[Footnote 9: I do not here suppose a noise or movement of the arras, or think that the talk from this point bears the mark of the madness he would have assumed on the least suspicion of espial. His distrust of Ophelia comes from a far deeper source—suspicion of all women, grown doubtful to him through his mother. Hopeless for her, he would give his life to know that Ophelia was not like her. Hence the cruel things he says to her here and elsewhere; they are the brood of a heart haunted with horrible, alas! too excusable phantoms of distrust. A man wretched as Hamlet must be forgiven for being rude; it is love suppressed, love that can neither breathe nor burn, that makes him rude. His horrid insinuations are a hungry challenge to indignant rejection. He would sting Ophelia to defence of herself and her sex. But, either from her love, or from gentleness to his supposed madness, as afterwards in the play-scene, or from the poverty and weakness of a nature so fathered and so brothered, she hears, and says nothing. 139.]
[Footnote 10: Honesty is here figured as a porter,—just after, as a porter that may be corrupted.]
[Footnote 11: If theFolioreading is right,commercemeanscompanionship; if theQuartoreading, then it meansintercourse. Notethenconstantly for ourthan.]
[Footnote 12: I imagine Ophelia here giving Hamlet a loving look—which hardens him. But I do not think she lays emphasis onyour; the word is here, I take it, used (as so often then) impersonally.]
[Footnote 13: '—proof in you and me:Ilovedyouonce, but my honesty did not translate your beauty into its likeness.']
[Footnote 14: That the Great Judgement was here in Shakspere's thought, will be plain to those who take light from the corresponding passage in the1st Quarto. As it makes an excellent specimen of that issue in the character I am most inclined to attribute to it—that of original sketch and continuous line of notes, with more or less finished passages in place among the notes—I will here quote it, recommending it to my student's attention. If it be what I suggest, it is clear that Shakspere had not at first altogether determined how he would carry the soliloquy—what line he was going to follow in it: here hope and fear contend for the place of motive to patience. The changes from it in the text are well worth noting: the religion is lessened: the hope disappears: were they too much of pearls to cast before 'barren spectators'? The manuscript could never have been meant for any eye but his own, seeing it was possible to print from it such a chaos—over which yet broods the presence of the formative spirit of the Poet.
Ham.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,[Sidenote: 24, 247, 260] And borne before an euerlasting Iudge,From whence no passenger euer retur'nd,The vndiscouered country, at whose sightThe happy smile, and the accursed damn'd.But for this, the ioyfull hope of this,Whol'd beare the scornes and flattery of the world,Scorned by the right rich, the rich curssed of the poore?The widow being oppressed, the orphan wrong'd,The taste of hunger, or a tirants raigne,And thousand more calamities besides,To grunt and sweate vnder this weary life,When that he may his fullQuietusmake,With a bare bodkin, who would this indure,But for a hope of something after death?Which pulses the braine, and doth confound the sence,Which makes vs rather beare those euilles we haue,Than flie to others that we know not of.I that, O this conscience makes cowardes of vs all,Lady in thy orizons, be all my sinnes remembred.]
[Page 126]
Ham.You should not haue beleeued me. For vertue cannot so innocculate[1] our old stocke,[2] but we shall rellish of it.[3] I loued you not.[4]
Ophe.I was the more deceiued.
Ham.Get thee to a Nunnerie. Why would'st [Sidenote: thee a] thou be a breeder of Sinners? I am my selfe indifferent[5] [Sidenote: 132] honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things,[6] that it were better my Mother had [Sidenote: 62] not borne me,[7] I am very prowd, reuengefull, Ambitious, with more offences at my becke, then I haue thoughts to put them in imagination, to giue them shape, or time to acte them in. What should such Fellowes as I do, crawling betweene Heauen [Sidenote: earth and heauen] and Earth.[8] We are arrant Knaues all[10], beleeue none of vs.[9] Goe thy wayes to a Nunnery. Where's your Father?[11]
Ophe.At home, my Lord.[12]
Ham.Let the doores be shut vpon him, that he may play the Foole no way, but in's owne house.[13] [Sidenote: no where but] Farewell.[14]
Ophe.O helpe him, you sweet Heauens.
Ham.[15] If thou doest Marry, Ile giue thee this Plague for thy Dowrie. Be thou as chast as Ice, as pure as Snow, thou shalt not escape Calumny.[16] Get thee to a Nunnery. Go,[17] Farewell.[18] Or if thou wilt needs Marry, marry a fool: for Wise men know well enough, what monsters[19] you make of them. To a Nunnery go, and quickly too. Farwell.[20]
Ophe.O[21] heauenly Powers, restore him.
Ham.[22] I haue heard of your pratlings[23] too wel [Sidenote: your paintings well] enough. God has giuen you one pace,[23] and you [Sidenote: hath | one face,] make your selfe another: you gidge, you amble, [Sidenote: selfes | you gig and amble, and] and you lispe, and nickname Gods creatures, and [Sidenote: you list you nickname] make your Wantonnesse, your[24] Ignorance.[25] Go
[Footnote 1: 'inoculate'—bud, in the horticultural use.]
[Footnote 2:trunkorstemof the family tree.]
[Footnote 3: Emphasis onrelish—'keep something of the old flavour of the stock.']
[Footnote 4: He tries her now with denying his love—perhaps moved in part by a feeling, taught by his mother's, of how imperfect it was.]
[Footnote 5: tolerably.]
[Footnote 6: He turns from baiting woman in her to condemn himself. Is it not the case with every noble nature, that the knowledge of wrong in another arouses in it the consciousness of its own faults and sins, of its own evil possibilities? Hurled from the heights of ideal humanity, Hamlet not only recognizes in himself every evil tendency of his race, but almost feels himself individually guilty of every transgression. 'God, God, forgive us all!' exclaims the doctor who has just witnessed the misery of Lady Macbeth, unveiling her guilt.
This whole speech of Hamlet is profoundly sane—looking therefore altogether insane to the shallow mind, on which the impression of its insanity is deepened by its coming from him so freely. The common nature disappointed rails at humanity; Hamlet, his earthly ideal destroyed, would tear his individual human self to pieces.]
[Footnote 7: This we may suppose uttered with an expression as startling to Ophelia as impenetrable.]
[Footnote 8: He is disgusted with himself, with his own nature and consciousness—]
[Footnote 9: —and this reacts on his kind.]
[Footnote 10: 'all'not in Q.]
