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 THE TRAGEDY 
 
 OF 
 
 HAMLET 
 
 PRINCE OF DENMARK 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 E. K. CHAMBERS, BA. 
 
 SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD 
 EDITOR OF " MACBETH " 
 
 BOSTON, U. S. A. 
 
 D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 
 1895 
 
Gift 
 tdson L. Whitney 
 
 0£c 8, 1938 
 
 
GENERAL PREFACE. 
 
 In this edition of Shakespeare an attempt is made to 
 present the greater plays of the dramatist in their Hterary 
 aspect, and not merely as material for the study of philology 
 or grammar. Criticism purely verbal and textual has only 
 been included to such an extent as may serve to help the 
 student in the appreciation of the essential poetry. Questions 
 of date and literary history have been fully dealt with in the 
 Introductions, but the larger space has been devoted to the 
 interpretative rather than the matter-of-fact order of scholar- 
 ship. Aesthetic judgments are never final, but the Editors 
 have attempted to suggest points of view from which the 
 analysis of dramatic motive and dramatic character may be 
 profitably undertaken. In the Notes likewise, while it is 
 hoped that all unfamiliar expressions and allusions have been 
 adequately explained, yet it has been thought even more 
 important to consider the dramatic value of each scene, and 
 the part which it plays in relation to the whole. These 
 general principles are common to the whole series ; in detail 
 each Editor is alone responsible for the play or plays that have 
 been intrusted to him . 
 
 Every volume of the series has been provided with a 
 Glossary, an Essay upon Metre, and an Index ; and Appen- 
 dices have been added upon points of special interest, which 
 could not conveniently be treated in the Introduction or the 
 Notes. The text is based by the several Editors on that of 
 the Globe edition : the only omissions made are those that are 
 unavoidable in an edition likely to be used by young students. 
 
 By the systematic arrangement of the introductory matter, 
 and by close attention to typographical details, every effort 
 has been made to provide an edition that will prove con- 
 venient in use. 
 
 Boston, August, 1895. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 General Preface, iii 
 
 Introduction, 7 
 
 Dramatis Person^e, 26 
 
 The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, - 27 
 
 Notes, 122 
 
 Appendices — 
 
 A. The First Quarto of 1603, 188 
 
 B. The Pre- Shakespearian Hamlet, - - - - 192 
 
 c. ' Fratricide Punished', - - - - - - '94 
 
 D. The ' Travelling' of the Players, - - - - 195 
 
 e. 'Dido, Queen of Carthage', 197 
 
 f. Goethe and Coleridge on Hamlet, - - - - 198 
 
 Essay on Metre, - - - - - ' - 201 
 
 Glossary, - - - ^°7 
 
 Index of Words, 22° 
 
 General Index, - - • ' ^^^ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. LITERARY HISTORY OF THE PLAY. 
 
 The early history of Hamlet affords one of the most diffi- 
 cult problems with which Shakespearian scholarship has to 
 deal. Three printed versions of the text have The critical 
 come down to us. These present remarkable Problem. 
 variations from each other, and one of them in particular, 
 the earliest, appears to be fundamentally different from the 
 other two. The most probable explanation is that the play 
 underwent a process of revision after it was originally written 
 and acted. If, then, we could determine the exact relation in 
 which the three forms stand to one another, we should learn 
 a good deal about Shakespeare's dramatic method as shown 
 in the deliberate modification of his first ideas. Unfortu- 
 nately this is not so easy. Scholars still disagree hopelessly 
 as to the exact nature of the earliest version ; and the whole 
 question is complicated by the probable existence of a pre- 
 Shakespearian Hamlet^ which may have had a considerable 
 .influence upon the later play. So that for the present one 
 Tmust be content to bring together the facts, to indicate the 
 I conditions of the problem, and to suggest the most likely 
 ' hypothesis for its solution. 
 
 -. The Registers of the Stationer's Company for The Stationers- 
 1602, amongst other entries of books 'allowed Registers. 
 to be printed', contain the following; — 
 
 xxvjto Julij 
 James Robertes. Entered for his copie vnder the handes 
 of master Pasfield and master Waterson warden, A 
 booke called ''the Revenge of HAMLETT Prince [(?/"] Den- 
 inarke^ as y* was latelie Acted by the Lord Chamberleyne his 
 seruantes. . . . . . . . . . vjd. 
 
8 HAMLET. 
 
 No edition is known to have been published in 1602, but 
 
 in 1603 appeared the perplexing First Quarto (Q i). In the 
 
 ^, ^. interval the Lord Chamberlain's players had 
 
 The First '^ -^ 
 
 Quarto of passed under the direct patronage of James the 
 1603 (Q i). pii-st, and they are therefore entitled ' his High- 
 ness' servants ' upon the title-page, which runs : — 
 
 The I Tragicall Hiftorie of ] Hamlet | Prince of Den- 
 marke \ By William Shakefpeare. | As it hath beene 
 diverfe times acted by his Highneffe fer- | vants in the 
 Cittie of London : as alfo in the two V- | niverfities of 
 Cambridge and Oxford, and elfe-where | \yignette\ \ 
 At London printed for N. L. and lohn Trundell. | 1603. 
 
 James Roberts' name is not here mentioned; but he may 
 have printed the book for the publisher N[icholas] L[ing], 
 ^, ^ , whose device forms the vignette. At any rate 
 
 The Second , ? . , "^ . _ 
 
 Quarto of 1604 he appears to ]y^w% done this in the case of the 
 ^^'^'' Second Quarto (Q 2), which was published in 
 
 1604, with the following title-page : — 
 
 THE I Tragicall Hiftorie of | Hamlet, | Prince of De?t- 
 marke. j By William Shakefpeare. | Newly imprint- 
 ed and enlarged to almoft as much againe as it v»^as, 
 according to the true and perfect | Coppie | [ Vignette\ j 
 A T LONDON, \ Printed by L R. for N. L. and are to 
 be fold at his fhoppe vnder Saint Dunfton's Church in | 
 Fleet llreet. 1604. 
 
 The First Quarto stands by itself; the later Quartos follow 
 
 the second ; but an independent text is afforded by the First 
 
 Folio (F i) edition of the collected plays issued 
 
 Folio of 1623 after Shakespeare's death in 1623. Here Hamlet 
 
 ^ ^'' is entitled a Tragedy, and no longer a Tragical 
 
 History. In the order of the plays it follows Julius Ccesar 
 and Macbeth, and immediately precedes King Lear. 
 
 The modern text of Hamlet is based upon a combination 
 of the Second Quarto and the First Folio, and it is therefore 
 necessary briefly to compare the two with each other, and 
 both with the First Quarto. 
 
 The editors of the First Folio claim to have provided care- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 fully corrected texts of all plays whereof ' stolen and surrepti- 
 tious copies' had been in circulation before. To Comparison of 
 a certain extent this is justified as to Hatnlet. Q 2 and F i. 
 The Second Quarto is very ill printed; it is disfigured by 
 obvious mistakes and confusions;^ the punctuation is chaotic. 
 The First Folio is not faultless in these respects, but it is a 
 great improvement. Many of the errors of the Quarto have 
 been avoided, and the minor details of presswork, the 
 commas and colons, have been carefully attended to. More- 
 over the Folio adds a few passages which are not found in 
 the Quarto.^ But these advantages are more than compen- 
 sated for by considerable and important omissions, espe- 
 cially in the soliloquies.^ The Second Quarto was evidently 
 printed from a longer and mpre qomplete manuscript than 
 the Folio, and where divergencies of reading occur, and the 
 compositor is not in fault, it s^enerally provides the better 
 sense.*, 
 
 The relation of the First Quarto to the later versions is a 
 much more difficult matter. Most critics are agreed that, 
 whatever may have been the case with the character of 
 Second Quarto, the First, like the First Quarto Q ^• 
 of Ro7iieo and Juliet^ was fairly to be put down by the editors 
 of the 1623 folio as a 'stolen and surreptitious copy'. The 
 publication of it was doubtless due rather to the enterprise 
 of a piratical bookseller than to the wish of Shakespeare 
 or his company. And in all probability it was founded upon 
 hasty notes, taken in shorthand or otherwise, by some agent 
 of this bookseller's during a performance at the theatre. 
 This would account for the extreme shortness of the text, for 
 its mutilated character, for the obvious gaps in the sense, 
 
 1 See notes on i. 3. 74, 76; i. 4. 36; i. 5. 56; ii. 2. 73; iii. 2. 373 ; iii. 4. 169; 
 iv. 7. 22; V. 2. 283, &c. 
 
 2 See notes to ii. 2. 215, 244, 335, 352; iii. 2. 277; iv. 2. 32; iv. 5. 161; v. i. 37, 
 115; v. 2. 68; together with Appendix D and Mr. Furnivall's introduction to 
 Griggs' facsimile of Q 2. 
 
 3 See notes to i. 1. 108; i. 2, 58; i. 4. 18, 75; iii. 4.«i68; iv. 4. 9; iv. 7. 69; v. 2. 203. 
 
 4 See notes to i. i. 65, 163; i. 2. 129, 248; ii. i. 39; ii. 2. 52, 442, 580; iv. 5. 145; 
 v. I. 255, 269, &c. Sometimes F i substitutes a less archaic or unusual word for 
 that in Q 2 ; now and then it may contain a finishing touch [e.g. inumed for 
 interred in i. 4. 49). 
 
lo HAMLET. 
 
 for the number of imperfect and wrongly arranged lines, and 
 of misheard words and phrases. Some scholars have held 
 that the note-taker's materials were pieced out, either from a 
 sight of the prompter's copy or the actors' parts, or by the 
 pen of a hack poet. But if this had been the case to any 
 considerable extent, the defects would hardly have been so 
 glaring as they are. I do not think that more has been done 
 than just to transcribe the careless and incomplete notes, 
 and perhaps here and there to fill up a line by the addition of 
 a few words. In any case the printed copy is very far from 
 reproducing the dialogue of the play as it was presented upon 
 the stage. 
 
 But now comes the point which is still the subject of the 
 keenest controversy. Supposing that this dialogue had been 
 The question reproduced with absolute accuracy, would the 
 of revision. result have closely resembled the Second Quarto 1 
 In other words, was the play as acted when the note-taker 
 went to the theatre practically identical with the play as 
 acted and printed in 1604; or did it undergo alteration and 
 revision in the interval? Scholars of great authority have 
 declared on both sides, but the weight of evidence appears to 
 me to be in favour of the theory that there was a considerable! 
 and important revision. The order of the scenes in the First] 
 Quarto is not quite that of the second. Some of the char- 
 acters, notably that of Gertrude, are differently conceived; 
 the great soliloquies are almost entirely omitted ; the dialogue 
 is less subtle and elaborate, as might well be the case in a 
 first sketch. There are passages which make very good 
 sense and not bad poetry as they stand, where there is no 
 sign that the reporter has gone far wrong, but which have 
 apparently been rewritten and improved throughout for the 
 Second Quarto. And finally, the names of the characters are 
 not quite the same in the two versions : the Polonius and 
 Reynaldo of the Second Quarto replace the Corambis and 
 Montano of the First.* In all probability, then, the FirstC 
 Quarto is an exceedingly corrupt text of a first sketch of^ j 
 Hamlet ; the Second Quarto represents much more accurately ^r 
 a revised form of the same play. 
 
INTRODUCTION. n 
 
 It has been asked — Was this first sketch of Hamlet Shake- 
 speare's thi oughout, or did it contain parts by an earlier writer, 
 which in the revision Shakespeare cut out and ^^^ 
 replaced by his own work? One cannot suppose Shakespearian 
 Shakespeare's masterpiece of tragedy to have 
 been written in the sixteenth century; but there certainly 
 was a play of Hamlet in existence as early as 1 589 or possibly 
 1587. There are several allusions to this play in contem- 
 porary Hterature,! notably in Nash's prefatory epistle to 
 Greene's Menaphon. And in the diary of Henslowe the 
 manager there is a record of a performance of it, not as a 
 'new enterlude', on June 9, 1594. It was acted by the Lord 
 Chamberlain's company, who were then playing for about 
 ten days under Henslowe's management at Newington Butts. 
 It has been suggested with some plausibility that this early 
 Hamlet was written by Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish 
 Tragedy. In any case, seeing that it had come into the 
 hands of the Lord Chamberlain's company by 1594, there 
 can be little doubt that Shakespeare used it as a starting- 
 point, when he wrote his own play on the same subject for 
 the same company. Probably he kept the framework of the 
 plot, including the ghost, the play withm a play, and the 
 somewhat bloodthirsty final scene. Shakespeare was never 
 careful to invent his own plots ; his art lay rather in using 
 old bottles to contain his quite new wine. But the dialogue, 
 the characters, the psychological motive — these are his and 
 his alone, and it is in these that the greatness of Hamlet lies. 
 The only question is whether this process of adaptation was 
 complete in the first sketch, or whether fragments of the 
 earlier author's writing are still embedded in the text. The 
 Clarendon Press editors adopt the second alternative. They 
 believe that the First Quarto represents Shakespeare's re- 
 modelling of an old play " after it had been retouched by 
 him to a certain extent, but before his alterations were com- 
 plete", and they go on to say: " In the earlier form it appears 
 to us that Shakespeare's modification of the play had not 
 gone much beyond the second act ". I am obliged to dissent 
 
 1 For early allusions to the pre-Shakespearian Hamlet see Appendix B. 
 
12 HAMLET. 
 
 entirely from this theory. It ascribes a great deal too much 
 to the older writer. Tentative as the First Quarto is, it still 
 contains the essential outlines of the perfected play; and if 
 the bulk of it is not Shakespeare's, then there was another 
 Elizabethan dramatist as great as Shakespeare himself, who 
 has left no other sign of his existence. If there are any traces 
 of the older play left in the first sketch, I am pretty sure they] 
 are very slight, and I rather think they are retained in the] 
 revised version also. 
 
 There is another source from which it has been suggested 
 that we may perhaps get some idea of what the pre-Shake- 
 The German spearian Ha^nUt was like. This is the German 
 ^Fratricide version, knowu as Der bestrafte Bruderynord, or 
 Punished. Fratricide Punished. The existing text dates 
 only from 1710, but in the opinion of some scholars it is a 
 degenerate form of a play, written not later than 1 589.^1 
 Several companies of English actors visited Germany at the 
 end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth 
 centuries, and there is a record of a performance of Hamlet 
 a Prince in Dennemarck by 'the English actors' at the 
 court of Dresden in 1626. It is not at all unlikely that the 
 MS. of an early Hamlet., by Kyd or another, was carried by 
 Leicester's players to Denmark in 1585, and thence to Saxony 
 in 1586, Or it may have been written, appropriately enough, 
 for performance in Denmark. Three of these players. Will 
 (Kempe?), George Bryan, and Thomas Pope, had joined the 
 Chamberlain's (then Lord Strange's) company by 1 593, and 
 thus the play would have come into Shakespeare's hands. 
 Fratricide Punished is very short — a mere dramatic sketch ; 
 but it contains the outlines of Hamlet., without the Shake-* 
 spearian psychology or the Shakespearian style. These aref 
 replaced by coarse humour and a good deal of bathos and 
 commonplace. Something of this may be due to German 
 influences; but on the whole the difference is just what one 
 would expect to find between a popular drama of 1585 and a 
 Shakespearian drama based upon it. Some of the dramatis 
 personce bear other names than those in Hamlet., and it is 
 
 1 See Appendix C. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 noteworthy that Polonius is represented by Corambus. It 
 must be remembered, however, that the German play cannot 
 be proved to date from the sixteenth century. The MS. 
 belongs to the eighteenth, and the resemblances to Hamlet 
 may be due to the fact that the author was simply adapting 
 a copy of the First Quarto which had drifted to Germany. 
 
 Hamlet^ then, is probably based upon an older play of the 
 ci*ude ' revenge ' type. To what dates are we to ascribe the 
 various stages of Shakespeare's treatment of the ^, 
 
 ^ . , . - . , , ine question 
 
 theme? The revised version may fairly be put of Date, 1601- 
 at about 1603-4, between the date of the publi- ^^°^' 
 cation of the Second Quarto and the visit of the surreptitious 
 note-taker to the theatre. The first sketch cannot be later 
 than the entry in the Stationers' Registers for 26th July, 1602. f 
 
 /'"And it cannot well be earlier than 1 598, as it is not mentioned! 
 
 \ in the list of Shakespeare's plays given by Francis Meres in 
 \his Palladis Tamia of that year. Internal evidence appears 
 to fix 1 60 1 as the most likely date. We know from the title- 
 page of the First Quarto that it was acted when Shakespeare 
 and his fellows were touring in the provinces; and this being 
 so, we may fairly find in what is said about the players in 
 act ii. sc. 2 an allusion to the fortunes of the Chamberlain's 
 company. Two reasons are there given for the 'travelling^ 
 of the actors; one, an 'inhibition', due to a 'late innovation'; 
 the other, the popularity of a rival company, an 'eyrie of 
 children', who had 'be-rattled the common stages'.^ No 
 other year fits these references so well as 1601. The Cham- 
 berlain's company were ' inhibited ' from giving their custom- 
 ary court performances at the Christmas of that year, on 
 account of their connection with Essex's attempt at political 
 'innovation'. We know that they 'travelled', for they are 
 found at Aberdeen in October, and there are also traces of a 
 possible visit to Cambridge at about this time. In 1601, 
 moreover, Jonson's satirical plays, in which he attacked most 
 of the rival dramatists, were being produced by the Chapel 
 children at Blackfriars. This sufficiently explains the allusion 
 to the 'eyrie of children'. It is also worth noting that at 
 
 1 On these allusions see Appendix D. 
 
14 HAMLET. 
 
 this period William Kempe, the famous actor of clowns, was 
 not a member of the Chamberlain's company. He left them 
 in 1599, and probably returned in 1602. This explains why 
 the hit at him in iii. 2. 41 is so much more elaborate in the 
 first than in the Second Quarto.^ There is yet one more con- 
 sideration which points to this date of 1601. It brings the 
 play into close connection with Julius CcEsar and Macbeth^ 
 both of which belong to just this period, the period of the 
 earliest tragedies. And it is noteworthy that the same 
 dramatic motive is used in all three plays — the contrast,! 
 namely, between the active and the speculative tempera-l 
 ment.^ \ 
 
 I may sum up this discussion by a brief sketch of what I 
 conceive to have taken place. I may add that for this I 
 am largely indebted to the suggestive work of ) 
 
 Summary. ° ■' ^ , . , _ , 
 
 Mr. rleay. I thmk, then, that ever smce 1594 
 the Chamberlain's company had possessed the manuscript of 
 the old ' revenge ' play of Hamlet. While they were on tour 
 in 1601, Shakespeare used this as a basis for a hasty drama on 
 the same subject. When they returned to London in 1602 
 they continued to perform this, and it was pirated by James 
 Roberts. In the meantime, however, Shakespeare had 
 revised his work, and the new version was put upon the stage 
 in 1603. Then Roberts or Ling came to terms with the com- 
 pany, and was allowed to publish a second and authorized 
 edition from the poet's manuscript. Thus the Second Quarto 
 represents the completest form of the drama, as performed 
 in 1604. But it nearly always happens that when a play has 
 been on the boards some little time, it requires 'cutting' 
 and altering in detail for stage purposes. It was so with 
 Hamlet. In particular, some of the soliloquies proved too 
 long. And in the same way, a few new passages were from 
 time to time introduced. These alterations would naturally 
 be inserted in the stage-copy, and from this stage-copy the 
 First Folio was printed in 1623. A good deal of this sketch 
 is merely hypothesis, but at least it is an hypothesis which 
 
 1 See note ad loc. 
 
 2 Cf. Professor Dowden, Shakspere: his MindandArt; preface to Third Edition. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 gives an intelligible theory of the relation between the various 
 versions. 
 
