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SHAKSPEARE'S TRAGEDY

OP

HAMLET.

WITH NOTES,

EXTKACTS FEOM THE OLD ' HISTOEIE OF HAMBLET,

SELECTED CEITICISMS ON THE PLAY,

Adapted for Scholastic or Private Sludi/, and for those qualifying for University and Government Examinations.

By THE Eev. John Hunter, M.A.

One of the National Society's Exftminers of Middle-Class Schools ; Formerly Vice- Priiicipal of the Society's Training College, Batterfeco.

NEW EDITION.

LOxNDON:

LO^^GMA^^s, green, and go

1S74.

Com ID. M.J. Fontana Library

HUNTER'S ANNOTATED SHAKESPEARE.
The following Plays may now be had,
Price One Shilling each: —
KING JOHN,	TWO GENTLEMEN of
RICHARD II.	VERONA.
RICHARD III.	AS YOU LIKE IT.
HENRY IV. PART I.	TWELFTH-NIGHT.
HENRY IV. PART II.	ALL 'S WELL THAT ENDS
HENRY V.	WELL.
HENRY VI. PART I.	The COMEDY of ERRORS.
HENRY VI. PART II.	MEASURE for MEASURE.
HENRY VI. PART III.	MUCH ADO ABOUT
HENRY VIII.	NOTHING.
JULIUS C^SAR.	TAMING of the SHREW.
CORIOLANUS.	MERRY WIVES of
ANTONY and CLEOPATRA,	WINDSOR.
TROILUS and CRESS/DA.	MIDSUMMER NIGHTS
ROMEO ajid JULIET.	DREAM.
HAMLET,	CYMBELINE.
MACBETH.	The TEMPEST.
KINO LEAR.	OTHELLO.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.	WINTER'S TALE.
MERCHANT 0 VENICE.	TIMON of ATHENS.

PiBEFACEa

The legend of Amleth, or Hamlet, is first met with in the Third and Fom^th Books of the 'History of Denmark/ written in Latin by Saxo Grammaticus, a native of Elsinore, about the end of the twelfth centm-y, but not jorinted till 1514. About fifty years after the publication of Saxo*s history, Belleforest, in a French collection of stories, called * Histoires Tragiques/ introduced that of Amleth, in a form pretty nearly corre- sponding to the Danish historian's account, leav- ing out a few gross and absurd details, and considerably amplifying some of the sentimental portions ; but presenting, like the original, a very poor treasury of incident and thought for the purposes of dramatic adaptation. From the * Histoires Tragi ques,' an English translation, called the ' Historic of Hamblet,* was made before the close of the sixteenth century, but the only perfect copy of it known to exist is a black-letter quarto, bearing the date of 1608, and now in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. A modern reprint of it (1841) will be found in J. P, Collier's ' Shakspeare's Library.*

816377

VI PREFACE.

If this ' Hislorie ' was the only source from which Shaksi^eare derived materials for the frame- work of his ' Hamlet/ all the excellence of that wonderful drama is his own. As Capel observes, * None of the relater's expressions have got into the play, except when Hamlet kills the counsellor behind the arras : here, beating the hangings, he cries out, "A rat! a rat!''* But from some allusions by old writers, it seems tolerably certain that the story of Hamlet had been dramatised, with the introduction of a ghost scene, before Shakspeare had reached his 24th year; and therefore our poet may have taken the outline of his plot from a previous play, rather than from the Danish historian's legend, which makes no mention of a ghost. But, as Collier, in his edi- tion of Shakspeare, says, * How far that lost play might be an improvement upon the old translated Historie we have no means of deciding, nor to what extent Shakspeare availed himself of such improvement.' ^

1 The following extract from Sir Tliomas Overbury's Cliamders deserves to be read by the student of Shakspeare's Hamlet I cannot help thinking that it was seen in manuscript, if not in x^rlnt, by onr dramatist before the Hamlet was written : —

* A Melancliohj Man is a strayer from the drove : one that natura " made sociable, because she made him man, and a cmzed disposition liath altered. Impleasing to all, as all to him, straggling thoughts are his content j they make him dream waking j there 's his pleasure, fiis imagination is never idle, it keeps his mind in a continual motion, as the poise the clock ; he winds up his thoughts often, and aa often unwinds them ; Penelope's web thrives faster. He '11 ecldom

PREFACE. vii

The first production of Shaksi^eare's ' Hamlet,* in the original form (for he afterwards altered it), was certainly not later than 1602, and probably not later than 1589, when he was only twenty- five jears of age. The earliest edition of it known isHthe small quarto of 1603, of which one copy is in the library of the Duke of Devonshire, and another, discovered in 1856, is deposited in the British Museum. In the year 1604, another edition came forth, under the title of ' The Tra- gicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, By William Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppie. At London, printed by I. E, for N. L. and are to be

be found witliout the sliade of some grove, in whose bottom a river dwells. Ho carries a cloud in his face, never fair weather ; his out- side is framed to his inside, in that he keeps a clecomm, both un- seemly. Si^eak to him ; he hears with his eyes, ears follow hia mind, and that 's not at leisure. He thinks business, but never does any ; he is all contemplation, no action. He hews and fashions his thoughts, as if he meant them to some purpose, but they prove unprofitable as a piece of wrought timber to no use. His spirit and the sun are enemies j the sun bright and warm, his humour black and cold.'

That Shakspeare had read some of Overbury's Characters before the production of the Hamlet, may appear somewhat probable from a comparison of the following passages : —

* Do not believe his vows, for they are hrolcers, Not of the dye which their investments show* — "Hamlet, i. 3.

* He dyeth his means and his meaning into two colours ; he baits craft with humility, and his countenance is the picture of the present disposition. He allures, is not allured, by his afFections,for they are the hrohers of his observation* — Ovekbuey's I)isscmljlei\

Vlll PREFACE.

sold at his shoiDpe vnder Saint Dunston's Church in Fleetstreet. 1604.' Only three copies of this second quarto are known, one of them belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. Exact reprints of the two ' Devonshire Hamlets/ were published, in one volume, in 1860.

It is very probable that the vilely-printed quarto of 1603 is a surreptitious version, by some igno- rant copier or shorthand^ writer of Shakspeare's first draft of his noble tragedy of * Hamlet.' And we can easily suppose that draft to have been one of the earliest of his dramatic compositions. The second quarto, as well as the first, was surrepti- tious ; but both are of great value in enabling us to rectify many mistakes and to supi:)ly several omissions in the folio of 1623, the first edition of the collected j)lays of Shakspeare.

In the present edition of the * Hamlet,' we have endeavoured, by carefully collating the early quartos with the first folio, to give the text in the best zvarrantable form ; but in order to render book suitable for schools and family reading •have omitted one or two of the more grossly in- delicate sentences, the expurgation being of very slight extent.

It will be observed that we have departed from the usual practice of substituting an apostrophe for the silent vowel in the verbal afSx -ed. On this subject we concur with Professor Craik, who,

ithe :the^ :, we

PREFACE. ix

in the Prolegomena to his ' English of Shak- speare (p. G2), says, * It is true that the cases in 1 which the -eel makes a separate syllable are more numerous in Shakspeare than in the poetry of the present day ; but the reader who cannot detect such a case on the instant is disqualified by some natural deficiency for the reading of verse. If any distinction were necessary, the better plan would be to represent the one form by loved, the other by lov-ecL*

With respect to the Notes, we hope they will not be thought more numerous than necessary. Sir Thomas Overbury says of one of his Characters, ' Where the gate stands open, he is ever seeking a stile, and where his learning ought to climb, he creeps through/ This description, unfortunately, is to a great extent applicable to many of Shak- speare's commentators. They often overload and mystify, and sometimes even pervert with com- ment, sentences or expressions of which the meaning is sufficiently obvious, while in too many instances they fail to mark the footsteps of the poet's less direct and obvious transitions, and leave unexplained what in the mind of the general reader is likely to be mistaken or very inadequately followed. But it is to be regretted that the injury done to our great dramatist by injudicious comment should have excited in not a few of his worshippers a prejudice against all attempts to

PREFACE.

elucidate his meaning. It is true that referring to marginal comments during the perusal of a play must disturb the reader's enjoyment of it, even when the exposition is sound and the illus- tration pertinent. But it is also true that the kind of pleasure felt by many readers of Shak- speare is one into which they are beguiled by a magic tone that breathes in the very syllables of the mighty genius, and that is accompanied with too vague conceptions of the import of his lan- guage. Surely it were better, with respect to works of such immortal eminence in the world's literature as those of Shakspeare, that we should take some pains to ascertain their true sense and spirit, and thus qualify ourselves for a more in- telligent and refined enjoyment of the uninter- rupted perusal of them. In this edition of the * Hamlet,' therefore, we have endeavoured to avoid all superfluous comment, and to do real service to those who desire to study the play in its language, forms of thought, allusions, &c., as well as in its delineations of character. Such notes and criticisms are introduced as may excite the popular mind to take an interest in under- standing the scope and details of this noble drama, and at the same time enable senior candidates for the Oxford Middle-Class Examinations of 1865 to prepare themselves thoroughly in one of the subjects of their programme.

EXTKACTS

FBOM THE OLD TRANSLATED

'HISTOEIE OF HAMBLET.'

Chapter I.— You must understand that long time before the kingdom of Denmark received the faith of Jesus Christ, the common people were barbarous and uncivil, and their princes cruel. There was sometimes a good prince or king among them, who, being adorned with the most perfect gifts of nature, would addict himself to virtue, and use courtesy; but al- though the people had him in admiration, yet the envy of his neighbours was so great, that they never ceased until that virtuous man were despatched out of the world. King Rode- rick, as then reigning in Denmark, divided the kingdom into divers provinces, placing governors therein who bare the names of dukes, marquises, and earls, giving the government of Jutie (at this present called Ditmarse, lying upon the country of the Cimbrians, in the narrow part of land that showeth like a point or cape of ground upon the sea, which neathward boidereth upon the country of Norway) to two valiant and warlike lords — Horvendile ^ and Fengon.^

Now, the greatest honour that men of noble birth could at that time win and obtain, was exercising the art of piracy upon the seas, assailing their neighbours, &c. ; wherein Hor- vendile obtained the highest place in his time, being the most renowned pirate that in those days scoured the seas and havens of the north parts, whose great fame so moved

X Comp. Yilth Hamlet's father. 2 Comp. with Claudius.

A3

XU EXTRACTS FROM THE

the heart of Collere,^ king of Norway, that he was much grieved to hear that Horvendile surmounted him in feats of arms, thereby obscuring the glory by him already obtained upon the seas. This valiant and hardy king, having chal- lenged Horvendile to fight with him body to body, the com- bat was by him accepted, with conditions that he which should be vanquished should lose all the riches he had in his ship, &c. And, to conclude, Collere, although a valiant prince, was in the end vanquished and slain by Horvendile, who, having then overrun all the coast of Norway and the northern islands, returned home laden with much treasure, sending the most part thereof to his sovereign king Eode- rick, thereby to procure his good-Hking. The king, allured by those presents, and esteeming himself happy to have so valiant a subject, sought by a great favour and courtesy to make him become bounden unto him perpetually, giving him Geruth^ his daughter to his wife, of whom he knew Horven- dile to be already much enamoured. Of this marriage pro- ceeded Hamblet.

Fengon, fretting in his heart at the great honour won by his brother, and provoked by a fooHsh jealousy to see him honoured with royal alHance, and fearing thereby to be de- posed from his part of the government, or rather desiring to be only governor,^ thereby to obscure the memory of the victories of his brother Horvendile, determined to kill him ; which he efiected in such sort, that no man once so much as suspected him. Fengon, having secretly assembled certain men, Horvendile his brother being at a banquet with his friends, suddenly set upon him, where he slew him as traitor- ously, as cunningly he purged himself of so detestable a murder to his subjects ; for that, before he committed parri- cide upon his brother, he had incestuously abused his wife. His sin found excuse among the common people, and of the nobility was esteemed for justice ; for that, Geruth being as

1 Comp. with old Fortinbras— ' Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride.* Act i. se.l.

2 Comp. with Gertmde.

8 Both Fengou and Horvendile are afterwards called kings, and Geruth ia called queen.

*HISTORIE OP HAMBLET.' xill

courteous a princess as any, this adulterer and infamous murderer slandered his dead brother that he would have slain his wife, and that he, by chance finding himself upon the point ready to do it, in defence of the lady had slain him; which was the cause that Fengon, boldened and encouraged by such impunity, durst venture to couple himself in mar- riage with Geruth. The unfortunate and wicked woman, that had received the honour to be the wife of one of the valiantest and wisest princes in the north, imbased herself in such vile sort, as to falsify her faith unto him, and, what is worse, to marry him that had been the tyrannous mur- derer of her lawful husband, which made divers men think that she had been the causer of the murder .^

Chapter II. — Geruth having so much forgotten herself, Hamblet, perceiving himself to be in danger of his life, coun- terfeited the madman, with such craft and subtle practices, that he made show as if he had utterly lost his wits ; and under that veil he covered his pretence, and defended his life from the treasons and practices of the tyrant his uncle. For every day he rent and tore his clothes, wallowing and lying in the dust and mire, his face all filthy and black, running through the streets like a man distraught, not speaking one word but such as seemed to proceed of madness and mere frenzy.

Hamblet, in this sort counterfeiting the madman, many times did divers actions of great and deep consideration ; and often made such and so fit answers that a wise man would soon have judged from what spirit so fine an invention might proceed. For that standing by the fire, and sharpening sticks like poniards and pricks, one in smiling manner asked him wherefore he made those little staves so sharp at the points. * I prepare,' said he, * piercing darts and sharp arrows to revenge my father's death.' Fools esteemed those

1 ^Vhetller ShaJapeare'a Gertrude was an accessory teforo tlio fact in tho murder of her first husband, is still a controverted point. Wo have no hesi- tation in thinking she was not. In tho quarto of 1603, she is made to say— * But as I have a soul, I swear by heaven, I never knew of this most horrid murder.*

XIV EXTRACTS FROM THE

his words as notlilng; but men of qidck spirits, and such as had a deeper reach, began to suspect somewhat, esteeming that under that kind of folly there lay hidden a great and rare subtlety, such as one day might be prejudicial to their prince, saying that under colour of such madness he sha- dowed a crafty policy, and by his devised simplicity concealed a sharp and pregnant spirit ; for which cause they counselled the king to try and know if possible how to discover the in- tent and meaning of the young prince ; and they could find no better nor more fit invention to entrap him than to set some fair and beautiful woman ^ in a secret place, that, with flattering speeches, and all the craftiest means she could use, should purposely seek to allure his mind. And surely the poor prince at this assault had been in great danger, if a gentleman,^ that in Horvendile's time had been nourished with him, had not shown himself more afiectioned to the bringing up he had received with Hamblet than desirous to jjlease the tyrant. This gentleman more desired to give the prince instruction what he should do, than to entrap him. By the lady he was likewise informed of the treason, as being one that from her infancy loved and favoured him, and would have been exceeding sorrowful for his misfortune, so that as then Fengon's practice took no effect.

Chapter III. — Among the friends of Fengon there was one^ that among all the rest doubted of Hamblet's practices in counterfeiting the madman ; who, for that cause, said that it was impossible that so crafty a gallant as Hamblet shoiild be discovered with so common and unskilful practices, and that to find out his politic pretence, it were necessary to in- vent some subtle and crafty means more attractive, whereby the gallant might not have the leisure to use his accustomed dissimulation ; which to effiect, he said, he knew a fit way, and a most convenient mean to effect the king's desire, and thereby to entrap Hamblet in his subtleties, and cause him of his own accord to fall into the net prepared for liim, and

1 Comp. witli Ophelia. 2 Comp. with Horatio.

8 Comp. with Polonius.

'niSTORIE OF HAMBLET. XV

thereby evidently show his secret meaning. His device was thus : that King Fengon should make as though he were to go some long voyage, and that in the meantime Hamblet should be shut up alone in a chamber with his mother, wherein some other should secretly be hidden behind the hangings, unknown either to him or his mother, there to stand and hear their speeches, and the complots by them to be taken concerning the accomplishment of the dissembling fool's pretence, assuring the king that, if there were any point of wisdom and perfect sense in the gallant's spirit, without all doubt he would easily discover it to his mother, as being devoid of all fear that she would utter or make known his secret intent; and withal offered himself to be the man that should stand to hearken and bear witness of Hamb- let's speeches with his mother. This invention pleased the king exceeding well. The counsellor entered secretly into the queen's chamber, and there hid himself behind the arras, not long before the queen and Hamblet came thither ; who being crafty and politic, as soon as he was within the cham- ber, doubting some treason, and fearing, if he should speak severely and wisely to his mother touching his secret prac- tices, he should be understood, and by that means inter- cepted, used his ordinary manner of dissimulation, and began to crow like a cock, beating with his arms upon the hang- ings of the chamber, whereby, feehng something stirring under them, he cried, ' A rat, a rat ! ' and presently drawing his sword, thrust it into the hangings, which done, he pullod the counsellor, half dead, out by the heels, made an end of killing him, and, being slain, cut his body in pieces, which he caused to be boiled, and then cast into an open vault, that so it might serve for food to the hogs. By which means having discovered the ambush, and given the inventor thereof his just rev/ard, he came again to his mother, who in the meantime wept and tormented herself, to see all her hopes frustrated ; for that, what fault soever she had committed, yet was she sore grieved to see her only child made a mere mockery, every man reproaching her with his folly. Hamb- let having once again searched every comer of the chamber.

XVI EXTRACTS FUOM THE

distrusting his motlier as ^Yell as the rest, and perceiving himself to be alone, began in sober and discreet manner to speak unto her, saying : —

* What treason is this, 0 most infamous woman of all that ever prostituted themselves to the will of an abominable whoremonger ; who, under the veil of a dissembling creature, covereth the most wicked and detestable crime that man could ever imagine or was committed? How may I be assured to trust you, that like a vile wanton adulteress, altogether impudent and given over to her pleasure, runs spreading forth her arms joyfully to embrace the traitorous villainous tyrant that murdered my father, and most inces- tuously receivestthe villain into the lawful bed of your loyal spouse? Is this the part of a queen, and daughter to a king — to live like a brute beast, to follow the pleasure of an abomin- able king, that hath murdered a far honester and better man than himself in massacring Horvendile, the honour and glory of all the Danes? I, for my part, will never account him for my kinsman, nor once know him for mine uncle, nor you, my dear mother, for not having respect to the blood that ought to have united us so straitly together, and who neither with your honour, nor without suspicion of consent to the death of your husband, could ever have agreed to have married with his cruel enemy. 0 Queen Geruth, it is licentiousness only that hath made you deface out of your mind tho memory of the valour and virtues of the good king your hus- band and my father. It was an unbridled desire that guided the daughter of Eoderick to embrace the tyrant Fengon, and not to remember Horvendile, unworthy of so strange enter- tainment, neither that he killed his brother traitorously, and that she being his father's wife betrayed him, although he so well favoured and loved her, that for her sake he utterly bereaved Norway of her riches and valiant soldiers to aug- ment the treasures of Eoderick, and made Geruth wife to the hardiest prince in Euro^De. It is not the part of a woman, much less of a princess, thus to leave her dear child to fortune in the bloody and murderous hands of a villain and traitor. Brute beasts do not so. Is not this as much as if you should

*HISTORIB OP HAMBLET.' Xvii

betray me, when you knowing tlie perverseness of theiyrant and his intents, full of deadly counsel as touching the race and image of his brother, have not once sought nor desired to find the means to save your child by sending him into Swethland, Norway, or England, rather than to leave him as a prey to your infamous adulterer ? Be not offended, I pray you, madam, if, transported with grief, I speak so boldly unto you, and that I respect you less than duty requireth ; for you, having forgotten me, and wholly rejected the memory of the deceased king my father, must not be abashed if I also surpass the bounds and limits of due consideration. Behold into what distress I am now fallen, and to what mischief my fortune and your own great lightness and want of wisdom have induced me, that I am constrained to play the madman to save my life, instead of using and practising arms, follow- ing adventures, and seeking all means to make myself known to be the true and undoubted heir of the valiant and vu-tuous King Horvendile. It was not without just occasion that my gestures, countenances, and words seem all to proceed from a madman. It is better for me to feign madness than to use my right senses as nature hath bestowed them upon me : the bright shining clearness whereof I am forced to hide under the shadow of dissimulation, as the sun doth his beams under some great cloud, when the weather in summer-time over- casteth. The face of a madman serveth to cover my gallant countenance, and the gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that, guiding myself wisely therein, I may preserve my life for the Danes and the memory of my late deceased father ; for the desire of revenging his death is so engraven in my heart, that, if I die not shortly, I hope to take such and so great vengeance, that these countries shall fur ever speak thereof. Nevertheless, I must stay the time, means, and occasion, lest by making overgreat haste I be now the cause of mine own sudden ruin and overthrow, and by that means end, before I begin to effect, my heart's desire. To conclude, weep not, madam, to see my folly ; but rather sigh and lament your own offence, tormenting your conscience in regard of the infamy that hath so defiled the ancient

XVI 11 EXlTvAGTS FROM THE

renown and glory tliat in times past honoured Queen Gerutli; desiring yon, for the snrphis of my proceedings, above all things, as you love your own life and welfare, that neither the king nor any other may by any means know mine intent ; and let me alone with the rest, for I hope in the end to bring my purpose to effect.'

Although the queen perceived herself nearly touched, and that Hamblet moved her to the quick where she felt herself interested, nevertheless, she forgot all disdain and wrath which thereby she might as then have had, hearing herself so sharply chidden and reproved, for the joy she then conceived to behold the gallant spirit of her son, and to think what she might hope and the easier expect of his great policy and wisdom. But, on the one side, she durst not lift up her eyes to behold him, remembering her offence, and on the other side, she would gladly have embraced her son, in regard of the wise admonitions by him given unto her, which as then quenched the flames of unbridled desire that before had moved her to affect King Fengon, to engraff in her heart the virtuous actions of her lawful spouse, whom inwardly she much lamented, when she beheld the lively image and portraiture of his virtue and great wisdom in her child, representing his father's haughty and valiant heart ; and so, overcome and vanquished with this honest passion, and weeping most bitterly, having long time fixed her eyes upon Hamblet, as being ravished into some great and deep contemplation, and as it v/ere wholly amazed,i at the last embracing him in her arms, she spake unto liim in this manner : —

* I know well, my son, that I have done thee great wrong in marrying with Fengon; but when thou shalt consider the small means of resistance, and the treason of the palace, with the little cause of confidence we are to expect or hope for of the courtiers, all wrought to his will, as also the power he made ready, if I should have refused to hke of him, thou wouldst rather excuse, than accuse me of lasciviousness or inconstancy, much less ofier me that wrong to suspect that ever thy mother Geruth once consented to the death and 1 ' But look, amazement on thy mother sits/ Act iii. sc. 6.

'niSTORlE OF HAMBLET. XIX

murtlior of her husLand ; swearing unto tlice by the majesty of the gods, that if it had lain in my power to have resisted the tyrant, although it had been with the loss of my blood, yea, and my life, I would surely have saved the life of my lord and husband, with as good a will and desire as since that time I have often been a means to hinder and impeach the shortening of thy life,^ which being taken away, I will no longer Kve here upon earth. For seeing that thy senses are whole and sound, I am in hope to see an easy means invented for the revenging of thy father's death. Nevertheless, mine own sweet son, if thou hast pity of thyself, or care of the memory of thy father, although thou wilt do nothing for her that deserve th not the name of a mother in this respect, I pray thee carry thine affairs wisely ; be not hasty nor over- furious in thy enterprises, neither yet advance thyself more than reason shall move thee to effect thy purpose. Thou seest there is not almost any man wherein thou may est put thy trust, nor any woman to whom I dare utter the least part of my secrets, that would not presently report it to thine adversary. So that if thou chance to do anything that seemeth to proceed of wisdom or policy, he will presently be informed thereof, and I am greatly afraid that the devils have showed him what hath passed at this present between us, or that this murther, that now thou hast committed, be not the cause of both our destructions, which I by no means will seem to know, but will keep secret both thy wisdom and hardy enterprise; beseeching the gods, that they guiding thy heart, directing thy counsels, and prospering thy enterprise, I may see thee possess and enjoy that which is thy right, and wear the crown of Denmark, by the tyrant taken from thee.*

* Madam,' said Hamblet, * I will put my trust in you, and from henceforth mean not to meddle farther with your affairs ; beseeching you, as you love your own flesh and blood, that you will from henceforth no more esteem of the adulterer

I •And that your graco hath screened and stood between Mncb heat and him.* Act iii. »e. 4.

XX EXTKACTS FROM THE

mine enemy, whom I v/ill surely kill, or cause to be put to death, in despite of all the devils in hell.'

After this Fengon came to the court again, and asked for him that had received the charge to play the intelligencer ; was abashed to hear neither news nor tidings of him, and for that cause asked Hamblet what was become of him. The prince — who, in all the answers that ever he made dur- ing his counterfeit madness, never strayed from the truth, as a generous mind is a mortal enemy to untruth — answered that the counsellor he sought for was gone down through the vault, where, being choked, the hogs meeting him had filled their bellies.

Chapteb, IV. — A man would have judged anything, rather than that Hamblet had committed that murther ; neverthe- less, Fengon could not content himself, but still his mind gave him that the fool would play him some trick, and ^villingly would have killed him; but he feared King Koderick his grandfather, and further durst not offend the queen, mother to the fool, whom she loved and much cherished. And in that conceit, seeking to be rid of him, determined to do it by the aid of a stranger, making the King of England minister of liis massacring resolution, to whom he purposed to send him, and by letters desire him to put him to death.

Hamblet, understanding that he should be sent into Eng- land, presently doubted the occasion of his voyage ; and for that cause, speaking to the queen, desired her not to make any show of grief for his departure ; desiring her further that she should hang the hall with tapestry, and keep the brands for him which he had sharpened at the points. Lastly, he counselled her that, the year after his departure being accom- plished, she should celebrate his funeral, assuring her that at the same instant she should see him return unto her.

Now, to bear him company, were assigned two of Fengon's

faithful ministers,! bearing letters engraved in wood, that*

contained Hamblet's death, in such sort as he had advertised

the King of England. But the subtle Danish prince, being

1 Comp. with Eosencrantz and Guildenstem.

'historie of hamblet.' xxi

at sea, whilst his companions slept, having read the letters, and known his uncle's great treason, with the wicked and villainous minds of the two courtiers that led him to the slaughter, rased out the letters that concerned his death, and instead thereof graved others, with commission to the King of England to hang his two companions ; and, not content to turn the death they had devised against him upon their own necks, wrote further, that King Feni/on willed him to give his daughter to Hamblet in marriage.

Note. — The sequel of the Historie of Hamllet is quite different from the play, as will appear from the following analysis: — On Hamblet's arrival in England, his companions are put to death, and he is promised the king's daughter in marriage : after staying there a year he returns to Denmark, and arrives on the very day on which his funeral is solem- nized. His return causes great astonishment. At a banquet in the palace the nobles become intoxicated, and fall asleep in the banquet-room; whereupon Hamblet gathers round them the chamber-hangings, fastened with the wooden skewers he had prepared, and, while they are thus benetted and unable to extricate themselves, sets fire to the palace. He then rushes into Fengon's chamber and stabs him to death. The people, vaiiously affected by the destruction of the king and nobles, are harangued at great length by Hamblet, who vindicates his conduct so much to their satis- faction that they elect him king. After his coronation, ho proceeds to England, and marries both the king's daughter and a Scottish princess. His death being secretly pur- posed by the King of England, Hamblet kills him, and goes to Denmark with his two wives, one of whom betrays hira and he is slain by Wiglerus, the successor of Eoderick.

EEMAEKS OF VAEIOUS AUTIIOES

SHAKSPEAEE'S 'HAMLET.'

* Hamlei is the only son of the King of Denmark, at a period when Denmark is a powerful military state, showing its strength against England by sea, Poland by land, and Norway doubtless by both; and when the kings, though usually chosen according to their claim by birth, are yet elected ; and when therefore the presumptive heir has special need and spur to distinguish himself and prove his qualifica- tions in the eyes of the nation. And these qualifications are not merely military, for the nation is not a horde of barbarian warriors, but a state which maintains its superiority as much by its policy as its arms. Indeed, so advanced is it in civili- sation, that though it has a powerful national Christian Church, the priests of which, though half yielding, half main- tain their canons against the will of the crown, still the councillors of state and ambassadors are laymen, though not soldiers as far as appears. In a word — the wars and treaties,, the state councils and embassies, the players, the coroner's inquests and Christian burials, the awakened wits of the peasants, the refinements of the courtiers, and the education of the young nobles finished at the German university or the French capital, all mark a state of advanced and vigorous national life, much like that which existed in Shakspearc's own day in England. Whether such a state of society has ever been actually found in Denmark is not the question ; for it is one of the most undoubted rights of the Romantic Drama, that it shall be free from the laws of time and place, though subject ever to the no less real and binding, thounfh

XXIV REMARKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS

very difFerent, laws of tlie imagination/— Strachey's Metlio- dical Analysis of Hamlet,

* Shakspeare's high notion of his calling, that it was scm pnlously to hold the mirror np to nature, prevented him from becoming, like less consummate artists, his own interpreter through the mouth of his characters. His dramatis per- sonm speak nothing which they might not be supposed to say under the actual circumstances in which they are placed ; and if the spectator is unable so far to identify himself with their mood and feelings as to follow the workings of their minds, Shakspeare, with a proud faithfulness to his own genius, preferred that his meaning should be lost rather than deviate a hair's breadth from truth. A vast deal that is most admirable in him has for this reason been overlooked, or misconceived and censured, and is only by slow degrees

dragged forth to light Every word that drops from

the lips of Shakspeare*s personages is the appropriate expres- sion of their inward feehngs ; and owing to that character- istic we have mentioned of the mighty master — that he will not stooj) to be his own expositor in violation of nature — wc miss the spirit in which they speak, unless we note accurately their particular position at the time. It is from the neglect of this precaution that the opening of Hamlet, which is alive with excitement, striking contrasts, and the most delicate touches of nature, seems to have been taken by the editors, old and new, for nothing more than an unimpassioned con- versation between two sentinels.*^ — Quarterly Beview, vol. Ixxix. (1847).

* This soliloquy [" 0, that this too too solid flesh," &c.], the first full expression we have of Hamlet's actual feelings, deserves particular consideration from those who feel any interest in the question of his real state of mind throughout the play. It seems distinctly to reveal both his mental con- stitution and the already existing disturbance in his feelings,

1 All Shakspeare's opening scenes are important in relation to the play. An admirable analysis of tlie opening scene of ' Hamlet ' is given in the ex- cellent article ft'Om wMch tlio above extract is made.

