[Footnote 1: _1st Q._
O mother, if euer you did my deare father loue,
Forbeare the adulterous bed to night,
And win your selfe by little as you may,
In time it may be you wil lothe him quite:
And mother, but assist mee in reuenge,
And in his death your infamy shall die.
_Queene. Hamlet_, I vow by that maiesty,
That knowes our thoughts, and lookes into our hearts,
I will conceale, consent, and doe my best,
What stratagem soe're thou shalt deuise.]
[Footnote 2: The king had spoken of it both before and after the play:
Horatio might have heard of it and told Hamlet.]
[Footnote 3: 'My banishment will be laid to this deed of mine.']
[Footnote 4: --to rid his mother of it.]
[Footnote 5: It may cross him, as he says this, dragging the body out by
one end of it, and toward the end of its history, that he is himself
drawing toward an end along with Polonius.]
[Footnote 6: --_and weeping_. 182. See _note_ 5, 183.]
[Footnote 7: Here, according to the editors, comes 'Act IV.' For this
there is no authority, and the point of division seems to me very
objectionable. The scene remains the same, as noted from Capell in _Cam.
Sh._, and the entrance of the king follows immediately on the exit of
Hamlet. He finds his wife greatly perturbed; she has not had time to
compose herself.
From the beginning of Act II., on to where I would place the end of Act
III., there is continuity.]
[Footnote 8: I would have this speech uttered with pauses and growing
urgency, mingled at length with displeasure.]
[Footnote 9: She is faithful to her son, declaring him mad, and
attributing the death of 'the unseen' Polonius to his madness.]
[Footnote 10: This passage, like the rest, I hold to be omitted by
Shakspere himself. It represents Hamlet as divining the plot with whose
execution his false friends were entrusted. The Poet had at first
intended Hamlet to go on board the vessel with a design formed upon this
for the out-witting of his companions, and to work out that design.
Afterwards, however, he alters his plan, and represents his escape as
more plainly providential: probably he did not see how to manage it by
any scheme of Hamlet so well as by the attack of a pirate; possibly he
wished to write the passage (246) in which Hamlet, so consistently with
his character, attributes his return to the divine shaping of the end
rough-hewn by himself. He had designs--'dear plots'--but they were other
than fell out--a rough-hewing that was shaped to a different end. The
discomfiture of his enemies was not such as he had designed: it was
brought about by no previous plot, but through a discovery. At the same
time his deliverance was not effected by the fingering of the packet,
but by the attack of the pirate: even the re-writing of the commission
did nothing towards his deliverance, resulted only in the punishment of
his traitorous companions. In revising the Quarto, the Poet sees that
the passage before us, in which is expressed the strongest suspicion of
his companions, with a determination to outwit and punish them, is
inconsistent with the representation Hamlet gives afterwards of a
restlessness and suspicion newly come upon him, which he attributes to
the Divinity.
Neither was it likely he would say so much to his mother while so little
sure of her as to warn her, on the ground of danger to herself, against
revealing his sanity to the king. As to this, however, the portion
omitted might, I grant, be regarded as an _aside_.]
[Footnote 11: --to be done _to_ him.]
[Footnote 12: _Hoised_, from verb _hoise_--still used in Scotland.]
[Footnote 13: a kind of explosive shell, which was fixed to the object
meant to be destroyed. Note once more Hamlet's delight in action.]
[Footnote 14: --_said to Ros. and Guild._: in plain speech, 'Leave us a
little while.']
[Page 182]
Behinde the Arras, hearing something stirre,
He whips his Rapier out, and cries a Rat, a Rat,
[Sidenote: Whyps out his Rapier, cryes a]
And in his brainish apprehension killes [Sidenote: in this]
The vnseene good old man.
_King._ Oh heauy deed:
It had bin so with vs[1] had we beene there:
His Liberty is full of threats to all,[2]
To you your selfe, to vs, to euery one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deede be answered?
It will be laide to vs, whose prouidence
Should haue kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt,
This mad yong man.[2] But so much was our loue,
We would not vnderstand what was most fit,
But like the Owner of a foule disease,
[Sidenote: 176] To keepe it from divulging, let's it feede
[Sidenote: let it]
Euen on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
_Qu._ To draw apart the body he hath kild, [Sidenote: Ger.]
O're whom his very madnesse[3] like some Oare
Among a Minerall of Mettels base
[Sidenote: 181] Shewes it selfe pure.[4] He weepes for what is done.[5]
[Sidenote: pure, a weeepes]
_King:_ Oh _Gertrude_, come away:
The Sun no sooner shall the Mountaines touch,
But we will ship him hence, and this vilde deed,
We must with all our Maiesty and Skill
[Sidenote: 200] Both countenance, and excuse.[6]
_Enter Ros. & Guild_.[7]
Ho _Guildenstern_:
Friends both go ioyne you with some further ayde:
_Hamlet_ in madnesse hath Polonius slaine,
And from his Mother Clossets hath he drag'd him.
[Sidenote: closet | dreg'd]
Go seeke him out, speake faire, and bring the body
Into the Chappell. I pray you hast in this.
_Exit Gent_[8]
Come _Gertrude_, wee'l call vp our wisest friends,
To let them know both what we meane to do, [Sidenote: And let]
[Footnote 1: the royal plural.]
[Footnote 2: He knows the thrust was meant for him. But he would not
have it so understood; he too lays it to his madness, though he too
knows better.]
[Footnote 3: 'he, although mad'; 'his nature, in spite of his madness.']
[Footnote 4: by his weeping, in the midst of much to give a different
impression.]
[Footnote 5: We have no reason to think the queen inventing here: what
could she gain by it? the point indeed was rather against Hamlet, as
showing it was not Polonius he had thought to kill. He was more than
ever annoyed with the contemptible old man, who had by his
meddlesomeness brought his death to his door; but he was very sorry
nevertheless over Ophelia's father: those rough words in his last speech
are spoken with the tears running down his face. We have seen the
strange, almost discordant mingling in him of horror and humour, after
the first appearance of the Ghost, 58, 60: something of the same may be
supposed when he finds he has killed Polonius: in the highstrung nervous
condition that must have followed such a talk with his mother, it would
be nowise strange that he should weep heartily even in the midst of
contemptuous anger. Or perhaps a sudden breakdown from attempted show of
indifference, would not be amiss in the representation.]
[Footnote 6: 'both countenance with all our majesty, and excuse with all
our skill.']
[Footnote 7: In the _Quarto_ a line back.]
[Footnote 8: _Not in Q._]
[Page 184]
And what's vntimely[1] done. [A] Oh come away, [Sidenote: doone,]
My soule is full of discord and dismay. _Exeunt._
_Enter Hamlet._ [Sidenote: _Hamlet, Rosencrans, and others._]
_Ham._ Safely stowed.[2] [Sidenote: stowed, but soft, what noyse,]
_Gentlemen within._ _Hamlet_. Lord _Hamlet_?
_Ham._ What noise? Who cals on _Hamlet_?
Oh heere they come.
_Enter Ros. and Guildensterne._[4]
_Ro._ What haue you done my Lord with the dead body?
_Ham._ Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis Kinne.[5]
[Sidenote: Compound it]
_Rosin._ Tell vs where 'tis, that we may take it thence,
And beare it to the Chappell.
_Ham._ Do not beleeue it.[6]
_Rosin._ Beleeue what?
[Sidenote: 156] _Ham._ That I can keepe your counsell, and not
mine owne. Besides, to be demanded of a Spundge,
what replication should be made by the Sonne of
a King.[7]
_Rosin._ Take you me for a Spundge, my Lord?
_Ham._ I sir, that sokes vp the Kings Countenance,
his Rewards, his Authorities, but such Officers
do the King best seruice in the end. He keepes
them like an Ape in the corner of his iaw,[8] first
[Sidenote: like an apple in]
mouth'd to be last swallowed, when he needes what
you haue glean'd, it is but squeezing you, and
Spundge you shall be dry againe.
