King.Oh heauy deed:It had bin so with vs[1] had we beene there:His Liberty is full of threats to all,[2]To you your selfe, to vs, to euery one.Alas, how shall this bloody deede be answered?It will be laide to vs, whose prouidenceShould haue kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt,This mad yong man.[2] But so much was our loue,We would not vnderstand what was most fit,But like the Owner of a foule disease,[Sidenote: 176] To keepe it from divulging, let's it feede[Sidenote: let it]Euen on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
Qu.To draw apart the body he hath kild, [Sidenote: Ger.]O're whom his very madnesse[3] like some OareAmong a Minerall of Mettels base[Sidenote: 181] Shewes it selfe pure.[4] He weepes for what is done.[5][Sidenote: pure, a weeepes]
King:OhGertrude, come away:The Sun no sooner shall the Mountaines touch,But we will ship him hence, and this vilde deed,We must with all our Maiesty and Skill[Sidenote: 200] Both countenance, and excuse.[6]Enter Ros. & Guild.[7]HoGuildenstern:Friends both go ioyne you with some further ayde:Hamletin madnesse hath Polonius slaine,And from his Mother Clossets hath he drag'd him.[Sidenote: closet | dreg'd]Go seeke him out, speake faire, and bring the bodyInto the Chappell. I pray you hast in this.Exit Gent[8]ComeGertrude, wee'l call vp our wisest friends,To let them know both what we meane to do, [Sidenote: And let]
[Footnote 1: the royal plural.]
[Footnote 2: He knows the thrust was meant for him. But he would not have it so understood; he too lays it to his madness, though he too knows better.]
[Footnote 3: 'he, although mad'; 'his nature, in spite of his madness.']
[Footnote 4: by his weeping, in the midst of much to give a different impression.]
[Footnote 5: We have no reason to think the queen inventing here: what could she gain by it? the point indeed was rather against Hamlet, as showing it was not Polonius he had thought to kill. He was more than ever annoyed with the contemptible old man, who had by his meddlesomeness brought his death to his door; but he was very sorry nevertheless over Ophelia's father: those rough words in his last speech are spoken with the tears running down his face. We have seen the strange, almost discordant mingling in him of horror and humour, after the first appearance of the Ghost, 58, 60: something of the same may be supposed when he finds he has killed Polonius: in the highstrung nervous condition that must have followed such a talk with his mother, it would be nowise strange that he should weep heartily even in the midst of contemptuous anger. Or perhaps a sudden breakdown from attempted show of indifference, would not be amiss in the representation.]
[Footnote 6: 'both countenance with all our majesty, and excuse with all our skill.']
[Footnote 7: In theQuartoa line back.]
[Footnote 8:Not in Q.]
[Page 184]
And what's vntimely[1] done. [A] Oh come away, [Sidenote: doone,]My soule is full of discord and dismay.Exeunt.
Enter Hamlet.[Sidenote:Hamlet, Rosencrans, and others.]
Ham.Safely stowed.[2] [Sidenote: stowed, but soft, what noyse,]
Gentlemen within.Hamlet. LordHamlet?
Ham.What noise? Who cals onHamlet? Oh heere they come.
Enter Ros. and Guildensterne.[4]
Ro.What haue you done my Lord with the dead body?
Ham.Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis Kinne.[5][Sidenote: Compound it]
Rosin.Tell vs where 'tis, that we may take it thence, And beare it to the Chappell.
Ham.Do not beleeue it.[6]
Rosin.Beleeue what?
[Sidenote: 156]Ham.That I can keepe your counsell, and not mine owne. Besides, to be demanded of a Spundge, what replication should be made by the Sonne of a King.[7]
Rosin.Take you me for a Spundge, my Lord?
Ham.I sir, that sokes vp the Kings Countenance, his Rewards, his Authorities, but such Officers do the King best seruice in the end. He keepes them like an Ape in the corner of his iaw,[8] first [Sidenote: like an apple in] mouth'd to be last swallowed, when he needes what you haue glean'd, it is but squeezing you, and Spundge you shall be dry againe.
Rosin.I vnderstand you not my Lord.
[Footnote A:Here in the Quarto:—
Whose whisper ore the worlds dyameter,[9][Sidenote: 206] As leuell as the Cannon to his blanck,[10]Transports his poysned shot, may miffe[11] our Name,And hit the woundlesse ayre.]
[Footnote 1: unhappily.]
[Footnote 2: He has hid the body—to make the whole look the work of a mad fit.]
[Footnote 3: This line is not in theQuarto.]
[Footnote 4:Not in Q. See margin above.]
[Footnote 5: He has put it in a place which, little visited, is very dusty.]
[Footnote 6: He is mad to them—sane only to his mother and Horatio.]
[Footnote 7:euphuistic: 'asked a question by a sponge, what answer should a prince make?']
[Footnote 8:1st Q.:
For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes,In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you,Then swallowes you:]
[Footnote 9: Here most modern editors insert, 'so, haply, slander'. But, although I think the Poet left out this obscure passage merely from dissatisfaction with it, I believe it renders a worthy sense as it stands. The antecedent towhoseisfriends:cannonis nominative totransports; and the only difficulty is the epithetpoysnedapplied toshot, which seems transposed from the idea of anunfriendlywhisper. Perhaps Shakspere wrotepoysed shot. But taking this as it stands, the passage might be paraphrased thus: 'Whose (favourable) whisper over the world's diameter (from one side of the world to the other), as level (as truly aimed) as the cannon (of an evil whisper) transports its poisoned shot to his blank (the white centre of the target), may shoot past our name (so keeping us clear), and hit only the invulnerable air.' ('the intrenchant air':Macbeth, act v. sc. 8). This interpretation rests on the idea of over-condensation with its tendency to seeming confusion—the only fault I know in the Poet—a grand fault, peculiarly his own, born of the beating of his wings against the impossible. It is much as if, able to think two thoughts at once, he would compel his phrase to utter them at once.]
[Footnote 10:
for the harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank And level of my brain, plot-proof;
The Winter's Tale, act ii. sc. 3.
My life stands in the level of your dreams,
Ibid, act iii. sc. 2.]
[Footnote 11: twofffor two longss.]
[Page 186]
Ham.I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleepes in a foolish eare.