ON SHAKSPEARE's ' HAMLET.' XXV

amounting to a predisposition to actual unsoundness. His mind is morbidly and constantly occupied with one set of thoughts: the indecorous marriage of his uncle with his mother had usurped all his attention. He is even at this time far advanced into that miserable condition which he describes much later : he has lost all his mirth ; he is weary of all the uses of the world ; he is weary of life. Of his father's ghost he has at this time heard nothing; of his father's murder no suspicion has ever been dreamed of by him. No thought of feigning melancholy can have entered his mind ; but he is even now most heavily shaken and dis- composed— indeed so violently, that his reason, although not dethroned, is certainly well-nigh deranged. The explanation would seem only to be found in his original constitution : he is accomplished, but inactive ; he meditates much, he does nothing ; events agitate, but do not move him. The court is assuming its ordinary aspect, he regards it not ; the state is threatened with imminent dangers, he is not stirred to action ; his own wrongs excite him to no resolve, to no remonstrance, and only drive him to passionate declamation and the thoughts of getting rid of life by self-murder. Hamlet has read and thought much, has passed happy hours with Ophelia, has lived for the most part in a charmed world of imagination and sentiment ; he is constitutionally deficient in that quality of a healthy brain or mind which may be termed its elasticity, in virtue of which the changes and chances of the mutable world should be sustained without damage, and in variou-s trials stedfastness and trust still preserved.' — Dn. Conolli's Study of TCamtet.

* Hamlet mentions to his friends a dclibcraJLa-^mrpose of " putting an antic disposition on," and he is seen fulfilling his intention ; and hence it is inferred that all his insanity is feigned. On the other hand, there is observed a wiklness of demeanour which cannot thus be accounted for; and hence it is inferred that it is real insanity. Now, the human mind is not such a simple machine as this, and Shakspeare knew it too well to treat it so. The truth, as well as I oah

XXVI EEMARKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS

state a matter so abstruse, seems to be this : that, from com- bination of influences, the mind of Hamlet was in a state of undue susceptibility of both unnatural excitement and de- pression ; and then further agitated by a supernatural visi- tation, by which, in his own words, he felt his "disposition horridly shaken with thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls." This visible and audible communion with the dead has so convulsed all the spiritual elements of his nature, that he becomes conscious that the sovereignty of his reason was i]\ jeopardy ; and it is that very consciousness — the appre- hension of insanity — which suggests to an intellQct so active the thought of feigning madness — the device of assuming an antic disposition, which would give them an unwonted free- dom, and which might always be controlled by his habitual intellectual strength. It comes then to this — thatthcre was disorder in the mind — a disturbance of his intellect, some- thing mt»re than that which he was feigning ; but, if this question of insanity involve the question whether his mind ceased to be under the mastery of his will, assuredly there was no such aberration.* — Heed's Lccfiwcs on Tragic Foetnj,

* Conceive a prince such as is here painted, and that his father suddenly dies. Ambition and the love of rule are not the passions that inspire him. As a king's son he would have been contented; but now he is first constrained to con- sider the difference which separates a sovereign from a sub- ject. The crown was not hereditary ; yet a longer possession of it by his father would have strengthened the pretensions of an only son, and secured his hopes of the succession. In place of this, he now beholds himself excluded by his uncle, in spite of specious promises, most probably for ever. He is now poor in goods and favour, and a stranger in the scene which from youth he had looked u23on as his inheritance. His temper here assumes its first mournful tinge. He feels that now he is not more — that he is less — than a private nobleman ; he offers himself as the servant of everyone ; he is not courteous and condescending, he is needy and degraded.

* His past condition he remembers as a vanished dream.

ON shakspeare's * hamlet.' xxvii

It is in vain his uncle strives to cheer him — to present his situation in another point of view. The feeling of his nothingness will not leave him.

* The second stroke that came upon him wounded deeper, bowed still more. It was the marriage of his mother. The faithful tender son had yet a mother, when his father passed away. He hoped, in the company of his surviving noble- minded parent, to reverence the heroic form of the departed; but his mother too he loses, and it is something worse than death that robs him of her. The trustful image, which a good child loves to form of its parents, is gone. With the dead there is no help ; on the living no hold. She also is a woman, and her name is Frailty, like that of all her sex.

* Now first does he feel himself completely bent and or- phaned; and no happiness of life can repay what he has lost. Not reflective or sorrowful by nature, reflection and sorrow have become for him a heavy obligation. It is thus that we see him first enter on the scene. Figure to your- selves this youth, this son of princes ; conceive him vividly, bring his state before your eyes, and then observe him when he learns that his father's spirit walks ; stand by him in the terrors of the night, when the venerable ghost itself appears before him. A horrid shudder passes over him ; he speaks to the mysterious form ; he sees it beckon him ; he follows it and hears. The fearful accusation of his uncle rings in his ears; the summons to revenge, and the piercing, oft- repeated prayer, " Eemember me ! "

* And when the ghost has vanisbed, who is it that stands

before us ? A young hero panting for vengeance ? A prince

by birth, rejoicing to be called to punish the usurper of his

crown ? No : trouble and astonishment take hold of the

solitary young man : he grows bitter against smiling villains,

swears that he will not forget the spirit, and concludes with

the significant ejaculation —

The time is out of joint : O cursed spito ! That ever I was bom to set it right !

In these words, I imagine, will be found the key to Hamlet's whole procedure. To me it is clear that Shakspeare meant

XXVm REMARKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS

in the present case to represent tlie effects of a great action laid upon a soul unfit for the performance of it. In this view the whole piece seems to me to be composed. There is an oak-tree planted in a costly jar, which should have borne only pleasant flowers in its bosom ; — the roots expand, the jar is shivered.

* A lovely, pure, noble, and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a bur- den which it cannot bear, and must not cast away. All duties are holy for him ; the present is too hard. Impossi- bilities have been required of him — not in themselves impos- sibiHties, but such for him. He winds, and turns, and torments himself; he advances and recoils ; is ever put in mind, ever puts himself in mind ; at last does all but lose his purpose from his thoughts ; yet still without recovering his peace of mind.' — Goethe.

* Perhaps all our really distinct criticisms may be traced to two originals, those of Goethe or Coleridge. Goethe, as his wont is, describes with exquisite transparency of thought and word all that meets his piercing, passionless, comprehensive gaze, as he looks on Hamlet /rom without Coleridge, in his way, contemplates his subject from within, and the result shows the superiority of his method. The sum of Coleridge's criticism is contained in the following extract ; —

' " I believe the character of Hamlet may be traced to Shakspeare's deep and accurate science in mental philosophy. Indeed, that the character must have some connection with the fundamental laws of our nature, may be assumed from the fact that Hamlet has been the darling of every country in which the literature of England has been fostered. In- order to understand him, it is essential that we shoiild reflect on the constitution of our own minds. Man is distinguished from the brute animals in proportion as thought prevails over sense: but in the healthy processes of the mind a balance is constantly maintained between the impressions from out- ward objects and the inward operations of the intellect; for if there be an overbalance in the contemplative faculty, man

ON shakspeare's 'hamlet.' xm

thereby becomes the creature of mere meditation, and loses his natural power of action. Now one of Shakspeare's modes of creating characters is, to conceive any one intellectual or moral faculty in morbid excess, and then to place himself, Shakspeare, thus mutilated or diseased, under given circum- stances. In Hamlet he seems to have wished to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the objects of our senses, and our meditation on the work- ings of our minds — an equilibrium between the real and the imaginary worlds. In Hamlet this balance is disturbed : his thoughts and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, instantly passing through the medium of his contemplations, acquire as they pass a form and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous intellectual ac- tivity, and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying quahties. This character Shakspeare places in circumstances under which it is obliged to act on the spur of the moment: Hamlet is brave and careless of death ; but he vacillates from sensi- bility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve. Thus it is that this tragedy presents a direct contrast to that of Macbeth ; the- one pro- ceeds with the utmost slowness, the other with a crowded and breathless activity.

' " The effect of this overbalance of the imaginative power is beautifully illustrated in the everlasting broodings and super- fluous activities of Hamlet's mind, which, unseated from its healthy relation, is constantly occupied with the world within, and abstracted from the world without — giving a substance to shadows, and throwing a mist over all commonplace actual- ities. It is the nature of thought to be indefinite — definite ness belongs to external imagery alone. Hence it is that the sense of subhmity arises, not from the sight of an outward object, but from the beholder's reflection upon it — not from the sensuous impression, but from the imaginative reflex. Few have seen a celebrated waterfall without feeling some- what akin to disappointment : it is only subsequently that the image comes back full into the mind, and brings with it

3XS EEMARKS OP VARIOUS AUTHORS

a train of grand or beantiful associations. Hamlet feels this; his senses are in a state of trance, and lie looks npon external things as hieroglyphics. His soliloquy —

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, &c. —

springs from that craving after the indefinite, for that which

is not, which most easily besets men of genins ; and the self-

delnsion common to this temper of mind is finely exemplified

in the character which Hamlet gives of himself : —

It cannot be But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall To make oppression bitter.

He mistakes the seeing his chains for the breaking of them, /^ delays action till action is of no use, and dies the victim of mere circumstance and accident." [Coleridge's Literary Remains], * This masterly view of Hamlet's character needs no com- mendation of mine : it is, I suppose, universally recognised by all students of Shakspeare in the present day as the criti- cism. But though Coleridge is supported by Goethe, Schlegel, and all the commentators that I know of, in his assertion that Hamlet " delays action till action is of no use, and dies the victim of mere circumstance and accident," I must hesitate to agree to his conclusion. Nay, presumptuous as I feel it to be, to set myself against such an array of authorities,^ must believe that Hamlet, being exactly the character that Cole- ridge describes him, does yet end by mastering that, his cha- racteristic defect, and that he dies, not a victim, but a martyr — winning, not losing, the cause for which he dies./ I beHeve this is the actual plot of the tragedy, and consequently that Shakspeare's purpose was not merely " to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the ob- jects of our senses, and our meditation on the workings of our minds," by exhibiting the fate of a " victim " to the want of that balance ; but the far higher, more moral, more practical, more English purpose, of teaching how a good man might triumph, though through death, over this worst of all ene- mies, the disease of the inner life traitorously conspiring with oatward circumstances to betray him.' ^ — Strachey's Anal/y' ^s of Hamlet,

1 See Note 2 at the end of the Play.

ON SHAKSPEARE'S * HAMLET. XXxi

* Hamlet is singular in its kind : a tragedy of thouglit in- spired by continual and never-satisfied meditation on human destiny and the dark perplexity of the events of this world, and calculated to call forth the very same meditation in the minds of the spectators. This enigmatical work resembles those irrational equations in which a fraction of unknown magnitude always remains, that will in no way admit of solution. Much has been said, much written, on this piece, and yet no thinking head who anew expresses himself on it, >vill (in his view of the connexion and the signification of all the parts) entirely coincide with his predecessors. What naturally most astonishes us, is the fact that with such hid- den purposes, with a foundation laid in such unfathomable depth, the whole should, at a first view, exhibit an extremely popular appearance. The dread appearance of the Ghost takes possession of the mind and the imagination almost at the very commencement ; then the play within the play, in which, as in a glass, we see reflected the crime, whose fruit- lessly attempted punishment constitutes the subject-matter of the piece ; the alarm with which it fills the King ; Ham- let's pretended and Ophelia's real madness : her death and burial ; the meeting of Hamlet and Laertes at the grave ; their combat, and the grand determination ; lastly, the ap- pearance of the young hero Fortinbras, who, with warlike pomp, pays the last honours to an extinct family of kings ; the interspersion of comic characteristic scenes with Polonius, the courtiers, and the grave-diggers, which have all of them their signification — all this fills the stage with an animated and varied movement. The only circumstance from which this piece might be judged to be less theatrical than other tragedies of Shakspeare is, that in the last scenes the main action either stands still or appears to retrograde. This, however, was inevitable, and lay in the nature of the subject. The whole is intended to show that a calculating consideration, which exhausts all the relations and possible consequences of a deed, must cripple the power of acting : as Hamlet himself

expresses it : —

And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought j a2

XXXii REMAEKS OF VAEIOUS AUTHOES

And enterprises of great pith, and moment, With this regard, their currents turn awry, And lose tlie name of action.

With respect to Hamlet's character: I cannot, as I under- stand the poet's views, pronounce altogether so favourable a sentence upon it as Goethe does. He is, it is true, of a highly cultivated mind, a prince of royal manners, endowed with the finest sense of propriety, susceptible of noble ambition, and open in the highest degree to an enthusiastic admiration of that excellence in others of which he himself is deficient. He acts the part of madness with unrivalled power, convinc- ing the persons who are sent to examine into his supposed loss of reason, merely by telHng them unwelcome truths, and rallying them with the most caustic wit. But in the resolu- tions which he so often embraces, and always leaves unexe- cuted, his weakness is too apparent : he does himself only justice when he implies that there is no greater dissimilarity than between himself and Hercules. He is not solely im- pelled by necessity to artifice and dissimulation : he has a natural incHnation for crooked ways; he is a hypocrite towards himself; his far-fetched scruples are often mere pretexts to cover his want of determination : thoughts, as he says, on a difi'erent occasion, which have

-but one part wisdom

And ever three parts coward. He has been chiefly condemned both for his harshness in repulsing the love of Opheha, which he himself had cherished, and for his insensibility at her death. But he is too much overwhelmed with his own sorrow to have any compassion to spare for others ; besides, his outward indifference gives us by no means the measure of his internal perturbation. On the other hand, we evidently perceive in him a maHcious joy, when he has succeeded in getting rid of his enemies, more through necessity and accident, which alone are able to impel him to quick and decisive measures, than by the merit of his own courage, as he himself confesses after the murder of Polonius, and with respect to Eosencrantz and Guildenstem. Hamlet has no firm belief either in himself or in anything else : from expressions of religious confidence he passes over

ON shakspeare's * hamlet.' xxxiii

to sceptical doubts ; he believes in tlie ghost of bis father, as long as he sees it, but as soon as it has disappeared, it appears to him almost in the light of a deception/ He has even gone so far as to say, * there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so ; ' with him the poet loses him- self here in labyrinths of thought, m which neither end nor beginning is discoverable. The stars themselves, from the course of events, afford no answer to the question so urgently proposed to them. A voice from another world, commis- sioned, it would appear, by heaven, demands -vengeance for a monstrous enormity, and the demand remains without effect; the criminals are at last punished, but, as it were, by an accidental blow, and not in the solemn way requisite to con- vey to the world a warning example of justice ; irresolute foresight, cunning treachery, and impetuous rage, hurry on to a common destruction ; the less guilty and the innocent are equally involved in the general ruin. The destiny of humanity is there exhibited as a gigantic Sphinx, which threatens to precipitate into the abyss of scepticism all who are unable to solve her dreadful enigmas.

* As one example of the many niceties of Shakspeare which have never been understood, I may allude to the style in which the player's speech about Hecuba isijonceived. It has been the subject of much controversy among the com- mentators, whether this was borrowed by Shakspeare from himself or from another, and whether, in the praise of the piece of which it is supposed to be a part, he was speaking seriously, or merely meant to ridicule the tragical bombast of his contemporaries. It seems never to have occurred to them that this speech must not be judged of by itself, but in connection with the place where it is introduced. To dis- tinguish it in the play itself as dramatic poetry, it was necessary that it should rise above the dignified poetry jfif the

1 It has been censured as a contradiction, that Hamlet in the soliloquy on self-murder should say, ^

The undiscovered country, from whoso bourn

No traveller returns

For was not the Ghost a returned traveller? Shakspeare, however, pur- I)Osely wished to show, that Hamlet could not fix himself in any convictioa of any kind whatever.

XXXIV BEMAEKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS

former in tlie same proportion that generally theatrical ele- vation soars above simple nature. Hence Shakspeare has composed the play in Hamlet altogether in sententious rhymes full of antitheses. But this solemn and measured tone did not suit a speech in which violent emotion ought to prevail, and the poet had no other expedient than the one of which he made choice : overcharging the pathos. The lan- guage of the speech in question is certainly falsely empha- tical; but yet this fault is so mixed up with true grandeur, that a player practised in artificially calling forth in him- self the emotion he is imitating, may certaiuly be carried away by it. Besides, it will hardly be believed that Shak- speare knew so little of his art, as not to be aware that a tragedy in which ^neas had to make a lengthy epic relation of a transaction that happened so long before as the destruc- tion of Troy, could neither be dramatical nor theatrical.' —

SCHLEGEL.

*Amid the endless discussions raised by the character of Hamlet, there is a perfect unanimity as to his mental supre- macy. " The play,'' says a writer in " Blackwood's Maga- zine," "is a singular example of a piece of great length resting its interest upon the dehneation of one character ; for Hamlet, his discourses, and the changes of his mind, are all the play. The other persons, even his father's ghost, are important through him ; and in himself it is the variation of his mind, and not the varying events of his life, that affords the interest." The simplest criticism is commonly the best. There are few remarks on Shakspeare's plays more just and admirable than this. The universality of Shakspeare's genius is in some sort reflected in Hamlet. He has a mind wise and witty, abstract and practical; the utmost reach of philo- sophical contemplation is mingled with the most penetrating sagacity in the affairs of life; playful jest, biting satire, sparkling repartee, with the darkest and deepest thoughts that can agitate man. He exercises all his various faculties with surprising readiness. He passes without an effort ** from grave to gay, from lively to severe," — from his every- day character to personated lunacy. He divines, with the

ON SHAKSPEARES * HAMLET. XXXV

rapidity of lightning, the nature and motives of those who are brought into contact with him, fits in a moment his bear- ing and retorts to their individual peculiarities ; is equally at home -whether he is mocking Polonius with hidden raillery, or dissipating OphcHa's dream of love, or crushing the sponges with sarcasm and invective, or talking euphuism with Osric, and satirising while he talks it; whether he is uttering wise maxims, or welcoming the players with facetious graciousness — probing the inmost souls of others, or sounding the mys- teries of his own. His philosophy stands out conspicuous among the brilliant faculties which contend for the mastery. It is the quality which gives weight and dignity to the rest. It intermingles with all his actions. He traces the most trifling incidents up to their general laws. His natural dis- position is to lose himself in contemplation. He goes think- ing out of the world. The commonest ideas that pass through his mind are invested with a wonderful freshness and origi- nality. His meditations in the churchyard are on the trite notion that all ambition leads but to the grave. But what condensation, what variety, what picturesqueness, what intense unmitigated gloom ! It is the finest sermon that was ever preached against the vanities of life.

* So far, we imagine, all are agreed. But the motives which induce Hamlet to defer his revenge are still, and perhaps will ever remain, debateable ground. The favourite doctrine of late is, that the thinking part of Hamlet predominated over the active — that he was as weak and vacillating in per- formance as he was great in speculation. If this theory were borne out by his general conduct, it would no doubt amply account for his procrastination ; but there is nothing to countenance and much to refute the idea. Shakspeare has endowed him with a vast energy of will. There could be no sterner resolve than to abandon every purpose of exist- ence that he might devote himself unfettered to his revenge ; nor was ever resolution better observed. He breaks through his passion for Ophelia, and keeps it down, under the most trying circumstances, with such inflexible firmness, that an eloquent critic has seriously questioned whether his attach- ment was real. The determination of his character appears

:XXXvi EEMARKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS

again at the death of Polonlus. An indecisive mind wonld have been shocked, if not terrified, at the deed. Hamlet dismisses him with a few contemptnons words as a man wonld hnish away a fly. He talks with even greater in- difference of Eosencrantz and Gnildenstern, whom he sends " to sndden death, not shriving time allowed." He has on tjhese, and, indeed, on all occasions, a short and absolute way which only belongs to resolute souls. The features developed in his very hesitation to kill the King are inconsistent with the notion that his hand refuses to perform what his head contrives. He is always trying to persuade himself into a conviction that it is his duty, instead of seeking for evasions.^ He is seized with a savage joy when the play supphes him with indubitable proof of his uncle's guilt. His language

then to Horatio is —

is't not perfect conscienoe

To quit him with this arm ?

He wants, it is clear, neither will nor nerve to strike the blow.

There is perhaps one supposition that will satisfy all the

phenomena, and it has, to us, the recommendation that we

think it is the solution suggested by Shakspeare himself.

Hamlet, in a soliloquy, charges the delay on —

Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on th* event.

The oblivion is merely the effect of the primary cause — "the craven scmple " — the conscience which renders him a coward. His uncle, after all, is king ; he is the brother of his father, and the husband of his mother, and it was inevitable that he

1 His reasons for not killing the King when he is praying have been held to be an excuse. But if Shakspeare had anticipated the criticism, he could not have guarded against it more eflfectually. Hamlet has just uttered the fioliloquy—

————— Now could I drink hot blood,

And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on.

In this frame he passes his uncle's closet, and is for once, at least, equal to any emergency. His first thought is to kill him at his devotions j his second, that in that case Claudius win go to heaven. Instantly his father's suffer- ings rise into his mind ; he contrasts the happy future of the criminal with the purgatory of the victim, and the contemplation exasperates him into a genuine desire for a fuller revenge. The threat relieves him from the re- proach of inactivity, and he falls back into his former self.

DN SHAESPEABE S ' HAMLET. XXXVU

snonid shrink, in his cooler moments, from becominfj his

Hssassin. His hatred to his uncle, who has disgraced his

family and disappointed his ambition, gives him personal

inducements to revenge, which further blunt his purpose

by leading him to doubt the purity of his motives. The

admonition of the Ghost to him is, not to taint his mind in

tiie prosecution of his end: and no sooner has the Ghost

vanished than Hamlet, invoking the aid of super natuial

powers, exclaims —

O all you host of heaven ! O earth ! What else ? And shall I couple hell ?— O fie !—

But the hell, whose support he rejects, is for ever returning to his mind and startling his conscience. It is this that makes him wish for the confirmation of the play, for evil spirits may have abused him. It is this which begets the apathy he terms oblivion, for inaction affords relief to doubt. It is this which produces its inconsistencies, for con- science calls him different ways, and when he obeys in one direction he is haunted by the feeHng that he should have gone in the other. If he contemplated the performance of a deed which looks outwardly more like murder than judicial retribution, he trembles lest, after all, he should be perpetrat- ing an unnatural crime ; or if, on the other hand, he turns to view his uncle's misdeeds, he fancies there is more of cowardly scrupulosity than justice in his backwardness, and he abounds in self-reproaches at the weakness of his hesitation. And thus he might for ever have halted between two opinions, if the King himself, by filling up the measure of his iniquities, had not swept away his scruples.' — Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxix.

* Shall we,' says Dr. Bucknill, * think the less nobly of him because his hand is not ready to shed kindred blood; because, gifted with godlike discourse of reason, he does look before and after; because he does not take the law in his own. hands upon his oppressor, until he has obtained conclusive evidence of his guilt ; that he seeks to make sure he is the natural justiciar of his murdered father, and not an assassin instigated by hatred and selfish revenge?* — Fsychology of Shahspeare.

XXXVIU EEMiRKS ON SHAKSPEAEE S 'HAMLET.

' Polonins is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored witb observation, confident in his knowledge, proud of* Ms eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly represented as designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest is natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the par- ticular apphcation. He is knowing in retrospect, and igno- rant in foresight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repositories of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel ; but as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to sudden derehction of his faculties, he loses the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. This idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the phenomena of the character of Polonius.' — Dr. Johnso:n\

* Of the petty anachronisms which send Hamlet to Wittem- berg, which allow Ophelia to call for a coach, and the King's palace to resound with salvos of artillery, we make small ac- count. . . . The great length appears by no means an imper- fection of this drama as a composition, whatever it may be as an acting play. The analysis of the motives of human action, which is the great object of this work, could not have been efiected if the action were rapid. Rapidity of action is incon- sistent with philosophic self-analysing motives and modes of thought ; while the slow and halting progress of the action, in this drama, not only afibrds to the character space and verge enough to unfold its inmost pecuHarities of thought and feeling, but develops in the mind of the reader a state of metaphysical receptivity scarcely less essential to its full appreciation.' — De. Buckijill's Psychology of Sliakspeare,

HAMLET

PRINCE OF DENMARK:,

Ol

PERSONS EEPEESENTED.

[Appears) . Clatjdius, King of Denmark . . Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1 ;

sc. 2 ; sc. 3. Act IV. BC. 1 J 6C. 3 J SC. 5i

8C. G. Act V. sc. 1 ; sc. 2. Hamlet, son io the former, and nephew to the present K.m^ . . Act I. sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act II. sc. 2.

Act III. sc. 1 ; sc. 2 ; sc. 3 ; sc. 4. Act

IV. sc. 2 ; sc. 3 ; SC. 4. Act V. sc. 1 ; sc. 2. PoLONius, Zord Chamlerlaln , . Act I. sc. 2 ; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 1 ; sc. 2.

Act III. sc. 1 ; sc. 2 ; sc. 3 ; sc. 4. IIoRATio,/ne?ic?<o Hamlet . . Act I. sc. 1 ; sc. 2 ; sc. 4 ; sc. 6. Act III.

sc. 2. Act IV. sc. 5; sc. 6. Act V. sc. 1 ;

sc. 2. Laeetes, »on to Polonius . • Act I. sc. 2 ; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 6 ; sc. 6.

Act V. sc. 1 ; sc. 2. VoLTiMAND, a courtier .... Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2. Cornelius, a cotiriicr .... Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2. RosENCRANTZ, a co«r//cj' . . , Actll. sc. 2. Act HI. sc. 1 ; sc. 2; sc. 3.

Act IV. sc. 1 ; sc. 2 ; sc. 3 ; sc. 4» GuiLDENSTEEN, a couvlicr . . . Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1 J sc. 2 J BC. 3.

Act IV. sc. 1 ; sc. 2 ; sc. 3 ; sc. 4.

OsRic, a courtier Act V. sc. 2.

A Courtier Act IV. sc. 5.

A Priest Act V. sc. 1.

Marcellus, an officer .... Act I. sc. 1 ; SC. 2 ; SC. 4 ; sc. 5.

Bernardo, an officer Act I. sc. 1 ; so. 2.

Francisco, a soldier Act I. sc. 1.

Reynaldo, servant to Polonius . Act II. sc. 1.

A Captain Act IV. sc. 4.

An Ambassador Act V. sc. 2.

Ghost of Hamlet's Fatlicr . . . Act I. sc. 1; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act III. sc. 4. FoRTiNBRAS, Frince of Norway . Act iV. SC. 4. Act V. sc. 2. Gertrudt;, Queen of Denmark, and mother f/Hanilct . , , . Act I. sc. 2. Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 1 ;

sc. 2 ; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 1 ; sc. 5 ; sc. 0.

Act V. sc. 1 ; sc. 2. Ophelia, daughter of Polonius . Act I. sc. 3. Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 1 :

sc. 2. Act IV. bC. 5.

Zords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Phij/ers, Grai'e-diggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE— ElsinobS.

HAMLET

PEINCE OP DENMAEK.

ACT L

SCENE I.— Elslnore. A FlafformUfoVG ilie Castle.

Francisco on Ms ]jost. Enter to him Bernardo.

Ber. Who 's there ? ^

Fran. Nay, answer me :

Stand, and unfold yourself.

Ber. Long live the king ! "

Fran. Bernardo ?

Ber. He.

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.

Ber, *T is now struck twelve ; get thee to bed, Francisco

Fran, For this rehef, much thanks : 't is bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.

Ber. Have you had quiet guard ?

Fran. Not a mouse stuTing.

1 Who's there ? ] These words are significaut of some agitation in the speaker. ^

• Lorifj live the King ! ] The watchworiL

4 HAMLET. ACT I-

Ber. Well, good nlgM. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals^ of my watcli, bid tliem make haste.

Fran, I think I hear them. — Stand, ho ! who 's there ?

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Sor, Friends to this ground.

Mar, And liegemen to the Dane.

Fran. Give you good night. ^

Mar, 0, farewell,^ honest soldier :

Who hath relieved you ?

Fran, Bernardo hath my place.

Give you good night. lExU Fran.

Mar. Holla ! Bernardo !

Ber. Say, what, is Horatio there ?

Hor. A piece of him.*

Ber. Welcome, Horatio ; welcome, good Marcellus.

Mar, What, has this thing appeared again to-night ?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says, 't is but our fantasy ; And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us : Therefore I have entreated him along, With us to watch the minutes of this night ; That, if again this appantion come. He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.*^ -

Hor. Tush ! Tush ! 't will not appear.

* Bivah.] Partners. Compare rivality in Ant. and Clcop. iii. 6. 2 Give you.'] An abridgment of God give you,

^ 0, farewell.] Marcellus uses the interjection, as not having known that Francisco had been relieved.

* A piece of him.] This is merely a jocular expression, indicating Horatio's freedom from all appreh^sion about the ghost.

^ Approve our eyes, &c.] Assure himself of what we have seen, and epeak to it, as only a scholar can do. (Sec Note 2, p. 5.)

SCENE I. HAMLET. 5

Bcr. Sit down awliilc ;

And let us once again assail your ears, That arc so fortified against our story, Wliat we two nights have seen.

Hor, Well, sit we down,

And let ns hear Bernardo speak of this.

IJer. Last night of all, When yond same star that 's westward from the pole Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one, —

Mar, Peace ! break thee off ;^ look, where it comes again !

E7iter Ghost.

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that 's dead.

Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.^

Ber, Looks it not like the king ? mark it, Horatio.

Hcn\ Most like : — it harrows me with fear and wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar. Question it, Horatio.

Hot. What art thou, that usurp'st^this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which tlie majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march ? by heaven I charge thee, speak.

Mar. It is offended.

1 Break thee off.] Thee seems used for thoit, in such phrases as fare thee well, haste thee, hie thee, &c. j and this usage, perhaps, led to a further corruption in such forms as * we will haste us/ Hamlet, iii. 3.

2 Spealc to it, Horatio.] Tlie forms of exorcism were usually in Latin, the language of the Church Service; and scholarship was thought to have great influence over gliosts. In Fletcher's Night Walker one says * Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latm, and that will daunt the devil.' ii. €.

* Usxirp^sW] Talcost, appropriatcst.

6 hamli:t. ^^ !•

Ber, See ! it stalks away.

Jffor. Stay ! speak ! speak ! I charge thee, speak !

Mar, 'T is gone, and will not answer. [^Exit Gitost,

Ber, How now, Horatio ? you tremble, and look pale : Is not this something more than fantasy ? What think you on 't ?

Hot. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes.

Mar, Is it not like the king ?

Ilor. As thou art to thyself : Such was the very armour he had on, When he the ambitious Norway combated -^ So frowned he once, when, in an angry parle, Ho smote the sledded Polack on the ice.^ 'T is strange.

Mar, Thus twice before, and jump^ at this dead hour. With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know not ; But, in the gross and scope of my opinion. This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

1 The amhitious Nonvcty.'\ Old Fortiubras, Idug of Norway, pre- sently again referred to by Horatio, as having been ' pricked on by a most emulate pride' to challenge the Idng of Denmark in single combat, was slain in the contest ; his brother, according to Shak- speare, then succeeded to the throne of Norway j and, at the close of the play, Fortinbras' son, young Fortinbras, is introduced as likely to be elected king of Denmark.

2 Sledded Polach.'] Sledged Polander. Fr. Polaque. Botero*a Relations of the World, has 'the forces of the Polacks ;' and Webster's White Devil, ii. ' I scorn him like a shaved Polack.' The word occurs again in Hamlet, iv. 4.

