Chapter 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._ [Sidenote: _Marcellus, and Bernardo._]

_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, [Sidenote: stately by them; thrice] By their opprest and feare-surprized eyes, Within his Truncheons length; whilst they bestil'd [Sidenote: they distill'd[11]] 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. [Sidenote: Indeede Sirs but] Hold you the watch to Night?

_Both_. We doe my Lord. [Sidenote: _All_.]

_Ham_. Arm'd, say you?

_Both_. Arm'd, my Lord. [Sidenote: _All_.]

_Ham_. From top to toe?

_Both_. My Lord, from head to foote. [Sidenote: _All_.]

_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. [Sidenote: hundreth]

_All._ Longer, longer. [Sidenote: _Both._]

_Hor._ Not when I saw't.

_Ham._ His Beard was grisly?[1] no. [Sidenote: grissl'd]

_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: walke againe.]

_Hor._ I warrant you it will. [Sidenote: warn't it]

[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]

_SCENA TERTIA_[1]

_Enter Laertes and Ophelia_. [Sidenote: _Ophelia his Sister._]

_Laer_. My necessaries are imbark't; Farewell: [Sidenote: inbarckt,] And Sister, as the Winds giue Benefit, And Conuoy is assistant: doe not sleepe, [Sidenote: conuay, in assistant doe] But let me heare from you.

_Ophel_. Doe you doubt that?

_Laer_. For _Hamlet_, and the trifling of his fauours, [Sidenote: favour,] Hold it a fashion and a toy in Bloud; A Violet in the youth of Primy Nature; Froward,[2] not permanent; sweet not lasting The suppliance of a minute? No more.[3] [Sidenote: The perfume and suppliance]

_Ophel_. No more but so.[4]

_Laer_. Thinke it no more. For nature cressant does not grow alone, [Sidenote: 172] In thewes[5] and Bulke: but as his Temple waxes,[6] [Sidenote: bulkes, but as this] The inward seruice of the Minde and Soule Growes wide withall. Perhaps he loues you now,[7] And now no soyle nor cautell[8] doth besmerch The vertue of his feare: but you must feare [Sidenote: of his will, but] His greatnesse weigh'd, his will is not his owne;[9] [Sidenote: wayd] For hee himselfe is subiect to his Birth:[10] Hee may not, as vnuallued persons doe, Carue for himselfe; for, on his choyce depends The sanctity and health of the weole State. [Sidenote: The safty and | this whole] And therefore must his choyce be circumscrib'd[11] Vnto the voyce and yeelding[12] of that Body, Whereof he is the Head. Then if he sayes he loues you, It fits your wisedome so farre to beleeue it; As he in his peculiar Sect and force[13] [Sidenote: his particuler act and place] May giue his saying deed: which is no further,

[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto_.]

[Footnote 2: Same as _forward_.]

[Footnote 3: 'No more' makes a new line in the _Quarto_.]

[Footnote 4: I think this speech should end with a point of interrogation.]

[Footnote 5: muscles.]

[Footnote 6: The body is the temple, in which the mind and soul are the worshippers: their service grows with the temple--wide, changing and increasing its objects. The degraded use of the grand image is after the character of him who makes it.]

[Footnote 7: The studied contrast between Laertes and Hamlet begins already to appear: the dishonest man, honestly judging after his own dishonesty, warns his sister against the honest man.]

[Footnote 8: deceit.]

[Footnote 9: 'You have cause to fear when you consider his greatness: his will &c.' 'You must fear, his greatness being weighed; for because of that greatness, his will is not his own.']

[Footnote 10: _This line not in Quarto._]

[Footnote 11: limited.]

[Footnote 12: allowance.]

[Footnote 13: This change from the _Quarto_ seems to me to bear the mark of Shakspere's hand. The meaning is the same, but the words are more individual and choice: the _sect_, the _head_ in relation to the body, is more pregnant than _place_; and _force_, that is _power_, is a fuller word than _act_, or even _action_, for which it plainly appears to stand.]

