[Footnote 1: 'Sweare'not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 2: They do not this time shift their ground, but swear—in dumb show.]
[Footnote 3: —for now they had obeyed his command and sworn secrecy.]
[Footnote 4: 'cursed spight'—not merely that he had been born to do hangman's work, but that he should have been born at all—of a mother whose crime against his father had brought upon him the wretched necessity which must proclaim her ignominy. Let the student do his best to realize the condition of Hamlet's heart and mind in relation to his mother.]
[Footnote: 5 This first act occupies part of a night, a day, and part of the next night.]
[Page 64]
Enter Polonius, and Reynoldo.[Sidenote:Enter old Polonius, with his man, or two.]
Polon.Giue him his money, and these notesReynoldo.[2][Sidenote: this money]
Reynol.I will my Lord.
Polon.You shall doe maruels wisely: goodReynoldo,[Sidenote: meruiles]Before you visite him you make inquiry[Sidenote: him, to make inquire]Of his behauiour.[3]
Reynol.My Lord, I did intend it.
Polon.Marry, well said;Very well said. Looke you Sir,Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;And how, and who; what meanes; and where they keepe:What company, at what expence: and findingBy this encompassement and drift of question,That they doe know my sonne: Come you more neerer[4]Then your particular demands will touch it,Take you as 'twere some distant knowledge of him,And thus I know his father and his friends, [Sidenote: As thus]And in part him. Doe you marke thisReynoldo?
Reynol.I, very well my Lord.
Polon.And in part him, but you may say not well;But if't be hee I meane, hees very wilde;Addicted so and so; and there put on himWhat forgeries you please: marry, none so ranke,As may dishonour him; take heed of that:But Sir, such wanton, wild, and vsuall slips,As are Companions noted and most knowneTo youth and liberty.
[Footnote 1:Not in Quarto.
Between this act and the former, sufficient time has passed to allow the ambassadors to go to Norway and return: 74. See 138, and what Hamlet says of the time since his father's death, 24, by which together the intervalseemsindicated as about two months, though surely so much time was not necessary.
Cause and effectmustbe truly presented; time and space are mere accidents, and of small consequence in the drama, whose very idea is compression for the sake of presentation. All that is necessary in regard to time is, that, either by the act-pause, or the intervention of a fresh scene, the passing of it should be indicated.
This second act occupies the forenoon of one day.]
[Footnote 2:1st Q.
Montano, here, these letters to my sonne, And this same mony with my blessing to him, And bid him ply his learning goodMontano.]
[Footnote 3: The father has no confidence in the son, and rightly, for both are unworthy: he turns on him the cunning of the courtier, and sends a spy on his behaviour. The looseness of his own principles comes out very clear in his anxieties about his son; and, having learned the ideas of the father as to what becomes a gentleman, we are not surprised to find the son such as he afterwards shows himself. Till the end approaches, we hear no more of Laertes, nor is more necessary; but without this scene we should have been unprepared for his vileness.]
[Footnote 4:Point thus: 'son, come you more nearer; then &c.' Thethenhere does not stand forthan, and to change it tothanmakes at once a contradiction. The sense is: 'Having put your general questions first, and been answered to your purpose, then your particular demands will come in, and be of service; they will reach to the point—will touch it.' Theitis impersonal. After it should come a period.]
[Page 66]
Reynol.As gaming my Lord.
Polon.I, or drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarelling, drabbing. You may goe so farre.
Reynol.My Lord that would dishonour him.
Polon.Faith no, as you may season it in the charge;[1][Sidenote: Fayth as you]You must not put another scandall on him,That hee is open to Incontinencie;[2]That's not my meaning: but breath his faults so quaintly,That they may seeme the taints of liberty;The flash and out-breake of a fiery minde,A sauagenes in vnreclaim'd[3] bloud of generall assault.[4]
Reynol.But my good Lord.[5]
Polon.Wherefore should you doe this?[6]
Reynol.I my Lord, I would know that.
Polon.Marry Sir, heere's my drift,And I belieue it is a fetch of warrant:[7] [Sidenote: of wit,]You laying these slight sulleyes[8] on my Sonne,[Sidenote: sallies[8]]As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'th'working:[Sidenote: soiled with working,]Marke you your party in conuerse; him you would sound,Hauing euer seene. In the prenominate crimes, [Sidenote: seene in the]The youth you breath of guilty, be assur'dHe closes with you in this consequence:Good sir, or so, or friend, or Gentleman.According to the Phrase and the Addition,[9] [Sidenote: phrase or the]Of man and Country.
Reynol.Very good my Lord.
Polon.And then Sir does he this?[Sidenote: doos a this a doos, what wasI]He does: what was I about to say?I was about to say somthing: where did I leaue?[Sidenote: By the masse I was]
Reynol.At closes in the consequence: At friend, or so, and Gentleman.[10]
[Footnote 1:1st Q.
I faith not a whit, no not a whit,
As you may bridle it not disparage him a iote.]
[Footnote 2: This may well seem prating inconsistency, but I suppose means that he must not be represented as without moderation in his wickedness.]
[Footnote 3:Untamed, as a hawk.]
[Footnote 4: The lines are properly arranged inQ.
A sauagenes in vnreclamed blood,Of generall assault.
—that is, 'which assails all.']
[Footnote 5: Here a hesitating pause.]
[Footnote 6: —with the expression of, 'Is that what you would say?']
[Footnote 7: 'a fetch with warrant for it'—a justifiable trick.]
[Footnote 8: Comparesallied, 25, both Quartos;sallets67, 103; and seesoil'd, next line.]
[Footnote 9: 'Addition,' epithet of courtesy in address.]
[Footnote 10:Q. has not this line]
[Page 68]
Polon.At closes in the consequence, I marry,He closes with you thus. I know the Gentleman,[Sidenote: He closes thus,]I saw him yesterday, or tother day; [Sidenote: th'other]Or then or then, with such and such; and as you say,[Sidenote: or such,][Sidenote: 25] There was he gaming, there o'retooke in's Rouse,[Sidenote: was a gaming there, or tooke]There falling out at Tennis; or perchance,I saw him enter such a house of saile; [Sidenote: sale,]Videlicet, a Brothell, or so forth. See you now;Your bait of falshood, takes this Cape of truth;[Sidenote: take this carpe]And thus doe we of wisedome and of reach[1]With windlesses,[2] and with assaies of Bias,By indirections finde directions out:So by my former Lecture and aduiceShall you my Sonne; you haue me, haue you not?
