_Lear_. Forbeare the earth a while: sister farewell:
_Leartes leapes into the graue._
Now powre your earth on _Olympus_ hie,
And make a hill to o're top olde _Pellon_:
_Hamlet leapes in after Leartes_
Whats he that coniures so?
_Ham_. Beholde tis I, _Hamlet_ the Dane.]
[Footnote 11: The whole speech is bravado--the frothy grief of a weak,
excitable effusive nature.]
[Footnote 12: He can remain apart no longer, and approaches the
company.]
[Page 242]
Coniure the wandring Starres, and makes them stand [Sidenote: Coniues]
Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
_Hamlet_ the Dane.[1]
_Laer_. The deuill take thy soule.[2]
_Ham_. Thou prai'st not well,
I prythee take thy fingers from my throat;[3]
Sir though I am not Spleenatiue, and rash,
[Sidenote: For though | spleenatiue rash,]
Yet haue I something in me dangerous, [Sidenote: in me something]
Which let thy wisenesse feare. Away thy hand.
[Sidenote: wisedome feare; hold off they]
_King_. Pluck them asunder.
_Qu. Hamlet, Hamlet_. [Sidenote: _All_. Gentlemen.]
_Gen_. Good my Lord be quiet. [Sidenote: _Hora_. Good]
_Ham_. Why I will fight with him vppon this Theme,
Vntill my eielids will no longer wag.[4]
_Qu_. Oh my Sonne, what Theame?
_Ham_. I lou'd _Ophelia_[5]; fortie thousand Brothers
Could not (with all there quantitie of Loue)
Make vp my summe. What wilt thou do for her?[6]
_King_. Oh he is mad _Laertes_.[7]
_Qu_. For loue of God forbeare him.
_Ham_. Come show me what thou'lt doe.
[Sidenote: _Ham_ S'wounds shew | th'owt fight,
woo't fast, woo't teare]
Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy selfe?
Woo't drinke vp _Esile_, eate a Crocodile?[6]
Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine; [Sidenote: doost come]
To outface me with leaping in her Graue?
Be[8] buried quicke with her, and so will I.
And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throw
Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground
Sindging his pate against the burning Zone,
[Sidenote: 262] Make _Ossa_ like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth,
Ile rant as well as thou.[9]
[Footnote 1: This fine speech is yet spoken in the character of madman,
which Hamlet puts on once more the moment he has to appear before the
king. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; its
extravagance to his assumed insanity. It must be remembered that death
is a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the death
of Ophelia may even be some consolation to him.
In the _Folio_, a few lines back, Laertes leaps into the grave. There is
no such direction in the _Q_. In neither is Hamlet said to leap into the
grave; only the _1st Q._ so directs. It is a stage-business that must
please the _common_ actor of Hamlet; but there is nothing in the text
any more than in the margin of _Folio_ or _Quarto_ to justify it, and it
would but for the horror of it be ludicrous. The coffin is supposed to
be in the grave: must Laertes jump down upon it, followed by Hamlet, and
the two fight and trample over the body?
Yet I take the '_Leaps in the grave_' to be an action intended for
Laertes by the Poet. His 'Hold off the earth a while,' does not
necessarily imply that the body is already in the grave. He has before
said, 'Lay her i'th' earth': then it was not in the grave. It is just
about to be lowered, when, with that cry of 'Hold off the earth a
while,' he jumps into the grave, and taking the corpse, on a bier at the
side of it, in his arms, calls to the spectators to pile a mountain on
them--in the wild speech that brings out Hamlet. The quiet dignity of
Hamlet's speech does not comport with his jumping into the grave:
Laertes comes out of the grave, and flies at Hamlet's throat. So, at
least, I would have the thing acted.
There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out of
the grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I would
suggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's book
on Grave-Mounds, I read of a 'female skeleton in a grave six feet deep,
ten feet long, and eight feet wide.' Such a grave would give room for
both beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the common
representation.]
[Footnote 2: --_springing out of the grave and flying at Hamlet_.]
[Footnote 3: Note the temper, self-knowledge, self-government, and
self-distrust of Hamlet.]
[Footnote 4: The eyelids last of all become incapable of motion.]
[Footnote 5: That he loved her is the only thing to explain the
harshness of his behaviour to her. Had he not loved her and not been
miserable about her, he would have been as polite to her as well bred
people would have him.]
[Footnote 6: The gallants of Shakspere's day would challenge each other
to do more disagreeable things than any of these in honour of their
mistresses.
