it was neuer Acted: or if it was, not aboue once,
for the Play I remember pleas'd not the Million,
'twas _Cauiarie_ to the Generall[1]: but it was (as I
receiu'd it, and others, whose iudgement in such
matters, cried in the top of mine)[2] an excellent
Play; well digested in the Scoenes, set downe with
as much modestie, as cunning.[3] I remember one
said there was no Sallets[4] in the lines, to make the [Sidenote: were]
matter sauoury; nor no matter in the phrase,[5] that
might indite the Author of affectation, but cal'd it
[Sidenote: affection,]
an honest method[A]. One cheefe Speech in it, I
[Sidenote: one speech in't I]
cheefely lou'd, 'twas _Æneas_ Tale to _Dido_, and
[Sidenote: _Aeneas_ talke to]
thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of [Sidenote: when]
_Priams_[6] slaughter. If it liue in your memory,
begin at this Line, let me see, let me see: The
rugged _Pyrrhus_ like th'_Hyrcanian_ Beast.[7] It is
[Sidenote: tis not]
not so: it begins[8] with _Pyrrhus_.[9]
[10] The rugged _Pyrrhus_, he whose Sable Armes[11]
Blacke as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the Ominous[12] Horse,
Hath now this dread and blacke Complexion smear'd
With Heraldry more dismall: Head to foote
Now is he to take Geulles,[13] horridly Trick'd
[Sidenote: is he totall Gules [18]]
With blood of Fathers, Mothers, Daughters, Sonnes,
[14] Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous, and damned light [Sidenote: and a damned]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:_--
as wholesome as sweete, and by very much, more handsome then
fine:]
[Footnote 1: The salted roe of the sturgeon is a delicacy disliked by
most people.]
[Footnote 2: 'were superior to mine.'
The _1st Quarto_ has,
'Cried in the toppe of their iudgements, an excellent play,'--that is,
_pronounced it, to the best of their judgments, an excellent play_.
Note the difference between 'the top of _my_ judgment', and 'the top of
_their_ judgments'. 97.]
[Footnote 3: skill.]
[Footnote 4: coarse jests. 25, 67.]
[Footnote 5: _style_.]
[Footnote 6: _1st Q_. 'Princes slaughter.']
[Footnote 7: _1st Q_. 'th'arganian beast:' 'the Hyrcan tiger,' Macbeth,
iii. 4.]
[Footnote 8: 'it _begins_': emphasis on begins.]
[Footnote 9: A pause; then having recollected, he starts afresh.]
[Footnote 10: These passages are Shakspere's own, not quotations: the
Quartos differ. But when he wrote them he had in his mind a phantom of
Marlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_. I find Steevens has made a similar
conjecture, and quotes from Marlowe two of the passages I had marked as
being like passages here.]
[Footnote 11: The poetry is admirable in its kind--intentionally
_charged_, to raise it to the second stage-level, above the blank verse,
that is, of the drama in which it is set, as that blank verse is raised
above the ordinary level of speech. 143.
The correspondent passage in _1st Q_. runs nearly parallel for a few
lines.]
[Footnote 12:--like _portentous_.]
[Footnote 13: 'all red', _1st Q_. 'totall guise.']
[Footnote 14: Here the _1st Quarto_ has:--
Back't and imparched in calagulate gore,
Rifted in earth and fire, olde grandsire _Pryam_ seekes:
So goe on.]
[Page 104]
To their vilde Murthers, roasted in wrath and fire,
[Sidenote: their Lords murther,]
And thus o're-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like Carbuncles, the hellish _Pyrrhus_
Old Grandsire _Priam_ seekes.[1]
[Sidenote: seekes; so proceede you.[2]]
_Pol_. Fore God, my Lord, well spoken, with
good accent, and good discretion.[3]
_1. Player_. Anon he findes him, [Sidenote: _Play_]
Striking too short at Greekes.[4] His anticke Sword,
Rebellious to his Arme, lyes where it falles
Repugnant to command[4]: vnequall match, [Sidenote: matcht,]
_Pyrrhus_ at _Priam_ driues, in Rage strikes wide:
But with the whiffe and winde of his fell Sword,
Th'vnnerued Father fals.[5] Then senselesse Illium,[6]
Seeming to feele his blow, with flaming top
[Sidenote: seele[7] this blowe,]
Stoopes to his Bace, and with a hideous crash
Takes Prisoner _Pyrrhus_ eare. For loe, his Sword
Which was declining on the Milkie head
Of Reuerend _Priam_, seem'd i'th'Ayre to sticke:
So as a painted Tyrant _Pyrrhus_ stood,[8] [Sidenote: stood Like]
And like a Newtrall to his will and matter,[9] did nothing.[10]
[11] But as we often see against some storme,
A silence in the Heauens, the Racke stand still,
The bold windes speechlesse, and the Orbe below
As hush as death: Anon the dreadfull Thunder
[Sidenote: 110] Doth rend the Region.[11] So after _Pyrrhus_ pause,
Arowsed Vengeance sets him new a-worke,
And neuer did the Cyclops hammers fall
On Mars his Armours, forg'd for proofe Eterne,
[Sidenote: _Marses_ Armor]
With lesse remorse then _Pyrrhus_ bleeding sword
Now falles on _Priam_.
[12] Out, out, thou Strumpet-Fortune, all you Gods,
In generall Synod take away her power:
Breake all the Spokes and Fallies from her wheele, [Sidenote: follies]
[Footnote 1: This, though horrid enough, is in degree below the
description in _Dido_.]
[Footnote 2: He is directing the player to take up the speech there
where he leaves it. See last quotation from _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 3: _judgment_.]
[Footnote 4: --with an old man's under-reaching blows--till his arm is
so jarred by a missed blow, that he cannot raise his sword again.]
[Footnote 5:
Whereat he lifted up his bedrid limbs,
And would have grappled with Achilles' son,
* * * * *
Which he, disdaining, whisk'd his sword about,
And with the wound[13] thereof the king fell down.
Marlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_.]
[Footnote 6: The _Quarto_ has omitted '_Then senselesse Illium_,' or
something else.]
[Footnote 7: Printed with the long f[symbol for archaic long s].]
[Footnote 8: --motionless as a tyrant in a picture.]
[Footnote 9: 'standing between his will and its object as if he had no
relation to either.']
[Footnote 10:
And then in triumph ran into the streets,
Through which he could not pass for slaughtered men;
So, leaning on his sword, he stood stone still,
Viewing the fire wherewith rich Ilion burnt.
Marlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_.]
[Footnote 11: Who does not feel this passage, down to 'Region,'
thoroughly Shaksperean!]
[Footnote 12: Is not the rest of this speech very plainly Shakspere's?]
[Footnote 13: _wind_, I think it should be.]
[Page 106]
And boule the round Naue downe the hill of Heauen,
As low as to the Fiends.
_Pol_. This is too long.
_Ham_. It shall to'th Barbars, with your beard. [Sidenote: to the]
Prythee say on: He's for a Iigge, or a tale of
Baudry, or hee sleepes. Say on; come to _Hecuba_.
_1. Play_. But who, O who, had seen the inobled[1] Queen.
[Sidenote: But who, a woe, had | mobled[1]]
_Ham_. The inobled[1] Queene? [Sidenote: mobled]
_Pol_. That's good: Inobled[1] Queene is good.[2]
_1. Play_. Run bare-foot vp and downe,
Threatning the flame [Sidenote: flames]
With Bisson Rheume:[3] A clout about that head, [Sidenote: clout vppon]
Where late the Diadem stood, and for a Robe
About her lanke and all ore-teamed Loines,[4]
A blanket in th'Alarum of feare caught vp. [Sidenote: the alarme]
Who this had seene, with tongue in Venome steep'd,
'Gainst Fortunes State, would Treason haue pronounc'd?[5]
But if the Gods themselues did see her then,
When she saw _Pyrrhus_ make malicious sport
In mincing with his Sword her Husbands limbes,[6] [Sidenote: husband]
The instant Burst of Clamour that she made
(Vnlesse things mortall moue them not at all)
Would haue made milche[7] the Burning eyes of Heauen,
And passion in the Gods.[8]
_Pol_. Looke where[9] he ha's not turn'd his colour,
and ha's teares in's eyes. Pray you no more. [Sidenote: prethee]
_Ham_. 'Tis well, He haue thee speake out the
rest, soone. Good my Lord, will you see the [Sidenote: rest of this]
Players wel bestow'd. Do ye heare, let them be [Sidenote: you]
well vs'd: for they are the Abstracts and breefe [Sidenote: abstract]
Chronicles of the time. After your death, you
[Footnote 1: '_mobled_'--also in _1st Q_.--may be the word: _muffled_
seems a corruption of it: compare _mob-cap_, and
'The moon does mobble up herself'
--_Shirley_, quoted by _Farmer_;
but I incline to '_inobled_,' thrice in the _Folio_--once with a
capital: I take it to stand for _'ignobled,' degraded_.]
[Footnote 2: 'Inobled Queene is good.' _Not in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 3: --threatening to put the flames out with blind tears:
'_bisen,' blind_--Ang. Sax.]
[Footnote 4: --she had had so many children.]
[Footnote 5: There should of course be no point of interrogation here.]
[Footnote 6:
This butcher, whilst his hands were yet held up,
Treading upon his breast, struck off his hands.
Marlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_.]
[Footnote 7: '_milche_'--capable of giving milk: here _capable of
tears_, which the burning eyes of the gods were not before.]
[Footnote 8: 'And would have made passion in the Gods.']
[Footnote 9: 'whether'.]
[Page 108]
were better haue a bad Epitaph, then their ill
report while you liued.[1] [Sidenote: live]
_Pol_. My Lord, I will vse them according to
their desart.
_Ham_. Gods bodykins man, better. Vse euerie
[Sidenote: bodkin man, much better,]
man after his desart, and who should scape whipping:
[Sidenote: shall]
vse them after your own Honor and Dignity.
The lesse they deserue, the more merit is in
your bountie. Take them in.
_Pol_. Come sirs. _Exit Polon_.[2]
_Ham_. Follow him Friends: wee'l heare a play
to morrow.[3] Dost thou heare me old Friend, can
you play the murther of _Gonzago_?
_Play_. I my Lord.
_Ham_. Wee'l ha't to morrow night. You could
for a need[4] study[5] a speech of some dosen or sixteene
[Sidenote: for neede | dosen lines, or]
lines, which I would set downe, and insert
in't? Could ye not?[6] [Sidenote: you]
_Play_. I my Lord.
_Ham_. Very well. Follow that Lord, and looke
you mock him not.[7] My good Friends, Ile leaue
you til night you are welcome to _Elsonower_?
[Sidenote: _Exeuent Pol. and Players_.]
_Rosin_. Good my Lord. _Exeunt_.
_Manet Hamlet_.[8]
_Ham_. I so, God buy'ye[9]: Now I am alone. [Sidenote: buy to you,[9]]
Oh what a Rogue and Pesant slaue am I?[10]
Is it not monstrous that this Player heere,[11]
But in a Fixion, in a dreame of Passion,
Could force his soule so to his whole conceit,[12]
[Sidenote: his own conceit]
That from her working, all his visage warm'd;
[Sidenote: all the visage wand,]
Teares in his eyes, distraction in's Aspect, [Sidenote: in his]
A broken voyce, and his whole Function suiting [Sidenote: an his]
With Formes, to his Conceit?[13] And all for nothing?
[Footnote 1: Why do the editors choose the present tense of the
_Quarto_? Hamlet does not mean, 'It is worse to have the ill report of
the Players while you live, than a bad epitaph after your death.' The
order of the sentence has provided against that meaning. What he means
is, that their ill report in life will be more against your reputation
after death than a bad epitaph.]
[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 3: He detains their leader.]
[Footnote 4: 'for a special reason'.]
[Footnote 5: _Study_ is still the Player's word for _commit to memory_.]
[Footnote 6: Note Hamlet's quick resolve, made clearer towards the end
of the following soliloquy.]
[Footnote 7: Polonius is waiting at the door: this is intended for his
hearing.]
[Footnote 8: _Not in Q_.]
[Footnote 9: Note the varying forms of _God be with you_.]
[Footnote 10: _1st Q_.
Why what a dunghill idiote slaue am I?
Why these Players here draw water from eyes:
For Hecuba, why what is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?]
[Footnote 11: Everything rings on the one hard, fixed idea that
possesses him; but this one idea has many sides. Of late he has been
thinking more upon the woman-side of it; but the Player with his speech
has brought his father to his memory, and he feels he has been
forgetting him: the rage of the actor recalls his own 'cue for passion.'
Always more ready to blame than justify himself, he feels as if he ought
to have done more, and so falls to abusing himself.]
[Footnote 12: _imagination_.]
[Footnote 13: 'his whole operative nature providing fit forms for the
embodiment of his imagined idea'--of which forms he has already
mentioned his _warmed visage_, his _tears_, his _distracted look_, his
_broken voice_.
In this passage we have the true idea of the operation of the genuine
_acting faculty_. Actor as well as dramatist, the Poet gives us here his
own notion of his second calling.]
[Page 110]
For _Hecuba_?
What's _Hecuba_ to him, or he to _Hecuba_,[1]
[Sidenote: or he to her,]
That he should weepe for her? What would he doe,
Had he the Motiue and the Cue[2] for passion
[Sidenote: , and that for]
That I haue? He would drowne the Stage with teares,
And cleaue the generall eare with horrid speech:
Make mad the guilty, and apale[3] the free,[4]
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed,
The very faculty of Eyes and Eares. Yet I, [Sidenote: faculties]
A dull and muddy-metled[5] Rascall, peake
Like Iohn a-dreames, vnpregnant of my cause,[6]
And can say nothing: No, not for a King,
Vpon whose property,[7] and most deere life,
A damn'd defeate[8] was made. Am I a Coward?[9]
Who calles me Villaine? breakes my pate a-crosse?
Pluckes off my Beard, and blowes it in my face?
Tweakes me by'th'Nose?[10] giues me the Lye i'th' Throate,
[Sidenote: by the]
As deepe as to the Lungs? Who does me this?
Ha? Why I should take it: for it cannot be,
[Sidenote: Hah, s'wounds I]
But I am Pigeon-Liuer'd, and lacke Gall[11]
To make Oppression bitter, or ere this,
[Sidenote: 104] I should haue fatted all the Region Kites
[Sidenote: should a fatted]
With this Slaues Offall, bloudy: a Bawdy villaine,
[Sidenote: bloody, baudy]
Remorselesse,[12] Treacherous, Letcherous, kindles[13] villaine!
Oh Vengeance![14]
Who? What an Asse am I? I sure, this is most braue,
[Sidenote: Why what an Asse am I, this]
That I, the Sonne of the Deere murthered, [Sidenote: a deere]
Prompted to my Reuenge by Heauen, and Hell,
Must (like a Whore) vnpacke my heart with words,
And fall a Cursing like a very Drab,[15]
A Scullion? Fye vpon't: Foh. About my Braine.[16]
[Sidenote: a stallyon, | braines; hum,]
[Footnote 1: Here follows in 1st _Q_.
What would he do and if he had my losse?
His father murdred, and a Crowne bereft him,
[Sidenote: 174] He would turne all his teares to droppes of blood,
Amaze the standers by with his laments,
&c. &c.]
[Footnote 2: Speaking of the Player, he uses the player-word.]
[Footnote 3: _make pale_--appal.]
[Footnote 4: _the innocent_.]
[Footnote 5: _Mettle_ is spirit--rather in the sense of _animal-spirit_:
_mettlesome_--spirited, _as a horse_.]
[Footnote 6: '_unpossessed by_ my cause'.]
[Footnote 7: _personality, proper person_.]
[Footnote 8: _undoing, destruction_--from French _défaire_.]
[Footnote 9: In this mood he no more understands, and altogether doubts
himself, as he has previously come to doubt the world.]
[Footnote 10: _1st Q_. 'or twites my nose.']
[Footnote 11: It was supposed that pigeons had no gall--I presume from
their livers not tasting bitter like those of perhaps most birds.]
[Footnote 12: _pitiless_.]
[Footnote 13: _unnatural_.]
[Footnote 14: This line is not in the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 15: Here in _Q._ the line runs on to include _Foh_. The next
line ends with _heard_.]
[Footnote 16: _Point thus_: 'About! my brain.' He apostrophizes his
brain, telling it to set to work.]
[Page 112]
I haue heard, that guilty Creatures sitting at a Play,
Haue by the very cunning of the Scoene,[1]
Bene strooke so to the soule, that presently
They haue proclaim'd their Malefactions.
For Murther, though it haue no tongue, will speake
With most myraculous Organ.[2] Ile haue these Players,
Play something like the murder of my Father,
Before mine Vnkle. Ile obserue his lookes,
[Sidenote: 137] Ile tent him to the quicke: If he but blench[3]
[Sidenote: if a doe blench]
I know my course. The Spirit that I haue seene
[Sidenote: 48] May[4] be the Diuell, and the Diuel hath power
[Sidenote: May be a deale, and the deale]
T'assume a pleasing shape, yea and perhaps
Out of my Weaknesse, and my Melancholly,[5]
As he is very potent with such Spirits,[6]
[Sidenote: 46] Abuses me to damne me.[7] Ile haue grounds
More Relatiue then this: The Play's the thing,
Wherein Ile catch the Conscience of the King.
_Exit._
* * * * *
SUMMARY.
The division between the second and third acts is by common consent
placed here. The third act occupies the afternoon, evening, and night of
the same day with the second.
This soliloquy is Hamlet's first, and perhaps we may find it correct to
say _only_ outbreak of self-accusation. He charges himself with lack of
feeling, spirit, and courage, in that he has not yet taken vengeance on
his uncle. But unless we are prepared to accept and justify to the full
his own hardest words against himself, and grant him a muddy-mettled,
pigeon-livered rascal, we must examine and understand him, so as to
account for his conduct better than he could himself. If we allow that
perhaps he accuses himself too much, we may find on reflection that he
accuses himself altogether wrongfully. If a man is content to think the
worst of Hamlet, I care to hold no argument with that man.
We must not look for _expressed_ logical sequence in a soliloquy, which
is a vocal mind. The mind is seldom conscious of the links or
transitions of a yet perfectly logical process developed in it. This
remark, however, is more necessary in regard to the famous soliloquy to
follow.
In Hamlet, misery has partly choked even vengeance; and although sure in
his heart that his uncle is guilty, in his brain he is not sure.
Bitterly accusing himself in an access of wretchedness and rage and
credence, he forgets the doubt that has restrained him, with all besides
which he might so well urge in righteous defence, not excuse, of his
delay. But ungenerous criticism has, by all but universal consent,
accepted his own verdict against himself. So in common life there are
thousands on thousands who, upon the sad confession of a man
immeasurably greater than themselves, and showing his greatness in the
humility whose absence makes admission impossible to them, immediately
pounce upon him with vituperation, as if he were one of the vile, and
they infinitely better. Such should be indignant with St. Paul and
say--if he was the chief of sinners, what insolence to lecture _them_!
and certainly the more justified publican would never by them have been
allowed to touch the robe of the less justified Pharisee. Such critics
surely take little or no pains to understand the object of their
contempt: because Hamlet is troubled and blames himself, they without
hesitation condemn him--and there where he is most commendable. It is
the righteous man who is most ready to accuse himself; the unrighteous
is least ready. Who is able when in deep trouble, rightly to analyze his
feelings? Delay in action is not necessarily abandonment of duty; in
Hamlet's case it is a due recognition of duty, which condemns
precipitancy--and action in the face of doubt, so long as it is nowise
compelled, is precipitancy. The first thing is _to be sure_: Hamlet has
never been sure; he spies at length a chance of making himself sure; he
seizes upon it; and while his sudden resolve to make use of the players,
like the equally sudden resolve to shroud himself in pretended madness,
manifests him fertile in expedient, the carrying out of both manifests
him right capable and diligent in execution--_a man of action in every
true sense of the word_.
The self-accusation of Hamlet has its ground in the lapse of weeks
during which nothing has been done towards punishing the king. Suddenly
roused to a keen sense of the fact, he feels as if surely he might have
done something. The first act ends with a burning vow of righteous
vengeance; the second shows him wandering about the palace in
profoundest melancholy--such as makes it more than easy for him to
assume the forms of madness the moment he marks any curious eye bent
upon him. Let him who has never loved and revered a mother, call such
melancholy weakness. He has indeed done nothing towards the fulfilment
of his vow; but the way in which he made the vow, the terms in which he
exacted from his companions their promise of silence, and his scheme for
eluding suspicion, combine to show that from the first he perceived its
fulfilment would be hard, saw the obstacles in his way, and knew it
would require both time and caution. That even in the first rush of his
wrath he should thus be aware of difficulty, indicates moral symmetry;
but the full weight of what lay in his path could appear to him only
upon reflection. Partly in the light of passages yet to come, I will
imagine the further course of his thoughts, which the closing couplet of
the first act shows as having already begun to apale 'the native hue of
resolution.'
'But how shall I take vengeance on my uncle? Shall I publicly accuse
him, or slay him at once? In the one case what answer can I make to his
denial? in the other, what justification can I offer? If I say the
spirit of my father accuses him, what proof can I bring? My companions
only saw the apparition--heard no word from him; and my uncle's party
will assert, with absolute likelihood to the minds of those who do not
know me--and who here knows me but my mother!--that charge is a mere
coinage of jealous disappointment, working upon the melancholy I have
not cared to hide. (174-6.) When I act, it must be to kill him, and to
what misconstruction shall I not expose myself! (272) If the thing must
so be, I must brave all; but I could never present myself thereafter as
successor to the crown of one whom I had first slain and then vilified
on the accusation of an apparition whom no one heard but myself! I must
find _proof_--such proof as will satisfy others as well as myself. My
immediate duty is _evidence_, not vengeance.'
We have seen besides, that, when informed of the haunting presence of
the Ghost, he expected the apparition with not a little doubt as to its
authenticity--a doubt which, even when he saw it, did not immediately
vanish: is it any wonder that when the apparition was gone, the doubt
should return? Return it did, in accordance with the reaction which
waits upon all high-strung experience. If he did not believe in the
person who performed it, would any man long believe in any miracle?
Hamlet soon begins to question whether he can with confidence accept the
appearance for that which it appeared and asserted itself to be. He
steps over to the stand-point of his judges, and doubts the only
testimony he has to produce. Far more:--was he not bound in common
humanity, not to say _filialness_, to doubt it? To doubt the Ghost, was
to doubt a testimony which to accept was to believe his father in
horrible suffering, his uncle a murderer, his mother at least an
adulteress; to kill his uncle was to set his seal to the whole, and,
besides, to bring his mother into frightful suspicion of complicity in
his father's murder. Ought not the faintest shadow of a doubt, assuaging
ever so little the glare of the hell-sun of such crime, to be welcome to
the tortured heart? Wretched wife and woman as his mother had shown
herself, the Ghost would have him think her far worse--perhaps, even
accessory to her husband's murder! For action he _must_ have proof!
At the same time, what every one knew of his mother, coupled now with
the mere idea of the Ghost's accusation, wrought in him such misery,
roused in him so many torturing and unanswerable questions, so blotted
the face of the universe and withered the heart of hope, that he could
not but doubt whether, in such a world of rogues and false women, it was
worth his while to slay one villain out of the swarm.
Ophelia's behaviour to him, in obedience to her father, of which she
gives him no explanation, has added 'the pangs of disprized love,' and
increased his doubts of woman-kind. 120.
But when his imagination, presenting afresh the awful interview, brings
him more immediately under the influence of the apparition and its
behest, he is for the moment delivered both from the stunning effect of
its communication and his doubt of its truth; forgetting then the
considerations that have wrought in him, he accuses himself of
remissness, blames himself grievously for his delay. Soon, however, his
senses resume their influence, and he doubts again. So goes the
mill-round of his thoughts, with the revolving of many wheels.
His whole conscious nature is frightfully shaken: he would be the poor
creature most of his critics would make of him, were it otherwise; it is
because of his greatness that he suffers so terribly, and doubts so
much. A mother's crime is far more paralyzing than a father's murder is
stimulating; and either he has not set himself in thorough earnest to
find the proof he needs, or he has as yet been unable to think of any
serviceable means to the end, when the half real, half simulated emotion
of the Player yet again rouses in him the sense of remissness, leads him
to accuse himself of forgotten obligation and heartlessness, and
simultaneously suggests a device for putting the Ghost and his words to
the test. Instantly he seizes the chance: when a thing has to be done,
and can be done, Hamlet is _never_ wanting--shows himself the very
promptest of men.
In the last passage of this act I do not take it that he is expressing
an idea then first occurring to him: that the whole thing may be a snare
of the devil is a doubt with which during weeks he has been familiar.
The delay through which, in utter failure to comprehend his character,
he has been so miserably misjudged, falls really between the first and
second acts, although it seems in the regard of most readers to underlie
and protract the whole play. Its duration is measured by the journey of
the ambassadors to and from the neighbouring kingdom of Norway.
It is notably odd, by the way, that those who accuse Hamlet of inaction,
are mostly the same who believe his madness a reality! In truth,
however, his affected madness is one of the strongest signs of his
activity, and his delay one of the strongest proofs of his sanity.
This second act, the third act, and a part always given to the fourth,
but which really belongs to the third, occupy in all only one day.
[Footnote 1: Here follows in _1st Q._
confest a murder
Committed long before.
This spirit that I haue seene may be the Diuell,
And out of my weakenesse and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such men,
Doth seeke to damne me, I will haue sounder proofes,
The play's the thing, &c.]
[Footnote 2:
'Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;' &c.
_Macbeth_, iii. 4.]
[Footnote 3: In the _1st Q._ Hamlet, speaking to Horatio (l 37), says,
And if he doe not bleach, and change at that,--
_Bleach_ is radically the same word as _blench_:--to bleach, to blanch,
to blench--_to grow white_.]
[Footnote 4: Emphasis on _May_, as resuming previous doubtful thought
and suspicion.]
[Footnote 5: --caused from the first by his mother's behaviour, not
constitutional.]
[Footnote 6: --'such conditions of the spirits'.]
[Footnote 7: Here is one element in the very existence of the preceding
act: doubt as to the facts of the case has been throughout operating to
restrain him; and here first he reveals, perhaps first recognizes its
influence. Subject to change of feeling with the wavering of conviction,
he now for a moment regards his uncertainty as involving unnatural
distrust of a being in whose presence he cannot help _feeling_ him his
father. He was familiar with the lore of the supernatural, and knew the
doubt he expresses to be not without support.--His companions as well
had all been in suspense as to the identity of the apparition with the
late king.]
[Page 116]
_Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosincrance,
Guildenstern, and Lords._[1] [Sidenote: Guyldensterne, Lords.]
[Sidenote: 72] _King._ And can you by no drift of circumstance
[Sidenote: An can | of conference]
Get from him why he puts on[2] this Confusion:
Grating so harshly all his dayes of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous Lunacy.
_Rosin._ He does confesse he feeles himselfe distracted,
[Sidenote: 92] But from what cause he will by no meanes speake.
[Sidenote: a will]
_Guil._ Nor do we finde him forward to be sounded,
But with a crafty Madnesse[3] keepes aloofe:
When we would bring him on to some Confession
Of his true state.
_Qu._ Did he receiue you well?
_Rosin._ Most like a Gentleman.
_Guild._ But with much forcing of his disposition.[4]
_Rosin._ Niggard of question, but of our demands
Most free in his reply.[5]
_Qu._ Did you assay him to any pastime?
_Rosin._ Madam, it so fell out, that certaine Players
We ore-wrought on the way: of these we told him,
[Sidenote: ore-raught[6]]
And there did seeme in him a kinde of ioy
To heare of it: They are about the Court, [Sidenote: are heere about]
And (as I thinke) they haue already order
This night to play before him.
_Pol._ 'Tis most true;
And he beseech'd me to intreate your Majesties
To heare, and see the matter.
_King._ With all my heart, and it doth much content me
To heare him so inclin'd. Good Gentlemen,
[Footnote 1: This may be regarded as the commencement of the Third Act.]
[Footnote 2: The phrase seems to imply a doubt of the genuineness of the
lunacy.]
[Footnote 3: _Nominative pronoun omitted here._]
[Footnote 4: He has noted, without understanding them, the signs of
Hamlet's suspicion of themselves.]
[Footnote 5: Compare the seemingly opposite statements of the two:
Hamlet had bewildered them.]
[Foonote 6: _over-reached_--came up with, caught up, overtook.]
[Page 118]
Giue him a further edge,[1] and driue his purpose on
[Sidenote: purpose into these]
To these delights.
_Rosin._ We shall my Lord. _Exeunt._
[Sidenote: _Exeunt Ros. & Guyl._]
_King._ Sweet Gertrude leaue vs too, [Sidenote: Gertrard | two]
For we haue closely sent for _Hamlet_ hither,
[Sidenote: 84] That he, as 'twere by accident, may there
[Sidenote: heere]
Affront[2] _Ophelia_. Her Father, and my selfe[3] (lawful espials)[4]
Will so bestow our selues, that seeing vnseene
We may of their encounter frankely iudge,
And gather by him, as he is behaued,
If't be th'affliction of his loue, or no,
That thus he suffers for.
_Qu._ I shall obey you,
And for your part _Ophelia_,[5] I do wish
That your good Beauties be the happy cause
Of _Hamlets_ wildenesse: so shall I hope your Vertues
[Sidenote: 240] Will bring him to his wonted way againe,
To both your Honors.[6]
_Ophe._ Madam, I wish it may.
_Pol. Ophelia_, walke you heere. Gracious so please ye[7]
[Sidenote: you,]
We will bestow our selues: Reade on this booke,[8]
That shew of such an exercise may colour
Your lonelinesse.[9] We are oft too blame in this,[10]
[Sidenote: lowlines:]
'Tis too much prou'd, that with Deuotions visage,
And pious Action, we do surge o're [Sidenote: sugar]
The diuell himselfe.
[Sidenote: 161] _King._ Oh 'tis true: [Sidenote: tis too true]
How smart a lash that speech doth giue my Conscience?
The Harlots Cheeke beautied with plaist'ring Art
Is not more vgly to the thing that helpes it,[11]
Then is my deede, to my most painted word.[12]
Oh heauie burthen![13]
[Footnote 1: '_edge_ him on'--somehow corrupted into _egg_.]
[Footnote 2: _confront_.]
[Footnote 3: _Clause in parenthesis not in Q._]
[Footnote 4: --apologetic to the queen.]
[Footnote 5: --_going up to Ophelia_--I would say, who stands at a
little distance, and has not heard what has been passing between them.]
[Footnote 6: The queen encourages Ophelia in hoping to marry Hamlet, and
may so have a share in causing a certain turn her madness takes.]
[Footnote 7: --_aside to the king_.]
[Footnote 8: --_to Ophelia:_ her prayer-book. 122.]
[Footnote 9: _1st Q._
And here _Ofelia_, reade you on this booke,
And walke aloofe, the King shal be vnseene.]
[Footnote 10: --_aside to the king._ I insert these _asides_, and
suggest the queen's going up to Ophelia, to show how we may easily hold
Ophelia ignorant of their plot. Poor creature as she was, I would
believe Shakspere did not mean her to lie to Hamlet. This may be why he
omitted that part of her father's speech in the _1st Q._ given in the
note immediately above, telling her the king is going to hide. Still, it
would be excuse enough for _her_, that she thought his madness justified
the deception.]
[Footnote 11: --ugly to the paint that helps by hiding it--to which it
lies so close, and from which it has no secrets. Or, 'ugly to' may mean,
'ugly _compared with_.']
[Footnote 12: 'most painted'--_very much painted_. His painted word is
the paint to the deed. _Painted_ may be taken for _full of paint_.]
[Footnote 13: This speech of the king is the first _assurance_ we have
of his guilt.]
[Page 120]
_Pol._ I heare him comming, let's withdraw my Lord.
[Sidenote: comming, with-draw]
_Exeunt._[1]
_Enter Hamlet._[2]
_Ham._ To be, or not to be, that is the Question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer
The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune,
[Sidenote: 200,250] Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles,[3]
And by opposing end them:[4] to dye, to sleepe
No more; and by a sleepe, to say we end
The Heart-ake, and the thousand Naturall shockes
That Flesh is heyre too? 'Tis a consummation
Deuoutly to be wish'd.[5] To dye to sleepe,
To sleepe, perchance to Dreame;[6] I, there's the rub,
For in that sleepe of death, what[7] dreames may come,[8]
When we haue shuffle'd off this mortall coile,
[Sidenote: 186] Must giue vs pawse.[9] There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:[10]
For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time,
The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely,
[Sidenote: proude mans]
[Sidenote: 114] The pangs of dispriz'd Loue,[11] the Lawes delay,
[Sidenote: despiz'd]
The insolence of Office, and the Spurnes
That patient merit of the vnworthy takes, [Sidenote: th']
When he himselfe might his _Quietus_ make
[Sidenote: 194,252-3] With a bare Bodkin?[12] Who would these Fardles
beare[13] [Sidenote: would fardels]
To grunt and sweat vnder a weary life,
[Sidenote: 194] But that the dread of something after death,[14]
The vndiscouered Countrey, from whose Borne
No Traueller returnes,[15] Puzels the will,
And makes vs rather beare those illes we haue,
Then flye to others that we know not of.
Thus Conscience does make Cowards of vs all,[16]
[Sidenote: 30] And thus the Natiue hew of Resolution[17]
Is sicklied o're, with the pale cast of Thought,[18]
[Sidenote: sickled]
[Footnote 1: _Not in Q._--They go behind the tapestry, where it hangs
over the recess of the doorway. Ophelia thinks they have left the room.]
[Footnote 2: _In Q. before last speech._]
[Footnote 3: Perhaps to a Danish or Dutch critic, or one from the
eastern coast of England, this simile would not seem so unfit as it does
to some.]
[Footnote 4: To print this so as I would have it read, I would complete
this line from here with points, and commence the next with points. At
the other breaks of the soliloquy, as indicated below, I would do the
same--thus:
And by opposing end them....
....To die--to sleep,]
[Footnote 5: _Break_.]
[Footnote 6: _Break_.]
[Footnote 7: Emphasis on _what_.]
[Footnote 8: Such dreams as the poor Ghost's.]
[Footnote 9: _Break._ --'_pawse_' is the noun, and from its use at page
186, we may judge it means here 'pause for reflection.']
[Footnote 10: 'makes calamity so long-lived.']
[Footnote 11: --not necessarily disprized by the _lady_; the disprizer
in Hamlet's case was the worldly and suspicious father--and that in
part, and seemingly to Hamlet altogether, for the king's sake.]
[Footnote 12: _small sword_. If there be here any allusion to suicide,
it is on the general question, and with no special application to
himself. 24. But it is the king and the bare bodkin his thought
associates. How could he even glance at the things he has just
mentioned, as each, a reason for suicide? It were a cowardly country
indeed where the question might be asked, 'Who would not commit suicide
because of any one of these things, except on account of what may follow
after death?'! One might well, however, be tempted to destroy an
oppressor, _and risk his life in that._]
[Footnote 13: _Fardel_, burden: the old French for _fardeau_, I am
informed.]
[Footnote 14: --a dread caused by conscience.]
[Footnote 15: The Ghost could not be imagined as having _returned_.]
[Footnote 16: 'of us all' _not in Q._ It is not the fear of evil that
makes us cowards, but the fear of _deserved_ evil. The Poet may intend
that conscience alone is the cause of fear in man. '_Coward_' does not
here involve contempt: it should be spoken with a grim smile. But Hamlet
would hardly call turning from _suicide_ cowardice in any sense. 24.]
[Footnote 17: --such as was his when he vowed vengeance.]
[Footnote 18: --such as immediately followed on that The _native_ hue of
resolution--that which is natural to man till interruption comes--is
ruddy; the hue of thought is pale. I suspect the '_pale cast_' of an
allusion to whitening with _rough-cast_.]
[Page 122]
And enterprizes of great pith and moment,[1] [Sidenote: pitch [1]]
With this regard their Currants turne away, [Sidenote: awry]
And loose the name of Action.[2] Soft you now,
[Sidenote: 119] The faire _Ophelia_? Nimph, in thy Orizons[3]
Be all my sinnes remembred.[4]
_Ophe._ Good my Lord,
How does your Honor for this many a day?
_Ham._ I humbly thanke you: well, well, well.[5]
_Ophe._ My Lord, I haue Remembrances of yours,
That I haue longed long to re-deliuer.
I pray you now, receiue them.
_Ham._ No, no, I neuer gaue you ought.[6]
[Sidenote: No, not I, I never]
_Ophe._ My honor'd Lord, I know right well you did,
[Sidenote: you know]
And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd,
As made the things more rich, then perfume left:
[Sidenote: these things | their perfume lost.[7]]
Take these againe, for to the Noble minde
Rich gifts wax poore, when giuers proue vnkinde.
There my Lord.[8]
_Ham._ Ha, ha: Are you honest?[9]
_Ophe._ My Lord.
_Ham._ Are you faire?
_Ophe._ What meanes your Lordship?
_Ham._ That if you be honest and faire, your
[Sidenote: faire, you should admit]
Honesty[10] should admit no discourse to your Beautie.
_Ophe._ Could Beautie my Lord, haue better
Comerce[11] then your Honestie?[12]
[Sidenote: Then with honestie?[11]]
_Ham._ I trulie: for the power of Beautie, will
sooner transforme Honestie from what it is, to a
Bawd, then the force of Honestie can translate
Beautie into his likenesse. This was sometime a
Paradox, but now the time giues it proofe. I did
loue you once.[13]
_Ophe._ Indeed my Lord, you made me beleeue so.
[Footnote 1: How could _suicide_ be styled _an enterprise of great
pith_? Yet less could it be called _of great pitch_.]
[Footnote 2: I allow this to be a general reflection, but surely it
serves to show that _conscience_ must at least be one of Hamlet's
restraints.]
[Footnote 3: --by way of intercession.]
[Footnote 4: Note the entire change of mood from that of the last
soliloquy. The right understanding of this soliloquy is indispensable to
the right understanding of Hamlet. But we are terribly trammelled and
hindered, as in the understanding of Hamlet throughout, so here in the
understanding of his meditation, by traditional assumption. I was roused
to think in the right direction concerning it, by the honoured friend
and relative to whom I have feebly acknowledged my obligation by
dedicating to him this book. I could not at first see it as he saw it:
'Think about it, and you will,' he said. I did think, and by
degrees--not very quickly--my prejudgments thinned, faded, and almost
vanished. I trust I see it now as a whole, and in its true relations,
internal and external--its relations to itself, to the play, and to the
Hamlet, of Shakspere.
Neither in its first verse, then, nor in it anywhere else, do I find
even an allusion to suicide. What Hamlet is referring to in the said
first verse, it is not possible with certainty to determine, for it is
but the vanishing ripple of a preceding ocean of thought, from which he
is just stepping out upon the shore of the articulate. He may have been
plunged in some profound depth of the metaphysics of existence, or he
may have been occupied with the one practical question, that of the
slaying of his uncle, which has, now in one form, now in another,
haunted his spirit for weeks. Perhaps, from the message he has just
received, he expects to meet the king, and conscience, confronting
temptation, has been urging the necessity of proof; perhaps a righteous
consideration of consequences, which sometimes have share in the primary
duty, has been making him shrink afresh from the shedding of blood, for
every thoughtful mind recoils from the irrevocable, and that is an awful
form of the irrevocable. But whatever thought, general or special, this
first verse may be dismissing, we come at once thereafter into the light
of a definite question: 'Which is nobler--to endure evil fortune, or to
oppose it _à outrance_; to bear in passivity, or to resist where
resistance is hopeless--resist to the last--to the death which is its
unavoidable end?'
Then comes a pause, during which he is thinking--we will not say 'too
precisely on the event,' but taking his account with consequences: the
result appears in the uttered conviction that the extreme possible
consequence, death, is a good and not an evil. Throughout, observe, how
here, as always, he generalizes, himself being to himself but the type
of his race.
Then follows another pause, during which he seems prosecuting the
thought, for he has already commenced further remark in similar strain,
when suddenly a new and awful element introduces itself:
....To die--to sleep.--
--To _sleep_! perchance to _dream_!
