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diff --git a/10606-0.txt b/10606-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca0312d --- /dev/null +++ b/10606-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13297 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10606 *** + +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!] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of +Denmark, by George MacDonald + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10606 *** |