King. Pretty Ophelia.

Ophe. Indeed la? without an oath Ile make an [Sidenote: Indeede without] end ont.[6]

By gis, and by S. Charity, Alacke, and fie for shame: Yong men wil doo't, if they come too't, By Cocke they are too blame. Quoth she before you tumbled me, You promis'd me to Wed: So would I ha done by yonder Sunne, [Sidenote: (He answers,) So would] And thou hadst not come to my bed.

King. How long hath she bin this? [Sidenote: beene thus?]

Ophe. I hope all will be well. We must bee patient, but I cannot choose but weepe, to thinke they should lay him i'th'cold ground: My brother [Sidenote: they wouid lay] shall knowe of it, and so I thanke you for your good counsell. Come, my Coach: Goodnight Ladies: Goodnight sweet Ladies: Goodnight, goodnight. Exit[7]

[Footnote 1: 1st Q. 'God yeeld you,' that is, reward you. Here we have a blunder for the contraction, 'God 'ild you'—perhaps a common blunder.]

[Footnote 2: For the silly legend, see Douce's note in Johnson and Steevens.]

[Footnote 3: imaginative brooding.]

[Footnote 4: We dare no judgment on madness in life: we need not in art.]

[Footnote 5: Preterites of don and dup, contracted from do on and do up.]

[Footnote 6: —disclaiming false modesty.]

[Footnote 7: Not in Q.]

[Page 200]

King. Follow her close, Giue her good watch I pray you: Oh this is the poyson of deepe greefe, it springs All from her Fathers death. Oh Gertrude, Gertrude, [Sidenote: death, and now behold, o Gertrard, Gertrard,] When sorrowes comes, they come not single spies,[1] [Sidenote: sorrowes come] But in Battaliaes. First, her Father slaine, [Sidenote: battalians:] Next your Sonne gone, and he most violent Author Of his owne iust remoue: the people muddied,[2] Thicke and vnwholsome in their thoughts, and whispers [Sidenote: in thoughts] For[3] good Polonius death; and we haue done but greenly [Sidenote: 182] In hugger mugger[4] to interre him. Poore Ophelia Diuided from her selfe,[5] and her faire Iudgement, Without the which we are Pictures, or meere Beasts. Last, and as much containing as all these, Her Brother is in secret come from France, Keepes on his wonder,[6] keepes himselfe in clouds, [Sidenote: Feeds on this[6]] And wants not Buzzers to infect his eare [Sidenote: care] With pestilent Speeches of his Fathers death, Where in necessitie of matter Beggard, [Sidenote: Wherein necessity] Will nothing sticke our persons to Arraigne [Sidenote: person] In eare and eare.[7] O my deere Gertrude, this, Like to a murdering Peece[8] in many places, Giues me superfluous death. A Noise within.

Enter a Messenger.

Qu. Alacke, what noyse is this?[9]

King. Where are my Switzers?[10] [Sidenote: King. Attend, where is my Swissers,] Let them guard the doore. What is the matter?

Mes. Saue your selfe, my Lord. [Sidenote: 120] The Ocean (ouer-peering of his List[11]) Eates not the Flats with more impittious[12] haste

[Footnote 1: —each alone, like scouts.]

[Footnote 2: stirred up like pools—with similar result.]

[Footnote 3: because of.]

[Footnote 4: The king wished to avoid giving the people any pretext or cause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry—to the queen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to the popular indignation. Hugger mugger—secretly: Steevens and Malone.]

[Footnote 5: The phrase has the same visual root as beside herself—both signifying 'not at one with herself.']

[Footnote 6: If the Quarto reading is right, 'this wonder' means the hurried and suspicious funeral of his father. But the Folio reading is quite Shaksperean: 'He keeps on (as a garment) the wonder of the people at him'; keeps his behaviour such that the people go on wondering about him: the phrase is explained by the next clause. Compare:

By being seldom seen, I could not stir But, like a comet, I was wondered at.

K. Henry IV. P. I. act iii. sc. 1.]

[Footnote 7: 'wherein Necessity, beggared of material, will not scruple to whisper invented accusations against us.']

[Footnote 8: —the name given to a certain small cannon—perhaps charged with various missiles, hence the better figuring the number and variety of 'sorrows' he has just recounted.]

[Footnote 9: This line not in Q.]

[Footnote 10: Note that the king is well guarded, and Hamlet had to lay his account with great risk in the act of killing him.]

[Footnote 11: border, as of cloth: the mounds thrown up to keep the sea out. The figure here specially fits a Dane.]

[Footnote 12: I do not know whether this word means pitiless, or stands for impetuous. The Quarto has one t.]

[Page 202]

Then young Laertes, in a Riotous head,[1] Ore-beares your Officers, the rabble call him Lord, And as the world were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, Custome not knowne, The Ratifiers and props of euery word,[2] [Sidenote: 62] They cry choose we? Laertes shall be King,[3] [Sidenote: The cry] Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds, Laertes shall be King, Laertes King.

Qu. How cheerefully on the false Traile they cry, [Sidenote: A noise within.] Oh this is Counter you false Danish Dogges.[4]

Noise within. Enter Laertes[5]. [Sidenote: Laertes with others.]

King. The doores are broke.

Laer. Where is the King, sirs? Stand you all without. [Sidenote: this King? sirs stand]

All. No, let's come in.

Laer. I pray you giue me leaue.[6]

All. We will, we will.

Laer. I thanke you: Keepe the doore. Oh thou vilde King, giue me my Father.

Qu. Calmely good Laertes.

Laer. That drop of blood, that calmes[7] [Sidenote: thats calme] Proclaimes me Bastard: Cries Cuckold to my Father, brands the Harlot Euen heere betweene the chaste vnsmirched brow Of my true Mother.[8]

Kin. What is the cause Laertes, That thy Rebellion lookes so Gyant-like? Let him go Gertrude: Do not feare[9] our person: There's such Diuinity doth hedge a King,[10] That Treason can but peepe to what it would, Acts little of his will.[11] Tell me Laertes,

[Footnote 1: Head is a rising or gathering of people—generally rebellious, I think.]

[Footnote 2: Antiquity and Custom.]

[Footnote 3: This refers to the election of Claudius—evidently not a popular election, but effected by intrigue with the aristocracy and the army: 'They cry, Let us choose: Laertes shall be king!'

We may suppose the attempt of Claudius to have been favoured by the lingering influence of the old Norse custom of succession, by which not the son but the brother inherited. 16, bis.]

[Footnote 4: To hunt counter is to 'hunt the game by the heel or track.' The queen therefore accuses them of not using their scent or judgment, but following appearances.]

[Footnote 5: Now at length re-appears Laertes, who has during the interim been ripening in Paris for villainy. He is wanted for the catastrophe, and requires but the last process of a few hours in the hell-oven of a king's instigation.]

[Footnote 6: The customary and polite way of saying leave me: 'grant me your absence.' 85, 89.]

[Footnote 7: grows calm.]

[Footnote 8: In taking vengeance Hamlet must acknowledge his mother such as Laertes says inaction on his part would proclaim his mother.

The actress should here let a shadow cross the queen's face: though too weak to break with the king, she has begun to repent.]

[Footnote 9: fear for.]

[Footnote 10: The consummate hypocrite claims the protection of the sacred hedge through which he had himself broken—or crept rather, like a snake, to kill. He can act innocence the better that his conscience is clear as to Polonius.]

[Footnote 11: 'can only peep through the hedge to its desire—acts little of its will.']

[Page 204]

Why thou art thus Incenst? Let him go Gertrude. Speake man.

Laer. Where's my Father? [Sidenote: is my]

King. Dead.

Qu. But not by him.

King. Let him demand his fill.

Laer. How came he dead? Ile not be Iuggel'd with. To hell Allegeance: Vowes, to the blackest diuell. Conscience and Grace, to the profoundest Pit I dare Damnation: to this point I stand, That both the worlds I giue to negligence, Let come what comes: onely Ile be reueng'd Most throughly for my Father.

King. Who shall stay you?[1]

Laer. My Will, not all the world,[1] [Sidenote: worlds:] And for my meanes, Ile husband them so well, They shall go farre with little.

King. Good Laertes: If you desire to know the certaintie Of your deere Fathers death, if writ in your reuenge, [Sidenote: Father, i'st writ] That Soop-stake[2] you will draw both Friend and Foe, Winner and Looser.[3]

Laer. None but his Enemies.

King. Will you know them then.

La. To his good Friends, thus wide Ile ope my Armes: And like the kinde Life-rend'ring Politician,[4] [Sidenote: life-rendring Pelican,] Repast them with my blood.[5]

King. Why now you speake Like a good Childe,[6] and a true Gentleman. That I am guiltlesse of your Fathers death, And am most sensible in greefe for it,[7] [Sidenote: sencibly]

[Footnote 1:

'Who shall prevent you?' 'My own will only—not all the world,'

or,

'Who will support you?' 'My will. Not all the world shall prevent me,'—

so playing on the two meanings of the word stay. Or it might mean: 'Not all the world shall stay my will.']

[Footnote 2: swoop-stake—sweepstakes.]

[Footnote 3: 'and be loser as well as winner—' If the Folio's is the right reading, then the sentence is unfinished, and should have a dash, not a period.]

[Footnote 4: A curious misprint: may we not suspect a somewhat dull joker among the compositors?]

