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:--