SUMMARY OF ACT I. (continued 4)

[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 a Postscript here, he sayes 'alone'! Can &c.

'Alone'—to allay suspicion of his having brought assistance with him.]

[Footnote 5: Fine flattery—preparing the way for the instigation he is about to commence.]

[Footnote 6: Point thus: '—as how should it be so? how otherwise?—will' &c. The king cannot tell what to think—either how it can 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 game for 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 set right 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 it deserves, 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 I doubt it; health, in its sense of wholeness, general soundness, in affairs 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'd With 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 nation He 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'; the transposition 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 start made.

'But he (as if Centaur-like he had been one piece with the horse) was no more moved than one with the going of his own legs:'

'it seemed, as he borrowed the horse's body, so he lent the horse his mind:'—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: 'my inventing came short of his doing.']

[Footnote 7: 'it would be a sight indeed to see you matched with an equal.' The king would strengthen Laertes' confidence in his proficiency.]

[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 approaching dangerous ground—is about to propose a thing abominable, and therefore to the influence of flattered vanity and roused emulation, would add the fiercest heat of stimulated love and hatred—to which end he proceeds to cast 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 fame The 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 choose A 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 Mountebanke So 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 loue A 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 doe We 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 to the 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 a button that could be taken—probably screwed off.]

[Footnote 7: Whether practice here means exercise or cunning, I cannot determine. Possibly the king uses the word as once before 216—to be taken 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 the behaviour 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]. See notes 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 a letter 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, and then the should, the mere acknowledgment of duty, is like the sigh of a spendthrift, who regrets consequences but does not change his way: it eases his conscience for a moment, and so injures him.' There would at the same time be allusion to what was believed concerning sighs: Dr. Johnson says, 'It is a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, 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 meanes May 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 Proiect Should 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 if I gall him ever so slightly.']

[Footnote 2: proper arrangement.]

[Footnote 3: 'fit us exactly, like a garment cut to our shape,' or perhaps 'shape' is used for intent, purpose. Point thus: 'shape. If this 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 to itself, with again a pause, but a shorter one.]

[Footnote 6: Veney, venue, is a term of fencing: a bout, a thrust—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 the stuck in with such a mortal motion.' Stocco in Italian is a long rapier; 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 they insist on following.']

[Footnote 13: He speaks it as about to rush to her.]

[Footnote 14: —the choice of Ophelia's fantastic madness, as being the tree 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 herself decorating a monument to her father. Hence her Coronet weeds and the Poet'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 torn off.

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 yet It is our tricke,[6] Nature her custome holds, Let shame say what it will; when these are gone The 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, and finds it Christian buriall.

Clo. How can that be, vnlesse she drowned her selfe 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, to judge 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 one near enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of her death given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl's suicide, 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 out of 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 may intervene a day or two.]

[Footnote 10: Act V. This act requires only part of a day; the funeral and the catastrophe might be on the same.]

[Footnote 11: Has this a confused connection with the fancy that salvation is getting to heaven?]

[Footnote 12: Whether this means straightway, or not crooked, I cannot 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 selfe wittingly, it argues an Act: and an Act hath three branches. 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 man goe to this water and drowne himsele; it is will he nill he, he goes; marke you that? But if the water come to him and drowne him; hee drownes not himselfe. Argall, hee that is not guilty of his owne 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 beene buried out of[2] Christian Buriall. [Sidenote: out a]

Clo. Why there thou say'st. And the more pitty that great folke should haue countenance in this world to drowne or hang themselues, more then their euen[3] Christian. Come, my Spade; there is no ancient Gentlemen, but Gardiners, Ditchers and Graue-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 vnderstand the Scripture? the Scripture sayes Adam dig'd; could hee digge without Armes?[4] Ile put another question to thee; if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confesse thy selfe——

Other. Go too.

Clo. What is he that builds stronger then either the Mason, the Shipwright, or the Carpenter?