Rosin.My Lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.
Ham.The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.[1] The King, is a thing——
Guild.A thing my Lord?
Ham.Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hide Fox, and all after.[3]Exeunt[4]
Enter King.[Sidenote:King, and two or three.]
King.I have sent to seeke him, and to find the bodie:How dangerous is it that this man goes loose:[5]Yet must not we put the strong Law on him:[Sidenote: 212] Hee's loved of the distracted multitude,[6]Who like not in their iudgement, but their eyes:And where 'tis so, th'Offenders scourge is weigh'dBut neerer the offence: to beare all smooth, and euen,[Sidenote: neuer the]This sodaine sending him away, must seeme[Sidenote: 120] Deliberate pause,[7] diseases desperate growne,By desperate appliance are releeved,Or not at all.Enter Rosincrane.[Sidenote:Rosencraus and all the rest.]How now? What hath befalne?
Rosin.Where the dead body is bestow'd my Lord, We cannot get from him.
King.But where is he?[8]
Rosin.Without my Lord, guarded[9] to know your pleasure.
King.Bring him before us.
Rosin.Hoa, Guildensterne? Bring in my Lord. [Sidenote:Ros.How, bring in the Lord.They enter.]
Enter Hamlet and Guildensterne[10]
King.NowHamlet, where'sPolonius?
[Footnote 1: 'The body is in the king's house, therefore with the king; but the king knows not where, therefore the king is not with the body.']
[Footnote 2: 'A thing of nothing' seems to have been a common phrase.]
[Footnote 3: TheQuartohas not 'hide Fox, and all after.']
[Footnote 4: Hamlet darts out, with the others after him, as in a hunt.Possibly there was a game calledHide fox, and all after.]
[Footnote 5: He is a hypocrite even to himself.]
[Footnote 6: This had all along helped to Hamlet's safety.]
[Footnote 7: 'must be made to look the result of deliberate reflection.' Claudius fears the people may imagine Hamlet treacherously used, driven to self-defence, and hurried out of sight to be disposed of.]
[Footnote 8: Emphasis onhe; the point of importance with the king, iswhere he is, not where the body is.]
[Footnote 9: Henceforward he is guarded, or at least closely watched, according to theFolio—left much to himself according to theQuarto. 192.]
[Footnote 10:Not in Quarto.]
[Page 188]
Ham.At Supper.
King.At Supper? Where?
Ham.Not where he eats, but where he is eaten, [Sidenote: where a is] a certaine conuocation of wormes are e'ne at him. [Sidenote: of politique wormes[1]] Your worm is your onely Emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat vs, and we fat our selfe [Sidenote: ourselves] for Magots. Your fat King, and your leane Begger is but variable seruice to dishes, but to one [Sidenote: two dishes] Table that's the end.
King.What dost thou meane by this?[2]
Ham.Nothing but to shew you how a King may go a Progresse[3] through the guts of a Begger.[4]
King.Where isPolonius.
Ham.In heauen, send thither to see. If your Messenger finde him not there, seeke him i'th other place your selfe: but indeed, if you finde him not [Sidenote: but if indeed you find him not within this] this moneth, you shall nose him as you go vp the staires into the Lobby.
King.Go seeke him there.
Ham.He will stay till ye come.[Sidenote: A will stay till you]
K.Hamlet, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety[Sidenote: this deede for thine especiall]Which we do tender, as we deerely greeueFor that which thou hast done,[5] must send thee henceWith fierie Quicknesse.[6] Therefore prepare thy selfe,The Barke is readie, and the winde at helpe,[7]Th'Associates tend,[8] and euery thing at bent [Sidenote: is bent]For England.
[Footnote A:Here in the Quarto:—
KingAlas, alas.[9]
Ham.A man may fish with the worme that hath eate of a King, and eate of the fish that hath fedde of that worme.]
[Footnote 1: —such as Rosincrance and Guildensterne!]
[Footnote 2: I suspect this and the following speech ought by the printers to have been omitted also: without the preceding two speeches of the Quarto they are not accounted for.]
[Footnote 3: a royal progress.]
[Footnote 4: Hamlet's philosophy deals much now with the worthlessness of all human distinctions and affairs.]
[Footnote 5: 'and we care for your safety as much as we grieve for the death of Polonius.']
[Footnote 6: 'With fierie Quicknesse.'Not in Quarto.]
[Footnote 7: fair—ready to help.]
[Footnote 8: attend, wait.]
[Footnote 9: pretending despair over his madness.]
[Page 190]
Ham.For England?
King.IHamlet.
Ham.Good.
King.So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
Ham.I see a Cherube that see's him: but [Sidenote: sees them,] come, for England. Farewell deere Mother.
King.Thy louing FatherHamlet.
Hamlet.My Mother: Father and Mother is man and wife: man and wife is one flesh, and so [Sidenote: flesh, so my] my mother.[1] Come, for England.Exit
[Sidenote: 195]King.Follow him at foote,[2]Tempt him with speed aboord:Delay it not, He haue him hence to night.Away, for euery thing is Seal'd and doneThat else leanes on[3] th'Affaire pray you make hast.And England, if my loue thou holdst at ought,As my great power thereof may giue thee sense,Since yet thy Cicatrice lookes raw and red[4]After the Danish Sword, and thy free awePayes homage to vs[5]; thou maist not coldly set[6]Our Soueraigne Processe,[7] which imports at fullBy Letters conjuring to that effect [Sidenote: congruing]The present death ofHamlet. Do it England,For like the Hecticke[8] in my blood he rages,And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done,How ere my happes,[9] my ioyes were ne're begun.[10][Sidenote: ioyes will nere begin.]Exit[11]
[Sidenote: 274] [12]Enter Fortinbras with an Armie.[Sidenote: with his Army ouer the stage.]
For.Go Captaine, from me greet the Danish King,Tell him that by his license,Fortinbras[Sidenote: 78] Claimes the conueyance[13] of a promis'd March[Sidenote: Craues the]Ouer his Kingdome. You know the Rendeuous:[14]
[Footnote 1: He will not touch the hand of his father's murderer.]
[Footnote 2: 'at his heels.']
[Footnote 3: 'belongs to.']
[Footnote 4: 'as my great power may give thee feeling of its value, seeing the scar of my vengeance has hardly yet had time to heal.']