[Page 36]

Then the maine voyce of _Denmarke_ goes withall. Then weigh what losse your Honour may sustaine, If with too credent eare you list his Songs; Or lose your Heart; or your chast Treasure open [Sidenote: Or loose] To his vnmastred[1] importunity. Feare it _Ophelia_, feare it my deare Sister, And keepe within the reare of your Affection;[2] [Sidenote: keepe you in the] Out of the shot and danger of Desire. The chariest Maid is Prodigall enough, [Sidenote: The] If she vnmaske her beauty to the Moone:[3] Vertue it selfe scapes not calumnious stroakes, [Sidenote: Vertue] The Canker Galls, the Infants of the Spring [Sidenote: The canker gaules the] Too oft before the buttons[6] be disclos'd, [Sidenote: their buttons] And in the Morne and liquid dew of Youth, Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then, best safety lies in feare; Youth to it selfe rebels, though none else neere.[6]

_Ophe_. I shall th'effect of this good Lesson keepe, As watchmen to my heart: but good my Brother [Sidenote: watchman] Doe not as some vngracious Pastors doe, Shew me the steepe and thorny way to Heauen; Whilst like a puft and recklesse Libertine Himselfe, the Primrose path of dalliance treads, And reaks not his owne reade.[7][8][9]

_Laer_. Oh, feare me not.[10]

_Enter Polonius_.

I stay too long; but here my Father comes: A double blessing is a double grace; Occasion smiles vpon a second leaue.[11]

_Polon_. Yet heere _Laertes_? Aboord, aboord for shame, The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile, And you are staid for there: my blessing with you; [Sidenote: for, there my | with thee]

[Footnote 1: Without a master; lawless.]

[Footnote 2: Do not go so far as inclination would lead you. Keep behind your liking. Do not go to the front with your impulse.]

[Footnote 3: --_but_ to the moon--which can show it so little.]

[Footnote 4: Opened but not closed quotations in the _Quarto_.]

[Footnote 5: The French _bouton_ is also both _button_ and _bud_.]

[Footnote 6: 'Inclination is enough to have to deal with, let alone added temptation.' Like his father, Laertes is wise for another--a man of maxims, not behaviour. His morality is in his intellect and for self-ends, not in his will, and for the sake of truth and righteousness.]

[Footnote 7: _1st Q_.

But my deere brother, do not you Like to a cunning Sophister, Teach me the path and ready way to heauen, While you forgetting what is said to me, Your selfe, like to a carelesse libertine Doth giue his heart, his appetite at ful, And little recks how that his honour dies.

'The primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.' --_Macbeth_, ii. 3:

'The flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire.' _All's Well_, iv. 5.]

[Footnote 8: 'heeds not his own counsel.']

[Footnote 9: Here in Quarto, _Enter Polonius._]

[Footnote 10: With the fitting arrogance and impertinence of a libertine brother, he has read his sister a lecture on propriety of behaviour; but when she gently suggests that what is good for her is good for him too,--'Oh, fear me not!--I stay too long.']

[Footnote 11: 'A second leave-taking is a happy chance': the chance, or occasion, because it is happy, smiles. It does not mean that occasion smiles upon a second leave, but that, upon a second leave, occasion smiles. There should be a comma after _smiles_.]

[Footnote 12: As many of Polonius' aphorismic utterances as are given in the 1st Quarto have there inverted commas; but whether intended as gleanings from books or as fruits of experience, the light they throw on the character of him who speaks them is the same: they show it altogether selfish. He is a man of the world, wise in his generation, his principles the best of their bad sort. Of these his son is a fit recipient and retailer, passing on to his sister their father's grand doctrine of self-protection. But, wise in maxim, Polonius is foolish in practice--not from senility, but from vanity.]

[Page 38]

And these few Precepts in thy memory,[1] See thou Character.[2] Giue thy thoughts no tongue, [Sidenote: Looke thou] Nor any vnproportion'd[3] thought his Act: Be thou familiar; but by no meanes vulgar:[4] The friends thou hast, and their adoption tride,[5] [Sidenote: Those friends] Grapple them to thy Soule, with hoopes of Steele: [Sidenote: unto] But doe not dull thy palme, with entertainment Of each vnhatch't, vnfledg'd Comrade.[6] Beware [Sidenote: each new hatcht unfledgd courage,] Of entrance to a quarrell: but being in Bear't that th'opposed may beware of thee. Giue euery man thine eare; but few thy voyce: [Sidenote: thy eare,] Take each mans censure[7]; but reserue thy Judgement; Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy; But not exprest in fancie; rich, not gawdie: For the Apparell oft proclaimes the man. And they in France of the best ranck and station, Are of a most select and generous[8] cheff in that.[10] [Sidenote: Or of a generous, chiefe[9]] Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; [Sidenote: lender boy,] For lone oft loses both it selfe and friend: [Sidenote: loue] And borrowing duls the edge of Husbandry.[11] [Sidenote: dulleth edge] This aboue all; to thine owne selfe be true: And it must follow, as the Night the Day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.[12] Farewell: my Blessing season[13] this in thee.

