Enter Polonius.

Polon. My Lord; the Queene would speak with you, and presently.

Ham. Do you see that Clowd? that's almost in [Sidenote: yonder clowd] shape like a Camell. [Sidenote: shape of a]

Polon. By'th'Misse, and it's like a Camell [Sidenote: masse and tis,] indeed.

Ham. Me thinkes it is like a Weazell.

Polon. It is back'd like a Weazell.

Ham. Or like a Whale?[3]

Polon. Verie like a Whale.[4]

Ham. Then will I come to my Mother, by and by: [Sidenote: I will] [Sidenote: 60, 136, 178] They foole me to the top of my bent.[5] I will come by and by.

[Footnote 1: —with allusion to the frets or stop-marks of a stringed instrument.]

[Footnote 2: —to Polonius.]

[Footnote 3: There is nothing insanely arbitrary in these suggestions of likeness; a cloud might very well be like every one of the three; the camel has a hump, the weasel humps himself, and the whale is a hump.]

[Footnote 4: He humours him in everything, as he would a madman.]

[Footnote 5: Hamlet's cleverness in simulating madness is dwelt upon in the old story. See 'Hystorie of Hamblet, prince of Denmarke.']

[Page 158]

Polon.[1] I will say so. Exit.[1]

Ham.[1] By and by, is easily said. Leaue me Friends: 'Tis now the verie witching time of night, When Churchyards yawne, and Hell it selfe breaths out [Sidenote: brakes[2]] Contagion to this world.[3] Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter businesse as the day [Sidenote: such busines as the bitter day] Would quake to looke on.[4] Soft now, to my Mother: Oh Heart, loose not thy Nature;[5] let not euer The Soule of Nero[6] enter this firme bosome: Let me be cruell, not vnnaturall. [Sidenote: 172] I will speake Daggers[7] to her, but vse none: [Sidenote: dagger] My Tongue and Soule in this be Hypocrites.[8] How in my words someuer she be shent,[9] To giue them Seales,[10] neuer my Soule consent.[4] [Sidenote: Exit.]

Enter King, Rosincrance, and Guildensterne.

King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with vs, To let his madnesse range.[11] Therefore prepare you, [Sidenote: 167] I your Commission will forthwith dispatch,[12] [Sidenote: 180] And he to England shall along with you: The termes of our estate, may not endure[13] Hazard so dangerous as doth hourely grow [Sidenote: so neer's as] Out of his Lunacies. [Sidenote: his browes.]

Guild. We will our selues prouide: Most holie and Religious feare it is[14] To keepe those many many bodies safe That liue and feede vpon your Maiestie.[15]

Rosin. The single And peculiar[16] life is bound With all the strength and Armour of the minde,

[Footnote 1: The Quarto, not having Polon., Exit, or Ham., and arranging differently, reads thus:—

They foole me to the top of my bent, I will come by and by, Leaue me friends. I will, say so. By and by is easily said, Tis now the very &c.]

[Footnote 2: belches.]

[Footnote 3: —thinking of what the Ghost had told him, perhaps: it was the time when awful secrets wander about the world. Compare Macbeth, act ii. sc. 1; also act iii. sc. 2.]

[Footnote 4: The assurance of his uncle's guilt, gained through the effect of the play upon him, and the corroboration of his mother's guilt by this partial confirmation of the Ghost's assertion, have once more stirred in Hamlet the fierceness of vengeance. But here afresh comes out the balanced nature of the man—say rather, the supremacy in him of reason and will. His dear soul, having once become mistress of his choice, remains mistress for ever. He could drink hot blood, he could do bitter business, but he will carry himself as a son, and the son of his father, ought to carry himself towards a guilty mother—mother although guilty.]

[Footnote 5: Thus he girds himself for the harrowing interview. Aware of the danger he is in of forgetting his duty to his mother, he strengthens himself in filial righteousness, dreading to what word or deed a burst of indignation might drive him. One of his troubles now is the way he feels towards his mother.]

[Footnote 6: —who killed his mother.]

[Footnote 7: His words should be as daggers.]

[Footnote 8: Pretenders.]

[Footnote 9: reproached or rebuked—though oftener scolded.]

[Footnote 10: 'to seal them with actions'—Actions are the seals to words, and make them irrevocable.]

[Footnote 11: walk at liberty.]

[Footnote 12: get ready.]

[Footnote 13: He had, it would appear, taken them into his confidence in the business; they knew what was to be in their commission, and were thorough traitors to Hamlet.]

[Footnote 14: —holy and religious precaution for the sake of the many depending on him.]

[Footnote 15: Is there not unconscious irony of their own parasitism here intended?]

[Footnote 16: private individual.]

[Page 160]

To keepe it selfe from noyance:[1] but much more, That Spirit, vpon whose spirit depends and rests [Sidenote: whose weale depends] The lives of many, the cease of Maiestie [Sidenote: cesse] Dies not alone;[2] but like a Gulfe doth draw What's neere it, with it. It is a massie wheele [Sidenote: with it, or it is] Fixt on the Somnet of the highest Mount, To whose huge Spoakes, ten thousand lesser things [Sidenote: hough spokes] Are mortiz'd and adioyn'd: which when it falles, Each small annexment, pettie consequence Attends the boystrous Ruine. Neuer alone [Sidenote: raine,] Did the King sighe, but with a generall grone. [Sidenote: but a[3]]

King.[4] Arme you,[5] I pray you to this speedie Voyage; [Sidenote: viage,] For we will Fetters put vpon this feare,[6] [Sidenote: put about this] Which now goes too free-footed.

Both. We will haste vs. Exeunt Gent

Enter Polonius.

Pol. My Lord, he's going to his Mothers Closset: Behinde the Arras Ile conuey my selfe To heare the Processe. Ile warrant shee'l tax him home, And as you said, and wisely was it said, 'Tis meete that some more audience then a Mother, Since Nature makes them partiall, should o're-heare The speech of vantage.[7] Fare you well my Liege, Ile call vpon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know. [Sidenote: Exit.]

King. Thankes deere my Lord. Oh my offence is ranke, it smels to heauen, It hath the primall eldest curse vpon't, A Brothers murther.[8] Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharpe as will: My stronger guilt,[9] defeats my strong intent,

[Footnote 1: The philosophy of which self is the centre. The speeches of both justify the king in proceeding to extremes against Hamlet.]

[Footnote 2: The same as to say: 'The passing, ceasing, or ending of majesty dies not—is not finished or accomplished, without that of others;' 'the dying ends or ceases not,' &c.]

[Footnote 3: The but of the Quarto is better, only the line halts. It is the preposition, meaning without.]

[Footnote 4: heedless of their flattery. It is hardly applicable enough to interest him.]

[Footnote 5: 'Provide yourselves.']

[Footnote 6: fear active; cause of fear; thing to be afraid of; the noun of the verb fear, to frighten:

Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

A Midsummer Night's Dream, act v. sc. i.]

[Footnote 7: Schmidt (Sh. Lex.) says of vantage means to boot. I do not think he is right. Perhaps Polonius means 'from a position of advantage.' Or perhaps 'The speech of vantage' is to be understood as implying that Hamlet, finding himself in a position of vantage, that is, alone with his mother, will probably utter himself with little restraint.]

[Footnote 8: This is the first proof positive of his guilt accorded even to the spectator of the play: here Claudius confesses not merely guilt (118), but the very deed. Thoughtless critics are so ready to judge another as if he knew all they know, that it is desirable here to remind the student that only he, not Hamlet, hears this soliloquy. The falseness of half the judgments in the world comes from our not taking care and pains first to know accurately the actions, and then to understand the mental and moral condition, of those we judge.]

[Footnote 9: —his present guilty indulgence—stronger than his strong intent to pray.]

[Page 162]

And like a man to double businesse bound,[1] I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both[2] neglect; what if this cursed hand Were thicker then it selfe with Brothers blood, Is there not Raine enough in the sweet Heauens To wash it white as Snow? Whereto serues mercy, But to confront the visage of Offence? And what's in Prayer, but this two-fold force, To be fore-stalled ere we come to fall, Or pardon'd being downe? Then Ile looke vp, [Sidenote: pardon] My fault is past. But oh, what forme of Prayer Can serue my turne? Forgiue me my foule Murther: That cannot be, since I am still possest Of those effects for which I did the Murther.[3] My Crowne, mine owne Ambition, and my Queene: May one be pardon'd, and retaine th'offence? In the corrupted currants of this world, Offences gilded hand may shoue by Iustice [Sidenote: showe] And oft 'tis seene, the wicked prize it selfe Buyes out the Law; but 'tis not so aboue, There is no shuffling, there the Action lyes In his true Nature, and we our selues compell'd Euen to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To giue in euidence. What then? What rests? Try what Repentance can. What can it not? Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?[4] Oh wretched state! Oh bosome, blacke as death! Oh limed[5] soule, that strugling to be free, Art more ingag'd[6]: Helpe Angels, make assay:[7] Bow stubborne knees, and heart with strings of Steele, Be soft as sinewes of the new-borne Babe, All may be well.

[Footnote 1: Referring to his double guilt—the one crime past, the other in continuance.

Here is the corresponding passage in the 1st Q., with the adultery plainly confessed:—

Enter the King.