 The distinction between the Quarto and Folio text was 
 maintained throughout the seventeenth century. The Folios 
 of 1632 (F 2), 1664 (F 3), and 1685 (F 4) all repro- ^^^ ^^^^^ 
 duce in the main the text of 1623. Quarto Folios and 
 editions were published during the poet's lifetime Qu^''*o^- 
 in 1605 (Q 3) and 161 1 (Q 4). The date of Q 5, which follows 
 Q 4, is unknown. Then come the Quarto of 1637 (Q 6), and 
 what are called the Players' Quartos of 1676, 1683, and 1703. 
 All of these follow the Second Quarto, with certain emenda- 
 tions of their own. 
 
 The first actor of the part of Hamlet was doubtless Richard 
 Burbage. A record of his performance is pre- -pj^^ Actors of 
 served in an elegy upon his death, written Hamlet. 
 perhaps in 1619.^ The lines run as follows: — 
 
 ' ' He 's gone, and with him what a world are dead 
 [Which he reviv'd, to be revived so 
 No more : young Hamlet, old Hieronimo, 
 Kind Leir, the grieved Moor, and more beside, 
 That liv'd in him, have now for ever died.] 
 Oft have I seen him leap into the grave, 
 Suiting the person, that he seem'd to have, 
 Of a sad lover, with so true an eye, 
 That there I would have sworn he meant to die. 
 Oft have I seen him play this part in jest. 
 So lively, that spectators and the rest 
 Of his sad crew, while he but seemed to bleed, 
 Amazed thought ev'n then he died indeed." 
 
 Burbage was succeeded by Joseph Taylor, and from Taylor 
 the tradition of the part was handed down to Thomas Better- 
 ton, the famous actor of the Restoration. 
 
 2. SOURCE OF THE PLOT. 
 
 Hamlet first appears in the Historia Danica of Saxo Gram- 
 maticus. This chronicler lived at the end of the twelfth 
 
 1 On the various versions of this Elegy, and their authenticity, see Ingleby, 
 Shakespere: the Man and the Book, Part II. The four bracketed lines are pro- 
 bably spurious. 
 
i6 HAMLET. 
 
 century, and his work was first printed at Paris in 15 14. The 
 story of Hamlet or Amlethus is contained in the third and 
 fourth books, under the reign of King Roricus. Grytha, the 
 daughter of Roricus, was Hamlet's mother. From Saxo the 
 story passed into European literature. Hans Sachs wrote a 
 doggerel German version of it in 1558 ; and in 1570 it was in- 
 cluded in the fifth volume of Francis de Belleforest's Histoires 
 Tragiques^ a collection in which the history of Romeo and 
 Juliet is also found. The French version may have come 
 under Shakespeare's notice, and an English translation of the 
 Historic of Hamblet is in existence. But the only known 
 edition of this was printed for Thomas Pavier in 1608. And 
 though there may have been earlier issues, it is noticeable, as 
 Elze has pointed out, that the translation diverges from the 
 French original in one or two places, and that in these the 
 influence of the play is plainly apparent. In any case only 
 the outlines of Shakespeare's plot are to be found in the 
 novel. " The murder of Hamlet's father ", says Mr. Furness, 
 "the marriage of his mother with the murderer, Hamlet's 
 pretended madness, his interview with his mother, and his 
 voyage to England, are nearly the only points in common." 
 With the exception of Amleth and Geruth, the very names 
 are different. In all probability Shakespeare only had before 
 him the earlier play on the subject already referred to. 
 
 Numerous attempts have been made to identify the char- 
 acters of the play with actual men and women of the Eliza- 
 bethan age. One critic holds that Hamlet is throughout a 
 satire on the famous essayist Michel de Montaigne. Another 
 believes that the whole tragedy is a veiled picture of the 
 relations between Mary Queen of Scots, Darnley, Bothwell, 
 and James the First. Yet other theorists interpret Hamlet 
 as Sir Philip Sidney; Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia as 
 Lord Burleigh, Robert and Anne Cecil, Claudius as Sir 
 Nicholas Bacon, Horatio as Hubert Languet; Marcellus, 
 Bernardo, and Lamond as Fulke Greville, Edward Dyer, and 
 Sir Walter Raleigh. The want of definite evidence for these 
 conjectures makes it unnecessary to discuss them at length. 
 They are suggestive to the imagination rather than to the 
 
 ( 885 ) 
 
INTRODUCTION. ' 17 
 
 reason, and from the imaginative point of view I have 
 ventured to say a word on one of them at the close of this 
 Introduction. 
 
 3. CRITICAL APPRECIATION. 
 
 The criticism of Hamlet is apt to centre round the ques- 
 tion, 'Was Hamlet mad?' The problem is not merely 
 insoluble; it cannot even be propounded in an 
 
 11- M 1 • T^ 1 1 1 • • 1 The alleged 
 
 mtelligible guise. Psychology knows no rigid madness of 
 dividing line between the sane and the insane, ^^'"l^'^- 
 The pathologist, indeed, may distinguish certain abnormal 
 conditions of brain-areas, and call them diseased ; or the 
 lawyer may apply practical tests to determine the point 
 where restraint of the individual liberty becomes necessary 
 in the public interest. But beyond this you cannot go ; you 
 cannot, from any wider point of view, lay your finger upon 
 one element here or there in the infinite variety of human 
 character and say, ' That way madness lies'. Of this, how- 
 ever, we may be sure. Shakespeare did not mean Hamlet 
 to be . mad in any sense which would put his actions in a 
 quite different category from those of other men. That 
 would have been to divest his work of humanity and leave it 
 meaningless. For the tragedy of HaiJilet does not lie in the 
 fact that it begins with a murder and ends with a massacre ; 
 it is something deeper, more spiritual than that. The essential 
 The most tragic, the most affecting thing in ^""agedy. 
 the world is the ruin of a high soul. This is the theme of 
 Hamlet; it is a tragedy of failure, of a great nature confronted 
 with a low environment, and so, by the perversity of things, 
 made ineffective and disastrous through its own greatness. 
 Keeping, then, this central idea in mind, let us attempt an 
 analysis of the play in which it is set forth. 
 
 Hamlet is presented to us as a man of sensitive tempera- 
 ment and high intellectual gifts. He is no ordinary prince ; 
 his spirit has been touched to finer issues ; his wit is keen- 
 edged and dipped in irony ; his delicacy of moral insight is 
 unusual among the ruder Danes. He is no longer in his 
 (885) B 
 
i8 HAMLET. 
 
 first youth when the play opens, but up to that moment his 
 
 hfe has been serene and undisturbed. His 
 
 piay.^'The'*'^ father's unexpected death has called him back 
 
 character of from the University of Wittenberg-, where his 
 
 Hamlet. . , , , . , °' ,. 
 
 time has been spejnt m an atmosphere of studious 
 calm and philosophic speculation. His tastes are those of 
 the scholar; he loves to read for hours together, and, like 
 most literary men, he takes great delight in the stage, with 
 whose theory and practice he is familiar. He is no recluse; 
 he has the genius for friendship and for love ; when at 
 Elsinore he has been conspicuous in the gallant exercises of 
 the age. He is the darling of the court and beloved by the 
 people. But his real interest is all in speculation, in the play 
 of mind around a subject, in the contemplation of it on all 
 sides and from every point of view. Such a training has not 
 fitted him to act a kingly part in stirring times ; the intellec- 
 tual element in him has come to outweigh the practical ; the 
 vivid consciousness of many possible courses of conduct 
 deters him from the strenuous pursuit of one ; so that he has 
 lost the power of deliberate purposeful action, and, by a 
 strange paradox, if this thoughtful man acts at all, it must be 
 from impulse. 
 
 Quite suddenly the dreamer finds himself face to face with 
 a thing to be done. According to the ethics of the day it 
 
 becomes his imperative duty to revenge his 
 tion : a call for father's murder ; a difficult task, and one whose 
 ^^^^°^- success might well seem doubtful. But Hamlet 
 
 does not shrink at first from recognizing the obligation ; it 
 is 'cursed spite' that the burden of setting the world 
 straight should have fallen upon him, but he will not refuse 
 to shoulder it. Only the habits of a lifetime are not to be 
 thrown off so easily. As the excitement of the ghost's reve- 
 lation passes away, the laws of character begin to reassert 
 themselves. The necessity of ' thinking it over' is potent 
 with Hamlet. Instead of revealing all to his friends and 
 enlisting their assistance, he binds them to secrecy and forms 
 the plan of pretending madness that he may gain time to 
 consider his position. Let us consider it with him. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 In the first place, he is absolutely alone. The court at 
 Elsinore is filled with quite ordinary people, none of whom 
 can understand him, to none of whom he can The court of 
 look for help. This note of contrast between Elsinore. 
 Hamlet and his surroundings is struck again and again. 
 They are of another world than his, limited, commonplace, 
 incapable of ideals. His motives and feelings, his scruples 
 and hesitations, are hopelessly beyond their comprehension. 
 And therefore — this is the irony of it — most of them are far 
 more fitted to deal with a practical crisis in life than this 
 high-strung idealist of a prince. There are ' the good king 
 and queen ' ; Claudius, shrewd and ready for an emergency, 
 one who has set foot in the paths of villany and will not 
 turn back, for all the dim visitings of momentary remorse; 
 Gertrude, a slave to the stronger nature, living m the present, j 
 unable to realize her own moral degradation. There is 
 Horatio, a straightforward upright soldier, one whom Hamlet 
 intensely respects, comes even to envy, but who is not subtle 
 enough to be of much use to him. There is Polonius, a 
 played-out state official, vain and slow-witted, pattering 
 words of wisdom which he does not understand and cannot 
 put into practice. There are his son and daughter, Laertes 
 and Ophelia : Laertes, a shallow vigorous young noble, quick 
 with a word, and quick with a blow, but demoralized by the 
 esprit Gaulois ; Ophelia, a timid conventional girl, too fragile 
 a reed for a man to lean upon. Hamlet loves her, anc bhe 
 loves Hamlet, but it is not a love that will bear him through 
 the deep waters of affliction. The rest of the court are typi- 
 fied by Osric the waterfly, and by Guildenstern and Rosen- 
 crantz, of whom if you say Rosencrantz and Guildenstern it 
 makes no difference ; echoes, nonentities. With Hamlet on 
 one side and these on the other, the elements of a tragedy 
 are complete ; the problem can work out to no satisfactory 
 conclusion. 
 
 Once Hamlet has shrunk from immediate action, the 
 possibilities of delay exercise an irresistible fas- xhe course of 
 cination over him. The ingenuity of his intellect ^^ tragedy. 
 exhausts itself in the discovery of obstacles ; he takes every 
 
20 HAMLET. 
 
 turn and twist to avoid the fatal necessity for action. At 
 first he turns to Ophelia, the well-beloved. She will give 
 him strength to accomplish his mission ; but the scene in her 
 closet, and still more the lie which she tells when her father 
 is behind the arras, confess her weakness and compel him to 
 renunciation. In the meantime he continues the assumption 
 of madness. It serves a double purpose : he is free from the 
 intolerable burden of keeping on good terms with Claudius 
 and the rest; he can fight out the battle with himself in 
 peace, while he mocks them with the ironies congenial to his 
 mood. And what is more, he can let himself go ; the strain 
 of his overwrought mind relieves itself in bursts of an 
 extravagance only half affected. He plays the madman to 
 prevent himself from becoming one. But all the while he is 
 no nearer the end. He has turned the whole matter over 
 and cannot decide. His thoughts slip away from the plain 
 issue and lose themselves in a bitter criticism of all created 
 things. In this the speculative temper infallibly betrays 
 itself; the interest of the universal, not of the particular, is 
 always dominant with Hamlet ; not his mother's sin, but the 
 frailty of women, is his natural theme. And so it is with a 
 pang that he constantly recalls himself to the insistent actual 
 life, from the world in which he is a past-master to that 
 wherein he gropes ineffectively. Of course he is fully aware 
 of his own weakness; a deficiency of self-analysis is not 
 likt-ly to be one of his failings; but this does not give 
 him power to throw it off, nor help him from his maze of 
 recurring dilemmas. More than once he is on the point of 
 cutting the knot by death, but even for that he has not the 
 resolution. 
 
 At last the crisis comes. Hamlet has resolved that the 
 play-scene shall decide once for all the question of the king's 
 guilt. That guilt is made most manifest, and 
 the opportunity for revenge is offered him. He 
 does not take it. Covering his weakness with unreal reasons, 
 he passes into the queen's chamber. After that it is too late. 
 The impetuous murder of Polonius is the first link in a chain 
 of calamities. Moreover it gives Claudius his chance. The 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 king has never been wholly deceived by Hamlet's madness ; 
 he is sent to England, and only escapes that trap to fall into 
 another. True, in the end the king dies by one impulsive 
 stroke; but that cannot repair the ruin which Hamlet's want 
 of purpose has caused. The infinitely sad fate of Ophelia ; 
 the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guil- 
 den stern; for all their faults, all these are a sacrifice on the 
 altar of his infirmity. Only for Hamlet himself was the fatal 
 blow ' a consummation devoutly to be wished '. 
 
 The ineffectiveness of the speculative intellect in a world 
 of action, that is the key-note of the play. In Hamlet, as 
 in Brutus, the idealist gets the worst of it, and The contrast 
 we are left to wonder at the irony of things ^^ H^"^'^^- 
 by which it is so. And just as the figure of Brutus is set 
 between the two triumphant PhiUstines, Caesar and Antony, 
 so Shakespeare is careful to provide a similar contrast for 
 Hamlet. Partly this is to be found in Horatio and Laertes, 
 but still more in the Norwegian, Fortinbras. The very exis- 
 tence of Fortinbras and the danger with which he threatens 
 the state show the need for an iron hand in Denmark; 
 Hamlet's reflections on his meeting with the Norwegian 
 soldiers emphasizes the same point, and the final appearance 
 of Fortinbras and his selection by Hamlet as the true 
 saviour of society is fully significant. It is the lesson of 
 Henry V., the lesson of the ' still strong man in a blatant 
 land'. Only in Hamlet it is the other side that is apparent ; 
 not the pohtical principle, but the human tragedy, the ruin of 
 the great soul because it is not strong, practical. 
 
 It would be an interesting task to estimate how far the 
 genius of Shakespeare has been impaired for a modern reader 
 by the change in sentiments which the lapse of The modernity 
 three crowded centuries has brought about. An of Hamlet. 
 Elizabethan dramatist could appeal with confidence to sym- 
 pathies which are evanescent, to-day. T/ie Merchant oj 
 Venice, for instance, in spite of all its beauty and all its wit, 
 yet bears an air of unreality to us, because its leading motive, 
 that of \\\&Judenhetze, no longer finds an echo outside the 
 hmits of Whitechapel. Probably Mr. Irving's histrionic 
 
22 HAMLET. 
 
 instinct was right when it led him to convert a villain into a 
 hero, and to present the play as an apology for toleration, 
 though this was an idea foreign to Shakespeare and im- 
 possible on the boards of the Theatre. It is remarkable, how- 
 ever, that there is one tragedy at least in which the normal 
 law is reversed, and which is more vivid, more intelligible 
 to us than it could have been to our Elizabethan ancestors. 
 Modern civilization has indeed discarded the ethics of the 
 vendetta \ the moral sentiment which holds revenge for a 
 father's murder to be a binding duty upon the son no longer 
 appears obvious and natural. An effort of the historic imagi- 
 nation is required to grasp its importance as a leading idea 
 in the drama of Hamlet. But with the dominant figure, with 
 Hamlet himself, it is otherwise. A prolonged study of the 
 character leaves one with the startling sense that out of the 
 plenitude of his genius Shakespeare has here depicted a type 
 of humanity which belongs essentially not to his age but to 
 our own. There was, we know, an older Hamlet^ a popular 
 revenge-play, pulsating, no doubt, like Titus Atidroniciis^ 
 with blood and fire. Into the midst of such a story the poet 
 has deliberately set this modern born out of due time, this 
 high-strung dreamer, who moves through it to such tragic 
 issues. The key-note of Hamlet's nature is the over-cultiva- 
 tion of the mind. He is the academic man, the philosopher 
 brought suddenly into the world of strenuous action. The 
 fatal habit of speculation, fatal at Elsinore, however proper 
 and desirable at Wittenberg, is his undoing. Cursed with the 
 
 ' ' craven scruple 
 Of thinking too precisely on the event ", 
 
 he is predestined to practical failure, failure from which no 
 delicacy of moral fibre, no truth and intensity of feeling, can 
 save him. It is surely no mere accident that so many 
 features in the portrait of Hamlet are reproduced in Mrs. 
 Ward's Edward Langham. The worship of intellect, the ab- 
 sorbing interest in music and the theatre, the nervous excita- 
 bility, the consciousness of ineffectiveness taking refuge in 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 irony and sarcasm, these and countless other points stamp 
 them as temperaments of kindred mould. And in both lives 
 the tragic woof is the same ; it is the tragedy of spiritual im- 
 potence, of deadened energies and paralysed will, the essential 
 tragedy of modernity. Hamlet fascinates us, just as Langham 
 fascinates us, because we see in him ourselves ; we are all 
 actual or potential Hamlets. 
 
