[Footnote 4: --_to Horatio_.]
[Footnote 5: 'Thou art the more in a state of grace, for it is a vice to
know him.']
[Footnote 6: 'his manger shall stand where the king is served.' Wealth
is always received by Rank--Mammon nowhere better worshipped than in
kings' courts.]
[Footnote 7: '_a bird of the crow-family_'--as a figure, '_always
applied to rich and avaricious people_.' A _chuff_ is a surly _clown_.
In Scotch a _coof_ is 'a silly, dastardly fellow.']
[Footnote 8: land.]
[Footnote 9: 'friendship' is better than 'Lordshippe,' as euphuistic.]
[Footnote 10: 'I thanke your Lordship; (_puts on his hat_) 'tis very
hot.']
[Footnote 11: 'rather cold.']
[Footnote 12: 'and hot--for _my_ temperament.']
[Footnote 13: Not able to go on, he plunges into his message.]
[Footnote 14: --_takes off his hat_.]
[Footnote 15: --making a sign to him again to put on his hat.]
[Page 256]
faith[1]: Sir, [A] you are not ignorant of what excellence
_Laertes_ [B] is at his weapon.[2] [Sidenote: _Laertes_ is.[2]]
_Ham_. What's his weapon?[3]
_Osr_. Rapier and dagger. [Sidenote: _Cour._]
_Ham_. That's two of his weapons: but well.
_Osr_. The sir King ha's wag'd with him six
[Sidenote: _Cour_. The King sir hath wagerd]
Barbary Horses, against the which he impon'd[4] as I
[Sidenote: hee has impaund]
take it, sixe French Rapiers and Poniards, with
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
[5] here is newly com to Court _Laertes_, belieue me an absolute
gentlemen, ful of most excellent differences,[6] of very soft
society,[7] and great
[Sidenote: 234] showing[8]: indeede to speake sellingly[9] of him, hee
is the card or kalender[10] of gentry: for you shall find in him the
continent of what part a Gentleman would see.[11]
[Sidenote: 245] _Ham_.[12] Sir, his definement suffers no perdition[13]
in you, though I know to deuide him inuentorially,[14] would dosie[15]
th'arithmaticke of memory, and yet but yaw[16] neither in respect of
his quick saile, but in the veritie of extolment, I take him to be a
soule of great article,[17] & his infusion[18] of such dearth[19] and
rarenesse, as to make true dixion of him, his semblable is his
mirrour,[20] & who els would trace him, his vmbrage, nothing more.[21]
_Cour_. Your Lordship speakes most infallibly of him.[22]
_Ham_. The concernancy[23] sir, why doe we wrap the gentleman in our
more rawer breath?[24]
_Cour_. Sir.[25]
_Hora_. Ist not possible to vnderstand in another tongue,[26] you will
too't sir really.[27]
_Ham_. What imports the nomination of this gentleman.
_Cour_. Of _Laertes_.[28]
_Hora_. His purse is empty already, all's golden words are spent.
_Ham_. Of him sir.[29]
_Cour_. I know you are not ignorant.[30]
_Ham_. I would you did sir, yet in faith if you did, it would not
much approoue me,[31] well sir.
_Cour_.]
[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Ham_. I dare not confesse that, least I should compare with him in
excellence, but to know a man wel, were to knowe himselfe.[32]
_Cour_. I meane sir for this weapon, but in the imputation laide on
him,[33] by them in his meed, hee's vnfellowed.[34]]
[Footnote 1: 'in good faith, it is not for manners, but for my comfort I
take it off.' Perhaps the hat was intended only to be carried, and would
not really go on his head.]
[Footnote 2: The _Quarto_ has not 'at his weapon,' which is inserted to
take the place of the passage omitted, and connect the edges of the
gap.]
[Footnote 3: So far from having envied Laertes' reputation for fencing,
as the king asserts, Hamlet seems not even to have known which was
Laertes' weapon.]
[Footnote 4: laid down--staked.]
[Footnote 5: This and the following passages seem omitted for
curtailment, and perhaps in part because they were less amusing when the
fashion of euphuism had passed. The good of holding up the mirror to
folly was gone when it was no more the 'form and pressure' of 'the very
age and body of the time.']
[Footnote 6: of great variety of excellence.]
[Footnote 7: gentle manners.]
[Footnote 8: fine presence.]
[Footnote 9: Is this a stupid attempt at wit on the part of Osricke--'to
praise him as if you wanted to sell him'--stupid because it acknowledges
exaggeration?]
[Footnote 10: 'the chart or book of reference.' 234.]
[Footnote 11: I think _part_ here should be plural; then the passage
would paraphrase thus:--'you shall find in him the sum of what parts
(_endowments_) a gentleman would wish to see.']
[Footnote 12: Hamlet answers the fool according to his folly, but
outdoes him, to his discomfiture.]
[Footnote 13: 'his description suffers no loss in your mouth.']
[Footnote 14: 'to analyze him into all and each of his qualities.']
[Footnote 15: dizzy.]
[Footnote 16: 'and yet _would_ but yaw neither' _Yaw_, 'the movement by
which a ship deviates from the line of her course towards the right or
left in steering.' Falconer's _Marine Dictionary_. The meaning seems to
be that the inventorial description could not overtake his merits,
because it would _yaw_--keep turning out of the direct line of their
quick sail. But Hamlet is set on using far-fetched and absurd forms and
phrases to the non-plussing of Osricke, nor cares much to be _correct_.]
[Footnote 17: I take this use of the word _article_ to be merely for the
occasion; it uas never surely in _use_ for _substance_.]
[Footnote 18: '--the infusion of his soul into his body,' 'his soul's
embodiment.' The _Sh. Lex._ explains _infusion_ as 'endowments,
qualities,' and it may be right.]
[Footnote 19: scarcity.]
[Footnote 20: '--it alone can show his likeness.']