King. O that this wet that falles vpon my face Would wash the crime cleere from my conscience! When I looke vp to heauen, I see my trespasse, The earth doth still crie out vpon my fact, Pay me the murder of a brother and a king, And the adulterous fault I haue committed: O these are sinnes that are vnpardonable: Why say thy sinnes were blacker then is ieat, Yet may contrition make them as white as snowe: I but still to perseuer in a sinne, It is an act gainst the vniuersall power, Most wretched man, stoope, bend thee to thy prayer, Aske grace of heauen to keepe thee from despaire.]

[Footnote 2: both crimes.]

[Footnote 3: He could repent of and pray forgiveness for the murder, if he could repent of the adultery and incest, and give up the queen. It is not the sins they have done, but the sins they will not leave, that damn men. 'This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.' The murder deeply troubled him; the adultery not so much; the incest and usurpation mainly as interfering with the forgiveness of the murder.]

[Footnote 4: Even hatred of crime committed is not repentance: repentance is the turning away from wrong doing: 'Cease to do evil; learn to do well.']

[Footnote 5: —caught and held by crime, as a bird by bird-lime.]

[Footnote 6: entangled.]

[Footnote 7: said to his knees. Point thus:—'Helpe Angels! Make assay—bow, stubborne knees!']

[Page 164]

Enter Hamlet.

Ham.[1] Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, [Sidenote: doe it, but now a is a praying,] And now Ile doo't, and so he goes to Heauen, [Sidenote: so a goes] And so am I reueng'd: that would be scann'd, [Sidenote: reuendge,] A Villaine killes my Father, and for that I his foule Sonne, do this same Villaine send [Sidenote: sole sonne] To heauen. Oh this is hyre and Sallery, not Reuenge. [Sidenote: To heauen. Why, this is base and silly, not] He tooke my Father grossely, full of bread, [Sidenote: A tooke] [Sidenote: 54, 262] With all his Crimes broad blowne, as fresh as May, [Sidenote: as flush as] And how his Audit stands, who knowes, saue Heauen:[2] But in our circumstance and course of thought 'Tis heauie with him: and am I then reueng'd, To take him in the purging of his Soule, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No. Vp Sword, and know thou a more horrid hent[3] When he is drunke asleepe: or in his Rage, Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, swearing, or about some acte [Sidenote: At game a swearing,] That ha's no rellish of Saluation in't, Then trip him,[4] that his heeles may kicke at Heauen, And that his Soule may be as damn'd and blacke As Hell, whereto it goes.[5] My Mother stayes,[6] This Physicke but prolongs thy sickly dayes.[7] Exit.

King. My words flye vp, my thoughts remain below, Words without thoughts, neuer to Heauen go.[8] Exit.

Enter Queene and Polonius. [Sidenote: Enter Gertrard and]

Pol. He will come straight: [Sidenote: A will] Looke you lay home to him

[Footnote 1: In the 1st Q. this speech commences with, 'I so, come forth and worke thy last,' evidently addressed to his sword; afterwards, having changed his purpose, he says, 'no, get thee vp agen.']

[Footnote 2: This indicates doubt of the Ghost still. He is unwilling to believe in him.]

[Footnote 3: grasp. This is the only instance I know of hent as a noun. The verb to hent, to lay hold of, is not so rare. 'Wait till thou be aware of a grasp with a more horrid purpose in it.']

[Footnote 4: —still addressed to his sword.]

[Footnote 5: Are we to take Hamlet's own presentment of his reasons as exhaustive? Doubtless to kill him at his prayers, whereupon, after the notions of the time, he would go to heaven, would be anything but justice—the murdered man in hell—the murderer in heaven! But it is easy to suppose Hamlet finding it impossible to slay a man on his knees—and that from behind: thus in the unseen Presence, he was in sanctuary, and the avenger might well seek reason or excuse for not then, not there executing the decree.]

[Footnote 6: 'waits for me.']

[Footnote 7: He seems now to have made up his mind, and to await only fit time and opportunity; but he is yet to receive confirmation strong as holy writ.

This is the first chance Hamlet has had—within the play—of killing the king, and any imputation of faulty irresolution therein is simply silly. It shows the soundness of Hamlet's reason, and the steadiness of his will, that he refuses to be carried away by passion, or the temptation of opportunity. The sight of the man on his knees might well start fresh doubt of his guilt, or even wake the thought of sparing a repentant sinner. He knows also that in taking vengeance on her husband he could not avoid compromising his mother. Besides, a man like Hamlet could not fail to perceive how the killing of his uncle, and in such an attitude, would look to others.

It may be judged, however, that the reason he gives to himself for not slaying the king, was only an excuse, that his soul revolted from the idea of assassination, and was calmed in a measure by the doubt whether a man could thus pray—in supposed privacy, we must remember—and be a murderer. Not even yet had he proof positive, absolute, conclusive: the king might well take offence at the play, even were he innocent; and in any case Hamlet would desire presentable proof: he had positively none to show the people in justification of vengeance.

As in excitement a man's moods may be opalescent in their changes, and as the most contrary feelings may coexist in varying degrees, all might be in a mind, which I have suggested as present in that of Hamlet.

To have been capable of the kind of action most of his critics would demand of a man, Hamlet must have been the weakling they imagine him. When at length, after a righteous delay, partly willed, partly inevitable, he holds documents in the king's handwriting as proofs of his treachery—proofs which can be shown—giving him both right and power over the life of the traitor, then, and only then, is he in cool blood absolutely satisfied as to his duty—which conviction, working with opportunity, and that opportunity plainly the last, brings the end; the righteous deed is done, and done righteously, the doer blameless in the doing of it. The Poet is not careful of what is called poetic justice in his play, though therein is no failure; what he is careful of is personal rightness in the hero of it.]

[Footnote 8: 1st Q.

King My wordes fly vp, my sinnes remaine below. No King on earth is safe, if Gods his foe. Exit King.

So he goes to make himself safe by more crime! His repentance is mainly fear.]

[Page 166]

Tell him his prankes haue been too broad to beare with, And that your Grace hath scree'nd, and stoode betweene Much heate, and him. Ile silence me e'ene heere: [Sidenote: euen heere,] Pray you be round[1] with him.[2] [Sidenote: Enter Hamlet.]

Ham. within. Mother, mother, mother.[3]

Qu. Ile warrant you, feare me not. [Sidenote: Ger. Ile wait you,] Withdraw, I heare him comming.

Enter Hamlet.[4]

Ham.[5] Now Mother, what's the matter?

Qu. Hamlet, thou hast thy Father much offended. [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Mother, you haue my Father much offended.

Qu. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Go, go, you question with an idle tongue. [Sidenote: with a wicked tongue.]

Qu. Why how now Hamlet?[6] [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Whats the matter now?

Qu. Haue you forgot me?[7] [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. No by the Rood, not so: You are the Queene, your Husbands Brothers wife, But would you were not so. You are my Mother.[8] [Sidenote: And would it were]

Qu. Nay, then Ile set those to you that can speake.[9] [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Come, come, and sit you downe, you shall not boudge: You go not till I set you vp a glasse, Where you may see the inmost part of you? [Sidenote: the most part]

Qu. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murther [Sidenote: Ger.] me?[10] Helpe, helpe, hoa. [Sidenote: Helpe how.]

Pol. What hoa, helpe, helpe, helpe. [Sidenote: What how helpe.]

Ham. How now, a Rat? dead for a Ducate, dead.[11]

[Footnote 1: The Quarto has not 'with him.']

[Footnote 2: He goes behind the arras.]

[Footnote 3: The Quarto has not this speech.]

[Footnote 4: Not in Quarto.]

[Footnote 5: 1st Q.

Ham. Mother, mother, O are you here? How i'st with you mother?

Queene How i'st with you?

Ham, I'le tell you, but first weele make all safe.

Here, evidently, he bolts the doors.]

[Footnote 6: 1st Q.

Queene How now boy?

Ham. How now mother! come here, sit downe, for you shall heare me speake.]

[Footnote 7: —'that you speak to me in such fashion?']

[Footnote 8: Point thus: 'so: you'—'would you were not so, for you are my mother.'—with emphasis on 'my.' The whole is spoken sadly.]

[Footnote 9: —'speak so that you must mind them.']

[Footnote 10: The apprehension comes from the combined action of her conscience and the notion of his madness.]

[Footnote 11: There is no precipitancy here—only instant resolve and execution. It is another outcome and embodiment of Hamlet's rare faculty for action, showing his delay the more admirable. There is here neither time nor call for delay. Whoever the man behind the arras might be, he had, by spying upon him in the privacy of his mother's room, forfeited to Hamlet his right to live; he had heard what he had said to his mother, and his death was necessary; for, if he left the room, Hamlet's last chance of fulfilling his vow to the Ghost was gone: if the play had not sealed, what he had now spoken must seal his doom. But the decree had in fact already gone forth against his life. 158.]

[Page 168]

Pol. Oh I am slaine. [1]Killes Polonius.[2]

Qu. Oh me, what hast thou done? [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Nay I know not, is it the King?[3]

Qu. Oh what a rash, and bloody deed is this? [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. A bloody deed, almost as bad good Mother, [Sidenote: 56] As kill a King,[4] and marrie with his Brother.