He had been thinking of death only as the passing away of the present
with its troubles; here comes the recollection that death has its own
troubles--its own thoughts, its own consciousness: if it be a sleep, it
has its dreams. '_What dreams may come_' means, 'the sort of dreams that
may come'; the emphasis is on the _what_, not on the _may_; there is no
question whether dreams will come, but there is question of the
character of the dreams. This consideration is what makes calamity so
long-lived! 'For who would bear the multiform ills of life'--he alludes
to his own wrongs, but mingles, in his generalizing way, others of those
most common to humanity, and refers to the special cure for some of his
own which was close to his hand--'who would bear these things if he
could, as I can, make his quietus with a bare bodkin'--that is, by
slaying his enemy--'who would then bear them, but that he fears the
future, and the divine judgment upon his life and actions--that
conscience makes a coward of him!'[14]
To run, not the risk of death, but the risks that attend upon and follow
death, Hamlet must be certain of what he is about; he must be sure it is
a right thing he does, or he will leave it undone. Compare his speech,
250, 'Does it not, &c.':--by the time he speaks this speech, he has had
perfect proof, and asserts the righteousness of taking vengeance in
almost an agony of appeal to Horatio.
The more continuous and the more formally logical a soliloquy, the less
natural it is. The logic should be all there, but latent; the bones of
it should not show: they do not show here.]
[Footnote 5: _One_ 'well' _only in Q._]
[Footnote 6: He does not want to take them back, and so sever even that
weak bond between them. He has not given her up.]
[Footnote 7: The _Q._ reading seems best. The perfume of his gifts was
the sweet words with which they were given; those words having lost
their savour, the mere gifts were worth nothing.]
[Footnote 8: Released from the commands her father had laid upon her,
and emboldened by the queen's approval of more than the old relation
between them, she would timidly draw Hamlet back to the past--to love
and a sound mind.]
[Footnote 9: I do not here suppose a noise or movement of the arras, or
think that the talk from this point bears the mark of the madness he
would have assumed on the least suspicion of espial. His distrust of
Ophelia comes from a far deeper source--suspicion of all women, grown
doubtful to him through his mother. Hopeless for her, he would give his
life to know that Ophelia was not like her. Hence the cruel things he
says to her here and elsewhere; they are the brood of a heart haunted
with horrible, alas! too excusable phantoms of distrust. A man wretched
as Hamlet must be forgiven for being rude; it is love suppressed, love
that can neither breathe nor burn, that makes him rude. His horrid
insinuations are a hungry challenge to indignant rejection. He would
sting Ophelia to defence of herself and her sex. But, either from her
love, or from gentleness to his supposed madness, as afterwards in the
play-scene, or from the poverty and weakness of a nature so fathered and
so brothered, she hears, and says nothing. 139.]
[Footnote 10: Honesty is here figured as a porter,--just after, as a
porter that may be corrupted.]
[Footnote 11: If the _Folio_ reading is right, _commerce_ means
_companionship_; if the _Quarto_ reading, then it means _intercourse_.
Note _then_ constantly for our _than_.]
[Footnote 12: I imagine Ophelia here giving Hamlet a loving look--which
hardens him. But I do not think she lays emphasis on _your_; the word is
here, I take it, used (as so often then) impersonally.]
[Footnote 13: '--proof in you and me: _I_ loved _you_ once, but my
honesty did not translate your beauty into its likeness.']
[Footnote 14: That the Great Judgement was here in Shakspere's thought,
will be plain to those who take light from the corresponding passage in
the _1st Quarto_. As it makes an excellent specimen of that issue in the
character I am most inclined to attribute to it--that of original sketch
and continuous line of notes, with more or less finished passages in
place among the notes--I will here quote it, recommending it to my
student's attention. If it be what I suggest, it is clear that Shakspere
had not at first altogether determined how he would carry the
soliloquy--what line he was going to follow in it: here hope and fear
contend for the place of motive to patience. The changes from it in the
text are well worth noting: the religion is lessened: the hope
disappears: were they too much of pearls to cast before 'barren
spectators'? The manuscript could never have been meant for any eye but
his own, seeing it was possible to print from it such a chaos--over
which yet broods the presence of the formative spirit of the Poet.
_Ham._ To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
[Sidenote: 24, 247, 260] And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,
From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,
The vndiscouered country, at whose sight
The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.
But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,
Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,
The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,
And thousand more calamities besides,
To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,
When that he may his full _Quietus_ make,
With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,
But for a hope of something after death?
Which pulses the braine, and doth confound the sence,
Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,
Than flie to others that we know not of.
I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,
Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.]
[Page 126]
_Ham._ You should not haue beleeued me. For
vertue cannot so innocculate[1] our old stocke,[2] but
we shall rellish of it.[3] I loued you not.[4]
_Ophe._ I was the more deceiued.
_Ham._ Get thee to a Nunnerie. Why would'st [Sidenote: thee a]
thou be a breeder of Sinners? I am my selfe indifferent[5]
[Sidenote: 132] honest, but yet I could accuse me of
such things,[6] that it were better my Mother had
[Sidenote: 62] not borne me,[7] I am very prowd, reuengefull,
Ambitious, with more offences at my becke, then I
haue thoughts to put them in imagination, to giue
them shape, or time to acte them in. What should
such Fellowes as I do, crawling betweene Heauen
[Sidenote: earth and heauen]
and Earth.[8] We are arrant Knaues all[10], beleeue
none of vs.[9] Goe thy wayes to a Nunnery.
Where's your Father?[11]
_Ophe._ At home, my Lord.[12]
_Ham._ Let the doores be shut vpon him, that
he may play the Foole no way, but in's owne house.[13]
[Sidenote: no where but]
Farewell.[14]
_Ophe._ O helpe him, you sweet Heauens.
_Ham._[15] If thou doest Marry, Ile giue thee this
Plague for thy Dowrie. Be thou as chast as Ice,
as pure as Snow, thou shalt not escape Calumny.[16]
Get thee to a Nunnery. Go,[17] Farewell.[18] Or if
thou wilt needs Marry, marry a fool: for Wise men
know well enough, what monsters[19] you make of
them. To a Nunnery go, and quickly too. Farwell.[20]
_Ophe._ O[21] heauenly Powers, restore him.
_Ham._[22] I haue heard of your pratlings[23] too wel
[Sidenote: your paintings well]
enough. God has giuen you one pace,[23] and you
[Sidenote: hath | one face,]
make your selfe another: you gidge, you amble,
[Sidenote: selfes | you gig and amble, and]
and you lispe, and nickname Gods creatures, and
[Sidenote: you list you nickname]
make your Wantonnesse, your[24] Ignorance.[25] Go
[Footnote 1: 'inoculate'--_bud_, in the horticultural use.]
[Footnote 2: _trunk_ or _stem_ of the family tree.]
[Footnote 3: Emphasis on _relish_--'keep something of the old flavour of
the stock.']
[Footnote 4: He tries her now with denying his love--perhaps moved in
part by a feeling, taught by his mother's, of how imperfect it was.]
[Footnote 5: tolerably.]
[Footnote 6: He turns from baiting woman in her to condemn himself. Is
it not the case with every noble nature, that the knowledge of wrong in
another arouses in it the consciousness of its own faults and sins, of
its own evil possibilities? Hurled from the heights of ideal humanity,
Hamlet not only recognizes in himself every evil tendency of his race,
but almost feels himself individually guilty of every transgression.
'God, God, forgive us all!' exclaims the doctor who has just witnessed
the misery of Lady Macbeth, unveiling her guilt.
This whole speech of Hamlet is profoundly sane--looking therefore
altogether insane to the shallow mind, on which the impression of its
insanity is deepened by its coming from him so freely. The common nature
disappointed rails at humanity; Hamlet, his earthly ideal destroyed,
would tear his individual human self to pieces.]
[Footnote 7: This we may suppose uttered with an expression as startling
to Ophelia as impenetrable.]
[Footnote 8: He is disgusted with himself, with his own nature and
consciousness--]
[Footnote 9: --and this reacts on his kind.]
[Footnote 10: 'all' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 11: Here, perhaps, he grows suspicious--asks himself why he is
allowed this prolonged _tête à tête_.]
[Footnote 12: I am willing to believe she thinks so.]
[Footnote 13: Whether he trusts Ophelia or not, he does not take her
statement for correct, and says this in the hope that Polonius is not
too far off to hear it. The speech is for him, not for Ophelia, and will
seem to her to come only from his madness.]
[Footnote 14: _Exit_.]
[Footnote 15: (_re-entering_)]
[Footnote 16: 'So many are bad, that your virtue will not be believed
in.']
[Footnote 17: 'Go' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 18: _Exit, and re-enter._]
[Footnote 19: _Cornuti._]
[Footnote 20: _Exit._]
[Footnote 21: 'O' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 22: (_re-entering_)]
[Footnote 23: I suspect _pratlings_ to be a corruption, not of the
printed _paintings_, but of some word substituted for it by the Poet,
perhaps _prancings_, and _pace_ to be correct.]
[Footnote 24: 'your' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 25: As the present type to him of womankind, he assails her
with such charges of lightness as are commonly brought against women. He
does not go farther: she is not his mother, and he hopes she is
innocent. But he cannot make her speak!]
[Page 128]
too, Ile no more on't, it hath made me mad. I say,
we will haue no more Marriages.[1] Those that are
[Sidenote: no mo marriage,]
married already,[2] all but one shall liue, the rest
shall keep as they are. To a Nunnery, go.
_Exit Hamlet_. [Sidenote: _Exit_]
[3]_Ophe._ O what a Noble minde is heere o're-throwne?
The Courtiers, Soldiers, Schollers: Eye, tongue, sword,
Th'expectansie and Rose[4] of the faire State,
[Sidenote: Th' expectation,]
The glasse of Fashion,[5] and the mould of Forme,[6]
Th'obseru'd of all Obseruers, quite, quite downe.
Haue I of Ladies most deiect and wretched, [Sidenote: And I of]
That suck'd the Honie of his Musicke Vowes: [Sidenote: musickt]
Now see that Noble, and most Soueraigne Reason, [Sidenote: see what]
Like sweet Bels iangled out of tune, and harsh,[7]
[Sidenote: out of time]
That vnmatch'd Forme and Feature of blowne youth,[8]
[Sidenote: and stature of]
Blasted with extasie.[9] Oh woe is me,
T'haue scene what I haue scene: see what I see.[10]
[Sidenote: _Exit_.]
_Enter King, and Polonius_.
_King_. Loue? His affections do not that way tend,
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd Forme a little, [Sidenote: Not]
Was not like Madnesse.[11] There's something in his soule?
O're which his Melancholly sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch, and the disclose[12]
Will be some danger,[11] which to preuent [Sidenote: which for to]
I haue in quicke determination
[Sidenote: 138, 180] Thus set it downe. He shall with speed to England
For the demand of our neglected Tribute:
Haply the Seas and Countries different
[Footnote 1: 'The thing must be put a stop to! the world must cease! it
is not fit to go on.']
[Footnote 2: 'already--(_aside_) all but one--shall live.']
[Footnote 3: _1st Q_.
_Ofe._ Great God of heauen, what a quicke change is this?
The Courtier, Scholler, Souldier, all in him,
All dasht and splinterd thence, O woe is me,
To a seene what I haue seene, see what I see. _Exit_.
To his cruel words Ophelia is impenetrable--from the conviction that not
he but his madness speaks.
The moment he leaves her, she breaks out in such phrase as a young girl
would hardly have used had she known that the king and her father were
listening. I grant, however, the speech may be taken as a soliloquy
audible to the spectators only, who to the persons of a play are _but_
the spiritual presences.]
[Footnote 4: 'The hope and flower'--The _rose_ is not unfrequently used
in English literature as the type of perfection.]
[Footnote 5: 'he by whom Fashion dressed herself'--_he who set the
fashion_. His great and small virtues taken together, Hamlet makes us
think of Sir Philip Sidney--ten years older than Shakspere, and dead
sixteen years before _Hamlet_ was written.]
[Footnote 6: 'he after whose ways, or modes of behaviour, men shaped
theirs'--therefore the mould in which their forms were cast;--_the
object of universal imitation_.]
[Footnote 7: I do not know whether this means--the peal rung without
regard to tune or time--or--the single bell so handled that the tongue
checks and jars the vibration. In some country places, I understand,
they go about ringing a set of hand-bells.]
[Footnote 8: youth in full blossom.]
[Footnote 9: madness 177.]
[Footnote 10: 'to see now such a change from what I saw then.']
[Footnote 11: The king's conscience makes him keen. He is, all through,
doubtful of the madness.]
[Footnote 12: --of the fact- or fancy-egg on which his melancholy sits
brooding]
[Page 130]
With variable Obiects, shall expell
This something setled matter[1] in his heart
Whereon his Braines still beating, puts him thus
From[2] fashion of himselfe. What thinke you on't?
_Pol_. It shall do well. But yet do I beleeue
The Origin and Commencement of this greefe [Sidenote: his greefe,]
Sprung from neglected loue.[3] How now _Ophelia_?
You neede not tell vs, what Lord _Hamlet_ saide,
We heard it all.[4] My Lord, do as you please,
But if you hold it fit after the Play,
Let his Queene Mother all alone intreat him
To shew his Greefes: let her be round with him, [Sidenote: griefe,]
And Ile be plac'd so, please you in the eare
Of all their Conference. If she finde him not,[5]
To England send him: Or confine him where
Your wisedome best shall thinke.
_King_. It shall be so:
Madnesse in great Ones, must not vnwatch'd go.[6]
[Sidenote: unmatched]
_Exeunt_.
_Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players_.
[Sidenote: _and three_]
_Ham_.[7] Speake the Speech I pray you, as I
pronounc'd it to you trippingly[8] on the Tongue:
But if you mouth it, as many of your Players do,
[Sidenote: of our Players]
I had as liue[9] the Town-Cryer had spoke my [Sidenote: cryer spoke]
Lines:[10] Nor do not saw the Ayre too much your [Sidenote: much with]
hand thus, but vse all gently; for in the verie
Torrent, Tempest, and (as I may say) the Whirlewinde
[Sidenote: say, whirlwind]
of Passion, you must acquire and beget a [Sidenote: of your]
Temperance that may giue it Smoothnesse.[11] O it
offends mee to the Soule, to see a robustious Perywig-pated
[Sidenote: to heare a]
Fellow, teare a Passion to tatters, to [Sidenote: totters,]
verie ragges, to split the eares of the Groundlings:[12]
[Sidenote: spleet]
who (for the most part) are capeable[13] of nothing,
but inexplicable dumbe shewes,[14] and noise:[15] I
could haue such a Fellow whipt for o're-doing [Sidenote: would]
[Footnote 1: 'something of settled matter'--_idée fixe_.]
[Footnote 2: '_away from_ his own true likeness'; 'makes him so unlike
himself.']
[Footnote 3: Polonius is crestfallen, but positive.]
[Footnote 4: This supports the notion of Ophelia's ignorance of the
espial. Polonius thinks she is about to disclose what has passed, and
_informs_ her of its needlessness. But it _might_ well enough be taken
as only an assurance of the success of their listening--that they had
heard without difficulty.]
[Footnote 5: 'If she do not find him out': a comparable phrase, common
at the time, was, _Take me with you_, meaning, _Let me understand you_.
Polonius, for his daughter's sake, and his own in her, begs for him
another chance.]
[Footnote 6: 'in the insignificant, madness may roam the country, but in
the great it must be watched.' The _unmatcht_ of the _Quarto_ might bear
the meaning of _countermatched_.]
[Footnote 7: I should suggest this exhortation to the Players introduced
with the express purpose of showing how absolutely sane Hamlet was,
could I believe that Shakspere saw the least danger of Hamlet's pretence
being mistaken for reality.]
[Footnote 8: He would have neither blundering nor emphasis such as might
rouse too soon the king's suspicion, or turn it into certainty.]
[Footnote 9: 'liue'--_lief_]
[Footnote 10: 1st Q.:--
I'de rather heare a towne bull bellow,
Then such a fellow speake my lines.
_Lines_ is a player-word still.]
[Footnote 11: --smoothness such as belongs to the domain of Art, and
will both save from absurdity, and allow the relations with surroundings
to manifest themselves;--harmoniousness, which is the possibility of
co-existence.]
[Footnote 12: those on the ground--that is, in the pit; there was no
gallery then.]
[Footnote 13: _receptive_.]
[Footnote 14: --gestures extravagant and unintelligible as those of a
dumb show that could not by the beholder be interpreted; gestures
incorrespondent to the words.
A _dumb show_ was a stage-action without words.]
[Footnote 15: Speech that is little but rant, and scarce related to the
sense, is hardly better than a noise; it might, for the purposes of art,
as well be a sound inarticulate.]
[Page 132]
Termagant[1]: it out-Herod's Herod[2] Pray you
auoid it.
_Player._ I warrant your Honor.
_Ham._ Be not too tame neyther: but let your
owne Discretion be your Tutor. Sute the Action
to the Word, the Word to the Action, with this
speciall obseruance: That you ore-stop not the [Sidenote: ore-steppe]
modestie of Nature; for any thing so ouer-done, [Sidenote ore-doone]
is fro[3] the purpose of Playing, whose end both at
the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twer the
Mirrour vp to Nature; to shew Vertue her owne [Sidenote: her feature;]
Feature, Scorne[4] her owne Image, and the verie
Age and Bodie of the Time, his forme and pressure.[5]
Now, this ouer-done, or come tardie off,[6] though it
make the vnskilfull laugh, cannot but make the [Sidenote: it makes]
Iudicious greeue; The censure of the which One,[7]
[Sidenote: of which one]
must in your allowance[8] o're-way a whole Theater
of Others. Oh, there bee Players that I haue
scene Play, and heard others praise, and that highly
[Sidenote: praysd,]
(not to speake it prophanely) that neyther hauing
the accent of Christians, nor the gate of Christian,
Pagan, or Norman, haue so strutted and bellowed,
[Sidenote: Pagan, nor man, haue]
that I haue thought some of Natures Iouerney-men
had made men, and not made them well, they
imitated Humanity so abhominably.[9]
[Sidenote: 126] _Play._ I hope we haue reform'd that indifferently[10]
with vs, Sir.
_Ham._ O reforme it altogether. And let those
that play your Clownes, speake no more then is set
downe for them.[12] For there be of them, that will
themselues laugh, to set on some quantitie of
barren Spectators to laugh too, though in the
meane time, some necessary Question of the Play
be then to be considered:[12] that's Villanous, and
shewes a most pittifull Ambition in the Fool that
vses it.[13] Go make you readie. _Exit Players_
[Footnote 1: 'An imaginary God of the Mahometans, represented as a most
violent character in the old Miracle-plays and Moralities.'--_Sh. Lex._]
[Footnote 2: 'represented as a swaggering tyrant in the old dramatic
performances.'--_Sh. Lex._]
[Footnote 3: _away from_: inconsistent with.]
[Footnote 4: --that which is deserving of scorn.]
[Footnote 5: _impression_, as on wax. Some would persuade us that
Shakspere's own plays do not do this; but such critics take the
_accidents_ or circumstances of a time for the _body_ of it--the clothes
for the person. _Human_ nature is 'Nature,' however _dressed_.
There should be a comma after 'Age.']
[Footnote 6: 'laggingly represented'--A word belonging to _time_ is
substituted for a word belonging to _space_:--'this over-done, or
inadequately effected'; 'this over-done, or under-done.']
[Footnote 7: 'and the judgment of such a one.' '_the which_' seems
equivalent to _and--such_.]
[Footnote 8: 'must, you will grant.']
[Footnote 9: Shakspere may here be playing with a false derivation, as I
was myself when the true was pointed out to me--fancying _abominable_
derived from _ab_ and _homo_. If so, then he means by the phrase: 'they
imitated humanity so from the nature of man, so _inhumanly_.']
[Footnote 10: tolerably.]
[Footnote 11: 'Sir' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 12: Shakspere must have himself suffered from such clowns:
Coleridge thinks some of their _gag_ has crept into his print.]
[Footnote 13: Here follow in the _1st Q._ several specimens of such a
clown's foolish jests and behaviour.]
[Page 134]
_Enter Polonius, Rosincrance, and Guildensterne_.[1]
[Sidenote: _Guyldensterne, & Rosencraus_.]
How now my Lord,
Will the King heare this peece of Worke?
_Pol_. And the Queene too, and that presently.[2]
_Ham_. Bid the Players make hast.
_Exit Polonius_.[3]
Will you two helpe to hasten them?[4]
_Both_. We will my Lord. _Exeunt_.
[Sidenote: _Ros_. I my Lord. _Exeunt they two_.]
_Enter Horatio_[5]
_Ham_. What hoa, _Horatio_? [Sidenote: What howe,]
_Hora_. Heere sweet Lord, at your Seruice.
[Sidenote: 26] _Ham_.[7] _Horatio_, thou art eene as iust a man
As ere my Conversation coap'd withall.
_Hora_. O my deere Lord.[6]
_Ham_.[7] Nay do not thinke I flatter:
For what aduancement may I hope from thee,[8]
That no Reuennew hast, but thy good spirits
To feed and cloath thee. Why shold the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the Candied[9] tongue, like absurd pompe, [Sidenote: licke]
And crooke the pregnant Hindges of the knee,[10]
Where thrift may follow faining? Dost thou heare,
[Sidenote: fauning;]
Since my deere Soule was Mistris of my choyse;[11]
[Sidenote: her choice,]
And could of men distinguish, her election
Hath seal'd thee for her selfe. For thou hast bene
[Sidenote: S'hath seald]
[Sidenote: 272] As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing.
A man that Fortunes buffets, and Rewards
Hath 'tane with equall Thankes. And blest are those, [Sidenote: Hast]
Whose Blood and Iudgement are so well co-mingled,
[Sidenote: comedled,[12]]
[Sidenote: 26] That they are not a Pipe for Fortunes finger,
To sound what stop she please.[13] Giue me that man,
That is not Passions Slaue,[14] and I will weare him
In my hearts Core: I, in my Heart of heart,[15]
As I do thee. Something too much of this.[16]
[Footnote 1: _In Q. at end of speech._]
[Footnote 2: He humours Hamlet as if he were a child.]
[Footnote 3: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 4: He has sent for Horatio, and is expecting him.]
[Footnote 5: _In Q. after next speech._]
[Footnote 6: --repudiating the praise.]
[Footnote 7: To know a man, there is scarce a readier way than to hear
him talk of his friend--why he loves, admires, chooses him. The Poet
here gives us a wide window into Hamlet. So genuine is his respect for
_being_, so indifferent is he to _having_, that he does not shrink, in
argument for his own truth, from reminding his friend to his face that,
being a poor man, nothing is to be gained from him--nay, from telling
him that it is through his poverty he has learned to admire him, as a
man of courage, temper, contentment, and independence, with nothing but
his good spirits for an income--a man whose manhood is dominant both
over his senses and over his fortune--a true Stoic. He describes an
ideal man, then clasps the ideal to his bosom as his own, in the person
of his friend. Only a great man could so worship another, choosing him
for such qualities; and hereby Shakspere shows us his Hamlet--a brave,
noble, wise, pure man, beset by circumstances the most adverse
conceivable. That Hamlet had not misapprehended Horatio becomes evident
in the last scene of all. 272.]
[Footnote 8: The mother of flattery is self-advantage.]
[Footnote 9: _sugared_. _1st Q._:
Let flattery sit on those time-pleasing tongs;
To glose with them that loues to heare their praise;
And not with such as thou _Horatio_.
There is a play to night, &c.]
[Footnote 10: A pregnant figure and phrase, requiring thought.]
[Footnote 11: 'since my real self asserted its dominion, and began to
rule my choice,' making it pure, and withdrawing it from the tyranny of
impulse and liking.]
[Footnote 12: The old word _medle_ is synonymous with _mingle._]
[Footnote 13: To Hamlet, the lordship of man over himself, despite of
circumstance, is a truth, and therefore a duty.]
[Footnote 14: The man who has chosen his friend thus, is hardly himself
one to act without sufficing reason, or take vengeance without certain
proof of guilt.]
[Footnote 15: He justifies the phrase, repeating it.]
[Footnote 16: --apologetic for having praised him to his face.]
[Page 136]
There is a Play to night before the King,
One Scoene of it comes neere the Circumstance
Which I haue told thee, of my Fathers death.
I prythee, when thou see'st that Acte a-foot,[1]
Euen with the verie Comment of my[2] Soule [Sidenote: thy[2] soule]
Obserue mine Vnkle: If his occulted guilt, [Sidenote: my Vncle,]
Do not it selfe vnkennell in one speech,
[Sidenote: 58] It is a damned Ghost that we haue seene:[3]
And my Imaginations are as foule
As Vulcans Stythe.[4] Giue him needfull note,
[Sidenote: stithy; | heedfull]
For I mine eyes will riuet to his Face:
And after we will both our iudgements ioyne,[5]
To censure of his seeming.[6] [Sidenote: in censure]
_Hora._ Well my Lord.
If he steale ought the whil'st this Play is Playing. [Sidenote: if a]
And scape detecting, I will pay the Theft.[1] [Sidenote: detected,]
_Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosincrance,
Guildensterne, and other Lords attendant with
his Guard carrying Torches. Danish March.
Sound a Flourish._
[Sidenote: _Enter Trumpets and Kettle Drummes, King, Queene,
Polonius, Ophelia._]
_Ham._ They are comming to the Play: I must
[Sidenote: 60, 156, 178] be idle.[7] Get you a place.
_King._ How fares our Cosin _Hamlet_?
_Ham._ Excellent Ifaith, of the Camelions dish:
[Sidenote: 154] I eate the Ayre promise-cramm'd,[8] you cannot feed
Capons so.[9]
_King._ I haue nothing with this answer _Hamlet_,
these words are not mine.[10]
_Ham._ No, nor mine. Now[11] my Lord, you
plaid once i'th'Vniuersity, you say?
_Polon._ That I did my Lord, and was accounted [Sidenote: did I]
a good Actor.
[Footnote 1: Here follows in _1st Q._
Marke thou the King, doe but obserue his lookes,
For I mine eies will riuet to his face:
[Sidenote: 112] And if he doe not bleach, and change at that,
It is a damned ghost that we haue seene.
_Horatio_, haue a care, obserue him well.
_Hor_. My lord, mine eies shall still be on his face,
And not the smallest alteration
That shall appeare in him, but I shall note it.]
[Footnote 2: I take 'my' to be right: 'watch my uncle with the
comment--the discriminating judgment, that is--of _my_ soul, more intent
than thine.']
[Footnote 3: He has then, ere this, taken Horatio into his
confidence--so far at least as the Ghost's communication concerning the
murder.]
[Footnote 4: a dissyllable: _stithy_, _anvil_; Scotch, _studdy_.
Hamlet's doubt is here very evident: he hopes he may find it a false
ghost: what good man, what good son would not? He has clear cause and
reason--it is his duty to delay. That the cause and reason and duty are
not invariably clear to Hamlet himself--not clear in every mood, is
another thing. Wavering conviction, doubt of evidence, the corollaries
of assurance, the oppression of misery, a sense of the worthlessness of
the world's whole economy--each demanding delay, might yet well, all
together, affect the man's feeling as mere causes of rather than reasons
for hesitation. The conscientiousness of Hamlet stands out the clearer
that, throughout, his dislike to his uncle, predisposing him to believe
any ill of him, is more than evident. By his incompetent or prejudiced
judges, Hamlet's accusations and justifications of himself are equally
placed to the _discredit_ of his account. They seem to think a man could
never accuse himself except he were in the wrong; therefore if ever he
excuses himself, he is the more certainly in the wrong: whatever point
may tell on the other side, it is to be disregarded.]
[Footnote 5: 'bring our two judgments together for comparison.']
[Footnote 6: 'in order to judge of the significance of his looks and
behaviour.']
[Footnote 7: Does he mean _foolish_, that is, _lunatic_? or
_insouciant_, and _unpreoccupied_?]
[Footnote 8: The king asks Hamlet how he _fares_--that is, how he gets
on; Hamlet pretends to think he has asked him about his diet. His talk
has at once become wild; ere the king enters he has donned his cloak of
madness. Here he confesses to ambition--will favour any notion
concerning himself rather than give ground for suspecting the real state
of his mind and feeling.
In the _1st Q._ 'the Camelions dish' almost appears to mean the play,
not the king's promises.]
[Footnote 9: In some places they push food down the throats of the
poultry they want to fatten, which is technically, I believe, called
_cramming_ them.]
[Footnote 10: 'You have not taken me with you; I have not laid hold of
your meaning; I have nothing by your answer.' 'Your words have not
become my property; they have not given themselves to me in their
meaning.']
[Footnote 11: _Point thus_: 'No, nor mine now.--My Lord,' &c. '--not
mine, now I have uttered them, for so I have given them away.' Or does
he mean to disclaim their purport?]
[Page 138]
_Ham._ And[1] what did you enact?
_Pol._ I did enact _Iulius Caesar_, I was kill'd
i'th'Capitol: _Brutus_ kill'd me.
_Ham._ It was a bruite part of him, to kill so
Capitall a Calfe there.[2] Be the Players ready?
_Rosin._ I my Lord, they stay vpon your patience.
_Qu._ Come hither my good _Hamlet_, sit by me. [Sidenote: my deere]
_Ham._ No good Mother, here's Mettle more attractiue.[3]
_Pol._ Oh ho, do you marke that?[4]
_Ham._ Ladie, shall I lye in your Lap?
_Ophe._ No my Lord.
_Ham._ I meane, my Head vpon your Lap?[5]
_Ophe._ I my Lord.[6]
_Ham._ Do you thinke I meant Country[7] matters?
_Ophe._ I thinke nothing, my Lord.
_Ham._ That's a faire thought to ly between
Maids legs.
_Ophe._ What is my Lord?
_Ham._ Nothing.
_Ophe._ You are merrie, my Lord?
_Ham._ Who I?
_Ophe._ I my Lord.[8]
_Ham._ Oh God, your onely Iigge-maker[9]: what
should a man do, but be merrie. For looke you
how cheerefully my Mother lookes, and my Father
dyed within's two Houres.
[Sidenote: 65] _Ophe._ Nay, 'tis twice two moneths, my Lord.[10]
_Ham._ So long? Nay then let the Diuel weare
[Sidenote: 32] blacke, for Ile haue a suite of Sables.[11] Oh
Heauens! dye two moneths ago, and not forgotten
yet?[12] Then there's hope, a great mans Memorie,
may out-liue his life halfe a yeare: But byrlady [Sidenote: ber Lady a]
he must builde Churches then: or else shall he [Sidenote: shall a]
[Footnote 1: 'And ' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: Emphasis on _there_. 'There' is not in _1st Q._ Hamlet
means it was a desecration of the Capitol.]
[Footnote 3: He cannot be familiar with his mother, so avoids her--will
not sit by her, cannot, indeed, bear to be near her. But he loves and
hopes in Ophelia still.]
[Footnote 4: '--Did I not tell you so?']
[Footnote 5: This speech and the next are not in the _Q._, but are
shadowed in the _1st Q._]
[Footnote 6: _--consenting_.]
[Footnote 7: In _1st Quarto_, 'contrary.'
Hamlet hints, probing her character--hoping her unable to understand. It
is the festering soreness of his feeling concerning his mother, making
him doubt with the haunting agony of a loathed possibility, that
prompts, urges, forces from him his ugly speeches--nowise to be
justified, only to be largely excused in his sickening consciousness of
his mother's presence. Such pain as Hamlet's, the ferment of subverted
love and reverence, may lightly bear the blame of hideous manners,
seeing, they spring from no wantonness, but from the writhing of
tortured and helpless Purity. Good manners may be as impossible as out
of place in the presence of shameless evil.]
[Footnote 8: Ophelia bears with him for his own and his madness' sake,
and is less uneasy because of the presence of his mother. To account
_satisfactorily_ for Hamlet's speeches to her, is not easy. The freer
custom of the age, freer to an extent hardly credible in this, will not
_satisfy_ the lovers of Hamlet, although it must have _some_ weight. The
necessity for talking madly, because he is in the presence of his uncle,
and perhaps, to that end, for uttering whatever comes to him, without
pause for choice, might give us another hair's-weight. Also he may be
supposed confident that Ophelia would not understand him, while his
uncle would naturally set such worse than improprieties down to wildest
madness. But I suspect that here as before (123), Shakepere would show
Hamlet's soul full of bitterest, passionate loathing; his mother has
compelled him to think of horrors and women together, so turning their
preciousness into a disgust; and this feeling, his assumed madhess
allows him to indulge and partly relieve by utterance. Could he have
provoked Ophelia to rebuke him with the severity he courted, such rebuke
would have been joy to him. Perhaps yet a small addition of weight to
the scale of his excuse may be found in his excitement about his play,
and the necessity for keeping down that excitement. Suggestion is easier
than judgment.]
[Footnote 9: 'here's for the jig-maker! he's the right man!' Or perhaps
he is claiming the part as his own: 'I am your only jig-maker!']
[Footnote 10: This needs not be taken for the exact time. The statement
notwithstanding suggests something like two months between the first and
second acts, for in the first, Hamlet says his father has not been dead
two months. 24. We are not bound to take it for more than a rough
approximation; Ophelia would make the best of things for the queen, who
is very kind to her.]
[Footnote 11: the fur of the sable.]
[Footnote 12: _1st Q._
nay then there's some
Likelyhood, a gentlemans death may outliue memorie,
But by my faith &c.]
[Page 140]
suffer not thinking on, with the Hoby-horsse,
whose Epitaph is, For o, For o, the Hoby-horse
is forgot.
_Hoboyes play. The dumbe shew enters._
[Sidenote: _The Trumpets sounds. Dumbe show followes._]
_Enter a King and Queene, very louingly; the Queene
[Sidenote: _and a Queene, the queen_]
embracing him. She kneeles, and makes shew of
[Sidenote: _embracing him, and he her, he takes her up, and_]
Protestation vnto him. He takes her vp, and
declines his head vpon her neck. Layes him downe
[Sidenote: _necke, he lyes_]
vpon a Banke of Flowers. She seeing him
a-sleepe, leaues him. Anon comes in a Fellow,
[Sidenote: _anon come in an other man_,]
takes off his Crowne, kisses it, and powres poyson
[Sidenote: _it, pours_]
in the Kings eares, and Exits. The Queene returnes,
[Sidenote: _the sleepers eares, and leaues him:_]
findes the King dead, and makes passionate [Sidenote: dead, makes]
Action. The Poysoner, with some two or
[Sidenote: _some three or foure come in againe, seeme
to condole_]
three Mutes comes in againe, seeming to lament
with her. The dead body is carried away: The
[Sidenote: _with her, the_]
Poysoner Wooes the Queene with Gifts, she
[Sidenote: 54] seemes loath and vnwilling awhile, but in the end,
[Sidenote: _seemes harsh awhile_,]
accepts his loue.[1] _Exeunt[2]_ [Sidenote: _accepts loue._]
_Ophe._ What meanes this, my Lord?
_Ham._ Marry this is Miching _Malicho_[3] that
[Sidenote: this munching _Mallico_]
meanes Mischeefe.
_Ophe._ Belike this shew imports the Argument
of the Play?
_Ham._ We shall know by these Fellowes:
[Sidenote: this fellow, _Enter Prologue_]
the Players cannot keepe counsell, they'l tell
[Sidenote: keepe, they'le]
all.[4]
_Ophe._ Will they tell vs what this shew meant? [Sidenote: Will a tell]
_Ham._ I, or any shew that you'l shew him. Bee [Sidenote: you will]
not you asham'd to shew, hee'l not shame to tell
you what it meanes.
_Ophe._ You are naught,[5] you are naught, Ile
marke the Play.
[Footnote 1: The king, not the queen, is aimed at. Hamlet does not
forget the injunction of the Ghost to spare his mother. 54.
The king should be represented throughout as struggling not to betray
himself.]
[Footnote 2: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 3: _skulking mischief_: the latter word is Spanish, To _mich_
is to _play truant_.
How tenderly her tender hands betweene
In yvorie cage she did the micher bind.
_The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_, page 84.
My _Reader_ tells me the word is still in use among printers, with the
pronunciation _mike_, and the meaning _to skulk_ or _idle_.]
[Footnote 4: --their part being speech, that of the others only dumb
show.]
[Footnote 5: _naughty_: persons who do not behave well are treated as if
they were not--are made nought of--are set at nought; hence our word
naughty.
'Be naught awhile' (_As You Like It_, i. 1)--'take yourself away;' 'be
nobody;' 'put yourself in the corner.']
[Page 142]
_Enter[1] Prologue._
_For vs, and for our Tragedie,
Heere stooping to your Clemencie:
We begge your hearing Patientlie._
_Ham._ Is this a Prologue, or the Poesie[2] of a [Sidenote: posie]
Ring?
_Ophe._ 'Tis[3] briefe my Lord.
_Ham._ As Womans loue.
[4] _Enter King and his Queene._ [Sidenote: _and Queene_]
[Sidenote: 234] _King._ Full thirtie times[5] hath Phoebus Cart gon
round,
Neptunes salt Wash, and _Tellus_ Orbed ground: [Sidenote: orb'd the]
And thirtie dozen Moones with borrowed sheene,
About the World haue times twelue thirties beene,
Since loue our hearts, and _Hymen_ did our hands
Vnite comutuall, in most sacred Bands.[6]
_Bap._ So many iournies may the Sunne and Moone [Sidenote: _Quee._]
Make vs againe count o're, ere loue be done.
But woe is me, you are so sicke of late,
So farre from cheere, and from your forme state,
[Sidenote: from our former state,]
That I distrust you: yet though I distrust,
Discomfort you (my Lord) it nothing must:
[A]
For womens Feare and Loue, holds quantitie, [Sidenote: And womens hold]
In neither ought, or in extremity:[7]
[Sidenote: Eyther none, in neither]
Now what my loue is, proofe hath made you know,
[Sidenote: my Lord is proofe]
And as my Loue is siz'd, my Feare is so. [Sidenote: ciz'd,]
[B]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
For women feare too much, euen as they loue,]
[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--
Where loue is great, the litlest doubts are feare,
Where little feares grow great, great loue growes there.]
[Footnote 1: _Enter_ not in _Q._]
[Footnote 2: Commonly _posy_: a little sentence engraved inside a
ring--perhaps originally a tiny couplet, therefore _poesy_, _1st Q._, 'a
poesie for a ring?']
[Footnote 3: Emphasis on ''Tis.']
[Footnote 4: Very little blank verse of any kind was written before
Shakspere's; the usual form of dramatic verse was long, irregular, rimed
lines: the Poet here uses the heroic couplet, which gives a resemblance
to the older plays by its rimes, while also by its stately and
monotonous movement the play-play is differenced from the play into
which it is introduced, and caused to _look_ intrinsically like a play
in relation to the rest of the play of which it is part. In other words,
it stands off from the surrounding play, slightly elevated both by form
and formality. 103.]
[Footnote 5: _1st Q._
_Duke._ Full fortie yeares are past, their date is gone,
Since happy time ioyn'd both our hearts as one:
And now the blood that fill'd my youthfull veines,
Ruunes weakely in their pipes, and all the straines
Of musicke, which whilome pleasde mine eare,
Is now a burthen that Age cannot beare:
And therefore sweete Nature must pay his due,
To heauen must I, and leaue the earth with you.]
[Footnote 6: Here Hamlet gives the time his father and mother had been
married, and Shakspere points at Hamlet's age. 234. The Poet takes
pains to show his hero's years.]
[Footnote 7: This line, whose form in the _Quarto_ is very careless,
seems but a careless correction, leaving the sense as well as the
construction obscure: 'Women's fear and love keep the scales level; in
_neither_ is there ought, or in _both_ there is fulness;' or: 'there is
no moderation in their fear and their love; either they have _none_ of
either, or they have _excess_ of both.' Perhaps he tried to express both
ideas at once. But compression is always in danger of confusion.]
[Page 144]
_King._ Faith I must leaue thee Loue, and shortly too:
My operant Powers my Functions leaue to do: [Sidenote: their functions]
And thou shall liue in this faire world behinde,
Honour'd, belou'd, and haply, one as kinde.
