[Page 214]
Would like the Spring that turneth Wood to Stone, [Sidenote: Worke like]
Conuert his Gyues to Graces.[1] So that my Arrowes
Too slightly timbred for so loud a Winde,
[Sidenote: for so loued Arm'd[2]]
Would haue reuerted to my Bow againe,
And not where I had arm'd them.[2]
[Sidenote: But not | have aym'd them.]
_Laer_. And so haue I a Noble Father lost,
A Sister driuen into desperate tearmes,[3]
Who was (if praises may go backe againe) [Sidenote: whose worth, if]
Stood Challenger on mount of all the Age
For her perfections. But my reuenge will come.
_King_. Breake not your sleepes for that,
You must not thinke
That we are made of stuffe, so flat, and dull,
That we can let our Beard be shooke with danger,[4]
And thinke it pastime. You shortly shall heare more,[5]
I lou'd your Father, and we loue our Selfe,
And that I hope will teach you to imagine----[6]
_Enter a Messenger_. [Sidenote: _with letters._]
How now? What Newes?
_Mes._ Letters my Lord from _Hamlet_.[7] This to
[Sidenote: _Messen_. These to]
your Maiesty: this to the Queene.
_King_. From _Hamlet_? Who brought them?
_Mes_. Saylors my Lord they say, I saw them not:
They were giuen me by _Claudio_, he recciu'd them.[8]
[Sidenote: them Of him that brought them.]
_King. Laertes_ you shall heare them:[9]
Leaue vs. _Exit Messenger_[10]
_High and Mighty, you shall know I am set
naked on your Kingdome. To morrow shall I begge
leaue to see your Kingly Eyes[11] When I shall (first
asking your Pardon thereunto) recount th'Occasions_
[Sidenote: the occasion of my suddaine returne.]
_of my sodaine, and more strange returne._[12]
Hamlet.[13]
What should this meane? Are all the rest come backe?
[Sidenote: _King_. What]
[Footnote 1: 'would convert his fetters--if I imprisoned him--to graces,
commending him yet more to their regard.']
[Footnote 2: _arm'd_ is certainly the right, and a true Shaksperean
word:--it was no fault in the aim, but in the force of the flight--no
matter of the eye, but of the arm, which could not give momentum enough
to such slightly timbered arrows. The fault in the construction of the
last line, I need not remark upon.
I think there is a hint of this the genuine meaning even in the
blundered and partly unintelligible reading of the _Quarto_. If we leave
out 'for so loued,' we have this: 'So that my arrows, too slightly
timbered, would have reverted armed to my bow again, but not (_would not
have gone_) where I have aimed them,'--implying that his arrows would
have turned their armed heads against himself.
What the king says here is true, but far from _the_ truth: he feared
driving Hamlet, and giving him at the same time opportunity, to speak in
his own defence and render his reasons.]
[Footnote 3: _extremes_? or _conditions_?]
[Footnote 4: 'With many a tempest hadde his berd ben
schake.'--_Chaucer_, of the Schipman, in _The Prologue_ to _The
Canterbury Tales_.]
[Footnote 5: --hear of Hamlet's death in England, he means.
At this point in the _1st Q._ comes a scene between Horatio and the
queen, in which he informs her of a letter he had just received from
Hamlet,
Whereas he writes how he escap't the danger,
And subtle treason that the king had plotted,
Being crossed by the contention of the windes,
He found the Packet &c.
Horatio does not mention the pirates, but speaks of Hamlet 'being set
ashore,' and of _Gilderstone_ and _Rossencraft_ going on to their fate.
The queen assures Horatio that she is but temporizing with the king, and
shows herself anxious for the success of her son's design against his
life. The Poet's intent was not yet clear to himself.]
[Footnote 6: Here his crow cracks.]
[Footnote 7: _From_ 'How now' _to_ 'Hamlet' is _not in Q._]
[Footnote 8: Horatio has given the sailors' letters to Claudio, he to
another.]
[Footnote 9: He wants to show him that he has nothing behind--that he is
open with him: he will read without having pre-read.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 11: He makes this request for an interview with the intent of
killing him. The king takes care he does not have it.]
[Footnote 12: '_more strange than sudden_.']