[Footnote 6: 'a true son to your father.']

[Footnote 7: 'feel much grief for it.']

[Footnote 5: Laertes is a ranter—false everywhere.

Plainly he is introduced as the foil from which Hamlet 'shall stick fiery off.' In this speech he shows his moral condition directly the opposite of Hamlet's: he has no principle but revenge. His conduct ought to be quite satisfactory to Hamlet's critics; there is action enough in it of the very kind they would have of Hamlet; and doubtless it would be satisfactory to them but for the treachery that follows. The one, dearly loving a father who deserves immeasurably better of him than Polonius of Laertes, will not for the sake of revenge disregard either conscience, justice, or grace; the other will not delay even to inquire into the facts of his father's fate, but will act at once on hearsay, rushing to a blind satisfaction that cannot even be called retaliation, caring for neither right nor wrong, cursing conscience and the will of God, and daring damnation. He slights assurance as to the hand by which his father fell, dismisses all reflection that might interfere with a stupid revenge. To make up one's mind at once, and act without ground, is weakness, not strength: this Laertes does—and is therefore just the man to be the villainous, not the innocent, tool of villainy. He who has sufficing ground and refuses to act is weak; but the ground that will satisfy the populace, of which the commonplace critic is the fair type, will not satisfy either the man of conscience or of wisdom. The mass of world-bepraised action owes its existence to the pressure of circumstance, not to the will and conscience of the man. Hamlet waits for light, even with his heart accusing him; Laertes rushes into the dark, dagger in hand, like a mad Malay: so he kill, he cares not whom. Such a man is easily tempted to the vilest treachery, for the light that is in him is darkness; he is not a true man; he is false in himself. This is what comes of his father's maxim:

To thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day (!) Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Like the aphorism 'Honesty is the best policy,' it reveals the difference between a fact and a truth. Both sayings are correct as facts, but as guides of conduct devilishly false, leading to dishonesty and treachery. To be true to the divine self in us, is indeed to be true to all; but it is only by being true to all, against the ever present and urging false self, that at length we shall see the divine self rise above the chaotic waters of our selfishness, and know it so as to be true to it.

Of Laertes we must note also that it is not all for love of his father that he is ready to cast allegiance to hell, and kill the king: he has the voice of the people to succeed him.]

[Page 206]

[Sidenote: 184] It shall as leuell to your Iudgement pierce [Sidenote: peare'] As day do's to your eye.[1]

A noise within. [2]Let her come in.

Enter Ophelia[3]

Laer. How now? what noise is that?[4] [Sidenote: Laer. Let her come in. How now,] Oh heate drie vp my Braines, teares seuen times salt, Burne out the Sence and Vertue of mine eye. By Heauen, thy madnesse shall be payed by waight, [Sidenote: with weight] Till our Scale turnes the beame. Oh Rose of May, [Sidenote: turne] Deere Maid, kinde Sister, sweet Ophelia: Oh Heauens, is't possible, a yong Maids wits, Should be as mortall as an old mans life?[5] [Sidenote: a poore mans] Nature is fine[6] in Loue, and where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance of it selfe After the thing it loues.[7]

Ophe. They bore him bare fac'd on the Beer. [Sidenote: Song.] [Sidenote: bare-faste] Hey non nony, nony, hey nony:[8] And on his graue raines many a teare, [Sidenote: And in his graue rain'd] Fare you well my Doue.

Laer. Had'st thou thy wits, and did'st perswade Reuenge, it could not moue thus.

Ophe. You must sing downe a-downe, and [Sidenote: sing a downe a downe, And] you call him[9] a-downe-a. Oh, how the wheele[10] becomes it? It is the false Steward that stole his masters daughter.[11]

Laer. This nothings more then matter.[12]

Ophe. There's Rosemary,[13] that's for Remembraunce. Pray loue remember: and there is [Sidenote: , pray you loue] Paconcies, that's for Thoughts. [Sidenote: Pancies[14]]

Laer. A document[15] in madnesse, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Ophe. There's Fennell[16] for you, and Columbines[16]: ther's Rew[17] for you, and heere's some for

[Footnote 1: 'pierce as directly to your judgment.'

But the simile of the day seems to favour the reading of the Q.—'peare,' for appear. In the word level would then be indicated the rising sun.]

[Footnote 2: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 3: 1st Q. 'Enter Ofelia as before.']

[Footnote 4: To render it credible that Laertes could entertain the vile proposal the king is about to make, it is needful that all possible influences should be represented as combining to swell the commotion of his spirit, and overwhelm what poor judgment and yet poorer conscience he had. Altogether unprepared, he learns Ophelia's pitiful condition by the sudden sight of the harrowing change in her—and not till after that hears who killed his father and brought madness on his sister.]

[Footnote 5: 1st Q.

I'st possible a yong maides life, Should be as mortall as an olde mans sawe?]

[Footnote 6: delicate, exquisite.]

[Footnote 7: 'where 'tis fine': I suggest that the it here may be impersonal: 'where things, where all is fine,' that is, 'in a fine soul'; then the meaning would be, 'Nature is fine always in love, and where the soul also is fine, she sends from it' &c. But the where may be equal, perhaps, to whereas. I can hardly think the phrase means merely 'and where it is in love.' It might intend—'and where Love is fine, it sends' &c. The 'precious instance of itself,' that is, 'something that is a part and specimen of itself,' is here the 'young maid's wits': they are sent after the 'old man's life.'—These three lines are not in the Quarto. It is not disputed that they are from Shakspere's hand: if the insertion of these be his, why should the omission of others not be his also?]

[Footnote 8: This line is not in Q.]

[Footnote 9: 'if you call him': I think this is not a part of the song, but is spoken of her father.]

[Footnote 10: the burden of the song: Steevens.]

[Footnote 11: The subject of the ballad.]

[Footnote 12: 'more than sense'—in incitation to revenge.]

[Footnote 13: —an evergreen, and carried at funerals: Johnson.

For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep Seeming and savour ail the winter long: Grace and remembrance be to you both.

The Winter's Tale, act iv. sc. 3.]

[Footnote 14: pensees.]

[Footnote 15: a teaching, a lesson—the fitting of thoughts and remembrance, namely—which he applies to his intent of revenge. Or may it not rather be meant that the putting of these two flowers together was a happy hit of her madness, presenting the fantastic emblem of a document or writing—the very idea of which is the keeping of thoughts in remembrance?]

[Footnote 16: —said to mean flattery and thanklessness—perhaps given to the king.]

[Footnote 17: Repentance—given to the queen. Another name of the plant was Herb-Grace, as below, in allusion, doubtless, to its common name—rue or repentance being both the gift of God, and an act of grace.]

[Page 208]

me. Wee may call it Herbe-Grace a Sundaies: [Sidenote: herbe of Grace a Sondaies, you may weare] Oh you must weare your Rew with a difference.[1] There's a Daysie,[2] I would giue you some Violets,[3] but they wither'd all when my Father dyed: They say, he made a good end; [Sidenote: say a made]

For bonny sweet Robin is all my ioy.

Laer. Thought, and Affliction, Passion, Hell it selfe: [Sidenote: afflictions,] She turnes to Fauour, and to prettinesse.

[Sidenote:Song.]

Ophe. And will he not come againe, [Sidenote: will a not] And will he not come againe: [Sidenote: will a not] No, no, he is dead, go to thy Death-bed, He neuer wil come againe. His Beard as white as Snow, [Sidenote: beard was as] All[4] Flaxen was his Pole: He is gone, he is gone, and we cast away mone, Gramercy[5] on his Soule. [Sidenote: God a mercy on] And of all Christian Soules, I pray God.[6] [Sidenote: Christians soules,] God buy ye.[7] Exeunt Ophelia[8] [Sidenote: you.]

Laer. Do you see this, you Gods? [Sidenote: Doe you this o God.]

King. Laertes, I must common[9] with your greefe, [Sidenote: commune] Or you deny me right: go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest Friends you will, And they shall heare and iudge 'twixt you and me; If by direct or by Colaterall hand They finde vs touch'd,[10] we will our Kingdome giue, Our Crowne, our Life, and all that we call Ours To you in satisfaction. But if not, Be you content to lend your patience to vs,[11] And we shall ioyntly labour with your soule To giue it due content.

Laer. Let this be so:[12] His meanes of death,[13] his obscure buriall; [Sidenote: funerall,] No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones,[14]

[Footnote 1: —perhaps the heraldic term. The Poet, not Ophelia, intends the special fitness of the speech. Ophelia means only that the rue of the matron must differ from the rue of the girl.]

[Footnote 2: 'the dissembling daisy': Greene—quoted by Henley.]

[Footnote 3: —standing for faithfulness: Malone, from an old song.]

[Footnote 4: 'All' not in Q.]

[Footnote 5: Wherever else Shakspere uses the word, it is in the sense of grand merci—great thanks (Skeat's Etym. Dict.); here it is surely a corruption, whether Ophelia's or the printer's, of the Quarto reading, 'God a mercy' which, spoken quickly, sounds very near gramercy. The 1st Quarto also has 'God a mercy.']

[Footnote 6: 'I pray God.' not in Q.]

[Footnote 7: 'God b' wi' ye': good bye.]

[Footnote 8: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 9: 'I must have a share in your grief.' The word does mean commune, but here is more pregnant, as evidenced in the next phrase, 'Or you deny me right:'—'do not give me justice.']