[Footnote 11: Here, perhaps, he grows suspicious—asks himself why he is allowed this prolongedtête à tête.]
[Footnote 12: I am willing to believe she thinks so.]
[Footnote 13: Whether he trusts Ophelia or not, he does not take her statement for correct, and says this in the hope that Polonius is not too far off to hear it. The speech is for him, not for Ophelia, and will seem to her to come only from his madness.]
[Footnote 14:Exit.]
[Footnote 15: (re-entering)]
[Footnote 16: 'So many are bad, that your virtue will not be believed in.']
[Footnote 17: 'Go'not in Q.]
[Footnote 18:Exit, and re-enter.]
[Footnote 19:Cornuti.]
[Footnote 20:Exit.]
[Footnote 21: 'O'not in Q.]
[Footnote 22: (re-entering)]
[Footnote 23: I suspectpratlingsto be a corruption, not of the printedpaintings, but of some word substituted for it by the Poet, perhapsprancings, andpaceto be correct.]
[Footnote 24: 'your'not in Q.]
[Footnote 25: As the present type to him of womankind, he assails her with such charges of lightness as are commonly brought against women. He does not go farther: she is not his mother, and he hopes she is innocent. But he cannot make her speak!]
[Page 128]
too, Ile no more on't, it hath made me mad. I say, we will haue no more Marriages.[1] Those that are [Sidenote: no mo marriage,] married already,[2] all but one shall liue, the rest shall keep as they are. To a Nunnery, go.
Exit Hamlet. [Sidenote:Exit]
[3]Ophe.O what a Noble minde is heere o're-throwne?The Courtiers, Soldiers, Schollers: Eye, tongue, sword,Th'expectansie and Rose[4] of the faire State,[Sidenote: Th' expectation,]The glasse of Fashion,[5] and the mould of Forme,[6]Th'obseru'd of all Obseruers, quite, quite downe.Haue I of Ladies most deiect and wretched, [Sidenote: And I of]That suck'd the Honie of his Musicke Vowes: [Sidenote: musickt]Now see that Noble, and most Soueraigne Reason, [Sidenote: see what]Like sweet Bels iangled out of tune, and harsh,[7][Sidenote: out of time]That vnmatch'd Forme and Feature of blowne youth,[8][Sidenote: and stature of]Blasted with extasie.[9] Oh woe is me,T'haue scene what I haue scene: see what I see.[10][Sidenote:Exit.]
Enter King, and Polonius.
King. Loue? His affections do not that way tend,Nor what he spake, though it lack'd Forme a little, [Sidenote: Not]Was not like Madnesse.[11] There's something in his soule?O're which his Melancholly sits on brood,And I do doubt the hatch, and the disclose[12]Will be some danger,[11] which to preuent [Sidenote: which for to]I haue in quicke determination[Sidenote: 138, 180] Thus set it downe. He shall with speed to EnglandFor the demand of our neglected Tribute:Haply the Seas and Countries different
[Footnote 1: 'The thing must be put a stop to! the world must cease! it is not fit to go on.']
[Footnote 2: 'already—(aside) all but one—shall live.']
[Footnote 3:1st Q.
Ofe.Great God of heauen, what a quicke change is this?The Courtier, Scholler, Souldier, all in him,All dasht and splinterd thence, O woe is me,To a seene what I haue seene, see what I see.Exit.
To his cruel words Ophelia is impenetrable—from the conviction that not he but his madness speaks.
The moment he leaves her, she breaks out in such phrase as a young girl would hardly have used had she known that the king and her father were listening. I grant, however, the speech may be taken as a soliloquy audible to the spectators only, who to the persons of a play arebutthe spiritual presences.]
[Footnote 4: 'The hope and flower'—Theroseis not unfrequently used in English literature as the type of perfection.]
[Footnote 5: 'he by whom Fashion dressed herself'—he who set the fashion. His great and small virtues taken together, Hamlet makes us think of Sir Philip Sidney—ten years older than Shakspere, and dead sixteen years beforeHamletwas written.]
[Footnote 6: 'he after whose ways, or modes of behaviour, men shaped theirs'—therefore the mould in which their forms were cast;—the object of universal imitation.]
[Footnote 7: I do not know whether this means—the peal rung without regard to tune or time—or—the single bell so handled that the tongue checks and jars the vibration. In some country places, I understand, they go about ringing a set of hand-bells.]
[Footnote 8: youth in full blossom.]
[Footnote 9: madness 177.]
[Footnote 10: 'to see now such a change from what I saw then.']
[Footnote 11: The king's conscience makes him keen. He is, all through, doubtful of the madness.]
[Footnote 12: —of the fact- or fancy-egg on which his melancholy sits brooding]
[Page 130]
With variable Obiects, shall expellThis something setled matter[1] in his heartWhereon his Braines still beating, puts him thusFrom[2] fashion of himselfe. What thinke you on't?
Pol. It shall do well. But yet do I beleeueThe Origin and Commencement of this greefe [Sidenote: his greefe,]Sprung from neglected loue.[3] How nowOphelia?You neede not tell vs, what LordHamletsaide,We heard it all.[4] My Lord, do as you please,But if you hold it fit after the Play,Let his Queene Mother all alone intreat himTo shew his Greefes: let her be round with him, [Sidenote: griefe,]And Ile be plac'd so, please you in the eareOf all their Conference. If she finde him not,[5]To England send him: Or confine him whereYour wisedome best shall thinke.
King. It shall be so:Madnesse in great Ones, must not vnwatch'd go.[6][Sidenote: unmatched]Exeunt.
Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players.[Sidenote:and three]
Ham.[7] Speake the Speech I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you trippingly[8] on the Tongue: But if you mouth it, as many of your Players do, [Sidenote: of our Players] I had as liue[9] the Town-Cryer had spoke my [Sidenote: cryer spoke] Lines:[10] Nor do not saw the Ayre too much your [Sidenote: much with] hand thus, but vse all gently; for in the verie Torrent, Tempest, and (as I may say) the Whirlewinde [Sidenote: say, whirlwind] of Passion, you must acquire and beget a [Sidenote: of your] Temperance that may giue it Smoothnesse.[11] O it offends mee to the Soule, to see a robustious Perywig-pated [Sidenote: to heare a] Fellow, teare a Passion to tatters, to [Sidenote: totters,] verie ragges, to split the eares of the Groundlings:[12] [Sidenote: spleet] who (for the most part) are capeable[13] of nothing, but inexplicable dumbe shewes,[14] and noise:[15] I could haue such a Fellow whipt for o're-doing [Sidenote: would]
[Footnote 1: 'something of settled matter'—idée fixe.]