'_Ésil._ s.m. Ancien nom du Vinaigre.' _Supplement to Academy Dict._,
1847.--'Eisile, _vinegar_': Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dict_., from
Somner's _Saxon Dict._, 1659.--'Eisel (_Saxon), vinegar; verjuice; any
acid_': Johnson's _Dict_.
_1st Q_. 'Wilt drinke vp vessels.' The word _up_ very likely implies the
steady emptying of a vessel specified--at a draught, and not by
degrees.]
[Footnote 7: --pretending care over Hamlet.]
[Footnote 8: Emphasis on _Be_, which I take for the _imperative mood_.]
[Footnote 9: The moment it is uttered, he recognizes and confesses to
the rant, ashamed of it even under the cover of his madness. It did not
belong _altogether_ to the madness. Later he expresses to Horatio his
regret in regard to this passage between him and Laertes, and afterwards
apologizes to Laertes. 252, 262.
Perhaps this is the speech in all the play of which it is most difficult
to get into a sympathetic comprehension. The student must call to mind
the elements at war in Hamlet's soul, and generating discords in his
behaviour: to those comes now the shock of Ophelia's death; the last tie
that bound him to life is gone--the one glimmer of hope left him for
this world! The grave upon whose brink he has been bandying words with
the sexton, is for _her_! Into such a consciousness comes the rant of
Laertes. Only the forms of madness are free to him, while no form is too
strong in which to repudiate indifference to Ophelia: for her sake, as
well as to relieve his own heart, he casts the clear confession of his
love into her grave. He is even jealous, over her dead body, of her
brother's profession of love to her--as if any brother could love as he
loved! This is foolish, no doubt, but human, and natural to a certain
childishness in grief. 252.
Add to this, that Hamlet--see later in his speeches to Osricke--had a
lively inclination to answer a fool according to his folly (256), to
outherod Herod if Herod would rave, out-euphuize Euphues himself if he
would be ridiculous:--the digestion of all these things in the retort of
meditation will result, I would fain think, in an understanding and
artistic justification of even this speech of Hamlet: the more I
consider it the truer it seems. If proof be necessary that real feeling
is mingled in the madness of the utterance, it may be found in the fact
that he is immediately ashamed of its extravagance.]
[Page 244]
_Kin_.[1] This is meere Madnesse: [Sidenote: _Quee_.[1]]
And thus awhile the fit will worke on him: [Sidenote: And this]
Anon as patient as the female Doue,
When that her golden[2] Cuplet[3] are disclos'd[4];
[Sidenote: cuplets[3]]
His silence will sit drooping.[5]
_Ham_. Heare you Sir:[6]
What is the reason that you vse me thus?
I loud' you euer;[7] but it is no matter:[8]
Let _Hercules_ himselfe doe what he may,
The Cat will Mew, and Dogge will haue his day.[9]
_Exit._ [Sidenote: _Exit Hamlet and Horatio._]
_Kin_. I pray you good Horatio wait vpon him,
[Sidenote: pray thee good]
Strengthen you patience in our last nights speech, [Sidenote: your]
[Sidenote: 254] Wee'l put the matter to the present push:[10]
Good _Gertrude_ set some watch ouer your Sonne,
This Graue shall haue a liuing[11] Monument:[12]
An houre of quiet shortly shall we see;[13]
[Sidenote: quiet thirtie shall]
Till then, in patience our proceeding be. _Exeunt._
[Footnote 1: I hardly know which to choose as the speaker of this
speech. It would be a fine specimen of the king's hypocrisy; and perhaps
indeed its poetry, lovely in itself, but at such a time sentimental, is
fitter for him than the less guilty queen.]
[Footnote 2: 'covered with a yellow down' _Heath_.]
[Footnote 3: The singular is better: 'the pigeon lays no more than _two_
eggs.' _Steevens_. Only, _couplets_ might be used like _twins_.]
[Footnote 4: --_hatched_, the sporting term of the time.]
[Footnote 5: 'The pigeon never quits her nest for three days after her
two young ones are hatched, except for a few moments to get food.'
_Steevens_.]
[Footnote 6: Laertes stands eyeing him with evil looks.]
[Footnote 7: I suppose here a pause: he waits in vain some response from
Laertes.]
[Footnote 8: Here he retreats into his madness.]