 Was Shakespeare, then, a prophet, or how came he to hit 
 upon a conception so alien to the 'form and pressure' of the 
 time.'* One thinks of Elizabethan England as sir Philip 
 vigorous and ardent, flushed with youth and Sidney. 
 hope, little vexed with intellectual subtleties. Laertes is its 
 type, not Hamlet. Perhaps the Sonnets^ with the personal 
 insight they give us into the poet's temper, help to solve the 
 problem. Shakespeare was not Hamlet, but he touched him 
 on many sides. The maker, like the puppet, had his moments 
 of world-weariness, and breathed his sigh for 'restful death'. 
 But there is another than Shakespeare himself m whom we 
 would willingly recognize in some measure the original of 
 Hamlet. It is not needful to commit ourself to the growing 
 modern theory that the dramas of Shakespeare, comedies and 
 tragedies alike, are largely Aristophanic in their intent, filled 
 with topical sketches and allusions, to which in many cases 
 the clue is now lost. But it is difficult not to think it probable 
 that in this particular the poet gathered some hints from the 
 noticeable personality of Sir Philip Sidney. Sidney is curi- 
 ously lacking in the characteristic Elizabethan blitheness ; he 
 looks by preference on the gloomy side of things ; the pessi- 
 mistic note comes out no less in his letters than in the bitter 
 mockery of the famous dirge. And, like Hamlet, he was a 
 scholar and an idealist, set in an uncongenial environment 
 and always striving ineffectually to escape from it into the life 
 of action. The lingering and futility of his later years were 
 due in great measure to the force of external circumstance, 
 yet something in them may also be traced, clearly enough, to 
 Hamlet's irresolution and impotence of will. Nor can one 
 fail to be struck by the parallel between the language common 
 
24 HAMLET. 
 
 to the wits and poets of Elizabeth's court in speaking of ' the 
 president of noblesse and of chivalry' and the lament of 
 Ophelia over the unstrung nerves of her lover :—- 
 
 " Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! 
 The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword, 
 The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 
 The glass of fashion and the mould of form, 
 The observed of all observers, quite, quite down !" 
 
 E. K. a 
 
 Nov. gth, iSgs. 
 
HAMLET, 
 
 PRINCE OF DENMARK. 
 
> courtiers. 
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 
 Claudius, king of Denmark. 
 
 Hamlet, son to the late, and nephew to the present king. 
 
 PoLONius, lord chamberlain. 
 
 Horatio, friend to Hamlet. 
 
 Laertes, son to Polonius. 
 
 voltimand, 
 
 Cornelius, 
 
 rosencrantz, 
 
 Guildenstern, 
 
 OSRIC, 
 
 A Gentleman, 
 
 A Priest. ^ 
 
 Marcellus, ■! 
 
 - officers. 
 Bern are c, ; 
 
 Francisco, a soldier. 
 
 Reynaldo, servant to Polonius 
 
 Players. 
 
 Two clowns, grave-diggers. 
 
 FoRTiNBRAS, prince of Norway. 
 
 A Captain. 
 
 English Ambassadors. 
 
 Gertrude, queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet. 
 Ophelia, daughter to Polonius. 
 
 Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants. 
 Ghost of Hamlet's Father. 
 
 Scene: Denmark. 
 
HAMLET, 
 
 PRINCE OF DENMARK. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Scene I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle. 
 Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo. 
 
 Ber. Who's there? 
 
 Fran. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself. 
 
 Ber. Long live the king ! 
 
 Fran. Bernardo? 
 
 Ber. He. 
 
 Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. 
 
 Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco 
 
 Fran. For this rehef much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, 
 And I am sick at heart. 
 
 Ber. Have you had quiet guard? 
 
 Fran. Not a mouse stirring. lo 
 
 Ber. V/ell, good night. 
 If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, 
 The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. 
 
 Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there? 
 
 Enter HoRATio and Marcellus. 
 
 Hor. Friends to this ground. 
 
 j{far. And liegemen to the Dane. 
 
 Fraji. Give you good night. 
 
 Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier: 
 
 Who hath relieved you? 
 
 Fran. Bernardo has my place. 
 
 Give you good night. [Exit. 
 
 Mar. Holla! Bernardo! 
 
 Ber. Say, 
 
 What, is Horatio there? 
 
 Hor. A piece of him. 
 
 Ber. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus. 20 
 
28 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night? 
 
 Ber. I have seen nothing. 
 
 Mar. Horatio says 't is but our fantasy, 
 And will not let belief take hold of him 
 Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us: 
 Therefore I have entreated him along 
 With us to watch the minutes of this night; 
 That if again this apparition come. 
 He may approve our eyes and speak to it. 
 
 Hor. Tush, tush, 't will not appear. 
 
 Ber. Sit down awhile; 30 
 
 And let us once again assail your ears, 
 That are so fortified against our story 
 What we have two nights seen. 
 
 Hor. Well, sit we down, 
 
 And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. 
 
 Ber. Last night of all. 
 When yond same star that 's westward from the pole 
 Had made his course to illume that part of heaven 
 Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, 
 The bell then beating one, — 
 
 Enter Ghost. 
 
 Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again ! 
 
 Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. 41 
 
 Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. 
 
 Ber. Looks it not Hke the king? mark it, Horatio. 
 
 Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder. 
 
 Ber. It would be spoke to. 
 
 Mar. Question it, Horatio. 
 
 Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night. 
 Together with that fair and warlike form 
 In which the majesty of buried Denmark 
 Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak! 
 
 Mar. It is offended. 
 
 Ber. , See, it stalks away ! 50 
 
 Hor. Stay ! speak, speak ! I charge thee, speak ! 
 
 l^Exit Ghost. 
 
 Mar. 'T is gone, and will not answer. 
 
 Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale: 
 Is not this something more than fantasy? 
 What think you on 't ? 
 
 Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe 
 Without the sensible and true avouch 
 Of mine own eyes. 
 
Scene i.] HAMLET. 29 
 
 Mar. Is it not like the king? 
 
 Hor. As thou art to thyself: 
 Such was the very armour he had on 60 
 
 When he the ambitious Norway combated; 
 So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle, 
 He smote the sledded pole-axe on the ice. 
 'T is strange. 
 
 Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour. 
 With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. 
 
 Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not; 
 But in the gross and scope of my opinion, 
 This bodes some strange eruption to our state. 
 
 Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, 70 
 Why this same strict and most observant watch 
 So nightly toils the subject of the land. 
 And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, 
 And foreign mart for implements of war; 
 Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 
 Does not divide the Sunday from the week; 
 What might be toward, that this sweaty haste 
 Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day: 
 Who is't that can inform me? 
 
 Hor. That can I; 
 
 At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80 
 
 Whose image even but now appear'd to us, 
 Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, 
 Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride. 
 Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet — 
 For so this side of our known world esteem'd him — 
 Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact. 
 Well ratified by law and heraldry, 
 Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands 
 Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror: 
 Against the which, a moiety competent 90 
 
 Was gaged by our king; which had return'd 
 To the inheritance of Fortinbras, 
 Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant. 
 And carriage of the article design'd. 
 His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, 
 Of unapproved mettle hot and full, 
 Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there 
 Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes. 
 For food and diet, to some enterprise 
 
 That hath a stomach in't; which is no other— 100 
 
 As it doth well appear unto our state — 
 
30 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 But to recover of us, by strong hand 
 
 And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands 
 
 So by his father lost: and this, I take it, 
 
 Is the main motive of our preparations, 
 
 The source of this our watch and the chief head 
 
 Of this post-haste and romage in the land. 
 
 Ber. 1 think it be no other but e'en so: 
 Well may it sort that this portentous figure 
 Comes armed through our watch; so like the king i lo 
 
 That was and is the question of these wars. 
 
 Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. 
 In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 
 A little ere the mightiest Julius fell. 
 The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead 
 Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets: 
 As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, 
 Disasters in the sun; and the moist star 
 Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands 
 Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse: I20 
 
 And even the like precurse of fierce events, 
 As harbingers preceding still the fates 
 And prologue to the omen coming on, 
 Have heaven and earth together demonstrated 
 Unto our climatures and countrymen. — 
 But soft, behold ! lo, where it comes again ! 
 
 Re-enter Ghost. 
 
 I '11 cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion ! 
 
 If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, \It spreads its arms. 
 
 Speak to me: 
 
 If there be any good thing to be done, 130 
 
 That may to thee do ease and grace to me, 
 
 Speak to me : 
 
 If thou art privy to thy country's fate. 
 
 Which, happily,, foreknowing may avoid, 
 
 O, speak! 
 
 Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life 
 
 Extorted treasure in the womb of earth. 
 
 For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, 
 
 \The cock crows. 
 Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus. 
 
 Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan? 140 
 
 Hor. Do, if it will not stand. 
 
 Ber. 'T is here ! 
 
 Hor. 'Tis here! 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 31 
 
 ]\Iar. 'T is gone ! \Exit Ghost. 
 
 We do it wrong, being so majestical, 
 To offer it the show of violence; 
 For it is, as the air, invulnerable. 
 And our vain blows malicious mockery. 
 
 Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. 
 
 Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing 
 Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, 
 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 1 50 
 
 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 
 Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, 
 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 
 The extravagant and erring spirit hies 
 To his confine: and of the truth herein 
 This present object made probation. 
 
 Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. 
 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated. 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long: 160 
 
 And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad; 
 The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike. 
 No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
 So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. 
 
 Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. 
 But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill : 
 Break we our watch up ; and by my advice, 
 Let us impart what we have seen to-night 
 Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, 170 
 
 This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. 
 Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it. 
 As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? 
 
 Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know 
 Where we shall find him most conveniently. \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. A roo7n of state in the castle. 
 
 Enter Claudius King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, 
 Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes and his sister Ophelia, 
 Lords Attendant. 
 
 King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death 
 The memory be green, and that it us befitted 
 To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom 
 To be contracted in one brow of woe, 
 
32 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 
 
 That we with wisest sorrow think on him, 
 
 Together with remembrance of ourselves. 
 
 Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, 
 
 The imperial jointress to this warlike state, 
 
 Have we, as 't were with a defeated joy, — lo 
 
 With an auspicious and a dropping eye, 
 
 With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, 
 
 In equal scale weighing delight and dole, — 
 
 Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd 
 
 Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 
 
 With this affair along. For all, our thanks. 
 
 Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, 
 
 Holding a weak supposal of our worth. 
 
 Or thinking by our late dear brother's death 
 
 Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20 
 
 Colleagued with the dream of his advantage. 
 
 He hath not fail'd to pester us with message, 
 
 Importing the surrender of those lands 
 
 Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, 
 
 To our most valiant brother. So much for him. 
 
 Now for ourself and for this time of meeting: 
 
 Thus much the business is: we have here writ 
 
 To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras, — 
 
 Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears 
 
 Of this his nephew's purpose, — to suppress 30 
 
 His further gait herein; in that the levies, 
 
 The lists and full proportions, are all made 
 
 Out of his subject : and we here dispatch 
 
 You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, 
 
 For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; 
 
 Giving to you no further personal power 
 
 To business with the king, more than the scope 
 
 Of these delated articles allow. 
 
 Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. 
 
 -rr 7 \ In that and all things will we show our duty. 40 
 
 King, We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell. 
 
 {Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius. 
 And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? 
 You told us of some suit ; what is 't, Laertes ? 
 You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, 
 And lose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, 
 That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? 
 The head is not more native to the heart. 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 33 
 
 The hand more instrumental to the mouth, 
 Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. 
 What wouldst thou have, Laertes? 
 
 Laer. ^ My dread lord, 50 
 
 Your leave and favour to return to France; 
 From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, 
 To show my duty in your coronation, 
 Yet now, I must confess, that duty done. 
 My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France 
 And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. 
 
 King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius? 
 
 Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave 
 By laboursome petition, and at last 
 
 Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent: 60 
 
 I do beseech you, give him leave to go. 
 
 Kmg. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine. 
 And thy best graces spend it at thy will ! 
 But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, — 
 
 Ham. [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind. 
 
 Kmg. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? 
 
 I/a?n. Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun. 
 
 Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, 
 And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. 
 Do not for ever with thy vailed lids 70 
 
 Seek for thy noble father in the dust: 
 Thou know'st 't is common; all that lives must die, 
 Passing through nature to eternity. 
 
 Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. 
 
 Queen. If it be. 
 
 Why seems it so particular with thee? 
 
 Hain. Seems, madam ! nay, it is; I know not 'seems'. 
 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother. 
 Nor customary suits of solemn black. 
 Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, 
 
 No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, 80 
 
 Nor the dejected 'haviour of the visage. 
 Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief, 
 That can denote me truly: these indeed seem. 
 For they are actions that a man might play: 
 But I have that within which passeth show; 
 These but the trappings and the suits of woe. 
 
 King. 'T is sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, 
 To give these mourning duties to your father: 
 But, you must know, your father lost a father; 
 That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound 90 
 
 (S85) C 
 
34 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 In filial obligation for some term 
 
 To do obsequious sorrow: but to perse ver 
 
 In obstinate condolement is a course 
 
 Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief; 
 
 It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, 
 
 A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, 
 
 An understanding simple and unschool'd: 
 
 For what we know must be and is as common 
 
 As any the most vulgar thing to sense, 
 
 Why should we in our peevish opposition lOO 
 
 Take it to heart? Fie ! 't is a fault to heaven, 
 
 A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, 
 
 To reason most absurd; whose common theme 
 
 Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried. 
 
 From the first corse till he that died to-day, 
 
 ' This must be so'. We pray you, throw to earth 
 
 This unprevailing woe, and think of us 
 
 As of a father: for let the world take note. 
 
 You are the most immediate to our throne; 
 
 And with no less nobility of love no 
 
 Than that which dearest father bears his son, 
 
 Do I impart toward you. For your intent 
 
 In going back to school in Wittenberg, 
 
 It is most retrograde to our desire: 
 
 And we beseech you, bend you to remain 
 
 Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, 
 
 Our chiefest courtier, c-ousin, and our son. 
 
 Queen, Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet 
 I pray thee, stay with us ; go not to Wittenberg. 
 
 Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. 120 
 
 Ki7ig. Why, 'tis a loving" and a fair reply: 
 Be as ourself in Denmark. Madani, come; 
 This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet 
 Sits smiling to my heart : in grace whereof. 
 No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day. 
 But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell. 
 And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again. 
 Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. 
 
 \Exeu7it all but Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt. 
 Thaw and resolve itself into a dew ! 130 
 
 Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd 
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! O God ! God ! 
 How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. 
 Seem to me all the uses of this world ! 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 35 
 
 Fie on 't ! ah fie ! 't is an unweeded garden, 
 
 That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature 
 
 Possess it merely. That it should come to this ! 
 
 But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: 
 
 So excellent a king; that was, to this, 
 
 Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother 140 
 
 That he might not beteem the winds of heaven 
 
 Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth ! 
 
 Must I remember? why, she would hang on him. 
 
 As if increase of appetite had grown 
 
 By what it fed on: and yet, within a month — 
 
 Let me not think on 't — Frailty, thy name is woman ! — 
 
 A little month, or ere those shoes were old 
 
 With which she follow'd my poor father's body, 
 
 Like Niobe, all tears : — why she, even she — 
 
 O God ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 1 50 
 
 Would have mourn'd longer — married with my uncle, 
 
 My father's brother, but no more like my father 
 
 Than I to Hercules: within a month: 
 
 Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears 
 
 Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, 
 
 She married. O, most wicked speed, to post 
 
 With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! 
 
 It is not nor it cannot come to good : 
 
 But break, my heart ; for I must hold my tongue, 
 
 Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. 
 
 Hor. Hail to your lordship ! 
 
 Ham. I am glad to see you well : 
 
 Horatio, — or I do forget myself. 161 
 
 Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. 
 
 Ha7n. Sir, my good friend ; I '11 change that name with you : 
 And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus? 
 
 Mar. My good lord — 
 
 Ham. I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir. 
 But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? 
 
 Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. 
 
 Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so, 170 
 
 Nor shall you do mine ear that violence. 
 To make it truster of your own report 
 Against yourself: I know you are no truant. 
 But what is your affair in Elsinore? 
 We '11 teach you to drink deep ere you depart. 
 
 Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. 
 
 Hain. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student ; 
 
36 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 I think it was to see my mother's wedding. 
 
 Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. 
 
 Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats i8o 
 Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. 
 Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven 
 Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! 
 My father ! — methinks I see my father. 
 
 Hor. Where, my lord? 
 
 Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. 
 
 Hor. I saw him — once; he was a goodly king. 
 
 Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, 
 I shall not look upon his like again. 
 
 Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. 
 
 Ha7n. Saw? who? 190 
 
 Hor. My lord, the king your father. 
 
 Ham. The king my father ! 
 
 Hor. Season your admiration for a while 
 With an attent ear, till I may deliver. 
 Upon the witness of these gentlemen. 
 This marvel to you. 
 
 Ham. For God's love, let me hear. 
 
 Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, 
 Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch. 
 In the dead waste and middle of the night. 
 Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father. 
 Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe, 200 
 
 Appears before them, and with solemn march 
 Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd 
 By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes, 
 Within his truncheon's length ; whilst they, distill'd 
 Almost to jelly with the act of fear, 
 Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me 
 In dreadful secrecy impart they did ; 
 And I with them the third night kept the watch : 
 Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, 
 Form of the thing, each word made true and good, 210 
 
 The apparition comes: I knew your father; 
 These hands are not more like. 
 
 Ham. But where was this? 
 
 Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd. 
 
 Ham. Did you not speak to it? 
 
 Hor. My lord, I did ; 
 
 But answer made it none : yet once methought 
 It lifted up it head and did address 
 Itself to motion, like as it would speak ; 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 37 
 
 But even then the morning cock crew loud, 
 
 And at the sound it shrunk in haste away, 
 
 And vanish'd from our sight. 
 
 Ham. 'T is very strange. 220 
 
 Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 't is true ; 
 
 And we did think it writ down in our duty 
 
 To let you know of it. 
 Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. 
 
 Hold you the watch to-night? 
 
 ^^^- I We do, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Arm'd, say you? 
 
 Ham. From top to toe? 
 
 ^^^^' \ My lord, from head to foot. 
 
 Ham. Then saw you not his face? 
 
 Hor. Oh, yes, my lord ; he wore his beaver up. 230 
 
 Ham. What, look'd he frowningly? 
 
 Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. 
 
 Ham. Pale or red? 
 
 Hor. Nay, very pale. 
 
 Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you? 
 
 Hor. Most constantly. 
 
 Hain. I would I had been there. 
 
 Hor. It would have much amazed you. 
 
 Ham. Very like, very like. Stay'd it long? 
 
 Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. 
 
 Mar. \ T 1 
 
 Ber. \ Longer, longer. 
 
 Hor. Not when I saw't. 
 
 Ham. His beard was grizzled, — no? 240 
 
 Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, 
 A sable silver'd. 
 
 Ham. I will watch to-night ; 
 
 Perchance 't will walk again. 
 
 Hor. I warrant it will. 
 
 Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, 
 I '11 speak to it, though hell itself should gape 
 And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all. 
 If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight. 
 Let it be tenable in your silence still ; 
 And whatsoever else shall hap to-night. 
 Give it an understanding, but no tongue : 250 
 
38 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 I will requite your loves. So, fare you well : 
 Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, 
 I '11 visit you. 
 
 All. Our duty to your honour. 
 
 Ham. Your loves, as mine to you : farewell. 
 
 \Exeu7it all but Hamlet. 
 My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well; 
 I doubt some foul play : would the night were come ! 
 Till then sit still, my soul : foul deeds will rise. 
 Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. \_Exit. 
 
 Scene III. A room iri Polojtius' house. 
 E7iter Laertes aiid Ophelia. 
 
 Laer. My necessaries are embark'd : farewell : 
 And, sister, as the winds give benefit 
 And convoy is assistant, do not sleep. 
 But let me hear from you. 
 
 Oph. Do you doubt that? 
 
 Laer. For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour, 
 Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, 
 A violet in the youth of primy nature. 
 Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, 
 The perfume and suppliance of a minute; 
 No more. 
 
