THE TRAGEDIE OFHAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARKE

A STUDY WITH THE TEXTOFTHE FOLIO OF 1623

BYGEORGE MACDONALD

"What would you gracious figure?"

TO

MY HONOURED RELATIVE

ALEXANDER STEWART MACCOLL

A LITTLE _LESS_ THAN KIN, AND _MORE_ THAN KIND

TO WHOM I OWE IN ESPECIAL THE TRUE UNDERSTANDING OF

THE GREAT SOLILOQUY

I DEDICATE

WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE

THIS EFFORT TO GIVE HAMLET AND SHAKSPERE THEIR DUE

GEORGE MAC DONALD

BORDIGHERA

_Christmas_, 1884

 Summary:

The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: a study of the text of the folio of 1623 By George MacDonald[Motto]: "What would you, gracious figure?"

Dr. Greville MacDonald looks on his father's commentary as the "mostimportant interpretation of the play ever written. .. It is his intuitiveunderstanding . .. Rather than learned analysis--of which there is yetoverwhelming evidence--that makes it so splendid. "

Reading Level: Mature youth and adults. 

PREFACE

By this edition of HAMLET I hope to help the student of Shakspere tounderstand the play--and first of all Hamlet himself, whose spiritualand moral nature are the real material of the tragedy, to which everyother interest of the play is subservient. But while mainly attempting, from the words and behaviour Shakspere has given him, to explain theman, I have cast what light I could upon everything in the play, including the perplexities arising from extreme condensation of meaning, figure, and expression. 

As it is more than desirable that the student should know when he isreading the most approximate presentation accessible of what Shakspereuttered, and when that which modern editors have, with reason good orbad, often not without presumption, substituted for that which theyreceived, I have given the text, letter for letter, point for point, ofthe First Folio, with the variations of the Second Quarto in the marginand at the foot of the page. 

Of HAMLET there are but two editions of authority, those called theSecond Quarto and the First Folio; but there is another which requiresremark. 

In the year 1603 came out the edition known as the First Quarto--clearlywithout the poet's permission, and doubtless as much to his displeasure:the following year he sent out an edition very different, and larger inthe proportion of one hundred pages to sixty-four. Concerning the formermy theory is--though it is not my business to enter into the questionhere--that it was printed from Shakspere's sketch for the play, writtenwith matter crowding upon him too fast for expansion or development, andintended only for a continuous memorandum of things he would take up andwork out afterwards. It seems almost at times as if he but markedcertain bales of thought so as to find them again, and for the presentthrew them aside--knowing that by the marks he could recall the thoughtsthey stood for, but not intending thereby to convey them to any reader. I cannot, with evidence before me, incredible but through the eyesthemselves, of the illimitable scope of printers' blundering, believe_all_ the confusion, unintelligibility, neglect of grammar, construction, continuity, sense, attributable to them. In parts it ismore like a series of notes printed with the interlineations horriblyjumbled; while in other parts it looks as if it had been taken down fromthe stage by an ear without a brain, and then yet more incorrectlyprinted; parts, nevertheless, in which it most differs from theauthorized editions, are yet indubitably from the hand of Shakspere. Igreatly doubt if any ready-writer would have dared publish some of itschaotic passages as taken down from the stage; nor do I believe the playwas ever presented in anything like such an unfinished state. I ratherthink some fellow about the theatre, whether more rogue or fool we willpay him the thankful tribute not to enquire, chancing upon the crudeembryonic mass in the poet's hand, traitorously pounced upon it, andbetrayed it to the printers--therein serving the poet such an evil turnas if a sculptor's workman took a mould of the clay figure on which hismaster had been but a few days employed, and published casts of it asthe sculptor's work. [1] To us not the less is the _corpus delicti_precious--and that unspeakably--for it enables us to see something ofthe creational development of the drama, besides serving occasionally tocast light upon portions of it, yielding hints of the original intentionwhere the after work has less plainly presented it. 

[Footnote 1: Shakspere has in this matter fared even worse than SirThomas Browne, the first edition of whose _Religio Medici_, nowiseintended for the public, was printed without his knowledge. ]

The Second Quarto bears on its title-page, compelled to a recognition ofthe former, --'Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe asit was, according to the true and perfect Coppie'; and it is in truth aharmonious world of which the former issue was but the chaos. It is thedrama itself, the concluded work of the master's hand, though yet to beonce more subjected to a little pruning, a little touching, a littlerectifying. But the author would seem to have been as trusting over thework of the printers, as they were careless of his, and the result issometimes pitiable. The blunders are appalling. Both in it and in theFolio the marginal note again and again suggests itself: 'Here thecompositor was drunk, the press-reader asleep, the devil only aware. 'But though the blunders elbow one another in tumultuous fashion, nottherefore all words and phrases supposed to be such are blunders. Theold superstition of plenary inspiration may, by its reverence for thevery word, have saved many a meaning from the obliteration of amisunderstanding scribe: in all critical work it seems to me well tocling to the _word_ until one sinks not merely baffled, but exhausted. 

I come now to the relation between the Second Quarto and the Folio. 

My theory is--that Shakspere worked upon his own copy of the SecondQuarto, cancelling and adding, and that, after his death, this copycame, along with original manuscripts, into the hands of his friends theeditors of the Folio, who proceeded to print according to hisalterations. 

These friends and editors in their preface profess thus: 'It had bene athing, we confesse, worthie to haue bene wished, that the Authorhimselfe had liu'd to haue set forth, and ouerseen his owne writings;But since it hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed fromthat right, we pray you do not envie his Friends, the office of theircare, and paine, to haue collected & publish'd them, as where (before)you were abus'd with diuerse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of iniurious impostors, thatexpos'd them: euen those, are now offer'd to your view cur'd, andperfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers, ashe conceiued th[=e]. Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was amost gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together: And whathe thought, he vttered with that easinesse, that wee haue scarsereceiued from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our prouince, whoonely gather his works, and giue them you, to praise him. It is yoursthat reade him. '

These are hardly the words of men who would take liberties, andliberties enormous, after ideas of their own, with the text of a friendthus honoured. But although they printed with intent altogetherfaithful, they did so certainly without any adequate jealousy of theprinters--apparently without a suspicion of how they could blunder. Ofblunders therefore in the Folio also there are many, some through merefollowing of blundered print, some in fresh corruption of the same, somethrough mistaking of the manuscript corrections, and some probably fromthe misprinting of mistakes, so that the corrections themselves are attimes anything but correctly recorded. I assume also that the printerswere not altogether above the mean passion, common to the day-labourersof Art, from Chaucer's Adam Scrivener down to the present carvers ofmarble, for modifying and improving the work of the master. The vainincapacity of a self-constituted critic will make him regard his poorestfancy as an emendation; seldom has he the insight of Touchstone torecognize, or his modesty to acknowledge, that although his own, it isnone the less an ill-favoured thing. 

Not such, however, was the spirit of the editors; and all the changes ofimportance from the text of the Quarto I receive as Shakspere's own. With this belief there can be no presumption in saying that they seem tome not only to trim the parts immediately affected, but to render theplay more harmonious and consistent. It is no presumption to take thePoet for superior to his work and capable of thinking he could betterit--neither, so believing, to imagine one can see that he has beensuccessful. 

A main argument for the acceptance of the Folio edition as the Poet'slast presentment of his work, lies in the fact that there are passagesin it which are not in the Quarto, and are very plainly from his hand. If we accept these, what right have we to regard the omission from theFolio of passages in the Quarto as not proceeding from the same hand?Had there been omissions only, we might well have doubted; but theinsertions greatly tend to remove the doubt. I cannot even imagine thearguments which would prevail upon me to accept the latter and refusethe former. Omission itself shows for a master-hand: see the magnificentpassage omitted, and rightly, by Milton from the opening of his _Comus_. 

'But when a man has published two forms of a thing, may we not judgebetween him and himself, and take the reading we like better?'Assuredly. Take either the Quarto or the Folio; both are Shakspere's. Take any reading from either, and defend it. But do not mix up the two, retaining what he omits along with what he inserts, and print them so. This is what the editors do--and the thing is not Shakspere's. Withhomage like this, no artist could be other than indignant. It is well toshow every difference, even to one of spelling where it might indicatepossibly a different word, but there ought to be no mingling ofdifferences. If I prefer the reading of the Quarto to that of the Folio, as may sometimes well happen where blunders so abound, I say I_prefer_--I do not dare to substitute. My student shall owe nothing ofhis text to any but the editors of the Folio, John Heminge and HenrieCondell. 

I desire to take him with me. I intend a continuous, but ever-varying, while one-ended lesson. We shall follow the play step by step, avoidingalmost nothing that suggests difficulty, and noting everything thatseems to throw light on the character of a person of the drama. Thepointing I consider a matter to be dealt with as any one pleases--forthe sake of sense, of more sense, of better sense, as much as if thetext were a Greek manuscript without any division of words. Thisposition I need not argue with anyone who has given but a cursory glanceto the original page, or knows anything of printers' pointing. I holdhard by the word, for that is, or may be, grain: the pointing as we haveit is merest chaff, and more likely to be wrong than right. Here also, however, I change nothing in the text, only suggest in the notes. Nor doI remark on any of the pointing where all that is required is theattention of the student. 

Doubtless many will consider not a few of the notes unnecessary. Butwhat may be unnecessary to one, may be welcome to another, and it isimpossible to tell what a student may or may not know. At the same timethose form a large class who imagine they know a thing when they do notunderstand it enough to see there is a difficulty in it: to such, anattempt at explanation must of course seem foolish. 

A _number_ in the margin refers to a passage of the play or in thenotes, and is the number of the page where the passage is to be found. If the student finds, for instance, against a certain line upon page 8, the number 12, and turns to page 12, he will there find the number 8against a certain line: the two lines or passages are to be compared, and will be found in some way parallel, or mutually explanatory. 

Wherever I refer to the Quarto, I intend the 2nd Quarto--that isShakspere's own authorized edition, published in his life-time. Whereoccasionally I refer to the surreptitious edition, the mere inchoationof the drama, I call it, as it is, the _1st Quarto_. 

Any word or phrase or stage-direction in the 2nd Quarto differing fromthat in the Folio, is placed on the margin in a line with the other:choice between them I generally leave to my student. Omissions aremainly given as footnotes. Each edition does something to correct theerrors of the other. 

I beg my companion on this journey to let Hamlet reveal himself in theplay, to observe him as he assumes individuality by the concretion ofcharacteristics. I warn him that any popular notion concerning him whichhe may bring with him, will be only obstructive to a perception of thetrue idea of the grandest of all Shakspere's presentations. 

It will amuse this and that man to remark how often I speak of Hamlet asif he were a real man and not the invention of Shakspere--for indeed theHamlet of the old story is no more that of Shakspere than a lump of coalis a diamond; but I imagine, if he tried the thing himself, he wouldfind it hardly possible to avoid so speaking, and at the same time saywhat he had to say. 

I give hearty thanks to the press-reader, a gentleman whose name I donot know, not only for keen watchfulness over the printing-difficultiesof the book, but for saving me from several blunders in derivation. 

BORDIGHERA: _December_, 1884. 

[Transcriber's Note: In the paper original, each left-facing pagecontained the text of the play, with sidenotes and footnote references, and the corresponding right-facing page contained the footnotesthemselves and additional commentary. In this electronic text, theplay-text pages are numbered (contrary to custom in electronic texts), to allow use of the cross-references provided in the sidenotes andfootnotes. In the play text, sidenotes towards the left of the page arethose marginal cross-references described earlier, and sidenotes towardthe right of the page are the differences noted a few paragraphs later. ]

[Page 1]

THE TRAGEDIE

OF

HAMLET

PRINCE OF DENMARKE. 

[Page 2]

_ACTUS PRIMUS. _

_Enter Barnardo and Francisco two Centinels_[1]. 

_Barnardo. _ Who's there?

_Fran. _[2] Nay answer me: Stand and vnfold yourselfe. 

_Bar. _ Long liue the King. [3]

_Fran. _ _Barnardo?_

_Bar. _ He. 

_Fran. _ You come most carefully vpon your houre. 

_Bar. _ 'Tis now strook twelue, get thee to bed _Francisco_. 

_Fran. _ For this releefe much thankes: 'Tis[Sidenote: 42] bitter cold, And I am sicke at heart. [4]

_Barn. _ Haue you had quiet Guard?[5]

_Fran. _ Not a Mouse stirring. 

_Barn. _ Well, goodnight. If you do meet _Horatio_ and_Marcellus_, the Riuals[6] of my Watch, bid them make hast. 

_Enter Horatio and Marcellus. _

_Fran. _ I thinke I heare them. Stand: who's there? [Sidenote: Stand ho, who is there?]

_Hor. _ Friends to this ground. 

_Mar. _ And Leige-men to the Dane. 

_Fran. _ Giue you good night. 

_Mar. _ O farwel honest Soldier, who hath [Sidenote: souldiers]relieu'd you?

[Footnote 1: --meeting. Almost dark. ]

[Footnote 2: --on the post, and with the right of challenge. ]

[Footnote 3: The watchword. ]

[Footnote 4: The key-note to the play--as in _Macbeth_: 'Fair isfoul and foul is fair. ' The whole nation is troubled by late events atcourt. ]

[Footnote 5: --thinking of the apparition. ]

[Footnote 6: _Companions_. ]

[Page 4]

_Fra. _ _Barnardo_ ha's my place: giue you good-night. [Sidenote: hath]_Exit Fran. _

_Mar. _ Holla _Barnardo_. 

_Bar. _ Say, what is Horatio there?

_Hor. _ A peece of him. 

_Bar. _ Welcome _Horatio_, welcome good _Marcellus_. 

_Mar. _ What, ha's this thing appear'd againe to [Sidenote: _Hor_. [1]]night. 

_Bar. _ I haue seene nothing. 

_Mar. _ Horatio saies, 'tis but our Fantasie, And will not let beleefe take hold of himTouching this dreaded sight, twice seene of vs, Therefore I haue intreated him alongWith vs, to watch the minutes of this Night, That if againe this Apparition come, [Sidenote: 6] He may approue our eyes, and speake to it. [2]

_Hor. _ Tush, tush, 'twill not appeare. 

_Bar. _ Sit downe a-while, And let vs once againe assaile your eares, That are so fortified against our Story, What we two Nights haue seene. [Sidenote: have two nights seen]

_Hor. _ Well, sit we downe, And let vs heare _Barnardo_ speake of this. 

_Barn. _ Last night of all, When yond same Starre that's Westward from the PoleHad made his course t'illume that part of HeauenWhere now it burnes, _Marcellus_ and my selfe, The Bell then beating one. [3]

_Mar. _ Peace, breake thee of: _Enter the Ghost_. [Sidenote: Enter Ghost]Looke where it comes againe. 

_Barn. _ In the same figure, like the King that's dead. 

[Footnote 1: Better, I think; for the tone is scoffing, and Horatio isthe incredulous one who has not seen it. ]

[Footnote 2: --being a scholar, and able to address it as an apparitionought to be addressed--Marcellus thinking, perhaps, with others, that aghost required Latin. ]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q. _ 'towling one. ]

[Page 6]

[Sidenote: 4] _Mar. _ Thou art a Scholler; speake to it _Horatio. _

_Barn. _ Lookes it not like the King? Marke it _Horatio_. [Sidenote: Looks a not]_Hora. _ Most like: It harrowes me with fear and wonder. [Sidenote: horrowes[1]]

_Barn. _ It would be spoke too. [2]

_Mar. _ Question it _Horatio. _ [Sidenote: Speak to it _Horatio_]

_Hor. _ What art thou that vsurp'st this time of night, [3]Together with that Faire and Warlike forme[4]In which the Maiesty of buried DenmarkeDid sometimes[5] march: By Heauen I charge thee speake. 

_Mar. _ It is offended. [6]

_Barn. _ See, it stalkes away. 

_Hor. _ Stay: speake; speake: I Charge thee, speake. _Exit the Ghost. _ [Sidenote: _Exit Ghost. _]

_Mar. _ 'Tis gone, and will not answer. 

_Barn. _ How now _Horatio_? You tremble and look pale:Is not this something more then Fantasie?What thinke you on't?

_Hor. _ Before my God, I might not this beleeueWithout the sensible and true auouchOf mine owne eyes. 

_Mar. _ Is it not like the King?

_Hor. _ As thou art to thy selfe, Such was the very Armour he had on, When th' Ambitious Norwey combatted: [Sidenote: when he the ambitious]So frown'd he once, when in an angry parleHe smot the sledded Pollax on the Ice. [8] [Sidenote: sleaded[7]]'Tis strange. 

[Sidenote: 274] _Mar. _ Thus twice before, and iust at this dead houre, [Sidenote: and jump at this]

[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'horrors mee'. ]

[Footnote 2: A ghost could not speak, it was believed, until it wasspoken to. ]

[Footnote 3: It was intruding upon the realm of the embodied. ]

[Footnote 4: None of them took it as certainly the late king: it wasonly clear to them that it was like him. Hence they say, 'usurp'st theforme. ']

[Footnote 5: _formerly_. ]

[Footnote 6: --at the word _usurp'st_. ]

[Footnote 7: Also _1st Q_. ]

[Footnote 8: The usual interpretation is 'the sledged Poles'; but not tomention that in a parley such action would have been treacherous, thereis another far more picturesque, and more befitting the _angry parle_, at the same time more characteristic and forcible: the king in his angersmote his loaded pole-axe on the ice. There is some uncertainty aboutthe word _sledded_ or _sleaded_ (which latter suggests _lead_), but wehave the word _sledge_ and _sledge-hammer_, the smith's heaviest, andthe phrase, 'a sledging blow. ' The quarrel on the occasion referred torather seems with the Norwegians (See Schmidt's _Shakespeare-Lexicon:Sledded_. ) than with the Poles; and there would be no doubt as to thelatter interpretation being the right one, were it not that _thePolacke_, for the Pole, or nation of the Poles, does occur in the play. That is, however, no reason why the Dane should not have carried apole-axe, or caught one from the hand of an attendant. In both ourauthorities, and in the _1st Q_. Also, the word is _pollax_--as inChaucer's _Knights Tale_: 'No maner schot, ne pollax, ne schortknyf, '--in the _Folio_ alone with a capital; whereas not once in theplay is the similar word that stands for the Poles used in the plural. In the _2nd Quarto_ there is _Pollacke_ three times, _Pollack_ once, _Pole_ once; in the _1st Quarto_, _Polacke_ twice; in the _Folio_, _Poleak_ twice, _Polake_ once. The Poet seems to have avoided the pluralform. ]

[Page 8]

With Martiall stalke, [1] hath he gone by our Watch. 

_Hor_. In what particular thought to work, I know not:But in the grosse and scope of my Opinion, [Sidenote: mine]This boades some strange erruption to our State. 

_Mar_. Good now sit downe, and tell me he that knowes[Sidenote: 16] Why this same strict and most obseruant Watch, [2]So nightly toyles the subiect of the Land, And why such dayly Cast of Brazon Cannon [Sidenote: And with such dayly cost]And Forraigne Mart for Implements of warre:Why such impresse of Ship-wrights, whose sore TaskeDo's not diuide the Sunday from the weeke, What might be toward, that this sweaty hast[3]Doth make the Night ioynt-Labourer with the day:Who is't that can informe me?

_Hor. _ That can I, At least the whisper goes so: Our last King, Whose Image euen but now appear'd to vs, Was (as you know) by _Fortinbras_ of Norway, (Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate Pride)[4]Dar'd to the Combate. In which, our Valiant _Hamlet_, (For so this side of our knowne world esteem'd him)[5][Sidenote: 6] Did slay this _Fortinbras_: who by a Seal'd Compact, Well ratified by Law, and Heraldrie, [Sidenote: heraldy]Did forfeite (with his life) all those his Lands [Sidenote: these]Which he stood seiz'd on, [6] to the Conqueror: [Sidenote: seaz'd of, ]Against the which, a Moity[7] competentWas gaged by our King: which had return'd [Sidenote: had returne]To the Inheritance of _Fortinbras_, [Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'Marshall stalke'. ]

[Footnote 2: Here is set up a frame of external relations, to inclosewith fitting contrast, harmony, and suggestion, the coming show ofthings. 273]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'sweaty march'. ]

[Footnote 4: Pride that leads to emulate: the ambition to excel--notoneself, but another. ]

[Footnote 5: The whole western hemisphere. ]

[Footnote 6: _stood possessed of_. ]

[Footnote 7: Used by Shakspere for _a part_. ]

[Page 10]

Had he bin Vanquisher, as by the same Cou'nant [Sidenote: the same comart]And carriage of the Article designe, [1] [Sidenote: desseigne, ]His fell to _Hamlet_. Now sir, young _Fortinbras_, Of vnimproued[2] Mettle, hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway, heere and there, Shark'd[3] vp a List of Landlesse Resolutes, [Sidenote: of lawlesse]For Foode and Diet, to some EnterprizeThat hath a stomacke in't[4]: which is no other(And it doth well appeare vnto our State) [Sidenote: As it]But to recouer of vs by strong handAnd termes Compulsatiue, those foresaid Lands [Sidenote: compulsatory, ]So by his Father lost: and this (I take it)Is the maine Motiue of our Preparations, The Sourse of this our Watch, and the cheefe headOf this post-hast, and Romage[5] in the Land. 

 [A]_Enter Ghost againe_. 

But soft, behold: Loe, where it comes againe:

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

_Bar. _ I thinke it be no other, but enso;Well may it sort[6] that this portentous figureComes armed through our watch so like the KingThat was and is the question of these warres. 

_Hora. _ A moth it is to trouble the mindes eye:In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest _Iulius_ fellThe graues stood tennatlesse, and the sheeted deadDid squeake and gibber in the Roman streets[7]As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of bloodDisasters in the sunne; and the moist starre, Vpon whose influence _Neptunes_ Empier standsWas sicke almost to doomesday with eclipse. And euen the like precurse of feare euentsAs harbindgers preceading still the fatesAnd prologue to the _Omen_ comming onHaue heauen and earth together demonstratedVnto our Climatures and countrymen. [8]

 _Enter Ghost_. ]

[Footnote 1: French désigné. ]

[Footnote 2: _not proved_ or _tried. Improvement_, as we use the word, is the result of proof or trial: _upon-proof-ment_. ]

[Footnote 3: Is _shark'd_ related to the German _scharren_? _Zusammenscharren--to scrape together. _ The Anglo-Saxon _searwian_ is _toprepare, entrap, take_. ]

[Footnote 4: Some enterprise of acquisition; one for the sake of gettingsomething. ]

[Footnote 5: In Scotch, _remish_--the noise of confused and variedmovements; a _row_; a _rampage_. --Associated with French _remuage_?]

[Footnote 6: _suit_: so used in Scotland still, I think. ]

[Footnote 7: _Julius Caesar_, act i. Sc. 3, and act ii. Sc. 2. ]

[Footnote 8: The only suggestion I dare make for the rectifying of theconfusion of this speech is, that, if the eleventh line were insertedbetween the fifth and sixth, there would be sense, and very nearlygrammar. 

 and the sheeted dead Did squeake and gibber in the Roman streets, As harbindgers preceading still the fates; As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of blood(Here understand _precede_) Disasters in the sunne;

The tenth will close with the twelfth line well enough. 

But no one, any more than myself, will be _satisfied_ with thesuggestion. The probability is, of course, that a line has dropped outbetween the fifth and sixth. Anything like this would restore theconnection:

_The labouring heavens themselves teemed dire portent_As starres &c. ]

[Page 12]

Ile crosse it, though it blast me. [1] Stay Illusion:[2] [Sidenote: _It[4] spreads his armes_. ]If thou hast any sound, or vse of Voyce, [3]Speake to me. If there be any good thing to be done, That may to thee do ease, and grace to me; speak to me. If thou art priuy to thy Countries Fate(Which happily foreknowing may auoyd) Oh speake. Or, if thou hast vp-hoorded in thy lifeExtorted Treasure in the wombe of Earth, (For which, they say, you Spirits oft walke in death) [Sidenote: your] [Sidenote: _The cocke crowes_]Speake of it. Stay, and speake. Stop it _Marcellus_. 

_Mar_. Shall I strike at it with my Partizan? [Sidenote: strike it with]

_Hor_. Do, if it will not stand. 

_Barn_. 'Tis heere. 

_Hor_. 'Tis heere. 

_Mar_. 'Tis gone. _Exit Ghost_[5]We do it wrong, being so Maiesticall[6]To offer it the shew of Violence, For it is as the Ayre, invulnerable, And our vaine blowes, malicious Mockery. 

_Barn_. It was about to speake, when the Cocke crew. 

_Hor_. And then it started, like a guilty thingVpon a fearfull Summons. I haue heard, The Cocke that is the Trumpet to the day, [Sidenote: to the morne, ]Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding Throate[7]Awake the God of Day: and at his warning, Whether in Sea, or Fire, in Earth, or Ayre, Th'extrauagant, [8] and erring[9] Spirit, hyesTo his Confine. And of the truth heerein, This present Obiect made probation. [10]

_Mar_. It faded on the crowing of the Cocke. [11]

[Footnote 1: There are various tales of the blasting power of evilghosts. ]

[Footnote 2: Plain doubt, and strong. ]

[Footnote 3: 'sound of voice, or use of voice': physical or mentalfaculty of speech. ]

[Footnote 4: I judge this _It_ a mistake for _H. _, standing for_Horatio_: he would stop it. ]

[Footnote 5: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 6: 'As we cannot hurt it, our blows are a mockery; and it iswrong to mock anything so majestic': _For_ belongs to _shew_; 'We do itwrong, being so majestical, to offer it what is but a _show_ ofviolence, for it is, &c. ']

[Footnote 7: _1st Q. _ 'his earely and shrill crowing throate. ']

[Footnote 8: straying beyond bounds. ]

[Footnote 9: wandering. ]

[Footnote 10: 'gave proof. ']

[Footnote 11: This line said thoughtfully--as the text of theobservation following it. From the _eerie_ discomfort of their position, Marcellus takes refuge in the thought of the Saviour's birth into thehaunted world, bringing sweet law, restraint, and health. ]

[Page 14]

Some sayes, that euer 'gainst that Season comes [Sidenote: say]Wherein our Sauiours Birth is celebrated, The Bird of Dawning singeth all night long: [Sidenote: This bird]And then (they say) no Spirit can walke abroad, [Sidenote: spirit dare sturre]The nights are wholsome, then no Planets strike, No Faiery talkes, nor Witch hath power to Charme: [Sidenote: fairy takes, [1]]So hallow'd, and so gracious is the time. [Sidenote: is that time. ]

_Hor. _ So haue I heard, and do in part beleeue it. But looke, the Morne in Russet mantle clad, Walkes o're the dew of yon high Easterne Hill, [Sidenote: Eastward[2]]Breake we our Watch vp, and by my aduice [Sidenote: advise]Let vs impart what we haue scene to nightVnto yong _Hamlet_. For vpon my life, This Spirit dumbe to vs, will speake to him:Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needfull in our Loues, fitting our Duty?

[Sidenote: 30] _Mar. _ Let do't I pray, and I this morning knowWhere we shall finde him most conueniently. [Sidenote: convenient. ] _Exeunt. _

SCENA SECUNDA[3]

_Enter Claudius King of Denmarke. Gertrude theQueene, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, and his SisterOphelia, Lords Attendant. _[4] [Sidenote: _Florish. Enter Claudius, King of Denmarke, Gertrad the Queene, Counsaile: as Polonius, and his sonne Laertes, Hamelt Cum Abijs. _]

_King. _ Though yet of _Hamlet_ our deere Brothers death [Sidenote: _Claud. _]The memory be greene: and that it vs befittedTo beare our hearts in greefe, and our whole KingdomeTo be contracted in one brow of woe:Yet so farre hath Discretion fought with Nature, That we with wisest sorrow thinke on him, [Footnote 1: Does it mean--_carries off any child, leaving achangeling_? or does it mean--_affect with evil_, as a disease mightinfect or _take_?]

[Footnote 2: _1st Q_. 'hie mountaine top, ']

[Footnote 3: _In neither Q. _]

[Footnote 4: The first court after the marriage. ]

[Page 16]

Together with remembrance of our selues. Therefore our sometimes Sister, now our Queen, Th'Imperiall Ioyntresse of this warlike State, [Sidenote: to this]Haue we, as 'twere, with a defeated ioy, With one Auspicious, and one Dropping eye, [Sidenote: an auspitious and a]With mirth in Funerall, and with Dirge in Marriage, In equall Scale weighing Delight and Dole[1]Taken to Wife; nor haue we heerein barr'd[2]Your better Wisedomes, which haue freely goneWith this affaire along, for all our Thankes. [Sidenote: 8] Now followes, that you know young _Fortinbras_, [3]Holding a weake supposall of our worth;Or thinking by our late deere Brothers death, Our State to be disioynt, and out of Frame, Colleagued with the dreame of his Aduantage;[4] [Sidenote: this dreame]He hath not fayl'd to pester vs with Message, Importing the surrender of those LandsLost by his Father: with all Bonds of Law [Sidenote: bands]To our most valiant Brother. So much for him. 

_Enter Voltemand and Cornelius. _[5]

Now for our selfe, and for this time of meetingThus much the businesse is. We haue heere writTo Norway, Vncle of young _Fortinbras_, Who Impotent and Bedrid, scarsely hearesOf this his Nephewes purpose, to suppresseHis further gate[6] heerein. In that the Leuies, The Lists, and full proportions are all madeOut of his subiect: and we heere dispatchYou good _Cornelius_, and you _Voltemand_, For bearing of this greeting to old Norway, [Sidenote: bearers]Giuing to you no further personall powerTo businesse with the King, more then the scopeOf these dilated Articles allow:[7] [Sidenote: delated[8]]Farewell and let your hast commend your duty. [9]

[Footnote 1: weighing out an equal quantity of each. ]

[Footnote 2: Like _crossed_. ]

[Footnote 3: 'Now follows--that (_which_) you know--youngFortinbras:--']

[Footnote 4: _Colleagued_ agrees with _supposall_. The preceding twolines may be regarded as somewhat parenthetical. _Dream ofadvantage_--hope of gain. ]

[Footnote 5: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 6: _going; advance. _ Note in Norway also, as well as inDenmark, the succession of the brother. ]

[Footnote 7: (_giving them papers_). ]

[Footnote 8: Which of these is right, I cannot tell. _Dilated_ means_expanded_, and would refer to _the scope; _delated_ means_committed_--to them, to limit them. ]

[Footnote 9: idea of duty. ]

[Page 18]

_Volt. _ In that, and all things, will we shew our duty. 

_King. _ We doubt it nothing, heartily farewell. 

[Sidenote: 74] [1]_Exit Voltemand and Cornelius. _

And now _Laertes_, what's the newes with you?You told vs of some suite. What is't _Laertes_?You cannot speake of Reason to the Dane, And loose your voyce. What would'st thou beg _Laertes_, That shall not be my Offer, not thy Asking?[2]The Head is not more Natiue to the Heart, The Hand more Instrumentall to the Mouth, Then is the Throne of Denmarke to thy Father. [3]What would'st thou haue _Laertes_?

_Laer. _ Dread my Lord, [Sidenote: My dread]Your leaue and fauour to returne to France, From whence, though willingly I came to DenmarkeTo shew my duty in your Coronation, Yet now I must confesse, that duty done, [Sidenote: 22] My thoughts and wishes bend againe towards towardFrance, [4]And bow them to your gracious leaue and pardon. 

_King. _ Haue you your Fathers leaue?What sayes _Pollonius_?

[A] _Pol. _ He hath my Lord:I do beseech you giue him leaue to go. 

_King. _ Take thy faire houre _Laertes_, time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will:But now my Cosin _Hamlet_, and my Sonne?

[Footnote A: _In the Quarto_:--

_Polo. _ Hath[5] my Lord wroung from me my slowe leaueBy laboursome petition, and at lastVpon his will I seald my hard consent, [6]I doe beseech you giue him leaue to goe. ]

[Footnote 1: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 2: 'Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yetspeaking, I will hear. '--_Isaiah_, lxv. 24. ]

[Footnote 3: The villain king courts his courtiers. ]

[Footnote 4: He had been educated there. Compare 23. But it would seemrather to the court than the university he desired to return. See hisfather's instructions, 38. ]

[Footnote 5: _H'ath_--a contraction for _He hath_. ]

[Footnote 6: A play upon the act of sealing a will with wax. ]

[Page 20]

_Ham. _ A little more then kin, and lesse then kinde. [1]

_King. _ How is it that the Clouds still hang on you?

_Ham. _ Not so my Lord, I am too much i'th'Sun. [2] [Sidenote: so much my . .. In the sonne. ]

_Queen. _ Good Hamlet cast thy nightly colour off, [4] [Sidenote: nighted[3]]And let thine eye looke like a Friend on Denmarke. Do not for euer with thy veyled[5] lids [Sidenote: vailed]Seeke for thy Noble Father in the dust;Thou know'st 'tis common, all that liues must dye, Passing through Nature, to Eternity. 

_Ham. _ I Madam, it is common. [6]

_Queen. _ If it be;Why seemes it so particular with thee. 

_Ham. _ Seemes Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seemes:[7]'Tis not alone my Inky Cloake (good Mother) [Sidenote: cloake coold mother [8]]Nor Customary suites of solemne Blacke, Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, No, nor the fruitfull Riuer in the Eye, Nor the deiected hauiour of the Visage, Together with all Formes, Moods, shewes of Griefe, [Sidenote: moodes, chapes of]That can denote me truly. These indeed Seeme, [9] [Sidenote: deuote]For they are actions that a man might[10] play:But I haue that Within, which passeth show; [Sidenote: passes]These, but the Trappings, and the Suites of woe. 

_King. _ 'Tis sweet and commendableIn your Nature _Hamlet_, To giue these mourning duties to your Father:[11]But you must know, your Father lost a Father, That Father lost, lost his, and the Suruiuer boundIn filiall Obligation, for some termeTo do obsequious[12] Sorrow. But to perseuerIn obstinate Condolement, is a course

[Footnote 1: An _aside_. Hamlet's first utterance is of dislike to hisuncle. He is more than _kin_ through his unwelcome marriage--less than_kind_ by the difference in their natures. To be _kind_ is to behave asone _kinned_ or related. But the word here is the noun, and means_nature_, or sort by birth. ]

[Footnote 2: A word-play may be here intended between _sun_ and _son_:_a little more than kin--too much i' th' Son_. So George Herbert:

 For when he sees my ways, I die; But I have got his _Son_, and he hath none;

and Dr. Donne:

 at my death thy Son Shall shine, as he shines now and heretofore. ]

[Footnote 3: 'Wintred garments'--_As You Like It_, iii. 2. ]

[Footnote 4: He is the only one who has not for the wedding put off hismourning. ]

[Footnote 5: _lowered_, or cast down: _Fr. Avaler_, to lower. ]

[Footnote 6: 'Plainly you treat it as a common matter--a thing of nosignificance!' _I_ is constantly used for _ay_, _yes_. ]

[Footnote 7: He pounces on the word _seems_. ]

[Footnote 8: Not unfrequently the type would appear to have been set upfrom dictation. ]

[Footnote 9: They are things of the outside, and must _seem_, for theyare capable of being imitated; they are the natural _shows_ of grief. But he has that in him which cannot _show_ or _seem_, because nothingcan represent it. These are 'the Trappings and the Suites of _woe_;'they fitly represent woe, but they cannot shadow forth that which iswithin him--a something different from woe, far beyond it and worse, passing all reach of embodiment and manifestation. What this somethingis, comes out the moment he is left by himself. ]

[Footnote 10: The emphasis is on _might_. ]

[Footnote 11: Both his uncle and his mother decline to understand him. They will have it he mourns the death of his father, though they must atleast suspect another cause for his grief. Note the intellectual masteryof the hypocrite--which accounts for his success. ]

[Footnote 12: belonging to _obsequies_. ]

[Page 22]

Of impious stubbornnesse. Tis vnmanly greefe, It shewes a will most incorrect to Heauen, A Heart vnfortified, a Minde impatient, [Sidenote: or minde]An Vnderstanding simple, and vnschool'd:For, what we know must be, and is as commonAs any the most vulgar thing to sence, Why should we in our peeuish OppositionTake it to heart? Fye, 'tis a fault to Heauen, A fault against the Dead, a fault to Nature, To Reason most absurd, whose common TheameIs death of Fathers, and who still hath cried, From the first Coarse, [1] till he that dyed to day, [Sidenote: course]This must be so. We pray you throw to earthThis vnpreuayling woe, and thinke of vsAs of a Father; For let the world take note, You are the most immediate to our Throne, [2]And with no lesse Nobility of Loue, Then that which deerest Father beares his Sonne, Do I impart towards you. For your intent [Sidenote: toward][Sidenote: 18] In going backe to Schoole in Wittenberg, [3]It is most retrograde to our desire: [Sidenote: retrogard]And we beseech you, bend you to remaineHeere in the cheere and comfort of our eye, Our cheefest Courtier Cosin, and our Sonne. 

_Qu. _ Let not thy Mother lose her Prayers _Hamlet_: [Sidenote: loose]I prythee stay with vs, go not to Wittenberg. [Sidenote: pray thee]

_Ham. _ I shall in all my bestObey you Madam. [4]

_King. _ Why 'tis a louing, and a faire Reply, Be as our selfe in Denmarke. Madam come, This gentle and vnforc'd accord of _Hamlet_[5]Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof, No iocond health that Denmarke drinkes to day, [Sidenote: 44] But the great Cannon to the Clowds shall tell, [Footnote 1: _Corpse_. ]

[Footnote 2: --seeking to propitiate him with the hope that hissuccession had been but postponed by his uncle's election. ]

[Footnote 3: Note that Hamlet was educated in Germany--at Wittenberg, the university where in 1508 Luther was appointed professor ofPhilosophy. Compare 19. There was love of study as well as disgust withhome in his desire to return to _Schoole_: this from what we know of himafterwards. ]

[Footnote 4: Emphasis on _obey_. A light on the character of Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 5: He takes it, or pretends to take it, for far more than itwas. He desires friendly relations with Hamlet. ]

[Page 24]

And the Kings Rouce, [1] the Heauens shall bruite againe, Respeaking earthly Thunder. Come away. _Exeunt_ [Sidenote: _Florish. Exeunt all but Hamlet. _]

_Manet Hamlet. _

[2]_Ham. _ Oh that this too too solid Flesh, would melt, [Sidenote: sallied flesh[3]]Thaw, and resolue it selfe into a Dew:[Sidenote: 125, 247, 260] Or that the Euerlasting had not fixt[Sidenote: 121 _bis_] His Cannon 'gainst Selfe-slaughter. O God, O God! [Sidenote: seale slaughter, o God, God, ]How weary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable [Sidenote: wary]Seemes to me all the vses of this world? [Sidenote: seeme]Fie on't? Oh fie, fie, 'tis an vnweeded Garden [Sidenote: ah fie, ]That growes to Seed: Things rank, and grosse in NaturePossesse it meerely. That it should come to this: [Sidenote: meerely that it should come thus]But two months dead[4]: Nay, not so much; not two, So excellent a King, that was to this_Hiperion_ to a Satyre: so louing to my Mother, That he might not beteene the windes of heauen [Sidenote: beteeme[5]]Visit her face too roughly. Heauen and EarthMust I remember: why she would hang on him, [Sidenote: should]As if encrease of Appetite had growneBy what it fed on; and yet within a month?Let me not thinke on't: Frailty, thy name is woman. [6]A little Month, or ere those shooes were old, With which she followed my poore Fathers bodyLike _Niobe_, all teares. Why she, euen she. [7](O Heauen! A beast that wants discourse[8] of Reason [Sidenote: O God]Would haue mourn'd longer) married with mine Vnkle, [Sidenote: my]

[Footnote 1: German _Rausch_, _drunkenness_. 44, 68]

[Footnote 2: A soliloquy is as the drawing called a section of a thing:it shows the inside of the man. Soliloquy is only rare, not unnatural, and in art serves to reveal more of nature. In the drama it is thelifting of a veil through which dialogue passes. The scene is for themoment shifted into the lonely spiritual world, and here we begin toknow Hamlet. Such is his wretchedness, both in mind and circumstance, that he could well wish to vanish from the world. The suggestion ofsuicide, however, he dismisses at once--with a momentary regret, it istrue--but he dismisses it--as against the will of God to whom he appealsin his misery. The cause of his misery is now made plain to us--histrouble that passes show, deprives life of its interest, and renders theworld a disgust to him. There is no lamentation over his father's death, so dwelt upon by the king; for loving grief does not crush. Far lesscould his uncle's sharp practice, in scheming for his own electionduring Hamlet's absence, have wrought in a philosopher like him such aneffect. The one makes him sorrowful, the other might well annoy him, butneither could render him unhappy: his misery lies at his mother's door;it is her conduct that has put out the light of her son's life. She whohad been to him the type of all excellence, she whom his father hadidolized, has within a month of his death married his uncle, and isliving in habitual incest--for as such, a marriage of the kind was thenunanimously regarded. To Hamlet's condition and behaviour, his mother, her past and her present, is the only and sufficing key. His very ideaof unity had been rent in twain. ]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'too much grieu'd and sallied flesh. ' _Sallied_, sullied: compare _sallets_, 67, 103. I have a strong suspicion that_sallied_ and not _solid_ is the true word. It comes nearer the depth ofHamlet's mood. ]

[Footnote 4: Two months at the present moment. ]

[Footnote 5: This is the word all the editors take: which is right, I donot know; I doubt if either is. The word in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i. Sc. 1--

 Belike for want of rain; which I could well Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes--

I cannot believe the same word. The latter means _produce for_, as fromthe place of origin. The word, in the sense necessary to this passage, is not, so far as I know, to be found anywhere else. I have nosuggestion to make. ]

[Footnote 6: From his mother he generalizes to _woman_. After havingbelieved in such a mother, it may well be hard for a man to believe inany woman. ]

[Footnote 7: _Q. _ omits 'euen she. ']

[Footnote 8: the going abroad among things. ]

[Page 26]

My Fathers Brother: but no more like my Father, Then I to _Hercules_. Within a Moneth?Ere yet the salt of most vnrighteous TearesHad left the flushing of her gauled eyes, [Sidenote: in her]She married. O most wicked speed, to post[1]With such dexterity to Incestuous sheets:It is not, nor it cannot come to good, But breake my heart, for I must hold my tongue. [2]

_Enter Horatio, Barnard, and Marcellus. _ [Sidenote: _Marcellus, and Bernardo. _]

_Hor. _ Haile to your Lordship. [3]

_Ham. _ I am glad to see you well:_Horatio_, or I do forget my selfe. 

_Hor. _ The same my Lord, And your poore Seruant euer. 

[Sidenote: 134] _Ham. _ [4]Sir my good friend, Ile change that name with you:[5]And what make you from Wittenberg _Horatio_?[6]_Marcellus. _[7]

_Mar. _ My good Lord. 

_Ham. _ I am very glad to see you: good euen Sir. [8]But what in faith make you from _Wittemberge_?

_Hor. _ A truant disposition, good my Lord. [9]

_Ham. _ I would not haue your Enemy say so;[10] [Sidenote: not heare]Nor shall you doe mine eare that violence, [11] [Sidenote: my eare][Sidenote: 134] To make it truster of your owne reportAgainst your selfe. I know you are no Truant:But what is your affaire in _Elsenour_?Wee'l teach you to drinke deepe, ere you depart. [12] [Sidenote: you for to drinke ere]

_Hor. _ My Lord, I came to see your Fathers Funerall. 

_Ham. _ I pray thee doe not mock me (fellow Student) [Sidenote: pre thee]I thinke it was to see my Mothers Wedding. [Sidenote: was to my]

[Footnote 1: I suggest the pointing:

 speed! To post . .. Sheets!]

[Footnote 2: Fit moment for the entrance of his father's messengers. ]

[Footnote 3: They do not seem to have been intimate before, though weknow from Hamlet's speech (134) that he had had the greatest respect forHoratio. The small degree of doubt in Hamlet's recognition of his friendis due to the darkness, and the unexpectedness of his appearance. ]

[Footnote 4: _1st Q. _ 'O my good friend, I change, &c. ' This would leaveit doubtful whether he wished to exchange servant or friend; but 'Sir, my _good friend_, ' correcting Horatio, makes his intent plain. ]

[Footnote 5: Emphasis on _that_: 'I will exchange the name of _friend_with you. ']

[Footnote 6: 'What are you doing from--out of, _awayfrom_--Wittenberg?']

[Footnote 7: In recognition: the word belongs to Hamlet's speech. ]

[Footnote 8: _Point thus_: 'you. --Good even, sir. '--_to Barnardo, whomhe does not know. _]

[Footnote 9: An ungrammatical reply. He does not wish to give the real, painful answer, and so replies confusedly, as if he had been asked, 'What makes you?' instead of, 'What do you make?']

[Footnote 10: '--I should know how to answer him. ']

[Footnote 11: Emphasis on _you_. ]

[Footnote 12: Said with contempt for his surroundings. ]

[Page 28]

_Hor. _ Indeed my Lord, it followed hard vpon. 

_Ham. _ Thrift, thrift _Horatio_: the Funerall Bakt-meatsDid coldly furnish forth the Marriage Tables;Would I had met my dearest foe in heauen, [1]Ere I had euer seerie that day _Horatio_. [2] [Sidenote: Or ever I had]My father, me thinkes I see my father. 

_Hor. _ Oh where my Lord? [Sidenote: Where my]

_Ham. _ In my minds eye (_Horatio_)[3]

_Hor. _ I saw him once; he was a goodly King. [Sidenote: once, a was]

_Ham. _ He was a man, take him for all in all: [Sidenote: A was a man]I shall not look vpon his like againe. 

_Hor. _ My Lord, I thinke I saw him yesternight. 

_Ham. _ Saw? Who?[4]

_Hor. _ My Lord, the King your Father. 

_Ham. _ The King my Father?[5]

_Hor. _ Season[6] your admiration for a whileWith an attent eare;[7] till I may deliuerVpon the witnesse of these Gentlemen, This maruell to you. 

_Ham. _ For Heauens loue let me heare. [Sidenote: God's love]

_Hor. _ Two nights together, had these Gentlemen(_Marcellus_ and _Barnardo_) on their WatchIn the dead wast and middle of the night[8]Beene thus encountred. A figure like your Father, [9]Arm'd at all points exactly, _Cap a Pe_, [10] [Sidenote: Armed at poynt]Appeares before them, and with sollemne marchGoes slow and stately: By them thrice he walkt, [Sidenote: stately by them; thrice]By their opprest and feare-surprized eyes, Within his Truncheons length; whilst they bestil'd [Sidenote: they distill'd[11]]Almost to Ielly with the Act of feare, [12]Stand dumbe and speake not to him. This to meIn dreadfull[13] secrecie impart they did, And I with them the third Night kept the Watch, Whereas[14] they had deliuer'd both in time, [Footnote 1: _Dear_ is not unfrequently used as an intensive; but 'mydearest foe' is not 'the man who hates me most, ' but 'the man whom mostI regard as my foe. ']

[Footnote 2: Note Hamlet's trouble: the marriage, not the death, nor thesupplantation. ]

[Footnote 3: --with a little surprise at Horatio's question. ]

[Footnote 4: Said as if he must have misheard. Astonishment comes onlywith the next speech. ]

[Footnote 5: _1st Q_. 'Ha, ha, the King my father ke you. ']

[Footnote 6: Qualify. ]

[Footnote 7: _1st Q_. 'an attentiue eare, '. ]

[Footnote 8: Possibly, _dead vast_, as in _1st Q_. ; but _waste_ as good, leaving also room to suppose a play in the word. ]

[Footnote 9: Note the careful uncertainty. ]

[Footnote 10: _1st Q. 'Capapea_. ']

[Footnote 11: Either word would do: the _distilling_ off of the animalspirits would leave the man a jelly; the cold of fear would _bestil_them and him to a jelly. _1st Q. Distilled_. But I judge _bestil'd_ thebetter, as the truer to the operation of fear. Compare _The Winter'sTale_, act v. Sc. 3:--

 There's magic in thy majesty, which has

 From thy admiring daughter took the spirits, Standing like stone with thee. ]

[Footnote 12: Act: present influence. ]

[Footnote 13: a secrecy more than solemn. ]

[Footnote 14: 'Where, as'. ]

[Page 30]

Forme of the thing; each word made true and good, The Apparition comes. I knew your Father:These hands are not more like. 

_Ham_. But where was this?

_Mar_. My Lord, vpon the platforme where we watcht. [Sidenote: watch]

_Ham_. Did you not speake to it?

_Her_. My Lord, I did;But answere made it none: yet once me thoughtIt lifted vp it head, and did addresseIt selfe to motion, like as it would speake:But euen then, the Morning Cocke crew lowd;And at the sound it shrunke in hast away, And vanisht from our sight. 

_Ham_. Tis very strange. 

_Hor_. As I doe liue my honourd Lord 'tis true;[Sidenote: 14] And we did thinke it writ downe in our dutyTo let you know of it. 

[Sidenote: 32, 52] _Ham_. Indeed, indeed Sirs; but this troubles me. [Sidenote: Indeede Sirs but]Hold you the watch to Night?

_Both_. We doe my Lord. [Sidenote: _All_. ]

_Ham_. Arm'd, say you?

_Both_. Arm'd, my Lord. [Sidenote: _All_. ]

_Ham_. From top to toe?

_Both_. My Lord, from head to foote. [Sidenote: _All_. ]

_Ham_. Then saw you not his face?

_Hor_. O yes, my Lord, he wore his Beauer vp. 

_Ham_. What, lookt he frowningly?

[Sidenote: 54, 174] _Hor_. A countenance more in sorrow then in anger. [1]

[Sidenote: 120] _Ham_. Pale, or red?

_Hor_. Nay very pale. 

[Footnote 1: The mood of the Ghost thus represented, remains the sametowards his wife throughout the play. ]

[Page 32]

_Ham. _ And fixt his eyes vpon you?

_Hor. _ Most constantly. 

_Ham. _ I would I had beene there. 

_Hor. _ It would haue much amaz'd you. 

_Ham. _ Very like, very like: staid it long? [Sidenote: Very like, stayd]

_Hor. _ While one with moderate hast might tell a hundred. [Sidenote: hundreth]

_All. _ Longer, longer. [Sidenote: _Both. _]

_Hor. _ Not when I saw't. 

_Ham. _ His Beard was grisly?[1] no. [Sidenote: grissl'd]

_Hor. _ It was, as I haue seene it in his life, [Sidenote: 138] A Sable[2] Siluer'd. 

_Ham. _ Ile watch to Night; perchance 'twill wake againe. [Sidenote: walke againe. ]

_Hor. _ I warrant you it will. [Sidenote: warn't it]

[Sidenote: 44] _Ham. _ If it assume my noble Fathers person, [3]Ile speake to it, though Hell it selfe should gapeAnd bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you haue hitherto conceald this sight;Let it bee treble[5] in your silence still: [Sidenote: be tenable in[4]]And whatsoeuer els shall hap to night, [Sidenote: what someuer els]Giue it an vnderstanding but no tongue;I will requite your loues; so, fare ye well: [Sidenote: farre you]Vpon the Platforme twixt eleuen and twelue, [Sidenote: a leauen and twelfe]Ile visit you. 

_All. _ Our duty to your Honour. _Exeunt. _

_Ham. _ Your loue, as mine to you: farewell. [Sidenote: loves, ]My Fathers Spirit in Armes?[6] All is not well:[Sidenote: 30, 52] I doubt some foule play: would the Night were come;Till then sit still my soule; foule deeds will rise, [Sidenote: fonde deedes]Though all the earth orewhelm them to mens eies. _Exit. _

[Footnote 1: _grisly_--gray; _grissl'd_--turned gray;--mixed withwhite. ]

[Footnote 2: The colour of sable-fur, I think. ]

[Footnote 3: Hamlet does not _accept_ the Appearance as his father; hethinks it may be he, but seems to take a usurpation of his form for verypossible. ]

[Footnote 4: _1st Q_. 'tenible']

[Footnote 5: If _treble_ be the right word, the actor in uttering itmust point to each of the three, with distinct yet rapid motion. Thephrase would be a strange one, but not unlike Shakspere. Compare_Cymbeline_, act v. Sc. 5: 'And your three motives to the battle, 'meaning 'the motives of you three. ' Perhaps, however, it is only theadjective for the adverb: '_having concealed it hitherto, conceal ittrebly now_. ' But _tenible_ may be the word: 'let it be a thing to bekept in your silence still. ']

[Footnote 6: Alone, he does not dispute _the idea_ of its being hisfather. ]

[Page 34]

_SCENA TERTIA_[1]

_Enter Laertes and Ophelia_. [Sidenote: _Ophelia his Sister. _]

_Laer_. My necessaries are imbark't; Farewell: [Sidenote: inbarckt, ]And Sister, as the Winds giue Benefit, And Conuoy is assistant: doe not sleepe, [Sidenote: conuay, in assistant doe]But let me heare from you. 

_Ophel_. Doe you doubt that?