[Footnote 9: '--but I cannot compel you to hear reason. Do what he will,
Hercules himself cannot keep the cat from mewing, or the dog from
following his inclination!'--said in a half humorous, half contemptuous
despair.]
[Footnote 10: 'into immediate train'--_to Laertes_.]
[Footnote 11: _life-like_, or _lasting_?]
[Footnote 12: --_again to Laertes_.]
[Footnote 13: --when Hamlet is dead.]
[Page 246]
_Enter Hamlet and Horatio._
_Ham._ So much for this Sir; now let me see the other,[1]
[Sidenote: now shall you see]
You doe remember all the Circumstance.[2]
_Hor._ Remember it my Lord?[3]
_Ham._ Sir, in my heart there was a kinde of fighting,
That would not let me sleepe;[4] me thought I lay
[Sidenote: my thought]
Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes,[5] rashly, [Sidenote: bilbo]
(And praise be rashnesse for it)[6] let vs know, [Sidenote: prayed]
Our indiscretion sometimes serues vs well, [Sidenote: sometime]
When our deare plots do paule,[7] and that should teach vs,
[Sidenote: deepe | should learne us]
[Sidenote: 146, 181] There's a Diuinity that shapes our ends,[8]
Rough-hew them how we will.[9]
_Hor._ That is most certaine.
_Ham._ Vp from my Cabin
My sea-gowne scarft about me in the darke,
Grop'd I to finde out them;[10] had my desire,
Finger'd their Packet[11], and in fine, withdrew
To mine owne roome againe, making so bold,
(My feares forgetting manners) to vnseale [Sidenote: to vnfold]
Their grand Commission, where I found _Horatio_,
Oh royall[12] knauery: An exact command, [Sidenote: A royall]
[Sidenote: 196] Larded with many seuerall sorts of reason;
[Sidenote: reasons,]
Importing Denmarks health, and Englands too,
With hoo, such Bugges[13] and Goblins in my life, [Sidenote: hoe]
That on the superuize[14] no leasure bated,[15]
No not to stay the grinding of the Axe,
My head shoud be struck off.
_Hor._ Ist possible?
_Ham._ Here's the Commission, read it at more leysure:
[Footnote 1: I would suggest that the one paper, which he has just
shown, is a commission the king gave to himself; the other, which he is
about to show, that given to Rosincrance and Guildensterne. He is
setting forth his proof of the king's treachery.]
[Footnote 2: --of the king's words and behaviour, possibly, in giving
him his papers, Horatio having been present; or it might mean, 'Have you
got the things I have just told you clear in your mind?']
[Footnote 3: '--as if I could forget a single particular of it!']
[Footnote 4: The _Shaping Divinity_ was moving him.]
[Footnote 5: The fetters called _bilboes_ fasten a couple of mutinous
sailors together by the legs.]
[Footnote 6: Does he not here check himself and begin
afresh--remembering that the praise belongs to the Divinity?]
[Footnote 7: _pall_--from the root of _pale_--'come to nothing.' He had
had his plots from which he hoped much; the king's commission had
rendered them futile. But he seems to have grown doubtful of his plans
before, probably through the doubt of his companions which led him to
seek acquaintance with their commission, and he may mean that his 'dear
plots' had begun to pall _upon him_. Anyhow the sudden 'indiscretion' of
searching for and unsealing the ambassadors' commission served him as
nothing else could have served him.]
[Footnote 8: --even by our indiscretion. Emphasis on _shapes_.]
[Footnote 9: Here is another sign of Hamlet's religion. 24, 125, 260.
We start to work out an idea, but the result does not correspond with
the idea: another has been at work along with us. We rough-hew--block
out our marble, say for a Mercury; the result is an Apollo. Hamlet had
rough-hewn his ends--he had begun plans to certain ends, but had he been
allowed to go on shaping them alone, the result, even had he carried out
his plans and shaped his ends to his mind, would have been failure.
Another mallet and chisel were busy shaping them otherwise from the
first, and carrying them out to a true success. For _success_ is not the
success of plans, but the success of ends.]
[Footnote 10: Emphasize _I_ and _them_, as the rhythm requires, and the
phrase becomes picturesque.]
[Footnote 11: 'got my fingers on their papers.']
[Footnote 12: Emphasize _royal_.]
[Footnote 13: A _bug_ is any object causing terror.]
[Footnote 14: immediately on the reading.]
[Footnote 15: --no interval abated, taken off the immediacy of the order
respite granted.]
[Page 248]