_Laer_. Most humbly doe I take my leaue, my Lord.

_Polon_. The time inuites you, goe, your seruants tend. [Sidenote: time inuests]

_Laer._ Farewell _Ophelia_, and remember well What I haue said to you.[14]

_Ophe_. Tis in my memory lockt, And you your selfe shall keepe the key of it,

_Laer_. Farewell. _Exit Laer_.

_Polon_. What ist _Ophelia_ he hath said to you?

[Footnote 1: He hurries him to go, yet immediately begins to prose.]

[Footnote 2: Engrave.]

[Footnote 3: Not settled into its true shape (?) or, out of proportion with its occasions (?)--I cannot say which.]

[Footnote 4: 'Cultivate close relations, but do not lie open to common access.' 'Have choice intimacies, but do not be _hail, fellow! well met_ with everybody.' What follows is an expansion of the lesson.]

[Footnote 5: 'The friends thou hast--and the choice of them justified by trial--'_equal to_: 'provided their choice be justified &c.']

[Footnote 6: 'Do not make the palm hard, and dull its touch of discrimination, by shaking hands in welcome with every one that turns up.']

[Footnote 7: judgment, opinion.]

[Footnote 8: _Generosus_, of good breed, a gentleman.]

[Footnote 9: _1st Q_. 'generall chiefe.']

[Footnote 10: No doubt the omission of _of a_ gives the right number of syllables to the verse, and makes room for the interpretation which a dash between _generous_ and _chief_ renders clearer: 'Are most select and generous--chief in that,'--'are most choice and well-bred--chief, indeed--at the head or top, in the matter of dress.' But without _necessity_ or _authority_--one of the two, I would not throw away a word; and suggest therefore that Shakspere had here the French idiom _de son chef_ in his mind, and qualifies the noun in it with adjectives of his own. The Academy Dictionary gives _de son propre mouvement_ as one interpretation of the phrase. The meaning would be, 'they are of a most choice and developed instinct in dress.' _Cheff_ or _chief_ suggests the upper third of the heraldic shield, but I cannot persuade the suggestion to further development. The hypercatalectic syllables _of a_, swiftly spoken, matter little to the verse, especially as it is _dramatic_.]

[Footnote 11: Those that borrow, having to pay, lose heart for saving.

'There's husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out.'--_Macbeth_, ii. 1.]

[Footnote 12: Certainly a man cannot be true to himself without being true to others; neither can he be true to others without being true to himself; but if a man make himself the centre for the birth of action, it will follow, '_as the night the day_,' that he will be true neither to himself nor to any other man. In this regard note the history of Laertes, developed in the play.]

[Footnote 13: --as salt, to make the counsel keep.]

[Footnote 14: See _note 9, page 37_.]

[Page 40]

_Ophe._ So please you, somthing touching the L. _Hamlet._

_Polon._ Marry, well bethought: Tis told me he hath very oft of late Giuen priuate time to you; and you your selfe Haue of your audience beene most free and bounteous.[1] If it be so, as so tis put on me;[2] And that in way of caution: I must tell you, You doe not vnderstand your selfe so cleerely, As it behoues my Daughter, and your Honour What is betweene you, giue me vp the truth?

_Ophe._ He hath my Lord of late, made many tenders Of his affection to me.

_Polon._ Affection, puh. You speake like a greene Girle, Vnsifted in such perillous Circumstance. Doe you beleeue his tenders, as you call them?

_Ophe._ I do not know, my Lord, what I should thinke.