Reynol.My Lord I haue.
Polon.God buy you; fare you well, [Sidenote: ye | ye]
Reynol.Good my Lord.
Polon.Obserue his inclination in your selfe.[3]
Reynol.I shall my Lord.
Polon.And let him[4] plye his Musicke.
Reynol.Well, my Lord.Exit.
Enter Ophelia.
Polon. Farewell: How nowOphelia, what's the matter?
Ophe. Alas my Lord, I haue beene so affrighted.[Sidenote: O my Lord, my Lord,]
Polon. With what, in the name of Heauen?[Sidenote: i'th name of God?]
Ophe. My Lord, as I was sowing in my Chamber, [Sidenote: closset,]LordHamletwith his doublet all vnbrac'd,[5]No hat vpon his head, his stockings foul'd,Vngartred, and downe giued[6] to his Anckle,Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,And with a looke so pitious in purport,As if he had been loosed out of hell,
[Footnote 1: of far reaching mind.]
[Footnote 2: The word windlaces is explained in the dictionaries asshifts, subtleties—but apparently on the sole authority of this passage. There must be a figure inwindlesses, as well as inassaies of Bias, which is a phrase plain enough to bowlers: the trying of other directions than that of thejack, in the endeavour to come at one with the law of the bowl's bias. I findwanlassa term in hunting: it had to do with driving game to a given point—whether in part by getting to windward of it, I cannot tell. The word may come of the verb wind, from its meaning 'to manage by shifts or expedients':Barclay. As he has spoken of fishing, could thewindlessesrefer to any little instrument such as now used upon a fishing-rod? I do not think it. And how do the wordswindlessesandindirectionscome together? Was a windless some contrivance for determining how the wind blew? I bethink me that a thin withered straw is in Scotland called awindlestrae: perhaps such straws were thrown up to find out 'by indirection' the direction of the wind.
The press-reader sends me two valuable quotations, through Latham's edition of Johnson's Dictionary, from Dr. H. Hammond (1605-1660), in whichwindlassis used as a verb:—
'A skilful woodsman, by windlassing, presently gets a shoot, which, without taking a compass, and thereby a commodious stand, he could never have obtained.'
'She is not so much at leasure as to windlace, or use craft, to satisfy them.'
Towindlaceseems then to mean 'to steal along to leeward;' would it be absurd to suggest that, so-doing, the hunterlaces the wind? Shakspere, with many another, I fancy, speaks ofthreading the nightorthe darkness.
Johnson explains the word in the text as 'A handle by which anything is turned.']
[Footnote 3: 'in your selfe.' may mean either 'through the insight afforded by your own feelings'; or 'in respect of yourself,' 'toward yourself.' I do not know which is intended.]
[Footnote 4: 1st Q. 'And bid him'.]
[Footnote 5: loose;undone.]
[Footnote 6: His stockings, slipped down in wrinkles round his ankles, suggested the rings ofgyvesor fetters. The verbgyve, of which the passive participle is here used, is rarer.]
[Page 70]
To speake of horrors: he comes before me.
Polon.Mad for thy Loue?
Ophe.My Lord, I doe not know: but truly I do feare it.[1]
Polon.What said he?
Ophe.[2] He tooke me by the wrist, and held me hard;Then goes he to the length of all his arme;And with his other hand thus o're his brow,He fals to such perusall of my face,As he would draw it. Long staid he so, [Sidenote: As a]At last, a little shaking of mine Arme:And thrice his head thus wauing vp and downe;He rais'd a sigh, so pittious and profound,That it did seeme to shatter all his bulke, [Sidenote: As it]And end his being. That done, he lets me goe,And with his head ouer his shoulders turn'd, [Sidenote: shoulder]He seem'd to finde his way without his eyes,For out adores[3] he went without their helpe; [Sidenote: helps,]And to the last, bended their light on me.
Polon.Goe with me, I will goe seeke the King, [Sidenote: Come, goe]This is the very extasie of Loue,Whose violent property foredoes[4] it selfe,And leads the will to desperate Vndertakings,As oft as any passion vnder Heauen, [Sidenote: passions]That does afflict our Natures. I am sorrie,What haue you giuen him any hard words of late?
Ophe. No my good Lord: but as you did command, [Sidenote: 42, 82] I did repell his Letters, and deny'de His accesse to me.[5]
Pol. That hath made him mad.I am sorrie that with better speed and Judgement[Sidenote: better heede][Sidenote: 83] I had not quoted[6] him. I feare he did but trifle,[Sidenote: coted[6] | fear'd]And meant to wracke thee: but beshrew my iealousie:
[Footnote 1: She would be glad her father should think so.]
[Footnote 2: The detailed description of Hamlet and his behaviour that follows, must be introduced in order that the side mirror of narrative may aid the front mirror of drama, and between them be given a true notion of his condition both mental and bodily. Although weeks have passed since his interview with the Ghost, he is still haunted with the memory of it, still broods over its horrible revelation. That he had, probably soon, begun to feel far from certain of the truth of the apparition, could not make the thoughts and questions it had awaked, cease tormenting his whole being. The stifling smoke of his mother's conduct had in his mind burst into loathsome flame, and through her he has all but lost his faith in humanity. To know his uncle a villain, was to know his uncle a villain; to know his mother false, was to doubt women, doubt the whole world.
In the meantime Ophelia, in obedience to her father, and evidently without reason assigned, has broken off communication with him: he reads her behaviour by the lurid light of his mother's. She too is false! she too is heartless! he can look to her for no help! She has turned against him to curry favour with his mother and his uncle!
Can she be such as his mother! Why should she not be? His mother had seemed as good! He would give his life to know her honest and pure. Might he but believe her what he had believed her, he would yet have a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest! If he could but know the truth! Alone with her once more but for a moment, he would read her very soul by the might of his! He must see her! He would see her! In the agony of a doubt upon which seemed to hang the bliss or bale of his being, yet not altogether unintimidated by a sense of his intrusion, he walks into the house of Polonius, and into the chamber of Ophelia.