[Footnote 13: _Not in Q._]
[Page 216]
Or is it some abuse?[1] Or no such thing?[2]
[Sidenote: abuse, and no[2]]
_Laer_. Know you the hand?[3]
_Kin_. 'Tis _Hamlets_ Character, naked and in a
Postscript here he sayes alone:[4] Can you aduise [Sidenote: deuise me?]
me?[5]
_Laer_. I'm lost in it my Lord; but let him come, [Sidenote: I am]
It warmes the very sicknesse in my heart,
That I shall liue and tell him to his teeth; [Sidenote: That I liue and]
Thus diddest thou. [Sidenote: didst]
_Kin_. If it be so _Laertes_, as how should it be so:[6]
How otherwise will you be rul'd by me?
_Laer_. If so[7] you'l not o'rerule me to a peace.
[Sidenote: I my Lord, so you will not]
_Kin_. To thine owne peace: if he be now return'd,
[Sidenote: 195] As checking[8] at his Voyage, and that he meanes
[Sidenote: As the King[8] at his]
No more to vndertake it; I will worke him
To an exployt now ripe in my Deuice, [Sidenote: deuise,]
Vnder the which he shall not choose but fall;
And for his death no winde of blame shall breath,
[Sidenote: 221] But euen his Mother shall vncharge the practice,[9]
And call it accident: [A] Some two Monthes hence[10]
[Sidenote: two months since]
Here was a Gentleman of _Normandy_,
I'ue seene my selfe, and seru'd against the French, [Sidenote: I haue]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Laer_. My Lord I will be rul'd,
The rather if you could deuise it so
That I might be the organ.
_King_. It falls right,
You haue beene talkt of since your trauaile[11] much,
And that in _Hamlets_ hearing, for a qualitie
Wherein they say you shine, your summe of parts[12]
Did not together plucke such enuie from him
As did that one, and that in my regard
Of the vnworthiest siedge.[13]
_Laer_. What part is that my Lord?
_King_. A very ribaud[14] in the cap of youth,
Yet needfull to, for youth no lesse becomes[15]
The light and carelesse liuery that it weares
Then setled age, his sables, and his weedes[16]
Importing health[17] and grauenes;]
[Footnote 1: 'some trick played on me?' Compare _K. Lear_, act v. sc. 7:
'I am mightily abused.']
[Footnote 2: I incline to the _Q._ reading here: 'or is it some trick,
and no reality in it?']
[Footnote 3: --following the king's suggestion.]
[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'Tis _Hamlets_ Character. 'Naked'!--And, in a
Postscript here, he sayes 'alone'! Can &c.
'_Alone_'--to allay suspicion of his having brought assistance with
him.]
[Footnote 5: Fine flattery--preparing the way for the instigation he is
about to commence.]
[Footnote 6: _Point thus_: '--as how should it be so? how
otherwise?--will' &c. The king cannot tell what to think--either how it
can be, or how it might be otherwise--for here is Hamlet's own hand!]
[Footnote 7: provided.]
[Footnote 8: A hawk was said _to check_ when it forsook its proper game
for some other bird that crossed its flight. The blunder in the _Quarto_
is odd, plainly from manuscript copy, and is not likely to have been set
right by any but the author.]
[Footnote 9: 'shall not give the _practice'--artifice, cunning attempt,
chicane_, or _trick_--but a word not necessarily offensive--'the name it
deserves, but call it _accident_:' 221.]
[Footnote 10: 'Some' _not in Q.--Hence_ may be either _backwards_ or
_forwards_; now it is used only _forwards_.]
[Footnote 11: travels.]
[Footnote 12: 'all your excellencies together.']
[Footnote 13: seat, place, grade, position, merit.]
[Footnote 14: 'A very riband'--a mere trifling accomplishment: the _u_
of the text can but be a misprint for _n_.]
[Footnote 15: _youth_ obj., _livery_ nom. to _becomes_.]
[Footnote 16: 'than his furs and his robes become settled age.']
[Footnote 17: Warburton thinks the word ought to be _wealth_, but I
doubt it; _health_, in its sense of wholeness, general soundness, in
affairs as well as person, I should prefer.]
[Page 218]
And they ran[1] well on Horsebacke; but this Gallant
[Sidenote: they can well[1]]
Had witchcraft in't[2]; he grew into his Seat, [Sidenote: vnto his]
And to such wondrous doing brought his Horse,
As had he beene encorps't and demy-Natur'd
With the braue Beast,[3] so farre he past my thought,
[Sidenote: he topt me thought,[4]]
That I in forgery[5] of shapes and trickes,
Come short of what he did.[6]
_Laer_. A Norman was't?
_Kin_. A Norman.