_Rosin._ I vnderstand you not my Lord.
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
Whose whisper ore the worlds dyameter,[9]
[Sidenote: 206] As leuell as the Cannon to his blanck,[10]
Transports his poysned shot, may miffe[11] our Name,
And hit the woundlesse ayre.]
[Footnote 1: unhappily.]
[Footnote 2: He has hid the body--to make the whole look the work of a
mad fit.]
[Footnote 3: This line is not in the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 4: _Not in Q. See margin above._]
[Footnote 5: He has put it in a place which, little visited, is very
dusty.]
[Footnote 6: He is mad to them--sane only to his mother and Horatio.]
[Footnote 7: _euphuistic_: 'asked a question by a sponge, what answer
should a prince make?']
[Footnote 8: _1st Q._:
For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes,
In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you,
Then swallowes you:]
[Footnote 9: Here most modern editors insert, '_so, haply, slander_'.
But, although I think the Poet left out this obscure passage merely from
dissatisfaction with it, I believe it renders a worthy sense as it
stands. The antecedent to _whose_ is _friends_: _cannon_ is nominative
to _transports_; and the only difficulty is the epithet _poysned_
applied to _shot_, which seems transposed from the idea of an
_unfriendly_ whisper. Perhaps Shakspere wrote _poysed shot_. But taking
this as it stands, the passage might be paraphrased thus: 'Whose
(favourable) whisper over the world's diameter (_from one side of the
world to the other_), as level (_as truly aimed_) as the cannon (of an
evil whisper) transports its poisoned shot to his blank (_the white
centre of the target_), may shoot past our name (so keeping us clear),
and hit only the invulnerable air.' ('_the intrenchant air_': _Macbeth_,
act v. sc. 8). This interpretation rests on the idea of
over-condensation with its tendency to seeming confusion--the only fault
I know in the Poet--a grand fault, peculiarly his own, born of the
beating of his wings against the impossible. It is much as if, able to
think two thoughts at once, he would compel his phrase to utter them at
once.]
[Footnote 10:
for the harlot king
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank
And level of my brain, plot-proof;
_The Winter's Tale_, act ii. sc. 3.
My life stands in the level of your dreams,
_Ibid_, act iii. sc. 2.]
[Footnote 11: two _ff_ for two long _ss_.]
[Page 186]
_Ham._ I am glad of it: a knavish speech
sleepes in a foolish eare.
_Rosin._ My Lord, you must tell us where the
body is, and go with us to the King.
_Ham._ The body is with the King, but the King
is not with the body.[1] The King, is a thing----
_Guild._ A thing my Lord?
_Ham._ Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hide
Fox, and all after.[3] _Exeunt_[4]
_Enter King._ [Sidenote: _King, and two or three._]
_King._ I have sent to seeke him, and to find the bodie:
How dangerous is it that this man goes loose:[5]
Yet must not we put the strong Law on him:
[Sidenote: 212] Hee's loved of the distracted multitude,[6]
Who like not in their iudgement, but their eyes:
And where 'tis so, th'Offenders scourge is weigh'd
But neerer the offence: to beare all smooth, and euen,
[Sidenote: neuer the]
This sodaine sending him away, must seeme
[Sidenote: 120] Deliberate pause,[7] diseases desperate growne,
By desperate appliance are releeved,
Or not at all. _Enter Rosincrane._
[Sidenote: _Rosencraus and all the rest._]
How now? What hath befalne?
_Rosin._ Where the dead body is bestow'd my Lord,
We cannot get from him.
_King._ But where is he?[8]
_Rosin._ Without my Lord, guarded[9] to know your pleasure.
_King._ Bring him before us.
_Rosin._ Hoa, Guildensterne? Bring in my Lord.
[Sidenote: _Ros._ How, bring in the Lord. _They enter._]
_Enter Hamlet and Guildensterne_[10]
_King._ Now _Hamlet_, where's _Polonius?_
[Footnote 1: 'The body is in the king's house, therefore with the king;
but the king knows not where, therefore the king is not with the body.']
[Footnote 2: 'A thing of nothing' seems to have been a common phrase.]
[Footnote 3: The _Quarto_ has not 'hide Fox, and all after.']
[Footnote 4: Hamlet darts out, with the others after him, as in a hunt.
Possibly there was a game called _Hide fox, and all after_.]
[Footnote 5: He is a hypocrite even to himself.]
[Footnote 6: This had all along helped to Hamlet's safety.]
[Footnote 7: 'must be made to look the result of deliberate reflection.'
Claudius fears the people may imagine Hamlet treacherously used, driven
to self-defence, and hurried out of sight to be disposed of.]
[Footnote 8: Emphasis on _he_; the point of importance with the king, is
_where he is_, not where the body is.]
[Footnote 9: Henceforward he is guarded, or at least closely watched,
according to the _Folio_--left much to himself according to the
_Quarto_. 192.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Quarto._]
[Page 188]
_Ham._ At Supper.
_King._ At Supper? Where?
_Ham._ Not where he eats, but where he is eaten,
[Sidenote: where a is]
a certaine conuocation of wormes are e'ne at him.
[Sidenote: of politique wormes[1]]
Your worm is your onely Emperor for diet. We
fat all creatures else to fat vs, and we fat our selfe
[Sidenote: ourselves]
for Magots. Your fat King, and your leane
Begger is but variable seruice to dishes, but to one
[Sidenote: two dishes]
Table that's the end.
[A]
_King._ What dost thou meane by this?[2]
_Ham._ Nothing but to shew you how a King
may go a Progresse[3] through the guts of a Begger.[4]
_King._ Where is _Polonius_.
_Ham._ In heauen, send thither to see. If your
Messenger finde him not there, seeke him i'th other
place your selfe: but indeed, if you finde him not
[Sidenote: but if indeed you find him not within this]
this moneth, you shall nose him as you go vp the
staires into the Lobby.
_King._ Go seeke him there.
_Ham._ He will stay till ye come.
[Sidenote: A will stay till you]
_K._ _Hamlet_, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety
[Sidenote: this deede for thine especiall]
Which we do tender, as we deerely greeue
For that which thou hast done,[5] must send thee hence
With fierie Quicknesse.[6] Therefore prepare thy selfe,
The Barke is readie, and the winde at helpe,[7]
Th'Associates tend,[8] and euery thing at bent [Sidenote: is bent]
For England.
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:_--
_King_ Alas, alas.[9]
_Ham._ A man may fish with the worme that hath eate of a King, and eate
of the fish that hath fedde of that worme.]
[Footnote 1: --such as Rosincrance and Guildensterne!]
[Footnote 2: I suspect this and the following speech ought by the
printers to have been omitted also: without the preceding two speeches
of the Quarto they are not accounted for.]
[Footnote 3: a royal progress.]
[Footnote 4: Hamlet's philosophy deals much now with the worthlessness
of all human distinctions and affairs.]
[Footnote 5: 'and we care for your safety as much as we grieve for the
death of Polonius.']
[Footnote 6: 'With fierie Quicknesse.' _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: fair--ready to help.]
[Footnote 8: attend, wait.]
[Footnote 9: pretending despair over his madness.]
[Page 190]
_Ham._ For England?
_King._ I _Hamlet_.
_Ham._ Good.
_King._ So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
_Ham._ I see a Cherube that see's him: but [Sidenote: sees them,]
come, for England. Farewell deere Mother.
_King._ Thy louing Father _Hamlet_.
_Hamlet._ My Mother: Father and Mother is
man and wife: man and wife is one flesh, and so [Sidenote: flesh, so my]
my mother.[1] Come, for England. _Exit_
[Sidenote: 195] _King._ Follow him at foote,[2]
Tempt him with speed aboord:
Delay it not, He haue him hence to night.