8 Jumxj.] Exactly, concurrently. Near the end of this play we have * so jump upon this bloody question,' and in Othello, ii. 0, * bring him jump when he may OJissio find.' So in Fu'st Part of Jeronimo, * all falls out for the purpose, all hits jump.'

SCENE I, HAMLET. 7

Mar, Good now, sifc clown, and tell mo, lie that know?, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject' of the land : And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart^ for implements of war : Wliy such impress' of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week : What might be toward,'^ that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day : — • Who is 't that can inform me ?

Eor. That can I :

At least the whisper goes so : Our last king, Whose image even but now appeared to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, Dared to the combat ; in which our valiant Hamlet (For so this side of our known world esteemed him) Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a sealed compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, ^ Did forfeit with his life,^ all those his lands

' Subject.} Subjects. See Measure for Measure^ p. 62.

2 Forcirjn mart.'] Traffic with other cotintries. By means of tlio conversation now entered upon, tlio soldiers try to regain tlicir com- posure.

^ Impress.'] Impressment. ' Such confidence,* says Lord Camp- bell, * lias there been in Shakspcaro's accuracy, tliat tins passage has been quoted both by text writers and by judges on tho bench, as an authority upon the legality of tho press-gang, and upon tho debated question, whether sldpwrightSf as well as comvion seamen, are liable to bo pressed into tho service of the royal navy.* Shakspeare'e Legal Acquirements.

* Toward.] In preparation, coming on. Again, near the end cf tliis play, * What feast is toward in tliino eternal cell ;' so, in ilom. and Jul., i. 5, * We have a trilling foohsh banquet towards.*

* Law and heraldry.] Civil law and the rules of chivahy, " With his life.] In the event of his bcin^ slain.

8 HAMLET. Ai

Whicli lie stood seized of,' to the conqueror : Against tlie which, a moiety competent^ Was gaged by our king ; which had returned To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher ; as, by the same covenant And carriage of the article designed,^ His fell to Hamlet : Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved metal, hot and full,* Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, Sharked up*^ a list of lawless resolutes. For food and diet to some enterprise That hath a stomach in 't : which is no other (And it doth well appear unto our state) But to recover of us, by strong hand And terms compulsativc, those 'foresaid lands So by his father lost : And this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations. The source of this our watch, and the chief head Of this post-haste and romago ^ in the land. JBer, I think it be no other, but even so :

^ ^eked o/.] Possessed of.

2 Moiety competent.'] Portion of territory equivalent.

8 CarriagCy &c.] Import of the condition specified.

* 'Unimx:>roved.'] Unemployed, not yet put to use.

'^ Sharked up."] Got hold of. To shark is to look out for prey. ' Then ray hand hath a fling at mine eyes, because they look not out and shark for victuals.' Massinger's Virgin Martyr, iii. 3. Our poet's * conceit ' seems to be, that young Fortinbras, bent on somo enterprise that had a stomach, that is, temper, in it, got hold of some resolute fellows as food for that stomach, viz., as a means to carry out the enterprise. We have rejected the comma generally placed after the word diet, because it destroys the figurative con- eistency of the passage by implying that the * lawless resolutes* were to receive the * food and diet ' for their service.

® Eomage.'] Kummage, bustling about.

6CENE I.

HAMLET. 9

Well may it sort* tliat this portentous fignre Comes armed through our watch — so like the king That was and is the question of these wars.

Sor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tcnantless, and the sheeted dead* Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets : As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun ;^ and the moist star, Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands. Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.* And even the like precurse of fierce events, As harbingers preceding still the fates. And prologue to the omen coming on,

1 Sort] Suit, accord.

2 The graves^ &c.] The porf.cuts here referred to were suggested by Ovid, Met. xv.

*They showed signs most manifest of sorrows to ensue ; For battles fighting in the clouds with clashing armour flew, And dreadful trumpets sounded in the air, and horns eke blew, As warning meji beforehand of the mischief that did brew ; And Phoebus also looking dim did cast a drowsy light Upon the earth, which seemed likewise to bo in sorry plight ; From underneath amid the stars brands oft seemed burning bright. It often rained drops of blood : the morning star looked blue, And was bespotted here and there with specks of rusty hue. The moon had also spots of blood. ^ * * ^ ^ About the court and every house and churches in the nights The dogs did howl, and everywhere appeared ghastly sprites.'

Arthur Golding's Translation, 1567.

* Disasters in the sun.'] There is obviously some false reading in this lino or the preceding one; or perhaps a whole line has been lost.

* Side almost to doomsday.] Sick almost to death or extinction; doomsday being the period of Nature's dissolution.

B3

10 HAMLET. ACT I.

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our clinaatures and countrymen. ^

Ee-enter Ghost,

But, soft I behold ! lo, where it comes again !

I '11 cross it, though it blast me.^ — Stay, illusion !

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Speak to me :

If there be any good thing to be done,

That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,

Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate.

Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,*

O, speak !

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

ICoch crows. Speak of it : — stay, and speak ! — Stop it, Marcellus.

Mar, Shall I strike at it with my partizan ?

Hot. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber, 'T is here !

1 JJnto our climatures, &c.] Sandys, in his commentary on tlio prodigies mentioned by Ovid, says : ' Armed troops of foot and liorso in the air we not only read bnt Lave heard of in our times. And even this last year, 1G29, reported it was by some of good credit, how they saw two opposite battalions lancing out their spears, and discharging, as it were, theu' muskets in the air.* Again ho says : * The raining of blood must needs bo miraculous, whereof many histories, and our o^vn among others, make mention.*

2 Though it Uast me.'] To cross the path of a spectre was sup- posed to subject a person to its malignant influence.

3 And grace to me.] And honour to me ; and not dishonour me. * Which haiopily, &c.] Which perhaps our foreknowing it may

enable us to avoid.

te'CENE I,

HAMLET. 11

Eor. 'T is here !

Mar. *T is gone ! IJExit GuosT.

We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence ; For it is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber, It was about to speak when the cock crew.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty tiling Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn. Doth with his lofty and shrill- sounding throat Awake the god of day ; and, at his warning. Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,^ The extravagant and erring spirit hies^ To his confine : and of the truth herein This present object made probation.

Mar, It faded on the crowing of the cock.' Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,

* In sea or fire, &c.] Tlie Platonists supposed there were spirits proper to eacli of the four elements. Milton speaks of * demonian spirits * as * powers of fire, air, water, and earth beneath/ Par. Reg. ii. 122 ; and * of those demons that are found in fire, air, flood, or under ground.' (II Pens. 93.)

2 Extravagant and erring.] Out of its proper element and wan- dering about.

8 It faded, &c.] Sandys, in his commentary on Ovid's Met. xv,, gays : * Ghosts, or rather devils, assume an airy, tliin, and therefore fluxative body, which by heat is extenuated, and consequently dis- sipated, but condensed and confirmed by cold, insomuch as not to be seen by the heatful light of the day; whereupon grew that opinion, how ghosts and other apparitions of terror did wander only in the night, and vanished with the dawning. So the ghost of Anchises before the rising of the sun was forced to part with JEneas.* "When Hamlet comes on the platform he refers to the intensity of the cold, i. 4,

12 HAMLET. ACT I.

The bird of dawning singe th all niglit long : And then, tliey say, no spirit can walk abroad;- Tlie niglits are wholesome ; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,^ So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

Hot. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill : Break we our watch up ; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet : for, upon my life. This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him ; Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty ?

Mar, Let 's do 't, I pray : and I this morning know Where we shall find him most conveniently. [^ExeimU

SCENE n. Tlw same, A Boom of State in ilie same.

Enter the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, VoLTiMAND, Cornelius, Lords and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory bo green ; and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe ; Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature. That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves.

^ Takes.] Smites with infection or infirmity. So in The Merry Wives, iv. 4, * And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle.* So also in K. Lear, * Strike her young bones, ye taking airs, with lameness,* ii. 4. 'Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking,' iii. 4.

SCENE n. ^^^^^'^^HAMLET. ^^^^"^ 13

Therefore our sometime sister,^ now our queen, The imperial jointress of this warlike state, Have we, as 't were, with a defeated joy — With one auspicious and one dropping eye, With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole — Taken to wife : nor have we herein barred Your better wisdoms, which have freely gono With this affair along : — For all, our thanks.

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth. Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death, Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Colleagued with the dream of his advantage. He hath not failed to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, To our most valiant brother. — So much for him. Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting. Thus much the business is : We have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras, Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress His farther gait ^ herein ; in that the levies, The lists, and full proportions, are all made Out of his subject : and we here despatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, For bearing of this gi*eeting to old Norway ; Giving to you no farther personal power To business with the king, more than the scope

1 Our sometime sister.'] Her who fomicrly was our sister -in-law. So in K. Richard II., i. 2, * Thy sometime brother's wife.*

2 Qait] Proceeding.

14 HAMLET.

ACT I.

Of these dilated articles allow.

Farewell ; and let your liaste commend your duty.

Co7\, Vol. In that and all things will we show our duty.

King, We doubt it nothing ; heartily farewell.

[Exeunt YoL. and CoR. And now, Laertes, what 's the news with you ? You told us of some suit : What is 't, Laertes ? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, And lose your voice : What wouldst thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking ? The head is not more native to the heart,^ The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father, What wouldst thou have, Laertes ?

Laei\ Dread my lord,^

Your leave and favour to return to France ; From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, To show my duty in your coronation, Yet now, I must confess, that duty done. My thoughts and wishes bend again towards Franco, And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.^

King, Have you your father's leave? What says

Polonius ? • ; /

Fol. He hath, my lord, wrung from memy s^^^/W^ef- r /i By laboursome petition ; and, at last, /-

1 Native.] Vitally, or essentially related. Claudius liere, no doubt, refers to his having been elected king mainly tlirougli tlio lieljD of Polonius.

2 Dread my lord.'] In such expressions as ' good my lord/ ' good my brother,' * dear my liege,' &c., where a comma does not follow tho adjective (See Note 1, p. 46), the i^ronoun and noun must be regarded in combination, as the title qualified by thQ adjective. In Love's Lab. Lost, i. 2, we find * sweet my-child.*

3 Bow them to,] Humbly solicit.

6CENE II. HAMLET. 15

Upon his will I sealed my hard consent : I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

King, Take thy fair hour, Laertes ; time bo thine,^ And thy best graces spend it at thy will ! — But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, —

Ham, A Uttle more than kin, and less than klnd.^

[^Aside,

King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ?

Ham, Not so, my lordj I am too much i' the sun.^

Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed "^ lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust :

^ Take thy fair Jiour, &c.] Tako your own convenient liour for departure ; let the time of your absence be as long as you plcaso, and be spent at your will in showing forth your best qualities.

2 A Uttle more than hin, &c.] There is hero, perhaps, a play on words, more than kin being more than three letters, and less than kind less than four. But, mainly, the young prince means that ho is something between cousin (collateral relation) and son — the titles which Claudius has just used. lie is Claudius's stepson, as well aj nephew, therefore a little more than kin, but less than his son by kind, that is, by nature. The king and queen were, as he afterwards calls them 'U. 2), his ' uncle -father and aunt-mother.* In K. liichard'^ -^^^ 1, we have, ' Tumultuous wars shall kin with kin and kind with confound;* and in vSact^'ille's Ferrex and Porrex,

i. 1, ' In kind a father, not in kindliness.*

Ki7id is nature. Hence kindless (Hamlet, ii, 2), unnatural; kindly y natural. * The kindly fruits of the earth,' Eng. Liturgy ; * My age is as a lusty winter, frosty, but kindly,* As You Like It, ii. 3 J * The earth shall sooner leave her kindly skill to bring forth fruits,* Spenser, F. Queen, I. iii. 28.

8 I am too much i' the sun.] Ilanilet meant that the court at which he lived was not overshadowed with gloom, but pervaded by too much of the sunshine of jollity, considering the recent death of his father.

* Vailed.'] Drooping. To vail is to lower : Fr. avalcr.

16 HAMLET.

ACT I.

Tliou know'st 't is common — all that lives must die, Passing tlirougli nature to eternity.

Ham, Ay, madam, it is common.

Queen, If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee ?

Ham, Seems i madam ! nay, it is ; I know not seems, 'T is not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief. That can denote me truly : These, indeed, seem. For they are actions that a man might play : But I have that within which passeth show ; These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.

King, T is sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father : But, you must know, your father lost a father ; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound * In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious ^ sorrow : But to persever ^ In obstinate condolement, is a course Of impious stubbornness ; 't is unmanly grief; Ifc shows a will most incorrect to heaven ; A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,

1 Tlie survivor hound.] Bound the survivor.

2 Obsequious.] Funereal j pertaining to funeral obsequies.

^ Persever.] So the word was formerly spelt and accented. ' Ay, and perversely she persevers so,' Two Gent, of Yerona, iii. 2. 'Persever in it,* Massinger's Virgin Martyr, i. 1, and Maid of Honour, v. 2. See also Spenser, F. Queen, III. vii. 2, and IV. s. 11.

SCENE II. HAMLET. 17

An understanding simple and unschooled : For what we know must bo, and is as common As any the most vulgar thing to sense, Why should we, in our peevish opposition, Take it to heart ? Fie ! 't is a fault to heaven, A fault against the dead, a fault to nature. To reason most absurd ; whose common thcmo Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried, From the first corse till he that died to-day, This must he so. We pray you, throw to earth This unprevailing woe ; and think of us As of a father : for let the world take note. You are the most immediate to our throne, And, with no less nobility of love,^ Than that which dearest father bears his son, Do I impart towards you. For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg,^ It is most retrograde to our desire : And, we beseech you, bend you to remain Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet ; I pray thee, stay with us ; go not to Wittenberg.

Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

King. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply 5 Be as ourself in Denmark. — Madam, come :

* Nohility of love :] Ennobling lovo ; lovo that desires to dignil^y its object.

2 Going haclc to school, &c-] ' At that great outburst of dovotion to letters and philosophy which accompanied the Reformation, and both created, and fostered into almost instant matui'ity, the universi- ties of Northern Europe (and this very Wittenberg among the rest), it was not only youths who thronged to drink and bathe in the etreams of knowledge, but also men of mature ago.* Strachey'a Analysis of Hamlet.

18 HAMLET. ACT I.

Tills gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet

Sits smiling to my heart : in grace whereof,

No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,

But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell ;

And the king's rouse ^ the heavens shall bruit again,

Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

[Exeunt all except Hamlet. Kam. 0 that this too too-solid ^ flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew ! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self- slaughter ! God ! 0 God ! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world ! Fie on 't ! 0 fie ! 't is an unweeded garden, That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this ! But two months dead ! — nay, not so much, not two ; So excellent a king ; that was, to this,

"^ Rouse. 1 A bumper; Gifford says' A roiese was a large glass in wliicli a licallh Avas given, the drinking of wliich by the rest of the company formed a carouse* Note to Massinger's Duke of Milan.

2 Too too-solid :] Some critics think that our early writers used too-too as a compound, to signify exceeding. We believe, however, that the second too with the word following formed a Compound collectively modified by the first too. In this play, iv. 7, we have *dies in his own too-much j' in Beaumont and Fletcher's King and no King, iv. 2, * add more restraint to that too-much you have ;' and in Chapman's All Fools, i., ' much too-much indulgent;* We appre- hend, therefore, that the syntax of sugh phrases as ' too too solid* is analogous to that of * well welcome,' in the Comedy of Errors, ii. 2, and that it is properly indicated by our use of the hyphen in tho following examples: — Hoo too-hard,' Spenser's F; Queen, III; iv. 26 J *too too-true,' Fuller's Holy State, i. 2; too too-courteous, Fletcher's Women Pleased, iv. 3 ; too too-much,' Two Gent, of Yerona, ii. 4 : * too too-strongly/ Merry Wives, ii. 2.

BCEITE II.

HAMLETo 10

Hyperion^ to a satyr ; so loving to my mother,

That ho might not bcteem the -winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!

Must I remember ? why, she would hang on bim^

As if increase of appetite Jiad grown

I3y what it fed on : and yet, within a month,—

Let me not think on 't — Frailty, thy name is woman !

A littlo month ; or ere those shoes were old.

With which she followed my poor father's body,

Like Niobe,^ all tears ; — why she, even she, —

0 heaven ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, '

Would have mourned longer,^ — married with mine uncle,

l^Iy father's brother ; but no more like my father,

Than I to Hercules : within a month ;

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

1 Hj/peWo?!.] This word, which denotes sublimity, was a namo given to the father of the Sun, and sometimes to Sol himself or Apollo, It here denotes Apollo, whose golden locks and majestic beauty are so much celebrated in classic poetry. Hamlet afterwards attributes to his father * Hyperion's curls,' iii. 4.

2 Niohe.'] The wife of Amx^hion, king of Thebes. She was proud of the number of her children, and gloried over Latona, who had only two, Apollo and Diana ; but these two, on tliat account, slew all the offspring of Niobe. Jupiter then changed Niobo into a rock, from which a rivulet, supplied by her tears, continually flowed.

8 Discourse of reason.] Discourse here moans the power of arguing or inferring ; that discursive faculty which investigates both the past and the future, of which Hamlet afterwards says ' Sure He that made us with such large discourse, looking before and after,' &c. iv. 4. * An understanding man, and one that can discern between discourse and sophistry,' Chilling worth's Religion of Protestants, Prcf. 3 : * What is discourse, but drawing conclusions out of premisses by good consequence.' Ibid. 12. * Wo through madness frame strange conceits in our discoursing brains.' Ford's Lady's Trial, iii. 3. * Martin Luther, conducted, no doubt, by a higher providence, but in discourse of reason, finding, '<S:c. Bacon's Advancement of Learning, Bk. 1. See the Editor's Essa?/s of Bacon, p. 1, note 6.

20 HAMLET. ACT I,

Had left tlie flusliing of her galled eyes,^

She married : — 0 most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuoiTS sheets ;

It is not, nor it cannot come to, good ;

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue !^

Enter Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus.

JTor. Hail to your lordship !

Ham. I am glad to see you well:

Horatio, — or I do forget myself.

Hor, The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

Ham, Sir, my good friend ;^ I'll change that name with you. And what make you * from Wittenberg, Horatio ?— Marccllus ?

Mar. My good lord, —

IIain. 1 am very glad to see you ; good even, sir, — But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ?

Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord,

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so ; Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,

* Left tlie flusliing.] Ceased to produce flusliing. To leave very often signified to leave off or cease: 'Leave wringing of your hands J ' Hamlet, iii. 4. 'I cannot leave to love.' Two Gent, of Verona, ii. 6 j * I leave to be, if,* &o. Hid. iii. 1.

2 Break my heart, &c.] So in K. Richard II. ii. 1,

* My lieart is great ; but it must break with silence, Ero 't be disburdened with a liberal tongue.' s Sir, my good friend, &c.] Sir, call yourself rather my good f dend j I will exchange the name of friend with you. Compare Note 1, p. 24.

* What malce you."] What do you : a frequent use of the verb malce in the old dramatists. * What make these naked weapons here ?* B. Jonson's Silent Woman, iv. 7.

8CENE II. HAMLET. 21

To make it truster of your own report Against yourself: I know you arc no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinorc ? Wc *11 teacli you to drink deep ere you depart.*

Hor, My lord, I camo to see your father's funeral.

Ham. I i^ray thee, do not mock me, fellow- student; I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio ! the funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my dearest^ foe in heaven Ere I had seen that day, Horatio ! — My father, — methinks, I see my father.

Ilor. 0, where, my lord ?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I saw him once ; he w^as a goodly king.

Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.

Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.

Ham. The king my father !

Hor. Season your admiration for a whilo^ With an attent ear ; till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.

Ham. For heaven's love, let mo hoar.

1 To drhik deep.] Hamlet means jestingly to intimate that Horatio, having come amongst a people addicted to drinking, is in danger of learning the habit. lie afterwards remarks that the Danes were noted in this way, i. 4.

2 Dearest.] Chief. In 1 K. Henry IV. iii. 2, the king calls his eon his * nearest and dearest enemy.*

0 Season your admiration.] Control or temper your wonder, To admire formerly meant to ivondcr at.

22 HAMLET. ACT I.

Hor, Two niglits togellicr liad these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, In the dead waste^ and middle of the night, Been thns encountered : — A figure like your father, Armed to point, exactly,^ ca;p-a-])G, Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them : thrice he walked, By their oppressed and fcar-snrprised eyes. Within his truncheon's length ; whilst they, distilled Almost to jelly with the act of fear,^ Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to mc In dreadful secrecy impart they did ; And I with them the third night kept the watch ; Where, as they had delivered, both in time. Form of the thing, each w^ord made true and good, The apparition comes : I knew your father : These hands are not more like.

flam. But where was this ?

Mar» My lord, upon the platform where we watched.

flam. Did you not speak to it ?

flor. My lord, I did ;

But answer made it none : yet once me thought It lifted up its head, and did address

^ Wasie^ Solitude, deserted time. A vast^ ot waste, more fre- C[ueiitiy a vastness or wastness (from the Lat. vastus), meant a •wilderness or desert space. * Their excursions into the limits of physical causes hath bred a vastness and solitude in that track/ Bacon's Adv. of Learning, Bk. II. * Through woods and wastncsa wide him daily sought.' Spenser's F. Queen, I. iii. 3.

2 Armed to jpoint.] The expression to 'jgoint, Fr. de x-oint en xoint, means exacthj. The more common phrase was at all points, which is here the reading of the folio edition. * The doughty challenger came forth, all armed to point.' Spenser's F. Queen, IV. iii. G. * Forth came Artegall, — all armed to point.* Ihid. Y, v. 5.

8 With the act] Through the action or influence.

fJCENE II. HAMLET. 23

Itself to motion, like as it would speak : But, even then, the morning cock crew loud 5 And at the sound it shrunk in haste away. And vanished from our sight.

Ham, 'T is very strange.

Hor, As I do live, my honoured lord, 't is true ; And we did think it writ down in our duty, To lot you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles mc— Hold you the watch to-night ?

All, We do, laj lord.

Ham, Armed, say you ?

AIL Armed, my lord.

Ham. From top to toe ?

AIL My lord, from head to foot-.

Ham. Then saw you not his face ?

Hor. 0, yes, my lord j

He wore his beaver up.

Ham, What, looked he frowningly ?

Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

Ham. Pale, or red ?

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham. And fixed his eyes upon you ?

Hor. Most constantly.

Ham. I would I had been there,

Hor. It would have much amazed you.

Ham.. Very like, very like : staid it long ?

Hor, While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

Mar.f Bcr. Longer, longer.

Hor. Not when I saw it.

Ham. His beard was grizzled ? no ?

Hor. It was as I have seen it in his life — • A Bablo silvered.

24 HAMLET. ACT I,

Ham. I will watch to-niglit;

PcrcLance 't will walk again.

Ilor. I warrant it will.

Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, I *11 speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto concealed this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still ; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, Give it an understanding, but no tongue ; I will requite your loves. So, fare ye well : Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, 1 'II visit you.

All, Our duty to your honour.

Ham. Yo\ir love/ as mine to you : Farewell.

[Exeunt HoR., Mar., and Ber. My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well ; I doubt some foul play : w^ould the night were come ! Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

[Exit.

SCENE III— ul Room in Polonius' House. Enter Laertes and Ophelia.

Laer. My necessaries are embarked \ farewell ; And, sister, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is assistant, do not sleep. But let me hear from you.

Opli. Do you doubt that ?

Lacr, For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favours,

1 Your lovc.l Say rather your love. Comi-)arc Note 3, p. 20.

SCENE III. HAMLET. 25

Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood ; A violet in tho yonth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute ; No more.

Ojph, No more but so ?

Laer. Think it no more :

For nature crescent does not grow alone In thews,^ and bulk ; but, as this temple waxes, The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now ; And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirclr The virtue of his will ; but you must fear, His greatness weighed, his will is not his own ; For he himself is subject to his birth : He may not, as unvalued ]Dersons do. Carve for himself ; for on his choice depends The safety and the health of the whole state ; And therefore must his choice be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head : Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it, As he in his peculiar act and place May give his saying deed ; which is no further

1 Thews.] Sinews, muscles. * Care I for tlio limbs, the tliows, t.l:Q Btaturc,* &c. 2 K. Ilcmy IV. iii. 2. * Romans now liave thews and limbs like to their ancestors.* Jul. Cajsar, i. 3, The word more fre- quently used to denote manners, virtues, or moral principles. * If so were that she had mo goodo thews than her vices bad.' . Chaucer's Merchant's Tale. * Three daughters well upbrought in goodly thews.* Spenser's F. Queen, I. x. 4.

2 No soil, &c.] No foulness or cunning stains the honesty of his intentions, A ca«f cHs a crafty trick. To smirch , or besmirch, is to defile or stain. * The chaste unsmirched brow of my true mother.* Hamlet, iv. 5.

C

i6 HAMLfiT. ^QTI.

tCJban tlie main voice of Denmark goes witLal. Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, If with too credent ear you list his songs ; Or lose your heart ; or your chaste treasure opeu To his unmastered importunity. Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister ; And keep within the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough, If she unmask her beauty to the moon : Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes^• The canker galls the infants of the spring, Too offc before their buttons be disclosed ; And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent,* Bo wary then ; best safety lies in fear ; Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

02:)li* 1 shall the effect of this good lesson keep, As watchman to my heart : But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven ; Whilst, like a puffed and reckless libertine. Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede.^

Laer. 0 fear me not.

1 stay too long j — but here my father comes. —

Enter PoLOXlus.

A double blessing is a double grace, Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

1 Contagious hlastments, &c.] 'Contagious fevers are certainly contracted with greater facility in youth, than either in infancy or in age.' Buchnill's Medical Knowl. of Shaksp.

'^ Ueclcs not, &c.] Heeds not his own counsel.

SCENE III.

HAMLET. 27

Fol, Yet here, Laertes ! aboard, aboard, for Bhame ; The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, Andyou ai^e staid for. There — my blessing with you !

[^Laying his hand on Laertes' head. And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. \ Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel ; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel ; but, being in. Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, buMewthy^ voice : Takc_cacli man^s censure,^ but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy. But not expressed in fancy ; rich, not gaudy : For the apparel oft proclaims the man ; And they in France of the best rank and station Are most select and generous^ chief in that. Neither a boiTOwer nor a lender be : For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all, — To thine ownself be true ; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell ; my blessing season this in thee !

Laer, Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

Pol, The time invites you ; go, your servants tend.

Lacr. Farewell, OjDliclia; and remember well What I have said to you.

* Censure] Opinion, judgment. ■ Gmeroiis.] Noble ; gentlemanly, c2

28 HAMLET.

ACT I.

Oplh. 'T is in my memory locked,^

And. yon yourself shall keep tke key of it.

Laer. Farewell. [Eoiit Laertes.

Fol, What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to yon ?

Oph. So please yon, something tonching the lord Hamlet.

Fol, Marry, well bethonght : 'T is told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time to yon, and yon yonrself Have of your audience been most free and bounteous : If it be so, (as so 't is put on me, And that in way of caution,) I must tell yon, You do not understand yourself so clearly. As it behoves my daughter and your honour : What is between you ? give me up the truth.

Opli, He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders Of his affection to me.

Fol. Affection ? puh ! you speak like a green girl. Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders^ as you call them ?

Oioli, I do not know, my lord, what I should think.

Tol, Marry, I *11 teach you : think yourself a baby ; That you have ta'en his tenders for true pay. Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly ; Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Eimning it thus), you '11 tender me a fool.^

O'pli. My lord, he hath importuned me with love. In honourable fashion.

Fol. Aj, fcisliion you may call it ; go to, go to.

Oj;7i. And hath^^iven countenance to his speech, my lord, With all the vows of heaven.

1 *Tis in my mcmonj, &c.] Blmllarly in Masslnger's Great Dulro of Florence, iii. 1. * What you deliver to me sliall be locked up in a Blrong cabinet, of wliicli you yourself sliall keep the key.*

a A fool] This is intended to describe Ophelia.

SCENE in.

HAMLET. 29

Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks.* I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Gives tho tongue vows : these blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat — extinct in both, Even in their promise as it is a making, — You must not take for fire. From this time, daughter. Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence ; Set your entreatments at a higher rate, Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlcb, Believe so much in him, that he is young ; And with a larger tether may he walk, Than may be given you : In few,^ Ophelia, Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers ^^ Not of that dye which their investments show, But mere implorators of unholy suits. Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds. The better to beguile. This is for all, — I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Have you so slander any mementos leisure. As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet. Look to 't, I charge you : come your ways.*

O^h. I shall obey, my lord. lExeitnt.

1 Springes, &c.] A woodcock was supposed to have no brains, and hence became a name for a simpleton. * A headpiece — of woodcock without brains in it.* Ford's Lover's Melancholy, ii. 1. * Hero's tho springe I have set to catch this woodcock in.* Middleton's Roaring Gh-l.

2 In few.] In few words, in brief. *In few, they hurried us aboard a bark.* Tempest, i. 2. * But to tho cause I hang upon, which, in few, is my honour.* Beaumont and Fletcher's King and no King, iv. 3.

• Brokers.] Procurers, and not wearing their true colour. See Note in Preface, p. vii.

* Come yoi(,r ways.] The expression is still common in ihe North. 'Come a little nearer this ways.' Merry Wives, ii. 2. *Go thy

80 HAMLET, ACT I.

SCEIS^E lY.—The Platform. Enter Hamlbt, Horatio, and Makcellus,

JSTam. Tlie air bites shrewdly : It is very cold/

Mot, It is a nipping and an eager air.

Ham, What hour now ?

Hot. I think it lacks of twelve.

Mar, No, it is struck.

Hor, Indeed ? I heard it not ; then it draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

[A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance sltot off, within. What does this mean, my lord ?

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels -^ And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge.

Hor. Is it a custom ?

Ham. Ay, marry, is 't : And to my mind, though I am native here, And to the manner born, it is a custom More honoured in the breach than the observance. This heavy-headed revel, east and west, '^

ways.' Ibid, ' Come thy ways, we'll go along together.* As You Like It, ii. 3. Tlie phrase is an abbreviation for * Come on your ways.' Tempest, ii. 2.

1 It is very coZd.] See Note 3, p. 11.

^' Kee2:)s ivassail, &c.] Holds a revel, and reels through the swaggering dance. The noise of trumj^ets and ordnance had inter- rupted conversation about the Ghost, and suggested to Hamlet a subject on which he expatiates in order to beguile his anxiety.

SCENE IV.

HAMLET. 31

Makes us traduced and taxed of otlier nations :

They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrasQ

Soil our addition ;^ and, indeed, it takes

From our achievements, though performed at height,

The pith and marrow of our attribute.

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That for some vicious mole of nature in them,

As, in their birth, (wherein they are not guilty,

Since nature cannot choose his origin,)

By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,^

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason ;

Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens

The form of plausive manners ; — that these mciv

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,

Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,

Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,

As infinite as man may undergo,)

Shall in the general censure take corruption

From that particular fault : The dram of vil^

Doth all the noble substance of a doubt,^

To his own scandal —

* Soil our addition,'] Sully our title by likening us to swine. Tlio Danes and Hollanders were notorious for drinking ; but in Otliollo, ii. 3, lago says of the English, * He drinks you with facility your Dane dead drunk,' &c.