_Laer_. Vpon my life _Lamound_. [Sidenote: _Lamord_.]
_Kin_. The very same.
_Laer_. I know him well, he is the Brooch indeed,
And Iemme of all our Nation, [Sidenote: all the Nation.]
_Kin_. Hee mad confession of you,
And gaue you such a Masterly report,
For Art and exercise in your defence;
And for your Rapier most especially, [Sidenote: especiall,]
That he cryed out, t'would be a sight indeed,[7]
If one could match you [A] Sir. This report of his
[Sidenote: ; sir this]
[Sidenote: 120, 264] Did _Hamlet_ so envenom with his Enuy,[8]
That he could nothing doe but wish and begge,
Your sodaine comming ore to play with him;[9] [Sidenote: with you]
Now out of this.[10]
_Laer_. Why out of this, my Lord? [Sidenote: What out]
_Kin. Laertes_ was your Father deare to you?
Or are you like the painting[11] of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?
_Laer_. Why aske you this?
_Kin_. Not that I thinke you did not loue your Father,
But that I know Loue is begun by Time[12]:
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_
; the Scrimures[13] of their nation
He swore had neither motion, guard nor eye,
If you opposd them;]
[Footnote 1: I think the _can_ of the _Quarto_ is the true word.]
[Footnote 2: --in his horsemanship.]
[Footnote 3: There is no mistake in the order 'had he beene'; the
transposition is equivalent to _if_: 'as if he had been unbodied with,
and shared half the nature of the brave beast.'
These two lines, from _As_ to _thought_, must be taken parenthetically;
or else there must be supposed a dash after _Beast_, and a fresh start
made.
'But he (as if Centaur-like he had been one piece with the horse) was no
more moved than one with the going of his own legs:'
'it seemed, as he borrowed the horse's body, so he lent the horse his
mind:'--Sir Philip Sidney. _Arcadia_, B. ii. p. 115.]
[Footnote 4: '--surpassed, I thought.']
[Footnote 5: 'in invention of.']
[Footnote 6: Emphasis on _did_, as antithetic to _forgery_: 'my
inventing came short of his doing.']
[Footnote 7: 'it would be a sight indeed to see you matched with an
equal.' The king would strengthen Laertes' confidence in his
proficiency.]
[Footnote 8: 'made him so spiteful by stirring up his habitual envy.']
[Footnote 9: All invention.]
[Footnote 10: Here should be a dash: the king pauses. He is approaching
dangerous ground--is about to propose a thing abominable, and therefore
to the influence of flattered vanity and roused emulation, would add the
fiercest heat of stimulated love and hatred--to which end he proceeds to
cast doubt on the quality of Laertes' love for his father.]
[Footnote 11: the picture.]
[Footnote 12: 'through habit.']
[Footnote 13: French _escrimeurs_: fencers.]
[Page 220]
And that I see in passages of proofe,[1]
Time qualifies the sparke and fire of it:[2]
[A]
_Hamlet_ comes backe: what would you vndertake,
To show your selfe your Fathers sonne indeed,
[Sidenote: selfe indeede your fathers sonne]
More then in words?
_Laer_. To cut his throat i'th'Church.[3]
_Kin_. No place indeed should murder Sancturize;
Reuenge should haue no bounds: but good _Laertes_
Will you doe this, keepe close within your Chamber,
_Hamlet_ return'd, shall know you are come home:
Wee'l put on those shall praise your excellence,
And set a double varnish on the fame
The Frenchman gaue you, bring you in fine together,
And wager on your heads, he being remisse,[4] [Sidenote: ore your]
[Sidenote: 218] Most generous, and free from all contriuing,
Will not peruse[5] the Foiles? So that with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A Sword vnbaited,[6] and in a passe of practice,[7] [Sidenote: pace of]
Requit him for your Father.
_Laer_. I will doo't,
And for that purpose Ile annoint my Sword:[8] [Sidenote: for purpose,]
I bought an Vnction of a Mountebanke
So mortall, I but dipt a knife in it,[9]
[Sidenote: mortall, that but dippe a]
Where it drawes blood, no Cataplasme so rare,
Collected from all Simples that haue Vertue
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
There liues within the very flame of loue
A kind of weeke or snufe that will abate it,[10]
And nothing is at a like goodnes still,[11]
For goodnes growing to a plurisie,[12]
Dies in his owne too much, that we would doe
We should doe when we would: for this would change,[13]
And hath abatements and delayes as many,
As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents,
And then this should is like a spend thrifts sigh,
That hurts by easing;[14] but to the quick of th'vlcer,]
[Footnote 1: 'passages of proofe,'--_trials_. 'I see when it is put to
the test.']