Away, for euery thing is Seal'd and done
That else leanes on[3] th'Affaire pray you make hast.
And England, if my loue thou holdst at ought,
As my great power thereof may giue thee sense,
Since yet thy Cicatrice lookes raw and red[4]
After the Danish Sword, and thy free awe
Payes homage to vs[5]; thou maist not coldly set[6]
Our Soueraigne Processe,[7] which imports at full
By Letters conjuring to that effect [Sidenote: congruing]
The present death of _Hamlet_. Do it England,
For like the Hecticke[8] in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done,
How ere my happes,[9] my ioyes were ne're begun.[10]
[Sidenote: ioyes will nere begin.]
_Exit_[11]
[Sidenote: 274] [12]_Enter Fortinbras with an Armie._
[Sidenote: with his Army ouer the stage.]
_For._ Go Captaine, from me greet the Danish King,
Tell him that by his license, _Fortinbras_
[Sidenote: 78] Claimes the conueyance[13] of a promis'd March
[Sidenote: Craues the]
Ouer his Kingdome. You know the Rendeuous:[14]
[Footnote 1: He will not touch the hand of his father's murderer.]
[Footnote 2: 'at his heels.']
[Footnote 3: 'belongs to.']
[Footnote 4: 'as my great power may give thee feeling of its value,
seeing the scar of my vengeance has hardly yet had time to heal.']
[Footnote 5: 'and thy fear uncompelled by our presence, pays homage to
us.']
[Footnote 6: 'set down to cool'; 'set in the cold.']
[Footnote 7: _mandate_: 'Where's Fulvia's process?' _Ant. and Cl._, act
i. sc. 1. _Shakespeare Lexicon_.]
[Footnote 8: _hectic fever--habitual_ or constant fever.]
[Footnote 9: 'whatever my fortunes.']
[Footnote 10: The original, the _Quarto_ reading--'_my ioyes will nere
begin_' seems to me in itself better, and the cause of the change to be
as follows.
In the _Quarto_ the next scene stands as in our modern editions, ending
with the rime,
ô from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth. _Exit_.
This was the act-pause, the natural end of act iii.
But when the author struck out all but the commencement of the scene,
leaving only the three little speeches of Fortinbras and his captain,
then plainly the act-pause must fall at the end of the preceding scene.
He therefore altered the end of the last verse to make it rime with the
foregoing, in accordance with his frequent way of using a rime before an
important pause.
It perplexes us to think how on his way to the vessel, Hamlet could fall
in with the Norwegian captain. This may have been one of Shakspere's
reasons for striking the whole scene out--but he had other and more
pregnant reasons.]
[Footnote 11: Here is now the proper close of the _Third Act_.]
[Footnote 12: _Commencement of the Fourth Act._
Between the third and the fourth passes the time Hamlet is away; for the
latter, in which he returns, and whose scenes are _contiguous_, needs no
more than one day.]
[Footnote 13: 'claims a convoy in fulfilment of the king's promise to
allow him to march over his kingdom.' The meaning is made plainer by the
correspondent passage in the _1st Quarto_:
Tell him that _Fortenbrasse_ nephew to old _Norway_,
Craues a free passe and conduct ouer his land,
According to the Articles agreed on:]
[Footnote 14: 'where to rejoin us.']
[Page 192]
If that his Maiesty would ought with vs,
We shall expresse our dutie in his eye,[1]
And let[2] him know so.
_Cap._ I will doo't, my Lord.
_For._ Go safely[3] on. _Exit._ [Sidenote: softly]
[A]
[4] _Enter Queene and Horatio_.
[Sidenote: _Enter Horatio, Gertrard, and a Gentleman_.]
_Qu._ I will not speake with her.
_Hor._[5] She is importunate, indeed distract, her [Sidenote: _Gent_.]
moode will needs be pittied.
_Qu_. What would she haue?
_Hor_. She speakes much of her Father; saies she heares
[Sidenote: _Gent_.]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Enter Hamlet, Rosencraus, &c._
_Ham_. Good sir whose powers are these?
_Cap_. They are of _Norway_ sir.
_Ham_. How purposd sir I pray you?
_Cap_. Against some part of _Poland_.
_Ham_. Who commaunds them sir?
_Cap_. The Nephew to old _Norway, Fortenbrasse_.
_Ham_. Goes it against the maine of _Poland_ sir,
Or for some frontire?
_Cap_. Truly to speake, and with no addition,[6]
We goe to gaine a little patch of ground[7]
That hath in it no profit but the name
To pay fiue duckets, fiue I would not farme it;
Nor will it yeeld to _Norway_ or the _Pole_
A rancker rate, should it be sold in fee.
_Ham_. Why then the Pollacke neuer will defend it.
_Cap_. Yes, it is already garisond.
_Ham_. Two thousand soules, and twenty thousand duckets
Will not debate the question of this straw
This is th'Impostume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breakes, and showes no cause without
Why the man dies.[8] I humbly thanke you sir.
_Cap_. God buy you sir.
_Ros_. Wil't please you goe my Lord?
[Sidenote: 187, 195] _Ham_. Ile be with you straight, goe a little
before.[9]
[10]How all occasions[11] doe informe against me,
[Continued on next text page.]]
[Footnote 1: 'we shall pay our respects, waiting upon his person.']
[Footnote 2: 'let,' _imperative mood_.]
[Footnote 3: 'with proper precaution,' _said to his attendant
officers._]
[Footnote 4: This was originally intended, I repeat, for the
commencement of the act. But when the greater part of the foregoing
scene was omitted, and the third act made to end with the scene before
that, then the small part left of the all-but-cancelled scene must open
the fourth act.]
[Footnote 5: Hamlet absent, we find his friend looking after Ophelia.
Gertrude seems less friendly towards her.]
[Footnote 6: exaggeration.]
[Footnote 7: --probably a small outlying island or coast-fortress, _not
far off_, else why should Norway care about it at all? If the word
_frontier_ has the meaning, as the _Shakespeare Lexicon_ says, of 'an
outwork in fortification,' its use two lines back would, taken
figuratively, tend to support this.]
[Footnote 8: The meaning may be as in the following paraphrase: 'This
quarrelling about nothing is (the breaking of) the abscess caused by
wealth and peace--which breaking inward (in general corruption), would
show no outward sore in sign of why death came.' Or it might be _forced_
thus:--
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace.
That (which) inward breaks, and shows no cause without--
Why, the man dies!
But it may mean:--'The war is an imposthume, which will break within,
and cause much affliction to the people that make the war.' On the other
hand, Hamlet seems to regard it as a process for, almost a sign of
health.]
[Footnote 9: Note his freedom.]
[Footnote 10: _See_ 'examples grosse as earth' _below_.]
[Footnote 11: While every word that Shakspere wrote we may well take
pains to grasp thoroughly, my endeavour to cast light on this passage is
made with the distinct understanding in my own mind that the author
himself disapproved of and omitted it, and that good reason is not
wanting why he should have done so. At the same time, if my student, for
this book is for those who would have help and will take pains to the
true understanding of the play, would yet retain the passage, I protest
against the acceptance of Hamlet's judgment of himself, except as
revealing the simplicity and humility of his nature and character. That
as often as a vivid memory of either interview with the Ghost came back
upon him, he should feel rebuked and ashamed, and vexed with himself,
is, in the morally, intellectually, and emotionally troubled state of
his mind, nowise the less natural that he had the best of reasons for
the delay because of which he _here_ so unmercifully abuses himself. A
man of self-satisfied temperament would never in similar circumstances
have done so. But Hamlet was, by nature and education, far from such
self-satisfaction; and there is in him besides such a strife and turmoil
of opposing passions and feelings and apparent duties, as can but rarely
rise in a human soul. With which he ought to side, his conscience is not
sure--sides therefore now with one, now with another. At the same time
it is by no means the long delay the critics imagine of which he is
accusing himself--it is only that the thing _is not done_.