For Husband shalt thou----
_Bap._ Oh confound the rest: [Sidenote: _Quee._]
Such Loue, must needs be Treason in my brest:
In second Husband, let me be accurst,
None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.[1]
_Ham._ Wormwood, Wormwood. [Sidenote: _Ham_. That's wormwood[2]]
_Bapt._ The instances[3] that second Marriage moue,
Are base respects of Thrift,[4] but none of Loue.
A second time, I kill my Husband dead,
When second Husband kisses me in Bed.
_King._ I do beleeue you. Think what now you speak:
But what we do determine, oft we breake:
Purpose is but the slaue to Memorie,[5]
Of violent Birth, but poore validitie:[6]
Which now like Fruite vnripe stickes on the Tree,
[Sidenote: now the fruite]
But fall vnshaken, when they mellow bee.[7]
Most necessary[8] 'tis, that we forget
To pay our selues, what to our selues is debt:
What to our selues in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of other Greefe or Ioy, [Sidenote: eyther,]
Their owne ennactors with themselues destroy: [Sidenote: ennactures]
Where Ioy most Reuels, Greefe doth most lament;
Greefe ioyes, Ioy greeues on slender accident.[9]
[Sidenote: Greefe ioy ioy griefes]
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That euen our Loues should with our Fortunes change.
For 'tis a question left vs yet to proue,
Whether Loue lead Fortune, or else Fortune Loue.
[Footnote 1: Is this to be supposed in the original play, or inserted by
Hamlet, embodying an unuttered and yet more fearful doubt with regard to
his mother?]
[Footnote 2: This speech is on the margin in the _Quarto_, and the
Queene's speech runs on without break.]
[Footnote 3: the urgencies; the motives.]
[Footnote 4: worldly advantage.]
[Footnote 5: 'Purpose holds but while Memory holds.']
[Footnote 6: 'Purpose is born in haste, but is of poor strength to
live.']
[Footnote 7: Here again there is carelessness of construction, as if the
Poet had not thought it worth his while to correct this subsidiary
portion of the drama. I do not see how to lay the blame on the
printer.--'Purpose is a mere fruit, which holds on or falls only as it
must. The element of persistency is not in it.']
[Footnote 8: unavoidable--coming of necessity.]
[Footnote 9: 'Grief turns into joy, and joy into grief, on a slight
chance.']
[Page 146]
The great man downe, you marke his fauourites flies,
[Sidenote: fauourite]
The poore aduanc'd, makes Friends of Enemies:
And hitherto doth Loue on Fortune tend,
For who not needs, shall neuer lacke a Frend:
And who in want a hollow Friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his Enemie.[1]
But orderly to end, where I begun,
Our Willes and Fates do so contrary run,
That our Deuices still are ouerthrowne,
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our owne.[2]
[Sidenote: 246] So thinke thou wilt no second Husband wed.
But die thy thoughts, when thy first Lord is dead.
_Bap._ Nor Earth to giue me food, nor Heauen light, [Sidenote: _Quee._]
Sport and repose locke from me day and night:[3]
[A]
Each opposite that blankes the face of ioy,
Meet what I would haue well, and it destroy:
Both heere, and hence, pursue me lasting strife,[4]
If once a Widdow, euer I be Wife.[5] [Sidenote: once I be a | be a wife]
_Ham._ If she should breake it now.[6]
_King._ 'Tis deepely sworne:
Sweet, leaue me heere a while,
My spirits grow dull, and faine I would beguile
The tedious day with sleepe.
_Qu._ Sleepe rocke thy Braine, [Sidenote: Sleepes[7]]
And neuer come mischance betweene vs twaine,
_Exit_ [Sidenote: _Exeunt._]
_Ham._ Madam, how like you this Play?
_Qu._ The Lady protests to much me thinkes, [Sidenote: doth protest]
_Ham._ Oh but shee'l keepe her word.
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:_--
To desperation turne my trust and hope,[8]
And Anchors[9] cheere in prison be my scope]
[Footnote 1: All that is wanted to make a real enemy of an unreal friend
is the seasoning of a requested favour.]
[Footnote 2: 'Our thoughts are ours, but what will come of them we
cannot tell.']
[Footnote 3: 'May Day and Night lock from me sport and repose.']
[Footnote 4: 'May strife pursue me in the world and out of it.']
[Footnote 5: In all this, there is nothing to reflect on his mother
beyond what everybody knew.]
[Footnote 6: _This speech is in the margin of the Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 8: 'May my trust and hope turn to despair.']
[Footnote 9: an anchoret's.]
[Page 148]
_King_. Haue you heard the Argument, is there
no Offence in't?[1]
_Ham_. No, no, they do but iest, poyson in iest,
no Offence i'th'world.[2]
_King_. What do you call the Play?
_Ham._ The Mouse-trap: Marry how? Tropically:[3]
This Play is the Image of a murder done
in _Vienna: Gonzago_ is the Dukes name, his wife
_Baptista_: you shall see anon: 'tis a knauish peece
of worke: But what o'that? Your Maiestie, and [Sidenote: of that?]
wee that haue free soules, it touches vs not: let the
gall'd iade winch: our withers are vnrung.[4]
_Enter Lucianus._[5]
This is one _Lucianus_ nephew to the King.
_Ophe_. You are a good Chorus, my Lord.
[Sidenote: are as good as a Chorus]
_Ham_. I could interpret betweene you and your
loue: if I could see the Puppets dallying.[6]
_Ophe_. You are keene my Lord, you are keene.
_Ham_. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge.
[Sidenote: mine]
_Ophe_. Still better and worse.
_Ham_. So you mistake Husbands.[7] [Sidenote: mistake your]
Begin Murderer. Pox, leaue thy damnable Faces,
[Sidenote: murtherer, leave]
and begin. Come, the croaking Rauen doth bellow
for Reuenge.[8]
_Lucian_. Thoughts blacke, hands apt,
Drugges fit, and Time agreeing:
Confederate season, else, no Creature seeing:[9] [Sidenote: Considerat]
Thou mixture ranke, of Midnight Weeds collected,
With Hecats Ban, thrice blasted, thrice infected, [Sidenote: invected]
Thy naturall Magicke, and dire propertie,
On wholsome life, vsurpe immediately. [Sidenote: vsurps]
_Powres the poyson in his eares_.[10]
_Ham_. He poysons him i'th Garden for's estate:
[Sidenote: A poysons | for his]
[Footnote 1: --said, perhaps, to Polonius. Is there a lapse here in the
king's self-possession? or is this speech only an outcome of its
completeness--a pretence of fearing the play may glance at the queen for
marrying him?]
[Footnote 2: 'It is but jest; don't be afraid: there is no reality in
it'--as one might say to a child seeing a play.]
[Footnote 3: Figuratively: from _trope_. In the _1st Q._ the passage
stands thus:
_Ham_. Mouse-trap: mary how trapically: this play is
The image of a murder done in _guyana_,]
[Footnote 4: Here Hamlet endangers himself to force the king to
self-betrayal.]
[Footnote 5: _In Q. after next line._]
[Footnote 6: In a puppet-play, if she and her love were the puppets, he
could supply the speeches.]
[Footnote 7: Is this a misprint for 'so you _must take_ husbands'--for
better and worse, namely? or is it a thrust at his mother--'So you
mis-take husbands, going from the better to a worse'? In _1st Q._: 'So
you must take your husband, begin.']
[Footnote 8: Probably a mocking parody or burlesque of some well-known
exaggeration--such as not a few of Marlowe's lines.]
[Footnote 9: 'none beholding save the accomplice hour:'.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Q._]
[Page 150]
His name's _Gonzago_: the Story is extant and writ
[Sidenote: and written]
in choyce Italian. You shall see anon how the
[Sidenote: in very choice]
Murtherer gets the loue of _Gonzago's_ wife.
_Ophe_. The King rises.[1]
_Ham_. What, frighted with false fire.[2]
_Qu_. How fares my Lord?
_Pol_. Giue o're the Play.
_King_. Giue me some Light. Away.[3]
_All_. Lights, Lights, Lights. _Exeunt_
[Sidenote: _Pol. | Exeunt all but Ham. & Horatio._]
_Manet Hamlet & Horatio._
_Ham_.[4] Why let the strucken Deere go weepe,
The Hart vngalled play:
For some must watch, while some must sleepe;
So runnes the world away.
Would not this[5] Sir, and a Forrest of Feathers, if
the rest of my Fortunes turne Turke with me; with
two Prouinciall Roses[6] on my rac'd[7] Shooes, get me
[Sidenote: with prouinciall | raz'd]
a Fellowship[8] in a crie[9] of Players sir. [Sidenote: Players?]
_Hor_. Halfe a share.
_Ham_. A whole one I,[10]
[11] For thou dost know: Oh Damon deere,
This Realme dismantled was of Loue himselfe,
And now reignes heere.
A verie verie Paiocke.[12]
_Hora_. You might haue Rim'd.[13]
_Ham_. Oh good _Horatio_, Ile take the Ghosts
word for a thousand pound. Did'st perceiue?
_Hora_. Verie well my Lord.
_Ham_. Vpon the talke of the poysoning?
_Hora_. I did verie well note him.
_Enter Rosincrance and Guildensterne_.[14]
_Ham_. Oh, ha? Come some Musick.[15] Come the Recorders:
[Sidenote: Ah ha,]
[Footnote 1: --in ill suppressed agitation.]
[Footnote 2: _This speech is not in the Quarto_.--Is the 'false fire'
what we now call _stage-fire_?--'What! frighted at a mere play?']
[Footnote 3: The stage--the stage-stage, that is--alone is lighted. Does
the king stagger out blindly, madly, shaking them from him? I think
not--but as if he were taken suddenly ill.]
[Footnote 4: --_singing_--that he may hide his agitation, restrain
himself, and be regarded as careless-mad, until all are safely gone.]
[Footnote 5: --his success with the play.]
[Footnote 6: 'Roses of Provins,' we are told--probably artificial.]
[Footnote 7: The meaning is very doubtful. But for the _raz'd_ of the
_Quarto_, I should suggest _lac'd_. Could it mean _cut low_?]
[Footnote 8: _a share_, as immediately below.]
[Footnote 9: A _cry_ of hounds is a pack. So in _King Lear_, act v. sc.
3, 'packs and sects of great ones.']
[Footnote 10: _I_ for _ay_--that is, _yes_!--He insists on a whole
share.]
[Footnote 11: Again he takes refuge in singing.]
[Footnote 12: The lines are properly measured in the _Quarto_:
For thou doost know oh Damon deere
This Realme dismantled was
Of _Ioue_ himselfe, and now raignes heere
A very very paiock.
By _Jove_, he of course intends _his father_. 170. What 'Paiocke' means,
whether _pagan_, or _peacock_, or _bajocco_, matters nothing, since it
is intended for nonsense.]
[Footnote 13: To rime with _was_, Horatio naturally expected _ass_ to
follow as the end of the last line: in the wanton humour of his
excitement, Hamlet disappointed him.]
[Footnote 14: _In Q. after next speech_.]
[Footnote 15: He hears Rosincrance and Guildensterne coming, and changes
his behaviour--calling for music to end the play with. Either he wants,
under its cover, to finish his talk with Horatio in what is for the
moment the safest place, or he would mask himself before his two false
friends. Since the departure of the king--I would suggest--he has borne
himself with evident apprehension, every now and then glancing about
him, as fearful of what may follow his uncle's recognition of the intent
of the play. Three times he has burst out singing.
Or might not his whole carriage, with the call for music, be the outcome
of a grimly merry satisfaction at the success of his scheme?]
[Page 152]
For if the King like not the Comedie,
Why then belike he likes it not perdie.[1]
Come some Musicke.
_Guild._ Good my Lord, vouchsafe me a word
with you.
_Ham._ Sir, a whole History.
_Guild._ The King, sir.
_Ham._ I sir, what of him?
_Guild._ Is in his retyrement, maruellous distemper'd.
_Ham._ With drinke Sir?
_Guild._ No my Lord, rather with choller.[2] [Sidenote: Lord, with]
_Ham._ Your wisedome should shew it selfe more
richer, to signifie this to his Doctor: for me to
[Sidenote: the Doctor,]
put him to his Purgation, would perhaps plundge
him into farre more Choller.[2] [Sidenote: into more]
_Guild._ Good my Lord put your discourse into
some frame,[3] and start not so wildely from my [Sidenote: stare]
affayre.
_Ham._ I am tame Sir, pronounce.
_Guild._ The Queene your Mother, in most great
affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
_Ham._ You are welcome.[4]
_Guild._ Nay, good my Lord, this courtesie is
not of the right breed. If it shall please you to
make me a wholsome answer, I will doe your
Mothers command'ment: if not, your pardon, and
my returne shall bee the end of my Businesse. [Sidenote: of busines.]
_Ham._ Sir, I cannot.
_Guild._ What, my Lord?
_Ham._ Make you a wholsome answere: my wits
diseas'd. But sir, such answers as I can make, you [Sidenote: answere]
shal command: or rather you say, my Mother: [Sidenote: rather as you]
therfore no more but to the matter. My Mother
you say.
[Footnote 1: These two lines he may be supposed to sing.]
[Footnote 2: Choler means bile, and thence anger. Hamlet in his answer
plays on the two meanings:--'to give him the kind of medicine I think
fit for him, would perhaps much increase his displeasure.']
[Footnote 3: some logical consistency.]
[Footnote 4: _--with an exaggeration of courtesy_.]
[Page 154]
_Rosin._ Then thus she sayes: your behauior
hath stroke her into amazement, and admiration.[1]
_Ham._ Oh wonderfull Sonne, that can so astonish [Sidenote: stonish]
a Mother. But is there no sequell at the heeles
of this Mothers admiration? [Sidenote: admiration, impart.]
_Rosin._ She desires to speake with you in her
Closset, ere you go to bed.
_Ham._ We shall obey, were she ten times our
Mother. Haue you any further Trade with vs?
_Rosin._ My Lord, you once did loue me.
_Ham._ So I do still, by these pickers and [Sidenote: And doe still]
stealers.[2]
_Rosin._ Good my Lord, what is your cause of
distemper? You do freely barre the doore of your
[Sidenote: surely barre the door vpon your]
owne Libertie, if you deny your greefes to your your
Friend.
_Ham._ Sir I lacke Aduancement.
_Rosin._ How can that be, when you haue the
[Sidenote: 136] voyce of the King himselfe, for your Succession in
Denmarke?
[3]
_Ham._ I, but while the grasse growes,[4] the [Sidenote: I sir,]
Prouerbe is something musty.
_Enter one with a Recorder._[5]
O the Recorder. Let me see, to withdraw with,
[Sidenote: ô the Recorders, let mee see one, to]
you,[6] why do you go about to recouer the winde of
mee,[7] as if you would driue me into a toyle?[8]
_Guild._ O my Lord, if my Dutie be too bold,
my loue is too vnmannerly.[9]
_Ham._ I do not well vnderstand that.[10] Will you,
play vpon this Pipe?
_Guild._ My Lord, I cannot.
_Ham._ I pray you.
_Guild._ Beleeue me, I cannot.
_Ham._ I do beseech you.
[Footnote 1: wonder, astonishment.]
[Footnote 2: He swears an oath that will not hold, being by the hand of
a thief.
In the Catechism: 'Keep my hands from picking and stealing.']
[Footnote 3: Here in Quarto, _Enter the Players with Recorders._]
[Footnote 4: '... the colt starves.']
[Footnote 5: _Not in Q._ The stage-direction of the _Folio_ seems
doubtful. Hamlet has called for the orchestra: we may either suppose one
to precede the others, or that the rest are already scattered; but the
_Quarto_ direction and reading seem better.]
[Footnote 6: _--taking Guildensterne aside_.]
[Footnote 7: 'to get to windward of me.']
[Footnote 8: 'Why do you seek to get the advantage of me, as if you
would drive me to betray myself?'--Hunters, by sending on the wind their
scent to the game, drive it into their toils.]
[Footnote 9: Guildensterne tries euphuism, but hardly succeeds. He
intends to plead that any fault in his approach must be laid to the
charge of his love. _Duty_ here means _homage_--so used still by the
common people.]
[Footnote 10: --said with a smile of gentle contempt.]
[Page 156]
_Guild_. I know no touch of it, my Lord.
_Ham_. Tis as easie as lying: gouerne these [Sidenote: It is]
Ventiges with your finger and thumbe, giue it
[Sidenote: fingers, & the vmber, giue]
breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most
[Sidenote: most eloquent]
excellent Musicke. Looke you, these are the
stoppes.
_Guild_. But these cannot I command to any
vtterance of hermony, I haue not the skill.
_Ham_. Why looke you now, how vnworthy a
thing you make of me: you would play vpon mee;
you would seeme to know my stops: you would
pluck out the heart of my Mysterie; you would
sound mee from my lowest Note, to the top of my
[Sidenote: note to my compasse]
Compasse: and there is much Musicke, excellent
Voice, in this little Organe, yet cannot you make
[Sidenote: it speak, s'hloud do you think I]
it. Why do you thinke, that I am easier to bee
plaid on, then a Pipe? Call me what Instrument
you will, though you can fret[1] me, you cannot
[Sidenote: you fret me not,]
[Sidenote: 184] play vpon me. God blesse you Sir.[2]
_Enter Polonius_.
_Polon_. My Lord; the Queene would speak
with you, and presently.
_Ham_. Do you see that Clowd? that's almost in [Sidenote: yonder clowd]
shape like a Camell. [Sidenote: shape of a]
_Polon_. By'th'Misse, and it's like a Camell [Sidenote: masse and tis,]
indeed.
_Ham_. Me thinkes it is like a Weazell.
_Polon_. It is back'd like a Weazell.
_Ham_. Or like a Whale?[3]
_Polon_. Verie like a Whale.[4]
_Ham_. Then will I come to my Mother, by and by: [Sidenote: I will]
[Sidenote: 60, 136, 178] They foole me to the top of my bent.[5]
I will come by and by.
[Footnote 1: --with allusion to the _frets_ or _stop-marks_ of a
stringed instrument.]
[Footnote 2: --_to Polonius_.]
[Footnote 3: There is nothing insanely arbitrary in these suggestions of
likeness; a cloud might very well be like every one of the three; the
camel has a hump, the weasel humps himself, and the whale is a hump.]
[Footnote 4: He humours him in everything, as he would a madman.]
[Footnote 5: Hamlet's cleverness in simulating madness is dwelt upon in
the old story. See '_Hystorie of Hamblet, prince of Denmarke_.']
[Page 158]
_Polon_.[1] I will say so. _Exit_.[1]
_Ham_.[1] By and by, is easily said. Leaue me Friends:
'Tis now the verie witching time of night,
When Churchyards yawne, and Hell it selfe breaths out
[Sidenote: brakes[2]]
Contagion to this world.[3] Now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter businesse as the day
[Sidenote: such busines as the bitter day]
Would quake to looke on.[4] Soft now, to my Mother:
Oh Heart, loose not thy Nature;[5] let not euer
The Soule of _Nero_[6] enter this firme bosome:
Let me be cruell, not vnnaturall.
[Sidenote: 172] I will speake Daggers[7] to her, but vse none:
[Sidenote: dagger]
My Tongue and Soule in this be Hypocrites.[8]
How in my words someuer she be shent,[9]
To giue them Seales,[10] neuer my Soule consent.[4]
[Sidenote: _Exit._]
_Enter King, Rosincrance, and Guildensterne_.
_King_. I like him not, nor stands it safe with vs,
To let his madnesse range.[11] Therefore prepare you,
[Sidenote: 167] I your Commission will forthwith dispatch,[12]
[Sidenote: 180] And he to England shall along with you:
The termes of our estate, may not endure[13]
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourely grow [Sidenote: so neer's as]
Out of his Lunacies. [Sidenote: his browes.]
_Guild_. We will our selues prouide:
Most holie and Religious feare it is[14]
To keepe those many many bodies safe
That liue and feede vpon your Maiestie.[15]
_Rosin_. The single
And peculiar[16] life is bound
With all the strength and Armour of the minde,
[Footnote 1: The _Quarto_, not having _Polon., Exit, or Ham._, and
arranging differently, reads thus:--
They foole me to the top of my bent, I will come by and by,
Leaue me friends.
I will, say so. By and by is easily said,
Tis now the very &c.]
[Footnote 2: _belches_.]
[Footnote 3: --thinking of what the Ghost had told him, perhaps: it was
the time when awful secrets wander about the world. Compare _Macbeth_,
act ii. sc. 1; also act iii. sc. 2.]
[Footnote 4: The assurance of his uncle's guilt, gained through the
effect of the play upon him, and the corroboration of his mother's guilt
by this partial confirmation of the Ghost's assertion, have once more
stirred in Hamlet the fierceness of vengeance. But here afresh comes
out the balanced nature of the man--say rather, the supremacy in him of
reason and will. His dear soul, having once become mistress of his
choice, remains mistress for ever. He _could_ drink hot blood, he
_could_ do bitter business, but he will carry himself as a son, and the
son of his father, _ought_ to carry himself towards a guilty
mother--_mother_ although guilty.]
[Footnote 5: Thus he girds himself for the harrowing interview. Aware of
the danger he is in of forgetting his duty to his mother, he strengthens
himself in filial righteousness, dreading to what word or deed a burst
of indignation might drive him. One of his troubles now is the way he
feels towards his mother.]
[Footnote 6: --who killed his mother.]
[Footnote 7: His words should be as daggers.]
[Footnote 8: _Pretenders_.]
[Footnote 9: _reproached_ or _rebuked_--though oftener _scolded_.]
[Footnote 10: 'to seal them with actions'--Actions are the seals to
words, and make them irrevocable.]
[Footnote 11: _walk at liberty_.]
[Footnote 12: _get ready_.]
[Footnote 13: He had, it would appear, taken them into his confidence in
the business; they knew what was to be in their commission, and were
thorough traitors to Hamlet.]
[Footnote 14: --holy and religious precaution for the sake of the many
depending on him.]
[Footnote 15: Is there not unconscious irony of their own parasitism
here intended?]
[Footnote 16: _private individual_.]
[Page 160]
To keepe it selfe from noyance:[1] but much more,
That Spirit, vpon whose spirit depends and rests
[Sidenote: whose weale depends]
The lives of many, the cease of Maiestie [Sidenote: cesse]
Dies not alone;[2] but like a Gulfe doth draw
What's neere it, with it. It is a massie wheele
[Sidenote: with it, or it is]
Fixt on the Somnet of the highest Mount,
To whose huge Spoakes, ten thousand lesser things
[Sidenote: hough spokes]
Are mortiz'd and adioyn'd: which when it falles,
Each small annexment, pettie consequence
Attends the boystrous Ruine. Neuer alone [Sidenote: raine,]
Did the King sighe, but with a generall grone. [Sidenote: but a[3]]
_King._[4] Arme you,[5] I pray you to this speedie Voyage;
[Sidenote: viage,]
For we will Fetters put vpon this feare,[6] [Sidenote: put about this]
Which now goes too free-footed.
_Both._ We will haste vs. _Exeunt Gent_
_Enter Polonius._
Pol. My Lord, he's going to his Mothers Closset:
Behinde the Arras Ile conuey my selfe
To heare the Processe. Ile warrant shee'l tax him home,
And as you said, and wisely was it said,
'Tis meete that some more audience then a Mother,
Since Nature makes them partiall, should o're-heare
The speech of vantage.[7] Fare you well my Liege,
Ile call vpon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know. [Sidenote: Exit.]
_King._ Thankes deere my Lord.
Oh my offence is ranke, it smels to heauen,
It hath the primall eldest curse vpon't,
A Brothers murther.[8] Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharpe as will:
My stronger guilt,[9] defeats my strong intent,
[Footnote 1: The philosophy of which self is the centre. The speeches of
both justify the king in proceeding to extremes against Hamlet.]
[Footnote 2: The same as to say: 'The passing, ceasing, or ending of
majesty dies not--is not finished or accomplished, without that of
others;' 'the dying ends or ceases not,' &c.]
[Footnote 3: The _but_ of the _Quarto_ is better, only the line halts.
It is the preposition, meaning _without_.]
[Footnote 4: _heedless of their flattery_. It is hardly applicable
enough to interest him.]
[Footnote 5: 'Provide yourselves.']
[Footnote 6: fear active; cause of fear; thing to be afraid of; the noun
of the verb _fear_, to _frighten_:
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
_A Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v. sc. i.]
[Footnote 7: Schmidt (_Sh. Lex._) says _of vantage_ means _to boot_. I
do not think he is right. Perhaps Polonius means 'from a position of
advantage.' Or perhaps 'The speech of vantage' is to be understood as
implying that Hamlet, finding himself in a position of vantage, that is,
alone with his mother, will probably utter himself with little
restraint.]
[Footnote 8: This is the first proof positive of his guilt accorded even
to the spectator of the play: here Claudius confesses not merely guilt
(118), but the very deed. Thoughtless critics are so ready to judge
another as if he knew all they know, that it is desirable here to remind
the student that only he, not Hamlet, hears this soliloquy. The
falseness of half the judgments in the world comes from our not taking
care and pains first to know accurately the actions, and then to
understand the mental and moral condition, of those we judge.]
[Footnote 9: --his present guilty indulgence--stronger than his strong
intent to pray.]
[Page 162]
And like a man to double businesse bound,[1]
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both[2] neglect; what if this cursed hand
Were thicker then it selfe with Brothers blood,
Is there not Raine enough in the sweet Heauens
To wash it white as Snow? Whereto serues mercy,
But to confront the visage of Offence?
And what's in Prayer, but this two-fold force,
To be fore-stalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon'd being downe? Then Ile looke vp, [Sidenote: pardon]
My fault is past. But oh, what forme of Prayer
Can serue my turne? Forgiue me my foule Murther:
That cannot be, since I am still possest
Of those effects for which I did the Murther.[3]
My Crowne, mine owne Ambition, and my Queene:
May one be pardon'd, and retaine th'offence?
In the corrupted currants of this world,
Offences gilded hand may shoue by Iustice [Sidenote: showe]
And oft 'tis seene, the wicked prize it selfe
Buyes out the Law; but 'tis not so aboue,
There is no shuffling, there the Action lyes
In his true Nature, and we our selues compell'd
Euen to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To giue in euidence. What then? What rests?
Try what Repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?[4]
Oh wretched state! Oh bosome, blacke as death!
Oh limed[5] soule, that strugling to be free,
Art more ingag'd[6]: Helpe Angels, make assay:[7]
Bow stubborne knees, and heart with strings of Steele,
Be soft as sinewes of the new-borne Babe,
All may be well.
[Footnote 1: Referring to his double guilt--the one crime past, the
other in continuance.
Here is the corresponding passage in the _1st Q._, with the adultery
plainly confessed:--
_Enter the King._
_King_. O that this wet that falles vpon my face
Would wash the crime cleere from my conscience!
When I looke vp to heauen, I see my trespasse,
The earth doth still crie out vpon my fact,
Pay me the murder of a brother and a king,
And the adulterous fault I haue committed:
O these are sinnes that are vnpardonable:
Why say thy sinnes were blacker then is ieat,
Yet may contrition make them as white as snowe:
I but still to perseuer in a sinne,
It is an act gainst the vniuersall power,
Most wretched man, stoope, bend thee to thy prayer,
Aske grace of heauen to keepe thee from despaire.]
[Footnote 2: both crimes.]
[Footnote 3: He could repent of and pray forgiveness for the murder, if
he could repent of the adultery and incest, and give up the queen. It is
not the sins they have done, but the sins they will not leave, that damn
men. 'This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.'
The murder deeply troubled him; the adultery not so much; the incest and
usurpation mainly as interfering with the forgiveness of the murder.]
[Footnote 4: Even hatred of crime committed is not repentance:
repentance is the turning away from wrong doing: 'Cease to do evil;
learn to do well.']
[Footnote 5: --caught and held by crime, as a bird by bird-lime.]
[Footnote 6: entangled.]
[Footnote 7: _said to his knees_. Point thus:--'Helpe Angels! Make
assay--bow, stubborne knees!']
[Page 164]
_Enter Hamlet_.
_Ham_.[1] Now might I do it pat, now he is praying,
[Sidenote: doe it, but now a is a praying,]
And now Ile doo't, and so he goes to Heauen, [Sidenote: so a goes]
And so am I reueng'd: that would be scann'd, [Sidenote: reuendge,]
A Villaine killes my Father, and for that
I his foule Sonne, do this same Villaine send [Sidenote: sole sonne]
To heauen. Oh this is hyre and Sallery, not Reuenge.
[Sidenote: To heauen. Why, this is base and silly, not]
He tooke my Father grossely, full of bread, [Sidenote: A tooke]
[Sidenote: 54, 262] With all his Crimes broad blowne, as fresh as May,
[Sidenote: as flush as]
And how his Audit stands, who knowes, saue Heauen:[2]
But in our circumstance and course of thought
'Tis heauie with him: and am I then reueng'd,
To take him in the purging of his Soule,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No.
Vp Sword, and know thou a more horrid hent[3]
When he is drunke asleepe: or in his Rage,
Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed,
At gaming, swearing, or about some acte [Sidenote: At game a swearing,]
That ha's no rellish of Saluation in't,
Then trip him,[4] that his heeles may kicke at Heauen,
And that his Soule may be as damn'd and blacke
As Hell, whereto it goes.[5] My Mother stayes,[6]
This Physicke but prolongs thy sickly dayes.[7]
_Exit_.
_King_. My words flye vp, my thoughts remain below,
Words without thoughts, neuer to Heauen go.[8]
_Exit_.
_Enter Queene and Polonius_. [Sidenote: _Enter Gertrard and_]
_Pol_. He will come straight: [Sidenote: A will]
Looke you lay home to him
[Footnote 1: In the _1st Q._ this speech commences with, 'I so, come
forth and worke thy last,' evidently addressed to his sword; afterwards,
having changed his purpose, he says, 'no, get thee vp agen.']
[Footnote 2: This indicates doubt of the Ghost still. He is unwilling to
believe in him.]
[Footnote 3: _grasp_. This is the only instance I know of _hent_ as a
noun. The verb _to hent, to lay hold of_, is not so rare. 'Wait till
thou be aware of a grasp with a more horrid purpose in it.']
[Footnote 4: --still addressed to his sword.]
[Footnote 5: Are we to take Hamlet's own presentment of his reasons as
exhaustive? Doubtless to kill him at his prayers, whereupon, after the
notions of the time, he would go to heaven, would be anything but
justice--the murdered man in hell--the murderer in heaven! But it is
easy to suppose Hamlet finding it impossible to slay a man on his
knees--and that from behind: thus in the unseen Presence, he was in
sanctuary, and the avenger might well seek reason or excuse for not
_then_, not _there_ executing the decree.]
[Footnote 6: 'waits for me.']
[Footnote 7: He seems now to have made up his mind, and to await only
fit time and opportunity; but he is yet to receive confirmation strong
as holy writ.
This is the first chance Hamlet has had--within the play--of killing the
king, and any imputation of faulty irresolution therein is simply silly.
It shows the soundness of Hamlet's reason, and the steadiness of his
will, that he refuses to be carried away by passion, or the temptation
of opportunity. The sight of the man on his knees might well start fresh
doubt of his guilt, or even wake the thought of sparing a repentant
sinner. He knows also that in taking vengeance on her husband he could
not avoid compromising his mother. Besides, a man like Hamlet could not
fail to perceive how the killing of his uncle, and in such an attitude,
would look to others.
It may be judged, however, that the reason he gives to himself for not
slaying the king, was only an excuse, that his soul revolted from the
idea of assassination, and was calmed in a measure by the doubt whether
a man could thus pray--in supposed privacy, we must remember--and be a
murderer. Not even yet had he proof _positive_, absolute, conclusive:
the king might well take offence at the play, even were he innocent; and
in any case Hamlet would desire _presentable_ proof: he had positively
none to show the people in justification of vengeance.
As in excitement a man's moods may be opalescent in their changes, and
as the most contrary feelings may coexist in varying degrees, all might
be in a mind, which I have suggested as present in that of Hamlet.
To have been capable of the kind of action most of his critics would
demand of a man, Hamlet must have been the weakling they imagine him.
When at length, after a righteous delay, partly willed, partly
inevitable, he holds documents in the king's handwriting as proofs of
his treachery--_proofs which can be shown_--giving him both right and
power over the life of the traitor, then, and only then, is he in cool
blood absolutely satisfied as to his duty--which conviction, working
with opportunity, and that opportunity plainly the last, brings the end;
the righteous deed is done, and done righteously, the doer blameless in
the doing of it. The Poet is not careful of what is called poetic
justice in his play, though therein is no failure; what he is careful of
is personal rightness in the hero of it.]
[Footnote 8: _1st Q_.
_King_ My wordes fly vp, my sinnes remaine below.
No King on earth is safe, if Gods his foe. _Exit King_.
So he goes to make himself safe by more crime! His repentance is mainly
fear.]
[Page 166]
Tell him his prankes haue been too broad to beare with,
And that your Grace hath scree'nd, and stoode betweene
Much heate, and him. Ile silence me e'ene heere:
[Sidenote: euen heere,]
Pray you be round[1] with him.[2] [Sidenote: _Enter Hamlet_.]
_Ham. within_. Mother, mother, mother.[3]
_Qu_. Ile warrant you, feare me not. [Sidenote: _Ger_. Ile wait you,]
Withdraw, I heare him comming.
_Enter Hamlet_.[4]
_Ham_.[5] Now Mother, what's the matter?
_Qu_. _Hamlet_, thou hast thy Father much offended. [Sidenote: _Ger_.]
_Ham_. Mother, you haue my Father much offended.
_Qu_. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. [Sidenote: _Ger_.]
_Ham._ Go, go, you question with an idle tongue.
[Sidenote: with a wicked tongue.]
_Qu_. Why how now _Hamlet_?[6] [Sidenote: _Ger_.]
_Ham_. Whats the matter now?
_Qu_. Haue you forgot me?[7] [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham_. No by the Rood, not so:
You are the Queene, your Husbands Brothers wife,
But would you were not so. You are my Mother.[8]
[Sidenote: And would it were]
_Qu_. Nay, then Ile set those to you that can speake.[9]
[Sidenote: _Ger_.]
_Ham_. Come, come, and sit you downe, you shall not boudge:
You go not till I set you vp a glasse,
Where you may see the inmost part of you? [Sidenote: the most part]
_Qu_. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murther [Sidenote: _Ger_.]
me?[10] Helpe, helpe, hoa. [Sidenote: Helpe how.]
_Pol_. What hoa, helpe, helpe, helpe. [Sidenote: What how helpe.]
_Ham_. How now, a Rat? dead for a Ducate, dead.[11]
[Footnote 1: _The Quarto has not_ 'with him.']
[Footnote 2: _He goes behind the arras._]
[Footnote 3: _The Quarto has not this speech._]
[Footnote 4: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 5: _1st Q._
_Ham_. Mother, mother, O are you here?
How i'st with you mother?
_Queene_ How i'st with you?
_Ham_, I'le tell you, but first weele make all safe.
Here, evidently, he bolts the doors.]
[Footnote 6: _1st Q._
_Queene_ How now boy?
_Ham_. How now mother! come here, sit downe, for you
shall heare me speake.]
[Footnote 7: --'that you speak to me in such fashion?']
[Footnote 8: _Point thus_: 'so: you'--'would you were not so, for you
are _my_ mother.'--_with emphasis on_ 'my.' The whole is spoken sadly.]
[Footnote 9: --'speak so that you must mind them.']
[Footnote 10: The apprehension comes from the combined action of her
conscience and the notion of his madness.]
[Footnote 11: There is no precipitancy here--only instant resolve and
execution. It is another outcome and embodiment of Hamlet's rare faculty
for action, showing his delay the more admirable. There is here neither
time nor call for delay. Whoever the man behind the arras might be, he
had, by spying upon him in the privacy of his mother's room, forfeited
to Hamlet his right to live; he had heard what he had said to his
mother, and his death was necessary; for, if he left the room, Hamlet's
last chance of fulfilling his vow to the Ghost was gone: if the play had
not sealed, what he had now spoken must seal his doom. But the decree
had in fact already gone forth against his life. 158.]
[Page 168]
_Pol._ Oh I am slaine. [1]_Killes Polonius._[2]
_Qu._ Oh me, what hast thou done? [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ Nay I know not, is it the King?[3]
_Qu._ Oh what a rash, and bloody deed is this? [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ A bloody deed, almost as bad good Mother,
[Sidenote: 56] As kill a King,[4] and marrie with his Brother.
_Qu._ As kill a King? [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ I Lady, 'twas my word.[5] [Sidenote: it was]
Thou wretched, rash, intruding foole farewell,
I tooke thee for thy Betters,[3] take thy Fortune, [Sidenote: better,]
Thou find'st to be too busie, is some danger,
Leaue wringing of your hands, peace, sit you downe,
And let me wring your heart, for so I shall
If it be made of penetrable stuffe;
If damned Custome haue not braz'd it so,
That it is proofe and bulwarke against Sense. [Sidenote: it be]
_Qu._ What haue I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tong,
[Sidenote: _Ger._]
In noise so rude against me?[6]
_Ham._ Such an Act
That blurres the grace and blush of Modestie,[7]
Calls Vertue Hypocrite, takes off the Rose
From the faire forehead of an innocent loue,
And makes a blister there.[8] Makes marriage vowes
[Sidenote: And sets a]
As false as Dicers Oathes. Oh such a deed,
As from the body of Contraction[9] pluckes
The very soule, and sweete Religion makes
A rapsidie of words. Heauens face doth glow, [Sidenote: dooes]
Yea this solidity and compound masse, [Sidenote: Ore this]
With tristfull visage as against the doome,
[Sidenote: with heated visage,]
Is thought-sicke at the act.[10] [Sidenote: thought sick]
_Qu._ Aye me; what act,[11] that roares so lowd,[12]
and thunders in the Index.[13]
[Footnote 1: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: --_through the arras_.]
[Footnote 3: Hamlet takes him for, hopes it is the king, and thinks here
to conclude: he is not praying now! and there is not a moment to be
lost, for he has betrayed his presence and called for help. As often as
immediate action is demanded of Hamlet, he is immediate with his
response--never hesitates, never blunders. There is no blunder here:
being where he was, the death of Polonius was necessary now to the death
of the king. Hamlet's resolve is instant, and the act simultaneous with
the resolve. The weak man is sure to be found wanting when immediate
action is necessary; Hamlet never is. Doubtless those who blame him as
dilatory, here blame him as precipitate, for they judge according to
appearance and consequence.
All his delay after this is plainly compelled, although I grant he was
not sorry to have to await such _more presentable_ evidence as at last
he procured, so long as he did not lose the final possibility of
vengeance.]
[Footnote 4: This is the sole reference in the interview to the murder.
I take it for tentative, and that Hamlet is satisfied by his mother's
utterance, carriage, and expression, that she is innocent of any
knowledge of that crime. Neither does he allude to the adultery: there
is enough in what she cannot deny, and that only which can be remedied
needs be taken up; while to break with the king would open the door of
repentance for all that had preceded.]
[Footnote 5: He says nothing of the Ghost to his mother.]
[Footnote 6: She still holds up and holds out.]
[Footnote 7: 'makes Modesty itself suspected.']
[Footnote 8: 'makes Innocence ashamed of the love it cherishes.']
[Footnote 9: 'plucks the spirit out of all forms of contracting or
agreeing.' We have lost the social and kept only the physical meaning of
the noun.]
[Footnote 10: I cannot help thinking the _Quarto_ reading of this
passage the more intelligible, as well as much the more powerful. We may
imagine a red aurora, by no means a very unusual phenomenon, over the
expanse of the sky:--
Heaven's face doth glow (_blush_)
O'er this solidity and compound mass,
(_the earth, solid, material, composite, a corporeal mass in
confrontment with the spirit-like etherial, simple, uncompounded heaven
leaning over it_)
With tristful (_or_ heated, _as the reader may choose_)
visage: as against the doom,
(_as in the presence, or in anticipation of the revealing judgment_)
Is thought sick at the act.