Other. The Gallowes-maker; for that Frame outliues 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 in the utterance; and partly in the wit which mainly succeeds in its end by the 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, the Gallowes does well; but how does it well? it does well to those that doe ill: now, thou dost ill to say the Gallowes is built stronger then the Church: Argall, the Gallowes may doe well to thee. Too't againe, Come.

Other. Who builds stronger then a Mason, a Shipwright, 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; for your dull Asse will not mend his pace with beating, and when you are ask't this question next, say a 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 Imployment hath 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 an innkeeper, or is merely an inexplicable corruption—some take it for a stage-direction to yawn—I cannot tell. See Q. reading.

It is said to have been discovered that a foreigner named Johan sold ale next door to the Globe.]

[Footnote 4: Not in Quarto.]

[Footnote 5: A song ascribed to Lord Vaux is in this and the following stanzas made nonsense of.]

[Footnote 6: Note Hamlet's mood throughout what follows. He has entered the shadow of death.]

[Footnote 7: Property is what specially belongs to the individual; here it is his peculiar work, or personal calling: 'custom has made it 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 could sing 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, Good Morrow sweet Lord: how dost thou, good Lord? [Sidenote: thou sweet lord?] this might be my Lord such a one, that prais'd my Lord 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 Lady Wormes,[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 cost no 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 that bee 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 this rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8] [Sidenote: this madde knaue] with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his Action of Battery? hum. This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of Land, with his Statutes, his Recognizances, his Fines, his double

[Footnote 1: To feel the full force of this, we must call up the expression on the face of 'such a one' as he begged the horse—probably imitated by Hamlet—and contrast it with the look on the face of the skull.]

[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 two feet 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—a head-piece—the head': Webster's Dict.]

[Page 232]

Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of his Fines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries,[1] to haue his 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 of Indentures? the very Conueyances of his Lands will 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 thou liest 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, therefore thou lyest.

Clo. Tis a quicke lye Sir, 'twill away againe from 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 her Soule, 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 vndoe vs: 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 the heeles 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 he rot?

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 you nine 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 English society?]

[Footnote 4: so fastidious; so given to picking and choosing; so choice.]

[Footnote 5: The word is to be found in any dictionary, but is not generally understood. Lord Byron, a very inaccurate writer, takes it to mean 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 younger than Hamlet, and may have been older. Hamlet then, in the Quarto passage, 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 would be 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 the word ground materially.]

[Footnote 9: The Poet makes him say how long he had been sexton—but how naturally and informally—by a stupid joke!—in order a second time, and more certainly, to tell us Hamlet's age: he must have held it a point necessary to the understanding of Hamlet.

Note Hamlet's question immediately following. It looks as if he had first 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 he rot?' 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 dead body. 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, a pou'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 excellent fancy, 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. Where be your Iibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs? Your flashes of Merriment that were wont to set the 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. Make her laugh at that: prythee Horatio tell me one thing.

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 the Noble 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 him thether with modestie[2] enough, and likeliehood to lead 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 that Lome (whereto he was conuerted) might they not stopp 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 their Vessels.'—Bailey's Dict.]

[Footnote 4: a sudden puff or blast of wind.

Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right understanding of the whole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet is philosophizing—following things out, curiously or otherwise—on the brink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired—'what woman 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; he had 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. The priest believes she died by suicide, only calls her death doubtful to excuse their granting her so many of the rites of burial.]

[Footnote 11: 'settled mode of proceeding.'—Schmidt's Sh. Lex.—But is 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 home Of 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 Ingenioussence Depriu'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 a requiem 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 not sing rest to her.]

[Footnote 7: Everything here depends on the actor.]

[Footnote 8: I am not sure the queen is not apostrophizing the flowers she is throwing into or upon the coffin: 'Sweets, be my farewell to the sweet.']

[Footnote 9: The Folio may be right here:—'Oh terrible wooer!—May ten 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 the company.]

[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 Brothers Could 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 throw Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground Sindging 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 the king. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; its extravagance to his assumed insanity. It must be remembered that death is a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the death of Ophelia may even be some consolation to him.