In certain moods the action a man dislikes will _therefore_ look to him
the more like a duty; and this helps to prevent Hamlet from knowing
always how great a part conscience bears in the omission because of
which he condemns and even contemns himself. The conscience does not
naturally examine itself--is not necessarily self-conscious. In any
soliloquy, a man must speak from his present mood: we who are not
suffering, and who have many of his moods before us, ought to understand
Hamlet better than he understands himself. To himself, sitting in
judgment on himself, it would hardly appear a decent cause of, not to
say reason for, a moment's delay in punishing his uncle, that he was so
weighed down with misery because of his mother and Ophelia, that it
seemed of no use to kill one villain out of the villainous world; it
would seem but 'bestial oblivion'; and, although his reputation as a
prince was deeply concerned, _any_ reflection on the consequences to
himself would at times appear but a 'craven scruple'; while at times
even the whispers of conscience might seem a 'thinking too precisely on
the event.' A conscientious man of changeful mood wilt be very ready in
either mood to condemn the other. The best and rightest men will
sometimes accuse themselves in a manner that seems to those who know
them best, unfounded, unreasonable, almost absurd. We must not, I say,
take the hero's judgment of himself as the author's judgment of him. The
two judgments, that of a man upon himself from within, and that of his
beholder upon him from without, are not congeneric. They are different
in origin and in kind, and cannot be adopted either of them into the
source of the other without most serious and dangerous mistake. So
adopted, each becomes another thing altogether. It is to me probable
that, although it involves other unfitnesses, the Poet omitted the
passage chiefly from coming to see the danger of its giving occasion, or
at least support, to an altogether mistaken and unjust idea of his
Hamlet.]
[Page 194]
There's trickes i'th'world, and hems, and beats her heart,
Spurnes enuiously at Strawes,[1] speakes things in doubt,[2]
That carry but halfe sense: Her speech is nothing,[3]
Yet the vnshaped vse of it[4] doth moue
The hearers to Collection[5]; they ayme[6] at it,
[Sidenote: they yawne at]
And botch the words[7] vp fit to their owne thoughts
[_Continuation of quote from Quarto from previous text page_:--
And spur my dull reuenge. [8]What is a man
If his chiefe good and market of his time
Be but to sleepe and feede, a beast, no more;
Sure he that made vs with such large discourse[9]
Looking before and after, gaue vs not
That capabilitie and god-like reason
To fust in vs vnvsd,[8] now whether it be
[Sidenote: 52, 120] Bestiall obliuion,[10] or some crauen scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th'euent,[11]
A thought which quarterd hath but one part wisedom,
And euer three parts coward, I doe not know
Why yet I liue to say this thing's to doe,
Sith I haue cause, and will, and strength, and meanes
To doo't;[12] examples grosse as earth exhort me,
Witnes this Army of such masse and charge,
[Sidenote: 235] Led by a delicate and tender Prince,
Whose spirit with diuine ambition puft,
Makes mouthes at the invisible euent,
[Sidenote: 120] Exposing what is mortall, and vnsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,[13]
Euen for an Egge-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is not to stirre without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrell in a straw
When honour's at the stake, how stand I then
That haue a father kild, a mother staind,
Excytements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all sleepe,[14] while to my shame I see
The iminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasie and tricke[15] of fame
Goe to their graues like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,[16]
Which is not tombe enough and continent[17]
To hide the slaine,[18] ô from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.[19] _Exit._]
[Footnote 1: trifles.]
[Footnote 2: doubtfully.]
[Footnote 3: 'there is nothing in her speech.']
[Footnote 4: 'the formless mode of it.']
[Footnote 5: 'to gathering things and putting them together.']
[Footnote 6: guess.]
[Footnote 7: Ophelia's words.]
[Footnote 8: I am in doubt whether this passage from 'What is a man'
down to 'unused,' does not refer to the king, and whether Hamlet is not
persuading himself that it can be no such objectionable thing to kill
one hardly above a beast. At all events it is far more applicable to the
king: it was not one of Hamlet's faults, in any case, to fail of using
his reason. But he may just as well accuse himself of that too! At the
same time the worst neglect of reason lies in not carrying out its
conclusions, and if we cannot justify Hamlet in his delay, the passage
is of good application to him. 'Bestiall oblivion' does seem to connect
himself with the reflection; but how thoroughly is the thing intended by
such a phrase alien from the character of Hamlet!]
[Footnote 9: --the mental faculty of running hither and thither: 'We
look before and after.' _Shelley: To a Skylark_.]
[Footnote 10: --the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has just
mentioned.]
[Footnote 11: --the _consequences_. The scruples that come of thinking
of the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they were _craven_ scruples,
that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the noble
self-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to result
from the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands at
least absolute assurance of guilt? or that 'a thinking too precisely on
the event,' to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an un
wounded name behind him?]
[Footnote 12: This passage is the strongest there is on the side of the
ordinary misconception of the character of Hamlet. It comes from
himself; and it is as ungenerous as it is common and unfair to use such
a weapon against a man. Does any but St. Paul himself say he was the
chief of sinners? Consider Hamlet's condition, tormented on all sides,
within and without, and think whether this outbreak against himself be
not as unfair as it is natural. Lest it should be accepted against him,
Shakspere did well to leave it out. In bitter disappointment, both
because of what is and what is not, both because of what he has done and
what he has failed to do, having for the time lost all chance, with the
last vision of the Ghost still haunting his eyes, his last reproachful
words yet ringing in his ears, are we bound to take his judgment of
himself because it is against himself? Are we _bound_ to take any man's
judgment because it is against himself? I answer, 'No more than if it
were for himself.' A good man's judgment, where he is at all perplexed,
especially if his motive comes within his own question, is ready to be
against himself, as a bad man's is sure to be for himself. Or because he
is a philosopher, does it follow that throughout he understands himself?
Were such a man in cool, untroubled conditions, we might feel compelled
to take his judgment, but surely not here! A philosopher in such state
as Hamlet's would understand the quality of his spiritual operations
with no more certainty than another man. In his present mood, Hamlet
forgets the cogency of the reasons that swayed him in the other; forgets
that his uppermost feeling then was doubt, as horror, indignation, and
conviction are uppermost now. Things were never so clear to Hamlet as to
us.
But how can he say he has strength and means--in the position in which
he now finds himself? I am glad to be able to believe, let my defence of
Hamlet against himself be right or wrong, that Shakspere intended the
omission of the passage. I lay nothing on the great lack of logic
throughout the speech, for that would not make it unfit for Hamlet in
such mood, while it makes its omission from the play of less consequence
to my general argument.]
[Footnote 13: _threaten_. This supports my argument as to the great
soliloquy--that it was death as the result of his slaying the king, or
attempting to do so, not death by suicide, he was thinking of: he
expected to die himself in the punishing of his uncle.]
[Footnote 14: He had had no chance but that when the king was on his
knees.]
[Footnote 15: 'a fancy and illusion.']
[Footnote 16: 'which is too small for those engaged to find room to
fight on it.']
[Footnote 17: 'continent,' _containing space_.]
[Footnote 18: This soliloquy is antithetic to the other. Here is no
thought of the 'something after death.']
[Footnote 19: If, with this speech in his mouth, Hamlet goes coolly on
board the vessel, _not being compelled thereto_ (190, 192, 216), and
possessing means to his vengeance, as here he says, and goes merely in
order to hoist Rosincrance and Guildensterne with their own petard--that
is, if we must keep the omitted passages, then the author exposes his
hero to a more depreciatory judgment than any from which I would justify
him, and a conception of his character entirely inconsistent with the
rest of the play. He did not observe the risk at the time he wrote the
passage, but discovering it afterwards, rectified the oversight--to the
dissatisfaction of his critics, who have agreed in restoring what he
cancelled.]