_Laer_. For _Hamlet_, and the trifling of his fauours, [Sidenote: favour, ]Hold it a fashion and a toy in Bloud;A Violet in the youth of Primy Nature;Froward, [2] not permanent; sweet not lastingThe suppliance of a minute? No more. [3] [Sidenote: The perfume and suppliance]

_Ophel_. No more but so. [4]

_Laer_. Thinke it no more. For nature cressant does not grow alone, [Sidenote: 172] In thewes[5] and Bulke: but as his Temple waxes, [6] [Sidenote: bulkes, but as this]The inward seruice of the Minde and SouleGrowes wide withall. Perhaps he loues you now, [7]And now no soyle nor cautell[8] doth besmerchThe vertue of his feare: but you must feare [Sidenote: of his will, but]His greatnesse weigh'd, his will is not his owne;[9] [Sidenote: wayd]For hee himselfe is subiect to his Birth:[10]Hee may not, as vnuallued persons doe, Carue for himselfe; for, on his choyce dependsThe sanctity and health of the weole State. [Sidenote: The safty and | this whole]And therefore must his choyce be circumscrib'd[11]Vnto the voyce and yeelding[12] of that Body, Whereof he is the Head. Then if he sayes he loues you, It fits your wisedome so farre to beleeue it;As he in his peculiar Sect and force[13] [Sidenote: his particuler act and place]May giue his saying deed: which is no further, [Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 2: Same as _forward_. ]

[Footnote 3: 'No more' makes a new line in the _Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 4: I think this speech should end with a point ofinterrogation. ]

[Footnote 5: muscles. ]

[Footnote 6: The body is the temple, in which the mind and soul are theworshippers: their service grows with the temple--wide, changing andincreasing its objects. The degraded use of the grand image is after thecharacter of him who makes it. ]

[Footnote 7: The studied contrast between Laertes and Hamlet beginsalready to appear: the dishonest man, honestly judging after his owndishonesty, warns his sister against the honest man. ]

[Footnote 8: deceit. ]

[Footnote 9: 'You have cause to fear when you consider his greatness:his will &c. ' 'You must fear, his greatness being weighed; for becauseof that greatness, his will is not his own. ']

[Footnote 10: _This line not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 11: limited. ]

[Footnote 12: allowance. ]

[Footnote 13: This change from the _Quarto_ seems to me to bear the markof Shakspere's hand. The meaning is the same, but the words are moreindividual and choice: the _sect_, the _head_ in relation to the body, is more pregnant than _place_; and _force_, that is _power_, is a fullerword than _act_, or even _action_, for which it plainly appears tostand. ]

[Page 36]

Then the maine voyce of _Denmarke_ goes withall. Then weigh what losse your Honour may sustaine, If with too credent eare you list his Songs;Or lose your Heart; or your chast Treasure open [Sidenote: Or loose]To his vnmastred[1] importunity. Feare it _Ophelia_, feare it my deare Sister, And keepe within the reare of your Affection;[2] [Sidenote: keepe you in the]Out of the shot and danger of Desire. The chariest Maid is Prodigall enough, [Sidenote: The]If she vnmaske her beauty to the Moone:[3]Vertue it selfe scapes not calumnious stroakes, [Sidenote: Vertue]The Canker Galls, the Infants of the Spring [Sidenote: The canker gaules the]Too oft before the buttons[6] be disclos'd, [Sidenote: their buttons]And in the Morne and liquid dew of Youth, Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then, best safety lies in feare;Youth to it selfe rebels, though none else neere. [6]

_Ophe_. I shall th'effect of this good Lesson keepe, As watchmen to my heart: but good my Brother [Sidenote: watchman]Doe not as some vngracious Pastors doe, Shew me the steepe and thorny way to Heauen;Whilst like a puft and recklesse LibertineHimselfe, the Primrose path of dalliance treads, And reaks not his owne reade. [7][8][9]

_Laer_. Oh, feare me not. [10]

_Enter Polonius_. 

I stay too long; but here my Father comes:A double blessing is a double grace;Occasion smiles vpon a second leaue. [11]

_Polon_. Yet heere _Laertes_? Aboord, aboord for shame, The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile, And you are staid for there: my blessing with you; [Sidenote: for, there my | with thee]

[Footnote 1: Without a master; lawless. ]

[Footnote 2: Do not go so far as inclination would lead you. Keep behindyour liking. Do not go to the front with your impulse. ]

[Footnote 3: --_but_ to the moon--which can show it so little. ]

[Footnote 4: Opened but not closed quotations in the _Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 5: The French _bouton_ is also both _button_ and _bud_. ]

[Footnote 6: 'Inclination is enough to have to deal with, let aloneadded temptation. ' Like his father, Laertes is wise for another--a manof maxims, not behaviour. His morality is in his intellect and forself-ends, not in his will, and for the sake of truth andrighteousness. ]

[Footnote 7: _1st Q_. 

 But my deere brother, do not you Like to a cunning Sophister, Teach me the path and ready way to heauen, While you forgetting what is said to me, Your selfe, like to a carelesse libertine Doth giue his heart, his appetite at ful, And little recks how that his honour dies. 

 'The primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. ' --_Macbeth_, ii. 3:

 'The flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire. ' _All's Well_, iv. 5. ]

[Footnote 8: 'heeds not his own counsel. ']

[Footnote 9: Here in Quarto, _Enter Polonius. _]

[Footnote 10: With the fitting arrogance and impertinence of a libertinebrother, he has read his sister a lecture on propriety of behaviour; butwhen she gently suggests that what is good for her is good for himtoo, --'Oh, fear me not!--I stay too long. ']

[Footnote 11: 'A second leave-taking is a happy chance': the chance, oroccasion, because it is happy, smiles. It does not mean that occasionsmiles upon a second leave, but that, upon a second leave, occasionsmiles. There should be a comma after _smiles_. ]

[Footnote 12: As many of Polonius' aphorismic utterances as are given inthe 1st Quarto have there inverted commas; but whether intended asgleanings from books or as fruits of experience, the light they throw onthe character of him who speaks them is the same: they show italtogether selfish. He is a man of the world, wise in his generation, his principles the best of their bad sort. Of these his son is a fitrecipient and retailer, passing on to his sister their father's granddoctrine of self-protection. But, wise in maxim, Polonius is foolish inpractice--not from senility, but from vanity. ]

[Page 38]

And these few Precepts in thy memory, [1]See thou Character. [2] Giue thy thoughts no tongue, [Sidenote: Looke thou]Nor any vnproportion'd[3] thought his Act:Be thou familiar; but by no meanes vulgar:[4]The friends thou hast, and their adoption tride, [5] [Sidenote: Those friends]Grapple them to thy Soule, with hoopes of Steele: [Sidenote: unto]But doe not dull thy palme, with entertainmentOf each vnhatch't, vnfledg'd Comrade. [6] Beware [Sidenote: each new hatcht unfledgd courage, ]Of entrance to a quarrell: but being inBear't that th'opposed may beware of thee. Giue euery man thine eare; but few thy voyce: [Sidenote: thy eare, ]Take each mans censure[7]; but reserue thy Judgement;Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy;But not exprest in fancie; rich, not gawdie:For the Apparell oft proclaimes the man. And they in France of the best ranck and station, Are of a most select and generous[8] cheff in that. [10] [Sidenote: Or of a generous, chiefe[9]]Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; [Sidenote: lender boy, ]For lone oft loses both it selfe and friend: [Sidenote: loue]And borrowing duls the edge of Husbandry. [11] [Sidenote: dulleth edge]This aboue all; to thine owne selfe be true:And it must follow, as the Night the Day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. [12]Farewell: my Blessing season[13] this in thee. 

_Laer_. Most humbly doe I take my leaue, my Lord. 

_Polon_. The time inuites you, goe, your seruants tend. [Sidenote: time inuests]

_Laer. _ Farewell _Ophelia_, and remember wellWhat I haue said to you. [14]

_Ophe_. Tis in my memory lockt, And you your selfe shall keepe the key of it, _Laer_. Farewell. _Exit Laer_. 

_Polon_. What ist _Ophelia_ he hath said to you?

[Footnote 1: He hurries him to go, yet immediately begins to prose. ]

[Footnote 2: Engrave. ]

[Footnote 3: Not settled into its true shape (?) or, out of proportionwith its occasions (?)--I cannot say which. ]

[Footnote 4: 'Cultivate close relations, but do not lie open to commonaccess. ' 'Have choice intimacies, but do not be _hail, fellow! well met_with everybody. ' What follows is an expansion of the lesson. ]

[Footnote 5: 'The friends thou hast--and the choice of them justified bytrial--'_equal to_: 'provided their choice be justified &c. ']

[Footnote 6: 'Do not make the palm hard, and dull its touch ofdiscrimination, by shaking hands in welcome with every one that turnsup. ']

[Footnote 7: judgment, opinion. ]

[Footnote 8: _Generosus_, of good breed, a gentleman. ]

[Footnote 9: _1st Q_. 'generall chiefe. ']

[Footnote 10: No doubt the omission of _of a_ gives the right number ofsyllables to the verse, and makes room for the interpretation which adash between _generous_ and _chief_ renders clearer: 'Are most selectand generous--chief in that, '--'are most choice and well-bred--chief, indeed--at the head or top, in the matter of dress. ' But without_necessity_ or _authority_--one of the two, I would not throw away aword; and suggest therefore that Shakspere had here the French idiom _deson chef_ in his mind, and qualifies the noun in it with adjectives ofhis own. The Academy Dictionary gives _de son propre mouvement_ as oneinterpretation of the phrase. The meaning would be, 'they are of a mostchoice and developed instinct in dress. ' _Cheff_ or _chief_ suggests theupper third of the heraldic shield, but I cannot persuade the suggestionto further development. The hypercatalectic syllables _of a_, swiftlyspoken, matter little to the verse, especially as it is _dramatic_. ]

[Footnote 11: Those that borrow, having to pay, lose heart for saving. 

 'There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out. '--_Macbeth_, ii. 1. ]

[Footnote 12: Certainly a man cannot be true to himself without beingtrue to others; neither can he be true to others without being true tohimself; but if a man make himself the centre for the birth of action, it will follow, '_as the night the day_, ' that he will be true neitherto himself nor to any other man. In this regard note the history ofLaertes, developed in the play. ]

[Footnote 13: --as salt, to make the counsel keep. ]

[Footnote 14: See _note 9, page 37_. ]

[Page 40]

_Ophe. _ So please you, somthing touching the L. _Hamlet. _

_Polon. _ Marry, well bethought:Tis told me he hath very oft of lateGiuen priuate time to you; and you your selfeHaue of your audience beene most free and bounteous. [1]If it be so, as so tis put on me;[2]And that in way of caution: I must tell you, You doe not vnderstand your selfe so cleerely, As it behoues my Daughter, and your HonourWhat is betweene you, giue me vp the truth?

_Ophe. _ He hath my Lord of late, made many tendersOf his affection to me. 

_Polon. _ Affection, puh. You speake like a greene Girle, Vnsifted in such perillous Circumstance. Doe you beleeue his tenders, as you call them?

_Ophe. _ I do not know, my Lord, what I should thinke. 

_Polon. _ Marry Ile teach you; thinke your self a Baby, [Sidenote: I will]That you haue tane his tenders for true pay, [Sidenote: tane these]Which are not starling. Tender your selfe more dearly; [Sidenote: sterling]Or not to crack the winde of the poore Phrase, [Sidenote: (not . .. &c. ]Roaming it[3] thus, you'l tender me a foole. [4] [Sidenote: Wrong it thus]

_Ophe. _ My Lord, he hath importun'd me with loue, In honourable fashion. 

_Polon. _ I, fashion you may call it, go too, go too. 

_Ophe. _ And hath giuen countenance to his speech, My Lord, with all the vowes of Heauen. [Sidenote: with almost all the holy vowes of]

[Footnote 1: There had then been a good deal of intercourse betweenHamlet and Ophelia: she had heartily encouraged him. ]

[Footnote 2: 'as so I am informed, and that by way of caution, ']

[Footnote 3: --making it, 'the poor phrase' _tenders_, gallop wildlyabout--as one might _roam_ a horse; _larking it_. ]

[Footnote 4: 'you will in your own person present me a fool. ']

[Page 42]

_Polon_. I, Springes to catch Woodcocks. [1] I doe know [Sidenote: springs]When the Bloud burnes, how Prodigall the Soule[2]Giues the tongue vowes: these blazes, Daughter, [Sidenote: Lends the]Giuing more light then heate; extinct in both, [3]Euen in their promise, as it is a making;You must not take for fire. For this time Daughter, [4] [Sidenote: fire, from this]Be somewhat scanter of your Maiden presence; [Sidenote: something]Set your entreatments[5] at a higher rate, Then a command to parley. For Lord _Hamlet_, [Sidenote: parle;]Beleeue so much in him, that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walke, [Sidenote: tider]Then may be giuen you. In few, [6] _Ophelia_, Doe not beleeue his vowes; for they are Broakers, Not of the eye, [7] which their Inuestments show: [Sidenote: of that die]But meere implorators of vnholy Sutes, [Sidenote: imploratators]Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, The better to beguile. This is for all:[8] [Sidenote: beguide]I would not, in plaine tearmes, from this time forth, Haue you so slander any moment leisure, [9][Sidenote: 70, 82] As to giue words or talke with the Lord _Hamlet_:[10]Looke too't, I charge you; come your wayes. 

_Ophe_. I shall obey my Lord. [11] _Exeunt_. 

_Enter Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus. _ [Sidenote: _and Marcellus_]

[Sidenote: 2] _Ham_. [12]The Ayre bites shrewdly: is it very cold?[13]

_Hor_. It is a nipping and an eager ayre. 

_Ham_. What hower now?

_Hor_. I thinke it lacks of twelue. 

_Mar_. No, it is strooke. 

_Hor_. Indeed I heard it not: then it drawes neere the season, [Sidenote: it then]Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walke. What does this meane my Lord? [14] [Sidenote: _A flourish of trumpets and 2 peeces goes of. _[14]]

[Footnote 1: Woodcocks were understood to have no brains. ]

[Footnote 2: _1st Q_. 'How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes. 'I was inclined to take _Prodigall_ for a noun, a proper name or epithetgiven to the soul, as in a moral play: _Prodigall, the soul_; but Iconclude it only an adjective used as an adverb, and the capital P ablunder. ]

[Footnote 3: --in both light and heat. ]

[Footnote 4: The _Quarto_ has not 'Daughter. ']

[Footnote 5: _To be entreated_ is _to yield_: 'he would nowise beentreated:' _entreatments, yieldings_: 'you are not to see him justbecause he chooses to command a parley. ']

[Footnote 6: 'In few words'; in brief. ]

[Footnote 7: I suspect a misprint in the Folio here--that an _e_ has gotin for a _d_, and that the change from the _Quarto_ should be _Not ofthe dye_. Then the line would mean, using the antecedent word _brokers_in the bad sense, 'Not themselves of the same colour as their garments(_investments_); his vows are clothed in innocence, but are notinnocent; they are mere panders. ' The passage is rendered yet moreobscure to the modern sense by the accidental propinquity of _bonds, brokers_, and _investments_--which have nothing to do with _stocks_. ]

[Footnote 8: 'This means in sum:'. ]

[Footnote 9: 'so slander any moment with the name of leisure as to': tocall it leisure, if leisure stood for talk with Hamlet, would be toslander the time. We might say, 'so slander any man friend as to expecthim to do this or that unworthy thing for you. ']

[Footnote 10: _1st Q_. 

 _Ofelia_, receiue none of his letters, For louers lines are snares to intrap the heart; [Sidenote: 82] Refuse his tokens, both of them are keyes To vnlocke Chastitie vnto Desire; Come in _Ofelia_; such men often proue, Great in their wordes, but little in their loue. 

'_men often prove such_--great &c. '--Compare _Twelfth Night_, act ii. Sc. 4, lines 120, 121, _Globe ed. ]

[Footnote 11: Fresh trouble for Hamlet_. ]

[Footnote 12: _1st Q. _

 The ayre bites shrewd; it is an eager and An nipping winde, what houre i'st?]

[Footnote 13: Again the cold. ]

[Footnote 14: The stage-direction of the _Q_. Is necessary here. ]

[Page 44]

[Sidenote: 22, 25] _Ham_. The King doth wake to night, and takes hisrouse, Keepes wassels and the swaggering vpspring reeles, [1] [Sidenote: wassell | up-spring]And as he dreines his draughts of Renish downe, The kettle Drum and Trumpet thus bray outThe triumph of his Pledge. 

_Horat_. Is it a custome?

_Ham_. I marry ist;And to my mind, though I am natiue heere, [Sidenote: But to]And to the manner borne: It is a CustomeMore honour'd in the breach, then the obseruance. [A]

_Enter Ghost. _

_Hor_. Looke my Lord, it comes. 

[Sidenote: 172] _Ham_. Angels and Ministers of Grace defend vs:[Sidenote: 32] Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damn'd, Bring with thee ayres from Heauen, or blasts from Hell, [2]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_

This heauy headed reueale east and west[3]Makes vs tradust, and taxed of other nations, They clip[4] vs drunkards, and with Swinish phraseSoyle our addition, [5] and indeede it takesFrom our atchieuements, though perform'd at height[6]The pith and marrow of our attribute, So oft it chaunces in particuler men, [7]That for some vicious mole[8] of nature in themAs in their birth wherein they are not guilty, [8](Since nature cannot choose his origin)By their ore-grow'th of some complextion[10]Oft breaking downe the pales and forts of reasonOr by[11] some habit, that too much ore-leauensThe forme of plausiue[12] manners, that[13] these menCarrying I say the stamp of one defectBeing Natures liuery, or Fortunes starre, [14]His[15] vertues els[16] be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may vndergoe, [17]Shall in the generall censure[18] take corruptionFrom that particuler fault:[19] the dram of eale[20]Doth all the noble substance of a doubt[21]To his[22] owne scandle. ]

[Footnote 1: Does Hamlet here call his uncle an _upspring_, an_upstart_? or is the _upspring_ a dance, the English equivalent of 'thehigh _lavolt_' of _Troil. And Cress_. Iv. 4, and governed by_reels_--'keeps wassels, and reels the swaggering upspring'--a dancethat needed all the steadiness as well as agility available, if, as Isuspect, it was that in which each gentleman lifted the lady high, andkissed her before setting her down? I cannot answer, I can only put thequestion. The word _swaggering_ makes me lean to the formerinterpretation. ]

[Footnote 2: Observe again Hamlet's uncertainty. He does not take it forgranted that it is _his father's_ spirit, though it is plainly hisform. ]

[Footnote 3: The Quarto surely came too early for this passage to havebeen suggested by the shameful habits which invaded the court throughthe example of Anne of Denmark! Perhaps Shakspere cancelled it bothbecause he would not have it supposed he had meant to reflect on thequeen, and because he came to think it too diffuse. ]

[Footnote 4: clepe, _call_. ]

[Footnote 5: Same as _attribute_, two lines lower--the thing imputed to, or added to us--our reputation, our title or epithet. ]

[Footnote 6: performed to perfection. ]

[Footnote 7: individuals. ]

[Footnote 8: A mole on the body, according to the place where itappeared, was regarded as significant of character: in that relation, a_vicious mole_ would be one that indicated some special vice; but herethe allusion is to a live mole of constitutional fault, burrowingwithin, whose presence the mole-_heap_ on the skin indicates. ]

[Footnote 9: The order here would be: 'for some vicious mole of naturein them, as by their o'er-growth, in their birth--wherein they are notguilty, since nature cannot choose his origin (or parentage)--theiro'ergrowth of (their being overgrown or possessed by) some complexion, &c. ']

[Footnote 10: _Complexion_, as the exponent of the _temperament_, ormasterful tendency of the nature, stands here for _temperament_--'oftbreaking down &c. ' Both words have in them the element of _mingling_--amingling to certain results. ]

[Footnote 11: The connection is:

 That for some vicious mole-- As by their o'ergrowth-- Or by some habit, &c. ]

[Footnote 12: pleasing. ]

[Footnote 13: Repeat from above '--so oft it chaunces, ' before 'thatthese men. ']

[Footnote 14: 'whether the thing come by Nature or by Destiny, '_Fortune's star_: the mark set on a man by fortune to prove her share inhim. 83. ]

[Footnote 15: A change to the singular. ]

[Footnote l6: 'be his virtues besides as pure &c. ']

[Footnote 17: _walk under; carry_. ]

[Footnote 18: the judgment of the many. ]

[Footnote 19: 'Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to sendforth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is inreputation for wisdom and honour. ' Eccles. X. 1. ]

[Footnote 20: Compare Quarto reading, page 112:

 The spirit that I haue scene May be a deale, and the deale hath power &c. 

If _deale_ here stand for _devil_, then _eale_ may in the same editionbe taken to stand for _evil_. It is hardly necessary to suspect a Scotchprinter; _evil_ is often used as a monosyllable, and _eale_ may havebeen a pronunciation of it half-way towards _ill_, which is itscontraction. ]

[Footnote 21: I do not believe there is any corruption in the rest ofthe passage. 'Doth it of a doubt:' _affects it with a doubt_, brings itinto doubt. The following from _Measure for Measure_, is like, thoughnot the same. 

 I have on Angelo imposed the office, Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home And yet my nature never in the fight _To do in slander. _

'To do my nature in slander'; to affect it with slander; to bring itinto slander, 'Angelo may punish in my name, but, not being present, Ishall not be accused of cruelty, which would be to slander my nature. ']

[Footnote 22: _his_--the man's; see _note_ 13 above. ]

[Page 46]

[Sidenote: 112] Be thy euents wicked or charitable, [Sidenote: thy intent]Thou com'st in such a questionable shape[1]That I will speake to thee. Ile call thee _Hamlet_, [2]King, Father, Royall Dane: Oh, oh, answer me, [Sidenote: Dane, ô answere]Let me not burst in Ignorance; but tellWhy thy Canoniz'd bones Hearsed in death, [3]Haue burst their cerments; why the SepulcherWherein we saw thee quietly enurn'd, [4] [Sidenote: quietly interr'd[3]]Hath op'd his ponderous and Marble iawes, To cast thee vp againe? What may this meane?That thou dead Coarse againe in compleat steele, Reuisits thus the glimpses of the Moone, Making Night hidious? And we fooles of Nature, [6]So horridly to shake our disposition, [7]With thoughts beyond thee; reaches of our Soules, [8] [Sidenote: the reaches]Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we doe?[9]

_Ghost beckens Hamlet. _

_Hor. _ It beckons you to goe away with it, [Sidenote: Beckins]As if it some impartment did desireTo you alone. 

_Mar. _ Looke with what courteous actionIt wafts you to a more remoued ground: [Sidenote: waues]But doe not goe with it. 

_Hor. _ No, by no meanes. 

_Ham_. It will not speake: then will I follow it. [Sidenote: I will]

_Hor. _ Doe not my Lord. 

_Ham. _ Why, what should be the feare?I doe not set my life at a pins fee;And for my Soule, what can it doe to that?Being a thing immortall as it selfe:[10]It waues me forth againe; Ile follow it. 

_Hor. _ What if it tempt you toward the Floud my Lord?[11]

[Footnote 1: --that of his father, so moving him to question it. _Questionable_ does not mean _doubtful_, but _fit to be questioned_. ]

[Footnote 2: 'I'll _call_ thee'--for the nonce. ]

[Footnote 3: I think _hearse_ was originally the bier--French _herse_, aharrow--but came to be applied to the coffin: _hearsed_ indeath--_coffined_ in death. ]

[Footnote 4: There is no impropriety in the use of the word _inurned_. It is a figure--a word once-removed in its application: the sepulchre isthe urn, the body the ashes. _Interred_ Shakspere had concludedincorrect, for the body was not laid in the earth. ]

[Footnote 5: So in _1st Q_. ]

[Footnote 6: 'fooles of Nature'--fools in the presence of herknowledge--to us no knowledge--of her action, to us inexplicable. _Afact_ that looks unreasonable makes one feel like a fool. See Psalmlxxiii. 22: 'So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast beforethee. ' As some men are our fools, we are all Nature's fools; we are sofar from knowing anything as it is. ]

[Footnote 7: Even if Shakspere cared more about grammar than he does, aman in Hamlet's perturbation he might well present as making a breach init; but we are not reduced even to justification. _Toschaken_ (_to_ asGerman _zu_ intensive) is a recognized English word; it means _to shaketo pieces_. The construction of the passage is, 'What may this mean, that thou revisitest thus the glimpses of the moon, and that we sohorridly to-shake our disposition?' So in _The Merry Wives_, And fairy-like to-pinch the unclean knight. 

'our disposition': our _cosmic structure_. ]

[Footnote 8: 'with thoughts that are too much for them, and as anearthquake to them. ']

[Footnote 9: Like all true souls, Hamlet wants to know what he is _todo_. He looks out for the action required of him. ]

[Footnote 10: Note here Hamlet's mood--dominated by his faith. His lifein this world his mother has ruined; he does not care for it a pin: heis not the less confident of a nature that is immortal. In virtue ofthis belief in life, he is indifferent to the form of it. When, later inthe play, he seems to fear death, it is death the consequence of anaction of whose rightness he is not convinced. ]

[Footnote 11: _The Quarto has dropped out_ 'Lord. ']

[Page 48]

Or to the dreadfull Sonnet of the Cliffe, [Sidenote: somnet]That beetles[1] o're his base into the Sea, [Sidenote: bettles][Sidenote: 112] And there assumes some other horrible forme, [2] [Sidenote: assume]Which might depriue your Soueraignty[3] of ReasonAnd draw you into madnesse thinke of it?

[A]

_Ham. _ It wafts me still; goe on, Ile follow thee. [Sidenote: waues]

_Mar. _ You shall not goe my Lord. 

_Ham. _ Hold off your hand. [Sidenote: hands]

_Hor. _ Be rul'd, you shall not goe. 

_Ham. _ My fate cries out, And makes each petty Artire[4] in this body, [Sidenote: arture[4]]As hardy as the Nemian Lions nerue:Still am I cal'd? Vnhand me Gentlemen:By Heau'n, Ile make a Ghost of him that lets me:I say away, goe on, Ile follow thee. 

_Exeunt Ghost & Hamlet. _

_Hor. _ He waxes desperate with imagination. [5] [Sidenote: imagion]

_Mar. _ Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. 

_Hor. _ Haue after, to what issue will this come?

_Mar. _ Something is rotten in the State of Denmarke. 

_Hor. _ Heauen will direct it. 

_Mar. _ Nay, let's follow him. _Exeunt. _

_Enter Ghost and Hamlet. _

_Ham. _ Where wilt thou lead me? speak; Ile go no further. [Sidenote: Whether]

_Gho. _ Marke me. 

_Ham. _ I will. 

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

The very place puts toyes of desperationWithout more motiue, into euery braineThat lookes so many fadoms to the seaAnd heares it rore beneath. ]

[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'beckles'--perhaps for _buckles--bends_. ]

[Footnote 2: Note the unbelief in the Ghost. ]

[Footnote 3: sovereignty--_soul_: so in _Romeo and Juliet_, act v. Sc. 1, l. 3:--

 My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne. ]

[Footnote 4: The word _artery_, invariably substituted by the editors, is without authority. In the first Quarto, the word is _Artiue_; in thesecond (see margin) _arture_. This latter I take to be the rightone--corrupted into _Artire_ in the Folio. It seems to have troubled theprinters, and possibly the editors. The third Q. Has followed thesecond; the fourth has _artyre_; the fifth Q. And the fourth F. Have_attire_; the second and third Folios follow the first. Not until thesixth Q. Does _artery_ appear. See _Cambridge Shakespeare. Arture_ wasto all concerned, and to the language itself, a new word. That _artery_was not Shakspere's intention might be concluded from its unfitness:what propriety could there be in _making an artery hardy_? The sole, imperfect justification I was able to think of for such use of the wordarose from the fact that, before the discovery of the circulation of theblood (published in 1628), it was believed that the arteries (foundempty after death) served for the movements of the animal spirits: thismight vaguely _associate_ the arteries with _courage_. But the sight ofthe word _arture_ in the second Quarto at once relieved me. 

I do not know if a list has ever been gathered of the words _made_ byShakspere: here is one of them--_arture_, from the same root as _artus, a joint--arcere, to hold together_, adjective _arctus, tight. Arture_, then, stands for _juncture_. This perfectly fits. In terror the weakestparts are the joints, for their _artures_ are not _hardy_. 'And you, mysinews, . .. Bear me stiffly up. ' 55, 56. 

Since writing as above, a friend informs me that _arture_ is the exactequivalent of the [Greek: haphae] of Colossians ii. 19, as interpretedby Bishop Lightfoot--'the relation between contiguous limbs, not theparts of the limbs themselves in the neighbourhood of contact, '--forwhich relation 'there is no word in our language in common use. ']

[Footnote 5: 'with the things he imagines. ']

[Page 50]

_Gho. _ My hower is almost come, [1]When I to sulphurous and tormenting FlamesMust render vp my selfe. 

_Ham. _ Alas poore Ghost. 

_Gho. _ Pitty me not, but lend thy serious hearingTo what I shall vnfold. 

_Ham. _ Speake, I am bound to heare. 

_Gho. _ So art thou to reuenge, when thou shalt heare. 

_Ham. _ What?

_Gho. _ I am thy Fathers Spirit, Doom'd for a certaine terme to walke the night;[2]And for the day confin'd to fast in Fiers, [3]Till the foule crimes done in my dayes of NatureAre burnt and purg'd away? But that I am forbidTo tell the secrets of my Prison-House;I could a Tale vnfold, whose lightest word[4]Would harrow vp thy soule, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes like Starres, start from their Spheres, Thy knotty and combined locks to part, [Sidenote: knotted]And each particular haire to stand an end, [5]Like Quilles vpon the fretfull[6] Porpentine [Sidenote: fearefull[6]]But this eternall blason[7] must not beTo eares of flesh and bloud; list _Hamlet_, oh list, [Sidenote: blood, list, ô list;]If thou didst euer thy deare Father loue. 

_Ham. _ Oh Heauen![8] [Sidenote: God]

_Gho. _ Reuenge his foule and most vnnaturall Murther. [9]

_Ham. _ Murther?

_Ghost. _ Murther most foule, as in the best it is;But this most foule, strange, and vnnaturall. 

_Ham. _ Hast, hast me to know it, [Sidenote: Hast me to know't, ]That with wings as swift

[Footnote 1: The night is the Ghost's day. ]

[Footnote 2: To walk the night, and see how things go, without beingable to put a finger to them, is part of his cleansing. ]

[Footnote 3: More horror yet for Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 4: He would have him think of life and its doings as of awfulimport. He gives his son what warning he may. ]

[Footnote 5: _An end_ is like _agape, an hungred_. 71, 175. ]

[Footnote 6: The word in the Q. Suggests _fretfull_ a misprint for_frightful_. It is _fretfull_ in the 1st Q. As well. ]

[Footnote 7: To _blason_ is to read off in proper heraldic terms thearms blasoned upon a shield. _A blason_ is such a reading, but is hereused for a picture in words of other objects. ]

[Footnote 8: --in appeal to God whether he had not loved his father. ]

[Footnote 9: The horror still accumulates. The knowledge of evil--notevil in the abstract, but evil alive, and all about him--comes darkeningdown upon Hamlet's being. Not only is his father an inhabitant of thenether fires, but he is there by murder. ]

[Page 52]

As meditation, or the thoughts of Loue, May sweepe to my Reuenge. [1]

_Ghost. _ I finde thee apt, And duller should'st thou be then the fat weede[2][Sidenote: 194] That rots it selfe in ease, on Lethe Wharfe, [4] [Sidenote: rootes[3]]Would'st thou not stirre in this. Now _Hamlet_ heare:It's giuen out, that sleeping in mine Orchard, [Sidenote: 'Tis]A Serpent stung me: so the whole eare of Denmarke, Is by a forged processe of my deathRankly abus'd: But know thou Noble youth, The Serpent that did sting thy Fathers life, Now weares his Crowne. 

[Sidenote: 30, 32] _Ham. _ O my Propheticke soule: mine Vncle?[5] [Sidenote: my]

_Ghost. _ I that incestuous, that adulterate Beast[6]With witchcraft of his wits, hath Traitorous guifts. [Sidenote: wits, with]Oh wicked Wit, and Gifts, that haue the powerSo to seduce? Won to to this shamefull Lust [Sidenote: wonne to his]The will of my most seeming vertuous Queene:Oh _Hamlet_, what a falling off was there, [Sidenote: what failing]From me, whose loue was of that dignity, That it went hand in hand, euen with[7] the VowI made to her in Marriage; and to declineVpon a wretch, whose Naturall gifts were pooreTo those of mine. But Vertue, as it neuer wil be moued, Though Lewdnesse court it in a shape of Heauen:So Lust, though to a radiant Angell link'd, [Sidenote: so but though]Will sate it selfe in[8] a Celestiall bed, and prey on Garbage. [9] [Sidenote: Will sort it selfe]But soft, me thinkes I sent the Mornings Ayre; [Sidenote: morning ayre, ]Briefe let me be: Sleeping within mine Orchard, [Sidenote: my]My custome alwayes in the afternoone; [Sidenote: of the]Vpon my secure hower thy Vncle stole

[Footnote 1: Now, _for the moment_, he has no doubt, and vengeance ishis first thought. ]

[Footnote 2: Hamlet may be supposed to recall this, if we suppose himafterwards to accuse himself so bitterly and so unfairly as in the_Quarto_, 194. ]

[Footnote 3: Also _1st Q_. ]

[Footnote 4: landing-place on the bank of Lethe, the hell-river ofoblivion. ]

[Footnote 5: This does not mean that he had suspected his uncle, butthat his dislike to him was prophetic. ]

[Footnote 6: How can it be doubted that in this speech the Ghost accuseshis wife and brother of adultery? Their marriage was not adultery. Seehow the ghastly revelation grows on Hamlet--his father in hell--murderedby his brother--dishonoured by his wife!]

[Footnote 7: _parallel with; correspondent to_. ]

[Footnote 8: _1st Q_. 'fate itself from a'. ]

[Footnote 9: This passage, from 'Oh _Hamlet_, ' most indubitably assertsthe adultery of Gertrude. ]

[Page 54]

With iuyce of cursed Hebenon[1] in a Violl, [Sidenote: Hebona]And in the Porches of mine eares did poure [Sidenote: my]The leaperous Distilment;[2] whose effectHolds such an enmity with bloud of Man, That swift as Quick-siluer, it courses[3] throughThe naturall Gates and Allies of the Body;And with a sodaine vigour it doth posset [Sidenote: doth possesse]And curd, like Aygre droppings into Milke, [Sidenote: eager[4]]The thin and wholsome blood: so did it mine;And a most instant Tetter bak'd about, [Sidenote: barckt about[5]]Most Lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth Body. Thus was I, sleeping, by a Brothers hand, Of Life, of Crowne, and Queene at once dispatcht; [Sidenote: of Queene][Sidenote: 164] Cut off euen in the Blossomes of my Sinne, Vnhouzzled, disappointed, vnnaneld, [6] [Sidenote: Vnhuzled, | vnanueld, ][Sidenote: 262] No reckoning made, but sent to my accountWith all my imperfections on my head;Oh horrible, Oh horrible, most horrible:If thou hast nature in thee beare it not;Let not the Royall Bed of Denmarke beA Couch for Luxury and damned Incest. [7]But howsoeuer thou pursuest this Act, [Sidenote: howsomeuer thou pursues][Sidenote: 30, 174] Taint not thy mind; nor let thy Soule contriue[Sidenote: 140] Against thy Mother ought; leaue her to heauen, And to those Thornes that in her bosome lodge, To pricke and sting her. Fare thee well at once;The Glow-worme showes the Matine to be neere, And gins to pale his vneffectuall Fire:Adue, adue, _Hamlet_: remember me. _Exit_. [Sidenote: Adiew, adiew, adiew, remember me. [8]]

_Ham. _ Oh all you host of Heauen! Oh Earth: what els?And shall I couple Hell?[9] Oh fie[10]: hold my heart; [Sidenote: hold, hold my]And you my sinnewes, grow not instant Old;

[Footnote 1: Ebony. ]

[Footnote 2: _producing leprosy_--as described in result below. ]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'posteth'. ]

[Footnote 4: So also _1st Q_. ]

[Footnote 5: This _barckt_--meaning _cased as a bark cases its tree_--isused in _1st Q_. Also: 'And all my smoothe body, barked, and tetterdouer. ' The word is so used in Scotland still. ]

[Footnote 6: _Husel (Anglo-Saxon)_ is _an offering, the sacrament. Disappointed, not appointed_: Dr. Johnson. _Unaneled, unoiled, withoutthe extreme unction_. ]

[Footnote 7: It is on public grounds, as a king and a Dane, rather thanas a husband and a murdered man, that he urges on his son the executionof justice. Note the tenderness towards his wife that follows--moremarked, 174; here it is mingled with predominating regard to his son towhose filial nature he dreads injury. ]

[Footnote 8: _Q_. Omits _Exit_. ]

[Footnote 9: He must: his father is there!]

[Footnote 10: The interjection is addressed to _heart_ and _sinews_, which forget their duty. ]

[Page 56]

But beare me stiffely vp: Remember thee?[1] [Sidenote: swiftly vp]I, thou poore Ghost, while memory holds a seate [Sidenote: whiles]In this distracted Globe[2]: Remember thee?Yea, from the Table of my Memory, [3]Ile wipe away all triuiall fond Records, All sawes[4] of Bookes, all formes, all presures past, That youth and obseruation coppied there;And thy Commandment all alone shall liueWithin the Booke and Volume of my Braine, Vnmixt with baser matter; yes, yes, by Heauen: [Sidenote: matter, yes by][Sidenote: 168] Oh most pernicious woman![5]Oh Villaine, Villaine, smiling damned Villaine!My Tables, my Tables; meet it is I set it downe, [6] [Sidenote: My tables, meet]That one may smile, and smile and be a Villaine;At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmarke; [Sidenote: I am]So Vnckle there you are: now to my word;[7]It is; Adue, Adue, Remember me:[8] I haue sworn't. [Sidenote: _Enter Horatio, and Marcellus_]

_Hor. And Mar. Within_. My Lord, my Lord. [Sidenote: _Hora. _ My]

_Enter Horatio and Marcellus. _

_Mar_. Lord _Hamlet_. 

_Hor_. Heauen secure him. [Sidenote: Heauens]

_Mar_. So be it. 

_Hor_. Illo, ho, ho, my Lord. 

_Ham_. Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come bird, come. [9] [Sidenote: boy come, and come. ]

_Mar_. How ist't my Noble Lord?

_Hor_. What newes, my Lord?

_Ham_. Oh wonderfull![10]

_Hor_. Good my Lord tell it. 

_Ham_. No you'l reueale it. [Sidenote: you will]

_Hor_. Not I, my Lord, by Heauen. 

_Mar_. Nor I, my Lord. 

_Ham_. How say you then, would heart of man once think it?But you'l be secret?

[Footnote 1: For the moment he has no doubt that he has seen and spokenwith the ghost of his father. ]

[Footnote 2: his head. ]

[Footnote 3: The whole speech is that of a student, accustomed to books, to take notes, and to fix things in his memory. 'Table, ' _tablet_. ]

[Footnote 4: _wise sayings_. ]

[Footnote 5: The Ghost has revealed her adultery: Hamlet suspects her ofcomplicity in the murder, 168. ]

[Footnote 6: It may well seem odd that Hamlet should be represented as, at such a moment, making a note in his tablets; but without furtherallusion to the student-habit, I would remark that, in cases wherestrongest passion is roused, the intellect has yet sometimes anautomatic trick of working independently. For instance from Shakspere, see Constance in _King John_--how, in her agony over the loss of herson, both her fancy, playing with words, and her imagination, playingwith forms, are busy. 

Note the glimpse of Hamlet's character here given: he had been somethingof an optimist; at least had known villainy only from books; at thirtyyears of age it is to him a discovery that a man may smile and be avillain! Then think of the shock of such discoveries as are here forcedupon him! Villainy is no longer a mere idea, but a fact! and of allvillainous deeds those of his own mother and uncle are the worst! Butnote also his honesty, his justice to humanity, his philosophictemperament, in the qualification he sets to the memorandum, '--at leastin Denmark!']

[Footnote 7: 'my word, '--the word he has to keep in mind; his cue. ]

[Footnote 8: Should not the actor here make a pause, with hand uplifted, as taking a solemn though silent oath?]

[Footnote 9: --as if calling to a hawk. ]

[Footnote 10: Here comes the test of the actor's _possible_: here Hamlethimself begins to act, and will at once assume a _rôle_, ere yet he wellknows what it must be. One thing only is clear to him--that thecommunication of the Ghost is not a thing to be shared--that he mustkeep it with all his power of secrecy: the honour both of father and ofmother is at stake. In order to do so, he must begin by putting onhimself a cloak of darkness, and hiding his feelings--first of all thepresent agitation which threatens to overpower him. His immediateimpulse or instinctive motion is to force an air, and throw a veil ofgrimmest humour over the occurrence. The agitation of the horror at hisheart, ever working and constantly repressed, shows through the veil, and gives an excited uncertainty to his words, and a wild vacillation tohis manner and behaviour. ]

[Page 58]

_Both_. I, by Heau'n, my Lord. [1]

_Ham_. There's nere a villaine dwelling in all DenmarkeBut hee's an arrant knaue. 

_Hor_. There needs no Ghost my Lord, come from theGraue, to tell vs this. 

_Ham_. Why right, you are i'th'right; [Sidenote: in the]And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands, and part:You, as your busines and desires shall point you: [Sidenote: desire]For euery man ha's businesse and desire, [2] [Sidenote: hath]Such as it is: and for mine owne poore part, [Sidenote: my]Looke you, Ile goe pray. [4] [Sidenote: I will goe pray. [3]]

_Hor_. These are but wild and hurling words, my Lord. [Sidenote: whurling[5]]

_Ham_. I'm sorry they offend you heartily: [Sidenote: I am]Yes faith, heartily. 

_Hor_. There's no offence my Lord. 

_Ham_. Yes, by Saint _Patricke_, but there is my Lord, [6] [Sidenote: there is _Horatio_]And much offence too, touching this Vision heere;[7][Sidenote: 136] It is an honest Ghost, that let me tell you:[8]For your desire to know what is betweene vs, O'remaster't as you may. And now good friends, As you are Friends, Schollers and Soldiers, Giue me one poore request. 

_Hor_. What is't my Lord? we will. 

_Ham_. Neuer make known what you haue seen to night. [9]

_Both_. My Lord, we will not. 

_Ham_. Nay, but swear't. 

_Hor_. Infaith my Lord, not I. [10]

_Mar_. Nor I my Lord: in faith. 

_Ham_. Vpon my sword. [11]

[Footnote 1: _Q. Has not_ 'my Lord. ']

[Footnote 2: Here shows the philosopher. ]

[Footnote 3: _Q. Has not_ 'Looke you. ']

[Footnote 4: '--nothing else is left me. ' This seems to me one of thefinest touches in the revelation of Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 5: _1st Q_. 'wherling'. ]

[Footnote 6: I take the change from the _Quarto_ here to be no blunder. ]

[Footnote 7: _Point thus_: 'too!--Touching. ']

[Footnote 8: The struggle to command himself is plain throughout. ]

[Footnote 9: He could not endure the thought of the resultinggossip;--which besides would interfere with, possibly frustrate, thecarrying out of his part. ]

[Footnote 10: This is not a refusal to swear; it is the oath itself:'_In faith I will not_!']

[Footnote 11: He would have them swear on the cross-hilt of his sword. ]

[Page 60]

_Marcell. _ We haue sworne my Lord already. [1]

_Ham. _ Indeed, vpon my sword, Indeed. 

_Gho. _ Sweare. [2] _Ghost cries vnder the Stage. _[3]

_Ham. _ Ah ha boy, sayest thou so. Art thou [Sidenote: Ha, ha, ]there truepenny?[4] Come one you here this fellow [Sidenote: Come on, you heare]in the selleredgeConsent to sweare. 

_Hor. _ Propose the Oath my Lord. [5]

_Ham. _ Neuer to speake of this that you haue seene. Sweare by my sword. 

_Gho. _ Sweare. 

_Ham. Hic & vbique_? Then wee'l shift for grownd, [Sidenote: shift our]Come hither Gentlemen, And lay your hands againe vpon my sword, Neuer to speake of this that you haue heard:[6]Sweare by my Sword. 

_Gho. _ Sweare. [7] [Sidenote: Sweare by his sword. ]

_Ham. _ Well said old Mole, can'st worke i'th' ground so fast? [Sidenote: it'h' earth]A worthy Pioner, once more remoue good friends. 

_Hor. _ Oh day and night: but this is wondrous strange. 

_Ham. _ And therefore as a stranger giue it welcome. There are more things in Heauen and Earth, _Horatio_, Then are dream't of in our Philosophy But come, [Sidenote: in your]Here as before, neuer so helpe you mercy, How strange or odde so ere I beare my selfe; [Sidenote: How | so mere](As I perchance heereafter shall thinke meet [Sidenote: As][Sidenote: 136, 156, 178] To put an Anticke disposition on:)[8] [Sidenote: on]That you at such time seeing me, neuer shall [Sidenote: times]With Armes encombred thus, or thus, head shake; [Sidenote: or this head]

[Footnote 1: He feels his honour touched. ]

[Footnote 2: The Ghost's interference heightens Hamlet's agitation. Ifhe does not talk, laugh, jest, it will overcome him. Also he must notshow that he believes it his father's ghost: that must be kept tohimself--for the present at least. He shows it therefore norespect--treats the whole thing humorously, so avoiding, or at leastparrying question. It is all he can do to keep the mastery of himself, dodging horror with half-forced, half-hysterical laughter. Yet is he allthe time intellectually on the alert. See how, instantly active, hemakes use of the voice from beneath to enforce his requisition ofsilence. Very speedily too he grows quiet: a glimmer of light as to thecourse of action necessary to him has begun to break upon him: it breaksfrom his own wild and disjointed behaviour in the attempt to hide theconflict of his feelings--which suggests to him the idea of shroudinghimself, as did David at the court of the Philistines, in the cloak ofmadness: thereby protected from the full force of what suspicion anyabsorption of manner or outburst of feeling must occasion, he may wintime to lay his plans. Note how, in the midst of his horror, he is yetable to think, plan, resolve. ]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q. 'The Gost under the stage. '_]

[Footnote 4: While Hamlet seems to take it so coolly, the others havefled in terror from the spot. He goes to them. Their fear must be what, on the two occasions after, makes him shift to another place when theGhost speaks. ]

[Footnote 5: Now at once he consents. ]

[Footnote 6: In the _Quarto_ this and the next line are transposed. ]

[Footnote 7: What idea is involved as the cause of the Ghost's thusinterfering?--That he too sees what difficulties must encompass thecarrying out of his behest, and what absolute secrecy is theretoessential. ]

[Footnote 8: This idea, hardly yet a resolve, he afterwards carries outso well, that he deceives not only king and queen and court, but themost of his critics ever since: to this day they believe him mad. Suchmust have studied in the play a phantom of their own misconception, andcan never have seen the Hamlet of Shakspere. Thus prejudiced, theymistake also the effects of moral and spiritual perturbation and miseryfor further sign of intellectual disorder--even for proof of moralweakness, placing them in the same category with the symptoms of theinsanity which he simulates, and by which they are deluded. ]

[Page 62]

Or by pronouncing of some doubtfull Phrase;As well, we know, or we could and if we would, [Sidenote: As well, well, we]Or if we list to speake; or there be and if there might, [Sidenote: if they might]Or such ambiguous giuing out to note, [Sidenote: note]That you know ought of me; this not to doe: [Sidenote: me, this doe sweare, ]So grace and mercy at your most neede helpe you:Sweare. [1]

_Ghost_. Sweare. [2]

_Ham_. Rest, rest perturbed Spirit[3]: so Gentlemen, With all my loue I doe commend me to you;And what so poore a man as _Hamlet_ is, May doe t'expresse his loue and friending to you, God willing shall not lacke: let vs goe in together, And still your fingers on your lippes I pray, The time is out of ioynt: Oh cursed spight, [4][Sidenote: 126] That euer I was borne to set it right. Nay, come let's goe together. _Exeunt. _[5]

 * * * * *

SUMMARY OF ACT I. 

This much of Hamlet we have now learned: he is a thoughtful man, agenuine student, little acquainted with the world save through books, and a lover of his kind. His university life at Wittenberg is suddenlyinterrupted by a call to the funeral of his father, whom he dearly lovesand honours. Ere he reaches Denmark, his uncle Claudius has contrived, in an election (202, 250, 272) probably hastened and secretlyinfluenced, to gain the voice of the representatives at least of thepeople, and ascend the throne. Hence his position must have been anirksome one from the first; but, within a month of his father's death, his mother's marriage with his uncle--a relation universally regarded asincestuous--plunges him in the deepest misery. The play introduces himat the first court held after the wedding. He is attired in the mourningof his father's funeral, which he had not laid aside for the wedding. His aspect is of absolute dejection, and he appears in a company forwhich he is so unfit only for the sake of desiring permission to leavethe court, and go back to his studies at Wittenberg. [A] Left to himself, he breaks out in agonized and indignant lamentation over his mother'sconduct, dwelling mainly on her disregard of his father's memory. Herconduct and his partial discovery of her character, is the sole cause ofhis misery. In such his mood, Horatio, a fellow-student, brings him wordthat his father's spirit walks at night. He watches for the Ghost, andreceives from him a frightful report of his present condition, intowhich, he tells him, he was cast by the murderous hand of his brother, with whom his wife had been guilty of adultery. He enjoins him to put astop to the crime in which they are now living, by taking vengeance onhis uncle. Uncertain at the moment how to act, and dreading theconsequences of rousing suspicion by the perturbation which he could notbut betray, he grasps at the sudden idea of affecting madness. We havelearned also Hamlet's relation to Ophelia, the daughter of the selfish, prating, busy Polonius, who, with his son Laertes, is destined to workout the earthly fate of Hamlet. Of Laertes, as yet, we only know that heprates like his father, is self-confident, and was educated at Paris, whither he has returned. Of Ophelia we know nothing but that she isgentle, and that she is fond of Hamlet, whose attentions she hasencouraged, but with whom, upon her father's severe remonstrance, she isready, outwardly at least, to break. 

[Footnote A: Roger Ascham, in his _Scholemaster_, if I mistake not, setsthe age, up to which a man should be under tutors, at twenty-nine. ]

[Footnote 1: 'Sweare' _not in Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 2: They do not this time shift their ground, but swear--indumb show. ]

[Footnote 3: --for now they had obeyed his command and sworn secrecy. ]

[Footnote 4: 'cursed spight'--not merely that he had been born to dohangman's work, but that he should have been born at all--of a motherwhose crime against his father had brought upon him the wretchednecessity which must proclaim her ignominy. Let the student do his bestto realize the condition of Hamlet's heart and mind in relation to hismother. ]

[Footnote: 5 This first act occupies part of a night, a day, and part ofthe next night. ]

[Page 64]

ACTUS SECUNDUS. [1]

_Enter Polonius, and Reynoldo. _ [Sidenote: _Enter old Polonius, with his man, or two. _]

_Polon. _ Giue him his money, and these notes _Reynoldo_. [2] [Sidenote: this money]

_Reynol. _ I will my Lord. 

_Polon. _ You shall doe maruels wisely: good _Reynoldo_, [Sidenote: meruiles]Before you visite him you make inquiry [Sidenote: him, to make inquire]Of his behauiour. [3]

_Reynol. _ My Lord, I did intend it. 

_Polon. _ Marry, well said;Very well said. Looke you Sir, Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;And how, and who; what meanes; and where they keepe:What company, at what expence: and findingBy this encompassement and drift of question, That they doe know my sonne: Come you more neerer[4]Then your particular demands will touch it, Take you as 'twere some distant knowledge of him, And thus I know his father and his friends, [Sidenote: As thus]And in part him. Doe you marke this _Reynoldo_?

_Reynol. _ I, very well my Lord. 

_Polon. _ And in part him, but you may say not well;But if't be hee I meane, hees very wilde;Addicted so and so; and there put on himWhat forgeries you please: marry, none so ranke, As may dishonour him; take heed of that:But Sir, such wanton, wild, and vsuall slips, As are Companions noted and most knowneTo youth and liberty. 

[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto. _

Between this act and the former, sufficient time has passed to allow theambassadors to go to Norway and return: 74. See 138, and what Hamletsays of the time since his father's death, 24, by which together theinterval _seems_ indicated as about two months, though surely so muchtime was not necessary. 

Cause and effect _must_ be truly presented; time and space are mereaccidents, and of small consequence in the drama, whose very idea iscompression for the sake of presentation. All that is necessary inregard to time is, that, either by the act-pause, or the intervention ofa fresh scene, the passing of it should be indicated. 

This second act occupies the forenoon of one day. ]

[Footnote 2: _1st Q. _

 _Montano_, here, these letters to my sonne, And this same mony with my blessing to him, And bid him ply his learning good _Montano_. ]

[Footnote 3: The father has no confidence in the son, and rightly, forboth are unworthy: he turns on him the cunning of the courtier, andsends a spy on his behaviour. The looseness of his own principles comesout very clear in his anxieties about his son; and, having learned theideas of the father as to what becomes a gentleman, we are not surprisedto find the son such as he afterwards shows himself. Till the endapproaches, we hear no more of Laertes, nor is more necessary; butwithout this scene we should have been unprepared for his vileness. ]

[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'son, come you more nearer; then &c. ' The_then_ here does not stand for _than_, and to change it to _than_ makesat once a contradiction. The sense is: 'Having put your generalquestions first, and been answered to your purpose, then your particulardemands will come in, and be of service; they will reach to thepoint--_will touch it_. ' The _it_ is impersonal. After it should come aperiod. ]

[Page 66]

_Reynol. _ As gaming my Lord. 

_Polon. _ I, or drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarelling, drabbing. You may goe so farre. 

_Reynol. _ My Lord that would dishonour him. 

_Polon. _ Faith no, as you may season it in the charge;[1] [Sidenote: Fayth as you]You must not put another scandall on him, That hee is open to Incontinencie;[2]That's not my meaning: but breath his faults so quaintly, That they may seeme the taints of liberty;The flash and out-breake of a fiery minde, A sauagenes in vnreclaim'd[3] bloud of generall assault. [4]

_Reynol. _ But my good Lord. [5]

_Polon. _ Wherefore should you doe this?[6]

_Reynol. _ I my Lord, I would know that. 

_Polon. _ Marry Sir, heere's my drift, And I belieue it is a fetch of warrant:[7] [Sidenote: of wit, ]You laying these slight sulleyes[8] on my Sonne, [Sidenote: sallies[8]]As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'th'working: [Sidenote: soiled with working, ]Marke you your party in conuerse; him you would sound, Hauing euer seene. In the prenominate crimes, [Sidenote: seene in the]The youth you breath of guilty, be assur'dHe closes with you in this consequence:Good sir, or so, or friend, or Gentleman. According to the Phrase and the Addition, [9] [Sidenote: phrase or the]Of man and Country. 

