The Tragedie of Hamlet

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SCENA SECUNDA[3]

_Enter Claudius King of Denmarke. Gertrude the Queene, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, and his Sister Ophelia, Lords Attendant._[4]

[Sidenote: Florish. Enter Claudius, King of Denmarke, Gertrad the Queene, Counsaile: as Polonius, and his sonne Laertes, Hamelt Cum Abijs.]

King. Though yet of Hamlet our deere Brothers death

The memory be greene: and that it vs befitted To beare our hearts in greefe, and our whole Kingdome To be contracted in one brow of woe: Yet so farre hath Discretion fought with Nature, That we with wisest sorrow thinke on him,

[Footnote 1: Does it mean--carries off any child, leaving a changeling? or does it mean--affect with evil, as a disease might infect or take?]

[Footnote 2: 1st Q. 'hie mountaine top,']

[Footnote 3: In neither Q.]

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

[Page 16]

Together with remembrance of our selues.

Therefore our sometimes Sister, now our Queen,
Th'Imperiall Ioyntresse of this warlike State, [Sidenote: to this]
Haue we, as 'twere, with a defeated ioy,
With one Auspicious, and one Dropping eye,
[Sidenote: an auspitious and a]
With mirth in Funerall, and with Dirge in Marriage,

In equall Scale weighing Delight and Dole[1] Taken to Wife; nor haue we heerein barr'd[2] Your better Wisedomes, which haue freely gone With this affaire along, for all our Thankes. [Sidenote: 8] Now followes, that you know young Fortinbras,[3] Holding a weake supposall of our worth; Or thinking by our late deere Brothers death, Our State to be disioynt, and out of Frame, Colleagued with the dreame of his Aduantage;[4] [Sidenote: this dreame] He hath not fayl'd to pester vs with Message,

Importing the surrender of those Lands
Lost by his Father: with all Bonds of Law [Sidenote: bands]
To our most valiant Brother. So much for him.

_Enter Voltemand and Cornelius._[5]

Now for our selfe, and for this time of meeting Thus much the businesse is. We haue heere writ To Norway, Vncle of young Fortinbras, Who Impotent and Bedrid, scarsely heares Of this his Nephewes purpose, to suppresse His further gate[6] heerein. In that the Leuies, The Lists, and full proportions are all made Out of his subiect: and we heere dispatch

You good Cornelius, and you Voltemand,
For bearing of this greeting to old Norway, [Sidenote: bearers]
Giuing to you no further personall power
To businesse with the King, more then the scope
Of these dilated Articles allow:[7] [Sidenote: delated[8]]
Farewell and let your hast commend your duty.[9]

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

[Footnote 2: Like crossed.]

[Footnote 3: 'Now follows--that (which) you know--young Fortinbras:--']

[Footnote 4: Colleagued agrees with supposall. The preceding two lines may be regarded as somewhat parenthetical. Dream of advantage--hope of gain.]

[Footnote 5: Not in Q.]

[Footnote 6: going; advance. Note in Norway also, as well as in Denmark, the succession of the brother.]

[Footnote 7: (giving them papers).]

[Footnote 8: Which of these is right, I cannot tell. Dilated means expanded, and would refer to _the scope; delated means committed--to them, to limit them.]

[Footnote 9: idea of duty.]

[Page 18]

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

King. We doubt it nothing, heartily farewell.

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

And now Laertes, what's the newes with you? You told vs of some suite. What is't Laertes? You cannot speake of Reason to the Dane, And loose your voyce. What would'st thou beg Laertes, That shall not be my Offer, not thy Asking?[2]

The Head is not more Natiue to the Heart,
The Hand more Instrumentall to the Mouth,
Then is the Throne of Denmarke to thy Father.[3]
What would'st thou haue Laertes?

Laer. Dread my Lord, [Sidenote: My dread]
Your leaue and fauour to returne to France,
From whence, though willingly I came to Denmarke
To shew my duty in your Coronation,
Yet now I must confesse, that duty done,

[Sidenote: 22] My thoughts and wishes bend againe towards toward France,[4]
And bow them to your gracious leaue and pardon.

King. Haue you your Fathers leaue? What sayes Pollonius?

1. Pol. He hath my Lord: I do beseech you giue him leaue to go.

King. Take thy faire houre Laertes, time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will: But now my Cosin Hamlet, and my Sonne?