[Page 196]
Which as her winkes, and nods, and gestures yeeld[1] them,
Indeed would make one thinke there would[2] be thought,
[Sidenote: there might[2] be]
Though nothing sure, yet much vnhappily.
_Qu_. 'Twere good she were spoken with,[3] [Sidenote: _Hora_.]
For she may strew dangerous coniectures
In ill breeding minds.[4] Let her come in. [Sidenote: _Enter Ophelia_.]
To my sicke soule (as sinnes true Nature is)
[Sidenote: _Quee_. 'To my[5]]
Each toy seemes Prologue, to some great amisse, [Sidenote: 'Each]
So full of Artlesse iealousie is guilt, [Sidenote: 'So]
It spill's it selfe, in fearing to be spilt.[6] [Sidenote: 'It]
_Enter Ophelia distracted_.[7]
_Ophe_. Where is the beauteous Maiesty of
Denmark.
_Qu_. How now _Ophelia_? [Sidenote: _shee sings_.]
_Ophe. How should I your true loue know from another one?
By his Cockle hat and staffe, and his Sandal shoone._
_Qu_. Alas sweet Lady: what imports this Song?
_Ophe_. Say you? Nay pray you marke.
_He is dead and gone Lady, he is dead and gone,
At his head a grasse-greene Turfe, at his heeles a stone._
[Sidenote: O ho.]
_Enter King_.
_Qu_. Nay but _Ophelia_.
_Ophe_. Pray you marke.
_White his Shrow'd as the Mountaine Snow._ [Sidenote: _Enter King_.]
_Qu_. Alas looke heere my Lord,
[Sidenote: 246] _Ophe. Larded[8] with sweet flowers_:
[Sidenote: Larded all with]
_Which bewept to the graue did not go_, [Sidenote: ground | _Song_.]
_With true-loue showres_,
[Footnote 1: 'present them,'--her words, that is--giving significance or
interpretation to them.]
[Footnote 2: If this _would_, and not the _might_ of the _Quarto_, be
the correct reading, it means that Ophelia would have something thought
so and so.]
[Footnote 3: --changing her mind on Horatio's representation. At first
she would not speak with her.]
[Footnote 4: 'minds that breed evil.']
[Footnote 5: --as a quotation.]
[Footnote 6: Instance, the history of Macbeth.]
[Footnote 7: _1st Q. Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe
singing._
Hamlet's apparent madness would seem to pass into real madness in
Ophelia. King Lear's growing perturbation becomes insanity the moment he
sees the pretended madman Edgar.
The forms of Ophelia's madness show it was not her father's death that
drove her mad, but his death by the hand of Hamlet, which, with Hamlet's
banishment, destroyed all the hope the queen had been fostering in her
of marrying him some day.]
[Footnote 8: This expression is, as Dr. Johnson says, taken from
cookery; but it is so used elsewhere by Shakspere that we cannot regard
it here as a scintillation of Ophelia's insanity.]
[Page 198]
_King_. How do ye, pretty Lady? [Sidenote: you]
_Ophe_. Well, God dil'd you.[1] They say the
[Sidenote: good dild you,[1]]
Owle was a Bakers daughter.[2] Lord, wee know
what we are, but know not what we may be. God
be at your Table.
[Sidenote: 174] _King_. Conceit[3] vpon her Father.
_Ophe_. Pray you let's haue no words of this: [Sidenote: Pray lets]
but when they aske you what it meanes, say you
this:
[4] _To morrow is S. Valentines day, all in the morning betime,
And I a Maid at your Window to be your Valentine.
Then vp he rose, and don'd[5] his clothes, and dupt[5] the chamber dore,
Let in the Maid, that out a Maid, neuer departed more._
_King_. Pretty _Ophelia._
_Ophe_. Indeed la? without an oath Ile make an
[Sidenote: Indeede without]
end ont.[6]
_By gis, and by S. Charity,
Alacke, and fie for shame:
Yong men wil doo't, if they come too't,
By Cocke they are too blame.
Quoth she before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to Wed:
So would I ha done by yonder Sunne_, [Sidenote: (He answers,) So would]
_And thou hadst not come to my bed._
_King_. How long hath she bin this? [Sidenote: beene thus?]
_Ophe_. I hope all will be well. We must bee
patient, but I cannot choose but weepe, to thinke
they should lay him i'th'cold ground: My brother
[Sidenote: they wouid lay]
shall knowe of it, and so I thanke you for your
good counsell. Come, my Coach: Goodnight
Ladies: Goodnight sweet Ladies: Goodnight,
goodnight. _Exit_[7]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'God yeeld you,' that is, _reward you_. Here we
have a blunder for the contraction, 'God 'ild you'--perhaps a common
blunder.]
[Footnote 2: For the silly legend, see Douce's note in _Johnson and
Steevens_.]
[Footnote 3: imaginative brooding.]
[Footnote 4: We dare no judgment on madness in life: we need not in
art.]
[Footnote 5: Preterites of _don_ and _dup_, contracted from _do on_ and
_do up_.]
[Footnote 6: --disclaiming false modesty.]
[Footnote 7: _Not in Q_.]
[Page 200]
_King_. Follow her close,
Giue her good watch I pray you:
Oh this is the poyson of deepe greefe, it springs
All from her Fathers death. Oh _Gertrude, Gertrude_,
[Sidenote: death, and now behold, ô _Gertrard, Gertrard_,]
When sorrowes comes, they come not single spies,[1]
[Sidenote: sorrowes come]
But in Battaliaes. First, her Father slaine, [Sidenote: battalians:]
Next your Sonne gone, and he most violent Author
Of his owne iust remoue: the people muddied,[2]
Thicke and vnwholsome in their thoughts, and whispers
[Sidenote: in thoughts]
For[3] good _Polonius_ death; and we haue done but greenly
[Sidenote: 182] In hugger mugger[4] to interre him. Poore _Ophelia_
Diuided from her selfe,[5] and her faire Iudgement,
Without the which we are Pictures, or meere Beasts.
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her Brother is in secret come from France,
Keepes on his wonder,[6] keepes himselfe in clouds,
[Sidenote: Feeds on this[6]]
And wants not Buzzers to infect his eare [Sidenote: care]
With pestilent Speeches of his Fathers death,
Where in necessitie of matter Beggard, [Sidenote: Wherein necessity]
Will nothing sticke our persons to Arraigne [Sidenote: person]
In eare and eare.[7] O my deere _Gertrude_, this,
Like to a murdering Peece[8] in many places,
Giues me superfluous death. _A Noise within_.
_Enter a Messenger_.
_Qu_. Alacke, what noyse is this?[9]
_King_. Where are my _Switzers_?[10]
[Sidenote: _King_. Attend, where is my Swissers,]
Let them guard the doore. What is the matter?
_Mes_. Saue your selfe, my Lord.
[Sidenote: 120] The Ocean (ouer-peering of his List[11])
Eates not the Flats with more impittious[12] haste
[Footnote 1: --each alone, like scouts.]
[Footnote 2: stirred up like pools--with similar result.]
[Footnote 3: because of.]
[Footnote 4: The king wished to avoid giving the people any pretext or
cause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry--to the
queen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to the
popular indignation. _Hugger mugger--secretly: Steevens and Malone._]
[Footnote 5: The phrase has the same _visual_ root as _beside
herself_--both signifying '_not at one_ with herself.']
[Footnote 6: If the _Quarto_ reading is right, 'this wonder' means the
hurried and suspicious funeral of his father. But the _Folio_ reading is
quite Shaksperean: 'He keeps on (as a garment) the wonder of the people
at him'; _keeps his behaviour such that the people go on wondering about
him_: the phrase is explained by the next clause. Compare:
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But, like a comet, I was wondered at.