_Reynol. _ Very good my Lord. 

_Polon. _ And then Sir does he this? [Sidenote: doos a this a doos, what was _I_]He does: what was I about to say?I was about to say somthing: where did I leaue? [Sidenote: By the masse I was]

_Reynol. _ At closes in the consequence:At friend, or so, and Gentleman. [10]

[Footnote 1: _1st Q. _

 I faith not a whit, no not a whit, As you may bridle it not disparage him a iote. ]

[Footnote 2: This may well seem prating inconsistency, but I supposemeans that he must not be represented as without moderation in hiswickedness. ]

[Footnote 3: _Untamed_, as a hawk. ]

[Footnote 4: The lines are properly arranged in _Q_. 

 A sauagenes in vnreclamed blood, Of generall assault. 

--that is, 'which assails all. ']

[Footnote 5: Here a hesitating pause. ]

[Footnote 6: --with the expression of, 'Is that what you would say?']

[Footnote 7: 'a fetch with warrant for it'--a justifiable trick. ]

[Footnote 8: Compare _sallied_, 25, both Quartos; _sallets_ 67, 103; andsee _soil'd_, next line. ]

[Footnote 9: 'Addition, ' epithet of courtesy in address. ]

[Footnote 10: _Q_. Has not this line]

[Page 68]

_Polon. _ At closes in the consequence, I marry, He closes with you thus. I know the Gentleman, [Sidenote: He closes thus, ]I saw him yesterday, or tother day; [Sidenote: th'other]Or then or then, with such and such; and as you say, [Sidenote: or such, ][Sidenote: 25] There was he gaming, there o'retooke in's Rouse, [Sidenote: was a gaming there, or tooke]There falling out at Tennis; or perchance, I saw him enter such a house of saile; [Sidenote: sale, ]_Videlicet_, a Brothell, or so forth. See you now;Your bait of falshood, takes this Cape of truth; [Sidenote: take this carpe]And thus doe we of wisedome and of reach[1]With windlesses, [2] and with assaies of Bias, By indirections finde directions out:So by my former Lecture and aduiceShall you my Sonne; you haue me, haue you not?

_Reynol. _ My Lord I haue. 

_Polon. _ God buy you; fare you well, [Sidenote: ye | ye]

_Reynol. _ Good my Lord. 

_Polon. _ Obserue his inclination in your selfe. [3]

_Reynol. _ I shall my Lord. 

_Polon. _ And let him[4] plye his Musicke. 

_Reynol. _ Well, my Lord. _Exit_. 

_Enter Ophelia_. 

_Polon_. Farewell:How now _Ophelia_, what's the matter?

_Ophe_. Alas my Lord, I haue beene so affrighted. [Sidenote: O my Lord, my Lord, ]

_Polon_. With what, in the name of Heauen? [Sidenote: i'th name of God?]

_Ophe_. My Lord, as I was sowing in my Chamber, [Sidenote: closset, ]Lord _Hamlet_ with his doublet all vnbrac'd, [5]No hat vpon his head, his stockings foul'd, Vngartred, and downe giued[6] to his Anckle, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, And with a looke so pitious in purport, As if he had been loosed out of hell, [Footnote 1: of far reaching mind. ]

[Footnote 2: The word windlaces is explained in the dictionaries as_shifts, subtleties_--but apparently on the sole authority of thispassage. There must be a figure in _windlesses_, as well as in _assaiesof Bias_, which is a phrase plain enough to bowlers: the trying of otherdirections than that of the _jack_, in the endeavour to come at one withthe law of the bowl's bias. I find _wanlass_ a term in hunting: it hadto do with driving game to a given point--whether in part by getting towindward of it, I cannot tell. The word may come of the verb wind, fromits meaning '_to manage by shifts or expedients_': _Barclay_. As he hasspoken of fishing, could the _windlesses_ refer to any little instrumentsuch as now used upon a fishing-rod? I do not think it. And how do thewords _windlesses_ and _indirections_ come together? Was a windless somecontrivance for determining how the wind blew? I bethink me that a thinwithered straw is in Scotland called a _windlestrae_: perhaps suchstraws were thrown up to find out 'by indirection' the direction of thewind. 

The press-reader sends me two valuable quotations, through Latham'sedition of Johnson's Dictionary, from Dr. H. Hammond (1605-1660), inwhich _windlass_ is used as a verb:--

'A skilful woodsman, by windlassing, presently gets a shoot, which, without taking a compass, and thereby a commodious stand, he could neverhave obtained. '

'She is not so much at leasure as to windlace, or use craft, to satisfythem. '

To _windlace_ seems then to mean 'to steal along to leeward;' would itbe absurd to suggest that, so-doing, the hunter _laces the wind_?Shakspere, with many another, I fancy, speaks of _threading the night_or _the darkness_. 

Johnson explains the word in the text as 'A handle by which anything isturned. ']

[Footnote 3: 'in your selfe. ' may mean either 'through the insightafforded by your own feelings'; or 'in respect of yourself, ' 'towardyourself. ' I do not know which is intended. ]

[Footnote 4: 1st Q. 'And bid him'. ]

[Footnote 5: loose; _undone_. ]

[Footnote 6: His stockings, slipped down in wrinkles round his ankles, suggested the rings of _gyves_ or fetters. The verb _gyve_, of which thepassive participle is here used, is rarer. ]

[Page 70]

To speake of horrors: he comes before me. 

_Polon. _ Mad for thy Loue?

_Ophe. _ My Lord, I doe not know: but truly I do feare it. [1]

_Polon. _ What said he?

_Ophe. _[2] He tooke me by the wrist, and held me hard;Then goes he to the length of all his arme;And with his other hand thus o're his brow, He fals to such perusall of my face, As he would draw it. Long staid he so, [Sidenote: As a]At last, a little shaking of mine Arme:And thrice his head thus wauing vp and downe;He rais'd a sigh, so pittious and profound, That it did seeme to shatter all his bulke, [Sidenote: As it]And end his being. That done, he lets me goe, And with his head ouer his shoulders turn'd, [Sidenote: shoulder]He seem'd to finde his way without his eyes, For out adores[3] he went without their helpe; [Sidenote: helps, ]And to the last, bended their light on me. 

_Polon. _ Goe with me, I will goe seeke the King, [Sidenote: Come, goe]This is the very extasie of Loue, Whose violent property foredoes[4] it selfe, And leads the will to desperate Vndertakings, As oft as any passion vnder Heauen, [Sidenote: passions]That does afflict our Natures. I am sorrie, What haue you giuen him any hard words of late?

_Ophe_. No my good Lord: but as you did command, [Sidenote: 42, 82] I did repell his Letters, and deny'deHis accesse to me. [5]

_Pol_. That hath made him mad. I am sorrie that with better speed and Judgement [Sidenote: better heede][Sidenote: 83] I had not quoted[6] him. I feare he did but trifle, [Sidenote: coted[6] | fear'd]And meant to wracke thee: but beshrew my iealousie:

[Footnote 1: She would be glad her father should think so. ]

[Footnote 2: The detailed description of Hamlet and his behaviour thatfollows, must be introduced in order that the side mirror of narrativemay aid the front mirror of drama, and between them be given a truenotion of his condition both mental and bodily. Although weeks havepassed since his interview with the Ghost, he is still haunted with thememory of it, still broods over its horrible revelation. That he had, probably soon, begun to feel far from certain of the truth of theapparition, could not make the thoughts and questions it had awaked, cease tormenting his whole being. The stifling smoke of his mother'sconduct had in his mind burst into loathsome flame, and through her hehas all but lost his faith in humanity. To know his uncle a villain, wasto know his uncle a villain; to know his mother false, was to doubtwomen, doubt the whole world. 

In the meantime Ophelia, in obedience to her father, and evidentlywithout reason assigned, has broken off communication with him: he readsher behaviour by the lurid light of his mother's. She too is false! shetoo is heartless! he can look to her for no help! She has turned againsthim to curry favour with his mother and his uncle!

Can she be such as his mother! Why should she not be? His mother hadseemed as good! He would give his life to know her honest and pure. Might he but believe her what he had believed her, he would yet have ahiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest! If he could butknow the truth! Alone with her once more but for a moment, he would readher very soul by the might of his! He must see her! He would see her! Inthe agony of a doubt upon which seemed to hang the bliss or bale of hisbeing, yet not altogether unintimidated by a sense of his intrusion, hewalks into the house of Polonius, and into the chamber of Ophelia. 

Ever since the night of the apparition, the court, from the behaviourassumed by Hamlet, has believed his mind affected; and when he entersher room, Ophelia, though such is the insight of love that she is ableto read in the face of the son the father's purgatorial sufferings, thepicture of one 'loosed out of hell, to speak of horrors, ' attributes allthe strangeness of his appearance and demeanour, such as she describesthem to her father, to that supposed fact. But there is, in truth, aslittle of affected as of actual madness in his behaviour in herpresence. When he comes before her pale and trembling, speechless andwith staring eyes, it is with no simulated insanity, but in the agonizedhope, scarce distinguishable from despair, of finding, in the testimonyof her visible presence, an assurance that the doubts ever tearing hisspirit and sickening his brain, are but the offspring of his phantasy. There she sits!--and there he stands, vainly endeavouring through hereyes to read her soul! for, alas, there's no art To find the mind's construction in the face!

--until at length, finding himself utterly baffled, but unable, save bythe removal of his person, to take his eyes from her face, he retiresspeechless as he came. Such is the man whom we are now to see wanderingabout the halls and corridors of the great castle-palace. 

He may by this time have begun to doubt even the reality of the sight hehad seen. The moment the pressure of a marvellous presence is removed, it is in the nature of man the same moment to begin to doubt; andinstead of having any reason to wish the apparition a true one, he hadevery reason to desire to believe it an illusion or a lying spirit. Great were his excuse even if he forced likelihoods, and subornedwitnesses in the court of his own judgment. To conclude it false was tothink his father in heaven, and his mother not an adulteress, not amurderess! At once to kill his uncle would be to seal these horriblethings irrevocable, indisputable facts. Strongest reasons he had for nottaking immediate action in vengeance; but no smallest incapacity foraction had share in his delay. The Poet takes recurrent pains, as if heforesaw hasty conclusions, to show his hero a man of promptitude, withthis truest fitness for action, that he would not make unlawful haste. Without sufficing assurance, he would have no part in the fate either ofthe uncle he disliked or the mother he loved. ]

[Footnote 3: _a doors_, like _an end_. 51, 175. ]

[Footnote 4: _undoes, frustrates, destroys_. ]

[Footnote 5: See quotation from _1st Quarto, _ 43. ]

[Footnote 6: _Quoted_ or _coted: observed_; Fr. _coter_, to mark thenumber. Compare 95. ]

[Page 72]

It seemes it is as proper to our Age, [Sidenote: By heauen it is]To cast beyond our selues[1] in our Opinions, As it is common for the yonger sortTo lacke discretion. [2] Come, go we to the King, This must be knowne, which being kept close might moueMore greefe to hide, then hate to vtter loue. [3] [Sidenote: Come. ] _Exeunt. _

_SCENA SECUNDA. _[4]

_Enter King, Queene, Rosincrane, and Guildensterne Cum alijs. [Sidenote: Florish: Enter King and Queene, Rosencraus and Guyldensterne. [5]]

_King. _ Welcome deere _Rosincrance_ and _Guildensterne_. Moreouer, [6] that we much did long to see you, The neede we haue to vse you, did prouoke[Sidenote: 92] Our hastie sending. [7] Something haue you heardOf _Hamlets_ transformation: so I call it, [Sidenote: so call]Since not th'exterior, nor the inward man [Sidenote: Sith nor]Resembles that it was. What it should beeMore then his Fathers death, that thus hath put himSo much from th'understanding of himselfe, I cannot deeme of. [8] I intreat you both, [Sidenote: dreame]That being of so young dayes[9] brought vp with him:And since so Neighbour'd to[10] his youth, and humour, [Sidenote: And sith | and hauior, ]That you vouchsafe your rest heere in our CourtSome little time: so by your CompaniesTo draw him on to pleasures, and to gather[Sidenote: 116] So much as from Occasions you may gleane, [Sidenote: occasion][A]That open'd lies within our remedie. [11]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

Whether ought to vs vnknowne afflicts him thus, ]

[Footnote 1:

 'to be overwise--to overreach ourselves' 'ambition, which o'erleaps itself, ' --_Macbeth_, act i. Sc. 7. ]

[Footnote 2: Polonius is a man of faculty. His courtier-life, hisself-seeking, his vanity, have made and make him the fool he is. ]

[Footnote 3: He hopes now to get his daughter married to the prince. 

We have here a curious instance of Shakspere's not unfrequentlyexcessive condensation. Expanded, the clause would be like this: 'which, being kept close, might move more grief by the hiding of love, than toutter love might move hate:' the grief in the one case might be greaterthan the hate in the other would be. It verges on confusion, and may notbe as Shakspere wrote it, though it is like his way. 

_1st Q. _

 Lets to the king, this madnesse may prooue, Though wilde a while, yet more true to thy loue. ]

[Footnote 4: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 5: _Q. _ has not _Cum alijs. _]

[Footnote 6: 'Moreover that &c. ': _moreover_ is here used as apreposition, with the rest of the clause for its objective. ]

[Footnote 7: Rosincrance and Guildensterne are, from the first andthroughout, the creatures of the king. ]

[Footnote 8: The king's conscience makes him suspicious of Hamlet'ssuspicion. ]

[Footnote 9: 'from such an early age'. ]

[Footnote 10: 'since then so familiar with'. ]

[Footnote 11: 'to gather as much as you may glean from opportunities, ofthat which, when disclosed to us, will lie within our remedial power. 'If the line of the Quarto be included, it makes plainer construction. The line beginning with '_So much_, ' then becomes parenthetical, and _togather_ will not immediately govern that line, but the rest of thesentence. ]

[Page 74]

_Qu. _ Good Gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you, And sure I am, two men there are not liuing, [Sidenote: there is not]To whom he more adheres. If it will please youTo shew vs so much Gentrie, [1] and good will, As to expend your time with vs a-while, For the supply and profit of our Hope, [2]Your Visitation shall receiue such thankesAs fits a Kings remembrance. 

_Rosin. _ Both your MaiestiesMight by the Soueraigne power you haue of vs, Put your dread pleasures, more into CommandThen to Entreatie, _Guil. _ We both[3] obey, [Sidenote: But we]And here giue vp our selues, in the full bent, [4]To lay our Seruices freely at your feete, [Sidenote: seruice]To be commanded. 

_King. _ Thankes _Rosincrance_, and gentle _Guildensterne_. 

_Qu. _ Thankes _Guildensterne_ and gentle _Rosincrance_, [5]And I beseech you instantly to visitMy too much changed Sonne. Go some of ye, [Sidenote: you]And bring the Gentlemen where _Hamlet_ is, [Sidenote: bring these]

_Guil. _ Heauens make our presence and our practisesPleasant and helpfull to him. _Exit_[6]

_Queene. _ Amen. [Sidenote: Amen. _Exeunt Ros. And Guyld. _]

_Enter Polonius. _

[Sidenote: 18] _Pol. _ Th'Ambassadors from Norwey, my good Lord, Are ioyfully return'd. 

[Footnote 1: gentleness, grace, favour. ]

[Footnote 2: Their hope in Hamlet, as their son and heir. ]

[Footnote 3: both majesties. ]

[Footnote 4: If we put a comma after _bent_, the phrase will mean 'inthe full _purpose_ or _design_ to lay our services &c. ' Without thecomma, the content of the phrase would be general:--'in the devotedforce of our faculty. ' The latter is more like Shakspere. ]

[Footnote 5: Is there not tact intended in the queen's reversal of herhusband's arrangement of the two names--that each might have precedence, and neither take offence?]

[Footnote 6: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Page 76]

_King. _ Thou still hast bin the Father of good Newes. 

_Pol. _ Haue I, my Lord?[1] Assure you, my good Liege, [Sidenote: I assure my]I hold my dutie, as I hold my Soule, Both to my God, one to my gracious King:[2] [Sidenote: God, and to[2]]And I do thinke, or else this braine of mineHunts not the traile of Policie, so sureAs I haue vs'd to do: that I haue found [Sidenote: it hath vsd]The very cause of _Hamlets_ Lunacie. 

_King. _ Oh speake of that, that I do long to heare. [Sidenote: doe I long]

_Pol. _ Giue first admittance to th'Ambassadors, My Newes shall be the Newes to that great Feast, [Sidenote: the fruite to that]

_King. _ Thy selfe do grace to them, and bring them in. He tels me my sweet Queene, that he hath found [Sidenote: my deere Gertrard he]The head[3] and sourse of all your Sonnes distemper. 

_Qu. _ I doubt it is no other, but the maine, His Fathers death, and our o're-hasty Marriage. [4] [Sidenote: our hastie]

_Enter Polonius, Voltumand, and Cornelius. _ [Sidenote: _Enter_ Embassadors. ]

_King. _ Well, we shall sift him. Welcome good Frends: [Sidenote: my good]Say _Voltumand_, what from our Brother Norwey?

_Volt. _ Most faire returne of Greetings, and Desires. Vpon our first, [5] he sent out to suppresseHis Nephewes Leuies, which to him appear'dTo be a preparation 'gainst the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke, ]But better look'd into, he truly foundIt was against your Highnesse, whereat greeued, That so his Sicknesse, Age, and ImpotenceWas falsely borne in hand, [6] sends[7] out ArrestsOn _Fortinbras_, which he (in breefe) obeyes, [Footnote 1: To be spoken triumphantly, but in the peculiar tone of onethinking, 'You little know what better news I have behind!']

[Footnote 2: I cannot tell which is the right reading; if the _Q. 's_, itmeans, '_I hold my duty precious as my soul, whether to my God or myking_'; if the _F. 's_, it is a little confused by the attempt ofPolonius to make a fine euphuistic speech:--'_I hold my duty as I holdmy soul, --both at the command of my God, one at the command of myking_. ']

[Footnote 3: the spring; the river-head

 'The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood'

 _Macbeth, _ act ii. Sc. 3. ]

[Footnote 4: She goes a step farther than the king in accounting forHamlet's misery--knows there is more cause of it yet, but hopes he doesnot know so much cause for misery as he might know. ]

[Footnote 5: Either 'first' stands for _first desire_, or it is a noun, and the meaning of the phrase is, 'The instant we mentioned thematter'. ]

[Footnote 6: 'borne in hand'--played with, taken advantage of. 

 'How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, '

 _Macbeth, _ act iii. Sc. 1. ]

[Footnote 7: The nominative pronoun was not _quite_ indispensable to theverb in Shakspere's time. ]

[Page 78]

Receiues rebuke from Norwey: and in fine, Makes Vow before his Vnkle, neuer moreTo giue th'assay of Armes against your Maiestie. Whereon old Norwey, ouercome with ioy, Giues him three thousand Crownes in Annuall Fee, [Sidenote: threescore thousand]And his Commission to imploy those SoldiersSo leuied as before, against the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke, ]With an intreaty heerein further shewne, [Sidenote: 190] That it might please you to giue quiet passeThrough your Dominions, for his Enterprize, [Sidenote: for this]On such regards of safety and allowance, As therein are set downe. 

_King_. It likes vs well:And at our more consider'd[1] time wee'l read, Answer, and thinke vpon this Businesse. Meane time we thanke you, for your well-tooke Labour. Go to your rest, at night wee'l Feast together. [2]Most welcome home. _Exit Ambass_. [Sidenote: Exeunt Embassadors]

_Pol_. This businesse is very well ended. [3] [Sidenote: is well]My Liege, and Madam, to expostulate[4]What Maiestie should be, what Dutie is, [5]Why day is day; night, night; and time is time, Were nothing but to waste Night, Day and Time. Therefore, since Breuitie is the Soule of Wit, [Sidenote: Therefore breuitie]And tediousnesse, the limbes and outward flourishes, [6]I will be breefe. Your Noble Sonne is mad:Mad call I it; for to define true Madnesse, What is't, but to be nothing else but mad. [7]But let that go. 

_Qu_. More matter, with lesse Art. [8]

_Pol_. Madam, I sweare I vse no Art at all:That he is mad, 'tis true: 'Tis true 'tis pittie, [Sidenote: hee's mad]And pittie it is true; A foolish figure, [9] [Sidenote: pitty tis tis true, ]

[Footnote 1: time given up to, or filled with consideration; _or, perhaps_, time chosen for a purpose. ]

[Footnote 2: He is always feasting. ]

[Footnote 3: Now for _his_ turn! He sets to work at once with hisrhetoric. ]

[Footnote 4: to lay down beforehand as postulates. ]

[Footnote 5: We may suppose a dash and pause after '_Dutie is_'. Themeaning is plain enough, though logical form is wanting. ]

[Footnote 6: As there is no imagination in Polonius, we cannot look forgreat aptitude in figure. ]

[Footnote 7: The nature of madness also is a postulate. ]

[Footnote 8: She is impatient, but wraps her rebuke in a compliment. Art, so-called, in speech, was much favoured in the time of Elizabeth. And as a compliment Polonius takes the form in which she expresses herdislike of his tediousness, and her anxiety after his news: pretendingto wave it off, he yet, in his gratification, coming on the top of hisexcitement with the importance of his fancied discovery, plungesimmediately into a very slough of _art_, and becomes absolutely silly. ]

[Footnote 9: It is no figure at all. It is hardly even a play with thewords. ]

[Page 80]

But farewell it: for I will vse no Art. Mad let vs grant him then: and now remainesThat we finde out the cause of this effect, Or rather say, the cause of this defect;For this effect defectiue, comes by cause, Thus it remaines, and the remainder thus. Perpend, I haue a daughter: haue, whil'st she is mine, [Sidenote: while]Who in her Dutie and Obedience, marke, Hath giuen me this: now gather, and surmise. 

 _The Letter_. [1]_To the Celestiall, and my Soules Idoll, the most beautified Ophelia_. That's an ill Phrase, a vilde Phrase, beautifiedis a vilde Phrase: but you shall heare these in her thus in herexcellent white bosome, these. [2] [Sidenote: these, &c]

_Qu_. Came this from _Hamlet_ to her. 

_Pol_. Good Madam stay awhile, I will be faithfull. _Doubt thou, the Starres are fire_, [Sidenote: _Letter_]_Doubt, that the Sunne doth moue;Doubt Truth to be a Lier, But neuer Doubt, I loue. [3]O deere Ophelia, I am ill at these Numbers: Ihaue not Art to reckon my grones; but that I louethee best, oh most Best beleeue it. Adieu. Thine euermore most deere Lady, whilst this Machine is to him_, Hamlet. This in Obedience hath my daughter shew'd me: [Sidenote: _Pol_. This showne]And more aboue hath his soliciting, [Sidenote: more about solicitings]As they fell out by Time, by Meanes, and Place, All giuen to mine eare. 

_King_. But how hath she receiu'd his Loue?

_Pol_. What do you thinke of me?

_King_. As of a man, faithfull and Honourable. 

_Pol_. I wold faine proue so. But what might you think?

[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 2: _Point thus_: 'but you shall heare. _These, in herexcellent white bosom, these_:'

Ladies, we are informed, wore a small pocket in front of thebodice;--but to accept the fact as an explanation of this passage, is tocast the passage away. Hamlet _addresses_ his letter, not to Ophelia'spocket, but to Ophelia herself, at her house--that is, in the palace ofher bosom, excellent in whiteness. In like manner, signing himself, hemakes mention of his body as a machine of which he has the use for atime. So earnest is Hamlet that when he makes love, he is the more aphilosopher. But he is more than a philosopher: he is a man of theUniverse, not a man of this world only. 

We must not allow the fashion of the time in which the play was written, to cause doubt as to the genuine heartiness of Hamlet's love-making. ]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q. _

 Doubt that in earth is fire, Doubt that the starres doe moue, Doubt trueth to be a liar, But doe not doubt I loue. ]

[Page 82]

When I had seene this hot loue on the wing, As I perceiued it, I must tell you thatBefore my Daughter told me, what might youOr my deere Maiestie your Queene heere, think, If I had playd the Deske or Table-booke, [1]Or giuen my heart a winking, mute and dumbe, [Sidenote: working]Or look'd vpon this Loue, with idle sight, [2]What might you thinke? No, I went round to worke, And (my yong Mistris) thus I did bespeake[3]Lord _Hamlet_ is a Prince out of thy Starre, [4]This must not be:[5] and then, I Precepts gaue her, [Sidenote: I prescripts]That she should locke her selfe from his Resort, [Sidenote: from her][Sidenote: 42[6], 43, 70] Admit no Messengers, receiue no Tokens:Which done, she tooke the Fruites of my Aduice, [7]And he repulsed. A short Tale to make, [Sidenote: repell'd, a]Fell into a Sadnesse, then into a Fast, [8]Thence to a Watch, thence into a Weaknesse, [Sidenote: to a wath, ]Thence to a Lightnesse, and by this declension [Sidenote: to lightnes]Into the Madnesse whereon now he raues, [Sidenote: wherein]And all we waile for. [9] [Sidenote: mourne for]

_King_. Do you thinke 'tis this?[10] [Sidenote: thinke this?]

_Qu_. It may be very likely. [Sidenote: like]

_Pol_. Hath there bene such a time, I'de fain know that, [Sidenote: I would]That I haue possitiuely said, 'tis so, When it prou'd otherwise?

_King_. Not that I know. 

_Pol_. Take this from this[11]; if this be otherwise, If Circumstances leade me, I will findeWhere truth is hid, though it were hid indeedeWithin the Center. 

_King_. How may we try it further?

[Footnote 1: --behaved like a piece of furniture. ]

[Footnote 2: The love of talk makes a man use many idle words, foolishexpressions, and useless repetitions. ]

[Footnote 3: Notwithstanding the parenthesis, I take 'Mistris' to be theobjective to 'bespeake'--that is, _address_. ]

[Footnote 4: _Star_, mark of sort or quality; brand (45). The _1st Q_. Goes on--

 An'd one that is vnequall for your loue:

But it may mean, as suggested by my _Reader_, 'outside thy destiny, '--asruled by the star of nativity--and I think it does. ]

[Footnote 5: Here is a change from the impression conveyed in the firstact: he attributes his interference to his care for what befittedroyalty; whereas, talking to Ophelia (40, 72), he attributes it entirelyto his care for her;--so partly in the speech correspondent to thepresent in _1st Q_. :--

 Now since which time, seeing his loue thus cross'd, Which I tooke to be idle, and but sport, He straitway grew into a melancholy, ]

[Footnote 6: See also passage in note from _1st Q_. ]

[Footnote 7: She obeyed him. The 'fruits' of his advice were herconformed actions. ]

[Footnote 8: When the appetite goes, and the sleep follows, doubtlessthe man is on the steep slope of madness. But as to Hamlet, and howmatters were with him, what Polonius says is worth nothing. ]

[Footnote 9: '_wherein_ now he raves, and _wherefor_ all we wail. ']

[Footnote 10: _To the queen_. ]

[Footnote 11: head from shoulders. ]

[Page 84]

_Pol_. You know sometimesHe walkes foure houres together, heere[1]In the Lobby. 

_Qu_. So he ha's indeed. [Sidenote: he dooes indeede]

[Sidenote: 118] _Pol_. At such a time Ile loose my Daughter to him, Be you and I behinde an Arras then, Marke the encounter: If he loue her not, And be not from his reason falne thereon;Let me be no Assistant for a State, And keepe a Farme and Carters. [Sidenote: But keepe]

_King_. We will try it. 

_Enter Hamlet reading on a Booke. _[2]

_Qu_. But looke where sadly the poore wretchComes reading. [3]

_Pol_. Away I do beseech you, both away, He boord[4] him presently. _Exit King & Queen_[5]Oh giue me leaue. [6] How does my good Lord _Hamlet_?

_Ham_. Well, God-a-mercy. 

_Pol_. Do you know me, my Lord?

[Sidenote: 180] _Ham_. Excellent, excellent well: y'are aFish-monger. [7] [Sidenote: Excellent well, you are]

_Pol_. Not I my Lord. 

_Ham_. Then I would you were so honest a man. 

_Pol_. Honest, my Lord?

_Ham_. I sir, to be honest as this world goes, isto bee one man pick'd out of two thousand. [Sidenote: tenne thousand[8]]

_Pol_. That's very true, my Lord. 

_Ham_. [9] For if the Sun breed Magots in a deaddogge, being a good kissing Carrion--[10] [Sidenote: carrion. Have]Haue you a daughter?[11]

_Pol_. I haue my Lord. 

[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 

 The Princes walke is here in the galery, There let _Ofelia_, walke vntill hee comes: Your selfe and I will stand close in the study, ]

[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. --

 _King_. See where hee comes poring vppon a booke. ]

[Footnote 4: The same as accost, both meaning originally _go to the sideof_. ]

[Footnote 5: _A line back in the Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 6: 'Please you to go away. ' 89, 203. Here should come thepreceding stage-direction. ]

[Footnote 7: Now first the Play shows us Hamlet in his affected madness. He has a great dislike to the selfish, time-serving courtier, who, likehis mother, has forsaken the memory of his father--and a great distrustof him as well. The two men are moral antipodes. Each is given tomoralizing--but compare their reflections: those of Polonius reveal alover of himself, those of Hamlet a lover of his kind; Polonius isinterested in success; Hamlet in humanity. ]

[Footnote 8: So also in _1st Q_. ]

[Footnote 9: --reading, or pretending to read, the words from the bookhe carries. ]

[Footnote 10: When the passion for emendation takes possession of a man, his opportunities are endless--so many seeming emendations offerthemselves which are in themselves not bad, letters and words affordingas much play as the keys of a piano. 'Being a god kissing carrion, ' isin itself good enough; but Shakspere meant what stands in both Quartoand Folio: _the dead dog being a carrion good at kissing_. The arbitrarychanges of the editors are amazing. ]

[Footnote 11: He cannot help his mind constantly turning upon women; andif his thoughts of them are often cruelly false, it is not Hamlet buthis mother who is to blame: her conduct has hurled him from the peak ofoptimism into the bottomless pool of pessimistic doubt, above the foulwaters of which he keeps struggling to lift his head. ]

[Page 86]

_Ham_. Let her not walke i'th'Sunne: Conception[1]is a blessing, but not as your daughter may [Sidenote: but as your]conceiue. Friend looke too't. 

[Sidenote: 100] _Pol_. [2] How say you by that? Still harping onmy daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said [Sidenote: a sayd I]I was a Fishmonger: he is farre gone, farre gone: [Sidenote: Fishmonger, a is farre gone, and truly]and truly in my youth, I suffred much extreamity and trulyfor loue: very neere this. Ile speake to himagaine. 

What do you read my Lord?

_Ham_. Words, words, words. 

_Pol_. What is the matter, my Lord?

_Ham_. Betweene who?[3]

_Pol_. I meane the matter you meane, my [Sidenote: matter that you reade my]Lord. 

_Ham_. Slanders Sir: for the Satyricall slaue [Sidenote: satericall rogue sayes]saies here, that old men haue gray Beards; thattheir faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thickeAmber, or Plum-Tree Gumme: and that they haue [Sidenote: Amber, and]a plentifull locke of Wit, together with weake [Sidenote: lacke | with most weake]Hammes. All which Sir, though I most powerfully, and potently beleeue; yet I holde it notHonestie[4] to haue it thus set downe: For you [Sidenote: for your selfe sir shall grow old as I am:]your selfe Sir, should be old as I am, if like a Crabyou could go backward. 

_Pol_. [5] Though this be madnesse, Yet there is Method in't: will you walkeOut of the ayre[6] my Lord?

_Ham_. Into my Graue?

_Pol_. Indeed that is out o'th'Ayre: [Sidenote: that's out of the ayre;]How pregnant (sometimes) his Replies are?A happinesse, That often Madnesse hits on, Which Reason and Sanitie could not [Sidenote: sanctity]So prosperously be deliuer'd of. 

[Footnote 1: One of the meanings of the word, and more in use then thannow, is _understanding_. ]

[Footnote 2: (_aside_). ]

[Footnote 3: --pretending to take him to mean by _matter_, the _point ofquarrel_. ]

[Footnote 4: Propriety. ]

[Footnote 5: (_aside_). ]

[Footnote 6: the draught. ]

[Page 88]

[A] I will leaue him, And sodainely contriue the meanes of meetingBetweene him, [1] and my daughter. My Honourable Lord, I will most humblyTake my leaue of you. 

_Ham_. You cannot Sir take from[2] me any thing, that I will more willingly part withall, except my [Sidenote: will not more | my life, except my]life, my life. [3] [Sidenote: _Enter Guyldersterne, and Rosencrans_. ]

_Polon_. Fare you well my Lord. 

_Ham_. These tedious old fooles. 

_Polon_. You goe to seeke my Lord _Hamlet_; [Sidenote: the Lord]there hee is. 

_Enter Rosincran and Guildensterne_. [4]

_Rosin_. God saue you Sir. 

_Guild_. Mine honour'd Lord?

_Rosin_. My most deare Lord?

_Ham_. My excellent good friends? How do'st [Sidenote: My extent good]thou _Guildensterne_? Oh, _Rosincrane_; good Lads: [Sidenote: A Rosencraus]How doe ye both? [Sidenote: you]

_Rosin_. As the indifferent Children of the earth. 

_Guild_. Happy, in that we are not ouer-happy: [Sidenote: euer happy on]on Fortunes Cap, we are not the very Button. [Sidenote: Fortunes lap, ]

_Ham_. Nor the Soales of her Shoo?

_Rosin_. Neither my Lord. 

_Ham_. Then you liue about her waste, or in themiddle of her fauour? [Sidenote: fauors. ]

_Guil_. Faith, her priuates, we. 

_Ham_. In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true: she is a Strumpet. [5] What's the newes? [Sidenote: What newes?]

_Rosin_. None my Lord; but that the World's [Sidenote: but the]growne honest. 

_Ham_. Then is Doomesday neere: But your

[Footnote A: _In the Quarto, the speech ends thus_:--I will leaue himand my daughter. [6] My Lord, I will take my leaue of you. ]

[Footnote 1: From 'And sodainely' _to_ 'betweene him, ' _not in Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 2: It is well here to recall the modes of the word _leave_:'_Give me leave_, ' Polonius says with proper politeness to the king andqueen when he wants _them_ to go--that is, 'Grant me your _departure_';but he would, going himself, _take_ his leave, his departure, _of_ or_from_ them--by their permission to go. Hamlet means, 'You cannot takefrom me anything I will more willingly part with than your leave, or, mypermission to you to go. ' 85, 203. See the play on the two meanings ofthe word in _Twelfth Night_, act ii. Sc. 4:

 _Duke_. Give me now leave to leave thee;

though I suspect it ought to be--

 _Duke_. Give me now leave. 

 _Clown_. To leave thee!--Now, the melancholy &c. ]

[Footnote 3: It is a relief to him to speak the truth under the cloak ofmadness--ravingly. He has no one to whom to open his heart: what liesthere he feels too terrible for even the eye of Horatio. He has notapparently told him as yet more than the tale of his father's murder. ]

[Footnote 4: _Above, in Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 5: In this and all like utterances of Hamlet, we see what wormit is that lies gnawing at his heart. ]

[Footnote 6: This is a slip in the _Quarto_--rectified in the _Folio_:his daughter was not present. ]

[Page 90]

newes is not true. [1] [2] Let me question more in particular:what haue you my good friends, deseruedat the hands of Fortune, that she sends you toPrison hither?

_Guil_. Prison, my Lord?

_Ham_. Denmark's a Prison. 

_Rosin_. Then is the World one. 

_Ham_. A goodly one, in which there are manyConfines, Wards, and Dungeons; _Denmarke_ beingone o'th'worst. 

_Rosin_. We thinke not so my Lord. 

_Ham_. Why then 'tis none to you; for there isnothing either good or bad, but thinking makes itso[3]: to me it is a prison. 

_Rosin_. Why then your Ambition makes it one:'tis too narrow for your minde. [4]

_Ham_. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count my selfe a King of infinite space; wereit not that I haue bad dreames. 

_Guil_. Which dreames indeed are Ambition:for the very substance[5] of the Ambitious, is meerelythe shadow of a Dreame. 

_Ham_. A dreame it selfe is but a shadow. 

_Rosin_. Truely, and I hold Ambition of so ayryand light a quality, that it is but a shadowes shadow. 

_Ham_. Then are our Beggers bodies; and ourMonarchs and out-stretcht Heroes the BeggersShadowes: shall wee to th'Court: for, by my fey[6]I cannot reason?[7]

_Both_. Wee'l wait vpon you. 

_Ham_. No such matter. [8] I will not sort youwith the rest of my seruants: for to speake to youlike an honest man: I am most dreadfully attended;[9]but in the beaten way of friendship, [10] [Sidenote: But in]

What make you at _Elsonower_?

[Footnote 1: 'it is not true that the world is grown honest': he doubtsthemselves. His eye is sharper because his heart is sorer since he leftWittenberg. He proceeds to examine them. ]

[Footnote 2: This passage, beginning with 'Let me question, ' and endingwith 'dreadfully attended, ' is not in the _Quarto_. 

Who inserted in the Folio this and other passages? Was it or was it notShakspere? Beyond a doubt they are Shakspere's all. Then who omittedthose omitted? Was Shakspere incapable of refusing any of his own work?Or would these editors, who profess to have all opportunity, and who, belonging to the theatre, must have had the best of opportunities, havedesired or dared to omit what far more painstaking editors have sincepresumed, though out of reverence, to restore?]

[Footnote 3: 'but it is thinking that makes it so:']

[Footnote 4: --feeling after the cause of Hamlet's strangeness, andfollowing the readiest suggestion, that of chagrin at missing thesuccession. ]

[Footnote 5: objects and aims. ]

[Footnote 6: _foi_. ]

[Footnote 7: Does he choose beggars as the representatives of substancebecause they lack ambition--that being shadow? Or does he take them asthe shadows of humanity, that, following Rosincrance, he may get theirshadows, the shadows therefore of shadows, to parallel _monarchs_ and_heroes_? But he is not satisfied with his own analogue--therefore willto the court, where good logic is not wanted--where indeed he knows ahellish lack of reason. ]

[Footnote 8: 'On no account. ']

[Footnote 9: 'I have very bad servants. ' Perhaps he judges his servantsspies upon him. Or might he mean that he was _haunted with badthoughts_? Or again, is it a stroke of his pretence ofmadness--suggesting imaginary followers?]

[Footnote: 10: 'to speak plainly, as old friends. ']

[Page 92]

_Rosin_. To visit you my Lord, no other occasion. 

_Ham_. Begger that I am, I am euen poore in [Sidenote: am ever poore]thankes; but I thanke you: and sure deare friendsmy thanks are too deare a halfepeny[1]; were you[Sidenote: 72] not sent for? Is it your owne inclining? Is it afree visitation?[2] Come, deale iustly with me:come, come; nay speake. [Sidenote: come, come, ]

_Guil_. What should we say my Lord?[3]

_Ham_. Why any thing. But to the purpose; [Sidenote: Any thing but to'th purpose:]you were sent for; and there is a kinde confession [Sidenote: kind of confession]in your lookes; which your modesties haue notcraft enough to color, I know the good King and[Sidenote: 72] Queene haue sent for you. 

_Rosin_. To what end my Lord?

_Ham_. That you must teach me: but let meeconiure[4] you by the rights of our fellowship, bythe consonancy of our youth, [5] by the Obligationof our euer-preserued loue, and by what moredeare, a better proposer could charge you withall; [Sidenote: can]be euen and direct with me, whether you were sentfor or no. 

_Rosin_. What say you?[6]

_Ham_. Nay then I haue an eye of you[7]: if youloue me hold not off. [8]

[Sidenote: 72] _Guil_. My Lord, we were sent for. 

_Ham_. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipationpreuent your discouery of your secricie to [Sidenote: discovery, and your secrecie to the King and Queene moult no feather, [10]]the King and Queene[9] moult no feather, I haue[Sidenote: 116] of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all mymirth, forgone all custome of exercise; and indeed, [Sidenote: exercises;]it goes so heauenly with my disposition; that this [Sidenote: heauily]goodly frame the Earth, seemes to me a sterrillPromontory; this most excellent Canopy the Ayre, look you, this braue ore-hanging, this Maiesticall [Sidenote: orehanging firmament, ]Roofe, fretted with golden fire: why, it appeares no [Sidenote: appeareth]

[Footnote 1: --because they were by no means hearty thanks. ]

[Footnote 2: He wants to know whether they are in his uncle's employmentand favour; whether they pay court to himself for his uncle's ends. ]

[Footnote 3: He has no answer ready. ]

[Footnote 4: He will not cast them from him without trying a directappeal to their old friendship for plain dealing. This must beremembered in relation to his treatment of them afterwards. He affordsthem every chance of acting truly--conjuring them to honesty--givingthem a push towards repentance. ]

[Footnote 5: Either, 'the harmony of our young days, ' or, 'thesympathies of our present youth. ']

[Footnote 6: --_to Guildenstern_. ]

[Footnote 7: (_aside_) 'I will keep an eye upon you;'. ]

[Footnote 8: 'do not hold back. ']

[Footnote 9: The _Quarto_ seems here to have the right reading. ]

[Footnote 10: 'your promise of secrecy remain intact;'. ]

[Page 94]

other thing to mee, then a foule and pestilent congregation [Sidenote: nothing to me but a]of vapours. What a piece of worke is [Sidenote: what peece]a man! how Noble in Reason? how infinite infaculty? in forme and mouing how expresse and [Sidenote: faculties, ]admirable? in Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension, how like a God? the beauty of theworld, the Parragon of Animals; and yet to me, what is this Quintessence of Dust? Man delightsnot me;[1] no, nor Woman neither; though by your [Sidenote: not me, nor women]smiling you seeme to say so. [2]

_Rosin. _ My Lord, there was no such stuffe inmy thoughts. 

_Ham. _ Why did you laugh, when I said, Man [Sidenote: yee laugh then, when]delights not me?

_Rosin. _ To thinke, my Lord, if you delight notin Man, what Lenton entertainment the Playersshall receiue from you:[3] wee coated them[4] on theway, and hither are they comming to offer youSeruice. 

_Ham. _[5] He that playes the King shall be welcome;his Maiesty shall haue Tribute of mee: [Sidenote: on me, ]the aduenturous Knight shal vse his Foyle andTarget: the Louer shall not sigh _gratis_, thehumorous man[6] shall end his part in peace: [7] theClowne shall make those laugh whose lungs aretickled a'th' sere:[8] and the Lady shall say herminde freely; or the blanke Verse shall halt for't[9]: [Sidenote: black verse]what Players are they?

_Rosin. _ Euen those you Were wont to take [Sidenote: take such delight]delight in the Tragedians of the City. 

_Ham. _ How chances it they trauaile? their residenceboth in reputation and profit was better bothwayes. 

_Rosin. _ I thinke their Inhibition comes by themeanes of the late Innouation?[10]

[Footnote 1: A genuine description, so far as it goes, of the state ofHamlet's mind. But he does not reveal the operating cause--his loss offaith in women, which has taken the whole poetic element out of heaven, earth, and humanity: he would have his uncle's spies attribute hiscondition to mere melancholy. ]

[Footnote 2: --said angrily, I think. ]

[Footnote 3: --a ready-witted subterfuge. ]

[Footnote 4: came alongside of them; got up with them; apparently ratherfrom Fr. _côté_ than _coter_; like _accost_. Compare 71. But I suspectit only means _noted_, _observed_, and is from _coter_. ]

[Footnote 5: --_with humorous imitation, perhaps, of each of thecharacters_. ]

[Footnote 6: --the man with a whim. ]

[Footnote 7: This part of the speech--from [7] to [8], is not in the_Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 8: Halliwell gives a quotation in which the touch-hole of apistol is called the _sere_: the _sere_, then, of the lungs would meanthe opening of the lungs--the part with which we laugh: those 'whoselungs are tickled a' th' sere, ' are such as are ready to laugh on theleast provocation: _tickled_--_irritable, ticklish_--ready to laugh, asanother might be to cough. 'Tickled o' the sere' was a common phrase, signifying, thus, _propense_. 

 _1st Q. _ The clowne shall make them laugh That are tickled in the lungs, ]

[Footnote 9: Does this refer to the pause that expresses theunutterable? or to the ruin of the measure of the verse by anincompetent heroine?]

[Footnote 10: Does this mean, 'I think their prohibition comes throughthe late innovation, '--of the children's acting; or, 'I think they areprevented from staying at home by the late new measures, '--such, namely, as came of the puritan opposition to stage-plays? This had grown sostrong, that, in 1600, the Privy Council issued an order restricting thenumber of theatres in London to two: by such an _innovation_ a number ofplayers might well be driven to the country. ]

[Page 96]

_Ham_. Doe they hold the same estimation theydid when I was in the City? Are they so follow'd?

_Rosin_. No indeed, they are not. [Sidenote: are they not. ]

[1]_Ham_. How comes it? doe they grow rusty?

_Rosin_. Nay, their indeauour keepes in thewonted pace; But there is Sir an ayrie of Children, [2]little Yases, [3] that crye out[4] on the top of question;[5]and are most tyrannically clap't for't: these arenow the fashion, and so be-ratled the commonStages[6] (so they call them) that many wearingRapiers, [7] are affraide of Goose-quils, and darescarse come thither. [8]

_Ham_. What are they Children? Who maintains'em? How are they escoted?[9] Will they pursuethe Quality[10] no longer then they can sing?[11] Willthey not say afterwards if they should grow themseluesto common Players (as it is like most[12] iftheir meanes are no better) their Writers[13] do themwrong, to make them exclaim against their owneSuccession. [14]

_Rosin_. Faith there ha's bene much to do onboth sides: and the Nation holds it no sinne, totarre them[15] to Controuersie. There was for awhile, no mony bid for argument, vnlesse the Poetand the Player went to Cuffes in the Question. [16]

_Ham_. Is't possible?

_Guild_. Oh there ha's beene much throwingabout of Braines. 

_Ham_. Do the Boyes carry it away?[17]

_Rosin_. I that they do my Lord, _Hercules_ andhis load too. [18]

_Ham_. It is not strange: for mine Vnckle is [Sidenote: not very strange, | my]King of Denmarke, and those that would makemowes at him while my Father liued; giue twenty, [Sidenote: make mouths]

[Footnote 1: The whole of the following passage, beginning with 'Howcomes it, ' and ending with 'Hercules and his load too, ' belongs to the_Folio_ alone--is not in the _Quarto_. 

In the _1st Quarto_ we find the germ of the passage--unrepresented inthe _2nd_, developed in the _Folio_. 

 _Ham_. Players, what Players be they?

 _Ross_. My Lord, the Tragedians of the Citty, Those that you tooke delight to see so often. 

 _Ham_. How comes it that they trauell? Do they grow restie?

 _Gil_. No my Lord, their reputation holds as it was wont. 

 _Ham_. How then?

 _Gil_. Yfaith my Lord, noueltie carries it away, For the principall publike audience that Came to them, are turned to priuate playes, [19] And to the humour[20] of children. 

 _Ham_. I doe not greatly wonder of it, For those that would make mops and moes At my vncle, when my father liued, &c. ]

[Footnote 2: _a nest of children_. The acting of the children of two orthree of the chief choirs had become the rage. ]

[Footnote 3: _Eyases_--unfledged hawks. ]

[Footnote 4: Children _cry out_ rather than _speak_ on the stage. ]

[Footnote 5: 'cry out beyond dispute'--_unquestionably_; 'cry out and nomistake. ' 'He does not top his part. ' _The Rehearsal_, iii. 1. --'_He isnot up to it_. ' But perhaps here is intended _above reason_: 'they cryout excessively, excruciatingly. ' 103. 

This said, in top of rage the lines she rents, --_A Lover's Complaint_. ]

[Footnote 6: I presume it should be the present tense, _beratle_--exceptthe _are_ of the preceding member be understood: 'and so beratled _are_the common stages. ' If the _present_, then the children 'so abuse thegrown players, '--in the pieces they acted, particularly in the new_arguments_, written for them--whence the reference to _goose-quills_. ]

[Footnote 7: --of the play-going public. ]

[Footnote 8: --for dread of sharing in the ridicule. ]

[Footnote 9: _paid_--from the French _escot_, a shot or reckoning: _Dr. Johnson_. ]

[Footnote 10: --the quality of players; the profession of the stage. ]

[Footnote 11: 'Will they cease playing when their voices change?']

[Footnote 12: Either _will_ should follow here, or _like_ and _most_must change places. ]

[Footnote 13: 'those that write for them'. ]

[Footnote 14: --what they had had to come to themselves. ]

[Footnote 15: 'to incite the children and the grown players tocontroversy': _to tarre them on like dogs_: see _King John_, iv. 1. ]

[Footnote 16: 'No stage-manager would buy a new argument, or prologue, to a play, unless the dramatist and one of the actors were thereinrepresented as falling out on the question of the relative claims of thechildren and adult actors. ']

[Footnote 17: 'Have the boys the best of it?']

[Footnote 18: 'That they have, out and away. ' Steevens suggests thatallusion is here made to the sign of the Globe Theatre--Hercules bearingthe world for Atlas. ]

[Footnote 19: amateur-plays. ]

[Footnote 20: whimsical fashion. ]

[Page 98]

forty, an hundred Ducates a peece, for his picture[1] [Sidenote: fortie, fifty, a hundred]in Little. [2] There is something in this more then [Sidenote: little, s'bloud there is]Naturall, if Philosophic could finde it out. 

_Flourish for tke Players_. [3] [Sidenote: _A Florish_. ]

_Guil_. There are the Players. 

_Ham_. Gentlemen, you are welcom to _Elsonower_:your hands, come: The appurtenance of [Sidenote: come then, th']Welcome, is Fashion and Ceremony. Let me[Sidenote: 260] comply with you in the Garbe, [4] lest my extent[5] to [Sidenote: in this garb: let me extent]the Players (which I tell you must shew fairelyoutward) should more appeare like entertainment[6] [Sidenote: outwards, ]then yours. [7] You are welcome: but my VnckleFather, and Aunt Mother are deceiu'd. 

_Guil_. In what my deere Lord?

_Ham_. I am but mad North, North-West: whenthe Winde is Southerly, I know a Hawke from aHandsaw. [8]

_Enter Polonius_. 

_Pol_. Well[9] be with you Gentlemen. 

_Ham_. Hearke you _Guildensterne_, and you too:at each eare a hearer: that great Baby you seethere, is not yet out of his swathing clouts. [Sidenote: swadling clouts. ]

_Rosin_. Happily he's the second time come to [Sidenote: he is]them: for they say, an old man is twice a childe. 

_Ham_. I will Prophesie. Hee comes to tell meof the Players. Mark it, you say right Sir: for a [Sidenote: sir, a Monday]Monday morning 'twas so indeed. [10] [Sidenote: t'was then indeede. ]

_Pol_. My Lord, I haue Newes to tell you. 

_Ham_. My Lord, I haue Newes to tell you. When _Rossius_ an Actor in Rome----[11] [Sidenote: _Rossius_ was an]

_Pol_. The Actors are come hither my Lord. 

_Ham_. Buzze, buzze. [12]

_Pol_. Vpon mine Honor. [13] [Sidenote: my]

_Ham_. Then can each Actor on his Asse---- [Sidenote: came each]

[Footnote 1: If there be any logical link here, except that, after theinstance adduced, no change in social fashion--nothing at all indeed, isto be wondered at, I fail to see it. Perhaps the speech is intended tobelong to the simulation. The last sentence of it appears meant toconvey the impression that he suspects nothing--is only bewildered bythe course of things. ]

[Footnote 2: his miniature. ]

[Footnote 3: --to indicate their approach. ]

[Footnote 4: _com'ply_--accent on first syllable--'pass compliments withyou' (260)--_in the garb_, either 'in appearance, ' or 'in the fashion ofthe hour. ']

[Footnote 5: 'the amount of courteous reception I extend'--'my advancesto the players. ']

[Footnote 6: reception, welcome. ]

[Footnote 7: He seems to desire that they shall no more be on thefooting of fellow-students, and thus to rid himself of the old relation. Perhaps he hints that they are players too. From any further show offriendliness he takes refuge in convention--and professedconvention--supplying a reason in order to escape a dangerousinterpretation of his sudden formality--'lest you should suppose me morecordial to the players than to you. ' The speech is full of inwovenirony, doubtful, and refusing to be ravelled out. With what merelyhalf-shown, yet scathing satire it should be spoken and accompanied!]

[Footnote 8: A proverb of the time comically corrupted--_handsaw forhernshaw_--a heron, the quarry of the hawk. He denies his madness asmadmen do--and in terms themselves not unbefitting madness--so making itseem the more genuine. Yet every now and then, urged by the commotion ofhis being, he treads perilously on the border of self-betrayal. ]

[Footnote 9: used as a noun. ]

[Footnote 10: _Point thus_: 'Mark it. --You say right, sir; &c. ' He takesup a speech that means nothing, and might mean anything, to turn asidethe suspicion their whispering might suggest to Polonius that they hadbeen talking about him--so better to lay his trap for him. ]

[Footnote 11: He mentions the _actor_ to lead Polonius so that hisprophecy of him shall come true. ]

[Footnote 12: An interjection of mockery: he had made a fool of him. ]

[Footnote 13: Polonius thinks he is refusing to believe him. ]

[Page 100]

_Polon_. The best Actors in the world, either forTragedie, Comedie, Historic, Pastorall: Pastoricall-Comicall-Historicall-Pastorall: [1] Tragicall-Historicall:Tragicall-Comicall--Historicall-Pastorall[1]:Scene indiuible, [2] or Poem vnlimited. [3] _Seneca_ cannot [Sidenote: scene indeuidible, [2]]be too heauy, nor _Plautus_ too light, for the law ofWrit, and the Liberty. These are the onely men. [4]

_Ham_. O _Iephta_ Iudge of Israel, what a Treasurehad'st thou?