(_thought is sick at the act of the queen_)
My difficulties as to the _Folio_ reading are--why the earth should be
so described without immediate contrast with the sky; and--how the earth
could be showing a tristful visage, and the sickness of its thought. I
think, if the Poet indeed made the alterations and they are not mere
blunders, he must have made them hurriedly, and without due attention. I
would not forget, however, that there may be something present but too
good for me to find, which would make the passage plain as it stands.
Compare _As you like it_, act i. sc. 3.
For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.]
[Footnote 11: In Q. the rest of this speech is Hamlet's; his long speech
begins here, taking up the queen's word.]
[Footnote 12: She still stands out.]
[Footnote 13: 'thunders in the very indication or mention of it.' But by
'the Index' may be intended the influx or table of contents of a book,
at the beginning of it.]
[Page 170]
_Ham._ Looke heere vpon this Picture, and on this,
The counterfet presentment of two Brothers:[1]
See what a grace was seated on his Brow, [Sidenote: on this]
[Sidenote: 151] _Hyperions_ curies, the front of Ioue himselfe,
An eye like Mars, to threaten or command [Sidenote: threaten and]
A Station, like the Herald Mercurie
New lighted on a heauen kissing hill: [Sidenote: on a heaue, a kissing]
A Combination, and a forme indeed,
Where euery God did seeme to set his Seale,
To giue the world assurance of a man.[2]
This was your Husband. Looke you now what followes.
Heere is your Husband, like a Mildew'd eare
Blasting his wholsom breath. Haue you eyes?
[Sidenote: wholsome brother,]
Could you on this faire Mountaine leaue to feed,
And batten on this Moore?[3] Ha? Haue you eyes?
You cannot call it Loue: For at your age,
The hey-day[4] in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waites vpon the Judgement: and what Iudgement
Would step from this, to this? [A] What diuell was't,
That thus hath cousend you at hoodman-blinde?[5] [Sidenote: hodman]
[B]
O Shame! where is thy Blush? Rebellious Hell,
If thou canst mutine in a Matrons bones,
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
sence sure youe haue
Els could you not haue motion, but sure that sence
Is appoplext, for madnesse would not erre
Nor sence to extacie[6] was nere so thral'd
But it reseru'd some quantity of choise[7]
To serue in such[8] a difference,]
[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight.
Eares without hands, or eyes, smelling sance[9] all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sence
Could not so mope:[10]]
[Footnote 1: He points to the portraits of the two brothers, side by
side on the wall.]
[Footnote 2: See _Julius Caesar_, act v. sc. 5,--speech of _Antony_ at
the end.]
[Footnote 3: --perhaps an allusion as well to the complexion of
Claudius, both moral and physical.]
[Footnote 4: --perhaps allied to the German _heida_, and possibly the
English _hoyden_ and _hoity-toity_. Or is it merely
_high-day--noontide_?]
[Footnote 5: 'played tricks with you while hooded in the game of
_blind-man's-bluff_?' The omitted passage of the _Quarto_ enlarges the
figure.
_1st Q._ 'hob-man blinde.']
[Footnote 6: madness.]
[Footnote 7: Attributing soul to sense, he calls its distinguishment
_choice_.]
[Footnote 8: --emphasis on _such_.]
[Footnote 9: This spelling seems to show how the English word _sans_
should be pronounced.]
[Footnote 10: --'be so dull.']
[Page 172]
To flaming youth, let Vertue be as waxe,
And melt in her owne fire. Proclaime no shame,
When the compulsiue Ardure giues the charge,
Since Frost it selfe,[1] as actiuely doth burne,
As Reason panders Will. [Sidenote: And reason pardons will.]
_Qu._ O Hamlet, speake no more.[2] [Sidenote: _Ger._]
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soule,
[Sidenote: my very eyes into my soule,]
And there I see such blacke and grained[3] spots,
[Sidenote: greeued spots]
As will not leaue their Tinct.[4] [Sidenote: will leaue there their]
_Ham._ Nay, but to liue[5]
In the ranke sweat of an enseamed bed, [Sidenote: inseemed]
Stew'd in Corruption; honying and making loue
[Sidenote: 34] Ouer the nasty Stye.[6]
_Qu._ Oh speake to me, no more, [Sidenote: _Ger._]
[Sidenote: 158] These words like Daggers enter in mine eares.
[Sidenote: my]
No more sweet _Hamlet_.
_Ham._ A Murderer, and a Villaine:
A Slaue, that is not twentieth part the tythe [Sidenote: part the kyth]
Of your precedent Lord. A vice[7] of Kings,
A Cutpurse of the Empire and the Rule.
That from a shelfe, the precious Diadem stole,
And put it in his Pocket.
_Qu._ No more.[8] [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Enter Ghost._[9]
_Ham._ A King of shreds and patches.
[Sidenote: 44] Saue me; and houer o're me with your wings[10]
You heauenly Guards. What would you gracious figure?
[Sidenote: your gracious]
_Qu._ Alas he's mad.[11] [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ Do you not come your tardy Sonne to chide,
That laps't in Time and Passion, lets go by[12]
Th'important acting of your dread command? Oh say.[13]
[Footnote 1: --his mother's matronly age.]
[Footnote 2: She gives way at last.]
[Footnote 3: --spots whose blackness has sunk into the grain, or final
particles of the substance.]
[Footnote 4: --transition form of tint:--'will never give up their
colour;' 'will never be cleansed.']
[Footnote 5: He persists.]
[Footnote 6: --Claudius himself--his body no 'temple of the Holy Ghost,'
but a pig-sty. 3.]
[Footnote 7: The clown of the old Moral Play.]
[Footnote 8: She seems neither surprised nor indignant at any point in
the accusation: her consciousness of her own guiit has overwhelmed her.]
[Footnote 9: The _1st Q._ has _Enter the ghost in his night gowne_. It
was then from the first intended that he should not at this point appear
in armour--in which, indeed, the epithet _gracious figure_ could hardly
be applied to him, though it might well enough in one of the costumes in
which Hamlet was accustomed to see him--as this dressing-gown of the
_1st Q._ A ghost would appear in the costume in which he naturally
imagined himself, and in his wife's room would not show himself clothed
as when walking among the fortifications of the castle. But by the words
lower down (174)--
My Father in his habite, as he liued,
the Poet indicates, not his dressing-gown, but his usual habit, _i.e._
attire.]
[Footnote 10: --almost the same invocation as when first he saw the
apparition.]
[Footnote 11: The queen cannot see the Ghost. Her conduct has built such
a wall between her and her husband that I doubt whether, were she a
ghost also, she could see him. Her heart had left him, so they are no
more together in the sphere of mutual vision. Neither does the Ghost
wish to show himself to her. As his presence is not corporeal, a ghost
may be present to but one of a company.]
[Footnote 12: 1. 'Who, lapsed (_fallen, guilty_), lets action slip in
delay and suffering.' 2. 'Who, lapsed in (_fallen in, overwhelmed by_)
delay and suffering, omits' &c. 3. 'lapsed in respect of time, and
because of passion'--the meaning of the preposition _in_, common to
both, reacted upon by the word it governs. 4. 'faulty both in delaying,
and in yielding to suffering, when action is required.' 5. 'lapsed
through having too much time and great suffering.' 6. 'allowing himself
to be swept along by time and grief.'
Surely there is not another writer whose words would so often admit of
such multiform and varied interpretation--each form good, and true, and
suitable to the context! He seems to see at once all the relations of a
thing, and to try to convey them at once, in an utterance single as the
thing itself. He would condense the infinite soul of the meaning into
the trembling, overtaxed body of the phrase!]
[Footnote 13: In the renewed presence of the Ghost, all its former
influence and all the former conviction of its truth, return upon him.
He knows also how his behaviour must appear to the Ghost, and sees
himself as the Ghost sees him. Confronted with the gracious figure, how
should he think of self-justification! So far from being able to explain
things, he even forgets the doubt that had held him back--it has
vanished from the noble presence! He is now in the world of belief; the
world of doubt is nowhere!--Note the masterly opposition of moods.]
[Page 174]
_Ghost._ Do not forget: this Visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.[1]
But looke, Amazement on thy Mother sits;[2]
[Sidenote: 30, 54] O step betweene her, and her fighting Soule,[3]
[Sidenote: 198] Conceit[4] in weakest bodies, strongest workes.
Speake to her _Hamlet_.[5]
_Ham._ How is it with you Lady?[6]
_Qu._ Alas, how is't with you? [Sidenote: _Ger._]
That you bend your eye on vacancie, [Sidenote: you do bend]
And with their corporall ayre do hold discourse.
[Sidenote: with th'incorporall ayre]
Forth at your eyes, your spirits wildely peepe,
And as the sleeping Soldiours in th'Alarme,
Your bedded haire, like life in excrements,[7]
Start vp, and stand an end.[8] Oh gentle Sonne,
Vpon the heate and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle coole patience. Whereon do you looke?[9]
_Ham._ On him, on him: look you how pale he glares,
His forme and cause conioyn'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capeable.[10] Do not looke vpon me,[11]
Least with this pitteous action you conuert
My sterne effects: then what I haue to do,[12]
[Sidenote: 111] Will want true colour; teares perchance for blood.[13]
_Qu._ To who do you speake this? [Sidenote: _Ger._ To whom]
_Ham._ Do you see nothing there?
_Qu._ Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.[14] [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ Nor did you nothing heare?
_Qu._ No, nothing but our selues. [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ Why look you there: looke how it steals away:
[Sidenote: 173] My Father in his habite, as he liued,
Looke where he goes euen now out at the Portall.
_Exit._ [Sidenote: _Exit Ghost._]
[Sidenote: 114] _Qu._ This is the very coynage of your Braine,
[Sidenote: _Ger._]
[Footnote 1: The Ghost here judges, as alone is possible to him, from
what he knows--from the fact that his brother Claudius has not yet made
his appearance in the ghost-world. Not understanding Hamlet's
difficulties, he mistakes Hamlet himself.]
[Footnote 2: He mistakes also, through his tenderness, the condition of
his wife--imagining, it would seem, that she feels his presence, though
she cannot see him, or recognize the source of the influence which he
supposes to be moving her conscience: she is only perturbed by Hamlet's
behaviour.]
[Footnote 3: --fighting within itself, as the sea in a storm may be said
to fight.
He is careful as ever over the wife he had loved and loves still;
careful no less of the behaviour of the son to his mother.
In the _1st Q._ we have:--
But I perceiue by thy distracted lookes,
Thy mother's fearefull, and she stands amazde:
Speake to her Hamlet, for her sex is weake,
Comfort thy mother, Hamlet, thinke on me.]
[Footnote 4: --not used here for bare _imagination_, but imagination
with its concomitant feeling:--_conception_. 198.]
[Footnote 5: His last word ere he vanishes utterly, concerns his queen;
he is tender and gracious still to her who sent him to hell. This
attitude of the Ghost towards his faithless wife, is one of the
profoundest things in the play. All the time she is not thinking of him
any more than seeing him--for 'is he not dead!'--is looking straight at
where he stands, but is all unaware of him.]
[Footnote 6: I understand him to speak this with a kind of lost,
mechanical obedience. The description his mother gives of him makes it
seem as if the Ghost were drawing his ghost out to himself, and turning
his body thereby half dead.]
[Footnote 7: 'as if there were life in excrements.' The nails and hair
were 'excrements'--things _growing out_.]
[Footnote 8: Note the form _an end_--not _on end_. 51, 71.]
[Footnote 9: --all spoken coaxingly, as to one in a mad fit. She regards
his perturbation as a sudden assault of his ever present malady. One who
sees what others cannot see they are always ready to count mad.]
[Footnote 10: able to _take_, that is, to _understand_.]
[Footnote 11: --_to the Ghost_.]
[Footnote 12: 'what is in my power to do.']
[Footnote 13: Note antithesis here: '_your piteous action_;' '_my stern
effects_'--the things, that is, 'which I have to effect.' 'Lest your
piteous show convert--change--my stern doing; then what I do will lack
true colour; the result may be tears instead of blood; I shall weep
instead of striking.']
[Footnote 14: It is one of the constantly recurring delusions of
humanity that we see all there is.]
[Page 176]
[Sidenote: 114] This bodilesse Creation extasie[1] is very cunning
in.[2]
_Ham._ Extasie?[3]
My Pulse as yours doth temperately keepe time,
And makes as healthfull Musicke.[4] It is not madnesse
That I haue vttered; bring me to the Test
And I the matter will re-word: which madnesse [Sidenote: And the]
Would gamboll from. Mother, for loue of Grace,
Lay not a flattering Vnction to your soule,
[Sidenote: not that flattering]
That not your trespasse, but my madnesse speakes:
[Sidenote: 182] It will but skin and filme the Vlcerous place,
Whil'st ranke Corruption mining all within, [Sidenote: whiles]
Infects vnseene, Confesse your selfe to Heauen,
Repent what's past, auoyd what is to come,
And do not spred the Compost or the Weedes, [Sidenote: compost on the]
To make them ranke. Forgiue me this my Vertue, [Sidenote: ranker,]
For in the fatnesse of this pursie[5] times, [Sidenote: these]
Vertue it selfe, of Vice must pardon begge,
Yea courb,[6] and woe, for leaue to do him good.
[Sidenote: curbe and wooe]
_Qu._ Oh Hamlet, [Sidenote: _Ger._]
Thou hast cleft my heart in twaine.
_Ham._ O throw away the worser part of it,
And Liue the purer with the other halfe. [Sidenote: And leaue the]
Good night, but go not to mine Vnkles bed, [Sidenote: my]
Assume a Vertue, if you haue it not,[7][A] refraine to night
[Sidenote: Assune | to refraine night,]
And that shall lend a kinde of easinesse
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
[8]That monster custome, who all sence doth eate
Of habits deuill,[9] is angell yet in this
That to the vse of actions faire and good,
He likewise giues a frock or Liuery
That aptly is put on]
[Footnote 1: madness 129.]
[Footnote 2: Here is the correspondent speech in the _1st Q._ I give it
because of the queen's denial of complicity in the murder.
_Queene_ Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine.
Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe:
But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen,
I neuer knew of this most horride murder:
But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie,
And for my loue forget these idle fits.
_Ham_. Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours,
It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet.]
[Footnote 3: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 4: --_time_ being a great part of music. Shakspere more than
once or twice employs _music_ as a symbol with reference to corporeal
condition: see, for instance, _As you like it_, act i. sc. 2, 'But is
there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? is there yet
another dotes upon rib-breaking?' where the _broken music_ may be
regarded as the antithesis of the _healthful music_ here.]
[Footnote 5: _swoln, pampered_: an allusion to the _purse_ itself,
whether intended or not, is suggested.]
[Footnote 6: _bend, bow_.]
[Footnote 7: To _assume_ is to take to one: by _assume a virtue_, Hamlet
does not mean _pretend_--but the very opposite: _to pretend_ is _to hold
forth, to show_; what he means is, 'Adopt a virtue'--that of
_abstinence_--'and act upon it, order your behaviour by it, although you
may not _feel_ it. Choose the virtue--take it, make it yours.']
[Footnote 8: This omitted passage is obscure with the special
Shaksperean obscurity that comes of over-condensation. He omitted it, I
think, because of its obscurity. Its general meaning is plain
enough--that custom helps the man who tries to assume a virtue, as well
as renders it more and more difficult for him who indulges in vice to
leave it. I will paraphrase: 'That monster, Custom, who eats away all
sense, the devil of habits, is angel yet in this, that, for the exercise
of fair and good actions, he also provides a habit, a suitable frock or
livery, that is easily put on.' The play with the two senses of the word
_habit_ is more easily seen than set forth. To paraphrase more freely:
'That devil of habits, Custom, who eats away all sense of wrong-doing,
has yet an angel-side to him, in that he gives a man a mental dress, a
habit, helpful to the doing of the right thing.' The idea of hypocrisy
does not come in at all. The advice of Hamlet is: 'Be virtuous in your
actions, even if you cannot in your feelings; do not do the wrong thing
you would like to do, and custom will render the abstinence easy.']
[Footnote 9: I suspect it should be '_Of habits evil_'--the antithesis
to _angel_ being _monster_.]
[Page 178]
To the next abstinence. [A] Once more goodnight,
And when you are desirous to be blest,
Ile blessing begge of you.[1] For this same Lord,
I do repent: but heauen hath pleas'd it so,[2]
To punish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their[3] Scourge and Minister.
I will bestow him,[4] and will answer well
The death I gaue him:[5] so againe, good night.
I must be cruell, onely to be kinde;[6]
Thus bad begins,[7] and worse remaines behinde.[8] [Sidenote: This bad]
[B]
_Qu_. What shall I do? [Sidenote: _Ger_.]
_Ham_. Not this by no meanes that I bid you do:
Let the blunt King tempt you againe to bed, [Sidenote: the blowt King]
Pinch Wanton on your cheeke, call you his Mouse,
And let him for a paire of reechie[9] kisses,
Or padling in your necke with his damn'd Fingers,
Make you to rauell all this matter out, [Sidenote: rouell]
[Sidenote: 60, 136, 156] That I essentially am not in madnesse.
But made in craft.[10] 'Twere good you let him know, [Sidenote: mad]
For who that's but a Queene, faire, sober, wise,
Would from a Paddocke,[11] from a Bat, a Gibbe,[12]
Such deere concernings hide, Who would do so,
No in despight of Sense and Secrecie,
Vnpegge the Basket on the houses top:
Let the Birds flye, and like the famous Ape
To try Conclusions[13] in the Basket, creepe
And breake your owne necke downe.[14]
_Qu_. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, [Sidenote: _Ger_.]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto;_--
the next more easie:[15]
For vse almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either[16] the deuill, or throwe him out
With wonderous potency:]
[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto:_--
One word more good Lady.[17]]
[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, after
the custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farce
now: when she seeks the blessing of God, he will beg hers; now, a plain
_good night_ must serve.]
[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of _pleased_. It is here a
transitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sentence is,
'pleased it so, _in order to_ punish us, that I must' &c.]
[Footnote 3: The noun to which _their_ is the pronoun is _heaven_--as if
he had written _the gods_.]
[Footnote 4: 'take him to a place fit for him to lie in.']
[Footnote 5: 'hold my face to it, and justify it.']
[Footnote 6: --omitting or refusing to embrace her.]
[Footnote 7: --looking at Polonius.]
[Footnote 8: Does this mean for himself to do, or for Polonius to
endure?]
[Footnote 9: reeky, smoky, fumy.]
[Footnote 10: Hamlet considers his madness the same that he so
deliberately assumed. But his idea of himself goes for nothing where the
experts conclude him mad! His absolute clarity where he has no occasion
to act madness, goes for as little, for 'all madmen have their sane
moments'!]
[Footnote 11: _a toad_; in Scotland, _a frog_.]
[Footnote 12: an old cat.]
[Footnote 13: _Experiments_, Steevens says: is it not rather _results_?]
[Footnote 14: I fancy the story, which so far as I know has not been
traced, goes on to say that the basket was emptied from the house-top to
send the pigeons flying, and so the ape got his neck broken. The phrase
'breake your owne necke _downe_' seems strange: it could hardly have
been written _neck-bone_!]
[Footnote 15: This passage would fall in better with the preceding with
which it is vitally one--for it would more evenly continue its form--if
the preceding _devil_ were, as I propose above, changed to _evil_. But,
precious as is every word in them, both passages are well omitted.]
[Footnote 16: Plainly there is a word left out, if not lost here. There
is no authority for the supplied _master_. I am inclined to propose a
pause and a gesture, with perhaps an _inarticulation_.]
[Footnote 17: --interrogatively perhaps, Hamlet noting her about to
speak; but I would prefer it thus: 'One word more:--good lady--' Here
he pauses so long that she speaks. Or we _might_ read it thus:
_Qu._ One word more.
_Ham._ Good lady?
_Qu._ What shall I do?]
[Page 180]
And breath of life: I haue no life to breath
What thou hast saide to me.[1]
[Sidenote: 128, 158] _Ham._ I must to England, you know that?[2]
_Qu._ Alacke I had forgot: Tis so concluded on. [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ [A] This man shall set me packing:[3]
Ile lugge the Guts into the Neighbor roome,[4]
Mother goodnight. Indeede this Counsellor [Sidenote: night indeed, this]
Is now most still, most secret, and most graue,
[Sidenote: 84] Who was in life, a foolish prating Knaue.
[Sidenote: a most foolish]
Come sir, to draw toward an end with you.[5]
Good night Mother.
_Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius._[6] [Sidenote: _Exit._]
[7]
_Enter King._ [Sidenote: Enter King, and Queene, with
Rosencraus and Guyldensterne.]
_King._ There's matters in these sighes.
These profound heaues
You must translate; Tis fit we vnderstand them.
Where is your Sonne?[8]
_Qu._ [B] Ah my good Lord, what haue I seene to night?
[Sidenote: _Ger._ | Ah mine owne Lord,]
_King._ What _Gertrude_? How do's _Hamlet_?
_Qu._ Mad as the Seas, and winde, when both contend
[Sidenote: _Ger._ | sea and]
Which is the Mightier, in his lawlesse fit[9]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
[10]Ther's letters seald, and my two Schoolefellowes,
Whom I will trust as I will Adders fang'd,
They beare the mandat, they must sweep my way
And marshall me to knauery[11]: let it worke,
For tis the sport to haue the enginer
Hoist[12] with his owne petar,[13] an't shall goe hard
But I will delue one yard belowe their mines,
And blowe them at the Moone: ô tis most sweete
When in one line two crafts directly meete,]
[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--
Bestow this place on vs a little while.[14]]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q._
O mother, if euer you did my deare father loue,
Forbeare the adulterous bed to night,
And win your selfe by little as you may,
In time it may be you wil lothe him quite:
And mother, but assist mee in reuenge,
And in his death your infamy shall die.
_Queene. Hamlet_, I vow by that maiesty,
That knowes our thoughts, and lookes into our hearts,
I will conceale, consent, and doe my best,
What stratagem soe're thou shalt deuise.]
[Footnote 2: The king had spoken of it both before and after the play:
Horatio might have heard of it and told Hamlet.]
[Footnote 3: 'My banishment will be laid to this deed of mine.']
[Footnote 4: --to rid his mother of it.]
[Footnote 5: It may cross him, as he says this, dragging the body out by
one end of it, and toward the end of its history, that he is himself
drawing toward an end along with Polonius.]
[Footnote 6: --_and weeping_. 182. See _note_ 5, 183.]
[Footnote 7: Here, according to the editors, comes 'Act IV.' For this
there is no authority, and the point of division seems to me very
objectionable. The scene remains the same, as noted from Capell in _Cam.
Sh._, and the entrance of the king follows immediately on the exit of
Hamlet. He finds his wife greatly perturbed; she has not had time to
compose herself.
From the beginning of Act II., on to where I would place the end of Act
III., there is continuity.]
[Footnote 8: I would have this speech uttered with pauses and growing
urgency, mingled at length with displeasure.]
[Footnote 9: She is faithful to her son, declaring him mad, and
attributing the death of 'the unseen' Polonius to his madness.]
[Footnote 10: This passage, like the rest, I hold to be omitted by
Shakspere himself. It represents Hamlet as divining the plot with whose
execution his false friends were entrusted. The Poet had at first
intended Hamlet to go on board the vessel with a design formed upon this
for the out-witting of his companions, and to work out that design.
Afterwards, however, he alters his plan, and represents his escape as
more plainly providential: probably he did not see how to manage it by
any scheme of Hamlet so well as by the attack of a pirate; possibly he
wished to write the passage (246) in which Hamlet, so consistently with
his character, attributes his return to the divine shaping of the end
rough-hewn by himself. He had designs--'dear plots'--but they were other
than fell out--a rough-hewing that was shaped to a different end. The
discomfiture of his enemies was not such as he had designed: it was
brought about by no previous plot, but through a discovery. At the same
time his deliverance was not effected by the fingering of the packet,
but by the attack of the pirate: even the re-writing of the commission
did nothing towards his deliverance, resulted only in the punishment of
his traitorous companions. In revising the Quarto, the Poet sees that
the passage before us, in which is expressed the strongest suspicion of
his companions, with a determination to outwit and punish them, is
inconsistent with the representation Hamlet gives afterwards of a
restlessness and suspicion newly come upon him, which he attributes to
the Divinity.
Neither was it likely he would say so much to his mother while so little
sure of her as to warn her, on the ground of danger to herself, against
revealing his sanity to the king. As to this, however, the portion
omitted might, I grant, be regarded as an _aside_.]
[Footnote 11: --to be done _to_ him.]
[Footnote 12: _Hoised_, from verb _hoise_--still used in Scotland.]
[Footnote 13: a kind of explosive shell, which was fixed to the object
meant to be destroyed. Note once more Hamlet's delight in action.]
[Footnote 14: --_said to Ros. and Guild._: in plain speech, 'Leave us a
little while.']
[Page 182]
Behinde the Arras, hearing something stirre,
He whips his Rapier out, and cries a Rat, a Rat,
[Sidenote: Whyps out his Rapier, cryes a]
And in his brainish apprehension killes [Sidenote: in this]
The vnseene good old man.
_King._ Oh heauy deed:
It had bin so with vs[1] had we beene there:
His Liberty is full of threats to all,[2]
To you your selfe, to vs, to euery one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deede be answered?
It will be laide to vs, whose prouidence
Should haue kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt,
This mad yong man.[2] But so much was our loue,
We would not vnderstand what was most fit,
But like the Owner of a foule disease,
[Sidenote: 176] To keepe it from divulging, let's it feede
[Sidenote: let it]
Euen on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
_Qu._ To draw apart the body he hath kild, [Sidenote: Ger.]
O're whom his very madnesse[3] like some Oare
Among a Minerall of Mettels base
[Sidenote: 181] Shewes it selfe pure.[4] He weepes for what is done.[5]
[Sidenote: pure, a weeepes]
_King:_ Oh _Gertrude_, come away:
The Sun no sooner shall the Mountaines touch,
But we will ship him hence, and this vilde deed,
We must with all our Maiesty and Skill
[Sidenote: 200] Both countenance, and excuse.[6]
_Enter Ros. & Guild_.[7]
Ho _Guildenstern_:
Friends both go ioyne you with some further ayde:
_Hamlet_ in madnesse hath Polonius slaine,
And from his Mother Clossets hath he drag'd him.
[Sidenote: closet | dreg'd]
Go seeke him out, speake faire, and bring the body
Into the Chappell. I pray you hast in this.
_Exit Gent_[8]
Come _Gertrude_, wee'l call vp our wisest friends,
To let them know both what we meane to do, [Sidenote: And let]
[Footnote 1: the royal plural.]
[Footnote 2: He knows the thrust was meant for him. But he would not
have it so understood; he too lays it to his madness, though he too
knows better.]
[Footnote 3: 'he, although mad'; 'his nature, in spite of his madness.']
[Footnote 4: by his weeping, in the midst of much to give a different
impression.]
[Footnote 5: We have no reason to think the queen inventing here: what
could she gain by it? the point indeed was rather against Hamlet, as
showing it was not Polonius he had thought to kill. He was more than
ever annoyed with the contemptible old man, who had by his
meddlesomeness brought his death to his door; but he was very sorry
nevertheless over Ophelia's father: those rough words in his last speech
are spoken with the tears running down his face. We have seen the
strange, almost discordant mingling in him of horror and humour, after
the first appearance of the Ghost, 58, 60: something of the same may be
supposed when he finds he has killed Polonius: in the highstrung nervous
condition that must have followed such a talk with his mother, it would
be nowise strange that he should weep heartily even in the midst of
contemptuous anger. Or perhaps a sudden breakdown from attempted show of
indifference, would not be amiss in the representation.]
[Footnote 6: 'both countenance with all our majesty, and excuse with all
our skill.']
[Footnote 7: In the _Quarto_ a line back.]
[Footnote 8: _Not in Q._]
[Page 184]
And what's vntimely[1] done. [A] Oh come away, [Sidenote: doone,]
My soule is full of discord and dismay. _Exeunt._
_Enter Hamlet._ [Sidenote: _Hamlet, Rosencrans, and others._]
_Ham._ Safely stowed.[2] [Sidenote: stowed, but soft, what noyse,]
_Gentlemen within._ _Hamlet_. Lord _Hamlet_?
_Ham._ What noise? Who cals on _Hamlet_?
Oh heere they come.
_Enter Ros. and Guildensterne._[4]
_Ro._ What haue you done my Lord with the dead body?
_Ham._ Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis Kinne.[5]
[Sidenote: Compound it]
_Rosin._ Tell vs where 'tis, that we may take it thence,
And beare it to the Chappell.
_Ham._ Do not beleeue it.[6]
_Rosin._ Beleeue what?
[Sidenote: 156] _Ham._ That I can keepe your counsell, and not
mine owne. Besides, to be demanded of a Spundge,
what replication should be made by the Sonne of
a King.[7]
_Rosin._ Take you me for a Spundge, my Lord?
_Ham._ I sir, that sokes vp the Kings Countenance,
his Rewards, his Authorities, but such Officers
do the King best seruice in the end. He keepes
them like an Ape in the corner of his iaw,[8] first
[Sidenote: like an apple in]
mouth'd to be last swallowed, when he needes what
you haue glean'd, it is but squeezing you, and
Spundge you shall be dry againe.
_Rosin._ I vnderstand you not my Lord.
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
Whose whisper ore the worlds dyameter,[9]
[Sidenote: 206] As leuell as the Cannon to his blanck,[10]
Transports his poysned shot, may miffe[11] our Name,
And hit the woundlesse ayre.]
[Footnote 1: unhappily.]
[Footnote 2: He has hid the body--to make the whole look the work of a
mad fit.]
[Footnote 3: This line is not in the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 4: _Not in Q. See margin above._]
[Footnote 5: He has put it in a place which, little visited, is very
dusty.]
[Footnote 6: He is mad to them--sane only to his mother and Horatio.]
[Footnote 7: _euphuistic_: 'asked a question by a sponge, what answer
should a prince make?']
[Footnote 8: _1st Q._:
For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes,
In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you,
Then swallowes you:]
[Footnote 9: Here most modern editors insert, '_so, haply, slander_'.
But, although I think the Poet left out this obscure passage merely from
dissatisfaction with it, I believe it renders a worthy sense as it
stands. The antecedent to _whose_ is _friends_: _cannon_ is nominative
to _transports_; and the only difficulty is the epithet _poysned_
applied to _shot_, which seems transposed from the idea of an
_unfriendly_ whisper. Perhaps Shakspere wrote _poysed shot_. But taking
this as it stands, the passage might be paraphrased thus: 'Whose
(favourable) whisper over the world's diameter (_from one side of the
world to the other_), as level (_as truly aimed_) as the cannon (of an
evil whisper) transports its poisoned shot to his blank (_the white
centre of the target_), may shoot past our name (so keeping us clear),
and hit only the invulnerable air.' ('_the intrenchant air_': _Macbeth_,
act v. sc. 8). This interpretation rests on the idea of
over-condensation with its tendency to seeming confusion--the only fault
I know in the Poet--a grand fault, peculiarly his own, born of the
beating of his wings against the impossible. It is much as if, able to
think two thoughts at once, he would compel his phrase to utter them at
once.]
[Footnote 10:
for the harlot king
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
And level of my brain, plot-proof;
_The Winter's Tale_, act ii. sc. 3.
My life stands in the level of your dreams,
_Ibid_, act iii. sc. 2.]
[Footnote 11: two _ff_ for two long _ss_.]
[Page 186]
_Ham._ I am glad of it: a knavish speech
sleepes in a foolish eare.
_Rosin._ My Lord, you must tell us where the
body is, and go with us to the King.
_Ham._ The body is with the King, but the King
is not with the body.[1] The King, is a thing----
_Guild._ A thing my Lord?
_Ham._ Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hide
Fox, and all after.[3] _Exeunt_[4]
_Enter King._ [Sidenote: _King, and two or three._]
_King._ I have sent to seeke him, and to find the bodie:
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose:[5]
Yet must not we put the strong Law on him:
[Sidenote: 212] Hee's loved of the distracted multitude,[6]
Who like not in their iudgement, but their eyes:
And where 'tis so, th'Offenders scourge is weigh'd
But neerer the offence: to beare all smooth, and euen,
[Sidenote: neuer the]
This sodaine sending him away, must seeme
[Sidenote: 120] Deliberate pause,[7] diseases desperate growne,
By desperate appliance are releeved,
Or not at all. _Enter Rosincrane._
[Sidenote: _Rosencraus and all the rest._]
How now? What hath befalne?
_Rosin._ Where the dead body is bestow'd my Lord,
We cannot get from him.
_King._ But where is he?[8]
_Rosin._ Without my Lord, guarded[9] to know your pleasure.
_King._ Bring him before us.
_Rosin._ Hoa, Guildensterne? Bring in my Lord.
[Sidenote: _Ros._ How, bring in the Lord. _They enter._]
_Enter Hamlet and Guildensterne_[10]
_King._ Now _Hamlet_, where's _Polonius?_
[Footnote 1: 'The body is in the king's house, therefore with the king;
but the king knows not where, therefore the king is not with the body.']
[Footnote 2: 'A thing of nothing' seems to have been a common phrase.]
[Footnote 3: The _Quarto_ has not 'hide Fox, and all after.']
[Footnote 4: Hamlet darts out, with the others after him, as in a hunt.
Possibly there was a game called _Hide fox, and all after_.]
[Footnote 5: He is a hypocrite even to himself.]
[Footnote 6: This had all along helped to Hamlet's safety.]
[Footnote 7: 'must be made to look the result of deliberate reflection.'
Claudius fears the people may imagine Hamlet treacherously used, driven
to self-defence, and hurried out of sight to be disposed of.]
[Footnote 8: Emphasis on _he_; the point of importance with the king, is
_where he is_, not where the body is.]
[Footnote 9: Henceforward he is guarded, or at least closely watched,
according to the _Folio_--left much to himself according to the
_Quarto_. 192.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Quarto._]
[Page 188]
_Ham._ At Supper.
_King._ At Supper? Where?
_Ham._ Not where he eats, but where he is eaten,
[Sidenote: where a is]
a certaine conuocation of wormes are e'ne at him.
[Sidenote: of politique wormes[1]]
Your worm is your onely Emperor for diet. We
fat all creatures else to fat vs, and we fat our selfe
[Sidenote: ourselves]
for Magots. Your fat King, and your leane
Begger is but variable seruice to dishes, but to one
[Sidenote: two dishes]
Table that's the end.
[A]
_King._ What dost thou meane by this?[2]
_Ham._ Nothing but to shew you how a King
may go a Progresse[3] through the guts of a Begger.[4]
_King._ Where is _Polonius_.
_Ham._ In heauen, send thither to see. If your
Messenger finde him not there, seeke him i'th other
place your selfe: but indeed, if you finde him not
[Sidenote: but if indeed you find him not within this]
this moneth, you shall nose him as you go vp the
staires into the Lobby.
_King._ Go seeke him there.
_Ham._ He will stay till ye come.
[Sidenote: A will stay till you]
_K._ _Hamlet_, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety
[Sidenote: this deede for thine especiall]
Which we do tender, as we deerely greeue
For that which thou hast done,[5] must send thee hence
With fierie Quicknesse.[6] Therefore prepare thy selfe,
The Barke is readie, and the winde at helpe,[7]
Th'Associates tend,[8] and euery thing at bent [Sidenote: is bent]
For England.
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:_--
_King_ Alas, alas.[9]
_Ham._ A man may fish with the worme that hath eate of a King, and eate
of the fish that hath fedde of that worme.]
[Footnote 1: --such as Rosincrance and Guildensterne!]
[Footnote 2: I suspect this and the following speech ought by the
printers to have been omitted also: without the preceding two speeches
of the Quarto they are not accounted for.]
[Footnote 3: a royal progress.]
[Footnote 4: Hamlet's philosophy deals much now with the worthlessness
of all human distinctions and affairs.]
[Footnote 5: 'and we care for your safety as much as we grieve for the
death of Polonius.']
[Footnote 6: 'With fierie Quicknesse.' _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: fair--ready to help.]
[Footnote 8: attend, wait.]
[Footnote 9: pretending despair over his madness.]
[Page 190]
_Ham._ For England?
_King._ I _Hamlet_.
_Ham._ Good.
_King._ So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
_Ham._ I see a Cherube that see's him: but [Sidenote: sees them,]
come, for England. Farewell deere Mother.
_King._ Thy louing Father _Hamlet_.
_Hamlet._ My Mother: Father and Mother is
man and wife: man and wife is one flesh, and so [Sidenote: flesh, so my]
my mother.[1] Come, for England. _Exit_
[Sidenote: 195] _King._ Follow him at foote,[2]
Tempt him with speed aboord:
Delay it not, He haue him hence to night.
Away, for euery thing is Seal'd and done
That else leanes on[3] th'Affaire pray you make hast.
And England, if my loue thou holdst at ought,
As my great power thereof may giue thee sense,
Since yet thy Cicatrice lookes raw and red[4]
After the Danish Sword, and thy free awe
Payes homage to vs[5]; thou maist not coldly set[6]
Our Soueraigne Processe,[7] which imports at full
By Letters conjuring to that effect [Sidenote: congruing]
The present death of _Hamlet_. Do it England,
For like the Hecticke[8] in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done,
How ere my happes,[9] my ioyes were ne're begun.[10]
[Sidenote: ioyes will nere begin.]
_Exit_[11]
[Sidenote: 274] [12]_Enter Fortinbras with an Armie._
[Sidenote: with his Army ouer the stage.]
_For._ Go Captaine, from me greet the Danish King,
Tell him that by his license, _Fortinbras_
[Sidenote: 78] Claimes the conueyance[13] of a promis'd March
[Sidenote: Craues the]
Ouer his Kingdome. You know the Rendeuous:[14]
[Footnote 1: He will not touch the hand of his father's murderer.]
[Footnote 2: 'at his heels.']
[Footnote 3: 'belongs to.']
[Footnote 4: 'as my great power may give thee feeling of its value,
seeing the scar of my vengeance has hardly yet had time to heal.']
[Footnote 5: 'and thy fear uncompelled by our presence, pays homage to
us.']
[Footnote 6: 'set down to cool'; 'set in the cold.']
[Footnote 7: _mandate_: 'Where's Fulvia's process?' _Ant. and Cl._, act
i. sc. 1. _Shakespeare Lexicon_.]
[Footnote 8: _hectic fever--habitual_ or constant fever.]
[Footnote 9: 'whatever my fortunes.']
[Footnote 10: The original, the _Quarto_ reading--'_my ioyes will nere
begin_' seems to me in itself better, and the cause of the change to be
as follows.
In the _Quarto_ the next scene stands as in our modern editions, ending
with the rime,
ô from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth. _Exit_.
This was the act-pause, the natural end of act iii.
But when the author struck out all but the commencement of the scene,
leaving only the three little speeches of Fortinbras and his captain,
then plainly the act-pause must fall at the end of the preceding scene.
He therefore altered the end of the last verse to make it rime with the
foregoing, in accordance with his frequent way of using a rime before an
important pause.
It perplexes us to think how on his way to the vessel, Hamlet could fall
in with the Norwegian captain. This may have been one of Shakspere's
reasons for striking the whole scene out--but he had other and more
pregnant reasons.]
[Footnote 11: Here is now the proper close of the _Third Act_.]
[Footnote 12: _Commencement of the Fourth Act._
Between the third and the fourth passes the time Hamlet is away; for the
latter, in which he returns, and whose scenes are _contiguous_, needs no
more than one day.]
[Footnote 13: 'claims a convoy in fulfilment of the king's promise to
allow him to march over his kingdom.' The meaning is made plainer by the
correspondent passage in the _1st Quarto_:
Tell him that _Fortenbrasse_ nephew to old _Norway_,
Craues a free passe and conduct ouer his land,
According to the Articles agreed on:]
[Footnote 14: 'where to rejoin us.']
[Page 192]
If that his Maiesty would ought with vs,
We shall expresse our dutie in his eye,[1]
And let[2] him know so.
_Cap._ I will doo't, my Lord.
_For._ Go safely[3] on. _Exit._ [Sidenote: softly]
[A]
[4] _Enter Queene and Horatio_.
[Sidenote: _Enter Horatio, Gertrard, and a Gentleman_.]
_Qu._ I will not speake with her.
