_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_:--