In the Folio, a few lines back, Laertes leaps into the grave. There is no such direction in the Q. In neither is Hamlet said to leap into the grave; only the 1st Q. so directs. It is a stage-business that must please the common actor of Hamlet; but there is nothing in the text any more than in the margin of Folio or Quarto to justify it, and it would but for the horror of it be ludicrous. The coffin is supposed to be in the grave: must Laertes jump down upon it, followed by Hamlet, and the two fight and trample over the body?

Yet I take the 'Leaps in the grave' to be an action intended for Laertes by the Poet. His 'Hold off the earth a while,' does not necessarily imply that the body is already in the grave. He has before said, 'Lay her i'th' earth': then it was not in the grave. It is just about to be lowered, when, with that cry of 'Hold off the earth a while,' he jumps into the grave, and taking the corpse, on a bier at the side of it, in his arms, calls to the spectators to pile a mountain on them—in the wild speech that brings out Hamlet. The quiet dignity of Hamlet's speech does not comport with his jumping into the grave: Laertes comes out of the grave, and flies at Hamlet's throat. So, at least, I would have the thing acted.

There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out of the grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I would suggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's book on 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 for both beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the common representation.]

[Footnote 2: —springing out of the grave and flying at Hamlet.]

[Footnote 3: Note the temper, self-knowledge, self-government, and self-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 the harshness of his behaviour to her. Had he not loved her and not been miserable about her, he would have been as polite to her as well bred people would have him.]

[Footnote 6: The gallants of Shakspere's day would challenge each other to do more disagreeable things than any of these in honour of their mistresses.

'Ésil. s.m. Ancien nom du Vinaigre.' Supplement to Academy Dict., 1847.—'Eisile, vinegar': Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dict., from Somner's Saxon Dict., 1659.—'Eisel (Saxon), vinegar; verjuice; any acid': Johnson's Dict.

1st Q. 'Wilt drinke vp vessels.' The word up very likely implies the steady emptying of a vessel specified—at a draught, and not by degrees.]

[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 to the rant, ashamed of it even under the cover of his madness. It did not belong altogether to the madness. Later he expresses to Horatio his regret in regard to this passage between him and Laertes, and afterwards apologizes to Laertes. 252, 262.

Perhaps this is the speech in all the play of which it is most difficult to get into a sympathetic comprehension. The student must call to mind the elements at war in Hamlet's soul, and generating discords in his behaviour: to those comes now the shock of Ophelia's death; the last tie that bound him to life is gone—the one glimmer of hope left him for this world! The grave upon whose brink he has been bandying words with the sexton, is for her! Into such a consciousness comes the rant of Laertes. Only the forms of madness are free to him, while no form is too strong in which to repudiate indifference to Ophelia: for her sake, as well as to relieve his own heart, he casts the clear confession of his love into her grave. He is even jealous, over her dead body, of her brother's profession of love to her—as if any brother could love as he loved! This is foolish, no doubt, but human, and natural to a certain childishness in grief. 252.

Add to this, that Hamlet—see later in his speeches to Osricke—had a lively inclination to answer a fool according to his folly (256), to outherod Herod if Herod would rave, out-euphuize Euphues himself if he would be ridiculous:—the digestion of all these things in the retort of meditation will result, I would fain think, in an understanding and artistic justification of even this speech of Hamlet: the more I consider it the truer it seems. If proof be necessary that real feeling is mingled in the madness of the utterance, it may be found in the fact that 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 this speech. It would be a fine specimen of the king's hypocrisy; and perhaps indeed its poetry, lovely in itself, but at such a time sentimental, is fitter 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 her two 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 from Laertes.]

[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 from following his inclination!'—said in a half humorous, half contemptuous despair.]

[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 Cabin My 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, withdrew To 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 just shown, is a commission the king gave to himself; the other, which he is about to show, that given to Rosincrance and Guildensterne. He is setting forth his proof of the king's treachery.]