[Footnote 10: 'touched with the guilt of the deed, either as having done it with our own hand, or caused it to be done by the hand of one at our side.']

[Footnote 11: We may paraphrase thus: 'Be pleased to grant us a loan of your patience,' that is, be patient for a while at our request, 'and we will work along with your soul to gain for it (your soul) just satisfaction.']

[Footnote 12: He consents—but immediately re-sums the grounds of his wrathful suspicion.]

[Footnote 13: —the way in which he met his death.]

[Footnote 14: —customary honours to the noble dead. A trophy was an arrangement of the armour and arms of the dead in a set decoration. The origin of the word hatchment shows its intent: it is a corruption of achievement.]

[Page 210]

No Noble rite, nor formall ostentation,[1] Cry to be heard, as 'twere from Heauen to Earth, That I must call in question.[2] [Sidenote: call't in]

King. So you shall: And where th'offence is, let the great Axe fall. I pray you go with me.[3] Exeunt

Enter Horatio, with an Attendant. [Sidenote: Horatio and others.]

Hora. What are they that would speake with me?

Ser. Saylors sir, they say they haue Letters [Gent. Sea-faring men sir,] for you.

Hor. Let them come in,[4] I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

Enter Saylor. [Sidenote: Saylers.]

Say. God blesse you Sir.

Hor. Let him blesse thee too.

Say. Hee shall Sir, and't[5] please him. There's [Sidenote: A shall sir and please] a Letter for you Sir: It comes from th'Ambassadours [Sidenote: it came fro th' Embassador] that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know[6] it is.

Reads the Letter[7]

Horatio, When thou shalt haue ouerlook'd this, [Sidenote: Hor. Horatio when] giue these Fellowes some meanes to the King: They haue Letters for him. Ere we were two dayes[8] old at Sea, a Pyrate of very Warlicke appointment gaue vs Chace. Finding our selues too slow of Saile, we put on a compelled Valour. In the Grapple, I boarded [Sidenote: valour, and in the] them: On the instant they got cleare of our Shippe, so I alone became their Prisoner.[9] They haue dealt with mee, like Theeues of Mercy, but they knew what they did. I am to doe a good turne for them. Let [Sidenote: a turne] the King have the Letters I haue sent, and repaire thou to me with as much hast as thou wouldest flye [Sidenote: much speede as] death[10] I haue words to speake in your eare, will [Sidenote: in thine eare]

[Footnote 1: 'formal ostentation'—show or publication of honour according to form or rule.]

[Footnote 2: 'so that I must call in question'—institute inquiry; or '—that (these things) I must call in question.']

[Footnote 3: Note such a half line frequently after the not uncommon closing couplet—as if to take off the formality of the couplet, and lead back, through the more speech-like, to greater verisimilitude.]

[Footnote 4: Here the servant goes, and the rest of the speech Horatio speaks solus. He had expected to hear from Hamlet.]

[Footnote 5: 'and it please'—if it please. An for if is merely and.]

[Footnote 6: 'I am told.']

[Footnote 7: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 8: This gives an approximate clue to the time between the second and third acts: it needs not have been a week.]

[Footnote 9: Note once more the unfailing readiness of Hamlet where there was no question as to the fitness of the action seemingly required. This is the man who by too much thinking, forsooth, has rendered himself incapable of action!—so far ahead of the foremost behind him, that, when the pirate, not liking such close quarters, 'on the instant got clear,' he is the only one on her deck! There was no question here as to what ought to be done: the pirate grappled them; he boarded her. Thereafter, with his prompt faculty for dealing with men, he soon comes to an understanding with his captors, and they agree, upon some certain condition, to put him on shore.

He writes in unusual spirits; for he has now gained full, presentable, and indisputable proof of the treachery which before he scarcely doubted, but could not demonstrate. The present instance of it has to do with himself, not his father, but in itself would justify the slaying of his uncle, whose plausible way had possibly perplexed him so that he could not thoroughly believe him the villain he was: bad as he must be, could he actually have killed his own brother, and such a brother? A better man than Laertes might have acted more promptly than Hamlet, and so happened to do right; but he would not have been right, for the proof was not sufficient.]

[Footnote 10: The value Hamlet sets on his discovery, evident in his joyous urgency to share it with his friend, is explicable only on the ground of the relief it is to his mind to be now at length quite certain of his duty.]

[Page 212]

make thee dumbe, yet are they much too light for the bore of the Matter.[1] These good Fellowes will bring [Sidenote: the bord of] thee where I am. Rosincrance and Guildensterne, hold their course for England. Of them I haue much to tell thee, Farewell. He that thou knowest thine. [Sidenote: So that thou knowest thine Hamlet.] Hamlet.

Come, I will giue you way for these your Letters, [Sidenote: Hor. Come I will you way] And do't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. Exit. [Sidenote: Exeunt.]

Enter King and Laertes.[2]

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for Friend, Sith you haue heard, and with a knowing eare,[3] That he which hath your Noble Father slaine, Pursued my life.[4]

Laer. It well appeares. But tell me, Why you proceeded not against these feates,[5] [Sidenote: proceede] So crimefull, and so Capitall in Nature,[6] [Sidenote: criminall] As by your Safety, Wisedome, all things else, [Sidenote: safetie, greatnes, wisdome,] You mainly[7] were stirr'd vp?

King. O for two speciall Reasons, Which may to you (perhaps) seeme much vnsinnowed,[8] And yet to me they are strong. The Queen his Mother, [Sidenote: But yet tha'r strong] Liues almost by his lookes: and for my selfe, My Vertue or my Plague, be it either which,[9] She's so coniunctiue to my life and soule; [Sidenote: she is so concliue] That as the Starre moues not but in his Sphere,[10] I could not but by her. The other Motiue, Why to a publike count I might not go, [Sidenote: 186] Is the great loue the generall gender[11] beare him, Who dipping all his Faults in their affection,

[Footnote 1: Note here also Hamlet's feeling of the importance of what has passed since he parted with his friend. 'The bullet of my words, though it will strike thee dumb, is much too small for the bore of the reality (the facts) whence it will issue.']

[Footnote 2: While we have been present at the interview between Horatio and the sailors, the king has been persuading Laertes.]

[Footnote 3: an ear of judgment.]

[Footnote 4: 'thought then to have killed me.']

[Footnote 5: faits, deeds.]

[Footnote 6: 'deeds so deserving of death, not merely in the eye of the law, but in their own nature.']

[Footnote 7: powerfully.]

[Footnote 8: 'unsinewed.']

[Footnote 9: 'either-which.']

[Footnote 10: 'moves not but in the moving of his sphere,'—The stars were popularly supposed to be fixed in a solid crystalline sphere, and moved in its motion only. The queen, Claudius implies, is his sphere; he could not move but by her.]

[Footnote 11: Here used in the sense of the Fr. 'genre'—sort. It is not the only instance of the word so used by Shakspere.

The king would rouse in Laertes jealousy of Hamlet.]

[Page 214]

Would like the Spring that turneth Wood to Stone, [Sidenote: Worke like] Conuert his Gyues to Graces.[1] So that my Arrowes Too slightly timbred for so loud a Winde, [Sidenote: for so loued Arm'd[2]] Would haue reuerted to my Bow againe, And not where I had arm'd them.[2] [Sidenote: But not have aym'd them.]

Laer. And so haue I a Noble Father lost, A Sister driuen into desperate tearmes,[3] Who was (if praises may go backe againe) [Sidenote: whose worth, if] Stood Challenger on mount of all the Age For her perfections. But my reuenge will come.

King. Breake not your sleepes for that, You must not thinke That we are made of stuffe, so flat, and dull, That we can let our Beard be shooke with danger,[4] And thinke it pastime. You shortly shall heare more,[5] I lou'd your Father, and we loue our Selfe, And that I hope will teach you to imagine——[6]

Enter a Messenger. [Sidenote: with letters.]

How now? What Newes?

Mes. Letters my Lord from Hamlet.[7] This to [Sidenote: Messen. These to] your Maiesty: this to the Queene.

King. From Hamlet? Who brought them?

Mes. Saylors my Lord they say, I saw them not: They were giuen me by Claudio, he recciu'd them.[8] [Sidenote: them Of him that brought them.]

King. Laertes you shall heare them:[9] Leaue vs. Exit Messenger[10]

High and Mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your Kingdome. To morrow shall I begge leaue to see your Kingly Eyes[11] When I shall (first asking your Pardon thereunto) recount th'Occasions [Sidenote: the occasion of my suddaine returne.] of my sodaine, and more strange returne.[12] Hamlet.[13] What should this meane? Are all the rest come backe? [Sidenote: King. What]

[Footnote 1: 'would convert his fetters—if I imprisoned him—to graces, commending him yet more to their regard.']

[Footnote 2: arm'd is certainly the right, and a true Shaksperean word:—it was no fault in the aim, but in the force of the flight—no matter of the eye, but of the arm, which could not give momentum enough to such slightly timbered arrows. The fault in the construction of the last line, I need not remark upon.

I think there is a hint of this the genuine meaning even in the blundered and partly unintelligible reading of the Quarto. If we leave out 'for so loued,' we have this: 'So that my arrows, too slightly timbered, would have reverted armed to my bow again, but not (would not have gone) where I have aimed them,'—implying that his arrows would have turned their armed heads against himself.