[Footnote 21: 'whoever would follow in his footsteps--copy him--is only
his shadow.']
[Footnote 22: Here a pause, I think.]
[Footnote 23: 'To the matter in hand!'--recalling the attention of
Osricke to the purport of his visit.]
[Footnote 24: 'why do we presume to talk about him with our less refined
breath?']
[Footnote 25: The Courtier is now thoroughly bewildered.]
[Footnote 26: 'Can you only _speak_ in another tongue? Is it not
possible to _understand_ in it as well?']
[Footnote 27: 'It is your own fault; you _will_ court your fate! you
_will_ go and be made a fool of!']
[Footnote 28: He catches at the word he understands. The actor must here
supply the meaning, with the baffled, disconcerted look of a fool who
has failed in the attempt to seem knowing.]
[Footnote 29:--answering the Courtier.]
[Footnote 30: He pauses, looking for some out-of-the-way mode wherein to
continue. Hamlet takes him up.]
[Footnote 31: 'your witness to my knowledge would not be of much
avail.']
[Footnote 32: Paraphrase: 'for merely to know a man well, implies that
you yourself _know_.' To know a man well, you must know his knowledge: a
man, to judge his neighbour, must be at least his equal.]
[Footnote 33: faculty attributed to him.]
[Footnote 34: _Point thus_: 'laide on him by them, in his meed hee's
unfellowed.' 'in his merit he is peerless.']
[Page 258]
their assignes,[1] as Girdle, Hangers or so[2]: three of
[Sidenote: hanger and so.]
the Carriages infaith are very deare to fancy,[3] very
responsiue[4] to the hilts, most delicate carriages
and of very liberall conceit.[5]
_Ham_. What call you the Carriages?[6]
[A]
_Osr_. The Carriages Sir, are the hangers.
[Sidenote: _Cour_. The carriage]
_Ham_. The phrase would bee more Germaine[7] to
the matter: If we could carry Cannon by our sides;
[Sidenote: carry a cannon]
I would it might be Hangers till then; but on sixe
[Sidenote: it be | then, but on, six]
Barbary Horses against sixe French Swords: their
Assignes, and three liberall conceited Carriages,[8]
that's the French but against the Danish; why is [Sidenote: French bet]
this impon'd as you call it[9]? [Sidenote: this all you[9]]
_Osr_. The King Sir, hath laid that in a dozen
[Sidenote: _Cour_. | layd sir, that]
passes betweene you and him, hee shall not exceed
[Sidenote: your selfe and him,]
you three hits;[10] He hath one twelue for mine,[11]
[Sidenote: hath layd on twelue for nine,]
and that would come to imediate tryall, if your [Sidenote: and it would]
Lordship would vouchsafe the Answere.[12]
_Ham_. How if I answere no?[13]
_Osr_. I meane my Lord,[14] the opposition of your [Sidenote: _Cour_.]
person in tryall.
_Ham_. Sir, I will walke heere in the Hall; if it
please his Maiestie, 'tis the breathing time of day [Sidenote: it is]
with me[15]; let the Foyles bee brought, the Gentleman
willing, and the King hold his purpose; I will
win for him if I can: if not, Ile gaine nothing but
[Sidenote: him and I | I will]
my shame, and the odde hits.[16]
_Osr_. Shall I redeliuer you ee'n so?[17]
[Sidenote: _Cour_. Shall I deliuer you so?]
_Ham_. To this effect Sir, after what flourish your
nature will.
_Osr_. I commend my duty to your Lordship. [Sidenote: _Cour_.]
_Ham_. Yours, yours [18]: hee does well to commend
[Sidenote: _Ham_. Yours doo's well[18]]
it himselfe, there are no tongues else for's tongue, [Sidenote: turne.]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Hora_. I knew you must be edified by the margent[19] ere you had
done.]
[Footnote 1: accompaniments or belongings; things _assigned_ to them.]
[Footnote 2: the thongs or chains attaching the sheath of a weapon to
the girdle; what the weapon _hangs_ by. The '_or so_' seems to indicate
that Osricke regrets having used the old-fashioned word, which he
immediately changes for _carriages_.]
[Footnote 3: imagination, taste, the artistic faculty.]
[Footnote 4: 'corresponding to--going well with the hilts,'--in shape,
ornament, and colour.]
[Footnote 5: bold invention.]
[Footnote 6: a new word, unknown to Hamlet;--court-slang, to which he
prefers the old-fashioned, homely word.]
[Footnote 7: related; 'akin to the matter.']
[Footnote 8: He uses Osricke's words--with a touch of derision, I should
say.]
[Footnote 9: I do not take the _Quarto_ reading for incorrect. Hamlet
says: 'why is this all----you call it --? --?' as if he wanted to use
the word (_imponed_) which Osricke had used, but did not remember it: he
asks for it, saying '_you call it_' interrogatively.]
[Footnote 10: _1st Q_
that yong Leartes in twelue venies 223
At Rapier and Dagger do not get three oddes of you,]
[Footnote 11: In all printer's work errors are apt to come in clusters.]
[Footnote 12: the response, or acceptance of the challenge.]
[Footnote 13: Hamlet plays with the word, pretending to take it in its
common meaning.]
[Footnote 14: 'By _answer_, I mean, my lord, the opposition &c.']
[Footnote 15: 'my time for exercise:' he treats the proposal as the
trifle it seems--a casual affair to be settled at once--hoping perhaps
that the king will come with like carelessness.]
[Footnote 16: the _three_.]
[Footnote 17: To Osricke the answer seems too direct and unadorned for
ears royal.]
