[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.