Qu. As kill a King? [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. I Lady, 'twas my word.[5] [Sidenote: it was] Thou wretched, rash, intruding foole farewell, I tooke thee for thy Betters,[3] take thy Fortune, [Sidenote: better,] Thou find'st to be too busie, is some danger, Leaue wringing of your hands, peace, sit you downe, And let me wring your heart, for so I shall If it be made of penetrable stuffe; If damned Custome haue not braz'd it so, That it is proofe and bulwarke against Sense. [Sidenote: it be]

Qu. What haue I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tong, [Sidenote: Ger.] In noise so rude against me?[6]

Ham. Such an Act That blurres the grace and blush of Modestie,[7] Calls Vertue Hypocrite, takes off the Rose From the faire forehead of an innocent loue, And makes a blister there.[8] Makes marriage vowes [Sidenote: And sets a] As false as Dicers Oathes. Oh such a deed, As from the body of Contraction[9] pluckes The very soule, and sweete Religion makes A rapsidie of words. Heauens face doth glow, [Sidenote: dooes] Yea this solidity and compound masse, [Sidenote: Ore this] With tristfull visage as against the doome, [Sidenote: with heated visage,] Is thought-sicke at the act.[10] [Sidenote: thought sick]

Qu. Aye me; what act,[11] that roares so lowd,[12] and thunders in the Index.[13]

[Footnote 1: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 2: —through the arras.]

[Footnote 3: Hamlet takes him for, hopes it is the king, and thinks here to conclude: he is not praying now! and there is not a moment to be lost, for he has betrayed his presence and called for help. As often as immediate action is demanded of Hamlet, he is immediate with his response—never hesitates, never blunders. There is no blunder here: being where he was, the death of Polonius was necessary now to the death of the king. Hamlet's resolve is instant, and the act simultaneous with the resolve. The weak man is sure to be found wanting when immediate action is necessary; Hamlet never is. Doubtless those who blame him as dilatory, here blame him as precipitate, for they judge according to appearance and consequence.

All his delay after this is plainly compelled, although I grant he was not sorry to have to await such more presentable evidence as at last he procured, so long as he did not lose the final possibility of vengeance.]

[Footnote 4: This is the sole reference in the interview to the murder. I take it for tentative, and that Hamlet is satisfied by his mother's utterance, carriage, and expression, that she is innocent of any knowledge of that crime. Neither does he allude to the adultery: there is enough in what she cannot deny, and that only which can be remedied needs be taken up; while to break with the king would open the door of repentance for all that had preceded.]

[Footnote 5: He says nothing of the Ghost to his mother.]

[Footnote 6: She still holds up and holds out.]

[Footnote 7: 'makes Modesty itself suspected.']

[Footnote 8: 'makes Innocence ashamed of the love it cherishes.']

[Footnote 9: 'plucks the spirit out of all forms of contracting or agreeing.' We have lost the social and kept only the physical meaning of the noun.]

[Footnote 10: I cannot help thinking the Quarto reading of this passage the more intelligible, as well as much the more powerful. We may imagine a red aurora, by no means a very unusual phenomenon, over the expanse of the sky:—

Heaven's face doth glow (blush) O'er this solidity and compound mass,

(the earth, solid, material, composite, a corporeal mass in confrontment with the spirit-like etherial, simple, uncompounded heaven leaning over it)

With tristful (or heated, as the reader may choose) visage: as against the doom,

(as in the presence, or in anticipation of the revealing judgment)

Is thought sick at the act.

(thought is sick at the act of the queen)

My difficulties as to the Folio reading are—why the earth should be so described without immediate contrast with the sky; and—how the earth could be showing a tristful visage, and the sickness of its thought. I think, if the Poet indeed made the alterations and they are not mere blunders, he must have made them hurriedly, and without due attention. I would not forget, however, that there may be something present but too good for me to find, which would make the passage plain as it stands.

Compare As you like it, act i. sc. 3.

For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee.]

[Footnote 11: In Q. the rest of this speech is Hamlet's; his long speech begins here, taking up the queen's word.]

[Footnote 12: She still stands out.]

[Footnote 13: 'thunders in the very indication or mention of it.' But by 'the Index' may be intended the influx or table of contents of a book, at the beginning of it.]

[Page 170]

Ham. Looke heere vpon this Picture, and on this, The counterfet presentment of two Brothers:[1] See what a grace was seated on his Brow, [Sidenote: on this] [Sidenote: 151] Hyperions curies, the front of Ioue himselfe, An eye like Mars, to threaten or command [Sidenote: threaten and] A Station, like the Herald Mercurie New lighted on a heauen kissing hill: [Sidenote: on a heaue, a kissing] A Combination, and a forme indeed, Where euery God did seeme to set his Seale, To giue the world assurance of a man.[2] This was your Husband. Looke you now what followes. Heere is your Husband, like a Mildew'd eare Blasting his wholsom breath. Haue you eyes? [Sidenote: wholsome brother,] Could you on this faire Mountaine leaue to feed, And batten on this Moore?[3] Ha? Haue you eyes? You cannot call it Loue: For at your age, The hey-day[4] in the blood is tame, it's humble, And waites vpon the Judgement: and what Iudgement Would step from this, to this? [A] What diuell was't, That thus hath cousend you at hoodman-blinde?[5] [Sidenote: hodman] [B] O Shame! where is thy Blush? Rebellious Hell, If thou canst mutine in a Matrons bones,

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

sence sure youe haue Els could you not haue motion, but sure that sence Is appoplext, for madnesse would not erre Nor sence to extacie[6] was nere so thral'd But it reseru'd some quantity of choise[7] To serue in such[8] a difference,]

[Footnote B: Here in the Quarto:—

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight. Eares without hands, or eyes, smelling sance[9] all, Or but a sickly part of one true sence Could not so mope:[10]]

[Footnote 1: He points to the portraits of the two brothers, side by side on the wall.]

[Footnote 2: See Julius Caesar, act v. sc. 5,—speech of Antony at the end.]

[Footnote 3: —perhaps an allusion as well to the complexion of Claudius, both moral and physical.]

[Footnote 4: —perhaps allied to the German heida, and possibly the English hoyden and hoity-toity. Or is it merely high-day—noontide?]

[Footnote 5: 'played tricks with you while hooded in the game of blind-man's-bluff?' The omitted passage of the Quarto enlarges the figure.

1st Q. 'hob-man blinde.']

[Footnote 6: madness.]

[Footnote 7: Attributing soul to sense, he calls its distinguishment choice.]

[Footnote 8: —emphasis on such.]

[Footnote 9: This spelling seems to show how the English word sans should be pronounced.]

[Footnote 10: —'be so dull.']

[Page 172]

To flaming youth, let Vertue be as waxe, And melt in her owne fire. Proclaime no shame, When the compulsiue Ardure giues the charge, Since Frost it selfe,[1] as actiuely doth burne, As Reason panders Will. [Sidenote: And reason pardons will.]

Qu. O Hamlet, speake no more.[2] [Sidenote: Ger.] Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soule, [Sidenote: my very eyes into my soule,] And there I see such blacke and grained[3] spots, [Sidenote: greeued spots] As will not leaue their Tinct.[4] [Sidenote: will leaue there their]

Ham. Nay, but to liue[5] In the ranke sweat of an enseamed bed, [Sidenote: inseemed] Stew'd in Corruption; honying and making loue [Sidenote: 34] Ouer the nasty Stye.[6]

Qu. Oh speake to me, no more, [Sidenote: Ger.] [Sidenote: 158] These words like Daggers enter in mine eares. [Sidenote: my] No more sweet Hamlet.

Ham. A Murderer, and a Villaine: A Slaue, that is not twentieth part the tythe [Sidenote: part the kyth] Of your precedent Lord. A vice[7] of Kings, A Cutpurse of the Empire and the Rule. That from a shelfe, the precious Diadem stole, And put it in his Pocket.

Qu. No more.[8] [Sidenote: Ger.]

Enter Ghost.[9]

Ham. A King of shreds and patches. [Sidenote: 44] Saue me; and houer o're me with your wings[10] You heauenly Guards. What would you gracious figure? [Sidenote: your gracious]

Qu. Alas he's mad.[11] [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Do you not come your tardy Sonne to chide, That laps't in Time and Passion, lets go by[12] Th'important acting of your dread command? Oh say.[13]

[Footnote 1: —his mother's matronly age.]

[Footnote 2: She gives way at last.]

[Footnote 3: —spots whose blackness has sunk into the grain, or final particles of the substance.]

[Footnote 4: —transition form of tint:—'will never give up their colour;' 'will never be cleansed.']

[Footnote 5: He persists.]

[Footnote 6: —Claudius himself—his body no 'temple of the Holy Ghost,' but a pig-sty. 3.]

[Footnote 7: The clown of the old Moral Play.]

[Footnote 8: She seems neither surprised nor indignant at any point in the accusation: her consciousness of her own guiit has overwhelmed her.]

[Footnote 9: The 1st Q. has Enter the ghost in his night gowne. It was then from the first intended that he should not at this point appear in armour—in which, indeed, the epithet gracious figure could hardly be applied to him, though it might well enough in one of the costumes in which Hamlet was accustomed to see him—as this dressing-gown of the 1st Q. A ghost would appear in the costume in which he naturally imagined himself, and in his wife's room would not show himself clothed as when walking among the fortifications of the castle. But by the words lower down (174)—

My Father in his habite, as he liued,

the Poet indicates, not his dressing-gown, but his usual habit, i.e. attire.]

[Footnote 10: —almost the same invocation as when first he saw the apparition.]

[Footnote 11: The queen cannot see the Ghost. Her conduct has built such a wall between her and her husband that I doubt whether, were she a ghost also, she could see him. Her heart had left him, so they are no more together in the sphere of mutual vision. Neither does the Ghost wish to show himself to her. As his presence is not corporeal, a ghost may be present to but one of a company.]