[Footnote 2: 'time modifies it.']
[Footnote 3: Contrast him here with Hamlet.]
[Footnote 4: careless.]
[Footnote 5: _examine_--the word being of general application then.]
[Footnote 6: _unblunted_. Some foils seem to have been made with a
button that could be taken--probably _screwed_ off.]
[Footnote 7: Whether _practice_ here means exercise or cunning, I cannot
determine. Possibly the king uses the word as once before 216--to be
taken as Laertes may please.]
[Footnote 8: In the _1st Q._ this proposal also is made by the king.]
[Footnote 9:
'So mortal, yes, a knife being but dipt in it,' or,
'So mortal, did I but dip a knife in it.']
[Footnote 10: To understand this figure, one must be familiar with the
behaviour of the wick of a common lamp or tallow candle.]
[Footnote 11: 'nothing keeps always at the same degree of goodness.']
[Footnote 12: A _plurisie_ is just a _too-muchness_, from _plus,
pluris--a plethora_, not our word _pleurisy_, from [Greek: pleura]. See
notes in _Johnson and Steevens_.]
[Footnote 13: The sense here requires an _s_, and the space in the
_Quarto_ between the _e_ and the comma gives the probability that a
letter has dropt out.]
[Footnote 14: Modern editors seem agreed to substitute the adjective
_spendthrift_: our sole authority has _spendthrifts_, and by it I hold.
The meaning seems this: 'the _would_ changes, the thing is not done, and
then the _should_, the mere acknowledgment of duty, is like the sigh of
a spendthrift, who regrets consequences but does not change his way: it
eases his conscience for a moment, and so injures him.' There would at
the same time be allusion to what was believed concerning sighs: Dr.
Johnson says, 'It is a notion very prevalent, that _sighs_ impair the
strength, and wear out the animal powers.']
[Page 222]
Vnder the Moone, can saue the thing from death,
That is but scratcht withall: Ile touch my point,
With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,[1]
It may be death.
_Kin_. Let's further thinke of this,
Weigh what conuenience[2] both of time and meanes
May fit vs to our shape,[3] if this should faile;
And that our drift looke through our bad performance,
'Twere better not assaid; therefore this Proiect
Should haue a backe or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proofe:[4] Soft, let me see[5]
[Sidenote: did blast]
Wee'l make a solemne wager on your commings,[6] [Sidenote: cunnings[6]]
I ha't: when in your motion you are hot and dry, [Sidenote: hate, when]
As[7] make your bowts more violent to the end,[8]
[Sidenote: to that end,]
And that he cals for drinke; Ile haue prepar'd him
[Sidenote: prefard him]
[Sidenote: 268] A Challice for the nonce[9]; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,[10]
Our purpose may[11] hold there: how sweet Queene.
[Sidenote: there: but stay, what noyse?]
_Enter Queene_.
_Queen_. One woe doth tread vpon anothers heele,
So fast they'l follow[12]: your Sister's drown'd _Laertes_.
[Sidenote: they follow;]
_Laer_. Drown'd! O where?[13]
_Queen_. There is a Willow[14] growes aslant a Brooke,
[Sidenote: ascaunt the Brooke]
That shewes his hore leaues in the glassie streame:
[Sidenote: horry leaues]
There with fantasticke Garlands did she come,[15]
[Sidenote: Therewith | she make]
Of Crow-flowers,[16] Nettles, Daysies, and long Purples,
That liberall Shepheards giue a grosser name;
But our cold Maids doe Dead Mens Fingers call them:
[Sidenote: our cull-cold]
There on the pendant[17] boughes, her Coronet weeds[18]
Clambring to hang;[19] an enuious sliuer broke,[20]
When downe the weedy Trophies,[19] and her selfe, [Sidenote: her weedy]
[Footnote 1: 'that though I should gall him but slightly,' or, 'that if
I gall him ever so slightly.']
[Footnote 2: proper arrangement.]
[Footnote 3: 'fit us exactly, like a garment cut to our shape,' or
perhaps 'shape' is used for _intent, purpose. Point thus_: 'shape. If
this should faile, And' &c.]
[Footnote 4: This seems to allude to the assay of a firearm, and to mean
'_burst on the trial_.' Note 'assaid' two lines back.]