[Footnote A: In the Quarto:--

Polo. Hath[5] my Lord wroung from me my slowe leaue By laboursome petition, and at last
Vpon his will I seald my hard consent,[6] I doe beseech you giue him leaue to goe.]

[Footnote 1: Not in Q.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 5: H'ath--a contraction for He hath.]

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

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

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

Ham. Not so my Lord, I am too much i'th'Sun.[2]

Queen. Good Hamlet cast thy nightly colour off,[4]

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

Ham. I Madam, it is common.[6]

Queen. If it be;
Why seemes it so particular with thee.

Ham. Seemes Madam? Nay, it is: I know not Seemes:[7] 'Tis not alone my Inky Cloake (good Mother)

Nor Customary suites of solemne Blacke, Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, No, nor the fruitfull Riuer in the Eye, Nor the deiected hauiour of the Visage, Together with all Formes, Moods, shewes of Griefe,

King. 'Tis sweet and commendable
In your Nature Hamlet,
To giue these mourning duties to your Father:[11] But you must know, your Father lost a Father, That Father lost, lost his, and the Suruiuer bound In filiall Obligation, for some terme To do obsequious[12] Sorrow. But to perseuer In obstinate Condolement, is a course

[Footnote 1: An aside. Hamlet's first utterance is of dislike to his uncle. He is more than kin through his unwelcome marriage--less than kind by the difference in their natures. To be kind is to behave as one kinned or related. But the word here is the noun, and means nature, or sort by birth.]

[Footnote 2: A word-play may be here intended between sun and son: a little more than kin--too much i' th' Son. So George Herbert:

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

and Dr. Donne:

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

[Footnote 3: 'Wintred garments'--As You Like It, iii. 2.]

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

[Footnote 5: lowered, or cast down: Fr. avaler, to lower.]

[Footnote 6: 'Plainly you treat it as a common matter--a thing of no significance!' I is constantly used for ay, yes.]

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

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

[Footnote 9: They are things of the outside, and must seem, for they are capable of being imitated; they are the natural shows of grief. But he has that in him which cannot show or seem, because nothing can represent it. These are 'the Trappings and the Suites of woe;' they fitly represent woe, but they cannot shadow forth that which is within him--a something different from woe, far beyond it and worse, passing all reach of embodiment and manifestation. What this something is, comes out the moment he is left by himself.]

[Footnote 10: The emphasis is on might.]

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

[Footnote 12: belonging to obsequies.]

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Of impious stubbornnesse. Tis vnmanly greefe,

It shewes a will most incorrect to Heauen,
A Heart vnfortified, a Minde impatient, [Sidenote: or minde]
An Vnderstanding simple, and vnschool'd:
For, what we know must be, and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sence,
Why should we in our peeuish Opposition

Take it to heart? Fye, 'tis a fault to Heauen, A fault against the Dead, a fault to Nature, To Reason most absurd, whose common Theame Is death of Fathers, and who still hath cried, From the first Coarse,[1] till he that dyed to day, [Sidenote: course] This must be so. We pray you throw to earth This vnpreuayling woe, and thinke of vs As of a Father; For let the world take note, You are the most immediate to our Throne,[2] And with no lesse Nobility of Loue,

Then that which deerest Father beares his Sonne,
Do I impart towards you. For your intent [Sidenote: toward]
[Sidenote: 18] In going backe to Schoole in Wittenberg,[3]
It is most retrograde to our desire: [Sidenote: retrogard]
And we beseech you, bend you to remaine
Heere in the cheere and comfort of our eye,
Our cheefest Courtier Cosin, and our Sonne.

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

Ham. I shall in all my best
Obey you Madam.[4]

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

[Footnote 1: Corpse.]

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

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

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

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

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And the Kings Rouce,[1] the Heauens shall bruite againe,

Respeaking earthly Thunder. Come away.
Exeunt [Sidenote: Florish. Exeunt all but Hamlet.]

Manet Hamlet.

2. _Ham._ Oh that this too too solid Flesh, would melt, [Sidenote: sallied flesh[3]]

Thaw, and resolue it selfe into a Dew: [Sidenote: 125,247,260] Or that the Euerlasting had not fixt [Sidenote: 121 bis] His Cannon 'gainst Selfe-slaughter. O God, O God!