_Hor._[5] She is importunate, indeed distract, her [Sidenote: _Gent_.]
moode will needs be pittied.
_Qu_. What would she haue?
_Hor_. She speakes much of her Father; saies she heares
[Sidenote: _Gent_.]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Enter Hamlet, Rosencraus, &c._
_Ham_. Good sir whose powers are these?
_Cap_. They are of _Norway_ sir.
_Ham_. How purposd sir I pray you?
_Cap_. Against some part of _Poland_.
_Ham_. Who commaunds them sir?
_Cap_. The Nephew to old _Norway, Fortenbrasse_.
_Ham_. Goes it against the maine of _Poland_ sir,
Or for some frontire?
_Cap_. Truly to speake, and with no addition,[6]
We goe to gaine a little patch of ground[7]
That hath in it no profit but the name
To pay fiue duckets, fiue I would not farme it;
Nor will it yeeld to _Norway_ or the _Pole_
A rancker rate, should it be sold in fee.
_Ham_. Why then the Pollacke neuer will defend it.
_Cap_. Yes, it is already garisond.
_Ham_. Two thousand soules, and twenty thousand duckets
Will not debate the question of this straw
This is th'Impostume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breakes, and showes no cause without
Why the man dies.[8] I humbly thanke you sir.
_Cap_. God buy you sir.
_Ros_. Wil't please you goe my Lord?
[Sidenote: 187, 195] _Ham_. Ile be with you straight, goe a little
before.[9]
[10]How all occasions[11] doe informe against me,
[Continued on next text page.]]
[Footnote 1: 'we shall pay our respects, waiting upon his person.']
[Footnote 2: 'let,' _imperative mood_.]
[Footnote 3: 'with proper precaution,' _said to his attendant
officers._]
[Footnote 4: This was originally intended, I repeat, for the
commencement of the act. But when the greater part of the foregoing
scene was omitted, and the third act made to end with the scene before
that, then the small part left of the all-but-cancelled scene must open
the fourth act.]
[Footnote 5: Hamlet absent, we find his friend looking after Ophelia.
Gertrude seems less friendly towards her.]
[Footnote 6: exaggeration.]
[Footnote 7: --probably a small outlying island or coast-fortress, _not
far off_, else why should Norway care about it at all? If the word
_frontier_ has the meaning, as the _Shakespeare Lexicon_ says, of 'an
outwork in fortification,' its use two lines back would, taken
figuratively, tend to support this.]
[Footnote 8: The meaning may be as in the following paraphrase: 'This
quarrelling about nothing is (the breaking of) the abscess caused by
wealth and peace--which breaking inward (in general corruption), would
show no outward sore in sign of why death came.' Or it might be _forced_
thus:--
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace.
That (which) inward breaks, and shows no cause without--
Why, the man dies!
But it may mean:--'The war is an imposthume, which will break within,
and cause much affliction to the people that make the war.' On the other
hand, Hamlet seems to regard it as a process for, almost a sign of
health.]
[Footnote 9: Note his freedom.]
[Footnote 10: _See_ 'examples grosse as earth' _below_.]
[Footnote 11: While every word that Shakspere wrote we may well take
pains to grasp thoroughly, my endeavour to cast light on this passage is
made with the distinct understanding in my own mind that the author
himself disapproved of and omitted it, and that good reason is not
wanting why he should have done so. At the same time, if my student, for
this book is for those who would have help and will take pains to the
true understanding of the play, would yet retain the passage, I protest
against the acceptance of Hamlet's judgment of himself, except as
revealing the simplicity and humility of his nature and character. That
as often as a vivid memory of either interview with the Ghost came back
upon him, he should feel rebuked and ashamed, and vexed with himself,
is, in the morally, intellectually, and emotionally troubled state of
his mind, nowise the less natural that he had the best of reasons for
the delay because of which he _here_ so unmercifully abuses himself. A
man of self-satisfied temperament would never in similar circumstances
have done so. But Hamlet was, by nature and education, far from such
self-satisfaction; and there is in him besides such a strife and turmoil
of opposing passions and feelings and apparent duties, as can but rarely
rise in a human soul. With which he ought to side, his conscience is not
sure--sides therefore now with one, now with another. At the same time
it is by no means the long delay the critics imagine of which he is
accusing himself--it is only that the thing _is not done_.
In certain moods the action a man dislikes will _therefore_ look to him
the more like a duty; and this helps to prevent Hamlet from knowing
always how great a part conscience bears in the omission because of
which he condemns and even contemns himself. The conscience does not
naturally examine itself--is not necessarily self-conscious. In any
soliloquy, a man must speak from his present mood: we who are not
suffering, and who have many of his moods before us, ought to understand
Hamlet better than he understands himself. To himself, sitting in
judgment on himself, it would hardly appear a decent cause of, not to
say reason for, a moment's delay in punishing his uncle, that he was so
weighed down with misery because of his mother and Ophelia, that it
seemed of no use to kill one villain out of the villainous world; it
would seem but 'bestial oblivion'; and, although his reputation as a
prince was deeply concerned, _any_ reflection on the consequences to
himself would at times appear but a 'craven scruple'; while at times
even the whispers of conscience might seem a 'thinking too precisely on
the event.' A conscientious man of changeful mood wilt be very ready in
either mood to condemn the other. The best and rightest men will
sometimes accuse themselves in a manner that seems to those who know
them best, unfounded, unreasonable, almost absurd. We must not, I say,
take the hero's judgment of himself as the author's judgment of him. The
two judgments, that of a man upon himself from within, and that of his
beholder upon him from without, are not congeneric. They are different
in origin and in kind, and cannot be adopted either of them into the
source of the other without most serious and dangerous mistake. So
adopted, each becomes another thing altogether. It is to me probable
that, although it involves other unfitnesses, the Poet omitted the
passage chiefly from coming to see the danger of its giving occasion, or
at least support, to an altogether mistaken and unjust idea of his
Hamlet.]
[Page 194]
There's trickes i'th'world, and hems, and beats her heart,
Spurnes enuiously at Strawes,[1] speakes things in doubt,[2]
That carry but halfe sense: Her speech is nothing,[3]
Yet the vnshaped vse of it[4] doth moue
The hearers to Collection[5]; they ayme[6] at it,
[Sidenote: they yawne at]
And botch the words[7] vp fit to their owne thoughts
[_Continuation of quote from Quarto from previous text page_:--
And spur my dull reuenge. [8]What is a man
If his chiefe good and market of his time
Be but to sleepe and feede, a beast, no more;
Sure he that made vs with such large discourse[9]
Looking before and after, gaue vs not
That capabilitie and god-like reason
To fust in vs vnvsd,[8] now whether it be
[Sidenote: 52, 120] Bestiall obliuion,[10] or some crauen scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th'euent,[11]
A thought which quarterd hath but one part wisedom,
And euer three parts coward, I doe not know
Why yet I liue to say this thing's to doe,
Sith I haue cause, and will, and strength, and meanes
To doo't;[12] examples grosse as earth exhort me,
Witnes this Army of such masse and charge,
[Sidenote: 235] Led by a delicate and tender Prince,
Whose spirit with diuine ambition puft,
Makes mouthes at the invisible euent,
[Sidenote: 120] Exposing what is mortall, and vnsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,[13]
Euen for an Egge-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is not to stirre without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrell in a straw
When honour's at the stake, how stand I then
That haue a father kild, a mother staind,
Excytements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all sleepe,[14] while to my shame I see
The iminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasie and tricke[15] of fame
Goe to their graues like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,[16]
Which is not tombe enough and continent[17]
To hide the slaine,[18] ô from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.[19] _Exit._]
[Footnote 1: trifles.]
[Footnote 2: doubtfully.]
[Footnote 3: 'there is nothing in her speech.']
[Footnote 4: 'the formless mode of it.']
[Footnote 5: 'to gathering things and putting them together.']
[Footnote 6: guess.]
[Footnote 7: Ophelia's words.]
[Footnote 8: I am in doubt whether this passage from 'What is a man'
down to 'unused,' does not refer to the king, and whether Hamlet is not
persuading himself that it can be no such objectionable thing to kill
one hardly above a beast. At all events it is far more applicable to the
king: it was not one of Hamlet's faults, in any case, to fail of using
his reason. But he may just as well accuse himself of that too! At the
same time the worst neglect of reason lies in not carrying out its
conclusions, and if we cannot justify Hamlet in his delay, the passage
is of good application to him. 'Bestiall oblivion' does seem to connect
himself with the reflection; but how thoroughly is the thing intended by
such a phrase alien from the character of Hamlet!]
[Footnote 9: --the mental faculty of running hither and thither: 'We
look before and after.' _Shelley: To a Skylark_.]
[Footnote 10: --the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has just
mentioned.]
[Footnote 11: --the _consequences_. The scruples that come of thinking
of the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they were _craven_ scruples,
that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the noble
self-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to result
from the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands at
least absolute assurance of guilt? or that 'a thinking too precisely on
the event,' to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an un
wounded name behind him?]
[Footnote 12: This passage is the strongest there is on the side of the
ordinary misconception of the character of Hamlet. It comes from
himself; and it is as ungenerous as it is common and unfair to use such
a weapon against a man. Does any but St. Paul himself say he was the
chief of sinners? Consider Hamlet's condition, tormented on all sides,
within and without, and think whether this outbreak against himself be
not as unfair as it is natural. Lest it should be accepted against him,
Shakspere did well to leave it out. In bitter disappointment, both
because of what is and what is not, both because of what he has done and
what he has failed to do, having for the time lost all chance, with the
last vision of the Ghost still haunting his eyes, his last reproachful
words yet ringing in his ears, are we bound to take his judgment of
himself because it is against himself? Are we _bound_ to take any man's
judgment because it is against himself? I answer, 'No more than if it
were for himself.' A good man's judgment, where he is at all perplexed,
especially if his motive comes within his own question, is ready to be
against himself, as a bad man's is sure to be for himself. Or because he
is a philosopher, does it follow that throughout he understands himself?
Were such a man in cool, untroubled conditions, we might feel compelled
to take his judgment, but surely not here! A philosopher in such state
as Hamlet's would understand the quality of his spiritual operations
with no more certainty than another man. In his present mood, Hamlet
forgets the cogency of the reasons that swayed him in the other; forgets
that his uppermost feeling then was doubt, as horror, indignation, and
conviction are uppermost now. Things were never so clear to Hamlet as to
us.
But how can he say he has strength and means--in the position in which
he now finds himself? I am glad to be able to believe, let my defence of
Hamlet against himself be right or wrong, that Shakspere intended the
omission of the passage. I lay nothing on the great lack of logic
throughout the speech, for that would not make it unfit for Hamlet in
such mood, while it makes its omission from the play of less consequence
to my general argument.]
[Footnote 13: _threaten_. This supports my argument as to the great
soliloquy--that it was death as the result of his slaying the king, or
attempting to do so, not death by suicide, he was thinking of: he
expected to die himself in the punishing of his uncle.]
[Footnote 14: He had had no chance but that when the king was on his
knees.]
[Footnote 15: 'a fancy and illusion.']
[Footnote 16: 'which is too small for those engaged to find room to
fight on it.']
[Footnote 17: 'continent,' _containing space_.]
[Footnote 18: This soliloquy is antithetic to the other. Here is no
thought of the 'something after death.']
[Footnote 19: If, with this speech in his mouth, Hamlet goes coolly on
board the vessel, _not being compelled thereto_ (190, 192, 216), and
possessing means to his vengeance, as here he says, and goes merely in
order to hoist Rosincrance and Guildensterne with their own petard--that
is, if we must keep the omitted passages, then the author exposes his
hero to a more depreciatory judgment than any from which I would justify
him, and a conception of his character entirely inconsistent with the
rest of the play. He did not observe the risk at the time he wrote the
passage, but discovering it afterwards, rectified the oversight--to the
dissatisfaction of his critics, who have agreed in restoring what he
cancelled.]
[Page 196]
Which as her winkes, and nods, and gestures yeeld[1] them,
Indeed would make one thinke there would[2] be thought,
[Sidenote: there might[2] be]
Though nothing sure, yet much vnhappily.
_Qu_. 'Twere good she were spoken with,[3] [Sidenote: _Hora_.]
For she may strew dangerous coniectures
In ill breeding minds.[4] Let her come in. [Sidenote: _Enter Ophelia_.]
To my sicke soule (as sinnes true Nature is)
[Sidenote: _Quee_. 'To my[5]]
Each toy seemes Prologue, to some great amisse, [Sidenote: 'Each]
So full of Artlesse iealousie is guilt, [Sidenote: 'So]
It spill's it selfe, in fearing to be spilt.[6] [Sidenote: 'It]
_Enter Ophelia distracted_.[7]
_Ophe_. Where is the beauteous Maiesty of
Denmark.
_Qu_. How now _Ophelia_? [Sidenote: _shee sings_.]
_Ophe. How should I your true loue know from another one?
By his Cockle hat and staffe, and his Sandal shoone._
_Qu_. Alas sweet Lady: what imports this Song?
_Ophe_. Say you? Nay pray you marke.
_He is dead and gone Lady, he is dead and gone,
At his head a grasse-greene Turfe, at his heeles a stone._
[Sidenote: O ho.]
_Enter King_.
_Qu_. Nay but _Ophelia_.
_Ophe_. Pray you marke.
_White his Shrow'd as the Mountaine Snow._ [Sidenote: _Enter King_.]
_Qu_. Alas looke heere my Lord,
[Sidenote: 246] _Ophe. Larded[8] with sweet flowers_:
[Sidenote: Larded all with]
_Which bewept to the graue did not go_, [Sidenote: ground | _Song_.]
_With true-loue showres_,
[Footnote 1: 'present them,'--her words, that is--giving significance or
interpretation to them.]
[Footnote 2: If this _would_, and not the _might_ of the _Quarto_, be
the correct reading, it means that Ophelia would have something thought
so and so.]
[Footnote 3: --changing her mind on Horatio's representation. At first
she would not speak with her.]
[Footnote 4: 'minds that breed evil.']
[Footnote 5: --as a quotation.]
[Footnote 6: Instance, the history of Macbeth.]
[Footnote 7: _1st Q. Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe
singing._
Hamlet's apparent madness would seem to pass into real madness in
Ophelia. King Lear's growing perturbation becomes insanity the moment he
sees the pretended madman Edgar.
The forms of Ophelia's madness show it was not her father's death that
drove her mad, but his death by the hand of Hamlet, which, with Hamlet's
banishment, destroyed all the hope the queen had been fostering in her
of marrying him some day.]
[Footnote 8: This expression is, as Dr. Johnson says, taken from
cookery; but it is so used elsewhere by Shakspere that we cannot regard
it here as a scintillation of Ophelia's insanity.]
[Page 198]
_King_. How do ye, pretty Lady? [Sidenote: you]
_Ophe_. Well, God dil'd you.[1] They say the
[Sidenote: good dild you,[1]]
Owle was a Bakers daughter.[2] Lord, wee know
what we are, but know not what we may be. God
be at your Table.
[Sidenote: 174] _King_. Conceit[3] vpon her Father.
_Ophe_. Pray you let's haue no words of this: [Sidenote: Pray lets]
but when they aske you what it meanes, say you
this:
[4] _To morrow is S. Valentines day, all in the morning betime,
And I a Maid at your Window to be your Valentine.
Then vp he rose, and don'd[5] his clothes, and dupt[5] the chamber dore,
Let in the Maid, that out a Maid, neuer departed more._
_King_. Pretty _Ophelia._
_Ophe_. Indeed la? without an oath Ile make an
[Sidenote: Indeede without]
end ont.[6]
_By gis, and by S. Charity,
Alacke, and fie for shame:
Yong men wil doo't, if they come too't,
By Cocke they are too blame.
Quoth she before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to Wed:
So would I ha done by yonder Sunne_, [Sidenote: (He answers,) So would]
_And thou hadst not come to my bed._
_King_. How long hath she bin this? [Sidenote: beene thus?]
_Ophe_. I hope all will be well. We must bee
patient, but I cannot choose but weepe, to thinke
they should lay him i'th'cold ground: My brother
[Sidenote: they wouid lay]
shall knowe of it, and so I thanke you for your
good counsell. Come, my Coach: Goodnight
Ladies: Goodnight sweet Ladies: Goodnight,
goodnight. _Exit_[7]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'God yeeld you,' that is, _reward you_. Here we
have a blunder for the contraction, 'God 'ild you'--perhaps a common
blunder.]
[Footnote 2: For the silly legend, see Douce's note in _Johnson and
Steevens_.]
[Footnote 3: imaginative brooding.]
[Footnote 4: We dare no judgment on madness in life: we need not in
art.]
[Footnote 5: Preterites of _don_ and _dup_, contracted from _do on_ and
_do up_.]
[Footnote 6: --disclaiming false modesty.]
[Footnote 7: _Not in Q_.]
[Page 200]
_King_. Follow her close,
Giue her good watch I pray you:
Oh this is the poyson of deepe greefe, it springs
All from her Fathers death. Oh _Gertrude, Gertrude_,
[Sidenote: death, and now behold, ô _Gertrard, Gertrard_,]
When sorrowes comes, they come not single spies,[1]
[Sidenote: sorrowes come]
But in Battaliaes. First, her Father slaine, [Sidenote: battalians:]
Next your Sonne gone, and he most violent Author
Of his owne iust remoue: the people muddied,[2]
Thicke and vnwholsome in their thoughts, and whispers
[Sidenote: in thoughts]
For[3] good _Polonius_ death; and we haue done but greenly
[Sidenote: 182] In hugger mugger[4] to interre him. Poore _Ophelia_
Diuided from her selfe,[5] and her faire Iudgement,
Without the which we are Pictures, or meere Beasts.
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her Brother is in secret come from France,
Keepes on his wonder,[6] keepes himselfe in clouds,
[Sidenote: Feeds on this[6]]
And wants not Buzzers to infect his eare [Sidenote: care]
With pestilent Speeches of his Fathers death,
Where in necessitie of matter Beggard, [Sidenote: Wherein necessity]
Will nothing sticke our persons to Arraigne [Sidenote: person]
In eare and eare.[7] O my deere _Gertrude_, this,
Like to a murdering Peece[8] in many places,
Giues me superfluous death. _A Noise within_.
_Enter a Messenger_.
_Qu_. Alacke, what noyse is this?[9]
_King_. Where are my _Switzers_?[10]
[Sidenote: _King_. Attend, where is my Swissers,]
Let them guard the doore. What is the matter?
_Mes_. Saue your selfe, my Lord.
[Sidenote: 120] The Ocean (ouer-peering of his List[11])
Eates not the Flats with more impittious[12] haste
[Footnote 1: --each alone, like scouts.]
[Footnote 2: stirred up like pools--with similar result.]
[Footnote 3: because of.]
[Footnote 4: The king wished to avoid giving the people any pretext or
cause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry--to the
queen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to the
popular indignation. _Hugger mugger--secretly: Steevens and Malone._]
[Footnote 5: The phrase has the same _visual_ root as _beside
herself_--both signifying '_not at one_ with herself.']
[Footnote 6: If the _Quarto_ reading is right, 'this wonder' means the
hurried and suspicious funeral of his father. But the _Folio_ reading is
quite Shaksperean: 'He keeps on (as a garment) the wonder of the people
at him'; _keeps his behaviour such that the people go on wondering about
him_: the phrase is explained by the next clause. Compare:
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But, like a comet, I was wondered at.
_K. Henry IV. P. I_. act iii. sc. 1.]
[Footnote 7: 'wherein Necessity, beggared of material, will not scruple
to whisper invented accusations against us.']
[Footnote 8: --the name given to a certain small cannon--perhaps charged
with various missiles, hence the better figuring the number and variety
of 'sorrows' he has just recounted.]
[Footnote 9: _This line not in Q._]
[Footnote 10: Note that the king is well guarded, and Hamlet had to lay
his account with great risk in the act of killing him.]
[Footnote 11: _border, as of cloth_: the mounds thrown up to keep the sea out.
The figure here specially fits a Dane.]
[Footnote 12: I do not know whether this word means _pitiless_, or
stands for _impetuous_. The _Quarto_ has one _t_.]
[Page 202]
Then young _Laertes_, in a Riotous head,[1]
Ore-beares your Officers, the rabble call him Lord,
And as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, Custome not knowne,
The Ratifiers and props of euery word,[2]
[Sidenote: 62] They cry choose we? _Laertes_ shall be King,[3]
[Sidenote: The cry]
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
_Laertes_ shall be King, _Laertes_ King.
_Qu_. How cheerefully on the false Traile they cry,
[Sidenote: _A noise within_.]
Oh this is Counter you false Danish Dogges.[4]
_Noise within. Enter Laertes_[5]. [Sidenote: _Laertes with others_.]
_King_. The doores are broke.
_Laer_. Where is the King, sirs? Stand you all without.
[Sidenote: this King? sirs stand]
_All_. No, let's come in.
_Laer_. I pray you giue me leaue.[6]
_All_. We will, we will.
_Laer_. I thanke you: Keepe the doore.
Oh thou vilde King, giue me my Father.
_Qu_. Calmely good _Laertes_.
_Laer_. That drop of blood, that calmes[7] [Sidenote: thats calme]
Proclaimes me Bastard:
Cries Cuckold to my Father, brands the Harlot
Euen heere betweene the chaste vnsmirched brow
Of my true Mother.[8]
_Kin_. What is the cause _Laertes_,
That thy Rebellion lookes so Gyant-like?
Let him go _Gertrude_: Do not feare[9] our person:
There's such Diuinity doth hedge a King,[10]
That Treason can but peepe to what it would,
Acts little of his will.[11] Tell me _Laertes_,
[Footnote 1: _Head_ is a rising or gathering of people--generally
rebellious, I think.]
[Footnote 2: Antiquity and Custom.]
[Footnote 3: This refers to the election of Claudius--evidently not a
popular election, but effected by intrigue with the aristocracy and the
army: 'They cry, Let us choose: Laertes shall be king!'
We may suppose the attempt of Claudius to have been favoured by the
lingering influence of the old Norse custom of succession, by which not
the son but the brother inherited. 16, _bis._]
[Footnote 4: To hunt counter is to 'hunt the game by the heel or track.'
The queen therefore accuses them of not using their scent or judgment,
but following appearances.]
[Footnote 5: Now at length re-appears Laertes, who has during the
interim been ripening in Paris for villainy. He is wanted for the
catastrophe, and requires but the last process of a few hours in the
hell-oven of a king's instigation.]
[Footnote 6: The customary and polite way of saying _leave me_: 'grant
me your absence.' 85, 89.]
[Footnote 7: grows calm.]
[Footnote 8: In taking vengeance Hamlet must acknowledge his mother such
as Laertes says inaction on his part would proclaim his mother.
The actress should here let a shadow cross the queen's face: though too
weak to break with the king, she has begun to repent.]
[Footnote 9: fear _for_.]
[Footnote 10: The consummate hypocrite claims the protection of the
sacred hedge through which he had himself broken--or crept rather, like
a snake, to kill. He can act innocence the better that his conscience is
clear as to Polonius.]
[Footnote 11: 'can only peep through the hedge to its desire--acts
little of its will.']
[Page 204]
Why thou art thus Incenst? Let him go _Gertrude_.
Speake man.
_Laer_. Where's my Father? [Sidenote: is my]
_King_. Dead.
_Qu_. But not by him.
_King_. Let him demand his fill.
_Laer_. How came he dead? Ile not be Iuggel'd with.
To hell Allegeance: Vowes, to the blackest diuell.
Conscience and Grace, to the profoundest Pit
I dare Damnation: to this point I stand,
That both the worlds I giue to negligence,
Let come what comes: onely Ile be reueng'd
Most throughly for my Father.
_King_. Who shall stay you?[1]
_Laer_. My Will, not all the world,[1] [Sidenote: worlds:]
And for my meanes, Ile husband them so well,
They shall go farre with little.
_King_. Good _Laertes_:
If you desire to know the certaintie
Of your deere Fathers death, if writ in your reuenge,
[Sidenote: Father, i'st writ]
That Soop-stake[2] you will draw both Friend and Foe,
Winner and Looser.[3]
_Laer_. None but his Enemies.
_King_. Will you know them then.
_La_. To his good Friends, thus wide Ile ope my Armes:
And like the kinde Life-rend'ring Politician,[4]
[Sidenote: life-rendring Pelican,]
Repast them with my blood.[5]
_King_. Why now you speake
Like a good Childe,[6] and a true Gentleman.
That I am guiltlesse of your Fathers death,
And am most sensible in greefe for it,[7] [Sidenote: sencibly]
[Footnote 1:
'Who shall _prevent_ you?'
'My own will only--not all the world,'
or,
'Who will _support_ you?'
'My will. Not all the world shall prevent me,'--
so playing on the two meanings of the word _stay._ Or it _might_ mean:
'Not all the world shall stay my will.']
[Footnote 2: swoop-stake--_sweepstakes_.]
[Footnote 3: 'and be loser as well as winner--' If the _Folio's_ is
the right reading, then the sentence is unfinished, and should have a
dash, not a period.]
[Footnote 4: A curious misprint: may we not suspect a somewhat dull
joker among the compositors?]
[Footnote 6: 'a true son to your father.']
[Footnote 7: 'feel much grief for it.']
[Footnote 5: Laertes is a ranter--false everywhere.
Plainly he is introduced as the foil from which Hamlet 'shall stick
fiery off.' In this speech he shows his moral condition directly the
opposite of Hamlet's: he has no principle but revenge. His conduct ought
to be quite satisfactory to Hamlet's critics; there is action enough in
it of the very kind they would have of Hamlet; and doubtless it would be
satisfactory to them but for the treachery that follows. The one, dearly
loving a father who deserves immeasurably better of him than Polonius of
Laertes, will not for the sake of revenge disregard either conscience,
justice, or grace; the other will not delay even to inquire into the
facts of his father's fate, but will act at once on hearsay, rushing to
a blind satisfaction that cannot even be called retaliation, caring for
neither right nor wrong, cursing conscience and the will of God, and
daring damnation. He slights assurance as to the hand by which his
father fell, dismisses all reflection that might interfere with a stupid
revenge. To make up one's mind at once, and act without ground, is
weakness, not strength: this Laertes does--and is therefore just the man
to be the villainous, not the innocent, tool of villainy. He who has
sufficing ground and refuses to act is weak; but the ground that will
satisfy the populace, of which the commonplace critic is the fair type,
will not satisfy either the man of conscience or of wisdom. The mass of
world-bepraised action owes its existence to the pressure of
circumstance, not to the will and conscience of the man. Hamlet waits
for light, even with his heart accusing him; Laertes rushes into the
dark, dagger in hand, like a mad Malay: so he kill, he cares not whom.
Such a man is easily tempted to the vilest treachery, for the light that
is in him is darkness; he is not a true man; he is false in himself.
This is what comes of his father's maxim:
To thine own self be true;
And it must follow, _as the night the day_ (!)
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Like the aphorism 'Honesty is the best policy,' it reveals the
difference between a fact and a truth. Both sayings are correct as
facts, but as guides of conduct devilishly false, leading to dishonesty
and treachery. To be true to the divine self in us, is indeed to be true
to all; but it is only by being true to all, against the ever present
and urging false self, that at length we shall see the divine self rise
above the chaotic waters of our selfishness, and know it so as to be
true to it.
Of Laertes we must note also that it is not all for love of his father
that he is ready to cast allegiance to hell, and kill the king: he has
the voice of the people to succeed him.]
[Page 206]
[Sidenote: 184] It shall as leuell to your Iudgement pierce
[Sidenote: peare']
As day do's to your eye.[1]
_A noise within. [2]Let her come in._
_Enter Ophelia[3]_
_Laer_. How now? what noise is that?[4]
[Sidenote: _Laer_. Let her come in. How now,]
Oh heate drie vp my Braines, teares seuen times salt,
Burne out the Sence and Vertue of mine eye.
By Heauen, thy madnesse shall be payed by waight,
[Sidenote: with weight]
Till our Scale turnes the beame. Oh Rose of May, [Sidenote: turne]
Deere Maid, kinde Sister, sweet _Ophelia_:
Oh Heauens, is't possible, a yong Maids wits,
Should be as mortall as an old mans life?[5] [Sidenote: a poore mans]
Nature is fine[6] in Loue, and where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of it selfe
After the thing it loues.[7]
_Ophe. They bore him bare fac'd on the Beer._
[Sidenote: _Song_.] [Sidenote: bare-faste]
_Hey non nony, nony, hey nony:[8]
And on his graue raines many a teare_,
[Sidenote: And in his graue rain'd]
_Fare you well my Doue._
_Laer_. Had'st thou thy wits, and did'st perswade
Reuenge, it could not moue thus.
_Ophe_. You must sing downe a-downe, and
[Sidenote: sing a downe a downe, And]
you call him[9] a-downe-a. Oh, how the wheele[10]
becomes it? It is the false Steward that stole his
masters daughter.[11]
_Laer_. This nothings more then matter.[12]
_Ophe_. There's Rosemary,[13] that's for Remembraunce.
Pray loue remember: and there is [Sidenote: , pray you loue]
Paconcies, that's for Thoughts. [Sidenote: Pancies[14]]
_Laer_. A document[15] in madnesse, thoughts and
remembrance fitted.
_Ophe_. There's Fennell[16] for you, and Columbines[16]:
ther's Rew[17] for you, and heere's some for
[Footnote 1: 'pierce as _directly_ to your judgment.'
But the simile of the _day_ seems to favour the reading of the
_Q._--'peare,' for _appear_. In the word _level_ would then be indicated
the _rising_ sun.]
[Footnote 2: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q. 'Enter Ofelia as before_.']
[Footnote 4: To render it credible that Laertes could entertain the vile
proposal the king is about to make, it is needful that all possible
influences should be represented as combining to swell the commotion of
his spirit, and overwhelm what poor judgment and yet poorer conscience
he had. Altogether unprepared, he learns Ophelia's pitiful condition by
the sudden sight of the harrowing change in her--and not till after that
hears who killed his father and brought madness on his sister.]
[Footnote 5: _1st Q._
I'st possible a yong maides life,
Should be as mortall as an olde mans sawe?]
[Footnote 6: delicate, exquisite.]
[Footnote 7: 'where 'tis fine': I suggest that the _it_ here may be
impersonal: 'where _things_, where _all_ is fine,' that is, 'in a fine
soul'; then the meaning would be, 'Nature is fine always in love, and
where the soul also is fine, she sends from it' &c. But the _where_ may
be equal, perhaps, to _whereas_. I can hardly think the phrase means
merely '_and where it is in love_.' It might intend--'and where Love is
fine, it sends' &c. The 'precious instance of itself,' that is,
'something that is a part and specimen of itself,' is here the 'young
maid's wits': they are sent after the 'old man's life.'--These three
lines are not in the Quarto. It is not disputed that they are from
Shakspere's hand: if the insertion of these be his, why should the
omission of others not be his also?]
[Footnote 8: _This line is not in Q._]
[Footnote 9: '_if_ you call him': I think this is not a part of the
song, but is spoken of her father.]
[Footnote 10: _the burden of the song_: Steevens.]
[Footnote 11: The subject of the ballad.]
[Footnote 12: 'more than sense'--in incitation to revenge.]
[Footnote 13: --an evergreen, and carried at funerals: _Johnson_.
For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour ail the winter long:
Grace and remembrance be to you both.
_The Winter's Tale_, act iv. sc. 3.]
[Footnote 14: _penseés_.]
[Footnote 15: _a teaching, a lesson_--the fitting of thoughts and
remembrance, namely--which he applies to his intent of revenge. Or may
it not rather be meant that the putting of these two flowers together
was a happy hit of her madness, presenting the fantastic emblem of a
document or writing--the very idea of which is the keeping of thoughts
in remembrance?]
[Footnote 16: --said to mean _flattery_ and _thanklessness_--perhaps
given to the king.]
[Footnote 17: _Repentance_--given to the queen. Another name of the
plant was _Herb-Grace_, as below, in allusion, doubtless, to its common
name--_rue_ or _repentance_ being both the gift of God, and an act of
grace.]
[Page 208]
me. Wee may call it Herbe-Grace a Sundaies:
[Sidenote: herbe of Grace a Sondaies, you may weare]
Oh you must weare your Rew with a difference.[1]
There's a Daysie,[2] I would giue you some Violets,[3]
but they wither'd all when my Father dyed: They
say, he made a good end; [Sidenote: say a made]
_For bonny sweet Robin is all my ioy._
_Laer_. Thought, and Affliction, Passion, Hell it selfe:
[Sidenote: afflictions,]
She turnes to Fauour, and to prettinesse.
[Sidenote:_Song._]
_Ophe. And will he not come againe_, [Sidenote: will a not]
_And will he not come againe_: [Sidenote: will a not]
_No, no, he is dead, go to thy Death-bed,
He neuer wil come againe.
His Beard as white as Snow_, [Sidenote: beard was as]
_All[4] Flaxen was his Pole:
He is gone, he is gone, and we cast away mone,
Gramercy[5] on his Soule._ [Sidenote: God a mercy on]
And of all Christian Soules, I pray God.[6]
[Sidenote: Christians soules,]
God buy ye.[7] _Exeunt Ophelia_[8] [Sidenote: you.]
_Laer_. Do you see this, you Gods? [Sidenote: Doe you this ô God.]
_King. Laertes_, I must common[9] with your greefe, [Sidenote: commune]
Or you deny me right: go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest Friends you will,
And they shall heare and iudge 'twixt you and me;
If by direct or by Colaterall hand
They finde vs touch'd,[10] we will our Kingdome giue,
Our Crowne, our Life, and all that we call Ours
To you in satisfaction. But if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to vs,[11]
And we shall ioyntly labour with your soule
To giue it due content.
_Laer_. Let this be so:[12]
His meanes of death,[13] his obscure buriall; [Sidenote: funerall,]
No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones,[14]
[Footnote 1: --perhaps the heraldic term. The Poet, not Ophelia, intends
the special fitness of the speech. Ophelia means only that the rue of
the matron must differ from the rue of the girl.]
[Footnote 2: 'the dissembling daisy': _Greene_--quoted by _Henley_.]
[Footnote 3: --standing for _faithfulness: Malone_, from an old song.]
[Footnote 4: '_All' not in Q._]
[Footnote 5: Wherever else Shakspere uses the word, it is in the sense
of _grand merci--great thanks (Skeat's Etym. Dict.)_; here it is surely
a corruption, whether Ophelia's or the printer's, of the _Quarto_
reading, '_God a mercy_' which, spoken quickly, sounds very near
_gramercy_. The _1st Quarto_ also has 'God a mercy.']
[Footnote 6: 'I pray God.' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 7: 'God b' wi' ye': _good bye._]
[Footnote 8: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 9: 'I must have a share in your grief.' The word does mean
_commune_, but here is more pregnant, as evidenced in the next phrase,
'Or you deny me right:'--'do not give me justice.']
[Footnote 10: 'touched with the guilt of the deed, either as having done
it with our own hand, or caused it to be done by the hand of one at our
side.']
[Footnote 11: We may paraphrase thus: 'Be pleased to grant us a loan of
your patience,' that is, _be patient for a while at our request_, 'and
we will work along with your soul to gain for it (your soul) just
satisfaction.']
[Footnote 12: He consents--but immediately _re-sums_ the grounds of his
wrathful suspicion.]
[Footnote 13: --the way in which he met his death.]
[Footnote 14: --customary honours to the noble dead. _A trophy_ was an
arrangement of the armour and arms of the dead in a set decoration. The
origin of the word _hatchment_ shows its intent: it is a corruption of
_achievement_.]
[Page 210]
No Noble rite, nor formall ostentation,[1]
Cry to be heard, as 'twere from Heauen to Earth,
That I must call in question.[2] [Sidenote: call't in]
_King_. So you shall:
And where th'offence is, let the great Axe fall.
I pray you go with me.[3] _Exeunt_
_Enter Horatio, with an Attendant_. [Sidenote: _Horatio and others_.]
_Hora_. What are they that would speake with
me?
_Ser_. Saylors sir, they say they haue Letters
[_Gent_. Sea-faring men sir,]
for you.
_Hor_. Let them come in,[4]
I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from Lord _Hamlet_.
_Enter Saylor_. [Sidenote: _Saylers_.]
_Say_. God blesse you Sir.
_Hor_. Let him blesse thee too.
_Say_. Hee shall Sir, and't[5] please him. There's
[Sidenote: A shall sir and please]
a Letter for you Sir: It comes from th'Ambassadours
[Sidenote: it came frõ th' Embassador]
that was bound for England, if your name
be _Horatio_, as I am let to know[6] it is.
_Reads the Letter_[7]
Horatio, _When thou shalt haue ouerlook'd this_,
[Sidenote: _Hor. Horatio_ when]
_giue these Fellowes some meanes to the King: They
haue Letters for him. Ere we were two dayes[8] old
at Sea, a Pyrate of very Warlicke appointment gaue
vs Chace. Finding our selues too slow of Saile, we
put on a compelled Valour. In the Grapple, I boarded_
[Sidenote: valour, and in the]
_them: On the instant they got cleare of our Shippe,
so I alone became their Prisoner.[9] They haue dealt
with mee, like Theeues of Mercy, but they knew what
they did. I am to doe a good turne for them. Let_
[Sidenote: a turne]
_the King have the Letters I haue sent, and repaire
thou to me with as much hast as thou wouldest flye_
[Sidenote: much speede as]
_death[10] I haue words to speake in your eare, will_
[Sidenote: in thine eare]
[Footnote 1: 'formal ostentation'--show or publication of honour
according to form or rule.]
[Footnote 2: 'so that I must call in question'--institute inquiry; or
'--_that_ (these things) I must call in question.']
[Footnote 3: Note such a half line frequently after the not uncommon
closing couplet--as if to take off the formality of the couplet, and
lead back, through the more speech-like, to greater verisimilitude.]
[Footnote 4: Here the servant goes, and the rest of the speech Horatio
speaks _solus_. He had expected to hear from Hamlet.]
[Footnote 5: 'and it please'--_if it please_. _An_ for _if_ is merely
_and_.]
[Footnote 6: 'I am told.']
[Footnote 7: _Not in Q_.]
[Footnote 8: This gives an approximate clue to the time between the
second and third acts: it needs not have been a week.]
[Footnote 9: Note once more the unfailing readiness of Hamlet where
there was no question as to the fitness of the action seemingly
required. This is the man who by too much thinking, forsooth, has
rendered himself incapable of action!--so far ahead of the foremost
behind him, that, when the pirate, not liking such close quarters, 'on
the instant got clear,' he is the only one on her deck! There was no
question here as to what ought to be done: the pirate grappled them; he
boarded her. Thereafter, with his prompt faculty for dealing with men,
he soon comes to an understanding with his captors, and they agree, upon
some certain condition, to put him on shore.
He writes in unusual spirits; for he has now gained full, presentable,
and indisputable proof of the treachery which before he scarcely
doubted, but could not demonstrate. The present instance of it has to do
with himself, not his father, but in itself would justify the slaying of
his uncle, whose plausible way had possibly perplexed him so that he
could not thoroughly believe him the villain he was: bad as he must be,
could he actually have killed his own brother, and _such_ a brother? A
better man than Laertes might have acted more promptly than Hamlet, and
so happened to _do_ right; but he would not have _been_ right, for the
proof was _not_ sufficient.]
[Footnote 10: The value Hamlet sets on his discovery, evident in his
joyous urgency to share it with his friend, is explicable only on the
ground of the relief it is to his mind to be now at length quite certain
of his duty.]
[Page 212]
_make thee dumbe, yet are they much too light for the
bore of the Matter.[1] These good Fellowes will bring_
[Sidenote: the bord of]
_thee where I am. Rosincrance and Guildensterne,
hold their course for England. Of them I haue
much to tell thee, Farewell.
He that thou knowest thine._
[Sidenote: _So that thou knowest thine Hamlet._]
Hamlet.
Come, I will giue you way for these your Letters,
[Sidenote: _Hor_. Come I will you way]
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them. _Exit_. [Sidenote: _Exeunt._]
_Enter King and Laertes._[2]
_King_. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,
And you must put me in your heart for Friend,
Sith you haue heard, and with a knowing eare,[3]
That he which hath your Noble Father slaine,
Pursued my life.[4]
_Laer_. It well appeares. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feates,[5] [Sidenote: proceede]
So crimefull, and so Capitall in Nature,[6] [Sidenote: criminall]
As by your Safety, Wisedome, all things else,
[Sidenote: safetie, greatnes, wisdome,]
You mainly[7] were stirr'd vp?