[Footnote 5: 'and thy fear uncompelled by our presence, pays homage to us.']
[Footnote 6: 'set down to cool'; 'set in the cold.']
[Footnote 7:mandate: 'Where's Fulvia's process?'Ant. and Cl., act i. sc. 1.Shakespeare Lexicon.]
[Footnote 8:hectic fever—habitualor constant fever.]
[Footnote 9: 'whatever my fortunes.']
[Footnote 10: The original, theQuartoreading—'my ioyes will nere begin' seems to me in itself better, and the cause of the change to be as follows.
In theQuartothe next scene stands as in our modern editions, ending with the rime,
ô from this time forth,My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.Exit.
This was the act-pause, the natural end of act iii.
But when the author struck out all but the commencement of the scene, leaving only the three little speeches of Fortinbras and his captain, then plainly the act-pause must fall at the end of the preceding scene. He therefore altered the end of the last verse to make it rime with the foregoing, in accordance with his frequent way of using a rime before an important pause.
It perplexes us to think how on his way to the vessel, Hamlet could fall in with the Norwegian captain. This may have been one of Shakspere's reasons for striking the whole scene out—but he had other and more pregnant reasons.]
[Footnote 11: Here is now the proper close of theThird Act.]
[Footnote 12:Commencement of the Fourth Act.
Between the third and the fourth passes the time Hamlet is away; for the latter, in which he returns, and whose scenes arecontiguous, needs no more than one day.]
[Footnote 13: 'claims a convoy in fulfilment of the king's promise to allow him to march over his kingdom.' The meaning is made plainer by the correspondent passage in the1st Quarto:
Tell him thatFortenbrassenephew to oldNorway,Craues a free passe and conduct ouer his land,According to the Articles agreed on:]
[Footnote 14: 'where to rejoin us.']
[Page 192]
If that his Maiesty would ought with vs,We shall expresse our dutie in his eye,[1]And let[2] him know so.
Cap.I will doo't, my Lord.
For.Go safely[3] on.Exit.[Sidenote: softly]
[4]Enter Queene and Horatio. [Sidenote:Enter Horatio, Gertrard, and a Gentleman.]
Qu.I will not speake with her.
Hor.[5] She is importunate, indeed distract, her [Sidenote:Gent.] moode will needs be pittied.
Qu. What would she haue?
Hor. She speakes much of her Father; saies she heares [Sidenote:Gent.]
[Footnote A:Here in the Quarto:—
Enter Hamlet, Rosencraus, &c.
Ham. Good sir whose powers are these?
Cap. They are ofNorwaysir.
Ham. How purposd sir I pray you?
Cap. Against some part ofPoland.
Ham. Who commaunds them sir?
Cap. The Nephew to oldNorway, Fortenbrasse.
Ham. Goes it against the maine ofPolandsir, Or for some frontire?
Cap. Truly to speake, and with no addition,[6]We goe to gaine a little patch of ground[7]That hath in it no profit but the nameTo pay fiue duckets, fiue I would not farme it;Nor will it yeeld toNorwayor thePoleA rancker rate, should it be sold in fee.
Ham. Why then the Pollacke neuer will defend it.
Cap. Yes, it is already garisond.
Ham. Two thousand soules, and twenty thousand ducketsWill not debate the question of this strawThis is th'Impostume of much wealth and peace,That inward breakes, and showes no cause withoutWhy the man dies.[8] I humbly thanke you sir.
Cap. God buy you sir.
Ros. Wil't please you goe my Lord?
[Sidenote: 187, 195]Ham. Ile be with you straight, goe a little before.[9] [10]How all occasions[11] doe informe against me,
[Continued on next text page.]]
[Footnote 1: 'we shall pay our respects, waiting upon his person.']
[Footnote 2: 'let,'imperative mood.]
[Footnote 3: 'with proper precaution,'said to his attendant officers.]
[Footnote 4: This was originally intended, I repeat, for the commencement of the act. But when the greater part of the foregoing scene was omitted, and the third act made to end with the scene before that, then the small part left of the all-but-cancelled scene must open the fourth act.]
[Footnote 5: Hamlet absent, we find his friend looking after Ophelia.Gertrude seems less friendly towards her.]
[Footnote 6: exaggeration.]
[Footnote 7: —probably a small outlying island or coast-fortress,not far off, else why should Norway care about it at all? If the wordfrontierhas the meaning, as theShakespeare Lexiconsays, of 'an outwork in fortification,' its use two lines back would, taken figuratively, tend to support this.]
[Footnote 8: The meaning may be as in the following paraphrase: 'This quarrelling about nothing is (the breaking of) the abscess caused by wealth and peace—which breaking inward (in general corruption), would show no outward sore in sign of why death came.' Or it might beforcedthus:—
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace.That (which) inward breaks, and shows no cause without—Why, the man dies!
But it may mean:—'The war is an imposthume, which will break within, and cause much affliction to the people that make the war.' On the other hand, Hamlet seems to regard it as a process for, almost a sign of health.]
[Footnote 9: Note his freedom.]
[Footnote 10:See'examples grosse as earth'below.]
[Footnote 11: While every word that Shakspere wrote we may well take pains to grasp thoroughly, my endeavour to cast light on this passage is made with the distinct understanding in my own mind that the author himself disapproved of and omitted it, and that good reason is not wanting why he should have done so. At the same time, if my student, for this book is for those who would have help and will take pains to the true understanding of the play, would yet retain the passage, I protest against the acceptance of Hamlet's judgment of himself, except as revealing the simplicity and humility of his nature and character. That as often as a vivid memory of either interview with the Ghost came back upon him, he should feel rebuked and ashamed, and vexed with himself, is, in the morally, intellectually, and emotionally troubled state of his mind, nowise the less natural that he had the best of reasons for the delay because of which hehereso unmercifully abuses himself. A man of self-satisfied temperament would never in similar circumstances have done so. But Hamlet was, by nature and education, far from such self-satisfaction; and there is in him besides such a strife and turmoil of opposing passions and feelings and apparent duties, as can but rarely rise in a human soul. With which he ought to side, his conscience is not sure—sides therefore now with one, now with another. At the same time it is by no means the long delay the critics imagine of which he is accusing himself—it is only that the thingis not done.
