10: This description is wanting in the first quarto. The passages
there are essentially different; there is no allusion to Hamlet's
mental struggle.
11: About various allusions and satirical hints in this scene later on.
12: Florio, 21; Montaigne, I. ii.
13: Essay III. i.
14: Isaiah, ch. iii. v. 16.
15: The word 'ecstasy,' which is often used in the new quarto, is
wanting in the first edition where only madness, lunacy, frenzy--the
highest degrees of madness--are spoken of.
16: In the old play their names are 'Rosencroft' and 'Guilderstone.'
_Reynaldo_, in the first quarto, is called '_Montano_.'
This change of name in a _dramatis persona_ of minor importance
indicates, in however a trifling manner, that the interest excited
by the name of Montaigne (to which 'Montano' comes remarkably near
in English pronunciation) was now to be concentrated on another point.
17: Essay I. 40.
18: II. 12.
19: Essay II. 27, p. 142.
20: Essay III. 4, p. 384.
21: Rather sharp translations of _songe-creux_, as Montaigne
calls himself (Florio, i. 19, p. 34). 'I am given rather to
dreaming and sluggishness.'
22: ''S wounds' (God's wounds)--a most characteristic expression;
used by Shakspere only in _Hamlet_, in this scene, and again
in act v. sc. 2.
23: As yet, Hamlet has but one ground of action--namely, the one
which, after the apparition of the Ghost, he set down in his tablets:
'that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; at least, I am sure,
it may be so in Denmark.'
24: Act ii. sc. 2.
25: Essay I. 19.
26: II. 3.
27: Tacitus, _annal_. xiii. 56.
28: Essay I. 19.
29: Act. i. sc. 2.
30: Shakspere already uses this expression in _King John_ (1595) for
purposes of mirthful mockery. He makes the Bastard say to the
Archduke of Austria (act iii. sc. i):--'Hang a calf's skin on
those recreant limbs!'--a circumstance which convinces us that
Shakspere knew the Essays of Montaigne from the original at an
early time. We think it a fact important enough to point out that
Florio translates _peau d'un veau_ by 'oxe-hide' (fo. 34). We
cannot think of any other explanation than that the phrase in
question had become so popular through _King John_ as to render
it advisable for Florio to steer clear of this rock. Jonson, in his
_Volpone_ (act. i. sc. i), makes Mosca the parasite say in
regard to his master: 'Covered with hide, instead of skin.'
31: Florio's translation: 'If it be a _consummation_ of one's being'
(p. 627). Shakspere: 'a _consummation_ devoutly to be wished.' This
word is only once used by Shakspere in such a sense. It occurs in
another sense in _King Lear_ (iv. 6) and _Cymbeline_ (iv. 2), but
nowhere else in his works.
32: Monologue of the first quarto:--
'To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I, mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And borne before an everlasting judge,
From whence no passenger ever returned,
The undiscovered country, at whose sight
The happy smile, and the accursed damned.
But for this, the joyful hope of this,
Whol'd beare the scornes of flattery of the world,
Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?
The widow being oppress'd, the orphan wronged,
The taste of hunger, or a tyrants raigne,
And thousand more calamities besides,
To grunte and sweate under the weary life,
When that he may his full quietus make,
With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,
But for a hope of something after death?
Which pushes the brain and doth connfound the sence,
Which makes us rather beare those evilles we have,
Than flie to others that we know not of.
I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of us all.
Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembered.
33: On closely examining the copy of Montaigne's Essays in the British
Museum, which bears Shakspere's autograph on the title-page, we
found--long after our treatise had been completed--that on the
fly-leaf at the end of the volume is written: _Mors incrta_,
(Written somewhat indistinctly, meaning probably _incerta_.
It might also be an abbreviation of 'incertam horam' [_incr.
ho_.], as contained in the Latin verse on p. 626:--
Incertam frustra, mortales, funeris horam
Quaeritis, et qua sit mors aditura via.)
626, 627. These two numbers, apparently, refer to the corresponding
pages of Montaigne's work, which contain nothing but thoughts
about the uncertainty of the hour of death and the hereafter. On
p. 627 there is the speech of Sokrates, which in Florio's
translation, as shown above, bears such striking resemblance to
Hamlet's monologue. There are other Latin sentences on the same
fly-leaf, pronounced by Sir Frederic Madden to be written by a
later pen than Shakspere's. To us, at any rate, the above words
and numbers appear to proceed from a different hand than the other
sentences. Judgments thereon from persons well versed in the
writings of that time would be of great interest.
34: P. 103.