[Footnote 2: —of the king's words and behaviour, possibly, in giving him his papers, Horatio having been present; or it might mean, 'Have you got 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 mutinous sailors together by the legs.]

[Footnote 6: Does he not here check himself and begin afresh—remembering that the praise belongs to the Divinity?]

[Footnote 7: pall—from the root of pale—'come to nothing.' He had had his plots from which he hoped much; the king's commission had rendered them futile. But he seems to have grown doubtful of his plans before, probably through the doubt of his companions which led him to seek acquaintance with their commission, and he may mean that his 'dear plots' had begun to pall upon him. Anyhow the sudden 'indiscretion' of searching for and unsealing the ambassadors' commission served him as nothing 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 with the idea: another has been at work along with us. We rough-hew—block out our marble, say for a Mercury; the result is an Apollo. Hamlet had rough-hewn his ends—he had begun plans to certain ends, but had he been allowed to go on shaping them alone, the result, even had he carried out his plans and shaped his ends to his mind, would have been failure. Another mallet and chisel were busy shaping them otherwise from the first, and carrying them out to a true success. For success is not the success of plans, but the success of ends.]

[Footnote 10: Emphasize I and them, as the rhythm requires, and the phrase 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 order respite 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 much How 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 day Was 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 was quite 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 anciently two hundred and fifty men, of the best rank under gentry, and of larger stature than ordinary; every one being required to be six feet high.'—E. Chambers' Cyclopaedia. Hence 'yeoman's service' must mean the 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 friendships like a comma between two words.' Every point has in it a conjunctive, as well as a disjunctive element: the former seems the one regarded here—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 its position, however; if indeed the fact be not, that, instead of standing for 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 as beasts of charge or burden. It is probable enough, seeing, as Malone tells us, that in Warwickshire, as did Dr. Johnson himself, they pronounce as hard. In Aberdeenshire the sound of the s varies with the 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 of the play? The action—except, as not a few would have it, the very action be delay—is nowise furthered by it; Hamlet merely goes and returns.

To answer this question, let us find the real ground for Hamlet's reflection, 'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends.' Observe, he is set at liberty without being in the least indebted to the finding of the commission—by the attack, namely, of the pirate; and this was not the shaping of his ends of which he was thinking when he made the reflection, for it had reference to the finding of the commission. What then was the ground of the reflection? And what justifies the whole passage 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 his uncle's guilt, yet a man with a fine, delicate—what most men would think, because so much more exacting than theirs—fastidious conscience, might well desire some proof more positive yet, before he did a deed so repugnant to his nature, and carrying in it such a loud condemnation of his mother. And more: he might well wish to have something to show: a man's conviction is no proof, though it may work in others inclination to receive proof. Hamlet is sent to sea just to get such proof as will not only thoroughly satisfy himself, but be capable of being shown to others. He holds now in his hand—to lay before the people—the two contradictory commissions. By his voyage then he has gained both assurance of his duty, and provision against the consequence he mainly dreaded, that of leaving a wounded name behind him. 272. This is the shaping of his ends—so exactly to his needs, so different from his rough-hewn plans—which is the work of the Divinity. The man who desires to know his duty that he may do it, who will not shirk it when he does know it, will have time allowed him and the thing made plain to him; his perplexity will even strengthen and purify his will. The weak man is he who, certain of what is required of him, fails to meet it: so never once fails Hamlet. Note, in all that follows, that a load seems taken off him: after a gracious tardiness to believe up to the point of action, he is at length satisfied. Hesitation belongs to the noble nature, to Hamlet; precipitation to the poor nature, to Laertes, the son of Polonius. Compare Brutus in Julius Caesar—a Hamlet in favourable circumstances, with Hamlet—a Brutus in the most unfavourable circumstances 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 comes Betweene the passe, and fell incensed points Of 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 their own behaviour;' or, 'they have crept into their fate by their underhand dealings.' The Sh. Lex. explains insinuation as meddling.]