 Oph. No more but so? 
 
 Laer. Think it no more : lo 
 
 For nature, crescent, does not grow alone 
 In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes, 
 The inward service of the mind and soul 
 Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, 
 And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch 
 The virtue of his will : but you must fear. 
 His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own ; 
 For he himself is subject to his birth : 
 He may not, as unvalued persons do, 
 
 Carve for himself; for on his choice depends 20 
 
 The safety and health of this whole state ; 
 And therefore must his choice be circumscribed 
 Unto the voice and yielding of that body 
 Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you. 
 It fits your wisdom so far to believe it 
 As he in his particular act and place 
 May give his saying deed; which is no further 
 
Scenes.] HAMLET. 39 
 
 Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. 
 
 Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, 
 
 If with too credent ear you list his songs, 30 
 
 Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open 
 
 To his unmaster'd importunity. 
 
 Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, 
 
 And keep you in the rear of your affection, 
 
 Out of the shot and danger of desire. 
 
 The chariest maid is prodigal enough. 
 
 If she unmask her beauty to the moon: 
 
 Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes: 
 
 The canker galls the infants of the spring. 
 
 Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, 40 
 
 And in the morn and liquid dew of youth 
 
 Contagious blastments are most imminent. 
 
 Be wary then; best safety lies in fear: 
 
 Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. 
 
 Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, 
 As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, 
 Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, 
 Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; 
 Whiles, like a puff 'd and reckless libertine, 
 Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, 50 
 
 And recks not his own rede. 
 
 Laer. O, fear me not. 
 
 I stay too long: but here my father comes. 
 
 Enter POLONIUS. 
 
 A double blessing is a double grace; 
 Occasion smiles upon a second leave. 
 
 Pol. Yet here, Laertes ! aboard, aboard, for shame ! 
 The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail. 
 And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee! 
 
 nd these few precepts in thy memory 
 See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 
 Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 60 
 
 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 
 Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; 
 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 
 Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware 
 Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in. 
 Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. 
 Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; 
 Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement. 
 
40 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 70 
 
 But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; 
 
 For the apparel oft proclaims the man, 
 
 And they in France of the best rank and station 
 
 Are of a most select and generous choice in that. 
 
 Neither a borrower nor a lender be; 
 
 For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
 
 And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 
 
 This above all: to thine own self be true. 
 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. 80 
 
 Farewell: my blessing season this in thee! 
 
 Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. 
 
 Pol. The time invites you; go; your servants tend. 
 
 Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well 
 What I have said to you. 
 
 Oph. 'T is in my memory lock'd, 
 
 And you yourself shall keep the key of it. 
 
 Laer. Farewell. \Exit. 
 
 Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? 
 
 Oph. So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet. 
 
 Pol. Marry, well bethought : 90 
 
 'T is told me, he hath very oft of late 
 Given private time to you; and you yourself 
 Have of your audience been most free and bounteous: 
 If it be so, as so 't is put on me, 
 And that in way of caution, I must tell you. 
 You do not understand yourself so clearly 
 As it behoves my daughter and your honour. 
 What is between you? give me up the truth. 
 
 Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders 
 Of his affection to me. 100 
 
 Pol. Affection ! pooh ! you speak like a green girl. 
 Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. 
 Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? 
 
 Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. 
 
 Pol. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby; 
 That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay. 
 Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly; 
 Or — not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, 
 Running it thus — you '11 tender me a fool. 
 
 Oph. My lord, he hath importuned me with love 1 10 
 
 In honourable fashion. 
 
 Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. 
 
 Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord. 
 
Scene 4.] HAMLET. 41 
 
 With almost all the holy vows of heaven. 
 
 Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, 
 When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul 
 Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter. 
 Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, 
 Even in their promise, as it is a-making. 
 You must not take for fire. From this time 120 
 
 Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence; 
 Set your entreatments at a higher rate 
 Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, 
 Believe so much in him, that he is young. 
 And with a larger tether may he walk 
 Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia, 
 Do not believe his vows ; for they are brokers, 
 Not of that dye which their investments show, 
 But mere implorators of unholy suits, 
 
 Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, 130 
 
 The better to beguile. This is for all: 
 I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, 
 Have you so slander any moment leisure. 
 As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. 
 Look to 't, I charge you : come your ways. 
 
 Oph. I shall obey, my lord. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene IV. The platform. 
 Enter Hamlet, Horatio, a7id Marcellus. 
 
 Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. 
 
 Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. 
 
 Ham. What hour now? 
 
 Hor. ' I think it lacks of twelve. 
 
 Mar. No, it is struck. 
 
 Hor. Indeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the 
 season 
 Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. 
 
 \A flourish of trumpets., and ord7tance shot off., within. 
 What does this mean, my lord? 
 
 Ham. The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse. 
 Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels ; 
 And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, 10 
 
 The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out 
 The triumph of his pledge. 
 
 Hor. Is it a custom? 
 
 Ha??i. Ay, marry, is't: 
 
42 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 But to my mind, though I am native here 
 
 And to the manner born, it is a custom 
 
 More honour'd in the breach than the observance. 
 
 This heavy-headed revel east and west 
 
 Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations: 
 
 They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase 
 
 Soil our addition ; and indeed it takes 20 
 
 From our achievements, though perform'd at height, 
 
 The pith and marrow of our attribute. 
 
 So, oft it chances in particular men. 
 
 That for some vicious mole of nature in them. 
 
 As, in their birth— wherein they are not guilty, 
 
 Since nature cannot choose his origin — 
 
 By the o'ergrowth of some complexion. 
 
 Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason. 
 
 Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens 
 
 The form of plausive manners, that these men, 30 
 
 Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, 
 
 Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, — 
 
 Their virtues else — be they as pure as grace. 
 
 As infinite as man may undergo — 
 
 Shall in the general censure take corruption 
 
 From that particular fault : the dram of eale 
 
 Doth all the noble substance of a doubt 
 
 To his own scandal. 
 
 Ho7\ Look, my lord, it comes ! 
 
 Enter Ghost. 
 
 Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! 
 Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, 40 
 
 Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, 
 Be thy intents wicked or charitable. 
 Thou comest in such a questionable shape 
 That I will speak to thee : I '11 call thee Hamlet, 
 King, father, royal Dane : O, answer me ! 
 Let me not burst in ignorance ; but tell 
 Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death. 
 Have burst their cerements ; why the sepulchre. 
 Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd. 
 
 Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, 50 
 
 To cast thee up again. What may this mean. 
 That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel 
 Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, 
 Making night hideous ; and we fools of nature 
 So horridly to shake our disposition 
 
Scene 4.] HAMLET. 43 
 
 With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? 
 Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do? 
 
 {Ghost becko7is Hamlet. 
 
 Hor. It beckons you to go away with it, 
 As if it some impartment did desire 
 To you alone. 
 
 Mar. Look, with what courteous action 60 
 
 It waves you to a more removed ground : 
 But do not go with it. 
 
 Ho?'. No, by no means. 
 
 Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it. 
 
 Hor. Do not, my lord. « 
 
 Ham. Why, what should be the fear? 
 
 I do not set my life at a pin's fee; 
 And for my soul, what can it do to that. 
 Being a thing immortal as itself? 
 It waves me forth again: I '11 follow it. 
 
 Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, 
 Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff 70 
 
 That beetles o'er his base into the sea, 
 And there assume some other horrible form. 
 Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason 
 And draw you into madness? think of it: 
 The very place puts toys of desperation, 
 Without more motive, into every brain 
 That looks so many fathoms to the sea 
 And hears it roar beneath. 
 
 Ham. It waves me still. 
 
 Go on; I '11 follow thee. 
 
 Mar. You shall not go, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Hold off your hands. 80 
 
 Hor. Be ruled; you shall not go. 
 
 Ham. My fate cries out, 
 
 And makes each petty artery in this body 
 As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. 
 Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen. 
 By heaven, I '11 make a ghost of him that lets me ; 
 I say, away ! Go on ; I '11 follow thee. 
 
 \Exeu7it Ghost and Hamlet. 
 
 Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. 
 
 Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. 
 
 Hor. Have after. To what issue will this come? 
 
 Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. 90 
 
 Hor. Heaven will direct it. 
 
 Mar. Nay, let 's follow him. \Exeimt. 
 
44 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 Scene V. Another part of the platform. 
 Enter Ghost a7td Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I '11 go no further. 
 
 Ghost. Mark me. 
 
 Hajn. I will. 
 
 Ghost. My hour is almost come, 
 
 When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames 
 Must render up myself. 
 
 Ham. Alas, poor ghost ! 
 
 Ghost. Pity me not, tut lend thy serious hearing 
 To what I shall unfold. 
 
 Ham. Speak; I am bound to hear. 
 
 Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. 
 
 Ham. What? 
 
 Ghost. I am thy father's spirit, 
 Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, lo 
 
 And for the day confined to fast in fires, 
 Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature 
 Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid 
 To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 
 I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 
 Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, 
 Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. 
 Thy knotted and combined locks to part 
 And each particular hair to stand an end, 
 Like quills upon the fretful porpentine : 20 
 
 But this eternal blazon must not be 
 To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list ! 
 If thou didst ever thy dear father love — 
 
 Hajn. O God ! 
 
 Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. 
 
 Ham. Murder! 
 
 Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; 
 But this most foul, strange and unnatural. 
 
 Ham. Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift 
 As meditation or the thoughts of love, 3° 
 
 May sweep to my revenge. 
 
 Ghost. I find thee apt; 
 
 And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed 
 That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, 
 Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: 
 'T is given out that, sleeping in my orchard, 
 A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark 
 
\ 
 
 Scene 5.] HAMLET. 45 
 
 Is by a forged process of my death 
 Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, 
 The serpent that did sting thy father's Hfe 
 Now wears his crown. 
 
 Ham. O my prophetic soul ! 40 
 
 My uncle ! 
 
 Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, 
 With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, — 
 O wicked wits and gifts, that have the power 
 So to seduce ! — won to his shameful lust 
 The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen: 
 
 Hamlet, what a falling-ofif was there! 
 From me, whose love was of that dignity 
 That it went hand in hand even with the vow 
 
 1 made to her in marriage, and to decline 50 
 Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor 
 
 To those of mine ! 
 
 But virtue, as it never will be moved, 
 
 Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, 
 
 So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd. 
 
 Will sate itself in a celestial bed. 
 
 And prey on garbage. 
 
 But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air; 
 
 Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard, 
 
 My custom always of the afternoon, 60 
 
 Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, 
 
 With juice of cursed Hebona in a vial. 
 
 And in the porches of my ears did pour 
 
 The leperous distilment; whose effect 
 
 Holds such an enmity with blood of man 
 
 That swift as quicksilver it courses through 
 
 The natural gates and alleys of the body. 
 
 And with a sudden vigour it doth posset 
 
 And curd, like eager droppings into milk. 
 
 The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine; 70 
 
 And a most instant tetter bark'd about. 
 
 Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, 
 
 All my smooth body. 
 
 Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand 
 
 Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd: 
 
 Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, 
 
 Unhousel'd, disappointed, unaneled. 
 
 No reckoning made, but sent to my account 
 
 With all my imperfections on my head: 
 
 O, horrible ! O, horrible ! m^ost horrible ! 80 
 
46 HAMLET. [Act L 
 
 If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not; 
 
 Let not the royal bed of Denmark be 
 
 A couch for luxury and damned incest. 
 
 But, howsoever thou pursuest this act, 
 
 Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive 
 
 Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven 
 
 And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, 
 
 To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once ! 
 
 The glow-worm shows the matin to be near. 
 
 And 'gins to pale his unefifectual fire : 90 
 
 Adieu, adieu ! Hamlet, remember me. \Exit. 
 
 Ham. O all you host of heaven ! O earth ! what else ? 
 And shall I couple hell? O, fie ! Hold, hold, my heart ; 
 And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, 
 But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee ! 
 Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat 
 In this distracted globe. Remember thee ! 
 Yea, from the table of my memory 
 I '11 wipe away all trivial fond records, 
 
 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, 100 
 
 That youth and observation copied there; 
 And thy commandment all alone shall live 
 Within the book and volume of my brain, 
 Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven ! 
 O most pernicious woman ! 
 
 villain, villain, smiling, damned villain ! 
 My tables, — meet it is I set it down,. 
 
 That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; 
 At least I 'm sure it may be so in Denmark: {^Writing. 
 
 So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word ; 1 10 
 
 It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me'. 
 
 1 have sworn 't. 
 
 rj''^' V {^Within'] My lord, my lord,— 
 
 'Within] Lord Hamlet, 
 
 Within] Heaven secure him ' 
 
 Mar. 
 
 Hor. 
 
 Hain. So be it ! 
 
 Hor. [ Withifz] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy ! come, bird, come. 
 
 Enter HoRATio and Marcellus. 
 
 Mar. How is't, my noble lord? 
 
 Hor. What news, my lord? 
 
 Ham. O5 wonderful ! 
 
 Hor. Good my lord, tell it. 
 
Scene 5.] HAMLET. 47 
 
 Ham. No ; you '11 reveal it. 
 Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven. 
 
 Mar. Nor I, my lord. 120 
 
 Ham. How say you, then ; would heart of man once think 
 it? 
 But you'll be secret? 
 
 ^^- [ Ay, by heaven, my lord. 
 
 Ham. There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark 
 But he 's an arrant knave. 
 
 Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave 
 To tell us this. 
 
 Ham. Why, right ; you are i' the right ; 
 
 And so, without more circumstance at all, 
 I hold it fit that we shake hands and part : 
 You, as your business and desire shall point you ; 
 For every man has business and desire, 130 
 
 Such as it is; and for mine own poor part. 
 Look you, I '11 go pray. 
 
 Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. 
 
 Ham. I 'm sorry they offend you, heartily ; 
 Yes, 'faith, heartily ; 
 
 Hor. There 's no offence, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, 
 And much offence too. Touching this vision here. 
 It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you: 
 For your desire to know what is between us, 
 O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends, 140 
 
 As you are friends, scholars and soldiers. 
 Give me one poor request. 
 
 Hor. What is't, my lord? we will. 
 
 Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night. 
 
 ^^^_ I My lord, we will not. 
 
 Hmn. Nay, but swear 't. 
 
 }{Qr, In faith. 
 
 My lord, not L 
 
 Mar. Nor I, my lord, in faith. 
 
 Ham. Upon my sword. 
 
 Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already. 
 
 Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. 
 
 Ghost. [Beneath^ Swear. 
 
 Ha7?i. Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, true- 
 penny? ^50 
 Come on — you hear this fellow in the cellarage — 
 
48 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 Consent to swear. 
 
 Hor. Propose the oath, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen, 
 Swear by my sword. 
 
 Ghost. \BeneatJi\ Swear. 
 
 Ham. Hie et ubique? then we '11 shift our ground. 
 Come hither, gentlemen. 
 And lay your hands again upon my sword : 
 Never to speak of this that you have heard, 
 Swear by my sword. i6o 
 
 Ghost. [Beneath'] Swear. 
 
 Ham. Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast? 
 A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends. 
 
 Hor. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange ! 
 
 Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. 
 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
 Than are dreamt of in our philosophy. 
 But come; 
 
 Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, 
 How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, , 170 
 
 As I perchance hereafter shall think meet 
 To put an antic disposition on. 
 That you, at such times see'ng me, never shall, 
 With arms encumber'd thus, or this head-shake. 
 Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase. 
 As ' Well, well, we know', or ' We could, an if we would', 
 Or ' if we list to speak', or ' There be, an if they might'. 
 Or such ambiguous giving out, to note 
 That you know aught of me : this not to do. 
 So grace and mercy at your most need help you, 180 
 
 Swear. 
 
 Ghost. \Beneat}f\ Swear. , 
 
 Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit ! \They swear.] So, 
 gentlemen. 
 With all my love I do commend me to you : 
 And what so poor a man as Hamlet is 
 May do, to express his love and friending to you, 
 God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together : 
 And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. 
 The time is out of joint : O cursed spite. 
 That ever I was born to set it right ! 190 
 
 Nay, come, let 's go together. [Exeunt. 
 
Act II. Scene i.] HAMLET. 49 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Scene I. A room in Polo Jims' house. 
 Enter Polonius and Reynaldo. 
 
 Pol. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo. 
 
 Rey. I will, my lord. 
 
 Pol. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo, 
 Before you visit him, to make inquire 
 Of his behaviour. 
 
 Rey. My lord, I did intend it. 
 
 Pol. Marry, well said ; very well said. Look you, sir, 
 Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris ; 
 And how, and who, what means, and where they keep. 
 What company, at what expense ; and finding 
 By this encompassment and drift of question 10 
 
 That they do know my son, come you more nearer 
 Than your particular demands will touch it. 
 Take you, as 't were, some distant knowledge of him ; 
 As thus, ' I know his father and his friends. 
 And in part him' : do you mark this, Reynaldo? 
 
 Rey. Ay, very well, my lord. 
 
 Pol. ' And in part him ; but ' you may say ' not well : 
 But, if 't be he I mean, he 's very wild ; 
 Addicted so and so' : and there put on him 
 What forgeries you please ; marry, none so rank 20 
 
 As may dishonour him ; take heed of that ; 
 But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips 
 As are companions noted and most known 
 To youth and liberty. 
 
 Rey. As gaming, my lord. 
 
 Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling, 
 Drabbing : you may go so far, 
 
 Rey. My lord, that would dishonour him. 
 
 Pol. 'Faith, no ; as you may season it in the charge. 
 You must not put another scandal on him. 
 That he is open to incontinency; 3° 
 
 That 's not my meaning : but breathe his faults so quamtly 
 That they may seem the taints of liberty, 
 The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, 
 A savageness in unreclaimed blood. 
 Of general assault. 
 
 Rey. But, my good lord, — 
 
 Pol. Wherefore should you do this? 
 
 (885) D 
 
50 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 Rey. Ay, my lord, 
 
 I would know that. 
 
 Pol. Marry, sir, here 's my drift ; 
 
 And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant : 
 You laying these slight sullies on my son, 
 As 't were a thing a little soil'd i' the working, 40 
 
 Mark you. 
 
 Your party in converse, him you would sound, 
 Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes 
 The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured 
 He closes with you in this consequence; 
 ' Good sir', or so, or 'friend', or 'gentleman', 
 According to the phrase or the addition 
 Of man and country. 
 
 Rey. Very good, my lord. 
 
 Pol. And then, sir, does he this — he does— what was I 
 about to say? By the mass, I was about to say something : 
 where did I leave? 5^ 
 
 Rey. At 'closes in the consequence', at 'friend or so', and 
 'gentleman'. 
 
 Pol. At ' closes in the consequence', ay, marry; 
 He closes thus : ' I know the gentleman ; 
 I saw him yesterday, or t' other day. 
 Or then, or then ; with such, or such ; and, as you say 
 There was a' gaming ; there o'ertook in 's rouse ; 
 There falling out at tennis ' : or perchance, 
 ' I saw him enter such a house of sale', 60 
 
 Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. 
 See you now ; 
 
 Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth : 
 And thus do we of wisdom and of reach. 
 With windlasses and with assays of bias, 
 By indirections find directions out : 
 So by my former lecture and advice. 
 Shall you my son. You have me, have you not? 
 