35: I. 19.
36: Act iii. sc. 2.
37: III. 12 (Florio, 626).
38: We do not doubt that this is a sly thrust at Florio, who, in the
preface to his translation, calls himself 'Montaigne's Vulcan,' who
hatches out Minerva from that 'Jupiter's bigge brain'.
39: Florio, 476.
40: Florio, 592: 'Thus goe the world, and so goe men.'
41: III. 1.
42: II. 27.
43: Clarendon: 'Circumstance of thought' means here the details
over which thought ranges, and from which its conclusions are
formed.
44: '_Index_,' in our opinion, does not signify here either the
title, or prologue, or the indication of the contents of a book,
but is an allusion to the Index of the Holy See and its thunders.
45: Montaigne, III. 10; Florio, 604: 'Custome is a second nature,
and no less powerfull.... To conclude, I am ready to finish this
man, not to make another. By longe custome this forme is changed
into substance, Fortune into Nature.'
46: III. 1.
47: This is wanting in the first quarto, like the whole conclusion
of this scene.
48: This whole scene between Horatio and Hamlet consists of the
following four lines in the old quarto:--
_Hamlet_. Beleeuve me, it greeuves me much, Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myselfe:
For by myselfe methinkes I feel his greefe,
Though there's a difference in each other's way.
Does this not look like a draught destined to be the kernel of a
scene? The end of the scene where Osrick comes in, is also much
shorter in the older play.
49: Florio, 330: 'We amend ourselves by privation of reason and
by her drooping.' Hamlet's conduct is only to be explained by his
quietly sitting down until his reason should droop.--II. 12.
50: Florio, 608.
51: Florio, 609.
52: This whole scene is nearly new (in the first quarto it is a mere
sketch). There are in it several direct allusions to Montaigne's
book, on which we shall touch later on.
53: Here the dramatist, in order to paint a trait of vanity in Hamlet's
character, uses a device. He makes the latter say that, since Laertes
went into France, he (Hamlet) has been in continual practice. Yet we
know (act ii. sc. 2) that he had given up his accustomed exercise.
In that scene the poet wishes to describe Hamlet's melancholy; in
the other, his vanity. He chooses the colours which are apt to
produce quickest impressions among the audience.
54: Act v. sc. 2.
55: See St. Matthew x.29.
56: I. 19.
57: III. 9.
58: II. 12.
59: The Queen describes Hamlet as 'fat, and scant of breath.' Here
is Montaigne's description of himself (Essai II. 27):--'J'ay,
au demourant, la taille forte et ramassee; le visage non pas
gras, mais plein, la complexion entre le jovial et le melancholique,
moyennement sanguine et chaude.' Florio's translation, p. 372:--'As
for me, I am of a strong and well compact stature, my face is not
fat, but full, my complexion betweene joviall and melancholy,
indifferently sanguine and hote--('_not splenetive and rash_').
60: III. 13
61: III. 9.
62: Act iii. sc. 1.
63: We shall now oftener touch upon satirical passages uttered by
the character himself against whom they are directed. The true
dramatist gives the public no time to think over an incident in full
leisure. Every means--as we have already shown before--is welcome to
him, which aids in rapidly bringing out the telling traits of his
figures. No surprise need therefore be felt that Hamlet, though
representing Montaigne, sneers at, and morally flagellates, himself.
64: Act iii. sc. 2.
65: II. 1.
66: Act iv. sc. 7.
67: I. 9, 25; II. 10, &c. If an attentive reader will take the
trouble to closely examine that part of the scene in Shakspere's
_Tempest_ (act ii. sc. 1) wherein the passage occurs, which he
borrowed from Essay I. 30--'On Cannibals'--and compare it with
this most 'strange Essay,' he will clearly convince himself that
Shakspere can only have made use of it as a satire on Montaigne's
defective memory, which entangles this author in the most ludicrous
contradictions. Gonzala declares that, if he were king of the isle
on which he and his companion were wrecked, he would found a
commonwealth as described in the above passage. He concludes this
description, saying he would have 'no sovereignty.'
Sebastian justly remarks: 'Yet he would be king on't;' and
Antonio continues by saying: 'The latter end of his commonwealth
forgets the beginning.'
Even such is the contradiction in Montaigne's fanciful Essay 'On
Cannibals,' where, towards the end, he speaks of a captain who
holds authority over these savages, not only in war, but also in
peace, 'that when he went to visit the village of his dependence,
they cut him paths through the thick of their woods, through which
he might pass at ease.' The beginning of this Essay described the
commonwealth of these cannibals as tolerating no politic superiority,
no use of service, no occupation, &c. 'What short memory!
much wanting tablets!'