* The overgrowth, &c.] The excess of some of the four humours — blood, phlegm, choler, melancholy.

* What war so cruel, or what siege so sore, As that which strong affections do apply Against the fort of reason evermore ? '

Spenser's F. Queen, II. xi. 1.

* Of a doubt, &c.] There is here a corruption, of which various emendations have been proposed. We might suggest to substitute oft indict, that is, cause to be indicted to the charge of its own vileness ; or, oft coiidemn : but it is possible that Hamlet had not finished hia

83 HAMLET. j^cT I.

Enter Ghost.

Hot. Look, my lord, it conies ?

JSam, Angels and ministers of grace defend ns ! — Be tliou a spirit of health, or goblin damned, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked, or charitable. Thou com*st in such a questionable shape. That I will speak to thee ; I '11 call thee Hamlet., King, father, royal Dane : 0, answer me : Let me not burst in ignorance ! but tell, Why thy canonized^ bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements ! why the sepuleliic, Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urned, Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, To cast thee up again ! What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel, Revisit' st thus the glimpses of the moon. Making night hideous ; and we fools of nature^ So horridly to shake our disposition,^ With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ? Say, why is this ? wherefore ? what should we do ?

sentence wlien Horatio interrupted him, and tliat some verb being supplied after tlie word scandal would make it easier to rectify the preceding line. We have assumed dram of vile to be the likeliest ex- pression that could have been corrupted into the common reading dram of eale. Compare 1 K. Henry IV. iii. 1, where Worcester, after enumerating several faults in manners, says — ■

• The least of which, haunting a nobleman, Loseth men's hearts, and leaves behind a stain Upon the beauty of all parts besides, Beguiling them of commendation.* ^ Ca/nonized.] Consecrated by canonical rites. ^ Fools of N'ature.'] In nature's ignorance, incapable of knowing the supernatural mysteries of the other world, ^ Disjposition-'] Frame, or constitution.

riCENE IV.

HAMLET. 83

Hor, It beckons you to go away with it, As if it some impartment did desire To you alone.

Mar, Look, with what courteous action

It wafts you to a more removed ground ; i But do not go with it.

JEZbr. Ko, by no means.

Earn, It will not speak ; then will I follow it.

Hor. Do not, my lord.

Earn, Why, what should be the fear ?

I do not set my life at a pin's fee ; And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? It waves mo forth again; — I'll follow it.

JSor, What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit qf the cliff, That beetles o'er his base into the sea ? And there assume some other horrible form. Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,^ And draw you into madness ? think of it : The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain. That looks so many fathoms to the sea. And hears it roar beneath.

Earn, It wafts me still :—

Go on, I'll follow thee.

Mar. You shall not go, my lord.

* Removed!] Remote, retired. So in As You Like It, — * In so removed a dwelling j* and in Milton's II Penseroso, 78, — * Some still removed place will fit.*

2 Deprive your sovereignty of reason.] Take away from you tbo sovereign power of reason j dethrone your reason. So Sandys, in his commentaiy on Ovid, Met. xiv., refers to * headstrong appetites which revolt from the sovereignty of reason.* £3

34 HAMLET.

ACT I.

Ham. Hold off your hand.

Hor. Be ruled ; you shall not go.

Ham. My fate cries out,

And' makes each petty artery in this body^ As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. —

[Ghost hecJcons, Still am I called ; — ^unhand me, gentlemen ;

[Brealdng from them. By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me :^ — I say, away ! — Go on, I'll follow thee.

[Exeimt Ghost a7id Hamlet.

Hor, He waxes desperate with imagination.

Mar, Let 's follow ; 't is not fit thus to obey him.

IIo7\ Have after : — To what issue will this come ?

Mar, Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,

Hor, Heaven will direct it. "^~^ "'"'- "

Mar, Nay, let 's follow him. [Exeimt,

SCENE v.— 4 more r&'mte Tart of tie Platform. Be-enter Ghost and Hamlet.

Ham, Where wilt thou lead me? speak, 1*11 go no

further. Ghost. Mark me. Ham, I will.

Ghost, My hour is almost come,

1 Artery.'] * Shakspeare enteitained the medical opmion of his day, that the arteries were used for the transmission of the vital spirits.* Dr. Bucknill. * Nature, in the framing of our bodies, did not show more wonderful providence in disposing veins and arteries throughout the body, for their apt conveyance of the blood and spirit from the liver and heart to each part thereof.* Botero*s Relations of the World, ii.

2 Lets me.'] Hinders me.

SCENE V.

HAMLET. 85

When I to sulphurons and tormenting flames Must render up myself.

JSam, Alas, poor gliost !

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold.

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear.

Gliost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

Bam. What!

Gliost. I am thy father's spirit ; Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires. Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul ; freeze thy young blood ; Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres ; Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand an end, Like quills upon the fretful porcupine ; But this eternal blazon must not be^ To ears of flesh and blood : — List, Hamlet, 0 list !— If thou didst ever thy dear father love, —

Ham. 0 heaven !

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

Ham. Murder ?

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is : But this — most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ham.' Haste me to know it ; that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love. May sweep to my revenge.

Qhost, I find thee apt ;

* Eternal llazon.] Exposure of secreta of the eternal world.

36 HAMLET. ACT I,

And dnller shouldst thou be than the fat weed

That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,

Wonldst thou not stir in this. Wow Hamlet, hear :

'T is given out that, sleeping in mine orchard,

A serpent stung me ; so the whole ear of Denmark

Is by a forged process of my death

Rankly abused : but know, thou noble youth,

The serpent that did sting thy father's life,

Now wears his crown.

Ham. 0 my prophetic soul !^ mine uncle ? / Ghost Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, (0 wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce !) won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming- virtuous queen j^

0 Hamlet, what a falling-off was there !

From me, whose love was of that dignity,

That it went hand in hand even with the vow

1 made to her in marriage ; and to decline Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine !

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, —

So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,

Will sate itself in a celestial bed.

And prey on garbage.

But soft ! methinks, I scent the morning air ; Brief let me be : — Sleeping within mine orchard, — • My custom always in the afternoon, — •

1 My prophetic soul.] Tliis refers to Hamlet's previous suspicion expressed in the words, * All is not well, I doubt some foul play,* &c.

2 Seeming-virtuous.'] Spenser, in F. Queen, I. ii. 27, has Hho

Beeming-simple maid.*

6CENB V.

HAMLET. 87

Upon my secure^ hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cui^scd hebenon^ in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment ; whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man, That, svdft as quicksilver, it courses through The natural gates and alleys of the body ; And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset And curd, hke eager ^ droppings into milk. The thin and wholesome blood : so did it mine ; And a most instant tetter* barked about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand. Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatched;* Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouseled,^ disappointed, unanelcd ;

* Secure.] Unguarded. The word literally means care apart, or apart from care, and formerly often denoted careless, heedless. * Man may securely sin, but safely never.* B. Jonson's Forest, xi. See, in Scripture, Judg. xviii. 7, 10.

2 Helenon.'] No natural substance could produce the effects hero ascribed to hehenon. The word seems to be a result of the confusion of the two words henbane and hehon. In Marlowe's Jew of Malta, iii., there is mention made of * the juice of hebon,' that is, ebony, which was anciently believed to be poisonous; and perhaps Shakspearo wrote hebon: but, probably, we cannot do better than to accept hehenon as a generic name for poison, and the epithet cursed, aa implying that the poison was endowed with its deadly potency by magic : at least, such is the ' mixture rank of midnight weeds collected with Hecate's ban thrice blasted,* which is represented as made use of in the play scene.

* Eager.'] Fr. aigre, sour.

* Tettei'.} Eruption like ringworm, c Despatched.] Stripped, bereft.

0 Unlwuseled, &c.] Unlwuscled is wilhc jt the cucharlst : dis*

38 HAMLET.

ACT I.

No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head : /

Sam. 0, horrible ! 0, horrible ! most horrible !

Ghost If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not; Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest. But, howsoever thou pursu'st this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Against thy mother aught ; leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once ! The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his unefiectual fire : Adieu, adieu, Hamlet ! remember me ! [Exit

Ham. 0 all you host of heaven ! 0 earth ! What else ? And shall I couple hell ? — 0 fie ! — Hold, my heart j And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up ! — Remember thee ? Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe .^ E/cmember thee ? Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,^ That youth and observation copied there ; And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain. Unmixed with baser matter : yes, by heaven !— • * 0 most pernicious woman ! — 0 villain, villain, smiHng, damned villain !—

appointed is out oi fitness or readiness j unaneUd ia without extreme unction.

1 Glole.'] Skull.

8 Pressures.'] Impressions,

SCENE V. HAMLET. 89

My tables, my tables,^ — meet it is I set it down,

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain ;

At least I*m sure it may be so in Denmark j [ Writing,

So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word ;

It is. Adieu, adieu ! rememler me.

Hor, [Witlioid.'] My lord, my lord,—

Mar. [^Vit^lo^d.'\ Lord Hamlet, —

Hor, [WinwutJ] Heaven secure him !

Mar, IWithout'] So be it!

Hot, [ Witliout.'] HIo, ho, ho, my lord !

Sam, Hillo, ho, ho, boy ! come, bird, come.*

Enter Hokatio and Maecellus.

Mar. How is 't, my noble lord ?

Hor. What news, my lord ?

Ham. 0, wonderful !

Hor. Good my lord, tell it.

Ham. No ; you'll reveal it.

Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven.

Mar. Nor I, my lord.

Ham. How say you then ; would heart of man once think it ?— But yon*ll be secret ? —

Hor., Mar. Ay, by heaven, my lord.

Ham. There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark, — But he's an arrant knave.

* Mij iables^ Our ancestors used memorandum books made of tables of slate or ivory. Hamlet, in liis frenzy, regards the smiling villany as something so utterly beyond what ho had thought possible, that he must note it in his table-book as a warning to bowai'o of smiles.

* Hillo, ho, ho, hoy."] This is an imitation of tho manner in which the falconer used to call down a flying hawk.

40 HAMLET. ^CT I.

Hor, There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell lis this.

Ham. Why, right ; yon are i' the right :

And so, withont more circnmstance at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands and part ; Yon, as yonr business and desire shall point yon— For every man has business and desire. Such as it is, — and for mine own poor part, Look yon, I'll go pray.

ILor. These are but wild and hurling words, my lord.

Ham, I'm sorry they offend you, heartily ; Yes, 'faith, heartily.

Hot, There's no offence, my lord.

Ham. Yes, by St. Patrick, but there is, Horatio. And much offence too. Touching this vision here,— It is an honest ghost,^ that let me tell you ; For your desire to know what is between us, Overmaster it^ as you may. And now, good friends, As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers. Give me one poor request.

Bor, Wliat is't, my lord ?

We will.

Ham. Never make Icnown what you have seen to-night.

Sbr., Mar, My lord, we will not.

Ham, Nay, but swear 't.

Hot, In faith,

My lord, not I.

Mar, Nor I, my lord, in faith.

Ham, Upon my sword !

Mar, We have sworn, my lord, already.

1 An lionest gtvosOl Really the ghost of the late King. Hamlet, however, says afterwards, ' The spirit that I have seen may be the devil.'

2 O^ermasioT it."] Control or suppress that desire.

BCENE V. HAMLET. 41

Ham. In deed, — upon my sword, — in deed.*

Gimt [Boneath.'] Swear !

Ham, Ah, ha, boy ! say'st thou bo ? art thou there, truepenny ? ^ Come on, — you hear this fellow in the cellarage,— Consent to swear.

Hor, Propose the oath, my lord.

Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen-— Swear by my sword.

Ghost. [Beneath.'] Swear!

Ham. Hie et ulique ? then we'll shift our ground : — ^ Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword : Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword. \ Ghost. [Beneath.'] Swear by his sword !

Ham. Well said, old mole ! can'st Avork i' the ground BO fast? ,— A worthy pioneer ! — Once more remove, good friends.

1 In deed.] In act ; with proper ceremony. To lay one's hands on a sword, in taking oath, was to swear by the cross, which was figured on the hilt, or of which the hilt and blade themselves were a figure. So in George a Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield, *And here upon my sword I make protest;* and in K. Richard II. i. 3,

* Lay on our royal sword your banished hands ; Swear by the duty that you owe to God ;* &c.

• True-xienny.'] A cant name for a genuine honest fellow. The flippancy to which Hamlet hero gives way is true to nature j it is a kind of refuge to which terror often rushes for momentary rcHef j and in the mind of the hearer, who knows its unreality, it only excites the greater awe — * making,' as Campbell says, * hoiTor more deep by the semblance of mirth.* (Death Boat.)

8 Hie et ubique.'] Here and everywhere. Hamlet shifts ground probably on account of the nervous agitation of his friends at hear- ing the voice from below.

42 CAMLET.

ACT I.

^or. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange !

Sam. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Then are dreamt of in our philosophy. But come ; - —

Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,— As I, perchance, hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on — That you, at such times seeing me, never shall With arms encambered thus, or this head shako, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phase. As, Welly we Icnow; — or. We could, an if we would; — Or, If lue list to speaJc; — or. There he, anif tliey mujld;— Or such ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me ; — This not to do. So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear !

Ghost, \Beneath,'] Swear!

Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit ! — So, gentlemen, With all my love I do commend me to you, And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do, to express his love and friending to you, God wilHng, shall not lack. Let us go in together ; And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. The time is out of joint; — 0 cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right !— Nay, come, let 'a go together, [Exeunt

SCENE I.

HAMLET, 48

ACT II.

SCENE I. — A Boom in Polonius* Eou-se^ Enter Polonius ani Reynalbo,

Tdl. Give him tins money, and these notes, Reynaldo.

Rey, I will, my lord.

Fol. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo, Before you visit him, to make inquiry Of his behaviour.

Bey, My lord, I did intend it.

Fol. Marry, well said : very well said. Look you, sir, Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris ;^ And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,^ What company, at what expense ; and finding, By this encompassment and drift of question,® That they do know my son, come you more nearer Than your particular demands will touch it : Take you, as 't were, some distant knowledge of him ; As thus, — I Jcnow Ids father ^ and Ms friends^ And, in 2oart, him ; — Do you mark this, Reynaldo ?

Bey, Ay, very well, my lord.

1 Danskers.'] Danes. Dansh was the ancient name of Denmark. Sir T. Overbury says that the Ingrosser of Com, hating the Danish Btilyard, ' wishes that Danske were at the Moloccos.'

2 Where they 'keep.'] Where they haunt.

• Encomjpassment and d/rift.] Range and scope.

44 HAMLET. ACT II

Fol. And, in part, 1dm ; — hut, you may say, not ivell : But, if H he he I mean, lie's very luilcl ; Addicted — so and so ; and there pnt on him What forgeries you please ; marry, none so rank As may dishonour him ; take heed of that ; But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips As are companions noted and most known To youth and liberty

Bey, As gaming, my lord.

FoL Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrellmg, Drabbing : — You may go so far.

Bey, My lord, that would dishonour him.

Pol, 'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge. You must not put another scandal on him. That he is open to incontinency ;

That's not my meaning : but breathe his faults so quain fcly. That they may seem the taints of liberty ; The flash and outbreak of a fiery mindj A savageness in unreclaimed blood. Of general assault.^

Bey, But, my good lord, —

Pol, Wlierefore should you do this ? ^

Bey. Ay, my lord, I would know that.

Pol, Marry, sir, here's my drift ;

And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant :^ Yon laying these slight sullies on my son. As 't were a thing a little soiled i' the working,*

1 Of general assault."] That generally besets j'outh.

2 Wherefore, &c.] Would you know wherefore you should, &e.

^ A fetch of %varrant.'] An approved artifice. ' All the fetches of art and sophistrj'-.* Chillhigworth's Religion of Protestants. (Dedic.)

* I' the vjorking.] In the making.

SCENE I.

HAMLET. 46

Mark you,

Your party in converse, him you would sound, Having evcr^ seen in the prenominate crimes The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured Ho closes with you in this consequence, — Good sir, or so ; or, friend, or gentleman, — According to the phrase or the addition, Of man, and country.

Bey, Very good, my lord.

Pol And then, sir, does he this, — he docs^ What was I about to say ? I was about to say something : — where did I leave ?

Bey. At * closes in the consequence.' At * friend, or so, and gentleman.'

Pol. At * closes in the consequence ' ? — Ay, marry ; He closes with you thus : — I Icnotv the g&iitleman ; I saw Mm yesterday, or f other day, Or then, or then ; ivith such and such ; and, as you say, There was he gaming ; thexe overtook in ^s rouse : There falling out at tennis ; or perchance, I saw him enter such a house of sale (Videlicet, a brothel,) or so forth. — See you now ;

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth : And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlaces, and with assays of bias,« By indii'cctions find directions out ; So, by my former lecture and advice. Shall you my son : You have me, have you not ?

Bey. My lord, I have.

1 Having ever.] If lie has at any time.

2 Assays of bias.] Experiments out of the direct course. A bias 18 a weight on one side of a ball causing it to turn from a btraight

course.

Fol, God be wi' you ; fare you well.

Bey. Good, mylord.^

Fol. Observe liis inclination in yourself.'^

Bey. I shall, my lord.

Fol. And let him ply his music. ^

Bey, Well, my lord. [ExiU

Enter Ophelia.

Pol Farewell !— How now, OiDhelia? what *s tho matter ?

O^pJi. Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted !

Pol. "With what, i' the name of heaven ?

OpJi. My lord, as I was sowing in my chamber, Lord Hamlet, — with his doublet all unbraced ; ISTo hat upon his head, his stockings fouled, Ungartered, and down-gyved to his ancle :* Pale as his shirt ; his knees knocking each other ; And with a look so piteous in purport, As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors, — he comes before me.

Pot Mad for thy love !

Op//. My lord, I do not know j

But, truly, I do fear it.

Pol What said he ?

Oph He took me by the wrist, and held me hard ; Then goes he to the length of all his arm ; And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face,

1 Good, my lord.] Oood is here interjectional. See note 2, p. 14.

2 In yourself.] Without any remarks or questions to him about it.

s Ply his music] Have his free scope.

* Doxvn-gyvcd.] Turned down and gathered round his ancles like shackle rings. Gyves are fetters.

SCENE I. HAMLET. 47

As he would draw it. Long staid lie so ;

At last, — a little shaking of mine arm,

And thrice his head thus waving up and down,—

He raised a sigh so piteous and profound,

That it did seem to shatter all his bulk,

And end his being : That done, he lets me go :

And, with his head over his shoulder turned,

He seemed to find his way without his eyes ;

For out o* doors he went without their help.

And, to the last, bended their light on me.

Pol. Come, go with me ; I will go seek the king. This is the very ecstasy of love ; ^ "Whose violent property fordoes itself, ^ And leads the will to desperate undertakings, As oft as any passion under heaven That does afllict our natures. I am sorry,— What, have you given him any hard words of late ?

Ojjh' No, my good lord ; but, as you did command, I did repel his letters, and denied His access to me.

FoL That hath made him mad.

I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him :^ I feared he did but trifle. And meant to wreck thee ; but, beshrcw my jealousy I It seems it is as proper to our age To cast beyond ourselves^ in our opinions. As it is common for the younger sort To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king :

i Ecstasy,] Madn6§a«

* Fordoes*] Undoes, destroys.

* Quoted him.] Reckoned, estimated, or noted him.

* To cast heijond ourselves.] To conjecture farther than our reason warrants.

48 HAMLET.

ACT TI.

This must be known; which, being kept close, might

move More grief to hide than hate to utter love.* [Exeunt.

SCENE 11—^ R)om in the Castle,

'Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Attendants.

King. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern ! Moreover that we much did long to see you. The need we have to use you did provoke Our hasty sending. Something have you heard Of Hamlet's transformation ; so I call it, Since not the exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was : Wliat it should be, More than his father's death, that thus hath put him So much from the understanding of himself, I cannot deem of: I entreat you both. That, being of so young days brought up with him. And since so neighboured to his youth and humour, — That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court Some little time : so by your companies To draw him on to pleasure ; and to gather, So much as from, occasions you may glean, Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus. That, opened, lies within our remedy.

Queen. Good gentlemen, he haffi much talked of you j And, sure I am, two men there are not living To whom ho more adheres. If it will please you To show us so much gentry ^ and good will,

^ Might move more griefs &c.] Might occasion more trouble i'or our having concealed Hamlet's love, than hatred on his part for our having told it.

2 Gentry,] GentiHty, courtesy.

SCENE II. HAMLET. 49

As to expend yonr tiine with ns a wliile, For the supply and profit of our hope,^ Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king's remembrance.

Bos, Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty.

Guil. But we both obey ;

And here give up ourselves, in tlie fall bent To lay our service freely at your feet. To be commanded.

King. Thanks^ Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Roscncrantz : And I beseech you instantly to visit My too much changed son. — Go, some of you, And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Gtdl. Heavens make our presence, and our practices. Pleasant and helpful to him !

Queen, Ay, amen !

\^Exeunt Ros., Guil., and some Attendants.

Enter Polonius.

Fol. The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, Are joyfully returned.

King. Thou still ^ hast been the father of good news.

Fol, Have I, my loi'd ? Assure you, my good liege, I hold my duty, as I hold my soul. Both to my God, and to my gracious king : And I do think (or else this brain of mine Hunts not the trail of policy so sui-e

* For the supx-thjy &c.] As the means, and for the furtlicrauce, of what we hope to accomplish.

- Still.] Always. Formerly the most common meaning cf the word.

50 HAMLET.

ACT II,

As it liatli used to do) that I have found The very canse of Hamlet's lunacy.

King. O, speak of that ; that I do long to hear.

Fol. Give first admittance to the ambassadors ; My news shall be the fruit^ to that great feast.

King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.

lExit Pol. He tells me, my sweet queen, that he hath found TJio head and source of all your son's distemper.

Queen. I doubt it is no other but the main, — His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.

Ee-enter Polonius, with Yoltimand and Cornelius.

King. Well, we shall sift him. Welcome, my good friends ! Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway ?

Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires. UlDon our first,^ he sent out to suppress His nephew's levies ; which to him appeared To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack ; But, better looked into, he truly found It was against your highness : Whereat, — grieved That so his sickness, age, and impotence, Was falsely borne in hand,® — sends out arrests On Fortinbras ; which he, in brief, obeys ; Receives rebuke from Norway ; and, in fine, Makes vow before his uncle, never more To give the assay of arms against your majesty. Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,

1 The fruit.'] The dessert.

2 Upon ourjlrst.'] Upon our first intimation.

2 Falsely lorne in hand.] Gulled. To hca^r in hand was to keep in expectation ; so in B. Jonson*s Widow, ii. 1, * You have borne me m liand this three months, and now fobbed mej' and in his Tolpone, i. 1,

* Still bearing them in hand. Letting the cherry knock against their lip3, And draw it by their mouths, and back again.'

eCENE II. HAMLET. 51

Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee ;

And his commission, to employ those soldiers,

So levied as before, against the Polack ;

With an entreaty, herein further shown, [Gives a paper.

That it might please you to give quiet pass

Through your dominions for his enterprise,

On such regards of safety and allowance

As therein are set down.

Kivg, It likes us^ well ;

And, at our more considered time, we '11 read, Answer, and think upon this business. Mean time, we thank you for yom' well- took labour f Go to your rest ; at night we '11 feast together : Most w^elcome home ! \_Exeunt Yolt. ajid CorvN.

PoL This business is well ended. —

My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is. Why day is day, night night, and time is time. Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit. And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, 1 will be brief; Your noble son is mad : Mad call I it : for, to define true madness, AVhat is 't, but to be nothing else but mad : But let that go.

Qiceen, More matter, with less art.

Pol. Madam, I swear, I use no art at all. That he is mad, 'tis true : 't is true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foohsh figure ;_ But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him, then : and now remains, That we find out the cause of this effect, —

1 It Wkes us.] We like it. This inverted plirasoology, imitative o£ llio Latin impersonal verb, was common with our early writer?.

52 HAMLET. A.CT II.

Or, rather say, tLe cause of tlils defect;

For tills effect defective comes by cause:

Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.

Perpend.

I have a daughter — have, while she is mine,— «

Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,

Hath given me this : Now gather, and surmise.

[Reads.] — To the celestial, and my souVs idol, the most beautified Ophelia —

That 's an ill phrase, a vile phrase ; beautified is a vile phrase ; but you shall hear : — Thus :

In her excellent white hosom, these.

Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her ?

Pol. Good madam, stay awhile ; I will be faithful.

IReads. Douht thou the stars a/re fire $

Doubt that the sun doth move ; Doubt truth to be a liar ; But never doubt I love.

0 dear Ophelia^ I am ill at these numbers ; I have not art to recTcon my groans; but that I love thee best, 0 most best, believe i-t. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET.

This, in obedience, hath my daughter showed me : And, more above, hath his solicitings. As they fell out by time, by means, and place, All given to mine ear.

King. But how hath sho

Received his love ?

Pol. What do you think of me ?

King. As of a man faithful and honourable.

Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you think, When I had seen this hot love on the wing, (As I perceived it, I must tell you that,

8CENB IX*

HAMLET. S3

Before my daughter told me,) what might yon,

Or my dear majesty yoiir queen liere, think,

If I had played the desk, or table-book ;

Or given my heart a -winking, mute and dumb ;

Or looked upon this love with idle sight ; —

Wliat might you think ? no, I went round ^ to work,

And my young mistress thus I did bespeak j

Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star ; ^

This must not he : and then I precepts gave her,

That she should lock herself from his resort,

Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.

Which done, she took the fruits of my advice ;

And he, repulsed, (a short tale to make,)

Fell into a sadness ; then into a fast ;^

Thence to a watch ; thence into a weakness ;

Thence to a hghtness ; and, by this declension,

Into the madness whereon now he raves,

And all we wail for.

King, Do you think 't is this ?

Queen, It may be very likely.

* Roimd,] Definitely and plainly.

* Out of thy star.] Out of thy lot,

8 Fell into a sadness, &c.] * The manner/ says Dr. Bucknill, ' in which Polonius hero traces the effect of Hamlet's supposed disap- pointment in love, represents a physiological chain of events which can often be observed in the development of insanity from a moral cause.* Med. Knowl. of Shaksp. ' We recognise,' says Dr. Connolly, ' all the phenomena of an attack of mental disorder consequent on a Budden and sorrowful shock : first, the loss of all habitual interest in surrounding things ; then, indifference to food, incapacity for cus- tomary and natural sleep j and then, a weaker stage of fitful tears and levity, the mirth so strangely mixed with " extremest grief;** and then, subsidence into a chronic state in which the faculties are generally deranged. These are occurrences often noticed in patholo- gical experience, and even in the secLuenc© mentioned.* A Study of Hamlet, p. 77.

54 HAMLET. ACT II.

Fol. Hath there been siicli a time, (I 'd fain know that,) That I have positively said, ^T is so, When it proved otherwise ?

King, Not that I know.

Fol, Take this from, this, if this be otherwise :

[Fointing to Ids head and slioulder. If circumstances lead me, I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre.

King. How may we try it further ?

Fol, Youknow, sometimes he walks four hours together, Here in the lobby.

Qtieen. So ho does, indeed.

Fol, At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him : Be you and I behind an arras then ; ^ Mark the encounter : if he love her not, And be not from his reason fallen thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state, And keep a farm and carters.

King, We will try it.

Bnter Hamlet, reading.

Queen, But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes

reading. Fol. Away, I do beseech you, both away ! I '11 board him presently : — O, give me leave. —

[Exeunt Kmo, Queen, and Attendants. How does my good lord Hamlet ? FLam. Well, God-'a-mercy. Fol. Do you know me, my lord ?

•* Behind an arras.] So in Meriy Wives, iii. 3, * I will ensconce mo beliind the arras j' and in 1 K. Henry lY. ii. 4, * Go, hide theo behind the arras.* The tapestry hangings, with which rooms were sometimes adorned, had a considerable space between them and the wall, to prevent their being injured by damp.

SCENE II.

HAMLET. 55

Ham, Excellent ^vell ; you are a fislimonger.*

PoL Not I, my lord.

Earn. Tlien I tn^ouIcI you were so honest a man.

Pol Honest, my lord ?

Earn. Ay, sir ; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

Pol. That *s very true, my lord.

Earn, [Reads.] For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog^ heing a god hissing carrion, — Have you a daughter ?

Pol. I have, my lord.

Earn. Let her not walk i* the sun : conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter may conceive, — friend, look to 't.

Pol. How say you by that ? [^Asidc.'] Still harping on my daughter; — yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger : He is far gone, far gone : and, truly, in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I '11 speak to him again. — What do you read, my lord ?

Earn. Words, words, words !

Pol. What is the matter, my lord ?

Earn. Between who ?

Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my lord.

Earn, Slanders, sir ; for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards ; that their faces are wrinkled ; their eyes purging thick amber, and plum-tree gum ; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with weak hams : All of which, sir, though I most power- fully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down ; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward.

* A fishmonger^ Tlie word hero means a fisherman as well as a seller of fish, ono who has the craft of angling. ' Hamlet/ saya Coleridge, * dislikes the man [Po'on'us] as false to his true allegiance in the matter of the succession to the crown.*

66 HAMLET. ACT ir.

Pot [Aside.'] Tliongli this be madness, yet there is method in 't.^ Will yon walk out of the air, my lord ?

Sam* Into my grave ?

Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside.'] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter. — My honourable lord, I will humbly take my leave of you.

Ham, You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part "svithal, — except my life, except mj life, except my life.

Pol. Fare you well, my lord.

ILam, These tedious old fools !

Enter EosENCEANTZ and GuildenSTDpit.

Pol, You go to seek my lord Hamlet ; there he is.

Bos, God save you, sir ! [To Polonius.

[Kelt Polonius.

Guil. Mine honoured lord !—

Eos. My most dear lord !

Hani. Mj excellent good friends ! How dost thou, Guil- denstern! Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both ?

Eos. As the indifferent children of the earth.

Guil. Happy, in that we are not over happy ; On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.

Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe ?

1 There is method in H.] In Measure for Measure, v. 1, tlie Dulio eays of IsalDella — ■

* If slie be mad, — as I believe no otber, — Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, Such a dependency of thing on thing, As ne'er I heard in madness.*

m

^^■f 8C£NE II.

B Bos. ]S

HAMLET. 57

Bos. Keitlier, my lord.

Earn. What *6 the news ?

Eos. None, my lord ; but that the world 's grown honest.*

nam. Then is dooms-day near : ^ but your news is not true. Let mo question more in particular : What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither ?

Guil. Prison, my lord !

Ham. Denmark 's a prison.

Bos» Then is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one ; * in which there are many con- fines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one of the worst.

Bos. We think not so, my lord.

Ham. Why, then 't is none to you : for there is nothing either good ox* bad but thinking makes it so : to mo it is a prison.

Bos. Why, then your ambition makes it one j *t is too narrow for your mind.

Ham. 0 God ! I could be bounded in a nut-shell, and count myself a king of infinite space ; were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guil. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow.