[Footnote 2: 'away fromhis own true likeness'; 'makes him so unlike himself.']
[Footnote 3: Polonius is crestfallen, but positive.]
[Footnote 4: This supports the notion of Ophelia's ignorance of the espial. Polonius thinks she is about to disclose what has passed, andinformsher of its needlessness. But itmightwell enough be taken as only an assurance of the success of their listening—that they had heard without difficulty.]
[Footnote 5: 'If she do not find him out': a comparable phrase, common at the time, was,Take me with you, meaning,Let me understand you.
Polonius, for his daughter's sake, and his own in her, begs for him another chance.]
[Footnote 6: 'in the insignificant, madness may roam the country, but in the great it must be watched.' Theunmatchtof theQuartomight bear the meaning ofcountermatched.]
[Footnote 7: I should suggest this exhortation to the Players introduced with the express purpose of showing how absolutely sane Hamlet was, could I believe that Shakspere saw the least danger of Hamlet's pretence being mistaken for reality.]
[Footnote 8: He would have neither blundering nor emphasis such as might rouse too soon the king's suspicion, or turn it into certainty.]
[Footnote 9: 'liue'—lief]
[Footnote 10: 1st Q.:—
I'de rather heare a towne bull bellow,Then such a fellow speake my lines.
Linesis a player-word still.]
[Footnote 11: —smoothness such as belongs to the domain of Art, and will both save from absurdity, and allow the relations with surroundings to manifest themselves;—harmoniousness, which is the possibility of co-existence.]
[Footnote 12: those on the ground—that is, in the pit; there was no gallery then.]
[Footnote 13:receptive.]
[Footnote 14: —gestures extravagant and unintelligible as those of a dumb show that could not by the beholder be interpreted; gestures incorrespondent to the words.
Adumb showwas a stage-action without words.]
[Footnote 15: Speech that is little but rant, and scarce related to the sense, is hardly better than a noise; it might, for the purposes of art, as well be a sound inarticulate.]
[Page 132]
Termagant[1]: it out-Herod's Herod[2] Pray you auoid it.
Player.I warrant your Honor.
Ham.Be not too tame neyther: but let your owne Discretion be your Tutor. Sute the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action, with this speciall obseruance: That you ore-stop not the [Sidenote: ore-steppe] modestie of Nature; for any thing so ouer-done, [Sidenote ore-doone] is fro[3] the purpose of Playing, whose end both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twer the Mirrour vp to Nature; to shew Vertue her owne [Sidenote: her feature;] Feature, Scorne[4] her owne Image, and the verie Age and Bodie of the Time, his forme and pressure.[5] Now, this ouer-done, or come tardie off,[6] though it make the vnskilfull laugh, cannot but make the [Sidenote: it makes] Iudicious greeue; The censure of the which One,[7] [Sidenote: of which one] must in your allowance[8] o're-way a whole Theater of Others. Oh, there bee Players that I haue scene Play, and heard others praise, and that highly [Sidenote: praysd,] (not to speake it prophanely) that neyther hauing the accent of Christians, nor the gate of Christian, Pagan, or Norman, haue so strutted and bellowed, [Sidenote: Pagan, nor man, haue] that I haue thought some of Natures Iouerney-men had made men, and not made them well, they imitated Humanity so abhominably.[9]
[Sidenote: 126]Play.I hope we haue reform'd that indifferently[10] with vs, Sir.
Ham.O reforme it altogether. And let those that play your Clownes, speake no more then is set downe for them.[12] For there be of them, that will themselues laugh, to set on some quantitie of barren Spectators to laugh too, though in the meane time, some necessary Question of the Play be then to be considered:[12] that's Villanous, and shewes a most pittifull Ambition in the Fool that vses it.[13] Go make you readie.Exit Players
[Footnote 1: 'An imaginary God of the Mahometans, represented as a most violent character in the old Miracle-plays and Moralities.'—Sh. Lex.]
[Footnote 2: 'represented as a swaggering tyrant in the old dramatic performances.'—Sh. Lex.]
[Footnote 3:away from: inconsistent with.]
[Footnote 4: —that which is deserving of scorn.]
[Footnote 5:impression, as on wax. Some would persuade us that Shakspere's own plays do not do this; but such critics take theaccidentsor circumstances of a time for thebodyof it—the clothes for the person.Humannature is 'Nature,' howeverdressed.
There should be a comma after 'Age.']
[Footnote 6: 'laggingly represented'—A word belonging totimeis substituted for a word belonging tospace:—'this over-done, or inadequately effected'; 'this over-done, or under-done.']
[Footnote 7: 'and the judgment of such a one.' 'the which' seems equivalent toand—such.]
[Footnote 8: 'must, you will grant.']
[Footnote 9: Shakspere may here be playing with a false derivation, as I was myself when the true was pointed out to me—fancyingabominablederived fromabandhomo. If so, then he means by the phrase: 'they imitated humanity so from the nature of man, soinhumanly.']
[Footnote 10: tolerably.]
[Footnote 11: 'Sir'not in Q.]
[Footnote 12: Shakspere must have himself suffered from such clowns:Coleridge thinks some of theirgaghas crept into his print.]
[Footnote 13: Here follow in the1st Q.several specimens of such a clown's foolish jests and behaviour.]
[Page 134]
Enter Polonius, Rosincrance, and Guildensterne.[1][Sidenote:Guyldensterne, & Rosencraus.]
How now my Lord,Will the King heare this peece of Worke?
Pol. And the Queene too, and that presently.[2]
Ham. Bid the Players make hast.
Exit Polonius.[3]
Will you two helpe to hasten them?[4]
Both. We will my Lord.Exeunt. [Sidenote:Ros. I my Lord.Exeunt they two.]
Enter Horatio[5]
Ham. What hoa,Horatio? [Sidenote: What howe,]
Hora. Heere sweet Lord, at your Seruice.
[Sidenote: 26]Ham.[7]Horatio, thou art eene as iust a manAs ere my Conversation coap'd withall.