In certain moods the action a man dislikes willthereforelook to him the more like a duty; and this helps to prevent Hamlet from knowing always how great a part conscience bears in the omission because of which he condemns and even contemns himself. The conscience does not naturally examine itself—is not necessarily self-conscious. In any soliloquy, a man must speak from his present mood: we who are not suffering, and who have many of his moods before us, ought to understand Hamlet better than he understands himself. To himself, sitting in judgment on himself, it would hardly appear a decent cause of, not to say reason for, a moment's delay in punishing his uncle, that he was so weighed down with misery because of his mother and Ophelia, that it seemed of no use to kill one villain out of the villainous world; it would seem but 'bestial oblivion'; and, although his reputation as a prince was deeply concerned,anyreflection on the consequences to himself would at times appear but a 'craven scruple'; while at times even the whispers of conscience might seem a 'thinking too precisely on the event.' A conscientious man of changeful mood wilt be very ready in either mood to condemn the other. The best and rightest men will sometimes accuse themselves in a manner that seems to those who know them best, unfounded, unreasonable, almost absurd. We must not, I say, take the hero's judgment of himself as the author's judgment of him. The two judgments, that of a man upon himself from within, and that of his beholder upon him from without, are not congeneric. They are different in origin and in kind, and cannot be adopted either of them into the source of the other without most serious and dangerous mistake. So adopted, each becomes another thing altogether. It is to me probable that, although it involves other unfitnesses, the Poet omitted the passage chiefly from coming to see the danger of its giving occasion, or at least support, to an altogether mistaken and unjust idea of his Hamlet.]
[Page 194]
There's trickes i'th'world, and hems, and beats her heart,Spurnes enuiously at Strawes,[1] speakes things in doubt,[2]That carry but halfe sense: Her speech is nothing,[3]Yet the vnshaped vse of it[4] doth moueThe hearers to Collection[5]; they ayme[6] at it,[Sidenote: they yawne at]And botch the words[7] vp fit to their owne thoughts
[Continuation of quote from Quarto from previous text page:—
And spur my dull reuenge. [8]What is a manIf his chiefe good and market of his timeBe but to sleepe and feede, a beast, no more;Sure he that made vs with such large discourse[9]Looking before and after, gaue vs notThat capabilitie and god-like reasonTo fust in vs vnvsd,[8] now whether it be[Sidenote: 52, 120] Bestiall obliuion,[10] or some crauen scrupleOf thinking too precisely on th'euent,[11]A thought which quarterd hath but one part wisedom,And euer three parts coward, I doe not knowWhy yet I liue to say this thing's to doe,Sith I haue cause, and will, and strength, and meanesTo doo't;[12] examples grosse as earth exhort me,Witnes this Army of such masse and charge,[Sidenote: 235] Led by a delicate and tender Prince,Whose spirit with diuine ambition puft,Makes mouthes at the invisible euent,[Sidenote: 120] Exposing what is mortall, and vnsure,To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,[13]Euen for an Egge-shell. Rightly to be great,Is not to stirre without great argument,But greatly to find quarrell in a strawWhen honour's at the stake, how stand I thenThat haue a father kild, a mother staind,Excytements of my reason, and my blood,And let all sleepe,[14] while to my shame I seeThe iminent death of twenty thousand men,That for a fantasie and tricke[15] of fameGoe to their graues like beds, fight for a plotWhereon the numbers cannot try the cause,[16]Which is not tombe enough and continent[17]To hide the slaine,[18] ô from this time forth,My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.[19]Exit.]
[Footnote 1: trifles.]
[Footnote 2: doubtfully.]
[Footnote 3: 'there is nothing in her speech.']
[Footnote 4: 'the formless mode of it.']
[Footnote 5: 'to gathering things and putting them together.']
[Footnote 6: guess.]
[Footnote 7: Ophelia's words.]
[Footnote 8: I am in doubt whether this passage from 'What is a man' down to 'unused,' does not refer to the king, and whether Hamlet is not persuading himself that it can be no such objectionable thing to kill one hardly above a beast. At all events it is far more applicable to the king: it was not one of Hamlet's faults, in any case, to fail of using his reason. But he may just as well accuse himself of that too! At the same time the worst neglect of reason lies in not carrying out its conclusions, and if we cannot justify Hamlet in his delay, the passage is of good application to him. 'Bestiall oblivion' does seem to connect himself with the reflection; but how thoroughly is the thing intended by such a phrase alien from the character of Hamlet!]
[Footnote 9: —the mental faculty of running hither and thither: 'We look before and after.'Shelley: To a Skylark.]
[Footnote 10: —the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has just mentioned.]
[Footnote 11: —theconsequences. The scruples that come of thinking of the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they werecravenscruples, that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the noble self-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to result from the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands at least absolute assurance of guilt? or that 'a thinking too precisely on the event,' to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an un wounded name behind him?]
[Footnote 12: This passage is the strongest there is on the side of the ordinary misconception of the character of Hamlet. It comes from himself; and it is as ungenerous as it is common and unfair to use such a weapon against a man. Does any but St. Paul himself say he was the chief of sinners? Consider Hamlet's condition, tormented on all sides, within and without, and think whether this outbreak against himself be not as unfair as it is natural. Lest it should be accepted against him, Shakspere did well to leave it out. In bitter disappointment, both because of what is and what is not, both because of what he has done and what he has failed to do, having for the time lost all chance, with the last vision of the Ghost still haunting his eyes, his last reproachful words yet ringing in his ears, are we bound to take his judgment of himself because it is against himself? Are weboundto take any man's judgment because it is against himself? I answer, 'No more than if it were for himself.' A good man's judgment, where he is at all perplexed, especially if his motive comes within his own question, is ready to be against himself, as a bad man's is sure to be for himself. Or because he is a philosopher, does it follow that throughout he understands himself? Were such a man in cool, untroubled conditions, we might feel compelled to take his judgment, but surely not here! A philosopher in such state as Hamlet's would understand the quality of his spiritual operations with no more certainty than another man. In his present mood, Hamlet forgets the cogency of the reasons that swayed him in the other; forgets that his uppermost feeling then was doubt, as horror, indignation, and conviction are uppermost now. Things were never so clear to Hamlet as to us.