What the king says here is true, but far from the truth: he feared driving Hamlet, and giving him at the same time opportunity, to speak in his own defence and render his reasons.]

[Footnote 3: extremes? or conditions?]

[Footnote 4: 'With many a tempest hadde his berd ben schake.'—Chaucer, of the Schipman, in The Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.]

[Footnote 5: —hear of Hamlet's death in England, he means.

At this point in the 1st Q. comes a scene between Horatio and the queen, in which he informs her of a letter he had just received from Hamlet,

Whereas he writes how he escap't the danger, And subtle treason that the king had plotted, Being crossed by the contention of the windes, He found the Packet &c.

Horatio does not mention the pirates, but speaks of Hamlet 'being set ashore,' and of Gilderstone and Rossencraft going on to their fate. The queen assures Horatio that she is but temporizing with the king, and shows herself anxious for the success of her son's design against his life. The Poet's intent was not yet clear to himself.]

[Footnote 6: Here his crow cracks.]

[Footnote 7: From 'How now' to 'Hamlet' is not in Q.]

[Footnote 8: Horatio has given the sailors' letters to Claudio, he to another.]

[Footnote 9: He wants to show him that he has nothing behind—that he is open with him: he will read without having pre-read.]

[Footnote 10: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 11: He makes this request for an interview with the intent of killing him. The king takes care he does not have it.]

[Footnote 12: 'more strange than sudden.']

[Footnote 13: Not in Q.]

[Page 216]

Or is it some abuse?[1] Or no such thing?[2] [Sidenote: abuse, and no[2]]

Laer. Know you the hand?[3]

Kin. 'Tis Hamlets Character, naked and in a Postscript here he sayes alone:[4] Can you aduise [Sidenote: deuise me?] me?[5]

Laer. I'm lost in it my Lord; but let him come, [Sidenote: I am] It warmes the very sicknesse in my heart, That I shall liue and tell him to his teeth; [Sidenote: That I liue and] Thus diddest thou. [Sidenote: didst]

Kin. If it be so Laertes, as how should it be so:[6] How otherwise will you be rul'd by me?

Laer. If so[7] you'l not o'rerule me to a peace. [Sidenote: I my Lord, so you will not]

Kin. To thine owne peace: if he be now return'd, [Sidenote: 195] As checking[8] at his Voyage, and that he meanes [Sidenote: As the King[8] at his] No more to vndertake it; I will worke him To an exployt now ripe in my Deuice, [Sidenote: deuise,] Vnder the which he shall not choose but fall; And for his death no winde of blame shall breath, [Sidenote: 221] But euen his Mother shall vncharge the practice,[9] And call it accident: [A] Some two Monthes hence[10] [Sidenote: two months since] Here was a Gentleman of Normandy, I'ue seene my selfe, and seru'd against the French, [Sidenote: I haue]

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

Laer. My Lord I will be rul'd, The rather if you could deuise it so That I might be the organ.

King. It falls right, You haue beene talkt of since your trauaile[11] much, And that in Hamlets hearing, for a qualitie Wherein they say you shine, your summe of parts[12] Did not together plucke such enuie from him As did that one, and that in my regard Of the vnworthiest siedge.[13]

Laer. What part is that my Lord?

King. A very ribaud[14] in the cap of youth, Yet needfull to, for youth no lesse becomes[15] The light and carelesse liuery that it weares Then setled age, his sables, and his weedes[16] Importing health[17] and grauenes;]

[Footnote 1: 'some trick played on me?' Compare K. Lear, act v. sc. 7: 'I am mightily abused.']

[Footnote 2: I incline to the Q. reading here: 'or is it some trick, and no reality in it?']

[Footnote 3: —following the king's suggestion.]

[Footnote 4: Point thus: 'Tis Hamlets Character. 'Naked'!—And, in a Postscript here, he sayes 'alone'! Can &c.

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

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

[Footnote 6: Point thus: '—as how should it be so? how otherwise?—will' &c. The king cannot tell what to think—either how it can be, or how it might be otherwise—for here is Hamlet's own hand!]

[Footnote 7: provided.]

[Footnote 8: A hawk was said to check when it forsook its proper game for some other bird that crossed its flight. The blunder in the Quarto is odd, plainly from manuscript copy, and is not likely to have been set right by any but the author.]

[Footnote 9: 'shall not give the practice'—artifice, cunning attempt, chicane, or trick—but a word not necessarily offensive—'the name it deserves, but call it accident:' 221.]

[Footnote 10: 'Some' not in Q.—Hence may be either backwards or forwards; now it is used only forwards.]

[Footnote 11: travels.]

[Footnote 12: 'all your excellencies together.']

[Footnote 13: seat, place, grade, position, merit.]

[Footnote 14: 'A very riband'—a mere trifling accomplishment: the u of the text can but be a misprint for n.]

[Footnote 15: youth obj., livery nom. to becomes.]

[Footnote 16: 'than his furs and his robes become settled age.']

[Footnote 17: Warburton thinks the word ought to be wealth, but I doubt it; health, in its sense of wholeness, general soundness, in affairs as well as person, I should prefer.]

[Page 218]

And they ran[1] well on Horsebacke; but this Gallant [Sidenote: they can well[1]] Had witchcraft in't[2]; he grew into his Seat, [Sidenote: vnto his] And to such wondrous doing brought his Horse, As had he beene encorps't and demy-Natur'd With the braue Beast,[3] so farre he past my thought, [Sidenote: he topt me thought,[4]] That I in forgery[5] of shapes and trickes, Come short of what he did.[6]

Laer. A Norman was't?

Kin. A Norman.

Laer. Vpon my life Lamound. [Sidenote: Lamord.]

Kin. The very same.

Laer. I know him well, he is the Brooch indeed, And Iemme of all our Nation, [Sidenote: all the Nation.]

Kin. Hee mad confession of you, And gaue you such a Masterly report, For Art and exercise in your defence; And for your Rapier most especially, [Sidenote: especiall,] That he cryed out, t'would be a sight indeed,[7] If one could match you [A] Sir. This report of his [Sidenote: ; sir this] [Sidenote: 120, 264] Did Hamlet so envenom with his Enuy,[8] That he could nothing doe but wish and begge, Your sodaine comming ore to play with him;[9] [Sidenote: with you] Now out of this.[10]

Laer. Why out of this, my Lord? [Sidenote: What out]

Kin. Laertes was your Father deare to you? Or are you like the painting[11] of a sorrow, A face without a heart?

Laer. Why aske you this?

Kin. Not that I thinke you did not loue your Father, But that I know Loue is begun by Time[12]:

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

; the Scrimures[13] of their nation He swore had neither motion, guard nor eye, If you opposd them;]

[Footnote 1: I think the can of the Quarto is the true word.]

[Footnote 2: —in his horsemanship.]

[Footnote 3: There is no mistake in the order 'had he beene'; the transposition is equivalent to if: 'as if he had been unbodied with, and shared half the nature of the brave beast.'

These two lines, from As to thought, must be taken parenthetically; or else there must be supposed a dash after Beast, and a fresh start made.

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

'it seemed, as he borrowed the horse's body, so he lent the horse his mind:'—Sir Philip Sidney. Arcadia, B. ii. p. 115.]

[Footnote 4: '—surpassed, I thought.']

[Footnote 5: 'in invention of.']

[Footnote 6: Emphasis on did, as antithetic to forgery: 'my inventing came short of his doing.']

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

[Footnote 8: 'made him so spiteful by stirring up his habitual envy.']

[Footnote 9: All invention.]

[Footnote 10: Here should be a dash: the king pauses. He is approaching dangerous ground—is about to propose a thing abominable, and therefore to the influence of flattered vanity and roused emulation, would add the fiercest heat of stimulated love and hatred—to which end he proceeds to cast doubt on the quality of Laertes' love for his father.]

[Footnote 11: the picture.]

[Footnote 12: 'through habit.']

[Footnote 13: French escrimeurs: fencers.]

[Page 220]

And that I see in passages of proofe,[1] Time qualifies the sparke and fire of it:[2] [A] Hamlet comes backe: what would you vndertake, To show your selfe your Fathers sonne indeed, [Sidenote: selfe indeede your fathers sonne] More then in words?

Laer. To cut his throat i'th'Church.[3]

Kin. No place indeed should murder Sancturize; Reuenge should haue no bounds: but good Laertes Will you doe this, keepe close within your Chamber, Hamlet return'd, shall know you are come home: Wee'l put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gaue you, bring you in fine together, And wager on your heads, he being remisse,[4] [Sidenote: ore your] [Sidenote: 218] Most generous, and free from all contriuing, Will not peruse[5] the Foiles? So that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A Sword vnbaited,[6] and in a passe of practice,[7] [Sidenote: pace of] Requit him for your Father.

Laer. I will doo't, And for that purpose Ile annoint my Sword:[8] [Sidenote: for purpose,] I bought an Vnction of a Mountebanke So mortall, I but dipt a knife in it,[9] [Sidenote: mortall, that but dippe a] Where it drawes blood, no Cataplasme so rare, Collected from all Simples that haue Vertue

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—

There liues within the very flame of loue A kind of weeke or snufe that will abate it,[10] And nothing is at a like goodnes still,[11] For goodnes growing to a plurisie,[12] Dies in his owne too much, that we would doe We should doe when we would: for this would change,[13] And hath abatements and delayes as many, As there are tongues, are hands, are accedents, And then this should is like a spend thrifts sigh, That hurts by easing;[14] but to the quick of th'vlcer,]

[Footnote 1: 'passages of proofe,'—trials. 'I see when it is put to the test.']