_Pol_. What a Treasure had he, my Lord?[5]

_Ham_. Why one faire Daughter, and no more, [6]The which he loued passing well. [6]

[Sidenote: 86] _Pol_. Still on my Daughter. 

_Ham_. Am I not i'th'right old _Iephta_?

_Polon_. If you call me _Iephta_ my Lord, I hauea daughter that I loue passing well. 

_Ham_. Nay that followes not. [7]

_Polon_. What followes then, my Lord?

_Ham_. Why, As by lot, God wot:[6] and then youknow, It came to passe, as most like it was:[6] Thefirst rowe of the _Pons[8] Chanson_ will shew you more, [Sidenote: pious chanson]For looke where my Abridgements[9] come. [Sidenote: abridgment[9] comes]

_Enter foure or fiue Players. _ [Sidenote: _Enter the Players. _]

Y'are welcome Masters, welcome all. I am glad [Sidenote: You are]to see thee well: Welcome good Friends. O my [Sidenote: oh old friend, why thy face is valanct[10]]olde Friend? Thy face is valiant[10] since I saw theelast: Com'st thou to beard me in Denmarke?What, my yong Lady and Mistris?[11] Byrlady [Sidenote: by lady]your Ladiship is neerer Heauen then when I saw [Sidenote: nerer to]you last, by the altitude of a Choppine. [12] PrayGod your voice like a peece of vncurrant Gold benot crack'd within the ring. [13] Masters, you are allwelcome: wee'l e'ne to't like French Faulconers, [14] [Sidenote: like friendly Fankner]flie at any thing we see: wee'l haue a Speech

[Footnote 1: From [1] to [1] is not in the _Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 2: Does this phrase mean _all in one scene_?]

[Footnote 3: A poem to be recited only--one not _limited_, or _divided_into speeches. ]

[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'too light. For the law of Writ, and theLiberty, these are the onely men':--_either for written plays_, that is, _or for those in which the players extemporized their speeches_. 

 _1st Q_. 'For the law hath writ those are the onely men. ']

[Footnote 5: Polonius would lead him on to talk of his daughter. ]

[Footnote 6: These are lines of the first stanza of an old ballad stillin existence. Does Hamlet suggest that as Jephthah so Polonius hadsacrificed his daughter? Or is he only desirous of making him talk abouther?]

[Footnote 7: 'That is not as the ballad goes. ']

[Footnote 8: That this is a corruption of the _pious_ in the _Quarto_, is made clearer from the _1st Quarto_: 'the first verse of the godlyBallet wil tel you all. ']

[Footnote 9: _abridgment_--that which _abridges_, or cuts short. His'Abridgements' were the Players. ]

[Footnote 10: _1st Q_. 'Vallanced'--_with a beard_, that is. Bothreadings may be correct. ]

[Footnote 11: A boy of course: no women had yet appeared on the stage. ]

[Footnote 12: A Venetian boot, stilted, sometimes very high. ]

[Footnote 13: --because then it would be unfit for a woman-part. A pieceof gold so worn that it had a crack reaching within the inner circle wasno longer current. _1st Q_. 'in the ring:'--was a pun intended?]

[Footnote 14: --like French sportsmen of the present day too. ]

[Page 102]

straight. Come giue vs a tast of your quality:come, a passionate speech. 

_1. Play. _ What speech, my Lord? [Sidenote: my good Lord?]

_Ham. _ I heard thee speak me a speech once, butit was neuer Acted: or if it was, not aboue once, for the Play I remember pleas'd not the Million, 'twas _Cauiarie_ to the Generall[1]: but it was (as Ireceiu'd it, and others, whose iudgement in suchmatters, cried in the top of mine)[2] an excellentPlay; well digested in the Scoenes, set downe withas much modestie, as cunning. [3] I remember onesaid there was no Sallets[4] in the lines, to make the [Sidenote: were]matter sauoury; nor no matter in the phrase, [5] thatmight indite the Author of affectation, but cal'd it [Sidenote: affection, ]an honest method[A]. One cheefe Speech in it, I [Sidenote: one speech in't I]cheefely lou'd, 'twas _Ćneas_ Tale to _Dido_, and [Sidenote: _Aeneas_ talke to]thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of [Sidenote: when]_Priams_[6] slaughter. If it liue in your memory, begin at this Line, let me see, let me see: Therugged _Pyrrhus_ like th'_Hyrcanian_ Beast. [7] It is [Sidenote: tis not]not so: it begins[8] with _Pyrrhus_. [9]

[10] The rugged _Pyrrhus_, he whose Sable Armes[11]Blacke as his purpose, did the night resembleWhen he lay couched in the Ominous[12] Horse, Hath now this dread and blacke Complexion smear'dWith Heraldry more dismall: Head to footeNow is he to take Geulles, [13] horridly Trick'd [Sidenote: is he totall Gules [18]]With blood of Fathers, Mothers, Daughters, Sonnes, [14] Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrannous, and damned light [Sidenote: and a damned]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:_--as wholesome as sweete, and by very much, more handsome thenfine:]

[Footnote 1: The salted roe of the sturgeon is a delicacy disliked bymost people. ]

[Footnote 2: 'were superior to mine. '

The _1st Quarto_ has, 'Cried in the toppe of their iudgements, an excellent play, '--that is, _pronounced it, to the best of their judgments, an excellent play_. 

Note the difference between 'the top of _my_ judgment', and 'the top of_their_ judgments'. 97. ]

[Footnote 3: skill. ]

[Footnote 4: coarse jests. 25, 67. ]

[Footnote 5: _style_. ]

[Footnote 6: _1st Q_. 'Princes slaughter. ']

[Footnote 7: _1st Q_. 'th'arganian beast:' 'the Hyrcan tiger, ' Macbeth, iii. 4. ]

[Footnote 8: 'it _begins_': emphasis on begins. ]

[Footnote 9: A pause; then having recollected, he starts afresh. ]

[Footnote 10: These passages are Shakspere's own, not quotations: theQuartos differ. But when he wrote them he had in his mind a phantom ofMarlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_. I find Steevens has made a similarconjecture, and quotes from Marlowe two of the passages I had marked asbeing like passages here. ]

[Footnote 11: The poetry is admirable in its kind--intentionally_charged_, to raise it to the second stage-level, above the blank verse, that is, of the drama in which it is set, as that blank verse is raisedabove the ordinary level of speech. 143. 

The correspondent passage in _1st Q_. Runs nearly parallel for a fewlines. ]

[Footnote 12:--like _portentous_. ]

[Footnote 13: 'all red', _1st Q_. 'totall guise. ']

[Footnote 14: Here the _1st Quarto_ has:--

 Back't and imparched in calagulate gore, Rifted in earth and fire, olde grandsire _Pryam_ seekes: So goe on. ]

[Page 104]

To their vilde Murthers, roasted in wrath and fire, [Sidenote: their Lords murther, ]And thus o're-sized with coagulate gore, With eyes like Carbuncles, the hellish _Pyrrhus_Old Grandsire _Priam_ seekes. [1] [Sidenote: seekes; so proceede you. [2]]

_Pol_. Fore God, my Lord, well spoken, withgood accent, and good discretion. [3]

_1. Player_. Anon he findes him, [Sidenote: _Play_]Striking too short at Greekes. [4] His anticke Sword, Rebellious to his Arme, lyes where it fallesRepugnant to command[4]: vnequall match, [Sidenote: matcht, ]_Pyrrhus_ at _Priam_ driues, in Rage strikes wide:But with the whiffe and winde of his fell Sword, Th'vnnerued Father fals. [5] Then senselesse Illium, [6]Seeming to feele his blow, with flaming top [Sidenote: seele[7] this blowe, ]Stoopes to his Bace, and with a hideous crashTakes Prisoner _Pyrrhus_ eare. For loe, his SwordWhich was declining on the Milkie headOf Reuerend _Priam_, seem'd i'th'Ayre to sticke:So as a painted Tyrant _Pyrrhus_ stood, [8] [Sidenote: stood Like]And like a Newtrall to his will and matter, [9] did nothing. [10][11] But as we often see against some storme, A silence in the Heauens, the Racke stand still, The bold windes speechlesse, and the Orbe belowAs hush as death: Anon the dreadfull Thunder[Sidenote: 110] Doth rend the Region. [11] So after _Pyrrhus_ pause, Arowsed Vengeance sets him new a-worke, And neuer did the Cyclops hammers fallOn Mars his Armours, forg'd for proofe Eterne, [Sidenote: _Marses_ Armor]With lesse remorse then _Pyrrhus_ bleeding swordNow falles on _Priam_. [12] Out, out, thou Strumpet-Fortune, all you Gods, In generall Synod take away her power:Breake all the Spokes and Fallies from her wheele, [Sidenote: follies]

[Footnote 1: This, though horrid enough, is in degree below thedescription in _Dido_. ]

[Footnote 2: He is directing the player to take up the speech therewhere he leaves it. See last quotation from _1st Q_. ]

[Footnote 3: _judgment_. ]

[Footnote 4: --with an old man's under-reaching blows--till his arm isso jarred by a missed blow, that he cannot raise his sword again. ]

[Footnote 5:

 Whereat he lifted up his bedrid limbs, And would have grappled with Achilles' son, * * * * *

 Which he, disdaining, whisk'd his sword about, And with the wound[13] thereof the king fell down. 

 Marlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_. ]

[Footnote 6: The _Quarto_ has omitted '_Then senselesse Illium_, ' orsomething else. ]

[Footnote 7: Printed with the long f[symbol for archaic long s]. ]

[Footnote 8: --motionless as a tyrant in a picture. ]

[Footnote 9: 'standing between his will and its object as if he had norelation to either. ']

[Footnote 10:

 And then in triumph ran into the streets, Through which he could not pass for slaughtered men; So, leaning on his sword, he stood stone still, Viewing the fire wherewith rich Ilion burnt. 

 Marlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_. ]

[Footnote 11: Who does not feel this passage, down to 'Region, 'thoroughly Shaksperean!]

[Footnote 12: Is not the rest of this speech very plainly Shakspere's?]

[Footnote 13: _wind_, I think it should be. ]

[Page 106]

And boule the round Naue downe the hill of Heauen, As low as to the Fiends. 

_Pol_. This is too long. 

_Ham_. It shall to'th Barbars, with your beard. [Sidenote: to the]Prythee say on: He's for a Iigge, or a tale ofBaudry, or hee sleepes. Say on; come to _Hecuba_. 

_1. Play_. But who, O who, had seen the inobled[1] Queen. [Sidenote: But who, a woe, had | mobled[1]]

_Ham_. The inobled[1] Queene? [Sidenote: mobled]

_Pol_. That's good: Inobled[1] Queene is good. [2]

_1. Play_. Run bare-foot vp and downe, Threatning the flame [Sidenote: flames]With Bisson Rheume:[3] A clout about that head, [Sidenote: clout vppon]Where late the Diadem stood, and for a RobeAbout her lanke and all ore-teamed Loines, [4]A blanket in th'Alarum of feare caught vp. [Sidenote: the alarme]Who this had seene, with tongue in Venome steep'd, 'Gainst Fortunes State, would Treason haue pronounc'd?[5]But if the Gods themselues did see her then, When she saw _Pyrrhus_ make malicious sportIn mincing with his Sword her Husbands limbes, [6] [Sidenote: husband]The instant Burst of Clamour that she made(Vnlesse things mortall moue them not at all)Would haue made milche[7] the Burning eyes of Heauen, And passion in the Gods. [8]

_Pol_. Looke where[9] he ha's not turn'd his colour, and ha's teares in's eyes. Pray you no more. [Sidenote: prethee]

_Ham_. 'Tis well, He haue thee speake out therest, soone. Good my Lord, will you see the [Sidenote: rest of this]Players wel bestow'd. Do ye heare, let them be [Sidenote: you]well vs'd: for they are the Abstracts and breefe [Sidenote: abstract]Chronicles of the time. After your death, you

[Footnote 1: '_mobled_'--also in _1st Q_. --may be the word: _muffled_seems a corruption of it: compare _mob-cap_, and

 'The moon does mobble up herself'

 --_Shirley_, quoted by _Farmer_;

but I incline to '_inobled_, ' thrice in the _Folio_--once with acapital: I take it to stand for _'ignobled, ' degraded_. ]

[Footnote 2: 'Inobled Queene is good. ' _Not in Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 3: --threatening to put the flames out with blind tears:'_bisen, ' blind_--Ang. Sax. ]

[Footnote 4: --she had had so many children. ]

[Footnote 5: There should of course be no point of interrogation here. ]

[Footnote 6:

 This butcher, whilst his hands were yet held up, Treading upon his breast, struck off his hands. 

 Marlowe's _Dido, Queen of Carthage_. ]

[Footnote 7: '_milche_'--capable of giving milk: here _capable oftears_, which the burning eyes of the gods were not before. ]

[Footnote 8: 'And would have made passion in the Gods. ']

[Footnote 9: 'whether'. ]

[Page 108]

were better haue a bad Epitaph, then their illreport while you liued. [1] [Sidenote: live]

_Pol_. My Lord, I will vse them according totheir desart. 

_Ham_. Gods bodykins man, better. Vse euerie [Sidenote: bodkin man, much better, ]man after his desart, and who should scape whipping: [Sidenote: shall]vse them after your own Honor and Dignity. The lesse they deserue, the more merit is inyour bountie. Take them in. 

_Pol_. Come sirs. _Exit Polon_. [2]

_Ham_. Follow him Friends: wee'l heare a playto morrow. [3] Dost thou heare me old Friend, canyou play the murther of _Gonzago_?

_Play_. I my Lord. 

_Ham_. Wee'l ha't to morrow night. You couldfor a need[4] study[5] a speech of some dosen or sixteene [Sidenote: for neede | dosen lines, or]lines, which I would set downe, and insertin't? Could ye not?[6] [Sidenote: you]

_Play_. I my Lord. 

_Ham_. Very well. Follow that Lord, and lookeyou mock him not. [7] My good Friends, Ile leaueyou til night you are welcome to _Elsonower_? [Sidenote: _Exeuent Pol. And Players_. ]

_Rosin_. Good my Lord. _Exeunt_. 

_Manet Hamlet_. [8]

_Ham_. I so, God buy'ye[9]: Now I am alone. [Sidenote: buy to you, [9]]Oh what a Rogue and Pesant slaue am I?[10]Is it not monstrous that this Player heere, [11]But in a Fixion, in a dreame of Passion, Could force his soule so to his whole conceit, [12] [Sidenote: his own conceit]That from her working, all his visage warm'd; [Sidenote: all the visage wand, ]Teares in his eyes, distraction in's Aspect, [Sidenote: in his]A broken voyce, and his whole Function suiting [Sidenote: an his]With Formes, to his Conceit?[13] And all for nothing?

[Footnote 1: Why do the editors choose the present tense of the_Quarto_? Hamlet does not mean, 'It is worse to have the ill report ofthe Players while you live, than a bad epitaph after your death. ' Theorder of the sentence has provided against that meaning. What he meansis, that their ill report in life will be more against your reputationafter death than a bad epitaph. ]

[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 3: He detains their leader. ]

[Footnote 4: 'for a special reason'. ]

[Footnote 5: _Study_ is still the Player's word for _commit to memory_. ]

[Footnote 6: Note Hamlet's quick resolve, made clearer towards the endof the following soliloquy. ]

[Footnote 7: Polonius is waiting at the door: this is intended for hishearing. ]

[Footnote 8: _Not in Q_. ]

[Footnote 9: Note the varying forms of _God be with you_. ]

[Footnote 10: _1st Q_. 

 Why what a dunghill idiote slaue am I? Why these Players here draw water from eyes: For Hecuba, why what is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?]

[Footnote 11: Everything rings on the one hard, fixed idea thatpossesses him; but this one idea has many sides. Of late he has beenthinking more upon the woman-side of it; but the Player with his speechhas brought his father to his memory, and he feels he has beenforgetting him: the rage of the actor recalls his own 'cue for passion. 'Always more ready to blame than justify himself, he feels as if he oughtto have done more, and so falls to abusing himself. ]

[Footnote 12: _imagination_. ]

[Footnote 13: 'his whole operative nature providing fit forms for theembodiment of his imagined idea'--of which forms he has alreadymentioned his _warmed visage_, his _tears_, his _distracted look_, his_broken voice_. 

In this passage we have the true idea of the operation of the genuine_acting faculty_. Actor as well as dramatist, the Poet gives us here hisown notion of his second calling. ]

[Page 110]

For _Hecuba_?What's _Hecuba_ to him, or he to _Hecuba_, [1] [Sidenote: or he to her, ]That he should weepe for her? What would he doe, Had he the Motiue and the Cue[2] for passion [Sidenote:, and that for]That I haue? He would drowne the Stage with teares, And cleaue the generall eare with horrid speech:Make mad the guilty, and apale[3] the free, [4]Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed, The very faculty of Eyes and Eares. Yet I, [Sidenote: faculties]A dull and muddy-metled[5] Rascall, peakeLike Iohn a-dreames, vnpregnant of my cause, [6]And can say nothing: No, not for a King, Vpon whose property, [7] and most deere life, A damn'd defeate[8] was made. Am I a Coward?[9]Who calles me Villaine? breakes my pate a-crosse?Pluckes off my Beard, and blowes it in my face?Tweakes me by'th'Nose?[10] giues me the Lye i'th' Throate, [Sidenote: by the]As deepe as to the Lungs? Who does me this?Ha? Why I should take it: for it cannot be, [Sidenote: Hah, s'wounds I]But I am Pigeon-Liuer'd, and lacke Gall[11]To make Oppression bitter, or ere this, [Sidenote: 104] I should haue fatted all the Region Kites [Sidenote: should a fatted]With this Slaues Offall, bloudy: a Bawdy villaine, [Sidenote: bloody, baudy]Remorselesse, [12] Treacherous, Letcherous, kindles[13] villaine!Oh Vengeance![14]Who? What an Asse am I? I sure, this is most braue, [Sidenote: Why what an Asse am I, this]That I, the Sonne of the Deere murthered, [Sidenote: a deere]Prompted to my Reuenge by Heauen, and Hell, Must (like a Whore) vnpacke my heart with words, And fall a Cursing like a very Drab, [15]A Scullion? Fye vpon't: Foh. About my Braine. [16] [Sidenote: a stallyon, | braines; hum, ]

[Footnote 1: Here follows in 1st _Q_. 

 What would he do and if he had my losse? His father murdred, and a Crowne bereft him, [Sidenote: 174] He would turne all his teares to droppes of blood, Amaze the standers by with his laments, &c. &c. ]

[Footnote 2: Speaking of the Player, he uses the player-word. ]

[Footnote 3: _make pale_--appal. ]

[Footnote 4: _the innocent_. ]

[Footnote 5: _Mettle_ is spirit--rather in the sense of _animal-spirit_:_mettlesome_--spirited, _as a horse_. ]

[Footnote 6: '_unpossessed by_ my cause'. ]

[Footnote 7: _personality, proper person_. ]

[Footnote 8: _undoing, destruction_--from French _défaire_. ]

[Footnote 9: In this mood he no more understands, and altogether doubtshimself, as he has previously come to doubt the world. ]

[Footnote 10: _1st Q_. 'or twites my nose. ']

[Footnote 11: It was supposed that pigeons had no gall--I presume fromtheir livers not tasting bitter like those of perhaps most birds. ]

[Footnote 12: _pitiless_. ]

[Footnote 13: _unnatural_. ]

[Footnote 14: This line is not in the _Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 15: Here in _Q. _ the line runs on to include _Foh_. The nextline ends with _heard_. ]

[Footnote 16: _Point thus_: 'About! my brain. ' He apostrophizes hisbrain, telling it to set to work. ]

[Page 112]

I haue heard, that guilty Creatures sitting at a Play, Haue by the very cunning of the Scoene, [1]Bene strooke so to the soule, that presentlyThey haue proclaim'd their Malefactions. For Murther, though it haue no tongue, will speakeWith most myraculous Organ. [2] Ile haue these Players, Play something like the murder of my Father, Before mine Vnkle. Ile obserue his lookes, [Sidenote: 137] Ile tent him to the quicke: If he but blench[3] [Sidenote: if a doe blench]I know my course. The Spirit that I haue seene[Sidenote: 48] May[4] be the Diuell, and the Diuel hath power [Sidenote: May be a deale, and the deale]T'assume a pleasing shape, yea and perhapsOut of my Weaknesse, and my Melancholly, [5]As he is very potent with such Spirits, [6][Sidenote: 46] Abuses me to damne me. [7] Ile haue groundsMore Relatiue then this: The Play's the thing, Wherein Ile catch the Conscience of the King. _Exit. _

 * * * * *

SUMMARY. 

The division between the second and third acts is by common consentplaced here. The third act occupies the afternoon, evening, and night ofthe same day with the second. 

This soliloquy is Hamlet's first, and perhaps we may find it correct tosay _only_ outbreak of self-accusation. He charges himself with lack offeeling, spirit, and courage, in that he has not yet taken vengeance onhis uncle. But unless we are prepared to accept and justify to the fullhis own hardest words against himself, and grant him a muddy-mettled, pigeon-livered rascal, we must examine and understand him, so as toaccount for his conduct better than he could himself. If we allow thatperhaps he accuses himself too much, we may find on reflection that heaccuses himself altogether wrongfully. If a man is content to think theworst of Hamlet, I care to hold no argument with that man. 

We must not look for _expressed_ logical sequence in a soliloquy, whichis a vocal mind. The mind is seldom conscious of the links ortransitions of a yet perfectly logical process developed in it. Thisremark, however, is more necessary in regard to the famous soliloquy tofollow. 

In Hamlet, misery has partly choked even vengeance; and although sure inhis heart that his uncle is guilty, in his brain he is not sure. Bitterly accusing himself in an access of wretchedness and rage andcredence, he forgets the doubt that has restrained him, with all besideswhich he might so well urge in righteous defence, not excuse, of hisdelay. But ungenerous criticism has, by all but universal consent, accepted his own verdict against himself. So in common life there arethousands on thousands who, upon the sad confession of a manimmeasurably greater than themselves, and showing his greatness in thehumility whose absence makes admission impossible to them, immediatelypounce upon him with vituperation, as if he were one of the vile, andthey infinitely better. Such should be indignant with St. Paul andsay--if he was the chief of sinners, what insolence to lecture _them_!and certainly the more justified publican would never by them have beenallowed to touch the robe of the less justified Pharisee. Such criticssurely take little or no pains to understand the object of theircontempt: because Hamlet is troubled and blames himself, they withouthesitation condemn him--and there where he is most commendable. It isthe righteous man who is most ready to accuse himself; the unrighteousis least ready. Who is able when in deep trouble, rightly to analyze hisfeelings? Delay in action is not necessarily abandonment of duty; inHamlet's case it is a due recognition of duty, which condemnsprecipitancy--and action in the face of doubt, so long as it is nowisecompelled, is precipitancy. The first thing is _to be sure_: Hamlet hasnever been sure; he spies at length a chance of making himself sure; heseizes upon it; and while his sudden resolve to make use of the players, like the equally sudden resolve to shroud himself in pretended madness, manifests him fertile in expedient, the carrying out of both manifestshim right capable and diligent in execution--_a man of action in everytrue sense of the word_. 

The self-accusation of Hamlet has its ground in the lapse of weeksduring which nothing has been done towards punishing the king. Suddenlyroused to a keen sense of the fact, he feels as if surely he might havedone something. The first act ends with a burning vow of righteousvengeance; the second shows him wandering about the palace inprofoundest melancholy--such as makes it more than easy for him toassume the forms of madness the moment he marks any curious eye bentupon him. Let him who has never loved and revered a mother, call suchmelancholy weakness. He has indeed done nothing towards the fulfilmentof his vow; but the way in which he made the vow, the terms in which heexacted from his companions their promise of silence, and his scheme foreluding suspicion, combine to show that from the first he perceived itsfulfilment would be hard, saw the obstacles in his way, and knew itwould require both time and caution. That even in the first rush of hiswrath he should thus be aware of difficulty, indicates moral symmetry;but the full weight of what lay in his path could appear to him onlyupon reflection. Partly in the light of passages yet to come, I willimagine the further course of his thoughts, which the closing couplet ofthe first act shows as having already begun to apale 'the native hue ofresolution. '

'But how shall I take vengeance on my uncle? Shall I publicly accusehim, or slay him at once? In the one case what answer can I make to hisdenial? in the other, what justification can I offer? If I say thespirit of my father accuses him, what proof can I bring? My companionsonly saw the apparition--heard no word from him; and my uncle's partywill assert, with absolute likelihood to the minds of those who do notknow me--and who here knows me but my mother!--that charge is a merecoinage of jealous disappointment, working upon the melancholy I havenot cared to hide. (174-6. ) When I act, it must be to kill him, and towhat misconstruction shall I not expose myself! (272) If the thing mustso be, I must brave all; but I could never present myself thereafter assuccessor to the crown of one whom I had first slain and then vilifiedon the accusation of an apparition whom no one heard but myself! I mustfind _proof_--such proof as will satisfy others as well as myself. Myimmediate duty is _evidence_, not vengeance. '

We have seen besides, that, when informed of the haunting presence ofthe Ghost, he expected the apparition with not a little doubt as to itsauthenticity--a doubt which, even when he saw it, did not immediatelyvanish: is it any wonder that when the apparition was gone, the doubtshould return? Return it did, in accordance with the reaction whichwaits upon all high-strung experience. If he did not believe in theperson who performed it, would any man long believe in any miracle?Hamlet soon begins to question whether he can with confidence accept theappearance for that which it appeared and asserted itself to be. Hesteps over to the stand-point of his judges, and doubts the onlytestimony he has to produce. Far more:--was he not bound in commonhumanity, not to say _filialness_, to doubt it? To doubt the Ghost, wasto doubt a testimony which to accept was to believe his father inhorrible suffering, his uncle a murderer, his mother at least anadulteress; to kill his uncle was to set his seal to the whole, and, besides, to bring his mother into frightful suspicion of complicity inhis father's murder. Ought not the faintest shadow of a doubt, assuagingever so little the glare of the hell-sun of such crime, to be welcome tothe tortured heart? Wretched wife and woman as his mother had shownherself, the Ghost would have him think her far worse--perhaps, evenaccessory to her husband's murder! For action he _must_ have proof!

At the same time, what every one knew of his mother, coupled now withthe mere idea of the Ghost's accusation, wrought in him such misery, roused in him so many torturing and unanswerable questions, so blottedthe face of the universe and withered the heart of hope, that he couldnot but doubt whether, in such a world of rogues and false women, it wasworth his while to slay one villain out of the swarm. 

Ophelia's behaviour to him, in obedience to her father, of which shegives him no explanation, has added 'the pangs of disprized love, ' andincreased his doubts of woman-kind. 120. 

But when his imagination, presenting afresh the awful interview, bringshim more immediately under the influence of the apparition and itsbehest, he is for the moment delivered both from the stunning effect ofits communication and his doubt of its truth; forgetting then theconsiderations that have wrought in him, he accuses himself ofremissness, blames himself grievously for his delay. Soon, however, hissenses resume their influence, and he doubts again. So goes themill-round of his thoughts, with the revolving of many wheels. 

His whole conscious nature is frightfully shaken: he would be the poorcreature most of his critics would make of him, were it otherwise; it isbecause of his greatness that he suffers so terribly, and doubts somuch. A mother's crime is far more paralyzing than a father's murder isstimulating; and either he has not set himself in thorough earnest tofind the proof he needs, or he has as yet been unable to think of anyserviceable means to the end, when the half real, half simulated emotionof the Player yet again rouses in him the sense of remissness, leads himto accuse himself of forgotten obligation and heartlessness, andsimultaneously suggests a device for putting the Ghost and his words tothe test. Instantly he seizes the chance: when a thing has to be done, and can be done, Hamlet is _never_ wanting--shows himself the verypromptest of men. 

In the last passage of this act I do not take it that he is expressingan idea then first occurring to him: that the whole thing may be a snareof the devil is a doubt with which during weeks he has been familiar. 

The delay through which, in utter failure to comprehend his character, he has been so miserably misjudged, falls really between the first andsecond acts, although it seems in the regard of most readers to underlieand protract the whole play. Its duration is measured by the journey ofthe ambassadors to and from the neighbouring kingdom of Norway. 

It is notably odd, by the way, that those who accuse Hamlet of inaction, are mostly the same who believe his madness a reality! In truth, however, his affected madness is one of the strongest signs of hisactivity, and his delay one of the strongest proofs of his sanity. 

This second act, the third act, and a part always given to the fourth, but which really belongs to the third, occupy in all only one day. 

[Footnote 1: Here follows in _1st Q. _

 confest a murder Committed long before. This spirit that I haue seene may be the Diuell, And out of my weakenesse and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such men, Doth seeke to damne me, I will haue sounder proofes, The play's the thing, &c. ]

[Footnote 2:

 'Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;' &c. 

 _Macbeth_, iii. 4. ]

[Footnote 3: In the _1st Q. _ Hamlet, speaking to Horatio (l 37), says, And if he doe not bleach, and change at that, --

_Bleach_ is radically the same word as _blench_:--to bleach, to blanch, to blench--_to grow white_. ]

[Footnote 4: Emphasis on _May_, as resuming previous doubtful thoughtand suspicion. ]

[Footnote 5: --caused from the first by his mother's behaviour, notconstitutional. ]

[Footnote 6: --'such conditions of the spirits'. ]

[Footnote 7: Here is one element in the very existence of the precedingact: doubt as to the facts of the case has been throughout operating torestrain him; and here first he reveals, perhaps first recognizes itsinfluence. Subject to change of feeling with the wavering of conviction, he now for a moment regards his uncertainty as involving unnaturaldistrust of a being in whose presence he cannot help _feeling_ him hisfather. He was familiar with the lore of the supernatural, and knew thedoubt he expresses to be not without support. --His companions as wellhad all been in suspense as to the identity of the apparition with thelate king. ]

[Page 116]

_Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosincrance, Guildenstern, and Lords. _[1] [Sidenote: Guyldensterne, Lords. ]

[Sidenote: 72] _King. _ And can you by no drift of circumstance [Sidenote: An can | of conference]Get from him why he puts on[2] this Confusion:Grating so harshly all his dayes of quietWith turbulent and dangerous Lunacy. 

_Rosin. _ He does confesse he feeles himselfe distracted, [Sidenote: 92] But from what cause he will by no meanes speake. [Sidenote: a will]

_Guil. _ Nor do we finde him forward to be sounded, But with a crafty Madnesse[3] keepes aloofe:When we would bring him on to some ConfessionOf his true state. 

_Qu. _ Did he receiue you well?

_Rosin. _ Most like a Gentleman. 

_Guild. _ But with much forcing of his disposition. [4]

_Rosin. _ Niggard of question, but of our demandsMost free in his reply. [5]

_Qu. _ Did you assay him to any pastime?

_Rosin. _ Madam, it so fell out, that certaine PlayersWe ore-wrought on the way: of these we told him, [Sidenote: ore-raught[6]]And there did seeme in him a kinde of ioyTo heare of it: They are about the Court, [Sidenote: are heere about]And (as I thinke) they haue already orderThis night to play before him. 

_Pol. _ 'Tis most true;And he beseech'd me to intreate your MajestiesTo heare, and see the matter. 

_King. _ With all my heart, and it doth much content meTo heare him so inclin'd. Good Gentlemen, [Footnote 1: This may be regarded as the commencement of the Third Act. ]

[Footnote 2: The phrase seems to imply a doubt of the genuineness of thelunacy. ]

[Footnote 3: _Nominative pronoun omitted here. _]

[Footnote 4: He has noted, without understanding them, the signs ofHamlet's suspicion of themselves. ]

[Footnote 5: Compare the seemingly opposite statements of the two:Hamlet had bewildered them. ]

[Foonote 6: _over-reached_--came up with, caught up, overtook. ]

[Page 118]

Giue him a further edge, [1] and driue his purpose on [Sidenote: purpose into these]To these delights. 

_Rosin. _ We shall my Lord. _Exeunt. _ [Sidenote: _Exeunt Ros. & Guyl. _]

_King. _ Sweet Gertrude leaue vs too, [Sidenote: Gertrard | two]For we haue closely sent for _Hamlet_ hither, [Sidenote: 84] That he, as 'twere by accident, may there [Sidenote: heere]Affront[2] _Ophelia_. Her Father, and my selfe[3] (lawful espials)[4]Will so bestow our selues, that seeing vnseeneWe may of their encounter frankely iudge, And gather by him, as he is behaued, If't be th'affliction of his loue, or no, That thus he suffers for. 

_Qu. _ I shall obey you, And for your part _Ophelia_, [5] I do wishThat your good Beauties be the happy causeOf _Hamlets_ wildenesse: so shall I hope your Vertues[Sidenote: 240] Will bring him to his wonted way againe, To both your Honors. [6]

_Ophe. _ Madam, I wish it may. 

_Pol. Ophelia_, walke you heere. Gracious so please ye[7] [Sidenote: you, ]We will bestow our selues: Reade on this booke, [8]That shew of such an exercise may colourYour lonelinesse. [9] We are oft too blame in this, [10] [Sidenote: lowlines:]'Tis too much prou'd, that with Deuotions visage, And pious Action, we do surge o're [Sidenote: sugar]The diuell himselfe. 

[Sidenote: 161] _King. _ Oh 'tis true: [Sidenote: tis too true]How smart a lash that speech doth giue my Conscience?The Harlots Cheeke beautied with plaist'ring ArtIs not more vgly to the thing that helpes it, [11]Then is my deede, to my most painted word. [12]Oh heauie burthen![13]

[Footnote 1: '_edge_ him on'--somehow corrupted into _egg_. ]

[Footnote 2: _confront_. ]

[Footnote 3: _Clause in parenthesis not in Q. _]

[Footnote 4: --apologetic to the queen. ]

[Footnote 5: --_going up to Ophelia_--I would say, who stands at alittle distance, and has not heard what has been passing between them. ]

[Footnote 6: The queen encourages Ophelia in hoping to marry Hamlet, andmay so have a share in causing a certain turn her madness takes. ]

[Footnote 7: --_aside to the king_. ]

[Footnote 8: --_to Ophelia:_ her prayer-book. 122. ]

[Footnote 9: _1st Q. _

 And here _Ofelia_, reade you on this booke, And walke aloofe, the King shal be vnseene. ]

[Footnote 10: --_aside to the king. _ I insert these _asides_, andsuggest the queen's going up to Ophelia, to show how we may easily holdOphelia ignorant of their plot. Poor creature as she was, I wouldbelieve Shakspere did not mean her to lie to Hamlet. This may be why heomitted that part of her father's speech in the _1st Q. _ given in thenote immediately above, telling her the king is going to hide. Still, itwould be excuse enough for _her_, that she thought his madness justifiedthe deception. ]

[Footnote 11: --ugly to the paint that helps by hiding it--to which itlies so close, and from which it has no secrets. Or, 'ugly to' may mean, 'ugly _compared with_. ']

[Footnote 12: 'most painted'--_very much painted_. His painted word isthe paint to the deed. _Painted_ may be taken for _full of paint_. ]

[Footnote 13: This speech of the king is the first _assurance_ we haveof his guilt. ]

[Page 120]

_Pol. _ I heare him comming, let's withdraw my Lord. [Sidenote: comming, with-draw] _Exeunt. _[1]

_Enter Hamlet. _[2]

_Ham. _ To be, or not to be, that is the Question:Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to sufferThe Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune, [Sidenote: 200, 250] Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles, [3]And by opposing end them:[4] to dye, to sleepeNo more; and by a sleepe, to say we endThe Heart-ake, and the thousand Naturall shockesThat Flesh is heyre too? 'Tis a consummationDeuoutly to be wish'd. [5] To dye to sleepe, To sleepe, perchance to Dreame;[6] I, there's the rub, For in that sleepe of death, what[7] dreames may come, [8]When we haue shuffle'd off this mortall coile, [Sidenote: 186] Must giue vs pawse. [9] There's the respectThat makes Calamity of so long life:[10]For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time, The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely, [Sidenote: proude mans][Sidenote: 114] The pangs of dispriz'd Loue, [11] the Lawes delay, [Sidenote: despiz'd]The insolence of Office, and the SpurnesThat patient merit of the vnworthy takes, [Sidenote: th']When he himselfe might his _Quietus_ make[Sidenote: 194, 252-3] With a bare Bodkin?[12] Who would these Fardles beare[13] [Sidenote: would fardels]To grunt and sweat vnder a weary life, [Sidenote: 194] But that the dread of something after death, [14]The vndiscouered Countrey, from whose BorneNo Traueller returnes, [15] Puzels the will, And makes vs rather beare those illes we haue, Then flye to others that we know not of. Thus Conscience does make Cowards of vs all, [16][Sidenote: 30] And thus the Natiue hew of Resolution[17]Is sicklied o're, with the pale cast of Thought, [18] [Sidenote: sickled]

[Footnote 1: _Not in Q. _--They go behind the tapestry, where it hangsover the recess of the doorway. Ophelia thinks they have left the room. ]

[Footnote 2: _In Q. Before last speech. _]

[Footnote 3: Perhaps to a Danish or Dutch critic, or one from theeastern coast of England, this simile would not seem so unfit as it doesto some. ]

[Footnote 4: To print this so as I would have it read, I would completethis line from here with points, and commence the next with points. Atthe other breaks of the soliloquy, as indicated below, I would do thesame--thus:

 And by opposing end them. .. . . .. . To die--to sleep, ]

[Footnote 5: _Break_. ]

[Footnote 6: _Break_. ]

[Footnote 7: Emphasis on _what_. ]

[Footnote 8: Such dreams as the poor Ghost's. ]

[Footnote 9: _Break. _ --'_pawse_' is the noun, and from its use at page186, we may judge it means here 'pause for reflection. ']

[Footnote 10: 'makes calamity so long-lived. ']

[Footnote 11: --not necessarily disprized by the _lady_; the disprizerin Hamlet's case was the worldly and suspicious father--and that inpart, and seemingly to Hamlet altogether, for the king's sake. ]

[Footnote 12: _small sword_. If there be here any allusion to suicide, it is on the general question, and with no special application tohimself. 24. But it is the king and the bare bodkin his thoughtassociates. How could he even glance at the things he has justmentioned, as each, a reason for suicide? It were a cowardly countryindeed where the question might be asked, 'Who would not commit suicidebecause of any one of these things, except on account of what may followafter death?'! One might well, however, be tempted to destroy anoppressor, _and risk his life in that. _]

[Footnote 13: _Fardel_, burden: the old French for _fardeau_, I aminformed. ]

[Footnote 14: --a dread caused by conscience. ]

[Footnote 15: The Ghost could not be imagined as having _returned_. ]

[Footnote 16: 'of us all' _not in Q. _ It is not the fear of evil thatmakes us cowards, but the fear of _deserved_ evil. The Poet may intendthat conscience alone is the cause of fear in man. '_Coward_' does nothere involve contempt: it should be spoken with a grim smile. But Hamletwould hardly call turning from _suicide_ cowardice in any sense. 24. ]

[Footnote 17: --such as was his when he vowed vengeance. ]

[Footnote 18: --such as immediately followed on that The _native_ hue ofresolution--that which is natural to man till interruption comes--isruddy; the hue of thought is pale. I suspect the '_pale cast_' of anallusion to whitening with _rough-cast_. ]

[Page 122]

And enterprizes of great pith and moment, [1] [Sidenote: pitch [1]]With this regard their Currants turne away, [Sidenote: awry]And loose the name of Action. [2] Soft you now, [Sidenote: 119] The faire _Ophelia_? Nimph, in thy Orizons[3]Be all my sinnes remembred. [4]

_Ophe. _ Good my Lord, How does your Honor for this many a day?

_Ham. _ I humbly thanke you: well, well, well. [5]

_Ophe. _ My Lord, I haue Remembrances of yours, That I haue longed long to re-deliuer. I pray you now, receiue them. 

_Ham. _ No, no, I neuer gaue you ought. [6] [Sidenote: No, not I, I never]

_Ophe. _ My honor'd Lord, I know right well you did, [Sidenote: you know]And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd, As made the things more rich, then perfume left: [Sidenote: these things | their perfume lost. [7]]Take these againe, for to the Noble mindeRich gifts wax poore, when giuers proue vnkinde. There my Lord. [8]

_Ham. _ Ha, ha: Are you honest?[9]

_Ophe. _ My Lord. 

_Ham. _ Are you faire?

_Ophe. _ What meanes your Lordship?

_Ham. _ That if you be honest and faire, your [Sidenote: faire, you should admit]Honesty[10] should admit no discourse to your Beautie. 

_Ophe. _ Could Beautie my Lord, haue betterComerce[11] then your Honestie?[12] [Sidenote: Then with honestie?[11]]

_Ham. _ I trulie: for the power of Beautie, willsooner transforme Honestie from what it is, to aBawd, then the force of Honestie can translateBeautie into his likenesse. This was sometime aParadox, but now the time giues it proofe. I didloue you once. [13]

_Ophe. _ Indeed my Lord, you made me beleeue so. 

[Footnote 1: How could _suicide_ be styled _an enterprise of greatpith_? Yet less could it be called _of great pitch_. ]

[Footnote 2: I allow this to be a general reflection, but surely itserves to show that _conscience_ must at least be one of Hamlet'srestraints. ]

[Footnote 3: --by way of intercession. ]

[Footnote 4: Note the entire change of mood from that of the lastsoliloquy. The right understanding of this soliloquy is indispensable tothe right understanding of Hamlet. But we are terribly trammelled andhindered, as in the understanding of Hamlet throughout, so here in theunderstanding of his meditation, by traditional assumption. I was rousedto think in the right direction concerning it, by the honoured friendand relative to whom I have feebly acknowledged my obligation bydedicating to him this book. I could not at first see it as he saw it:'Think about it, and you will, ' he said. I did think, and bydegrees--not very quickly--my prejudgments thinned, faded, and almostvanished. I trust I see it now as a whole, and in its true relations, internal and external--its relations to itself, to the play, and to theHamlet, of Shakspere. 

Neither in its first verse, then, nor in it anywhere else, do I findeven an allusion to suicide. What Hamlet is referring to in the saidfirst verse, it is not possible with certainty to determine, for it isbut the vanishing ripple of a preceding ocean of thought, from which heis just stepping out upon the shore of the articulate. He may have beenplunged in some profound depth of the metaphysics of existence, or hemay have been occupied with the one practical question, that of theslaying of his uncle, which has, now in one form, now in another, haunted his spirit for weeks. Perhaps, from the message he has justreceived, he expects to meet the king, and conscience, confrontingtemptation, has been urging the necessity of proof; perhaps a righteousconsideration of consequences, which sometimes have share in the primaryduty, has been making him shrink afresh from the shedding of blood, forevery thoughtful mind recoils from the irrevocable, and that is an awfulform of the irrevocable. But whatever thought, general or special, thisfirst verse may be dismissing, we come at once thereafter into the lightof a definite question: 'Which is nobler--to endure evil fortune, or tooppose it _ŕ outrance_; to bear in passivity, or to resist whereresistance is hopeless--resist to the last--to the death which is itsunavoidable end?'

Then comes a pause, during which he is thinking--we will not say 'tooprecisely on the event, ' but taking his account with consequences: theresult appears in the uttered conviction that the extreme possibleconsequence, death, is a good and not an evil. Throughout, observe, howhere, as always, he generalizes, himself being to himself but the typeof his race. 

Then follows another pause, during which he seems prosecuting thethought, for he has already commenced further remark in similar strain, when suddenly a new and awful element introduces itself:

 . .. . To die--to sleep. -- --To _sleep_! perchance to _dream_!

He had been thinking of death only as the passing away of the presentwith its troubles; here comes the recollection that death has its owntroubles--its own thoughts, its own consciousness: if it be a sleep, ithas its dreams. '_What dreams may come_' means, 'the sort of dreams thatmay come'; the emphasis is on the _what_, not on the _may_; there is noquestion whether dreams will come, but there is question of thecharacter of the dreams. This consideration is what makes calamity solong-lived! 'For who would bear the multiform ills of life'--he alludesto his own wrongs, but mingles, in his generalizing way, others of thosemost common to humanity, and refers to the special cure for some of hisown which was close to his hand--'who would bear these things if hecould, as I can, make his quietus with a bare bodkin'--that is, byslaying his enemy--'who would then bear them, but that he fears thefuture, and the divine judgment upon his life and actions--thatconscience makes a coward of him!'[14]

To run, not the risk of death, but the risks that attend upon and followdeath, Hamlet must be certain of what he is about; he must be sure it isa right thing he does, or he will leave it undone. Compare his speech, 250, 'Does it not, &c. ':--by the time he speaks this speech, he has hadperfect proof, and asserts the righteousness of taking vengeance inalmost an agony of appeal to Horatio. 

The more continuous and the more formally logical a soliloquy, the lessnatural it is. The logic should be all there, but latent; the bones ofit should not show: they do not show here. ]

[Footnote 5: _One_ 'well' _only in Q. _]

[Footnote 6: He does not want to take them back, and so sever even thatweak bond between them. He has not given her up. ]

[Footnote 7: The _Q. _ reading seems best. The perfume of his gifts wasthe sweet words with which they were given; those words having losttheir savour, the mere gifts were worth nothing. ]

[Footnote 8: Released from the commands her father had laid upon her, and emboldened by the queen's approval of more than the old relationbetween them, she would timidly draw Hamlet back to the past--to loveand a sound mind. ]

[Footnote 9: I do not here suppose a noise or movement of the arras, orthink that the talk from this point bears the mark of the madness hewould have assumed on the least suspicion of espial. His distrust ofOphelia comes from a far deeper source--suspicion of all women, growndoubtful to him through his mother. Hopeless for her, he would give hislife to know that Ophelia was not like her. Hence the cruel things hesays to her here and elsewhere; they are the brood of a heart hauntedwith horrible, alas! too excusable phantoms of distrust. A man wretchedas Hamlet must be forgiven for being rude; it is love suppressed, lovethat can neither breathe nor burn, that makes him rude. His horridinsinuations are a hungry challenge to indignant rejection. He wouldsting Ophelia to defence of herself and her sex. But, either from herlove, or from gentleness to his supposed madness, as afterwards in theplay-scene, or from the poverty and weakness of a nature so fathered andso brothered, she hears, and says nothing. 139. ]

[Footnote 10: Honesty is here figured as a porter, --just after, as aporter that may be corrupted. ]

[Footnote 11: If the _Folio_ reading is right, _commerce_ means_companionship_; if the _Quarto_ reading, then it means _intercourse_. Note _then_ constantly for our _than_. ]

[Footnote 12: I imagine Ophelia here giving Hamlet a loving look--whichhardens him. But I do not think she lays emphasis on _your_; the word ishere, I take it, used (as so often then) impersonally. ]

[Footnote 13: '--proof in you and me: _I_ loved _you_ once, but myhonesty 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 inthe _1st Quarto_. As it makes an excellent specimen of that issue in thecharacter I am most inclined to attribute to it--that of original sketchand continuous line of notes, with more or less finished passages inplace among the notes--I will here quote it, recommending it to mystudent's attention. If it be what I suggest, it is clear that Shaksperehad not at first altogether determined how he would carry thesoliloquy--what line he was going to follow in it: here hope and fearcontend for the place of motive to patience. The changes from it in thetext are well worth noting: the religion is lessened: the hopedisappears: were they too much of pearls to cast before 'barrenspectators'? The manuscript could never have been meant for any eye buthis own, seeing it was possible to print from it such a chaos--overwhich 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 sight The 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 full _Quietus_ make, 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. Forvertue cannot so innocculate[1] our old stocke, [2] butwe 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 ofsuch 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 Ihaue thoughts to put them in imagination, to giuethem shape, or time to acte them in. What shouldsuch Fellowes as I do, crawling betweene Heauen [Sidenote: earth and heauen]and Earth. [8] We are arrant Knaues all[10], beleeuenone 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, thathe 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 thisPlague 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 ifthou wilt needs Marry, marry a fool: for Wise menknow well enough, what monsters[19] you make ofthem. 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: _trunk_ or _stem_ of the family tree. ]

[Footnote 3: Emphasis on _relish_--'keep something of the old flavour ofthe stock. ']

[Footnote 4: He tries her now with denying his love--perhaps moved inpart 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. Isit not the case with every noble nature, that the knowledge of wrong inanother arouses in it the consciousness of its own faults and sins, ofits 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 witnessedthe misery of Lady Macbeth, unveiling her guilt. 

This whole speech of Hamlet is profoundly sane--looking thereforealtogether insane to the shallow mind, on which the impression of itsinsanity is deepened by its coming from him so freely. The common naturedisappointed 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 startlingto Ophelia as impenetrable. ]

[Footnote 8: He is disgusted with himself, with his own nature andconsciousness--]

[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 isallowed this prolonged _tęte ŕ tęte_. ]

[Footnote 12: I am willing to believe she thinks so. ]

[Footnote 13: Whether he trusts Ophelia or not, he does not take herstatement for correct, and says this in the hope that Polonius is nottoo far off to hear it. The speech is for him, not for Ophelia, and willseem 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 believedin. ']

[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 suspect _pratlings_ to be a corruption, not of theprinted _paintings_, but of some word substituted for it by the Poet, perhaps _prancings_, and _pace_ to be correct. ]

[Footnote 24: 'your' _not in Q. _]

[Footnote 25: As the present type to him of womankind, he assails herwith such charges of lightness as are commonly brought against women. Hedoes not go farther: she is not his mother, and he hopes she isinnocent. 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 restshall 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! itis 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 nothe but his madness speaks. 

The moment he leaves her, she breaks out in such phrase as a young girlwould hardly have used had she known that the king and her father werelistening. I grant, however, the speech may be taken as a soliloquyaudible to the spectators only, who to the persons of a play are _but_the spiritual presences. ]

[Footnote 4: 'The hope and flower'--The _rose_ is not unfrequently usedin English literature as the type of perfection. ]

[Footnote 5: 'he by whom Fashion dressed herself'--_he who set thefashion_. His great and small virtues taken together, Hamlet makes usthink of Sir Philip Sidney--ten years older than Shakspere, and deadsixteen years before _Hamlet_ was written. ]

[Footnote 6: 'he after whose ways, or modes of behaviour, men shapedtheirs'--therefore the mould in which their forms were cast;--_theobject of universal imitation_. ]

[Footnote 7: I do not know whether this means--the peal rung withoutregard to tune or time--or--the single bell so handled that the tonguechecks 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 sitsbrooding]

[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 now _Ophelia_?You neede not tell vs, what Lord _Hamlet_ saide, 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 Ipronounc'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 verieTorrent, 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 itoffends 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] Icould haue such a Fellow whipt for o're-doing [Sidenote: would]

[Footnote 1: 'something of settled matter'--_idée fixe_. ]

[Footnote 2: '_away from_ his own true likeness'; 'makes him so unlikehimself. ']

[Footnote 3: Polonius is crestfallen, but positive. ]

[Footnote 4: This supports the notion of Ophelia's ignorance of theespial. Polonius thinks she is about to disclose what has passed, and_informs_ her of its needlessness. But it _might_ well enough be takenas only an assurance of the success of their listening--that they hadheard without difficulty. ]

[Footnote 5: 'If she do not find him out': a comparable phrase, commonat 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 himanother chance. ]

[Footnote 6: 'in the insignificant, madness may roam the country, but inthe great it must be watched. ' The _unmatcht_ of the _Quarto_ might bearthe meaning of _countermatched_. ]

[Footnote 7: I should suggest this exhortation to the Players introducedwith the express purpose of showing how absolutely sane Hamlet was, could I believe that Shakspere saw the least danger of Hamlet's pretencebeing mistaken for reality. ]

[Footnote 8: He would have neither blundering nor emphasis such as mightrouse 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. 

_Lines_ is a player-word still. ]

[Footnote 11: --smoothness such as belongs to the domain of Art, andwill both save from absurdity, and allow the relations with surroundingsto manifest themselves;--harmoniousness, which is the possibility ofco-existence. ]

[Footnote 12: those on the ground--that is, in the pit; there was nogallery then. ]

[Footnote 13: _receptive_. ]

[Footnote 14: --gestures extravagant and unintelligible as those of adumb show that could not by the beholder be interpreted; gesturesincorrespondent to the words. 

A _dumb show_ was a stage-action without words. ]

[Footnote 15: Speech that is little but rant, and scarce related to thesense, 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 youauoid it. 

_Player. _ I warrant your Honor. 

_Ham. _ Be not too tame neyther: but let yourowne Discretion be your Tutor. Sute the Actionto the Word, the Word to the Action, with thisspeciall 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 atthe first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twer theMirrour vp to Nature; to shew Vertue her owne [Sidenote: her feature;]Feature, Scorne[4] her owne Image, and the verieAge and Bodie of the Time, his forme and pressure. [5]Now, this ouer-done, or come tardie off, [6] though itmake 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 Theaterof Others. Oh, there bee Players that I hauescene Play, and heard others praise, and that highly [Sidenote: praysd, ](not to speake it prophanely) that neyther hauingthe 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-menhad made men, and not made them well, theyimitated 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 thosethat play your Clownes, speake no more then is setdowne for them. [12] For there be of them, that willthemselues laugh, to set on some quantitie ofbarren Spectators to laugh too, though in themeane time, some necessary Question of the Playbe then to be considered:[12] that's Villanous, andshewes a most pittifull Ambition in the Fool thatvses it. [13] Go make you readie. _Exit Players_

[Footnote 1: 'An imaginary God of the Mahometans, represented as a mostviolent character in the old Miracle-plays and Moralities. '--_Sh. Lex. _]

[Footnote 2: 'represented as a swaggering tyrant in the old dramaticperformances. '--_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 thatShakspere's own plays do not do this; but such critics take the_accidents_ or circumstances of a time for the _body_ of it--the clothesfor the person. _Human_ nature is 'Nature, ' however _dressed_. 

