_Hor_. I beseech you.
_Ham_. Being thus benetted round with Villaines,[1]
Ere I could make a Prologue to my braines, [Sidenote: Or I could]
They had begun the Play.[2] I sate me downe,
Deuis'd a new Commission,[3] wrote it faire,
I once did hold it as our Statists[4] doe,
A basenesse to write faire; and laboured much
How to forget that learning: but Sir now,
It did me Yeomans[5] seruice: wilt thou know [Sidenote: yemans]
The effects[6] of what I wrote? [Sidenote: Th'effect[6]]
_Hor_. I, good my Lord.
_Ham_. An earnest Coniuration from the King,
As England was his faithfull Tributary,
As loue betweene them, as the Palme should flourish,
[Sidenote: them like the | might florish,]
As Peace should still her wheaten Garland weare,
And stand a Comma 'tweene their amities,[7]
And many such like Assis[8] of great charge,
[Sidenote: like, as sir of]
That on the view and know of these Contents, [Sidenote: knowing]
Without debatement further, more or lesse,
He should the bearers put to sodaine death, [Sidenote: those bearers]
Not shriuing time allowed.
_Hor_. How was this seal'd?
_Ham_. Why, euen in that was Heauen ordinate; [Sidenote: ordinant,]
I had my fathers Signet in my Purse,
Which was the Modell of that Danish Seale:
Folded the Writ vp in forme of the other,
[Sidenote: in the forme of th']
Subscrib'd it, gau't th'impression, plac't it safely,
[Sidenote: Subscribe it,]
The changeling neuer knowne: Now, the next day
Was our Sea Fight, and what to this was sement, [Sidenote: was sequent]
Thou know'st already.[9]
_Hor_. So _Guildensterne_ and _Rosincrance_, go too't.
[Footnote 1: --the nearest, Rosincrance and Guildensterne: Hamlet was
quite satisfied of their villainy.]
[Footnote 2: 'I had no need to think: the thing came to me at once.']
[Footnote 3: Note Hamlet's rapid practicality--not merely in devising,
but in carrying out.]
[Footnote 4: statesmen.]
[Footnote 5: '_Yeomen of the guard of the king's body_ were anciently
two hundred and fifty men, of the best rank under gentry, and of larger
stature than ordinary; every one being required to be six feet
high.'--_E. Chambers' Cyclopaedia_. Hence '_yeoman's_ service' must mean
the very best of service.]
[Footnote 6: Note our common phrase: 'I wrote to this effect.']
[Footnote 7: 'as he would have Peace stand between their friendships
like a comma between two words.' Every point has in it a conjunctive, as
well as a disjunctive element: the former seems the one regarded
here--only that some amities require more than a comma to separate them.
The _comma_ does not make much of a figure--is good enough for its
position, however; if indeed the fact be not, that, instead of standing
for _Peace_, it does not even stand for itself, but for some other word.
I do not for my part think so.]
[Footnote 8: Dr. Johnson says there is a quibble here with _asses_ as
beasts of _charge_ or burden. It is probable enough, seeing, as Malone
tells us, that in Warwickshire, as did Dr. Johnson himself, they
pronounce _as_ hard. In Aberdeenshire the sound of the _s_ varies with
the intent of the word: '_az_ he said'; '_ass_ strong _az_ a horse.']
[Footnote 9: To what purpose is this half-voyage to England made part of
the play? The action--except, as not a few would have it, the very
action be delay--is nowise furthered by it; Hamlet merely goes and
returns.
To answer this question, let us find the real ground for Hamlet's
reflection, 'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends.' Observe, he is
set at liberty without being in the least indebted to the finding of the
commission--by the attack, namely, of the pirate; and this was not the
shaping of his ends of which he was thinking when he made the
reflection, for it had reference to the finding of the commission. What
then was the ground of the reflection? And what justifies the whole
passage in relation to the Poet's object, the character of Hamlet?