[Footnote 12: 1. 'Who, lapsed (fallen, guilty), lets action slip in delay and suffering.' 2. 'Who, lapsed in (fallen in, overwhelmed by) delay and suffering, omits' &c. 3. 'lapsed in respect of time, and because of passion'—the meaning of the preposition in, common to both, reacted upon by the word it governs. 4. 'faulty both in delaying, and in yielding to suffering, when action is required.' 5. 'lapsed through having too much time and great suffering.' 6. 'allowing himself to be swept along by time and grief.'

Surely there is not another writer whose words would so often admit of such multiform and varied interpretation—each form good, and true, and suitable to the context! He seems to see at once all the relations of a thing, and to try to convey them at once, in an utterance single as the thing itself. He would condense the infinite soul of the meaning into the trembling, overtaxed body of the phrase!]

[Footnote 13: In the renewed presence of the Ghost, all its former influence and all the former conviction of its truth, return upon him. He knows also how his behaviour must appear to the Ghost, and sees himself as the Ghost sees him. Confronted with the gracious figure, how should he think of self-justification! So far from being able to explain things, he even forgets the doubt that had held him back—it has vanished from the noble presence! He is now in the world of belief; the world of doubt is nowhere!—Note the masterly opposition of moods.]

[Page 174]

Ghost. Do not forget: this Visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.[1] But looke, Amazement on thy Mother sits;[2] [Sidenote: 30, 54] O step betweene her, and her fighting Soule,[3] [Sidenote: 198] Conceit[4] in weakest bodies, strongest workes. Speake to her Hamlet.[5]

Ham. How is it with you Lady?[6]

Qu. Alas, how is't with you? [Sidenote: Ger.] That you bend your eye on vacancie, [Sidenote: you do bend] And with their corporall ayre do hold discourse. [Sidenote: with th'incorporall ayre] Forth at your eyes, your spirits wildely peepe, And as the sleeping Soldiours in th'Alarme, Your bedded haire, like life in excrements,[7] Start vp, and stand an end.[8] Oh gentle Sonne, Vpon the heate and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle coole patience. Whereon do you looke?[9]

Ham. On him, on him: look you how pale he glares, His forme and cause conioyn'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capeable.[10] Do not looke vpon me,[11] Least with this pitteous action you conuert My sterne effects: then what I haue to do,[12] [Sidenote: 111] Will want true colour; teares perchance for blood.[13]

Qu. To who do you speake this? [Sidenote: Ger. To whom]

Ham. Do you see nothing there?

Qu. Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.[14] [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Nor did you nothing heare?

Qu. No, nothing but our selues. [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Why look you there: looke how it steals away: [Sidenote: 173] My Father in his habite, as he liued, Looke where he goes euen now out at the Portall. Exit. [Sidenote: Exit Ghost.]

[Sidenote: 114] Qu. This is the very coynage of your Braine, [Sidenote: Ger.]

[Footnote 1: The Ghost here judges, as alone is possible to him, from what he knows—from the fact that his brother Claudius has not yet made his appearance in the ghost-world. Not understanding Hamlet's difficulties, he mistakes Hamlet himself.]

[Footnote 2: He mistakes also, through his tenderness, the condition of his wife—imagining, it would seem, that she feels his presence, though she cannot see him, or recognize the source of the influence which he supposes to be moving her conscience: she is only perturbed by Hamlet's behaviour.]

[Footnote 3: —fighting within itself, as the sea in a storm may be said to fight.

He is careful as ever over the wife he had loved and loves still; careful no less of the behaviour of the son to his mother.

In the 1st Q. we have:—

But I perceiue by thy distracted lookes, Thy mother's fearefull, and she stands amazde: Speake to her Hamlet, for her sex is weake, Comfort thy mother, Hamlet, thinke on me.]

[Footnote 4: —not used here for bare imagination, but imagination with its concomitant feeling:—conception. 198.]

[Footnote 5: His last word ere he vanishes utterly, concerns his queen; he is tender and gracious still to her who sent him to hell. This attitude of the Ghost towards his faithless wife, is one of the profoundest things in the play. All the time she is not thinking of him any more than seeing him—for 'is he not dead!'—is looking straight at where he stands, but is all unaware of him.]

[Footnote 6: I understand him to speak this with a kind of lost, mechanical obedience. The description his mother gives of him makes it seem as if the Ghost were drawing his ghost out to himself, and turning his body thereby half dead.]

[Footnote 7: 'as if there were life in excrements.' The nails and hair were 'excrements'—things growing out.]

[Footnote 8: Note the form an end—not on end. 51, 71.]

[Footnote 9: —all spoken coaxingly, as to one in a mad fit. She regards his perturbation as a sudden assault of his ever present malady. One who sees what others cannot see they are always ready to count mad.]

[Footnote 10: able to take, that is, to understand.]

[Footnote 11: —to the Ghost.]

[Footnote 12: 'what is in my power to do.']

[Footnote 13: Note antithesis here: 'your piteous action;' 'my stern effects'—the things, that is, 'which I have to effect.' 'Lest your piteous show convert—change—my stern doing; then what I do will lack true colour; the result may be tears instead of blood; I shall weep instead of striking.']

[Footnote 14: It is one of the constantly recurring delusions of humanity that we see all there is.]

[Page 176]

[Sidenote: 114] This bodilesse Creation extasie[1] is very cunning in.[2]

Ham. Extasie?[3] My Pulse as yours doth temperately keepe time, And makes as healthfull Musicke.[4] It is not madnesse That I haue vttered; bring me to the Test And I the matter will re-word: which madnesse [Sidenote: And the] Would gamboll from. Mother, for loue of Grace, Lay not a flattering Vnction to your soule, [Sidenote: not that flattering] That not your trespasse, but my madnesse speakes: [Sidenote: 182] It will but skin and filme the Vlcerous place, Whil'st ranke Corruption mining all within, [Sidenote: whiles] Infects vnseene, Confesse your selfe to Heauen, Repent what's past, auoyd what is to come, And do not spred the Compost or the Weedes, [Sidenote: compost on the] To make them ranke. Forgiue me this my Vertue, [Sidenote: ranker,] For in the fatnesse of this pursie[5] times, [Sidenote: these] Vertue it selfe, of Vice must pardon begge, Yea courb,[6] and woe, for leaue to do him good. [Sidenote: curbe and wooe]

Qu. Oh Hamlet, [Sidenote: Ger.] Thou hast cleft my heart in twaine.

Ham. O throw away the worser part of it, And Liue the purer with the other halfe. [Sidenote: And leaue the] Good night, but go not to mine Vnkles bed, [Sidenote: my] Assume a Vertue, if you haue it not,[7][A] refraine to night [Sidenote: Assune to refraine night,] And that shall lend a kinde of easinesse

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

[8]That monster custome, who all sence doth eate Of habits deuill,[9] is angell yet in this That to the vse of actions faire and good, He likewise giues a frock or Liuery That aptly is put on]

[Footnote 1: madness 129.]

[Footnote 2: Here is the correspondent speech in the 1st Q. I give it because of the queen's denial of complicity in the murder.

Queene Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine. Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe: But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen, I neuer knew of this most horride murder: But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie, And for my loue forget these idle fits.

Ham. Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours, It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet.]

[Footnote 3: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 4: —time being a great part of music. Shakspere more than once or twice employs music as a symbol with reference to corporeal condition: see, for instance, As you like it, act i. sc. 2, 'But is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? is there yet another dotes upon rib-breaking?' where the broken music may be regarded as the antithesis of the healthful music here.]

[Footnote 5: swoln, pampered: an allusion to the purse itself, whether intended or not, is suggested.]

[Footnote 6: bend, bow.]

[Footnote 7: To assume is to take to one: by assume a virtue, Hamlet does not mean pretend—but the very opposite: to pretend is to hold forth, to show; what he means is, 'Adopt a virtue'—that of abstinence—'and act upon it, order your behaviour by it, although you may not feel it. Choose the virtue—take it, make it yours.']

[Footnote 8: This omitted passage is obscure with the special Shaksperean obscurity that comes of over-condensation. He omitted it, I think, because of its obscurity. Its general meaning is plain enough—that custom helps the man who tries to assume a virtue, as well as renders it more and more difficult for him who indulges in vice to leave it. I will paraphrase: 'That monster, Custom, who eats away all sense, the devil of habits, is angel yet in this, that, for the exercise of fair and good actions, he also provides a habit, a suitable frock or livery, that is easily put on.' The play with the two senses of the word habit is more easily seen than set forth. To paraphrase more freely: 'That devil of habits, Custom, who eats away all sense of wrong-doing, has yet an angel-side to him, in that he gives a man a mental dress, a habit, helpful to the doing of the right thing.' The idea of hypocrisy does not come in at all. The advice of Hamlet is: 'Be virtuous in your actions, even if you cannot in your feelings; do not do the wrong thing you would like to do, and custom will render the abstinence easy.']

[Footnote 9: I suspect it should be 'Of habits evil'—the antithesis to angel being monster.]