There should be a comma after 'Age. ']

[Footnote 6: 'laggingly represented'--A word belonging to _time_ issubstituted for a word belonging to _space_:--'this over-done, orinadequately effected'; 'this over-done, or under-done. ']

[Footnote 7: 'and the judgment of such a one. ' '_the which_' seemsequivalent to _and--such_. ]

[Footnote 8: 'must, you will grant. ']

[Footnote 9: Shakspere may here be playing with a false derivation, as Iwas myself when the true was pointed out to me--fancying _abominable_derived from _ab_ and _homo_. If so, then he means by the phrase: 'theyimitated humanity so from the nature of man, so _inhumanly_. ']

[Footnote 10: tolerably. ]

[Footnote 11: 'Sir' _not in Q. _]

[Footnote 12: Shakspere must have himself suffered from such clowns:Coleridge thinks some of their _gag_ has crept into his print. ]

[Footnote 13: Here follow in the _1st Q. _ several specimens of such aclown'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 hearhim talk of his friend--why he loves, admires, chooses him. The Poethere gives us a wide window into Hamlet. So genuine is his respect for_being_, so indifferent is he to _having_, that he does not shrink, inargument 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 tellinghim that it is through his poverty he has learned to admire him, as aman of courage, temper, contentment, and independence, with nothing buthis good spirits for an income--a man whose manhood is dominant bothover his senses and over his fortune--a true Stoic. He describes anideal man, then clasps the ideal to his bosom as his own, in the personof his friend. Only a great man could so worship another, choosing himfor such qualities; and hereby Shakspere shows us his Hamlet--a brave, noble, wise, pure man, beset by circumstances the most adverseconceivable. That Hamlet had not misapprehended Horatio becomes evidentin 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 thou _Horatio_. 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 torule my choice, ' making it pure, and withdrawing it from the tyranny ofimpulse and liking. ]

[Footnote 12: The old word _medle_ is synonymous with _mingle. _]

[Footnote 13: To Hamlet, the lordship of man over himself, despite ofcircumstance, is a truth, and therefore a duty. ]

[Footnote 14: The man who has chosen his friend thus, is hardly himselfone to act without sufficing reason, or take vengeance without certainproof 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 withhis 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 Cosin _Hamlet_?

_Ham. _ Excellent Ifaith, of the Camelions dish:[Sidenote: 154] I eate the Ayre promise-cramm'd, [8] you cannot feedCapons so. [9]

_King. _ I haue nothing with this answer _Hamlet_, these words are not mine. [10]

_Ham. _ No, nor mine. Now[11] my Lord, youplaid 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 in _1st 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 alteration That shall appeare in him, but I shall note it. ]

[Footnote 2: I take 'my' to be right: 'watch my uncle with thecomment--the discriminating judgment, that is--of _my_ soul, more intentthan thine. ']

[Footnote 3: He has then, ere this, taken Horatio into hisconfidence--so far at least as the Ghost's communication concerning themurder. ]

[Footnote 4: a dissyllable: _stithy_, _anvil_; Scotch, _studdy_. 

Hamlet's doubt is here very evident: he hopes he may find it a falseghost: what good man, what good son would not? He has clear cause andreason--it is his duty to delay. That the cause and reason and duty arenot invariably clear to Hamlet himself--not clear in every mood, isanother thing. Wavering conviction, doubt of evidence, the corollariesof assurance, the oppression of misery, a sense of the worthlessness ofthe world's whole economy--each demanding delay, might yet well, alltogether, affect the man's feeling as mere causes of rather than reasonsfor hesitation. The conscientiousness of Hamlet stands out the clearerthat, throughout, his dislike to his uncle, predisposing him to believeany ill of him, is more than evident. By his incompetent or prejudicedjudges, Hamlet's accusations and justifications of himself are equallyplaced to the _discredit_ of his account. They seem to think a man couldnever accuse himself except he were in the wrong; therefore if ever heexcuses himself, he is the more certainly in the wrong: whatever pointmay 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 andbehaviour. ']

[Footnote 7: Does he mean _foolish_, that is, _lunatic_? or_insouciant_, and _unpreoccupied_?]

[Footnote 8: The king asks Hamlet how he _fares_--that is, how he getson; Hamlet pretends to think he has asked him about his diet. His talkhas at once become wild; ere the king enters he has donned his cloak ofmadness. Here he confesses to ambition--will favour any notionconcerning himself rather than give ground for suspecting the real stateof his mind and feeling. 

In the _1st 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 thepoultry they want to fatten, which is technically, I believe, called_cramming_ them. ]

[Footnote 10: 'You have not taken me with you; I have not laid hold ofyour meaning; I have nothing by your answer. ' 'Your words have notbecome my property; they have not given themselves to me in theirmeaning. ']

[Footnote 11: _Point thus_: 'No, nor mine now. --My Lord, ' &c. '--notmine, now I have uttered them, for so I have given them away. ' Or doeshe mean to disclaim their purport?]

[Page 138]

_Ham. _ And[1] what did you enact?

_Pol. _ I did enact _Iulius Caesar_, I was kill'di'th'Capitol: _Brutus_ kill'd me. 

_Ham. _ It was a bruite part of him, to kill soCapitall a Calfe there. [2] Be the Players ready?

_Rosin. _ I my Lord, they stay vpon your patience. 

_Qu. _ Come hither my good _Hamlet_, 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 betweenMaids 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]: whatshould a man do, but be merrie. For looke youhow cheerefully my Mother lookes, and my Fatherdyed 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] OhHeauens! dye two moneths ago, and not forgottenyet?[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 on _there_. 'There' is not in _1st Q. _ Hamletmeans it was a desecration of the Capitol. ]

[Footnote 3: He cannot be familiar with his mother, so avoids her--willnot sit by her, cannot, indeed, bear to be near her. But he loves andhopes in Ophelia still. ]

[Footnote 4: '--Did I not tell you so?']

[Footnote 5: This speech and the next are not in the _Q. _, but areshadowed in the _1st Q. _]

[Footnote 6: _--consenting_. ]

[Footnote 7: In _1st Quarto_, 'contrary. '

Hamlet hints, probing her character--hoping her unable to understand. Itis the festering soreness of his feeling concerning his mother, makinghim doubt with the haunting agony of a loathed possibility, thatprompts, urges, forces from him his ugly speeches--nowise to bejustified, only to be largely excused in his sickening consciousness ofhis mother's presence. Such pain as Hamlet's, the ferment of subvertedlove and reverence, may lightly bear the blame of hideous manners, seeing, they spring from no wantonness, but from the writhing oftortured and helpless Purity. Good manners may be as impossible as outof 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 account_satisfactorily_ for Hamlet's speeches to her, is not easy. The freercustom of the age, freer to an extent hardly credible in this, will not_satisfy_ the lovers of Hamlet, although it must have _some_ weight. Thenecessity for talking madly, because he is in the presence of his uncle, and perhaps, to that end, for uttering whatever comes to him, withoutpause for choice, might give us another hair's-weight. Also he may besupposed confident that Ophelia would not understand him, while hisuncle would naturally set such worse than improprieties down to wildestmadness. But I suspect that here as before (123), Shakepere would showHamlet's soul full of bitterest, passionate loathing; his mother hascompelled him to think of horrors and women together, so turning theirpreciousness into a disgust; and this feeling, his assumed madhessallows him to indulge and partly relieve by utterance. Could he haveprovoked Ophelia to rebuke him with the severity he courted, such rebukewould have been joy to him. Perhaps yet a small addition of weight tothe scale of his excuse may be found in his excitement about his play, and the necessity for keeping down that excitement. Suggestion is easierthan judgment. ]

[Footnote 9: 'here's for the jig-maker! he's the right man!' Or perhapshe 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 statementnotwithstanding suggests something like two months between the first andsecond acts, for in the first, Hamlet says his father has not been deadtwo months. 24. We are not bound to take it for more than a roughapproximation; Ophelia would make the best of things for the queen, whois 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-horseis 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, anddeclines his head vpon her neck. Layes him downe [Sidenote: _necke, he lyes_]vpon a Banke of Flowers. She seeing hima-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 lamentwith 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 Miching _Malicho_[3] that [Sidenote: this munching _Mallico_]meanes Mischeefe. 

_Ophe. _ Belike this shew imports the Argumentof 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 tellyou what it meanes. 

_Ophe. _ You are naught, [5] you are naught, Ilemarke the Play. 

[Footnote 1: The king, not the queen, is aimed at. Hamlet does notforget the injunction of the Ghost to spare his mother. 54. 

The king should be represented throughout as struggling not to betrayhimself. ]

[Footnote 2: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 3: _skulking mischief_: the latter word is Spanish, To _mich_is to _play truant_. 

 How tenderly her tender hands betweene In yvorie cage she did the micher bind. 

_The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia_, page 84. 

My _Reader_ tells me the word is still in use among printers, with thepronunciation _mike_, and the meaning _to skulk_ or _idle_. ]

[Footnote 4: --their part being speech, that of the others only dumbshow. ]

[Footnote 5: _naughty_: persons who do not behave well are treated as ifthey were not--are made nought of--are set at nought; hence our wordnaughty. 

'Be naught awhile' (_As You Like It_, i. 1)--'take yourself away;' 'benobody;' '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, and _Tellus_ Orbed ground: [Sidenote: orb'd the]And thirtie dozen Moones with borrowed sheene, About the World haue times twelue thirties beene, Since loue our hearts, and _Hymen_ did 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: _Enter_ not in _Q. _]

[Footnote 2: Commonly _posy_: a little sentence engraved inside aring--perhaps originally a tiny couplet, therefore _poesy_, _1st Q. _, 'apoesie for a ring?']

[Footnote 3: Emphasis on ''Tis. ']

[Footnote 4: Very little blank verse of any kind was written beforeShakspere's; the usual form of dramatic verse was long, irregular, rimedlines: the Poet here uses the heroic couplet, which gives a resemblanceto the older plays by its rimes, while also by its stately andmonotonous movement the play-play is differenced from the play intowhich it is introduced, and caused to _look_ intrinsically like a playin 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 formand 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 straines Of 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 beenmarried, and Shakspere points at Hamlet's age. 234. The Poet takespains to show his hero's years. ]

[Footnote 7: This line, whose form in the _Quarto_ is very careless, seems but a careless correction, leaving the sense as well as theconstruction obscure: 'Women's fear and love keep the scales level; in_neither_ is there ought, or in _both_ there is fulness;' or: 'there isno moderation in their fear and their love; either they have _none_ ofeither, or they have _excess_ of both. ' Perhaps he tried to express bothideas 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 byHamlet, embodying an unuttered and yet more fearful doubt with regard tohis mother?]

[Footnote 2: This speech is on the margin in the _Quarto_, 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 tolive. ']

[Footnote 7: Here again there is carelessness of construction, as if thePoet had not thought it worth his while to correct this subsidiaryportion of the drama. I do not see how to lay the blame on theprinter. --'Purpose is a mere fruit, which holds on or falls only as itmust. 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 slightchance. ']

[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 friendis the seasoning of a requested favour. ]

[Footnote 2: 'Our thoughts are ours, but what will come of them wecannot 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 motherbeyond 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 thereno 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 donein _Vienna: Gonzago_ is the Dukes name, his wife_Baptista_: you shall see anon: 'tis a knauish peeceof worke: But what o'that? Your Maiestie, and [Sidenote: of that?]wee that haue free soules, it touches vs not: let thegall'd iade winch: our withers are vnrung. [4]

_Enter Lucianus. _[5]

This is one _Lucianus_ nephew 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 yourloue: 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 bellowfor 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 theking's self-possession? or is this speech only an outcome of itscompleteness--a pretence of fearing the play may glance at the queen formarrying him?]

[Footnote 2: 'It is but jest; don't be afraid: there is no reality init'--as one might say to a child seeing a play. ]

[Footnote 3: Figuratively: from _trope_. In the _1st Q. _ the passagestands thus:

 _Ham_. Mouse-trap: mary how trapically: this play is The image of a murder done in _guyana_, ]

[Footnote 4: Here Hamlet endangers himself to force the king toself-betrayal. ]

[Footnote 5: _In Q. After next line. _]

[Footnote 6: In a puppet-play, if she and her love were the puppets, hecould supply the speeches. ]

[Footnote 7: Is this a misprint for 'so you _must take_ husbands'--forbetter and worse, namely? or is it a thrust at his mother--'So youmis-take husbands, going from the better to a worse'? In _1st Q. _: 'Soyou must take your husband, begin. ']

[Footnote 8: Probably a mocking parody or burlesque of some well-knownexaggeration--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's _Gonzago_: 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 of _Gonzago's_ wife. 

_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, ifthe rest of my Fortunes turne Turke with me; withtwo 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 good _Horatio_, Ile take the Ghostsword 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 call _stage-fire_?--'What! frighted at a mere play?']

[Footnote 3: The stage--the stage-stage, that is--alone is lighted. Doesthe king stagger out blindly, madly, shaking them from him? I thinknot--but as if he were taken suddenly ill. ]

[Footnote 4: --_singing_--that he may hide his agitation, restrainhimself, 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 the _raz'd_ of the_Quarto_, I should suggest _lac'd_. Could it mean _cut low_?]

[Footnote 8: _a share_, as immediately below. ]

[Footnote 9: A _cry_ of hounds is a pack. So in _King Lear_, act v. Sc. 3, 'packs and sects of great ones. ']

[Footnote 10: _I_ for _ay_--that is, _yes_!--He insists on a wholeshare. ]

[Footnote 11: Again he takes refuge in singing. ]

[Footnote 12: The lines are properly measured in the _Quarto_:

 For thou doost know oh Damon deere This Realme dismantled was Of _Ioue_ himselfe, and now raignes heere A very very paiock. 

By _Jove_, he of course intends _his father_. 170. What 'Paiocke' means, whether _pagan_, or _peacock_, or _bajocco_, matters nothing, since itis intended for nonsense. ]

[Footnote 13: To rime with _was_, Horatio naturally expected _ass_ tofollow as the end of the last line: in the wanton humour of hisexcitement, Hamlet disappointed him. ]

[Footnote 14: _In Q. After next speech_. ]

[Footnote 15: He hears Rosincrance and Guildensterne coming, and changeshis 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 themoment the safest place, or he would mask himself before his two falsefriends. Since the departure of the king--I would suggest--he has bornehimself with evident apprehension, every now and then glancing abouthim, as fearful of what may follow his uncle's recognition of the intentof the play. Three times he has burst out singing. 

Or might not his whole carriage, with the call for music, be the outcomeof 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 wordwith 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 morericher, to signifie this to his Doctor: for me to [Sidenote: the Doctor, ]put him to his Purgation, would perhaps plundgehim into farre more Choller. [2] [Sidenote: into more]

_Guild. _ Good my Lord put your discourse intosome 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 greataffliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. 

_Ham. _ You are welcome. [4]

_Guild. _ Nay, good my Lord, this courtesie isnot of the right breed. If it shall please you tomake me a wholsome answer, I will doe yourMothers command'ment: if not, your pardon, andmy 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 witsdiseas'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 Motheryou say. 

[Footnote 1: These two lines he may be supposed to sing. ]

[Footnote 2: Choler means bile, and thence anger. Hamlet in his answerplays on the two meanings:--'to give him the kind of medicine I thinkfit 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 behauiorhath 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 heelesof this Mothers admiration? [Sidenote: admiration, impart. ]

_Rosin. _ She desires to speake with you in herClosset, ere you go to bed. 

_Ham. _ We shall obey, were she ten times ourMother. Haue you any further Trade with vs?

_Rosin. _ My Lord, you once did loue me. 

_Ham. _ So I do still, by these pickers and [Sidenote: And doe still]stealers. [2]

_Rosin. _ Good my Lord, what is your cause ofdistemper? You do freely barre the doore of your [Sidenote: surely barre the door vpon your]owne Libertie, if you deny your greefes to your yourFriend. 

_Ham. _ Sir I lacke Aduancement. 

_Rosin. _ How can that be, when you haue the[Sidenote: 136] voyce of the King himselfe, for your Succession inDenmarke?

[3]

_Ham. _ I, but while the grasse growes, [4] the [Sidenote: I sir, ]Prouerbe is something musty. 

_Enter one with a Recorder. _[5]

O the Recorder. Let me see, to withdraw with, [Sidenote: ô the Recorders, let mee see one, to]you, [6] why do you go about to recouer the winde ofmee, [7] as if you would driue me into a toyle?[8]

_Guild. _ O my Lord, if my Dutie be too bold, my loue is too vnmannerly. [9]

_Ham. _ I do not well vnderstand that. [10] Will you, play vpon this Pipe?

_Guild. _ My Lord, I cannot. 

_Ham. _ I pray you. 

_Guild. _ Beleeue me, I cannot. 

_Ham. _ I do beseech you. 

[Footnote 1: wonder, astonishment. ]

[Footnote 2: He swears an oath that will not hold, being by the hand ofa thief. 

In the Catechism: 'Keep my hands from picking and stealing. ']

[Footnote 3: Here in Quarto, _Enter the Players with Recorders. _]

[Footnote 4: '. .. The colt starves. ']

[Footnote 5: _Not in Q. _ The stage-direction of the _Folio_ seemsdoubtful. Hamlet has called for the orchestra: we may either suppose oneto precede the others, or that the rest are already scattered; but the_Quarto_ direction and reading seem better. ]

[Footnote 6: _--taking Guildensterne aside_. ]

[Footnote 7: 'to get to windward of me. ']

[Footnote 8: 'Why do you seek to get the advantage of me, as if youwould drive me to betray myself?'--Hunters, by sending on the wind theirscent to the game, drive it into their toils. ]

[Footnote 9: Guildensterne tries euphuism, but hardly succeeds. Heintends to plead that any fault in his approach must be laid to thecharge of his love. _Duty_ here means _homage_--so used still by thecommon people. ]

[Footnote 10: --said with a smile of gentle contempt. ]

[Page 156]

_Guild_. I know no touch of it, my Lord. 

_Ham_. Tis as easie as lying: gouerne these [Sidenote: It is]Ventiges with your finger and thumbe, giue it [Sidenote: fingers, & the vmber, giue]breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most [Sidenote: most eloquent]excellent Musicke. Looke you, these are thestoppes. 

_Guild_. But these cannot I command to anyvtterance of hermony, I haue not the skill. 

_Ham_. Why looke you now, how vnworthy athing you make of me: you would play vpon mee;you would seeme to know my stops: you wouldpluck out the heart of my Mysterie; you wouldsound mee from my lowest Note, to the top of my [Sidenote: note to my compasse]Compasse: and there is much Musicke, excellentVoice, in this little Organe, yet cannot you make [Sidenote: it speak, s'hloud do you think I]it. Why do you thinke, that I am easier to beeplaid on, then a Pipe? Call me what Instrumentyou will, though you can fret[1] me, you cannot [Sidenote: you fret me not, ][Sidenote: 184] play vpon me. God blesse you Sir. [2]

_Enter Polonius_. 

_Polon_. My Lord; the Queene would speakwith you, and presently. 

_Ham_. Do you see that Clowd? that's almost in [Sidenote: yonder clowd]shape like a Camell. [Sidenote: shape of a]

_Polon_. By'th'Misse, and it's like a Camell [Sidenote: masse and tis, ]indeed. 

_Ham_. Me thinkes it is like a Weazell. 

_Polon_. It is back'd like a Weazell. 

_Ham_. Or like a Whale?[3]

_Polon_. Verie like a Whale. [4]

_Ham_. Then will I come to my Mother, by and by: [Sidenote: I will][Sidenote: 60, 136, 178] They foole me to the top of my bent. [5]I will come by and by. 

[Footnote 1: --with allusion to the _frets_ or _stop-marks_ of astringed instrument. ]

[Footnote 2: --_to Polonius_. ]

[Footnote 3: There is nothing insanely arbitrary in these suggestions oflikeness; a cloud might very well be like every one of the three; thecamel has a hump, the weasel humps himself, and the whale is a hump. ]

[Footnote 4: He humours him in everything, as he would a madman. ]

[Footnote 5: Hamlet's cleverness in simulating madness is dwelt upon inthe old story. See '_Hystorie of Hamblet, prince of Denmarke_. ']

[Page 158]

_Polon_. [1] I will say so. _Exit_. [1]

_Ham_. [1] By and by, is easily said. Leaue me Friends:'Tis now the verie witching time of night, When Churchyards yawne, and Hell it selfe breaths out [Sidenote: brakes[2]]Contagion to this world. [3] Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter businesse as the day [Sidenote: such busines as the bitter day]Would quake to looke on. [4] Soft now, to my Mother:Oh Heart, loose not thy Nature;[5] let not euerThe Soule of _Nero_[6] enter this firme bosome:Let me be cruell, not vnnaturall. [Sidenote: 172] I will speake Daggers[7] to her, but vse none: [Sidenote: dagger]My Tongue and Soule in this be Hypocrites. [8]How in my words someuer she be shent, [9]To giue them Seales, [10] neuer my Soule consent. [4] [Sidenote: _Exit. _]

_Enter King, Rosincrance, and Guildensterne_. 

_King_. I like him not, nor stands it safe with vs, To let his madnesse range. [11] Therefore prepare you, [Sidenote: 167] I your Commission will forthwith dispatch, [12][Sidenote: 180] And he to England shall along with you:The termes of our estate, may not endure[13]Hazard so dangerous as doth hourely grow [Sidenote: so neer's as]Out of his Lunacies. [Sidenote: his browes. ]

_Guild_. We will our selues prouide:Most holie and Religious feare it is[14]To keepe those many many bodies safeThat liue and feede vpon your Maiestie. [15]

_Rosin_. The singleAnd peculiar[16] life is boundWith all the strength and Armour of the minde, [Footnote 1: The _Quarto_, not having _Polon. , Exit, or Ham. _, andarranging differently, reads thus:--

 They foole me to the top of my bent, I will come by and by, Leaue me friends. I will, say so. By and by is easily said, Tis now the very &c. ]

[Footnote 2: _belches_. ]

[Footnote 3: --thinking of what the Ghost had told him, perhaps: it wasthe time when awful secrets wander about the world. Compare _Macbeth_, act ii. Sc. 1; also act iii. Sc. 2. ]

[Footnote 4: The assurance of his uncle's guilt, gained through theeffect of the play upon him, and the corroboration of his mother's guiltby this partial confirmation of the Ghost's assertion, have once morestirred in Hamlet the fierceness of vengeance. But here afresh comesout the balanced nature of the man--say rather, the supremacy in him ofreason and will. His dear soul, having once become mistress of hischoice, remains mistress for ever. He _could_ drink hot blood, he_could_ do bitter business, but he will carry himself as a son, and theson of his father, _ought_ to carry himself towards a guiltymother--_mother_ although guilty. ]

[Footnote 5: Thus he girds himself for the harrowing interview. Aware ofthe danger he is in of forgetting his duty to his mother, he strengthenshimself in filial righteousness, dreading to what word or deed a burstof indignation might drive him. One of his troubles now is the way hefeels towards his mother. ]

[Footnote 6: --who killed his mother. ]

[Footnote 7: His words should be as daggers. ]

[Footnote 8: _Pretenders_. ]

[Footnote 9: _reproached_ or _rebuked_--though oftener _scolded_. ]

[Footnote 10: 'to seal them with actions'--Actions are the seals towords, and make them irrevocable. ]

[Footnote 11: _walk at liberty_. ]

[Footnote 12: _get ready_. ]

[Footnote 13: He had, it would appear, taken them into his confidence inthe business; they knew what was to be in their commission, and werethorough traitors to Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 14: --holy and religious precaution for the sake of the manydepending on him. ]

[Footnote 15: Is there not unconscious irony of their own parasitismhere intended?]

[Footnote 16: _private individual_. ]

[Page 160]

To keepe it selfe from noyance:[1] but much more, That Spirit, vpon whose spirit depends and rests [Sidenote: whose weale depends]The lives of many, the cease of Maiestie [Sidenote: cesse]Dies not alone;[2] but like a Gulfe doth drawWhat's neere it, with it. It is a massie wheele [Sidenote: with it, or it is]Fixt on the Somnet of the highest Mount, To whose huge Spoakes, ten thousand lesser things [Sidenote: hough spokes]Are mortiz'd and adioyn'd: which when it falles, Each small annexment, pettie consequenceAttends the boystrous Ruine. Neuer alone [Sidenote: raine, ]Did the King sighe, but with a generall grone. [Sidenote: but a[3]]

_King. _[4] Arme you, [5] I pray you to this speedie Voyage; [Sidenote: viage, ]For we will Fetters put vpon this feare, [6] [Sidenote: put about this]Which now goes too free-footed. 

_Both. _ We will haste vs. _Exeunt Gent_

_Enter Polonius. _

Pol. My Lord, he's going to his Mothers Closset:Behinde the Arras Ile conuey my selfeTo heare the Processe. Ile warrant shee'l tax him home, And as you said, and wisely was it said, 'Tis meete that some more audience then a Mother, Since Nature makes them partiall, should o're-heareThe speech of vantage. [7] Fare you well my Liege, Ile call vpon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know. [Sidenote: Exit. ]

_King. _ Thankes deere my Lord. Oh my offence is ranke, it smels to heauen, It hath the primall eldest curse vpon't, A Brothers murther. [8] Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharpe as will:My stronger guilt, [9] defeats my strong intent, [Footnote 1: The philosophy of which self is the centre. The speeches ofboth justify the king in proceeding to extremes against Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 2: The same as to say: 'The passing, ceasing, or ending ofmajesty dies not--is not finished or accomplished, without that ofothers;' 'the dying ends or ceases not, ' &c. ]

[Footnote 3: The _but_ of the _Quarto_ is better, only the line halts. It is the preposition, meaning _without_. ]

[Footnote 4: _heedless of their flattery_. It is hardly applicableenough to interest him. ]

[Footnote 5: 'Provide yourselves. ']

[Footnote 6: fear active; cause of fear; thing to be afraid of; the nounof the verb _fear_, to _frighten_:

 Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

_A Midsummer Night's Dream_, act v. Sc. I. ]

[Footnote 7: Schmidt (_Sh. Lex. _) says _of vantage_ means _to boot_. Ido not think he is right. Perhaps Polonius means 'from a position ofadvantage. ' Or perhaps 'The speech of vantage' is to be understood asimplying that Hamlet, finding himself in a position of vantage, that is, alone with his mother, will probably utter himself with littlerestraint. ]

[Footnote 8: This is the first proof positive of his guilt accorded evento the spectator of the play: here Claudius confesses not merely guilt(118), but the very deed. Thoughtless critics are so ready to judgeanother as if he knew all they know, that it is desirable here to remindthe student that only he, not Hamlet, hears this soliloquy. Thefalseness of half the judgments in the world comes from our not takingcare and pains first to know accurately the actions, and then tounderstand the mental and moral condition, of those we judge. ]

[Footnote 9: --his present guilty indulgence--stronger than his strongintent to pray. ]

[Page 162]

And like a man to double businesse bound, [1]I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both[2] neglect; what if this cursed handWere thicker then it selfe with Brothers blood, Is there not Raine enough in the sweet HeauensTo wash it white as Snow? Whereto serues mercy, But to confront the visage of Offence?And what's in Prayer, but this two-fold force, To be fore-stalled ere we come to fall, Or pardon'd being downe? Then Ile looke vp, [Sidenote: pardon]My fault is past. But oh, what forme of PrayerCan serue my turne? Forgiue me my foule Murther:That cannot be, since I am still possestOf those effects for which I did the Murther. [3]My Crowne, mine owne Ambition, and my Queene:May one be pardon'd, and retaine th'offence?In the corrupted currants of this world, Offences gilded hand may shoue by Iustice [Sidenote: showe]And oft 'tis seene, the wicked prize it selfeBuyes out the Law; but 'tis not so aboue, There is no shuffling, there the Action lyesIn his true Nature, and we our selues compell'dEuen to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To giue in euidence. What then? What rests?Try what Repentance can. What can it not?Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?[4]Oh wretched state! Oh bosome, blacke as death!Oh limed[5] soule, that strugling to be free, Art more ingag'd[6]: Helpe Angels, make assay:[7]Bow stubborne knees, and heart with strings of Steele, Be soft as sinewes of the new-borne Babe, All may be well. 

[Footnote 1: Referring to his double guilt--the one crime past, theother in continuance. 

Here is the corresponding passage in the _1st Q. _, with the adulteryplainly confessed:--

 _Enter the King. _

 _King_. O that this wet that falles vpon my face Would wash the crime cleere from my conscience! When I looke vp to heauen, I see my trespasse, The earth doth still crie out vpon my fact, Pay me the murder of a brother and a king, And the adulterous fault I haue committed: O these are sinnes that are vnpardonable: Why say thy sinnes were blacker then is ieat, Yet may contrition make them as white as snowe: I but still to perseuer in a sinne, It is an act gainst the vniuersall power, Most wretched man, stoope, bend thee to thy prayer, Aske grace of heauen to keepe thee from despaire. ]

[Footnote 2: both crimes. ]

[Footnote 3: He could repent of and pray forgiveness for the murder, ifhe could repent of the adultery and incest, and give up the queen. It isnot the sins they have done, but the sins they will not leave, that damnmen. 'This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, andmen loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 'The murder deeply troubled him; the adultery not so much; the incest andusurpation mainly as interfering with the forgiveness of the murder. ]

[Footnote 4: Even hatred of crime committed is not repentance:repentance is the turning away from wrong doing: 'Cease to do evil;learn to do well. ']

[Footnote 5: --caught and held by crime, as a bird by bird-lime. ]

[Footnote 6: entangled. ]

[Footnote 7: _said to his knees_. Point thus:--'Helpe Angels! Makeassay--bow, stubborne knees!']

[Page 164]

_Enter Hamlet_. 

_Ham_. [1] Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, [Sidenote: doe it, but now a is a praying, ]And now Ile doo't, and so he goes to Heauen, [Sidenote: so a goes]And so am I reueng'd: that would be scann'd, [Sidenote: reuendge, ]A Villaine killes my Father, and for thatI his foule Sonne, do this same Villaine send [Sidenote: sole sonne]To heauen. Oh this is hyre and Sallery, not Reuenge. [Sidenote: To heauen. Why, this is base and silly, not]He tooke my Father grossely, full of bread, [Sidenote: A tooke][Sidenote: 54, 262] With all his Crimes broad blowne, as fresh as May, [Sidenote: as flush as]And how his Audit stands, who knowes, saue Heauen:[2]But in our circumstance and course of thought'Tis heauie with him: and am I then reueng'd, To take him in the purging of his Soule, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No. Vp Sword, and know thou a more horrid hent[3]When he is drunke asleepe: or in his Rage, Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, swearing, or about some acte [Sidenote: At game a swearing, ]That ha's no rellish of Saluation in't, Then trip him, [4] that his heeles may kicke at Heauen, And that his Soule may be as damn'd and blackeAs Hell, whereto it goes. [5] My Mother stayes, [6]This Physicke but prolongs thy sickly dayes. [7] _Exit_. 

_King_. My words flye vp, my thoughts remain below, Words without thoughts, neuer to Heauen go. [8] _Exit_. 

_Enter Queene and Polonius_. [Sidenote: _Enter Gertrard and_]

_Pol_. He will come straight: [Sidenote: A will]Looke you lay home to him

[Footnote 1: In the _1st Q. _ this speech commences with, 'I so, comeforth and worke thy last, ' evidently addressed to his sword; afterwards, having changed his purpose, he says, 'no, get thee vp agen. ']

[Footnote 2: This indicates doubt of the Ghost still. He is unwilling tobelieve in him. ]

[Footnote 3: _grasp_. This is the only instance I know of _hent_ as anoun. The verb _to hent, to lay hold of_, is not so rare. 'Wait tillthou be aware of a grasp with a more horrid purpose in it. ']

[Footnote 4: --still addressed to his sword. ]

[Footnote 5: Are we to take Hamlet's own presentment of his reasons asexhaustive? Doubtless to kill him at his prayers, whereupon, after thenotions of the time, he would go to heaven, would be anything butjustice--the murdered man in hell--the murderer in heaven! But it iseasy to suppose Hamlet finding it impossible to slay a man on hisknees--and that from behind: thus in the unseen Presence, he was insanctuary, and the avenger might well seek reason or excuse for not_then_, not _there_ executing the decree. ]

[Footnote 6: 'waits for me. ']

[Footnote 7: He seems now to have made up his mind, and to await onlyfit time and opportunity; but he is yet to receive confirmation strongas holy writ. 

This is the first chance Hamlet has had--within the play--of killing theking, and any imputation of faulty irresolution therein is simply silly. It shows the soundness of Hamlet's reason, and the steadiness of hiswill, that he refuses to be carried away by passion, or the temptationof opportunity. The sight of the man on his knees might well start freshdoubt of his guilt, or even wake the thought of sparing a repentantsinner. He knows also that in taking vengeance on her husband he couldnot avoid compromising his mother. Besides, a man like Hamlet could notfail to perceive how the killing of his uncle, and in such an attitude, would look to others. 

It may be judged, however, that the reason he gives to himself for notslaying the king, was only an excuse, that his soul revolted from theidea of assassination, and was calmed in a measure by the doubt whethera man could thus pray--in supposed privacy, we must remember--and be amurderer. Not even yet had he proof _positive_, absolute, conclusive:the king might well take offence at the play, even were he innocent; andin any case Hamlet would desire _presentable_ proof: he had positivelynone to show the people in justification of vengeance. 

As in excitement a man's moods may be opalescent in their changes, andas the most contrary feelings may coexist in varying degrees, all mightbe in a mind, which I have suggested as present in that of Hamlet. 

To have been capable of the kind of action most of his critics woulddemand of a man, Hamlet must have been the weakling they imagine him. When at length, after a righteous delay, partly willed, partlyinevitable, he holds documents in the king's handwriting as proofs ofhis treachery--_proofs which can be shown_--giving him both right andpower over the life of the traitor, then, and only then, is he in coolblood absolutely satisfied as to his duty--which conviction, workingwith opportunity, and that opportunity plainly the last, brings the end;the righteous deed is done, and done righteously, the doer blameless inthe doing of it. The Poet is not careful of what is called poeticjustice in his play, though therein is no failure; what he is careful ofis personal rightness in the hero of it. ]

[Footnote 8: _1st Q_. 

 _King_ My wordes fly vp, my sinnes remaine below. No King on earth is safe, if Gods his foe. _Exit King_. 

So he goes to make himself safe by more crime! His repentance is mainlyfear. ]

[Page 166]

Tell him his prankes haue been too broad to beare with, And that your Grace hath scree'nd, and stoode betweeneMuch heate, and him. Ile silence me e'ene heere: [Sidenote: euen heere, ]Pray you be round[1] with him. [2] [Sidenote: _Enter Hamlet_. ]

_Ham. Within_. Mother, mother, mother. [3]

_Qu_. Ile warrant you, feare me not. [Sidenote: _Ger_. Ile wait you, ]Withdraw, I heare him comming. 

_Enter Hamlet_. [4]

_Ham_. [5] Now Mother, what's the matter?

_Qu_. _Hamlet_, thou hast thy Father much offended. [Sidenote: _Ger_. ]

_Ham_. Mother, you haue my Father much offended. 

_Qu_. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. [Sidenote: _Ger_. ]

_Ham. _ Go, go, you question with an idle tongue. [Sidenote: with a wicked tongue. ]

_Qu_. Why how now _Hamlet_?[6] [Sidenote: _Ger_. ]

_Ham_. Whats the matter now?

_Qu_. Haue you forgot me?[7] [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham_. No by the Rood, not so:You are the Queene, your Husbands Brothers wife, But would you were not so. You are my Mother. [8] [Sidenote: And would it were]

_Qu_. Nay, then Ile set those to you that can speake. [9] [Sidenote: _Ger_. ]

_Ham_. Come, come, and sit you downe, you shall not boudge:You go not till I set you vp a glasse, Where you may see the inmost part of you? [Sidenote: the most part]

_Qu_. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murther [Sidenote: _Ger_. ]me?[10] Helpe, helpe, hoa. [Sidenote: Helpe how. ]

_Pol_. What hoa, helpe, helpe, helpe. [Sidenote: What how helpe. ]

_Ham_. How now, a Rat? dead for a Ducate, dead. [11]

[Footnote 1: _The Quarto has not_ 'with him. ']

[Footnote 2: _He goes behind the arras. _]

[Footnote 3: _The Quarto has not this speech. _]

[Footnote 4: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 5: _1st Q. _

 _Ham_. Mother, mother, O are you here? How i'st with you mother?

 _Queene_ How i'st with you?

 _Ham_, I'le tell you, but first weele make all safe. 

Here, evidently, he bolts the doors. ]

[Footnote 6: _1st Q. _

 _Queene_ How now boy?

 _Ham_. How now mother! come here, sit downe, for you shall heare me speake. ]

[Footnote 7: --'that you speak to me in such fashion?']

[Footnote 8: _Point thus_: 'so: you'--'would you were not so, for youare _my_ mother. '--_with emphasis on_ 'my. ' The whole is spoken sadly. ]

[Footnote 9: --'speak so that you must mind them. ']

[Footnote 10: The apprehension comes from the combined action of herconscience and the notion of his madness. ]

[Footnote 11: There is no precipitancy here--only instant resolve andexecution. It is another outcome and embodiment of Hamlet's rare facultyfor action, showing his delay the more admirable. There is here neithertime nor call for delay. Whoever the man behind the arras might be, hehad, by spying upon him in the privacy of his mother's room, forfeitedto Hamlet his right to live; he had heard what he had said to hismother, and his death was necessary; for, if he left the room, Hamlet'slast chance of fulfilling his vow to the Ghost was gone: if the play hadnot sealed, what he had now spoken must seal his doom. But the decreehad in fact already gone forth against his life. 158. ]

[Page 168]

_Pol. _ Oh I am slaine. [1]_Killes Polonius. _[2]

_Qu. _ Oh me, what hast thou done? [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham. _ Nay I know not, is it the King?[3]

_Qu. _ Oh what a rash, and bloody deed is this? [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham. _ A bloody deed, almost as bad good Mother, [Sidenote: 56] As kill a King, [4] and marrie with his Brother. 

_Qu. _ As kill a King? [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham. _ I Lady, 'twas my word. [5] [Sidenote: it was]Thou wretched, rash, intruding foole farewell, I tooke thee for thy Betters, [3] take thy Fortune, [Sidenote: better, ]Thou find'st to be too busie, is some danger, Leaue wringing of your hands, peace, sit you downe, And let me wring your heart, for so I shallIf it be made of penetrable stuffe;If damned Custome haue not braz'd it so, That it is proofe and bulwarke against Sense. [Sidenote: it be]

_Qu. _ What haue I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tong, [Sidenote: _Ger. _]In noise so rude against me?[6]

_Ham. _ Such an ActThat blurres the grace and blush of Modestie, [7]Calls Vertue Hypocrite, takes off the RoseFrom the faire forehead of an innocent loue, And makes a blister there. [8] Makes marriage vowes [Sidenote: And sets a]As false as Dicers Oathes. Oh such a deed, As from the body of Contraction[9] pluckesThe very soule, and sweete Religion makesA rapsidie of words. Heauens face doth glow, [Sidenote: dooes]Yea this solidity and compound masse, [Sidenote: Ore this]With tristfull visage as against the doome, [Sidenote: with heated visage, ]Is thought-sicke at the act. [10] [Sidenote: thought sick]

_Qu. _ Aye me; what act, [11] that roares so lowd, [12]and thunders in the Index. [13]

[Footnote 1: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 2: --_through the arras_. ]

[Footnote 3: Hamlet takes him for, hopes it is the king, and thinks hereto conclude: he is not praying now! and there is not a moment to belost, for he has betrayed his presence and called for help. As often asimmediate action is demanded of Hamlet, he is immediate with hisresponse--never hesitates, never blunders. There is no blunder here:being where he was, the death of Polonius was necessary now to the deathof the king. Hamlet's resolve is instant, and the act simultaneous withthe resolve. The weak man is sure to be found wanting when immediateaction is necessary; Hamlet never is. Doubtless those who blame him asdilatory, here blame him as precipitate, for they judge according toappearance and consequence. 

All his delay after this is plainly compelled, although I grant he wasnot sorry to have to await such _more presentable_ evidence as at lasthe procured, so long as he did not lose the final possibility ofvengeance. ]

[Footnote 4: This is the sole reference in the interview to the murder. I take it for tentative, and that Hamlet is satisfied by his mother'sutterance, carriage, and expression, that she is innocent of anyknowledge of that crime. Neither does he allude to the adultery: thereis enough in what she cannot deny, and that only which can be remediedneeds be taken up; while to break with the king would open the door ofrepentance for all that had preceded. ]

[Footnote 5: He says nothing of the Ghost to his mother. ]

[Footnote 6: She still holds up and holds out. ]

[Footnote 7: 'makes Modesty itself suspected. ']

[Footnote 8: 'makes Innocence ashamed of the love it cherishes. ']

[Footnote 9: 'plucks the spirit out of all forms of contracting oragreeing. ' We have lost the social and kept only the physical meaning ofthe noun. ]

[Footnote 10: I cannot help thinking the _Quarto_ reading of thispassage the more intelligible, as well as much the more powerful. We mayimagine a red aurora, by no means a very unusual phenomenon, over theexpanse of the sky:--

 Heaven's face doth glow (_blush_) O'er this solidity and compound mass, (_the earth, solid, material, composite, a corporeal mass inconfrontment with the spirit-like etherial, simple, uncompounded heavenleaning over it_)

 With tristful (_or_ heated, _as the reader may choose_) visage: as against the doom, (_as in the presence, or in anticipation of the revealing judgment_)

 Is thought sick at the act. 

(_thought is sick at the act of the queen_)

My difficulties as to the _Folio_ reading are--why the earth should beso described without immediate contrast with the sky; and--how the earthcould be showing a tristful visage, and the sickness of its thought. Ithink, if the Poet indeed made the alterations and they are not mereblunders, he must have made them hurriedly, and without due attention. Iwould not forget, however, that there may be something present but toogood for me to find, which would make the passage plain as it stands. 

Compare _As you like it_, act i. Sc. 3. 

 For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee. ]

[Footnote 11: In Q. The rest of this speech is Hamlet's; his long speechbegins here, taking up the queen's word. ]

[Footnote 12: She still stands out. ]

[Footnote 13: 'thunders in the very indication or mention of it. ' But by'the Index' may be intended the influx or table of contents of a book, at the beginning of it. ]

[Page 170]

_Ham. _ Looke heere vpon this Picture, and on this, The counterfet presentment of two Brothers:[1]See what a grace was seated on his Brow, [Sidenote: on this][Sidenote: 151] _Hyperions_ curies, the front of Ioue himselfe, An eye like Mars, to threaten or command [Sidenote: threaten and]A Station, like the Herald MercurieNew lighted on a heauen kissing hill: [Sidenote: on a heaue, a kissing]A Combination, and a forme indeed, Where euery God did seeme to set his Seale, To giue the world assurance of a man. [2]This was your Husband. Looke you now what followes. Heere is your Husband, like a Mildew'd eareBlasting his wholsom breath. Haue you eyes? [Sidenote: wholsome brother, ]Could you on this faire Mountaine leaue to feed, And batten on this Moore?[3] Ha? Haue you eyes?You cannot call it Loue: For at your age, The hey-day[4] in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waites vpon the Judgement: and what IudgementWould step from this, to this? [A] What diuell was't, That thus hath cousend you at hoodman-blinde?[5] [Sidenote: hodman][B]O Shame! where is thy Blush? Rebellious Hell, If thou canst mutine in a Matrons bones, [Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

 sence sure youe haueEls could you not haue motion, but sure that senceIs appoplext, for madnesse would not erreNor sence to extacie[6] was nere so thral'dBut it reseru'd some quantity of choise[7]To serue in such[8] a difference, ]

[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight. Eares without hands, or eyes, smelling sance[9] all, Or but a sickly part of one true senceCould not so mope:[10]]

[Footnote 1: He points to the portraits of the two brothers, side byside on the wall. ]

[Footnote 2: See _Julius Caesar_, act v. Sc. 5, --speech of _Antony_ atthe end. ]

[Footnote 3: --perhaps an allusion as well to the complexion ofClaudius, both moral and physical. ]

[Footnote 4: --perhaps allied to the German _heida_, and possibly theEnglish _hoyden_ and _hoity-toity_. Or is it merely_high-day--noontide_?]

[Footnote 5: 'played tricks with you while hooded in the game of_blind-man's-bluff_?' The omitted passage of the _Quarto_ enlarges thefigure. 

_1st Q. _ 'hob-man blinde. ']

[Footnote 6: madness. ]

[Footnote 7: Attributing soul to sense, he calls its distinguishment_choice_. ]

[Footnote 8: --emphasis on _such_. ]

[Footnote 9: This spelling seems to show how the English word _sans_should be pronounced. ]

[Footnote 10: --'be so dull. ']

[Page 172]

To flaming youth, let Vertue be as waxe, And melt in her owne fire. Proclaime no shame, When the compulsiue Ardure giues the charge, Since Frost it selfe, [1] as actiuely doth burne, As Reason panders Will. [Sidenote: And reason pardons will. ]

_Qu. _ O Hamlet, speake no more. [2] [Sidenote: _Ger. _]Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soule, [Sidenote: my very eyes into my soule, ]And there I see such blacke and grained[3] spots, [Sidenote: greeued spots]As will not leaue their Tinct. [4] [Sidenote: will leaue there their]

_Ham. _ Nay, but to liue[5]In the ranke sweat of an enseamed bed, [Sidenote: inseemed]Stew'd in Corruption; honying and making loue[Sidenote: 34] Ouer the nasty Stye. [6]

_Qu. _ Oh speake to me, no more, [Sidenote: _Ger. _][Sidenote: 158] These words like Daggers enter in mine eares. [Sidenote: my]No more sweet _Hamlet_. 

_Ham. _ A Murderer, and a Villaine:A Slaue, that is not twentieth part the tythe [Sidenote: part the kyth]Of your precedent Lord. A vice[7] of Kings, A Cutpurse of the Empire and the Rule. That from a shelfe, the precious Diadem stole, And put it in his Pocket. 

_Qu. _ No more. [8] [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Enter Ghost. _[9]

_Ham. _ A King of shreds and patches. [Sidenote: 44] Saue me; and houer o're me with your wings[10]You heauenly Guards. What would you gracious figure? [Sidenote: your gracious]

_Qu. _ Alas he's mad. [11] [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham. _ Do you not come your tardy Sonne to chide, That laps't in Time and Passion, lets go by[12]Th'important acting of your dread command? Oh say. [13]

[Footnote 1: --his mother's matronly age. ]

[Footnote 2: She gives way at last. ]

[Footnote 3: --spots whose blackness has sunk into the grain, or finalparticles of the substance. ]

[Footnote 4: --transition form of tint:--'will never give up theircolour;' 'will never be cleansed. ']

[Footnote 5: He persists. ]

[Footnote 6: --Claudius himself--his body no 'temple of the Holy Ghost, 'but a pig-sty. 3. ]

[Footnote 7: The clown of the old Moral Play. ]

[Footnote 8: She seems neither surprised nor indignant at any point inthe accusation: her consciousness of her own guiit has overwhelmed her. ]

[Footnote 9: The _1st Q. _ has _Enter the ghost in his night gowne_. Itwas then from the first intended that he should not at this point appearin armour--in which, indeed, the epithet _gracious figure_ could hardlybe applied to him, though it might well enough in one of the costumes inwhich Hamlet was accustomed to see him--as this dressing-gown of the_1st Q. _ A ghost would appear in the costume in which he naturallyimagined himself, and in his wife's room would not show himself clothedas when walking among the fortifications of the castle. But by the wordslower down (174)--

 My Father in his habite, as he liued, the Poet indicates, not his dressing-gown, but his usual habit, _i. E. _attire. ]

[Footnote 10: --almost the same invocation as when first he saw theapparition. ]

[Footnote 11: The queen cannot see the Ghost. Her conduct has built sucha wall between her and her husband that I doubt whether, were she aghost also, she could see him. Her heart had left him, so they are nomore together in the sphere of mutual vision. Neither does the Ghostwish to show himself to her. As his presence is not corporeal, a ghostmay be present to but one of a company. ]

[Footnote 12: 1. 'Who, lapsed (_fallen, guilty_), lets action slip indelay and suffering. ' 2. 'Who, lapsed in (_fallen in, overwhelmed by_)delay and suffering, omits' &c. 3. 'lapsed in respect of time, andbecause of passion'--the meaning of the preposition _in_, common toboth, reacted upon by the word it governs. 4. 'faulty both in delaying, and in yielding to suffering, when action is required. ' 5. 'lapsedthrough having too much time and great suffering. ' 6. 'allowing himselfto be swept along by time and grief. '

Surely there is not another writer whose words would so often admit ofsuch multiform and varied interpretation--each form good, and true, andsuitable to the context! He seems to see at once all the relations of athing, and to try to convey them at once, in an utterance single as thething itself. He would condense the infinite soul of the meaning intothe trembling, overtaxed body of the phrase!]

[Footnote 13: In the renewed presence of the Ghost, all its formerinfluence and all the former conviction of its truth, return upon him. He knows also how his behaviour must appear to the Ghost, and seeshimself as the Ghost sees him. Confronted with the gracious figure, howshould he think of self-justification! So far from being able to explainthings, he even forgets the doubt that had held him back--it hasvanished from the noble presence! He is now in the world of belief; theworld of doubt is nowhere!--Note the masterly opposition of moods. ]

[Page 174]

_Ghost. _ Do not forget: this VisitationIs but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. [1]But looke, Amazement on thy Mother sits;[2][Sidenote: 30, 54] O step betweene her, and her fighting Soule, [3][Sidenote: 198] Conceit[4] in weakest bodies, strongest workes. Speake to her _Hamlet_. [5]

_Ham. _ How is it with you Lady?[6]

_Qu. _ Alas, how is't with you? [Sidenote: _Ger. _]That you bend your eye on vacancie, [Sidenote: you do bend]And with their corporall ayre do hold discourse. [Sidenote: with th'incorporall ayre]Forth at your eyes, your spirits wildely peepe, And as the sleeping Soldiours in th'Alarme, Your bedded haire, like life in excrements, [7]Start vp, and stand an end. [8] Oh gentle Sonne, Vpon the heate and flame of thy distemperSprinkle coole patience. Whereon do you looke?[9]

_Ham. _ On him, on him: look you how pale he glares, His forme and cause conioyn'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capeable. [10] Do not looke vpon me, [11]Least with this pitteous action you conuertMy sterne effects: then what I haue to do, [12][Sidenote: 111] Will want true colour; teares perchance for blood. [13]

_Qu. _ To who do you speake this? [Sidenote: _Ger. _ To whom]

_Ham. _ Do you see nothing there?

_Qu. _ Nothing at all, yet all that is I see. [14] [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham. _ Nor did you nothing heare?

_Qu. _ No, nothing but our selues. [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham. _ Why look you there: looke how it steals away:[Sidenote: 173] My Father in his habite, as he liued, Looke where he goes euen now out at the Portall. _Exit. _ [Sidenote: _Exit Ghost. _]

[Sidenote: 114] _Qu. _ This is the very coynage of your Braine, [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

[Footnote 1: The Ghost here judges, as alone is possible to him, fromwhat he knows--from the fact that his brother Claudius has not yet madehis appearance in the ghost-world. Not understanding Hamlet'sdifficulties, he mistakes Hamlet himself. ]

[Footnote 2: He mistakes also, through his tenderness, the condition ofhis wife--imagining, it would seem, that she feels his presence, thoughshe cannot see him, or recognize the source of the influence which hesupposes to be moving her conscience: she is only perturbed by Hamlet'sbehaviour. ]

[Footnote 3: --fighting within itself, as the sea in a storm may be saidto fight. 

He is careful as ever over the wife he had loved and loves still;careful no less of the behaviour of the son to his mother. 

In the _1st Q. _ we have:--

 But I perceiue by thy distracted lookes, Thy mother's fearefull, and she stands amazde: Speake to her Hamlet, for her sex is weake, Comfort thy mother, Hamlet, thinke on me. ]

[Footnote 4: --not used here for bare _imagination_, but imaginationwith its concomitant feeling:--_conception_. 198. ]

[Footnote 5: His last word ere he vanishes utterly, concerns his queen;he is tender and gracious still to her who sent him to hell. Thisattitude of the Ghost towards his faithless wife, is one of theprofoundest things in the play. All the time she is not thinking of himany more than seeing him--for 'is he not dead!'--is looking straight atwhere he stands, but is all unaware of him. ]

[Footnote 6: I understand him to speak this with a kind of lost, mechanical obedience. The description his mother gives of him makes itseem as if the Ghost were drawing his ghost out to himself, and turninghis body thereby half dead. ]

[Footnote 7: 'as if there were life in excrements. ' The nails and hairwere 'excrements'--things _growing out_. ]

[Footnote 8: Note the form _an end_--not _on end_. 51, 71. ]

[Footnote 9: --all spoken coaxingly, as to one in a mad fit. She regardshis perturbation as a sudden assault of his ever present malady. One whosees what others cannot see they are always ready to count mad. ]

[Footnote 10: able to _take_, that is, to _understand_. ]

[Footnote 11: --_to the Ghost_. ]

[Footnote 12: 'what is in my power to do. ']

[Footnote 13: Note antithesis here: '_your piteous action_;' '_my sterneffects_'--the things, that is, 'which I have to effect. ' 'Lest yourpiteous show convert--change--my stern doing; then what I do will lacktrue colour; the result may be tears instead of blood; I shall weepinstead of striking. ']

[Footnote 14: It is one of the constantly recurring delusions ofhumanity that we see all there is. ]

[Page 176]

[Sidenote: 114] This bodilesse Creation extasie[1] is very cunningin. [2]

_Ham. _ Extasie?[3]My Pulse as yours doth temperately keepe time, And makes as healthfull Musicke. [4] It is not madnesseThat I haue vttered; bring me to the TestAnd I the matter will re-word: which madnesse [Sidenote: And the]Would gamboll from. Mother, for loue of Grace, Lay not a flattering Vnction to your soule, [Sidenote: not that flattering]That not your trespasse, but my madnesse speakes:[Sidenote: 182] It will but skin and filme the Vlcerous place, Whil'st ranke Corruption mining all within, [Sidenote: whiles]Infects vnseene, Confesse your selfe to Heauen, Repent what's past, auoyd what is to come, And do not spred the Compost or the Weedes, [Sidenote: compost on the]To make them ranke. Forgiue me this my Vertue, [Sidenote: ranker, ]For in the fatnesse of this pursie[5] times, [Sidenote: these]Vertue it selfe, of Vice must pardon begge, Yea courb, [6] and woe, for leaue to do him good. [Sidenote: curbe and wooe]

_Qu. _ Oh Hamlet, [Sidenote: _Ger. _]Thou hast cleft my heart in twaine. 