Bos, Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quahty, that it is but a shadow's shadow.

* The world's grown honest.'] This is said artfully, -witli tlio design of drawing on Hamlet to betray tho nature or cause of liis melancholy.

^ Then is dooms'day near.] The world cannot have grown honest unless through the terror of approaching doomsday. Hamlet is at once upon his guard, and proceeds to question his visitors,

9 Goodly.] Spacious.

d3

58 HAMLET, ACT n.

Ham, Then are our beggars bodies; and onr monarcbs and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows : ^ Shall we to the court ? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.

Mos.^ Guil. We '11 wait upon you.

Kam. No such matter : I will not sort you with the rest of my servants ; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended.^ But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore ?

Bos. To visit you, my lord ; no other occasion.

Kam. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks ; but I thank you : and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear, a halfpenny.^ Were you not sent for ? Is it your own inclining ? Is it a free visitation ? Come, deal justly with me : come, come ; nay, speak.

Guil. What should we say, my lord ?

Ham. Why, anything, — but to the purpose. You were sent for ; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour : I know the good king and queen have sent for you.

Bos. To what end, my lord ?

Ham. That you must teach me. But lot me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obh'gation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could

1 Tlien are our leggars hodieSi &c.] Then our lean beggars, who are shadows, must be bodies, of which monarchs and heroes, who rei^rcsent ambition, are the outstretched shadows. Playing or fenc- ing with words in this way, reasoning as Hamlet calls it, was a favourite amusement among the wits of Shakspeare's time : his dramas abound with specimens of it.

2 Attended.] Waited upon. Hamlet here alludes to the annoy. an30 of his being watched and observed so much.

3 Too dear, a haJfpenmj.] Worth a halfpenny less than your kindness. The halfpenny was a coin introduced at the beginning of the reign of James I.

SCENE II.

HAMLET. 59

charge you Tvitlial, bo even and direct with me, whether yoa were sent for, or no ?

Bos. What say you ? [To Guild.

Ham, Nay, then I have an eye of you: lAsidc.']^^^ If you love me, hold not o£P.

GuiL My lord, we were sent for.

Ham, I will tell you why ; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery ,2 and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather.® I have of late (but wherefore I know not) lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises: and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my dis- position, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to mo a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, tho air, look you, — ^this brave * o'erhanging firmament — this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, — why, it appears no other thing to mo than a foul and pestilent congre- gation of vapours. . What a piece of work is a man ! How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty ! in form and moving, how express '^ and admirable! in action, how like an angel ! in apprehension, how like a god ! the beauty of the world ! the paragon of animals ! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither — though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.

Eos. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said, man delights not me ?

Bos. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man,

1 I have an eye of you.] I discern your purpose,

* Pr event ymir discovery.] Forestall or preclude your disclosure to mo. 8 Moult no feather.] Remain unviolated. Tho expression alludea

to the dislodgment of feathers from helmets at tilting matches. * Tho great barriers moulted not more feathers.* Webster's White Devil, i.

* Brave.] Grand.

* Express.^ Distinguished, peculiar.

60 HAMLET. ACT II.

■\vliat lenten^ enteriainment the ]olaycrs sliall receive frcin ' yon : we coted^ them on the way ; and hither are they coming to offer yon service.

JLcim. He that plays the king shall be welcome, — his majesty shall havetribnte of nie : the adventnrons knight ehall nso^ his foil and target : the lover shall not sigh gratis ; the hnmorons man* shall end his part in peace : the clown shall make those langh whose lungs are tickled o' the sere ;^ and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse ^ shall halt for *t. — "^Yhat players are they ?

J2o5. Even those you were wont to take dehght in, the tragedians of the city.

TLcim, How chances it they travel ? their residence*, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways.

Hos, I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.

Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city ? Ai'e they so followed ?

Hos. No, indeed, they arc not.

ILam, How comes it ? Do they grow rusty ?

Eo5. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace : But there is, sir, an aiery of children, little eyases,' that

1 Lenient Mcagro.

2 Qoiedij^ Came alongside of. Fr. cotoyer, Rosencrantz after- wards says, * We o'errauglit [i.e. overtook] tliem on the way/ iii. 1.

8 Shall atse.] Shall have employment for.

* The humorous man.] The man actuated by fitful humour or by a predominating humour.

5 Tickled o' the sere.'] The sere or sear was the touch-hole of a pistol. * Tickle o' the sere' meant ready for excitement,

6 Or the hlanh verse.] Though the metre should be maimed to give lier scope.

7 Eyases.] Young unfledged hawks. The poet refers to the * children of Paul's/ or the ' children of the revels/ viz., the choir- boys of St. Paul's Cathedral, or of the Chapel Eoyal, by whom plays were performed, often in the Chapel itself, in his time.

fiCElTE II.

HAMLET. 61

cry out on the top of question,^ and are most tyrannically clapped for 't : these are now the fashion ; and so bcrattle the common stages, (so they call them,)^ that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come' thither.

Ham. What, are they children? who maintains them? how are they escoted ? * Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing ? '^ will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players, ^ (as it is most like, if their means are no better,) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own Buccession ? '

Eos. Faith, there has been much to do on both sides ; and the nation holds it no sin, to tarre them^ to contro- versy : there was, for a while, no money bid for argu- ment, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.

Ham, Is 't possible ?

* Cry out on the top of question.] Utter the loftiest cliallengeg.

8 Berattle the common stages.] Rattle out against the common theatres.

8 Afraid of goose-quills.] Afraid of being satirised in prologues, &c., by the patronisers of the childi'en, and dare not frequent the ordinary theatres.

* Escoted.'] This is supposed to mean paid.

*^ Pursue the quality, &c.] Follow the profession only until the voice breaks. The word quality denoted a professed art or occupation : * Give us a taste of your quality' [= a specimen of your art]. Ilanilct, ii. 2. 'A man of such perfection as we do in our quality much want/ [quality = occupation of an outlaw]. Two Gent, of Verona, iv. 1.

^ Common playei-s.] Players on the ' common stages' which they now cry down. I cannot suppose strolling players to be here intended,

7 Their own succession.] What they themselves are to become.

" To tarre them.] To set them on. So in K. John iv. 1-^ * And like a dog that is compelled to fight, Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on.*

62 HAMLET. ACT II.

Gu il, 0, tlioro lias been mucli tlirowmg about of brains .

Ham. Do tlie boys carry it away ? ^

Eos. Ay, tbat tliey do, my lord; Hercules and his load^ too.

Ham. It is not strange; for mine uncle is king of Denmark; and those that would make mowes at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. There is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

[Floimsh of trumjpets without.

Guil. There are the players.

Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come, the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony : let me comply with you in the garb ;^ lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome : but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.

Gidl. In what, my dear lord ?

Ham. I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.*

* Cany it axmy."] Bear away tlio X3a!m, gain tlio day.

2 Hercules, &c.] Tlio allusion is to Shakspeare's own theatre, the Glohe, at the Banksido, Southwark, so called from its being sur- mounted by a figure of Hercules supporting a globe, on which was written, Totus miindus agit histrionem [Every one in the world acts the part of a player], corresponding to Shakspeare's ' All the world 's a stage,* &c,

s Let me com'ply, &c.] Let me adapt myself to you in this way, give you reception ceremoniously, lest what I extend to the players, &c., should more appear like entertainment than what I show to you.

* A hawh from a handsaiv.] Handsaw, in this proverbial saying, was a common corruption of hernshaw, that is, the heron. Hamlet means that he is not to be deceived by spies. Spenser, F. Queen,

SCENE II.

II AM LEX, 63

Enter Polonius.

Pol, Well be with yon, gentlemen !

Ham. Hark you, Guildenstcrn, — and you too; — at each ear a hearer ; that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swathing-clouts.

Bos. Happily he's the second time come to them ; for they say an old man is twice a child.

Ham, I will prophesy ho comes to tell me of the players; mark it. — ^You say right, sir; o' Monday morning ; ^ 't was so, indeed.

Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you.

Earn. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome, —

Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord;

Ham. Buz, buz ! ^

Pol. Upon mine honour, — »

Ham. Then came each actor on his ass. —

Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pas torical- comical, historical* pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical- comical-historical- pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited : Seneca

VI. vii. 9, refers to the wary manner in which the hemshaw evades the falcon : —

* As when a cast of faulcons make their flight At an hemshaw that lies aloft on wing/ &c.

* ToK, say right, &c.] Thia irrelevant language is spoken aloud, to prevent Polonius from conjecturing what kind of communication Hamlet had been holding with Eoseucrantz and Guildenstcrn.

2 BuZf huz.] An expression of unwillingness to hear stale news, or idle rumours. That Polonius takes it in the latter sense is evident from his continuation/ upon mine honour;' whereupon Hamlet, virtually returning his words — * If the actors are come hither upon your honour* — ^adds the sorry enough jest, ' then came each actor oa Ilia ass/— words probably occurring in some old poem.

64 HAMLET, ACT II.

cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty,^ these are the only men.

Kam, 0 Jcphthah, judge of Israel, — what a treasure hadst thou !

Pol, What a treasure had he, my lord ?

Ham, Why —

One fair daughter and no more, The which he loved passing well,

Pol, Still on my daughter. lAside,

Ham, Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah ?

Pol, If you call me Jephthah, my lord, 1 have a

daughter that I love passing well. Ham. Nay, that follows not. Pol, What follows then, my lord ? Ham. Why —

As hy lot, God wot,^

and then, you know,

It came to x>ass, As most Wee it ivas.

* The law of writ, «&;c.] Dramatic rule and tlio licence of varying from it,

2 Why, As hy lot, &c.] That is, the line that follows in the ballad is As hy lot, &c. A version of the * pious chanson/ or religious ballad hero quoted, will be found in Percy's Reliques, from which we shall extract the first stanza, or roiv as Hamlet calls it ;— * Have you not heard these many years ago,

Jephtha was judge of Israel ?

He had one only daughter and no mo,

The which he loved passing well j

And as by lot, God wot,

It so came to pass, as God*s vdll was,

That great wars there shall be,

And none should be chosen chief but he.' See Staunton's excellent edition of Shakspeare for another version, which the scraps quoted by Hamlet more closely resemble.

SCENE II.

nAMLET. 65

Tho first row of the pious clianson will show you more : for look, where my abridgment comes.^

Enter Four or Five Flayers,

You are welcome, masters ; welcome, all : — I am glad to see thee well : — welcome, good friends. — 0, my old friend ! Thy face is valiant^ since I saw i\\QQ last ; Comest thou to beard mo in Denmark ? — What ! my young lady ^ and mistress ! By'r-lady,* your ladyship is nearer heaven, than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine.^ Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring/ — Masters, you are all welcome. We '11 e'en to 't like French falconers, fly at anything we see : We *11 have a speech straight : Come, give us a taste of your quality ; come, a passionate speech.^

1 Abridgment,'] This, as Staunton observeg, was ' anotlier word for pastime;' thus in Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1, *what abridgment have you for this evening.* Shakspearc, however, de- signed also to signify that Hamlet's address to Polonius was cut short by the entrance of the players.

2 Valiant] In the Merchant of Venice, iii. 2, Bassanio, speaking of cowards wearing beards, says * these assume but valour's excre- ment.' The quartos, however, have valanceclf that is, fringed.

8 My young lady.] This is addressed to a youth j for female characters were then played by boys.

* By 'r-lady.] By our lady, the Virgin Mary,

5 Chopine.'] The chopine was a kind of clog, with prodigiously thick soles, worn chiefly by Spanish and Italian ladies,

^ Cracked within the ring.] Become too manly for the acting of female characters. The allusion is to the ring or circle on angels and other gold coins, which were rendered uncurrent when they had a crack extending from the edge beyond tho ring. So in Barry's Earn Alley, v., we have ' current metal — whole within the ring ;' in Dekkar's Honest "Whore, vii., * I hope you will not let my oaths bo cracked in the ring ;* and in B. Jonson's Magnetic Lady, * Light gold, and cracked within the ring.*

' Passionate.'] Full of emotion.

6(5 HAMLET.

ACT II.

1 Tlaij. What speecli, my lord ?

Ham, I heard thee speak me a speech once, — ^but it was never acted ; or, if it was, not above once ; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million ; 't was caviare to the general -} bnt, it was (as I received it, and others, whose judgment, in such matters, cried in the top of mine)* an excellent play; well digested in the scenes ; set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there were no sallets^ in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation ; but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One chief speech in it I chiefly loved : 't was -Eneas' tale to Dido ; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's slaughter : If it live in your memory, begin at this line ; let me see ; —

The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast, ^t is not so; — it begins with Pyrrhus :—

The rugged Pyrrhus — he, whose sable armg, Black as his jDurpose, did the night resemble When he lay couched in the ominous horse — Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared With heraldry more dismal \ head to foot

1 Caviare to tJie genemt] Too fine for the generality of people. "Tis well your hate points at the general.* Shirley's Humorous Courtier. Caviare was a Eussiau delicacy prepared from the roe of the sturgeon ; and to have a relish for it was considered a mark of refined taste. * They i:>resent me with some sharp sauce, or a dish of delicate anchovies, or a caviare, to entice me back again.* Brewer's Lingua, ii. 1. " Let us go and taste some light dinner, a dish of sliced caviare, or so.* B. Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, iii. 1.

2 Cried in the top of mine.] Crowed over mine; had much higher authority than mine.

8 No sallets.} No salads ; no adventitious seasoning.

SCENE II. HAMLET. Q7

Now is lie total gules ; horridly tricked ^ With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrannous and damned light To their vile murders : Roasted in ^vrath and firo, And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsiro Priam seeks.

Pol. Tore God, my lord, well spoken ; with good accent, and good discretion.

1 Play, Anon he finds him

Striking too short at Greeks ; his antique sword, Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, Repugnant to command : Unequal matched, Pyrrhus at Priam drives j in rage strikes wide ; But with the whifF and wind of his fell sword Tho unnerved father falls. Then senseless lUum, Seeming to feel his blow, with flaming top Stoops to his baso ; and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear : for, lo ! his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick : So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood ; And, like a neutral to hia will and matter, Did nothing.

But, as we often see, against some storm, A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still. The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death : anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region :^ So, after Pyrrhus' pause, Aroused vengeance sets him new a work ; And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall On Mars's armours, forged for proof eterne. With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword Now falls on Priam. — Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune ! All you gods,

1 Total gules; horridly tricked.'] Gules, in Heraldry, id a red colour ; tricked is fantastically painted. ■ Begion.'] See Note 1, p. 71.

68 HAMLET. ^CT II.

In general synod, take away her power ; Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, And bowl the round nave down the hiU of heaven, As low as to the fiends.

PoZ. This is too long.

Ham. Itshall to the barber's, with your beard.^ — Prithee, say on : — He 's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry ; or he sleeps : — say on : come to Hecuba. 1 Flay. But who, 0 who, hath seen the mobled queen,—-

Ham. The milled queen ? ^

Fol, That 's good : mohled queen is good.

1 Play. Run barefoot up and down, threat' ning the flame With bisson rheum ; s a clout about that head. Where late the diadem stood j and, for a robe, About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up ; Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced. But if the gods themselves did see her then, When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport In mincing vdth his sword her husband's limbs, The instant burst of clamour that she made, (Unless things mortal move them not at all,) Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,* And passion in the gods,^

Pol, Look, wher° he has not turned his colour, and has tears in *s eyes. — Pray you, no more.

Ham. *T is well ; I 'II have thee speak out the rest soon. —-Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed ?

^ With your heard."] To be cut short and trimmed, as your beard is done. No doubt heard has an oblique satirical reference to Polonius' wisdom or judgment.

2 Mohled.] Muffled.

^ Bisson rheujn.] Blinding tears.

* Made milch.] Made moist as with tears. ' Passion.] Emotion, sorrow.

* Whcr.] This contraction for whether was very common.

SCENE II. HAJ^ILET. ^^

Do you liear ? let them be well used ; for tliey are the abstracts and brief clironicles of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live.

Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

Ham. Od's bodykins, man, better : Use every man after his desert, and who should *scape whipping ! Use them after your own honour and dignity : the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

Pol. Come, sirs.

[Exit Pol., with some of the Players.

Ham. Follow him, friends : we '11 hear a j)lay to- morrow.— Dost thou hear me, old friend ? can you play The Murder of Gonzago ?

1 Play. Aj, my lord.

Ham. We'll have 't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set doAvn, and insert in 't ? could you not ?

1 Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Very well. — Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit Player.] My good friends, [To Ros. and GuiL.] I '11 leave you till night : you are wel- come to Elsinore.

Bos. Good my lord —

Ham. Ay, so, God be wi' you : — [Exeunt Ros. aiid Guil.

Now I am alone. 0, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! Is it not monstrous, that this player here. But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his whole conceit, That from her working all his visage wanned ; Tears in his eyes, distraction in *s aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting*

* Fiinciion.] Faculty of action.

70 HAMLET. ^CT II.

Witli forms to his conceit ? And all for nothing !

For Hecuba !

What 's HecTiba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her ? What would he do,

Had he the motive and the cue for passion

That I have ? He would drown the stage with tears,

And cleave the general ear with horrid speech ;

Make mad the guilty, and appal the free.

Confound the ignorant ; and amaze, indeed,

The very faculties of eyes and ears.

Yet I,

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak

Like John- a- dreams, unpregiiant of iny causc,j

And can say nothing ; no, not for a king.

Upon whose property,^ and most dear life,

A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward ?

Who calls me villain ? breaks my pate across ?

Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face ?

Tweaks me by the nose ? gives me the lie i' the throat,^

^ Peak like John-a-dreams, Sec] Creep about languiclly like a sleepy -Headed dreamy fellow, unready in my cause. Jolin-a-dreams was a cant name for sucli a fellow.

2 Property.'] Prerogative, rank, state.

8 Gives one the lie.] The * word of the lie/ as Bacon calls it, was in old times a thing of serious moment: To give one the lie was to impute to him a cowardice that is afraid to speak truth, and challenged him to stake his personal safety in defence of his reputation. There were, however, two principal degrees of dis- honour imputed in this way : — simply to give one the lie, was to impute an untimth that might have been somewhat hastily or in- considerately uttered ; but the lie in the throat implied deliberate and deeply-intended falsehood, and this charge was often aggravated by some such addition as that in the text — 'as deep as to the lungs.*

* Did I say 3'ou were an honest man ? I had lied in my throat if I had said so/ 2 K. Henry lY, i. 2, * As low as to thy heart,

SCENE II.

HAMLET. 71

As deep as to the lungs ? Who does me this ? ha !

Why, I should take it : for it cannot be,

But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall

To make oppression bitter ; or, ere this,

I should have fatted all the region^ kites

With this slave's offal : — Bloody, bawdy villain !

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain !

O vengeance ! —

Why -what an ass am I ! This is most brave,

That I, the son of the dear murdered,

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell.

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,

And fall a cursing, lilce a very drab,

A scullion !

Fie upon *t ! foh ! About, my brains ! I have heard,

That guilty creatures, sitting at a play.

Have by the very cunning of the scene

Been struck so to the soul, that presently

through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest/ K. Richard II., i. 1. * I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, where it was forged, with ray rapier's point,' Ihid.fiv. 1.

Fuller, in his Profane State, ch. 12, says, ' He that is called a liar to his face is also called a coward in the same breath, if he swallows it ; and the party charged doth conceive that if he vindicates his valour, his truth will be given him into the bargain.' The idea of the cowardice involved in falsehood may be traced to Plutarch's Lysandcr, where, according to North's translation, it is said, * Ho that deceiveth his enemy, and breaketh his oath to him, showcth plainly that ho feareth him, but that he careth not for God.* ^lontaigne borrowed this sentiment from his favourite Plutarch, though Bacon (Essay on Truth) seems to give Montaigne the credit of having originated it.

1 Region.'] Shakspearo sometimes uses this word to denote the airy region, or the element. It has this sense in the Player's speech about Pyrrhus, p. 67, In the Merry Wives, iii. 2, * Ho is of too high a region,* means his element is too livjlu

72 HAMLET.

ACT IL

They liave proclaimed their malefactions ;

For murder, thongh it hath no tongue, will speak

With most miraculous organ. I '11 have these players

Play something like the murder of my father,

Before mine uncle : I '11 observe his looks ;

I '11 tent him to the quick ; if he but blench,

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen

May be the devil : and the devil hath power

To assume a pleasing shape ; yea, and, perhaps,

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

(As he is very potent with such spirits)

Abuses me^ to damn me : I '11 have grounds

More relative than this : — the play 's the thing,^

\Yherein I '11 catch the conscience of the king. [Exit

1 Abuses me.'] Practises on my credulity with a forged story. In the old * llistorie of Hamblet/ it is said that the prince had learned that science with which the evil spirit abuses men, and that perhaps, through the power of his melancholy, he received such imi-)ressions as enabled him to divine past occurrences with which no man had acquainted him.

2 The play 's the thing.] Compare what Massinger (Roman Actor, ii.) makes Paris say, * Now could yon but persuade the emperor to see a comedy we have/ &c.

SCENE X. HAMLET. 73

ACT III.

SCENE I.— ^ Boom in ilic Castle. Enter King, Queen, Poloxius, Ojphelia, Rosencrant?,

and GUILDENSTERN.

King, And can you, by no drift of circumstance,^ Get from him why he puts on this confusion; Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy ?

Bos. He does confess he feels himself distracted ; But from what cause he will by no means speak.

Guil, Nor do w^e find him forward to be sounded ; But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof. When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state.

Queeii, Did he receive you well ?

Bos. Most like a gentleman.

Gtiil. But with much forcing of his disposition.

Bos. Niggard of question ; ^ but, of our demands, Most free in his reply.

Queen. Did you assay him '

To any pastime ?

^ Drift of circumstance.'] Design of circumvention.

2 Niggard of question, &:c.] Niggard of what wo tried to draw out of him, but yet kindly and courteoua in his maimer of answering our inquiries.

• Assay 1iim.\ Try to induce him j or, perliap?^ try his inclination, s

74 HAMLET. ACT 111*

Eos. Madam, it so fell out, tliat certain players "We o'er-raught on the way : of these we told him ; And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it. They are about the court ; And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him.

Fol. 'T is most true :

And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties, To hear and see the matter.

King^ With all my heart ; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, And drive his purpose on to these delights.

Bos, We shall, my lord. [Exeunt Eos. and Guil.

King, Sweet Gertrude, leave us too :

For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither j That he, as 't were by accident, may here Affront^ Ophelia.

Her father, and myself, — ^lawful espials, — Will so bestow ourselves, that seeing, unseen. We may of their encounter frankly j adge ; And gather by him, as he is behaved. If 't be the affliction of his love or no, That thus he suffers for.

Queen, I shall obey you :—

And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness ; so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honom^s.

* Affront.] Meet, encounter. So in Cook's Green's Tu Quoqne, *This I must caution you of, in your affront or salute, never to move your hat.* And in Spenser's F. Queou, * Who him affronting soon to fight was ready prest,*

SCENE I. HAMLET. 75

Opli. Madam, I wisli it may.

lExH Queen.

Pol. Ophelia, walk you liere : — Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves : — Read on this book ;

[To Ophelia. That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness. — We are offc to blame in this, — 'T is too much proved, that, with devotion's visage, And pious action, we do sugar o'er The devil himself.

King. [Aside.'] 0, 't is too true ! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience ! The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art. Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it. Than is my deed to my most painted word : 0 heavy burden !

FoL I hear him coming ; let *s withdraw, my lord.

[Exeunt King and Polonius.

Enter Hamlet.

Sam. To be, or not to be, — that is the question : Whether 't is nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,^ And by opposing end them. — To die, — to sleep, — No more ; ^ and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to ? — 't is a consummation

^ Sea of troubles.'] Perhaps the poet meant see, or siege, = scat, which is in metaphorical keeping with the besieging slings and arrows j but * sea of troubles* may bo supposed, in a coUective sense, to imply no special metaphor,

2 No more.'] It seems uncertain whether these words are assertive or interrogative, viz., whether they mean that is all, or is that all f £2

76 HAMLET.

ACT in.

Devoutly to be wished. To die,— to sleejD ; * —

To sleep ! perchance to dream ! — ay, there 's the rub ; ^

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off^ this mortal coil,

Must give us pause : there 's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life :

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pang of disprized love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

Wheti he himself might his quietus * make

With a bare bodkin ? ^ who would fardels ^ bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

1 -Devoutly,] Pcrtaps this may mean — consistently with religion.

2 RuJ).] A rnh was an obstacle in a bowling alley, that raiglit ' arrest or turn aside the ball. Sir T. Overbury, in his Characters,

spcaliing of the Creditor's dislike of the prayer * forgive us our debts/ &c., says, * He either quite leaves out or leaps over that j it is a dan- gerous rub in the alley of his conscience.* So in Fuller's Holy State, i. 2, ' A rub to an overthrown ball proves an help by hindering it.*

^ Shii;§lccl offy &c.] Put off this mortal body that is now coiled around the soul.

4 Quietus.] The phrase Quietus estf meaning is released from ohligation or trouble, was used in legal discharges or acquittances. So in the old play of The Gamester, v., * Some younger brother would have thanked me, and given my quietus ;' and Overbury says of the Franklin, * He needs not fear his audit, for his quietus is in heaven.* In Fletcher's Chances, ii. 1, Antonio, when wounded, says, * He has given me my quietus est*

^ Bodkin.] A name for a short dagger.

^Fardels.'] Packs or burdens. * There are also officers who . attend and take view of the packs, fardels, and other parcels of com- modity landed,* Wheeler's Treatise of Commerce (1601), p. 60. * The fardel of all this ware^ — carried upon the backs of these two beasts,* Overbury 's Characters (The Hypocrite).

BOBNB I. HAMLET. 77

But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all ; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought ; And enterprizcs of great pith and moment. With this regard,^ their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. — Soft you now ! The fair Ophelia ! — Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remembered.

0;ph. Good my lord,

How does your honour for this many a day ?

Ham, I humbly thank you : well, well, well.

Oj^li. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longed long to re-deliver ; I pray you, now receive them.

Ham. No, no. I never gave you aught.

Oplu My honoured lord, I know right well you did ; And with them, words of so sweet breath composed As made the things more rich : their perfume lost, Take these again ; for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.

Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest?^

Ojph. My lord ?

Ham. Are you fair ?

Oioli. What means your lordship ?

Ham, That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.

1 This regard.l This regard of tlio future. • HonesW^ Chaste.

78 HAMLET. ACT III.

Oi^h, Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty ?

Ham. Aj^ truly ; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness : this was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.

Opli. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

Ham. You should not have believed me : for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it : I loved you not.

OijJi. I was the more deceived.

Ham. Get thee to a nunnery ; why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners ? I am myself indifferent honest ; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me : I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious ; with more offences at my beck^ than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in: What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth ! We are arrant knaves, all ; believe none of us : Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father ?

Oj^li. At home, my lord.

Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in 's own house. Farewell.

Op7^. 0, help him, you sweet heavens I

Ham, If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go ; farewell : Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool ; for I wise men know well enough what monsters^ you make of them. To a nunnery, go ; and quickly too. Farewell. ' 1 At my heck.l That I am ready to do wlien occasion requires.

2 Monstersi] Viz., Horned men, cuckolds. Tliis is spoken in reference to the queen's conduct.

SCfENE I.

HAMLET. 79

Oph, 0 heavenly powers restore him f

Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough, God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another ; you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick* name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance : Go to, I '11 no more on 't ; it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages : those that are married already, all but one, shall live ; the rest Bhall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.

[Exit Hamlet.

Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword ; TJie expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion,^ and the mould of form, The observed of all observers, — quite, quite down ! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That sucked the honey of his music vows. Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ; That unmatched form and feature of blown youth, Blasted with ecstasy : 0, woe is me ! To have seen what I have seen, see what I see I

Be-enter King and Polonius. Kmg. Love ! his aflfections do not that way tend ;

* The glass of fashion.] What was meant by calling a person tlio glass of fashion, mirror of courtesy, and tho like, is evident from 2 K. Henry IV. ii. 3—

' By his light Did all the chivalry of England move, To do brave acts : ho was indeed tho glass Wherein the noble jouth did dress themselves.* So also in B. Jonson's Dedic. of his Cynthia's Revels — ' To tho special fountain of manners, the Court : in thee the whole kingdom dresseth itself| and is ambitious to uso thee as her glass.'

80 HAMLET.

ACT III.

Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,

Was not like madness. There 's something in his soul,

O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;

And, I do doubt, the hatch and the disclose^

Will be some danger : Which for to prevent,

I have, in quick determination,

Thus set it down : He shall with speed to England

For the demand of our neglected tribute :

Haply, the seas, and countries different,

With variable objects, shall expel

This something-settled matter in his heart;

Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus

From fashion of himself. What think you on 't ?

Pol. It shall do well ; but yet do I believe, ' The origin and commencement of his grief Sprung from neglected love. — How now, Ophelia, — You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said ; We heard it all. — My lord, do as you jolease ; But, if you hold it fit, after the play, Let his queen mother all alone entreat him To show his griefs ; let her be round^ with him j And I '11 be placed, bo please you, in the ear Of all their conference ; If she find hinj not, To England send him : or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think.

King, It shall be so ;

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. \E:ceimt

1 The disclose^ The offspring or issue.

2 Bound.l Plain-spoken, freo and full. Uound te^nns are full and explicit, not abl?reviated.

SCENE n. HAMLET. 81

SCENE 11.—^ Eall in the same. Enter Hamlet, and certain Players.

Ham, Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue : but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town- crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus : but use all gently : for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. 0, it offends me to the soul, to see a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a pas- sion to tatters, to very rags, to split the cars of the groundlings,^ who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows ^ and noise: I could have such a fellow whipped for overdoing Termagant j it out-herods Herod :^ pray you, avoid it.

1 Flay. I warrant your honour.

1 The groundlings.'] Those of the audience that occupied the yard or pit of the theatre. The censure here passed on the taste of the habitues of the pit might give offence to some j but our poet, zealous for the reformation of such taste, presently asserts that the opinion of one judicious hearer should, in the actor's estimation, outweigh a whole theatre of others.

2 Dumb sliow.] * The dumb sliovj consisted of dumb actors who by their dress and action prepared the spectators for the matter and substance of each ensuing act, respectively ; as also of much hieroglyphical scenery, calculated for the same purpose,' Warton's Observations on Spenser, vol. ii., p. 80. The play-scene in Hamlet is introduced by a dumb slioiv.

3 Termagant : . . Herod.] Termagant, one of the Saracen deities, and Herod, the king of Jewry, were clamorous and violent characters in the old Moralities. A blustering ranting style espe- cially characterised the acting of Termagant, Chaucer, in the Miller's Tale, says : —

* Sometime, to show his lightness and maistrye, He playeth Herod on a scaffold hye. . »3

82 HAMLET. ACT III.

Kam. Be not too tame neither, but let your own dis- v cretion be your tutor : suit the action to the word, the / ) word to the action ; with this special observance, that / you o'erstep not the modesty of nature ; for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature ; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body^ of the time his form and pressure. Now, this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, can- not but make the judicious grieve ; the censure of the which one must, in your allowance, o'er weigh a whole theatre of others. 0, there be players that I have seen play — and heard others praise, and that highly — ^not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of christians, nor the gait of christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

1 Flay, I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir.

Ham. 0, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clo^vns speak no more than is set down for them : for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to^et on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some necessary question of the play be then to be considered : that 's villainous ; and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready, [Exeunt Players.

Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. How now, my lord ? will the king hear this piece of work?

1 Tlie age and lody of the time.] The present age wilh all its constituent features.

SCENE n.

HAMLET. 83

Tol, And tlio queen too, and that presently. Ham. Bid the players make haste, [Exit POL.

"Will you too help to hasten them ? Jjotlu We will, my lord.

[Exeunt Eosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Bam. What, ho, Horatio !

Enter Horatio.

Sor, Here, sweet lord, at your service,

Sam. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man As e*er my conversation coped withal,

JSor. 0, my dear lord, —

Sam, Nay, do not think I flatter :

For what advancement may I hope from thee, That no revenue hast but thy good spirits, To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be

flattered ? No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp ; And crook the pregnant^ hinges of the knee, Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear ? Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, And could of men distinguish, her election Hath sealed thee for herself: for thou hast been As one, in sufiering all,^ that sufiers nothing ; A man that fortune's buflets and rewards Hath ta'en with equal thanks : and blessed are thoso

1 Pregnant-I Eeady.

2 In suffering all, &c.] That through cheerfully bearing all things, suffers nothing. Hamlet himself had not the elasticity of mind ho hero attributes to Horatio. In saying, as ho does presently, * blessed are thoso whoso blood and judgment aro so well comingled/ &c., ho is conscious that he himself is not thus blessed.

84 HAMLET. ACT in.

Whose blood and judgment are so well comingled,

•That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger w

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man I

That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him I

In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As I do thee. — Something too much of this.—

There is a play to-night before the king ; -

One scene of i^ comes near the circumstance

Which I have told thee of my father's death:

I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,

Even with the very comment of thy soul

Observe mine uncle : if his occulted guilt

Do not itself unkennel in one speech,

It is a damned ghost that wo have seen ;

And my imaginations are as foul

As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note

For I mine eyes will rivet to his face ;

And, after, we will both our judgments join

In censure of his seeming.

Hot, Well, my lord.

If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

Ham. They are coming to the play ; I must be idle :* Get you a place.

JUnter King, QtJEEN, Polonius, Ophelia, Eosencrantz, GuiLDENSTERN, and other Lords attendant, with the Guard, carrying torches. Banish March. Sound aflotirish.

King. How fares our cousin, Hamlet ? Ham. Excellent, i' faith ; of the cameleon's dish : I eat the air, promise-crammed :^ You cannot feed capons so.

1 Be idle.] Staunton properly observes that to be idle here means to affect being crazy.

^ I eat the air, ^c] So in 2 K. Henry IV, i. 3, Tre haye 'Eating

BCENE n.

HAMLET. - 85

King. I have nothing with this ans wer, Hamlet ; these words are not mine.

Ham. No, nor mine now — My lord, — you played once in the university, you say ? [To Polonius.

FoL That I did, my lord, and was accounted a good actor. Ham, And what did you enact ? FoL I did enact Julius Ceesar: I was killed i' the Capitol : Brutus killed me.

Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. — Be the players ready ?

Bos, Ay, my lord ; they stay upon your patience. Qtieen. Come hither, my good Hamlet, sit by me. 1 Ham, No, good mother, here *s metal more attractive. ' Pol. 0 ho ! do you mark that ? [To the King.

Ham, Lady, shall I lie in your lap ?

[Lying doiun at OpnELiA*s/ee^. Oph. No, my lord.

Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap ? Oph, Ay, my lord.

Ham, Do you think I meant country matters ? 0;pli. I think nothing, my lord. You are merry, my lord . Ham. Who, I ? 0;pli. Ay, my lord.

Ham. 0 God ! your only jig-maker.' What should a man do, but be merry ? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

Ojyh. Nay, 't is twice two months, my lord.

Ham. So long ? Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for

the air on promise of supply.*

* Jig-maker.] A jig, in Shakspeare*s time, was a merry ballad, tts well as a dance. ♦ Jig-makers and chroniclers shall pick some- thing out of you,' Dekkar's Honest Whore, u

86 HAMLET. ACT III.

I *11 have^ a suit of sables. 0 heavens ! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet ? Then there 's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year ; But, by'r lady, he must build churches, then : or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, For, 0, /or, 0, the hohhy-Jwrse isforqot?

Bautloys 'play. The dumb sJioiv enters.

Enter a King and a Queen, very lovingly ; the Queen embracing him. She Icneels, and malces show of x>'>'otestation unio him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon herneclc; lays him down upon a bank of flowers ; she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King* a ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some two or three mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poisoner ivoos the Queen with gifts; she seems lodth and imwilling awhile, but, in the end, accepts his love.

[Exeunt,

0;ph. What means this, my lord ? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho f it means mis- chief.

* For I*ll have, &c.] It has been suggested that Shakspeare wrote, '/o7*0 I*ll have; it does not seem easy to find a good sense in the ordinary reading.

2 The hobby-horse is forgot. The hobby-horse was a figure like a horse put in motion by a person who seemed to sit on its back, and was anciently used in the morris dances at the May-day and Christ- mas festivities. In the eyes of puritanical rigour it was a gross abuse, and it was eventually proscribed. There appears to have been in Shakspeare*s time some well-known ballad, the burden of which is here quoted by Hamlet. So, in B. Jonson's Satyre, * But see, the hobby-horse is forgot ;' and in Fletcher's Women Pleased, iv. 1, * Shall the hobby-horse be forgot then ? *

3 Miching mallecho.] Sneaking mischief. Mallecho is from the Spanish. A 7nicher is an idler, a skulking fellow, and sometimes a fily thief. * Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher ? ' IK.

SCfENE II. HAMLET. 87

0;ph. Belike, this stow imports the argumeiit of the play.

Enter Prologue. Ham, We shall kuo w by this fellow : the players cannot keep counsel ; they '11 tell all.

0])li, Will he tell us what this show^ meant ? JELam, Ay.

Fro, For us, and for our tragedy,

Here, stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently.

Ham, Is this a prologue, or the poesy of a ring p • 4]

Op/i. 'T is brief, my lord. Ham» As woman's love.

Enter Gonzago omd Baptista.

Gonz, Full thirty times hath Phcebus' cart gone round Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground; And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen About the world have times twelve thirties been j Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands. Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

Bajpt. So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o*er, ere love be done ! But, woe is me, you are so sick of late. So far from cheer, and from your former state, That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must : For women's fear and love holds quantity ; a In neither aught,^ or in extremity.

Henry IV., ii. 4. *Look to it, micher,* Ram Alley. 'I never looked for better of that rascal since he came miching first into our house,* Heywood's Woman killed with Kindness.

1 This s'how.'] See Note 2, p. 81. It was consistent enough with the purpose of the dunib show that a king and queen should fore* show a duke and duchess.

^ Holds qiiantity.} Are in the same proportion.

• In neither aught, &c.] In neither case is there any, or else it is excessive.

88 HAMLET. xQfp III.

Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know | And as my love is sized, my fear is so. Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear j Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

Gonz. *Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too | My oi^erant powers their functions leave i to do 2 And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, Honoured, beloved j and haply, one as kind For husband shalt thou —

Bajpt, O, confound the rest !

Such love must needs be treason in my breast : In second husband let me be accurst ! None wed the SQcond, but who killed the first.*

Ham. [Aside.'] Wormwood, wormwood.

The instances that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love j A second time I kill my lord that *s dead. When second husband kisses me in bed.

Oonz. I do believe you think what now you speak | But what we do determine oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory j Of violent birth, but poor validity : Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the treof But fall unshaken when they mellow be. Most necessary 't is that we forgot To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt : What to ourselves in passion we propose, The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. The violence of either grief or joy Their own enactui-es with themselves destroy : Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament, . Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. This world is not for aye j nor 't is not strange, That even our loves should with our fortunes change |

1 Leave.'] Cease. See Note 1, p. 20.

2 ]<[one- wed, &c.] No women wed a second husband without at least having wished the death of the first.

SCENE II.

HAMLET. 69

For 't 19 a question left us yet to prove,

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune lovo.

The great man down, you mark, his favourite flies j

The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.

And hitherto doth love on fortune tend :

For v^ho not needs shall never lack a friend ;

And who in want a hollow friend doth try,

Directly seasons him his enemy.

But, orderly to end where I begun, —

Our wills and fates do so contrary ran,

That our devices still are overthrown ;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own ;

So think thou wilt no second husband wed ;

But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

Bapt. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light ! Sport and repose lock from me, day and night ! To de8j)eration turn my trust and hope ! An anchor's ^ cheer in prison be my scope ! Each opposite that blanks the face of joy. Meet what I would have well, and it destroy ! Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife, If, once a widow, ever I bo wife !

Ham, If she shonld break it now !— [To Oph.

Oonz. *T is deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me hero awhile : My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep. ISleeps,

Bajpt, Sleep rock thy brain,

And never come mischance between us twain I [Exit

Horn, Madam, how like you this play ?

Qtceen, The lady protests too much, methinks.

Ham, 0, but she '11 keep her word.

King. Have you heard the argument ? Is there no offence in 't ?

Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jestj no offence i' the world.

^ Anchor^ 8.] Anchoret's, or anchorite's : a hermit's fare.

90 HAMLET.

A.CT III,

King. What do you call the play ?

Ham. The mouse trap. Marry, how ? Tropically.^ This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna : Gonzago is the duke's name ; his wife, Baptista : you shall see anon 't is a knavish piece of work : but what of that ? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it teaches us not ; Let the galled jade wince, our withers^ are uuwrung.

Enter Lucianus.

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

0;pli. You are a good chorus, my lord.

Sam. I could interpret ^ between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying. Begin, murderer; leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come ; — The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.

Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing | Confederate season, else no creature seeing ; Thou mixture rank of midnight weeds collected, With Hecate's han thrice blasted, thrice infected, Thy natural magic and diro property On wholesome life usurp immediately,

[Pours the ^poison in 7ws cars,

1 Tropically."} Figuratively.

2 Our ivithers, &c.] Our shoulders are not galled. 'The poor jade is wrung in the withers,' 1 K. Henry IV. ii. 1. Fuller says of the faithful minister, * I should suspect his preaching had no salt in it, if no galled horse did wince.* Holy State, ii. 9.

8 Interpret.] The allusion here is to the puppet-shows, the onotions as they were called, which were explained to the spectators by a truchman or interpreter. * 0 excellent motion ! 0 exceeding puppet! Now will he interpret to her,' Two Gent, of Verona, ii. 1, 'Neither could it stand with the dignity of these shows (after the most miserable and desperate shift of the puppets) to require a iruchman,' B. Jonson's King's Entertainment at Coronation. * That [painting] he has in his parlour, which he will describe to you like a motion.' Overbury's Characters (The Ingrosser of Corn).

SCENE n.

HAMLET. 91

Ham. He poisons him i* the gardeu for his estate. His name *s Gonzago ; the story is extant, and writ in choice Itahan : you shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. O^h, The king rises ! JEam. What, frighted with false fire ! Queen. How fares my lord ? Tol. Give o*er the play. King, Give me some light : — away ! AIL Lights, lights, lights !

[Exeunt all hut Ha^i. and HoR. I[am» Why, let the stricTcen deer go weejp^ The hart ungalled play : I For some must tuatch, lohile some must sleep ; ] ' So runs the world away. — Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk^ with me,) with two Provincial roses^ on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry* of players, sir?

Kor, Half a share. Ham. A whole one, I.

For thou dost Jcnoio, 0 Damon dear.

This realm dismantled^ was Of Jove himself ; and now reigns here A very y very — -jpeacocJc, Jlor, You might have rhymed.

1 Turn Twrh'] To turn Turk was to apostatise, to prove unfaith- ful or hostile.

2 Provincial roses.] Perhaps ProvenQal roses : rosettes of ribbon, formerly worn on ^hoes. Razed is slashed; but perhaps rayed, meaning striped, was Shakspeare's word, or raised, i.e. thick-soled.

8 Cry.] Company : properly applied to a pack of hounds.

* I.] The single letter I was often used for ay, that is, yea.

• Dismantledf &c.] Hamlet, who here gives Horatio the name of

92 HAMLET.

ACT ni.

nam. 0 good Horatio, I *11 take tlie ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive ? nor. Very well, my lord. Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning ? Hor. I did very well note him.

Ha7n. Ah, ha! — Come, some musics come the re- corders.—

Fo7* if the Jcing lilce not tJw comedy,

Why, then, — hcliJce, he Wees it not, perdy. — •

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Come, some music.

GidL Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

Ham. Sir, a whole history.

GuiL The king, sir, —

Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?

Giiil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distempered.

Ham. With drink, sir ?

GuiL No, my lord, with choler.

Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to his doctor ; for, for me to put him to his purgation would, perhaps,^ plunge him into more choler.

GiiU. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.

Ham, I am tame, sir : — ^pronounce.

Damon, in allusion to the friendship of Damon and Pythiag, means that the realm of Denmark was bereft of a king who had the majesty of Jove himself, and that now there reigned a very peacock) or, as the rhyme prompts, a very ass.

1 Put liim to Ms purgation.] * You are a loose liver, sir, I have put you to your purgation.* Middleton's Mad World, iii. The double meaning of clioler was often played upon, *A god — that must have rhubarb to purge his choler, lest he be too angry.* Donne's Devotions, viii.

SCENE II. HAMLfiT. v3

Chiil. TJie queen, your mother, in most great aflOictioii of spirit bath sent me to you.

Ham. You are welcome.

GuiL Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a whole- some answer, I will do your mother's commandment : if not, your pardon and my return shall bo the end of my business.

Ham. Sir, I cannot,

Gii'il. What, my lord ?

Ham. Make you a wholesome answer ; my wit *s diseased. But, sir, such answer as I can make you shall command ; or, rather, as you say, my mother : therefore, no more, but to the matter : My mother, you say, —

Bos. Then thus she says : Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.^

Ham. 0 wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother ! —But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration ?

Uos. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed.

Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us ?

Hos. My lord, you once did love me.

Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.^

Bos. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper ? you do freely bar the door of your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.

Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.

Ro8, How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark ?

^. * Admiration.] Wonder, , 2 Pickers and stealers.] Hands. * To keep my hands from pick* { and etealing/ Church Catechism,

94 HAMLET. ^CT in.

Ham, Ay, but While the grass grows^ — the proverb is sometliing musty.

'Enter onewitli a ^Recorder.

0, the recorder :^ let me see. — To withdraw with you: — Wliy do you go about to recover the wind of me,^ as if you would drive me into a toil ?

Guil. 0, my lord, if my duty be. too bold, my love is too unmannerly.

Ham, I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe ?

Guil, My lord, I cannot.

Ham, I pray you.

Guil, Believe me, I cannot.

Ham, I do beseech you.

Guil, I know no touch of it, my lord.

Ham, 'T is as easy as lying : govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music. Look you, these are the stops.

Guil. But these cannot, I command to any utterance of harmony ; I have not the skill.

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me ; you would seem to know my stops ; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery ; you would sound me from my lowest note to

1 The recorder.'] The recorder was a kind of flute, admired for its Bwect soft tone. To record signified to warble or sing as a bird ; hence the name of the instrument. Milton mentions * the Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders.' P. L. i. 551.

- Recover the wind of me.] To ascertain where the wind sits with me. The questions by which the spies tried to find out Hamlet's Becret were as straws that are thrown up * to know where sits the wind.*

6CBNE U.

HAMLET. 95

the top of my compass : and there is mucli music, excel- lent voice, in this little organ ; yet cannot you make it speak. 'S blood,^ do you think that I am easier to bo played on than a pipe ? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me,^ you cannot play upon me.

Enter PoLONius. God bless you, sir !

Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.

Ham. Do you see that cloud, that *s almost in shape like a camel ?

Pol, "By the mass, and *t is like a camel, indeed.

Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel.

Pol. It is backed like a weaseL

Ham. Or like a whale ?

Pol. Very like a whale.

Ha/ni, Then will I come to my mother by and by.^ — [Aside . ] They fool me to the top of my bent. — ^I will come by and by. ^

1 'S htood.] In the middle ages originated those awful oaths by the blood, life, wounds, death, body, foot, &c., of the Redeemer, which afterwards became so profanely familiar in the forms — zounds, or 's wounds (God's wounds), 's death, 's foot, &c. Chaucer, in the Pardoner's Tale, says —

* It is grisly for to hear them swear ; Our blissful Lordes body they to-tear.'

* Fret me.] To fret means to irritate ; it also means to furnish guitars, &c., with fretSy or little ridges that cross the finger-board nnder the strings and mark the stops. Our dramatist, no doubt, here intended a quibble. ' Rhetoric and eloquence (as Plato saith) is an art which quickeneth men's spirits at her pleasure : and hpr chiefest skill is to know how to move passions and affections tho- roughly, wliich are as stops and sounds of the soul, that would bo played upon with a fine-fingered hand of a cunning master.* North's Plutarch, Pericles.

8 By and by.] Immediate!/.

96 HAMLET. ACT III.

Pol I will say so. [^xit Pol.

Ham, By and by is easily said. — Leave me, friends.

[Exeunt Ros., GuiL., HoR., ^c, *T is now the very witching time of night ; When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world : Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on. Soft ! now to my mother.-— 0, heart, lose not thy nature ; let not ever The soul of Nero ^ enter this firm bosom : Let me be cruel, not unnatural : I will speak daggers to her, but use none ; My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites,— How in my words soever she be shent,^ To give them seals ^ never, my soul, consent I [IlxiU

SCENE IlL — A Uoom in tie same. Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

King. I like him not ; nor stands it safe with us To let his madness range. Therefore, prepare you ; I your commission will forthwith despatch, And he to England shall along with you : The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies.

^ The soul of Nero.] Nero ordered kis mother Agripplna to bo slain. Agrippina, after tlie death of her husband Domitius, had married the emperor Claudius her uncle ; and this c^jrcnmstanco, perhaps, suggested the name for Hamlet's uncle,

» Sherit] Hurt.

• Give them seals.] Confirm, fulfil, or make good the words.

SCENE in.

HAMLET. 95r

Gidl, We will ourselves provide ;^

Most holy and religious fear it is, To keep those many many bodies safe, That live and feed upon your majesty.

Eos. The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from 'noyance ; but much more That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone ; but, like a gulf, doth draw What *s near it with it : it is a. massy wheel. Fixed on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoined ; which, when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.

Ki7ig. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage ; For we will fetters put upon this fear, Which now goes too free-footed.

Eos.f Chill. We will haste us. [JEx, Ros. and GuiL.

Enter PoLONlUS.

Pol. My lord, he 's going to his mother's closet : Behind the arras I '11 convey myself, To hear the process ; I '11 warrant she '11 tax him home. And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 'T is meet that some more audience than a mother, Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear The speech of vantage.'* Fare you well, my liege :

* Ourselves provide.] Prepare ourselves*

* Of vantage.] With advantage.

r

98 mMLET. ACT III.

I '11 call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know.

King. Thanks, dear my lord. {^Exit PoL,

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven ; It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't, A brother's murder ! — -Pray can I not ; Though inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent ; And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect. What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, — Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens. To wash it white as snow ? Whereto serves mercy, But to confront the visage of offence ? And what 's in prayer but this two-fold force,— To be forestalled ere w^e come to fall. Or pardoned being down ? Then I '11 look up ; My fault is past. But, 0, what form of prayer Can serve my turn ? Forgive me my foul murder ?— That cannot be ; since I am still possessed Of those effects for which I did the murder, — My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned, and retain the offence ? In the corrupted currents of this world. Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice ; And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself Buys out the law : But 't is not so above : There is no shuffling, there the action lies In his true nature ; and we ourselves compelled, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence. What then ? what rests ? Try what repentance can : What can it not ? Yet w^hat can it, when one can not repent !

SCENE III.

HAMLKT. 90

0 wretched state ! 0 bosom black as deafb !

0 limed soul, that struggling to be free

Art more engaged ! Help, angels ! make assay ; *

Bow stubborn knees ; and, heart with strings of steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe !

All may be well ! ^BetvreSf and Jcneels.

Enter Hamlet.

Sam. Now might I do it pat, now he is ^ praying ; And now I '11 do 't : — and so he goes to heaven : And so am I revenged ? That would be scanned :' A villain kills my father; and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven.

0, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly,^ full of bread ; With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May ; And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven ! But in our circumstance '^ and course of thought *T is heavy with him : and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul,

I (When he is fit and seasoned for his passage ? go. pp, sword ; and know thou a more horrid hent : BVhen ho is drunk, asleep, or in his rage ; f ^ Make assay. 'I Make trial : Claudius says tliis to himself. ^ Nowlw ts.] Now that, or while, ho is.

^ That would he scanned.'] That wants to he considered. This 'Jso of the vcrh u'ouZcZ occurs in the quotation in Note 2, p. 95, and was formerly very common. It is frequent in Bacon's writings.

t* Grossly, &c.] In the midst of worldly indulgence, unpurified by )ting and humiliation. » Circumstance.] Circvmsta7ice of tliov.ght seems to mean con. jtnre.

100 HAMLET.

ACT III.

Or in the mcestuoiis pleasure of his bed ;

At gaming, swearing ; or about some act

That has no rehsh of salvation in 't : —

Then trip him/ that his heels may kick at heaven ;

And that his soul may be as damned and black

As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays : —

This physic ^ but prolongs thy sickly days. [ExiL

The King rises and advances.

King, My words fly up, my thoughts remain below : Words without thoughts never to heaven go. [Exit

SCENE rV. — Another Boom in the same.

Enter Queen and Polonius.

Pot Ho will come straight. Look you lay home to him: Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear with,

^ Then trip liim.] Something more like Christianity than this occurs in Heywood*8 Woman Killed with Kindness, written before IGOl:—

* But that I would not damn two precious souls, Bought with my Saviour's blood, and send them laden With all their scarlet sins upon their backs

Unto a fearful judgment, their two lives

Had met upon my rapier.* But the horrid thought which Hamlet here indulges seems to have pleased the fancy of some other dramatists. In Machines l)tanb Knight, iii., the Duke of Epirus says to the King of Cyprus —

* You shall take them —

Even in their height of sin j then damn them both, And let them sink before they ask God pardon, That your revenge may stretch unto their souls.* And similar malignity is expressed in Fletcher's Pilgrim, ii. 2, 3 This xyhysic] This purging of thy soul.

SCENE TV. HAMLET. 101

And that your grace hath screened and stood between Much heat and him. I '11 silence me e'en here. Pray you, be round with him.

Ham. IWithout'] Mother! mother! mother!

Qiceen. I '11 warrant yoii ;

Fear me not : — withdraw, I hear him coming.

[PoLONius hides behind the arras.

Enter Hamlet.

Ham, Now, mother ; what 's the matter ?

Qiieen, Hamlet, thou hast thy father much oflfended.

Ham, Mother, yon have my father much offended.

Queen, Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Ham, Go, go, you question with an idle tongue.

Queen, Why, how now, Hamlet ?

Ham, What 's the matter now?

Queen» Have you forgot me ?

Ham, No, by the rood,^ not so !

You are the queen, your husband's brother's wufe ; And — would it were not so ! — you are my mother.

Queen, Nay, then, I '11 set those to you that can speak.

■ Ham, Come, come, and sit you down ; you shall not budge. You go not, till I set you up a glass

■ Where you may see the inmost part of you. Queen, What wilt thou do ? thou wilt not murder me ? Help, help, ho !

Pol, [Behind.'] What, ho! help! help! help!

iHami. How now ! a rat ? [Draws, ] Dead ! for

a ducat, dead ! [Hamlet mal-es a jpass through tJie arras, Pol. [Behind.li 0 I am slain. [Falls and dies,

^ The rood.] The cross.

102 HAMLET.

ACT III.

Queen, O me, what hast thoti done ?

Ham. Nay, I know not :

Is it the king ?

[^Lifts up the arras and sees Polonius.

Queen. 0, what a rash and bloody deed is this !

Earn. A bloody deed ; — almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

Queen, As hill a hing !

Ham, Ay, lady, 't was my word. —

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell 1 [To Pol. I took thee for thy betters ; take thy fortune : Thou iind'st to be too busy is some danger.— Leave wringing of your hands : Peace, sit you down, And let me wring your heart : for so I shall, If it be made of penetrable stuff: If damned custom have not brazed it so, That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen, What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise so rude agamst me ?

Ham, Such an act

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty ; Calls virtue hypocrite ; takes off the rose Prom the fair forehead of an innocent love. And sets a blister there ; makes marriage vows As false as dicers' oaths : O, such a deed As from the body of contraction ^ plucks The very soul, and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words ! Heaven's face doth glow ; Yea, this solidity ^ and compound mass. With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act.

1 Contraction!] Vowed engagement : contract of marriage. 2 This solidity.] This solid globe, the eai-th.

iCENE IV. HAMLET. 103

Queen, Ay me, what act,

That roars so lond and thunders in the index ?^

Ham. Look here, npon this picture, and on this,— ^ The counterfeit presentment^ of two brothers, See what a grace was seated on this brow: Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command j A station like the herald Mercury Ncw-hghted on a heaven-kissing hill ; A combination and a form, indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man : This was your husband. — Look you now, what follows : , Here is your husband ; like a mildewed ear Blasting his wholesome brother. — Have you eyes ? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten on this moor ? Ha ! have you eyes ? You cannot call it love ; for at your ago The hey-day in the blood is tame, it 's humble, And waits upon the judgment : and what judgment Would step from this to this ? Sense, sure, you have, Else could you not have motion : but sure, that senco Is apoplexed : for madness would not err ; Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled But it reserved some quantity of choice, To serve in such a difference. What devil was *t That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind ?* Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,

^ The index.] Tho Tiarbingcr : an allusion, perhaps, to prodigies preceding dire events, like an index preceding a book.

* Counterfeit presentment.] Copied representation.

2 Jloodman Hind.] This probably corresponds to what we now call blindmau*8 bnflf.

104 HAMLET.

ACT III.

Or but a sickly part of one true sense

Could not so mope.

O shame ! wliere is tliy blusli ? Rebellious bell,

If thou canst mutlne in a matron's bones,

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,

And melt in her own fire : proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardour gives the charge ;

Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will.

Queen, 0 Hamlet, speak no more :

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul ; And there I see such black and grained spots. As will not leave their tinct.^

Ham, Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed^ bed ; Stewed in corruption : honeying and making love Over the nasty sty, —

Queen, 0, speak to me no more !

These words like daggers enter in mine ears ; No more, sweet Hamlet !

Saon. A murderer and a villain !

A slave, that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord : — a vice of kings !^ A cutpursc^ of the empire and the rule. That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket!

Queen, No more !

1 Leave their tincf.] To leavCy hero means to lose, to part with,

2 Enseamcd.] Greasy. Scam is fat or grease.

8 A vice of kings.] The Vice was a character in the old jMoralities — a sort of buffoon or clown, sometimes wearing a coat ' of shreds and patches.'

* Cuijpurse,'] Purses used to be hung at the girdle.

80ENB IT.

HAMLET. 105

Ent&i' Ghost.

Sam, A king of shreds and patches ! — • Save me, and hover o*er me with your wings, You heavenly guards ! — What would you, gracious figure ?

Queen. Alas ! he 's mad.

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by The important acting of your dread command ? 0, say !

Ghost. Do not forget : This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But, look ! amazement on thy mother sits : 0, step between her and her fighting soul, — Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works, — • Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham. How is it with you, lady ?

Queen. Alas, how is 't with you. That you do bend your eye on vacancy, " And with the incorporal air do hold discourse ? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep ; And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm. Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,^ Starts up, and stands on end. 0 gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look ?

Ham. On him ! on him ! — Look you, how pale he glares ! His form and cause conjoined preaching to stones

1 Excrements."] The hair was often so called. The hair and beard are called by Fuller * ornamental excrements.' Profane State, 18 ; and Bassanio/in th© Merchant of Venice, calls th© beard * ?alour*s excrement.*

j9

106 HAMLET. ACT III,

Would make them capable.^ — Do not look upon me ;

Lest with this piteous action you convert

My stern effects : then what I have to do

Will want true colour ; tears, perchance, for blood.

Queen, To whom do you speak this ?

Ham, Do you see nothing there ?

Queeiu Nothing at all ; yet all that is I see.

Sam, Nor did you nothing hear ?

Queen, No, nothing, but ourselves.

Earn, Why, look you there! look how it steals away ! My father, in his habit as he lived 1^ Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal !

[Exit Ghost.

Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain : This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstasy ! My pulse as yours does temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music : It is not madness That I have uttered : bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word, which madness

1 Capahle.] Susceptible, sensible.

2 In his habit, &c.] * It is a stupid error/ says Dr. Bucknill, ' to put the Ghost on the stage clad in armour on this second occasion. ** My father, in his habit as he lived," indicates that this time the design of the poet was to represent him in the weeds of peace. The quarto edition, indeed, gives as a stage direction, *' Enter the Ghost in his night-gown." The appearance is suited to the place, even as the cap-a-pie armour to the place of warHke guard. Unlike the appearance on the battery, which is seen by all who were present, on this occasion it is only visible to Hamlet. Ghosts were supposed to have the power to make themselves visible and invisible to whom they chose; and the dramatic effect of the Queen's surprise at Hamlet's behaviour was well worth the poetic exercise of the pri- vilege,* Psych, of Shaksp.

SOBNE IV.

ha:^ilet. 107

"Would gambol from. Mother, for lovo of grace,

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,

That not your trespass but my madness speaks :

It will but skin and film the ulcerous place ;

Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,

Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven ;

Repent what *s past : avoid what is to come ;

And do not spread the compost o*er the weeds,

To make them ranker. lAside.'] Forgive me this, my

virtue ; ^ For in the fatness of these pursy times, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg ; Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

Queen. 0 HamTet ! thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

Hain. 0 throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half Good night : but go not to mine uncle's bed ; Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster. Custom,^ who all sense doth eat- Oft habit's devil — is angel yet in this, — That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery, That aptly is put on ; Refrain to-night : And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence : the next more easy ; For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And master the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. Once more, good night : And when you are desirous to be blessed,

1 My virtue."] This, as Staunton justly observes, is Hamlet's * im- ploration to his own virtue.*

* That 'monster, Custom.] Custom begets unconsciousness of tliafc evil spirit by wliicb a sinful person ia actuated in habit, and is here, therefore, likened to a monster that devours tho sense.

%0B HAMLET.

ACT III,

I '11 blessing beg of you. — ^For tliis same lord,

IPoiiiting to Polonius. I do repent. But lieaven bath pleased it S0| To punisb me with tbis, and tbis witb me, Tbat I must be tbeir scourge and minister. I will bestow bim, and will answer well Tbe deatb I gave bim. So again, good nigbt I I must be cruel, only to be kind : Thus bad begins, and worse remains bebind.— One word more, good lady.