[Footnote 5: There should be a pause here, and a longer pause after
_commings_: the king is contriving. 'I ha't' should have a line to
itself, with again a pause, but a shorter one.]
[Footnote 6: _Veney, venue_, is a term of fencing: a bout, a
thrust--from _venir, to come_--whence 'commings.' (259) But _cunnings_,
meaning _skills_, may be the word.]
[Footnote 7: 'As' is here equivalent to 'and so.']
[Footnote 8: --to the end of making Hamlet hot and dry.]
[Footnote 9: for the special occasion.]
[Footnote 10: thrust. _Twelfth Night_, act iii. sc. 4. 'he gives me the
stuck in with such a mortal motion.' _Stocco_ in Italian is a long
rapier; and _stoccata_ a thrust. _Rom. and Jul_., act iii. sc. 1. See
_Shakespeare-Lexicon_.]
[Footnote 11: 'may' does not here express _doubt_, but _intention_.]
[Footnote 12: If this be the right reading, it means, 'so fast they
insist on following.']
[Footnote 13: He speaks it as about to rush to her.]
[Footnote 14: --the choice of Ophelia's fantastic madness, as being the
tree of lamenting lovers.]
[Footnote 15: --always busy with flowers.]
[Footnote 16: Ranunculus: _Sh. Lex._]
[Footnote 17: --specially descriptive of the willow.]
[Footnote 18: her wild flowers made into a garland.]
[Footnote 19: The intention would seem, that she imagined herself
decorating a monument to her father. Hence her _Coronet weeds_ and the
Poet's _weedy Trophies_.]
[Footnote 20: _Sliver_, I suspect, called so after the fact, because
_slivered_ or torn off. In _Macbeth_ we have:
slips of yew
Slivered in the moon's eclipse.
But it may be that _sliver_ was used for a _twig_, such as could be torn
off.
_Slip_ and _sliver_ must be of the same root.]
[Page 224]
Fell in the weeping Brooke, her cloathes spred wide,
And Mermaid-like, a while they bore her vp,
Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,[1]
[Sidenote: old laudes,[1]]
As one incapable of[2] her owne distresse,
Or like a creature Natiue, and indued[3]
Vnto that Element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heauy with her drinke, [Sidenote: theyr drinke]
Pul'd the poore wretch from her melodious buy,[4]
[Sidenote: melodious lay]
To muddy death.[5]
_Laer_. Alas then, is she drown'd? [Sidenote: she is]
_Queen_. Drown'd, drown'd.
_Laer_. Too much of water hast thou poore _Ophelia_,
And therefore I forbid my teares: but yet
It is our tricke,[6] Nature her custome holds,
Let shame say what it will; when these are gone
The woman will be out:[7] Adue my Lord,
I haue a speech of fire, that faine would blaze,
[Sidenote: speech a fire]
But that this folly doubts[8] it. _Exit._ [Sidenote: drownes it.[8]]
_Kin_. Let's follow, _Gertrude_:
How much I had to doe to calme his rage?
Now feare I this will giue it start againe;
Therefore let's follow. _Exeunt_.[9]
[10]_Enter two Clownes._
_Clown_. Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall,
[Sidenote: buriall, when she wilfully]
that wilfully seekes her owne saluation?[11]
_Other_. I tell thee she is, and therefore make her
[Sidenote: is, therefore]
Graue straight,[12] the Crowner hath sate on her, and
finds it Christian buriall.
_Clo_. How can that be, vnlesse she drowned her
selfe in her owne defence?
_Other_. Why 'tis found so.[13]
_Clo_. It must be _Se offendendo_,[14] it cannot bee else:
[Sidenote: be so offended, it]
[Footnote 1: They were not lauds she was in the habit of singing, to
judge by the snatches given.]
[Footnote 2: not able to take in, not understanding, not conscious of.]
[Footnote 3: clothed, endowed, fitted for. See _Sh. Lex._]
[Footnote 4: _Could_ the word be for _buoy_--'her clothes spread wide,'
on which she floated singing--therefore her melodious buoy or float?]
[Footnote 5: How could the queen know all this, when there was no one
near enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of her
death given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl's
suicide, and by circumstance beguile the sorrow-rage of Laertes?]
[Footnote 6: 'I cannot help it.']
[Footnote 7: 'when these few tears are spent, all the woman will be out
of me: I shall be a man again.']