[Footnote 2: 'time modifies it.']

[Footnote 3: Contrast him here with Hamlet.]

[Footnote 4: careless.]

[Footnote 5: examine—the word being of general application then.]

[Footnote 6: unblunted. Some foils seem to have been made with a button that could be taken—probably screwed off.]

[Footnote 7: Whether practice here means exercise or cunning, I cannot determine. Possibly the king uses the word as once before 216—to be taken as Laertes may please.]

[Footnote 8: In the 1st Q. this proposal also is made by the king.]

[Footnote 9:

'So mortal, yes, a knife being but dipt in it,' or, 'So mortal, did I but dip a knife in it.']

[Footnote 10: To understand this figure, one must be familiar with the behaviour of the wick of a common lamp or tallow candle.]

[Footnote 11: 'nothing keeps always at the same degree of goodness.']

[Footnote 12: A plurisie is just a too-muchness, from plus, pluris—a plethora, not our word pleurisy, from [Greek: pleura]. See notes in Johnson and Steevens.]

[Footnote 13: The sense here requires an s, and the space in the Quarto between the e and the comma gives the probability that a letter has dropt out.]

[Footnote 14: Modern editors seem agreed to substitute the adjective spendthrift: our sole authority has spendthrifts, and by it I hold. The meaning seems this: 'the would changes, the thing is not done, and then the should, the mere acknowledgment of duty, is like the sigh of a spendthrift, who regrets consequences but does not change his way: it eases his conscience for a moment, and so injures him.' There would at the same time be allusion to what was believed concerning sighs: Dr. Johnson says, 'It is a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers.']

[Page 222]

Vnder the Moone, can saue the thing from death, That is but scratcht withall: Ile touch my point, With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,[1] It may be death.

Kin. Let's further thinke of this, Weigh what conuenience[2] both of time and meanes May fit vs to our shape,[3] if this should faile; And that our drift looke through our bad performance, 'Twere better not assaid; therefore this Proiect Should haue a backe or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proofe:[4] Soft, let me see[5] [Sidenote: did blast] Wee'l make a solemne wager on your commings,[6] [Sidenote: cunnings[6]] I ha't: when in your motion you are hot and dry, [Sidenote: hate, when] As[7] make your bowts more violent to the end,[8] [Sidenote: to that end,] And that he cals for drinke; Ile haue prepar'd him [Sidenote: prefard him] [Sidenote: 268] A Challice for the nonce[9]; whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,[10] Our purpose may[11] hold there: how sweet Queene. [Sidenote: there: but stay, what noyse?]

Enter Queene.

Queen. One woe doth tread vpon anothers heele, So fast they'l follow[12]: your Sister's drown'd Laertes. [Sidenote: they follow;]

Laer. Drown'd! O where?[13]

Queen. There is a Willow[14] growes aslant a Brooke, [Sidenote: ascaunt the Brooke] That shewes his hore leaues in the glassie streame: [Sidenote: horry leaues] There with fantasticke Garlands did she come,[15] [Sidenote: Therewith she make] Of Crow-flowers,[16] Nettles, Daysies, and long Purples, That liberall Shepheards giue a grosser name; But our cold Maids doe Dead Mens Fingers call them: [Sidenote: our cull-cold] There on the pendant[17] boughes, her Coronet weeds[18] Clambring to hang;[19] an enuious sliuer broke,[20] When downe the weedy Trophies,[19] and her selfe, [Sidenote: her weedy]

[Footnote 1: 'that though I should gall him but slightly,' or, 'that if I gall him ever so slightly.']

[Footnote 2: proper arrangement.]

[Footnote 3: 'fit us exactly, like a garment cut to our shape,' or perhaps 'shape' is used for intent, purpose. Point thus: 'shape. If this should faile, And' &c.]

[Footnote 4: This seems to allude to the assay of a firearm, and to mean 'burst on the trial.' Note 'assaid' two lines back.]

[Footnote 5: There should be a pause here, and a longer pause after commings: the king is contriving. 'I ha't' should have a line to itself, with again a pause, but a shorter one.]

[Footnote 6: Veney, venue, is a term of fencing: a bout, a thrust—from venir, to come—whence 'commings.' (259) But cunnings, meaning skills, may be the word.]

[Footnote 7: 'As' is here equivalent to 'and so.']

[Footnote 8: —to the end of making Hamlet hot and dry.]

[Footnote 9: for the special occasion.]

[Footnote 10: thrust. Twelfth Night, act iii. sc. 4. 'he gives me the stuck in with such a mortal motion.' Stocco in Italian is a long rapier; and stoccata a thrust. Rom. and Jul., act iii. sc. 1. See Shakespeare-Lexicon.]

[Footnote 11: 'may' does not here express doubt, but intention.]

[Footnote 12: If this be the right reading, it means, 'so fast they insist on following.']

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

[Footnote 14: —the choice of Ophelia's fantastic madness, as being the tree of lamenting lovers.]

[Footnote 15: —always busy with flowers.]

[Footnote 16: Ranunculus: Sh. Lex.]

[Footnote 17: —specially descriptive of the willow.]

[Footnote 18: her wild flowers made into a garland.]

[Footnote 19: The intention would seem, that she imagined herself decorating a monument to her father. Hence her Coronet weeds and the Poet's weedy Trophies.]

[Footnote 20: Sliver, I suspect, called so after the fact, because slivered or torn off. In Macbeth we have:

slips of yew Slivered in the moon's eclipse.

But it may be that sliver was used for a twig, such as could be torn off.

Slip and sliver must be of the same root.]

[Page 224]

Fell in the weeping Brooke, her cloathes spred wide, And Mermaid-like, a while they bore her vp, Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,[1] [Sidenote: old laudes,[1]] As one incapable of[2] her owne distresse, Or like a creature Natiue, and indued[3] Vnto that Element: but long it could not be, Till that her garments, heauy with her drinke, [Sidenote: theyr drinke] Pul'd the poore wretch from her melodious buy,[4] [Sidenote: melodious lay] To muddy death.[5]

Laer. Alas then, is she drown'd? [Sidenote: she is]

Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.

Laer. Too much of water hast thou poore Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my teares: but yet It is our tricke,[6] Nature her custome holds, Let shame say what it will; when these are gone The woman will be out:[7] Adue my Lord, I haue a speech of fire, that faine would blaze, [Sidenote: speech a fire] But that this folly doubts[8] it. Exit. [Sidenote: drownes it.[8]]

Kin. Let's follow, Gertrude: How much I had to doe to calme his rage? Now feare I this will giue it start againe; Therefore let's follow. Exeunt.[9]

[10]Enter two Clownes.

Clown. Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall, [Sidenote: buriall, when she wilfully] that wilfully seekes her owne saluation?[11]

Other. I tell thee she is, and therefore make her [Sidenote: is, therefore] Graue straight,[12] the Crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian buriall.

Clo. How can that be, vnlesse she drowned her selfe in her owne defence?

Other. Why 'tis found so.[13]

Clo. It must be Se offendendo,[14] it cannot bee else: [Sidenote: be so offended, it]

[Footnote 1: They were not lauds she was in the habit of singing, to judge by the snatches given.]

[Footnote 2: not able to take in, not understanding, not conscious of.]

[Footnote 3: clothed, endowed, fitted for. See Sh. Lex.]

[Footnote 4: Could the word be for buoy—'her clothes spread wide,' on which she floated singing—therefore her melodious buoy or float?]

[Footnote 5: How could the queen know all this, when there was no one near enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of her death given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl's suicide, and by circumstance beguile the sorrow-rage of Laertes?]

[Footnote 6: 'I cannot help it.']

[Footnote 7: 'when these few tears are spent, all the woman will be out of me: I shall be a man again.']

[Footnote 8: douts: 'this foolish water of tears puts it out.' See Q. reading.]

[Footnote 9: Here ends the Fourth Act, between which and the Fifth may intervene a day or two.]

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

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

[Footnote 12: Whether this means straightway, or not crooked, I cannot tell.]

[Footnote 13: 'the coroner has settled it.']

[Footnote 14: The Clown's blunder for defendendo.]

[Page 226]

for heere lies the point; If I drowne my selfe wittingly, it argues an Act: and an Act hath three branches. It is an Act to doe and to performe; [Sidenote: it is to act, to doe, to performe, or all: she] argall[1] she drown'd her selfe wittingly.

Other. Nay but heare you Goodman Deluer. [Sidenote: good man deluer.]

Clown. Giue me leaue; heere lies the water; good: heere stands the man; good: If the man goe to this water and drowne himsele; it is will he nill he, he goes; marke you that? But if the water come to him and drowne him; hee drownes not himselfe. Argall, hee that is not guilty of his owne death, shortens not his owne life.

Other. But is this law?

Clo. I marry is't, Crowners Quest Law.

Other. Will you ha the truth on't: if this had [Sidenote: truth an't] not beene a Gentlewoman, shee should haue beene buried out of[2] Christian Buriall. [Sidenote: out a]

Clo. Why there thou say'st. And the more pitty that great folke should haue countenance in this world to drowne or hang themselues, more then their euen[3] Christian. Come, my Spade; there is no ancient Gentlemen, but Gardiners, Ditchers and Graue-makers; they hold vp Adams Profession.