_Polon._ Marry Ile teach you; thinke your self a Baby, [Sidenote: I will] That you haue tane his tenders for true pay, [Sidenote: tane these] Which are not starling. Tender your selfe more dearly; [Sidenote: sterling] Or not to crack the winde of the poore Phrase, [Sidenote: (not ... &c.] Roaming it[3] thus, you'l tender me a foole.[4] [Sidenote: Wrong it thus]

_Ophe._ My Lord, he hath importun'd me with loue, In honourable fashion.

_Polon._ I, fashion you may call it, go too, go too.

_Ophe._ And hath giuen countenance to his speech, My Lord, with all the vowes of Heauen. [Sidenote: with almost all the holy vowes of]

[Footnote 1: There had then been a good deal of intercourse between Hamlet and Ophelia: she had heartily encouraged him.]

[Footnote 2: 'as so I am informed, and that by way of caution,']

[Footnote 3: --making it, 'the poor phrase' _tenders_, gallop wildly about--as one might _roam_ a horse; _larking it_.]

[Footnote 4: 'you will in your own person present me a fool.']

[Page 42]

_Polon_. I, Springes to catch Woodcocks.[1] I doe know [Sidenote: springs] When the Bloud burnes, how Prodigall the Soule[2] Giues the tongue vowes: these blazes, Daughter, [Sidenote: Lends the] Giuing more light then heate; extinct in both,[3] Euen in their promise, as it is a making; You must not take for fire. For this time Daughter,[4] [Sidenote: fire, from this] Be somewhat scanter of your Maiden presence; [Sidenote: something] Set your entreatments[5] at a higher rate, Then a command to parley. For Lord _Hamlet_, [Sidenote: parle;] Beleeue so much in him, that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walke, [Sidenote: tider] Then may be giuen you. In few,[6] _Ophelia_, Doe not beleeue his vowes; for they are Broakers, Not of the eye,[7] which their Inuestments show: [Sidenote: of that die] But meere implorators of vnholy Sutes, [Sidenote: imploratators] Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, The better to beguile. This is for all:[8] [Sidenote: beguide] I would not, in plaine tearmes, from this time forth, Haue you so slander any moment leisure,[9] [Sidenote: 70, 82] As to giue words or talke with the Lord _Hamlet_:[10] Looke too't, I charge you; come your wayes.

_Ophe_. I shall obey my Lord.[11] _Exeunt_.

_Enter Hamlet, Horatio, Marcellus._ [Sidenote: _and Marcellus_]

[Sidenote: 2] _Ham_. [12]The Ayre bites shrewdly: is it very cold?[13]

_Hor_. It is a nipping and an eager ayre.

_Ham_. What hower now?

_Hor_. I thinke it lacks of twelue.

_Mar_. No, it is strooke.

_Hor_. Indeed I heard it not: then it drawes neere the season, [Sidenote: it then] Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walke. What does this meane my Lord? [14] [Sidenote: _A flourish of trumpets and 2 peeces goes of._[14]]

[Footnote 1: Woodcocks were understood to have no brains.]

[Footnote 2: _1st Q_. 'How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes.' I was inclined to take _Prodigall_ for a noun, a proper name or epithet given to the soul, as in a moral play: _Prodigall, the soul_; but I conclude it only an adjective used as an adverb, and the capital P a blunder.]

[Footnote 3: --in both light and heat.]

[Footnote 4: The _Quarto_ has not 'Daughter.']

[Footnote 5: _To be entreated_ is _to yield_: 'he would nowise be entreated:' _entreatments, yieldings_: 'you are not to see him just because he chooses to command a parley.']

[Footnote 6: 'In few words'; in brief.]

[Footnote 7: I suspect a misprint in the Folio here--that an _e_ has got in for a _d_, and that the change from the _Quarto_ should be _Not of the dye_. Then the line would mean, using the antecedent word _brokers_ in the bad sense, 'Not themselves of the same colour as their garments (_investments_); his vows are clothed in innocence, but are not innocent; they are mere panders.' The passage is rendered yet more obscure to the modern sense by the accidental propinquity of _bonds, brokers_, and _investments_--which have nothing to do with _stocks_.]

[Footnote 8: 'This means in sum:'.]

[Footnote 9: 'so slander any moment with the name of leisure as to': to call it leisure, if leisure stood for talk with Hamlet, would be to slander the time. We might say, 'so slander any man friend as to expect him to do this or that unworthy thing for you.']