[Sidenote: seale slaughter, o God, God,]
How weary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable [Sidenote: wary]
Seemes to me all the vses of this world? [Sidenote: seeme]
Fie on't? Oh fie, fie, 'tis an vnweeded Garden [Sidenote: ah fie,]
That growes to Seed: Things rank, and grosse in Nature
Possesse it meerely. That it should come to this:
[Sidenote: meerely that it should come thus]
But two months dead[4]: Nay, not so much; not two,
So excellent a King, that was to this
Hiperion to a Satyre: so louing to my Mother,
That he might not beteene the windes of heauen [Sidenote: beteeme[5]]
Visit her face too roughly. Heauen and Earth
Must I remember: why she would hang on him, [Sidenote: should]
As if encrease of Appetite had growne
By what it fed on; and yet within a month?
Let me not thinke on't: Frailty, thy name is woman.[6]
A little Month, or ere those shooes were old,
With which she followed my poore Fathers body
Like Niobe, all teares. Why she, euen she.[7]
(O Heauen! A beast that wants discourse[8] of Reason [Sidenote: O God]
Would haue mourn'd longer) married with mine Vnkle, [Sidenote: my]

[Footnote 1: German Rausch, drunkenness. 44, 68]

[Footnote 2: A soliloquy is as the drawing called a section of a thing: it shows the inside of the man. Soliloquy is only rare, not unnatural, and in art serves to reveal more of nature. In the drama it is the lifting of a veil through which dialogue passes. The scene is for the moment shifted into the lonely spiritual world, and here we begin to know Hamlet. Such is his wretchedness, both in mind and circumstance, that he could well wish to vanish from the world. The suggestion of suicide, however, he dismisses at once--with a momentary regret, it is true--but he dismisses it--as against the will of God to whom he appeals in his misery. The cause of his misery is now made plain to us--his trouble that passes show, deprives life of its interest, and renders the world a disgust to him. There is no lamentation over his father's death, so dwelt upon by the king; for loving grief does not crush. Far less could his uncle's sharp practice, in scheming for his own election during Hamlet's absence, have wrought in a philosopher like him such an effect. The one makes him sorrowful, the other might well annoy him, but neither could render him unhappy: his misery lies at his mother's door; it is her conduct that has put out the light of her son's life. She who had been to him the type of all excellence, she whom his father had idolized, has within a month of his death married his uncle, and is living in habitual incest--for as such, a marriage of the kind was then unanimously regarded. To Hamlet's condition and behaviour, his mother, her past and her present, is the only and sufficing key. His very idea of unity had been rent in twain.]

[Footnote 3: 1st Q. 'too much grieu'd and sallied flesh.' Sallied, sullied: compare sallets, 67, 103. I have a strong suspicion that sallied and not solid is the true word. It comes nearer the depth of Hamlet's mood.]

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

[Footnote 5: This is the word all the editors take: which is right, I do not know; I doubt if either is. The word in A Midsummer Night's Dream, act i. sc. 1--

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

I cannot believe the same word. The latter means produce for, as from the place of origin. The word, in the sense necessary to this passage, is not, so far as I know, to be found anywhere else. I have no suggestion to make.]

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

[Footnote 7: Q. omits 'euen she.']

[Footnote 8: the going abroad among things.]

[Page 26]

My Fathers Brother: but no more like my Father, Then I to Hercules. Within a Moneth?

Ere yet the salt of most vnrighteous Teares
Had left the flushing of her gauled eyes, [Sidenote: in her]
She married. O most wicked speed, to post[1]
With such dexterity to Incestuous sheets:
It is not, nor it cannot come to good,
But breake my heart, for I must hold my tongue.[2]

Enter Horatio, Barnard, and Marcellus.

Hor. Haile to your Lordship.[3]

Ham. I am glad to see you well:
Horatio, or I do forget my selfe.

Hor. The same my Lord,
And your poore Seruant euer.

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

Mar. My good Lord.

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

Hor. A truant disposition, good my Lord.[9]

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

Hor. My Lord, I came to see your Fathers Funerall.

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

[Footnote 1: I suggest the pointing:

speed! To post ... sheets!]

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

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

[Footnote 4: 1st Q. 'O my good friend, I change, &c.' This would leave it doubtful whether he wished to exchange servant or friend; but 'Sir, my good friend,' correcting Horatio, makes his intent plain.]

[Footnote 5: Emphasis on that: 'I will exchange the name of friend with you.']