Q^ieeii. Wbat sball I do ?

Ham, Not tbis, by no means, tbat I bid you do :— Let tbe bloat king tempt you again to bed ; Pincb wanton on your cbeek ; call you bis mouse ;^ And let bim, for a pair of reechy kisses. Or paddling in your neck witb bis damned fingers, Make you to ravel all tbis matter out, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. *T were good you let bim know : For who, that 's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, Would from a paddock,^ from a bat, a gib. Such dear concernings hide ? who would do so ? No, in despite of sense and secrecy. Unpeg the basket^ on the house's top,

^ His mouse.l This was a term of endearment. In Middleton's Roaring Girl, Gallipot says to his wife, * Whj, mouse, thy mind is nibbling at something;* and Openwork says to his wife, *Is tho countess's smock almost done, mouse ? *

^ A ;paddoclCi &c.] Hamlet calls his uncle a paddocJCf i.e., a *toad, ugly and venomous' — a tat, a sort of non-descript, half beast, half bird, that hates the light — a gihj or tom-cat, a treacherous unimal that prowls in the dark.

^ Un^peg the lasket^ &c.] Let out my mystery, and thereby en- danger your own life. To try conclusions is to try experiments. • God help them that have neither ability to help nor wit to pity

SCENE 17.

HAMLET. 109

Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, To try conclusions, in the basket creep, And break your own neck down.

Queen, Be thou assured if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me.

JTam. I must to England ; you know that ?

Queen, Alack,

I had forgot 't is so concluded on.

Sam, There 's letters sealed : and my two school- fellows,— Whom I will trust, as I will adders fanged, — They bear the mandate ; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery : Let it work, For *t is the sport to have the engineer Hoist ^ with his own petar : and 't shall go hard, But I will delve one yard below their mines, And blow them at the moon : 0, 't is most sweet, When in one line two crafts directly meet.— This man * shall set me packing. I '11 lug the guts into the neighbour room :— Mother, good night. — Lideed, this counsellor Is now most still, most secret, and most grave. Who was in life a foolish prating knave. Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you,— Good night, mother.

[Exeunt s&veralhj ; Hamlet dragging out the body of Polonius.

themselves, but will needs try conclusions between their heads and Ibe next wall.* Gabriel Harvey's 3rd Letter.

1 Hoist.'] For hoised, or hoisted.

* Thisman.l Polonios,

110 HMILBT,

ACT IV.

SCENE 1,—Tlie same. Enter King and Queen.

Kmg, There *s matter in these sighs — these profound heaves — You must translate : 't is fit we understand them : Wliere is your son ?

Queen, Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night !

King. What, Gertrude ? How does Hamlet ?

Queen, Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier : In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, He whips his rapier out, and cries, A rat ! a rat ! And, in this brainish apprehension, kills The unseen good old man.

King. 0 heavy deed !

It had been so with us, had we been there : His liberty is full of threats to all. To you yourself, to us, to every one. Alas ! how shall this bloody deed be answered ? It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt,* This mad young man : but so much was our love, We would Xioi understand what was most fit; But, like the owner of a foul disease,

^ Out of haunt.] Out of company j away from places of resort.

SCENE 11.

HAMLET. Ill

To keep it from divulging, let it feed

Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone ?

Queen. To draw apart the body he hath killed, 0*er whom his very madness, like some ore Among a mineral of metals base,^ Shows itself pure ; he weeps for what is done.

King. 0, Gertrude, come away ! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, But we will ship him hence : and this vile deed. We must, with all our majesty and skill. Both countenance and excuse.— Ho ! Guildenstern !

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Friends both, go join you with some further aid : Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him : Go, seek him out ; speak fair,'^ and bring the body Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

[Exeunt Eos. and Guil. Come, Gertrude, we '11 call up our wisest friends ; And let them know, both what we mean to do. And what 's untimely done : so, haply, slander, Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, As level as the cannon to his blank,^ Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name. And hit the woundless air. 0 come away ! My soul is full of discord and dismay. [^Exeunt,

SCENE II. — Another Boom in the same. Enter Hamlet. Ham, Safely stowed —

1 Ore among a mineral.] Gold in a mineral mass. « Fair.] Gently, softly.

• BUink.] Originally a white mark in tlio centre of a butt, at which aim was taken.

112 HAMLET.

ACT IV.

Bos. 8fc» xvitliout, Hamlet ! lord Hamlet ! Ham, What noise ? who calls on Hamlet ? 0, here they come.

Enter Bosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Bos, What have you done, my lord, with the dead body ?

Ham. Compounded it with dust,^ whereto *t is kin.

Eos. Tell us where 't is j that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.

Bos. Believe what ?

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge ! — what re- plication should be made by the son of a king ?

Bos. Take you me for a sponge, my lord ?

Ham. Ay, sir ; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end : He keeps them, like an ape doth nuts, in the corner of his jaw ; first mouthed, to be last swallowed : When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

Bos. I understand you not, my lord.

Ham. I am glad of it : A knavish speech sleeps " in a foolish ear.

Bos. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

Ham. The body is with the king,^ but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing —

1 Comjpoundedf &c.] So in 2 K. Henry lY, iv, 4, ' Compound me with forgotten dust.*

2 Sleepsy &c.] Is in no danger of being told.

8 The tody is with the king, &c.] The body is still in the king's house, but the king is not yet with the body, i.e, not yet numbered with the dead.

SCENE III.

HAMLET. 113

Giiil. A thing, my lord ?

Ham, Of notliing : ^ bring me to liim. Hide fox, and all after.* [Exeunt

SCENE III. — AnotJier Room in the same. Enter King, attended,

Kmg, I have sent to seek hio, and to find the body. How dangerous is it that this man goes loose ; Yet must not we put the strong law on him ; He 's loved of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes ; And where 't is so, the ofiender*s scourge is weighed, But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, This sudden sending him away must seem Deliberate pause : Diseases desperate grown, By desperate appliance are relieved,

Enter Eosenceantz.

Or not at all. — How now ? what hath befallen ?

Bos. Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord, We cannot get from him.

King, But where is he P

Bos, Without, my lord, guarded, to know your plea- sure.

King, Bring him before us.

Bos, Ho, Guildenstem ! bring in my lord,

* Of nothing.'] Hamlet here, pcrliaps, merely means that ho ivill Bay no more about the thing.

* l/icZfl foXf &c.] Hide foXy and all [have, or follow] afteTf was tho name of a game, now called Hide and seelc. Hamlet refers to Polonius being bid, and, 09 it were, bnnted for.

114 HAMLET.

ACT IV.

JEnter Hamlet and Guildenstern.

Ki7ig, ITow, Hamlet, where 's Polonius ?

Ham. At supper.

King, At su;p]per ? Where ?

Kam, Not wliere lie eats, but where lie is eaten : a cer- tain eonyocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet : we fat all creatures else, to fat us ; and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service ; two dishes, but to one table ; that 's the end.

King, Alas, alas !

Hani. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king ; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm,

King. What dost thou mean by this ?

Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress ^ through the guts of a beggar.

King. Where is Polonius ?

Ham. In heaven : send thither to see ; if your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants.

Ham. He will stay till you come. [Ex. Attendants.

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, — • Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done, — must send thee hence With fiery quickness : Therefore, prepare thyself; The bark is ready, and the wdnd at help, The associates tend,*^ and everything is bent For England.

1 A x>r ogress.'] Alluding to the occasional ' progresses* of sove- reigns tlirougli their dominions,

2 Tc!;uZ.] Attend or wait.

8C1:ne IV. HAMLET. ^ 115

Ham, For England ?

King. Aj, Hamlet.

Ham, Good.

King. So is it, if thou know'st our purposes.

Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. — But come; for England ! — Farewell, dear mother.

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother : Father and mother is man and wife ; man and wife is one flesh ; and so, my mother. Come, for England ! [Exit.

King. Follow him at foot ; tempt him with speed aboard, Delay it not ; I '11 have him hence to-night : Away ! for everything is sealed and done That else leans on the affair : Pray you, make haste.

[Exeiint Eos. and GuiL. And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught, (As my great power thereof may give thee sense ; Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us,) thou may*st not coldly set Our sovereign process ; which imports at full, By letters conjuring to that effect. The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England ; For like the hectic in my blood he rages, And thou must euro me : Till I know 't is done, However my haps, my joys were ne'er begun, lExiL

SCENE IV.— A Plain in Denmark. Enter Fortinbeas, and Forces marcliing.

For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king ; Tell him, that by his licence, Fortinbras Claims the conveyance of a promised march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.

116 HAMLET. ^Q,j, jy^

If tliat liis majesty would aught with us, We shall express our duty in his eye :^ And let him know so.

Cap, I will do 't, my lord.

For, Go softly on, [Exeunt For. and Forces.

Enter Hamlet, Eosencrantz, Guildenstern, &c.

Ham, Good sir, whose powers are these ?

Cap. They are of Norway, sir.

Ham. How purposed, sir,

I pray you ?

Cap. Against some part of Poland.

Havi. Who commands them, sir ?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbran.

Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier ?

Cap. Truly to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it 5 Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole. A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend ifc.

Cap. Yes, 't is already garrisoned.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats^ Will not debate the question of this straw : This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies. — I humbly tlank you, sir.

Cap, God be wi' you, sir. lExit Captain.

Eos. Will 't please you go, my lord ?

^ In his eye, &c.] In his sight or jy^esence, and do you inform kiin 80.

^■0CEN£ IV. ^^ TT

HAMLET. 117

Ham, I will be with you straight. Go a little before.

[Exeunt Ros. aiid GuiL. How all occasions do inform against me, And spnr my dull revenge ! What is a man, If his chief good, and market of his time, Bo but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more. Sure, He that made us with such largo discourse,* Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, — A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom, And ever three parts coward, — I do not know Why yet I live to say, This thing 's to do ; Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me : Witness this army of such mass and charge, Led by a delicate and tender prince ; Whose spirit, with divine ambition puffed, Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great, Is — not to stir without great argument. But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, When honour 's at the stake. How stand J, then, That have — a father killed, a mother stained, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep ? while, to my shame, I seo The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, Go to their graves like beds j fight for a plot ^ Such l<irge discourse.] Seo Noto 3, p. 19»

118 HAMLET. • ACT IV.

Whereon tlie numbers cannot try^ the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the slain ? — 0, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth !

[Exit

SCENE V.-— Elsinore. A Boom in ilic Castle Enter Queen and Hoeatio.

Queen. I will not speak with her,

E.or. She is importunate ; indeed, distract ; Her mood will needs be pitied.

Qiieen, Wliat would she have ?

jHbr. She speaks much of her father ; says, she hears There 's tricks i' the world ; and hems, and beats her

heart ; Spurns enviously at straws ; speaks things in doubt, That carry but half sense : her speech is nothing, Yet the unshaped use of it doth move The hearers to collection -? they aim at it. And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts ; Which,^ as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them. Indeed would make one think there would be thought. Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. 'T were good she were spoken with ; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

Queen. Let her come in. [Exit Horatio.

To my sick soul, as sin*s true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss ; So full of artless jealousy is guilt. It spills itself, in fearing to be spilt*

^ Cannot try.'\ Cannot t3e contained tliafc aro to try. ^ Collection,'] Conjecture* • Whicli.l Wliicli words.

SCENE V. HAMLET. 110

Be-enter Horatio with Ophelia.

OpJi. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmavt ? Qtieen, How now, Ophelia ?

O^h, [sings] How should I your true love hxoip

From another one ? By his cocldc haf^ and staff , And his sandal shoon.

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song ? O^li. Say you ? nay, pray you, mark ;—

Ec is dead and gone, lady,

lie is dead and gone ; At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Queen, Nay, but Ophelia, —

0;ph, Pray you, mark :—

VHiite his shroud as the mountain snow.

I

Enter King. Qneen. Alas ! look here, my lord.

Ojph, Larded ivith sweet flowers ;

Which hewept to the grave did go. With true-love slwvjers.

King. How do you, pretty lady ?

0;ph, Well, God 'ield you \^ They say, the owP was a

' Cockle hat.'\ A cockle or scallop shell worn in front of the hat was the badge of a pilgrim who had been in Palestine.

* But our soft beaver fells we have turned to iron, Our gowns to armour, and our shells to plumes.*

Ilcywood's Four Prentices of London. , * Qod 'tcltl yow.] A common phrase in our ancient dramas, meaning — God yield or reward you.

• The owl, *c.] The sad transformation that has taken place in Ophelia herself, and in the things that were dear to her, is tho

120 HAMLET.

ACT IV.

baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table !

King. Conceit upon her father.

OpTi, Pray you, let us have no words of this ; but when they ask you what it means, say you this :

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day

All in the morning hetime, And t a mxiid at your windoWp

To he yowr Valentine :

Tlien up he rose, and donned his clothes^

And dupped ^ the chamber -door ; Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

King. Pretty Ophelia !

O^li. Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:

By Gisy^ and hy Saint Cliarity, Alack, and fie for shame !

King. How long has she been thus ?

0_pli. I hope all will be well. We must be patient : but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i* the cold ground : My brother shall know of it, and

prompting idea of this speccli. There was a tradition that tlio Saviour once asked some bread of a baker, who, i->roceeding to comply with the request, put in the oven a piece of dough to bake, but was rebuked by his daughter for so doing j and she for her want of charity was punished by being transformed into an owl.

^ Donned — dupped.'] The verbs don and doff were used for do on and do off; and perhaps dup and doiit were similar contractions for do up and do out. * We must do on the armour of God,* Latimer, Serm. for 21st Sunday after Trin.

* By Gis, &c.] No saint's name has been found corresponding to Ois, which, therefore, is probably a corrupted contraction of Jesus. St, Charity is often referred to. * By Gys, master, I am not sick,* Gammer Gurton's Needle, iv. 1. * Ah, dear lord, and sweet 8ain*i Charity.* Spenser, Eclogues, 5, 255.

fiOENE y.

HAMLET. 121

BO I thank you for your good counsel. — Come, my coacli ! Good night, ladies ; good night, sweet ladies ; good night, good night. [Exit,

King. Follow her close ; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit Horatio.

0 ! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death : 0 Gertrude, Gertrude, When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalias ! First, her father slain ; Next, your son gone ; and he most violent author Of his own just remove ; the people muddied. Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers, For good Polonius* death ; and we have done but greenly, In hugger-mugger^ to inter him ; poor Ophelia, Divided from herself and her fair judgment. Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts ; Last, and as much containing as all these. Her brother is in secret come from France : Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father's death ; Wherein necessity, of matter beggared^ Will nothing stick our person to arraign

* In hugger-mugger.] In a liid<ien or stealthy way. ' Antoniaa thinking good his testament should be read openly, and also that hiB body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger/ &c. North's Plutarch, Brutus. * The straggler shipping his cloth and other commodity in covert manner, hugger-mugger, and at obscure ports.' Wheeler's Treatise of Commerce (1601), p. 60. * He died like a politician, in hugger-mugger, made no man acquainted with it.* Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedy, v. 'But you will to this gear in hugger-mugger.' Merry Devil of Edmonton. We find the ex- prewion also in Spenser's Mother Hubberd's Tale : — * Of all the patrimony- which a few Now hold in hugger-mugger in their band.' '

122 HAMLET. ACT IV.

In ear and ear, O my clear Gertrude, this. Like to a murdering-piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death.^ [_A noise tvitliout.

Queem Alack ! what noise is this ?

Enter a Gentleman. .

King, Where are my Switzers ? ^ Let them guard the door : What is the matter ?

Oent. Save yourself, my lord !

The ocean, overpeering of his list,^ Eats not the flats "vvith more impetuous haste, Than young Laertes, in a riotous head. Overbears your officers. The rabble call him lord ; And as the world were now but to begin. Antiquity forgot, custom not known. The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry, Choose we ! Laertes shall he Icing ! Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds, Laertes shall he hiug, Laertes Icing !

Queen, How cheerfully on the false trail they cry ! 0, this is counter,* you false Danish dogs !

King. The doors are broke. [Noise tvitJiout,

^ Superfluous death.] Death by means more than would suffice to kilK

2 Switzers.] This was a name often used to denote the body- guard of princes. * Clerk to the great band of maribones, that people call the Switzers.' Fletcher's Noble Gentleman, iii. 1.

^ Ovcrijccring of his list, &c.] Overlooking its bound, &c. Compare * He seemed, in running, to devour the way.' 2 K. Henry IV. i. 1.

* This is counter.] * When a hound hunteth backwards the same way that the chase is come, then we say he hunteth counter,* Turberville's Book of Hunting. * You hunt counter : hence! avaunt ! ' 2 K. Henry IV. i; 2.

SCENE V. HAMLET. 123

Enter Lki^UTES, armed; Bancs following.

Laer, Where is this king ?— Sirs, stand you all with- out.

Danes. No, let 's come in.

Laer. I pray you, give me leave.

Bancs. We will, we will.

[^TJiey retire loWiout the door.

Laer. I thank you : — ^keep the door. — 0 thou vile king, Give me my father !

Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.

Laer, That drop of blood that *s calm proclaims me bastard ; Cries cuckold to my father ; brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother.

King. What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ? — Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our jDerson: There 's such divinity doth hedge a king. That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will. — Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incensed; — Let him go, Gertrude; — >Spcak, man.

Laer, Where is my father ?

King, Dead.

Queen. But not by him.

King. Let him demand his fill.

Laer, How came he dead ? I '11 not be juggled with : To hell, allegiance ! vows, to the blackest devil ! Conscience and gi^acc, to the profoundest pit ! I dare damnation ; To this point I stand — Tliat both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes ; only I '11 be revenged Most thoronghly for my father.

124 HAMLET.

ACT IV.

King. Who shall stay yon ? '

. Laer. My will, not all the world ; And, for my means, I '11 hnsband them so well, They shall go far with little.

King. Good Laertes,

If yon desire to know the certainty Of yonr dear father's death, is 't -writ in your revenge, That, swoopstake, yon will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser ?

Laer, None bnt his enemies.

King. Will yon know them, then ?

Laer. To his good friends thns wide I '11 ope my arms ; And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican, Repast them with my blood.

King. Why, now yon speak

Like a good child and a trne gentleman. That I am gniltless of your father's death, And am most sensibly in grief for it, It shall as level to yonr judgment pierce. As day does to your eye.

Banes. \Witlimd.'] Let her come in.

Laer. How now ! what noise is that ? — •

Enter Ophelia, fantastically dressed with straws and jioioers.

0 heat, dry up my brains ! tears seven times salu Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye ! — By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight, Till our scale turns the beam . O rose of !MSy I Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia ! — 0 heavens ! is 't possible a young maid's wits Should be as mortal as an old man's life ? Nature is fine ^ in love : and where 't is fine,

* Fine.'] Puro, without any dloy of selfisLnesd.

^ff «CENB V.

HAMLET. 125

It sends some precious instance of itself After the tiling it loves.

Oph. They tore him harefaced on the hier f Hey Tum nonnyf nonnyy hoy nonny ; Aiid on his grave rains many a tear ; —

Faro you well, my 4ove !

Laer, Had'st thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus.

Oj^Ji, You must sing, A-down a-down^ an you call Jam a-doivn-a, 0, how the wheel becomes it ! ^ It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.

Laer. This nothing 's more than matter,

Oph. There 's rosemary,^ that 's for remembrance ; pray, love, remember : and there is pansies,® that 's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness ; thoughts and remem- brance fitted.

OjL>li> There *s fennel for you, and columbines : — there 's rue for you ; and here 's some for me : — we may' call it herb-grace* o' Sundays: — 0, you must wear your rue

* Hoiu the wheel becomes it !] How well the rota or burden of the Bong becomes it.

* Rosemary.] Rosemary was anciently supposed to posse&s a virtue which strengthened the memory, and it was therefore distributed at marriages and funerals. * The rosemary that was washed in sweet water to set out the bridal, is now wet in tears to furnish her burial.* Dekkar's Wonderful Year. * Let's dip our rosemaries in one rich bowl of sack to this brave girl.* Mayne's City Match, v. 1.

^ Pansics.] The word is from the French — pens6es, thoughts.

* Uerh-grace.] Ophelia gives the fennel and columbines to the king — plants respectively denoting lust and ingratitude ; the rue, or herb of sorrow, she appropriates to the queen and herself, remarking that this plant may bo worn with a difference, by which she means that it may be sometimes used as an emblem of penitential sorrow ; •

* Here did she fall a tear ; here, in tliis place,

I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.' K. Eichard II. iii. 4,

126 HAMLET. ACT IV.

with a difference. — There 's a daisy ; — I would give you some violets; but they withered all when my father died : — They say he made a good end, —

For honny sweet Robin is all my joy, —

Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself She turns to fervour and to prettiness.

OpTi. And vrill he not come again ? And will he not come again t

No,no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-hedf He never will come again.

His lea/rd as white as snow.

All flaxen was his poll :

He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan : Gramercy ^ on his soul I

And of all christian souls, I pray God. — God be wi* you !

[Exit Ophelia.

Laer, Do you see this, 0 God ?

King, Laertes, I must commune with your grief Or you deny me right. Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me : If by direct or by collateral hand They find us touched, we will our kingdom give, Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, To you in satisfaction ; but if not, Be you content to lend your patience to us, And we shall jointly labour with your soul To give it due content.

, 1 Grat-iiCTcy.l The second quarto has God *a mercy. The word gramercy (Fr. grand merci) means thanks, and is here used with an impropriety not uncommon in old ballads.

Laer, Let this be so ;

His means of death, his obscure burial — No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o*er his bones, No noble rite, nor formal ostentation, — Cry to bo heard, as *t were from heaven to earth, That I must call 't in question.

King. So you shall ;

And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me. - [Exmni,

SCENE VI. — Another Boom in tlie same.

Enter Horatio and a Servant.

Hor, What are they that would speak with me P Serv, Sailors, sir; they say they have letters for yon. Sor. Let them come in. —

[Exit Servant, I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors,

1 Sail. God bless you, sir !

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

1 Sail He shall, sir, an 't please him. There 's a letter for you, sir, — it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England, — if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Hor, [Reads.] Soratio, when thou slialt have overloolced this, give iliese fellows some means to the king ; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike apioointment gave us chacc: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; in the grapple I hoarded them: on the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt ivith me like thieves of mercy ; hut they knew wliat they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters

128 HAMLEf. ^CT IV.

I have sent; and repair thou io me with as much haste- as thou ivouldst fly death, I have words to spealc in thine ear, will mal:e thee dumb ; yet are they much too light for the hm'e of the matter. These good fellows will hring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England ; of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell, He that thou hwwest thine^

HAMLET, Come, I will give you way for these your letters ; And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt,

SCENE VII. — Another BooTii in the same, Enter King and Laertes.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend ; Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain, Pursued my life.

Laer, It well appears : — But tell me,

Why you proceeded not against these feats, So crimeful and so capital in nature. As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirred up.

King. 0, for two special reasons j

Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinewed, And yet to me they are strong. The queen, his mother, Lives almost by his looks ; and for myself, (My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,) She *s so conjunctive to my life and soul. That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender^ bear him :

^ The general gender. J The common people.

flOENB VII.

HA-MLET. 129

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces ; so that my arrows, Too shghtly timbered for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again. And not where I had aimed them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost ; A sister driven into desperate terms, — Whose worth, if praises may go back again, Stood challenger on mount of all the age For her perfections : — But my revenge will come.

King. Break not your sleeps for that : you must not think That we are made of stuff so flat and dull. That we can let our beard be shook with danger, And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more : I loved your father, and we love ourself ; And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine, — How now ! what news ?

Enter a Messenger.

Mess, Letters, my lord, from Hamlet :

This to your majesty ; this to the queen.

King. From Hamlet ! Who brought them ?

Mess, Sailors, my lord, they say : I saw them not. They were given to me by Claudio, he received them.

King, Laertes, you shall hear them ; — Leave us.

[Exit Messenger.

[Reads.] Higli and mighty, Tou shall Tcnoiv, I wni set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall 1 beg leave to see your kingly eyes : when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occa* sions of my sudden and more strange return, HAMLET,

What should this mean ? Are all the rest come back ? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing ? Laer, Know you the hand ? o3

130 HAMLET.

ACT IV.

King. 'T is Hamlet's character. — NaJcedy — And, in a postscript here, he says, alone : Can yon advise me ?

Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come : It warms the very sickness in my heart, That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, Thus diddest thou !

King, If it be so, Laertes, —

As how should it be so ? how otherwise ? — Will you be ruled by me ?

Laer. If so you *11 not overrule me to a peace.

King, To thine own peace. If he be now returned, — As checking^ at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it, — I will work him To an exploit, now ripe in my device. Under the which he shall not choose but fall ; And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe ; But even his mother shall uncharge the practice,^ And call it accident,

Laer, My lord, I will be ruled :

The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ.

King, It falls right.

You have been talked of since your travel much, And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality Wherein, they say, you shine : your sum of parts Did not together pluck such envy from him, As did that one ; and that, in my regard. Of the unworthiest siege.*

1 Checking^ A term in falconry applied when a hawk stopped and turned away from his proper pursuit. * Nor must I check at his commands for any private motives.' Massinger's Great Duke of Florence, i. 2.

2 Uncharge the practioe.] Say there was no design.

^ Siege."] Rank, seat. * I fetch my life and being from men of

SCENE VII.

HAMLET. 131

Laer, "What part is that, my lord ?

King. A very riband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too ; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables and his weeds, Importing health and graveness. — Two months since, Here was a gentleman of Normandy, — I have seen myself, and served against, the French, And they can well on horseback : but this gallant Had witchcraft in *t : he grew into his seat ; And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured With the brave beast : so far he topped^ my thought, That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, Come short of what he did. Laer. A Norman was 't ?

King. A Norman. Laer, Upon my life, Lamond. King, The very same.

Laer. I know him well : he is the brooch,^ indeed, And gem of all the nation.

Khig. He made confession of you ; And gave you such a masterly report. For art and exercise in your defence. And for your rapier most especially. That he cried out, 't would be a sight indeed, If one could match you : the scrimers of their nation, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you opposed them : Sir, this report of his

royal siege.' Othello, i. 2. Siege properly means scat; and a royal siege was a royal chair or state.

1 So far he topped, &c.] So far ho exceeded my imagination, that I, in conceiving of all possible shapes and manoeuvres, &c.

» Urooch.] See the Editor's K, Richard II p. IIC, note 1.

132 HAMLET. ACT IV.

Did Hamlet so envenom witli his envy, That he could nothing do, but wish and beg Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him. Now, out of this,

Laer, What out of this, my lord ?

King. Laertes, was your father dear to you ? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart ?

Laer, Why ask you this ?

King. Not that I think you did not love your father ; But that I know love is begun by time ; And that I see, in passages of proof,^ Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it j And nothing is at a like goodness stilly "^ For goodness, growing to a plurisy,^ Dies in his own too-much : That we would do, We should do when we would ; for this luould clianges, And hath abatements and delays as many. As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh,* That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer : — Hamlet comes back : what would you undertake, To show yourself your father's son in deed More than in words ?

1 Passages of ^roof."] OccurrencGS of experience.

2 8tiU.2 Always, constantly.

8 A ;plimsy.] An excess. This is from the Latin plus, and not to be confounded with pleurisy. Massinger (Unnatural Combat, iv. 1) borrowed Shakspeare's thought : — * Thy plurisy of goodness is thy ill.*

* A spendthrift sighy &c.] Sighs are called llood-drinTcing and llood-sucldng sighs in 2 K. Henry VI. iii. 2, and 3 K. Henry VI. iv. 4 J for anciently an idea prevailed that ©very sigh cost a drop of

SCENE Vir. HAMLET. 133

Jjaer, To cut his throat i* the church.

'King. No place, indeed, should murder ^auctuarize ; Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber ? Hamlet, returned, shall know you are come homo : We '11 put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you ; bring you, in fine, together, And wager on your heads : he, being remiss, Most generous, and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils ; so that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A sword unbated,^ and, in a pass of practice,* Requite him for your father.

Laer. I will do *t :

And, for that purpose, I '11 anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal, that but dip a knife in it. Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare. Collected from all simples ^ that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratched withal : I *11 touch my point With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, It may be death.

King, Let *s further think of this ; Weigh what convenience, both of time and means. May fit us to our shape : if this should fail.

blood. * Sighs of love that cost the fresh blood dear.* Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2.

* JJnhaied.] Not blunted by having a button on the point like the common foils. Vnrebated was the more usual word.

' Pass of 'practice.'] A cunningly. designed thrust.

• SimpleSf &c.] Plants that have magic virtue when gathered by moonlight.

134 SAMLET. ^CT IV.

And that our drift ^ look through our bad performance, 'T were better not assayed ; therefore this project Should have a back, or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proof.^ Soft : — let me see : — We *11 make a solemn wager on your cunnings, — I ha ^t !

When in your motion you are hot and dry, (As make your bouts more violent to that end,) And that he calls for drink, I '11 have prepared him A chalice for the nonce ; whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,* Our purpose may hold there.

Enter Queen.

How now, sweet queen ?

Queen, One woe doth tread upon another's heel. So fast they follow : — Your sister 's drowned, Laertes.

Laer, Drowned ! — O, where ?

Queen, There is a willow grows aslant a brook. That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ; There, with fantastic garlands, did she come, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples — That liberal* shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead-men's- fingers call them — There, on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious shver broke ; When down the weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like a while they bore her up : Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes,

1 Our drift, &c.] Our design become transparent through our bad management.

2 Blast in proof.] Explode in the attempt.

• JSiuck.] Sword-point. Fr. estoc, ^ Liberal.} Licentious

SCENE vn. HAMI.ST. 135

As one incapable ^ of lier own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element : but long it could not be^

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink.

Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.

Laer, Alas ! then, is she drowned ?

Queen, Drowned, drowned !

Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears : But yet It is our trick ; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will : when these are gone,* The w^oman will be out. — ^Adieu, my lord ! I have a speech of fire that fain would blaze. But that this folly douts it.^ [Exit

King, Let 's follow, Gertrude.

How much I had to do to calm his rage ! Now fear I this will give it start again ; Therefore let 's follow. [Exeunt

1 Inca/pable.'] Unsusceptible, insensible.

2 WTien these are gone, &c.] When these tears are gone, the woman will have gone out of mo along witli tbem.

» TTtis folly, S^c.\ This silly weeping (juenches it. See p. 120, note 1,

186 HAMLET.

ACT V.

ACT V.

SCENE I— ^ CJiurchjard. Enter tioo Clowns, with sjpades, 8f c.

1 Glo, Is she to be buried in christian burial that wilfully seeks her own salvation ?

2 Olo, I tell thee she is; and therefore make her grave straight :^ the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it christian burial.

1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence ?

2 Clo. Why, 't is found so.

1 Glo, It must be se offendendo ; ^ it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act : and an act hath three branches ; it is, to act, to do, and to perform : argal,^ she drowned herself wittingly.