Other. Was he a Gentleman?

Clo. He was the first that euer bore Armes. [Sidenote: A was]

[4]Other. Why he had none.

Clo. What, ar't a Heathen? how dost thou vnderstand the Scripture? the Scripture sayes Adam dig'd; could hee digge without Armes?[4] Ile put another question to thee; if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confesse thy selfe——

Other. Go too.

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

Other. The Gallowes-maker; for that Frame outliues a thousand Tenants. [Sidenote: that outliues]

[Footnote 1: ergo, therefore.]

[Footnote 2: without. The pleasure the speeches of the Clown give us, lies partly in the undercurrent of sense, so disguised by stupidity in the utterance; and partly in the wit which mainly succeeds in its end by the failure of its means.]

[Footnote 3: equal, that is fellow Christian.]

[Footnote 4: From 'Other' to 'Armes' not in Quarto.]

[Page 228]

Clo. I like thy wit well in good faith, the Gallowes does well; but how does it well? it does well to those that doe ill: now, thou dost ill to say the Gallowes is built stronger then the Church: Argall, the Gallowes may doe well to thee. Too't againe, Come.

Other. Who builds stronger then a Mason, a Shipwright, or a Carpenter?

Clo. I, tell me that, and vnyoake.[1]

Other. Marry, now I can tell.

Clo. Too't.

Other. Masse, I cannot tell.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio a farre off.[2]

Clo. Cudgell thy braines no more about it; for your dull Asse will not mend his pace with beating, and when you are ask't this question next, say a Graue-maker: the Houses that he makes, lasts [Sidenote: houses hee makes] till Doomesday: go, get thee to Yaughan,[3] fetch [Sidenote: thee in, and fetch mee a soope of] me a stoupe of Liquor.

Sings.[4]

In youth when I did loue, did loue, [Sidenote: Song.] me thought it was very sweete: To contract O the time for a my behoue, O me thought there was nothing meete[5] [Sidenote: there a was nothing a meet.]

[Sidenote: Enter Hamlet & Horatio]

Ham. Ha's this fellow no feeling of his businesse, [Sidenote: busines? a sings in graue-making.] that he sings at Graue-making?[6]

Hor. Custome hath made it in him a property[7] of easinesse.

Ham. 'Tis ee'n so; the hand of little Imployment hath the daintier sense.

Clowne sings.[8]

But Age with his stealing steps [Sidenote Clow. Song.] hath caught me in his clutch: [Sidenote: hath clawed me]

[Footnote 1: 'unyoke your team'—as having earned his rest.]

[Footnote 2: Not in Quarto.]

[Footnote 3: Whether this is the name of a place, or the name of an innkeeper, or is merely an inexplicable corruption—some take it for a stage-direction to yawn—I cannot tell. See Q. reading.

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

[Footnote 4: Not in Quarto.]

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

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

[Footnote 7: Property is what specially belongs to the individual; here it is his peculiar work, or personal calling: 'custom has made it with him an easy duty.']

[Footnote 8: Not in Quarto.]

[Page 230]

And hath shipped me intill the Land, [Sidenote: into] as if I had neuer beene such.

Ham. That Scull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knaue iowles it to th' grownd, [Sidenote: the] as if it were Caines Iaw-bone, that did the first [Sidenote: twere] murther: It might be the Pate of a Polititian which [Sidenote: murder, this might] this Asse o're Offices: one that could circumuent [Sidenote: asse now ore-reaches; one that would] God, might it not?

Hor. It might, my Lord.

Ham. Or of a Courtier, which could say, Good Morrow sweet Lord: how dost thou, good Lord? [Sidenote: thou sweet lord?] this might be my Lord such a one, that prais'd my Lord such a ones Horse, when he meant to begge [Sidenote: when a went to] it; might it not?[1]

Hor. I, my Lord.

Ham. Why ee'n so: and now my Lady Wormes,[2] Chaplesse,[3] and knockt about the Mazard[4] [Sidenote: Choples the massene with] with a Sextons Spade; heere's fine Reuolution, if [Sidenote: and we had] wee had the tricke to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at Loggets[5] with 'em? mine ake to thinke on't. [Sidenote: them]

Clowne sings.[6]

A Pickhaxe and a Spade, a Spade, [Sidenote: Clow. Song.] for and a shrowding-Sheete: O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete.

Ham. There's another: why might not that bee the Scull of of a Lawyer? where be his [Sidenote: skull of a] Quiddits[7] now? his Quillets[7]? his Cases? his [Sidenote: quiddities] Tenures, and his Tricks? why doe's he suffer this rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8] [Sidenote: this madde knaue] with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his Action of Battery? hum. This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of Land, with his Statutes, his Recognizances, his Fines, his double

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

[Footnote 2: 'now the property of my Lady Worm.']

[Footnote 3: the lower jaw gone.]

[Footnote 4: the upper jaw, I think—not the head.]

[Footnote 5: a game in which pins of wood, called loggats, nearly two feet long, were half thrown, half slid, towards a bowl. Blount: Johnson and Steevens.]

[Footnote 6: Not in Quarto.]

[Footnote 7: a lawyer's quirks and quibbles. See Johnson and Steevens.

1st Q.

now where is your Quirkes and quillets now,]

[Footnote 8: Humorous, or slang word for the head. 'A fort—a head-piece—the head': Webster's Dict.]

[Page 232]

Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of his Fines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries,[1] to haue his fine[4] Pate full of fine[4] Dirt? will his Vouchers [Sidenote: will vouchers] vouch him no more of his Purchases, and double [Sidenote: purchases & doubles then] ones too, then the length and breadth of a paire of Indentures? the very Conueyances of his Lands will hardly lye in this Boxe[5]; and must the Inheritor [Sidenote: scarcely iye; th'] himselfe haue no more?[6] ha?

Hor. Not a iot more, my Lord.

Ham. Is not Parchment made of Sheep-skinnes?

Hor. I my Lord, and of Calue-skinnes too. [Sidenote: Calues-skinnes to]

Ham. They are Sheepe and Calues that seek [Sidenote: which seek] out assurance in that. I will speake to this fellow: whose Graue's this Sir? [Sidenote: this sirra?]

Clo. Mine Sir: [Sidenote: Clow. Mine sir, or a pit]

O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete.[7]

Ham. I thinke it be thine indeed: for thou liest in't.

Clo. You lye out on't Sir, and therefore it is not [Sidenote: tis] yours: for my part, I doe not lye in't; and yet it [Sidenote: in't, yet] is mine.

Ham. Thou dost lye in't, to be in't and say 'tis [Sidenote: it is] thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quicke, therefore thou lyest.

Clo. Tis a quicke lye Sir, 'twill away againe from me to you.[8]

Ham. What man dost thou digge it for?

Clo. For no man Sir.

Ham. What woman then?

Clo. For none neither.

Ham. Who is to be buried in't?

Clo. One that was a woman Sir; but rest her Soule, shee's dead.

[Footnote 1: From 'Is' to 'Recoueries' not in Q.]

[Footnote 2: the end.]

[Footnote 3: the property regained by his Recoveries.]

[Footnote 4: third and fourth meanings of the word fine.]

[Footnote 5: the skull.]

[Footnote 6: 'must the heir have no more either?'

1st Q.

and must The honor (owner?) lie there?]

[Footnote 7: This line not in Q.]

[Footnote 8: He gives the lie.]

[Page 234]

Ham. How absolute[1] the knaue is? wee must [Sidenote: 256] speake by the Carde,[2] or equiuocation will vndoe vs: by the Lord Horatio, these three yeares[3] I haue [Sidenote: this three] taken note of it, the Age is growne so picked,[4] [Sidenote: tooke] that the toe of the Pesant comes so neere the heeles of our Courtier, hee galls his Kibe.[5] How [Sidenote: the heele of the] long hast thou been a Graue-maker? [Sidenote: been Graue-maker?]

Clo. Of all the dayes i'th'yeare, I came too't [Sidenote: Of the dayes] that day[6] that our last King Hamlet o'recame [Sidenote: ouercame] Fortinbras.

Ham. How long is that since?

Clo. Cannot you tell that? euery foole can tell [Sidenote: 143] that: It was the very day,[6] that young Hamlet was [Sidenote: was that very] borne,[8] hee that was mad, and sent into England, [Sidenote: that is mad]

Ham. I marry, why was he sent into England?

Clo. Why, because he was mad; hee shall recouer [Sidenote: a was mad: a shall] his wits there; or if he do not, it's no great [Sidenote: if a do tis] matter there.

Ham. Why?

Clo. 'Twill not be scene in him, there the men [Sidenote: him there, there] are as mad as he.

Ham. How came he mad?

Clo. Very strangely they say.

Ham. How strangely?[7]

Clo. Faith e'ene with loosing his wits.

Ham. Vpon what ground?

Clo. Why heere in Denmarke[8]: I haue bin sixeteene [Sidenote: Sexten] [Sidenote: 142-3] heere, man and Boy thirty yeares.[9]

Ham. How long will a man lie 'ith' earth ere he rot?