[Footnote 10: _1st Q_.

_Ofelia_, receiue none of his letters, For louers lines are snares to intrap the heart; [Sidenote: 82] Refuse his tokens, both of them are keyes To vnlocke Chastitie vnto Desire; Come in _Ofelia_; such men often proue, Great in their wordes, but little in their loue.

'_men often prove such_--great &c.'--Compare _Twelfth Night_, act ii. sc. 4, lines 120, 121, _Globe ed.]

[Footnote 11: Fresh trouble for Hamlet_.]

[Footnote 12: _1st Q._

The ayre bites shrewd; it is an eager and An nipping winde, what houre i'st?]

[Footnote 13: Again the cold.]

[Footnote 14: The stage-direction of the _Q_. is necessary here.]

[Page 44]

[Sidenote: 22, 25] _Ham_. The King doth wake to night, and takes his rouse, Keepes wassels and the swaggering vpspring reeles,[1] [Sidenote: wassell | up-spring] And as he dreines his draughts of Renish downe, The kettle Drum and Trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his Pledge.

_Horat_. Is it a custome?

_Ham_. I marry ist; And to my mind, though I am natiue heere, [Sidenote: But to] And to the manner borne: It is a Custome More honour'd in the breach, then the obseruance. [A]

_Enter Ghost._

_Hor_. Looke my Lord, it comes.

[Sidenote: 172] _Ham_. Angels and Ministers of Grace defend vs: [Sidenote: 32] Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damn'd, Bring with thee ayres from Heauen, or blasts from Hell,[2]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_

This heauy headed reueale east and west[3] Makes vs tradust, and taxed of other nations, They clip[4] vs drunkards, and with Swinish phrase Soyle our addition,[5] and indeede it takes From our atchieuements, though perform'd at height[6] The pith and marrow of our attribute, So oft it chaunces in particuler men,[7] That for some vicious mole[8] of nature in them As in their birth wherein they are not guilty,[8] (Since nature cannot choose his origin) By their ore-grow'th of some complextion[10] Oft breaking downe the pales and forts of reason Or by[11] some habit, that too much ore-leauens The forme of plausiue[12] manners, that[13] these men Carrying I say the stamp of one defect Being Natures liuery, or Fortunes starre,[14] His[15] vertues els[16] be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may vndergoe,[17] Shall in the generall censure[18] take corruption From that particuler fault:[19] the dram of eale[20] Doth all the noble substance of a doubt[21] To his[22] owne scandle.]

[Footnote 1: Does Hamlet here call his uncle an _upspring_, an _upstart_? or is the _upspring_ a dance, the English equivalent of 'the high _lavolt_' of _Troil. and Cress_. iv. 4, and governed by _reels_--'keeps wassels, and reels the swaggering upspring'--a dance that needed all the steadiness as well as agility available, if, as I suspect, it was that in which each gentleman lifted the lady high, and kissed her before setting her down? I cannot answer, I can only put the question. The word _swaggering_ makes me lean to the former interpretation.]

[Footnote 2: Observe again Hamlet's uncertainty. He does not take it for granted that it is _his father's_ spirit, though it is plainly his form.]

[Footnote 3: The Quarto surely came too early for this passage to have been suggested by the shameful habits which invaded the court through the example of Anne of Denmark! Perhaps Shakspere cancelled it both because he would not have it supposed he had meant to reflect on the queen, and because he came to think it too diffuse.]

[Footnote 4: clepe, _call_.]

[Footnote 5: Same as _attribute_, two lines lower--the thing imputed to, or added to us--our reputation, our title or epithet.]

[Footnote 6: performed to perfection.]

[Footnote 7: individuals.]

[Footnote 8: A mole on the body, according to the place where it appeared, was regarded as significant of character: in that relation, a _vicious mole_ would be one that indicated some special vice; but here the allusion is to a live mole of constitutional fault, burrowing within, whose presence the mole-_heap_ on the skin indicates.]

[Footnote 9: The order here would be: 'for some vicious mole of nature in them, as by their o'er-growth, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty, since nature cannot choose his origin (or parentage)--their o'ergrowth of (their being overgrown or possessed by) some complexion, &c.']