[Footnote 18: I cannot help here preferring the _Q_. If we take the
_Folio_ reading, we must take it thus: 'Yours! yours!' spoken with
contempt;--'as if _you_ knew anything of duty!'--for we see from what
follows that he is playing with the word _duty_. Or we might read it,
'Yours commends yours,' with the same sense as the reading of the _Q._,
which is, 'Yours,' that is, '_Your_ lordship--does well to commend his
duty himself--there is no one else to do it.' This former shape is
simpler; that of the _Folio_ is burdened with ellipsis--loaded with
lack. And surely _turne_ is the true reading!--though we may take the
other to mean, 'there are no tongues else on the side of his tongue.']
[Footnote 19: --as of the Bible, for a second interpretative word or
phrase.]
[Page 260]
_Hor_. This Lapwing runs away with the shell
on his head.[1]
[Sidenote: 98] _Ham_. He did Compile[2] with his Dugge before
[Sidenote: _Ham_. A did sir[2] with]
hee suck't it: thus had he and mine more of the
[Sidenote: a suckt has he | many more]
same Beauy[3] that I know the drossie age dotes [Sidenote: same breede]
on; only got the tune[4] of the time, and outward
[Sidenote: and out of an habit of[5]]
habite of encounter,[5] a kinde of yesty collection, [Sidenote: histy]
which carries them through and through the most
fond and winnowed opinions; and doe but blow
[Sidenote: prophane and trennowed opinions]
them to their tryalls: the Bubbles are out.[6]
[Sidenote: their triall, the]
[A]
_Hor_. You will lose this wager, my Lord. [Sidenote: loose my Lord.]
_Ham_. I doe not thinke so, since he went into
France, I haue beene in continuall practice; I shall
[Sidenote: 265] winne at the oddes:[7] but thou wouldest not thinke
[Sidenote: ods; thou]
how all heere about my heart:[8] but it is no matter[9]
[Sidenote: how ill all's heere]
_Hor_. Nay, good my Lord.
_Ham_. It is but foolery; but it is such a kinde
of gain-giuing[10] as would perhaps trouble a woman,
[Sidenote: gamgiuing.]
_Hor_. If your minde dislike any thing, obey.[11] [Sidenote: obay it.]
I will forestall[12] their repaire hither, and say you
are not fit.
_Ham_. Not a whit, we defie Augury[13]; there's a
[Sidenote: there is speciall]
[Sidenote: 24, 125, 247] speciall Prouidence in the fall of a
sparrow.[14] If
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_
_Enter a Lord_.[15]
_Lord_. My Lord, his Maiestie commended him to you by young
Ostricke,[16] who brings backe to him that you attend him in the hall,
he sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with _Laertes_, or that
you will take longer time?[17]
_Ham_. I am constant to my purposes, they followe the Kings pleasure,
if his fitnes speakes, mine is ready[18]: now or whensoeuer, prouided I
be so able as now.
_Lord_. The King, and Queene, and all are comming downe.
_Ham_. In happy time.[19]
_Lord_. The Queene desires you to vse some gentle
entertainment[20] _Laertes_, before you fall to play.
_Ham_. Shee well instructs me.]
[Footnote 1: 'Well, he _is_ a young one!']
[Footnote 2: '_Com'ply_,' with accent on first syllable: _comply with_
means _pay compliments to, compliment_. See _Q._ reading: 'A did sir
with':--_sir_ here is a verb--_sir with_ means _say sir to_: 'he
_sirred, complied_ with his nurse's breast before &c.' Hamlet speaks in
mockery of the affected court-modes of speech and address, the fashion
of euphuism--a mechanical attempt at the poetic.]
[Footnote 3: _a flock of birds_--suggested by '_This Lapwing_.']
[Footnote 4: 'the mere mode.']
[Footnote 5: 'and external custom of intercourse.' But here too I rather
take the _Q._ to be right: 'They have only got the fashion of the time;
and, out of a habit of wordy conflict, (they have got) a collection of
tricks of speech,--a yesty, frothy mass, with nothing in it, which
carries them in triumph through the most foolish and fastidious (nice,
choice, punctilious, whimsical) judgments.' _Yesty_ I take to be right,
and _prophane_ (vulgar) to have been altered by the Poet to _fond_
(foolish); of _trennowed_ I can make nothing beyond a misprint.]
[Footnote 6: Hamlet had just blown Osricke to his trial in his chosen
kind, and the bubble had burst. The braggart gentleman had no faculty to
generate after the dominant fashion, no invention to support his
ambition--had but a yesty collection, which failing him the moment
something unconventional was wanted, the fool had to look a discovered
fool.]
[Footnote 7: 'I shall win by the odds allowed me; he will not exceed me
three hits.']
[Footnote 8: He has a presentiment of what is coming.]
[Footnote 9: Nothing in this world is of much consequence to him now.
Also, he believes in 'a special Providence.']
[Footnote 10: 'a yielding, a sinking' at the heart? The _Sh. Lex._ says
_misgiving_.]
[Footnote 11: 'obey the warning.']
[Footnote 12: 'go to them before they come here'--'_prevent_ their
coming.']
[Footnote 13: The knowledge, even, of what is to come could never, any
more than ordinary expediency, be the _law_ of a man's conduct. St.
Paul, informed by the prophet Agabus of the troubles that awaited him at
Jerusalem, and entreated by his friends not to go thither, believed the
prophet, and went on to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of the
Gentiles.]
[Footnote 14: One of Shakspere's many allusions to sayings of the Lord.]
[Footnote 15: Osricke does not come back: he has begged off but ventures
later, under the wing of the king.]
[Footnote 16: May not this form of the name suggest that in it is
intended the 'foolish' ostrich?]
[Footnote 17: The king is making delay: he has to have his 'union'
ready.]
[Footnote 18: 'if he feels ready, I am.']
[Footnote 19: 'They are _well-come_.']
[Footnote 20: 'to be polite to Laertes.' The print shows where _to_ has
slipped out.
The queen is anxious; she distrusts Laertes, and the king's influence
over him.]