Hora. O my deere Lord.[6]
Ham.[7] Nay do not thinke I flatter:For what aduancement may I hope from thee,[8]That no Reuennew hast, but thy good spiritsTo feed and cloath thee. Why shold the poor be flatter'd?No, let the Candied[9] tongue, like absurd pompe, [Sidenote: licke]And crooke the pregnant Hindges of the knee,[10]Where thrift may follow faining? Dost thou heare,[Sidenote: fauning;]Since my deere Soule was Mistris of my choyse;[11][Sidenote: her choice,]And could of men distinguish, her electionHath seal'd thee for her selfe. For thou hast bene[Sidenote: S'hath seald][Sidenote: 272] As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing.A man that Fortunes buffets, and RewardsHath 'tane with equall Thankes. And blest are those, [Sidenote: Hast]Whose Blood and Iudgement are so well co-mingled,[Sidenote: comedled,[12]][Sidenote: 26] That they are not a Pipe for Fortunes finger,To sound what stop she please.[13] Giue me that man,That is not Passions Slaue,[14] and I will weare himIn my hearts Core: I, in my Heart of heart,[15]As I do thee. Something too much of this.[16]
[Footnote 1:In Q. at end of speech.]
[Footnote 2: He humours Hamlet as if he were a child.]
[Footnote 3:Not in Q.]
[Footnote 4: He has sent for Horatio, and is expecting him.]
[Footnote 5:In Q. after next speech.]
[Footnote 6: —repudiating the praise.]
[Footnote 7: To know a man, there is scarce a readier way than to hear him talk of his friend—why he loves, admires, chooses him. The Poet here gives us a wide window into Hamlet. So genuine is his respect forbeing, so indifferent is he tohaving, that he does not shrink, in argument for his own truth, from reminding his friend to his face that, being a poor man, nothing is to be gained from him—nay, from telling him that it is through his poverty he has learned to admire him, as a man of courage, temper, contentment, and independence, with nothing but his good spirits for an income—a man whose manhood is dominant both over his senses and over his fortune—a true Stoic. He describes an ideal man, then clasps the ideal to his bosom as his own, in the person of his friend. Only a great man could so worship another, choosing him for such qualities; and hereby Shakspere shows us his Hamlet—a brave, noble, wise, pure man, beset by circumstances the most adverse conceivable. That Hamlet had not misapprehended Horatio becomes evident in the last scene of all. 272.]
[Footnote 8: The mother of flattery is self-advantage.]
[Footnote 9:sugared.1st Q.:
Let flattery sit on those time-pleasing tongs;To glose with them that loues to heare their praise;And not with such as thouHoratio.There is a play to night, &c.]
[Footnote 10: A pregnant figure and phrase, requiring thought.]
[Footnote 11: 'since my real self asserted its dominion, and began to rule my choice,' making it pure, and withdrawing it from the tyranny of impulse and liking.]
[Footnote 12: The old wordmedleis synonymous withmingle.]
[Footnote 13: To Hamlet, the lordship of man over himself, despite of circumstance, is a truth, and therefore a duty.]
[Footnote 14: The man who has chosen his friend thus, is hardly himself one to act without sufficing reason, or take vengeance without certain proof of guilt.]
[Footnote 15: He justifies the phrase, repeating it.]
[Footnote 16: —apologetic for having praised him to his face.]
[Page 136]
There is a Play to night before the King,One Scoene of it comes neere the CircumstanceWhich I haue told thee, of my Fathers death.I prythee, when thou see'st that Acte a-foot,[1]Euen with the verie Comment of my[2] Soule [Sidenote: thy[2] soule]Obserue mine Vnkle: If his occulted guilt, [Sidenote: my Vncle,]Do not it selfe vnkennell in one speech,[Sidenote: 58] It is a damned Ghost that we haue seene:[3]And my Imaginations are as fouleAs Vulcans Stythe.[4] Giue him needfull note,[Sidenote: stithy; | heedfull]For I mine eyes will riuet to his Face:And after we will both our iudgements ioyne,[5]To censure of his seeming.[6] [Sidenote: in censure]
Hora.Well my Lord.If he steale ought the whil'st this Play is Playing. [Sidenote: if a]And scape detecting, I will pay the Theft.[1] [Sidenote: detected,]
Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosincrance, Guildensterne, and other Lords attendant with his Guard carrying Torches. Danish March. Sound a Flourish.[Sidenote:Enter Trumpets and Kettle Drummes, King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia.]
Ham.They are comming to the Play: I must [Sidenote: 60, 156, 178] be idle.[7] Get you a place.
King.How fares our CosinHamlet?
Ham.Excellent Ifaith, of the Camelions dish: [Sidenote: 154] I eate the Ayre promise-cramm'd,[8] you cannot feed Capons so.[9]
King.I haue nothing with this answerHamlet, these words are not mine.[10]
Ham.No, nor mine. Now[11] my Lord, you plaid once i'th'Vniuersity, you say?
Polon.That I did my Lord, and was accounted [Sidenote: did I] a good Actor.
[Footnote 1: Here follows in1st Q.
Marke thou the King, doe but obserue his lookes,For I mine eies will riuet to his face:[Sidenote: 112] And if he doe not bleach, and change at that,It is a damned ghost that we haue seene.Horatio, haue a care, obserue him well.
Hor. My lord, mine eies shall still be on his face,And not the smallest alterationThat shall appeare in him, but I shall note it.]
[Footnote 2: I take 'my' to be right: 'watch my uncle with the comment—the discriminating judgment, that is—ofmysoul, more intent than thine.']
[Footnote 3: He has then, ere this, taken Horatio into his confidence—so far at least as the Ghost's communication concerning the murder.]
[Footnote 4: a dissyllable:stithy,anvil; Scotch,studdy.
Hamlet's doubt is here very evident: he hopes he may find it a false ghost: what good man, what good son would not? He has clear cause and reason—it is his duty to delay. That the cause and reason and duty are not invariably clear to Hamlet himself—not clear in every mood, is another thing. Wavering conviction, doubt of evidence, the corollaries of assurance, the oppression of misery, a sense of the worthlessness of the world's whole economy—each demanding delay, might yet well, all together, affect the man's feeling as mere causes of rather than reasons for hesitation. The conscientiousness of Hamlet stands out the clearer that, throughout, his dislike to his uncle, predisposing him to believe any ill of him, is more than evident. By his incompetent or prejudiced judges, Hamlet's accusations and justifications of himself are equally placed to thediscreditof his account. They seem to think a man could never accuse himself except he were in the wrong; therefore if ever he excuses himself, he is the more certainly in the wrong: whatever point may tell on the other side, it is to be disregarded.]