[Footnote 8: _douts_: 'this foolish water of tears puts it out.' _See Q.
reading._]
[Footnote 9: Here ends the Fourth Act, between which and the Fifth may
intervene a day or two.]
[Footnote 10: Act V. This act _requires_ only part of a day; the funeral
and the catastrophe might be on the same.]
[Footnote 11: Has this a confused connection with the fancy that
salvation is getting to heaven?]
[Footnote 12: Whether this means _straightway_, or _not crooked_, I
cannot tell.]
[Footnote 13: 'the coroner has settled it.']
[Footnote 14: The Clown's blunder for _defendendo_.]
[Page 226]
for heere lies the point; If I drowne my selfe
wittingly, it argues an Act: and an Act hath three
branches. It is an Act to doe and to performe;
[Sidenote: it is to act, to doe, to performe, or all: she]
argall[1] she drown'd her selfe wittingly.
_Other_. Nay but heare you Goodman Deluer. [Sidenote: good man deluer.]
_Clown_. Giue me leaue; heere lies the water;
good: heere stands the man; good: If the man
goe to this water and drowne himsele; it is will
he nill he, he goes; marke you that? But if the
water come to him and drowne him; hee drownes
not himselfe. Argall, hee that is not guilty of his
owne death, shortens not his owne life.
_Other_. But is this law?
_Clo_. I marry is't, Crowners Quest Law.
_Other_. Will you ha the truth on't: if this had [Sidenote: truth an't]
not beene a Gentlewoman, shee should haue beene
buried out of[2] Christian Buriall. [Sidenote: out a]
_Clo_. Why there thou say'st. And the more
pitty that great folke should haue countenance in
this world to drowne or hang themselues, more then
their euen[3] Christian. Come, my Spade; there is
no ancient Gentlemen, but Gardiners, Ditchers and
Graue-makers; they hold vp _Adams_ Profession.
_Other_. Was he a Gentleman?
_Clo_. He was the first that euer bore Armes. [Sidenote: A was]
[4]_Other_. Why he had none.
_Clo_. What, ar't a Heathen? how dost thou vnderstand
the Scripture? the Scripture sayes _Adam_
dig'd; could hee digge without Armes?[4] Ile put
another question to thee; if thou answerest me not
to the purpose, confesse thy selfe----
_Other_. Go too.
_Clo_. What is he that builds stronger then either
the Mason, the Shipwright, or the Carpenter?
_Other_. The Gallowes-maker; for that Frame
outliues a thousand Tenants. [Sidenote: that outliues]
[Footnote 1: _ergo_, therefore.]
[Footnote 2: _without_. The pleasure the speeches of the Clown give us,
lies partly in the undercurrent of sense, so disguised by stupidity in
the utterance; and partly in the wit which mainly succeeds in its end by
the failure of its means.]
[Footnote 3: _equal_, that is _fellow_ Christian.]
[Footnote 4: _From 'Other' to_ 'Armes' _not in Quarto._]
[Page 228]
_Clo_. I like thy wit well in good faith, the
Gallowes does well; but how does it well? it does
well to those that doe ill: now, thou dost ill to say
the Gallowes is built stronger then the Church:
Argall, the Gallowes may doe well to thee. Too't
againe, Come.
_Other_. Who builds stronger then a Mason, a
Shipwright, or a Carpenter?
_Clo_. I, tell me that, and vnyoake.[1]
_Other_. Marry, now I can tell.
_Clo_. Too't.
_Other_. Masse, I cannot tell.
_Enter Hamlet and Horatio a farre off._[2]
_Clo_. Cudgell thy braines no more about it; for
your dull Asse will not mend his pace with beating,
and when you are ask't this question next, say
a Graue-maker: the Houses that he makes, lasts
[Sidenote: houses hee makes]
till Doomesday: go, get thee to _Yaughan_,[3] fetch
[Sidenote: thee in, and fetch mee a soope of]
me a stoupe of Liquor.
_Sings._[4]
_In youth when I did loue, did loue_, [Sidenote: _Song._]
_me thought it was very sweete:
To contract O the time for a my behoue,
O me thought there was nothing meete[5]_
[Sidenote: there a was nothing a meet.]
[Sidenote: _Enter Hamlet & Horatio_]
_Ham_. Ha's this fellow no feeling of his businesse,
[Sidenote: busines? a sings in graue-making.]
that he sings at Graue-making?[6]
_Hor_. Custome hath made it in him a property[7]
of easinesse.
_Ham_. 'Tis ee'n so; the hand of little Imployment
hath the daintier sense.