[Page 262]
it[1] be now, 'tis not to come: if it bee not to come,
[Sidenote: be, tis]
it will bee now: if it be not now; yet it will come;
[Sidenote: it well come,]
[Sidenote: 54, 164] the readinesse is all,[2] since no man ha's ought of
[Sidenote: man of ought he leaues, knowes what ist
to leaue betimes, let be.]
[Sidenote: 252] what he leaues. What is't to leaue betimes?[3]
_Enter King, Queene, Laertes and Lords, with other
Attendants with Foyles, and Gauntlets, a Table
and Flagons of Wine on it._
[Sidenote: _A table prepard, Trumpets, Drums and officers
with cushion, King, Queene, and all the state,
Foiles, Daggers, and Laertes._]
_Kin_. Come _Hamlet_ come, and take this hand
from me.
[Sidenote: 245] _Ham_.[4] Giue me your pardon Sir, I'ue done you
wrong,[5] [Sidenote: I haue]
But pardon't as you are a Gentleman.
This presence[6] knowes,
And you must needs haue heard how I am punisht
With sore distraction?[7] What I haue done [Sidenote: With a sore]
That might your nature honour, and exception
[Sidenote: 242, 252] Roughly awake,[8] heere proclaime was madnesse:[9]
Was't _Hamlet_ wrong'd _Laertes_? Neuer _Hamlet_.
If _Hamlet_ from himselfe be tane away: [Sidenote: fane away,]
And when he's not himselfe, do's wrong _Laertes_,
Then _Hamlet_ does it not, _Hamlet_ denies it:[10]
Who does it then? His Madnesse? If't be so,
_Hamlet_ is of the Faction that is wrong'd,
His madnesse is poore _Hamlets_ Enemy.[11]
Sir, in this Audience,[12]
Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd euill,[13]
Free me so farre[14] in your most generous thoughts,
That I haue shot mine Arrow o're the house, [Sidenote: my]
And hurt my Mother.[15] [Sidenote: brother.[15]]
[Footnote 1: 'it'--death, the end.]
[Footnote 2: His father had been taken unready. 54.]
[Footnote 3: _Point_: 'all. Since'; 'leaves, what'--'Since no man has
anything of what he has left, those who left it late are in the same
position as those who left it early.' Compare the common saying, 'It
will be all the same in a hundred years.' The _Q._ reading comes much to
the same thing--'knows of ought he leaves'--'has any knowledge of it,
anything to do with it, in any sense possesses it.'
We may find a deeper meaning in the passage, however--surely not too
deep for Shakspere:--'Since nothing can be truly said to be possessed as
his own which a man must at one time or another yield; since that which
is _own_ can never be taken from the owner, but solely that which is
lent him; since the nature of a thing that has to be left is not such
that it _could_ be possessed, why should a man mind parting with it
early?'--There is far more in this than merely that at the end of the
day it will be all the same. The thing that ever was really a man's own,
God has given, and God will not, and man cannot, take away. Note the
unity of religion and philosophy in Hamlet: he takes the one true
position. Note also his courage: he has a strong presentiment of death,
but will not turn a step from his way. If Death be coming, he will
confront him. He does not believe in chance. He is ready--that is
willing. All that is needful is, that he should not go as one who cannot
help it, but as one who is for God's will, who chooses that will as his
own.
There is so much behind in Shakspere's characters--so much that can only
be hinted at! The dramatist has not the _word_-scope of the novelist;
his art gives him little _room_; he must effect in a phrase what the
other may take pages to. He needs good seconding by his actors as sorely
as the composer needs good rendering of his music by the orchestra. It
is a lesson in unity that the greatest art can least work alone; that
the greatest _finder_ most needs the help of others to show his
_findings_. The dramatist has live men and women for the very
instruments of his art--who must not be mere instruments, but
fellow-workers; and upon them he is greatly dependent for final outcome.
Here the actor should show a marked calmness and elevation in Hamlet. He
should have around him as it were a luminous cloud, the cloud of his
coming end. A smile not all of this world should close the speech. He
has given himself up, and is at peace.]
[Footnote 4: Note in this apology the sweetness of Hamlet's nature. How
few are alive enough, that is unselfish and true enough, to be capable
of genuine apology! The low nature always feels, not the wrong, but the
confession of it, degrading.]
[Footnote 5: --the wrong of his rudeness at the funeral.]
[Footnote 6: all present.]
[Footnote 7: --true in a deeper sense than they would understand.]
[Footnote 8: 'that might roughly awake your nature, honour, and
exception,':--consider the phrase--_to take exception at a thing_.]
[Footnote 9: It was by cause of madness, not by cause of evil intent.
For all purpose of excuse it was madness, if only pretended madness; it
was there of another necessity, and excused offence like real madness.
What he said was true, not merely expedient, to the end he meant it to
serve. But all passion may be called madness, because therein the mind
is absorbed with one idea; 'anger is a brief madness,' and he was in a
'towering passion': he proclaims it madness and so abjures it.]
[Footnote 10: 'refuses the wrong altogether--will in his true self have
nothing to do with it.' No evil thing comes of our true selves, and
confession is the casting of it from us, the only true denial. He who
will not confess a wrong, holds to the wrong.]
[Footnote 11: All here depends on the expression in the utterance.]
[Footnote 12: _This line not in Q._]
[Footnote 13: This is Hamlet's summing up of the whole--his explanation
of the speech.]
[Footnote 14: 'so far as this in your generous judgment--that you regard
me as having shot &c.']
[Footnote 15: _Brother_ is much easier to accept, though _Mother_ might
be in the simile.
To do justice to the speech we must remember that Hamlet has no quarrel
whatever with Laertes, that he has expressed admiration of him, and that
he is inclined to love him for Ophelia's sake. His apology has no
reference to the fate of his father or his sister; Hamlet is not aware
that Laertes associates him with either, and plainly the public did not
know Hamlet killed Polonius; while Laertes could have no intention of
alluding to the fact, seeing it would frustrate his scheme of
treachery.]
