[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.