[Footnote 5: 'bring our two judgments together for comparison.']
[Footnote 6: 'in order to judge of the significance of his looks and behaviour.']
[Footnote 7: Does he meanfoolish, that is,lunatic? orinsouciant, andunpreoccupied?]
[Footnote 8: The king asks Hamlet how hefares—that is, how he gets on; Hamlet pretends to think he has asked him about his diet. His talk has at once become wild; ere the king enters he has donned his cloak of madness. Here he confesses to ambition—will favour any notion concerning himself rather than give ground for suspecting the real state of his mind and feeling.
In the1st Q.'the Camelions dish' almost appears to mean the play, not the king's promises.]
[Footnote 9: In some places they push food down the throats of the poultry they want to fatten, which is technically, I believe, calledcrammingthem.]
[Footnote 10: 'You have not taken me with you; I have not laid hold of your meaning; I have nothing by your answer.' 'Your words have not become my property; they have not given themselves to me in their meaning.']
[Footnote 11:Point thus: 'No, nor mine now.—My Lord,' &c. '—not mine, now I have uttered them, for so I have given them away.' Or does he mean to disclaim their purport?]
[Page 138]
Ham.And[1] what did you enact?
Pol.I did enactIulius Caesar, I was kill'd i'th'Capitol:Brutuskill'd me.
Ham.It was a bruite part of him, to kill so Capitall a Calfe there.[2] Be the Players ready?
Rosin.I my Lord, they stay vpon your patience.
Qu.Come hither my goodHamlet, sit by me. [Sidenote: my deere]
Ham.No good Mother, here's Mettle more attractiue.[3]
Pol.Oh ho, do you marke that?[4]
Ham.Ladie, shall I lye in your Lap?
Ophe.No my Lord.
Ham.I meane, my Head vpon your Lap?[5]
Ophe.I my Lord.[6]
Ham.Do you thinke I meant Country[7] matters?
Ophe.I thinke nothing, my Lord.
Ham.That's a faire thought to ly between Maids legs.
Ophe.What is my Lord?
Ham.Nothing.
Ophe.You are merrie, my Lord?
Ham.Who I?
Ophe.I my Lord.[8]
Ham.Oh God, your onely Iigge-maker[9]: what should a man do, but be merrie. For looke you how cheerefully my Mother lookes, and my Father dyed within's two Houres.
[Sidenote: 65]Ophe.Nay, 'tis twice two moneths, my Lord.[10]
Ham.So long? Nay then let the Diuel weare [Sidenote: 32] blacke, for Ile haue a suite of Sables.[11] Oh Heauens! dye two moneths ago, and not forgotten yet?[12] Then there's hope, a great mans Memorie, may out-liue his life halfe a yeare: But byrlady [Sidenote: ber Lady a] he must builde Churches then: or else shall he [Sidenote: shall a]
[Footnote 1: 'And 'not in Q.]
[Footnote 2: Emphasis onthere. 'There' is not in1st Q.Hamlet means it was a desecration of the Capitol.]
[Footnote 3: He cannot be familiar with his mother, so avoids her—will not sit by her, cannot, indeed, bear to be near her. But he loves and hopes in Ophelia still.]
[Footnote 4: '—Did I not tell you so?']
[Footnote 5: This speech and the next are not in theQ., but are shadowed in the1st Q.]
[Footnote 6:—consenting.]
[Footnote 7: In1st Quarto, 'contrary.'
Hamlet hints, probing her character—hoping her unable to understand. It is the festering soreness of his feeling concerning his mother, making him doubt with the haunting agony of a loathed possibility, that prompts, urges, forces from him his ugly speeches—nowise to be justified, only to be largely excused in his sickening consciousness of his mother's presence. Such pain as Hamlet's, the ferment of subverted love and reverence, may lightly bear the blame of hideous manners, seeing, they spring from no wantonness, but from the writhing of tortured and helpless Purity. Good manners may be as impossible as out of place in the presence of shameless evil.]
[Footnote 8: Ophelia bears with him for his own and his madness' sake, and is less uneasy because of the presence of his mother. To accountsatisfactorilyfor Hamlet's speeches to her, is not easy. The freer custom of the age, freer to an extent hardly credible in this, will notsatisfythe lovers of Hamlet, although it must havesomeweight. The necessity for talking madly, because he is in the presence of his uncle, and perhaps, to that end, for uttering whatever comes to him, without pause for choice, might give us another hair's-weight. Also he may be supposed confident that Ophelia would not understand him, while his uncle would naturally set such worse than improprieties down to wildest madness. But I suspect that here as before (123), Shakepere would show Hamlet's soul full of bitterest, passionate loathing; his mother has compelled him to think of horrors and women together, so turning their preciousness into a disgust; and this feeling, his assumed madhess allows him to indulge and partly relieve by utterance. Could he have provoked Ophelia to rebuke him with the severity he courted, such rebuke would have been joy to him. Perhaps yet a small addition of weight to the scale of his excuse may be found in his excitement about his play, and the necessity for keeping down that excitement. Suggestion is easier than judgment.]
[Footnote 9: 'here's for the jig-maker! he's the right man!' Or perhaps he is claiming the part as his own: 'I am your only jig-maker!']
[Footnote 10: This needs not be taken for the exact time. The statement notwithstanding suggests something like two months between the first and second acts, for in the first, Hamlet says his father has not been dead two months. 24. We are not bound to take it for more than a rough approximation; Ophelia would make the best of things for the queen, who is very kind to her.]
[Footnote 11: the fur of the sable.]
[Footnote 12:1st Q.
nay then there's some Likelyhood, a gentlemans death may outliue memorie, But by my faith &c.]
[Page 140]
suffer not thinking on, with the Hoby-horsse, whose Epitaph is, For o, For o, the Hoby-horse is forgot.
Hoboyes play. The dumbe shew enters.[Sidenote:The Trumpets sounds. Dumbe show followes.]