_Ham. _ O throw away the worser part of it, And Liue the purer with the other halfe. [Sidenote: And leaue the]Good night, but go not to mine Vnkles bed, [Sidenote: my]Assume a Vertue, if you haue it not, [7][A] refraine to night [Sidenote: Assune | to refraine night, ]And that shall lend a kinde of easinesse

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

[8]That monster custome, who all sence doth eateOf habits deuill, [9] is angell yet in thisThat to the vse of actions faire and good, He likewise giues a frock or LiueryThat aptly is put on]

[Footnote 1: madness 129. ]

[Footnote 2: Here is the correspondent speech in the _1st Q. _ I give itbecause of the queen's denial of complicity in the murder. 

 _Queene_ Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine. Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe: But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen, I neuer knew of this most horride murder: But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie, And for my loue forget these idle fits. 

 _Ham_. Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours, It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 3: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 4: --_time_ being a great part of music. Shakspere more thanonce or twice employs _music_ as a symbol with reference to corporealcondition: see, for instance, _As you like it_, act i. Sc. 2, 'But isthere any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? is there yetanother dotes upon rib-breaking?' where the _broken music_ may beregarded as the antithesis of the _healthful music_ here. ]

[Footnote 5: _swoln, pampered_: an allusion to the _purse_ itself, whether intended or not, is suggested. ]

[Footnote 6: _bend, bow_. ]

[Footnote 7: To _assume_ is to take to one: by _assume a virtue_, Hamletdoes not mean _pretend_--but the very opposite: _to pretend_ is _to holdforth, to show_; what he means is, 'Adopt a virtue'--that of_abstinence_--'and act upon it, order your behaviour by it, although youmay not _feel_ it. Choose the virtue--take it, make it yours. ']

[Footnote 8: This omitted passage is obscure with the specialShaksperean obscurity that comes of over-condensation. He omitted it, Ithink, because of its obscurity. Its general meaning is plainenough--that custom helps the man who tries to assume a virtue, as wellas renders it more and more difficult for him who indulges in vice toleave it. I will paraphrase: 'That monster, Custom, who eats away allsense, the devil of habits, is angel yet in this, that, for the exerciseof fair and good actions, he also provides a habit, a suitable frock orlivery, that is easily put on. ' The play with the two senses of the word_habit_ is more easily seen than set forth. To paraphrase more freely:'That devil of habits, Custom, who eats away all sense of wrong-doing, has yet an angel-side to him, in that he gives a man a mental dress, ahabit, helpful to the doing of the right thing. ' The idea of hypocrisydoes not come in at all. The advice of Hamlet is: 'Be virtuous in youractions, even if you cannot in your feelings; do not do the wrong thingyou would like to do, and custom will render the abstinence easy. ']

[Footnote 9: I suspect it should be '_Of habits evil_'--the antithesisto _angel_ being _monster_. ]

[Page 178]

To the next abstinence. [A] Once more goodnight, And when you are desirous to be blest, Ile blessing begge of you. [1] For this same Lord, I do repent: but heauen hath pleas'd it so, [2]To punish me with this, and this with me, That I must be their[3] Scourge and Minister. I will bestow him, [4] and will answer wellThe death I gaue him:[5] so againe, good night. I must be cruell, onely to be kinde;[6]Thus bad begins, [7] and worse remaines behinde. [8] [Sidenote: This bad]

[B]

_Qu_. What shall I do? [Sidenote: _Ger_. ]

_Ham_. Not this by no meanes that I bid you do:Let the blunt King tempt you againe to bed, [Sidenote: the blowt King]Pinch Wanton on your cheeke, call you his Mouse, And let him for a paire of reechie[9] kisses, Or padling in your necke with his damn'd Fingers, Make you to rauell all this matter out, [Sidenote: rouell][Sidenote: 60, 136, 156] That I essentially am not in madnesse. But made in craft. [10] 'Twere good you let him know, [Sidenote: mad]For who that's but a Queene, faire, sober, wise, Would from a Paddocke, [11] from a Bat, a Gibbe, [12]Such deere concernings hide, Who would do so, No in despight of Sense and Secrecie, Vnpegge the Basket on the houses top:Let the Birds flye, and like the famous ApeTo try Conclusions[13] in the Basket, creepeAnd breake your owne necke downe. [14]

_Qu_. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, [Sidenote: _Ger_. ]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto;_--

 the next more easie:[15]For vse almost can change the stamp of nature, And either[16] the deuill, or throwe him outWith wonderous potency:]

[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto:_--

One word more good Lady. [17]]

[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, afterthe custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farcenow: when she seeks the blessing of God, he will beg hers; now, a plain_good night_ must serve. ]

[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of _pleased_. It is here atransitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sentence is, 'pleased it so, _in order to_ punish us, that I must' &c. ]

[Footnote 3: The noun to which _their_ is the pronoun is _heaven_--as ifhe had written _the gods_. ]

[Footnote 4: 'take him to a place fit for him to lie in. ']

[Footnote 5: 'hold my face to it, and justify it. ']

[Footnote 6: --omitting or refusing to embrace her. ]

[Footnote 7: --looking at Polonius. ]

[Footnote 8: Does this mean for himself to do, or for Polonius toendure?]

[Footnote 9: reeky, smoky, fumy. ]

[Footnote 10: Hamlet considers his madness the same that he sodeliberately assumed. But his idea of himself goes for nothing where theexperts conclude him mad! His absolute clarity where he has no occasionto act madness, goes for as little, for 'all madmen have their sanemoments'!]

[Footnote 11: _a toad_; in Scotland, _a frog_. ]

[Footnote 12: an old cat. ]

[Footnote 13: _Experiments_, Steevens says: is it not rather _results_?]

[Footnote 14: I fancy the story, which so far as I know has not beentraced, goes on to say that the basket was emptied from the house-top tosend the pigeons flying, and so the ape got his neck broken. The phrase'breake your owne necke _downe_' seems strange: it could hardly havebeen written _neck-bone_!]

[Footnote 15: This passage would fall in better with the preceding withwhich it is vitally one--for it would more evenly continue its form--ifthe preceding _devil_ were, as I propose above, changed to _evil_. But, precious as is every word in them, both passages are well omitted. ]

[Footnote 16: Plainly there is a word left out, if not lost here. Thereis no authority for the supplied _master_. I am inclined to propose apause and a gesture, with perhaps an _inarticulation_. ]

[Footnote 17: --interrogatively perhaps, Hamlet noting her about tospeak; but I would prefer it thus: 'One word more:--good lady--' Herehe pauses so long that she speaks. Or we _might_ read it thus:

 _Qu. _ One word more. _Ham. _ Good lady? _Qu. _ What shall I do?]

[Page 180]

And breath of life: I haue no life to breathWhat thou hast saide to me. [1]

[Sidenote: 128, 158] _Ham. _ I must to England, you know that?[2]

_Qu. _ Alacke I had forgot: Tis so concluded on. [Sidenote: _Ger. _]

_Ham. _ [A] This man shall set me packing:[3]Ile lugge the Guts into the Neighbor roome, [4]Mother goodnight. Indeede this Counsellor [Sidenote: night indeed, this]Is now most still, most secret, and most graue, [Sidenote: 84] Who was in life, a foolish prating Knaue. [Sidenote: a most foolish]Come sir, to draw toward an end with you. [5]Good night Mother. 

_Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius. _[6] [Sidenote: _Exit. _]

[7]

_Enter King. _ [Sidenote: Enter King, and Queene, with Rosencraus and Guyldensterne. ]

_King. _ There's matters in these sighes. These profound heauesYou must translate; Tis fit we vnderstand them. Where is your Sonne?[8]

_Qu. _ [B] Ah my good Lord, what haue I seene to night? [Sidenote: _Ger. _ | Ah mine owne Lord, ]

_King. _ What _Gertrude_? How do's _Hamlet_?

_Qu. _ Mad as the Seas, and winde, when both contend [Sidenote: _Ger. _ | sea and]Which is the Mightier, in his lawlesse fit[9]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

[10]Ther's letters seald, and my two Schoolefellowes, Whom I will trust as I will Adders fang'd, They beare the mandat, they must sweep my wayAnd marshall me to knauery[11]: let it worke, For tis the sport to haue the enginerHoist[12] with his owne petar, [13] an't shall goe hardBut I will delue one yard belowe their mines, And blowe them at the Moone: ô tis most sweeteWhen in one line two crafts directly meete, ]

[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--

Bestow this place on vs a little while. [14]]

[Footnote 1: _1st Q. _

 O mother, if euer you did my deare father loue, Forbeare the adulterous bed to night, And win your selfe by little as you may, In time it may be you wil lothe him quite: And mother, but assist mee in reuenge, And in his death your infamy shall die. 

 _Queene. Hamlet_, I vow by that maiesty, That knowes our thoughts, and lookes into our hearts, I will conceale, consent, and doe my best, What stratagem soe're thou shalt deuise. ]

[Footnote 2: The king had spoken of it both before and after the play:Horatio might have heard of it and told Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 3: 'My banishment will be laid to this deed of mine. ']

[Footnote 4: --to rid his mother of it. ]

[Footnote 5: It may cross him, as he says this, dragging the body out byone end of it, and toward the end of its history, that he is himselfdrawing toward an end along with Polonius. ]

[Footnote 6: --_and weeping_. 182. See _note_ 5, 183. ]

[Footnote 7: Here, according to the editors, comes 'Act IV. ' For thisthere is no authority, and the point of division seems to me veryobjectionable. The scene remains the same, as noted from Capell in _Cam. Sh. _, and the entrance of the king follows immediately on the exit ofHamlet. He finds his wife greatly perturbed; she has not had time tocompose herself. 

From the beginning of Act II. , on to where I would place the end of ActIII. , there is continuity. ]

[Footnote 8: I would have this speech uttered with pauses and growingurgency, mingled at length with displeasure. ]

[Footnote 9: She is faithful to her son, declaring him mad, andattributing the death of 'the unseen' Polonius to his madness. ]

[Footnote 10: This passage, like the rest, I hold to be omitted byShakspere himself. It represents Hamlet as divining the plot with whoseexecution his false friends were entrusted. The Poet had at firstintended Hamlet to go on board the vessel with a design formed upon thisfor the out-witting of his companions, and to work out that design. Afterwards, however, he alters his plan, and represents his escape asmore plainly providential: probably he did not see how to manage it byany scheme of Hamlet so well as by the attack of a pirate; possibly hewished to write the passage (246) in which Hamlet, so consistently withhis character, attributes his return to the divine shaping of the endrough-hewn by himself. He had designs--'dear plots'--but they were otherthan fell out--a rough-hewing that was shaped to a different end. Thediscomfiture of his enemies was not such as he had designed: it wasbrought about by no previous plot, but through a discovery. At the sametime his deliverance was not effected by the fingering of the packet, but by the attack of the pirate: even the re-writing of the commissiondid nothing towards his deliverance, resulted only in the punishment ofhis traitorous companions. In revising the Quarto, the Poet sees thatthe passage before us, in which is expressed the strongest suspicion ofhis companions, with a determination to outwit and punish them, isinconsistent with the representation Hamlet gives afterwards of arestlessness and suspicion newly come upon him, which he attributes tothe Divinity. 

Neither was it likely he would say so much to his mother while so littlesure of her as to warn her, on the ground of danger to herself, againstrevealing his sanity to the king. As to this, however, the portionomitted might, I grant, be regarded as an _aside_. ]

[Footnote 11: --to be done _to_ him. ]

[Footnote 12: _Hoised_, from verb _hoise_--still used in Scotland. ]

[Footnote 13: a kind of explosive shell, which was fixed to the objectmeant to be destroyed. Note once more Hamlet's delight in action. ]

[Footnote 14: --_said to Ros. And Guild. _: in plain speech, 'Leave us alittle while. ']

[Page 182]

Behinde the Arras, hearing something stirre, He whips his Rapier out, and cries a Rat, a Rat, [Sidenote: Whyps out his Rapier, cryes a]And in his brainish apprehension killes [Sidenote: in this]The vnseene good old man. 

_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:_ Oh _Gertrude_, 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]Ho _Guildenstern_:Friends both go ioyne you with some further ayde:_Hamlet_ in 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]Come _Gertrude_, 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 nothave it so understood; he too lays it to his madness, though he tooknows 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 differentimpression. ]

[Footnote 5: We have no reason to think the queen inventing here: whatcould she gain by it? the point indeed was rather against Hamlet, asshowing it was not Polonius he had thought to kill. He was more thanever annoyed with the contemptible old man, who had by hismeddlesomeness brought his death to his door; but he was very sorrynevertheless over Ophelia's father: those rough words in his last speechare spoken with the tears running down his face. We have seen thestrange, almost discordant mingling in him of horror and humour, afterthe first appearance of the Ghost, 58, 60: something of the same may besupposed when he finds he has killed Polonius: in the highstrung nervouscondition that must have followed such a talk with his mother, it wouldbe nowise strange that he should weep heartily even in the midst ofcontemptuous anger. Or perhaps a sudden breakdown from attempted show ofindifference, would not be amiss in the representation. ]

[Footnote 6: 'both countenance with all our majesty, and excuse with allour skill. ']

[Footnote 7: In the _Quarto_ a 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_. Lord _Hamlet_?

_Ham. _ What noise? Who cals on _Hamlet_?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 notmine owne. Besides, to be demanded of a Spundge, what replication should be made by the Sonne ofa 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 Officersdo the King best seruice in the end. He keepesthem 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 whatyou haue glean'd, it is but squeezing you, andSpundge 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 amad fit. ]

[Footnote 3: This line is not in the _Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 4: _Not in Q. See margin above. _]

[Footnote 5: He has put it in a place which, little visited, is verydusty. ]

[Footnote 6: He is mad to them--sane only to his mother and Horatio. ]

[Footnote 7: _euphuistic_: 'asked a question by a sponge, what answershould 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 fromdissatisfaction with it, I believe it renders a worthy sense as itstands. The antecedent to _whose_ is _friends_: _cannon_ is nominativeto _transports_; and the only difficulty is the epithet _poysned_applied to _shot_, which seems transposed from the idea of an_unfriendly_ whisper. Perhaps Shakspere wrote _poysed shot_. But takingthis as it stands, the passage might be paraphrased thus: 'Whose(favourable) whisper over the world's diameter (_from one side of theworld to the other_), as level (_as truly aimed_) as the cannon (of anevil whisper) transports its poisoned shot to his blank (_the whitecentre 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 ofover-condensation with its tendency to seeming confusion--the only faultI know in the Poet--a grand fault, peculiarly his own, born of thebeating of his wings against the impossible. It is much as if, able tothink two thoughts at once, he would compel his phrase to utter them atonce. ]

[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: two _ff_ for two long _ss_. ]

[Page 186]

_Ham. _ I am glad of it: a knavish speechsleepes in a foolish eare. 

_Rosin. _ My Lord, you must tell us where thebody is, and go with us to the King. 

_Ham. _ The body is with the King, but the Kingis not with the body. [1] The King, is a thing----

_Guild. _ A thing my Lord?

_Ham. _ Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hideFox, 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. _ Now _Hamlet_, where's _Polonius?_

[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: The _Quarto_ has 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 called _Hide 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, drivento self-defence, and hurried out of sight to be disposed of. ]

[Footnote 8: Emphasis on _he_; the point of importance with the king, is_where he is_, not where the body is. ]

[Footnote 9: Henceforward he is guarded, or at least closely watched, according to the _Folio_--left much to himself according to the_Quarto_. 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. Wefat all creatures else to fat vs, and we fat our selfe [Sidenote: ourselves]for Magots. Your fat King, and your leaneBegger is but variable seruice to dishes, but to one [Sidenote: two dishes]Table that's the end. 

[A]

_King. _ What dost thou meane by this?[2]

_Ham. _ Nothing but to shew you how a Kingmay go a Progresse[3] through the guts of a Begger. [4]

_King. _ Where is _Polonius_. 

_Ham. _ In heauen, send thither to see. If yourMessenger finde him not there, seeke him i'th otherplace 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 thestaires 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:_--

_King_ Alas, alas. [9]

_Ham. _ A man may fish with the worme that hath eate of a King, and eateof 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 theprinters to have been omitted also: without the preceding two speechesof the Quarto they are not accounted for. ]

[Footnote 3: a royal progress. ]

[Footnote 4: Hamlet's philosophy deals much now with the worthlessnessof all human distinctions and affairs. ]

[Footnote 5: 'and we care for your safety as much as we grieve for thedeath 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. _ I _Hamlet_. 

_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 Father _Hamlet_. 

_Hamlet. _ My Mother: Father and Mother isman 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 of _Hamlet_. 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 tous. ']

[Footnote 6: 'set down to cool'; 'set in the cold. ']

[Footnote 7: _mandate_: 'Where's Fulvia's process?' _Ant. And Cl. _, acti. Sc. 1. _Shakespeare Lexicon_. ]

[Footnote 8: _hectic fever--habitual_ or constant fever. ]

[Footnote 9: 'whatever my fortunes. ']

[Footnote 10: The original, the _Quarto_ reading--'_my ioyes will nerebegin_' seems to me in itself better, and the cause of the change to beas follows. 

In the _Quarto_ the next scene stands as in our modern editions, endingwith 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 theforegoing, in accordance with his frequent way of using a rime before animportant pause. 

It perplexes us to think how on his way to the vessel, Hamlet could fallin with the Norwegian captain. This may have been one of Shakspere'sreasons for striking the whole scene out--but he had other and morepregnant reasons. ]

[Footnote 11: Here is now the proper close of the _Third Act_. ]

[Footnote 12: _Commencement of the Fourth Act. _

Between the third and the fourth passes the time Hamlet is away; for thelatter, in which he returns, and whose scenes are _contiguous_, needs nomore than one day. ]

[Footnote 13: 'claims a convoy in fulfilment of the king's promise toallow him to march over his kingdom. ' The meaning is made plainer by thecorrespondent passage in the _1st Quarto_:

 Tell him that _Fortenbrasse_ nephew to old _Norway_, 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]

[A]

[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 of _Norway_ sir. 

_Ham_. How purposd sir I pray you?

_Cap_. Against some part of _Poland_. 

_Ham_. Who commaunds them sir?

_Cap_. The Nephew to old _Norway, Fortenbrasse_. 

_Ham_. Goes it against the maine of _Poland_ sir, 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 to _Norway_ or the _Pole_A 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 littlebefore. [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 attendantofficers. _]

[Footnote 4: This was originally intended, I repeat, for thecommencement of the act. But when the greater part of the foregoingscene was omitted, and the third act made to end with the scene beforethat, then the small part left of the all-but-cancelled scene must openthe 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, _notfar off_, else why should Norway care about it at all? If the word_frontier_ has the meaning, as the _Shakespeare Lexicon_ says, of 'anoutwork in fortification, ' its use two lines back would, takenfiguratively, tend to support this. ]

[Footnote 8: The meaning may be as in the following paraphrase: 'Thisquarrelling about nothing is (the breaking of) the abscess caused bywealth and peace--which breaking inward (in general corruption), wouldshow no outward sore in sign of why death came. ' Or it might be _forced_thus:--

 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 otherhand, Hamlet seems to regard it as a process for, almost a sign ofhealth. ]

[Footnote 9: Note his freedom. ]

[Footnote 10: _See_ 'examples grosse as earth' _below_. ]

[Footnote 11: While every word that Shakspere wrote we may well takepains to grasp thoroughly, my endeavour to cast light on this passage ismade with the distinct understanding in my own mind that the authorhimself disapproved of and omitted it, and that good reason is notwanting why he should have done so. At the same time, if my student, forthis book is for those who would have help and will take pains to thetrue understanding of the play, would yet retain the passage, I protestagainst the acceptance of Hamlet's judgment of himself, except asrevealing the simplicity and humility of his nature and character. Thatas often as a vivid memory of either interview with the Ghost came backupon him, he should feel rebuked and ashamed, and vexed with himself, is, in the morally, intellectually, and emotionally troubled state ofhis mind, nowise the less natural that he had the best of reasons forthe delay because of which he _here_ so unmercifully abuses himself. Aman of self-satisfied temperament would never in similar circumstanceshave done so. But Hamlet was, by nature and education, far from suchself-satisfaction; and there is in him besides such a strife and turmoilof opposing passions and feelings and apparent duties, as can but rarelyrise in a human soul. With which he ought to side, his conscience is notsure--sides therefore now with one, now with another. At the same timeit is by no means the long delay the critics imagine of which he isaccusing himself--it is only that the thing _is not done_. 

In certain moods the action a man dislikes will _therefore_ look to himthe more like a duty; and this helps to prevent Hamlet from knowingalways how great a part conscience bears in the omission because ofwhich he condemns and even contemns himself. The conscience does notnaturally examine itself--is not necessarily self-conscious. In anysoliloquy, a man must speak from his present mood: we who are notsuffering, and who have many of his moods before us, ought to understandHamlet better than he understands himself. To himself, sitting injudgment on himself, it would hardly appear a decent cause of, not tosay reason for, a moment's delay in punishing his uncle, that he was soweighed down with misery because of his mother and Ophelia, that itseemed of no use to kill one villain out of the villainous world; itwould seem but 'bestial oblivion'; and, although his reputation as aprince was deeply concerned, _any_ reflection on the consequences tohimself would at times appear but a 'craven scruple'; while at timeseven the whispers of conscience might seem a 'thinking too precisely onthe event. ' A conscientious man of changeful mood wilt be very ready ineither mood to condemn the other. The best and rightest men willsometimes accuse themselves in a manner that seems to those who knowthem best, unfounded, unreasonable, almost absurd. We must not, I say, take the hero's judgment of himself as the author's judgment of him. Thetwo judgments, that of a man upon himself from within, and that of hisbeholder upon him from without, are not congeneric. They are differentin origin and in kind, and cannot be adopted either of them into thesource of the other without most serious and dangerous mistake. Soadopted, each becomes another thing altogether. It is to me probablethat, although it involves other unfitnesses, the Poet omitted thepassage chiefly from coming to see the danger of its giving occasion, orat least support, to an altogether mistaken and unjust idea of hisHamlet. ]

[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 notpersuading himself that it can be no such objectionable thing to killone hardly above a beast. At all events it is far more applicable to theking: it was not one of Hamlet's faults, in any case, to fail of usinghis reason. But he may just as well accuse himself of that too! At thesame time the worst neglect of reason lies in not carrying out itsconclusions, and if we cannot justify Hamlet in his delay, the passageis of good application to him. 'Bestiall oblivion' does seem to connecthimself with the reflection; but how thoroughly is the thing intended bysuch a phrase alien from the character of Hamlet!]

[Footnote 9: --the mental faculty of running hither and thither: 'Welook before and after. ' _Shelley: To a Skylark_. ]

[Footnote 10: --the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has justmentioned. ]

[Footnote 11: --the _consequences_. The scruples that come of thinkingof the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they were _craven_ scruples, that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the nobleself-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to resultfrom the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands atleast absolute assurance of guilt? or that 'a thinking too precisely onthe event, ' to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an unwounded name behind him?]

[Footnote 12: This passage is the strongest there is on the side of theordinary misconception of the character of Hamlet. It comes fromhimself; and it is as ungenerous as it is common and unfair to use sucha weapon against a man. Does any but St. Paul himself say he was thechief of sinners? Consider Hamlet's condition, tormented on all sides, within and without, and think whether this outbreak against himself benot as unfair as it is natural. Lest it should be accepted against him, Shakspere did well to leave it out. In bitter disappointment, bothbecause of what is and what is not, both because of what he has done andwhat he has failed to do, having for the time lost all chance, with thelast vision of the Ghost still haunting his eyes, his last reproachfulwords yet ringing in his ears, are we bound to take his judgment ofhimself because it is against himself? Are we _bound_ to take any man'sjudgment because it is against himself? I answer, 'No more than if itwere 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 beagainst himself, as a bad man's is sure to be for himself. Or because heis a philosopher, does it follow that throughout he understands himself?Were such a man in cool, untroubled conditions, we might feel compelledto take his judgment, but surely not here! A philosopher in such stateas Hamlet's would understand the quality of his spiritual operationswith no more certainty than another man. In his present mood, Hamletforgets the cogency of the reasons that swayed him in the other; forgetsthat his uppermost feeling then was doubt, as horror, indignation, andconviction are uppermost now. Things were never so clear to Hamlet as tous. 

But how can he say he has strength and means--in the position in whichhe now finds himself? I am glad to be able to believe, let my defence ofHamlet against himself be right or wrong, that Shakspere intended theomission of the passage. I lay nothing on the great lack of logicthroughout the speech, for that would not make it unfit for Hamlet insuch mood, while it makes its omission from the play of less consequenceto my general argument. ]

[Footnote 13: _threaten_. This supports my argument as to the greatsoliloquy--that it was death as the result of his slaying the king, orattempting to do so, not death by suicide, he was thinking of: heexpected to die himself in the punishing of his uncle. ]

[Footnote 14: He had had no chance but that when the king was on hisknees. ]

[Footnote 15: 'a fancy and illusion. ']

[Footnote 16: 'which is too small for those engaged to find room tofight on it. ']

[Footnote 17: 'continent, ' _containing space_. ]

[Footnote 18: This soliloquy is antithetic to the other. Here is nothought of the 'something after death. ']

[Footnote 19: If, with this speech in his mouth, Hamlet goes coolly onboard the vessel, _not being compelled thereto_ (190, 192, 216), andpossessing means to his vengeance, as here he says, and goes merely inorder to hoist Rosincrance and Guildensterne with their own petard--thatis, if we must keep the omitted passages, then the author exposes hishero to a more depreciatory judgment than any from which I would justifyhim, and a conception of his character entirely inconsistent with therest of the play. He did not observe the risk at the time he wrote thepassage, but discovering it afterwards, rectified the oversight--to thedissatisfaction of his critics, who have agreed in restoring what hecancelled. ]

[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 ofDenmark. 

_Qu_. How now _Ophelia_? [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 but _Ophelia_. 

_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 orinterpretation to them. ]

[Footnote 2: If this _would_, and not the _might_ of the _Quarto_, bethe correct reading, it means that Ophelia would have something thoughtso and so. ]

[Footnote 3: --changing her mind on Horatio's representation. At firstshe 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 downesinging. _

Hamlet's apparent madness would seem to pass into real madness inOphelia. King Lear's growing perturbation becomes insanity the moment hesees the pretended madman Edgar. 

The forms of Ophelia's madness show it was not her father's death thatdrove her mad, but his death by the hand of Hamlet, which, with Hamlet'sbanishment, destroyed all the hope the queen had been fostering in herof marrying him some day. ]

[Footnote 8: This expression is, as Dr. Johnson says, taken fromcookery; but it is so used elsewhere by Shakspere that we cannot regardit 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 knowwhat we are, but know not what we may be. Godbe 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 youthis:

[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_. Pretty _Ophelia. _

_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 beepatient, but I cannot choose but weepe, to thinkethey should lay him i'th'cold ground: My brother [Sidenote: they wouid lay]shall knowe of it, and so I thanke you for yourgood counsell. Come, my Coach: GoodnightLadies: Goodnight sweet Ladies: Goodnight, goodnight. _Exit_[7]

[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'God yeeld you, ' that is, _reward you_. Here wehave a blunder for the contraction, 'God 'ild you'--perhaps a commonblunder. ]

[Footnote 2: For the silly legend, see Douce's note in _Johnson andSteevens_. ]

[Footnote 3: imaginative brooding. ]

[Footnote 4: We dare no judgment on madness in life: we need not inart. ]

[Footnote 5: Preterites of _don_ and _dup_, contracted from _do on_ and_do 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. Oh _Gertrude, Gertrude_, [Sidenote: death, and now behold, ô _Gertrard, 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] good _Polonius_ death; and we haue done but greenly[Sidenote: 182] In hugger mugger[4] to interre him. Poore _Ophelia_Diuided 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 deere _Gertrude_, 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 my _Switzers_?[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 orcause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry--to thequeen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to thepopular indignation. _Hugger mugger--secretly: Steevens and Malone. _]

[Footnote 5: The phrase has the same _visual_ root as _besideherself_--both signifying '_not at one_ with herself. ']

[Footnote 6: If the _Quarto_ reading is right, 'this wonder' means thehurried and suspicious funeral of his father. But the _Folio_ reading isquite Shaksperean: 'He keeps on (as a garment) the wonder of the peopleat him'; _keeps his behaviour such that the people go on wondering abouthim_: the phrase is explained by the next clause. Compare:

 By being seldom seen, I could not stir But, 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 scrupleto whisper invented accusations against us. ']

[Footnote 8: --the name given to a certain small cannon--perhaps chargedwith various missiles, hence the better figuring the number and varietyof '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 layhis 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 means _pitiless_, orstands for _impetuous_. The _Quarto_ has one _t_. ]

[Page 202]

Then young _Laertes_, 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? _Laertes_ shall be King, [3] [Sidenote: The cry]Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds, _Laertes_ shall be King, _Laertes_ King. 

_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 good _Laertes_. 

_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 cause _Laertes_, That thy Rebellion lookes so Gyant-like?Let him go _Gertrude_: 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 me _Laertes_, [Footnote 1: _Head_ is a rising or gathering of people--generallyrebellious, I think. ]

[Footnote 2: Antiquity and Custom. ]

[Footnote 3: This refers to the election of Claudius--evidently not apopular election, but effected by intrigue with the aristocracy and thearmy: 'They cry, Let us choose: Laertes shall be king!'

We may suppose the attempt of Claudius to have been favoured by thelingering influence of the old Norse custom of succession, by which notthe 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 theinterim been ripening in Paris for villainy. He is wanted for thecatastrophe, and requires but the last process of a few hours in thehell-oven of a king's instigation. ]

[Footnote 6: The customary and polite way of saying _leave me_: 'grantme your absence. ' 85, 89. ]

[Footnote 7: grows calm. ]

[Footnote 8: In taking vengeance Hamlet must acknowledge his mother suchas Laertes says inaction on his part would proclaim his mother. 

The actress should here let a shadow cross the queen's face: though tooweak to break with the king, she has begun to repent. ]

[Footnote 9: fear _for_. ]

[Footnote 10: The consummate hypocrite claims the protection of thesacred hedge through which he had himself broken--or crept rather, likea snake, to kill. He can act innocence the better that his conscience isclear as to Polonius. ]

[Footnote 11: 'can only peep through the hedge to its desire--actslittle of its will. ']

[Page 204]

Why thou art thus Incenst? Let him go _Gertrude_. 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_. Good _Laertes_: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 shall _prevent_ you?' 'My own will only--not all the world, '

or, 'Who will _support_ you?' 'My will. Not all the world shall prevent me, '--

so playing on the two meanings of the word _stay. _ Or it _might_ mean:'Not all the world shall stay my will. ']

[Footnote 2: swoop-stake--_sweepstakes_. ]

[Footnote 3: 'and be loser as well as winner--' If the _Folio's_ isthe right reading, then the sentence is unfinished, and should have adash, not a period. ]

[Footnote 4: A curious misprint: may we not suspect a somewhat dulljoker 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 stickfiery off. ' In this speech he shows his moral condition directly theopposite of Hamlet's: he has no principle but revenge. His conduct oughtto be quite satisfactory to Hamlet's critics; there is action enough init of the very kind they would have of Hamlet; and doubtless it would besatisfactory to them but for the treachery that follows. The one, dearlyloving a father who deserves immeasurably better of him than Polonius ofLaertes, will not for the sake of revenge disregard either conscience, justice, or grace; the other will not delay even to inquire into thefacts of his father's fate, but will act at once on hearsay, rushing toa blind satisfaction that cannot even be called retaliation, caring forneither right nor wrong, cursing conscience and the will of God, anddaring damnation. He slights assurance as to the hand by which hisfather fell, dismisses all reflection that might interfere with a stupidrevenge. To make up one's mind at once, and act without ground, isweakness, not strength: this Laertes does--and is therefore just the manto be the villainous, not the innocent, tool of villainy. He who hassufficing ground and refuses to act is weak; but the ground that willsatisfy the populace, of which the commonplace critic is the fair type, will not satisfy either the man of conscience or of wisdom. The mass ofworld-bepraised action owes its existence to the pressure ofcircumstance, not to the will and conscience of the man. Hamlet waitsfor light, even with his heart accusing him; Laertes rushes into thedark, 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 thatis 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 thedifference between a fact and a truth. Both sayings are correct asfacts, but as guides of conduct devilishly false, leading to dishonestyand treachery. To be true to the divine self in us, is indeed to be trueto all; but it is only by being true to all, against the ever presentand urging false self, that at length we shall see the divine self riseabove the chaotic waters of our selfishness, and know it so as to betrue to it. 

Of Laertes we must note also that it is not all for love of his fatherthat he is ready to cast allegiance to hell, and kill the king: he hasthe 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, sweet _Ophelia_: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 perswadeReuenge, 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 hismasters 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 andremembrance 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 as _directly_ to your judgment. '

But the simile of the _day_ seems to favour the reading of the_Q. _--'peare, ' for _appear_. In the word _level_ would then be indicatedthe _rising_ sun. ]

[Footnote 2: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q. 'Enter Ofelia as before_. ']

[Footnote 4: To render it credible that Laertes could entertain the vileproposal the king is about to make, it is needful that all possibleinfluences should be represented as combining to swell the commotion ofhis spirit, and overwhelm what poor judgment and yet poorer consciencehe had. Altogether unprepared, he learns Ophelia's pitiful condition bythe sudden sight of the harrowing change in her--and not till after thathears 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 the _it_ here may beimpersonal: 'where _things_, where _all_ is fine, ' that is, 'in a finesoul'; then the meaning would be, 'Nature is fine always in love, andwhere the soul also is fine, she sends from it' &c. But the _where_ maybe equal, perhaps, to _whereas_. I can hardly think the phrase meansmerely '_and where it is in love_. ' It might intend--'and where Love isfine, it sends' &c. The 'precious instance of itself, ' that is, 'something that is a part and specimen of itself, ' is here the 'youngmaid's wits': they are sent after the 'old man's life. '--These threelines are not in the Quarto. It is not disputed that they are fromShakspere's hand: if the insertion of these be his, why should theomission of others not be his also?]

[Footnote 8: _This line is not in Q. _]

[Footnote 9: '_if_ you call him': I think this is not a part of thesong, 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 keep Seeming 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 andremembrance, namely--which he applies to his intent of revenge. Or mayit not rather be meant that the putting of these two flowers togetherwas a happy hit of her madness, presenting the fantastic emblem of adocument or writing--the very idea of which is the keeping of thoughtsin remembrance?]

[Footnote 16: --said to mean _flattery_ and _thanklessness_--perhapsgiven to the king. ]

[Footnote 17: _Repentance_--given to the queen. Another name of theplant was _Herb-Grace_, as below, in allusion, doubtless, to its commonname--_rue_ or _repentance_ being both the gift of God, and an act ofgrace. ]

[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: Theysay, 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, intendsthe special fitness of the speech. Ophelia means only that the rue ofthe matron must differ from the rue of the girl. ]

[Footnote 2: 'the dissembling daisy': _Greene_--quoted by _Henley_. ]

[Footnote 3: --standing for _faithfulness: Malone_, from an old song. ]

[Footnote 4: '_All' not in Q. _]

[Footnote 5: Wherever else Shakspere uses the word, it is in the senseof _grand merci--great thanks (Skeat's Etym. Dict. )_; here it is surelya corruption, whether Ophelia's or the printer's, of the _Quarto_reading, '_God a mercy_' which, spoken quickly, sounds very near_gramercy_. The _1st Quarto_ also 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 mean_commune_, 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 doneit with our own hand, or caused it to be done by the hand of one at ourside. ']

[Footnote 11: We may paraphrase thus: 'Be pleased to grant us a loan ofyour patience, ' that is, _be patient for a while at our request_, 'andwe will work along with your soul to gain for it (your soul) justsatisfaction. ']

[Footnote 12: He consents--but immediately _re-sums_ the grounds of hiswrathful suspicion. ]

[Footnote 13: --the way in which he met his death. ]

[Footnote 14: --customary honours to the noble dead. _A trophy_ was anarrangement of the armour and arms of the dead in a set decoration. Theorigin of the word _hatchment_ shows its intent: it is a corruption of_achievement_. ]

[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]

_King_. So you shall:And where th'offence is, let the great Axe fall. I pray you go with me. [3] _Exeunt_

_Enter Horatio, with an Attendant_. [Sidenote: _Horatio and others_. ]

_Hora_. What are they that would speake withme?

_Ser_. Saylors sir, they say they haue Letters [_Gent_. Sea-faring men sir, ]for you. 

_Hor_. Let them come in, [4]I do not know from what part of the worldI should be greeted, if not from Lord _Hamlet_. 

_Enter Saylor_. [Sidenote: _Saylers_. ]

_Say_. God blesse you Sir. 

_Hor_. Let him blesse thee too. 

_Say_. Hee shall Sir, and't[5] please him. There's [Sidenote: A shall sir and please]a Letter for you Sir: It comes from th'Ambassadours [Sidenote: it came frő th' Embassador]that was bound for England, if your namebe _Horatio_, as I am let to know[6] it is. 

_Reads the Letter_[7]

Horatio, _When thou shalt haue ouerlook'd this_, [Sidenote: _Hor. Horatio_ when]_giue these Fellowes some meanes to the King: Theyhaue Letters for him. Ere we were two dayes[8] oldat Sea, a Pyrate of very Warlicke appointment gauevs Chace. Finding our selues too slow of Saile, weput on a compelled Valour. In the Grapple, I boarded_ [Sidenote: valour, and in the]_them: On the instant they got cleare of our Shippe, so I alone became their Prisoner. [9] They haue dealtwith mee, like Theeues of Mercy, but they knew whatthey did. I am to doe a good turne for them. Let_ [Sidenote: a turne]_the King have the Letters I haue sent, and repairethou to me with as much hast as thou wouldest flye_ [Sidenote: much speede as]_death[10] I haue words to speake in your eare, will_ [Sidenote: in thine eare]

[Footnote 1: 'formal ostentation'--show or publication of honouraccording to form or rule. ]

[Footnote 2: 'so that I must call in question'--institute inquiry; or'--_that_ (these things) I must call in question. ']

[Footnote 3: Note such a half line frequently after the not uncommonclosing couplet--as if to take off the formality of the couplet, andlead back, through the more speech-like, to greater verisimilitude. ]

[Footnote 4: Here the servant goes, and the rest of the speech Horatiospeaks _solus_. He had expected to hear from Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 5: 'and it please'--_if it please_. _An_ for _if_ is merely_and_. ]

[Footnote 6: 'I am told. ']

[Footnote 7: _Not in Q_. ]

[Footnote 8: This gives an approximate clue to the time between thesecond and third acts: it needs not have been a week. ]

[Footnote 9: Note once more the unfailing readiness of Hamlet wherethere was no question as to the fitness of the action seeminglyrequired. This is the man who by too much thinking, forsooth, hasrendered himself incapable of action!--so far ahead of the foremostbehind him, that, when the pirate, not liking such close quarters, 'onthe instant got clear, ' he is the only one on her deck! There was noquestion here as to what ought to be done: the pirate grappled them; heboarded her. Thereafter, with his prompt faculty for dealing with men, he soon comes to an understanding with his captors, and they agree, uponsome certain condition, to put him on shore. 

He writes in unusual spirits; for he has now gained full, presentable, and indisputable proof of the treachery which before he scarcelydoubted, but could not demonstrate. The present instance of it has to dowith himself, not his father, but in itself would justify the slaying ofhis uncle, whose plausible way had possibly perplexed him so that hecould not thoroughly believe him the villain he was: bad as he must be, could he actually have killed his own brother, and _such_ a brother? Abetter man than Laertes might have acted more promptly than Hamlet, andso happened to _do_ right; but he would not have _been_ right, for theproof was _not_ sufficient. ]

[Footnote 10: The value Hamlet sets on his discovery, evident in hisjoyous urgency to share it with his friend, is explicable only on theground of the relief it is to his mind to be now at length quite certainof his duty. ]

[Page 212]

_make thee dumbe, yet are they much too light for thebore of the Matter. [1] These good Fellowes will bring_ [Sidenote: the bord of]_thee where I am. Rosincrance and Guildensterne, hold their course for England. Of them I hauemuch to tell thee, Farewell. He that thou knowest thine. _ [Sidenote: _So that thou knowest thine Hamlet. _] Hamlet. 

Come, I will giue you way for these your Letters, [Sidenote: _Hor_. Come I will you way]And do't the speedier, that you may direct meTo him from whom you brought them. _Exit_. [Sidenote: _Exeunt. _]

_Enter King and Laertes. _[2]

_King_. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for Friend, Sith you haue heard, and with a knowing eare, [3]That he which hath your Noble Father slaine, Pursued my life. [4]

_Laer_. It well appeares. But tell me, Why you proceeded not against these feates, [5] [Sidenote: proceede]So crimefull, and so Capitall in Nature, [6] [Sidenote: criminall]As by your Safety, Wisedome, all things else, [Sidenote: safetie, greatnes, wisdome, ]You mainly[7] were stirr'd vp?

_King_. O for two speciall Reasons, Which may to you (perhaps) seeme much vnsinnowed, [8]And yet to me they are strong. The Queen his Mother, [Sidenote: But yet | tha'r strong]Liues almost by his lookes: and for my selfe, My Vertue or my Plague, be it either which, [9]She's so coniunctiue to my life and soule; [Sidenote: she is so concliue]That as the Starre moues not but in his Sphere, [10]I could not but by her. The other Motiue, Why to a publike count I might not go, [Sidenote: 186] Is the great loue the generall gender[11] beare him, Who dipping all his Faults in their affection, [Footnote 1: Note here also Hamlet's feeling of the importance of whathas passed since he parted with his friend. 'The bullet of my words, though it will strike thee dumb, is much too small for the bore of thereality (the facts) whence it will issue. ']

[Footnote 2: While we have been present at the interview between Horatioand the sailors, the king has been persuading Laertes. ]

[Footnote 3: an ear of judgment. ]

[Footnote 4: 'thought then to have killed me. ']

[Footnote 5: _faits_, deeds. ]

[Footnote 6: 'deeds so deserving of death, not merely in the eye of thelaw, but in their own nature. ']

[Footnote 7: powerfully. ]

[Footnote 8: 'unsinewed. ']

[Footnote 9: 'either-which. ']

[Footnote 10: 'moves not but in the moving of his sphere, '--The starswere popularly supposed to be fixed in a solid crystalline sphere, andmoved in its motion only. The queen, Claudius implies, is his sphere; hecould not move but by her. ]

[Footnote 11: Here used in the sense of the Fr. _'genre'--sort_. It isnot the only instance of the word so used by Shakspere. 

The king would rouse in Laertes jealousy of Hamlet. ]

[Page 214]

Would like the Spring that turneth Wood to Stone, [Sidenote: Worke like]Conuert his Gyues to Graces. [1] So that my ArrowesToo slightly timbred for so loud a Winde, [Sidenote: for so loued Arm'd[2]]Would haue reuerted to my Bow againe, And not where I had arm'd them. [2] [Sidenote: But not | have aym'd them. ]

_Laer_. And so haue I a Noble Father lost, A Sister driuen into desperate tearmes, [3]Who was (if praises may go backe againe) [Sidenote: whose worth, if]Stood Challenger on mount of all the AgeFor her perfections. But my reuenge will come. 

_King_. Breake not your sleepes for that, You must not thinkeThat we are made of stuffe, so flat, and dull, That we can let our Beard be shooke with danger, [4]And thinke it pastime. You shortly shall heare more, [5]I lou'd your Father, and we loue our Selfe, And that I hope will teach you to imagine----[6]

_Enter a Messenger_. [Sidenote: _with letters. _]

How now? What Newes?

_Mes. _ Letters my Lord from _Hamlet_. [7] This to [Sidenote: _Messen_. These to]your Maiesty: this to the Queene. 

_King_. From _Hamlet_? Who brought them?

_Mes_. Saylors my Lord they say, I saw them not:They were giuen me by _Claudio_, he recciu'd them. [8] [Sidenote: them Of him that brought them. ]

_King. Laertes_ you shall heare them:[9]Leaue vs. _Exit Messenger_[10]

_High and Mighty, you shall know I am setnaked on your Kingdome. To morrow shall I beggeleaue to see your Kingly Eyes[11] When I shall (firstasking your Pardon thereunto) recount th'Occasions_ [Sidenote: the occasion of my suddaine returne. ]_of my sodaine, and more strange returne. _[12] Hamlet. [13]What should this meane? Are all the rest come backe? [Sidenote: _King_. What]

[Footnote 1: 'would convert his fetters--if I imprisoned him--to graces, commending him yet more to their regard. ']

[Footnote 2: _arm'd_ is certainly the right, and a true Shakspereanword:--it was no fault in the aim, but in the force of the flight--nomatter of the eye, but of the arm, which could not give momentum enoughto such slightly timbered arrows. The fault in the construction of thelast line, I need not remark upon. 

I think there is a hint of this the genuine meaning even in theblundered and partly unintelligible reading of the _Quarto_. If we leaveout 'for so loued, ' we have this: 'So that my arrows, too slightlytimbered, would have reverted armed to my bow again, but not (_would nothave gone_) where I have aimed them, '--implying that his arrows wouldhave turned their armed heads against himself. 

What the king says here is true, but far from _the_ truth: he feareddriving Hamlet, and giving him at the same time opportunity, to speak inhis own defence and render his reasons. ]

[Footnote 3: _extremes_? or _conditions_?]

[Footnote 4: 'With many a tempest hadde his berd benschake. '--_Chaucer_, of the Schipman, in _The Prologue_ to _TheCanterbury Tales_. ]

[Footnote 5: --hear of Hamlet's death in England, he means. 

At this point in the _1st Q. _ comes a scene between Horatio and thequeen, in which he informs her of a letter he had just received fromHamlet, Whereas he writes how he escap't the danger, And subtle treason that the king had plotted, Being crossed by the contention of the windes, He found the Packet &c. 

Horatio does not mention the pirates, but speaks of Hamlet 'being setashore, ' and of _Gilderstone_ and _Rossencraft_ going on to their fate. The queen assures Horatio that she is but temporizing with the king, andshows herself anxious for the success of her son's design against hislife. The Poet's intent was not yet clear to himself. ]

[Footnote 6: Here his crow cracks. ]

[Footnote 7: _From_ 'How now' _to_ 'Hamlet' is _not in Q. _]

[Footnote 8: Horatio has given the sailors' letters to Claudio, he toanother. ]

[Footnote 9: He wants to show him that he has nothing behind--that he isopen with him: he will read without having pre-read. ]

[Footnote 10: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 11: He makes this request for an interview with the intent ofkilling him. The king takes care he does not have it. ]

[Footnote 12: '_more strange than sudden_. ']

[Footnote 13: _Not in Q. _]

[Page 216]

Or is it some abuse?[1] Or no such thing?[2] [Sidenote: abuse, and no[2]]

_Laer_. Know you the hand?[3]

_Kin_. 'Tis _Hamlets_ Character, naked and in aPostscript here he sayes alone:[4] Can you aduise [Sidenote: deuise me?]me?[5]

_Laer_. I'm lost in it my Lord; but let him come, [Sidenote: I am]It warmes the very sicknesse in my heart, That I shall liue and tell him to his teeth; [Sidenote: That I liue and]Thus diddest thou. [Sidenote: didst]

_Kin_. If it be so _Laertes_, as how should it be so:[6]How otherwise will you be rul'd by me?

_Laer_. If so[7] you'l not o'rerule me to a peace. [Sidenote: I my Lord, so you will not]

_Kin_. To thine owne peace: if he be now return'd, [Sidenote: 195] As checking[8] at his Voyage, and that he meanes [Sidenote: As the King[8] at his]No more to vndertake it; I will worke himTo an exployt now ripe in my Deuice, [Sidenote: deuise, ]Vnder the which he shall not choose but fall;And for his death no winde of blame shall breath, [Sidenote: 221] But euen his Mother shall vncharge the practice, [9]And call it accident: [A] Some two Monthes hence[10] [Sidenote: two months since]Here was a Gentleman of _Normandy_, I'ue seene my selfe, and seru'd against the French, [Sidenote: I haue]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

_Laer_. My Lord I will be rul'd, The rather if you could deuise it soThat I might be the organ. 

_King_. It falls right, You haue beene talkt of since your trauaile[11] much, And that in _Hamlets_ hearing, for a qualitieWherein they say you shine, your summe of parts[12]Did not together plucke such enuie from himAs did that one, and that in my regardOf the vnworthiest siedge. [13]

_Laer_. What part is that my Lord?

_King_. A very ribaud[14] in the cap of youth, Yet needfull to, for youth no lesse becomes[15]The light and carelesse liuery that it wearesThen setled age, his sables, and his weedes[16]Importing health[17] and grauenes;]

[Footnote 1: 'some trick played on me?' Compare _K. Lear_, act v. Sc. 7:'I am mightily abused. ']

[Footnote 2: I incline to the _Q. _ reading here: 'or is it some trick, and no reality in it?']

[Footnote 3: --following the king's suggestion. ]

[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'Tis _Hamlets_ Character. 'Naked'!--And, in aPostscript here, he sayes 'alone'! Can &c. 

'_Alone_'--to allay suspicion of his having brought assistance withhim. ]

[Footnote 5: Fine flattery--preparing the way for the instigation he isabout to commence. ]

[Footnote 6: _Point thus_: '--as how should it be so? howotherwise?--will' &c. The king cannot tell what to think--either how itcan be, or how it might be otherwise--for here is Hamlet's own hand!]

[Footnote 7: provided. ]

[Footnote 8: A hawk was said _to check_ when it forsook its proper gamefor some other bird that crossed its flight. The blunder in the _Quarto_is odd, plainly from manuscript copy, and is not likely to have been setright by any but the author. ]

[Footnote 9: 'shall not give the _practice'--artifice, cunning attempt, chicane_, or _trick_--but a word not necessarily offensive--'the name itdeserves, but call it _accident_:' 221. ]

[Footnote 10: 'Some' _not in Q. --Hence_ may be either _backwards_ or_forwards_; now it is used only _forwards_. ]

[Footnote 11: travels. ]

[Footnote 12: 'all your excellencies together. ']

[Footnote 13: seat, place, grade, position, merit. ]

[Footnote 14: 'A very riband'--a mere trifling accomplishment: the _u_of the text can but be a misprint for _n_. ]

[Footnote 15: _youth_ obj. , _livery_ nom. To _becomes_. ]

[Footnote 16: 'than his furs and his robes become settled age. ']

[Footnote 17: Warburton thinks the word ought to be _wealth_, but Idoubt it; _health_, in its sense of wholeness, general soundness, inaffairs as well as person, I should prefer. ]

[Page 218]

And they ran[1] well on Horsebacke; but this Gallant [Sidenote: they can well[1]]Had witchcraft in't[2]; he grew into his Seat, [Sidenote: vnto his]And to such wondrous doing brought his Horse, As had he beene encorps't and demy-Natur'dWith the braue Beast, [3] so farre he past my thought, [Sidenote: he topt me thought, [4]]That I in forgery[5] of shapes and trickes, Come short of what he did. [6]

_Laer_. A Norman was't?

_Kin_. A Norman. 

_Laer_. Vpon my life _Lamound_. [Sidenote: _Lamord_. ]

_Kin_. The very same. 

_Laer_. I know him well, he is the Brooch indeed, And Iemme of all our Nation, [Sidenote: all the Nation. ]

_Kin_. Hee mad confession of you, And gaue you such a Masterly report, For Art and exercise in your defence;And for your Rapier most especially, [Sidenote: especiall, ]That he cryed out, t'would be a sight indeed, [7]If one could match you [A] Sir. This report of his [Sidenote: ; sir this][Sidenote: 120, 264] Did _Hamlet_ so envenom with his Enuy, [8]That he could nothing doe but wish and begge, Your sodaine comming ore to play with him;[9] [Sidenote: with you]Now out of this. [10]

_Laer_. Why out of this, my Lord? [Sidenote: What out]

_Kin. Laertes_ was your Father deare to you?Or are you like the painting[11] of a sorrow, A face without a heart?

_Laer_. Why aske you this?

_Kin_. Not that I thinke you did not loue your Father, But that I know Loue is begun by Time[12]:

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_

 ; the Scrimures[13] of their nationHe swore had neither motion, guard nor eye, If you opposd them;]

[Footnote 1: I think the _can_ of the _Quarto_ is the true word. ]

[Footnote 2: --in his horsemanship. ]

[Footnote 3: There is no mistake in the order 'had he beene'; thetransposition is equivalent to _if_: 'as if he had been unbodied with, and shared half the nature of the brave beast. '

These two lines, from _As_ to _thought_, must be taken parenthetically;or else there must be supposed a dash after _Beast_, and a fresh startmade. 