In the above-mentioned scene of the _Tempest_ Sebastian makes
the remark: 'No marrying 'mong his subjects,' which evidently is
also meant as a hit against Montaigne's anti-matrimonial ideas,
which we dwelt upon in the scene between Hamlet and Ophelia.
68: Jonson, long afterwards, had not forgotten this hit against
Montaigne. In _Epicoene_ (1609) he makes Cleremont say:--'When
we come to have grey heads and weak hams, moist eyes and shrunk
members ... then we'll pray and fast.'
69: This whole passage of act v. sc. 2 (106-138) is again
only to be found in the quarto of 1604, not in the folio edition of
1623. In later years the poet may have struck it out, as being only
comprehensible to a smaller circle of his friends. In the same way
that passage of act iv. sc. 4, which only contains thoughts
of Montaigne, was not received into the folio of 1623.
70: This is their title in Florio's translation: _Morall, Politike,
Millitarie Discourses of Lo. Michaell de Montaigne, Knight of the
noble order of Saint Michaell, and one of the Gentlemen in ordinary
of the French King Henry III. his Chamber_.
71: The sonnet runs thus:--
_To the Right Honourable Ladie Elizabeth Grey_. (She was a
daughter of Count Shrewsbury, a Talbot.)
Of honorable TALBOT honored farre,
The forecast and the fortune, by his WORD
_Montaigne_ here descrives; what by his Sword,
What by his wit; this, as the guiding starre;
That, as th' Aetolian blast, in peace or warre,
At sea, or land, as cause did use afforde,
_Avant le vent_, to tacke his sails aboarde,
So as his course no orethwart crosse might barre,
But he would sweetly sail _before the wind_;
For Princes service, Countries good, his fame.
Heire-Daughter of that prudent, constant kinde,
Joyning thereto of GREY as great a name, Of
both chief glories shrining in your minde,
Honour him that your Honor doth proclaime.'
We have already learned from the preface of the first book of the
_Essais_ how Florio was 'sea-tosst, weather-beaten,' 'ship-wrackt,'
'almost drowned,' when exerting himself to capture the
whale--Montaigne--and drag him through 'the rocke-rough Ocean'
with the assistance of his colleague Diodati, whom he compares to
'a guide-fish.' Hamlet calls Polonius a fish-monger. The latter
fools Hamlet by pretending that yonder cloud is in the shape of a
whale, which just before appeared to him like the back of a weasel.
Every word almost in this wonderful drama is a well-directed hit.
72: Essay III. 5.
73: _Ibid_. 13.
74: _Ibid_. 2.
75: The quarto of 1623 has only the third verse.
76: The old song has the word 'crouch.'
77: Essay III. 5, p. 460. Florio, p. 529.
78: We think it is worth while to quote the following verse Montaigne
(III. 5) mentions when speaking of that nature of woman, which
he thinks suggests to her every possible act of libidinousness:--
Nec tantum niveo gavisa est ulla columbo
Compar, vel si quid dicitur improbius,
Oscula mordenti semper decerpere rostro,
Quantum praecipue multivola est mulier.
Florio translates (514):--
No Pigeons hen, or paire, or what worse name
You list, makes with hir Snow-white cock such game,
With biting bill to catch when she is kist,
As many-minded women when they list.
Is not this the character of Ophelia, as described by Shakspere--the
virgin inclining to voluptuousness in Goethe's view?
79: Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5. In _Eastward Hoe_, Marston, Chapman,
and Jonson make capital out of this word, and use it as a sneer
against Hamlet and Ophelia. We shall return to this point later on.
80: Florio, 617.
81: Act iv. sc. 5.
82: Laertes, act i. sc. 3:--
For nature crescent does not grow alone
In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal.
Montaigne, II. 12; Florio, 319:
The mind is with the body bred we do behold,
It jointly growes with it, it waxeth old.--Lucr. xliii. 450.
83: Goethe's _Faust_.