_Enter a King and Queene, very louingly; the Queene [Sidenote:and a Queene, the queen] embracing him. She kneeles, and makes shew of [Sidenote:embracing him, and he her, he takes her up, and] Protestation vnto him. He takes her vp, and declines his head vpon her neck. Layes him downe [Sidenote:necke, he lyes] vpon a Banke of Flowers. She seeing him a-sleepe, leaues him. Anon comes in a Fellow, [Sidenote:anon come in an other man,] takes off his Crowne, kisses it, and powres poyson [Sidenote:it, pours] in the Kings eares, and Exits. The Queene returnes, [Sidenote:the sleepers eares, and leaues him:] findes the King dead, and makes passionate [Sidenote: dead, makes] Action. The Poysoner, with some two or [Sidenote:some three or foure come in againe, seeme to condole] three Mutes comes in againe, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away: The [Sidenote:with her, the] Poysoner Wooes the Queene with Gifts, she [Sidenote: 54] seemes loath and vnwilling awhile, but in the end, [Sidenote:seemes harsh awhile,] accepts his loue.[1]Exeunt[2][Sidenote:accepts loue.]
Ophe.What meanes this, my Lord?
Ham.Marry this is MichingMalicho[3] that [Sidenote: this munchingMallico] meanes Mischeefe.
Ophe.Belike this shew imports the Argument of the Play?
Ham.We shall know by these Fellowes: [Sidenote: this fellow,Enter Prologue] the Players cannot keepe counsell, they'l tell [Sidenote: keepe, they'le] all.[4]
Ophe.Will they tell vs what this shew meant? [Sidenote: Will a tell]
Ham.I, or any shew that you'l shew him. Bee [Sidenote: you will] not you asham'd to shew, hee'l not shame to tell you what it meanes.
Ophe.You are naught,[5] you are naught, Ile marke the Play.
[Footnote 1: The king, not the queen, is aimed at. Hamlet does not forget the injunction of the Ghost to spare his mother. 54.
The king should be represented throughout as struggling not to betray himself.]
[Footnote 2:Not in Q.]
[Footnote 3:skulking mischief: the latter word is Spanish, Tomichis toplay truant.
How tenderly her tender hands betweeneIn yvorie cage she did the micher bind.
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, page 84.
MyReadertells me the word is still in use among printers, with the pronunciationmike, and the meaningto skulkoridle.]
[Footnote 4: —their part being speech, that of the others only dumb show.]
[Footnote 5:naughty: persons who do not behave well are treated as if they were not—are made nought of—are set at nought; hence our word naughty.
'Be naught awhile' (As You Like It, i. 1)—'take yourself away;' 'be nobody;' 'put yourself in the corner.']
[Page 142]
Enter[1] Prologue.
For vs, and for our Tragedie, Heere stooping to your Clemencie: We begge your hearing Patientlie.
Ham.Is this a Prologue, or the Poesie[2] of a [Sidenote: posie] Ring?
Ophe.'Tis[3] briefe my Lord.
Ham.As Womans loue.
[4]Enter King and his Queene.[Sidenote:and Queene]
[Sidenote: 234]King.Full thirtie times[5] hath Phoebus Cart gonround,Neptunes salt Wash, andTellusOrbed ground: [Sidenote: orb'd the]And thirtie dozen Moones with borrowed sheene,About the World haue times twelue thirties beene,Since loue our hearts, andHymendid our handsVnite comutuall, in most sacred Bands.[6]
Bap.So many iournies may the Sunne and Moone [Sidenote:Quee.]Make vs againe count o're, ere loue be done.But woe is me, you are so sicke of late,So farre from cheere, and from your forme state,[Sidenote: from our former state,]That I distrust you: yet though I distrust,Discomfort you (my Lord) it nothing must:[A]For womens Feare and Loue, holds quantitie, [Sidenote: And womens hold]In neither ought, or in extremity:[7][Sidenote: Eyther none, in neither]Now what my loue is, proofe hath made you know,[Sidenote: my Lord is proofe]And as my Loue is siz'd, my Feare is so. [Sidenote: ciz'd,][B]
[Footnote A:Here in the Quarto:—
For women feare too much, euen as they loue,]
[Footnote B:Here in the Quarto:—
Where loue is great, the litlest doubts are feare,Where little feares grow great, great loue growes there.]
[Footnote 1:Enternot inQ.]
[Footnote 2: Commonlyposy: a little sentence engraved inside a ring—perhaps originally a tiny couplet, thereforepoesy,1st Q., 'a poesie for a ring?']
[Footnote 3: Emphasis on ''Tis.']
[Footnote 4: Very little blank verse of any kind was written before Shakspere's; the usual form of dramatic verse was long, irregular, rimed lines: the Poet here uses the heroic couplet, which gives a resemblance to the older plays by its rimes, while also by its stately and monotonous movement the play-play is differenced from the play into which it is introduced, and caused tolookintrinsically like a play in relation to the rest of the play of which it is part. In other words, it stands off from the surrounding play, slightly elevated both by form and formality. 103.]
[Footnote 5:1st Q.
Duke.Full fortie yeares are past, their date is gone,Since happy time ioyn'd both our hearts as one:And now the blood that fill'd my youthfull veines,Ruunes weakely in their pipes, and all the strainesOf musicke, which whilome pleasde mine eare,Is now a burthen that Age cannot beare:And therefore sweete Nature must pay his due,To heauen must I, and leaue the earth with you.]
[Footnote 6: Here Hamlet gives the time his father and mother had been married, and Shakspere points at Hamlet's age. 234. The Poet takes pains to show his hero's years.]
[Footnote 7: This line, whose form in theQuartois very careless, seems but a careless correction, leaving the sense as well as the construction obscure: 'Women's fear and love keep the scales level; inneitheris there ought, or inboththere is fulness;' or: 'there is no moderation in their fear and their love; either they havenoneof either, or they haveexcessof both.' Perhaps he tried to express both ideas at once. But compression is always in danger of confusion.]
[Page 144]
King.Faith I must leaue thee Loue, and shortly too:My operant Powers my Functions leaue to do: [Sidenote: their functions]And thou shall liue in this faire world behinde,Honour'd, belou'd, and haply, one as kinde.For Husband shalt thou——
Bap.Oh confound the rest: [Sidenote:Quee.]Such Loue, must needs be Treason in my brest:In second Husband, let me be accurst,None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.[1]
Ham.Wormwood, Wormwood. [Sidenote:Ham. That's wormwood[2]]
Bapt.The instances[3] that second Marriage moue,Are base respects of Thrift,[4] but none of Loue.A second time, I kill my Husband dead,When second Husband kisses me in Bed.