[Page 264]
_Laer_. I am satisfied in Nature,[1]
Whose motiue in this case should stirre me most
To my Reuenge. But in my termes of Honor
I stand aloofe, and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder Masters of knowne Honor,
I haue a voyce, and president of peace
To keepe my name vngorg'd.[2] But till that time,
[Sidenote: To my name vngord: but all that]
I do receiue your offer'd loue like loue,
And wil not wrong it.
_Ham_. I do embrace it freely, [Sidenote: I embrace]
And will this Brothers wager frankely play.
Giue vs the Foyles: Come on.[3]
_Laer_. Come one for me.[4]
_Ham_. Ile be your foile[5] _Laertes_, in mine ignorance,
[Sidenote: 218] Your Skill shall like a Starre i'th'darkest night,[6]
Sticke fiery off indeede.
_Laer_. You mocke me Sir.
_Ham_. No by this hand.[7]
_King_. Giue them the Foyles yong _Osricke_,[8]
[Sidenote: _Ostricke_,[8]]
Cousen _Hamlet_, you know the wager.
_Ham_. Verie well my Lord,
Your Grace hath laide the oddes a'th'weaker side, [Sidenote: has]
_King._ I do not feare it,
I haue seene you both:[9]
But since he is better'd, we haue therefore oddes.[10]
[Sidenote: better, we]
[Footnote 1: 'in my own feelings and person.' Laertes does not refer to
his father or sister. He professes to be satisfied in his heart with
Hamlet's apology for his behaviour at the funeral, but not to be sure
whether in the opinion of others, and by the laws of honour, he can
accept it as amends, and forbear to challenge him. But the words 'Whose
motiue in this case should stirre me most to my Reuenge' may refer to
his father and sister, and, if so taken, should be spoken aside. To
accept apology for them and not for his honour would surely be too
barefaced! The point concerning them has not been started.
But why not receive the apology as quite satisfactory? That he would not
seems to show a lingering regard to _real_ honour. A downright villain,
like the king, would have pretended its _thorough_
acceptance--especially as they were just going to fence like friends;
but he, as regards his honour, will not accept it until justified in
doing so by the opinion of 'some elder masters,' receiving from them 'a
voice and precedent of peace'--counsel to, and justification, or example
of peace. He keeps the door of quarrel open--will not profess to be
_altogether_ friends with him, though he does not hint at his real
ground of offence: that mooted, the match of skill, with its immense
advantages for villainy, would have been impossible. He means treachery
all the time; careful of his honour, he can, like most apes of fashion,
let his honesty go; still, so complex is human nature, he holds his
speech declining thorough reconciliation as a shield to shelter his
treachery from his own contempt: he has taken care not to profess
absolute friendship, and so left room for absolute villainy! He has had
regard to his word! Relieved perhaps by the demoniacal quibble, he
follows it immediately with an utterance of full-blown perfidy.]
[Footnote 2: Perhaps _ungorg'd_ might mean _unthrottled_.]
[Footnote 3: 'Come on' _is not in the Q._--I suspect this _Come on_ but
a misplaced shadow from the '_Come one_' immediately below, and better
omitted. Hamlet could not say '_Come on_' before Laertes was ready, and
'_Come one_' after 'Give us the foils,' would be very awkward. But it
may be said to the attendant courtiers.]
[Footnote 4: He says this while Hamlet is still choosing, in order that
a second bundle of foils, in which is the unbated and poisoned one, may
be brought him. So 'generous and free from all contriving' is Hamlet,
(220) that, even with the presentiment in his heart, he has no fear of
treachery.]
[Footnote 5: As persons of the drama, the Poet means Laertes to be foil
to Hamlet.--With the play upon the word before us, we can hardly help
thinking of the _third_ signification of the word _foil_.]
[Footnote 6: 'My ignorance will be the foil of darkest night to the
burning star of your skill.' This is no flattery; Hamlet believes
Laertes, to whose praises he has listened (218)--though not with the
envy his uncle attributes to him--the better fencer: he expects to win
only 'at the odds.' 260.]
[Footnote 7: --not '_by these pickers and stealers_,' his oath to his
false friends. 154.]
[Footnote 8: Plainly a favourite with the king.--He is _Ostricke_ always
in the _Q_.]
[Footnote 9: 'seen you both play'--though not together.]
[Footnote 10: _Point thus_:
I do not fear it--I have seen you both!
But since, he is bettered: we have therefore odds.
'Since'--'_since the time I saw him_.']
[Page 266]
_Laer_. This is too heauy,
Let me see another.[1]
_Ham_. This likes me well,
These Foyles haue all a length.[2] _Prepare to play._[3]
_Osricke_. I my good Lord. [Sidenote: _Ostr._]
_King_. Set me the Stopes of wine vpon that Table:
If _Hamlet_ giue the first, or second hit,
Or quit in answer of the third exchange,[4]
Let all the Battlements their Ordinance fire,
[Sidenote: 268] The King shal drinke to _Hamlets_ better breath,
And in the Cup an vnion[5] shal he throw [Sidenote: an Vince]
Richer then that,[6] which foure successiue Kings
In Denmarkes Crowne haue worne.
Giue me the Cups,
And let the Kettle to the Trumpets speake, [Sidenote: trumpet]
The Trumpet to the Cannoneer without,
The Cannons to the Heauens, the Heauen to Earth,
Now the King drinkes to _Hamlet_. Come, begin,
[Sidenote: _Trumpets the while._]
And you the Iudges[7] beare a wary eye.
_Ham_. Come on sir.
_Laer_. Come on sir. _They play._[8] [Sidenote: Come my Lord.]
_Ham_. One.
_Laer_. No.