But how can he say he has strength and means—in the position in which he now finds himself? I am glad to be able to believe, let my defence of Hamlet against himself be right or wrong, that Shakspere intended the omission of the passage. I lay nothing on the great lack of logic throughout the speech, for that would not make it unfit for Hamlet in such mood, while it makes its omission from the play of less consequence to my general argument.]
[Footnote 13:threaten. This supports my argument as to the great soliloquy—that it was death as the result of his slaying the king, or attempting to do so, not death by suicide, he was thinking of: he expected to die himself in the punishing of his uncle.]
[Footnote 14: He had had no chance but that when the king was on his knees.]
[Footnote 15: 'a fancy and illusion.']
[Footnote 16: 'which is too small for those engaged to find room to fight on it.']
[Footnote 17: 'continent,'containing space.]
[Footnote 18: This soliloquy is antithetic to the other. Here is no thought of the 'something after death.']
[Footnote 19: If, with this speech in his mouth, Hamlet goes coolly on board the vessel,not being compelled thereto(190, 192, 216), and possessing means to his vengeance, as here he says, and goes merely in order to hoist Rosincrance and Guildensterne with their own petard—that is, if we must keep the omitted passages, then the author exposes his hero to a more depreciatory judgment than any from which I would justify him, and a conception of his character entirely inconsistent with the rest of the play. He did not observe the risk at the time he wrote the passage, but discovering it afterwards, rectified the oversight—to the dissatisfaction of his critics, who have agreed in restoring what he cancelled.]
[Page 196]
Which as her winkes, and nods, and gestures yeeld[1] them,Indeed would make one thinke there would[2] be thought,[Sidenote: there might[2] be]Though nothing sure, yet much vnhappily.
Qu. 'Twere good she were spoken with,[3] [Sidenote:Hora.]For she may strew dangerous coniecturesIn ill breeding minds.[4] Let her come in. [Sidenote:Enter Ophelia.]To my sicke soule (as sinnes true Nature is)[Sidenote:Quee. 'To my[5]]Each toy seemes Prologue, to some great amisse, [Sidenote: 'Each]So full of Artlesse iealousie is guilt, [Sidenote: 'So]It spill's it selfe, in fearing to be spilt.[6] [Sidenote: 'It]
Enter Ophelia distracted.[7]
Ophe. Where is the beauteous Maiesty of Denmark.
Qu. How nowOphelia? [Sidenote:shee sings.]
Ophe. How should I your true loue know from another one? By his Cockle hat and staffe, and his Sandal shoone.
Qu. Alas sweet Lady: what imports this Song?
Ophe. Say you? Nay pray you marke.He is dead and gone Lady, he is dead and gone, At his head a grasse-greene Turfe, at his heeles a stone.[Sidenote: O ho.]
Enter King.
Qu. Nay butOphelia.
Ophe. Pray you marke.White his Shrow'd as the Mountaine Snow.[Sidenote:Enter King.]
Qu. Alas looke heere my Lord,
[Sidenote: 246]Ophe. Larded[8] with sweet flowers: [Sidenote: Larded all with]Which bewept to the graue did not go, [Sidenote: ground |Song.]With true-loue showres,
[Footnote 1: 'present them,'—her words, that is—giving significance or interpretation to them.]
[Footnote 2: If thiswould, and not themightof theQuarto, be the correct reading, it means that Ophelia would have something thought so and so.]
[Footnote 3: —changing her mind on Horatio's representation. At first she would not speak with her.]
[Footnote 4: 'minds that breed evil.']
[Footnote 5: —as a quotation.]
[Footnote 6: Instance, the history of Macbeth.]
[Footnote 7:1st Q. Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing.
Hamlet's apparent madness would seem to pass into real madness in Ophelia. King Lear's growing perturbation becomes insanity the moment he sees the pretended madman Edgar.
The forms of Ophelia's madness show it was not her father's death that drove her mad, but his death by the hand of Hamlet, which, with Hamlet's banishment, destroyed all the hope the queen had been fostering in her of marrying him some day.]
[Footnote 8: This expression is, as Dr. Johnson says, taken from cookery; but it is so used elsewhere by Shakspere that we cannot regard it here as a scintillation of Ophelia's insanity.]
[Page 198]
King. How do ye, pretty Lady? [Sidenote: you]
Ophe. Well, God dil'd you.[1] They say the [Sidenote: good dild you,[1]] Owle was a Bakers daughter.[2] Lord, wee know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your Table.
[Sidenote: 174]King. Conceit[3] vpon her Father.
Ophe. Pray you let's haue no words of this: [Sidenote: Pray lets] but when they aske you what it meanes, say you this:
[4]To morrow is S. Valentines day, all in the morning betime,And I a Maid at your Window to be your Valentine.Then vp he rose, and don'd[5] his clothes, and dupt[5] the chamber dore,Let in the Maid, that out a Maid, neuer departed more.
King. PrettyOphelia.
Ophe. Indeed la? without an oath Ile make an [Sidenote: Indeede without] end ont.[6]
By gis, and by S. Charity,Alacke, and fie for shame:Yong men wil doo't, if they come too't,By Cocke they are too blame.Quoth she before you tumbled me,You promis'd me to Wed:So would I ha done by yonder Sunne, [Sidenote: (He answers,) So would]And thou hadst not come to my bed.
King. How long hath she bin this? [Sidenote: beene thus?]
Ophe. I hope all will be well. We must bee patient, but I cannot choose but weepe, to thinke they should lay him i'th'cold ground: My brother [Sidenote: they wouid lay] shall knowe of it, and so I thanke you for your good counsell. Come, my Coach: Goodnight Ladies: Goodnight sweet Ladies: Goodnight, goodnight.Exit[7]
[Footnote 1:1st Q. 'God yeeld you,' that is,reward you. Here we have a blunder for the contraction, 'God 'ild you'—perhaps a common blunder.]
[Footnote 2: For the silly legend, see Douce's note inJohnson andSteevens.]
[Footnote 3: imaginative brooding.]
[Footnote 4: We dare no judgment on madness in life: we need not in art.]
[Footnote 5: Preterites ofdonanddup, contracted fromdo onanddo up.]
[Footnote 6: —disclaiming false modesty.]