Ever since the night of the apparition, the court, from the behaviour assumed by Hamlet, has believed his mind affected; and when he enters her room, Ophelia, though such is the insight of love that she is able to read in the face of the son the father's purgatorial sufferings, the picture of one 'loosed out of hell, to speak of horrors,' attributes all the strangeness of his appearance and demeanour, such as she describes them to her father, to that supposed fact. But there is, in truth, as little of affected as of actual madness in his behaviour in her presence. When he comes before her pale and trembling, speechless and with staring eyes, it is with no simulated insanity, but in the agonized hope, scarce distinguishable from despair, of finding, in the testimony of her visible presence, an assurance that the doubts ever tearing his spirit and sickening his brain, are but the offspring of his phantasy. There she sits!—and there he stands, vainly endeavouring through her eyes to read her soul! for, alas,
there's no art To find the mind's construction in the face!
—until at length, finding himself utterly baffled, but unable, save by the removal of his person, to take his eyes from her face, he retires speechless as he came. Such is the man whom we are now to see wandering about the halls and corridors of the great castle-palace.
He may by this time have begun to doubt even the reality of the sight he had seen. The moment the pressure of a marvellous presence is removed, it is in the nature of man the same moment to begin to doubt; and instead of having any reason to wish the apparition a true one, he had every reason to desire to believe it an illusion or a lying spirit. Great were his excuse even if he forced likelihoods, and suborned witnesses in the court of his own judgment. To conclude it false was to think his father in heaven, and his mother not an adulteress, not a murderess! At once to kill his uncle would be to seal these horrible things irrevocable, indisputable facts. Strongest reasons he had for not taking immediate action in vengeance; but no smallest incapacity for action had share in his delay. The Poet takes recurrent pains, as if he foresaw hasty conclusions, to show his hero a man of promptitude, with this truest fitness for action, that he would not make unlawful haste. Without sufficing assurance, he would have no part in the fate either of the uncle he disliked or the mother he loved.]
[Footnote 3:a doors, likean end. 51, 175.]
[Footnote 4:undoes, frustrates, destroys.]
[Footnote 5: See quotation from1st Quarto,43.]
[Footnote 6:Quotedorcoted: observed; Fr.coter, to mark the number. Compare 95.]
[Page 72]
It seemes it is as proper to our Age, [Sidenote: By heauen it is]To cast beyond our selues[1] in our Opinions,As it is common for the yonger sortTo lacke discretion.[2] Come, go we to the King,This must be knowne, which being kept close might moueMore greefe to hide, then hate to vtter loue.[3] [Sidenote: Come.]Exeunt.
_Enter King, Queene, Rosincrane, and Guildensterne Cum alijs.[Sidenote: Florish: Enter King and Queene, Rosencraus andGuyldensterne.[5]]
King.Welcome deereRosincranceandGuildensterne.Moreouer,[6] that we much did long to see you,The neede we haue to vse you, did prouoke[Sidenote: 92] Our hastie sending.[7] Something haue you heardOfHamletstransformation: so I call it, [Sidenote: so call]Since not th'exterior, nor the inward man [Sidenote: Sith nor]Resembles that it was. What it should beeMore then his Fathers death, that thus hath put himSo much from th'understanding of himselfe,I cannot deeme of.[8] I intreat you both, [Sidenote: dreame]That being of so young dayes[9] brought vp with him:And since so Neighbour'd to[10] his youth,and humour,[Sidenote: And sith | and hauior,]That you vouchsafe your rest heere in our CourtSome little time: so by your CompaniesTo draw him on to pleasures, and to gather[Sidenote: 116] So much as from Occasions you may gleane,[Sidenote: occasion][A]That open'd lies within our remedie.[11]
[Footnote A:Here in the Quarto:—
Whether ought to vs vnknowne afflicts him thus,]
[Footnote 1:
'to be overwise—to overreach ourselves' 'ambition, which o'erleaps itself,' —Macbeth, act i. sc. 7.]
[Footnote 2: Polonius is a man of faculty. His courtier-life, his self-seeking, his vanity, have made and make him the fool he is.]
[Footnote 3: He hopes now to get his daughter married to the prince.
We have here a curious instance of Shakspere's not unfrequently excessive condensation. Expanded, the clause would be like this: 'which, being kept close, might move more grief by the hiding of love, than to utter love might move hate:' the grief in the one case might be greater than the hate in the other would be. It verges on confusion, and may not be as Shakspere wrote it, though it is like his way.
1st Q.
Lets to the king, this madnesse may prooue,Though wilde a while, yet more true to thy loue.]
[Footnote 4:Not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 5:Q.has notCum alijs.]
[Footnote 6: 'Moreover that &c.':moreoveris here used as a preposition, with the rest of the clause for its objective.]
[Footnote 7: Rosincrance and Guildensterne are, from the first and throughout, the creatures of the king.]
[Footnote 8: The king's conscience makes him suspicious of Hamlet's suspicion.]
[Footnote 9: 'from such an early age'.]
[Footnote 10: 'since then so familiar with'.]
[Footnote 11: 'to gather as much as you may glean from opportunities, of that which, when disclosed to us, will lie within our remedial power.' If the line of the Quarto be included, it makes plainer construction. The line beginning with 'So much,' then becomes parenthetical, andto gatherwill not immediately govern that line, but the rest of the sentence.]
[Page 74]
Qu.Good Gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you,And sure I am, two men there are not liuing, [Sidenote: there is not]To whom he more adheres. If it will please youTo shew vs so much Gentrie,[1] and good will,As to expend your time with vs a-while,For the supply and profit of our Hope,[2]Your Visitation shall receiue such thankesAs fits a Kings remembrance.
Rosin.Both your MaiestiesMight by the Soueraigne power you haue of vs,Put your dread pleasures, more into CommandThen to Entreatie,
Guil.We both[3] obey, [Sidenote: But we]And here giue vp our selues, in the full bent,[4]To lay our Seruices freely at your feete, [Sidenote: seruice]To be commanded.
King.ThankesRosincrance, and gentleGuildensterne.