_Clowne sings._[8]
_But Age with his stealing steps_ [Sidenote _Clow. Song._]
_hath caught me in his clutch_: [Sidenote: hath clawed me]
[Footnote 1: 'unyoke your team'--as having earned his rest.]
[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 3: Whether this is the name of a place, or the name of an
innkeeper, or is merely an inexplicable corruption--some take it for a
stage-direction to yawn--I cannot tell. See _Q._ reading.
It is said to have been discovered that a foreigner named Johan sold ale
next door to the Globe.]
[Footnote 4: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 5: A song ascribed to Lord Vaux is in this and the following
stanzas made nonsense of.]
[Footnote 6: Note Hamlet's mood throughout what follows. He has entered
the shadow of death.]
[Footnote 7: _Property_ is what specially belongs to the individual;
here it is his _peculiar work_, or _personal calling_: 'custom has made
it with him an easy duty.']
[Footnote 8: _Not in Quarto._]
[Page 230]
_And hath shipped me intill the Land_, [Sidenote: into]
_as if I had neuer beene such_.
_Ham_. That Scull had a tongue in it, and could
sing once: how the knaue iowles it to th' grownd, [Sidenote: the]
as if it were _Caines_ Iaw-bone, that did the first [Sidenote: twere]
murther: It might be the Pate of a Polititian which
[Sidenote: murder, this might]
this Asse o're Offices: one that could circumuent
[Sidenote: asse now ore-reaches; one that would]
God, might it not?
_Hor_. It might, my Lord.
_Ham_. Or of a Courtier, which could say, Good
Morrow sweet Lord: how dost thou, good Lord?
[Sidenote: thou sweet lord?]
this might be my Lord such a one, that prais'd my
Lord such a ones Horse, when he meant to begge
[Sidenote: when a went to]
it; might it not?[1]
_Hor_. I, my Lord.
_Ham_. Why ee'n so: and now my Lady
Wormes,[2] Chaplesse,[3] and knockt about the Mazard[4]
[Sidenote: Choples | the massene with]
with a Sextons Spade; heere's fine Reuolution, if
[Sidenote: and we had]
wee had the tricke to see't. Did these bones cost
no more the breeding, but to play at Loggets[5] with
'em? mine ake to thinke on't. [Sidenote: them]
_Clowne sings._[6]
_A Pickhaxe and a Spade, a Spade_, [Sidenote: _Clow. Song._]
_for and a shrowding-Sheete:
O a Pit of Clay for to be made,
for such a Guest is meete_.
_Ham_. There's another: why might not that
bee the Scull of of a Lawyer? where be his [Sidenote: skull of a]
Quiddits[7] now? his Quillets[7]? his Cases? his [Sidenote: quiddities]
Tenures, and his Tricks? why doe's he suffer this
rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8]
[Sidenote: this madde knaue]
with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his
Action of Battery? hum. This fellow might be
in's time a great buyer of Land, with his
Statutes, his Recognizances, his Fines, his double
[Footnote 1: To feel the full force of this, we must call up the
expression on the face of 'such a one' as he begged the horse--probably
imitated by Hamlet--and contrast it with the look on the face of the
skull.]
[Footnote 2: 'now the property of my Lady Worm.']
[Footnote 3: the lower jaw gone.]
[Footnote 4: _the upper jaw_, I think--not _the head_.]
[Footnote 5: a game in which pins of wood, called loggats, nearly two
feet long, were half thrown, half slid, towards a bowl. _Blount_:
Johnson and Steevens.]
[Footnote 6: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: a lawyer's quirks and quibbles. See _Johnson and Steevens_.
_1st Q._
now where is your
Quirkes and quillets now,]
[Footnote 8: Humorous, or slang word for _the head_. 'A fort--a
head-piece--the head': _Webster's Dict_.]
[Page 232]
Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of his
Fines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries,[1] to haue
his fine[4] Pate full of fine[4] Dirt? will his Vouchers
[Sidenote: will vouchers]
vouch him no more of his Purchases, and double
[Sidenote: purchases & doubles then]
ones too, then the length and breadth of a paire of
Indentures? the very Conueyances of his Lands
will hardly lye in this Boxe[5]; and must the Inheritor
[Sidenote: scarcely iye; | th']
himselfe haue no more?[6] ha?
_Hor_. Not a iot more, my Lord.
_Ham_. Is not Parchment made of Sheep-skinnes?
_Hor_. I my Lord, and of Calue-skinnes too.