 Rey. My lord, I have. 
 
 Pol. God be wi' you ; fare you well. 
 
 Rey. Good my lord ! 70 
 
 Pol. Observe his inclination in yourself. 
 
 Rey. I shall, my lord. 
 
 Pol. And let him ply his music. 
 
 Rey. Well, my lord. 
 
 Pol. Farewell ! {Exit Reynaldo. 
 
Scene i.] HAMLET. 51 
 
 Enter Ophelia. 
 
 How now, Ophelia! what's the matter? 
 
 Oph. O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted ! 
 
 Pol. With what, i' the name of God? 
 
 Oph. My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, 
 Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced; 
 No hat upon his head ; his stockings foul'd, 
 Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle ; 80 
 
 Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; 
 And with a look so piteous in purport 
 As if he had been loosed out of hell 
 To speak of horrors, — he comes before me, 
 
 Pol. Mad for thy love? 
 
 Oph. My lord, I do not know ; 
 
 But truly, I do fear it. 
 
 Pol. What said he? 
 
 oph. He took me by the wrist and held me hard; 
 Then goes he to the length of all his arm ; 
 And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, 
 He falls to such perusal of my face 90 
 
 As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so ; 
 At last, a little shaking of mine arm 
 And thrice his head thus waving up and down, 
 He raised a sigh so piteous and profound 
 As it did seem to shatter all his bulk 
 And end his being : that done, he lets me go : 
 And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd, 
 He seem'd to find his way without his eyes ; 
 For out o' doors he went without their helps. 
 And, to the last, bended their light on me. 1 00 
 
 Pol. Come, go with me : I will go seek the king. 
 This is the very ecstasy of love. 
 Whose violent property fordoes itself 
 And leads the will to desperate undertakings 
 As oft as any passion under heaven 
 That does afflict our natures. I am sorry. 
 What, have you given him any hard words of late ? 
 
 oph. No, my good lord, but, as you did command, 
 I did repel his letters and denied 
 His access to me. 
 
 Pol. That hath made him mad, 1 10 
 
 I am sorry that with better heed and judgement 
 I had not quoted him : I fear'd he did but trifle. 
 And meant to wreck thee ; but, beshrew my jealousy ! 
 
52 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 By heaven, it is as proper to our age 
 
 To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions 
 
 As it is common for the younger sort 
 
 To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king : 
 
 This must be known ; which, being kept close, might move 
 
 More grief to hide than hate to utter love. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II, A roojn i7t the castle. 
 
 Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, 
 and Attendants. 
 
 King. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ! 
 Moreover that we much did long to see you, 
 The need we have to use you did provoke 
 Our hasty sending. Something have you heard 
 Of Hamlet's transformation ; so call it, 
 Since nor the exterior nor the inward man 
 Resembles that it was. What it should be, 
 More than his father's death, that thus hath put him 
 So much from the understanding of himself, 
 I cannot dream of: I entreat you both, ro 
 
 That, being of so young days brought up with him. 
 And since so neighbour'd to his youth and humour. 
 That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court 
 Some little time : so by your companies 
 To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, 
 So much as from occasion you may glean. 
 Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus. 
 That, open'd, lies within our remedy. 
 
 Queen. Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you ; 
 And sure I am two men there are not living 20 
 
 To whom he more adheres. If it will please you 
 To show us so much gentry and good will 
 As to expend your time with us awhile. 
 For the supply and profit of our hope. 
 Your visitation shall receive such thanks 
 As fits a king's remembrance. 
 
 Ros. Both your majesties 
 
 Might,, by the sovereign power you have of us. 
 Put your dread pleasures more into command 
 Than to entreaty. 
 
 Guil. But we both obey. 
 
 And here give up ourselves, in the full bent 30 
 
 To lay our service freely at your feet, 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 53 
 
 To be commanded. 
 
 King. Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. 
 Q,uee7i. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz : 
 And I beseech you instantly to visit 
 My too much changed son. Go, some of you, 
 And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. 
 
 Guil. Heavens make our presence and our practices 
 Pleasant and helpful to him ! 
 
 Queen. Ay, amen ! 
 
 \Exeunt Rosencrantz., Guildenstern., a7id some 
 
 Atte?tdants. 
 Enter PoLONius. 
 
 Pol. The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, 40 
 Are joyfully return'd. . 
 
 King. Thou still hast been the father of good news. 
 
 Pol. Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege, 
 I hold my duty, as I hold my soul. 
 Both to my God and to my gracious king : 
 And I do think, or else this brain of mine 
 Hunts not the trail of policy so sure 
 As it hath used to do, that I have found 
 The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. 
 
 King. O, speak of that ; that do I lorig to hear. 50 
 
 Pol. Give first admittance to the ambassadors ; 
 My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. 
 
 King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. 
 
 [Exit Polonius. 
 He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found 
 The head and source of all your son's distemper. 
 
 Queeit. I doubt it is no other but the main ; 
 His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage. 
 
 King. Well, we shall sift him. 
 
 Re-enter PoLONius, with Voltimand and Cornelius. 
 
 Welcome, my good friends ! 
 Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway? 
 
 Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires. 60 
 
 Upon our first, he sent out to suppress 
 His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd 
 To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack; 
 But, better look'd' into, he truly found 
 It was against your highness: whereat grieved, 
 That so his sickness, age and impotence 
 Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests 
 On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys; 
 
54 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine 
 
 Makes vow before his uncle never more 70 
 
 To give the assay of arms against your majesty. 
 
 Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy. 
 
 Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee, 
 
 And his commission to employ those soldiers, 
 
 So levied as before, against the Polack: 
 
 With an entreaty, herein further shown, [Giving a paper- 
 
 That it might please you to give quiet pass 
 
 Through your dominions for this enterprise. 
 
 On such regards of safety and allowance 
 
 As therein are set down. 
 
 King. It likes us well ; 80 
 
 And at our more consider'd time we '11 read. 
 Answer, and think upon this business. 
 Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour : 
 Go to your rest ; at night we '11 feast together : 
 Most welcome home ! \Exeunt Voltinia7id and Cornelius. 
 
 Pol. This business is well ended. 
 
 My liege, and madam, to expostulate 
 What majesty should be, what duty is. 
 Why day is day, night night, and time is time. 
 Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. 
 Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, 90 
 
 And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, 
 I will be brief: your noble son is mad : 
 Mad call I it ; for, to define true madness, 
 What is 't but to be nothing else but mad? 
 But let that go. 
 
 Queen. More matter, with less art. 
 
 Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. 
 That he is mad, 't is true : 't is true 't is pity ; 
 And pity 't is 't is true : a foolish figure ; 
 But farewell it, for I will use no art. 
 
 Mad let us grant him, then : and now remains 100 
 
 That we find out the cause of this effect, 
 Or rather say, the cause of this defect, 
 For this effect defective comes by cause : 
 Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. 
 Perpend. 
 
 I have a daughter — have while she is mine' — 
 Who, in her duty and obedience, mark. 
 
 Hath given me this : now gather, and surmise. {Reads. 
 
 *To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most beautified 
 
 Ophelia', — 1 10 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 55 
 
 That 's an ill phrase, a vile phrase ; * beautified ' is a vile 
 phrase : but you shall hear. Thus : \^Reads. 
 
 ' In her excellent white bosom, these, &^c.^ 
 
 Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her? 
 
 Pol. Good madam, stay awhile ; I will be faithful. \Reads. 
 ' Doubt thou the stars are fire; 
 
 Doubt that the sun doth move; 
 Doubt truth to be a liar; 
 
 But never doubt I love. 1 1 9 
 
 ' O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers ; I have not art 
 to reckon my groans : but that I love thee best, O most best, 
 believe it. Adieu. 
 
 ' Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this 
 machine is to him, HAMLET.' 
 This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me, 
 And more above, hath his solicitings, 
 As they fell out by time, by means and place, 
 All given to mine ear. 
 
 King. But how hath she 
 
 Received his love? 
 
 Pol. What do you think of me ? 
 
 KiJig. As of a man faithful and honourable. 130 
 
 Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you think. 
 When I had seen this hot love on the wing — 
 As I perceived it, I must tell you that. 
 Before my daughter told me — what might you. 
 Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, 
 If I had play'd the desk or table-book. 
 Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb. 
 Or look'd upon this love with idle sight ; 
 What might you think? No, I went round to work, 
 And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: 140 
 
 ' Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star; 
 This must not be' : and then I prescripts gave her. 
 That she should lock herself from his resort. 
 Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. 
 Which done, she took the fruits of my advice ; 
 And he, repulsed — a short tale to make — 
 Fell into a sadness, then into a fast. 
 Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness. 
 Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, 
 Into the madness wherein now he raves, 150 
 
 And all we mourn for. 
 
 King. Do you think 't is this? 
 
 Queen. It may be, very likely. 
 
56 HAMLET. [Act II, 
 
 Pol. Hath there been such a time — I 'd fain know that — 
 That I have positively said ' 'T is so ', 
 When it proved otherwise? 
 
 King. Not that I know. 
 
 Pol. \Poi?iting to Ms head aiid shoulder^ Take this from 
 this, if this be otherwise : 
 If circumstances lead me, I M'ill find 
 Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed 
 Within the centre. 
 
 Kmg. How may we try it further? 
 
 Pol. You know, sometimes he walks four hours together 
 Here in the lobby. 
 
 Quee7t. So he does indeed. i6i 
 
 Pol. At such a time I '11 loose my daughter to him : 
 Be you and I behind an arras then ; 
 Mark the encounter : if he love her not 
 And be not from his reason fall'n thereon, 
 Let me be no assistant for a state, 
 But keep a farm and carters. 
 
 King. We will try it. 
 
 Q,uee7t. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes 
 reading. 
 
 Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away : 
 I '11 board him presently. 
 
 {Exeunt King, Queen, and Atte7idants. 
 
 Enter Hamlet, reading. 
 
 O, give me leave: 170 
 
 How does my good Lord Hamlet? 
 
 Ham. Well, God-a-mercy. 
 
 Pol. Do you know me, my lord? 
 
 Ham. Excellent well ; you are a fishmonger. 
 
 Pol. Not I, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. 
 
 Pol. Honest, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be 
 one man picked out of ten thousand. 
 
 Pol. That 's very true, my lord. 180 
 
 Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a 
 god kissing carrion, — Have you a daughter? 
 
 Pol. I have, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun : conception is a blessing : 
 but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to 't. 
 
 Pol. [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my 
 daughter : yet he knew me not at first ; he said I was a fish- 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 57 
 
 monger : he is far gone, far gone : and truly in my youth I 
 suffered much extremity for love ; very near this. I '11 speak 
 to him again. What do you read, my lord? 
 
 Ham. Words, words, words. 
 
 Pol. What is the matter, my lord? 
 
 Ham. Between who? 
 
 Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Slanders, sir : for the satirical rogue says here that 
 old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their 
 eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum and that they 
 have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams : 
 all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, 
 yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for your- 
 self, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab you could go 
 backward. 
 
 Pol. [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method 
 in't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord? 
 
 Ham. Into my grave. 210 
 
 Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside] How pregnant 
 sometimes his replies are ! a happiness that often madness 
 hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously 
 be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the 
 means of meeting between him and my daughter. — My hon- 
 ourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. 
 
 Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will 
 more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, 
 except my life. 221 
 
 Pol. Fare you well, my lord. 
 
 Ham. These tedious old fools ! 
 
 Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 
 Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet ; there he is. 
 
 Ros. [To Poloniiis] God save you, sir ! [Exit Poloniiis. 
 
 Giiil. My honoured lord ! 
 
 Ros. My most dear lord ! 
 
 Ham. My excellent good friends ! How dost thou, Guil- 
 denstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? 
 
 Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. 231 
 
 Guil. Happy, in that we are not over-happy; 
 On fortune's cap we are not the very button. 
 
 Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe? 
 
 Ros. Neither, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle ot 
 her favours? What's the news? 240 
 
 Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest. 
 
58 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 Ha7n. Then is doomsday near : but your news is not true. 
 Let me question more in particular : what have you, my good 
 friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you 
 to prison hither? 
 
 Guil. Prison, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Denmark's a prison. 
 
 Ros. Then is the world one. 250 
 
 Ham. A goodly one ; in which there are many confines, 
 wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst. 
 
 Ros. We think not so, my lord. 
 
 Ha7n. Why, then, 't is none to you ; for there is nothing 
 either good or bad, but thinking makes it so : to me it is a 
 prison, 
 
 Ros. Why then, your ambition makes it one ; 't is too 
 narrow for your mind. 259 
 
 Ham. O God, I could be bounded in a nut-shell and count 
 myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad 
 dreams. 
 
 Guil. Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very 
 substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a 
 dream. 
 
 Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. 
 
 Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a 
 quality that it is but a shadow's shadow. 
 
 Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs 
 and outstretched heroes th-e beggars' shadows. Shall we to 
 the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. 
 
 (- '■] \ We '11 wait upon you. 
 
 Ham. No such m.atter : I will not sort you with the rest of 
 my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am 
 most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friend- 
 ship, what make you at Elsinore? 
 
 Ros. To visit you, my lord ; no other occasion. 
 
 Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks ; but I 
 thank you : and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a 
 halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? 
 Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me: come, 
 come ; nay, speak. 
 
 Gtiil. What should we say, my lord? 
 
 Ham. Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent 
 for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks which 
 your modesties have not craft enough to colour : I know the 
 good king and queen have sent for you. 291 
 
 Ros. To what end, my lord? 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 59 
 
 Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, 
 by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our 
 youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by 
 what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be 
 even and direct with me, whether you were sent for, or no? 
 
 Ros. [Aside to Giiil.'\ What say you? 300 
 
 Ham. [Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you. — If you 
 love me, hold not off. 
 
 Gm7. My lord, we were sent for. 
 
 Ham. I will tell you why ; so shall my anticipation prevent 
 your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult 
 no feather. I have of late — but wherefore I know not — lost 
 all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises ; and indeed it 
 goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, 
 the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excel- 
 lent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firma- 
 ment, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it 
 appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent con- 
 gregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man ! how 
 noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty ! in form and moving 
 how express and admirable ! in action how like an angel ! in 
 apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the 
 paragon of animals ! And yet, to me, what is this quintes- 
 sence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, 
 though by your smiling you seem to say so. 
 
 Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. 
 
 Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said ' man delights 
 not mc ' ? 
 
 Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what 
 lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you : we 
 coted them on the way; and hither are they coming, to offer 
 you service. 
 
 Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome ; his 
 majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight 
 shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; 
 the humorous man shall end his part in peace; the clown 
 shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o' the sere; 
 and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse 
 shall halt for 't. What players are they? 340 
 
 Ros. Even those you were wont to take delight in, the 
 tragedians of the city. 
 
 Ha/n. How chances it they travel? their residence, both in 
 reputation and profit, was better both ways. 
 
 Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the 
 late innovation. 
 
6o HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I 
 was in the city.'* are they so followed? 350 
 
 Ros. No, indeed, are they not. 
 
 Ham. How comes it.-^ do they grow rusty? 
 
 Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wontea pace : but 
 there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that cry out on 
 the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapped for't: 
 these are now the fashion, and so berattle the common 
 stages — so they call them — that many wearing rapiers are 
 afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce come thither. 360 
 
 Ham. What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how 
 are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer 
 than they can sing? will they not say afterw^ards, if they 
 should grow themselves to common players — as it is most 
 like, if their means are no better — their writers do them 
 wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession? 
 
 Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides ; and 
 the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy: there 
 was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet 
 and the player went to cuffs in the question. 
 
 Ham. Is 't possible? 
 
 Guil. O, there has been much throwing about of brains. 
 
 Ham. Do the boys carry it away? 
 
 Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load 
 too. ... 379 
 
 Ham. It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of 
 Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my 
 father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a- 
 piece for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in 
 this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. 
 
 {Flourish of trumpets within. 
 
 Guil. There are the players. 
 
 Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your 
 hands, come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion 
 and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb, lest my 
 extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly out- 
 ward, should more appear like entertainment than yours. 
 You are welcome: but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are 
 deceived. 
 
 Guil. In what, my dear lord? 
 
 Hain. I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is 
 southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. 
 Re-e7iter POLONIUS. 
 
 Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen I 
 
 Hani. Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 61 
 
 a hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet out of his 
 swaddhng-clouts. 
 
 Ros. Happily he 's the second time come to them ; for they 
 say an old man is twice a child. 
 
 Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players; 
 mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning; 'twas so 
 indeed. 
 
 Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. 
 
 Hmn. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius 
 was an actor in Rome, — 410 
 
 Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Buz, buz ! 
 
 Pol. Upon mine honour, — 
 
 Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, — 
 
 Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, 
 comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pas- 
 toral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, 
 scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too 
 heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the 
 liberty, these are the only men. 42 1 
 
 Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst 
 thou! 
 
 Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord? 
 
 Ham,. Why, 
 
 ' One fair daughter, and no more, 
 The which he loved passing well' . 
 
 Pol. \Aside\ Still on my daughter. 
 
 Ham. Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah? 
 
 Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter 
 that I love passing well. . 431 
 
 Ham. Nay, that follows not. 
 
 Pol. What follows, then, my lord? 
 
 Ham. Why, 
 
 ' As by lot, God wot ', 
 and then, you know, 
 
 ' It came to pass, as most like it was ', — 
 the first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for 
 look, where my abridgement comes. 
 
 Enter four or five Players, 
 
 You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad to see 
 thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old friend ! thy 
 face is valanced since I saw thee last: comest thou to beard 
 me in Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress ! By 'r 
 lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you 
 
62 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 last, by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, 
 like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the 
 ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We '11 e'en to 't like 
 French falconers, fly at any thing we see: we'll have a speech 
 straight: come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a 
 passionate speech. 
 
 First Player. What speech, my lord? 
 
 Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was 
 never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the play, I 
 remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the 
 general: but it was — as I received it, and others, whose 
 judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine — an ex- 
 cellent play, w^ell digested in the scenes, set down with as 
 much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there were 
 no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no 
 matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affecta- 
 tion; but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, 
 and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in 
 it I chiefly loved: 't was Eneas' tale to Dido; and thereabout 
 of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's slaughter: if it 
 live in your memory, begin at this line: let me see, let me 
 see — 47 1 
 
 'The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast',, — it is not so: 
 — it begins with Pyrrhus: — 
 
 ' The rugged Pyrrhus, he Avhose sable arms, 
 Black as his purpose, did the night resemble 
 When he lay couched in the ominous horse, 
 Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd 
 With heraldry more dismal ; head to foot 
 Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd 
 With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, 
 Baked and impasted with the parching streets, 
 That lend a tyrannous and damned light 
 To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire, 
 And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, 
 With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus 
 Old grandsire Priam seeks.' 
 So, proceed you. 
 
 Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and 
 good discretion. 
 