[Footnote 7:Not in Q.]
[Page 200]
King. Follow her close,Giue her good watch I pray you:Oh this is the poyson of deepe greefe, it springsAll from her Fathers death. OhGertrude, Gertrude,[Sidenote: death, and now behold, ôGertrard, Gertrard,]When sorrowes comes, they come not single spies,[1][Sidenote: sorrowes come]But in Battaliaes. First, her Father slaine, [Sidenote: battalians:]Next your Sonne gone, and he most violent AuthorOf his owne iust remoue: the people muddied,[2]Thicke and vnwholsome in their thoughts, and whispers[Sidenote: in thoughts]For[3] goodPoloniusdeath; and we haue done but greenly[Sidenote: 182] In hugger mugger[4] to interre him. PooreOpheliaDiuided from her selfe,[5] and her faire Iudgement,Without the which we are Pictures, or meere Beasts.Last, and as much containing as all these,Her Brother is in secret come from France,Keepes on his wonder,[6] keepes himselfe in clouds,[Sidenote: Feeds on this[6]]And wants not Buzzers to infect his eare [Sidenote: care]With pestilent Speeches of his Fathers death,Where in necessitie of matter Beggard, [Sidenote: Wherein necessity]Will nothing sticke our persons to Arraigne [Sidenote: person]In eare and eare.[7] O my deereGertrude, this,Like to a murdering Peece[8] in many places,Giues me superfluous death.A Noise within.
Enter a Messenger.
Qu. Alacke, what noyse is this?[9]
King. Where are mySwitzers?[10] [Sidenote:King. Attend, where is my Swissers,] Let them guard the doore. What is the matter?
Mes. Saue your selfe, my Lord. [Sidenote: 120] The Ocean (ouer-peering of his List[11]) Eates not the Flats with more impittious[12] haste
[Footnote 1: —each alone, like scouts.]
[Footnote 2: stirred up like pools—with similar result.]
[Footnote 3: because of.]
[Footnote 4: The king wished to avoid giving the people any pretext or cause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry—to the queen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to the popular indignation.Hugger mugger—secretly: Steevens and Malone.]
[Footnote 5: The phrase has the samevisualroot asbeside herself—both signifying 'not at onewith herself.']
[Footnote 6: If theQuartoreading is right, 'this wonder' means the hurried and suspicious funeral of his father. But theFolioreading is quite Shaksperean: 'He keeps on (as a garment) the wonder of the people at him';keeps his behaviour such that the people go on wondering about him: the phrase is explained by the next clause. Compare:
By being seldom seen, I could not stirBut, like a comet, I was wondered at.
K. Henry IV. P. I. act iii. sc. 1.]
[Footnote 7: 'wherein Necessity, beggared of material, will not scruple to whisper invented accusations against us.']
[Footnote 8: —the name given to a certain small cannon—perhaps charged with various missiles, hence the better figuring the number and variety of 'sorrows' he has just recounted.]
[Footnote 9:This line not in Q.]
[Footnote 10: Note that the king is well guarded, and Hamlet had to lay his account with great risk in the act of killing him.]
[Footnote 11:border, as of cloth: the mounds thrown up to keep the sea out.The figure here specially fits a Dane.]
[Footnote 12: I do not know whether this word meanspitiless, or stands forimpetuous. TheQuartohas onet.]
[Page 202]
Then youngLaertes, in a Riotous head,[1]Ore-beares your Officers, the rabble call him Lord,And as the world were now but to begin,Antiquity forgot, Custome not knowne,The Ratifiers and props of euery word,[2][Sidenote: 62] They cry choose we?Laertesshall be King,[3][Sidenote: The cry]Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,Laertesshall be King,LaertesKing.
Qu. How cheerefully on the false Traile they cry, [Sidenote:A noise within.] Oh this is Counter you false Danish Dogges.[4]
Noise within. Enter Laertes[5]. [Sidenote:Laertes with others.]
King. The doores are broke.
Laer. Where is the King, sirs? Stand you all without. [Sidenote: this King? sirs stand]
All. No, let's come in.
Laer. I pray you giue me leaue.[6]
All. We will, we will.
Laer. I thanke you: Keepe the doore. Oh thou vilde King, giue me my Father.
Qu. Calmely goodLaertes.
Laer. That drop of blood, that calmes[7] [Sidenote: thats calme]Proclaimes me Bastard:Cries Cuckold to my Father, brands the HarlotEuen heere betweene the chaste vnsmirched browOf my true Mother.[8]
Kin. What is the causeLaertes,That thy Rebellion lookes so Gyant-like?Let him goGertrude: Do not feare[9] our person:There's such Diuinity doth hedge a King,[10]That Treason can but peepe to what it would,Acts little of his will.[11] Tell meLaertes,
[Footnote 1:Headis a rising or gathering of people—generally rebellious, I think.]
[Footnote 2: Antiquity and Custom.]
[Footnote 3: This refers to the election of Claudius—evidently not a popular election, but effected by intrigue with the aristocracy and the army: 'They cry, Let us choose: Laertes shall be king!'
We may suppose the attempt of Claudius to have been favoured by the lingering influence of the old Norse custom of succession, by which not the son but the brother inherited. 16,bis.]
[Footnote 4: To hunt counter is to 'hunt the game by the heel or track.' The queen therefore accuses them of not using their scent or judgment, but following appearances.]
[Footnote 5: Now at length re-appears Laertes, who has during the interim been ripening in Paris for villainy. He is wanted for the catastrophe, and requires but the last process of a few hours in the hell-oven of a king's instigation.]
[Footnote 6: The customary and polite way of sayingleave me: 'grant me your absence.' 85, 89.]
[Footnote 7: grows calm.]
[Footnote 8: In taking vengeance Hamlet must acknowledge his mother such as Laertes says inaction on his part would proclaim his mother.
The actress should here let a shadow cross the queen's face: though too weak to break with the king, she has begun to repent.]
[Footnote 9: fearfor.]
[Footnote 10: The consummate hypocrite claims the protection of the sacred hedge through which he had himself broken—or crept rather, like a snake, to kill. He can act innocence the better that his conscience is clear as to Polonius.]
[Footnote 11: 'can only peep through the hedge to its desire—acts little of its will.']