[Footnote 4: With the concern of Horatio for the fate of Rosincrance and Guildensterne, Hamlet shows no sympathy. It has been objected to his character that there is nothing in the play to show them privy to the contents of their commission; to this it would be answer enough, that Hamlet is satisfied of their worthlessness, and that their whole behaviour in the play shows them merest parasites; but, at the same time, we must note that, in changing the commission, he had no intention, could have had no thought, of letting them go to England without him: that was a pure shaping of their ends by the Divinity. Possibly his own 'dear plots' had in them the notion of getting help against his uncle from the king of England, in which case he would willingly of course have continued his journey; but whatever they may be supposed to have been, they were laid in connection with the voyage, not founded on the chance of its interruption. It is easy to imagine a man like him, averse to the shedding of blood, intending interference for their 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 the unintending cause of a deserved fate: the thing having fallen out so, the Divinity having so shaped their ends, there was nothing in their character, any more than in that of Polonius, to make him regret their death, 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 parenthetically glancing at the real commission. Anyhow conviction is growing stronger in Horatio, whom, for the occasion, we may regard as a type of the public.]

[Footnote 7: 'thinkst thee,' in the fashion of the Friends, or 'thinke thee' in the sense of 'bethink thee.']

[Footnote 8: 'Does it not rest now on me?—is it not now my duty?—is it not incumbent on me (with lie for stand)—"is't not perfect conscience"?']

[Footnote 9: Note 'my king' not my father: he had to avenge a crime against the state, the country, himself as a subject—not merely a private 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 be damn'd[5] To let this Canker of our nature come In further euill.[6]

Hor. It must be shortly knowne to him from England What 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—of quality and proof sufficient now, not merely to justify, but to compel action against him.]

[Footnote 2: He was such a fine hypocrite that Hamlet, although he hated and distrusted him, was perplexed as to the possibility of his guilt. His good acting was almost too much for Hamlet himself. This is his 'coozenage.'

After 'coozenage' should come a dash, bringing '—is't not perfect conscience' (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 from this 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 now upon?'—'Is't not perfect conscience?'—'Is't not to be damned?' reveal the 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 not my duty?—Would not the neglect of it deserve damnation?' He is satisfied.]

[Footnote 6: 'is it not a thing to be damned—to let &c.?' or, 'would it not be to be damned, (to be in a state of damnation, or, to bring damnation on oneself) to let this human cancer, the king, go on to further evil?']

[Footnote 7: '—so you have not much time.']

[Footnote 8: 'True, it will be short, but till then is mine, and will be long enough for me.' He is resolved.]

[Footnote 9: Now that he is assured of what is right, the Shadow that waits him on the path to it, has no terror for him. He ceases to be anxious as to 'what dreams may come,' as to the 'something after death,' as to 'the undiscovered country,' the moment his conscience is satisfied. 120. It cannot now make a coward of him. It was never in regard to the past that Hamlet dreaded death, but in regard to the righteousness of the action which was about to occasion his death. Note that he expects death; at least he has long made up his mind to the great risk of it—the death referred to in the soliloquy—which, after all, was not that which did overtake him. There is nothing about suicide here, 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 regret even the small wrongs he has done; he laments his late behaviour to Laertes, and makes excuse for him: the similarity of their condition, each having lost a father by violence, ought, he says, to have taught him 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 merits he 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 they meet—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 me Into 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 a vice to know him[5]: he hath much Land, and fertile; let a Beast be Lord of Beasts, and his Crib shall stand at the Kings Messe;[6] 'tis a Chowgh[7]; but as 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 his Maiesty.

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 winde is 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 pretended madness. But that the passion was real, this reaction of repentance shows. It was not the first time his pretence had given him liberty to ease his heart with wild words. Jealous of the boastfulness of Laertes' affection, he began at once—in keeping with his assumed character of madman, 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 the same 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 to know him.']

[Footnote 6: 'his manger shall stand where the king is served.' Wealth is always received by Rank—Mammon nowhere better worshipped than in kings' courts.]