_Ham_. Iudgement.[9]
_Osr_. A hit, a very palpable hit. [Sidenote: _Ostrick._]
_Laer_. Well: againe. [Sidenote: _Drum, trumpets and a shot.
Florish, a peece goes off._]
_King_. Stay, giue me drinke.
_Hamlet_, this Pearle is thine,
Here's to thy health. Giue him the cup,[10]
_Trumpets sound, and shot goes off._[11]
_Ham_. Ile play this bout first, set by a-while.[12]
[Sidenote: set it by]
Come: Another hit; what say you?
_Laer_. A touch, a touch, I do confesse.[13]
[Sidenote: _Laer_. | doe confest.]
_King_. Our Sonne shall win.
[Footnote 1: --to make it look as if he were choosing.]
[Footnote 2: --asked in an offhand way. The fencers must not measure
weapons, because how then could the unbated point escape discovery? It
is quite like Hamlet to take even Osricke's word for their equal
length.]
[Footnote 3: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 4: 'or be quits with Laertes the third bout':--in any case,
whatever the probabilities, even if Hamlet be wounded, the king, who has
not perfect confidence in the 'unction,' will fall back on his second
line of ambush--in which he has more trust: he will drink to Hamlet,
when Hamlet will be bound to drink also.]
[Footnote 5: The Latin _unio_ was a large pearl. The king's _union_ I
take to be poison made up like a pearl.]
[Footnote 6: --a well-known one in the crown.]
[Footnote 7: --of whom Osricke was one.]
[Footnote 8: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 9: --appealing to the judges.]
[Footnote 10: He throws in the _pearl_, and drinks--for it will take
some moments to dissolve and make the wine poisonous--then sends the cup
to Hamlet.]
[Footnote 11: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 12: He does not refuse to drink, but puts it by, neither
showing nor entertaining suspicion, fearing only the effect of the
draught on his play. He is bent on winning the wager--perhaps with
further intent.]
[Footnote 13: Laertes has little interest in the match, but much in his
own play.]
[Page 268]
[Sidenote: 266] _Qu_. He's fat, and scant of breath.[1]
Heere's a Napkin, rub thy browes,
[Sidenote: Heere _Hamlet_ take my napkin]
The Queene Carowses to thy fortune, _Hamlet_.
_Ham_. Good Madam.[2]
_King_. _Gertrude_, do not drinke.
_Qu_. I will my Lord;
I pray you pardon me.[3]
[Sidenote: 222]_King_. It is the poyson'd Cup, it is too late.[4]
_Ham_. I dare not drinke yet Madam,
By and by.[5]
_Qu_. Come, let me wipe thy face.[6]
_Laer_. My Lord, Ile hit him now.
_King_. I do not thinke't.
_Laer_. And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.[7]
[Sidenote: it is | against]
_Ham_. Come for the third.
_Laertes_, you but dally, [Sidenote: you doe but]
I pray you passe with your best violence,
I am affear'd you make a wanton of me.[8] [Sidenote: I am sure you]
_Laer_. Say you so? Come on. _Play._
_Osr_. Nothing neither way. [Sidenote: _Ostr._]
_Laer_. Haue at you now.[9]
_In scuffling they change Rapiers._[10]
_King_. Part them, they are incens'd.[11]
_Ham_. Nay come, againe.[12]
_Osr_. Looke to the Queene there hoa. [Sidenote: _Ostr._ | there howe.]
_Hor_. They bleed on both sides. How is't my [Sidenote: is it]
Lord?
_Osr_. How is't _Laertes_? [Sidenote: _Ostr._]
_Laer_. Why as a Woodcocke[13]
To mine Sprindge, _Osricke_, [Sidenote: mine owne sprindge _Ostrick_,]
I am iustly kill'd with mine owne Treacherie.[14]
_Ham_. How does the Queene?
_King_. She sounds[15] to see them bleede.
_Qu_. No, no, the drinke, the drinke[16]
[Footnote 1: She is anxious about him. It may be that this speech, and
that of the king before (266), were fitted to the person of the actor
who first represented Hamlet.]
[Footnote 2: --a simple acknowledgment of her politeness: he can no more
be familiarly loving with his mother.]
[Footnote 3: She drinks, and offers the cup to Hamlet.]
[Footnote 4: He is too much afraid of exposing his villainy to be prompt
enough to prevent her.]
[Footnote 5: This is not meant by the Poet to show suspicion: he does
not mean Hamlet to die so.]
[Footnote 6: The actor should not allow her: she approaches Hamlet; he
recoils a little.]
[Footnote 7: He has compunctions, but it needs failure to make them
potent.]
[Footnote 8: 'treat me as an effeminate creature.']
[Footnote 9: He makes a sudden attack, without warning of the fourth
bout.]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Q._
The 1st Q. directs:--_They catch one anothers Rapiers, find both are
wounded_, &c.
The thing, as I understand it, goes thus: With the words 'Have at you
now!' Laertes stabs Hamlet; Hamlet, apprised thus of his treachery, lays
hold of his rapier, wrenches it from him, and stabs him with it in
return.]
[Footnote 11: 'they have lost their temper.']
[Footnote 12: --said with indignation and scorn, but without suspicion
of the worst.]
[Footnote 13: --the proverbially foolish bird. The speech must be spoken
with breaks. Its construction is broken.]
[Footnote 14: His conscience starts up, awake and strong, at the
approach of Death. As the show of the world withdraws, the realities
assert themselves. He repents, and makes confession of his sin, seeing
it now in its true nature, and calling it by its own name. It is a
compensation of the weakness of some that they cannot be strong in
wickedness. The king did not so repent, and with his strength was the
more to blame.]
[Footnote 15: _swounds, swoons_.]
[Footnote 16: She is true to her son. The maternal outlasts the
adulterous.]
[Page 270]
Oh my deere _Hamlet_, the drinke, the drinke,
I am poyson'd.