_King_. O for two speciall Reasons,
Which may to you (perhaps) seeme much vnsinnowed,[8]
And yet to me they are strong. The Queen his Mother,
[Sidenote: But yet | tha'r strong]
Liues almost by his lookes: and for my selfe,
My Vertue or my Plague, be it either which,[9]
She's so coniunctiue to my life and soule;
[Sidenote: she is so concliue]
That as the Starre moues not but in his Sphere,[10]
I could not but by her. The other Motiue,
Why to a publike count I might not go,
[Sidenote: 186] Is the great loue the generall gender[11] beare him,
Who dipping all his Faults in their affection,
[Footnote 1: Note here also Hamlet's feeling of the importance of what
has passed since he parted with his friend. 'The bullet of my words,
though it will strike thee dumb, is much too small for the bore of the
reality (the facts) whence it will issue.']
[Footnote 2: While we have been present at the interview between Horatio
and the sailors, the king has been persuading Laertes.]
[Footnote 3: an ear of judgment.]
[Footnote 4: 'thought then to have killed me.']
[Footnote 5: _faits_, deeds.]
[Footnote 6: 'deeds so deserving of death, not merely in the eye of the
law, but in their own nature.']
[Footnote 7: powerfully.]
[Footnote 8: 'unsinewed.']
[Footnote 9: 'either-which.']
[Footnote 10: 'moves not but in the moving of his sphere,'--The stars
were popularly supposed to be fixed in a solid crystalline sphere, and
moved in its motion only. The queen, Claudius implies, is his sphere; he
could not move but by her.]
[Footnote 11: Here used in the sense of the Fr. _'genre'--sort_. It is
not the only instance of the word so used by Shakspere.
The king would rouse in Laertes jealousy of Hamlet.]
[Page 214]
Would like the Spring that turneth Wood to Stone, [Sidenote: Worke like]
Conuert his Gyues to Graces.[1] So that my Arrowes
Too slightly timbred for so loud a Winde,
[Sidenote: for so loued Arm'd[2]]
Would haue reuerted to my Bow againe,
And not where I had arm'd them.[2]
[Sidenote: But not | have aym'd them.]
_Laer_. And so haue I a Noble Father lost,
A Sister driuen into desperate tearmes,[3]
Who was (if praises may go backe againe) [Sidenote: whose worth, if]
Stood Challenger on mount of all the Age
For her perfections. But my reuenge will come.
_King_. Breake not your sleepes for that,
You must not thinke
That we are made of stuffe, so flat, and dull,
That we can let our Beard be shooke with danger,[4]
And thinke it pastime. You shortly shall heare more,[5]
I lou'd your Father, and we loue our Selfe,
And that I hope will teach you to imagine----[6]
_Enter a Messenger_. [Sidenote: _with letters._]
How now? What Newes?
_Mes._ Letters my Lord from _Hamlet_.[7] This to
[Sidenote: _Messen_. These to]
your Maiesty: this to the Queene.
_King_. From _Hamlet_? Who brought them?
_Mes_. Saylors my Lord they say, I saw them not:
They were giuen me by _Claudio_, he recciu'd them.[8]
[Sidenote: them Of him that brought them.]
_King. Laertes_ you shall heare them:[9]
Leaue vs. _Exit Messenger_[10]
_High and Mighty, you shall know I am set
naked on your Kingdome. To morrow shall I begge
leaue to see your Kingly Eyes[11] When I shall (first
asking your Pardon thereunto) recount th'Occasions_
[Sidenote: the occasion of my suddaine returne.]
_of my sodaine, and more strange returne._[12]
Hamlet.[13]
What should this meane? Are all the rest come backe?
[Sidenote: _King_. What]
[Footnote 1: 'would convert his fetters--if I imprisoned him--to graces,
commending him yet more to their regard.']
[Footnote 2: _arm'd_ is certainly the right, and a true Shaksperean
word:--it was no fault in the aim, but in the force of the flight--no
matter of the eye, but of the arm, which could not give momentum enough
to such slightly timbered arrows. The fault in the construction of the
last line, I need not remark upon.
I think there is a hint of this the genuine meaning even in the
blundered and partly unintelligible reading of the _Quarto_. If we leave
out 'for so loued,' we have this: 'So that my arrows, too slightly
timbered, would have reverted armed to my bow again, but not (_would not
have gone_) where I have aimed them,'--implying that his arrows would
have turned their armed heads against himself.
What the king says here is true, but far from _the_ truth: he feared
driving Hamlet, and giving him at the same time opportunity, to speak in
his own defence and render his reasons.]
[Footnote 3: _extremes_? or _conditions_?]
[Footnote 4: 'With many a tempest hadde his berd ben
schake.'--_Chaucer_, of the Schipman, in _The Prologue_ to _The
Canterbury Tales_.]
[Footnote 5: --hear of Hamlet's death in England, he means.
At this point in the _1st Q._ comes a scene between Horatio and the
queen, in which he informs her of a letter he had just received from
Hamlet,
Whereas he writes how he escap't the danger,
And subtle treason that the king had plotted,
Being crossed by the contention of the windes,
He found the Packet &c.
Horatio does not mention the pirates, but speaks of Hamlet 'being set
ashore,' and of _Gilderstone_ and _Rossencraft_ going on to their fate.
The queen assures Horatio that she is but temporizing with the king, and
shows herself anxious for the success of her son's design against his
life. The Poet's intent was not yet clear to himself.]
[Footnote 6: Here his crow cracks.]
[Footnote 7: _From_ 'How now' _to_ 'Hamlet' is _not in Q._]
[Footnote 8: Horatio has given the sailors' letters to Claudio, he to
another.]
[Footnote 9: He wants to show him that he has nothing behind--that he is
open with him: he will read without having pre-read.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 11: He makes this request for an interview with the intent of
killing him. The king takes care he does not have it.]
[Footnote 12: '_more strange than sudden_.']
[Footnote 13: _Not in Q._]
[Page 216]
Or is it some abuse?[1] Or no such thing?[2]
[Sidenote: abuse, and no[2]]
_Laer_. Know you the hand?[3]
_Kin_. 'Tis _Hamlets_ Character, naked and in a
Postscript here he sayes alone:[4] Can you aduise [Sidenote: deuise me?]
me?[5]
_Laer_. I'm lost in it my Lord; but let him come, [Sidenote: I am]
It warmes the very sicknesse in my heart,
That I shall liue and tell him to his teeth; [Sidenote: That I liue and]
Thus diddest thou. [Sidenote: didst]
_Kin_. If it be so _Laertes_, as how should it be so:[6]
How otherwise will you be rul'd by me?
_Laer_. If so[7] you'l not o'rerule me to a peace.
[Sidenote: I my Lord, so you will not]
_Kin_. To thine owne peace: if he be now return'd,
[Sidenote: 195] As checking[8] at his Voyage, and that he meanes
[Sidenote: As the King[8] at his]
No more to vndertake it; I will worke him
To an exployt now ripe in my Deuice, [Sidenote: deuise,]
Vnder the which he shall not choose but fall;
And for his death no winde of blame shall breath,
[Sidenote: 221] But euen his Mother shall vncharge the practice,[9]
And call it accident: [A] Some two Monthes hence[10]
[Sidenote: two months since]
Here was a Gentleman of _Normandy_,
I'ue seene my selfe, and seru'd against the French, [Sidenote: I haue]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Laer_. My Lord I will be rul'd,
The rather if you could deuise it so
That I might be the organ.
_King_. It falls right,
You haue beene talkt of since your trauaile[11] much,
And that in _Hamlets_ hearing, for a qualitie
Wherein they say you shine, your summe of parts[12]
Did not together plucke such enuie from him
As did that one, and that in my regard
Of the vnworthiest siedge.[13]
_Laer_. What part is that my Lord?
_King_. A very ribaud[14] in the cap of youth,
Yet needfull to, for youth no lesse becomes[15]
The light and carelesse liuery that it weares
Then setled age, his sables, and his weedes[16]
Importing health[17] and grauenes;]
[Footnote 1: 'some trick played on me?' Compare _K. Lear_, act v. sc. 7:
'I am mightily abused.']
[Footnote 2: I incline to the _Q._ reading here: 'or is it some trick,
and no reality in it?']
[Footnote 3: --following the king's suggestion.]
[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'Tis _Hamlets_ Character. 'Naked'!--And, in a
Postscript here, he sayes 'alone'! Can &c.
'_Alone_'--to allay suspicion of his having brought assistance with
him.]
[Footnote 5: Fine flattery--preparing the way for the instigation he is
about to commence.]
[Footnote 6: _Point thus_: '--as how should it be so? how
otherwise?--will' &c. The king cannot tell what to think--either how it
can be, or how it might be otherwise--for here is Hamlet's own hand!]
[Footnote 7: provided.]
[Footnote 8: A hawk was said _to check_ when it forsook its proper game
for some other bird that crossed its flight. The blunder in the _Quarto_
is odd, plainly from manuscript copy, and is not likely to have been set
right by any but the author.]
[Footnote 9: 'shall not give the _practice'--artifice, cunning attempt,
chicane_, or _trick_--but a word not necessarily offensive--'the name it
deserves, but call it _accident_:' 221.]
[Footnote 10: 'Some' _not in Q.--Hence_ may be either _backwards_ or
_forwards_; now it is used only _forwards_.]
[Footnote 11: travels.]
[Footnote 12: 'all your excellencies together.']
[Footnote 13: seat, place, grade, position, merit.]
[Footnote 14: 'A very riband'--a mere trifling accomplishment: the _u_
of the text can but be a misprint for _n_.]
[Footnote 15: _youth_ obj., _livery_ nom. to _becomes_.]
[Footnote 16: 'than his furs and his robes become settled age.']
[Footnote 17: Warburton thinks the word ought to be _wealth_, but I
doubt it; _health_, in its sense of wholeness, general soundness, in
affairs as well as person, I should prefer.]
[Page 218]
And they ran[1] well on Horsebacke; but this Gallant
[Sidenote: they can well[1]]
Had witchcraft in't[2]; he grew into his Seat, [Sidenote: vnto his]
And to such wondrous doing brought his Horse,
As had he beene encorps't and demy-Natur'd
With the braue Beast,[3] so farre he past my thought,
[Sidenote: he topt me thought,[4]]
That I in forgery[5] of shapes and trickes,
Come short of what he did.[6]
_Laer_. A Norman was't?
_Kin_. A Norman.
_Laer_. Vpon my life _Lamound_. [Sidenote: _Lamord_.]
_Kin_. The very same.
_Laer_. I know him well, he is the Brooch indeed,
And Iemme of all our Nation, [Sidenote: all the Nation.]
_Kin_. Hee mad confession of you,
And gaue you such a Masterly report,
For Art and exercise in your defence;
And for your Rapier most especially, [Sidenote: especiall,]
That he cryed out, t'would be a sight indeed,[7]
If one could match you [A] Sir. This report of his
[Sidenote: ; sir this]
[Sidenote: 120, 264] Did _Hamlet_ so envenom with his Enuy,[8]
That he could nothing doe but wish and begge,
Your sodaine comming ore to play with him;[9] [Sidenote: with you]
Now out of this.[10]
_Laer_. Why out of this, my Lord? [Sidenote: What out]
_Kin. Laertes_ was your Father deare to you?
Or are you like the painting[11] of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?
_Laer_. Why aske you this?
_Kin_. Not that I thinke you did not loue your Father,
But that I know Loue is begun by Time[12]:
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_
; the Scrimures[13] of their nation
He swore had neither motion, guard nor eye,
If you opposd them;]
[Footnote 1: I think the _can_ of the _Quarto_ is the true word.]
[Footnote 2: --in his horsemanship.]
[Footnote 3: There is no mistake in the order 'had he beene'; the
transposition is equivalent to _if_: 'as if he had been unbodied with,
and shared half the nature of the brave beast.'
These two lines, from _As_ to _thought_, must be taken parenthetically;
or else there must be supposed a dash after _Beast_, and a fresh start
made.
'But he (as if Centaur-like he had been one piece with the horse) was no
more moved than one with the going of his own legs:'
'it seemed, as he borrowed the horse's body, so he lent the horse his
mind:'--Sir Philip Sidney. _Arcadia_, B. ii. p. 115.]
[Footnote 4: '--surpassed, I thought.']
[Footnote 5: 'in invention of.']
[Footnote 6: Emphasis on _did_, as antithetic to _forgery_: 'my
inventing came short of his doing.']
[Footnote 7: 'it would be a sight indeed to see you matched with an
equal.' The king would strengthen Laertes' confidence in his
proficiency.]
[Footnote 8: 'made him so spiteful by stirring up his habitual envy.']
[Footnote 9: All invention.]
[Footnote 10: Here should be a dash: the king pauses. He is approaching
dangerous ground--is about to propose a thing abominable, and therefore
to the influence of flattered vanity and roused emulation, would add the
fiercest heat of stimulated love and hatred--to which end he proceeds to
cast doubt on the quality of Laertes' love for his father.]
[Footnote 11: the picture.]
[Footnote 12: 'through habit.']
[Footnote 13: French _escrimeurs_: fencers.]
[Page 220]
And that I see in passages of proofe,[1]
Time qualifies the sparke and fire of it:[2]
[A]
_Hamlet_ comes backe: what would you vndertake,
To show your selfe your Fathers sonne indeed,
[Sidenote: selfe indeede your fathers sonne]
More then in words?
_Laer_. To cut his throat i'th'Church.[3]
_Kin_. No place indeed should murder Sancturize;
Reuenge should haue no bounds: but good _Laertes_
Will you doe this, keepe close within your Chamber,
_Hamlet_ return'd, shall know you are come home:
Wee'l put on those shall praise your excellence,
And set a double varnish on the fame
The Frenchman gaue you, bring you in fine together,
And wager on your heads, he being remisse,[4] [Sidenote: ore your]
[Sidenote: 218] Most generous, and free from all contriuing,
Will not peruse[5] the Foiles? So that with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A Sword vnbaited,[6] and in a passe of practice,[7] [Sidenote: pace of]
Requit him for your Father.
_Laer_. I will doo't,
And for that purpose Ile annoint my Sword:[8] [Sidenote: for purpose,]
I bought an Vnction of a Mountebanke
So mortall, I but dipt a knife in it,[9]
[Sidenote: mortall, that but dippe a]
Where it drawes blood, no Cataplasme so rare,
Collected from all Simples that haue Vertue
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
There liues within the very flame of loue
A kind of weeke or snufe that will abate it,[10]
And nothing is at a like goodnes still,[11]
For goodnes growing to a plurisie,[12]
Dies in his owne too much, that we would doe
We should doe when we would: for this would change,[13]
And hath abatements and delayes as many,
As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents,
And then this should is like a spend thrifts sigh,
That hurts by easing;[14] but to the quick of th'vlcer,]
[Footnote 1: 'passages of proofe,'--_trials_. 'I see when it is put to
the test.']
[Footnote 2: 'time modifies it.']
[Footnote 3: Contrast him here with Hamlet.]
[Footnote 4: careless.]
[Footnote 5: _examine_--the word being of general application then.]
[Footnote 6: _unblunted_. Some foils seem to have been made with a
button that could be taken--probably _screwed_ off.]
[Footnote 7: Whether _practice_ here means exercise or cunning, I cannot
determine. Possibly the king uses the word as once before 216--to be
taken as Laertes may please.]
[Footnote 8: In the _1st Q._ this proposal also is made by the king.]
[Footnote 9:
'So mortal, yes, a knife being but dipt in it,' or,
'So mortal, did I but dip a knife in it.']
[Footnote 10: To understand this figure, one must be familiar with the
behaviour of the wick of a common lamp or tallow candle.]
[Footnote 11: 'nothing keeps always at the same degree of goodness.']
[Footnote 12: A _plurisie_ is just a _too-muchness_, from _plus,
pluris--a plethora_, not our word _pleurisy_, from [Greek: pleura]. See
notes in _Johnson and Steevens_.]
[Footnote 13: The sense here requires an _s_, and the space in the
_Quarto_ between the _e_ and the comma gives the probability that a
letter has dropt out.]
[Footnote 14: Modern editors seem agreed to substitute the adjective
_spendthrift_: our sole authority has _spendthrifts_, and by it I hold.
The meaning seems this: 'the _would_ changes, the thing is not done, and
then the _should_, the mere acknowledgment of duty, is like the sigh of
a spendthrift, who regrets consequences but does not change his way: it
eases his conscience for a moment, and so injures him.' There would at
the same time be allusion to what was believed concerning sighs: Dr.
Johnson says, 'It is a notion very prevalent, that _sighs_ impair the
strength, and wear out the animal powers.']
[Page 222]
Vnder the Moone, can saue the thing from death,
That is but scratcht withall: Ile touch my point,
With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,[1]
It may be death.
_Kin_. Let's further thinke of this,
Weigh what conuenience[2] both of time and meanes
May fit vs to our shape,[3] if this should faile;
And that our drift looke through our bad performance,
'Twere better not assaid; therefore this Proiect
Should haue a backe or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proofe:[4] Soft, let me see[5]
[Sidenote: did blast]
Wee'l make a solemne wager on your commings,[6] [Sidenote: cunnings[6]]
I ha't: when in your motion you are hot and dry, [Sidenote: hate, when]
As[7] make your bowts more violent to the end,[8]
[Sidenote: to that end,]
And that he cals for drinke; Ile haue prepar'd him
[Sidenote: prefard him]
[Sidenote: 268] A Challice for the nonce[9]; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,[10]
Our purpose may[11] hold there: how sweet Queene.
[Sidenote: there: but stay, what noyse?]
_Enter Queene_.
_Queen_. One woe doth tread vpon anothers heele,
So fast they'l follow[12]: your Sister's drown'd _Laertes_.
[Sidenote: they follow;]
_Laer_. Drown'd! O where?[13]
_Queen_. There is a Willow[14] growes aslant a Brooke,
[Sidenote: ascaunt the Brooke]
That shewes his hore leaues in the glassie streame:
[Sidenote: horry leaues]
There with fantasticke Garlands did she come,[15]
[Sidenote: Therewith | she make]
Of Crow-flowers,[16] Nettles, Daysies, and long Purples,
That liberall Shepheards giue a grosser name;
But our cold Maids doe Dead Mens Fingers call them:
[Sidenote: our cull-cold]
There on the pendant[17] boughes, her Coronet weeds[18]
Clambring to hang;[19] an enuious sliuer broke,[20]
When downe the weedy Trophies,[19] and her selfe, [Sidenote: her weedy]
[Footnote 1: 'that though I should gall him but slightly,' or, 'that if
I gall him ever so slightly.']
[Footnote 2: proper arrangement.]
[Footnote 3: 'fit us exactly, like a garment cut to our shape,' or
perhaps 'shape' is used for _intent, purpose. Point thus_: 'shape. If
this should faile, And' &c.]
[Footnote 4: This seems to allude to the assay of a firearm, and to mean
'_burst on the trial_.' Note 'assaid' two lines back.]
[Footnote 5: There should be a pause here, and a longer pause after
_commings_: the king is contriving. 'I ha't' should have a line to
itself, with again a pause, but a shorter one.]
[Footnote 6: _Veney, venue_, is a term of fencing: a bout, a
thrust--from _venir, to come_--whence 'commings.' (259) But _cunnings_,
meaning _skills_, may be the word.]
[Footnote 7: 'As' is here equivalent to 'and so.']
[Footnote 8: --to the end of making Hamlet hot and dry.]
[Footnote 9: for the special occasion.]
[Footnote 10: thrust. _Twelfth Night_, act iii. sc. 4. 'he gives me the
stuck in with such a mortal motion.' _Stocco_ in Italian is a long
rapier; and _stoccata_ a thrust. _Rom. and Jul_., act iii. sc. 1. See
_Shakespeare-Lexicon_.]
[Footnote 11: 'may' does not here express _doubt_, but _intention_.]
[Footnote 12: If this be the right reading, it means, 'so fast they
insist on following.']
[Footnote 13: He speaks it as about to rush to her.]
[Footnote 14: --the choice of Ophelia's fantastic madness, as being the
tree of lamenting lovers.]
[Footnote 15: --always busy with flowers.]
[Footnote 16: Ranunculus: _Sh. Lex._]
[Footnote 17: --specially descriptive of the willow.]
[Footnote 18: her wild flowers made into a garland.]
[Footnote 19: The intention would seem, that she imagined herself
decorating a monument to her father. Hence her _Coronet weeds_ and the
Poet's _weedy Trophies_.]
[Footnote 20: _Sliver_, I suspect, called so after the fact, because
_slivered_ or torn off. In _Macbeth_ we have:
slips of yew
Slivered in the moon's eclipse.
But it may be that _sliver_ was used for a _twig_, such as could be torn
off.
_Slip_ and _sliver_ must be of the same root.]
[Page 224]
Fell in the weeping Brooke, her cloathes spred wide,
And Mermaid-like, a while they bore her vp,
Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,[1]
[Sidenote: old laudes,[1]]
As one incapable of[2] her owne distresse,
Or like a creature Natiue, and indued[3]
Vnto that Element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heauy with her drinke, [Sidenote: theyr drinke]
Pul'd the poore wretch from her melodious buy,[4]
[Sidenote: melodious lay]
To muddy death.[5]
_Laer_. Alas then, is she drown'd? [Sidenote: she is]
_Queen_. Drown'd, drown'd.
_Laer_. Too much of water hast thou poore _Ophelia_,
And therefore I forbid my teares: but yet
It is our tricke,[6] Nature her custome holds,
Let shame say what it will; when these are gone
The woman will be out:[7] Adue my Lord,
I haue a speech of fire, that faine would blaze,
[Sidenote: speech a fire]
But that this folly doubts[8] it. _Exit._ [Sidenote: drownes it.[8]]
_Kin_. Let's follow, _Gertrude_:
How much I had to doe to calme his rage?
Now feare I this will giue it start againe;
Therefore let's follow. _Exeunt_.[9]
[10]_Enter two Clownes._
_Clown_. Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall,
[Sidenote: buriall, when she wilfully]
that wilfully seekes her owne saluation?[11]
_Other_. I tell thee she is, and therefore make her
[Sidenote: is, therefore]
Graue straight,[12] the Crowner hath sate on her, and
finds it Christian buriall.
_Clo_. How can that be, vnlesse she drowned her
selfe in her owne defence?
_Other_. Why 'tis found so.[13]
_Clo_. It must be _Se offendendo_,[14] it cannot bee else:
[Sidenote: be so offended, it]
[Footnote 1: They were not lauds she was in the habit of singing, to
judge by the snatches given.]
[Footnote 2: not able to take in, not understanding, not conscious of.]
[Footnote 3: clothed, endowed, fitted for. See _Sh. Lex._]
[Footnote 4: _Could_ the word be for _buoy_--'her clothes spread wide,'
on which she floated singing--therefore her melodious buoy or float?]
[Footnote 5: How could the queen know all this, when there was no one
near enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of her
death given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl's
suicide, and by circumstance beguile the sorrow-rage of Laertes?]
[Footnote 6: 'I cannot help it.']
[Footnote 7: 'when these few tears are spent, all the woman will be out
of me: I shall be a man again.']
[Footnote 8: _douts_: 'this foolish water of tears puts it out.' _See Q.
reading._]
[Footnote 9: Here ends the Fourth Act, between which and the Fifth may
intervene a day or two.]
[Footnote 10: Act V. This act _requires_ only part of a day; the funeral
and the catastrophe might be on the same.]
[Footnote 11: Has this a confused connection with the fancy that
salvation is getting to heaven?]
[Footnote 12: Whether this means _straightway_, or _not crooked_, I
cannot tell.]
[Footnote 13: 'the coroner has settled it.']
[Footnote 14: The Clown's blunder for _defendendo_.]
[Page 226]
for heere lies the point; If I drowne my selfe
wittingly, it argues an Act: and an Act hath three
branches. It is an Act to doe and to performe;
[Sidenote: it is to act, to doe, to performe, or all: she]
argall[1] she drown'd her selfe wittingly.
_Other_. Nay but heare you Goodman Deluer. [Sidenote: good man deluer.]
_Clown_. Giue me leaue; heere lies the water;
good: heere stands the man; good: If the man
goe to this water and drowne himsele; it is will
he nill he, he goes; marke you that? But if the
water come to him and drowne him; hee drownes
not himselfe. Argall, hee that is not guilty of his
owne death, shortens not his owne life.
_Other_. But is this law?
_Clo_. I marry is't, Crowners Quest Law.
_Other_. Will you ha the truth on't: if this had [Sidenote: truth an't]
not beene a Gentlewoman, shee should haue beene
buried out of[2] Christian Buriall. [Sidenote: out a]
_Clo_. Why there thou say'st. And the more
pitty that great folke should haue countenance in
this world to drowne or hang themselues, more then
their euen[3] Christian. Come, my Spade; there is
no ancient Gentlemen, but Gardiners, Ditchers and
Graue-makers; they hold vp _Adams_ Profession.
_Other_. Was he a Gentleman?
_Clo_. He was the first that euer bore Armes. [Sidenote: A was]
[4]_Other_. Why he had none.
_Clo_. What, ar't a Heathen? how dost thou vnderstand
the Scripture? the Scripture sayes _Adam_
dig'd; could hee digge without Armes?[4] Ile put
another question to thee; if thou answerest me not
to the purpose, confesse thy selfe----
_Other_. Go too.
_Clo_. What is he that builds stronger then either
the Mason, the Shipwright, or the Carpenter?
_Other_. The Gallowes-maker; for that Frame
outliues a thousand Tenants. [Sidenote: that outliues]
[Footnote 1: _ergo_, therefore.]
[Footnote 2: _without_. The pleasure the speeches of the Clown give us,
lies partly in the undercurrent of sense, so disguised by stupidity in
the utterance; and partly in the wit which mainly succeeds in its end by
the failure of its means.]
[Footnote 3: _equal_, that is _fellow_ Christian.]
[Footnote 4: _From 'Other' to_ 'Armes' _not in Quarto._]
[Page 228]
_Clo_. I like thy wit well in good faith, the
Gallowes does well; but how does it well? it does
well to those that doe ill: now, thou dost ill to say
the Gallowes is built stronger then the Church:
Argall, the Gallowes may doe well to thee. Too't
againe, Come.
_Other_. Who builds stronger then a Mason, a
Shipwright, or a Carpenter?
_Clo_. I, tell me that, and vnyoake.[1]
_Other_. Marry, now I can tell.
_Clo_. Too't.
_Other_. Masse, I cannot tell.
_Enter Hamlet and Horatio a farre off._[2]
_Clo_. Cudgell thy braines no more about it; for
your dull Asse will not mend his pace with beating,
and when you are ask't this question next, say
a Graue-maker: the Houses that he makes, lasts
[Sidenote: houses hee makes]
till Doomesday: go, get thee to _Yaughan_,[3] fetch
[Sidenote: thee in, and fetch mee a soope of]
me a stoupe of Liquor.
_Sings._[4]
_In youth when I did loue, did loue_, [Sidenote: _Song._]
_me thought it was very sweete:
To contract O the time for a my behoue,
O me thought there was nothing meete[5]_
[Sidenote: there a was nothing a meet.]
[Sidenote: _Enter Hamlet & Horatio_]
_Ham_. Ha's this fellow no feeling of his businesse,
[Sidenote: busines? a sings in graue-making.]
that he sings at Graue-making?[6]
_Hor_. Custome hath made it in him a property[7]
of easinesse.
_Ham_. 'Tis ee'n so; the hand of little Imployment
hath the daintier sense.
_Clowne sings._[8]
_But Age with his stealing steps_ [Sidenote _Clow. Song._]
_hath caught me in his clutch_: [Sidenote: hath clawed me]
[Footnote 1: 'unyoke your team'--as having earned his rest.]
[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 3: Whether this is the name of a place, or the name of an
innkeeper, or is merely an inexplicable corruption--some take it for a
stage-direction to yawn--I cannot tell. See _Q._ reading.
It is said to have been discovered that a foreigner named Johan sold ale
next door to the Globe.]
[Footnote 4: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 5: A song ascribed to Lord Vaux is in this and the following
stanzas made nonsense of.]
[Footnote 6: Note Hamlet's mood throughout what follows. He has entered
the shadow of death.]
[Footnote 7: _Property_ is what specially belongs to the individual;
here it is his _peculiar work_, or _personal calling_: 'custom has made
it with him an easy duty.']
[Footnote 8: _Not in Quarto._]
[Page 230]
_And hath shipped me intill the Land_, [Sidenote: into]
_as if I had neuer beene such_.
_Ham_. That Scull had a tongue in it, and could
sing once: how the knaue iowles it to th' grownd, [Sidenote: the]
as if it were _Caines_ Iaw-bone, that did the first [Sidenote: twere]
murther: It might be the Pate of a Polititian which
[Sidenote: murder, this might]
this Asse o're Offices: one that could circumuent
[Sidenote: asse now ore-reaches; one that would]
God, might it not?
_Hor_. It might, my Lord.
_Ham_. Or of a Courtier, which could say, Good
Morrow sweet Lord: how dost thou, good Lord?
[Sidenote: thou sweet lord?]
this might be my Lord such a one, that prais'd my
Lord such a ones Horse, when he meant to begge
[Sidenote: when a went to]
it; might it not?[1]
_Hor_. I, my Lord.
_Ham_. Why ee'n so: and now my Lady
Wormes,[2] Chaplesse,[3] and knockt about the Mazard[4]
[Sidenote: Choples | the massene with]
with a Sextons Spade; heere's fine Reuolution, if
[Sidenote: and we had]
wee had the tricke to see't. Did these bones cost
no more the breeding, but to play at Loggets[5] with
'em? mine ake to thinke on't. [Sidenote: them]
_Clowne sings._[6]
_A Pickhaxe and a Spade, a Spade_, [Sidenote: _Clow. Song._]
_for and a shrowding-Sheete:
O a Pit of Clay for to be made,
for such a Guest is meete_.
_Ham_. There's another: why might not that
bee the Scull of of a Lawyer? where be his [Sidenote: skull of a]
Quiddits[7] now? his Quillets[7]? his Cases? his [Sidenote: quiddities]
Tenures, and his Tricks? why doe's he suffer this
rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8]
[Sidenote: this madde knaue]
with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his
Action of Battery? hum. This fellow might be
in's time a great buyer of Land, with his
Statutes, his Recognizances, his Fines, his double
[Footnote 1: To feel the full force of this, we must call up the
expression on the face of 'such a one' as he begged the horse--probably
imitated by Hamlet--and contrast it with the look on the face of the
skull.]
[Footnote 2: 'now the property of my Lady Worm.']
[Footnote 3: the lower jaw gone.]
[Footnote 4: _the upper jaw_, I think--not _the head_.]
[Footnote 5: a game in which pins of wood, called loggats, nearly two
feet long, were half thrown, half slid, towards a bowl. _Blount_:
Johnson and Steevens.]
[Footnote 6: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: a lawyer's quirks and quibbles. See _Johnson and Steevens_.
_1st Q._
now where is your
Quirkes and quillets now,]
[Footnote 8: Humorous, or slang word for _the head_. 'A fort--a
head-piece--the head': _Webster's Dict_.]
[Page 232]
Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of his
Fines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries,[1] to haue
his fine[4] Pate full of fine[4] Dirt? will his Vouchers
[Sidenote: will vouchers]
vouch him no more of his Purchases, and double
[Sidenote: purchases & doubles then]
ones too, then the length and breadth of a paire of
Indentures? the very Conueyances of his Lands
will hardly lye in this Boxe[5]; and must the Inheritor
[Sidenote: scarcely iye; | th']
himselfe haue no more?[6] ha?
_Hor_. Not a iot more, my Lord.
_Ham_. Is not Parchment made of Sheep-skinnes?
_Hor_. I my Lord, and of Calue-skinnes too.
[Sidenote: Calues-skinnes to]
_Ham_. They are Sheepe and Calues that seek [Sidenote: which seek]
out assurance in that. I will speake to this fellow:
whose Graue's this Sir? [Sidenote: this sirra?]
_Clo_. Mine Sir: [Sidenote: _Clow_. Mine sir, or a pit]
_O a Pit of Clay for to be made,
for such a Guest is meete._[7]
_Ham_. I thinke it be thine indeed: for thou
liest in't.
_Clo_. You lye out on't Sir, and therefore it is not [Sidenote: tis]
yours: for my part, I doe not lye in't; and yet it [Sidenote: in't, yet]
is mine.
_Ham_. Thou dost lye in't, to be in't and say 'tis [Sidenote: it is]
thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quicke, therefore
thou lyest.
_Clo_. Tis a quicke lye Sir, 'twill away againe
from me to you.[8]
_Ham_. What man dost thou digge it for?
_Clo_. For no man Sir.
_Ham_. What woman then?
_Clo_. For none neither.
_Ham_. Who is to be buried in't?
_Clo_. One that was a woman Sir; but rest her
Soule, shee's dead.
[Footnote 1: _From_ 'Is' _to_ 'Recoueries' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: the end.]
[Footnote 3: the property regained by his Recoveries.]
[Footnote 4: third and fourth meanings of the word _fine_.]
[Footnote 5: the skull.]
[Footnote 6: 'must the heir have no more either?'
_1st Q_.
and must
The honor (_owner?_) lie there?]
[Footnote 7: _This line not in Q._]
[Footnote 8: He _gives_ the lie.]
[Page 234]
_Ham_. How absolute[1] the knaue is? wee must
[Sidenote: 256] speake by the Carde,[2] or equiuocation will vndoe
vs: by the Lord _Horatio_, these three yeares[3] I haue
[Sidenote: this three]
taken note of it, the Age is growne so picked,[4] [Sidenote: tooke]
that the toe of the Pesant comes so neere the
heeles of our Courtier, hee galls his Kibe.[5] How
[Sidenote: the heele of the]
long hast thou been a Graue-maker? [Sidenote: been Graue-maker?]
_Clo_. Of all the dayes i'th'yeare, I came too't
[Sidenote: Of the dayes]
that day[6] that our last King _Hamlet_ o'recame [Sidenote: ouercame]
_Fortinbras_.
_Ham_. How long is that since?
_Clo_. Cannot you tell that? euery foole can tell
[Sidenote: 143] that: It was the very day,[6] that young _Hamlet_ was
[Sidenote: was that very]
borne,[8] hee that was mad, and sent into England,
[Sidenote: that is mad]
_Ham_. I marry, why was he sent into England?
_Clo_. Why, because he was mad; hee shall recouer
[Sidenote: a was mad: a shall]
his wits there; or if he do not, it's no great
[Sidenote: if a do | tis]
matter there.
_Ham_. Why?
_Clo_. 'Twill not be scene in him, there the men
[Sidenote: him there, there]
are as mad as he.
_Ham_. How came he mad?
_Clo_. Very strangely they say.
_Ham_. How strangely?[7]
_Clo_. Faith e'ene with loosing his wits.
_Ham_. Vpon what ground?
_Clo_. Why heere in Denmarke[8]: I haue bin sixeteene [Sidenote: Sexten]
[Sidenote: 142-3] heere, man and Boy thirty yeares.[9]
_Ham_. How long will a man lie 'ith' earth ere he
rot?
_Clo_. Ifaith, if he be not rotten before he die (as
[Sidenote: Fayth if a be not | a die]
we haue many pocky Coarses now adaies, that will
[Sidenote: corses, that will]
scarce hold the laying in) he will last you some [Sidenote: a will]
eight yeare, or nine yeare. A Tanner will last you
nine yeare.
[Footnote 1: 'How the knave insists on precision!']
[Footnote 2: chart: _Skeat's Etym. Dict._]
[Footnote 3: Can this indicate any point in the history of English
society?]
[Footnote 4: so fastidious; so given to _picking_ and choosing; so
choice.]
[Footnote 5: The word is to be found in any dictionary, but is not
generally understood. Lord Byron, a very inaccurate writer, takes it to
mean _heel_:
Devices quaint, and frolics ever new,
Tread on each others' kibes:
_Childe Harold, Canto 1. St. 67._
It means a _chilblain_.]
[Footnote 6: Then Fortinbras _could_ have been but a few months younger
than Hamlet, and may have been older. Hamlet then, in the Quarto
passage, could not by _tender_ mean _young_.]
[Footnote 7: 'In what way strangely?'--_in what strange way_? Or the
_How_ may be _how much_, in retort to the _very_; but the intent would
be the same--a request for further information.]
[Footnote 8: Hamlet has asked on what ground or provocation, that is,
from what cause, Hamlet lost his wits; the sexton chooses to take the
word _ground_ materially.]
[Footnote 9: The Poet makes him say how long he had been sexton--but how
naturally and informally--by a stupid joke!--in order a second time, and
more certainly, to tell us Hamlet's age: he must have held it a point
necessary to the understanding of Hamlet.
Note Hamlet's question immediately following. It looks as if he had
first said to himself: 'Yes--I have been thirty years above ground!' and
_then_ said to the sexton, 'How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he
rot?' We might enquire even too curiously as to the connecting links.]
[Page 236]
_Ham_. Why he, more then another?
_Clo_. Why sir, his hide is so tan'd with his Trade,
that he will keepe out water a great while. And [Sidenote: a will]
your water, is a sore Decayer of your horson dead
body. Heres a Scull now: this Scul, has laine in
[Sidenote: now hath iyen you i'th earth 23. yeeres.]
the earth three and twenty years.
_Ham_. Whose was it?
_Clo_. A whoreson mad Fellowes it was;
Whose doe you thinke it was?
_Ham_. Nay, I know not.
_Clo_. A pestlence on him for a mad Rogue, a
pou'rd a Flaggon of Renish on my head once.
This same Scull Sir, this same Scull sir, was _Yoricks_
[Sidenote: once; this same skull sir, was sir _Yoricks_]
Scull, the Kings Iester.
_Ham_. This?
_Clo_. E'ene that.
_Ham_. Let me see. Alas poore _Yorick_, I knew
[Sidenote: _Ham_. Alas poore]
him _Horatio_, a fellow of infinite Iest; of most excellent
fancy, he hath borne me on his backe a [Sidenote: bore]
thousand times: And how abhorred[1] my Imagination
[Sidenote: and now how | in my]
is, my gorge rises at it. Heere hung those [Sidenote: it is:]
lipps, that I haue kist I know not how oft. Where
be your Iibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs?
Your flashes of Merriment that were wont to set
the Table on a Rore? No one[2] now to mock your [Sidenote: not one]
own Ieering? Quite chopfalne[3]? Now get you to
[Sidenote: owne grinning,]
my Ladies Chamber, and tell her, let her paint an
[Sidenote: Ladies table,]
inch thicke, to this fauour[4] she must come. Make
her laugh at that: prythee _Horatio_ tell me one
thing.
_Hor_. What's that my Lord?
_Ham_. Dost thou thinke _Alexander_ lookt o'this [Sidenote: a this]
fashion i'th' earth?
_Hor_. E'ene so.
_Ham_. And smelt so? Puh.
[Footnote 1: If this be the true reading, _abhorred_ must mean
_horrified_; but I incline to the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 2: 'Not one jibe, not one flash of merriment now?']
[Footnote 3: --chop indeed quite fallen off!]
[Footnote 4: _to this look_--that of the skull.]
[Page 238]
_Hor_. E'ene so, my Lord.
_Ham_. To what base vses we may returne
_Horatio_. Why may not Imagination trace the
Noble dust of _Alexander_, till he[1] find it stopping a
[Sidenote: a find]
bunghole.
_Hor_. 'Twere to consider: to curiously to consider
[Sidenote: consider too curiously]
so.
_Ham_. No faith, not a iot. But to follow him
thether with modestie[2] enough, and likeliehood to
lead it; as thus. _Alexander_ died: _Alexander_ was
[Sidenote: lead it. _Alexander_]
buried: _Alexander_ returneth into dust; the dust is [Sidenote: to]
earth; of earth we make Lome, and why of that
Lome (whereto he was conuerted) might they not
stopp a Beere-barrell?[3]
Imperiall _Caesar_, dead and turn'd to clay, [Sidenote: Imperious]
Might stop a hole to keepe the winde away.
Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a Wall, t'expell the winters flaw.[4]
[Sidenote: waters flaw.]
But soft, but soft, aside; heere comes the King.
[Sidenote: , but soft awhile, here]
_Enter King, Queene, Laertes, and a Coffin_,
[Sidenote: _Enter K. Q. Laertes and the corse._]
_with Lords attendant._
The Queene, the Courtiers. Who is that they follow,
[Sidenote: this they]
And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken,
The Coarse they follow, did with disperate hand,
Fore do it owne life; 'twas some Estate.[5] [Sidenote: twas of some[5]]
Couch[6] we a while, and mark.
_Laer_. What Cerimony else?
_Ham_. That is _Laertes_, a very Noble youth:[7]
Marke.
_Laer_. What Cerimony else?[8]
_Priest_. Her Obsequies haue bin as farre inlarg'd, [Sidenote: _Doct_.]
As we haue warrantis,[9] her death was doubtfull,[10]
[Sidenote: warrantie,]
And but that great Command, o're-swaies the order,[11]
[Footnote 1: Imagination personified.]
[Footnote 2: moderation.]
[Footnote 3: 'Loam, Lome--grafting clay. Mortar made of Clay and Straw;
also a sort of Plaister used by Chymists to stop up their
Vessels.'--_Bailey's Dict._]
[Footnote 4: a sudden puff or blast of wind.
Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right understanding of the
whole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet is
philosophizing--following things out, curiously or otherwise--on the
brink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired--'what
woman then?'--but received no answer.]
[Footnote 5: 'the corpse was of some position.']
[Footnote 6: 'let us lie down'--behind a grave or stone.]
[Footnote 7: Hamlet was quite in the dark as to Laertes' character; he
had seen next to nothing of him.]
[Footnote 8: The priest making no answer, Laertes repeats the question.]
[Footnote 9: _warrantise_.]
[Footnote 10: This casts discredit on the queen's story, 222. The
priest believes she died by suicide, only calls her death doubtful to
excuse their granting her so many of the rites of burial.]
[Footnote 11: 'settled mode of proceeding.'--_Schmidt's Sh. Lex._--But
is it not rather _the order_ of the church?]
[Page 240]
She should in ground vnsanctified haue lodg'd,
[Sidenote: vnsanctified been lodged]
Till the last Trumpet. For charitable praier, [Sidenote: prayers,]
Shardes,[1] Flints, and Peebles, should be throwne on her:
Yet heere she is allowed her Virgin Rites,
[Sidenote: virgin Crants,[2]]
Her Maiden strewments,[3] and the bringing home
Of Bell and Buriall.[4]
_Laer_. Must there no more be done?
_Priest_. No more be done:[5] [Sidenote: _Doct._]
We should prophane the seruice of the dead,
To sing sage[6] _Requiem_, and such rest to her
[Sidenote: sing a Requiem]
As to peace-parted Soules.
_Laer_. Lay her i'th' earth,
And from her faire and vnpolluted flesh,
May Violets spring. I tell thee (churlish Priest)
A Ministring Angell shall my Sister be,
When thou liest howling?
_Ham_. What, the faire _Ophelia_?[7]
_Queene_. Sweets, to the sweet farewell.[8]
[Sidenote: 118] I hop'd thou should'st haue bin my _Hamlets_ wife:
I thought thy Bride-bed to haue deckt (sweet Maid)
And not t'haue strew'd thy Graue. [Sidenote: not haue]
_Laer_. Oh terrible woer,[9] [Sidenote: O treble woe]
Fall ten times trebble, on that cursed head [Sidenote: times double on]
Whose wicked deed, thy most Ingenioussence
Depriu'd thee of. Hold off the earth a while,
Till I haue caught her once more in mine armes:
_Leaps in the graue._[10]
Now pile your dust, vpon the quicke, and dead,
Till of this flat a Mountaine you haue made,
To o're top old _Pelion_, or the skyish head [Sidenote: To'retop]
Of blew _Olympus_.[11]
_Ham_.[12] What is he, whose griefes [Sidenote: griefe]
Beares such an Emphasis? whose phrase of Sorrow
[Footnote 1: 'Shardes' _not in Quarto._ It means _potsherds_.]
[Footnote 2: chaplet--_German_ krantz, used even for virginity itself.]
[Footnote 3: strewments with _white_ flowers. (?)]
[Footnote 4: the burial service.]
[Footnote 5: as an exclamation, I think.]
[Footnote 6: Is the word _sage_ used as representing the unfitness of a
requiem to her state of mind? or is it only from its kindred with
_solemn_? It was because she was not 'peace-parted' that they could not
sing _rest_ to her.]
[Footnote 7: _Everything_ here depends on the actor.]
[Footnote 8: I am not sure the queen is not _apostrophizing_ the flowers
she is throwing into or upon the coffin: 'Sweets, be my farewell to the
sweet.']
[Footnote 9: The Folio _may_ be right here:--'Oh terrible wooer!--May
ten times treble thy misfortunes fall' &c.]
[Footnote 10: This stage-direction is not in the _Quarto_.
Here the _1st Quarto_ has:--
_Lear_. Forbeare the earth a while: sister farewell:
_Leartes leapes into the graue._
Now powre your earth on _Olympus_ hie,
And make a hill to o're top olde _Pellon_:
_Hamlet leapes in after Leartes_
Whats he that coniures so?
_Ham_. Beholde tis I, _Hamlet_ the Dane.]
[Footnote 11: The whole speech is bravado--the frothy grief of a weak,
excitable effusive nature.]
[Footnote 12: He can remain apart no longer, and approaches the
company.]
[Page 242]
Coniure the wandring Starres, and makes them stand [Sidenote: Coniues]
Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
_Hamlet_ the Dane.[1]
_Laer_. The deuill take thy soule.[2]
_Ham_. Thou prai'st not well,
I prythee take thy fingers from my throat;[3]
Sir though I am not Spleenatiue, and rash,
[Sidenote: For though | spleenatiue rash,]
Yet haue I something in me dangerous, [Sidenote: in me something]
Which let thy wisenesse feare. Away thy hand.
[Sidenote: wisedome feare; hold off they]
_King_. Pluck them asunder.
_Qu. Hamlet, Hamlet_. [Sidenote: _All_. Gentlemen.]
_Gen_. Good my Lord be quiet. [Sidenote: _Hora_. Good]
_Ham_. Why I will fight with him vppon this Theme,
Vntill my eielids will no longer wag.[4]
_Qu_. Oh my Sonne, what Theame?
_Ham_. I lou'd _Ophelia_[5]; fortie thousand Brothers
Could not (with all there quantitie of Loue)
Make vp my summe. What wilt thou do for her?[6]
_King_. Oh he is mad _Laertes_.[7]
_Qu_. For loue of God forbeare him.
_Ham_. Come show me what thou'lt doe.
[Sidenote: _Ham_ S'wounds shew | th'owt fight,
woo't fast, woo't teare]
Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy selfe?
Woo't drinke vp _Esile_, eate a Crocodile?[6]
Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine; [Sidenote: doost come]
To outface me with leaping in her Graue?
Be[8] buried quicke with her, and so will I.
And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throw
Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground
Sindging his pate against the burning Zone,
[Sidenote: 262] Make _Ossa_ like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth,
Ile rant as well as thou.[9]
[Footnote 1: This fine speech is yet spoken in the character of madman,
which Hamlet puts on once more the moment he has to appear before the
king. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; its
extravagance to his assumed insanity. It must be remembered that death
is a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the death
of Ophelia may even be some consolation to him.
In the _Folio_, a few lines back, Laertes leaps into the grave. There is
no such direction in the _Q_. In neither is Hamlet said to leap into the
grave; only the _1st Q._ so directs. It is a stage-business that must
please the _common_ actor of Hamlet; but there is nothing in the text
any more than in the margin of _Folio_ or _Quarto_ to justify it, and it
would but for the horror of it be ludicrous. The coffin is supposed to
be in the grave: must Laertes jump down upon it, followed by Hamlet, and
the two fight and trample over the body?
Yet I take the '_Leaps in the grave_' to be an action intended for
Laertes by the Poet. His 'Hold off the earth a while,' does not
necessarily imply that the body is already in the grave. He has before
said, 'Lay her i'th' earth': then it was not in the grave. It is just
about to be lowered, when, with that cry of 'Hold off the earth a
while,' he jumps into the grave, and taking the corpse, on a bier at the
side of it, in his arms, calls to the spectators to pile a mountain on
them--in the wild speech that brings out Hamlet. The quiet dignity of
Hamlet's speech does not comport with his jumping into the grave:
Laertes comes out of the grave, and flies at Hamlet's throat. So, at
least, I would have the thing acted.
There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out of
the grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I would
suggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's book
on Grave-Mounds, I read of a 'female skeleton in a grave six feet deep,
ten feet long, and eight feet wide.' Such a grave would give room for
both beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the common
representation.]
[Footnote 2: --_springing out of the grave and flying at Hamlet_.]
[Footnote 3: Note the temper, self-knowledge, self-government, and
self-distrust of Hamlet.]
[Footnote 4: The eyelids last of all become incapable of motion.]
[Footnote 5: That he loved her is the only thing to explain the
harshness of his behaviour to her. Had he not loved her and not been
miserable about her, he would have been as polite to her as well bred
people would have him.]
[Footnote 6: The gallants of Shakspere's day would challenge each other
to do more disagreeable things than any of these in honour of their
mistresses.
'_Ésil._ s.m. Ancien nom du Vinaigre.' _Supplement to Academy Dict._,
1847.--'Eisile, _vinegar_': Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dict_., from
Somner's _Saxon Dict._, 1659.--'Eisel (_Saxon), vinegar; verjuice; any
acid_': Johnson's _Dict_.
_1st Q_. 'Wilt drinke vp vessels.' The word _up_ very likely implies the
steady emptying of a vessel specified--at a draught, and not by
degrees.]
[Footnote 7: --pretending care over Hamlet.]
[Footnote 8: Emphasis on _Be_, which I take for the _imperative mood_.]
[Footnote 9: The moment it is uttered, he recognizes and confesses to
the rant, ashamed of it even under the cover of his madness. It did not
belong _altogether_ to the madness. Later he expresses to Horatio his
regret in regard to this passage between him and Laertes, and afterwards
apologizes to Laertes. 252, 262.
Perhaps this is the speech in all the play of which it is most difficult
to get into a sympathetic comprehension. The student must call to mind
the elements at war in Hamlet's soul, and generating discords in his
behaviour: to those comes now the shock of Ophelia's death; the last tie
that bound him to life is gone--the one glimmer of hope left him for
this world! The grave upon whose brink he has been bandying words with
the sexton, is for _her_! Into such a consciousness comes the rant of
Laertes. Only the forms of madness are free to him, while no form is too
strong in which to repudiate indifference to Ophelia: for her sake, as
well as to relieve his own heart, he casts the clear confession of his
love into her grave. He is even jealous, over her dead body, of her
brother's profession of love to her--as if any brother could love as he
loved! This is foolish, no doubt, but human, and natural to a certain
childishness in grief. 252.
Add to this, that Hamlet--see later in his speeches to Osricke--had a
lively inclination to answer a fool according to his folly (256), to
outherod Herod if Herod would rave, out-euphuize Euphues himself if he
would be ridiculous:--the digestion of all these things in the retort of
meditation will result, I would fain think, in an understanding and
artistic justification of even this speech of Hamlet: the more I
consider it the truer it seems. If proof be necessary that real feeling
is mingled in the madness of the utterance, it may be found in the fact
that he is immediately ashamed of its extravagance.]
[Page 244]
_Kin_.[1] This is meere Madnesse: [Sidenote: _Quee_.[1]]
And thus awhile the fit will worke on him: [Sidenote: And this]
Anon as patient as the female Doue,
When that her golden[2] Cuplet[3] are disclos'd[4];
[Sidenote: cuplets[3]]
His silence will sit drooping.[5]
_Ham_. Heare you Sir:[6]
What is the reason that you vse me thus?
I loud' you euer;[7] but it is no matter:[8]
Let _Hercules_ himselfe doe what he may,
The Cat will Mew, and Dogge will haue his day.[9]
_Exit._ [Sidenote: _Exit Hamlet and Horatio._]
_Kin_. I pray you good Horatio wait vpon him,
[Sidenote: pray thee good]
Strengthen you patience in our last nights speech, [Sidenote: your]
[Sidenote: 254] Wee'l put the matter to the present push:[10]
Good _Gertrude_ set some watch ouer your Sonne,
This Graue shall haue a liuing[11] Monument:[12]
An houre of quiet shortly shall we see;[13]
[Sidenote: quiet thirtie shall]
Till then, in patience our proceeding be. _Exeunt._
[Footnote 1: I hardly know which to choose as the speaker of this
speech. It would be a fine specimen of the king's hypocrisy; and perhaps
indeed its poetry, lovely in itself, but at such a time sentimental, is
fitter for him than the less guilty queen.]
[Footnote 2: 'covered with a yellow down' _Heath_.]
[Footnote 3: The singular is better: 'the pigeon lays no more than _two_
eggs.' _Steevens_. Only, _couplets_ might be used like _twins_.]
[Footnote 4: --_hatched_, the sporting term of the time.]
[Footnote 5: 'The pigeon never quits her nest for three days after her
two young ones are hatched, except for a few moments to get food.'
_Steevens_.]
[Footnote 6: Laertes stands eyeing him with evil looks.]
[Footnote 7: I suppose here a pause: he waits in vain some response from
Laertes.]
[Footnote 8: Here he retreats into his madness.]
[Footnote 9: '--but I cannot compel you to hear reason. Do what he will,
Hercules himself cannot keep the cat from mewing, or the dog from
following his inclination!'--said in a half humorous, half contemptuous
despair.]
[Footnote 10: 'into immediate train'--_to Laertes_.]
[Footnote 11: _life-like_, or _lasting_?]
[Footnote 12: --_again to Laertes_.]
[Footnote 13: --when Hamlet is dead.]
[Page 246]
_Enter Hamlet and Horatio._
_Ham._ So much for this Sir; now let me see the other,[1]
[Sidenote: now shall you see]
You doe remember all the Circumstance.[2]
_Hor._ Remember it my Lord?[3]
_Ham._ Sir, in my heart there was a kinde of fighting,
That would not let me sleepe;[4] me thought I lay
[Sidenote: my thought]
Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes,[5] rashly, [Sidenote: bilbo]
(And praise be rashnesse for it)[6] let vs know, [Sidenote: prayed]
Our indiscretion sometimes serues vs well, [Sidenote: sometime]
When our deare plots do paule,[7] and that should teach vs,
[Sidenote: deepe | should learne us]
[Sidenote: 146, 181] There's a Diuinity that shapes our ends,[8]
Rough-hew them how we will.[9]
_Hor._ That is most certaine.
_Ham._ Vp from my Cabin
My sea-gowne scarft about me in the darke,
Grop'd I to finde out them;[10] had my desire,
Finger'd their Packet[11], and in fine, withdrew
To mine owne roome againe, making so bold,
(My feares forgetting manners) to vnseale [Sidenote: to vnfold]
Their grand Commission, where I found _Horatio_,
Oh royall[12] knauery: An exact command, [Sidenote: A royall]
[Sidenote: 196] Larded with many seuerall sorts of reason;
[Sidenote: reasons,]
Importing Denmarks health, and Englands too,
With hoo, such Bugges[13] and Goblins in my life, [Sidenote: hoe]
That on the superuize[14] no leasure bated,[15]
No not to stay the grinding of the Axe,
My head shoud be struck off.
_Hor._ Ist possible?
_Ham._ Here's the Commission, read it at more leysure:
[Footnote 1: I would suggest that the one paper, which he has just
shown, is a commission the king gave to himself; the other, which he is
about to show, that given to Rosincrance and Guildensterne. He is
setting forth his proof of the king's treachery.]
[Footnote 2: --of the king's words and behaviour, possibly, in giving
him his papers, Horatio having been present; or it might mean, 'Have you
got the things I have just told you clear in your mind?']
[Footnote 3: '--as if I could forget a single particular of it!']
[Footnote 4: The _Shaping Divinity_ was moving him.]
[Footnote 5: The fetters called _bilboes_ fasten a couple of mutinous
sailors together by the legs.]
[Footnote 6: Does he not here check himself and begin
afresh--remembering that the praise belongs to the Divinity?]
[Footnote 7: _pall_--from the root of _pale_--'come to nothing.' He had
had his plots from which he hoped much; the king's commission had
rendered them futile. But he seems to have grown doubtful of his plans
before, probably through the doubt of his companions which led him to
seek acquaintance with their commission, and he may mean that his 'dear
plots' had begun to pall _upon him_. Anyhow the sudden 'indiscretion' of
searching for and unsealing the ambassadors' commission served him as
nothing else could have served him.]
[Footnote 8: --even by our indiscretion. Emphasis on _shapes_.]
[Footnote 9: Here is another sign of Hamlet's religion. 24, 125, 260.
We start to work out an idea, but the result does not correspond with
the idea: another has been at work along with us. We rough-hew--block
out our marble, say for a Mercury; the result is an Apollo. Hamlet had
rough-hewn his ends--he had begun plans to certain ends, but had he been
allowed to go on shaping them alone, the result, even had he carried out
his plans and shaped his ends to his mind, would have been failure.
Another mallet and chisel were busy shaping them otherwise from the
first, and carrying them out to a true success. For _success_ is not the
success of plans, but the success of ends.]
[Footnote 10: Emphasize _I_ and _them_, as the rhythm requires, and the
phrase becomes picturesque.]
[Footnote 11: 'got my fingers on their papers.']
[Footnote 12: Emphasize _royal_.]
[Footnote 13: A _bug_ is any object causing terror.]
[Footnote 14: immediately on the reading.]
[Footnote 15: --no interval abated, taken off the immediacy of the order
respite granted.]
[Page 248]
But wilt thou heare me how I did proceed? [Sidenote: heare now how]
_Hor_. I beseech you.
_Ham_. Being thus benetted round with Villaines,[1]
Ere I could make a Prologue to my braines, [Sidenote: Or I could]
They had begun the Play.[2] I sate me downe,
Deuis'd a new Commission,[3] wrote it faire,
I once did hold it as our Statists[4] doe,
A basenesse to write faire; and laboured much
How to forget that learning: but Sir now,
It did me Yeomans[5] seruice: wilt thou know [Sidenote: yemans]
The effects[6] of what I wrote? [Sidenote: Th'effect[6]]
_Hor_. I, good my Lord.
_Ham_. An earnest Coniuration from the King,
As England was his faithfull Tributary,
As loue betweene them, as the Palme should flourish,
[Sidenote: them like the | might florish,]
As Peace should still her wheaten Garland weare,
And stand a Comma 'tweene their amities,[7]
And many such like Assis[8] of great charge,
[Sidenote: like, as sir of]
That on the view and know of these Contents, [Sidenote: knowing]
Without debatement further, more or lesse,
He should the bearers put to sodaine death, [Sidenote: those bearers]
Not shriuing time allowed.
_Hor_. How was this seal'd?
_Ham_. Why, euen in that was Heauen ordinate; [Sidenote: ordinant,]
I had my fathers Signet in my Purse,
Which was the Modell of that Danish Seale:
Folded the Writ vp in forme of the other,
[Sidenote: in the forme of th']
Subscrib'd it, gau't th'impression, plac't it safely,
[Sidenote: Subscribe it,]
The changeling neuer knowne: Now, the next day
Was our Sea Fight, and what to this was sement, [Sidenote: was sequent]
Thou know'st already.[9]
_Hor_. So _Guildensterne_ and _Rosincrance_, go too't.
[Footnote 1: --the nearest, Rosincrance and Guildensterne: Hamlet was
quite satisfied of their villainy.]
[Footnote 2: 'I had no need to think: the thing came to me at once.']
[Footnote 3: Note Hamlet's rapid practicality--not merely in devising,
but in carrying out.]
[Footnote 4: statesmen.]
[Footnote 5: '_Yeomen of the guard of the king's body_ were anciently
two hundred and fifty men, of the best rank under gentry, and of larger
stature than ordinary; every one being required to be six feet
high.'--_E. Chambers' Cyclopaedia_. Hence '_yeoman's_ service' must mean
the very best of service.]
[Footnote 6: Note our common phrase: 'I wrote to this effect.']
[Footnote 7: 'as he would have Peace stand between their friendships
like a comma between two words.' Every point has in it a conjunctive, as
well as a disjunctive element: the former seems the one regarded
here--only that some amities require more than a comma to separate them.
The _comma_ does not make much of a figure--is good enough for its
position, however; if indeed the fact be not, that, instead of standing
for _Peace_, it does not even stand for itself, but for some other word.
I do not for my part think so.]
[Footnote 8: Dr. Johnson says there is a quibble here with _asses_ as
beasts of _charge_ or burden. It is probable enough, seeing, as Malone
tells us, that in Warwickshire, as did Dr. Johnson himself, they
pronounce _as_ hard. In Aberdeenshire the sound of the _s_ varies with
the intent of the word: '_az_ he said'; '_ass_ strong _az_ a horse.']
[Footnote 9: To what purpose is this half-voyage to England made part of
the play? The action--except, as not a few would have it, the very
action be delay--is nowise furthered by it; Hamlet merely goes and
returns.
To answer this question, let us find the real ground for Hamlet's
reflection, 'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends.' Observe, he is
set at liberty without being in the least indebted to the finding of the
commission--by the attack, namely, of the pirate; and this was not the
shaping of his ends of which he was thinking when he made the
reflection, for it had reference to the finding of the commission. What
then was the ground of the reflection? And what justifies the whole
passage in relation to the Poet's object, the character of Hamlet?
This, it seems to me:--
Although Hamlet could not have had much doubt left with regard to his
uncle's guilt, yet a man with a fine, delicate--what most men would
think, because so much more exacting than theirs--fastidious conscience,
might well desire some proof more positive yet, before he did a deed so
repugnant to his nature, and carrying in it such a loud condemnation of
his mother. And more: he might well wish to have something to _show_: a
man's conviction is no proof, though it may work in others inclination
to receive proof. Hamlet is sent to sea just to get such proof as will
not only thoroughly satisfy himself, but be capable of being shown to
others. He holds now in his hand--to lay before the people--the two
contradictory commissions. By his voyage then he has gained both
assurance of his duty, and provision against the consequence he mainly
dreaded, that of leaving a wounded name behind him. 272. This is the
shaping of his ends--so exactly to his needs, so different from his
rough-hewn plans--which is the work of the Divinity. The man who desires
to know his duty that he may _do_ it, who will not shirk it when he does
know it, will have time allowed him and the thing made plain to him; his
perplexity will even strengthen and purify his will. The weak man is he
who, certain of what is required of him, fails to meet it: so never once
fails Hamlet. Note, in all that follows, that a load seems taken off
him: after a gracious tardiness to believe up to the point of action, he
is at length satisfied. Hesitation belongs to the noble nature, to
Hamlet; precipitation to the poor nature, to Laertes, the son of
Polonius. Compare Brutus in _Julius Caesar_--a Hamlet in favourable
circumstances, with Hamlet--a Brutus in the most unfavourable
circumstances conceivable.]
[Page 250]
_Ham_. Why man, they did make loue to this imployment[1]
They are not neere my Conscience; their debate
[Sidenote: their defeat[2]]
Doth by their owne insinuation[3] grow:[4] [Sidenote: Dooes]
'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Betweene the passe, and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites.[5]
_Hor_. Why, what a King is this?[6]
_Ham_. Does it not, thinkst thee,[7] stand me now vpon[8]
[Sidenote: not thinke thee[7] stand]
[Sidenote: 120] He that hath kil'd my King,[9] and whor'd my Mother,
[Sidenote: 62] Popt in betweene th'election and my hopes,
[Footnote 1: _This verse not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: destruction.]
[Footnote 3: 'Their destruction they have enticed on themselves by their
own behaviour;' or, 'they have _crept into_ their fate by their
underhand dealings.' The _Sh. Lex._ explains _insinuation_ as
_meddling_.]
[Footnote 4: With the concern of Horatio for the fate of Rosincrance and
Guildensterne, Hamlet shows no sympathy. It has been objected to his
character that there is nothing in the play to show them privy to the
contents of their commission; to this it would be answer enough, that
Hamlet is satisfied of their worthlessness, and that their whole
behaviour in the play shows them merest parasites; but, at the same
time, we must note that, in changing the commission, he had no
intention, could have had no thought, of letting them go to England
without him: that was a pure shaping of their ends by the Divinity.
Possibly his own 'dear plots' had in them the notion of getting help
against his uncle from the king of England, in which case he would
willingly of course have continued his journey; but whatever they may be
supposed to have been, they were laid in connection with the voyage, not
founded on the chance of its interruption. It is easy to imagine a man
like him, averse to the shedding of blood, intending interference for
their lives: as heir apparent, he would certainly have been listened to.
The tone of his reply to Horatio is that of one who has been made the
unintending cause of a deserved fate: the thing having fallen out so,
the Divinity having so shaped their ends, there was nothing in their
character, any more than in that of Polonius, to make him regret their
death, or the part he had had in it.]
[Footnote 5: The 'mighty opposites' here are the king and Hamlet.]
[Footnote 6: Perhaps, as Hamlet talked, he has been parenthetically
glancing at the real commission. Anyhow conviction is growing stronger
in Horatio, whom, for the occasion, we may regard as a type of the
public.]
[Footnote 7: 'thinkst thee,' in the fashion of the Friends, or 'thinke
thee' in the sense of 'bethink thee.']
[Footnote 8: 'Does it not rest now on me?--is it not now my duty?--is it
not _incumbent on me_ (with _lie_ for _stand_)--"is't not perfect
conscience"?']
[Footnote 9: Note '_my king_' not _my father_: he had to avenge a crime
against the state, the country, himself as a subject--not merely a
private wrong.]
[Page 252]
Throwne out his Angle for my proper life,[1]
And with such coozenage;[2] is't not perfect conscience,[3]
[Sidenote: conscience?]
[Sidenote: 120] To quit him with this arme?[4] And is't not to be
damn'd[5]
To let this Canker of our nature come
In further euill.[6]
_Hor._ It must be shortly knowne to him from England
What is the issue of the businesse there.[7]
_Ham._ It will be short,
[Sidenote: 262] The _interim's_ mine,[8] and a mans life's no more[9]
Then to say one:[10] but I am very sorry good _Horatio_,
[Sidenote: 245] That to _Laertes_ I forgot my selfe;
For by the image of my Cause, I see
[Sidenote: 262] The Portraiture of his;[11] Ile count his fauours:[12]
[Footnote 1: Here is the charge at length in full against the king--of
quality and proof sufficient now, not merely to justify, but to compel
action against him.]
[Footnote 2: He was such a _fine_ hypocrite that Hamlet, although he
hated and distrusted him, was perplexed as to the possibility of his
guilt. His good acting was almost too much for Hamlet himself. This is
his 'coozenage.'
After 'coozenage' should come a dash, bringing '--is't not perfect
conscience' (_is it not absolutely righteous_) into closest sequence,
almost apposition, with 'Does it not stand me now upon--'.]
[Footnote 3: Here comes in the _Quarto, 'Enter a Courtier_.' All from
this point to 'Peace, who comes heere?' included, is in addition to the
_Quarto_ text--not in the _Q._, that is.]
[Footnote 4: I would here refer my student to the soliloquy--with its
_sea of troubles_, and _the taking of arms against it_. 123, n. 4.]
[Footnote 5: These three questions: 'Does it not stand me now
upon?'--'Is't not perfect conscience?'--'Is't not to be damned?' reveal
the whole relation between the inner and outer, the unseen and the seen,
the thinking and the acting Hamlet. 'Is not the thing right?--Is it not
my duty?--Would not the neglect of it deserve damnation?' He is
satisfied.]
[Footnote 6: 'is it not a thing to be damned--to let &c.?' or, 'would it
not be to be damned, (to be in a state of damnation, or, to bring
damnation on oneself) to let this human cancer, the king, go on to
further evil?']
[Footnote 7: '--so you have not much time.']
[Footnote 8: 'True, it will be short, but till then is mine, and will be
long enough for me.' He is resolved.]
[Footnote 9: Now that he is assured of what is right, the Shadow that
waits him on the path to it, has no terror for him. He ceases to be
anxious as to 'what dreams may come,' as to the 'something after death,'
as to 'the undiscovered country,' the moment his conscience is
satisfied. 120. It cannot now make a coward of him. It was never in
regard to the past that Hamlet dreaded death, but in regard to the
righteousness of the action which was about to occasion his death. Note
that he expects death; at least he has long made up his mind to the
great risk of it--the death referred to in the soliloquy--which, after
all, was not that which did overtake him. There is nothing about suicide
here, nor was there there.]
[Footnote 10: 'a man's life must soon be over anyhow.']
[Footnote 11: The approach of death causes him to think of and regret
even the small wrongs he has done; he laments his late behaviour to
Laertes, and makes excuse for him: the similarity of their condition,
each having lost a father by violence, ought, he says, to have taught
him gentleness with him. The _1st Quarto_ is worth comparing here:--
_Enter Hamlet and Horatio_
_Ham_. Beleeue mee, it greeues mee much _Horatio_,
That to _Leartes_ I forgot my selfe:
For by my selfe me thinkes I feele his griefe,
Though there's a difference in each others wrong.]
[Footnote 12: 'I will not forget,' or, 'I will call to mind, what merits
he has,' or 'what favours he has shown me.' But I suspect the word
'_count_' ought to be _court_.--He does court his favour when next they
meet--in lovely fashion. He has no suspicion of his enmity.]
[Page 254]
[Sidenote: 242, 262] But sure the brauery[1] of his griefe did put me
Into a Towring passion.[2]
_Hor._ Peace, who comes heere?
_Enter young Osricke._[3] [Sidenote: _Enter a Courtier._]
_Osr._ Your Lordship is right welcome back to [Sidenote: _Cour._]
Denmarke.
_Ham._ I humbly thank you Sir, dost know this [Sidenote: humble thank]
waterflie?[4]
_Hor._ No my good Lord.
_Ham._ Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a
vice to know him[5]: he hath much Land, and fertile;
let a Beast be Lord of Beasts, and his Crib shall
stand at the Kings Messe;[6] 'tis a Chowgh[7]; but
as I saw spacious in the possession of dirt.[8] [Sidenote: as I say,]
_Osr._ Sweet Lord, if your friendship[9] were at
[Sidenote: _Cour._ | Lordshippe[?]]
leysure, I should impart a thing to you from his
Maiesty.
_Ham._ I will receiue it with all diligence of [Sidenote: it sir with]
spirit; put your Bonet to his right vse, 'tis for the
[Sidenote: spirit, your]
head.
Osr. I thanke your Lordship, 'tis very hot[10]
[Sidenote: Cour. | it is]
_Ham._ No, beleeue mee 'tis very cold, the winde
is Northerly.
_Osr._ It is indifferent cold[11] my Lord indeed. [Sidenote: _Cour._]
_Ham._ Mee thinkes it is very soultry, and hot
[Sidenote: But yet me | sully and hot, or my]
for my Complexion.[12]
_Osr._ Exceedingly, my Lord, it is very soultry, [Sidenote: _Cour._]
as 'twere I cannot tell how: but my Lord,[13] his
[Sidenote: how: my Lord]
Maiesty bad me signifie to you, that he ha's laid a
[Sidenote: that a had]
[Sidenote: 244] great wager on your head: Sir, this is the matter.[14]
_Ham._ I beseech you remember.[15]
_Osr._ Nay, in good faith, for mine ease in good
[Sidenote: Cour. Nay good my Lord for my ease]
[Footnote 1: the great show; bravado.]
[Footnote 2: --with which fell in well the forms of his pretended
madness. But that the passion was real, this reaction of repentance
shows. It was not the first time his pretence had given him liberty to
ease his heart with wild words. Jealous of the boastfulness of Laertes'
affection, he began at once--in keeping with his assumed character of
madman, but not the less in harmony with his feelings--to outrave him.]
[Footnote 3: One of the sort that would gather to such a king--of the
same kind as Rosincrance and Guildensterne.
In the _1st Q. 'Enter a Bragart Gentleman_.']
[Footnote 4: --_to Horatio_.]
[Footnote 5: 'Thou art the more in a state of grace, for it is a vice to
know him.']
[Footnote 6: 'his manger shall stand where the king is served.' Wealth
is always received by Rank--Mammon nowhere better worshipped than in
kings' courts.]
[Footnote 7: '_a bird of the crow-family_'--as a figure, '_always
applied to rich and avaricious people_.' A _chuff_ is a surly _clown_.
In Scotch a _coof_ is 'a silly, dastardly fellow.']
[Footnote 8: land.]
[Footnote 9: 'friendship' is better than 'Lordshippe,' as euphuistic.]
[Footnote 10: 'I thanke your Lordship; (_puts on his hat_) 'tis very
hot.']
[Footnote 11: 'rather cold.']
[Footnote 12: 'and hot--for _my_ temperament.']
[Footnote 13: Not able to go on, he plunges into his message.]
[Footnote 14: --_takes off his hat_.]
[Footnote 15: --making a sign to him again to put on his hat.]
[Page 256]
faith[1]: Sir, [A] you are not ignorant of what excellence
_Laertes_ [B] is at his weapon.[2] [Sidenote: _Laertes_ is.[2]]
_Ham_. What's his weapon?[3]
_Osr_. Rapier and dagger. [Sidenote: _Cour._]
_Ham_. That's two of his weapons: but well.
_Osr_. The sir King ha's wag'd with him six
[Sidenote: _Cour_. The King sir hath wagerd]
Barbary Horses, against the which he impon'd[4] as I
[Sidenote: hee has impaund]
take it, sixe French Rapiers and Poniards, with
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
[5] here is newly com to Court _Laertes_, belieue me an absolute
gentlemen, ful of most excellent differences,[6] of very soft
society,[7] and great
[Sidenote: 234] showing[8]: indeede to speake sellingly[9] of him, hee
is the card or kalender[10] of gentry: for you shall find in him the
continent of what part a Gentleman would see.[11]
[Sidenote: 245] _Ham_.[12] Sir, his definement suffers no perdition[13]
in you, though I know to deuide him inuentorially,[14] would dosie[15]
th'arithmaticke of memory, and yet but yaw[16] neither in respect of
his quick saile, but in the veritie of extolment, I take him to be a
soule of great article,[17] & his infusion[18] of such dearth[19] and
rarenesse, as to make true dixion of him, his semblable is his
mirrour,[20] & who els would trace him, his vmbrage, nothing more.[21]
_Cour_. Your Lordship speakes most infallibly of him.[22]
_Ham_. The concernancy[23] sir, why doe we wrap the gentleman in our
more rawer breath?[24]
_Cour_. Sir.[25]
_Hora_. Ist not possible to vnderstand in another tongue,[26] you will
too't sir really.[27]
_Ham_. What imports the nomination of this gentleman.
_Cour_. Of _Laertes_.[28]
_Hora_. His purse is empty already, all's golden words are spent.
_Ham_. Of him sir.[29]
_Cour_. I know you are not ignorant.[30]
_Ham_. I would you did sir, yet in faith if you did, it would not
much approoue me,[31] well sir.
_Cour_.]
[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Ham_. I dare not confesse that, least I should compare with him in
excellence, but to know a man wel, were to knowe himselfe.[32]
_Cour_. I meane sir for this weapon, but in the imputation laide on
him,[33] by them in his meed, hee's vnfellowed.[34]]
[Footnote 1: 'in good faith, it is not for manners, but for my comfort I
take it off.' Perhaps the hat was intended only to be carried, and would
not really go on his head.]
[Footnote 2: The _Quarto_ has not 'at his weapon,' which is inserted to
take the place of the passage omitted, and connect the edges of the
gap.]
[Footnote 3: So far from having envied Laertes' reputation for fencing,
as the king asserts, Hamlet seems not even to have known which was
Laertes' weapon.]
[Footnote 4: laid down--staked.]
[Footnote 5: This and the following passages seem omitted for
curtailment, and perhaps in part because they were less amusing when the
fashion of euphuism had passed. The good of holding up the mirror to
folly was gone when it was no more the 'form and pressure' of 'the very
age and body of the time.']
[Footnote 6: of great variety of excellence.]
[Footnote 7: gentle manners.]
[Footnote 8: fine presence.]
[Footnote 9: Is this a stupid attempt at wit on the part of Osricke--'to
praise him as if you wanted to sell him'--stupid because it acknowledges
exaggeration?]
[Footnote 10: 'the chart or book of reference.' 234.]
[Footnote 11: I think _part_ here should be plural; then the passage
would paraphrase thus:--'you shall find in him the sum of what parts
(_endowments_) a gentleman would wish to see.']
[Footnote 12: Hamlet answers the fool according to his folly, but
outdoes him, to his discomfiture.]
[Footnote 13: 'his description suffers no loss in your mouth.']
[Footnote 14: 'to analyze him into all and each of his qualities.']
[Footnote 15: dizzy.]
[Footnote 16: 'and yet _would_ but yaw neither' _Yaw_, 'the movement by
which a ship deviates from the line of her course towards the right or
left in steering.' Falconer's _Marine Dictionary_. The meaning seems to
be that the inventorial description could not overtake his merits,
because it would _yaw_--keep turning out of the direct line of their
quick sail. But Hamlet is set on using far-fetched and absurd forms and
phrases to the non-plussing of Osricke, nor cares much to be _correct_.]
[Footnote 17: I take this use of the word _article_ to be merely for the
occasion; it uas never surely in _use_ for _substance_.]
[Footnote 18: '--the infusion of his soul into his body,' 'his soul's
embodiment.' The _Sh. Lex._ explains _infusion_ as 'endowments,
qualities,' and it may be right.]
[Footnote 19: scarcity.]
[Footnote 20: '--it alone can show his likeness.']
[Footnote 21: 'whoever would follow in his footsteps--copy him--is only
his shadow.']
[Footnote 22: Here a pause, I think.]
[Footnote 23: 'To the matter in hand!'--recalling the attention of
Osricke to the purport of his visit.]
[Footnote 24: 'why do we presume to talk about him with our less refined
breath?']
[Footnote 25: The Courtier is now thoroughly bewildered.]
[Footnote 26: 'Can you only _speak_ in another tongue? Is it not
possible to _understand_ in it as well?']
[Footnote 27: 'It is your own fault; you _will_ court your fate! you
_will_ go and be made a fool of!']
[Footnote 28: He catches at the word he understands. The actor must here
supply the meaning, with the baffled, disconcerted look of a fool who
has failed in the attempt to seem knowing.]
[Footnote 29:--answering the Courtier.]
[Footnote 30: He pauses, looking for some out-of-the-way mode wherein to
continue. Hamlet takes him up.]
[Footnote 31: 'your witness to my knowledge would not be of much
avail.']
[Footnote 32: Paraphrase: 'for merely to know a man well, implies that
you yourself _know_.' To know a man well, you must know his knowledge: a
man, to judge his neighbour, must be at least his equal.]
[Footnote 33: faculty attributed to him.]
[Footnote 34: _Point thus_: 'laide on him by them, in his meed hee's
unfellowed.' 'in his merit he is peerless.']
[Page 258]
their assignes,[1] as Girdle, Hangers or so[2]: three of
[Sidenote: hanger and so.]
the Carriages infaith are very deare to fancy,[3] very
responsiue[4] to the hilts, most delicate carriages
and of very liberall conceit.[5]
_Ham_. What call you the Carriages?[6]
[A]
_Osr_. The Carriages Sir, are the hangers.
