[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]
* * * * *