'But he (as if Centaur-like he had been one piece with the horse) was nomore moved than one with the going of his own legs:'

'it seemed, as he borrowed the horse's body, so he lent the horse hismind:'--Sir Philip Sidney. _Arcadia_, B. Ii. P. 115. ]

[Footnote 4: '--surpassed, I thought. ']

[Footnote 5: 'in invention of. ']

[Footnote 6: Emphasis on _did_, as antithetic to _forgery_: 'myinventing came short of his doing. ']

[Footnote 7: 'it would be a sight indeed to see you matched with anequal. ' The king would strengthen Laertes' confidence in hisproficiency. ]

[Footnote 8: 'made him so spiteful by stirring up his habitual envy. ']

[Footnote 9: All invention. ]

[Footnote 10: Here should be a dash: the king pauses. He is approachingdangerous ground--is about to propose a thing abominable, and thereforeto the influence of flattered vanity and roused emulation, would add thefiercest heat of stimulated love and hatred--to which end he proceeds tocast doubt on the quality of Laertes' love for his father. ]

[Footnote 11: the picture. ]

[Footnote 12: 'through habit. ']

[Footnote 13: French _escrimeurs_: fencers. ]

[Page 220]

And that I see in passages of proofe, [1]Time qualifies the sparke and fire of it:[2][A]_Hamlet_ comes backe: what would you vndertake, To show your selfe your Fathers sonne indeed, [Sidenote: selfe indeede your fathers sonne]More then in words?

_Laer_. To cut his throat i'th'Church. [3]

_Kin_. No place indeed should murder Sancturize;Reuenge should haue no bounds: but good _Laertes_Will you doe this, keepe close within your Chamber, _Hamlet_ return'd, shall know you are come home:Wee'l put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fameThe Frenchman gaue you, bring you in fine together, And wager on your heads, he being remisse, [4] [Sidenote: ore your][Sidenote: 218] Most generous, and free from all contriuing, Will not peruse[5] the Foiles? So that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may chooseA Sword vnbaited, [6] and in a passe of practice, [7] [Sidenote: pace of]Requit him for your Father. 

_Laer_. I will doo't, And for that purpose Ile annoint my Sword:[8] [Sidenote: for purpose, ]I bought an Vnction of a MountebankeSo mortall, I but dipt a knife in it, [9] [Sidenote: mortall, that but dippe a]Where it drawes blood, no Cataplasme so rare, Collected from all Simples that haue Vertue

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

There liues within the very flame of loueA kind of weeke or snufe that will abate it, [10]And nothing is at a like goodnes still, [11]For goodnes growing to a plurisie, [12]Dies in his owne too much, that we would doeWe should doe when we would: for this would change, [13]And hath abatements and delayes as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents, And then this should is like a spend thrifts sigh, That hurts by easing;[14] but to the quick of th'vlcer, ]

[Footnote 1: 'passages of proofe, '--_trials_. 'I see when it is put tothe test. ']

[Footnote 2: 'time modifies it. ']

[Footnote 3: Contrast him here with Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 4: careless. ]

[Footnote 5: _examine_--the word being of general application then. ]

[Footnote 6: _unblunted_. Some foils seem to have been made with abutton that could be taken--probably _screwed_ off. ]

[Footnote 7: Whether _practice_ here means exercise or cunning, I cannotdetermine. Possibly the king uses the word as once before 216--to betaken as Laertes may please. ]

[Footnote 8: In the _1st Q. _ this proposal also is made by the king. ]

[Footnote 9:

 'So mortal, yes, a knife being but dipt in it, ' or, 'So mortal, did I but dip a knife in it. ']

[Footnote 10: To understand this figure, one must be familiar with thebehaviour of the wick of a common lamp or tallow candle. ]

[Footnote 11: 'nothing keeps always at the same degree of goodness. ']

[Footnote 12: A _plurisie_ is just a _too-muchness_, from _plus, pluris--a plethora_, not our word _pleurisy_, from [Greek: pleura]. Seenotes in _Johnson and Steevens_. ]

[Footnote 13: The sense here requires an _s_, and the space in the_Quarto_ between the _e_ and the comma gives the probability that aletter has dropt out. ]

[Footnote 14: Modern editors seem agreed to substitute the adjective_spendthrift_: our sole authority has _spendthrifts_, and by it I hold. The meaning seems this: 'the _would_ changes, the thing is not done, andthen the _should_, the mere acknowledgment of duty, is like the sigh ofa spendthrift, who regrets consequences but does not change his way: iteases his conscience for a moment, and so injures him. ' There would atthe same time be allusion to what was believed concerning sighs: Dr. Johnson says, 'It is a notion very prevalent, that _sighs_ impair thestrength, and wear out the animal powers. ']

[Page 222]

Vnder the Moone, can saue the thing from death, That is but scratcht withall: Ile touch my point, With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly, [1]It may be death. 

_Kin_. Let's further thinke of this, Weigh what conuenience[2] both of time and meanesMay fit vs to our shape, [3] if this should faile;And that our drift looke through our bad performance, 'Twere better not assaid; therefore this ProiectShould haue a backe or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proofe:[4] Soft, let me see[5] [Sidenote: did blast]Wee'l make a solemne wager on your commings, [6] [Sidenote: cunnings[6]]I ha't: when in your motion you are hot and dry, [Sidenote: hate, when]As[7] make your bowts more violent to the end, [8] [Sidenote: to that end, ]And that he cals for drinke; Ile haue prepar'd him [Sidenote: prefard him][Sidenote: 268] A Challice for the nonce[9]; whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, [10]Our purpose may[11] hold there: how sweet Queene. [Sidenote: there: but stay, what noyse?]

_Enter Queene_. 

_Queen_. One woe doth tread vpon anothers heele, So fast they'l follow[12]: your Sister's drown'd _Laertes_. [Sidenote: they follow;]

_Laer_. Drown'd! O where?[13]

_Queen_. There is a Willow[14] growes aslant a Brooke, [Sidenote: ascaunt the Brooke]That shewes his hore leaues in the glassie streame: [Sidenote: horry leaues]There with fantasticke Garlands did she come, [15] [Sidenote: Therewith | she make]Of Crow-flowers, [16] Nettles, Daysies, and long Purples, That liberall Shepheards giue a grosser name;But our cold Maids doe Dead Mens Fingers call them: [Sidenote: our cull-cold]There on the pendant[17] boughes, her Coronet weeds[18]Clambring to hang;[19] an enuious sliuer broke, [20]When downe the weedy Trophies, [19] and her selfe, [Sidenote: her weedy]

[Footnote 1: 'that though I should gall him but slightly, ' or, 'that ifI gall him ever so slightly. ']

[Footnote 2: proper arrangement. ]

[Footnote 3: 'fit us exactly, like a garment cut to our shape, ' orperhaps 'shape' is used for _intent, purpose. Point thus_: 'shape. Ifthis should faile, And' &c. ]

[Footnote 4: This seems to allude to the assay of a firearm, and to mean'_burst on the trial_. ' Note 'assaid' two lines back. ]

[Footnote 5: There should be a pause here, and a longer pause after_commings_: the king is contriving. 'I ha't' should have a line toitself, with again a pause, but a shorter one. ]

[Footnote 6: _Veney, venue_, is a term of fencing: a bout, athrust--from _venir, to come_--whence 'commings. ' (259) But _cunnings_, meaning _skills_, may be the word. ]

[Footnote 7: 'As' is here equivalent to 'and so. ']

[Footnote 8: --to the end of making Hamlet hot and dry. ]

[Footnote 9: for the special occasion. ]

[Footnote 10: thrust. _Twelfth Night_, act iii. Sc. 4. 'he gives me thestuck in with such a mortal motion. ' _Stocco_ in Italian is a longrapier; and _stoccata_ a thrust. _Rom. And Jul_. , act iii. Sc. 1. See_Shakespeare-Lexicon_. ]

[Footnote 11: 'may' does not here express _doubt_, but _intention_. ]

[Footnote 12: If this be the right reading, it means, 'so fast theyinsist on following. ']

[Footnote 13: He speaks it as about to rush to her. ]

[Footnote 14: --the choice of Ophelia's fantastic madness, as being thetree of lamenting lovers. ]

[Footnote 15: --always busy with flowers. ]

[Footnote 16: Ranunculus: _Sh. Lex. _]

[Footnote 17: --specially descriptive of the willow. ]

[Footnote 18: her wild flowers made into a garland. ]

[Footnote 19: The intention would seem, that she imagined herselfdecorating a monument to her father. Hence her _Coronet weeds_ and thePoet's _weedy Trophies_. ]

[Footnote 20: _Sliver_, I suspect, called so after the fact, because_slivered_ or torn off. In _Macbeth_ we have:

 slips of yew Slivered in the moon's eclipse. 

But it may be that _sliver_ was used for a _twig_, such as could be tornoff. 

_Slip_ and _sliver_ must be of the same root. ]

[Page 224]

Fell in the weeping Brooke, her cloathes spred wide, And Mermaid-like, a while they bore her vp, Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes, [1] [Sidenote: old laudes, [1]]As one incapable of[2] her owne distresse, Or like a creature Natiue, and indued[3]Vnto that Element: but long it could not be, Till that her garments, heauy with her drinke, [Sidenote: theyr drinke]Pul'd the poore wretch from her melodious buy, [4] [Sidenote: melodious lay]To muddy death. [5]

_Laer_. Alas then, is she drown'd? [Sidenote: she is]

_Queen_. Drown'd, drown'd. 

_Laer_. Too much of water hast thou poore _Ophelia_, And therefore I forbid my teares: but yetIt is our tricke, [6] Nature her custome holds, Let shame say what it will; when these are goneThe woman will be out:[7] Adue my Lord, I haue a speech of fire, that faine would blaze, [Sidenote: speech a fire]But that this folly doubts[8] it. _Exit. _ [Sidenote: drownes it. [8]]

_Kin_. Let's follow, _Gertrude_:How much I had to doe to calme his rage?Now feare I this will giue it start againe;Therefore let's follow. _Exeunt_. [9]

[10]_Enter two Clownes. _

_Clown_. Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall, [Sidenote: buriall, when she wilfully]that wilfully seekes her owne saluation?[11]

_Other_. I tell thee she is, and therefore make her [Sidenote: is, therefore]Graue straight, [12] the Crowner hath sate on her, andfinds it Christian buriall. 

_Clo_. How can that be, vnlesse she drowned herselfe in her owne defence?

_Other_. Why 'tis found so. [13]

_Clo_. It must be _Se offendendo_, [14] it cannot bee else: [Sidenote: be so offended, it]

[Footnote 1: They were not lauds she was in the habit of singing, tojudge by the snatches given. ]

[Footnote 2: not able to take in, not understanding, not conscious of. ]

[Footnote 3: clothed, endowed, fitted for. See _Sh. Lex. _]

[Footnote 4: _Could_ the word be for _buoy_--'her clothes spread wide, 'on which she floated singing--therefore her melodious buoy or float?]

[Footnote 5: How could the queen know all this, when there was no onenear enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of herdeath given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl'ssuicide, and by circumstance beguile the sorrow-rage of Laertes?]

[Footnote 6: 'I cannot help it. ']

[Footnote 7: 'when these few tears are spent, all the woman will be outof me: I shall be a man again. ']

[Footnote 8: _douts_: 'this foolish water of tears puts it out. ' _See Q. Reading. _]

[Footnote 9: Here ends the Fourth Act, between which and the Fifth mayintervene a day or two. ]

[Footnote 10: Act V. This act _requires_ only part of a day; the funeraland the catastrophe might be on the same. ]

[Footnote 11: Has this a confused connection with the fancy thatsalvation is getting to heaven?]

[Footnote 12: Whether this means _straightway_, or _not crooked_, Icannot tell. ]

[Footnote 13: 'the coroner has settled it. ']

[Footnote 14: The Clown's blunder for _defendendo_. ]

[Page 226]

for heere lies the point; If I drowne my selfewittingly, it argues an Act: and an Act hath threebranches. It is an Act to doe and to performe; [Sidenote: it is to act, to doe, to performe, or all: she]argall[1] she drown'd her selfe wittingly. 

_Other_. Nay but heare you Goodman Deluer. [Sidenote: good man deluer. ]

_Clown_. Giue me leaue; heere lies the water;good: heere stands the man; good: If the mangoe to this water and drowne himsele; it is willhe nill he, he goes; marke you that? But if thewater come to him and drowne him; hee drownesnot himselfe. Argall, hee that is not guilty of hisowne death, shortens not his owne life. 

_Other_. But is this law?

_Clo_. I marry is't, Crowners Quest Law. 

_Other_. Will you ha the truth on't: if this had [Sidenote: truth an't]not beene a Gentlewoman, shee should haue beeneburied out of[2] Christian Buriall. [Sidenote: out a]

_Clo_. Why there thou say'st. And the morepitty that great folke should haue countenance inthis world to drowne or hang themselues, more thentheir euen[3] Christian. Come, my Spade; there isno ancient Gentlemen, but Gardiners, Ditchers andGraue-makers; they hold vp _Adams_ Profession. 

_Other_. Was he a Gentleman?

_Clo_. He was the first that euer bore Armes. [Sidenote: A was]

[4]_Other_. Why he had none. 

_Clo_. What, ar't a Heathen? how dost thou vnderstandthe Scripture? the Scripture sayes _Adam_dig'd; could hee digge without Armes?[4] Ile putanother question to thee; if thou answerest me notto the purpose, confesse thy selfe----

_Other_. Go too. 

_Clo_. What is he that builds stronger then eitherthe Mason, the Shipwright, or the Carpenter?

_Other_. The Gallowes-maker; for that Frameoutliues a thousand Tenants. [Sidenote: that outliues]

[Footnote 1: _ergo_, therefore. ]

[Footnote 2: _without_. The pleasure the speeches of the Clown give us, lies partly in the undercurrent of sense, so disguised by stupidity inthe utterance; and partly in the wit which mainly succeeds in its end bythe failure of its means. ]

[Footnote 3: _equal_, that is _fellow_ Christian. ]

[Footnote 4: _From 'Other' to_ 'Armes' _not in Quarto. _]

[Page 228]

_Clo_. I like thy wit well in good faith, theGallowes does well; but how does it well? it doeswell to those that doe ill: now, thou dost ill to saythe Gallowes is built stronger then the Church:Argall, the Gallowes may doe well to thee. Too'tagaine, Come. 

_Other_. Who builds stronger then a Mason, aShipwright, or a Carpenter?

_Clo_. I, tell me that, and vnyoake. [1]

_Other_. Marry, now I can tell. 

_Clo_. Too't. 

_Other_. Masse, I cannot tell. 

_Enter Hamlet and Horatio a farre off. _[2]

_Clo_. Cudgell thy braines no more about it; foryour dull Asse will not mend his pace with beating, and when you are ask't this question next, saya Graue-maker: the Houses that he makes, lasts [Sidenote: houses hee makes]till Doomesday: go, get thee to _Yaughan_, [3] fetch [Sidenote: thee in, and fetch mee a soope of]me a stoupe of Liquor. 

_Sings. _[4]

_In youth when I did loue, did loue_, [Sidenote: _Song. _] _me thought it was very sweete:To contract O the time for a my behoue, O me thought there was nothing meete[5]_ [Sidenote: there a was nothing a meet. ]

 [Sidenote: _Enter Hamlet & Horatio_]

_Ham_. Ha's this fellow no feeling of his businesse, [Sidenote: busines? a sings in graue-making. ]that he sings at Graue-making?[6]

_Hor_. Custome hath made it in him a property[7]of easinesse. 

_Ham_. 'Tis ee'n so; the hand of little Imploymenthath the daintier sense. 

_Clowne sings. _[8]

_But Age with his stealing steps_ [Sidenote _Clow. Song. _]_hath caught me in his clutch_: [Sidenote: hath clawed me]

[Footnote 1: 'unyoke your team'--as having earned his rest. ]

[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 3: Whether this is the name of a place, or the name of aninnkeeper, or is merely an inexplicable corruption--some take it for astage-direction to yawn--I cannot tell. See _Q. _ reading. 

It is said to have been discovered that a foreigner named Johan sold alenext door to the Globe. ]

[Footnote 4: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 5: A song ascribed to Lord Vaux is in this and the followingstanzas made nonsense of. ]

[Footnote 6: Note Hamlet's mood throughout what follows. He has enteredthe shadow of death. ]

[Footnote 7: _Property_ is what specially belongs to the individual;here it is his _peculiar work_, or _personal calling_: 'custom has madeit with him an easy duty. ']

[Footnote 8: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Page 230]

_And hath shipped me intill the Land_, [Sidenote: into] _as if I had neuer beene such_. 

_Ham_. That Scull had a tongue in it, and couldsing once: how the knaue iowles it to th' grownd, [Sidenote: the]as if it were _Caines_ Iaw-bone, that did the first [Sidenote: twere]murther: It might be the Pate of a Polititian which [Sidenote: murder, this might]this Asse o're Offices: one that could circumuent [Sidenote: asse now ore-reaches; one that would]God, might it not?

_Hor_. It might, my Lord. 

_Ham_. Or of a Courtier, which could say, GoodMorrow sweet Lord: how dost thou, good Lord? [Sidenote: thou sweet lord?]this might be my Lord such a one, that prais'd myLord such a ones Horse, when he meant to begge [Sidenote: when a went to]it; might it not?[1]

_Hor_. I, my Lord. 

_Ham_. Why ee'n so: and now my LadyWormes, [2] Chaplesse, [3] and knockt about the Mazard[4] [Sidenote: Choples | the massene with]with a Sextons Spade; heere's fine Reuolution, if [Sidenote: and we had]wee had the tricke to see't. Did these bones costno more the breeding, but to play at Loggets[5] with'em? mine ake to thinke on't. [Sidenote: them]

_Clowne sings. _[6]

_A Pickhaxe and a Spade, a Spade_, [Sidenote: _Clow. Song. _] _for and a shrowding-Sheete:O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete_. 

_Ham_. There's another: why might not thatbee the Scull of of a Lawyer? where be his [Sidenote: skull of a]Quiddits[7] now? his Quillets[7]? his Cases? his [Sidenote: quiddities]Tenures, and his Tricks? why doe's he suffer thisrude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8] [Sidenote: this madde knaue]with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of hisAction of Battery? hum. This fellow might bein's time a great buyer of Land, with hisStatutes, his Recognizances, his Fines, his double

[Footnote 1: To feel the full force of this, we must call up theexpression on the face of 'such a one' as he begged the horse--probablyimitated by Hamlet--and contrast it with the look on the face of theskull. ]

[Footnote 2: 'now the property of my Lady Worm. ']

[Footnote 3: the lower jaw gone. ]

[Footnote 4: _the upper jaw_, I think--not _the head_. ]

[Footnote 5: a game in which pins of wood, called loggats, nearly twofeet long, were half thrown, half slid, towards a bowl. _Blount_:Johnson and Steevens. ]

[Footnote 6: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 7: a lawyer's quirks and quibbles. See _Johnson and Steevens_. 

_1st Q. _

 now where is your Quirkes and quillets now, ]

[Footnote 8: Humorous, or slang word for _the head_. 'A fort--ahead-piece--the head': _Webster's Dict_. ]

[Page 232]

Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of hisFines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries, [1] to hauehis fine[4] Pate full of fine[4] Dirt? will his Vouchers [Sidenote: will vouchers]vouch him no more of his Purchases, and double [Sidenote: purchases & doubles then]ones too, then the length and breadth of a paire ofIndentures? the very Conueyances of his Landswill hardly lye in this Boxe[5]; and must the Inheritor [Sidenote: scarcely iye; | th']himselfe haue no more?[6] ha?

_Hor_. Not a iot more, my Lord. 

_Ham_. Is not Parchment made of Sheep-skinnes?

_Hor_. I my Lord, and of Calue-skinnes too. [Sidenote: Calues-skinnes to]

_Ham_. They are Sheepe and Calues that seek [Sidenote: which seek]out assurance in that. I will speake to this fellow:whose Graue's this Sir? [Sidenote: this sirra?]

_Clo_. Mine Sir: [Sidenote: _Clow_. Mine sir, or a pit]

_O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete. _[7]

_Ham_. I thinke it be thine indeed: for thouliest in't. 

_Clo_. You lye out on't Sir, and therefore it is not [Sidenote: tis]yours: for my part, I doe not lye in't; and yet it [Sidenote: in't, yet]is mine. 

_Ham_. Thou dost lye in't, to be in't and say 'tis [Sidenote: it is]thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quicke, thereforethou lyest. 

_Clo_. Tis a quicke lye Sir, 'twill away againefrom me to you. [8]

_Ham_. What man dost thou digge it for?

_Clo_. For no man Sir. 

_Ham_. What woman then?

_Clo_. For none neither. 

_Ham_. Who is to be buried in't?

_Clo_. One that was a woman Sir; but rest herSoule, shee's dead. 

[Footnote 1: _From_ 'Is' _to_ 'Recoueries' _not in Q. _]

[Footnote 2: the end. ]

[Footnote 3: the property regained by his Recoveries. ]

[Footnote 4: third and fourth meanings of the word _fine_. ]

[Footnote 5: the skull. ]

[Footnote 6: 'must the heir have no more either?'

_1st Q_. 

 and must The honor (_owner?_) lie there?]

[Footnote 7: _This line not in Q. _]

[Footnote 8: He _gives_ the lie. ]

[Page 234]

_Ham_. How absolute[1] the knaue is? wee must[Sidenote: 256] speake by the Carde, [2] or equiuocation will vndoevs: by the Lord _Horatio_, these three yeares[3] I haue [Sidenote: this three]taken note of it, the Age is growne so picked, [4] [Sidenote: tooke]that the toe of the Pesant comes so neere theheeles of our Courtier, hee galls his Kibe. [5] How [Sidenote: the heele of the]long hast thou been a Graue-maker? [Sidenote: been Graue-maker?]

_Clo_. Of all the dayes i'th'yeare, I came too't [Sidenote: Of the dayes]that day[6] that our last King _Hamlet_ o'recame [Sidenote: ouercame]_Fortinbras_. 

_Ham_. How long is that since?

_Clo_. Cannot you tell that? euery foole can tell[Sidenote: 143] that: It was the very day, [6] that young _Hamlet_ was [Sidenote: was that very]borne, [8] hee that was mad, and sent into England, [Sidenote: that is mad]

_Ham_. I marry, why was he sent into England?

_Clo_. Why, because he was mad; hee shall recouer [Sidenote: a was mad: a shall]his wits there; or if he do not, it's no great [Sidenote: if a do | tis]matter there. 

_Ham_. Why?

_Clo_. 'Twill not be scene in him, there the men [Sidenote: him there, there]are as mad as he. 

_Ham_. How came he mad?

_Clo_. Very strangely they say. 

_Ham_. How strangely?[7]

_Clo_. Faith e'ene with loosing his wits. 

_Ham_. Vpon what ground?

_Clo_. Why heere in Denmarke[8]: I haue bin sixeteene [Sidenote: Sexten][Sidenote: 142-3] heere, man and Boy thirty yeares. [9]

_Ham_. How long will a man lie 'ith' earth ere herot?

_Clo_. Ifaith, if he be not rotten before he die (as [Sidenote: Fayth if a be not | a die]we haue many pocky Coarses now adaies, that will [Sidenote: corses, that will]scarce hold the laying in) he will last you some [Sidenote: a will]eight yeare, or nine yeare. A Tanner will last younine yeare. 

[Footnote 1: 'How the knave insists on precision!']

[Footnote 2: chart: _Skeat's Etym. Dict. _]

[Footnote 3: Can this indicate any point in the history of Englishsociety?]

[Footnote 4: so fastidious; so given to _picking_ and choosing; sochoice. ]

[Footnote 5: The word is to be found in any dictionary, but is notgenerally understood. Lord Byron, a very inaccurate writer, takes it tomean _heel_:

 Devices quaint, and frolics ever new, Tread on each others' kibes:

_Childe Harold, Canto 1. St. 67. _

It means a _chilblain_. ]

[Footnote 6: Then Fortinbras _could_ have been but a few months youngerthan Hamlet, and may have been older. Hamlet then, in the Quartopassage, could not by _tender_ mean _young_. ]

[Footnote 7: 'In what way strangely?'--_in what strange way_? Or the_How_ may be _how much_, in retort to the _very_; but the intent wouldbe the same--a request for further information. ]

[Footnote 8: Hamlet has asked on what ground or provocation, that is, from what cause, Hamlet lost his wits; the sexton chooses to take theword _ground_ materially. ]

[Footnote 9: The Poet makes him say how long he had been sexton--but hownaturally and informally--by a stupid joke!--in order a second time, andmore certainly, to tell us Hamlet's age: he must have held it a pointnecessary to the understanding of Hamlet. 

Note Hamlet's question immediately following. It looks as if he hadfirst said to himself: 'Yes--I have been thirty years above ground!' and_then_ said to the sexton, 'How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere herot?' We might enquire even too curiously as to the connecting links. ]

[Page 236]

_Ham_. Why he, more then another?

_Clo_. Why sir, his hide is so tan'd with his Trade, that he will keepe out water a great while. And [Sidenote: a will]your water, is a sore Decayer of your horson deadbody. Heres a Scull now: this Scul, has laine in [Sidenote: now hath iyen you i'th earth 23. Yeeres. ]the earth three and twenty years. 

_Ham_. Whose was it?

_Clo_. A whoreson mad Fellowes it was;Whose doe you thinke it was?

_Ham_. Nay, I know not. 

_Clo_. A pestlence on him for a mad Rogue, apou'rd a Flaggon of Renish on my head once. This same Scull Sir, this same Scull sir, was _Yoricks_ [Sidenote: once; this same skull sir, was sir _Yoricks_]Scull, the Kings Iester. 

_Ham_. This?

_Clo_. E'ene that. 

_Ham_. Let me see. Alas poore _Yorick_, I knew [Sidenote: _Ham_. Alas poore]him _Horatio_, a fellow of infinite Iest; of most excellentfancy, he hath borne me on his backe a [Sidenote: bore]thousand times: And how abhorred[1] my Imagination [Sidenote: and now how | in my]is, my gorge rises at it. Heere hung those [Sidenote: it is:]lipps, that I haue kist I know not how oft. Wherebe your Iibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs?Your flashes of Merriment that were wont to setthe Table on a Rore? No one[2] now to mock your [Sidenote: not one]own Ieering? Quite chopfalne[3]? Now get you to [Sidenote: owne grinning, ]my Ladies Chamber, and tell her, let her paint an [Sidenote: Ladies table, ]inch thicke, to this fauour[4] she must come. Makeher laugh at that: prythee _Horatio_ tell me onething. 

_Hor_. What's that my Lord?

_Ham_. Dost thou thinke _Alexander_ lookt o'this [Sidenote: a this]fashion i'th' earth?

_Hor_. E'ene so. 

_Ham_. And smelt so? Puh. 

[Footnote 1: If this be the true reading, _abhorred_ must mean_horrified_; but I incline to the _Quarto_. ]

[Footnote 2: 'Not one jibe, not one flash of merriment now?']

[Footnote 3: --chop indeed quite fallen off!]

[Footnote 4: _to this look_--that of the skull. ]

[Page 238]

_Hor_. E'ene so, my Lord. 

_Ham_. To what base vses we may returne_Horatio_. Why may not Imagination trace theNoble dust of _Alexander_, till he[1] find it stopping a [Sidenote: a find]bunghole. 

_Hor_. 'Twere to consider: to curiously to consider [Sidenote: consider too curiously]so. 

_Ham_. No faith, not a iot. But to follow himthether with modestie[2] enough, and likeliehood tolead it; as thus. _Alexander_ died: _Alexander_ was [Sidenote: lead it. _Alexander_]buried: _Alexander_ returneth into dust; the dust is [Sidenote: to]earth; of earth we make Lome, and why of thatLome (whereto he was conuerted) might they notstopp a Beere-barrell?[3]

Imperiall _Caesar_, dead and turn'd to clay, [Sidenote: Imperious]Might stop a hole to keepe the winde away. Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a Wall, t'expell the winters flaw. [4] [Sidenote: waters flaw. ]But soft, but soft, aside; heere comes the King. [Sidenote:, but soft awhile, here]

_Enter King, Queene, Laertes, and a Coffin_, [Sidenote: _Enter K. Q. Laertes and the corse. _] _with Lords attendant. _

The Queene, the Courtiers. Who is that they follow, [Sidenote: this they]And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken, The Coarse they follow, did with disperate hand, Fore do it owne life; 'twas some Estate. [5] [Sidenote: twas of some[5]]Couch[6] we a while, and mark. 

_Laer_. What Cerimony else?

_Ham_. That is _Laertes_, a very Noble youth:[7]Marke. 

_Laer_. What Cerimony else?[8]

_Priest_. Her Obsequies haue bin as farre inlarg'd, [Sidenote: _Doct_. ]As we haue warrantis, [9] her death was doubtfull, [10] [Sidenote: warrantie, ]And but that great Command, o're-swaies the order, [11]

[Footnote 1: Imagination personified. ]

[Footnote 2: moderation. ]

[Footnote 3: 'Loam, Lome--grafting clay. Mortar made of Clay and Straw;also a sort of Plaister used by Chymists to stop up theirVessels. '--_Bailey's Dict. _]

[Footnote 4: a sudden puff or blast of wind. 

Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right understanding of thewhole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet isphilosophizing--following things out, curiously or otherwise--on thebrink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired--'whatwoman then?'--but received no answer. ]

[Footnote 5: 'the corpse was of some position. ']

[Footnote 6: 'let us lie down'--behind a grave or stone. ]

[Footnote 7: Hamlet was quite in the dark as to Laertes' character; hehad seen next to nothing of him. ]

[Footnote 8: The priest making no answer, Laertes repeats the question. ]

[Footnote 9: _warrantise_. ]

[Footnote 10: This casts discredit on the queen's story, 222. Thepriest believes she died by suicide, only calls her death doubtful toexcuse their granting her so many of the rites of burial. ]

[Footnote 11: 'settled mode of proceeding. '--_Schmidt's Sh. Lex. _--Butis it not rather _the order_ of the church?]

[Page 240]

She should in ground vnsanctified haue lodg'd, [Sidenote: vnsanctified been lodged]Till the last Trumpet. For charitable praier, [Sidenote: prayers, ]Shardes, [1] Flints, and Peebles, should be throwne on her:Yet heere she is allowed her Virgin Rites, [Sidenote: virgin Crants, [2]]Her Maiden strewments, [3] and the bringing homeOf Bell and Buriall. [4]

_Laer_. Must there no more be done?

_Priest_. No more be done:[5] [Sidenote: _Doct. _]We should prophane the seruice of the dead, To sing sage[6] _Requiem_, and such rest to her [Sidenote: sing a Requiem]As to peace-parted Soules. 

_Laer_. Lay her i'th' earth, And from her faire and vnpolluted flesh, May Violets spring. I tell thee (churlish Priest)A Ministring Angell shall my Sister be, When thou liest howling?

_Ham_. What, the faire _Ophelia_?[7]

_Queene_. Sweets, to the sweet farewell. [8][Sidenote: 118] I hop'd thou should'st haue bin my _Hamlets_ wife:I thought thy Bride-bed to haue deckt (sweet Maid)And not t'haue strew'd thy Graue. [Sidenote: not haue]

_Laer_. Oh terrible woer, [9] [Sidenote: O treble woe]Fall ten times trebble, on that cursed head [Sidenote: times double on]Whose wicked deed, thy most IngenioussenceDepriu'd thee of. Hold off the earth a while, Till I haue caught her once more in mine armes: _Leaps in the graue. _[10]Now pile your dust, vpon the quicke, and dead, Till of this flat a Mountaine you haue made, To o're top old _Pelion_, or the skyish head [Sidenote: To'retop]Of blew _Olympus_. [11]

_Ham_. [12] What is he, whose griefes [Sidenote: griefe]Beares such an Emphasis? whose phrase of Sorrow

[Footnote 1: 'Shardes' _not in Quarto. _ It means _potsherds_. ]

[Footnote 2: chaplet--_German_ krantz, used even for virginity itself. ]

[Footnote 3: strewments with _white_ flowers. (?)]

[Footnote 4: the burial service. ]

[Footnote 5: as an exclamation, I think. ]

[Footnote 6: Is the word _sage_ used as representing the unfitness of arequiem to her state of mind? or is it only from its kindred with_solemn_? It was because she was not 'peace-parted' that they could notsing _rest_ to her. ]

[Footnote 7: _Everything_ here depends on the actor. ]

[Footnote 8: I am not sure the queen is not _apostrophizing_ the flowersshe is throwing into or upon the coffin: 'Sweets, be my farewell to thesweet. ']

[Footnote 9: The Folio _may_ be right here:--'Oh terrible wooer!--Mayten times treble thy misfortunes fall' &c. ]

[Footnote 10: This stage-direction is not in the _Quarto_. 

Here the _1st Quarto_ has:--

 _Lear_. Forbeare the earth a while: sister farewell: _Leartes leapes into the graue. _ Now powre your earth on _Olympus_ hie, And make a hill to o're top olde _Pellon_: _Hamlet leapes in after Leartes_ Whats he that coniures so?

 _Ham_. Beholde tis I, _Hamlet_ the Dane. ]

[Footnote 11: The whole speech is bravado--the frothy grief of a weak, excitable effusive nature. ]

[Footnote 12: He can remain apart no longer, and approaches thecompany. ]

[Page 242]

Coniure the wandring Starres, and makes them stand [Sidenote: Coniues]Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, _Hamlet_ the Dane. [1]

_Laer_. The deuill take thy soule. [2]

_Ham_. Thou prai'st not well, I prythee take thy fingers from my throat;[3]Sir though I am not Spleenatiue, and rash, [Sidenote: For though | spleenatiue rash, ]Yet haue I something in me dangerous, [Sidenote: in me something]Which let thy wisenesse feare. Away thy hand. [Sidenote: wisedome feare; hold off they]

_King_. Pluck them asunder. 

_Qu. Hamlet, Hamlet_. [Sidenote: _All_. Gentlemen. ]

_Gen_. Good my Lord be quiet. [Sidenote: _Hora_. Good]

_Ham_. Why I will fight with him vppon this Theme, Vntill my eielids will no longer wag. [4]

_Qu_. Oh my Sonne, what Theame?

_Ham_. I lou'd _Ophelia_[5]; fortie thousand BrothersCould not (with all there quantitie of Loue)Make vp my summe. What wilt thou do for her?[6]

_King_. Oh he is mad _Laertes_. [7]

_Qu_. For loue of God forbeare him. 

_Ham_. Come show me what thou'lt doe. [Sidenote: _Ham_ S'wounds shew | th'owt fight, woo't fast, woo't teare]Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy selfe?Woo't drinke vp _Esile_, eate a Crocodile?[6]Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine; [Sidenote: doost come]To outface me with leaping in her Graue?Be[8] buried quicke with her, and so will I. And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throwMillions of Akers on vs; till our groundSindging his pate against the burning Zone, [Sidenote: 262] Make _Ossa_ like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth, Ile rant as well as thou. [9]

[Footnote 1: This fine speech is yet spoken in the character of madman, which Hamlet puts on once more the moment he has to appear before theking. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; itsextravagance to his assumed insanity. It must be remembered that deathis a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the deathof Ophelia may even be some consolation to him. 

In the _Folio_, a few lines back, Laertes leaps into the grave. There isno such direction in the _Q_. In neither is Hamlet said to leap into thegrave; only the _1st Q. _ so directs. It is a stage-business that mustplease the _common_ actor of Hamlet; but there is nothing in the textany more than in the margin of _Folio_ or _Quarto_ to justify it, and itwould but for the horror of it be ludicrous. The coffin is supposed tobe in the grave: must Laertes jump down upon it, followed by Hamlet, andthe two fight and trample over the body?

Yet I take the '_Leaps in the grave_' to be an action intended forLaertes by the Poet. His 'Hold off the earth a while, ' does notnecessarily imply that the body is already in the grave. He has beforesaid, 'Lay her i'th' earth': then it was not in the grave. It is justabout to be lowered, when, with that cry of 'Hold off the earth awhile, ' he jumps into the grave, and taking the corpse, on a bier at theside of it, in his arms, calls to the spectators to pile a mountain onthem--in the wild speech that brings out Hamlet. The quiet dignity ofHamlet's speech does not comport with his jumping into the grave:Laertes comes out of the grave, and flies at Hamlet's throat. So, atleast, I would have the thing acted. 

There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out ofthe grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I wouldsuggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's bookon Grave-Mounds, I read of a 'female skeleton in a grave six feet deep, ten feet long, and eight feet wide. ' Such a grave would give room forboth beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the commonrepresentation. ]

[Footnote 2: --_springing out of the grave and flying at Hamlet_. ]

[Footnote 3: Note the temper, self-knowledge, self-government, andself-distrust of Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 4: The eyelids last of all become incapable of motion. ]

[Footnote 5: That he loved her is the only thing to explain theharshness of his behaviour to her. Had he not loved her and not beenmiserable about her, he would have been as polite to her as well bredpeople would have him. ]

[Footnote 6: The gallants of Shakspere's day would challenge each otherto do more disagreeable things than any of these in honour of theirmistresses. 

'_Ésil. _ s. M. Ancien nom du Vinaigre. ' _Supplement to Academy Dict. _, 1847. --'Eisile, _vinegar_': Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dict_. , fromSomner's _Saxon Dict. _, 1659. --'Eisel (_Saxon), vinegar; verjuice; anyacid_': Johnson's _Dict_. 

_1st Q_. 'Wilt drinke vp vessels. ' The word _up_ very likely implies thesteady emptying of a vessel specified--at a draught, and not bydegrees. ]

[Footnote 7: --pretending care over Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 8: Emphasis on _Be_, which I take for the _imperative mood_. ]

[Footnote 9: The moment it is uttered, he recognizes and confesses tothe rant, ashamed of it even under the cover of his madness. It did notbelong _altogether_ to the madness. Later he expresses to Horatio hisregret in regard to this passage between him and Laertes, and afterwardsapologizes to Laertes. 252, 262. 

Perhaps this is the speech in all the play of which it is most difficultto get into a sympathetic comprehension. The student must call to mindthe elements at war in Hamlet's soul, and generating discords in hisbehaviour: to those comes now the shock of Ophelia's death; the last tiethat bound him to life is gone--the one glimmer of hope left him forthis world! The grave upon whose brink he has been bandying words withthe sexton, is for _her_! Into such a consciousness comes the rant ofLaertes. Only the forms of madness are free to him, while no form is toostrong in which to repudiate indifference to Ophelia: for her sake, aswell as to relieve his own heart, he casts the clear confession of hislove into her grave. He is even jealous, over her dead body, of herbrother's profession of love to her--as if any brother could love as heloved! This is foolish, no doubt, but human, and natural to a certainchildishness in grief. 252. 

Add to this, that Hamlet--see later in his speeches to Osricke--had alively inclination to answer a fool according to his folly (256), tooutherod Herod if Herod would rave, out-euphuize Euphues himself if hewould be ridiculous:--the digestion of all these things in the retort ofmeditation will result, I would fain think, in an understanding andartistic justification of even this speech of Hamlet: the more Iconsider it the truer it seems. If proof be necessary that real feelingis mingled in the madness of the utterance, it may be found in the factthat he is immediately ashamed of its extravagance. ]

[Page 244]

_Kin_. [1] This is meere Madnesse: [Sidenote: _Quee_. [1]]And thus awhile the fit will worke on him: [Sidenote: And this]Anon as patient as the female Doue, When that her golden[2] Cuplet[3] are disclos'd[4]; [Sidenote: cuplets[3]]His silence will sit drooping. [5]

_Ham_. Heare you Sir:[6]What is the reason that you vse me thus?I loud' you euer;[7] but it is no matter:[8]Let _Hercules_ himselfe doe what he may, The Cat will Mew, and Dogge will haue his day. [9] _Exit. _ [Sidenote: _Exit Hamlet and Horatio. _]

_Kin_. I pray you good Horatio wait vpon him, [Sidenote: pray thee good]Strengthen you patience in our last nights speech, [Sidenote: your][Sidenote: 254] Wee'l put the matter to the present push:[10]Good _Gertrude_ set some watch ouer your Sonne, This Graue shall haue a liuing[11] Monument:[12]An houre of quiet shortly shall we see;[13] [Sidenote: quiet thirtie shall]Till then, in patience our proceeding be. _Exeunt. _

[Footnote 1: I hardly know which to choose as the speaker of thisspeech. It would be a fine specimen of the king's hypocrisy; and perhapsindeed its poetry, lovely in itself, but at such a time sentimental, isfitter for him than the less guilty queen. ]

[Footnote 2: 'covered with a yellow down' _Heath_. ]

[Footnote 3: The singular is better: 'the pigeon lays no more than _two_eggs. ' _Steevens_. Only, _couplets_ might be used like _twins_. ]

[Footnote 4: --_hatched_, the sporting term of the time. ]

[Footnote 5: 'The pigeon never quits her nest for three days after hertwo young ones are hatched, except for a few moments to get food. '_Steevens_. ]

[Footnote 6: Laertes stands eyeing him with evil looks. ]

[Footnote 7: I suppose here a pause: he waits in vain some response fromLaertes. ]

[Footnote 8: Here he retreats into his madness. ]

[Footnote 9: '--but I cannot compel you to hear reason. Do what he will, Hercules himself cannot keep the cat from mewing, or the dog fromfollowing his inclination!'--said in a half humorous, half contemptuousdespair. ]

[Footnote 10: 'into immediate train'--_to Laertes_. ]

[Footnote 11: _life-like_, or _lasting_?]

[Footnote 12: --_again to Laertes_. ]

[Footnote 13: --when Hamlet is dead. ]

[Page 246]

_Enter Hamlet and Horatio. _

_Ham. _ So much for this Sir; now let me see the other, [1] [Sidenote: now shall you see]You doe remember all the Circumstance. [2]

_Hor. _ Remember it my Lord?[3]

_Ham. _ Sir, in my heart there was a kinde of fighting, That would not let me sleepe;[4] me thought I lay [Sidenote: my thought]Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes, [5] rashly, [Sidenote: bilbo](And praise be rashnesse for it)[6] let vs know, [Sidenote: prayed]Our indiscretion sometimes serues vs well, [Sidenote: sometime]When our deare plots do paule, [7] and that should teach vs, [Sidenote: deepe | should learne us][Sidenote: 146, 181] There's a Diuinity that shapes our ends, [8]Rough-hew them how we will. [9]

_Hor. _ That is most certaine. 

_Ham. _ Vp from my CabinMy sea-gowne scarft about me in the darke, Grop'd I to finde out them;[10] had my desire, Finger'd their Packet[11], and in fine, withdrewTo mine owne roome againe, making so bold, (My feares forgetting manners) to vnseale [Sidenote: to vnfold]Their grand Commission, where I found _Horatio_, Oh royall[12] knauery: An exact command, [Sidenote: A royall][Sidenote: 196] Larded with many seuerall sorts of reason; [Sidenote: reasons, ]Importing Denmarks health, and Englands too, With hoo, such Bugges[13] and Goblins in my life, [Sidenote: hoe]That on the superuize[14] no leasure bated, [15]No not to stay the grinding of the Axe, My head shoud be struck off. 

_Hor. _ Ist possible?

_Ham. _ Here's the Commission, read it at more leysure:

[Footnote 1: I would suggest that the one paper, which he has justshown, is a commission the king gave to himself; the other, which he isabout to show, that given to Rosincrance and Guildensterne. He issetting forth his proof of the king's treachery. ]

[Footnote 2: --of the king's words and behaviour, possibly, in givinghim his papers, Horatio having been present; or it might mean, 'Have yougot the things I have just told you clear in your mind?']

[Footnote 3: '--as if I could forget a single particular of it!']

[Footnote 4: The _Shaping Divinity_ was moving him. ]

[Footnote 5: The fetters called _bilboes_ fasten a couple of mutinoussailors together by the legs. ]

[Footnote 6: Does he not here check himself and beginafresh--remembering that the praise belongs to the Divinity?]

[Footnote 7: _pall_--from the root of _pale_--'come to nothing. ' He hadhad his plots from which he hoped much; the king's commission hadrendered them futile. But he seems to have grown doubtful of his plansbefore, probably through the doubt of his companions which led him toseek acquaintance with their commission, and he may mean that his 'dearplots' had begun to pall _upon him_. Anyhow the sudden 'indiscretion' ofsearching for and unsealing the ambassadors' commission served him asnothing else could have served him. ]

[Footnote 8: --even by our indiscretion. Emphasis on _shapes_. ]

[Footnote 9: Here is another sign of Hamlet's religion. 24, 125, 260. We start to work out an idea, but the result does not correspond withthe idea: another has been at work along with us. We rough-hew--blockout our marble, say for a Mercury; the result is an Apollo. Hamlet hadrough-hewn his ends--he had begun plans to certain ends, but had he beenallowed to go on shaping them alone, the result, even had he carried outhis plans and shaped his ends to his mind, would have been failure. Another mallet and chisel were busy shaping them otherwise from thefirst, and carrying them out to a true success. For _success_ is not thesuccess of plans, but the success of ends. ]

[Footnote 10: Emphasize _I_ and _them_, as the rhythm requires, and thephrase becomes picturesque. ]

[Footnote 11: 'got my fingers on their papers. ']

[Footnote 12: Emphasize _royal_. ]

[Footnote 13: A _bug_ is any object causing terror. ]

[Footnote 14: immediately on the reading. ]

[Footnote 15: --no interval abated, taken off the immediacy of the orderrespite granted. ]

[Page 248]

But wilt thou heare me how I did proceed? [Sidenote: heare now how]

_Hor_. I beseech you. 

_Ham_. Being thus benetted round with Villaines, [1]Ere I could make a Prologue to my braines, [Sidenote: Or I could]They had begun the Play. [2] I sate me downe, Deuis'd a new Commission, [3] wrote it faire, I once did hold it as our Statists[4] doe, A basenesse to write faire; and laboured muchHow to forget that learning: but Sir now, It did me Yeomans[5] seruice: wilt thou know [Sidenote: yemans]The effects[6] of what I wrote? [Sidenote: Th'effect[6]]

_Hor_. I, good my Lord. 

_Ham_. An earnest Coniuration from the King, As England was his faithfull Tributary, As loue betweene them, as the Palme should flourish, [Sidenote: them like the | might florish, ]As Peace should still her wheaten Garland weare, And stand a Comma 'tweene their amities, [7]And many such like Assis[8] of great charge, [Sidenote: like, as sir of]That on the view and know of these Contents, [Sidenote: knowing]Without debatement further, more or lesse, He should the bearers put to sodaine death, [Sidenote: those bearers]Not shriuing time allowed. 

_Hor_. How was this seal'd?

_Ham_. Why, euen in that was Heauen ordinate; [Sidenote: ordinant, ]I had my fathers Signet in my Purse, Which was the Modell of that Danish Seale:Folded the Writ vp in forme of the other, [Sidenote: in the forme of th']Subscrib'd it, gau't th'impression, plac't it safely, [Sidenote: Subscribe it, ]The changeling neuer knowne: Now, the next dayWas our Sea Fight, and what to this was sement, [Sidenote: was sequent]Thou know'st already. [9]

_Hor_. So _Guildensterne_ and _Rosincrance_, go too't. 

[Footnote 1: --the nearest, Rosincrance and Guildensterne: Hamlet wasquite satisfied of their villainy. ]

[Footnote 2: 'I had no need to think: the thing came to me at once. ']

[Footnote 3: Note Hamlet's rapid practicality--not merely in devising, but in carrying out. ]

[Footnote 4: statesmen. ]

[Footnote 5: '_Yeomen of the guard of the king's body_ were ancientlytwo hundred and fifty men, of the best rank under gentry, and of largerstature than ordinary; every one being required to be six feethigh. '--_E. Chambers' Cyclopaedia_. Hence '_yeoman's_ service' must meanthe very best of service. ]

[Footnote 6: Note our common phrase: 'I wrote to this effect. ']

[Footnote 7: 'as he would have Peace stand between their friendshipslike a comma between two words. ' Every point has in it a conjunctive, aswell as a disjunctive element: the former seems the one regardedhere--only that some amities require more than a comma to separate them. The _comma_ does not make much of a figure--is good enough for itsposition, however; if indeed the fact be not, that, instead of standingfor _Peace_, it does not even stand for itself, but for some other word. I do not for my part think so. ]

[Footnote 8: Dr. Johnson says there is a quibble here with _asses_ asbeasts of _charge_ or burden. It is probable enough, seeing, as Malonetells us, that in Warwickshire, as did Dr. Johnson himself, theypronounce _as_ hard. In Aberdeenshire the sound of the _s_ varies withthe intent of the word: '_az_ he said'; '_ass_ strong _az_ a horse. ']

[Footnote 9: To what purpose is this half-voyage to England made part ofthe play? The action--except, as not a few would have it, the veryaction be delay--is nowise furthered by it; Hamlet merely goes andreturns. 

To answer this question, let us find the real ground for Hamlet'sreflection, 'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends. ' Observe, he isset at liberty without being in the least indebted to the finding of thecommission--by the attack, namely, of the pirate; and this was not theshaping of his ends of which he was thinking when he made thereflection, for it had reference to the finding of the commission. Whatthen was the ground of the reflection? And what justifies the wholepassage in relation to the Poet's object, the character of Hamlet?

This, it seems to me:--

Although Hamlet could not have had much doubt left with regard to hisuncle's guilt, yet a man with a fine, delicate--what most men wouldthink, because so much more exacting than theirs--fastidious conscience, might well desire some proof more positive yet, before he did a deed sorepugnant to his nature, and carrying in it such a loud condemnation ofhis mother. And more: he might well wish to have something to _show_: aman's conviction is no proof, though it may work in others inclinationto receive proof. Hamlet is sent to sea just to get such proof as willnot only thoroughly satisfy himself, but be capable of being shown toothers. He holds now in his hand--to lay before the people--the twocontradictory commissions. By his voyage then he has gained bothassurance of his duty, and provision against the consequence he mainlydreaded, that of leaving a wounded name behind him. 272. This is theshaping of his ends--so exactly to his needs, so different from hisrough-hewn plans--which is the work of the Divinity. The man who desiresto know his duty that he may _do_ it, who will not shirk it when he doesknow it, will have time allowed him and the thing made plain to him; hisperplexity will even strengthen and purify his will. The weak man is hewho, certain of what is required of him, fails to meet it: so never oncefails Hamlet. Note, in all that follows, that a load seems taken offhim: after a gracious tardiness to believe up to the point of action, heis at length satisfied. Hesitation belongs to the noble nature, toHamlet; precipitation to the poor nature, to Laertes, the son ofPolonius. Compare Brutus in _Julius Caesar_--a Hamlet in favourablecircumstances, with Hamlet--a Brutus in the most unfavourablecircumstances conceivable. ]

[Page 250]

_Ham_. Why man, they did make loue to this imployment[1]They are not neere my Conscience; their debate [Sidenote: their defeat[2]]Doth by their owne insinuation[3] grow:[4] [Sidenote: Dooes]'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comesBetweene the passe, and fell incensed pointsOf mighty opposites. [5]

_Hor_. Why, what a King is this?[6]

_Ham_. Does it not, thinkst thee, [7] stand me now vpon[8] [Sidenote: not thinke thee[7] stand][Sidenote: 120] He that hath kil'd my King, [9] and whor'd my Mother, [Sidenote: 62] Popt in betweene th'election and my hopes, [Footnote 1: _This verse not in Q. _]

[Footnote 2: destruction. ]

[Footnote 3: 'Their destruction they have enticed on themselves by theirown behaviour;' or, 'they have _crept into_ their fate by theirunderhand dealings. ' The _Sh. Lex. _ explains _insinuation_ as_meddling_. ]

[Footnote 4: With the concern of Horatio for the fate of Rosincrance andGuildensterne, Hamlet shows no sympathy. It has been objected to hischaracter that there is nothing in the play to show them privy to thecontents of their commission; to this it would be answer enough, thatHamlet is satisfied of their worthlessness, and that their wholebehaviour in the play shows them merest parasites; but, at the sametime, we must note that, in changing the commission, he had nointention, could have had no thought, of letting them go to Englandwithout him: that was a pure shaping of their ends by the Divinity. Possibly his own 'dear plots' had in them the notion of getting helpagainst his uncle from the king of England, in which case he wouldwillingly of course have continued his journey; but whatever they may besupposed to have been, they were laid in connection with the voyage, notfounded on the chance of its interruption. It is easy to imagine a manlike him, averse to the shedding of blood, intending interference fortheir lives: as heir apparent, he would certainly have been listened to. The tone of his reply to Horatio is that of one who has been made theunintending cause of a deserved fate: the thing having fallen out so, the Divinity having so shaped their ends, there was nothing in theircharacter, any more than in that of Polonius, to make him regret theirdeath, or the part he had had in it. ]

[Footnote 5: The 'mighty opposites' here are the king and Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 6: Perhaps, as Hamlet talked, he has been parentheticallyglancing at the real commission. Anyhow conviction is growing strongerin Horatio, whom, for the occasion, we may regard as a type of thepublic. ]

[Footnote 7: 'thinkst thee, ' in the fashion of the Friends, or 'thinkethee' in the sense of 'bethink thee. ']

[Footnote 8: 'Does it not rest now on me?--is it not now my duty?--is itnot _incumbent on me_ (with _lie_ for _stand_)--"is't not perfectconscience"?']