King.I do beleeue you. Think what now you speak:But what we do determine, oft we breake:Purpose is but the slaue to Memorie,[5]Of violent Birth, but poore validitie:[6]Which now like Fruite vnripe stickes on the Tree,[Sidenote: now the fruite]But fall vnshaken, when they mellow bee.[7]Most necessary[8] 'tis, that we forgetTo pay our selues, what to our selues is debt:What to our selues in passion we propose,The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.The violence of other Greefe or Ioy, [Sidenote: eyther,]Their owne ennactors with themselues destroy: [Sidenote: ennactures]Where Ioy most Reuels, Greefe doth most lament;Greefe ioyes, Ioy greeues on slender accident.[9][Sidenote: Greefe ioy ioy griefes]This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strangeThat euen our Loues should with our Fortunes change.For 'tis a question left vs yet to proue,Whether Loue lead Fortune, or else Fortune Loue.
[Footnote 1: Is this to be supposed in the original play, or inserted by Hamlet, embodying an unuttered and yet more fearful doubt with regard to his mother?]
[Footnote 2: This speech is on the margin in theQuarto, and theQueene's speech runs on without break.]
[Footnote 3: the urgencies; the motives.]
[Footnote 4: worldly advantage.]
[Footnote 5: 'Purpose holds but while Memory holds.']
[Footnote 6: 'Purpose is born in haste, but is of poor strength to live.']
[Footnote 7: Here again there is carelessness of construction, as if the Poet had not thought it worth his while to correct this subsidiary portion of the drama. I do not see how to lay the blame on the printer.—'Purpose is a mere fruit, which holds on or falls only as it must. The element of persistency is not in it.']
[Footnote 8: unavoidable—coming of necessity.]
[Footnote 9: 'Grief turns into joy, and joy into grief, on a slight chance.']
[Page 146]
The great man downe, you marke his fauourites flies,[Sidenote: fauourite]The poore aduanc'd, makes Friends of Enemies:And hitherto doth Loue on Fortune tend,For who not needs, shall neuer lacke a Frend:And who in want a hollow Friend doth try,Directly seasons him his Enemie.[1]But orderly to end, where I begun,Our Willes and Fates do so contrary run,That our Deuices still are ouerthrowne,Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our owne.[2][Sidenote: 246] So thinke thou wilt no second Husband wed.But die thy thoughts, when thy first Lord is dead.
Bap.Nor Earth to giue me food, nor Heauen light, [Sidenote:Quee.]Sport and repose locke from me day and night:[3][A]Each opposite that blankes the face of ioy,Meet what I would haue well, and it destroy:Both heere, and hence, pursue me lasting strife,[4]If once a Widdow, euer I be Wife.[5] [Sidenote: once I be a | be a wife]
Ham.If she should breake it now.[6]
King.'Tis deepely sworne:Sweet, leaue me heere a while,My spirits grow dull, and faine I would beguileThe tedious day with sleepe.
Qu.Sleepe rocke thy Braine, [Sidenote: Sleepes[7]] And neuer come mischance betweene vs twaine,Exit[Sidenote:Exeunt.]
Ham.Madam, how like you this Play?
Qu.The Lady protests to much me thinkes, [Sidenote: doth protest]
Ham.Oh but shee'l keepe her word.
[Footnote A:Here in the Quarto:—
To desperation turne my trust and hope,[8]And Anchors[9] cheere in prison be my scope]
[Footnote 1: All that is wanted to make a real enemy of an unreal friend is the seasoning of a requested favour.]
[Footnote 2: 'Our thoughts are ours, but what will come of them we cannot tell.']
[Footnote 3: 'May Day and Night lock from me sport and repose.']
[Footnote 4: 'May strife pursue me in the world and out of it.']
[Footnote 5: In all this, there is nothing to reflect on his mother beyond what everybody knew.]
[Footnote 6:This speech is in the margin of the Quarto.]
[Footnote 7:Not in Q.]
[Footnote 8: 'May my trust and hope turn to despair.']
[Footnote 9: an anchoret's.]
[Page 148]
King. Haue you heard the Argument, is there no Offence in't?[1]
Ham. No, no, they do but iest, poyson in iest, no Offence i'th'world.[2]
King. What do you call the Play?
Ham.The Mouse-trap: Marry how? Tropically:[3] This Play is the Image of a murder done inVienna: Gonzagois the Dukes name, his wifeBaptista: you shall see anon: 'tis a knauish peece of worke: But what o'that? Your Maiestie, and [Sidenote: of that?] wee that haue free soules, it touches vs not: let the gall'd iade winch: our withers are vnrung.[4]
Enter Lucianus.[5]
This is oneLucianusnephew to the King.
Ophe. You are a good Chorus, my Lord.[Sidenote: are as good as a Chorus]
Ham. I could interpret betweene you and your loue: if I could see the Puppets dallying.[6]
Ophe. You are keene my Lord, you are keene.
Ham. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge. [Sidenote: mine]
Ophe. Still better and worse.
Ham. So you mistake Husbands.[7] [Sidenote: mistake your] Begin Murderer. Pox, leaue thy damnable Faces, [Sidenote: murtherer, leave] and begin. Come, the croaking Rauen doth bellow for Reuenge.[8]
Lucian. Thoughts blacke, hands apt,Drugges fit, and Time agreeing:Confederate season, else, no Creature seeing:[9] [Sidenote: Considerat]Thou mixture ranke, of Midnight Weeds collected,With Hecats Ban, thrice blasted, thrice infected, [Sidenote: invected]Thy naturall Magicke, and dire propertie,On wholsome life, vsurpe immediately. [Sidenote: vsurps]
Powres the poyson in his eares.[10]
Ham. He poysons him i'th Garden for's estate: [Sidenote: A poysons | for his]
[Footnote 1: —said, perhaps, to Polonius. Is there a lapse here in the king's self-possession? or is this speech only an outcome of its completeness—a pretence of fearing the play may glance at the queen for marrying him?]
[Footnote 2: 'It is but jest; don't be afraid: there is no reality in it'—as one might say to a child seeing a play.]
[Footnote 3: Figuratively: fromtrope. In the1st Q.the passage stands thus:
Ham. Mouse-trap: mary how trapically: this play isThe image of a murder done inguyana,]
[Footnote 4: Here Hamlet endangers himself to force the king to self-betrayal.]
[Footnote 5:In Q. after next line.]
[Footnote 6: In a puppet-play, if she and her love were the puppets, he could supply the speeches.]