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

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

[Footnote 8: Point thus: 'you.--Good even, sir.'--to Barnardo, whom he does not know.]

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

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

[Footnote 11: Emphasis on you.]

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

[Page 28]

Hor. Indeed my Lord, it followed hard vpon.

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

Hor. Oh where my Lord? [Sidenote: Where my]

Ham. In my minds eye (Horatio)[3]

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

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

Hor. My Lord, I thinke I saw him yesternight.

Ham. Saw? Who?[4]

Hor. My Lord, the King your Father.

Ham. The King my Father?[5]

Hor. Season[6] your admiration for a while With an attent eare;[7] till I may deliuer Vpon the witnesse of these Gentlemen, This maruell to you.

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

Hor. Two nights together, had these Gentlemen (Marcellus and Barnardo) on their Watch In the dead wast and middle of the night[8] Beene thus encountred. A figure like your Father,[9] Arm'd at all points exactly, Cap a Pe,[10] [Sidenote: Armed at poynt] Appeares before them, and with sollemne march Goes slow and stately: By them thrice he walkt,

By their opprest and feare-surprized eyes, Within his Truncheons length; whilst they bestil'd

Almost to Ielly with the Act of feare,[12] Stand dumbe and speake not to him. This to me In dreadfull[13] secrecie impart they did, And I with them the third Night kept the Watch, Whereas[14] they had deliuer'd both in time,

[Footnote 1: Dear is not unfrequently used as an intensive; but 'my dearest foe' is not 'the man who hates me most,' but 'the man whom most I regard as my foe.']

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

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

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

[Footnote 5: 1st Q. 'Ha, ha, the King my father ke you.']

[Footnote 6: Qualify.]

[Footnote 7: 1st Q. 'an attentiue eare,'.]

[Footnote 8: Possibly, dead vast, as in 1st Q.; but waste as good, leaving also room to suppose a play in the word.]

[Footnote 9: Note the careful uncertainty.]

[Footnote 10: 1st Q. 'Capapea.']

[Footnote 11: Either word would do: the distilling off of the animal spirits would leave the man a jelly; the cold of fear would bestil them and him to a jelly. 1st Q. distilled. But I judge bestil'd the better, as the truer to the operation of fear. Compare The Winter's Tale, act v. sc. 3:--

There's magic in thy majesty, which has

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

[Footnote 12: Act: present influence.]

[Footnote 13: a secrecy more than solemn.]

[Footnote 14: 'Where, as'.]

[Page 30]

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

Ham. But where was this?

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

Ham. Did you not speake to it?

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

Ham. Tis very strange.

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

[Sidenote: 32,52] Ham. Indeed, indeed Sirs; but this troubles me.

Ham. Then saw you not his face?

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

Ham. What, lookt he frowningly?

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

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

Hor. Nay very pale.

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

[Page 32]

Ham. And fixt his eyes vpon you?

Hor. Most constantly.

Ham. I would I had beene there.

Hor. It would haue much amaz'd you.

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

Hor. While one with moderate hast might tell a hundred.

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

Ham. Ile watch to Night; perchance 'twill wake againe.

[Sidenote: 44] Ham. If it assume my noble Fathers person,[3] Ile speake to it, though Hell it selfe should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you haue hitherto conceald this sight;

Let it bee treble[5] in your silence still: [Sidenote: be tenable in[4]]
And whatsoeuer els shall hap to night, [Sidenote: what someuer els]
Giue it an vnderstanding but no tongue;
I will requite your loues; so, fare ye well: [Sidenote: farre you]
Vpon the Platforme twixt eleuen and twelue,
[Sidenote: a leauen and twelfe]
Ile visit you.

All. Our duty to your Honour. Exeunt.

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

[Footnote 1: grisly--gray; grissl'd--turned gray;--mixed with white.]

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

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

[Footnote 4: 1st Q. 'tenible']

[Footnote 5: If treble be the right word, the actor in uttering it must point to each of the three, with distinct yet rapid motion. The phrase would be a strange one, but not unlike Shakspere. Compare Cymbeline, act v. sc. 5: 'And your three motives to the battle,' meaning 'the motives of you three.' Perhaps, however, it is only the adjective for the adverb: '_having concealed it hitherto, conceal it trebly now_.' But tenible may be the word: 'let it be a thing to be kept in your silence still.']

[Footnote 6: Alone, he does not dispute the idea of its being his father.]

[Page 34]

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