 First Player. ' Anon he finds him 
 
 Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword, 
 Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, 
 Repugnant to command: unequal match'd, 
 Pyrrhus at Priam drives ; in rage strikes wide; 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET, 63 
 
 But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword 
 
 The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, 
 
 Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top 
 
 Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash 
 
 Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword 
 
 Which was declining on the milky head 500 
 
 Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick: 
 
 So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, 
 
 And like a neutral to his will and matter, 
 
 Did nothing. 
 
 But, as we often see, against some storm, 
 
 A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, 
 
 The bold winds speechless and the orb below 
 
 As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder 
 
 Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause. 
 
 Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work; 510 
 
 And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall 
 
 On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne 
 
 With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword 
 
 Now falls on Priam. 
 
 Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune ! All you gods, 
 
 In general synod, take away her power: 
 
 Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel. 
 
 And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, 
 
 As low as to the fiends !' 
 
 Pol. This is too long. 520 
 
 Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee, 
 
 say on : he 's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps : say 
 
 on: come to Hecuba. 
 
 First Player. 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled 
 
 queen — ' 
 
 Ham. 'The mobled queen?' 
 
 Pol. That's good; 'mobled queen' is good. 
 
 First Player. ' Run barefoot up and down, threatening the 
 
 flames 
 With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head 
 Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, 530 
 
 About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins, 
 A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up; 
 Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd, 
 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced: 
 But if the gods themselves did see her then 
 When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport 
 In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs. 
 The instant burst of clamour that she made, 
 
64 HAMLET. ' [Act II. 
 
 Unless things mortal move them not at all, 
 
 Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, 540 
 
 And passion in the gods.' 
 
 Pol. Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has 
 tears in 's eyes. Pray you, no more. 
 
 Ham. 'T is well; I'll have thee speak out the rest soon. 
 Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do 
 you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstract 
 and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were 
 better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live, 
 
 Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. 
 
 Ham. God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man 
 after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use 
 them after your own honour and dignity: the less they 
 deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in. 
 
 Pol. Come, sirs. 55.9 
 
 Ham. Follow him, friends : we '11 hear a play to-morrow. 
 {Exit Polo7ti2is with all the players btct the First.^ Dost 
 thou hear me, old friend; can you play the Murder of Gon- 
 zago? 
 
 First Player. Ay, my lord. 
 
 Ham. We '11 ha 't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, 
 study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would 
 set down and insert in 't, could you not ? 
 
 First Player. Ay, my lord. 569 
 
 Ham. Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock 
 him not. {Exit First Player?^ My good friends, I '11 leave 
 you till night : you are welcome to Elsinore. 
 
 Ros. Good my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Ay, so, God be wi' ye ; {Exeunt Rosencrantz and 
 Guildenstern.~\ Now I am alone. 
 O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! 
 Is it not monstrous that this player here. 
 But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, 
 Could force his soul so to his own conceit 
 That from her working all his visage wann'd, 580 
 
 Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspect, 
 A broken voice, and his whole function suiting 
 With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing! 
 For Hecuba ! 
 
 What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, 
 That he should weep for her? What would he do, 
 Had he the motive and the cue for passion 
 That I have? He would drown the stage with tears 
 And cleave the general ear with horrid speech. 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 65 
 
 Make mad the guilty and appal the free, 590 
 
 Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed 
 
 The very faculties of eyes and ears. 
 
 Yet I, 
 
 A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, 
 
 Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, 
 
 And can say nothing ; no, not for a king, 
 
 Upon whose property and most dear life 
 
 A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? 
 
 Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? 
 
 Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? 600 
 
 Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, 
 
 As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? 
 
 Ha! 
 
 'Swounds, I should take it : for it cannot be 
 
 But I am pigeon-Iiver'd and lack gall 
 
 To make oppression bitter, or ere this 
 
 I should have fatted all the region kites 
 
 With this slave's offal : bloody, bawdy villain 1 
 
 Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain ! 
 
 O, vengeance! 610 
 
 Why, what an ass am I ! This is most brave. 
 
 That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, 
 
 Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell. 
 
 Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, 
 
 And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, 
 
 A scullion ! 
 
 Fie upon 't ! foh ! About, my brain ! I have heard 
 
 That guilty creatures sitting at a play 
 
 Have by the very cunning of the scene 
 
 Been struck so to the soul that presently 620 
 
 They have proclaim'd their malefactions ; 
 
 For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak 
 
 With most miraculous organ. I '11 have these players 
 
 Play something like the murder of my father 
 
 Before mine uncle : I '11 observe his looks ; 
 
 I '11 tent him to the quick : if he but blench, 
 
 I know my course. The spirit that I have seen 
 
 May be the devil : and the devil hath power 
 
 To assume a pleasing shape ; yea, and perhaps 
 
 Out of my weakness and my melancholy, 630 
 
 As he is very potent with such spirits, 
 
 Abuses me to damn me : I '11 have grounds 
 
 More relative than this : the play's the thing 
 
 Wherein I '11 catch the conscience of the king. {Exit, 
 
 (885) E 
 
66 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene I. A room in the castle. 
 
 Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, 
 and Guildenstern. 
 
 King. And can you, by no drift of circumstance, 
 Get from hinx why he puts on this confusion, 
 Grating so harshly all his days of quiet 
 With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? 
 
 Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted ; 
 But from what cause he will by no means speak. 
 
 Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, 
 But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,. 
 When we would bring him on to some confession 
 Of his true state. 
 
 Queen. Did he receive you well? • ' lo 
 
 Ros. Most like a gentleman. 
 
 Guil. But with n\uch forcing of his disposition. 
 
 Ros. Niggard of question ; but, of our demands, 
 Most free in his reply. 
 
 Qiieen. Did you assay him 
 
 To any pastime? 
 
 Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain pla)'ers 
 We o'er-raught on the way : of these we told him ; 
 And there did seem in him a kind of joy 
 To hear of it : they are about the court. 
 
 And, as I think, they have already order 20 
 
 This night to play before him. 
 
 Pol. 'T is most true : 
 
 And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties 
 To hear and see the matter. 
 
 King. With all my heart ; and it doth much content me 
 To hear him so inclined. 
 Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, 
 And drive his purpose on to these delights. 
 
 Ros. We shall, my lord. 
 
 \Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 
 King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too ; 
 
 For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither. 
 That he, as 't were by accident, may here 30 
 
 Affront Ophelia: ^ 
 
 Her father and myself, lawful espials. 
 Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen. 
 
Scene i.] HAMLET. 67 
 
 We may of their encounter frankly judge, 
 And gather by him, as he is behaved, 
 If't be the affliction of his love or no 
 That thus he suffers for. 
 
 Queen. I shall obey you. 
 
 And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish 
 That your good beauties be the happy cause 
 Of Hamlet's wildness : so shall I hope your virtues 40 
 
 Will bring him to his wonted way again. 
 To both your honours. 
 
 Oph. Madam, I wish it may. \Exit Queen. 
 
 Pol. Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you, 
 We will bestow ourselves. \To Ophelia\ Read on this book; 
 That show of such an exercise may colour 
 Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this, — 
 'T is too much proved — that with devotion's visage 
 And pious action we do sugar o'er 
 The devil himself. 
 
 Kiitg. [Asz'de] O, 't is too true ! 
 How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience ! 50 
 The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art. 
 Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it 
 Than is my deed to my most painted word : 
 O heavy burthen ! 
 
 Pol. I hear him coming : let 's withdraw, my lord. 
 
 [Exeunt King and Polonius. 
 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. To be, or not to be : that is the question : 
 Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer 
 The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, 
 Or to take arms against a sea of troubles. 
 And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; 60 
 
 No more ; and by a sleep to say we end 
 The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks 
 That flesh is heir to, 't is a consummation 
 Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep ; 
 To sleep : perchance to dream : ay, there 's the rub ; 
 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come 
 W^hen we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
 Must give us pause : there 's the respect 
 That makes calamity of so long life ; 
 
 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 70 
 
 The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 
 The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 
 
 / 
 
68 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 The insolence of office and the spurns 
 
 That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 
 
 When he himself might his quietus make 
 
 With a bare bodkin ? who would fardels bear. 
 
 To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 
 
 But that the dread of something after death. 
 
 The undiscover'd country from whose bourn 
 
 No traveller returns, puzzles the will ' 80 
 
 And makes us rather bear those ills we have 
 
 Than fly to others that we know not of? 
 
 Thus conscience does make cowards of us all ; 
 
 And thus the native hue of resolution 
 
 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought. 
 
 And enterprises of great pitch and moment 
 
 With this regard their currents turn awry. 
 
 And lose the name of action. — Soft you now ! 
 
 The fair Ophelia ! Nymph, in thy orisons 
 
 Be all my sins remember'd. 
 
 Oph. Good my lord, 90 
 
 How does your honour for this many a day? 
 
 Ham. I humbly thank you ; well, well, well. 
 
 Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, 
 That I have longed long to re-deliver ; 
 I pray you, now receive them. 
 
 Ham. No, not I ; 
 
 I never gave you aught. 
 
 Oph. My honour'd lord, you know right well you did ; 
 And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed 
 As made the things more rich : their perfume lost, 
 Take these again ; for to the noble mind 100 
 
 Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. 
 There, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest? 
 
 Oph. My lord? 
 
 Ham. Are you fair? 
 
 Oph. What means your lordship ? 
 
 Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should 
 admit no discourse to your beauty. 
 
 Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than 
 with honesty? ^ no 
 
 Ham. Ay, truly ; for the power of beauty will sooner trans- 
 form honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of 
 honesty can translate beauty into his likeness : this was some- 
 time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love 
 you once. 
 
Scene i.] HAMLET. 69 
 
 ■ Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. 
 
 Ham. You should not have believed me ; for virtue cannot 
 so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it : I loved you 
 not. 1 20 
 
 Oph. I was the more deceived. 
 
 Ham. Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a 
 breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet 
 I could accuse me of such things that it were better my 
 mother had not borne me : I am very proud, revengeful, 
 ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have 
 thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or 
 time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling 
 between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe 
 none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where 's your father? 
 
 Oph. At home, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play 
 the fool no where but in 's own house. Farewell. 
 
 Oph. O, help him, you sweet heavens ! 
 
 Ham. If thou dost marry, I '11 give thee this plague for thy 
 dowry : be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt 
 not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go : farewell. 
 Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool ; for wise men know 
 well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, 
 go, and quickly too. Farewell. 
 
 Oph. O heavenly powers, restore him! 
 
 Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough ; 
 God has given you one face, and you make yourselves 
 another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name 
 God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. 
 Go to, I '11 no more on 't ; it hath made me mad. I say, we 
 will have no more marriages : those that are married already, 
 all but one, shall live ; the rest shall keep as they are. To a 
 nunnery, go. \Exit. 
 
 Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! 
 The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword ; 
 The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 160 
 
 The glass of fashion and the mould of form. 
 The observed of all observers, quite, quite down ! 
 And I, of ladies most deject and wretched. 
 That suck'd the honey of his music vows, 
 Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 
 Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ; 
 That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth 
 Blasted with ecstasy : O, woe is me, 
 To have seen what I have seen, see what I see ! 
 
70 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 Re-enter King and Polonius. 
 
 King. Love! his affections do not that way tend; 170 
 
 Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a Uttle, 
 Was not Hke madness. There 's something in his soul, 
 O'er which his melancholy sits on brood ; 
 And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose 
 Will be some danger: which for to prevent, 
 I have in quick determination 
 
 Thus set it down : he shall with speed to England, 
 For the demand of our neglected tribute : 
 Haply the seas and countries different 
 
 With variable objects shall expel 180 
 
 This something-settled matter in his heart, 
 Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus 
 From fashion of himself What think you on't.'' 
 
 Pol. It shall do well : but yet do I believe 
 The origin and commencement of his grief 
 Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia! 
 You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said ; 
 We heard it all. My lord, do as you.please; 
 But, if you hold it fit, after the play 
 
 Let his queen mother all alone entreat him 190 
 
 To show his grief: let her be round with him ; 
 And I '11 be placed, so please you, in the ear 
 Of all their conference. If she find him not. 
 To England send him, or confine him where 
 Your wisdom best shall think. 
 
 King. It shall be so : 
 
 Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. A hall in the castle. 
 
 Enter Hamlet and Players. 
 
 Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to 
 you, trippingly on the tongue : but if you mouth it, as many 
 of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. 
 Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but 
 use all gently ; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may 
 say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a 
 temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to 
 the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a pas- 
 sion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the ground- 
 lings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inex- 
 plicable dumb-shows and noise : I would have such a fellow 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 71 
 
 whipped for o'erdoing Terrrtagant; it outherods Herod: pray 
 you, avoid it. 
 
 First Player. I warrant your honour. 
 
 Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion 
 be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the 
 action ; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the 
 modesty of nature : for any thing so overdone is from the 
 purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was 
 and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show- 
 virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age 
 and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this over- 
 done, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, 
 cannot but make the judicious grieve ; the censure of the 
 which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre 
 of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and 
 heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, 
 that, neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of 
 Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I 
 have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men and 
 not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. 
 
 First Player. I hope we have reformed that indifferently 
 with us, sir. 41 
 
 Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let those that play 
 your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for 
 there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some 
 quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the 
 mean time, some necessary question of the play be then to be 
 considered : that 's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambi- 
 tion in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready. 
 
 [Exeunt Players. 
 
 Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. 
 
 How now, my lord ! will the king hear this piece of work? 
 Pol. And the queen too, and that presently. 
 Ham. Bid the players make haste. {Exit Polojiius.^ Will 
 you two help to hasten them? 
 
 cTdi. \ ^^ ^'^"' "^y ^°^^- 
 
 \Exe24.?it Rosencrantz and Gitiuienstern. 
 Ham. What ho ! Horatio ! 
 
 Enter Horatio. 
 
 Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. 
 Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man 
 As e'er my conversation coped withal. 6fc) 
 
72 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 Hor. O, my dear lord, — 
 
 Haj7i. Nay, do not think I flatter ; 
 
 For what advancement may I hope from thee 
 That no revenue hast but thy good spirits, 
 To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd? 
 No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, 
 And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee 
 Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? 
 Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice 
 And could of men distinguish, her election 
 Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been 70 
 
 As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing, 
 A man that fortune's buffets and rewards 
 Hast ta'en with equal thanks : and blest are those 
 Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled, 
 That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger 
 To sound what stop she please. Give me that man 
 That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him 
 In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, 
 As I do thee. — Something too much of this. — 
 There is a play to-night before the king; 80 
 
 One scene of it comes near the circumstance 
 Which I have told thee of my father's death : 
 I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot. 
 Even with the very comment of thy soul 
 Observe mine uncle : if his -occulted guilt 
 Do not itself unkennel in one speech, 
 It is a damned ghost that we have seen, 
 And my imaginations are as foul 
 As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note ; 
 For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, 90 
 
 And after we will both our judgements join 
 In censure of his seeming. 
 
 Hor. Well, my lord : 
 
 If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing. 
 And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft. 
 
 Ham. They are coming to the play ; I must be idle : 
 Get you a place. 
 
 Danish inarch. A flourish. Enter King, Queen, Polo- 
 Nius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and 
 others. 
 
 King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? 
 
 Ham. Excellent, i' faith ; of the chameleon's dish : I eat 
 the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so. 100 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 73 
 
 Ki7ii^. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these 
 words are not mine. 
 
 Ham. No, nor mine now. \To PoIonius^\ My lord, you 
 played once i' the university, you say? 
 
 Pol. That did I, my lord ; and was accounted a good actor. 
 
 Ham. What did you enact? 
 
 Pol. I did enact Julius Caesar : I was killed 1' the Capitol ; 
 Brutus killed me. 
 
 Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf 
 there. Be the players ready? 1 1 1 
 
 Ros. Ay, my lord ; they stay upon your patience. 
 
 Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. 
 
 Ham. No, good mother, here 's metal more attractive. 
 
 Pol. [To the Ki7tg\ O, ho ! do you mark that? 
 
 Oph. You are merry, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Who, I? 13° 
 
 Oph. Ay, my lord. 
 
 Ham. O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do 
 but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, 
 and my father died within these two hours. 
 
 Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. 
 
 Ham. So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I '11 
 have a suit of sables. O heavens ! die two months ago, and 
 not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory 
 may outlive his life half a year: but, by'r lady, he must build 
 churches, then ; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with 
 the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O, the hobby- 
 horse is forgot'. 
 
 Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters. 
 
 Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen e^n- 
 bracing him, and he her. She kneels^ and makes show of 
 protestation unto him. He takes her up, and decli7ies his 
 head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of 
 flowers: she, seeiftg hijn asleep, leaves him. Anon comes 
 in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison 
 in the King's ears^ and exit. The Queen returns; finds 
 the King dead, and makes passionate action. The 
 Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, 
 seeining to lament with her. The dead body is carried 
 away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she 
 seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts 
 his love. [Exeunt. 
 
 Oph. What means this, my lord? 148 
 
74 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho ; it means mischief. 
 Oph. Behke this show imports the argument of the play. 
 
 Enter Prologue. 
 
 Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot 
 keep counsel ; they '11 tell all. 
 
 Pro. For us, and for our tragedy. 
 
 Here stooping to your clemency, i6o 
 
 We beg your hearing patiently. \Exit. 
 
 Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? 
 Oph. 'T is brief, my lord. 
 Ham. As woman's love. 
 
 Enter two Players, King and Queen. 
 
 P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round 
 Neptune's salt-wash and Tellus' orbed ground, 
 And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen 
 About the world have times twelve thirties been 
 Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands 
 Unite commutual in most sacred bands. 170 
 
 P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon 
 Make us again count o'er ere love be done ! 
 But, woe is me, you are so sick of late. 
 So far from cheer and from your former state, 
 That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, 
 Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must : ^ 
 For women's fear and love holds quantity ; 
 In neither aught, or in extremity. 
 Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know ; 
 And as my love is sized, my fear is so : 180 
 
 Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear ; 
 Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. 
 
 P. King. ' Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too , 
 My operant powers their functions leave to do : 
 And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, 
 Honour'd, beloved ; and haply one as kind 
 For husband shalt thou — 
 
 P. Queen. O, confound the rest ! 
 
 Such love must needs be treason in my breast : 
 In second husband let me be accurst ! 
 
 None wed the second but who kill'd the first. 190 
 
 Hain. \Aside\ Wormwood, wormwood. 
 
 P. Quee7i. The instances that second marriage move 
 Are base respects of thrift, but none of love : 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 75 
 
 A second time I kill my husband dead, 
 When second husband kisses me in bed. 
 
 P. Kino-. I do believe you think what now you speak ; 
 But what we do determine oft we break. 
 Purpose is but the slave to memory, 
 Of violent birth, but poor validity : 
 
 Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree ; 200 
 
 But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. 
 Most necessary 't is that we forget 
 To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt : 
 What to ourselves in passion we propose, 
 The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. 
 The violence of either grief or joy 
 Their own enactures with themselves destroy : 
 Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; 
 Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. 
 This world is not for aye, nor 't is not strange 
 That even our loves should with our fortunes change ; 
 For 't is a question left us yet to prove. 
 Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. 
 The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; 
 The poor advanced makes friends of enemies. 
 And hitherto doth love on fortune tend ; 
 For who not needs shall never lack a friend, 
 And who in want a hollow friend doth try. 
 Directly seasons him his enemy. 
 