[Footnote 7: 'a bird of the crow-family'—as a figure, 'always applied 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 very hot.']

[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 absolute gentlemen, ful of most excellent differences,[6] of very soft society,[7] and great [Sidenote: 234] showing[8]: indeede to speake sellingly[9] of him, hee is the card or kalender[10] of gentry: for you shall find in him the continent 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 of his quick saile, but in the veritie of extolment, I take him to be a soule of great article,[17] & his infusion[18] of such dearth[19] and rarenesse, as to make true dixion of him, his semblable is his mirrour,[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 our more rawer breath?[24]

Cour. Sir.[25]

Hora. Ist not possible to vnderstand in another tongue,[26] you will too'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 not much approoue me,[31] well sir.

Cour.]

[Footnote B: Here in the Quarto:—

Ham. I dare not confesse that, least I should compare with him in excellence, but to know a man wel, were to knowe himselfe.[32]

Cour. I meane sir for this weapon, but in the imputation laide on him,[33] by them in his meed, hee's vnfellowed.[34]]

[Footnote 1: 'in good faith, it is not for manners, but for my comfort I take it off.' Perhaps the hat was intended only to be carried, and would not really go on his head.]

[Footnote 2: The Quarto has not 'at his weapon,' which is inserted to take the place of the passage omitted, and connect the edges of the gap.]

[Footnote 3: So far from having envied Laertes' reputation for fencing, as the king asserts, Hamlet seems not even to have known which was Laertes' weapon.]

[Footnote 4: laid down—staked.]

[Footnote 5: This and the following passages seem omitted for curtailment, and perhaps in part because they were less amusing when the fashion of euphuism had passed. The good of holding up the mirror to folly was gone when it was no more the 'form and pressure' of 'the very age 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—'to praise him as if you wanted to sell him'—stupid because it acknowledges exaggeration?]

[Footnote 10: 'the chart or book of reference.' 234.]

[Footnote 11: I think part here should be plural; then the passage would 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, but outdoes 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 by which a ship deviates from the line of her course towards the right or left in steering.' Falconer's Marine Dictionary. The meaning seems to be that the inventorial description could not overtake his merits, because it would yaw—keep turning out of the direct line of their quick sail. But Hamlet is set on using far-fetched and absurd forms and phrases 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 the occasion; it uas never surely in use for substance.]

[Footnote 18: '—the infusion of his soul into his body,' 'his soul's embodiment.' 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 only his shadow.']

[Footnote 22: Here a pause, I think.]

[Footnote 23: 'To the matter in hand!'—recalling the attention of Osricke to the purport of his visit.]

[Footnote 24: 'why do we presume to talk about him with our less refined breath?']

[Footnote 25: The Courtier is now thoroughly bewildered.]

[Footnote 26: 'Can you only speak in another tongue? Is it not possible 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 here supply the meaning, with the baffled, disconcerted look of a fool who has 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 to continue. Hamlet takes him up.]

[Footnote 31: 'your witness to my knowledge would not be of much avail.']

[Footnote 32: Paraphrase: 'for merely to know a man well, implies that you yourself know.' To know a man well, you must know his knowledge: a man, 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's unfellowed.' '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] very responsiue[4] to the hilts, most delicate carriages and 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] to the 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: their Assignes, 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 it please his Maiestie, 'tis the breathing time of day [Sidenote: it is] with me[15]; let the Foyles bee brought, the Gentleman willing, and the King hold his purpose; I will win 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 your nature 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 had done.]

[Footnote 1: accompaniments or belongings; things assigned to them.]

[Footnote 2: the thongs or chains attaching the sheath of a weapon to the girdle; what the weapon hangs by. The 'or so' seems to indicate that Osricke regrets having used the old-fashioned word, which he immediately 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 he prefers 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 should say.]

[Footnote 9: I do not take the Quarto reading for incorrect. Hamlet says: 'why is this all——you call it —? —?' as if he wanted to use the word (imponed) which Osricke had used, but did not remember it: he asks 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 its common meaning.]