Qu.ThankesGuildensterneand gentleRosincrance,[5]And I beseech you instantly to visitMy too much changed Sonne.Go some of ye, [Sidenote: you]And bring the Gentlemen whereHamletis, [Sidenote: bring these]
Guil.Heauens make our presence and our practises Pleasant and helpfull to him.Exit[6]
Queene.Amen. [Sidenote: Amen.Exeunt Ros. and Guyld.]
Enter Polonius.
[Sidenote: 18]Pol.Th'Ambassadors from Norwey, my good Lord,Are ioyfully return'd.
[Footnote 1: gentleness, grace, favour.]
[Footnote 2: Their hope in Hamlet, as their son and heir.]
[Footnote 3: both majesties.]
[Footnote 4: If we put a comma afterbent, the phrase will mean 'in the fullpurposeordesignto lay our services &c.' Without the comma, the content of the phrase would be general:—'in the devoted force of our faculty.' The latter is more like Shakspere.]
[Footnote 5: Is there not tact intended in the queen's reversal of her husband's arrangement of the two names—that each might have precedence, and neither take offence?]
[Footnote 6:Not in Quarto.]
[Page 76]
King.Thou still hast bin the Father of good Newes.
Pol.Haue I, my Lord?[1] Assure you, my good Liege,[Sidenote: I assure my]I hold my dutie, as I hold my Soule,Both to my God, one to my gracious King:[2] [Sidenote: God, and to[2]]And I do thinke, or else this braine of mineHunts not the traile of Policie, so sureAs I haue vs'd to do: that I haue found [Sidenote: it hath vsd]The very cause ofHamletsLunacie.
King.Oh speake of that, that I do long to heare.[Sidenote: doe I long]
Pol.Giue first admittance to th'Ambassadors, My Newes shall be the Newes to that great Feast, [Sidenote: the fruite to that]
King.Thy selfe do grace to them, and bring them in.He tels me my sweet Queene, that he hath found[Sidenote: my deere Gertrard he]The head[3] and sourse of all your Sonnes distemper.
Qu.I doubt it is no other, but the maine, His Fathers death, and our o're-hasty Marriage.[4] [Sidenote: our hastie]
Enter Polonius, Voltumand, and Cornelius.[Sidenote:EnterEmbassadors.]
King.Well, we shall sift him. Welcome good Frends: [Sidenote: my good] SayVoltumand, what from our Brother Norwey?
Volt.Most faire returne of Greetings, and Desires.Vpon our first,[5] he sent out to suppresseHis Nephewes Leuies, which to him appear'dTo be a preparation 'gainst the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke,]But better look'd into, he truly foundIt was against your Highnesse, whereat greeued,That so his Sicknesse, Age, and ImpotenceWas falsely borne in hand,[6] sends[7] out ArrestsOnFortinbras, which he (in breefe) obeyes,
[Footnote 1: To be spoken triumphantly, but in the peculiar tone of one thinking, 'You little know what better news I have behind!']
[Footnote 2: I cannot tell which is the right reading; if theQ.'s, it means, 'I hold my duty precious as my soul, whether to my God or my king'; if theF.'s, it is a little confused by the attempt of Polonius to make a fine euphuistic speech:—'I hold my duty as I hold my soul,—both at the command of my God, one at the command of my king.']
[Footnote 3: the spring; the river-head
'The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood'
Macbeth,act ii. sc. 3.]
[Footnote 4: She goes a step farther than the king in accounting for Hamlet's misery—knows there is more cause of it yet, but hopes he does not know so much cause for misery as he might know.]
[Footnote 5: Either 'first' stands forfirst desire, or it is a noun, and the meaning of the phrase is, 'The instant we mentioned the matter'.]
[Footnote 6: 'borne in hand'—played with, taken advantage of.
'How you were borne in hand, how cross'd,'
Macbeth,act iii. sc. 1.]
[Footnote 7: The nominative pronoun was notquiteindispensable to the verb in Shakspere's time.]
[Page 78]
Receiues rebuke from Norwey: and in fine,Makes Vow before his Vnkle, neuer moreTo giue th'assay of Armes against your Maiestie.Whereon old Norwey, ouercome with ioy,Giues him three thousand Crownes in Annuall Fee,[Sidenote: threescore thousand]And his Commission to imploy those SoldiersSo leuied as before, against the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke,]With an intreaty heerein further shewne,[Sidenote: 190] That it might please you to giue quiet passeThrough your Dominions, for his Enterprize, [Sidenote: for this]On such regards of safety and allowance,As therein are set downe.
King. It likes vs well:And at our more consider'd[1] time wee'l read,Answer, and thinke vpon this Businesse.Meane time we thanke you, for your well-tooke Labour.Go to your rest, at night wee'l Feast together.[2]Most welcome home.Exit Ambass.[Sidenote: Exeunt Embassadors]
Pol. This businesse is very well ended.[3] [Sidenote: is well]My Liege, and Madam, to expostulate[4]What Maiestie should be, what Dutie is,[5]Why day is day; night, night; and time is time,Were nothing but to waste Night, Day and Time.Therefore, since Breuitie is the Soule of Wit,[Sidenote: Therefore breuitie]And tediousnesse, the limbes and outward flourishes,[6]I will be breefe. Your Noble Sonne is mad:Mad call I it; for to define true Madnesse,What is't, but to be nothing else but mad.[7]But let that go.
Qu. More matter, with lesse Art.[8]
Pol. Madam, I sweare I vse no Art at all:That he is mad, 'tis true: 'Tis true 'tis pittie, [Sidenote: hee's mad]And pittie it is true; A foolish figure,[9][Sidenote: pitty tis tis true,]
[Footnote 1: time given up to, or filled with consideration;or, perhaps, time chosen for a purpose.]
[Footnote 2: He is always feasting.]
[Footnote 3: Now forhisturn! He sets to work at once with his rhetoric.]
[Footnote 4: to lay down beforehand as postulates.]
[Footnote 5: We may suppose a dash and pause after 'Dutie is'. The meaning is plain enough, though logical form is wanting.]
[Footnote 6: As there is no imagination in Polonius, we cannot look for great aptitude in figure.]
[Footnote 7: The nature of madness also is a postulate.]