 But, orderly to end where I begun, 220 
 
 Our wills and fates do so contrary run 
 That our devices still are overthrown; 
 Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: 
 So think thou wik no second husband wed; 
 But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. 
 
 P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light ! 
 Sport and repose lock from me day and night ! 
 To desperation turn my trust and hope ! 
 An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope ! 
 Each opposite that blanks the face of joy 230 
 
 Meet what I would have well and it destroy ! 
 Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife, 
 If, once a widow, ever I be wife ! 
 Ham. If she should break it now ! 
 
 P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here 
 awhile ; 
 My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile 
 The tedious day with sleep. {Sleeps. 
 
76 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain ; 
 
 And never come mischance between us twain ! \Exit. 
 
 Ham. Madam, how hke you this play? 
 
 Quee?!. The lady doth protest too much, methinks, 240 
 
 Ham. O, but she '11 keep her word. 
 
 Ki7ig. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence 
 in't? 
 
 Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest ; no offence 
 i' the world. 
 
 King. What do you call the play? 
 
 Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This 
 play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is 
 the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 'tis 
 a knavish piece of work: but what o' that? your majesty 
 and we that have free souls, it touches us not: let the galled 
 jade wince, our withers are un wrung. 
 
 Enter LuciANUS. 
 
 This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. 
 
 Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord. 
 
 Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I 
 could see the puppets dallying. 
 
 Oph. Still better, and worse. 261 
 
 Ham. So you mistake your husbands. Begin, murderer; 
 pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come : ' the 
 croaking raven doth bellow for revenge '. 
 
 Ltic. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time 
 agreeing ; 
 
 Confederate season, else no creature seeing; 
 
 Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, 
 
 With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, 
 
 Thy natural magic and dire property, 270 
 
 On wholesome life usurp immediately. 
 
 \Pou7's the poison i?tta the sleeper's ears. 
 
 Ham. He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His 
 name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in choice 
 Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer gets the love 
 of Gonzago's wife. 
 
 Oph. The king rises. 
 
 Hajn. What, frighted with false fire ! 
 
 Quee7t. How fares my lord? 
 
 Pol. Give o'er the play. 
 
 King. Give me some light : away ! 280 
 
 All. Lights, lights, lights ! 
 
 [Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio. 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 77 
 
 Ham. Why, let the stricken deer go weep, 
 The hart ungalled play; 
 For some must watch, while some must sleep: 
 So runs the world away. 
 Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers — if the rest of 
 my fortunes turn Turk with me — with two Provincial roses 
 on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, 
 sir? 
 
 Hor. Half a share. 290 
 
 Ham. A whole one, I. 
 
 For thou dost know, O Damon dear, 
 
 This realm dismantled was 
 Of Jove himself ; and now reigns here 
 A very, very — pajock. 
 Hor. You might have rhymed. 
 
 Ham. O good Horatio, I '11 take the ghost's word for a 
 thousand pound. Didst perceive? 
 Hor. Very well, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning? 300 
 
 Hor. I did very well note him. 
 
 Ham. Ah, ha ! Come, some music ! come, the recorders ! 
 For if the king like not the comedy. 
 Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. 
 Come, some music ! 
 
 Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GuiLDENSTERN. 
 
 Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. 
 
 Ham. Sir, a whole history. 
 
 Guil. The king, sir, — 310 
 
 Ham. Ay, sir, what of him ? 
 
 Guil. Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. 
 
 Ham. With drink, sir? 
 
 Guil. No, my lord, rather with choler. 
 
 Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to 
 signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him to his purga- 
 tion would perhaps plunge him into far more choler. 319 
 
 Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, 
 and start not so wildly from my affair. 
 
 Ham. I am tame, sir : pronounce. 
 
 Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of 
 spirit, hath sent me to you. 
 
 Ham. You are welcome. 
 
 Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right 
 breed. If it shall please you to make me a w^holesome 
 
78 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 answer, I will do your mother's commandment : if not, 
 your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business. 
 
 Ham. Sir, I cannot. 331 
 
 Guil. What, my lord? 
 
 Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: 
 but, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command ; or, 
 rather, as you say, my mother : therefore no more, but to the 
 matter: my mother, you say, — 
 
 Ros. Then thus she says ; your behaviour hath struck her 
 into amazement and admiration. 339 
 
 Ha7n. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! 
 But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admira- 
 tion? Impart. 
 
 Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you 
 go to bed. 
 
 Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. 
 Have you any further trade with us? 
 
 Ros. My lord, you once did love me. 
 
 Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers. 349 
 
 Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you 
 do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny 
 your griefs to your friend. 
 
 Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. 
 
 Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the 
 king himself for your succession in Denmark? 
 
 Ha7n. Ay, sir, but, ' While the grass grows ',- — the proverb 
 is something musty. 359 
 
 Re-enter Players with recorders. 
 
 O, the recorders ! let me see one. To withdraw with you : — 
 why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you 
 would drive me into a toil? 
 
 Guil. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too 
 unmannerly. 
 
 Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon 
 this pipe? 
 
 Guil. My lord, I cannot. 
 
 Ham. I pray you. 
 
 Guil. Believe me, I cannot. 
 
 Ham. I do beseech you. 370 
 
 Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord. 
 
 Ham. 'T is as easy as lying : govern these ventages with 
 your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and 
 it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are 
 the stops. 
 
Scene 3.] HAMLET. 79 
 
 Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance of 
 harmony; I have not the skill. 
 
 Hani. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you 
 make of me ! You would play upon me ; you would seem to 
 know my stops ; you would pluck out the heart of my mys- 
 tery; you would "sound me from my lowest note to the top 
 of my compass : and there is much music, excellent voice, in 
 this little organ ; yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do 
 you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me 
 what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you 
 cannot play upon me. 
 
 Enter PoLONius. 
 God bless you, sir ! 390 
 
 Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and 
 presently. 
 
 Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a 
 camel? 
 
 Pol. By the mass, and 't is like a camel, indeed. 
 
 Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel. 
 
 Pol. It is backed like a weasel. 
 
 Ham. Or like a whale? 
 
 Pol. Very like a whale. 399 
 
 Ham. Then I will come to my mother by and by. They 
 fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by. 
 
 Pol. I will say so. 
 
 Ham. By and by is easily said. \E,xit Polonius7\ Leave 
 me, friends. [Exeunt all but Hafnlet. 
 
 'T is now the very witching time of night. 
 When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out 
 Contagion to this world : now could I drink hot blood. 
 And do such bitter business as the day 
 Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother. 410 
 
 heart, lose not thy nature ; let not ever 
 The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom : 
 Let me be cruel, not unnatural : 
 
 1 will speak daggers to her, but use none ; 
 My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites ; 
 How in my words soever she be shent. 
 
 To give them seals never, my soul, consent ! [Exit. 
 
 Scene in. A room in the castle. 
 Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guild enstern. 
 
 King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us 
 To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you; 
 
8o HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 I your commission will forthwith dispatch, 
 x\nd he to England shall along with you : 
 The terms of our estate may not endure 
 Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow 
 Out of his lunacies. 
 
 Gidl. We will ourselves provide : 
 
 Most holy and religious fear it is 
 To keep those many many bodies safe 
 That live and feed upon your majesty. lo 
 
 Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound, 
 With all the strength and armour of the mind. 
 To keep itself from noyance ; but much more 
 That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest 
 The lives of many. The cease of majesty 
 Dies not alone ; but, like a gulf, doth draw 
 What's near it with it : it is a massy wheel, 
 Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount. 
 To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things 
 Are mortised and adjoin'd ; which, when it falls, 20 
 
 Each small annexment, petty consequence, 
 Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone 
 Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. 
 
 King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; 
 For we will fetters put upon this fear. 
 Which now goes too free-footed. 
 
 We will haste us. 
 
 Guil. ^ 
 
 [Exeunt Rosejicrantz and Guildenstern. 
 
 Enter POLONius. 
 
 Pol. My lord, he's going to his mothei^'s closet: 
 Behind the arras I '11 convey myself. 
 To hear the process ; I '11 warrant she '11 tax him home : 
 And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 30 
 
 'T is meet that some more audience than a mother. 
 Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear 
 The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege : 
 I '11 call upon you ere you go to bed. 
 And tell you what I know. 
 
 King. Thanks, dear my lord. {Exit Polonius. 
 
 O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven ; 
 It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't, 
 A brother's murder. Pray can I not. 
 Though inclination be as sharp as will : 
 My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent ; 40 
 
Scene 3.] HAMLET. 81 
 
 And, like a man to double business bound, 
 
 I stand in pause where I shall first begin, 
 
 And both neglect. What if this cursed hand 
 
 Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, 
 
 Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 
 
 To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy 
 
 But to confront the visage of offence? 
 
 And what 's in prayer but this two-fold force, 
 
 To be forestalled ere we come to fall, 
 
 Or pardon'd being down? Then I '11 look up ; 50 
 
 My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer 
 
 Can serve my turn? ' Forgive me my foul murder'? 
 
 That cannot be ; since I am still possess'd 
 
 Of those effects for which I did the murder, 
 
 My crown, mine own ambition and my queen. 
 
 May one be pardon'd and retain the offence? 
 
 In the corrupted currents of this world 
 
 Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, 
 
 And oft 't is seen the wicked prize itself 
 
 Buys out the law : but 't is not so above ; 60 
 
 There is no shuffling, there the action lies 
 
 In his true nature ; and we ourselves compell'd. 
 
 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults. 
 
 To give in evidence. What then? what rests? 
 
 Try what repentance can : what can it not? 
 
 Yet what can it when one can not repent? 
 
 O wretched state ! O bosom black as death ! 
 
 O limed soul, that, struggling to be free. 
 
 Art more engaged ! Help, angels ! Make assay ! 
 
 Bow, stubborn knees ; and, heart with strings of steel, 70 
 
 Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe ! 
 
 All may be well. {Retires and kneels. 
 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying ; 
 And now I '11 do 't. And so he goes to heaven ; 
 And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd : 
 A villain kills my father ; and for that, 
 I, his sole son, do this same villain send 
 To heaven. 
 
 O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. 
 
 He took my father grossly, full of bread ; 80 
 
 With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May ; 
 And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? 
 But in our circumstance and course of thought, 
 
 ( 885 ) F 
 
82 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 'T is heavy with him : and am I then revenged, 
 To take him in the purging of his soul, 
 When he is fit and season'd for his passage? 
 No! 
 
 Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent : 
 When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, 
 Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed ; 90 
 
 At gaming, swearing, or about some act 
 That has no relish of salvation in 't ; 
 Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, 
 And that his soul may be as damn'd and black 
 As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays : 
 This physic but prolongs thy sickly days, \Exit. 
 
 King. [Rising] My words fly up, my thoughts remain 
 below : 
 Words without thoughts never to heaven go. [Exit. 
 
 Scene IV. The Queen^s closet. 
 Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS. 
 
 Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to him : 
 Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with. 
 And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between 
 Much heat and him. I '11 silence me even here. 
 Pray you, be round with him. 
 
 Ham. [Within\ Mother, mother, mother! 
 
 Queen. I '11 warrant you. 
 
 Fear me not : withdraw, I hear him coming. 
 
 [Polonius hides behind the arras. 
 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 
 Ham, Now, mother, what's the matter? 
 
 Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 
 
 Ha7n. Mother, you have my father much offended. 10 
 
 Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. 
 
 Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. 
 
 Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet ! 
 
 Ha7n. What's the matter now? 
 
 Queen. Have you forgot me? 
 
 Ham,. No, by the rood, not so : 
 
 You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife ; 
 And— would it were not so ! — you are my mother. 
 
 Queen. Nay, then, I '11 set those to you that can speak. 
 
Scene 4.] HAMLET. 83 
 
 Ham. Come, come, and sit you down ; you shall not budge; 
 You go not till I set you up a glass 
 Where you may see the inmost part of you. 20 
 
 Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? 
 Help, help, ho ! 
 
 Pol. [Behind'] What, ho ! help, help, help ! 
 
 Ha7n. [Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, 
 dead ! {Makes a pass through the arras. 
 
 Pol. [Behind] O, I am slain ! [Falls and dies. 
 
 Quee7i. O me, what hast thou done? 
 
 Ham. Nay, I know not : 
 
 Is it the king? 
 
 Qiieeit. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this ! 
 
 Ham. A bloody deed ! almost as bad, good mother. 
 As kill a king, and marry with his brother. 
 
 Queen. As kill a king ! 
 
 Ham. Ay, lady, 't was my word. 30 
 
 [Lifts up the arras a?td discovers Polonius. 
 Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell ! 
 I took thee for thy better : take thy fortune ; 
 Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger. 
 Leave wringing of your hands : peace ! sit you down, 
 And let me wring your heart ; for so I shall. 
 If it be made of penetrable stuff, 
 If damned custom have not brass'd it so 
 That it be proof and bulwark against sense. 
 
 Queen. What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue 
 In noise so rude against me? 
 
 Ham. Such an act 40 
 
 That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, 
 Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose 
 From the fair forehead of an innocent love 
 And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows 
 As false as dicers' oaths : O, such a deed 
 As from the body of contraction plucks 
 The very soul, and sweet religion makes 
 A rhapsody of words : heaven's face doth glow ; 
 Yea, this solidity and compound mass, 
 
 With tristful visage, as against the doom, 50 
 
 Is thought-sick at the act. 
 
 Queen. Ay me, what act. 
 
 That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? 
 
 Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this, 
 The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. 
 See, what a grace was seated on this brow ; 
 
84 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself; 
 
 An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; 
 
 A station like the herald Mercury 
 
 New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ; 
 
 A combination and a form indeed, 60 
 
 Where every god did seem to set his seal, 
 
 To give the world assurance of a man : 
 
 This was your husband. Look you now, what follows : 
 
 Here is your husband ; like a mildew'd ear, 
 
 Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? 
 
 Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, 
 
 And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes? 
 
 You cannot call it love ; for at your age 
 
 The hey-day in the blood is tame, it 's humble. 
 
 And waits upon the judgement : and what judgement 70 
 
 Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have. 
 
 Else could you not have motion ; but sure, that sense 
 
 Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err. 
 
 Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd 
 
 But it reserved some quantity of choice, 
 
 To serve in such a difference. What devil was 't 
 
 That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? 
 
 Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight. 
 
 Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all. 
 
 Or but a sickly part of one true sense 80 
 
 Could not so mope. 
 
 O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, 
 
 If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones. 
 
 To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, 
 
 And melt in her own fire : proclaim no shame 
 
 When the compulsive ardour gives the charge. 
 
 Since frost itself as actively doth burn 
 
 And reason pandars will. 
 
 Quee7t. O Hamlet, speak no more : 
 
 Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul ; 
 And there I see such black and grained spots 90 
 
 As will not leave their tinct. O, speak to me no more ; 
 These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears ; 
 No more, sweet Hamlet ! 
 
 Ham. A murderer and a villain ; 
 
 A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 
 Of your precedent lord ; a vice of kings ; 
 A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, 
 
 That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, 100 
 
 And put it in his pocket ! / 
 
Scene 4.] HAMLET. 85 
 
 Queen. No more ! 
 
 Ham. A king of shreds and patches, — 
 
 Enter Ghost. 
 
 Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings. 
 
 You heavenly guards ! What would your gracious figure 
 
 Quee7i. Alas, he 's mad ! 
 
 Ha7n. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, 
 That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by 
 The important acting of your dread command? 
 O, say! 
 
 Ghost. Do not forget: this visitation no 
 
 Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. 
 But, look, amazement on thy mother sits : 
 O, step between her and her fighting soul : 
 Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works : 
 Speak to her, Hamlet. 
 
 Hain. How is it with you, lady? 
 
 Qiieeii. Alas, how is 't with you, 
 That you do bend your eye on vacancy 
 And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? 
 Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep ; 
 And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, 120 
 
 Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, 
 Start up, and stand an end. O gentle son, 
 Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper 
 Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? 
 
 Ham. On him, on him ! Look you, how pale he glares ! 
 His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, 
 Would rnake them capable. Do not look upon me; 
 Lest with this piteous action you convert 
 My stern effects : then what I have to do 
 Will want true colour ; tears perchance for blood. 1 30 
 
 Queen. To whom do you speak this ? 
 
 Ham. Do you see nothing there? 
 
 Queen. Nothing at all ; yet all that is I see. 
 
 Ham. Nor did you nothing hear? 
 
 Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. 
 
 Ham. Why, look you there ! look, how it steals away ! 
 My father, in his habit as he lived ! 
 Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal ! 
 
 \Exit Ghost. 
 
 Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain : 
 This bodiless creation ecstasy 
 Is very cunning in. 
 
86 HAMLET. • [Act III. 
 
 Ham, Ecstasy ! 
 
 My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, 140 
 
 And makes as healthful music : it is not madness 
 That I have utter'd : bring me to the test, 
 And I the matter will re-word ; which madness 
 Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, 
 Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, 
 That not your trespass, but my madness speaks : 
 It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, 
 Whiles rank corruption, mining all within. 
 Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven ; 
 Repent what 's past ; avoid what is to come ; 1 50 
 
 And do not spread the compost on the weeds, 
 To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue ; 
 For in the fatness of these pursy times 
 Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, 
 Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. 
 
 Quee7i. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. 
 
 Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it. 
 And live the purer with the other half 
 Good night : but go not to mine uncle's bed ; 
 Assume a virtue, if you have it not. 160 
 
 That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, 
 Of habits devil, is angel yet in this, 
 That to the use of actions fair and good 
 He likewise gives a frock or livery, 
 That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night, 
 And that shall lend a kind of easiness 
 To the next abstinence : the next more easy ; 
 For use almost can change the stamp of nature. 
 
 And either the devil, or throw him out 
 
 With wondrous potency. Once more, good night : 170 
 
 And when you are desirous to be bless'd, 
 
 I '11 blessing beg of you. For this same lord, 
 
 {Pointing to Polonius. 
 I do repent : but heaven hath pleased it so. 
 To punish me with this and this with me, 
 That I must be their scourge and minister. 
 I will bestow him, and will answer well 
 The death I gave him. So, again, good night. 
 I must be cruel, only to be kind : 
 Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. 
 One word more, good lady. 
 
 Queen. What shall I do? 180 
 
 Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do : 
 
Scene 4.] 
 
 HAMLET. 87 
 
 Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed ; 
 
 Pinch wanton on your cheek ; call you his mouse ; 
 
 And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses. 
 
 Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, 
 
 Make you to ravel all this matter out. 
 
 That I essentially am not in madness, 
 
 But mad in craft. 'T were good you let him know 
 
 For who, that 's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, 
 
 Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, 1 9° 
 
 Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? 
 
 No, in despite of sense and secrecy. 
 
 Unpeg the basket on the house's top. 
 
 Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, 
 
 To try conclusions, in the basket creep, 
 
 And break your own neck down. 
 
 Queen. Be thou assured, if words be made of breath, 
 And breath of life, I have no life to breathe 
 What thou hast said to me. 
 