_Ham_. Oh Villany! How? Let the doore be lock'd.
Treacherie, seeke it out.[1]
_Laer_. It is heere _Hamlet_.[2]
_Hamlet_,[3] thou art slaine,
No Medicine in the world can do thee good.
In thee, there is not halfe an houre of life; [Sidenote: houres life,]
The Treacherous Instrument is in thy hand, [Sidenote: in my]
Vnbated and envenom'd: the foule practise[4]
Hath turn'd it selfe on me. Loe, heere I lye,
Neuer to rise againe: Thy Mothers poyson'd:
I can no more, the King, the King's too blame.[5]
_Ham_. The point envenom'd too,
Then venome to thy worke.[6]
_Hurts the King._[7]
_All_. Treason, Treason.
_King_. O yet defend me Friends, I am but hurt.
_Ham_. Heere thou incestuous, murdrous,
[Sidenote: Heare thou incestious damned Dane,]
Damned Dane,
Drinke off this Potion: Is thy Vnion heere?
[Sidenote: of this | is the Onixe heere?]
Follow my Mother.[8] _King Dyes._[9]
_Laer_. He is iustly seru'd.
It is a poyson temp'red by himselfe:
Exchange forgiuenesse with me, Noble _Hamlet_;
Mine and my Fathers death come not vpon thee,
Nor thine on me.[10] _Dyes._[11]
_Ham_. Heauen make thee free of it,[12] I follow thee.
I am dead _Horatio_, wretched Queene adiew.
You that looke pale, and tremble at this chance,
That are but Mutes[13] or audience to this acte:
Had I but time (as this fell Sergeant death
Is strick'd in his Arrest) oh I could tell you. [Sidenote: strict]
[Footnote 1: The thing must be ended now. The door must be locked, to
keep all in that are in, and all out that are out. Then he can do as he
will.]
[Footnote 2: --laying his hand on his heart, I think.]
[Footnote 3: In Q. _Hamlet_ only once.]
[Footnote 4: _scheme, artifice, deceitful contrivance_; in modern slang,
_dodge_.]
[Footnote 5: He turns on the prompter of his sin--crowning the justice
of the king's capital punishment.]
[Footnote 6: _Point_: 'too!'
_1st Q._ Then venome to thy venome, die damn'd villaine.]
[Footnote 7: _Not in Quarto._
The true moment, now only, has at last come. Hamlet has lived to do his
duty with a clear conscience, and is thereupon permitted to go. The man
who asks whether this be poetic justice or no, is unworthy of an answer.
'The Tragedie of Hamlet' is _The Drama of Moral Perplexity_.]
[Footnote 8: A grim play on the word _Union: 'follow my mother_'. It
suggests a terrible meeting below.]
[Footnote 9: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 10: His better nature triumphs. The moment he was wounded,
knowing he must die, he began to change. Defeat is a mighty aid to
repentance; and processes grow rapid in the presence of Death: he
forgives and desires forgiveness.]
[Footnote 11: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 12: Note how heartily Hamlet pardons the wrong done to
himself--the only wrong of course which a man has to pardon.]
[Footnote 13: _supernumeraries_. Note the other figures too--_audience,
act_--all of the theatre.]
[Page 272]
But let it be: _Horatio_, I am dead,
Thou liu'st, report me and my causes right [Sidenote: cause a right]
To the vnsatisfied.[1]
_Hor_. Neuer beleeue it.
[Sidenote: 134] I am more an Antike Roman then a Dane:
[Sidenote: 135] Heere's yet some Liquor left.[2]
_Ham_. As th'art a man, giue me the Cup.
Let go, by Heauen Ile haue't. [Sidenote: hate,]
[Sidenote: 114, 251] Oh good _Horatio_, what a wounded name,[3]
[Sidenote: O god _Horatio_,]
(Things standing thus vnknowne) shall liue behind me.
[Sidenote: shall I leaue behind me?]
If thou did'st euer hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicitie awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in paine,[1]
[Sidenote: _A march a farre off._]
To tell my Storie.[4]
_March afarre off, and shout within._[5]
What warlike noyse is this?
_Enter Osricke._
_Osr_. Yong _Fortinbras_, with conquest come from Poland
To th'Ambassadors of England giues this warlike volly.[6]
_Ham_. O I dye _Horatio_:
The potent poyson quite ore-crowes my spirit,
I cannot liue to heare the Newes from England,
[Sidenote: 62] But I do prophesie[7] th'election lights
[Sidenote: 276] On _Fortinbras_, he ha's my dying voyce,[8]
So tell him with the occurrents more and lesse,[9] [Sidenote: th']
Which haue solicited.[10] The rest is silence. O, o, o, o.[11]
_Dyes_[12]
_Hora_. Now cracke a Noble heart: [Sidenote: cracks a]
Goodnight sweet Prince,
And flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest,
Why do's the Drumme come hither?
[Footnote 1: His care over his reputation with the people is princely,
and casts a true light on his delay. No good man can be willing to seem
bad, except the _being good_ necessitates it. A man must be willing to
appear a villain if that is the consequence of being a true man, but he
cannot be indifferent to that appearance. He cannot be indifferent to
wearing the look of the thing he hates. Hamlet, that he may be
understood by the nation, makes, with noble confidence in his
friendship, the large demand on Horatio, to live and suffer for his
sake.]
[Footnote 2: Here first we see plainly the love of Horatio for Hamlet:
here first is Hamlet's judgment of Horatio (134) justified.]
[Footnote 3: --for having killed his uncle:--what, then, if he had slain
him at once?]
[Footnote 4: Horatio must be represented as here giving sign of assent.
_1st Q._
_Ham_. Vpon my loue I charge thee let it goe,
O fie _Horatio_, and if thou shouldst die,
What a scandale wouldst thou leaue behinde?
What tongue should tell the story of our deaths,
If not from thee?]