[Footnote 10: _Complexion_, as the exponent of the _temperament_, or masterful tendency of the nature, stands here for _temperament_--'oft breaking down &c.' Both words have in them the element of _mingling_--a mingling to certain results.]

[Footnote 11: The connection is:

That for some vicious mole-- As by their o'ergrowth-- Or by some habit, &c.]

[Footnote 12: pleasing.]

[Footnote 13: Repeat from above '--so oft it chaunces,' before 'that these men.']

[Footnote 14: 'whether the thing come by Nature or by Destiny,' _Fortune's star_: the mark set on a man by fortune to prove her share in him. 83.]

[Footnote 15: A change to the singular.]

[Footnote l6: 'be his virtues besides as pure &c.']

[Footnote 17: _walk under; carry_.]

[Footnote 18: the judgment of the many.]

[Footnote 19: 'Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.' Eccles. x. 1.]

[Footnote 20: Compare Quarto reading, page 112:

The spirit that I haue scene May be a deale, and the deale hath power &c.

If _deale_ here stand for _devil_, then _eale_ may in the same edition be taken to stand for _evil_. It is hardly necessary to suspect a Scotch printer; _evil_ is often used as a monosyllable, and _eale_ may have been a pronunciation of it half-way towards _ill_, which is its contraction.]

[Footnote 21: I do not believe there is any corruption in the rest of the passage. 'Doth it of a doubt:' _affects it with a doubt_, brings it into doubt. The following from _Measure for Measure_, is like, though not the same.

I have on Angelo imposed the office, Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home And yet my nature never in the fight _To do in slander._

'To do my nature in slander'; to affect it with slander; to bring it into slander, 'Angelo may punish in my name, but, not being present, I shall not be accused of cruelty, which would be to slander my nature.']

[Footnote 22: _his_--the man's; see _note_ 13 above.]

[Page 46]

[Sidenote: 112] Be thy euents wicked or charitable, [Sidenote: thy intent] Thou com'st in such a questionable shape[1] That I will speake to thee. Ile call thee _Hamlet_,[2] King, Father, Royall Dane: Oh, oh, answer me, [Sidenote: Dane, ô answere] Let me not burst in Ignorance; but tell Why thy Canoniz'd bones Hearsed in death,[3] Haue burst their cerments; why the Sepulcher Wherein we saw thee quietly enurn'd,[4] [Sidenote: quietly interr'd[3]] Hath op'd his ponderous and Marble iawes, To cast thee vp againe? What may this meane? That thou dead Coarse againe in compleat steele, Reuisits thus the glimpses of the Moone, Making Night hidious? And we fooles of Nature,[6] So horridly to shake our disposition,[7] With thoughts beyond thee; reaches of our Soules,[8] [Sidenote: the reaches] Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we doe?[9]

_Ghost beckens Hamlet._

_Hor._ It beckons you to goe away with it, [Sidenote: Beckins] As if it some impartment did desire To you alone.

_Mar._ Looke with what courteous action It wafts you to a more remoued ground: [Sidenote: waues] But doe not goe with it.

_Hor._ No, by no meanes.

_Ham_. It will not speake: then will I follow it. [Sidenote: I will]

_Hor._ Doe not my Lord.

_Ham._ Why, what should be the feare? I doe not set my life at a pins fee; And for my Soule, what can it doe to that? Being a thing immortall as it selfe:[10] It waues me forth againe; Ile follow it.

_Hor._ What if it tempt you toward the Floud my Lord?[11]

[Footnote 1: --that of his father, so moving him to question it. _Questionable_ does not mean _doubtful_, but _fit to be questioned_.]

[Footnote 2: 'I'll _call_ thee'--for the nonce.]

[Footnote 3: I think _hearse_ was originally the bier--French _herse_, a harrow--but came to be applied to the coffin: _hearsed_ in death--_coffined_ in death.]

[Footnote 4: There is no impropriety in the use of the word _inurned_. It is a figure--a word once-removed in its application: the sepulchre is the urn, the body the ashes. _Interred_ Shakspere had concluded incorrect, for the body was not laid in the earth.]

[Footnote 5: So in _1st Q_.]

[Footnote 6: 'fooles of Nature'--fools in the presence of her knowledge--to us no knowledge--of her action, to us inexplicable. _A fact_ that looks unreasonable makes one feel like a fool. See Psalm