[Page 178]

To the next abstinence. [A] Once more goodnight, And when you are desirous to be blest, Ile blessing begge of you.[1] For this same Lord, I do repent: but heauen hath pleas'd it so,[2] To punish me with this, and this with me, That I must be their[3] Scourge and Minister. I will bestow him,[4] and will answer well The death I gaue him:[5] so againe, good night. I must be cruell, onely to be kinde;[6] Thus bad begins,[7] and worse remaines behinde.[8] [Sidenote: This bad]

[B]

Qu. What shall I do? [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. Not this by no meanes that I bid you do: Let the blunt King tempt you againe to bed, [Sidenote: the blowt King] Pinch Wanton on your cheeke, call you his Mouse, And let him for a paire of reechie[9] kisses, Or padling in your necke with his damn'd Fingers, Make you to rauell all this matter out, [Sidenote: rouell] [Sidenote: 60, 136, 156] That I essentially am not in madnesse. But made in craft.[10] 'Twere good you let him know, [Sidenote: mad] For who that's but a Queene, faire, sober, wise, Would from a Paddocke,[11] from a Bat, a Gibbe,[12] Such deere concernings hide, Who would do so, No in despight of Sense and Secrecie, Vnpegge the Basket on the houses top: Let the Birds flye, and like the famous Ape To try Conclusions[13] in the Basket, creepe And breake your owne necke downe.[14]

Qu. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, [Sidenote: Ger.]

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto;—

the next more easie:[15] For vse almost can change the stamp of nature, And either[16] the deuill, or throwe him out With wonderous potency:]

[Footnote B: Here in the Quarto:—

One word more good Lady.[17]]

[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, after the custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farce now: when she seeks the blessing of God, he will beg hers; now, a plain good night must serve.]

[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of pleased. It is here a transitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sentence is, 'pleased it so, in order to punish us, that I must' &c.]

[Footnote 3: The noun to which their is the pronoun is heaven—as if he had written the gods.]

[Footnote 4: 'take him to a place fit for him to lie in.']

[Footnote 5: 'hold my face to it, and justify it.']

[Footnote 6: —omitting or refusing to embrace her.]

[Footnote 7: —looking at Polonius.]

[Footnote 8: Does this mean for himself to do, or for Polonius to endure?]

[Footnote 9: reeky, smoky, fumy.]

[Footnote 10: Hamlet considers his madness the same that he so deliberately assumed. But his idea of himself goes for nothing where the experts conclude him mad! His absolute clarity where he has no occasion to act madness, goes for as little, for 'all madmen have their sane moments'!]

[Footnote 11: a toad; in Scotland, a frog.]

[Footnote 12: an old cat.]

[Footnote 13: Experiments, Steevens says: is it not rather results?]

[Footnote 14: I fancy the story, which so far as I know has not been traced, goes on to say that the basket was emptied from the house-top to send the pigeons flying, and so the ape got his neck broken. The phrase 'breake your owne necke downe' seems strange: it could hardly have been written neck-bone!]

[Footnote 15: This passage would fall in better with the preceding with which it is vitally one—for it would more evenly continue its form—if the preceding devil were, as I propose above, changed to evil. But, precious as is every word in them, both passages are well omitted.]

[Footnote 16: Plainly there is a word left out, if not lost here. There is no authority for the supplied master. I am inclined to propose a pause and a gesture, with perhaps an inarticulation.]

[Footnote 17: —interrogatively perhaps, Hamlet noting her about to speak; but I would prefer it thus: 'One word more:—good lady—' Here he pauses so long that she speaks. Or we might read it thus:

Qu. One word more. Ham. Good lady? Qu. What shall I do?]

[Page 180]

And breath of life: I haue no life to breath What thou hast saide to me.[1]

[Sidenote: 128, 158] Ham. I must to England, you know that?[2]

Qu. Alacke I had forgot: Tis so concluded on. [Sidenote: Ger.]

Ham. [A] This man shall set me packing:[3] Ile lugge the Guts into the Neighbor roome,[4] Mother goodnight. Indeede this Counsellor [Sidenote: night indeed, this] Is now most still, most secret, and most graue, [Sidenote: 84] Who was in life, a foolish prating Knaue. [Sidenote: a most foolish] Come sir, to draw toward an end with you.[5] Good night Mother.

Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius.[6] [Sidenote: Exit.]

[7]

Enter King. [Sidenote: Enter King, and Queene, with Rosencraus and Guyldensterne.]

King. There's matters in these sighes. These profound heaues You must translate; Tis fit we vnderstand them. Where is your Sonne?[8]

Qu. [B] Ah my good Lord, what haue I seene to night? [Sidenote: Ger. Ah mine owne Lord,]

King. What Gertrude? How do's Hamlet?

Qu. Mad as the Seas, and winde, when both contend [Sidenote: Ger. sea and] Which is the Mightier, in his lawlesse fit[9]

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

[10]Ther's letters seald, and my two Schoolefellowes, Whom I will trust as I will Adders fang'd, They beare the mandat, they must sweep my way And marshall me to knauery[11]: let it worke, For tis the sport to haue the enginer Hoist[12] with his owne petar,[13] an't shall goe hard But I will delue one yard belowe their mines, And blowe them at the Moone: o tis most sweete When in one line two crafts directly meete,]

[Footnote B: Here in the Quarto:—

Bestow this place on vs a little while.[14]]

[Footnote 1: 1st Q.

O mother, if euer you did my deare father loue, Forbeare the adulterous bed to night, And win your selfe by little as you may, In time it may be you wil lothe him quite: And mother, but assist mee in reuenge, And in his death your infamy shall die.

Queene. Hamlet, I vow by that maiesty, That knowes our thoughts, and lookes into our hearts, I will conceale, consent, and doe my best, What stratagem soe're thou shalt deuise.]

[Footnote 2: The king had spoken of it both before and after the play: Horatio might have heard of it and told Hamlet.]

[Footnote 3: 'My banishment will be laid to this deed of mine.']

[Footnote 4: —to rid his mother of it.]

[Footnote 5: It may cross him, as he says this, dragging the body out by one end of it, and toward the end of its history, that he is himself drawing toward an end along with Polonius.]

[Footnote 6: —and weeping. 182. See note 5, 183.]

[Footnote 7: Here, according to the editors, comes 'Act IV.' For this there is no authority, and the point of division seems to me very objectionable. The scene remains the same, as noted from Capell in Cam. Sh., and the entrance of the king follows immediately on the exit of Hamlet. He finds his wife greatly perturbed; she has not had time to compose herself.

From the beginning of Act II., on to where I would place the end of Act III., there is continuity.]

[Footnote 8: I would have this speech uttered with pauses and growing urgency, mingled at length with displeasure.]

[Footnote 9: She is faithful to her son, declaring him mad, and attributing the death of 'the unseen' Polonius to his madness.]

[Footnote 10: This passage, like the rest, I hold to be omitted by Shakspere himself. It represents Hamlet as divining the plot with whose execution his false friends were entrusted. The Poet had at first intended Hamlet to go on board the vessel with a design formed upon this for the out-witting of his companions, and to work out that design. Afterwards, however, he alters his plan, and represents his escape as more plainly providential: probably he did not see how to manage it by any scheme of Hamlet so well as by the attack of a pirate; possibly he wished to write the passage (246) in which Hamlet, so consistently with his character, attributes his return to the divine shaping of the end rough-hewn by himself. He had designs—'dear plots'—but they were other than fell out—a rough-hewing that was shaped to a different end. The discomfiture of his enemies was not such as he had designed: it was brought about by no previous plot, but through a discovery. At the same time his deliverance was not effected by the fingering of the packet, but by the attack of the pirate: even the re-writing of the commission did nothing towards his deliverance, resulted only in the punishment of his traitorous companions. In revising the Quarto, the Poet sees that the passage before us, in which is expressed the strongest suspicion of his companions, with a determination to outwit and punish them, is inconsistent with the representation Hamlet gives afterwards of a restlessness and suspicion newly come upon him, which he attributes to the Divinity.

Neither was it likely he would say so much to his mother while so little sure of her as to warn her, on the ground of danger to herself, against revealing his sanity to the king. As to this, however, the portion omitted might, I grant, be regarded as an aside.]

[Footnote 11: —to be done to him.]

[Footnote 12: Hoised, from verb hoise—still used in Scotland.]

[Footnote 13: a kind of explosive shell, which was fixed to the object meant to be destroyed. Note once more Hamlet's delight in action.]

[Footnote 14: —said to Ros. and Guild.: in plain speech, 'Leave us a little while.']

[Page 182]

Behinde the Arras, hearing something stirre, He whips his Rapier out, and cries a Rat, a Rat, [Sidenote: Whyps out his Rapier, cryes a] And in his brainish apprehension killes [Sidenote: in this] The vnseene good old man.

King. Oh heauy deed: It had bin so with vs[1] had we beene there: His Liberty is full of threats to all,[2] To you your selfe, to vs, to euery one. Alas, how shall this bloody deede be answered? It will be laide to vs, whose prouidence Should haue kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt, This mad yong man.[2] But so much was our loue, We would not vnderstand what was most fit, But like the Owner of a foule disease, [Sidenote: 176] To keepe it from divulging, let's it feede [Sidenote: let it] Euen on the pith of life. Where is he gone?