2 Clo, Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. —

1 Clo, Give me leave. Here lies the water ; good : here stands the man ; good : If the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he nill he,* he goes ; mark you that ; but if the water come to him, and drown him, he

1 Straight] At once.

2 8e offendendo.'] By offending herself; that isj it cannot he iu defence of herself, but by offence to herself.

8 Argal.'] The clown's corruption of ergo,

* Will he nill he.] Lat. nolens t'olens. Nill is a contraction for ne will, * Such men should be witnesses — will they nill they.* Latimer's Sixth Sermon before K. Edward. *Will I or nill I, it must be done.* Edwards' Damon and Pythias. * For, will I nill I, BO methinks I must.* Grim, the Collier of Croydon, iii.

EC2:iE I.

HAMLET. 137

drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. 2 Clo, But is this law ?

1 Clo, Ay, marry is 't ; crowner's-qnest law.*

2 Clo. Will you ha* the truth on *t ? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial.

1 Glo. Why, there thou say'st : and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian.''* Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and gi^ave-makers ; they hold up Adam's profession.

2 Clo. Was he a gentleman ?

1 Clo, He was the first that ever bore arms.

2 Clo. Why, he had none.

1 Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture ? The scripture says, Adam digged : Could he dig without arms ? I '11 put another question to thee : if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself —

1 Crowner^s-quest law.] Sir Jolin Hawkins says : *I strongly suspect that this is a ridicule on the case of Dame Hales, reported by Plowden in his Commentaries, as determined in 3 Eliz. It seems her husband, Sir James Hales, had dro\vned himself in a river, and the question was, whether by this act a forfeiture of a lease from the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, which he was possessed of, did not accrue to the Crown. The legal and logical subtleties arising in the course of the argument of this case, gave a very fair opportunity for a sneer at croivner' s-quest law.* See some details in Staunton's Shakspeare, Illustrative Comment.

2 Even christian.] Fellow -christian. * The right faith abideth not in that man that is disposed purposely to sin, to hate his even christian/ tic, Latimer's Seventh Sermon on the Lord's Prayer. * Wo are born into this world, not for our own sakes only, but for our even chi'istian's sake.* Latimer's Sermon, 4th Sunday after Epiphany. The expression occurs several times in Chaucer's Parson's Tale.

138 HAMLUT.

ACT V.

2Clo. Goto.

1 Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter ?

2 Clo. The gallows-maker ; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

1 Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith ; the gallows does well : But how does it well ? it does well to those that do ill : now thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church ; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To 't again; come.

2 Clo, Who builds stronger than a mason, a ship- wright, or a carpenter ?

1 Clo, Ay, tell me that, and unyoke,*

2 Clo, Marry, now I can tell. — •

1 Clo, To 't.

2 Clo, Mass, I cannot tell.

Elder Hamlet and Horatio at a distance.

1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ASS will not mend his pace with beating : and when you are asked this question next, say a grave-malcer : the houses that he makes last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan j ^ fetch me a stoup of liquor. [Exit 2 Clown.

1 Clown digsy and sings.

In youth, ivhen I did love, did lovef Methought it ivas very siveet,

1 Unyolie.] Unyoke the heifer ; end your task. I suppose here an allusion to Judg. xiv. 18, *If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle.*

2 Yaughan.] What this word denotes has not been ascertained ; it may mean, perhaps, Yohan*s or Jolin^s. — ' Here's a slave about the town here, a Jew, one Yohan.' B. Jonson's Every Man out of his Ilumour, v. 6.

^ In youth, when I did love.] The grave-digger's song is taken from three stanzas of a barbarous version of a poem by Sir Thomas

SCENE I. HAMLET. 139

To contract, 0, the timeyfor, ah, my hehove, O, methought there was nothing meet.

Ham. Hath this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at grave-making !

Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

Ham. 'T is e'en so : the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.

1 Clo. But age, with his stealing steps, Hath caught me in his clutch, vlncl hath shipped me intill the land. As if I had never heen such, [Th/rows up a shull.

Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once : How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jawbone, that did the first murder ! It might be the

Vaux (not, as once supposed, by his father. Sir Nicholas). They ai^ given nearly as follows in Percy's Reliques : — * I loathe that I did love,

In youth that I thought sweet ; As time requires, for my behove Methinks they are not meet.

# # * • # •

For Age, with stealing steps. Hath clawed me with his crutch,

And lusty Youth, away he leaps, As there had been none such.

* # # * #

A pickaxe and a spade,

And eke a shrouding sheet, A house of clay for to be made,

For such a guest most meet.*

Probably Shakspearo intended the clown to make a blundering version. The word that in the first and second lines is for what: I loathe what I did love, what in youth I thought sweet, &c. The interjections 0 ! and ah ! are interruptions expressive of the clown'a exertions in handling his tools.

14.0

HAMLET.

kCT V.

pate of a politician whidi this ass o'erreaclies ; one that could circumvent God, might it not ?

Hor, It might, my lord,

Sam, Or of a courtier ; which could say, Good-morroio^ sweet lord ! How dost tlwu, good lord ? This might be my lord Such-a-one, that praised my lord Such-a-one*s horse, when he meant to beg it, might it not ?

'S.OT, Ay, my lord.

Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my lady Worm's: chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade : Here 's a fine revolution, if we had the trick to Bee 't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats^ with them p mine ache to think on 't.

1 Clo. A jpiclcaxe, and a spade, a spade. For — and a shrouding sheet: Of a pit of clay for to he made For sxich a guest is meet, ^Throws up a skull.

Ham. There's another! Why might not that be the skull of a lawyer ? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets,^ his cases, his tenures, and his tricks ? Why does he sufier this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery ? Humph ! This fellow might be in *s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries : Is this the fine^ of his

^ Loggats."] An ancient game, something like nine-pins.

2 His quiddits — his quillets.] Quiddits are subtleties j quillets are cunning shifts. * What trick, what quiddit is this?* Barry's Ram Alley, v. * He [the Pettifogger] makes his will in form of a law-case, full of quiddits.* Overbury's Characters. * Nay, good Sir Throate, forbear your quillets now.* Ram Alley, i. * He has his quirks and his quillets.* Every Woman in her Humour. So in Love's Labour 's Lost, iv. 3, * Some tricks, some quiUets, how to cheat the devil.*

8 The fine.] The end.

SCENE I.

HAMLET. 141

^th<

fines and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt ? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures ? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box ! and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha ?

Hor, Not a jot more, my lord.

Ham, Is not parchment made of sheep- skins ?

Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calves*-skins too.

Ham, They are sheep and calves that seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow : — Whose grave *s this, sir ?

1 Clo, Mine, sir. —

0, a 'pit of clay for to he made For such a guest is meet.

Ham, I think it be thine, indeed ; for thou liest in 't.

1 Clo, You lie out on *t, sir, and therefore it is not yours : for my part, I do not lie in 't, and yet it is mine.

Ham. Thou dost lie in 't, to be in 't, and say it is thine : *t is for the dead, not for the quick ; therefore thou liest.

1 Clo. 'T is a quick lie, sir; 't will away again, from me to you.

Ham, What man dost thou dig it for P

1 Clo, For no man, sir.

Hami. What woman, then ?

1 Clo, For none, neither.

Ham. Who is to be .buried in *t ?

1 Clo, One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she 's dead.

Ham. How absolute the knave is ! we must speak by

e cardj^ or equivocation will nndo us. By the lord,

* Speak by the card.] The * card ol* calendar of gentry,* or etiquette, was a book of Icnlda for the direction of speech and behaviour. See Osric's allusion to it, p. 1 52.

14^ HAMLET. ACT V.

Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it: the age is grown so picked,^ that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe. — How long hast thou been a grave-maker ?

1 Clo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to 't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

Ham. How long is that since ?

1 Clo. Cannot you tell that ? every fool can tell that : It was the very day that young Hamlet was born,— he that was mad, and sent into England.

Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England ?

1 Clo. Why, because he was mad : he shall recover his wits there : or, if he do not, it 's no great matter there.

Ham. Why ?

1 Clo. 'T will nbt be seen in him ; there the men are a& mad as he. •

Ham. How came he mad ?

1 Clo. Very strangely, they say.

Ham. How strangely ?

1 Clo. 'Faith, e'en with losing his wits. . Ham. Upon what ground ?

1 Clo. Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.

Ham. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot ?

1 Col. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, (as we have many pocky corses nowadays, that will scarce hold the laying in,) he will last you some eight year, or nine year : a tanner will last you nine year.

Ham. Why he more than another ?

1 Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while ; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here's a

1 Picked.] l*artictilar, precise. So in Love's Labour 's Lost> T. 1, * He is too picked, too sprucej too affected.'

HAMLET.

143

skull now : this skull has lain in the earth three- and- twenty years.

Hayn, Whose was it ?

1 Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was : Whose do you think it was ?

Ham, Nay, I know not.

1 Clo, A pestilence on him for a mad rogue ! 'a poured^ a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, — this same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.

Earn. This?

1 Clo. E'en that.

Ham. Let ine see. — Alas ! poor Yorick ! — I knew him, Horatio ; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy : He hath borne me on his back a thousand times ; and now how abhorred in my imagination it is ! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now ? your gambols ? your songs ? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning ? quite chap-fallen ? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and. tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour^ she must come ; make her laugh at that. — Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

Eor. What 's that, my lord ?

Ham. Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i' the earth ? ^HHor. E'en so,

^V *A 'poured.] * A for lie is common in the old dramatists, and

Spould be pronounced with the name-sound of the letter.

^ • Jester.] The original business of the jester, or gester, was to

recite tales of gestes (Lat. gesta), * Gestours for to tell tales.'

Chaucer's Tale of Sir Thopas. • Favour.] Countenance.

144 HAMLET.

ACT V.

Ham, And smelt so ? puli ! [Throws down the sJcull. Hor. E'en so, my lord.

Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio 1 Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole ?

Hor, 'T were to consider too curiously, to consider so. Ham, No, faith, not a jot, but to follow him thither with modesty^ enough, and likelihood to lead it. As thus : Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returned into dust ; the dust is earth ; of earth we make loam : And why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel ?

Imperial Coesar, dead, and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away : O, that that earth which kept the world in awe. Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! — But soft ! but soft ! aside : — here comes the king.

Enter Vriests, &g.j in procession ; the corpse q/* Ophelia, Laertes aricZ Mourners following; King, Queen, their Trains, &c.

The queen, the courtiers ! Who is that they follow ? And with such maimed rites! This doth betoken. The corse they follow did with desperate hand Fordo its own life. *T was of some estate : Couch we a while, and mark. [Retiring with Hor.

Laer, What ceremony else ?

Ham. That is Laertes,

A very noble youth : ]Mark.

Laer. What ceremony else ?

1 Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarged As we have warrantise : Her death was doubtful ;

* Modesty^'] Propriety.

SCENE I. HAMLET. 145

And, bui tliat gi^eat command o*crsways the order,* She should in ground unsanctified have lodged Till the last trumpet ; for charitable prayers, Shards, flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on her : Yet hero she is allowed her virgin crants,' Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial.

Laer, Must there no more be done ?

1 Priest. No mwrc he done !

We should profane the service of the dead, To sing a requiem, and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls.

Laer. Lay her i' the earth j

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring ! — I tell thee, churlish priest, A minist'ring angel shall my sister be, When thou liest howling.

Ham, What, the fair Ophelia!

Queen. Sweets to the sweet : Farewell !

[ Scattering flowers. I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife ; I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid. And not t* have strewed thy grave.

Laer. O, treble woe

Fall ten times treble on that cursed head. Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense

1 The order.] Tho ordained service ; the ecclesiastical order.

• Virgin crants, &c.] Grants are wreatlis or garlands. Sir T. Ovcrbury says of the Fair and Happy Milkmaid, * All her care is she may die in the springtime, to have store of flowers stack upon her winding-sheet.* And Shirley, in the last speech of the Maid's Revenge, says, ♦ Strew, strew flowers enough upon them, for they wcro maids.'

140 Jiamlet.

ACT V.

Deprived thee of! — Hold off the earth a while, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms :

[Leaps into the grave, [N'ow pile your dust upon the quick and dead, Till of this flat a mountain you have made, To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.

Ham. [^advancing.'] "What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis ? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand Like wonder- wounded hearers ? This is I, Hamlet the Dane ! [Leajos into the grave.

Laer. The devil take thy soul !

[^Graj^pling ivith him.

Ham. Thou prayest not well. I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat ; For, though I am not splenetive and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear : Away thy hand !

King. Pluck them asunder.

Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet !

Hor. Good my lord, be quiet.

[_The Attendants ^a>'/ them, and they coiiie out of the gravel

Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme. Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

Queen. 0 my son ! what theme ?

Ham. I loved Ophelia ; forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum. — What wilt thou do for her ?

King. 0 he is mad, Laertes.

Queen. For love of God, forbear him !

Ham. Come, show me what thou 'It do : Woul'twcep? woul'tfight? wourtfastFwoul'ttearthysclf?

eCEVE I. HAMLET. 14j7

Wourt drink up eisel ?^ cat a crocodile ? I '11 do *t. — Dost tliou come here to whine ? To outfixcc me with leaping in her grave ? Be buried quick with her, and so will I ; And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart ! Nay, an thou 'It mouth, I '11 rant as well as thou.

Queen. This is mere madness :

And thus a while the fit wull work on him ; Anon, as patient as the female dove. When that her golden couplets* are disclosed, His silence will sit drooping.

Ham, Hear you, sir ;

What is the reason that yon use me thus ? I loved you ever : But it is no matter; Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat ^vill mew, and dog will have his day. i [Exit

King, I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. —

[Exit Horatio. Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech ;

[To Laertes. We *11 put the matter to the present push. — Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.— This grave shall have a living monument : An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ; Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [ExemiL

1 Eisch] A Bort of vinegar. Chancer, Romannt jof the Rose, 218, rpoaks of * bread kneaden with ciscl etrong and eager.*

^ Ifer golden couplets, &c.] Her two golden young ones are bronght ont of the shell. * One aerie with proportion ne'er disclosea Iho eagle and the wren.' Massinger's Maid of Honour, i. 2. See Note 1, p. 80.

Il2

148 HAMLET. ACT T.

SCENE IL—^ Hall in the Castle. Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Ham. So mucli for this, sir ; now let mo see the other ; — ^ You do remember all the circumstance ?^

Hor. Remember it, my lord ?

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me sleep : methought I lay Worse than the mutines^ in the bilboes. Rashly,* And praised be rashness for it, — Let us know. Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well. When our dear plots do pall : and that should t-each us, There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. —

Hor. That is most certain.

Ham. Up from my cabin. My sea- gown scarfed*^ about mc, in the dark Groped I to find out them : had my desh-e; Fingered their packet ; and, in fine, withdrew To mine own room again : making so bold,

^ The otlier.l The other matter, of which he had said in the letter to Horatio, * Of them [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern] I have much to tell thee.'

2 All the circumstance. 1 The general account I have alrea given yon.

^ Mutines in the hilhoes!] Mutineers in fetters in a ship's prison. A mutin is French for a mutineer. Bilboes, perhaps so named from Bilboa in Spain, were iron bars with fetters, nsed for the punishment of insubordinate sailors.

* Rashly. "] Venturously. The words * Easlily, and praised be rashness for it, have their proper continuation in Ilamlet'a next Bpeech.

*» Scarjed.'] Thrown loosely.

60ENB U.

HAMLET. 149

My fears forgetting manners, to unseal

Their gi-and commission ; where I found, Horatio, —

0 royal knavery ! — an exact command. Larded with many several sorts of reason, Importing Denmark's health, and England's too, With, ho ! such bugs^ and goblins in my life, That, on the supervise,^ no leisure bated,

No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off.

Eor, Is *t possible ?

Ham, Here 's the commission ; read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed ?

J5br. Ay, 'beseech you.

Ham, Being thus benetted round with villainies, — Ere I could make a prologue to my brains. They had begun the play, — I sat me down ; Devised a new commission ; wrote it fair :^

1 once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to iNTite fair, and laboured much How to forget that learning ; but, sir, now It did me yeoman's service :® — Wilt thou know The effects of what I wrote ?

Hot, Aj, good my lord.

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, — As England was his faithful tributary ; As love between them as the palm should flourish ; As peace should still her wheaten garland wear. And stand a comma* 'tween their amities ;

1 Such hug Si Ac] Such bugbears and imaginary terrors caused by my being alive.

2 On the supervise.'] After the looking over or perusal.

■ Yeonian*s service.] Alluding to the Yeomen of the Chmrd, tbo sovereign's bodyguard. * A comma.] This denoted properly the clause terminated by the

150 HAMLET. ACT V.

And many Buch like as's of great cliarge,— That on the view and know of these contei/fcs^ Without debatement farther, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving- time allowed.

Hor. How was this sealed?

Ham. Wliy, even in that was heaven ordinant; I had my father's signet in my purse. Which was the model of that Danish seal : Folded the writ up in form of the other ; Subscribed it ; gave 't the impression ; placed it safely, The changeling never known. Now, the next day Was our sea-fight : and what to this was sequent Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to *t.

Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employ- ment; They are not near my conscience ; their defeat Does by their own insinuation grow : 'T is dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites.

Hor. Why, what a king is this !

Ham. Does it not, think*st thee,^ stand me now upon — ^ He that hath killed my king, and whored my mother,

point that we call a comma ; but whether the word may be thus shown to make proper sense here seems doubtful. Staunton's sug- gestion that Shakspeare may have written co-mate is a very good one.

1 Think* st thee, &c.] Thee for ihou, as before noticed (p. 5). The phrase * it does stand me upon '= it stands upon me, or is incumbent on me. * It stands your grace upon to do him right.* K. Eichard II. ii. 3. * It stands me much upon to stop all hopes/ &c. K. Richard III. iv. 2. * All agreed that it stood them upon to have a chief magistrate.' North's Plutarch, Fabius.

SCENE II. HAMLET. J 51

Popped in between the election and my hopes,

Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with such cozenage, — is *t not perfect conscience,

To quit him with this arm ? and is 't not to be damned,

To let this canker of our nature como

In further evil ?

Ilor. It must be shortly known to him from England, What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short : the interim is mine ; And a man's life 's no more than to say, one. But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself; For by the image ^ of my cause I see The portraiture of his : I '11 court his favours : But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put mo Into a towering passion.

Ilor. Peace ! who comes here ?

Enter OsRic.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, 6ii\ — Dost know this water- fly ?

Hor. No, my good lord.

Ham. Thy state is the more gracious ; for *t is a vice to know him : He hath much land, and fertile ; let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess : 'T is a chough ; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

Ham, I will receive it with all diligence of spirit : Put your bonnet to his right use : 't is for the head.

Osr. 1 thank your lordship, 't is very hot.

* By the image, &c.] My cause is a father's death, so is his.

152 HAMLET.

ACT V.

Ham, No, believe me, 't is very cold ; the wind is northerly.

Os7\ It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.

Ham. Methinks it is very snltry and hot for my com- plexion.

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord ; it is very snltry, — as 't wore, — I cannot tell how. — But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head : Sir, this is the matter.

Ham, I beseech you, remember^ —

[Hamlet moves Jiim to put on his hat,

Osr, Nay, in good faith ; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes : believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences,^ of very soft society, and great showing : Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentle- man would see.

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you ;— though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory ; and yet but yaw ^ neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of Buch dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him,

* I heseech you, reinemher.l Scil, your courtesy; for that was the phrase used in beseeching one to keep his head covered. * I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy : — apparel thy head.* Love's Labour's Lost, v. 1. * Pray you remember your courtesy : — nay, pray you be covered.' Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, i. 1.

^ Differences.] Distinctions. The euphuism of this fop is mocked by Hamlet in the next speech.

* And yet hut yaw, &c.] To yaw is to roll from side to side, like a ship. I think Shakspeare must have written yaws, the construc- tion being * his definement suffers no perdition in you, and yet but yaws neither, &c., that is, does not come up to him.

SCENE II.

HAMLET. 153

his semblable * is liis mirror ; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

Osr, Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

Ham. The concernancy, sir ? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath ?

Osr. Sir?

Ho)\ Is *t not possible to understand in another tongue ? You will do 't, sir, really.

Havi, What imports the nomination ^ of this gentleman?

Osr. Of Laertes?

Hor. His purse is empty already ; all his golden words are spent.

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know you are not ignorant —

Ham. I would, you did, sir ; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me. — Well, sir ?

Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is —

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence ; but to know a man well were to know himself.

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon ; but in the imputa- tion laid on him by them, in his meed he 's unfellowed.

Ham. What 's his weapon ?

Osr. Rapier and dagger.'

Ham. That 's two of his weapons : but, well ?

Osr. The king, sir, hath waged with him six Barbary

* His semhJahlef &c.] His likencsa is nowhere but in his looking- glass, and whoever else would attempt to imitate him is only a flhadow of him.

* The nomination.'] Your naming or making mention.

' Rapier and dagger.] These became weapons of gentility, sup- planting the 8 word and buckler, which was then consigned to vulgarity. Hence in 1 K. Henry IV., i. 3, Hotspur Bays, sneeringly, * that same sword-and-buckler prince.*

US

164 HAMLET.

ACT V.

horses ; against the which he has imponed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hanger, so : Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

Ham. What call you the carriages ?

Hot. I knew you must be edified ^ by the margent ere you had done.

Osr, The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

Ham, The phrase would be more german^ to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our sides : I would it might be hangers till then. But on : Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages : that's the French bet against the Danish : Why is this imponed, as you call it ?

Osr, The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between you and him, he shall not exceed you three hits ; he hath laid on twelve for nine ; ^ and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

Ham, How if I answer No ?

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

Ham, Sir, I will walk here in the hall, if it please his majesty ; it is the breathing time of day with me : let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can ; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr, Shall I re-deHver you e'en so ?

1 Must he edified, &c.] Would rec[uire marginal explanation.

2 German,'] Akin.

8 He hath laid on twelve for nine.} He has wagered for nine out of twelve.

BCENEII. HAMLET. . 15.^

nam. To this effect, sir; after wLat flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. [Exit.

Ham. Yours, yours. Ho does well to commend it himself: there are no tongues else for*s turn.

nor. This lapwing runs away^ with the shell on his head.

Ilain. He did comply with*^ his dug, before he sucked it. Thus has he (and many more of the same bevy, that, I know, the drossy age dotes on) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter ; a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions ; and do but blo'.y them to their trials, the bubbles are out.

Enter a Lord.

Lord. My lord, bis majesty commended him to yon by young Osric, who brings back 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.

Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready : now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down.

Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you to use some gentle enter- tainment to Laertes, before you fall to play.

Ham. She well instructs me. lExit Lord,

Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord.

1 Runs away, &c.] Comes. out very forwardly. So in Webster's White Devil, ii., * Forward lapwing, lie flies with the shell on 's head ;* alluding to the lapwing leaving the nest as soon as hatched.

* Comply with."] Humour, adapt himself to. Sec Note 3, p. 63.

• Attend.] Await'.

156 HAMLET.

ACT V.

Ham* I do not think so ; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not think, how ill all *s here about my heart : but it is no matter.

Hor, Nay, good my lord, —

Ham. It is but foolery ; but it is such a kind of gain- giving,^ as would perhaps trouble a woman.

Hor, If your mind dislike anything, obey it ; I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit.

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury ; there 's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all: Since no man ias aught of what he leaves, what ia 't to leave betimes ?

Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric, and At* tendants with foils y &o.

King, Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me, [The King ^uts the hand of Laertes into

that 0/ Hamlet. Ham, Give me your pardon, sir; I have done you wrong; But pardon *t, as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, and you must needs have heard, How I am punished with a sore distraction. What I have done.

That might your nature, honour, and exception, Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was 't Hamlet wronged Laertes ? Never Hamlet : If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away. And, when he *s not himself, does wrong Laertes,

* Qain-giving.l Misgiving. Qain is for again^ that is, against, as in tho word gainsay.

SCENE II.

HAMLET, 157

Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.

Who does it then ? His madness. If 't be so,

Hamlet is of the faction that is Avronged ;

His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.

Sir, in this audience

Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil

Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,

That I have shot mine arrow o*er the house

And hurt my brother,

Laei\ I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most To my revenge : but in my terms of honour I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement. Till by some elder masters, of known honour, I have a voice and precedent of peace, To keep my name ungored : But till that time, I do receive your oflfered love like love, And will not wrong it.

Ham, I embrace it freely ;

And will this brother's wager frankly play. Give us the foils ; come on.

Laer, Come, one for mo.

, Ham, I *11 be your foil, Laertes ; in mine ignorance Your skill shall, like a star i* the darkest night, Stick fiery ofi* indeed.

Laer. You mock me, sir.

Ham, No, by this hand.

King. Give them the foils,youngOsric. — Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager ?

Ham. Very well, my lord ;

Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side.

King. I do not fear it ; I have seen you both. But since he 's bettered, we have therefore odds.

Laer. This is too hea\^, let me see another.

1-58 HAMLET.

ACT V

Uam. This likes me well : These foils have all a length?

IThey ^prepare to ]jlay,

Osr, Ay, my good lord.

King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table : If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire ; The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath ; And in the cup an union ^ shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups , And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannonier without. The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, Now the king drinks to Hamlet. — Come, begin ; — • And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer, Come on, sir. ITJieij ;play.

Ham, One.

Laer. No.

Ham, Judgment.

Osr, A hit, a very palpable hit.

Laer, Well, — again.

King, Stay, give me drink : Hamlet, this pearl is thine; Here 's to thy health. Give him the cup.

l^Trumjpets sound; and cannons shot off ivithin.

Ham. I '11 play this bout first, set it by awhile. Come. — Another hit ; What say you ? [They i^Tay,

Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess.

King. Our son shall win.

Queen, He 's fat, and scant of breath. —

1 An union.l A iDcarl j Lat. unio. The practice of showing high appreciation of a health proposed, by dropping some gem in the cup, is well known.

6CE2IB II.

HAMLET, 159

Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows : The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.

Ham, Good, madam.

King, Gertrude, do not di'Ink.

Queen, I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me.

King. It is the poisoned cup : it is too late ! [^Aslde.

Ham, I dare not drink yet, madam ; by and by.

Queen, Come, let me wipe thy face.

Lacr, My lord, I '11 hit him now.

King, I do not think it.

Laer, And yet it is almost against my conscience.

[Aside,

Ham, Come, for the third, Laertes : You but dally ; I pray you, pass with your best violence ; I am afeard you make a wanton of me.

Laer, Say you so ? come on. [They ]jilay,

Osr, Nothing neither way.

Laor, Have at you now.

[Laertes loounds Hamlet ; ihen, in smffling, they change rapiers ^ and Hamlet luounds Laertes.

King, Part them ! they are incensed.

Ham, Nay, come again. [The Queen /aZZ^.

Osr, Look to the queen there, ho !

Hor. They bleed on both sides ! — How is it, my lord ?

Osr. How is 't, Laertes ?

Laer, Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric : I am justly killed with mine own treacliery.

Ham, How does the queen ?

King. She swoons to see them bleed.

Queen, No, no, the drink, the drink ! — 0 my dear Hamlet ! — The drink, the drink ! — ^I am poisoned ! [Dies.

160 HAMLET.

ACT V.

Ham. 0 villainy ! — Ho ! let the door be locked : Treachery ! seek it out. [Laertes falls,

Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; No medicine in the world can do thee good, In thee there is not half an hour of life ! The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated^ and envenomed : the foul practice Hath turned itself on me ; lo, here I lie. Never to rise again : thy mother 's poisoned ;— I can no more ; — the king, the king *s to blame.

Ham. The point !^ — Envenomed too ! — Then, venom, to thy work.

[Stahs the King.

Osr. 8f Lords, Treason ! treason !

King, 0, yet defend me, friends : I am but hurt.

Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion ! — Is thy union here ?^ Follow my mother. [King dies,

Laer, He is justly served ;

It is a poison tempered by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet : Mine and my father's death come not upon thee. Nor thine on me ! [Die*.

Ham. Heaven make thee free of it ! I follow thee. — I am dead, Horatio : — Wretched queen, adieu ! — You that look pale and tremble at this chance. That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, death, Is strict in his arrest), 0, I could tell you,^ But let it be : — Horatio, I am dead ;

1 Vnlated.! See Note 1, p. 133.

2 The point, &c.] That is, the naked point, and envenomed.

8 Is thy union here ?] A quibbling introduction to * follow my mother.*

SCENE II.

HAMLET. 161

Thou liv*8t ; report me and my cause arigtt To the unsatisfied.

Hot, Never believe it.

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, Here 's yet some liquor left.

Ham, As thou *rt a man,

Give me the cup ; let go ; by Heaven I '11 have it ! 0, good Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. [}Iarch afar off^ aiul shot without.

What warlike noise is this ?

Osr, Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley.

Ham, 0, I die, Horatio ;

The potent poison quite overcrows my spirit ; I cannot live to hear the news from Eogland ; But I do prophesy the election lights On Fortinbras ; he has my dying voice ; So tell him, with the occurrents,^ more and less, Which have solicited. — The rest is silence. [JDies,

Hor, Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince ; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest ! — Why does the drum come hither ? [March without.

Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and others.

Fort, Where is this sight ?

Hor, What is it ye would see ?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

1 With the occurrents, &c.] Togctlier with the greater and lesser circamstances that have drawn mo on.

162 HAMLET. ACT. T

Fort. This quarry cries on havoc.^ — 0 proud death J \Yliat feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shoot, So bloodily hast struck ?

1 Ami. The sight is dismal;

And our affairs from England come too late : The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, To tell him, his commandment is fulfilled, That E-osencrantz and Guildenstern are dead : Where should we have our thanks ?

Hor, Not from his mouth.

Had it the ability of life to thank you ; He never gave commandment for their death. But since, so jump upon this bloody question. You from the Polack wars, and you from England, Are here arrived, give order, that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view ; And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world, How thcEC things came about : so shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts ; Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters ; Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause ; And, in this uj)shot, purposes mistook Fall'n on the inventors' heads ; all this can I Truly deliver.

Fort Let us haste to hear it. And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune ; I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, "Which now to claim my vantage doth invite mo,

Hor, Of that I shall have also cause to speak,

* Cries on havoc^ To cry on or invoke havoc is to proclaim tliat no quarter shall be g'iven.

r

HAMLET. y:s

And from liis moutli wliose voice ^ will draw on more : But let this same be presently performed. E'en while men's minds are wild ; lest more mischance, On plots and errors, happen.

Fort. Let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage ; For he was likely, had he been pnt on,^ To have proved most royally : and, for his passage, The soldier's music, and the rights of war, Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies : — such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.— Go, bid the soldiers shoot. [A Decul March.

[Exeunt i marching ; after which a ^eal of ordnance is shot off.

1 Whose voice, &c.] Whose vote in favour of Fortinbras will in- duce others to vote the same way.

2 Pat on.] Put forward, advanced to sovereignty or command. Johnson thinks that Shakspeare is justly ' accused of having shown little regard to poetical justice* in this play. We believe that in this * tragedy Of thought' Shakspeare designed to do poetical justice to principles rather than persons. Wo could not wish the prince * in this harsh world drawing his breath in pain ' any longer than the judicious dramatist has allowed him.

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