[Footnote 14: 'By answer, I mean, my lord, the opposition &c.']

[Footnote 15: 'my time for exercise:' he treats the proposal as the trifle it seems—a casual affair to be settled at once—hoping perhaps that the king will come with like carelessness.]

[Footnote 16: the three.]

[Footnote 17: To Osricke the answer seems too direct and unadorned for ears royal.]

[Footnote 18: I cannot help here preferring the Q. If we take the Folio reading, we must take it thus: 'Yours! yours!' spoken with contempt;—'as if you knew anything of duty!'—for we see from what follows 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 his duty himself—there is no one else to do it.' This former shape is simpler; that of the Folio is burdened with ellipsis—loaded with lack. And surely turne is the true reading!—though we may take the other to mean, 'there are no tongues else on the side of his tongue.']

[Footnote 19: —as of the Bible, for a second interpretative word or phrase.]

[Page 260]

Hor. This Lapwing runs away with the shell on 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 most fond 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 into France, 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 kinde of 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 you are 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 a sparrow.[14] If

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

Enter a Lord.[15]

Lord. My Lord, his Maiestie commended him to you by young Ostricke,[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 that you 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 I be 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 gentle entertainment[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 sir with':—sir here is a verb—sir with means say sir to: 'he sirred, complied with his nurse's breast before &c.' Hamlet speaks in mockery of the affected court-modes of speech and address, the fashion of 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 rather take 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 of tricks of speech,—a yesty, frothy mass, with nothing in it, which carries 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 chosen kind, and the bubble had burst. The braggart gentleman had no faculty to generate after the dominant fashion, no invention to support his ambition—had but a yesty collection, which failing him the moment something unconventional was wanted, the fool had to look a discovered fool.]

[Footnote 7: 'I shall win by the odds allowed me; he will not exceed me three 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 their coming.']

[Footnote 13: The knowledge, even, of what is to come could never, any more than ordinary expediency, be the law of a man's conduct. St. Paul, informed by the prophet Agabus of the troubles that awaited him at Jerusalem, and entreated by his friends not to go thither, believed the prophet, and went on to Jerusalem to be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles.]

[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 ventures later, under the wing of the king.]

[Footnote 16: May not this form of the name suggest that in it is intended 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 has slipped out.

The queen is anxious; she distrusts Laertes, and the king's influence over 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 other Attendants with Foyles, and Gauntlets, a Table and 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 hand from me.

[Sidenote: 245] Ham.[4] Giue me your pardon Sir, I'ue done you wrong,[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 punisht With 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 has anything of what he has left, those who left it late are in the same position as those who left it early.' Compare the common saying, 'It will be all the same in a hundred years.' The Q. reading comes much to the 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 too deep for Shakspere:—'Since nothing can be truly said to be possessed as his own which a man must at one time or another yield; since that which is own can never be taken from the owner, but solely that which is lent him; since the nature of a thing that has to be left is not such that it could be possessed, why should a man mind parting with it early?'—There is far more in this than merely that at the end of the day 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 the unity of religion and philosophy in Hamlet: he takes the one true position. 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 will confront him. He does not believe in chance. He is ready—that is willing. All that is needful is, that he should not go as one who cannot help it, but as one who is for God's will, who chooses that will as his own.

There is so much behind in Shakspere's characters—so much that can only be 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 the other may take pages to. He needs good seconding by his actors as sorely as the composer needs good rendering of his music by the orchestra. It is a lesson in unity that the greatest art can least work alone; that the greatest finder most needs the help of others to show his findings. The dramatist has live men and women for the very instruments of his art—who must not be mere instruments, but fellow-workers; and upon them he is greatly dependent for final outcome.

Here the actor should show a marked calmness and elevation in Hamlet. He should have around him as it were a luminous cloud, the cloud of his coming end. A smile not all of this world should close the speech. He has given himself up, and is at peace.]