Clo. Ifaith, if he be not rotten before he die (as [Sidenote: Fayth if a be not a die] we haue many pocky Coarses now adaies, that will [Sidenote: corses, that will] scarce hold the laying in) he will last you some [Sidenote: a will] eight yeare, or nine yeare. A Tanner will last you nine yeare.

[Footnote 1: 'How the knave insists on precision!']

[Footnote 2: chart: Skeat's Etym. Dict.]

[Footnote 3: Can this indicate any point in the history of English society?]

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

[Footnote 5: The word is to be found in any dictionary, but is not generally understood. Lord Byron, a very inaccurate writer, takes it to mean heel:

Devices quaint, and frolics ever new, Tread on each others' kibes:

Childe Harold, Canto 1. St. 67.

It means a chilblain.]

[Footnote 6: Then Fortinbras could have been but a few months younger than Hamlet, and may have been older. Hamlet then, in the Quarto passage, could not by tender mean young.]

[Footnote 7: 'In what way strangely?'—in what strange way? Or the How may be how much, in retort to the very; but the intent would be the same—a request for further information.]

[Footnote 8: Hamlet has asked on what ground or provocation, that is, from what cause, Hamlet lost his wits; the sexton chooses to take the word ground materially.]

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

Note Hamlet's question immediately following. It looks as if he had first said to himself: 'Yes—I have been thirty years above ground!' and then said to the sexton, 'How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he rot?' We might enquire even too curiously as to the connecting links.]

[Page 236]

Ham. Why he, more then another?

Clo. Why sir, his hide is so tan'd with his Trade, that he will keepe out water a great while. And [Sidenote: a will] your water, is a sore Decayer of your horson dead body. Heres a Scull now: this Scul, has laine in [Sidenote: now hath iyen you i'th earth 23. yeeres.] the earth three and twenty years.

Ham. Whose was it?

Clo. A whoreson mad Fellowes it was; Whose doe you thinke it was?

Ham. Nay, I know not.

Clo. A pestlence on him for a mad Rogue, a pou'rd a Flaggon of Renish on my head once. This same Scull Sir, this same Scull sir, was Yoricks [Sidenote: once; this same skull sir, was sir Yoricks] Scull, the Kings Iester.

Ham. This?

Clo. E'ene that.

Ham. Let me see. Alas poore Yorick, I knew [Sidenote: Ham. Alas poore] him Horatio, a fellow of infinite Iest; of most excellent fancy, he hath borne me on his backe a [Sidenote: bore] thousand times: And how abhorred[1] my Imagination [Sidenote: and now how in my] is, my gorge rises at it. Heere hung those [Sidenote: it is:] lipps, that I haue kist I know not how oft. Where be your Iibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs? Your flashes of Merriment that were wont to set the Table on a Rore? No one[2] now to mock your [Sidenote: not one] own Ieering? Quite chopfalne[3]? Now get you to [Sidenote: owne grinning,] my Ladies Chamber, and tell her, let her paint an [Sidenote: Ladies table,] inch thicke, to this fauour[4] she must come. Make her laugh at that: prythee Horatio tell me one thing.

Hor. What's that my Lord?

Ham. Dost thou thinke Alexander lookt o'this [Sidenote: a this] fashion i'th' earth?

Hor. E'ene so.

Ham. And smelt so? Puh.

[Footnote 1: If this be the true reading, abhorred must mean horrified; but I incline to the Quarto.]

[Footnote 2: 'Not one jibe, not one flash of merriment now?']

[Footnote 3: —chop indeed quite fallen off!]

[Footnote 4: to this look—that of the skull.]

[Page 238]

Hor. E'ene so, my Lord.

Ham. To what base vses we may returne Horatio. Why may not Imagination trace the Noble dust of Alexander, till he[1] find it stopping a [Sidenote: a find] bunghole.

Hor. 'Twere to consider: to curiously to consider [Sidenote: consider too curiously] so.

Ham. No faith, not a iot. But to follow him thether with modestie[2] enough, and likeliehood to lead it; as thus. Alexander died: Alexander was [Sidenote: lead it. Alexander] buried: Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is [Sidenote: to] earth; of earth we make Lome, and why of that Lome (whereto he was conuerted) might they not stopp a Beere-barrell?[3]

Imperiall Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, [Sidenote: Imperious] Might stop a hole to keepe the winde away. Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a Wall, t'expell the winters flaw.[4] [Sidenote: waters flaw.] But soft, but soft, aside; heere comes the King. [Sidenote: , but soft awhile, here]

Enter King, Queene, Laertes, and a Coffin, [Sidenote: Enter K. Q. Laertes and the corse.] with Lords attendant.

The Queene, the Courtiers. Who is that they follow, [Sidenote: this they] And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken, The Coarse they follow, did with disperate hand, Fore do it owne life; 'twas some Estate.[5] [Sidenote: twas of some[5]] Couch[6] we a while, and mark.

Laer. What Cerimony else?

Ham. That is Laertes, a very Noble youth:[7] Marke.

Laer. What Cerimony else?[8]

Priest. Her Obsequies haue bin as farre inlarg'd, [Sidenote: Doct.] As we haue warrantis,[9] her death was doubtfull,[10] [Sidenote: warrantie,] And but that great Command, o're-swaies the order,[11]

[Footnote 1: Imagination personified.]

[Footnote 2: moderation.]

[Footnote 3: 'Loam, Lome—grafting clay. Mortar made of Clay and Straw; also a sort of Plaister used by Chymists to stop up their Vessels.'—Bailey's Dict.]

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

Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right understanding of the whole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet is philosophizing—following things out, curiously or otherwise—on the brink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired—'what woman then?'—but received no answer.]

[Footnote 5: 'the corpse was of some position.']

[Footnote 6: 'let us lie down'—behind a grave or stone.]

[Footnote 7: Hamlet was quite in the dark as to Laertes' character; he had seen next to nothing of him.]

[Footnote 8: The priest making no answer, Laertes repeats the question.]

[Footnote 9: warrantise.]

[Footnote 10: This casts discredit on the queen's story, 222. The priest believes she died by suicide, only calls her death doubtful to excuse their granting her so many of the rites of burial.]

[Footnote 11: 'settled mode of proceeding.'—Schmidt's Sh. Lex.—But is it not rather the order of the church?]

[Page 240]

She should in ground vnsanctified haue lodg'd, [Sidenote: vnsanctified been lodged] Till the last Trumpet. For charitable praier, [Sidenote: prayers,] Shardes,[1] Flints, and Peebles, should be throwne on her: Yet heere she is allowed her Virgin Rites, [Sidenote: virgin Crants,[2]] Her Maiden strewments,[3] and the bringing home Of Bell and Buriall.[4]

Laer. Must there no more be done?

Priest. No more be done:[5] [Sidenote: Doct.] We should prophane the seruice of the dead, To sing sage[6] Requiem, and such rest to her [Sidenote: sing a Requiem] As to peace-parted Soules.

Laer. Lay her i'th' earth, And from her faire and vnpolluted flesh, May Violets spring. I tell thee (churlish Priest) A Ministring Angell shall my Sister be, When thou liest howling?

Ham. What, the faire Ophelia?[7]

Queene. Sweets, to the sweet farewell.[8] [Sidenote: 118] I hop'd thou should'st haue bin my Hamlets wife: I thought thy Bride-bed to haue deckt (sweet Maid) And not t'haue strew'd thy Graue. [Sidenote: not haue]

Laer. Oh terrible woer,[9] [Sidenote: O treble woe] Fall ten times trebble, on that cursed head [Sidenote: times double on] Whose wicked deed, thy most Ingenioussence Depriu'd thee of. Hold off the earth a while, Till I haue caught her once more in mine armes: Leaps in the graue.[10] Now pile your dust, vpon the quicke, and dead, Till of this flat a Mountaine you haue made, To o're top old Pelion, or the skyish head [Sidenote: To'retop] Of blew Olympus.[11]

Ham.[12] What is he, whose griefes [Sidenote: griefe] Beares such an Emphasis? whose phrase of Sorrow

[Footnote 1: 'Shardes' not in Quarto. It means potsherds.]

[Footnote 2: chaplet—German krantz, used even for virginity itself.]

[Footnote 3: strewments with white flowers. (?)]

[Footnote 4: the burial service.]

[Footnote 5: as an exclamation, I think.]

[Footnote 6: Is the word sage used as representing the unfitness of a requiem to her state of mind? or is it only from its kindred with solemn? It was because she was not 'peace-parted' that they could not sing rest to her.]

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

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

[Footnote 9: The Folio may be right here:—'Oh terrible wooer!—May ten times treble thy misfortunes fall' &c.]

[Footnote 10: This stage-direction is not in the Quarto.

Here the 1st Quarto has:—

Lear. Forbeare the earth a while: sister farewell: Leartes leapes into the graue. Now powre your earth on Olympus hie, And make a hill to o're top olde Pellon: Hamlet leapes in after Leartes Whats he that coniures so?

Ham. Beholde tis I, Hamlet the Dane.]

[Footnote 11: The whole speech is bravado—the frothy grief of a weak, excitable effusive nature.]

[Footnote 12: He can remain apart no longer, and approaches the company.]

[Page 242]

Coniure the wandring Starres, and makes them stand [Sidenote: Coniues] Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane.[1]

Laer. The deuill take thy soule.[2]

Ham. Thou prai'st not well, I prythee take thy fingers from my throat;[3] Sir though I am not Spleenatiue, and rash, [Sidenote: For though spleenatiue rash,] Yet haue I something in me dangerous, [Sidenote: in me something] Which let thy wisenesse feare. Away thy hand. [Sidenote: wisedome feare; hold off they]

King. Pluck them asunder.