[Sidenote: Calues-skinnes to]
_Ham_. They are Sheepe and Calues that seek [Sidenote: which seek]
out assurance in that. I will speake to this fellow:
whose Graue's this Sir? [Sidenote: this sirra?]
_Clo_. Mine Sir: [Sidenote: _Clow_. Mine sir, or a pit]
_O a Pit of Clay for to be made,
for such a Guest is meete._[7]
_Ham_. I thinke it be thine indeed: for thou
liest in't.
_Clo_. You lye out on't Sir, and therefore it is not [Sidenote: tis]
yours: for my part, I doe not lye in't; and yet it [Sidenote: in't, yet]
is mine.
_Ham_. Thou dost lye in't, to be in't and say 'tis [Sidenote: it is]
thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quicke, therefore
thou lyest.
_Clo_. Tis a quicke lye Sir, 'twill away againe
from me to you.[8]
_Ham_. What man dost thou digge it for?
_Clo_. For no man Sir.
_Ham_. What woman then?
_Clo_. For none neither.
_Ham_. Who is to be buried in't?
_Clo_. One that was a woman Sir; but rest her
Soule, shee's dead.
[Footnote 1: _From_ 'Is' _to_ 'Recoueries' _not in Q._]
[Footnote 2: the end.]
[Footnote 3: the property regained by his Recoveries.]
[Footnote 4: third and fourth meanings of the word _fine_.]
[Footnote 5: the skull.]
[Footnote 6: 'must the heir have no more either?'
_1st Q_.
and must
The honor (_owner?_) lie there?]
[Footnote 7: _This line not in Q._]
[Footnote 8: He _gives_ the lie.]
[Page 234]
_Ham_. How absolute[1] the knaue is? wee must
[Sidenote: 256] speake by the Carde,[2] or equiuocation will vndoe
vs: by the Lord _Horatio_, these three yeares[3] I haue
[Sidenote: this three]
taken note of it, the Age is growne so picked,[4] [Sidenote: tooke]
that the toe of the Pesant comes so neere the
heeles of our Courtier, hee galls his Kibe.[5] How
[Sidenote: the heele of the]
long hast thou been a Graue-maker? [Sidenote: been Graue-maker?]
_Clo_. Of all the dayes i'th'yeare, I came too't
[Sidenote: Of the dayes]
that day[6] that our last King _Hamlet_ o'recame [Sidenote: ouercame]
_Fortinbras_.
_Ham_. How long is that since?
_Clo_. Cannot you tell that? euery foole can tell
[Sidenote: 143] that: It was the very day,[6] that young _Hamlet_ was
[Sidenote: was that very]
borne,[8] hee that was mad, and sent into England,
[Sidenote: that is mad]
_Ham_. I marry, why was he sent into England?
_Clo_. Why, because he was mad; hee shall recouer
[Sidenote: a was mad: a shall]
his wits there; or if he do not, it's no great
[Sidenote: if a do | tis]
matter there.
_Ham_. Why?
_Clo_. 'Twill not be scene in him, there the men
[Sidenote: him there, there]
are as mad as he.
_Ham_. How came he mad?
_Clo_. Very strangely they say.
_Ham_. How strangely?[7]
_Clo_. Faith e'ene with loosing his wits.
_Ham_. Vpon what ground?
_Clo_. Why heere in Denmarke[8]: I haue bin sixeteene [Sidenote: Sexten]
[Sidenote: 142-3] heere, man and Boy thirty yeares.[9]
_Ham_. How long will a man lie 'ith' earth ere he
rot?
_Clo_. Ifaith, if he be not rotten before he die (as
[Sidenote: Fayth if a be not | a die]
we haue many pocky Coarses now adaies, that will
[Sidenote: corses, that will]
scarce hold the laying in) he will last you some [Sidenote: a will]
eight yeare, or nine yeare. A Tanner will last you
nine yeare.
[Footnote 1: 'How the knave insists on precision!']
[Footnote 2: chart: _Skeat's Etym. Dict._]
[Footnote 3: Can this indicate any point in the history of English
society?]
[Footnote 4: so fastidious; so given to _picking_ and choosing; so
choice.]
[Footnote 5: The word is to be found in any dictionary, but is not
generally understood. Lord Byron, a very inaccurate writer, takes it to
mean _heel_:
Devices quaint, and frolics ever new,
Tread on each others' kibes:
_Childe Harold, Canto 1. St. 67._