[Footnote 8: She is impatient, but wraps her rebuke in a compliment. Art, so-called, in speech, was much favoured in the time of Elizabeth. And as a compliment Polonius takes the form in which she expresses her dislike of his tediousness, and her anxiety after his news: pretending to wave it off, he yet, in his gratification, coming on the top of his excitement with the importance of his fancied discovery, plunges immediately into a very slough ofart, and becomes absolutely silly.]
[Footnote 9: It is no figure at all. It is hardly even a play with the words.]
[Page 80]
But farewell it: for I will vse no Art.Mad let vs grant him then: and now remainesThat we finde out the cause of this effect,Or rather say, the cause of this defect;For this effect defectiue, comes by cause,Thus it remaines, and the remainder thus. Perpend,I haue a daughter: haue, whil'st she is mine, [Sidenote: while]Who in her Dutie and Obedience, marke,Hath giuen me this: now gather, and surmise.
The Letter.[1]To the Celestiall, and my Soules Idoll, the most beautified Ophelia. That's an ill Phrase, a vilde Phrase, beautified is a vilde Phrase: but you shall heare these in her thus in her excellent white bosome, these.[2] [Sidenote: these, &c]
Qu. Came this fromHamletto her.
Pol. Good Madam stay awhile, I will be faithfull.Doubt thou, the Starres are fire, [Sidenote:Letter]Doubt, that the Sunne doth moue; Doubt Truth to be a Lier, But neuer Doubt, I loue.[3] O deere Ophelia, I am ill at these Numbers: I haue not Art to reckon my grones; but that I loue thee best, oh most Best beleeue it. Adieu. Thine euermore most deere Lady, whilst this Machine is to him, Hamlet. This in Obedience hath my daughter shew'd me: [Sidenote:Pol. This showne] And more aboue hath his soliciting, [Sidenote: more about solicitings] As they fell out by Time, by Meanes, and Place, All giuen to mine eare.
King. But how hath she receiu'd his Loue?
Pol. What do you thinke of me?
King. As of a man, faithfull and Honourable.
Pol. I wold faine proue so. But what might you think?
[Footnote 1:Not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 2:Point thus: 'but you shall heare.These, in her excellent white bosom, these:'
Ladies, we are informed, wore a small pocket in front of the bodice;—but to accept the fact as an explanation of this passage, is to cast the passage away. Hamletaddresseshis letter, not to Ophelia's pocket, but to Ophelia herself, at her house—that is, in the palace of her bosom, excellent in whiteness. In like manner, signing himself, he makes mention of his body as a machine of which he has the use for a time. So earnest is Hamlet that when he makes love, he is the more a philosopher. But he is more than a philosopher: he is a man of the Universe, not a man of this world only.
We must not allow the fashion of the time in which the play was written, to cause doubt as to the genuine heartiness of Hamlet's love-making.]
[Footnote 3:1st Q.
Doubt that in earth is fire,Doubt that the starres doe moue,Doubt trueth to be a liar,But doe not doubt I loue.]
[Page 82]
When I had seene this hot loue on the wing,As I perceiued it, I must tell you thatBefore my Daughter told me, what might youOr my deere Maiestie your Queene heere, think,If I had playd the Deske or Table-booke,[1]Or giuen my heart a winking, mute and dumbe, [Sidenote: working]Or look'd vpon this Loue, with idle sight,[2]What might you thinke? No, I went round to worke,And (my yong Mistris) thus I did bespeake[3]LordHamletis a Prince out of thy Starre,[4]This must not be:[5] and then, I Precepts gaue her,[Sidenote: I prescripts]That she should locke her selfe from his Resort, [Sidenote: from her][Sidenote: 42[6], 43, 70] Admit no Messengers, receiue no Tokens:Which done, she tooke the Fruites of my Aduice,[7]And he repulsed. A short Tale to make, [Sidenote: repell'd, a]Fell into a Sadnesse, then into a Fast,[8]Thence to a Watch, thence into a Weaknesse, [Sidenote: to a wath,]Thence to a Lightnesse, and by this declension [Sidenote: to lightnes]Into the Madnesse whereon now he raues, [Sidenote: wherein]And all we waile for.[9] [Sidenote: mourne for]
King. Do you thinke 'tis this?[10] [Sidenote: thinke this?]
Qu. It may be very likely. [Sidenote: like]
Pol. Hath there bene such a time, I'de fain know that,[Sidenote: I would]That I haue possitiuely said, 'tis so,When it prou'd otherwise?
King. Not that I know.
Pol. Take this from this[11]; if this be otherwise,If Circumstances leade me, I will findeWhere truth is hid, though it were hid indeedeWithin the Center.
King. How may we try it further?
[Footnote 1: —behaved like a piece of furniture.]
[Footnote 2: The love of talk makes a man use many idle words, foolish expressions, and useless repetitions.]
[Footnote 3: Notwithstanding the parenthesis, I take 'Mistris' to be the objective to 'bespeake'—that is,address.]
[Footnote 4:Star, mark of sort or quality; brand (45). The1st Q. goes on—
An'd one that is vnequall for your loue:
But it may mean, as suggested by myReader, 'outside thy destiny,'—as ruled by the star of nativity—and I think it does.]
[Footnote 5: Here is a change from the impression conveyed in the first act: he attributes his interference to his care for what befitted royalty; whereas, talking to Ophelia (40, 72), he attributes it entirely to his care for her;—so partly in the speech correspondent to the present in1st Q.:—
Now since which time, seeing his loue thus cross'd,Which I tooke to be idle, and but sport,He straitway grew into a melancholy,]
[Footnote 6: See also passage in note from1st Q.]
[Footnote 7: She obeyed him. The 'fruits' of his advice were her conformed actions.]
[Footnote 8: When the appetite goes, and the sleep follows, doubtless the man is on the steep slope of madness. But as to Hamlet, and how matters were with him, what Polonius says is worth nothing.]
[Footnote 9: 'whereinnow he raves, andwhereforall we wail.']
[Footnote 10:To the queen.]
[Footnote 11: head from shoulders.]
[Page 84]
Pol. You know sometimes He walkes foure houres together, heere[1] In the Lobby.