_K. Henry IV. P. I_. act iii. sc. 1.]
[Footnote 7: 'wherein Necessity, beggared of material, will not scruple
to whisper invented accusations against us.']
[Footnote 8: --the name given to a certain small cannon--perhaps charged
with various missiles, hence the better figuring the number and variety
of 'sorrows' he has just recounted.]
[Footnote 9: _This line not in Q._]
[Footnote 10: Note that the king is well guarded, and Hamlet had to lay
his account with great risk in the act of killing him.]
[Footnote 11: _border, as of cloth_: the mounds thrown up to keep the sea out.
The figure here specially fits a Dane.]
[Footnote 12: I do not know whether this word means _pitiless_, or
stands for _impetuous_. The _Quarto_ has one _t_.]
[Page 202]
Then young _Laertes_, in a Riotous head,[1]
Ore-beares your Officers, the rabble call him Lord,
And as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, Custome not knowne,
The Ratifiers and props of euery word,[2]
[Sidenote: 62] They cry choose we? _Laertes_ shall be King,[3]
[Sidenote: The cry]
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
_Laertes_ shall be King, _Laertes_ King.
_Qu_. How cheerefully on the false Traile they cry,
[Sidenote: _A noise within_.]
Oh this is Counter you false Danish Dogges.[4]
_Noise within. Enter Laertes_[5]. [Sidenote: _Laertes with others_.]
_King_. The doores are broke.
_Laer_. Where is the King, sirs? Stand you all without.
[Sidenote: this King? sirs stand]
_All_. No, let's come in.
_Laer_. I pray you giue me leaue.[6]
_All_. We will, we will.
_Laer_. I thanke you: Keepe the doore.
Oh thou vilde King, giue me my Father.
_Qu_. Calmely good _Laertes_.
_Laer_. That drop of blood, that calmes[7] [Sidenote: thats calme]
Proclaimes me Bastard:
Cries Cuckold to my Father, brands the Harlot
Euen heere betweene the chaste vnsmirched brow
Of my true Mother.[8]
_Kin_. What is the cause _Laertes_,
That thy Rebellion lookes so Gyant-like?
Let him go _Gertrude_: Do not feare[9] our person:
There's such Diuinity doth hedge a King,[10]
That Treason can but peepe to what it would,
Acts little of his will.[11] Tell me _Laertes_,
[Footnote 1: _Head_ is a rising or gathering of people--generally
rebellious, I think.]
[Footnote 2: Antiquity and Custom.]
[Footnote 3: This refers to the election of Claudius--evidently not a
popular election, but effected by intrigue with the aristocracy and the
army: 'They cry, Let us choose: Laertes shall be king!'
We may suppose the attempt of Claudius to have been favoured by the
lingering influence of the old Norse custom of succession, by which not
the son but the brother inherited. 16, _bis._]
[Footnote 4: To hunt counter is to 'hunt the game by the heel or track.'
The queen therefore accuses them of not using their scent or judgment,
but following appearances.]
[Footnote 5: Now at length re-appears Laertes, who has during the
interim been ripening in Paris for villainy. He is wanted for the
catastrophe, and requires but the last process of a few hours in the
hell-oven of a king's instigation.]
[Footnote 6: The customary and polite way of saying _leave me_: 'grant
me your absence.' 85, 89.]
[Footnote 7: grows calm.]
[Footnote 8: In taking vengeance Hamlet must acknowledge his mother such
as Laertes says inaction on his part would proclaim his mother.
The actress should here let a shadow cross the queen's face: though too
weak to break with the king, she has begun to repent.]
[Footnote 9: fear _for_.]
[Footnote 10: The consummate hypocrite claims the protection of the
sacred hedge through which he had himself broken--or crept rather, like
a snake, to kill. He can act innocence the better that his conscience is
clear as to Polonius.]
[Footnote 11: 'can only peep through the hedge to its desire--acts
little of its will.']
[Page 204]
Why thou art thus Incenst? Let him go _Gertrude_.
Speake man.
_Laer_. Where's my Father? [Sidenote: is my]
_King_. Dead.
_Qu_. But not by him.
_King_. Let him demand his fill.
_Laer_. How came he dead? Ile not be Iuggel'd with.
To hell Allegeance: Vowes, to the blackest diuell.
Conscience and Grace, to the profoundest Pit
I dare Damnation: to this point I stand,
That both the worlds I giue to negligence,
Let come what comes: onely Ile be reueng'd
Most throughly for my Father.
_King_. Who shall stay you?[1]
_Laer_. My Will, not all the world,[1] [Sidenote: worlds:]
And for my meanes, Ile husband them so well,
They shall go farre with little.
_King_. Good _Laertes_:
If you desire to know the certaintie
Of your deere Fathers death, if writ in your reuenge,
[Sidenote: Father, i'st writ]
That Soop-stake[2] you will draw both Friend and Foe,
Winner and Looser.[3]
_Laer_. None but his Enemies.
_King_. Will you know them then.
_La_. To his good Friends, thus wide Ile ope my Armes:
And like the kinde Life-rend'ring Politician,[4]
[Sidenote: life-rendring Pelican,]
Repast them with my blood.[5]
_King_. Why now you speake
Like a good Childe,[6] and a true Gentleman.
That I am guiltlesse of your Fathers death,
And am most sensible in greefe for it,[7] [Sidenote: sencibly]
[Footnote 1:
'Who shall _prevent_ you?'
'My own will only--not all the world,'
or,
'Who will _support_ you?'
'My will. Not all the world shall prevent me,'--
so playing on the two meanings of the word _stay._ Or it _might_ mean:
'Not all the world shall stay my will.']
[Footnote 2: swoop-stake--_sweepstakes_.]
[Footnote 3: 'and be loser as well as winner--' If the _Folio's_ is
the right reading, then the sentence is unfinished, and should have a
dash, not a period.]
[Footnote 4: A curious misprint: may we not suspect a somewhat dull
joker among the compositors?]
[Footnote 6: 'a true son to your father.']
[Footnote 7: 'feel much grief for it.']
[Footnote 5: Laertes is a ranter--false everywhere.
Plainly he is introduced as the foil from which Hamlet 'shall stick
fiery off.' In this speech he shows his moral condition directly the
opposite of Hamlet's: he has no principle but revenge. His conduct ought
to be quite satisfactory to Hamlet's critics; there is action enough in
it of the very kind they would have of Hamlet; and doubtless it would be
satisfactory to them but for the treachery that follows. The one, dearly
loving a father who deserves immeasurably better of him than Polonius of
Laertes, will not for the sake of revenge disregard either conscience,
justice, or grace; the other will not delay even to inquire into the
facts of his father's fate, but will act at once on hearsay, rushing to
a blind satisfaction that cannot even be called retaliation, caring for
neither right nor wrong, cursing conscience and the will of God, and
daring damnation. He slights assurance as to the hand by which his
father fell, dismisses all reflection that might interfere with a stupid
revenge. To make up one's mind at once, and act without ground, is
weakness, not strength: this Laertes does--and is therefore just the man
to be the villainous, not the innocent, tool of villainy. He who has
sufficing ground and refuses to act is weak; but the ground that will
satisfy the populace, of which the commonplace critic is the fair type,
will not satisfy either the man of conscience or of wisdom. The mass of
world-bepraised action owes its existence to the pressure of
circumstance, not to the will and conscience of the man. Hamlet waits
for light, even with his heart accusing him; Laertes rushes into the
dark, dagger in hand, like a mad Malay: so he kill, he cares not whom.
Such a man is easily tempted to the vilest treachery, for the light that
is in him is darkness; he is not a true man; he is false in himself.
This is what comes of his father's maxim:
To thine own self be true;
And it must follow, _as the night the day_ (!)