Qu. To draw apart the body he hath kild, [Sidenote: Ger.] O're whom his very madnesse[3] like some Oare Among a Minerall of Mettels base [Sidenote: 181] Shewes it selfe pure.[4] He weepes for what is done.[5] [Sidenote: pure, a weeepes]

King: Oh Gertrude, come away: The Sun no sooner shall the Mountaines touch, But we will ship him hence, and this vilde deed, We must with all our Maiesty and Skill [Sidenote: 200] Both countenance, and excuse.[6] Enter Ros. & Guild.[7] Ho Guildenstern: Friends both go ioyne you with some further ayde: Hamlet in madnesse hath Polonius slaine, And from his Mother Clossets hath he drag'd him. [Sidenote: closet dreg'd] Go seeke him out, speake faire, and bring the body Into the Chappell. I pray you hast in this. Exit Gent[8] Come Gertrude, wee'l call vp our wisest friends, To let them know both what we meane to do, [Sidenote: And let]

[Footnote 1: the royal plural.]

[Footnote 2: He knows the thrust was meant for him. But he would not have it so understood; he too lays it to his madness, though he too knows better.]

[Footnote 3: 'he, although mad'; 'his nature, in spite of his madness.']

[Footnote 4: by his weeping, in the midst of much to give a different impression.]

[Footnote 5: We have no reason to think the queen inventing here: what could she gain by it? the point indeed was rather against Hamlet, as showing it was not Polonius he had thought to kill. He was more than ever annoyed with the contemptible old man, who had by his meddlesomeness brought his death to his door; but he was very sorry nevertheless over Ophelia's father: those rough words in his last speech are spoken with the tears running down his face. We have seen the strange, almost discordant mingling in him of horror and humour, after the first appearance of the Ghost, 58, 60: something of the same may be supposed when he finds he has killed Polonius: in the highstrung nervous condition that must have followed such a talk with his mother, it would be nowise strange that he should weep heartily even in the midst of contemptuous anger. Or perhaps a sudden breakdown from attempted show of indifference, would not be amiss in the representation.]

[Footnote 6: 'both countenance with all our majesty, and excuse with all our skill.']

[Footnote 7: In the Quarto a line back.]

[Footnote 8: Not in Q.]

[Page 184]

And what's vntimely[1] done. [A] Oh come away, [Sidenote: doone,] My soule is full of discord and dismay. Exeunt.

Enter Hamlet. [Sidenote: Hamlet, Rosencrans, and others.]

Ham. Safely stowed.[2] [Sidenote: stowed, but soft, what noyse,]

Gentlemen within. Hamlet. Lord Hamlet?

Ham. What noise? Who cals on Hamlet? Oh heere they come.

Enter Ros. and Guildensterne.[4]

Ro. What haue you done my Lord with the dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis Kinne.[5] [Sidenote: Compound it]

Rosin. Tell vs where 'tis, that we may take it thence, And beare it to the Chappell.

Ham. Do not beleeue it.[6]

Rosin. Beleeue what?

[Sidenote: 156] Ham. That I can keepe your counsell, and not mine owne. Besides, to be demanded of a Spundge, what replication should be made by the Sonne of a King.[7]

Rosin. Take you me for a Spundge, my Lord?

Ham. I sir, that sokes vp the Kings Countenance, his Rewards, his Authorities, but such Officers do the King best seruice in the end. He keepes them like an Ape in the corner of his iaw,[8] first [Sidenote: like an apple in] mouth'd to be last swallowed, when he needes what you haue glean'd, it is but squeezing you, and Spundge you shall be dry againe.

Rosin. I vnderstand you not my Lord.

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

Whose whisper ore the worlds dyameter,[9] [Sidenote: 206] As leuell as the Cannon to his blanck,[10] Transports his poysned shot, may miffe[11] our Name, And hit the woundlesse ayre.]

[Footnote 1: unhappily.]

[Footnote 2: He has hid the body—to make the whole look the work of a mad fit.]

[Footnote 3: This line is not in the Quarto.]

[Footnote 4: Not in Q. See margin above.]

[Footnote 5: He has put it in a place which, little visited, is very dusty.]

[Footnote 6: He is mad to them—sane only to his mother and Horatio.]

[Footnote 7: euphuistic: 'asked a question by a sponge, what answer should a prince make?']

[Footnote 8: 1st Q.:

For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes, In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you, Then swallowes you:]

[Footnote 9: Here most modern editors insert, 'so, haply, slander'. But, although I think the Poet left out this obscure passage merely from dissatisfaction with it, I believe it renders a worthy sense as it stands. The antecedent to whose is friends: cannon is nominative to transports; and the only difficulty is the epithet poysned applied to shot, which seems transposed from the idea of an unfriendly whisper. Perhaps Shakspere wrote poysed shot. But taking this as it stands, the passage might be paraphrased thus: 'Whose (favourable) whisper over the world's diameter (from one side of the world to the other), as level (as truly aimed) as the cannon (of an evil whisper) transports its poisoned shot to his blank (the white centre of the target), may shoot past our name (so keeping us clear), and hit only the invulnerable air.' ('the intrenchant air': Macbeth, act v. sc. 8). This interpretation rests on the idea of over-condensation with its tendency to seeming confusion—the only fault I know in the Poet—a grand fault, peculiarly his own, born of the beating of his wings against the impossible. It is much as if, able to think two thoughts at once, he would compel his phrase to utter them at once.]

[Footnote 10:

for the harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank And level of my brain, plot-proof;

The Winter's Tale, act ii. sc. 3.

My life stands in the level of your dreams,

Ibid, act iii. sc. 2.]

[Footnote 11: two ff for two long ss.]

[Page 186]

Ham. I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleepes in a foolish eare.

Rosin. My Lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.

Ham. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.[1] The King, is a thing——

Guild. A thing my Lord?

Ham. Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hide Fox, and all after.[3] Exeunt[4]

Enter King. [Sidenote: King, and two or three.]

King. I have sent to seeke him, and to find the bodie: How dangerous is it that this man goes loose:[5] Yet must not we put the strong Law on him: [Sidenote: 212] Hee's loved of the distracted multitude,[6] Who like not in their iudgement, but their eyes: And where 'tis so, th'Offenders scourge is weigh'd But neerer the offence: to beare all smooth, and euen, [Sidenote: neuer the] This sodaine sending him away, must seeme [Sidenote: 120] Deliberate pause,[7] diseases desperate growne, By desperate appliance are releeved, Or not at all. Enter Rosincrane. [Sidenote: Rosencraus and all the rest.] How now? What hath befalne?

Rosin. Where the dead body is bestow'd my Lord, We cannot get from him.

King. But where is he?[8]

Rosin. Without my Lord, guarded[9] to know your pleasure.

King. Bring him before us.

Rosin. Hoa, Guildensterne? Bring in my Lord. [Sidenote: Ros. How, bring in the Lord. They enter.]

Enter Hamlet and Guildensterne[10]

King. Now Hamlet, where's Polonius?

[Footnote 1: 'The body is in the king's house, therefore with the king; but the king knows not where, therefore the king is not with the body.']

[Footnote 2: 'A thing of nothing' seems to have been a common phrase.]

[Footnote 3: The Quarto has not 'hide Fox, and all after.']

[Footnote 4: Hamlet darts out, with the others after him, as in a hunt. Possibly there was a game called Hide fox, and all after.]

[Footnote 5: He is a hypocrite even to himself.]

[Footnote 6: This had all along helped to Hamlet's safety.]

[Footnote 7: 'must be made to look the result of deliberate reflection.' Claudius fears the people may imagine Hamlet treacherously used, driven to self-defence, and hurried out of sight to be disposed of.]

[Footnote 8: Emphasis on he; the point of importance with the king, is where he is, not where the body is.]

[Footnote 9: Henceforward he is guarded, or at least closely watched, according to the Folio—left much to himself according to the Quarto. 192.]

[Footnote 10: Not in Quarto.]

[Page 188]

Ham. At Supper.

King. At Supper? Where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten, [Sidenote: where a is] a certaine conuocation of wormes are e'ne at him. [Sidenote: of politique wormes[1]] Your worm is your onely Emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat vs, and we fat our selfe [Sidenote: ourselves] for Magots. Your fat King, and your leane Begger is but variable seruice to dishes, but to one [Sidenote: two dishes] Table that's the end.

[A]

King. What dost thou meane by this?[2]

Ham. Nothing but to shew you how a King may go a Progresse[3] through the guts of a Begger.[4]

King. Where is Polonius.

Ham. In heauen, send thither to see. If your Messenger finde him not there, seeke him i'th other place your selfe: but indeed, if you finde him not [Sidenote: but if indeed you find him not within this] this moneth, you shall nose him as you go vp the staires into the Lobby.

King. Go seeke him there.

Ham. He will stay till ye come. [Sidenote: A will stay till you]

K. Hamlet, this deed of thine, for thine especial safety [Sidenote: this deede for thine especiall] Which we do tender, as we deerely greeue For that which thou hast done,[5] must send thee hence With fierie Quicknesse.[6] Therefore prepare thy selfe, The Barke is readie, and the winde at helpe,[7] Th'Associates tend,[8] and euery thing at bent [Sidenote: is bent] For England.

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

King Alas, alas.[9]

Ham. A man may fish with the worme that hath eate of a King, and eate of the fish that hath fedde of that worme.]

[Footnote 1: —such as Rosincrance and Guildensterne!]

[Footnote 2: I suspect this and the following speech ought by the printers to have been omitted also: without the preceding two speeches of the Quarto they are not accounted for.]

[Footnote 3: a royal progress.]

[Footnote 4: Hamlet's philosophy deals much now with the worthlessness of all human distinctions and affairs.]

[Footnote 5: 'and we care for your safety as much as we grieve for the death of Polonius.']

[Footnote 6: 'With fierie Quicknesse.' Not in Quarto.]