[Footnote 5: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 6: The frame is closing round the picture. 9.]
[Footnote 7: Shakspere more than once or twice makes the dying
prophesy.]
[Footnote 8: His last thought is for his country; his last effort at
utterance goes to prevent a disputed succession.]
[Footnote 9: 'greater and less'--as in the psalm,
'The Lord preserves all, more and less,
That bear to him a loving heart.']
[Footnote 10: led to the necessity.]
[Footnote 11: _These interjections are not in the Quarto._]
[Footnote 12: _Not in Q._
All Shakspere's tragedies suggest that no action ever ends, only goes
off the stage of the world on to another.]
[Page 274]
[Sidenote: 190] _Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassador, with_
[Sidenote: _Enter Fortenbrasse, with the Embassadors._]
_Drumme, Colours, and Attendants._
_Fortin_. Where is this sight?
_Hor_. What is it ye would see; [Sidenote: you]
If ought of woe, or wonder, cease your search.[1]
_For_. His quarry[2] cries on hauocke.[3] Oh proud death,
[Sidenote: This quarry]
What feast is toward[4] in thine eternall Cell.
That thou so many Princes, at a shoote, [Sidenote: shot]
So bloodily hast strooke.[5]
_Amb_. The sight is dismall,
And our affaires from England come too late,
The eares are senselesse that should giue vs hearing,[6]
To tell him his command'ment is fulfill'd,
That _Rosincrance_ and _Guildensterne_ are dead:
Where should we haue our thankes?[7]
_Hor_. Not from his mouth,[8]
Had it[9] th'abilitie of life to thanke you:
He neuer gaue command'ment for their death.
[Sidenote: 6] But since so iumpe[10] vpon this bloodie question,[11]
You from the Polake warres, and you from England
Are heere arriued. Giue order[12] that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view,
And let me speake to th'yet vnknowing world, [Sidenote: , to yet]
How these things came about. So shall you heare
Of carnall, bloudie, and vnnaturall acts,[13]
Of accidentall Judgements,[14] casuall slaughters[15]
Of death's put on by cunning[16] and forc'd cause,[17]
[Sidenote: deaths | and for no cause]
And in this vpshot, purposes mistooke,[18]
Falne on the Inuentors heads. All this can I [Sidenote: th']
Truly deliuer.
_For_. Let vs hast to heare it,
And call the Noblest to the Audience.
For me, with sorrow, I embrace my Fortune,
I haue some Rites of memory[19] in this Kingdome,
[Sidenote: rights of[19]]
[Footnote 1: --for here it is.]
[Footnote 2: the heap of game after a hunt.]
[Footnote 3: 'Havoc's victims cry out against him.']
[Footnote 4: in preparation.]
[Footnote 5: All the real actors in the tragedy, except Horatio, are
dead.]
[Footnote 6: This line may be taken as a parenthesis; then--'come too
late' joins itself with 'to tell him.' Or we may connect 'hearing' with
'to tell him':--'the ears that should give us hearing in order that we
might tell him' etc.]
[Footnote 7: They thus inquire after the successor of Claudius.]
[Footnote 8: --the mouth of Claudius.]
[Footnote 9: --even if it had.]
[Footnote 10: 'so exactly,' or 'immediately'--perhaps
_opportunely--fittingly_.]
[Footnote 11: dispute, strife.]
[Footnote 12: --addressed to Fortinbras, I should say. The state is
disrupt, the household in disorder; there is no head; Horatio turns
therefore to Fortinbras, who, besides having a claim to the crown, and
being favoured by Hamlet, alone has power at the moment--for his army is
with him.]
[Footnote 13: --those of Claudius.]
[Footnote 14: 'just judgments brought about by accident'--as in the case
of all slain except the king, whose judgment was not accidental, and
Hamlet, whose death was not a judgment.]
[Footnote 15: --those of the queen, Polonius, and Ophelia.]
[Footnote 16: 'put on,' _indued_, 'brought on themselves'--those of
Rosincrance, Guildensterne, and Laertes.]
[Footnote 17: --those of the king and Polonius.]
[Footnote 18: 'and in this result'--_pointing to the bodies_--'purposes
which have mistaken their way, and fallen on the inventors' heads.' _I
am mistaken_ or _mistook_, means _I have mistaken_; 'purposes
mistooke'--_purposes in themselves mistaken_:--that of Laertes, which
came back on himself; and that of the king in the matter of the poison,
which, by falling on the queen, also came back on the inventor.]
[Footnote 19: The _Quarto_ is correct here, I think: '_rights of the
past_'--'claims of descent.' Or 'rights of memory' might mean--'_rights
yet remembered_.'
Fortinbras is not one to miss a chance: even in this shadowy 'person,'
character is recognizably maintained.]
[Page 276]
Which are to claime,[1] my vantage doth [Sidenote: Which now to clame]
Inuite me,
_Hor_. Of that I shall haue alwayes[2] cause to speake,
[Sidenote: haue also cause[3]]
And from his mouth
[Sidenote: 272] Whose voyce will draw on more:[3]
[Sidenote: drawe no more,]
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Euen whiles mens mindes are wilde, [Sidenote: while]
Lest more mischance
On plots, and errors happen.[4]
_For_. Let foure Captaines
Beare _Hamlet_ like a Soldier to the Stage,
For he was likely, had he beene put on[5]
To haue prou'd most royally:[6] [Sidenote: royall;]
And for his passage,[7]
The Souldiours Musicke, and the rites of Warre[8] [Sidenote: right of]
Speake[9] lowdly for him.
Take vp the body; Such a sight as this [Sidenote: bodies,]
Becomes the Field, but heere shewes much amis.
Go, bid the Souldiers shoote.[10]
_Exeunt Marching: after the which, a Peale_ [Sidenote: _Exeunt._]
_of Ordenance are shot off._