[Footnote 9: Note '_my king_' not _my father_: he had to avenge a crimeagainst the state, the country, himself as a subject--not merely aprivate wrong. ]

[Page 252]

Throwne out his Angle for my proper life, [1]And with such coozenage;[2] is't not perfect conscience, [3] [Sidenote: conscience?][Sidenote: 120] To quit him with this arme?[4] And is't not to bedamn'd[5]To let this Canker of our nature comeIn further euill. [6]

_Hor. _ It must be shortly knowne to him from EnglandWhat is the issue of the businesse there. [7]

_Ham. _ It will be short, [Sidenote: 262] The _interim's_ mine, [8] and a mans life's no more[9]Then to say one:[10] but I am very sorry good _Horatio_, [Sidenote: 245] That to _Laertes_ I forgot my selfe;For by the image of my Cause, I see[Sidenote: 262] The Portraiture of his;[11] Ile count his fauours:[12]

[Footnote 1: Here is the charge at length in full against the king--ofquality and proof sufficient now, not merely to justify, but to compelaction against him. ]

[Footnote 2: He was such a _fine_ hypocrite that Hamlet, although hehated and distrusted him, was perplexed as to the possibility of hisguilt. His good acting was almost too much for Hamlet himself. This ishis 'coozenage. '

After 'coozenage' should come a dash, bringing '--is't not perfectconscience' (_is it not absolutely righteous_) into closest sequence, almost apposition, with 'Does it not stand me now upon--'. ]

[Footnote 3: Here comes in the _Quarto, 'Enter a Courtier_. ' All fromthis point to 'Peace, who comes heere?' included, is in addition to the_Quarto_ text--not in the _Q. _, that is. ]

[Footnote 4: I would here refer my student to the soliloquy--with its_sea of troubles_, and _the taking of arms against it_. 123, n. 4. ]

[Footnote 5: These three questions: 'Does it not stand me nowupon?'--'Is't not perfect conscience?'--'Is't not to be damned?' revealthe whole relation between the inner and outer, the unseen and the seen, the thinking and the acting Hamlet. 'Is not the thing right?--Is it notmy duty?--Would not the neglect of it deserve damnation?' He issatisfied. ]

[Footnote 6: 'is it not a thing to be damned--to let &c. ?' or, 'would itnot be to be damned, (to be in a state of damnation, or, to bringdamnation on oneself) to let this human cancer, the king, go on tofurther evil?']

[Footnote 7: '--so you have not much time. ']

[Footnote 8: 'True, it will be short, but till then is mine, and will belong enough for me. ' He is resolved. ]

[Footnote 9: Now that he is assured of what is right, the Shadow thatwaits him on the path to it, has no terror for him. He ceases to beanxious as to 'what dreams may come, ' as to the 'something after death, 'as to 'the undiscovered country, ' the moment his conscience issatisfied. 120. It cannot now make a coward of him. It was never inregard to the past that Hamlet dreaded death, but in regard to therighteousness of the action which was about to occasion his death. Notethat he expects death; at least he has long made up his mind to thegreat risk of it--the death referred to in the soliloquy--which, afterall, was not that which did overtake him. There is nothing about suicidehere, nor was there there. ]

[Footnote 10: 'a man's life must soon be over anyhow. ']

[Footnote 11: The approach of death causes him to think of and regreteven the small wrongs he has done; he laments his late behaviour toLaertes, and makes excuse for him: the similarity of their condition, each having lost a father by violence, ought, he says, to have taughthim gentleness with him. The _1st Quarto_ is worth comparing here:--

 _Enter Hamlet and Horatio_

 _Ham_. Beleeue mee, it greeues mee much _Horatio_, That to _Leartes_ I forgot my selfe: For by my selfe me thinkes I feele his griefe, Though there's a difference in each others wrong. ]

[Footnote 12: 'I will not forget, ' or, 'I will call to mind, what meritshe has, ' or 'what favours he has shown me. ' But I suspect the word'_count_' ought to be _court_. --He does court his favour when next theymeet--in lovely fashion. He has no suspicion of his enmity. ]

[Page 254]

[Sidenote: 242, 262] But sure the brauery[1] of his griefe did put meInto a Towring passion. [2]

_Hor. _ Peace, who comes heere?

_Enter young Osricke. _[3] [Sidenote: _Enter a Courtier. _]

_Osr. _ Your Lordship is right welcome back to [Sidenote: _Cour. _]Denmarke. 

_Ham. _ I humbly thank you Sir, dost know this [Sidenote: humble thank]waterflie?[4]

_Hor. _ No my good Lord. 

_Ham. _ Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis avice to know him[5]: he hath much Land, and fertile;let a Beast be Lord of Beasts, and his Crib shallstand at the Kings Messe;[6] 'tis a Chowgh[7]; butas I saw spacious in the possession of dirt. [8] [Sidenote: as I say, ]

_Osr. _ Sweet Lord, if your friendship[9] were at [Sidenote: _Cour. _ | Lordshippe[?]]leysure, I should impart a thing to you from hisMaiesty. 

_Ham. _ I will receiue it with all diligence of [Sidenote: it sir with]spirit; put your Bonet to his right vse, 'tis for the [Sidenote: spirit, your]head. 

Osr. I thanke your Lordship, 'tis very hot[10] [Sidenote: Cour. | it is]

_Ham. _ No, beleeue mee 'tis very cold, the windeis Northerly. 

_Osr. _ It is indifferent cold[11] my Lord indeed. [Sidenote: _Cour. _]

_Ham. _ Mee thinkes it is very soultry, and hot [Sidenote: But yet me | sully and hot, or my]for my Complexion. [12]

_Osr. _ Exceedingly, my Lord, it is very soultry, [Sidenote: _Cour. _]as 'twere I cannot tell how: but my Lord, [13] his [Sidenote: how: my Lord]Maiesty bad me signifie to you, that he ha's laid a [Sidenote: that a had][Sidenote: 244] great wager on your head: Sir, this is the matter. [14]

_Ham. _ I beseech you remember. [15]

_Osr. _ Nay, in good faith, for mine ease in good [Sidenote: Cour. Nay good my Lord for my ease]

[Footnote 1: the great show; bravado. ]

[Footnote 2: --with which fell in well the forms of his pretendedmadness. But that the passion was real, this reaction of repentanceshows. It was not the first time his pretence had given him liberty toease his heart with wild words. Jealous of the boastfulness of Laertes'affection, he began at once--in keeping with his assumed character ofmadman, but not the less in harmony with his feelings--to outrave him. ]

[Footnote 3: One of the sort that would gather to such a king--of thesame kind as Rosincrance and Guildensterne. 

In the _1st Q. 'Enter a Bragart Gentleman_. ']

[Footnote 4: --_to Horatio_. ]

[Footnote 5: 'Thou art the more in a state of grace, for it is a vice toknow him. ']

[Footnote 6: 'his manger shall stand where the king is served. ' Wealthis always received by Rank--Mammon nowhere better worshipped than inkings' courts. ]

[Footnote 7: '_a bird of the crow-family_'--as a figure, '_alwaysapplied to rich and avaricious people_. ' A _chuff_ is a surly _clown_. In Scotch a _coof_ is 'a silly, dastardly fellow. ']

[Footnote 8: land. ]

[Footnote 9: 'friendship' is better than 'Lordshippe, ' as euphuistic. ]

[Footnote 10: 'I thanke your Lordship; (_puts on his hat_) 'tis veryhot. ']

[Footnote 11: 'rather cold. ']

[Footnote 12: 'and hot--for _my_ temperament. ']

[Footnote 13: Not able to go on, he plunges into his message. ]

[Footnote 14: --_takes off his hat_. ]

[Footnote 15: --making a sign to him again to put on his hat. ]

[Page 256]

faith[1]: Sir, [A] you are not ignorant of what excellence_Laertes_ [B] is at his weapon. [2] [Sidenote: _Laertes_ is. [2]]

_Ham_. What's his weapon?[3]

_Osr_. Rapier and dagger. [Sidenote: _Cour. _]

_Ham_. That's two of his weapons: but well. 

_Osr_. The sir King ha's wag'd with him six [Sidenote: _Cour_. The King sir hath wagerd]Barbary Horses, against the which he impon'd[4] as I [Sidenote: hee has impaund]take it, sixe French Rapiers and Poniards, with

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

[5] here is newly com to Court _Laertes_, belieue me an absolutegentlemen, ful of most excellent differences, [6] of very softsociety, [7] and great[Sidenote: 234] showing[8]: indeede to speake sellingly[9] of him, heeis the card or kalender[10] of gentry: for you shall find in him thecontinent of what part a Gentleman would see. [11]

[Sidenote: 245] _Ham_. [12] Sir, his definement suffers no perdition[13]in you, though I know to deuide him inuentorially, [14] would dosie[15]th'arithmaticke of memory, and yet but yaw[16] neither in respect ofhis quick saile, but in the veritie of extolment, I take him to be asoule of great article, [17] & his infusion[18] of such dearth[19] andrarenesse, as to make true dixion of him, his semblable is hismirrour, [20] & who els would trace him, his vmbrage, nothing more. [21]

_Cour_. Your Lordship speakes most infallibly of him. [22]

_Ham_. The concernancy[23] sir, why doe we wrap the gentleman in ourmore rawer breath?[24]

_Cour_. Sir. [25]

_Hora_. Ist not possible to vnderstand in another tongue, [26] you willtoo't sir really. [27]

_Ham_. What imports the nomination of this gentleman. 

_Cour_. Of _Laertes_. [28]

_Hora_. His purse is empty already, all's golden words are spent. 

_Ham_. Of him sir. [29]

_Cour_. I know you are not ignorant. [30]

_Ham_. I would you did sir, yet in faith if you did, it would notmuch approoue me, [31] well sir. 

_Cour_. ]

[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--

_Ham_. I dare not confesse that, least I should compare with him inexcellence, but to know a man wel, were to knowe himselfe. [32]

_Cour_. I meane sir for this weapon, but in the imputation laide onhim, [33] by them in his meed, hee's vnfellowed. [34]]

[Footnote 1: 'in good faith, it is not for manners, but for my comfort Itake it off. ' Perhaps the hat was intended only to be carried, and wouldnot really go on his head. ]

[Footnote 2: The _Quarto_ has not 'at his weapon, ' which is inserted totake the place of the passage omitted, and connect the edges of thegap. ]

[Footnote 3: So far from having envied Laertes' reputation for fencing, as the king asserts, Hamlet seems not even to have known which wasLaertes' weapon. ]

[Footnote 4: laid down--staked. ]

[Footnote 5: This and the following passages seem omitted forcurtailment, and perhaps in part because they were less amusing when thefashion of euphuism had passed. The good of holding up the mirror tofolly was gone when it was no more the 'form and pressure' of 'the veryage and body of the time. ']

[Footnote 6: of great variety of excellence. ]

[Footnote 7: gentle manners. ]

[Footnote 8: fine presence. ]

[Footnote 9: Is this a stupid attempt at wit on the part of Osricke--'topraise him as if you wanted to sell him'--stupid because it acknowledgesexaggeration?]

[Footnote 10: 'the chart or book of reference. ' 234. ]

[Footnote 11: I think _part_ here should be plural; then the passagewould paraphrase thus:--'you shall find in him the sum of what parts(_endowments_) a gentleman would wish to see. ']

[Footnote 12: Hamlet answers the fool according to his folly, butoutdoes him, to his discomfiture. ]

[Footnote 13: 'his description suffers no loss in your mouth. ']

[Footnote 14: 'to analyze him into all and each of his qualities. ']

[Footnote 15: dizzy. ]

[Footnote 16: 'and yet _would_ but yaw neither' _Yaw_, 'the movement bywhich a ship deviates from the line of her course towards the right orleft in steering. ' Falconer's _Marine Dictionary_. The meaning seems tobe that the inventorial description could not overtake his merits, because it would _yaw_--keep turning out of the direct line of theirquick sail. But Hamlet is set on using far-fetched and absurd forms andphrases to the non-plussing of Osricke, nor cares much to be _correct_. ]

[Footnote 17: I take this use of the word _article_ to be merely for theoccasion; it uas never surely in _use_ for _substance_. ]

[Footnote 18: '--the infusion of his soul into his body, ' 'his soul'sembodiment. ' The _Sh. Lex. _ explains _infusion_ as 'endowments, qualities, ' and it may be right. ]

[Footnote 19: scarcity. ]

[Footnote 20: '--it alone can show his likeness. ']

[Footnote 21: 'whoever would follow in his footsteps--copy him--is onlyhis shadow. ']

[Footnote 22: Here a pause, I think. ]

[Footnote 23: 'To the matter in hand!'--recalling the attention ofOsricke to the purport of his visit. ]

[Footnote 24: 'why do we presume to talk about him with our less refinedbreath?']

[Footnote 25: The Courtier is now thoroughly bewildered. ]

[Footnote 26: 'Can you only _speak_ in another tongue? Is it notpossible to _understand_ in it as well?']

[Footnote 27: 'It is your own fault; you _will_ court your fate! you_will_ go and be made a fool of!']

[Footnote 28: He catches at the word he understands. The actor must heresupply the meaning, with the baffled, disconcerted look of a fool whohas failed in the attempt to seem knowing. ]

[Footnote 29:--answering the Courtier. ]

[Footnote 30: He pauses, looking for some out-of-the-way mode wherein tocontinue. Hamlet takes him up. ]

[Footnote 31: 'your witness to my knowledge would not be of muchavail. ']

[Footnote 32: Paraphrase: 'for merely to know a man well, implies thatyou yourself _know_. ' To know a man well, you must know his knowledge: aman, to judge his neighbour, must be at least his equal. ]

[Footnote 33: faculty attributed to him. ]

[Footnote 34: _Point thus_: 'laide on him by them, in his meed hee'sunfellowed. ' 'in his merit he is peerless. ']

[Page 258]

their assignes, [1] as Girdle, Hangers or so[2]: three of [Sidenote: hanger and so. ]the Carriages infaith are very deare to fancy, [3] veryresponsiue[4] to the hilts, most delicate carriagesand of very liberall conceit. [5]

_Ham_. What call you the Carriages?[6]

[A]

_Osr_. The Carriages Sir, are the hangers. [Sidenote: _Cour_. The carriage]

_Ham_. The phrase would bee more Germaine[7] tothe matter: If we could carry Cannon by our sides; [Sidenote: carry a cannon]I would it might be Hangers till then; but on sixe [Sidenote: it be | then, but on, six]Barbary Horses against sixe French Swords: theirAssignes, and three liberall conceited Carriages, [8]that's the French but against the Danish; why is [Sidenote: French bet]this impon'd as you call it[9]? [Sidenote: this all you[9]]

_Osr_. The King Sir, hath laid that in a dozen [Sidenote: _Cour_. | layd sir, that]passes betweene you and him, hee shall not exceed [Sidenote: your selfe and him, ]you three hits;[10] He hath one twelue for mine, [11] [Sidenote: hath layd on twelue for nine, ]and that would come to imediate tryall, if your [Sidenote: and it would]Lordship would vouchsafe the Answere. [12]

_Ham_. How if I answere no?[13]

_Osr_. I meane my Lord, [14] the opposition of your [Sidenote: _Cour_. ]person in tryall. 

_Ham_. Sir, I will walke heere in the Hall; if itplease his Maiestie, 'tis the breathing time of day [Sidenote: it is]with me[15]; let the Foyles bee brought, the Gentlemanwilling, and the King hold his purpose; I willwin for him if I can: if not, Ile gaine nothing but [Sidenote: him and I | I will]my shame, and the odde hits. [16]

_Osr_. Shall I redeliuer you ee'n so?[17] [Sidenote: _Cour_. Shall I deliuer you so?]

_Ham_. To this effect Sir, after what flourish yournature will. 

_Osr_. I commend my duty to your Lordship. [Sidenote: _Cour_. ]

_Ham_. Yours, yours [18]: hee does well to commend [Sidenote: _Ham_. Yours doo's well[18]]it himselfe, there are no tongues else for's tongue, [Sidenote: turne. ]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

_Hora_. I knew you must be edified by the margent[19] ere you haddone. ]

[Footnote 1: accompaniments or belongings; things _assigned_ to them. ]

[Footnote 2: the thongs or chains attaching the sheath of a weapon tothe girdle; what the weapon _hangs_ by. The '_or so_' seems to indicatethat Osricke regrets having used the old-fashioned word, which heimmediately changes for _carriages_. ]

[Footnote 3: imagination, taste, the artistic faculty. ]

[Footnote 4: 'corresponding to--going well with the hilts, '--in shape, ornament, and colour. ]

[Footnote 5: bold invention. ]

[Footnote 6: a new word, unknown to Hamlet;--court-slang, to which heprefers the old-fashioned, homely word. ]

[Footnote 7: related; 'akin to the matter. ']

[Footnote 8: He uses Osricke's words--with a touch of derision, I shouldsay. ]

[Footnote 9: I do not take the _Quarto_ reading for incorrect. Hamletsays: 'why is this all----you call it --? --?' as if he wanted to usethe word (_imponed_) which Osricke had used, but did not remember it: heasks for it, saying '_you call it_' interrogatively. ]

[Footnote 10: _1st Q_

 that yong Leartes in twelue venies 223 At Rapier and Dagger do not get three oddes of you, ]

[Footnote 11: In all printer's work errors are apt to come in clusters. ]

[Footnote 12: the response, or acceptance of the challenge. ]

[Footnote 13: Hamlet plays with the word, pretending to take it in itscommon meaning. ]

[Footnote 14: 'By _answer_, I mean, my lord, the opposition &c. ']

[Footnote 15: 'my time for exercise:' he treats the proposal as thetrifle it seems--a casual affair to be settled at once--hoping perhapsthat the king will come with like carelessness. ]

[Footnote 16: the _three_. ]

[Footnote 17: To Osricke the answer seems too direct and unadorned forears royal. ]

[Footnote 18: I cannot help here preferring the _Q_. If we take the_Folio_ reading, we must take it thus: 'Yours! yours!' spoken withcontempt;--'as if _you_ knew anything of duty!'--for we see from whatfollows that he is playing with the word _duty_. Or we might read it, 'Yours commends yours, ' with the same sense as the reading of the _Q. _, which is, 'Yours, ' that is, '_Your_ lordship--does well to commend hisduty himself--there is no one else to do it. ' This former shape issimpler; that of the _Folio_ is burdened with ellipsis--loaded withlack. And surely _turne_ is the true reading!--though we may take theother to mean, 'there are no tongues else on the side of his tongue. ']

[Footnote 19: --as of the Bible, for a second interpretative word orphrase. ]

[Page 260]

_Hor_. This Lapwing runs away with the shellon his head. [1]

[Sidenote: 98] _Ham_. He did Compile[2] with his Dugge before [Sidenote: _Ham_. A did sir[2] with]hee suck't it: thus had he and mine more of the [Sidenote: a suckt has he | many more]same Beauy[3] that I know the drossie age dotes [Sidenote: same breede]on; only got the tune[4] of the time, and outward [Sidenote: and out of an habit of[5]]habite of encounter, [5] a kinde of yesty collection, [Sidenote: histy]which carries them through and through the mostfond and winnowed opinions; and doe but blow [Sidenote: prophane and trennowed opinions]them to their tryalls: the Bubbles are out. [6] [Sidenote: their triall, the]

[A]

_Hor_. You will lose this wager, my Lord. [Sidenote: loose my Lord. ]

_Ham_. I doe not thinke so, since he went intoFrance, I haue beene in continuall practice; I shall[Sidenote: 265] winne at the oddes:[7] but thou wouldest not thinke [Sidenote: ods; thou]how all heere about my heart:[8] but it is no matter[9] [Sidenote: how ill all's heere]

_Hor_. Nay, good my Lord. 

_Ham_. It is but foolery; but it is such a kindeof gain-giuing[10] as would perhaps trouble a woman, [Sidenote: gamgiuing. ]

_Hor_. If your minde dislike any thing, obey. [11] [Sidenote: obay it. ]I will forestall[12] their repaire hither, and say youare not fit. 

_Ham_. Not a whit, we defie Augury[13]; there's a [Sidenote: there is speciall][Sidenote: 24, 125, 247] speciall Prouidence in the fall of asparrow. [14] If

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_

_Enter a Lord_. [15]

_Lord_. My Lord, his Maiestie commended him to you by youngOstricke, [16] who brings backe to him that you attend him in the hall, he sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with _Laertes_, or thatyou will take longer time?[17]

_Ham_. I am constant to my purposes, they followe the Kings pleasure, if his fitnes speakes, mine is ready[18]: now or whensoeuer, prouided Ibe so able as now. 

_Lord_. The King, and Queene, and all are comming downe. 

_Ham_. In happy time. [19]

_Lord_. The Queene desires you to vse some gentleentertainment[20] _Laertes_, before you fall to play. 

_Ham_. Shee well instructs me. ]

[Footnote 1: 'Well, he _is_ a young one!']

[Footnote 2: '_Com'ply_, ' with accent on first syllable: _comply with_means _pay compliments to, compliment_. See _Q. _ reading: 'A did sirwith':--_sir_ here is a verb--_sir with_ means _say sir to_: 'he_sirred, complied_ with his nurse's breast before &c. ' Hamlet speaks inmockery of the affected court-modes of speech and address, the fashionof euphuism--a mechanical attempt at the poetic. ]

[Footnote 3: _a flock of birds_--suggested by '_This Lapwing_. ']

[Footnote 4: 'the mere mode. ']

[Footnote 5: 'and external custom of intercourse. ' But here too I rathertake the _Q. _ to be right: 'They have only got the fashion of the time;and, out of a habit of wordy conflict, (they have got) a collection oftricks of speech, --a yesty, frothy mass, with nothing in it, whichcarries them in triumph through the most foolish and fastidious (nice, choice, punctilious, whimsical) judgments. ' _Yesty_ I take to be right, and _prophane_ (vulgar) to have been altered by the Poet to _fond_(foolish); of _trennowed_ I can make nothing beyond a misprint. ]

[Footnote 6: Hamlet had just blown Osricke to his trial in his chosenkind, and the bubble had burst. The braggart gentleman had no faculty togenerate after the dominant fashion, no invention to support hisambition--had but a yesty collection, which failing him the momentsomething unconventional was wanted, the fool had to look a discoveredfool. ]

[Footnote 7: 'I shall win by the odds allowed me; he will not exceed methree hits. ']

[Footnote 8: He has a presentiment of what is coming. ]

[Footnote 9: Nothing in this world is of much consequence to him now. Also, he believes in 'a special Providence. ']

[Footnote 10: 'a yielding, a sinking' at the heart? The _Sh. Lex. _ says_misgiving_. ]

[Footnote 11: 'obey the warning. ']

[Footnote 12: 'go to them before they come here'--'_prevent_ theircoming. ']

[Footnote 13: The knowledge, even, of what is to come could never, anymore than ordinary expediency, be the _law_ of a man's conduct. St. Paul, informed by the prophet Agabus of the troubles that awaited him atJerusalem, and entreated by his friends not to go thither, believed theprophet, and went on to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of theGentiles. ]

[Footnote 14: One of Shakspere's many allusions to sayings of the Lord. ]

[Footnote 15: Osricke does not come back: he has begged off but ventureslater, under the wing of the king. ]

[Footnote 16: May not this form of the name suggest that in it isintended the 'foolish' ostrich?]

[Footnote 17: The king is making delay: he has to have his 'union'ready. ]

[Footnote 18: 'if he feels ready, I am. ']

[Footnote 19: 'They are _well-come_. ']

[Footnote 20: 'to be polite to Laertes. ' The print shows where _to_ hasslipped out. 

The queen is anxious; she distrusts Laertes, and the king's influenceover him. ]

[Page 262]

it[1] be now, 'tis not to come: if it bee not to come, [Sidenote: be, tis]it will bee now: if it be not now; yet it will come; [Sidenote: it well come, ][Sidenote: 54, 164] the readinesse is all, [2] since no man ha's ought of [Sidenote: man of ought he leaues, knowes what ist to leaue betimes, let be. ][Sidenote: 252] what he leaues. What is't to leaue betimes?[3]

_Enter King, Queene, Laertes and Lords, with otherAttendants with Foyles, and Gauntlets, a Tableand Flagons of Wine on it. _ [Sidenote: _A table prepard, Trumpets, Drums and officers with cushion, King, Queene, and all the state, Foiles, Daggers, and Laertes. _]

_Kin_. Come _Hamlet_ come, and take this handfrom me. 

[Sidenote: 245] _Ham_. [4] Giue me your pardon Sir, I'ue done youwrong, [5] [Sidenote: I haue]But pardon't as you are a Gentleman. This presence[6] knowes, And you must needs haue heard how I am punishtWith sore distraction?[7] What I haue done [Sidenote: With a sore]That might your nature honour, and exception[Sidenote: 242, 252] Roughly awake, [8] heere proclaime was madnesse:[9]Was't _Hamlet_ wrong'd _Laertes_? Neuer _Hamlet_. If _Hamlet_ from himselfe be tane away: [Sidenote: fane away, ]And when he's not himselfe, do's wrong _Laertes_, Then _Hamlet_ does it not, _Hamlet_ denies it:[10]Who does it then? His Madnesse? If't be so, _Hamlet_ is of the Faction that is wrong'd, His madnesse is poore _Hamlets_ Enemy. [11]Sir, in this Audience, [12]Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd euill, [13]Free me so farre[14] in your most generous thoughts, That I haue shot mine Arrow o're the house, [Sidenote: my]And hurt my Mother. [15] [Sidenote: brother. [15]]

[Footnote 1: 'it'--death, the end. ]

[Footnote 2: His father had been taken unready. 54. ]

[Footnote 3: _Point_: 'all. Since'; 'leaves, what'--'Since no man hasanything of what he has left, those who left it late are in the sameposition as those who left it early. ' Compare the common saying, 'Itwill be all the same in a hundred years. ' The _Q. _ reading comes much tothe same thing--'knows of ought he leaves'--'has any knowledge of it, anything to do with it, in any sense possesses it. '

We may find a deeper meaning in the passage, however--surely not toodeep for Shakspere:--'Since nothing can be truly said to be possessed ashis own which a man must at one time or another yield; since that whichis _own_ can never be taken from the owner, but solely that which islent him; since the nature of a thing that has to be left is not suchthat it _could_ be possessed, why should a man mind parting with itearly?'--There is far more in this than merely that at the end of theday it will be all the same. The thing that ever was really a man's own, God has given, and God will not, and man cannot, take away. Note theunity of religion and philosophy in Hamlet: he takes the one trueposition. Note also his courage: he has a strong presentiment of death, but will not turn a step from his way. If Death be coming, he willconfront him. He does not believe in chance. He is ready--that iswilling. All that is needful is, that he should not go as one who cannothelp it, but as one who is for God's will, who chooses that will as hisown. 

There is so much behind in Shakspere's characters--so much that can onlybe hinted at! The dramatist has not the _word_-scope of the novelist;his art gives him little _room_; he must effect in a phrase what theother may take pages to. He needs good seconding by his actors as sorelyas the composer needs good rendering of his music by the orchestra. Itis a lesson in unity that the greatest art can least work alone; thatthe greatest _finder_ most needs the help of others to show his_findings_. The dramatist has live men and women for the veryinstruments of his art--who must not be mere instruments, butfellow-workers; and upon them he is greatly dependent for final outcome. 

Here the actor should show a marked calmness and elevation in Hamlet. Heshould have around him as it were a luminous cloud, the cloud of hiscoming end. A smile not all of this world should close the speech. Hehas given himself up, and is at peace. ]

[Footnote 4: Note in this apology the sweetness of Hamlet's nature. Howfew are alive enough, that is unselfish and true enough, to be capableof genuine apology! The low nature always feels, not the wrong, but theconfession of it, degrading. ]

[Footnote 5: --the wrong of his rudeness at the funeral. ]

[Footnote 6: all present. ]

[Footnote 7: --true in a deeper sense than they would understand. ]

[Footnote 8: 'that might roughly awake your nature, honour, andexception, ':--consider the phrase--_to take exception at a thing_. ]

[Footnote 9: It was by cause of madness, not by cause of evil intent. For all purpose of excuse it was madness, if only pretended madness; itwas there of another necessity, and excused offence like real madness. What he said was true, not merely expedient, to the end he meant it toserve. But all passion may be called madness, because therein the mindis absorbed with one idea; 'anger is a brief madness, ' and he was in a'towering passion': he proclaims it madness and so abjures it. ]

[Footnote 10: 'refuses the wrong altogether--will in his true self havenothing to do with it. ' No evil thing comes of our true selves, andconfession is the casting of it from us, the only true denial. He whowill not confess a wrong, holds to the wrong. ]

[Footnote 11: All here depends on the expression in the utterance. ]

[Footnote 12: _This line not in Q. _]

[Footnote 13: This is Hamlet's summing up of the whole--his explanationof the speech. ]

[Footnote 14: 'so far as this in your generous judgment--that you regardme as having shot &c. ']

[Footnote 15: _Brother_ is much easier to accept, though _Mother_ mightbe in the simile. 

To do justice to the speech we must remember that Hamlet has no quarrelwhatever with Laertes, that he has expressed admiration of him, and thathe is inclined to love him for Ophelia's sake. His apology has noreference to the fate of his father or his sister; Hamlet is not awarethat Laertes associates him with either, and plainly the public did notknow Hamlet killed Polonius; while Laertes could have no intention ofalluding to the fact, seeing it would frustrate his scheme oftreachery. ]

[Page 264]

_Laer_. I am satisfied in Nature, [1]Whose motiue in this case should stirre me mostTo my Reuenge. But in my termes of HonorI stand aloofe, and will no reconcilement, Till by some elder Masters of knowne Honor, I haue a voyce, and president of peaceTo keepe my name vngorg'd. [2] But till that time, [Sidenote: To my name vngord: but all that]I do receiue your offer'd loue like loue, And wil not wrong it. 

_Ham_. I do embrace it freely, [Sidenote: I embrace]And will this Brothers wager frankely play. Giue vs the Foyles: Come on. [3]

_Laer_. Come one for me. [4]

_Ham_. Ile be your foile[5] _Laertes_, in mine ignorance, [Sidenote: 218] Your Skill shall like a Starre i'th'darkest night, [6]Sticke fiery off indeede. 

_Laer_. You mocke me Sir. 

_Ham_. No by this hand. [7]

_King_. Giue them the Foyles yong _Osricke_, [8] [Sidenote: _Ostricke_, [8]]Cousen _Hamlet_, you know the wager. 

_Ham_. Verie well my Lord, Your Grace hath laide the oddes a'th'weaker side, [Sidenote: has]

_King. _ I do not feare it, I haue seene you both:[9]But since he is better'd, we haue therefore oddes. [10] [Sidenote: better, we]

[Footnote 1: 'in my own feelings and person. ' Laertes does not refer tohis father or sister. He professes to be satisfied in his heart withHamlet's apology for his behaviour at the funeral, but not to be surewhether in the opinion of others, and by the laws of honour, he canaccept it as amends, and forbear to challenge him. But the words 'Whosemotiue in this case should stirre me most to my Reuenge' may refer tohis father and sister, and, if so taken, should be spoken aside. Toaccept apology for them and not for his honour would surely be toobarefaced! The point concerning them has not been started. 

But why not receive the apology as quite satisfactory? That he would notseems to show a lingering regard to _real_ honour. A downright villain, like the king, would have pretended its _thorough_acceptance--especially as they were just going to fence like friends;but he, as regards his honour, will not accept it until justified indoing so by the opinion of 'some elder masters, ' receiving from them 'avoice and precedent of peace'--counsel to, and justification, or exampleof peace. He keeps the door of quarrel open--will not profess to be_altogether_ friends with him, though he does not hint at his realground of offence: that mooted, the match of skill, with its immenseadvantages for villainy, would have been impossible. He means treacheryall the time; careful of his honour, he can, like most apes of fashion, let his honesty go; still, so complex is human nature, he holds hisspeech declining thorough reconciliation as a shield to shelter histreachery from his own contempt: he has taken care not to professabsolute friendship, and so left room for absolute villainy! He has hadregard to his word! Relieved perhaps by the demoniacal quibble, hefollows it immediately with an utterance of full-blown perfidy. ]

[Footnote 2: Perhaps _ungorg'd_ might mean _unthrottled_. ]

[Footnote 3: 'Come on' _is not in the Q. _--I suspect this _Come on_ buta misplaced shadow from the '_Come one_' immediately below, and betteromitted. Hamlet could not say '_Come on_' before Laertes was ready, and'_Come one_' after 'Give us the foils, ' would be very awkward. But itmay be said to the attendant courtiers. ]

[Footnote 4: He says this while Hamlet is still choosing, in order thata second bundle of foils, in which is the unbated and poisoned one, maybe brought him. So 'generous and free from all contriving' is Hamlet, (220) that, even with the presentiment in his heart, he has no fear oftreachery. ]

[Footnote 5: As persons of the drama, the Poet means Laertes to be foilto Hamlet. --With the play upon the word before us, we can hardly helpthinking of the _third_ signification of the word _foil_. ]

[Footnote 6: 'My ignorance will be the foil of darkest night to theburning star of your skill. ' This is no flattery; Hamlet believesLaertes, to whose praises he has listened (218)--though not with theenvy his uncle attributes to him--the better fencer: he expects to winonly 'at the odds. ' 260. ]

[Footnote 7: --not '_by these pickers and stealers_, ' his oath to hisfalse friends. 154. ]

[Footnote 8: Plainly a favourite with the king. --He is _Ostricke_ alwaysin the _Q_. ]

[Footnote 9: 'seen you both play'--though not together. ]

[Footnote 10: _Point thus_:

 I do not fear it--I have seen you both! But since, he is bettered: we have therefore odds. 

'Since'--'_since the time I saw him_. ']

[Page 266]

_Laer_. This is too heauy, Let me see another. [1]

_Ham_. This likes me well, These Foyles haue all a length. [2] _Prepare to play. _[3]

_Osricke_. I my good Lord. [Sidenote: _Ostr. _]

_King_. Set me the Stopes of wine vpon that Table:If _Hamlet_ giue the first, or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, [4]Let all the Battlements their Ordinance fire, [Sidenote: 268] The King shal drinke to _Hamlets_ better breath, And in the Cup an vnion[5] shal he throw [Sidenote: an Vince]Richer then that, [6] which foure successiue KingsIn Denmarkes Crowne haue worne. Giue me the Cups, And let the Kettle to the Trumpets speake, [Sidenote: trumpet]The Trumpet to the Cannoneer without, The Cannons to the Heauens, the Heauen to Earth, Now the King drinkes to _Hamlet_. Come, begin, [Sidenote: _Trumpets the while. _]And you the Iudges[7] beare a wary eye. 

_Ham_. Come on sir. 

_Laer_. Come on sir. _They play. _[8] [Sidenote: Come my Lord. ]

_Ham_. One. 

_Laer_. No. 

_Ham_. Iudgement. [9]

_Osr_. A hit, a very palpable hit. [Sidenote: _Ostrick. _]

_Laer_. Well: againe. [Sidenote: _Drum, trumpets and a shot. Florish, a peece goes off. _]

_King_. Stay, giue me drinke. _Hamlet_, this Pearle is thine, Here's to thy health. Giue him the cup, [10]

 _Trumpets sound, and shot goes off. _[11]

_Ham_. Ile play this bout first, set by a-while. [12] [Sidenote: set it by]Come: Another hit; what say you?

_Laer_. A touch, a touch, I do confesse. [13] [Sidenote: _Laer_. | doe confest. ]

_King_. Our Sonne shall win. 

[Footnote 1: --to make it look as if he were choosing. ]

[Footnote 2: --asked in an offhand way. The fencers must not measureweapons, because how then could the unbated point escape discovery? Itis quite like Hamlet to take even Osricke's word for their equallength. ]

[Footnote 3: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 4: 'or be quits with Laertes the third bout':--in any case, whatever the probabilities, even if Hamlet be wounded, the king, who hasnot perfect confidence in the 'unction, ' will fall back on his secondline of ambush--in which he has more trust: he will drink to Hamlet, when Hamlet will be bound to drink also. ]

[Footnote 5: The Latin _unio_ was a large pearl. The king's _union_ Itake to be poison made up like a pearl. ]

[Footnote 6: --a well-known one in the crown. ]

[Footnote 7: --of whom Osricke was one. ]

[Footnote 8: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 9: --appealing to the judges. ]

[Footnote 10: He throws in the _pearl_, and drinks--for it will takesome moments to dissolve and make the wine poisonous--then sends the cupto Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 11: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 12: He does not refuse to drink, but puts it by, neithershowing nor entertaining suspicion, fearing only the effect of thedraught on his play. He is bent on winning the wager--perhaps withfurther intent. ]

[Footnote 13: Laertes has little interest in the match, but much in hisown play. ]

[Page 268]

[Sidenote: 266] _Qu_. He's fat, and scant of breath. [1]Heere's a Napkin, rub thy browes, [Sidenote: Heere _Hamlet_ take my napkin]The Queene Carowses to thy fortune, _Hamlet_. 

_Ham_. Good Madam. [2]

_King_. _Gertrude_, do not drinke. 

_Qu_. I will my Lord;I pray you pardon me. [3]

[Sidenote: 222]_King_. It is the poyson'd Cup, it is too late. [4]

_Ham_. I dare not drinke yet Madam, By and by. [5]

_Qu_. Come, let me wipe thy face. [6]

_Laer_. My Lord, Ile hit him now. 

_King_. I do not thinke't. 

_Laer_. And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience. [7] [Sidenote: it is | against]

_Ham_. Come for the third. _Laertes_, you but dally, [Sidenote: you doe but]I pray you passe with your best violence, I am affear'd you make a wanton of me. [8] [Sidenote: I am sure you]

_Laer_. Say you so? Come on. _Play. _

_Osr_. Nothing neither way. [Sidenote: _Ostr. _]

_Laer_. Haue at you now. [9]

 _In scuffling they change Rapiers. _[10]

_King_. Part them, they are incens'd. [11]

_Ham_. Nay come, againe. [12]

_Osr_. Looke to the Queene there hoa. [Sidenote: _Ostr. _ | there howe. ]

_Hor_. They bleed on both sides. How is't my [Sidenote: is it]Lord?

_Osr_. How is't _Laertes_? [Sidenote: _Ostr. _]

_Laer_. Why as a Woodcocke[13]To mine Sprindge, _Osricke_, [Sidenote: mine owne sprindge _Ostrick_, ]I am iustly kill'd with mine owne Treacherie. [14]

_Ham_. How does the Queene?

_King_. She sounds[15] to see them bleede. 

_Qu_. No, no, the drinke, the drinke[16]

[Footnote 1: She is anxious about him. It may be that this speech, andthat of the king before (266), were fitted to the person of the actorwho first represented Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 2: --a simple acknowledgment of her politeness: he can no morebe familiarly loving with his mother. ]

[Footnote 3: She drinks, and offers the cup to Hamlet. ]

[Footnote 4: He is too much afraid of exposing his villainy to be promptenough to prevent her. ]

[Footnote 5: This is not meant by the Poet to show suspicion: he doesnot mean Hamlet to die so. ]

[Footnote 6: The actor should not allow her: she approaches Hamlet; herecoils a little. ]

[Footnote 7: He has compunctions, but it needs failure to make thempotent. ]

[Footnote 8: 'treat me as an effeminate creature. ']

[Footnote 9: He makes a sudden attack, without warning of the fourthbout. ]

[Footnote 10: _Not in Q. _

The 1st Q. Directs:--_They catch one anothers Rapiers, find both arewounded_, &c. 

The thing, as I understand it, goes thus: With the words 'Have at younow!' Laertes stabs Hamlet; Hamlet, apprised thus of his treachery, layshold of his rapier, wrenches it from him, and stabs him with it inreturn. ]

[Footnote 11: 'they have lost their temper. ']

[Footnote 12: --said with indignation and scorn, but without suspicionof the worst. ]

[Footnote 13: --the proverbially foolish bird. The speech must be spokenwith breaks. Its construction is broken. ]

[Footnote 14: His conscience starts up, awake and strong, at theapproach of Death. As the show of the world withdraws, the realitiesassert themselves. He repents, and makes confession of his sin, seeingit now in its true nature, and calling it by its own name. It is acompensation of the weakness of some that they cannot be strong inwickedness. The king did not so repent, and with his strength was themore to blame. ]

[Footnote 15: _swounds, swoons_. ]

[Footnote 16: She is true to her son. The maternal outlasts theadulterous. ]

[Page 270]

Oh my deere _Hamlet_, the drinke, the drinke, I am poyson'd. 

_Ham_. Oh Villany! How? Let the doore be lock'd. Treacherie, seeke it out. [1]

_Laer_. It is heere _Hamlet_. [2]_Hamlet_, [3] thou art slaine, No Medicine in the world can do thee good. In thee, there is not halfe an houre of life; [Sidenote: houres life, ]The Treacherous Instrument is in thy hand, [Sidenote: in my]Vnbated and envenom'd: the foule practise[4]Hath turn'd it selfe on me. Loe, heere I lye, Neuer to rise againe: Thy Mothers poyson'd:I can no more, the King, the King's too blame. [5]

_Ham_. The point envenom'd too, Then venome to thy worke. [6] _Hurts the King. _[7]

_All_. Treason, Treason. 

_King_. O yet defend me Friends, I am but hurt. 

_Ham_. Heere thou incestuous, murdrous, [Sidenote: Heare thou incestious damned Dane, ]Damned Dane, Drinke off this Potion: Is thy Vnion heere? [Sidenote: of this | is the Onixe heere?]Follow my Mother. [8] _King Dyes. _[9]

_Laer_. He is iustly seru'd. It is a poyson temp'red by himselfe:Exchange forgiuenesse with me, Noble _Hamlet_;Mine and my Fathers death come not vpon thee, Nor thine on me. [10] _Dyes. _[11]

_Ham_. Heauen make thee free of it, [12] I follow thee. I am dead _Horatio_, wretched Queene adiew. You that looke pale, and tremble at this chance, That are but Mutes[13] or audience to this acte:Had I but time (as this fell Sergeant deathIs strick'd in his Arrest) oh I could tell you. [Sidenote: strict]

[Footnote 1: The thing must be ended now. The door must be locked, tokeep all in that are in, and all out that are out. Then he can do as hewill. ]

[Footnote 2: --laying his hand on his heart, I think. ]

[Footnote 3: In Q. _Hamlet_ only once. ]

[Footnote 4: _scheme, artifice, deceitful contrivance_; in modern slang, _dodge_. ]

[Footnote 5: He turns on the prompter of his sin--crowning the justiceof the king's capital punishment. ]

[Footnote 6: _Point_: 'too!'

_1st Q. _ Then venome to thy venome, die damn'd villaine. ]

[Footnote 7: _Not in Quarto. _

The true moment, now only, has at last come. Hamlet has lived to do hisduty with a clear conscience, and is thereupon permitted to go. The manwho asks whether this be poetic justice or no, is unworthy of an answer. 'The Tragedie of Hamlet' is _The Drama of Moral Perplexity_. ]

[Footnote 8: A grim play on the word _Union: 'follow my mother_'. Itsuggests a terrible meeting below. ]

[Footnote 9: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 10: His better nature triumphs. The moment he was wounded, knowing he must die, he began to change. Defeat is a mighty aid torepentance; and processes grow rapid in the presence of Death: heforgives and desires forgiveness. ]

[Footnote 11: _Not in Quarto. _]

[Footnote 12: Note how heartily Hamlet pardons the wrong done tohimself--the only wrong of course which a man has to pardon. ]

[Footnote 13: _supernumeraries_. Note the other figures too--_audience, act_--all of the theatre. ]

[Page 272]

But let it be: _Horatio_, I am dead, Thou liu'st, report me and my causes right [Sidenote: cause a right]To the vnsatisfied. [1]

_Hor_. Neuer beleeue it. [Sidenote: 134] I am more an Antike Roman then a Dane:[Sidenote: 135] Heere's yet some Liquor left. [2]

_Ham_. As th'art a man, giue me the Cup. Let go, by Heauen Ile haue't. [Sidenote: hate, ][Sidenote: 114, 251] Oh good _Horatio_, what a wounded name, [3] [Sidenote: O god _Horatio_, ](Things standing thus vnknowne) shall liue behind me. [Sidenote: shall I leaue behind me?]If thou did'st euer hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicitie awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in paine, [1] [Sidenote: _A march a farre off. _]To tell my Storie. [4] _March afarre off, and shout within. _[5]What warlike noyse is this?

_Enter Osricke. _

_Osr_. Yong _Fortinbras_, with conquest come from PolandTo th'Ambassadors of England giues this warlike volly. [6]

_Ham_. O I dye _Horatio_:The potent poyson quite ore-crowes my spirit, I cannot liue to heare the Newes from England, [Sidenote: 62] But I do prophesie[7] th'election lights[Sidenote: 276] On _Fortinbras_, he ha's my dying voyce, [8]So tell him with the occurrents more and lesse, [9] [Sidenote: th']Which haue solicited. [10] The rest is silence. O, o, o, o. [11] _Dyes_[12]

_Hora_. Now cracke a Noble heart: [Sidenote: cracks a]Goodnight sweet Prince, And flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest, Why do's the Drumme come hither?

[Footnote 1: His care over his reputation with the people is princely, and casts a true light on his delay. No good man can be willing to seembad, except the _being good_ necessitates it. A man must be willing toappear a villain if that is the consequence of being a true man, but hecannot be indifferent to that appearance. He cannot be indifferent towearing the look of the thing he hates. Hamlet, that he may beunderstood by the nation, makes, with noble confidence in hisfriendship, the large demand on Horatio, to live and suffer for hissake. ]

[Footnote 2: Here first we see plainly the love of Horatio for Hamlet:here first is Hamlet's judgment of Horatio (134) justified. ]

[Footnote 3: --for having killed his uncle:--what, then, if he had slainhim at once?]

[Footnote 4: Horatio must be represented as here giving sign of assent. 

_1st Q. _

 _Ham_. Vpon my loue I charge thee let it goe, O fie _Horatio_, and if thou shouldst die, What a scandale wouldst thou leaue behinde? What tongue should tell the story of our deaths, If not from thee?]

[Footnote 5: _Not in Q. _]

[Footnote 6: The frame is closing round the picture. 9. ]

[Footnote 7: Shakspere more than once or twice makes the dyingprophesy. ]

[Footnote 8: His last thought is for his country; his last effort atutterance goes to prevent a disputed succession. ]

[Footnote 9: 'greater and less'--as in the psalm, 'The Lord preserves all, more and less, That bear to him a loving heart. ']

[Footnote 10: led to the necessity. ]

[Footnote 11: _These interjections are not in the Quarto. _]

[Footnote 12: _Not in Q. _

All Shakspere's tragedies suggest that no action ever ends, only goesoff the stage of the world on to another. ]

[Page 274]

[Sidenote: 190] _Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassador, with_ [Sidenote: _Enter Fortenbrasse, with the Embassadors. _] _Drumme, Colours, and Attendants. _

_Fortin_. Where is this sight?

_Hor_. What is it ye would see; [Sidenote: you]If ought of woe, or wonder, cease your search. [1]

_For_. His quarry[2] cries on hauocke. [3] Oh proud death, [Sidenote: This quarry]What feast is toward[4] in thine eternall Cell. That thou so many Princes, at a shoote, [Sidenote: shot]So bloodily hast strooke. [5]

_Amb_. The sight is dismall, And our affaires from England come too late, The eares are senselesse that should giue vs hearing, [6]To tell him his command'ment is fulfill'd, That _Rosincrance_ and _Guildensterne_ are dead:Where should we haue our thankes?[7]

_Hor_. Not from his mouth, [8]Had it[9] th'abilitie of life to thanke you:He neuer gaue command'ment for their death. [Sidenote: 6] But since so iumpe[10] vpon this bloodie question, [11]You from the Polake warres, and you from EnglandAre heere arriued. Giue order[12] that these bodiesHigh on a stage be placed to the view, And let me speake to th'yet vnknowing world, [Sidenote:, to yet]How these things came about. So shall you heareOf carnall, bloudie, and vnnaturall acts, [13]Of accidentall Judgements, [14] casuall slaughters[15]Of death's put on by cunning[16] and forc'd cause, [17] [Sidenote: deaths | and for no cause]And in this vpshot, purposes mistooke, [18]Falne on the Inuentors heads. All this can I [Sidenote: th']Truly deliuer. 

_For_. Let vs hast to heare it, And call the Noblest to the Audience. For me, with sorrow, I embrace my Fortune, I haue some Rites of memory[19] in this Kingdome, [Sidenote: rights of[19]]

[Footnote 1: --for here it is. ]

[Footnote 2: the heap of game after a hunt. ]

[Footnote 3: 'Havoc's victims cry out against him. ']

[Footnote 4: in preparation. ]

[Footnote 5: All the real actors in the tragedy, except Horatio, aredead. ]

[Footnote 6: This line may be taken as a parenthesis; then--'come toolate' joins itself with 'to tell him. ' Or we may connect 'hearing' with'to tell him':--'the ears that should give us hearing in order that wemight tell him' etc. ]

[Footnote 7: They thus inquire after the successor of Claudius. ]

[Footnote 8: --the mouth of Claudius. ]

[Footnote 9: --even if it had. ]

[Footnote 10: 'so exactly, ' or 'immediately'--perhaps_opportunely--fittingly_. ]

[Footnote 11: dispute, strife. ]

[Footnote 12: --addressed to Fortinbras, I should say. The state isdisrupt, the household in disorder; there is no head; Horatio turnstherefore to Fortinbras, who, besides having a claim to the crown, andbeing favoured by Hamlet, alone has power at the moment--for his army iswith him. ]

[Footnote 13: --those of Claudius. ]

[Footnote 14: 'just judgments brought about by accident'--as in the caseof all slain except the king, whose judgment was not accidental, andHamlet, whose death was not a judgment. ]

[Footnote 15: --those of the queen, Polonius, and Ophelia. ]

[Footnote 16: 'put on, ' _indued_, 'brought on themselves'--those ofRosincrance, Guildensterne, and Laertes. ]

[Footnote 17: --those of the king and Polonius. ]

[Footnote 18: 'and in this result'--_pointing to the bodies_--'purposeswhich have mistaken their way, and fallen on the inventors' heads. ' _Iam mistaken_ or _mistook_, means _I have mistaken_; 'purposesmistooke'--_purposes in themselves mistaken_:--that of Laertes, whichcame back on himself; and that of the king in the matter of the poison, which, by falling on the queen, also came back on the inventor. ]

[Footnote 19: The _Quarto_ is correct here, I think: '_rights of thepast_'--'claims of descent. ' Or 'rights of memory' might mean--'_rightsyet remembered_. '

Fortinbras is not one to miss a chance: even in this shadowy 'person, 'character is recognizably maintained. ]

[Page 276]

Which are to claime, [1] my vantage doth [Sidenote: Which now to clame]Inuite me, _Hor_. Of that I shall haue alwayes[2] cause to speake, [Sidenote: haue also cause[3]]And from his mouth[Sidenote: 272] Whose voyce will draw on more:[3] [Sidenote: drawe no more, ]But let this same be presently perform'd, Euen whiles mens mindes are wilde, [Sidenote: while]Lest more mischanceOn plots, and errors happen. [4]

_For_. Let foure CaptainesBeare _Hamlet_ like a Soldier to the Stage, For he was likely, had he beene put on[5]To haue prou'd most royally:[6] [Sidenote: royall;]And for his passage, [7]The Souldiours Musicke, and the rites of Warre[8] [Sidenote: right of]Speake[9] lowdly for him. Take vp the body; Such a sight as this [Sidenote: bodies, ]Becomes the Field, but heere shewes much amis. Go, bid the Souldiers shoote. [10]

_Exeunt Marching: after the which, a Peale_ [Sidenote: _Exeunt. _]_of Ordenance are shot off. _

FINIS. 

[Footnote 1: 'which must now be claimed'--except the _Quarto_ be righthere also. ]

[Footnote 2: The _Quarto_ surely is right here. ]

[Footnote 3: --Hamlet's mouth. The message he entrusted to Horatio forFortinbras, giving his voice, or vote, for him, was sure to 'draw onmore' voices. ]

[Footnote 4: 'lest more mischance happen in like manner, through plotsand mistakes. ']

[Footnote 5: 'had he been put forward'--_had occasion sent him out_. ]

[Footnote 6: 'to have proved a most royal soldier:'--A soldier giveshere his testimony to Hamlet's likelihood in the soldier's calling. Notethe kind of regard in which the Poet would show him held. ]

[Footnote 7: --the passage of his spirit to its place. ]

[Footnote 8: --military mourning or funeral rites. ]

[Footnote 9: _imperative mood_: 'let the soldier's music and the ritesof war speak loudly for him. ' 'Go, bid the souldiers shoote, ' with whichthe drama closes, is a more definite initiatory order to the sameeffect. ]

[Footnote 10: The end is a half-line after a riming couplet--as if therewere more to come--as there must be after every tragedy. Mere poeticjustice will not satisfy Shakspere in a tragedy, for tragedy is _life_;in a comedy it may do well enough, for that deals but withlife-surfaces--and who then more careful of it! but in tragedy somethingfar higher ought to be aimed at. The end of this drama is reached whenHamlet, having attained the possibility of doing so, performs his work_in righteousness_. The common critical mind would have him left thefatherless, motherless, loverless, almost friendless king of ajustifiably distrusting nation--with an eternal grief for his fatherweighing him down to the abyss; with his mother's sin blackening for himall womankind, and blasting the face of both heaven and earth; and withthe knowledge in his heart that he had sent the woman he loved, with herfather and her brother, out of the world--maniac, spy, and traitor. Instead of according him such 'poetic justice, ' the Poet gives Hamletthe only true success of doing his duty to the end--for it was as muchhis duty not to act before, as it was his duty to act at last--thensends him after his Ophelia--into a world where true heart will findtrue way of setting right what is wrong, and of atoning for every ill, wittingly or unwittingly done or occasioned in this. 

It seems to me most admirable that Hamlet, being so great, is yetoutwardly so like other people: the Poet never obtrudes his greatness. And just because he is modest, confessing weakness and perplexity, smallpeople take him for yet smaller than themselves who never confessanything, and seldom feel anything amiss with them. Such will adduceeven Hamlet's disparagement of himself to Ophelia when overwhelmed witha sense of human worthlessness (126), as proof that he was no hero!They call it weakness that he would not, foolishly and selfishly, makegood his succession against the king, regardless of the law of election, and careless of the weal of the kingdom for which he shows himself soanxious even in the throes of death! To my mind he is the grandest heroin fiction--absolutely human--so troubled, yet so true!]