[Page 204]
Why thou art thus Incenst? Let him goGertrude.Speake man.
Laer. Where's my Father? [Sidenote: is my]
King. Dead.
Qu. But not by him.
King. Let him demand his fill.
Laer. How came he dead? Ile not be Iuggel'd with.To hell Allegeance: Vowes, to the blackest diuell.Conscience and Grace, to the profoundest PitI dare Damnation: to this point I stand,That both the worlds I giue to negligence,Let come what comes: onely Ile be reueng'dMost throughly for my Father.
King. Who shall stay you?[1]
Laer. My Will, not all the world,[1] [Sidenote: worlds:] And for my meanes, Ile husband them so well, They shall go farre with little.
King. GoodLaertes:If you desire to know the certaintieOf your deere Fathers death, if writ in your reuenge,[Sidenote: Father, i'st writ]That Soop-stake[2] you will draw both Friend and Foe,Winner and Looser.[3]
Laer. None but his Enemies.
King. Will you know them then.
La. To his good Friends, thus wide Ile ope my Armes:And like the kinde Life-rend'ring Politician,[4][Sidenote: life-rendring Pelican,]Repast them with my blood.[5]
King. Why now you speakeLike a good Childe,[6] and a true Gentleman.That I am guiltlesse of your Fathers death,And am most sensible in greefe for it,[7] [Sidenote: sencibly]
[Footnote 1:
'Who shallpreventyou?''My own will only—not all the world,'
or,
'Who willsupportyou?''My will. Not all the world shall prevent me,'—
so playing on the two meanings of the wordstay.Or itmightmean: 'Not all the world shall stay my will.']
[Footnote 2: swoop-stake—sweepstakes.]
[Footnote 3: 'and be loser as well as winner—' If theFolio'sis the right reading, then the sentence is unfinished, and should have a dash, not a period.]
[Footnote 4: A curious misprint: may we not suspect a somewhat dull joker among the compositors?]
[Footnote 6: 'a true son to your father.']
[Footnote 7: 'feel much grief for it.']
[Footnote 5: Laertes is a ranter—false everywhere.
Plainly he is introduced as the foil from which Hamlet 'shall stick fiery off.' In this speech he shows his moral condition directly the opposite of Hamlet's: he has no principle but revenge. His conduct ought to be quite satisfactory to Hamlet's critics; there is action enough in it of the very kind they would have of Hamlet; and doubtless it would be satisfactory to them but for the treachery that follows. The one, dearly loving a father who deserves immeasurably better of him than Polonius of Laertes, will not for the sake of revenge disregard either conscience, justice, or grace; the other will not delay even to inquire into the facts of his father's fate, but will act at once on hearsay, rushing to a blind satisfaction that cannot even be called retaliation, caring for neither right nor wrong, cursing conscience and the will of God, and daring damnation. He slights assurance as to the hand by which his father fell, dismisses all reflection that might interfere with a stupid revenge. To make up one's mind at once, and act without ground, is weakness, not strength: this Laertes does—and is therefore just the man to be the villainous, not the innocent, tool of villainy. He who has sufficing ground and refuses to act is weak; but the ground that will satisfy the populace, of which the commonplace critic is the fair type, will not satisfy either the man of conscience or of wisdom. The mass of world-bepraised action owes its existence to the pressure of circumstance, not to the will and conscience of the man. Hamlet waits for light, even with his heart accusing him; Laertes rushes into the dark, dagger in hand, like a mad Malay: so he kill, he cares not whom. Such a man is easily tempted to the vilest treachery, for the light that is in him is darkness; he is not a true man; he is false in himself. This is what comes of his father's maxim:
To thine own self be true;And it must follow,as the night the day(!)Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Like the aphorism 'Honesty is the best policy,' it reveals the difference between a fact and a truth. Both sayings are correct as facts, but as guides of conduct devilishly false, leading to dishonesty and treachery. To be true to the divine self in us, is indeed to be true to all; but it is only by being true to all, against the ever present and urging false self, that at length we shall see the divine self rise above the chaotic waters of our selfishness, and know it so as to be true to it.
Of Laertes we must note also that it is not all for love of his father that he is ready to cast allegiance to hell, and kill the king: he has the voice of the people to succeed him.]
[Page 206]
[Sidenote: 184] It shall as leuell to your Iudgement pierce[Sidenote: peare']As day do's to your eye.[1]
A noise within. [2]Let her come in.
Enter Ophelia[3]
Laer. How now? what noise is that?[4][Sidenote:Laer. Let her come in. How now,]Oh heate drie vp my Braines, teares seuen times salt,Burne out the Sence and Vertue of mine eye.By Heauen, thy madnesse shall be payed by waight,[Sidenote: with weight]Till our Scale turnes the beame. Oh Rose of May, [Sidenote: turne]Deere Maid, kinde Sister, sweetOphelia:Oh Heauens, is't possible, a yong Maids wits,Should be as mortall as an old mans life?[5] [Sidenote: a poore mans]Nature is fine[6] in Loue, and where 'tis fine,It sends some precious instance of it selfeAfter the thing it loues.[7]
Ophe. They bore him bare fac'd on the Beer.[Sidenote:Song.] [Sidenote: bare-faste]Hey non nony, nony, hey nony:[8] And on his graue raines many a teare, [Sidenote: And in his graue rain'd]Fare you well my Doue.
Laer. Had'st thou thy wits, and did'st perswade Reuenge, it could not moue thus.
Ophe. You must sing downe a-downe, and [Sidenote: sing a downe a downe, And] you call him[9] a-downe-a. Oh, how the wheele[10] becomes it? It is the false Steward that stole his masters daughter.[11]
Laer. This nothings more then matter.[12]
Ophe. There's Rosemary,[13] that's for Remembraunce. Pray loue remember: and there is [Sidenote: , pray you loue] Paconcies, that's for Thoughts. [Sidenote: Pancies[14]]
Laer. A document[15] in madnesse, thoughts and remembrance fitted.
Ophe. There's Fennell[16] for you, and Columbines[16]: ther's Rew[17] for you, and heere's some for
[Footnote 1: 'pierce asdirectlyto your judgment.'
But the simile of thedayseems to favour the reading of theQ.—'peare,' forappear. In the wordlevelwould then be indicated therisingsun.]