84: We must mention that John Sterling, in an essay on Montaigne
(_Westminster Review_, 1838), makes the following introductory
remarks:--'On the whole, the celebrated soliloquy in _Hamlet_
presents a more characteristic and expressive resemblance to much of
Montaigne's writings than any other portion of the plays of the great
dramatist which we at present remember, though it would doubtless be
easy to trace many apparent transferences from the Frenchman into the
Englishman's works, as both were keen and many-sided observers in the
same age and neighbouring countries. But Hamlet was in those days no
popular type of character; nor were Montaigne's views and tone
familiar to men till he himself had made them so. Now, the Prince
of Denmark is very nearly a Montaigne, lifted to a higher eminence,
and agitated by more striking circumstances and severer destiny,
and altogether a somewhat more passionate structure of man. It is
not, however, very wonderful that Hamlet, who was but a part of
Shakspere, should exhibit to us more than the whole of Montaigne,
and the external facts appear to contradict any notion of a French
ancestry for the Dane, as the play is said to have been produced
in 1600, and the translation of the English not for three years later.'
During our long search through the Commentaries written on
_Hamlet_, we also met with the following treatise: 'HAMLET;
_ein Tendenzdrama Sheakspeare's_ (sic!!) _gegen die skeptische
und kosmopolitische Weltanschauung des Michael de Montaigne, von G.
F. Stedefeld, Kreisgerichtsrath_. Berlin, 1871.'
The author of the latter-mentioned little book holds it to be
probable that Shakspere wrote his _Hamlet_ for the object
of freeing himself from the impressions of the famous French sceptic.
He regards this masterwork as 'the Drama of the Doubter;' as 'the
apotheosis of a practical Christianity.' Hamlet, he says, is wanting
in Christian piety. He has no faith, no love, no hope. His last words,
'The rest is silence,' show that he has no expectation of a future
life. He must perish because he has given up the belief in
a divine government of the world and in a moral order of things.
We believe we have read the Essays of Michel Montaigne with
great attention. We not only do not regard him as a 'sceptic' in
the sense meant by Mr. Stedefeld, but we hold him, as well as
Hamlet, to be an adherent of the so-called 'practical Christianity'
--at least, of what both Montaigne and Hamlet reckon to be such.
This 'practical Christianity,' however, is a notion somewhat
difficult to define.
V.
THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN BEN JONSON AND DEKKER.
MENTION OF A DISPUTE BETWEEN BEN JONSON AND SHAKSPERE IN 'THE RETURN
FROM PARNASSUS.'
CHARACTERISTIC OF BEN JONSON.
BEN JONSON'S HOSTILE ATTITUDE TOWARDS SHAKSPERE.
DRAMATIC SKIRMISH BETWEEN BEN JONSON AND SHAKSPERE.
BEN JONSON'S 'POETASTER.'
DEKKER'S 'SATIROMASTIX.'
We now proceed to an inquiry into the 'controversy between Jonson
and Dekker,' which has been repeatedly mentioned before.
Shakspere, we shall find, was implicated in it in a very large degree.
Instead of indicating, however, that controversy by the designation
under which it is known in literature, it would be more correct to
put SHAKSPERE'S name in the place of that of Dekker. Many a reader
who perhaps does not fully trust yet our bold assertion that Hamlet
is a counterfeit of Montaigne's individuality, will now, we hope, be
convinced by vouchers drawn from dramas published in 1604 and 1605,
and which are in the closest connection with that controversy. We
intend partly making a thorough examination of, partly consulting in
a cursory manner, the following pieces:--
1. 'Poetaster' (1601), by Ben Jonson.
2. 'Satiromastix' (1602), by Thomas Dekker.
3. 'Malcontent' (1604), by John Marston.
4. 'Volpone' (1605), by Ben Jonson.
5. 'Eastward Hoe' (1605), by Ben Jonson, Chapman,
and Marston.
In 'The Poetaster' Ben Jonson makes his chief attack upon Dekker and
Shakspere. In 'Satiromastix,' Dekker defends himself against that attack.
In doing so, he sides with Shakspere; and we thereby gain an insight
into the noble conduct of the latter. Between Jonson and Shakspere
there had already been dramatic skirmishes during several years before
the appearance of 'The Poetaster.' We shall only be able to touch
rapidly upon their meaning, considering that we confine ourselves,
in the main, to a statement of that which concerns 'Hamlet.'
After Jonson, in his 'Poetaster,' had exceeded all bounds of decent
behaviour with most intolerable arrogance, Shakspere seems to have
become weary of these malicious personal onslaughts; all the more so
because they were apparently put into the mouth of innocent children.
So he wrote his 'Hamlet,' showing up, therein, the loose and perplexing
ideas of his chief antagonist, who belonged to the party of
Florio-Montaigne.
Hamlet, as we shall prove beyond the possibility of cavil, is the
hitherto unexplained 'purge' in 'The Return from Parnassus,' which
'our fellow Shakspere' administered to Ben Jonson in return for the
'pill' destined for himself in 'The Poetaster.' After the publication
of 'Hamlet,' Jonson wrote his 'Volpone' as a counterblast to this drama.