[Footnote 7: Is this a misprint for 'so youmust takehusbands'—for better and worse, namely? or is it a thrust at his mother—'So you mis-take husbands, going from the better to a worse'? In1st Q.: 'So you must take your husband, begin.']
[Footnote 8: Probably a mocking parody or burlesque of some well-known exaggeration—such as not a few of Marlowe's lines.]
[Footnote 9: 'none beholding save the accomplice hour:'.]
[Footnote 10:Not in Q.]
[Page 150]
His name'sGonzago: the Story is extant and writ[Sidenote: and written]in choyce Italian. You shall see anon how the[Sidenote: in very choice]Murtherer gets the loue ofGonzago'swife.
Ophe. The King rises.[1]
Ham. What, frighted with false fire.[2]
Qu. How fares my Lord?
Pol. Giue o're the Play.
King. Giue me some Light. Away.[3]
All. Lights, Lights, Lights.Exeunt[Sidenote:Pol. | Exeunt all but Ham. & Horatio.]
Manet Hamlet & Horatio.
Ham.[4] Why let the strucken Deere go weepe, The Hart vngalled play: For some must watch, while some must sleepe; So runnes the world away. Would not this[5] Sir, and a Forrest of Feathers, if the rest of my Fortunes turne Turke with me; with two Prouinciall Roses[6] on my rac'd[7] Shooes, get me [Sidenote: with prouinciall | raz'd] a Fellowship[8] in a crie[9] of Players sir. [Sidenote: Players?]
Hor. Halfe a share.
Ham. A whole one I,[10] [11] For thou dost know: Oh Damon deere, This Realme dismantled was of Loue himselfe, And now reignes heere. A verie verie Paiocke.[12]
Hora. You might haue Rim'd.[13]
Ham. Oh goodHoratio, Ile take the Ghosts word for a thousand pound. Did'st perceiue?
Hora. Verie well my Lord.
Ham. Vpon the talke of the poysoning?
Hora. I did verie well note him.
Enter Rosincrance and Guildensterne.[14]
Ham. Oh, ha? Come some Musick.[15] Come the Recorders: [Sidenote: Ah ha,]
[Footnote 1: —in ill suppressed agitation.]
[Footnote 2:This speech is not in the Quarto.—Is the 'false fire' what we now callstage-fire?—'What! frighted at a mere play?']
[Footnote 3: The stage—the stage-stage, that is—alone is lighted. Does the king stagger out blindly, madly, shaking them from him? I think not—but as if he were taken suddenly ill.]
[Footnote 4: —singing—that he may hide his agitation, restrain himself, and be regarded as careless-mad, until all are safely gone.]
[Footnote 5: —his success with the play.]
[Footnote 6: 'Roses of Provins,' we are told—probably artificial.]
[Footnote 7: The meaning is very doubtful. But for theraz'dof theQuarto, I should suggestlac'd. Could it meancut low?]
[Footnote 8:a share, as immediately below.]
[Footnote 9: Acryof hounds is a pack. So inKing Lear, act v. sc. 3, 'packs and sects of great ones.']
[Footnote 10:Iforay—that is,yes!—He insists on a whole share.]
[Footnote 11: Again he takes refuge in singing.]
[Footnote 12: The lines are properly measured in theQuarto:
For thou doost know oh Damon deereThis Realme dismantled wasOfIouehimselfe, and now raignes heereA very very paiock.
ByJove, he of course intendshis father. 170. What 'Paiocke' means, whetherpagan, orpeacock, orbajocco, matters nothing, since it is intended for nonsense.]
[Footnote 13: To rime withwas, Horatio naturally expectedassto follow as the end of the last line: in the wanton humour of his excitement, Hamlet disappointed him.]
[Footnote 14:In Q. after next speech.]
[Footnote 15: He hears Rosincrance and Guildensterne coming, and changes his behaviour—calling for music to end the play with. Either he wants, under its cover, to finish his talk with Horatio in what is for the moment the safest place, or he would mask himself before his two false friends. Since the departure of the king—I would suggest—he has borne himself with evident apprehension, every now and then glancing about him, as fearful of what may follow his uncle's recognition of the intent of the play. Three times he has burst out singing.
Or might not his whole carriage, with the call for music, be the outcome of a grimly merry satisfaction at the success of his scheme?]
[Page 152]
For if the King like not the Comedie,Why then belike he likes it not perdie.[1]Come some Musicke.
Guild.Good my Lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
Ham.Sir, a whole History.
Guild.The King, sir.
Ham.I sir, what of him?
Guild.Is in his retyrement, maruellous distemper'd.
Ham.With drinke Sir?
Guild.No my Lord, rather with choller.[2] [Sidenote: Lord, with]
Ham.Your wisedome should shew it selfe more richer, to signifie this to his Doctor: for me to [Sidenote: the Doctor,] put him to his Purgation, would perhaps plundge him into farre more Choller.[2] [Sidenote: into more]
Guild.Good my Lord put your discourse into some frame,[3] and start not so wildely from my [Sidenote: stare] affayre.
Ham.I am tame Sir, pronounce.
Guild.The Queene your Mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
Ham.You are welcome.[4]
Guild.Nay, good my Lord, this courtesie is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholsome answer, I will doe your Mothers command'ment: if not, your pardon, and my returne shall bee the end of my Businesse. [Sidenote: of busines.]
Ham.Sir, I cannot.
Guild.What, my Lord?
Ham.Make you a wholsome answere: my wits diseas'd. But sir, such answers as I can make, you [Sidenote: answere] shal command: or rather you say, my Mother: [Sidenote: rather as you] therfore no more but to the matter. My Mother you say.
[Footnote 1: These two lines he may be supposed to sing.]
[Footnote 2: Choler means bile, and thence anger. Hamlet in his answer plays on the two meanings:—'to give him the kind of medicine I think fit for him, would perhaps much increase his displeasure.']
[Footnote 3: some logical consistency.]
[Footnote 4:—with an exaggeration of courtesy.]
[Page 154]
Rosin.Then thus she sayes: your behauior hath stroke her into amazement, and admiration.[1]
Ham.Oh wonderfull Sonne, that can so astonish [Sidenote: stonish] a Mother. But is there no sequell at the heeles of this Mothers admiration? [Sidenote: admiration, impart.]
Rosin.She desires to speake with you in her Closset, ere you go to bed.
Ham.We shall obey, were she ten times our Mother. Haue you any further Trade with vs?
Rosin.My Lord, you once did loue me.