[Footnote 7: fair—ready to help.]

[Footnote 8: attend, wait.]

[Footnote 9: pretending despair over his madness.]

[Page 190]

Ham. For England?

King. I Hamlet.

Ham. Good.

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.

Ham. I see a Cherube that see's him: but [Sidenote: sees them,] come, for England. Farewell deere Mother.

King. Thy louing Father Hamlet.

Hamlet. My Mother: Father and Mother is man and wife: man and wife is one flesh, and so [Sidenote: flesh, so my] my mother.[1] Come, for England. Exit

[Sidenote: 195] King. Follow him at foote,[2] Tempt him with speed aboord: Delay it not, He haue him hence to night. Away, for euery thing is Seal'd and done That else leanes on[3] th'Affaire pray you make hast. And England, if my loue thou holdst at ought, As my great power thereof may giue thee sense, Since yet thy Cicatrice lookes raw and red[4] After the Danish Sword, and thy free awe Payes homage to vs[5]; thou maist not coldly set[6] Our Soueraigne Processe,[7] which imports at full By Letters conjuring to that effect [Sidenote: congruing] The present death of Hamlet. Do it England, For like the Hecticke[8] in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done, How ere my happes,[9] my ioyes were ne're begun.[10] [Sidenote: ioyes will nere begin.] Exit[11]

[Sidenote: 274] [12]Enter Fortinbras with an Armie. [Sidenote: with his Army ouer the stage.]

For. Go Captaine, from me greet the Danish King, Tell him that by his license, Fortinbras [Sidenote: 78] Claimes the conueyance[13] of a promis'd March [Sidenote: Craues the] Ouer his Kingdome. You know the Rendeuous:[14]

[Footnote 1: He will not touch the hand of his father's murderer.]

[Footnote 2: 'at his heels.']

[Footnote 3: 'belongs to.']

[Footnote 4: 'as my great power may give thee feeling of its value, seeing the scar of my vengeance has hardly yet had time to heal.']

[Footnote 5: 'and thy fear uncompelled by our presence, pays homage to us.']

[Footnote 6: 'set down to cool'; 'set in the cold.']

[Footnote 7: mandate: 'Where's Fulvia's process?' Ant. and Cl., act i. sc. 1. Shakespeare Lexicon.]

[Footnote 8: hectic fever—habitual or constant fever.]

[Footnote 9: 'whatever my fortunes.']

[Footnote 10: The original, the Quarto reading—'my ioyes will nere begin' seems to me in itself better, and the cause of the change to be as follows.

In the Quarto the next scene stands as in our modern editions, ending with the rime,

o from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth. Exit.

This was the act-pause, the natural end of act iii.

But when the author struck out all but the commencement of the scene, leaving only the three little speeches of Fortinbras and his captain, then plainly the act-pause must fall at the end of the preceding scene. He therefore altered the end of the last verse to make it rime with the foregoing, in accordance with his frequent way of using a rime before an important pause.

It perplexes us to think how on his way to the vessel, Hamlet could fall in with the Norwegian captain. This may have been one of Shakspere's reasons for striking the whole scene out—but he had other and more pregnant reasons.]

[Footnote 11: Here is now the proper close of the Third Act.]

[Footnote 12: Commencement of the Fourth Act.

Between the third and the fourth passes the time Hamlet is away; for the latter, in which he returns, and whose scenes are contiguous, needs no more than one day.]

[Footnote 13: 'claims a convoy in fulfilment of the king's promise to allow him to march over his kingdom.' The meaning is made plainer by the correspondent passage in the 1st Quarto:

Tell him that Fortenbrasse nephew to old Norway, Craues a free passe and conduct ouer his land, According to the Articles agreed on:]

[Footnote 14: 'where to rejoin us.']

[Page 192]

If that his Maiesty would ought with vs, We shall expresse our dutie in his eye,[1] And let[2] him know so.

Cap. I will doo't, my Lord.

For. Go safely[3] on. Exit. [Sidenote: softly]

[A]

[4] Enter Queene and Horatio. [Sidenote: Enter Horatio, Gertrard, and a Gentleman.]

Qu. I will not speake with her.

Hor.[5] She is importunate, indeed distract, her [Sidenote: Gent.] moode will needs be pittied.

Qu. What would she haue?

Hor. She speakes much of her Father; saies she heares [Sidenote: Gent.]

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

Enter Hamlet, Rosencraus, &c.

Ham. Good sir whose powers are these?

Cap. They are of Norway sir.

Ham. How purposd sir I pray you?

Cap. Against some part of Poland.

Ham. Who commaunds them sir?

Cap. The Nephew to old Norway, Fortenbrasse.

Ham. Goes it against the maine of Poland sir, Or for some frontire?

Cap. Truly to speake, and with no addition,[6] We goe to gaine a little patch of ground[7] That hath in it no profit but the name To pay fiue duckets, fiue I would not farme it; Nor will it yeeld to Norway or the Pole A rancker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Ham. Why then the Pollacke neuer will defend it.

Cap. Yes, it is already garisond.

Ham. Two thousand soules, and twenty thousand duckets Will not debate the question of this straw This is th'Impostume of much wealth and peace, That inward breakes, and showes no cause without Why the man dies.[8] I humbly thanke you sir.

Cap. God buy you sir.

Ros. Wil't please you goe my Lord?

[Sidenote: 187, 195] Ham. Ile be with you straight, goe a little before.[9] [10]How all occasions[11] doe informe against me,

[Continued on next text page.]]

[Footnote 1: 'we shall pay our respects, waiting upon his person.']

[Footnote 2: 'let,' imperative mood.]

[Footnote 3: 'with proper precaution,' said to his attendant officers.]

[Footnote 4: This was originally intended, I repeat, for the commencement of the act. But when the greater part of the foregoing scene was omitted, and the third act made to end with the scene before that, then the small part left of the all-but-cancelled scene must open the fourth act.]

[Footnote 5: Hamlet absent, we find his friend looking after Ophelia. Gertrude seems less friendly towards her.]

[Footnote 6: exaggeration.]

[Footnote 7: —probably a small outlying island or coast-fortress, not far off, else why should Norway care about it at all? If the word frontier has the meaning, as the Shakespeare Lexicon says, of 'an outwork in fortification,' its use two lines back would, taken figuratively, tend to support this.]

[Footnote 8: The meaning may be as in the following paraphrase: 'This quarrelling about nothing is (the breaking of) the abscess caused by wealth and peace—which breaking inward (in general corruption), would show no outward sore in sign of why death came.' Or it might be forced thus:—

This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace. That (which) inward breaks, and shows no cause without— Why, the man dies!

But it may mean:—'The war is an imposthume, which will break within, and cause much affliction to the people that make the war.' On the other hand, Hamlet seems to regard it as a process for, almost a sign of health.]

[Footnote 9: Note his freedom.]

[Footnote 10: See 'examples grosse as earth' below.]

[Footnote 11: While every word that Shakspere wrote we may well take pains to grasp thoroughly, my endeavour to cast light on this passage is made with the distinct understanding in my own mind that the author himself disapproved of and omitted it, and that good reason is not wanting why he should have done so. At the same time, if my student, for this book is for those who would have help and will take pains to the true understanding of the play, would yet retain the passage, I protest against the acceptance of Hamlet's judgment of himself, except as revealing the simplicity and humility of his nature and character. That as often as a vivid memory of either interview with the Ghost came back upon him, he should feel rebuked and ashamed, and vexed with himself, is, in the morally, intellectually, and emotionally troubled state of his mind, nowise the less natural that he had the best of reasons for the delay because of which he here so unmercifully abuses himself. A man of self-satisfied temperament would never in similar circumstances have done so. But Hamlet was, by nature and education, far from such self-satisfaction; and there is in him besides such a strife and turmoil of opposing passions and feelings and apparent duties, as can but rarely rise in a human soul. With which he ought to side, his conscience is not sure—sides therefore now with one, now with another. At the same time it is by no means the long delay the critics imagine of which he is accusing himself—it is only that the thing is not done.

In certain moods the action a man dislikes will therefore look to him the more like a duty; and this helps to prevent Hamlet from knowing always how great a part conscience bears in the omission because of which he condemns and even contemns himself. The conscience does not naturally examine itself—is not necessarily self-conscious. In any soliloquy, a man must speak from his present mood: we who are not suffering, and who have many of his moods before us, ought to understand Hamlet better than he understands himself. To himself, sitting in judgment on himself, it would hardly appear a decent cause of, not to say reason for, a moment's delay in punishing his uncle, that he was so weighed down with misery because of his mother and Ophelia, that it seemed of no use to kill one villain out of the villainous world; it would seem but 'bestial oblivion'; and, although his reputation as a prince was deeply concerned, any reflection on the consequences to himself would at times appear but a 'craven scruple'; while at times even the whispers of conscience might seem a 'thinking too precisely on the event.' A conscientious man of changeful mood wilt be very ready in either mood to condemn the other. The best and rightest men will sometimes accuse themselves in a manner that seems to those who know them best, unfounded, unreasonable, almost absurd. We must not, I say, take the hero's judgment of himself as the author's judgment of him. The two judgments, that of a man upon himself from within, and that of his beholder upon him from without, are not congeneric. They are different in origin and in kind, and cannot be adopted either of them into the source of the other without most serious and dangerous mistake. So adopted, each becomes another thing altogether. It is to me probable that, although it involves other unfitnesses, the Poet omitted the passage chiefly from coming to see the danger of its giving occasion, or at least support, to an altogether mistaken and unjust idea of his Hamlet.]