Qu. So he ha's indeed. [Sidenote: he dooes indeede]
[Sidenote: 118]Pol. At such a time Ile loose my Daughter to him,Be you and I behinde an Arras then,Marke the encounter: If he loue her not,And be not from his reason falne thereon;Let me be no Assistant for a State,And keepe a Farme and Carters. [Sidenote: But keepe]
King. We will try it.
Enter Hamlet reading on a Booke.[2]
Qu. But looke where sadly the poore wretch Comes reading.[3]
Pol. Away I do beseech you, both away, He boord[4] him presently.Exit King & Queen[5] Oh giue me leaue.[6] How does my good LordHamlet?
Ham. Well, God-a-mercy.
Pol. Do you know me, my Lord?
[Sidenote: 180]Ham. Excellent, excellent well: y'are aFish-monger.[7] [Sidenote: Excellent well, you are]
Pol. Not I my Lord.
Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man.
Pol. Honest, my Lord?
Ham. I sir, to be honest as this world goes, is to bee one man pick'd out of two thousand. [Sidenote: tenne thousand[8]]
Pol. That's very true, my Lord.
Ham.[9] For if the Sun breed Magots in a dead dogge, being a good kissing Carrion—[10] [Sidenote: carrion. Have] Haue you a daughter?[11]
Pol. I haue my Lord.
[Footnote 1:1st Q.
The Princes walke is here in the galery,There letOfelia, walke vntill hee comes:Your selfe and I will stand close in the study,]
[Footnote 2:Not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 3:1st Q.—
King. See where hee comes poring vppon a booke.]
[Footnote 4: The same as accost, both meaning originallygo to the side of.]
[Footnote 5:A line back in the Quarto.]
[Footnote 6: 'Please you to go away.' 89, 203. Here should come the preceding stage-direction.]
[Footnote 7: Now first the Play shows us Hamlet in his affected madness. He has a great dislike to the selfish, time-serving courtier, who, like his mother, has forsaken the memory of his father—and a great distrust of him as well. The two men are moral antipodes. Each is given to moralizing—but compare their reflections: those of Polonius reveal a lover of himself, those of Hamlet a lover of his kind; Polonius is interested in success; Hamlet in humanity.]
[Footnote 8: So also in1st Q.]
[Footnote 9: —reading, or pretending to read, the words from the book he carries.]
[Footnote 10: When the passion for emendation takes possession of a man, his opportunities are endless—so many seeming emendations offer themselves which are in themselves not bad, letters and words affording as much play as the keys of a piano. 'Being a god kissing carrion,' is in itself good enough; but Shakspere meant what stands in both Quarto and Folio:the dead dog being a carrion good at kissing. The arbitrary changes of the editors are amazing.]
[Footnote 11: He cannot help his mind constantly turning upon women; and if his thoughts of them are often cruelly false, it is not Hamlet but his mother who is to blame: her conduct has hurled him from the peak of optimism into the bottomless pool of pessimistic doubt, above the foul waters of which he keeps struggling to lift his head.]
[Page 86]
Ham. Let her not walke i'th'Sunne: Conception[1] is a blessing, but not as your daughter may [Sidenote: but as your] conceiue. Friend looke too't.
[Sidenote: 100]Pol.[2] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said [Sidenote: a sayd I] I was a Fishmonger: he is farre gone, farre gone: [Sidenote: Fishmonger, a is farre gone, and truly] and truly in my youth, I suffred much extreamity and truly for loue: very neere this. Ile speake to him againe.
What do you read my Lord?
Ham. Words, words, words.
Pol. What is the matter, my Lord?
Ham. Betweene who?[3]
Pol. I meane the matter you meane, my [Sidenote: matter that you reade my] Lord.
Ham. Slanders Sir: for the Satyricall slaue [Sidenote: satericall rogue sayes] saies here, that old men haue gray Beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thicke Amber, or Plum-Tree Gumme: and that they haue [Sidenote: Amber, and] a plentifull locke of Wit, together with weake [Sidenote: lacke | with most weake] Hammes. All which Sir, though I most powerfully, and potently beleeue; yet I holde it not Honestie[4] to haue it thus set downe: For you [Sidenote: for your selfe sir shall grow old as I am:] your selfe Sir, should be old as I am, if like a Crab you could go backward.
Pol.[5] Though this be madnesse, Yet there is Method in't: will you walke Out of the ayre[6] my Lord?
Ham. Into my Graue?
Pol. Indeed that is out o'th'Ayre:[Sidenote: that's out of the ayre;]How pregnant (sometimes) his Replies are?A happinesse,That often Madnesse hits on,Which Reason and Sanitie could not [Sidenote: sanctity]So prosperously be deliuer'd of.
[Footnote 1: One of the meanings of the word, and more in use then than now, isunderstanding.]
[Footnote 2: (aside).]
[Footnote 3: —pretending to take him to mean bymatter, thepoint of quarrel.]
[Footnote 4: Propriety.]
[Footnote 5: (aside).]
[Footnote 6: the draught.]
[Page 88]
[A] I will leaue him,And sodainely contriue the meanes of meetingBetweene him,[1] and my daughter.My Honourable Lord, I will most humblyTake my leaue of you.
Ham. You cannot Sir take from[2] me any thing, that I will more willingly part withall, except my [Sidenote: will not more | my life, except my] life, my life.[3] [Sidenote:Enter Guyldersterne, and Rosencrans.]
Polon. Fare you well my Lord.
Ham. These tedious old fooles.
Polon. You goe to seeke my LordHamlet; [Sidenote: the Lord] there hee is.
Enter Rosincran and Guildensterne.[4]
Rosin. God saue you Sir.
Guild. Mine honour'd Lord?
Rosin. My most deare Lord?
Ham. My excellent good friends? How do'st [Sidenote: My extent good] thouGuildensterne? Oh,Rosincrane; good Lads: [Sidenote: A Rosencraus] How doe ye both? [Sidenote: you]
Rosin. As the indifferent Children of the earth.
Guild. Happy, in that we are not ouer-happy: [Sidenote: euer happy on] on Fortunes Cap, we are not the very Button. [Sidenote: Fortunes lap,]
Ham. Nor the Soales of her Shoo?
Rosin. Neither my Lord.