Now 'Volpone,' and the Preface in which the author dedicates it to the
two Universities, furnish us with the evidence that our theory must be
a fact; for Jonson therein defended both the party of Florio-Montaigne
and himself.
Moreover, we shall adduce a series of proofs from 'The Malcontent' and
from 'Eastward Hoe.'
A drama, written by an unknown author, and printed in 1606, offers us
a valuable material wherewith to make it clear that, at that time, a
very bitter feud must have raged between Jonson and Shakspere; for it
is scarcely to be believed that it would have been brought on the
stage had a larger public not been deeply interested in the controversy.
'The Return from Parnassus, or the Scourge of Simony,' [1] is the title
of the play, mentioned several times before, in which this controversy
is referred to in clear words. Philomusus and Studioso, two poor scholars
who in vain had sought to pursue their calling as medical men, resolve
upon going to the more profitable stage. They are to be prepared for
it by two of the most famous actors from the Globe Theatre (Shakspere's
company), Burbage and Kemp. Whilst these are waiting for their new
pupils, [2] they converse about the capabilities of the students for
the histrionic art. Kemp, in words which show that the author must have
had great knowledge of the stage, condemns their ways and manners,
mocking the silly kind of acting which he had once seen in a performance
of the students at Cambridge. Burbage thinks they might amend their
faults in course of time, and that, at least, advantage could be taken
of them in so far as to make them write a part now and then; which
certainly they could do. To this Kemp replies:--
'Few of the University pen plaies well; they smell too much of that
writer _Ovid_ and that writer _Metamorphosis_, and talk too much of
_Proserpina_ and _Jupiter_. Why, here's our fellow _Shakespeare_ puts
them all down--I, and _Ben Jonson_ too. O that _Ben Jonson_ is a pestilent
fellow; he brought up Horace giving the poets a pill; [3] but our
fellow Shakespeare hath given him spurge that made him bewray his
credit.'
Burbage answers:--'It's a shrewd fellow indeed.'
For the better understanding of this most interesting controversy, the
centre of which Hamlet forms, it is necessary that we should give a
characteristic of Shakspere's adversary, Ben Jonson, whose individuality
and mode of action are too little known among the general reading
public.
Ben Jonson, born in 1573, in the neighbourhood of Westminster, was
the posthumous child of a Scot who had occupied a modest position at
the Court of Henry VIII., but who, under Queen Mary, had to suffer
long imprisonment, probably on account of his religious opinions.
His estates were confiscated by the Crown. After having obtained his
liberation, he became a priest of the Reformed Church of England.
Two years after his death, his widow, the mother of Ben, again
married: this time her husband was a master bricklayer. The education
of the boy from the first marriage, who at an early age showed talent
for learning, was not neglected. It is assumed that friends of his
father, seeing Ben's ability, rendered it possible for him to enter
Westminster School, and afterwards to study at the University of
Cambridge. In his seventeenth or eighteenth year, probably from a want
of means, he had to give up the career of learning, in order to follow
the simple calling of his stepfather. It may be easily understood that
Ben was little pleased with the use of the trowel; he fled to the
Netherlands, became a soldier, and took part in a campaign. After a year,
the youthful adventurer, then only nineteen years old, came back to
London. He talks of a heroic deed; but the truthfulness of his account
may well be doubted. He pretends having killed an enemy, in the face
of both camps, and come back to the ranks, laden with his spoils.
After his return to London, Jonson first tried to earn his livelihood
as an actor. His figure [4] and his scorbutic face were, however, sad
hindrances to his success. Soon he gave up the histrionic attempts and
began to write additions to existing plays, at the order of a theatrical
speculator, of the name of Philip Henslowe. The only further detail we
have of Jonson's doings, down to 1598, [5] is, that he fell out with
one of his colleagues, an actor (Jonson's quarrelsome disposition as
regards his comrades commenced very early), and that finally he killed
his antagonist. We then find him in prison where a Catholic priest
induced him to become a convert to the Roman Church which, after the
lapse of about twelve years, he again left, returning to the Established
Protestant Church of England. Jonson himself afterwards said once that
'he was for any religion, as being versed in both.' [6] It is, therefore,
not to be assumed that he once more changed from conviction. His
reconversion appears rather to have been a prudential act on his part,
in order to conform to the religious views of the pedantic James I.,
and thus to obtain access at Court, which aim he indeed afterwards
reached; whereas he had not been able to obtain that favour under
Elizabeth. [7]