[Page 194]

There's trickes i'th'world, and hems, and beats her heart, Spurnes enuiously at Strawes,[1] speakes things in doubt,[2] That carry but halfe sense: Her speech is nothing,[3] Yet the vnshaped vse of it[4] doth moue The hearers to Collection[5]; they ayme[6] at it, [Sidenote: they yawne at] And botch the words[7] vp fit to their owne thoughts

[Continuation of quote from Quarto from previous text page:—

And spur my dull reuenge. [8]What is a man If his chiefe good and market of his time Be but to sleepe and feede, a beast, no more; Sure he that made vs with such large discourse[9] Looking before and after, gaue vs not That capabilitie and god-like reason To fust in vs vnvsd,[8] now whether it be [Sidenote: 52, 120] Bestiall obliuion,[10] or some crauen scruple Of thinking too precisely on th'euent,[11] A thought which quarterd hath but one part wisedom, And euer three parts coward, I doe not know Why yet I liue to say this thing's to doe, Sith I haue cause, and will, and strength, and meanes To doo't;[12] examples grosse as earth exhort me, Witnes this Army of such masse and charge, [Sidenote: 235] Led by a delicate and tender Prince, Whose spirit with diuine ambition puft, Makes mouthes at the invisible euent, [Sidenote: 120] Exposing what is mortall, and vnsure, To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,[13] Euen for an Egge-shell. Rightly to be great, Is not to stirre without great argument, But greatly to find quarrell in a straw When honour's at the stake, how stand I then That haue a father kild, a mother staind, Excytements of my reason, and my blood, And let all sleepe,[14] while to my shame I see The iminent death of twenty thousand men, That for a fantasie and tricke[15] of fame Goe to their graues like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,[16] Which is not tombe enough and continent[17] To hide the slaine,[18] o from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.[19] Exit.]

[Footnote 1: trifles.]

[Footnote 2: doubtfully.]

[Footnote 3: 'there is nothing in her speech.']

[Footnote 4: 'the formless mode of it.']

[Footnote 5: 'to gathering things and putting them together.']

[Footnote 6: guess.]

[Footnote 7: Ophelia's words.]

[Footnote 8: I am in doubt whether this passage from 'What is a man' down to 'unused,' does not refer to the king, and whether Hamlet is not persuading himself that it can be no such objectionable thing to kill one hardly above a beast. At all events it is far more applicable to the king: it was not one of Hamlet's faults, in any case, to fail of using his reason. But he may just as well accuse himself of that too! At the same time the worst neglect of reason lies in not carrying out its conclusions, and if we cannot justify Hamlet in his delay, the passage is of good application to him. 'Bestiall oblivion' does seem to connect himself with the reflection; but how thoroughly is the thing intended by such a phrase alien from the character of Hamlet!]

[Footnote 9: —the mental faculty of running hither and thither: 'We look before and after.' Shelley: To a Skylark.]

[Footnote 10: —the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has just mentioned.]

[Footnote 11: —the consequences. The scruples that come of thinking of the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they were craven scruples, that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the noble self-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to result from the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands at least absolute assurance of guilt? or that 'a thinking too precisely on the event,' to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an un wounded name behind him?]

[Footnote 12: This passage is the strongest there is on the side of the ordinary misconception of the character of Hamlet. It comes from himself; and it is as ungenerous as it is common and unfair to use such a weapon against a man. Does any but St. Paul himself say he was the chief of sinners? Consider Hamlet's condition, tormented on all sides, within and without, and think whether this outbreak against himself be not as unfair as it is natural. Lest it should be accepted against him, Shakspere did well to leave it out. In bitter disappointment, both because of what is and what is not, both because of what he has done and what he has failed to do, having for the time lost all chance, with the last vision of the Ghost still haunting his eyes, his last reproachful words yet ringing in his ears, are we bound to take his judgment of himself because it is against himself? Are we bound to take any man's judgment because it is against himself? I answer, 'No more than if it were for himself.' A good man's judgment, where he is at all perplexed, especially if his motive comes within his own question, is ready to be against himself, as a bad man's is sure to be for himself. Or because he is a philosopher, does it follow that throughout he understands himself? Were such a man in cool, untroubled conditions, we might feel compelled to take his judgment, but surely not here! A philosopher in such state as Hamlet's would understand the quality of his spiritual operations with no more certainty than another man. In his present mood, Hamlet forgets the cogency of the reasons that swayed him in the other; forgets that his uppermost feeling then was doubt, as horror, indignation, and conviction are uppermost now. Things were never so clear to Hamlet as to us.

But how can he say he has strength and means—in the position in which he now finds himself? I am glad to be able to believe, let my defence of Hamlet against himself be right or wrong, that Shakspere intended the omission of the passage. I lay nothing on the great lack of logic throughout the speech, for that would not make it unfit for Hamlet in such mood, while it makes its omission from the play of less consequence to my general argument.]

[Footnote 13: threaten. This supports my argument as to the great soliloquy—that it was death as the result of his slaying the king, or attempting to do so, not death by suicide, he was thinking of: he expected to die himself in the punishing of his uncle.]

[Footnote 14: He had had no chance but that when the king was on his knees.]

[Footnote 15: 'a fancy and illusion.']

[Footnote 16: 'which is too small for those engaged to find room to fight on it.']

[Footnote 17: 'continent,' containing space.]

[Footnote 18: This soliloquy is antithetic to the other. Here is no thought of the 'something after death.']

[Footnote 19: If, with this speech in his mouth, Hamlet goes coolly on board the vessel, not being compelled thereto (190, 192, 216), and possessing means to his vengeance, as here he says, and goes merely in order to hoist Rosincrance and Guildensterne with their own petard—that is, if we must keep the omitted passages, then the author exposes his hero to a more depreciatory judgment than any from which I would justify him, and a conception of his character entirely inconsistent with the rest of the play. He did not observe the risk at the time he wrote the passage, but discovering it afterwards, rectified the oversight—to the dissatisfaction of his critics, who have agreed in restoring what he cancelled.]

[Page 196]

Which as her winkes, and nods, and gestures yeeld[1] them, Indeed would make one thinke there would[2] be thought, [Sidenote: there might[2] be] Though nothing sure, yet much vnhappily.

Qu. 'Twere good she were spoken with,[3] [Sidenote: Hora.] For she may strew dangerous coniectures In ill breeding minds.[4] Let her come in. [Sidenote: Enter Ophelia.] To my sicke soule (as sinnes true Nature is) [Sidenote: Quee. 'To my[5]] Each toy seemes Prologue, to some great amisse, [Sidenote: 'Each] So full of Artlesse iealousie is guilt, [Sidenote: 'So] It spill's it selfe, in fearing to be spilt.[6] [Sidenote: 'It]

Enter Ophelia distracted.[7]

Ophe. Where is the beauteous Maiesty of Denmark.

Qu. How now Ophelia? [Sidenote: shee sings.]

Ophe. How should I your true loue know from another one? By his Cockle hat and staffe, and his Sandal shoone.

Qu. Alas sweet Lady: what imports this Song?

Ophe. Say you? Nay pray you marke. He is dead and gone Lady, he is dead and gone, At his head a grasse-greene Turfe, at his heeles a stone. [Sidenote: O ho.]

Enter King.

Qu. Nay but Ophelia.

Ophe. Pray you marke. White his Shrow'd as the Mountaine Snow. [Sidenote: Enter King.]

Qu. Alas looke heere my Lord,

[Sidenote: 246] Ophe. Larded[8] with sweet flowers: [Sidenote: Larded all with] Which bewept to the graue did not go, [Sidenote: ground Song.] With true-loue showres,

[Footnote 1: 'present them,'—her words, that is—giving significance or interpretation to them.]

[Footnote 2: If this would, and not the might of the Quarto, be the correct reading, it means that Ophelia would have something thought so and so.]

[Footnote 3: —changing her mind on Horatio's representation. At first she would not speak with her.]

[Footnote 4: 'minds that breed evil.']

[Footnote 5: —as a quotation.]

[Footnote 6: Instance, the history of Macbeth.]

[Footnote 7: 1st Q. Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing.

Hamlet's apparent madness would seem to pass into real madness in Ophelia. King Lear's growing perturbation becomes insanity the moment he sees the pretended madman Edgar.

The forms of Ophelia's madness show it was not her father's death that drove her mad, but his death by the hand of Hamlet, which, with Hamlet's banishment, destroyed all the hope the queen had been fostering in her of marrying him some day.]

[Footnote 8: This expression is, as Dr. Johnson says, taken from cookery; but it is so used elsewhere by Shakspere that we cannot regard it here as a scintillation of Ophelia's insanity.]

[Page 198]

King. How do ye, pretty Lady? [Sidenote: you]

Ophe. Well, God dil'd you.[1] They say the [Sidenote: good dild you,[1]] Owle was a Bakers daughter.[2] Lord, wee know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your Table.

[Sidenote: 174] King. Conceit[3] vpon her Father.

Ophe. Pray you let's haue no words of this: [Sidenote: Pray lets] but when they aske you what it meanes, say you this:

[4] To morrow is S. Valentines day, all in the morning betime, And I a Maid at your Window to be your Valentine. Then vp he rose, and don'd[5] his clothes, and dupt[5] the chamber dore, Let in the Maid, that out a Maid, neuer departed more.