Ham. Then you liue about her waste, or in the middle of her fauour? [Sidenote: fauors.]
Guil. Faith, her priuates, we.
Ham. In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true: she is a Strumpet.[5] What's the newes? [Sidenote: What newes?]
Rosin. None my Lord; but that the World's [Sidenote: but the] growne honest.
Ham. Then is Doomesday neere: But your
[Footnote A:In the Quarto, the speech ends thus:—I will leaue him and my daughter.[6] My Lord, I will take my leaue of you.]
[Footnote 1: From 'And sodainely'to'betweene him,'not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 2: It is well here to recall the modes of the wordleave: 'Give me leave,' Polonius says with proper politeness to the king and queen when he wantsthemto go—that is, 'Grant me yourdeparture'; but he would, going himself,takehis leave, his departure,oforfromthem—by their permission to go. Hamlet means, 'You cannot take from me anything I will more willingly part with than your leave, or, my permission to you to go.' 85, 203. See the play on the two meanings of the word inTwelfth Night, act ii. sc. 4:
Duke. Give me now leave to leave thee;
though I suspect it ought to be—
Duke. Give me now leave.
Clown. To leave thee!—Now, the melancholy &c.]
[Footnote 3: It is a relief to him to speak the truth under the cloak of madness—ravingly. He has no one to whom to open his heart: what lies there he feels too terrible for even the eye of Horatio. He has not apparently told him as yet more than the tale of his father's murder.]
[Footnote 4:Above, in Quarto.]
[Footnote 5: In this and all like utterances of Hamlet, we see what worm it is that lies gnawing at his heart.]
[Footnote 6: This is a slip in theQuarto—rectified in theFolio: his daughter was not present.]
[Page 90]
newes is not true.[1] [2] Let me question more in particular: what haue you my good friends, deserued at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to Prison hither?
Guil. Prison, my Lord?
Ham. Denmark's a Prison.
Rosin. Then is the World one.
Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many Confines, Wards, and Dungeons;Denmarkebeing one o'th'worst.
Rosin. We thinke not so my Lord.
Ham. Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so[3]: to me it is a prison.
Rosin. Why then your Ambition makes it one: 'tis too narrow for your minde.[4]
Ham. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count my selfe a King of infinite space; were it not that I haue bad dreames.
Guil. Which dreames indeed are Ambition: for the very substance[5] of the Ambitious, is meerely the shadow of a Dreame.
Ham. A dreame it selfe is but a shadow.
Rosin. Truely, and I hold Ambition of so ayry and light a quality, that it is but a shadowes shadow.
Ham. Then are our Beggers bodies; and ourMonarchs and out-stretcht Heroes the BeggersShadowes: shall wee to th'Court: for, by my fey[6]I cannot reason?[7]
Both. Wee'l wait vpon you.
Ham. No such matter.[8] I will not sort you with the rest of my seruants: for to speake to you like an honest man: I am most dreadfully attended;[9] but in the beaten way of friendship,[10] [Sidenote: But in]
What make you atElsonower?
[Footnote 1: 'it is not true that the world is grown honest': he doubts themselves. His eye is sharper because his heart is sorer since he left Wittenberg. He proceeds to examine them.]
[Footnote 2: This passage, beginning with 'Let me question,' and ending with 'dreadfully attended,' is not in theQuarto.
Who inserted in the Folio this and other passages? Was it or was it not Shakspere? Beyond a doubt they are Shakspere's all. Then who omitted those omitted? Was Shakspere incapable of refusing any of his own work? Or would these editors, who profess to have all opportunity, and who, belonging to the theatre, must have had the best of opportunities, have desired or dared to omit what far more painstaking editors have since presumed, though out of reverence, to restore?]
[Footnote 3: 'but it is thinking that makes it so:']
[Footnote 4: —feeling after the cause of Hamlet's strangeness, and following the readiest suggestion, that of chagrin at missing the succession.]
[Footnote 5: objects and aims.]
[Footnote 6:foi.]
[Footnote 7: Does he choose beggars as the representatives of substance because they lack ambition—that being shadow? Or does he take them as the shadows of humanity, that, following Rosincrance, he may get their shadows, the shadows therefore of shadows, to parallelmonarchsandheroes? But he is not satisfied with his own analogue—therefore will to the court, where good logic is not wanted—where indeed he knows a hellish lack of reason.]
[Footnote 8: 'On no account.']
[Footnote 9: 'I have very bad servants.' Perhaps he judges his servants spies upon him. Or might he mean that he washaunted with bad thoughts? Or again, is it a stroke of his pretence of madness—suggesting imaginary followers?]
[Footnote: 10: 'to speak plainly, as old friends.']
[Page 92]
Rosin. To visit you my Lord, no other occasion.
Ham. Begger that I am, I am euen poore in [Sidenote: am ever poore] thankes; but I thanke you: and sure deare friends my thanks are too deare a halfepeny[1]; were you [Sidenote: 72] not sent for? Is it your owne inclining? Is it a free visitation?[2] Come, deale iustly with me: come, come; nay speake. [Sidenote: come, come,]
Guil. What should we say my Lord?[3]
Ham. Why any thing. But to the purpose; [Sidenote: Any thing but to'th purpose:] you were sent for; and there is a kinde confession [Sidenote: kind of confession] in your lookes; which your modesties haue not craft enough to color, I know the good King and [Sidenote: 72] Queene haue sent for you.
Rosin. To what end my Lord?
Ham. That you must teach me: but let mee coniure[4] you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth,[5] by the Obligation of our euer-preserued loue, and by what more deare, a better proposer could charge you withall; [Sidenote: can] be euen and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no.
Rosin. What say you?[6]
Ham. Nay then I haue an eye of you[7]: if you loue me hold not off.[8]
[Sidenote: 72]Guil. My Lord, we were sent for.
Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation preuent your discouery of your secricie to [Sidenote: discovery, and your secrecie to the King and Queene moult no feather,[10]] the King and Queene[9] moult no feather, I haue [Sidenote: 116] of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custome of exercise; and indeed, [Sidenote: exercises;] it goes so heauenly with my disposition; that this [Sidenote: heauily] goodly frame the Earth, seemes to me a sterrill Promontory; this most excellent Canopy the Ayre, look you, this braue ore-hanging, this Maiesticall [Sidenote: orehanging firmament,] Roofe, fretted with golden fire: why, it appeares no [Sidenote: appeareth]
[Footnote 1: —because they were by no means hearty thanks.]