Qu. Hamlet, Hamlet. [Sidenote: All. Gentlemen.]

Gen. Good my Lord be quiet. [Sidenote: Hora. Good]

Ham. Why I will fight with him vppon this Theme, Vntill my eielids will no longer wag.[4]

Qu. Oh my Sonne, what Theame?

Ham. I lou'd Ophelia[5]; fortie thousand Brothers Could not (with all there quantitie of Loue) Make vp my summe. What wilt thou do for her?[6]

King. Oh he is mad Laertes.[7]

Qu. For loue of God forbeare him.

Ham. Come show me what thou'lt doe. [Sidenote: Ham S'wounds shew th'owt fight, woo't fast, woo't teare] Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy selfe? Woo't drinke vp Esile, eate a Crocodile?[6] Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine; [Sidenote: doost come] To outface me with leaping in her Graue? Be[8] buried quicke with her, and so will I. And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throw Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground Sindging his pate against the burning Zone, [Sidenote: 262] Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth, Ile rant as well as thou.[9]

[Footnote 1: This fine speech is yet spoken in the character of madman, which Hamlet puts on once more the moment he has to appear before the king. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; its extravagance to his assumed insanity. It must be remembered that death is a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the death of Ophelia may even be some consolation to him.

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

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

There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out of the grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I would suggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's book on Grave-Mounds, I read of a 'female skeleton in a grave six feet deep, ten feet long, and eight feet wide.' Such a grave would give room for both beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the common representation.]

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

[Footnote 3: Note the temper, self-knowledge, self-government, and self-distrust of Hamlet.]

[Footnote 4: The eyelids last of all become incapable of motion.]

[Footnote 5: That he loved her is the only thing to explain the harshness of his behaviour to her. Had he not loved her and not been miserable about her, he would have been as polite to her as well bred people would have him.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 7: —pretending care over Hamlet.]

[Footnote 8: Emphasis on Be, which I take for the imperative mood.]

[Footnote 9: The moment it is uttered, he recognizes and confesses to the rant, ashamed of it even under the cover of his madness. It did not belong altogether to the madness. Later he expresses to Horatio his regret in regard to this passage between him and Laertes, and afterwards apologizes to Laertes. 252, 262.

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

Add to this, that Hamlet—see later in his speeches to Osricke—had a lively inclination to answer a fool according to his folly (256), to outherod Herod if Herod would rave, out-euphuize Euphues himself if he would be ridiculous:—the digestion of all these things in the retort of meditation will result, I would fain think, in an understanding and artistic justification of even this speech of Hamlet: the more I consider it the truer it seems. If proof be necessary that real feeling is mingled in the madness of the utterance, it may be found in the fact that he is immediately ashamed of its extravagance.]

[Page 244]

Kin.[1] This is meere Madnesse: [Sidenote: Quee.[1]] And thus awhile the fit will worke on him: [Sidenote: And this] Anon as patient as the female Doue, When that her golden[2] Cuplet[3] are disclos'd[4]; [Sidenote: cuplets[3]] His silence will sit drooping.[5]

Ham. Heare you Sir:[6] What is the reason that you vse me thus? I loud' you euer;[7] but it is no matter:[8] Let Hercules himselfe doe what he may, The Cat will Mew, and Dogge will haue his day.[9] Exit. [Sidenote: Exit Hamlet and Horatio.]

Kin. I pray you good Horatio wait vpon him, [Sidenote: pray thee good] Strengthen you patience in our last nights speech, [Sidenote: your] [Sidenote: 254] Wee'l put the matter to the present push:[10] Good Gertrude set some watch ouer your Sonne, This Graue shall haue a liuing[11] Monument:[12] An houre of quiet shortly shall we see;[13] [Sidenote: quiet thirtie shall] Till then, in patience our proceeding be. Exeunt.

[Footnote 1: I hardly know which to choose as the speaker of this speech. It would be a fine specimen of the king's hypocrisy; and perhaps indeed its poetry, lovely in itself, but at such a time sentimental, is fitter for him than the less guilty queen.]

[Footnote 2: 'covered with a yellow down' Heath.]

[Footnote 3: The singular is better: 'the pigeon lays no more than two eggs.' Steevens. Only, couplets might be used like twins.]

[Footnote 4: —hatched, the sporting term of the time.]

[Footnote 5: 'The pigeon never quits her nest for three days after her two young ones are hatched, except for a few moments to get food.' Steevens.]

[Footnote 6: Laertes stands eyeing him with evil looks.]

[Footnote 7: I suppose here a pause: he waits in vain some response from Laertes.]

[Footnote 8: Here he retreats into his madness.]

[Footnote 9: '—but I cannot compel you to hear reason. Do what he will, Hercules himself cannot keep the cat from mewing, or the dog from following his inclination!'—said in a half humorous, half contemptuous despair.]

[Footnote 10: 'into immediate train'—to Laertes.]

[Footnote 11: life-like, or lasting?]

[Footnote 12: —again to Laertes.]

[Footnote 13: —when Hamlet is dead.]

[Page 246]

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Ham. So much for this Sir; now let me see the other,[1] [Sidenote: now shall you see] You doe remember all the Circumstance.[2]

Hor. Remember it my Lord?[3]

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kinde of fighting, That would not let me sleepe;[4] me thought I lay [Sidenote: my thought] Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes,[5] rashly, [Sidenote: bilbo] (And praise be rashnesse for it)[6] let vs know, [Sidenote: prayed] Our indiscretion sometimes serues vs well, [Sidenote: sometime] When our deare plots do paule,[7] and that should teach vs, [Sidenote: deepe should learne us] [Sidenote: 146, 181] There's a Diuinity that shapes our ends,[8] Rough-hew them how we will.[9]

Hor. That is most certaine.

Ham. Vp from my Cabin My sea-gowne scarft about me in the darke, Grop'd I to finde out them;[10] had my desire, Finger'd their Packet[11], and in fine, withdrew To mine owne roome againe, making so bold, (My feares forgetting manners) to vnseale [Sidenote: to vnfold] Their grand Commission, where I found Horatio, Oh royall[12] knauery: An exact command, [Sidenote: A royall] [Sidenote: 196] Larded with many seuerall sorts of reason; [Sidenote: reasons,] Importing Denmarks health, and Englands too, With hoo, such Bugges[13] and Goblins in my life, [Sidenote: hoe] That on the superuize[14] no leasure bated,[15] No not to stay the grinding of the Axe, My head shoud be struck off.

Hor. Ist possible?

Ham. Here's the Commission, read it at more leysure:

[Footnote 1: I would suggest that the one paper, which he has just shown, is a commission the king gave to himself; the other, which he is about to show, that given to Rosincrance and Guildensterne. He is setting forth his proof of the king's treachery.]

[Footnote 2: —of the king's words and behaviour, possibly, in giving him his papers, Horatio having been present; or it might mean, 'Have you got the things I have just told you clear in your mind?']

[Footnote 3: '—as if I could forget a single particular of it!']

[Footnote 4: The Shaping Divinity was moving him.]

[Footnote 5: The fetters called bilboes fasten a couple of mutinous sailors together by the legs.]

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

[Footnote 7: pall—from the root of pale—'come to nothing.' He had had his plots from which he hoped much; the king's commission had rendered them futile. But he seems to have grown doubtful of his plans before, probably through the doubt of his companions which led him to seek acquaintance with their commission, and he may mean that his 'dear plots' had begun to pall upon him. Anyhow the sudden 'indiscretion' of searching for and unsealing the ambassadors' commission served him as nothing else could have served him.]

[Footnote 8: —even by our indiscretion. Emphasis on shapes.]

[Footnote 9: Here is another sign of Hamlet's religion. 24, 125, 260. We start to work out an idea, but the result does not correspond with the idea: another has been at work along with us. We rough-hew—block out our marble, say for a Mercury; the result is an Apollo. Hamlet had rough-hewn his ends—he had begun plans to certain ends, but had he been allowed to go on shaping them alone, the result, even had he carried out his plans and shaped his ends to his mind, would have been failure. Another mallet and chisel were busy shaping them otherwise from the first, and carrying them out to a true success. For success is not the success of plans, but the success of ends.]

[Footnote 10: Emphasize I and them, as the rhythm requires, and the phrase becomes picturesque.]

[Footnote 11: 'got my fingers on their papers.']

[Footnote 12: Emphasize royal.]

[Footnote 13: A bug is any object causing terror.]

[Footnote 14: immediately on the reading.]

[Footnote 15: —no interval abated, taken off the immediacy of the order respite granted.]

[Page 248]

But wilt thou heare me how I did proceed? [Sidenote: heare now how]

Hor. I beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with Villaines,[1] Ere I could make a Prologue to my braines, [Sidenote: Or I could] They had begun the Play.[2] I sate me downe, Deuis'd a new Commission,[3] wrote it faire, I once did hold it as our Statists[4] doe, A basenesse to write faire; and laboured much How to forget that learning: but Sir now, It did me Yeomans[5] seruice: wilt thou know [Sidenote: yemans] The effects[6] of what I wrote? [Sidenote: Th'effect[6]]