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Like the aphorism 'Honesty is the best policy,' it reveals the
difference between a fact and a truth. Both sayings are correct as
facts, but as guides of conduct devilishly false, leading to dishonesty
and treachery. To be true to the divine self in us, is indeed to be true
to all; but it is only by being true to all, against the ever present
and urging false self, that at length we shall see the divine self rise
above the chaotic waters of our selfishness, and know it so as to be
true to it.
Of Laertes we must note also that it is not all for love of his father
that he is ready to cast allegiance to hell, and kill the king: he has
the voice of the people to succeed him.]
[Page 206]
[Sidenote: 184] It shall as leuell to your Iudgement pierce
[Sidenote: peare']
As day do's to your eye.[1]
_A noise within. [2]Let her come in._
_Enter Ophelia[3]_
_Laer_. How now? what noise is that?[4]
[Sidenote: _Laer_. Let her come in. How now,]
Oh heate drie vp my Braines, teares seuen times salt,
Burne out the Sence and Vertue of mine eye.
By Heauen, thy madnesse shall be payed by waight,
[Sidenote: with weight]
Till our Scale turnes the beame. Oh Rose of May, [Sidenote: turne]
Deere Maid, kinde Sister, sweet _Ophelia_:
Oh Heauens, is't possible, a yong Maids wits,
Should be as mortall as an old mans life?[5] [Sidenote: a poore mans]
Nature is fine[6] in Loue, and where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of it selfe
After the thing it loues.[7]
_Ophe. They bore him bare fac'd on the Beer._
[Sidenote: _Song_.] [Sidenote: bare-faste]
_Hey non nony, nony, hey nony:[8]
And on his graue raines many a teare_,
[Sidenote: And in his graue rain'd]
_Fare you well my Doue._
_Laer_. Had'st thou thy wits, and did'st perswade
Reuenge, it could not moue thus.
_Ophe_. You must sing downe a-downe, and
[Sidenote: sing a downe a downe, And]
you call him[9] a-downe-a. Oh, how the wheele[10]
becomes it? It is the false Steward that stole his
masters daughter.[11]
_Laer_. This nothings more then matter.[12]
_Ophe_. There's Rosemary,[13] that's for Remembraunce.
Pray loue remember: and there is [Sidenote: , pray you loue]
Paconcies, that's for Thoughts. [Sidenote: Pancies[14]]
_Laer_. A document[15] in madnesse, thoughts and
remembrance fitted.
_Ophe_. There's Fennell[16] for you, and Columbines[16]:
ther's Rew[17] for you, and heere's some for
[Footnote 1: 'pierce as _directly_ to your judgment.'
But the simile of the _day_ seems to favour the reading of the
_Q._--'peare,' for _appear_. In the word _level_ would then be indicated
the _rising_ sun.]
[Footnote 2: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q. 'Enter Ofelia as before_.']
[Footnote 4: To render it credible that Laertes could entertain the vile
proposal the king is about to make, it is needful that all possible
influences should be represented as combining to swell the commotion of
his spirit, and overwhelm what poor judgment and yet poorer conscience
he had. Altogether unprepared, he learns Ophelia's pitiful condition by
the sudden sight of the harrowing change in her--and not till after that
hears who killed his father and brought madness on his sister.]
[Footnote 5: _1st Q._
I'st possible a yong maides life,
Should be as mortall as an olde mans sawe?]
[Footnote 6: delicate, exquisite.]
[Footnote 7: 'where 'tis fine': I suggest that the _it_ here may be
impersonal: 'where _things_, where _all_ is fine,' that is, 'in a fine
soul'; then the meaning would be, 'Nature is fine always in love, and
where the soul also is fine, she sends from it' &c. But the _where_ may
be equal, perhaps, to _whereas_. I can hardly think the phrase means
merely '_and where it is in love_.' It might intend--'and where Love is
fine, it sends' &c. The 'precious instance of itself,' that is,
'something that is a part and specimen of itself,' is here the 'young
maid's wits': they are sent after the 'old man's life.'--These three
lines are not in the Quarto. It is not disputed that they are from
Shakspere's hand: if the insertion of these be his, why should the
omission of others not be his also?]
[Footnote 8: _This line is not in Q._]
[Footnote 9: '_if_ you call him': I think this is not a part of the
song, but is spoken of her father.]
[Footnote 10: _the burden of the song_: Steevens.]
[Footnote 11: The subject of the ballad.]
[Footnote 12: 'more than sense'--in incitation to revenge.]
[Footnote 13: --an evergreen, and carried at funerals: _Johnson_.
For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep
Seeming and savour ail the winter long:
Grace and remembrance be to you both.
_The Winter's Tale_, act iv. sc. 3.]
[Footnote 14: _penseés_.]
[Footnote 15: _a teaching, a lesson_--the fitting of thoughts and
remembrance, namely--which he applies to his intent of revenge. Or may
it not rather be meant that the putting of these two flowers together
was a happy hit of her madness, presenting the fantastic emblem of a
document or writing--the very idea of which is the keeping of thoughts
in remembrance?]
[Footnote 16: --said to mean _flattery_ and _thanklessness_--perhaps
given to the king.]
[Footnote 17: _Repentance_--given to the queen. Another name of the
plant was _Herb-Grace_, as below, in allusion, doubtless, to its common
name--_rue_ or _repentance_ being both the gift of God, and an act of
grace.]
[Page 208]
me. Wee may call it Herbe-Grace a Sundaies:
[Sidenote: herbe of Grace a Sondaies, you may weare]
Oh you must weare your Rew with a difference.[1]
There's a Daysie,[2] I would giue you some Violets,[3]
but they wither'd all when my Father dyed: They
say, he made a good end; [Sidenote: say a made]
_For bonny sweet Robin is all my ioy._
_Laer_. Thought, and Affliction, Passion, Hell it selfe:
[Sidenote: afflictions,]
She turnes to Fauour, and to prettinesse.
[Sidenote:_Song._]
_Ophe. And will he not come againe_, [Sidenote: will a not]
_And will he not come againe_: [Sidenote: will a not]
_No, no, he is dead, go to thy Death-bed,
He neuer wil come againe.
His Beard as white as Snow_, [Sidenote: beard was as]
_All[4] Flaxen was his Pole:
He is gone, he is gone, and we cast away mone,
Gramercy[5] on his Soule._ [Sidenote: God a mercy on]
And of all Christian Soules, I pray God.[6]
[Sidenote: Christians soules,]
God buy ye.[7] _Exeunt Ophelia_[8] [Sidenote: you.]
_Laer_. Do you see this, you Gods? [Sidenote: Doe you this ô God.]
_King. Laertes_, I must common[9] with your greefe, [Sidenote: commune]
Or you deny me right: go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest Friends you will,
And they shall heare and iudge 'twixt you and me;
If by direct or by Colaterall hand
They finde vs touch'd,[10] we will our Kingdome giue,
Our Crowne, our Life, and all that we call Ours
To you in satisfaction. But if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to vs,[11]
And we shall ioyntly labour with your soule
To giue it due content.
_Laer_. Let this be so:[12]
His meanes of death,[13] his obscure buriall; [Sidenote: funerall,]
No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones,[14]
[Footnote 1: --perhaps the heraldic term. The Poet, not Ophelia, intends
the special fitness of the speech. Ophelia means only that the rue of
the matron must differ from the rue of the girl.]
[Footnote 2: 'the dissembling daisy': _Greene_--quoted by _Henley_.]
[Footnote 3: --standing for _faithfulness: Malone_, from an old song.]
[Footnote 4: '_All' not in Q._]
[Footnote 5: Wherever else Shakspere uses the word, it is in the sense
of _grand merci--great thanks (Skeat's Etym. Dict.)_; here it is surely
a corruption, whether Ophelia's or the printer's, of the _Quarto_
reading, '_God a mercy_' which, spoken quickly, sounds very near
_gramercy_. The _1st Quarto_ also has 'God a mercy.']