[Footnote 4: Note in this apology the sweetness of Hamlet's nature. How few are alive enough, that is unselfish and true enough, to be capable of genuine apology! The low nature always feels, not the wrong, but the confession 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, and exception,':—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; it was there of another necessity, and excused offence like real madness. What he said was true, not merely expedient, to the end he meant it to serve. But all passion may be called madness, because therein the mind is 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 have nothing to do with it.' No evil thing comes of our true selves, and confession is the casting of it from us, the only true denial. He who will 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 explanation of the speech.]

[Footnote 14: 'so far as this in your generous judgment—that you regard me as having shot &c.']

[Footnote 15: Brother is much easier to accept, though Mother might be in the simile.

To do justice to the speech we must remember that Hamlet has no quarrel whatever with Laertes, that he has expressed admiration of him, and that he is inclined to love him for Ophelia's sake. His apology has no reference to the fate of his father or his sister; Hamlet is not aware that Laertes associates him with either, and plainly the public did not know Hamlet killed Polonius; while Laertes could have no intention of alluding to the fact, seeing it would frustrate his scheme of treachery.]

[Page 264]

Laer. I am satisfied in Nature,[1] Whose motiue in this case should stirre me most To my Reuenge. But in my termes of Honor I stand aloofe, and will no reconcilement, Till by some elder Masters of knowne Honor, I haue a voyce, and president of peace To 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 to his father or sister. He professes to be satisfied in his heart with Hamlet's apology for his behaviour at the funeral, but not to be sure whether in the opinion of others, and by the laws of honour, he can accept it as amends, and forbear to challenge him. But the words 'Whose motiue in this case should stirre me most to my Reuenge' may refer to his father and sister, and, if so taken, should be spoken aside. To accept apology for them and not for his honour would surely be too barefaced! The point concerning them has not been started.

But why not receive the apology as quite satisfactory? That he would not seems 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 in doing so by the opinion of 'some elder masters,' receiving from them 'a voice and precedent of peace'—counsel to, and justification, or example of peace. He keeps the door of quarrel open—will not profess to be altogether friends with him, though he does not hint at his real ground of offence: that mooted, the match of skill, with its immense advantages for villainy, would have been impossible. He means treachery all 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 his speech declining thorough reconciliation as a shield to shelter his treachery from his own contempt: he has taken care not to profess absolute friendship, and so left room for absolute villainy! He has had regard to his word! Relieved perhaps by the demoniacal quibble, he follows 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 but a misplaced shadow from the 'Come one' immediately below, and better omitted. Hamlet could not say 'Come on' before Laertes was ready, and 'Come one' after 'Give us the foils,' would be very awkward. But it may be said to the attendant courtiers.]

[Footnote 4: He says this while Hamlet is still choosing, in order that a second bundle of foils, in which is the unbated and poisoned one, may be brought him. So 'generous and free from all contriving' is Hamlet, (220) that, even with the presentiment in his heart, he has no fear of treachery.]

[Footnote 5: As persons of the drama, the Poet means Laertes to be foil to Hamlet.—With the play upon the word before us, we can hardly help thinking of the third signification of the word foil.]

[Footnote 6: 'My ignorance will be the foil of darkest night to the burning star of your skill.' This is no flattery; Hamlet believes Laertes, to whose praises he has listened (218)—though not with the envy his uncle attributes to him—the better fencer: he expects to win only 'at the odds.' 260.]

[Footnote 7: —not 'by these pickers and stealers,' his oath to his false friends. 154.]

[Footnote 8: Plainly a favourite with the king.—He is Ostricke always in 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 Kings In 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 measure weapons, because how then could the unbated point escape discovery? It is quite like Hamlet to take even Osricke's word for their equal length.]

[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 has not perfect confidence in the 'unction,' will fall back on his second line 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 I take 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 take some moments to dissolve and make the wine poisonous—then sends the cup to Hamlet.]

[Footnote 11: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 12: He does not refuse to drink, but puts it by, neither showing nor entertaining suspicion, fearing only the effect of the draught on his play. He is bent on winning the wager—perhaps with further intent.]