[Footnote 2:Not in Q.]
[Footnote 3:1st Q. 'Enter Ofelia as before.']
[Footnote 4: To render it credible that Laertes could entertain the vile proposal the king is about to make, it is needful that all possible influences should be represented as combining to swell the commotion of his spirit, and overwhelm what poor judgment and yet poorer conscience he had. Altogether unprepared, he learns Ophelia's pitiful condition by the sudden sight of the harrowing change in her—and not till after that hears who killed his father and brought madness on his sister.]
[Footnote 5:1st Q.
I'st possible a yong maides life,Should be as mortall as an olde mans sawe?]
[Footnote 6: delicate, exquisite.]
[Footnote 7: 'where 'tis fine': I suggest that theithere may be impersonal: 'wherethings, whereallis fine,' that is, 'in a fine soul'; then the meaning would be, 'Nature is fine always in love, and where the soul also is fine, she sends from it' &c. But thewheremay be equal, perhaps, towhereas. I can hardly think the phrase means merely 'and where it is in love.' It might intend—'and where Love is fine, it sends' &c. The 'precious instance of itself,' that is, 'something that is a part and specimen of itself,' is here the 'young maid's wits': they are sent after the 'old man's life.'—These three lines are not in the Quarto. It is not disputed that they are from Shakspere's hand: if the insertion of these be his, why should the omission of others not be his also?]
[Footnote 8:This line is not in Q.]
[Footnote 9: 'ifyou call him': I think this is not a part of the song, but is spoken of her father.]
[Footnote 10:the burden of the song: Steevens.]
[Footnote 11: The subject of the ballad.]
[Footnote 12: 'more than sense'—in incitation to revenge.]
[Footnote 13: —an evergreen, and carried at funerals:Johnson.
For you there's rosemary and rue; these keepSeeming and savour ail the winter long:Grace and remembrance be to you both.
The Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3.]
[Footnote 14:penseés.]
[Footnote 15:a teaching, a lesson—the fitting of thoughts and remembrance, namely—which he applies to his intent of revenge. Or may it not rather be meant that the putting of these two flowers together was a happy hit of her madness, presenting the fantastic emblem of a document or writing—the very idea of which is the keeping of thoughts in remembrance?]
[Footnote 16: —said to meanflatteryandthanklessness—perhaps given to the king.]
[Footnote 17:Repentance—given to the queen. Another name of the plant wasHerb-Grace, as below, in allusion, doubtless, to its common name—rueorrepentancebeing both the gift of God, and an act of grace.]
[Page 208]
me. Wee may call it Herbe-Grace a Sundaies: [Sidenote: herbe of Grace a Sondaies, you may weare] Oh you must weare your Rew with a difference.[1] There's a Daysie,[2] I would giue you some Violets,[3] but they wither'd all when my Father dyed: They say, he made a good end; [Sidenote: say a made]
For bonny sweet Robin is all my ioy.
Laer. Thought, and Affliction, Passion, Hell it selfe: [Sidenote: afflictions,] She turnes to Fauour, and to prettinesse.
[Sidenote:Song.]
Ophe. And will he not come againe, [Sidenote: will a not]And will he not come againe: [Sidenote: will a not]No, no, he is dead, go to thy Death-bed, He neuer wil come againe. His Beard as white as Snow, [Sidenote: beard was as]All[4] Flaxen was his Pole: He is gone, he is gone, and we cast away mone, Gramercy[5] on his Soule.[Sidenote: God a mercy on] And of all Christian Soules, I pray God.[6] [Sidenote: Christians soules,] God buy ye.[7]Exeunt Ophelia[8] [Sidenote: you.]
Laer. Do you see this, you Gods? [Sidenote: Doe you this ô God.]
King. Laertes, I must common[9] with your greefe, [Sidenote: commune]Or you deny me right: go but apart,Make choice of whom your wisest Friends you will,And they shall heare and iudge 'twixt you and me;If by direct or by Colaterall handThey finde vs touch'd,[10] we will our Kingdome giue,Our Crowne, our Life, and all that we call OursTo you in satisfaction. But if not,Be you content to lend your patience to vs,[11]And we shall ioyntly labour with your souleTo giue it due content.
Laer. Let this be so:[12] His meanes of death,[13] his obscure buriall; [Sidenote: funerall,] No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones,[14]
[Footnote 1: —perhaps the heraldic term. The Poet, not Ophelia, intends the special fitness of the speech. Ophelia means only that the rue of the matron must differ from the rue of the girl.]
[Footnote 2: 'the dissembling daisy':Greene—quoted byHenley.]
[Footnote 3: —standing forfaithfulness: Malone, from an old song.]
[Footnote 4: 'All' not in Q.]
[Footnote 5: Wherever else Shakspere uses the word, it is in the sense ofgrand merci—great thanks (Skeat's Etym. Dict.); here it is surely a corruption, whether Ophelia's or the printer's, of theQuartoreading, 'God a mercy' which, spoken quickly, sounds very neargramercy. The1st Quartoalso has 'God a mercy.']
[Footnote 6: 'I pray God.'not in Q.]
[Footnote 7: 'God b' wi' ye':good bye.]
[Footnote 8:Not in Q.]
[Footnote 9: 'I must have a share in your grief.' The word does meancommune, but here is more pregnant, as evidenced in the next phrase, 'Or you deny me right:'—'do not give me justice.']
[Footnote 10: 'touched with the guilt of the deed, either as having done it with our own hand, or caused it to be done by the hand of one at our side.']
[Footnote 11: We may paraphrase thus: 'Be pleased to grant us a loan of your patience,' that is,be patient for a while at our request, 'and we will work along with your soul to gain for it (your soul) just satisfaction.']
[Footnote 12: He consents—but immediatelyre-sumsthe grounds of his wrathful suspicion.]
[Footnote 13: —the way in which he met his death.]
[Footnote 14: —customary honours to the noble dead.A trophywas an arrangement of the armour and arms of the dead in a set decoration. The origin of the wordhatchmentshows its intent: it is a corruption ofachievement.]
[Page 210]
No Noble rite, nor formall ostentation,[1]Cry to be heard, as 'twere from Heauen to Earth,That I must call in question.[2] [Sidenote: call't in]