[Footnote 2: He wants to know whether they are in his uncle's employment and favour; whether they pay court to himself for his uncle's ends.]
[Footnote 3: He has no answer ready.]
[Footnote 4: He will not cast them from him without trying a direct appeal to their old friendship for plain dealing. This must be remembered in relation to his treatment of them afterwards. He affords them every chance of acting truly—conjuring them to honesty—giving them a push towards repentance.]
[Footnote 5: Either, 'the harmony of our young days,' or, 'the sympathies of our present youth.']
[Footnote 6: —to Guildenstern.]
[Footnote 7: (aside) 'I will keep an eye upon you;'.]
[Footnote 8: 'do not hold back.']
[Footnote 9: TheQuartoseems here to have the right reading.]
[Footnote 10: 'your promise of secrecy remain intact;'.]
[Page 94]
other thing to mee, then a foule and pestilent congregation [Sidenote: nothing to me but a] of vapours. What a piece of worke is [Sidenote: what peece] a man! how Noble in Reason? how infinite in faculty? in forme and mouing how expresse and [Sidenote: faculties,] admirable? in Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension, how like a God? the beauty of the world, the Parragon of Animals; and yet to me, what is this Quintessence of Dust? Man delights not me;[1] no, nor Woman neither; though by your [Sidenote: not me, nor women] smiling you seeme to say so.[2]
Rosin.My Lord, there was no such stuffe in my thoughts.
Ham.Why did you laugh, when I said, Man [Sidenote: yee laugh then, when] delights not me?
Rosin.To thinke, my Lord, if you delight not in Man, what Lenton entertainment the Players shall receiue from you:[3] wee coated them[4] on the way, and hither are they comming to offer you Seruice.
Ham.[5] He that playes the King shall be welcome; his Maiesty shall haue Tribute of mee: [Sidenote: on me,] the aduenturous Knight shal vse his Foyle and Target: the Louer shall not sighgratis, the humorous man[6] shall end his part in peace: [7] the Clowne shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled a'th' sere:[8] and the Lady shall say her minde freely; or the blanke Verse shall halt for't[9]: [Sidenote: black verse] what Players are they?
Rosin.Euen those you Were wont to take [Sidenote: take such delight] delight in the Tragedians of the City.
Ham.How chances it they trauaile? their residence both in reputation and profit was better both wayes.
Rosin.I thinke their Inhibition comes by the meanes of the late Innouation?[10]
[Footnote 1: A genuine description, so far as it goes, of the state of Hamlet's mind. But he does not reveal the operating cause—his loss of faith in women, which has taken the whole poetic element out of heaven, earth, and humanity: he would have his uncle's spies attribute his condition to mere melancholy.]
[Footnote 2: —said angrily, I think.]
[Footnote 3: —a ready-witted subterfuge.]
[Footnote 4: came alongside of them; got up with them; apparently rather from Fr.côtéthancoter; likeaccost. Compare 71. But I suspect it only meansnoted,observed, and is fromcoter.]
[Footnote 5: —with humorous imitation, perhaps, of each of the characters.]
[Footnote 6: —the man with a whim.]
[Footnote 7: This part of the speech—from [7] to [8], is not in theQuarto.]
[Footnote 8: Halliwell gives a quotation in which the touch-hole of a pistol is called thesere: thesere, then, of the lungs would mean the opening of the lungs—the part with which we laugh: those 'whose lungs are tickled a' th' sere,' are such as are ready to laugh on the least provocation:tickled—irritable, ticklish—ready to laugh, as another might be to cough. 'Tickled o' the sere' was a common phrase, signifying, thus,propense.
1st Q.The clowne shall make them laugh That are tickled in the lungs,]
[Footnote 9: Does this refer to the pause that expresses the unutterable? or to the ruin of the measure of the verse by an incompetent heroine?]
[Footnote 10: Does this mean, 'I think their prohibition comes through the late innovation,'—of the children's acting; or, 'I think they are prevented from staying at home by the late new measures,'—such, namely, as came of the puritan opposition to stage-plays? This had grown so strong, that, in 1600, the Privy Council issued an order restricting the number of theatres in London to two: by such aninnovationa number of players might well be driven to the country.]
[Page 96]
Ham. Doe they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the City? Are they so follow'd?
Rosin. No indeed, they are not. [Sidenote: are they not.]
[1]Ham. How comes it? doe they grow rusty?
Rosin. Nay, their indeauour keepes in the wonted pace; But there is Sir an ayrie of Children,[2] little Yases,[3] that crye out[4] on the top of question;[5] and are most tyrannically clap't for't: these are now the fashion, and so be-ratled the common Stages[6] (so they call them) that many wearing Rapiers,[7] are affraide of Goose-quils, and dare scarse come thither.[8]
Ham. What are they Children? Who maintains 'em? How are they escoted?[9] Will they pursue the Quality[10] no longer then they can sing?[11] Will they not say afterwards if they should grow themselues to common Players (as it is like most[12] if their meanes are no better) their Writers[13] do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their owne Succession.[14]
Rosin. Faith there ha's bene much to do on both sides: and the Nation holds it no sinne, to tarre them[15] to Controuersie. There was for a while, no mony bid for argument, vnlesse the Poet and the Player went to Cuffes in the Question.[16]
Ham. Is't possible?
Guild. Oh there ha's beene much throwing about of Braines.
Ham. Do the Boyes carry it away?[17]
Rosin. I that they do my Lord,Herculesand his load too.[18]
Ham. It is not strange: for mine Vnckle is [Sidenote: not very strange, | my] King of Denmarke, and those that would make mowes at him while my Father liued; giue twenty, [Sidenote: make mouths]
[Footnote 1: The whole of the following passage, beginning with 'How comes it,' and ending with 'Hercules and his load too,' belongs to theFolioalone—is not in theQuarto.
In the1st Quartowe find the germ of the passage—unrepresented in the2nd, developed in theFolio.