[Footnote 6: 'I pray God.' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 7: 'God b' wi' ye': _good bye._]
[Footnote 8: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 9: 'I must have a share in your grief.' The word does mean
_commune_, but here is more pregnant, as evidenced in the next phrase,
'Or you deny me right:'--'do not give me justice.']
[Footnote 10: 'touched with the guilt of the deed, either as having done
it with our own hand, or caused it to be done by the hand of one at our
side.']
[Footnote 11: We may paraphrase thus: 'Be pleased to grant us a loan of
your patience,' that is, _be patient for a while at our request_, 'and
we will work along with your soul to gain for it (your soul) just
satisfaction.']
[Footnote 12: He consents--but immediately _re-sums_ the grounds of his
wrathful suspicion.]
[Footnote 13: --the way in which he met his death.]
[Footnote 14: --customary honours to the noble dead. _A trophy_ was an
arrangement of the armour and arms of the dead in a set decoration. The
origin of the word _hatchment_ shows its intent: it is a corruption of
_achievement_.]
[Page 210]
No Noble rite, nor formall ostentation,[1]
Cry to be heard, as 'twere from Heauen to Earth,
That I must call in question.[2] [Sidenote: call't in]
_King_. So you shall:
And where th'offence is, let the great Axe fall.
I pray you go with me.[3] _Exeunt_
_Enter Horatio, with an Attendant_. [Sidenote: _Horatio and others_.]
_Hora_. What are they that would speake with
me?
_Ser_. Saylors sir, they say they haue Letters
[_Gent_. Sea-faring men sir,]
for you.
_Hor_. Let them come in,[4]
I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from Lord _Hamlet_.
_Enter Saylor_. [Sidenote: _Saylers_.]
_Say_. God blesse you Sir.
_Hor_. Let him blesse thee too.
_Say_. Hee shall Sir, and't[5] please him. There's
[Sidenote: A shall sir and please]
a Letter for you Sir: It comes from th'Ambassadours
[Sidenote: it came frõ th' Embassador]
that was bound for England, if your name
be _Horatio_, as I am let to know[6] it is.
_Reads the Letter_[7]
Horatio, _When thou shalt haue ouerlook'd this_,
[Sidenote: _Hor. Horatio_ when]
_giue these Fellowes some meanes to the King: They
haue Letters for him. Ere we were two dayes[8] old
at Sea, a Pyrate of very Warlicke appointment gaue
vs Chace. Finding our selues too slow of Saile, we
put on a compelled Valour. In the Grapple, I boarded_
[Sidenote: valour, and in the]
_them: On the instant they got cleare of our Shippe,
so I alone became their Prisoner.[9] They haue dealt
with mee, like Theeues of Mercy, but they knew what
they did. I am to doe a good turne for them. Let_
[Sidenote: a turne]
_the King have the Letters I haue sent, and repaire
thou to me with as much hast as thou wouldest flye_
[Sidenote: much speede as]
_death[10] I haue words to speake in your eare, will_
[Sidenote: in thine eare]
[Footnote 1: 'formal ostentation'--show or publication of honour
according to form or rule.]
[Footnote 2: 'so that I must call in question'--institute inquiry; or
'--_that_ (these things) I must call in question.']
[Footnote 3: Note such a half line frequently after the not uncommon
closing couplet--as if to take off the formality of the couplet, and
lead back, through the more speech-like, to greater verisimilitude.]
[Footnote 4: Here the servant goes, and the rest of the speech Horatio
speaks _solus_. He had expected to hear from Hamlet.]
[Footnote 5: 'and it please'--_if it please_. _An_ for _if_ is merely
_and_.]
[Footnote 6: 'I am told.']
[Footnote 7: _Not in Q_.]
[Footnote 8: This gives an approximate clue to the time between the
second and third acts: it needs not have been a week.]
[Footnote 9: Note once more the unfailing readiness of Hamlet where
there was no question as to the fitness of the action seemingly
required. This is the man who by too much thinking, forsooth, has
rendered himself incapable of action!--so far ahead of the foremost
behind him, that, when the pirate, not liking such close quarters, 'on
the instant got clear,' he is the only one on her deck! There was no
question here as to what ought to be done: the pirate grappled them; he
boarded her. Thereafter, with his prompt faculty for dealing with men,
he soon comes to an understanding with his captors, and they agree, upon
some certain condition, to put him on shore.
He writes in unusual spirits; for he has now gained full, presentable,
and indisputable proof of the treachery which before he scarcely
doubted, but could not demonstrate. The present instance of it has to do
with himself, not his father, but in itself would justify the slaying of
his uncle, whose plausible way had possibly perplexed him so that he
could not thoroughly believe him the villain he was: bad as he must be,
could he actually have killed his own brother, and _such_ a brother? A
better man than Laertes might have acted more promptly than Hamlet, and
so happened to _do_ right; but he would not have _been_ right, for the
proof was _not_ sufficient.]
[Footnote 10: The value Hamlet sets on his discovery, evident in his
joyous urgency to share it with his friend, is explicable only on the
ground of the relief it is to his mind to be now at length quite certain
of his duty.]
[Page 212]
_make thee dumbe, yet are they much too light for the
bore of the Matter.[1] These good Fellowes will bring_
[Sidenote: the bord of]
_thee where I am. Rosincrance and Guildensterne,
hold their course for England. Of them I haue
much to tell thee, Farewell.
He that thou knowest thine._
[Sidenote: _So that thou knowest thine Hamlet._]
Hamlet.
Come, I will giue you way for these your Letters,
[Sidenote: _Hor_. Come I will you way]
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them. _Exit_. [Sidenote: _Exeunt._]
_Enter King and Laertes._[2]
_King_. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,
And you must put me in your heart for Friend,
Sith you haue heard, and with a knowing eare,[3]
That he which hath your Noble Father slaine,
Pursued my life.[4]
_Laer_. It well appeares. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feates,[5] [Sidenote: proceede]
So crimefull, and so Capitall in Nature,[6] [Sidenote: criminall]
As by your Safety, Wisedome, all things else,
[Sidenote: safetie, greatnes, wisdome,]
You mainly[7] were stirr'd vp?
_King_. O for two speciall Reasons,
Which may to you (perhaps) seeme much vnsinnowed,[8]
And yet to me they are strong. The Queen his Mother,
[Sidenote: But yet | tha'r strong]
Liues almost by his lookes: and for my selfe,
My Vertue or my Plague, be it either which,[9]
She's so coniunctiue to my life and soule;
[Sidenote: she is so concliue]
That as the Starre moues not but in his Sphere,[10]
I could not but by her. The other Motiue,
Why to a publike count I might not go,
[Sidenote: 186] Is the great loue the generall gender[11] beare him,
Who dipping all his Faults in their affection,
[Footnote 1: Note here also Hamlet's feeling of the importance of what
has passed since he parted with his friend. 'The bullet of my words,
though it will strike thee dumb, is much too small for the bore of the
reality (the facts) whence it will issue.']
[Footnote 2: While we have been present at the interview between Horatio
and the sailors, the king has been persuading Laertes.]
[Footnote 3: an ear of judgment.]
[Footnote 4: 'thought then to have killed me.']
[Footnote 5: _faits_, deeds.]
[Footnote 6: 'deeds so deserving of death, not merely in the eye of the
law, but in their own nature.']
[Footnote 7: powerfully.]
[Footnote 8: 'unsinewed.']
[Footnote 9: 'either-which.']
[Footnote 10: 'moves not but in the moving of his sphere,'--The stars
were popularly supposed to be fixed in a solid crystalline sphere, and
moved in its motion only. The queen, Claudius implies, is his sphere; he
could not move but by her.]
[Footnote 11: Here used in the sense of the Fr. _'genre'--sort_. It is
not the only instance of the word so used by Shakspere.