[Sidenote: _Cour_. The carriage]
_Ham_. The phrase would bee more Germaine[7] to
the matter: If we could carry Cannon by our sides;
[Sidenote: carry a cannon]
I would it might be Hangers till then; but on sixe
[Sidenote: it be | then, but on, six]
Barbary Horses against sixe French Swords: their
Assignes, and three liberall conceited Carriages,[8]
that's the French but against the Danish; why is [Sidenote: French bet]
this impon'd as you call it[9]? [Sidenote: this all you[9]]
_Osr_. The King Sir, hath laid that in a dozen
[Sidenote: _Cour_. | layd sir, that]
passes betweene you and him, hee shall not exceed
[Sidenote: your selfe and him,]
you three hits;[10] He hath one twelue for mine,[11]
[Sidenote: hath layd on twelue for nine,]
and that would come to imediate tryall, if your [Sidenote: and it would]
Lordship would vouchsafe the Answere.[12]
_Ham_. How if I answere no?[13]
_Osr_. I meane my Lord,[14] the opposition of your [Sidenote: _Cour_.]
person in tryall.
_Ham_. Sir, I will walke heere in the Hall; if it
please his Maiestie, 'tis the breathing time of day [Sidenote: it is]
with me[15]; let the Foyles bee brought, the Gentleman
willing, and the King hold his purpose; I will
win for him if I can: if not, Ile gaine nothing but
[Sidenote: him and I | I will]
my shame, and the odde hits.[16]
_Osr_. Shall I redeliuer you ee'n so?[17]
[Sidenote: _Cour_. Shall I deliuer you so?]
_Ham_. To this effect Sir, after what flourish your
nature will.
_Osr_. I commend my duty to your Lordship. [Sidenote: _Cour_.]
_Ham_. Yours, yours [18]: hee does well to commend
[Sidenote: _Ham_. Yours doo's well[18]]
it himselfe, there are no tongues else for's tongue, [Sidenote: turne.]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Hora_. I knew you must be edified by the margent[19] ere you had
done.]
[Footnote 1: accompaniments or belongings; things _assigned_ to them.]
[Footnote 2: the thongs or chains attaching the sheath of a weapon to
the girdle; what the weapon _hangs_ by. The '_or so_' seems to indicate
that Osricke regrets having used the old-fashioned word, which he
immediately changes for _carriages_.]
[Footnote 3: imagination, taste, the artistic faculty.]
[Footnote 4: 'corresponding to--going well with the hilts,'--in shape,
ornament, and colour.]
[Footnote 5: bold invention.]
[Footnote 6: a new word, unknown to Hamlet;--court-slang, to which he
prefers the old-fashioned, homely word.]
[Footnote 7: related; 'akin to the matter.']
[Footnote 8: He uses Osricke's words--with a touch of derision, I should
say.]
[Footnote 9: I do not take the _Quarto_ reading for incorrect. Hamlet
says: 'why is this all----you call it --? --?' as if he wanted to use
the word (_imponed_) which Osricke had used, but did not remember it: he
asks for it, saying '_you call it_' interrogatively.]
[Footnote 10: _1st Q_
that yong Leartes in twelue venies 223
At Rapier and Dagger do not get three oddes of you,]
[Footnote 11: In all printer's work errors are apt to come in clusters.]
[Footnote 12: the response, or acceptance of the challenge.]
[Footnote 13: Hamlet plays with the word, pretending to take it in its
common meaning.]
[Footnote 14: 'By _answer_, I mean, my lord, the opposition &c.']
[Footnote 15: 'my time for exercise:' he treats the proposal as the
trifle it seems--a casual affair to be settled at once--hoping perhaps
that the king will come with like carelessness.]
[Footnote 16: the _three_.]
[Footnote 17: To Osricke the answer seems too direct and unadorned for
ears royal.]
[Footnote 18: I cannot help here preferring the _Q_. If we take the
_Folio_ reading, we must take it thus: 'Yours! yours!' spoken with
contempt;--'as if _you_ knew anything of duty!'--for we see from what
follows that he is playing with the word _duty_. Or we might read it,
'Yours commends yours,' with the same sense as the reading of the _Q._,
which is, 'Yours,' that is, '_Your_ lordship--does well to commend his
duty himself--there is no one else to do it.' This former shape is
simpler; that of the _Folio_ is burdened with ellipsis--loaded with
lack. And surely _turne_ is the true reading!--though we may take the
other to mean, 'there are no tongues else on the side of his tongue.']
[Footnote 19: --as of the Bible, for a second interpretative word or
phrase.]
[Page 260]
_Hor_. This Lapwing runs away with the shell
on his head.[1]
[Sidenote: 98] _Ham_. He did Compile[2] with his Dugge before
[Sidenote: _Ham_. A did sir[2] with]
hee suck't it: thus had he and mine more of the
[Sidenote: a suckt has he | many more]
same Beauy[3] that I know the drossie age dotes [Sidenote: same breede]
on; only got the tune[4] of the time, and outward
[Sidenote: and out of an habit of[5]]
habite of encounter,[5] a kinde of yesty collection, [Sidenote: histy]
which carries them through and through the most
fond and winnowed opinions; and doe but blow
[Sidenote: prophane and trennowed opinions]
them to their tryalls: the Bubbles are out.[6]
[Sidenote: their triall, the]
[A]
_Hor_. You will lose this wager, my Lord. [Sidenote: loose my Lord.]
_Ham_. I doe not thinke so, since he went into
France, I haue beene in continuall practice; I shall
[Sidenote: 265] winne at the oddes:[7] but thou wouldest not thinke
[Sidenote: ods; thou]
how all heere about my heart:[8] but it is no matter[9]
[Sidenote: how ill all's heere]
_Hor_. Nay, good my Lord.
_Ham_. It is but foolery; but it is such a kinde
of gain-giuing[10] as would perhaps trouble a woman,
[Sidenote: gamgiuing.]
_Hor_. If your minde dislike any thing, obey.[11] [Sidenote: obay it.]
I will forestall[12] their repaire hither, and say you
are not fit.
_Ham_. Not a whit, we defie Augury[13]; there's a
[Sidenote: there is speciall]
[Sidenote: 24, 125, 247] speciall Prouidence in the fall of a
sparrow.[14] If
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_
_Enter a Lord_.[15]
_Lord_. My Lord, his Maiestie commended him to you by young
Ostricke,[16] who brings backe to him that you attend him in the hall,
he sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with _Laertes_, or that
you will take longer time?[17]
_Ham_. I am constant to my purposes, they followe the Kings pleasure,
if his fitnes speakes, mine is ready[18]: now or whensoeuer, prouided I
be so able as now.
_Lord_. The King, and Queene, and all are comming downe.
_Ham_. In happy time.[19]
_Lord_. The Queene desires you to vse some gentle
entertainment[20] _Laertes_, before you fall to play.
_Ham_. Shee well instructs me.]
[Footnote 1: 'Well, he _is_ a young one!']
[Footnote 2: '_Com'ply_,' with accent on first syllable: _comply with_
means _pay compliments to, compliment_. See _Q._ reading: 'A did sir
with':--_sir_ here is a verb--_sir with_ means _say sir to_: 'he
_sirred, complied_ with his nurse's breast before &c.' Hamlet speaks in
mockery of the affected court-modes of speech and address, the fashion
of euphuism--a mechanical attempt at the poetic.]
[Footnote 3: _a flock of birds_--suggested by '_This Lapwing_.']
[Footnote 4: 'the mere mode.']
[Footnote 5: 'and external custom of intercourse.' But here too I rather
take the _Q._ to be right: 'They have only got the fashion of the time;
and, out of a habit of wordy conflict, (they have got) a collection of
tricks of speech,--a yesty, frothy mass, with nothing in it, which
carries them in triumph through the most foolish and fastidious (nice,
choice, punctilious, whimsical) judgments.' _Yesty_ I take to be right,
and _prophane_ (vulgar) to have been altered by the Poet to _fond_
(foolish); of _trennowed_ I can make nothing beyond a misprint.]
[Footnote 6: Hamlet had just blown Osricke to his trial in his chosen
kind, and the bubble had burst. The braggart gentleman had no faculty to
generate after the dominant fashion, no invention to support his
ambition--had but a yesty collection, which failing him the moment
something unconventional was wanted, the fool had to look a discovered
fool.]
[Footnote 7: 'I shall win by the odds allowed me; he will not exceed me
three hits.']
[Footnote 8: He has a presentiment of what is coming.]
[Footnote 9: Nothing in this world is of much consequence to him now.
Also, he believes in 'a special Providence.']
[Footnote 10: 'a yielding, a sinking' at the heart? The _Sh. Lex._ says
_misgiving_.]
[Footnote 11: 'obey the warning.']
[Footnote 12: 'go to them before they come here'--'_prevent_ their
coming.']
[Footnote 13: The knowledge, even, of what is to come could never, any
more than ordinary expediency, be the _law_ of a man's conduct. St.
Paul, informed by the prophet Agabus of the troubles that awaited him at
Jerusalem, and entreated by his friends not to go thither, believed the
prophet, and went on to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of the
Gentiles.]
[Footnote 14: One of Shakspere's many allusions to sayings of the Lord.]
[Footnote 15: Osricke does not come back: he has begged off but ventures
later, under the wing of the king.]
[Footnote 16: May not this form of the name suggest that in it is
intended the 'foolish' ostrich?]
[Footnote 17: The king is making delay: he has to have his 'union'
ready.]
[Footnote 18: 'if he feels ready, I am.']
[Footnote 19: 'They are _well-come_.']
[Footnote 20: 'to be polite to Laertes.' The print shows where _to_ has
slipped out.
The queen is anxious; she distrusts Laertes, and the king's influence
over him.]
[Page 262]
it[1] be now, 'tis not to come: if it bee not to come,
[Sidenote: be, tis]
it will bee now: if it be not now; yet it will come;
[Sidenote: it well come,]
[Sidenote: 54, 164] the readinesse is all,[2] since no man ha's ought of
[Sidenote: man of ought he leaues, knowes what ist
to leaue betimes, let be.]
[Sidenote: 252] what he leaues. What is't to leaue betimes?[3]
_Enter King, Queene, Laertes and Lords, with other
Attendants with Foyles, and Gauntlets, a Table
and Flagons of Wine on it._
[Sidenote: _A table prepard, Trumpets, Drums and officers
with cushion, King, Queene, and all the state,
Foiles, Daggers, and Laertes._]
_Kin_. Come _Hamlet_ come, and take this hand
from me.
[Sidenote: 245] _Ham_.[4] Giue me your pardon Sir, I'ue done you
wrong,[5] [Sidenote: I haue]
But pardon't as you are a Gentleman.
This presence[6] knowes,
And you must needs haue heard how I am punisht
With sore distraction?[7] What I haue done [Sidenote: With a sore]
That might your nature honour, and exception
[Sidenote: 242, 252] Roughly awake,[8] heere proclaime was madnesse:[9]
Was't _Hamlet_ wrong'd _Laertes_? Neuer _Hamlet_.
If _Hamlet_ from himselfe be tane away: [Sidenote: fane away,]
And when he's not himselfe, do's wrong _Laertes_,
Then _Hamlet_ does it not, _Hamlet_ denies it:[10]
Who does it then? His Madnesse? If't be so,
_Hamlet_ is of the Faction that is wrong'd,
His madnesse is poore _Hamlets_ Enemy.[11]
Sir, in this Audience,[12]
Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd euill,[13]
Free me so farre[14] in your most generous thoughts,
That I haue shot mine Arrow o're the house, [Sidenote: my]
And hurt my Mother.[15] [Sidenote: brother.[15]]
[Footnote 1: 'it'--death, the end.]
[Footnote 2: His father had been taken unready. 54.]
[Footnote 3: _Point_: 'all. Since'; 'leaves, what'--'Since no man has
anything of what he has left, those who left it late are in the same
position as those who left it early.' Compare the common saying, 'It
will be all the same in a hundred years.' The _Q._ reading comes much to
the same thing--'knows of ought he leaves'--'has any knowledge of it,
anything to do with it, in any sense possesses it.'
We may find a deeper meaning in the passage, however--surely not too
deep for Shakspere:--'Since nothing can be truly said to be possessed as
his own which a man must at one time or another yield; since that which
is _own_ can never be taken from the owner, but solely that which is
lent him; since the nature of a thing that has to be left is not such
that it _could_ be possessed, why should a man mind parting with it
early?'--There is far more in this than merely that at the end of the
day it will be all the same. The thing that ever was really a man's own,
God has given, and God will not, and man cannot, take away. Note the
unity of religion and philosophy in Hamlet: he takes the one true
position. Note also his courage: he has a strong presentiment of death,
but will not turn a step from his way. If Death be coming, he will
confront him. He does not believe in chance. He is ready--that is
willing. All that is needful is, that he should not go as one who cannot
help it, but as one who is for God's will, who chooses that will as his
own.
There is so much behind in Shakspere's characters--so much that can only
be hinted at! The dramatist has not the _word_-scope of the novelist;
his art gives him little _room_; he must effect in a phrase what the
other may take pages to. He needs good seconding by his actors as sorely
as the composer needs good rendering of his music by the orchestra. It
is a lesson in unity that the greatest art can least work alone; that
the greatest _finder_ most needs the help of others to show his
_findings_. The dramatist has live men and women for the very
instruments of his art--who must not be mere instruments, but
fellow-workers; and upon them he is greatly dependent for final outcome.
Here the actor should show a marked calmness and elevation in Hamlet. He
should have around him as it were a luminous cloud, the cloud of his
coming end. A smile not all of this world should close the speech. He
has given himself up, and is at peace.]
[Footnote 4: Note in this apology the sweetness of Hamlet's nature. How
few are alive enough, that is unselfish and true enough, to be capable
of genuine apology! The low nature always feels, not the wrong, but the
confession of it, degrading.]
[Footnote 5: --the wrong of his rudeness at the funeral.]
[Footnote 6: all present.]
[Footnote 7: --true in a deeper sense than they would understand.]
[Footnote 8: 'that might roughly awake your nature, honour, and
exception,':--consider the phrase--_to take exception at a thing_.]
[Footnote 9: It was by cause of madness, not by cause of evil intent.
For all purpose of excuse it was madness, if only pretended madness; it
was there of another necessity, and excused offence like real madness.
What he said was true, not merely expedient, to the end he meant it to
serve. But all passion may be called madness, because therein the mind
is absorbed with one idea; 'anger is a brief madness,' and he was in a
'towering passion': he proclaims it madness and so abjures it.]
[Footnote 10: 'refuses the wrong altogether--will in his true self have
nothing to do with it.' No evil thing comes of our true selves, and
confession is the casting of it from us, the only true denial. He who
will not confess a wrong, holds to the wrong.]
[Footnote 11: All here depends on the expression in the utterance.]
[Footnote 12: _This line not in Q._]
[Footnote 13: This is Hamlet's summing up of the whole--his explanation
of the speech.]
[Footnote 14: 'so far as this in your generous judgment--that you regard
me as having shot &c.']
[Footnote 15: _Brother_ is much easier to accept, though _Mother_ might
be in the simile.
To do justice to the speech we must remember that Hamlet has no quarrel
whatever with Laertes, that he has expressed admiration of him, and that
he is inclined to love him for Ophelia's sake. His apology has no
reference to the fate of his father or his sister; Hamlet is not aware
that Laertes associates him with either, and plainly the public did not
know Hamlet killed Polonius; while Laertes could have no intention of
alluding to the fact, seeing it would frustrate his scheme of
treachery.]
[Page 264]
_Laer_. I am satisfied in Nature,[1]
Whose motiue in this case should stirre me most
To my Reuenge. But in my termes of Honor
I stand aloofe, and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder Masters of knowne Honor,
I haue a voyce, and president of peace
To keepe my name vngorg'd.[2] But till that time,
[Sidenote: To my name vngord: but all that]
I do receiue your offer'd loue like loue,
And wil not wrong it.
_Ham_. I do embrace it freely, [Sidenote: I embrace]
And will this Brothers wager frankely play.
Giue vs the Foyles: Come on.[3]
_Laer_. Come one for me.[4]
_Ham_. Ile be your foile[5] _Laertes_, in mine ignorance,
[Sidenote: 218] Your Skill shall like a Starre i'th'darkest night,[6]
Sticke fiery off indeede.
_Laer_. You mocke me Sir.
_Ham_. No by this hand.[7]
_King_. Giue them the Foyles yong _Osricke_,[8]
[Sidenote: _Ostricke_,[8]]
Cousen _Hamlet_, you know the wager.
_Ham_. Verie well my Lord,
Your Grace hath laide the oddes a'th'weaker side, [Sidenote: has]
_King._ I do not feare it,
I haue seene you both:[9]
But since he is better'd, we haue therefore oddes.[10]
[Sidenote: better, we]
[Footnote 1: 'in my own feelings and person.' Laertes does not refer to
his father or sister. He professes to be satisfied in his heart with
Hamlet's apology for his behaviour at the funeral, but not to be sure
whether in the opinion of others, and by the laws of honour, he can
accept it as amends, and forbear to challenge him. But the words 'Whose
motiue in this case should stirre me most to my Reuenge' may refer to
his father and sister, and, if so taken, should be spoken aside. To
accept apology for them and not for his honour would surely be too
barefaced! The point concerning them has not been started.
But why not receive the apology as quite satisfactory? That he would not
seems to show a lingering regard to _real_ honour. A downright villain,
like the king, would have pretended its _thorough_
acceptance--especially as they were just going to fence like friends;
but he, as regards his honour, will not accept it until justified in
doing so by the opinion of 'some elder masters,' receiving from them 'a
voice and precedent of peace'--counsel to, and justification, or example
of peace. He keeps the door of quarrel open--will not profess to be
_altogether_ friends with him, though he does not hint at his real
ground of offence: that mooted, the match of skill, with its immense
advantages for villainy, would have been impossible. He means treachery
all the time; careful of his honour, he can, like most apes of fashion,
let his honesty go; still, so complex is human nature, he holds his
speech declining thorough reconciliation as a shield to shelter his
treachery from his own contempt: he has taken care not to profess
absolute friendship, and so left room for absolute villainy! He has had
regard to his word! Relieved perhaps by the demoniacal quibble, he
follows it immediately with an utterance of full-blown perfidy.]
[Footnote 2: Perhaps _ungorg'd_ might mean _unthrottled_.]
[Footnote 3: 'Come on' _is not in the Q._--I suspect this _Come on_ but
a misplaced shadow from the '_Come one_' immediately below, and better
omitted. Hamlet could not say '_Come on_' before Laertes was ready, and
'_Come one_' after 'Give us the foils,' would be very awkward. But it
may be said to the attendant courtiers.]
[Footnote 4: He says this while Hamlet is still choosing, in order that
a second bundle of foils, in which is the unbated and poisoned one, may
be brought him. So 'generous and free from all contriving' is Hamlet,
(220) that, even with the presentiment in his heart, he has no fear of
treachery.]
[Footnote 5: As persons of the drama, the Poet means Laertes to be foil
to Hamlet.--With the play upon the word before us, we can hardly help
thinking of the _third_ signification of the word _foil_.]
[Footnote 6: 'My ignorance will be the foil of darkest night to the
burning star of your skill.' This is no flattery; Hamlet believes
Laertes, to whose praises he has listened (218)--though not with the
envy his uncle attributes to him--the better fencer: he expects to win
only 'at the odds.' 260.]
[Footnote 7: --not '_by these pickers and stealers_,' his oath to his
false friends. 154.]
[Footnote 8: Plainly a favourite with the king.--He is _Ostricke_ always
in the _Q_.]
[Footnote 9: 'seen you both play'--though not together.]
[Footnote 10: _Point thus_:
I do not fear it--I have seen you both!
But since, he is bettered: we have therefore odds.
'Since'--'_since the time I saw him_.']
[Page 266]
_Laer_. This is too heauy,
Let me see another.[1]
_Ham_. This likes me well,
These Foyles haue all a length.[2] _Prepare to play._[3]
_Osricke_. I my good Lord. [Sidenote: _Ostr._]
_King_. Set me the Stopes of wine vpon that Table:
If _Hamlet_ giue the first, or second hit,
Or quit in answer of the third exchange,[4]
Let all the Battlements their Ordinance fire,
[Sidenote: 268] The King shal drinke to _Hamlets_ better breath,
And in the Cup an vnion[5] shal he throw [Sidenote: an Vince]
Richer then that,[6] which foure successiue Kings
In Denmarkes Crowne haue worne.
Giue me the Cups,
And let the Kettle to the Trumpets speake, [Sidenote: trumpet]
The Trumpet to the Cannoneer without,
The Cannons to the Heauens, the Heauen to Earth,
Now the King drinkes to _Hamlet_. Come, begin,
[Sidenote: _Trumpets the while._]
And you the Iudges[7] beare a wary eye.
_Ham_. Come on sir.
_Laer_. Come on sir. _They play._[8] [Sidenote: Come my Lord.]
_Ham_. One.
_Laer_. No.
_Ham_. Iudgement.[9]
_Osr_. A hit, a very palpable hit. [Sidenote: _Ostrick._]
_Laer_. Well: againe. [Sidenote: _Drum, trumpets and a shot.
Florish, a peece goes off._]
_King_. Stay, giue me drinke.
_Hamlet_, this Pearle is thine,
Here's to thy health. Giue him the cup,[10]
_Trumpets sound, and shot goes off._[11]
_Ham_. Ile play this bout first, set by a-while.[12]
[Sidenote: set it by]
Come: Another hit; what say you?
_Laer_. A touch, a touch, I do confesse.[13]
[Sidenote: _Laer_. | doe confest.]
_King_. Our Sonne shall win.
[Footnote 1: --to make it look as if he were choosing.]
[Footnote 2: --asked in an offhand way. The fencers must not measure
weapons, because how then could the unbated point escape discovery? It
is quite like Hamlet to take even Osricke's word for their equal
length.]
[Footnote 3: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 4: 'or be quits with Laertes the third bout':--in any case,
whatever the probabilities, even if Hamlet be wounded, the king, who has
not perfect confidence in the 'unction,' will fall back on his second
line of ambush--in which he has more trust: he will drink to Hamlet,
when Hamlet will be bound to drink also.]
[Footnote 5: The Latin _unio_ was a large pearl. The king's _union_ I
take to be poison made up like a pearl.]
[Footnote 6: --a well-known one in the crown.]
[Footnote 7: --of whom Osricke was one.]
[Footnote 8: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 9: --appealing to the judges.]
[Footnote 10: He throws in the _pearl_, and drinks--for it will take
some moments to dissolve and make the wine poisonous--then sends the cup
to Hamlet.]
[Footnote 11: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 12: He does not refuse to drink, but puts it by, neither
showing nor entertaining suspicion, fearing only the effect of the
draught on his play. He is bent on winning the wager--perhaps with
further intent.]
[Footnote 13: Laertes has little interest in the match, but much in his
own play.]
[Page 268]
[Sidenote: 266] _Qu_. He's fat, and scant of breath.[1]
Heere's a Napkin, rub thy browes,
[Sidenote: Heere _Hamlet_ take my napkin]
The Queene Carowses to thy fortune, _Hamlet_.
_Ham_. Good Madam.[2]
_King_. _Gertrude_, do not drinke.
_Qu_. I will my Lord;
I pray you pardon me.[3]
[Sidenote: 222]_King_. It is the poyson'd Cup, it is too late.[4]
_Ham_. I dare not drinke yet Madam,
By and by.[5]
_Qu_. Come, let me wipe thy face.[6]
_Laer_. My Lord, Ile hit him now.
_King_. I do not thinke't.
_Laer_. And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.[7]
[Sidenote: it is | against]
_Ham_. Come for the third.
_Laertes_, you but dally, [Sidenote: you doe but]
I pray you passe with your best violence,
I am affear'd you make a wanton of me.[8] [Sidenote: I am sure you]
_Laer_. Say you so? Come on. _Play._
_Osr_. Nothing neither way. [Sidenote: _Ostr._]
_Laer_. Haue at you now.[9]
_In scuffling they change Rapiers._[10]
_King_. Part them, they are incens'd.[11]
_Ham_. Nay come, againe.[12]
_Osr_. Looke to the Queene there hoa. [Sidenote: _Ostr._ | there howe.]
_Hor_. They bleed on both sides. How is't my [Sidenote: is it]
Lord?
_Osr_. How is't _Laertes_? [Sidenote: _Ostr._]
_Laer_. Why as a Woodcocke[13]
To mine Sprindge, _Osricke_, [Sidenote: mine owne sprindge _Ostrick_,]
I am iustly kill'd with mine owne Treacherie.[14]
_Ham_. How does the Queene?
_King_. She sounds[15] to see them bleede.
_Qu_. No, no, the drinke, the drinke[16]
[Footnote 1: She is anxious about him. It may be that this speech, and
that of the king before (266), were fitted to the person of the actor
who first represented Hamlet.]
[Footnote 2: --a simple acknowledgment of her politeness: he can no more
be familiarly loving with his mother.]
[Footnote 3: She drinks, and offers the cup to Hamlet.]
[Footnote 4: He is too much afraid of exposing his villainy to be prompt
enough to prevent her.]
[Footnote 5: This is not meant by the Poet to show suspicion: he does
not mean Hamlet to die so.]
[Footnote 6: The actor should not allow her: she approaches Hamlet; he
recoils a little.]
[Footnote 7: He has compunctions, but it needs failure to make them
potent.]
[Footnote 8: 'treat me as an effeminate creature.']
[Footnote 9: He makes a sudden attack, without warning of the fourth
bout.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Q._
The 1st Q. directs:--_They catch one anothers Rapiers, find both are
wounded_, &c.
The thing, as I understand it, goes thus: With the words 'Have at you
now!' Laertes stabs Hamlet; Hamlet, apprised thus of his treachery, lays
hold of his rapier, wrenches it from him, and stabs him with it in
return.]
[Footnote 11: 'they have lost their temper.']
[Footnote 12: --said with indignation and scorn, but without suspicion
of the worst.]
[Footnote 13: --the proverbially foolish bird. The speech must be spoken
with breaks. Its construction is broken.]
[Footnote 14: His conscience starts up, awake and strong, at the
approach of Death. As the show of the world withdraws, the realities
assert themselves. He repents, and makes confession of his sin, seeing
it now in its true nature, and calling it by its own name. It is a
compensation of the weakness of some that they cannot be strong in
wickedness. The king did not so repent, and with his strength was the
more to blame.]
[Footnote 15: _swounds, swoons_.]
[Footnote 16: She is true to her son. The maternal outlasts the
adulterous.]
[Page 270]
Oh my deere _Hamlet_, the drinke, the drinke,
I am poyson'd.
_Ham_. Oh Villany! How? Let the doore be lock'd.
Treacherie, seeke it out.[1]
_Laer_. It is heere _Hamlet_.[2]
_Hamlet_,[3] thou art slaine,
No Medicine in the world can do thee good.
In thee, there is not halfe an houre of life; [Sidenote: houres life,]
The Treacherous Instrument is in thy hand, [Sidenote: in my]
Vnbated and envenom'd: the foule practise[4]
Hath turn'd it selfe on me. Loe, heere I lye,
Neuer to rise againe: Thy Mothers poyson'd:
I can no more, the King, the King's too blame.[5]
_Ham_. The point envenom'd too,
Then venome to thy worke.[6]
_Hurts the King._[7]
_All_. Treason, Treason.
_King_. O yet defend me Friends, I am but hurt.
_Ham_. Heere thou incestuous, murdrous,
[Sidenote: Heare thou incestious damned Dane,]
Damned Dane,
Drinke off this Potion: Is thy Vnion heere?
[Sidenote: of this | is the Onixe heere?]
Follow my Mother.[8] _King Dyes._[9]
_Laer_. He is iustly seru'd.
It is a poyson temp'red by himselfe:
Exchange forgiuenesse with me, Noble _Hamlet_;
Mine and my Fathers death come not vpon thee,
Nor thine on me.[10] _Dyes._[11]
_Ham_. Heauen make thee free of it,[12] I follow thee.
I am dead _Horatio_, wretched Queene adiew.
You that looke pale, and tremble at this chance,
That are but Mutes[13] or audience to this acte:
Had I but time (as this fell Sergeant death
Is strick'd in his Arrest) oh I could tell you. [Sidenote: strict]
[Footnote 1: The thing must be ended now. The door must be locked, to
keep all in that are in, and all out that are out. Then he can do as he
will.]
[Footnote 2: --laying his hand on his heart, I think.]
[Footnote 3: In Q. _Hamlet_ only once.]
[Footnote 4: _scheme, artifice, deceitful contrivance_; in modern slang,
_dodge_.]
[Footnote 5: He turns on the prompter of his sin--crowning the justice
of the king's capital punishment.]
[Footnote 6: _Point_: 'too!'
_1st Q._ Then venome to thy venome, die damn'd villaine.]
[Footnote 7: _Not in Quarto._
The true moment, now only, has at last come. Hamlet has lived to do his
duty with a clear conscience, and is thereupon permitted to go. The man
who asks whether this be poetic justice or no, is unworthy of an answer.
'The Tragedie of Hamlet' is _The Drama of Moral Perplexity_.]
[Footnote 8: A grim play on the word _Union: 'follow my mother_'. It
suggests a terrible meeting below.]
[Footnote 9: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 10: His better nature triumphs. The moment he was wounded,
knowing he must die, he began to change. Defeat is a mighty aid to
repentance; and processes grow rapid in the presence of Death: he
forgives and desires forgiveness.]
[Footnote 11: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 12: Note how heartily Hamlet pardons the wrong done to
himself--the only wrong of course which a man has to pardon.]
[Footnote 13: _supernumeraries_. Note the other figures too--_audience,
act_--all of the theatre.]
[Page 272]
But let it be: _Horatio_, I am dead,
Thou liu'st, report me and my causes right [Sidenote: cause a right]
To the vnsatisfied.[1]
_Hor_. Neuer beleeue it.
[Sidenote: 134] I am more an Antike Roman then a Dane:
[Sidenote: 135] Heere's yet some Liquor left.[2]
_Ham_. As th'art a man, giue me the Cup.
Let go, by Heauen Ile haue't. [Sidenote: hate,]
[Sidenote: 114, 251] Oh good _Horatio_, what a wounded name,[3]
[Sidenote: O god _Horatio_,]
(Things standing thus vnknowne) shall liue behind me.
[Sidenote: shall I leaue behind me?]
If thou did'st euer hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicitie awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in paine,[1]
[Sidenote: _A march a farre off._]
To tell my Storie.[4]
_March afarre off, and shout within._[5]
What warlike noyse is this?
_Enter Osricke._
_Osr_. Yong _Fortinbras_, with conquest come from Poland
To th'Ambassadors of England giues this warlike volly.[6]
_Ham_. O I dye _Horatio_:
The potent poyson quite ore-crowes my spirit,
I cannot liue to heare the Newes from England,
[Sidenote: 62] But I do prophesie[7] th'election lights
[Sidenote: 276] On _Fortinbras_, he ha's my dying voyce,[8]
So tell him with the occurrents more and lesse,[9] [Sidenote: th']
Which haue solicited.[10] The rest is silence. O, o, o, o.[11]
_Dyes_[12]
_Hora_. Now cracke a Noble heart: [Sidenote: cracks a]
Goodnight sweet Prince,
And flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest,
Why do's the Drumme come hither?
[Footnote 1: His care over his reputation with the people is princely,
and casts a true light on his delay. No good man can be willing to seem
bad, except the _being good_ necessitates it. A man must be willing to
appear a villain if that is the consequence of being a true man, but he
cannot be indifferent to that appearance. He cannot be indifferent to
wearing the look of the thing he hates. Hamlet, that he may be
understood by the nation, makes, with noble confidence in his
friendship, the large demand on Horatio, to live and suffer for his
sake.]
[Footnote 2: Here first we see plainly the love of Horatio for Hamlet:
here first is Hamlet's judgment of Horatio (134) justified.]
[Footnote 3: --for having killed his uncle:--what, then, if he had slain
him at once?]
[Footnote 4: Horatio must be represented as here giving sign of assent.
_1st Q._
_Ham_. Vpon my loue I charge thee let it goe,
O fie _Horatio_, and if thou shouldst die,
What a scandale wouldst thou leaue behinde?
What tongue should tell the story of our deaths,
If not from thee?]
[Footnote 5: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 6: The frame is closing round the picture. 9.]
[Footnote 7: Shakspere more than once or twice makes the dying
prophesy.]
[Footnote 8: His last thought is for his country; his last effort at
utterance goes to prevent a disputed succession.]
[Footnote 9: 'greater and less'--as in the psalm,
'The Lord preserves all, more and less,
That bear to him a loving heart.']
[Footnote 10: led to the necessity.]
[Footnote 11: _These interjections are not in the Quarto._]
[Footnote 12: _Not in Q._
All Shakspere's tragedies suggest that no action ever ends, only goes
off the stage of the world on to another.]
[Page 274]
[Sidenote: 190] _Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassador, with_
[Sidenote: _Enter Fortenbrasse, with the Embassadors._]
_Drumme, Colours, and Attendants._
_Fortin_. Where is this sight?
_Hor_. What is it ye would see; [Sidenote: you]
If ought of woe, or wonder, cease your search.[1]
_For_. His quarry[2] cries on hauocke.[3] Oh proud death,
[Sidenote: This quarry]
What feast is toward[4] in thine eternall Cell.
That thou so many Princes, at a shoote, [Sidenote: shot]
So bloodily hast strooke.[5]
_Amb_. The sight is dismall,
And our affaires from England come too late,
The eares are senselesse that should giue vs hearing,[6]
To tell him his command'ment is fulfill'd,
That _Rosincrance_ and _Guildensterne_ are dead:
Where should we haue our thankes?[7]
_Hor_. Not from his mouth,[8]
Had it[9] th'abilitie of life to thanke you:
He neuer gaue command'ment for their death.
[Sidenote: 6] But since so iumpe[10] vpon this bloodie question,[11]
You from the Polake warres, and you from England
Are heere arriued. Giue order[12] that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view,
And let me speake to th'yet vnknowing world, [Sidenote: , to yet]
How these things came about. So shall you heare
Of carnall, bloudie, and vnnaturall acts,[13]
Of accidentall Judgements,[14] casuall slaughters[15]
Of death's put on by cunning[16] and forc'd cause,[17]
[Sidenote: deaths | and for no cause]
And in this vpshot, purposes mistooke,[18]
Falne on the Inuentors heads. All this can I [Sidenote: th']
Truly deliuer.
_For_. Let vs hast to heare it,
And call the Noblest to the Audience.
For me, with sorrow, I embrace my Fortune,
I haue some Rites of memory[19] in this Kingdome,
[Sidenote: rights of[19]]
[Footnote 1: --for here it is.]
[Footnote 2: the heap of game after a hunt.]
[Footnote 3: 'Havoc's victims cry out against him.']
[Footnote 4: in preparation.]
[Footnote 5: All the real actors in the tragedy, except Horatio, are
dead.]
[Footnote 6: This line may be taken as a parenthesis; then--'come too
late' joins itself with 'to tell him.' Or we may connect 'hearing' with
'to tell him':--'the ears that should give us hearing in order that we
might tell him' etc.]
[Footnote 7: They thus inquire after the successor of Claudius.]
[Footnote 8: --the mouth of Claudius.]
[Footnote 9: --even if it had.]
[Footnote 10: 'so exactly,' or 'immediately'--perhaps
_opportunely--fittingly_.]
[Footnote 11: dispute, strife.]
[Footnote 12: --addressed to Fortinbras, I should say. The state is
disrupt, the household in disorder; there is no head; Horatio turns
therefore to Fortinbras, who, besides having a claim to the crown, and
being favoured by Hamlet, alone has power at the moment--for his army is
with him.]
[Footnote 13: --those of Claudius.]
[Footnote 14: 'just judgments brought about by accident'--as in the case
of all slain except the king, whose judgment was not accidental, and
Hamlet, whose death was not a judgment.]
[Footnote 15: --those of the queen, Polonius, and Ophelia.]
[Footnote 16: 'put on,' _indued_, 'brought on themselves'--those of
Rosincrance, Guildensterne, and Laertes.]
[Footnote 17: --those of the king and Polonius.]
[Footnote 18: 'and in this result'--_pointing to the bodies_--'purposes
which have mistaken their way, and fallen on the inventors' heads.' _I
am mistaken_ or _mistook_, means _I have mistaken_; 'purposes
mistooke'--_purposes in themselves mistaken_:--that of Laertes, which
came back on himself; and that of the king in the matter of the poison,
which, by falling on the queen, also came back on the inventor.]
[Footnote 19: The _Quarto_ is correct here, I think: '_rights of the
past_'--'claims of descent.' Or 'rights of memory' might mean--'_rights
yet remembered_.'
Fortinbras is not one to miss a chance: even in this shadowy 'person,'
character is recognizably maintained.]
[Page 276]
Which are to claime,[1] my vantage doth [Sidenote: Which now to clame]
Inuite me,
_Hor_. Of that I shall haue alwayes[2] cause to speake,
[Sidenote: haue also cause[3]]
And from his mouth
[Sidenote: 272] Whose voyce will draw on more:[3]
[Sidenote: drawe no more,]
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Euen whiles mens mindes are wilde, [Sidenote: while]
Lest more mischance
On plots, and errors happen.[4]
_For_. Let foure Captaines
Beare _Hamlet_ like a Soldier to the Stage,
For he was likely, had he beene put on[5]
To haue prou'd most royally:[6] [Sidenote: royall;]
And for his passage,[7]
The Souldiours Musicke, and the rites of Warre[8] [Sidenote: right of]
Speake[9] lowdly for him.
Take vp the body; Such a sight as this [Sidenote: bodies,]
Becomes the Field, but heere shewes much amis.
Go, bid the Souldiers shoote.[10]
_Exeunt Marching: after the which, a Peale_ [Sidenote: _Exeunt._]
_of Ordenance are shot off._
FINIS.
[Footnote 1: 'which must now be claimed'--except the _Quarto_ be right
here also.]
[Footnote 2: The _Quarto_ surely is right here.]
[Footnote 3: --Hamlet's mouth. The message he entrusted to Horatio for
Fortinbras, giving his voice, or vote, for him, was sure to 'draw on
more' voices.]
[Footnote 4: 'lest more mischance happen in like manner, through plots
and mistakes.']
[Footnote 5: 'had he been put forward'--_had occasion sent him out_.]
[Footnote 6: 'to have proved a most royal soldier:'--A soldier gives
here his testimony to Hamlet's likelihood in the soldier's calling. Note
the kind of regard in which the Poet would show him held.]
[Footnote 7: --the passage of his spirit to its place.]
[Footnote 8: --military mourning or funeral rites.]
[Footnote 9: _imperative mood_: 'let the soldier's music and the rites
of war speak loudly for him.' 'Go, bid the souldiers shoote,' with which
the drama closes, is a more definite initiatory order to the same
effect.]
[Footnote 10: The end is a half-line after a riming couplet--as if there
were more to come--as there must be after every tragedy. Mere poetic
justice will not satisfy Shakspere in a tragedy, for tragedy is _life_;
in a comedy it may do well enough, for that deals but with
life-surfaces--and who then more careful of it! but in tragedy something
far higher ought to be aimed at. The end of this drama is reached when
Hamlet, having attained the possibility of doing so, performs his work
_in righteousness_. The common critical mind would have him left the
fatherless, motherless, loverless, almost friendless king of a
justifiably distrusting nation--with an eternal grief for his father
weighing him down to the abyss; with his mother's sin blackening for him
all womankind, and blasting the face of both heaven and earth; and with
the knowledge in his heart that he had sent the woman he loved, with her
father and her brother, out of the world--maniac, spy, and traitor.
Instead of according him such 'poetic justice,' the Poet gives Hamlet
the only true success of doing his duty to the end--for it was as much
his duty not to act before, as it was his duty to act at last--then
sends him after his Ophelia--into a world where true heart will find
true way of setting right what is wrong, and of atoning for every ill,
wittingly or unwittingly done or occasioned in this.
It seems to me most admirable that Hamlet, being so great, is yet
outwardly so like other people: the Poet never obtrudes his greatness.
And just because he is modest, confessing weakness and perplexity, small
people take him for yet smaller than themselves who never confess
anything, and seldom feel anything amiss with them. Such will adduce
even Hamlet's disparagement of himself to Ophelia when overwhelmed with
a sense of human worthlessness (126), as proof that he was no hero!
They call it weakness that he would not, foolishly and selfishly, make
good his succession against the king, regardless of the law of election,
and careless of the weal of the kingdom for which he shows himself so
anxious even in the throes of death! To my mind he is the grandest hero
in fiction--absolutely human--so troubled, yet so true!]
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