 Ham. I must to England; you know that? 
 
 Queen. Alack, 200 
 
 I had forgot : 't is so concluded on. 
 Ham. There 's letters seal'd : and my two schoolfellows, 
 
 Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd. 
 
 They bear the mandate ; they must sweep my way, 
 
 And marshal me to knavery. Let it work ; 
 
 For 't is the sport to have the enginer 
 
 Hoist with his own petar: and 't shall go hard 
 
 But I will delve one yard below their mines. 
 
 And blow them at the moon : O, 't is most sweet, 
 
 When in one line two crafts directly meet. 210 
 
 This man shall set me packing : 
 
 I '11 lug the guts into the neighbour room. 
 
 Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor 
 
 Is now most still, most secret and most grave. 
 
 Who was in life a foolish prating knave. 
 
 Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. 
 
 Good night, mother. . . _ , . 
 
 [Exeunt severally,- Hamlet dragging in Polomus. 
 
88 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 Scene I. A room in the castle. 
 
 Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, aiid Guildenstern. 
 
 King. There's matter in these sighs, these profound 
 heaves : 
 You must translate : 't is fit we understand them. 
 Where is your son? 
 
 Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. 
 
 \Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen to-night ! 
 
 King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? 
 
 Queen. Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend 
 Which is the mightier : in his lawless fit, 
 Behind the arras hearing something stir, 
 Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat !' lo 
 
 And, in this brainish apprehension, kills 
 The unseen good old man. 
 
 King. O heavy deed ! 
 
 It had been so with us, had we been there : 
 His liberty is full of threats to all ; 
 To you yourself, to us, to every one. 
 Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? 
 It will be laid to us, whose providence 
 Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt, 
 This mad young man : but so much was our love. 
 We would not understand what was most fit ; 20 
 
 But, like the owner of a foul disease. 
 To keep it from divulging, let it feed 
 Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? 
 
 Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd : 
 O'er whom his very madness, like some ore 
 Among a mineral of metals base. 
 Shows itself pure ; he weeps for what is done. 
 
 King. O Gertrude, come away ! 
 The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch. 
 But we will ship him hence : and this vile deed 30 
 
 We must, with all our majesty and skill, 
 Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern I 
 
 Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ a7ld GUILDENSTERN. 
 
 Friends both, go join you with some further aid : 
 Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain. 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 8y 
 
 And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him : 
 Go seek him out ; speak fair, and bring the body 
 Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. 
 
 \Exeunt Roseticrantz and Guildenstern. 
 Come, Gertrude, we '11 call up our wisest friends ; 
 And let them know, both what we mean to do, 
 
 And what 's untimely done 40 
 
 Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter. 
 
 As level as the cannon to his blank, 
 
 Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name. 
 
 And hit the woundless air. O, come away ! 
 
 My soul is full of discord and dismay. \Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. Another room i?t the castle. 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 Hani. Safely stowed. 
 
 ^uil\ \W^iJ^^^'\ Hamlet! Lord Hamlet! 
 Ham. But soft, what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, 
 here they come. 
 
 E7lter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. 
 
 Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? 
 
 Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 't is kin, 
 
 Ros. Tell us where 't is, that we may take it thence 
 And bear it to the. chapel. 
 
 Hain. Do not believe it. 
 
 Ros. Believe what? 10 
 
 Ham. That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. 
 Besides, to be demanded of a sponge ! what replication should 
 be made by the son of a king? 
 
 Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord ? 
 
 Ha7n. Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his 
 rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best 
 service in the end : he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner 
 of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he 
 needs w^hat you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, 
 sponge, you shall be dry again. 
 
 Ros. I understand you not, my lord. 
 
 Ham. I am glad of it : a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish 
 ear. 
 
 Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go 
 with us to the king. 
 
90 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with 
 the body. The king is a thing — 30 
 
 Guil. A thing, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all 
 after. \Exeu7it. 
 
 Scene III. Ajiother room in the castle. 
 
 Enter King, attended. 
 
 King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. 
 How dangerous is it that this man goes loose ! 
 Yet must not we put the strong law on him : 
 He's loved of the distracted multitude, 
 Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes ; 
 And where 't is so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd, 
 But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, 
 This sudden sending him away must seem 
 Deliberate pause : diseases desperate grown 
 By desperate appliance are relieved, 10 
 
 Or not at all. 
 
 Enter Rosencrantz. 
 
 How now ! what hath befall'n? 
 Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, 
 We cannot get from him. 
 
 King. But where is he? 
 
 Ros. Without, my lord ; guarded, to know your pleasure. 
 
 King. Bring him before us, 
 
 Ros. Ho, Guildenstern ! bring in my lord. 
 
 Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern. 
 
 King. Now, Hamlet, where 's Polonius? 
 
 Ham. At supper. 
 
 King. At supper ! where ? 1 9 
 
 Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain 
 convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is 
 your only emperor for diet : we fat all creatures else to fat us, 
 and we fat ourselves for maggots : your fat king and your 
 lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one 
 table : that 's the end. 
 
 King. Alas, alas ! 
 
 Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a 
 king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. 30 
 
Scene 3.] HAMLET. 91 
 
 King: What dost thou mean by this? 
 
 Hmn. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a pro- 
 gress through the guts of a beggar. 
 
 Kmg. Where is Polonius? 
 
 Ha77i. In heaven ; send thither to see : if your messenger 
 find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself But 
 indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose 
 him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. 39 
 
 King. Go seek him there. \To some Attendants. 
 
 Ham. He will stay till you come. \Exeimt Attenda?tts. 
 
 King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, — 
 Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve 
 For that which thou hast done, — must send thee hence 
 With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself; 
 The bark is ready, and the wind at help, 
 The associates tend, and every thing is bent 
 For England. 
 
 Ham. For England ! 
 
 King. Ay, Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Good. 
 
 King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. 
 
 Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for Eng- 
 land ! Farewell, dear mother. 5 1 
 
 King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. 
 
 Hun. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; 
 man and wife is one flesh ; and so, my mother. Come, for 
 England ! \Exit. 
 
 King. Follow him at foot ; tempt him with speed aboard ; 
 Delay it not; I '11 have him hence to-night: 
 Away ! for every thing is seal'd and done 
 That else leans on the affair : pray you, make haste. 
 
 \_Exeti,nt Ro setter ant z a?id Guildenstern. 
 And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught — 
 As my great power thereof may give thee sense, 
 Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red 
 After the Danish sword, and thy free awe 
 Pays homage to us — thou mayst not coldly set 
 Our sovereign process; which imports at full. 
 By letters congruing to that effect. 
 The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England: 
 For like the hectic in my blood he rages, 
 And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done, 69 
 
 Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. \Exit. 
 
92 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Scene IV. A plai7i in De?i7nark. 
 Enter Fortinbras, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching. 
 
 For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king ; 
 Tell him that, by his license, Fortinbras 
 Craves the conveyance of a promised march 
 Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. 
 If that his majesty would aught with us, 
 We shall express our duty in his eye ; 
 And let him know so. 
 
 Cap. I will do 't, my lord. 
 
 For. Go softly on. [Exeunt Fortinbras and Soldiers. 
 
 Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, a7id 
 
 others. 
 
 Ha7n. Good sir, whose powers are these? 
 
 Cap. They are of Norway, sir. lo 
 
 Ham. How purposed, sir, I pray you? 
 
 Cap. Against some part of Poland. 
 
 Ha7n. Who commands them, sir? 
 
 Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. 
 
 Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, 
 Or for some frontier? 
 
 Cap. Truly to speak, and with no addition. 
 We go to gain a little patch of ground 
 That hath in it no profit but the name. 
 
 To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it : 20 
 
 Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole 
 A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. 
 
 Hajn. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. 
 
 Cap. Yes, it is already garrison'd. 
 
 Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats 
 Will not debate the question of this straw: 
 This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, 
 That inward breaks, and shows no cause without 
 Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir. 
 
 Cap. God be wi' you, sir. [Exit. 
 
 Ros. Will 't please you go, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. I '11 be with you straight. Go a little before. 31 
 
 [Exeu7tt all except Hatnlet. 
 How all occasions do inform against me, 
 And spur my dull revenge ! What is a man. 
 If his chief good and market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. 
 
Scene 5.] 
 
 HAMLET. 93 
 
 Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 
 
 Looking before and after, gave us not 
 
 That capability and god-like reason 
 
 To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be 
 
 Bestial obhvion, or some craven scruple 40 
 
 Of thinking too precisely on the event, 
 
 A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom 
 
 And ever three parts coward, I do not know 
 
 Why yet I live to say ' This thing's to do'; 
 
 Sith I have cause and will and strength and means 
 
 To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me: 
 
 Witness this army of such mass and charge 
 
 Led by a delicate and tender prince. 
 
 Whose spirit with divine ambition puff d 
 
 Makes mouths at the invisible event, 5° 
 
 Exposing what is mortal and unsure 
 
 To all that fortune, death and danger dare, 
 
 Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great 
 
 Is not to stir without great argument, 
 
 But greatly to find quarrel in a straw 
 
 When honour's at the stake. How stand 1 then, 
 
 That have a father kill'd, a mother stam'd. 
 
 Excitements of my reason and my blood, 
 
 And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see 
 
 The imminent death of twenty thousand men, 00 
 
 That, for a fantasy and trick of fame. 
 
 Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot 
 
 Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause. 
 
 Which is not tomb enough and continent 
 
 To hide the slain? O, from this time forth 
 
 My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth ! \pxit. 
 
 Scene V. Ehinore. A room in the castle. 
 Enter Queen, Horatio, and a Gentleman. 
 
 Queen. I will not speak with her. 
 
 Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract: 
 Her mood will needs be pitied. , , , i. 5 
 
 Queen What would she have? 
 
 Gent. She speaks much of her father; says she hears 
 There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart; 
 Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things m doubt. 
 That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing. 
 Yet the unshaped use of it doth move 
 
94 HAMLET. ' [Act IV. 
 
 The hearers to collection; they aim at it, 
 And botch the words up fit to their own thoQ^hts; lo 
 
 Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures' yield them, 
 Indeed would make one think there might be thought, 
 Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. 
 
 Hor. 'T were good she were spoken with ; for she may 
 strew 
 Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. 
 
 Queen. Let her come in. \Exit Horatio. 
 
 To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, 
 Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss: 
 So full of artless jealousy is guilt, 
 It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. 20 
 
 Re-enter Horatio, with Ophelia. 
 
 Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark? 
 Queen. How now, Ophelia ! 
 
 Oph. \_Sings'\ How should I your true love know 
 From another one? 
 By his cockle hat and staff. 
 And his sandal shoon. 
 Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song? 
 Oph. Say you? nay, pray you, mark. 
 [vS/^^^] He is dead and gone, lady. 
 
 He is dead and gone; 30 
 
 At his head a grass-green turf, 
 At his heels a stone. 
 Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia, — 
 Oph. Pray you, mark. 
 \Sings\ White his shroud as the mountain snow, — 
 
 Enter King. 
 
 Queen. Alas, look here, my lord. 
 
 Oph. \Sings^ Larded with sweet flowers; 
 Which bewept to the grave did go 
 With true-love showers. 
 
 King. How do you, pretty lady? 40 
 
 oph. Well, God dild you ! They say the owl was a baker's 
 daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what 
 we may be. God be at your table ! 
 
 King. Conceit upon her father. 
 
 Oph. Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they 
 ask you what it means, say you this: 
 
Scene 5.] HAMLET. . 95 
 
 [Siftgs] To-mqrrow is Saint Valentine's day, 
 All in the morning betime, 
 And I a maid at your window, 50 
 
 To be your Valentine, 
 Kmg. How long hath she been thus? 
 Op/i. I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I 
 cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the 
 cold ground. My brother shall know of it: and so I thank 
 you for your good counsel. Come, my coach ! Good night, 
 ladies ; good night, sweet ladies ; good night, good night. 
 
 King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. 
 
 \Exit Horatio. 
 O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs 
 All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude, 
 When sorrows come, they come not single spies. 
 But in battalions. First, her father slain: 
 Next, your son gone; and he most violent author 80 
 
 Of his own just remove: the people muddied. 
 Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers. 
 For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly, 
 In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Opheha 
 Divided from herself and her fair judgement. 
 Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts : 
 Last, and as much containing as all these. 
 Her brother is in secret come from France; 
 Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds. 
 And wants not buzzers to infect his ear 90 
 
 With pestilent speeches of his father's death; 
 Wherein necessity, of matter beggar' d. 
 Will nothing stick our person to arraign 
 In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this, 
 Like to a murdering-piece, in many places 
 Gives me superfluous death. \_A noise within. 
 
 Queen. Alack, what noise is this ? 
 
 King. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. 
 
 Enter another Gentleman. 
 
 What is the matter? 
 
 Gent. Save yourself, my lord: 
 
 The ocean, overpeering of his list, 
 
 Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste 100 
 
 Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, 
 O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord; 
 And, as the world were now but to begin. 
 
96 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Antiquity forgot, custom not known, 
 
 The ratifiers and props of every word, 
 
 They cry ' Choose we: Laertes shall be king': 
 
 Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds: 
 
 ' Laertes shall be king, Laertes king !' 
 
 Quee?!. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry 1 
 O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs ! i lo 
 
 King. The doors are broke. \Noise within. 
 
 Enter LAERTES, armed; T>2ir\Qs following. 
 
 Laer. Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without. 
 
 Danes. No, let 's come in. 
 
 Laer. I pray you, give me leave. 
 
 Danes. We will, we will. \They retire without the door. 
 
 Laer. I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king, 
 Give me my father ! 
 
 Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. 
 
 Laer. That drop of blood that 's calm proclaims me bas- 
 tard. 
 Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot 
 Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brows 
 Of my true mother. 
 
 King. What is the cause, Laertes, 120 
 
 That thy rebellion looks so giant-like? 
 Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person : 
 There's such divinity doth hedge a king, 
 That treason can but peep to what it would, 
 Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes, 
 Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude. 
 Speak, man. 
 
 Laer. Where is my father? 
 
 King. Dead. 
 
 Queen. But not by him. 
 
 King. Let him demand his fill. 
 
 Laer. How came he dead? I '11 not be juggled with: 130 
 To hell, allegiance ! vows, to the blackest devil ! 
 Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit ! 
 I dare damnation. To this point I stand. 
 That both the worlds I give to negligence. 
 Let come what comes ; only I '11 be revenged 
 Most throughly for my father. 
 
 King. Who shall stay you? 
 
 Laer. My will, not all the world: 
 And for my means, I '11 husband them so well, 
 They shall go far with little. 
 
Scene 5.] HAMLET. 57 
 
 King. Good Laertes, 
 
 If you desire to know the certainty 140 
 
 Of your dear father's death, is 't writ in your revenge, 
 That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe ' 
 Winner and loser? ' 
 
 Laer. None but his enemies. 
 
 -p^^i^- Will you know them then? 
 
 Laer. To his good friends thus wide I '11 ope my arms- 
 And like the kind life-rendering pelican, ' 
 
 Repast them with my blood, 
 
 Ki7ig. Why, now you speak " 
 
 Like a good child and a true gentleman. 
 That 1 am guiltless of your father's death. 
 And am most sensibly in grief for it, i cq 
 
 It shall as level to your judgement pierce 
 As day does to your eye. 
 
 Danes. [ Within] Let her come in. 
 
 Laer. How now! what noise is that? 
 
 Re-enter Ophelia. 
 
 O heat, dry up my brains ! tears seven times salt. 
 Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye ! 
 By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight, 
 Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May ! 
 Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia ! 
 O heavens ! is 't possible, a young maid's wits 
 Should be as mortal as an old man's life? 160 
 
 Nature is fine in love, and where 't is fine. 
 It sends some precious instance of itself ' 
 After the thing it loves. 
 Oph. \Sings\ 
 
 They bore him barefaced on the bier ; 
 Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny; 
 And in his grave rain'd many a tear : — . 
 Fare you well, my dove ! 
 
 Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge 
 It could not move thus. ' 
 
 Oph. {Sings\ You must sing a-down a-down. 
 
 An you call him a-down-a. 171 
 
 O, how the wheel becomes it ! It is the false steward, that 
 stole his master's daughter. 
 
 Laer. This nothing's more than matter. 
 Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, 
 love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts 
 
 (885) '^ 
 
98 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Laer. A document in «madness, thoughts and remembrance 
 fitted. 179 
 
 Oph. There 's fennel for you, and columbines : there 's rue 
 for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace 
 o' Sundays: O, you must wear your rue with a difference. 
 There's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they 
 withered all when my father died : they say he made a good 
 end, — 
 
 \Sings\ For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy. 
 Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, 
 She turns to favour and to prettiness. 
 
 Oph, \_Sings\ And will he not come again? 190 
 
 And will he not come again? 
 No, no, he is dead : 
 Go to thy death-bed : 
 He never will come again. 
 
 His beard was as white as snow, 
 ' All flaxen was his poll : 
 
 He is gone, he is gone, * 
 And we cast away moan : 
 God ha' mercy on his soul ! 
 And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye. 
 
 [Exit. 
 Laer. Do you see this, O God? 201 
 
 Kiiig. Laertes, I must commune with your grief. 
 Or you deny me right. Go but apart. 
 Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will. 
 And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me: 
 If by direct or by collateral hand 
 They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, 
 Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, 
 To you in satisfaction; but if not. 
 
 Be you content to lend your patience to us, 210 
 
 And we shall jointly labour with your soul 
 To give it due content. 
 
 Laer. Let this be so; 
 
 His means of death, his obscure burial — 
 No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, 
 No noble rite nor formal ostentation — 
 Cry to be heard, as 't were from heaven to earth, 
 That I must call 't in question. 
 
 King. So you shall ; 
 
 And where the offence is let the great axe fall. 
 I pray you, go with me. \ Exeunt. 
 
Scene 7 HAMLET. 99 
 
 Scene VI. Another room in the castle. 
 Enter Horatio and a Servant. 
 
 Hor. What are they that would speak with me? 
 
 Serv. Sea-faring men, sir: they say they have letters for 
 you. 
 
 Hor. Let them come in. \Exit servant. 
 
 I do not know from what part of the world 
 I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet. 
 
 Enter Sailors. 
 
 First Sailor. God bless you, sir. 
 
 Hor. Let him bless thee too. 
 
 First Sailor. He shall, sir, an 't please him. There 's a letter 
 for you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound 
 for England ; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know 
 it is. 1 1 
 
 Hor. \Reads~\ ' Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked 
 this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have 
 letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of 
 very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves 
 too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the 
 grapple I boarded them: on the instant they got clear of our 
 ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt 
 with me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they did; 
 I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the 
 letters I have sent ; and repair thou to me with as much speed 
 as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine 
 ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for 
 the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee 
 where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their 
 course for England : of them I have much to tell thee. Fare- 
 well. 30 
 ' He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.' 
 Come, I will make you way for these your letters ; 
 And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me 
 To him from whom you brought them. [^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene Vn. Another rooni iji the castle. 
 
 Enter King and Laertes. 
 
 King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, 
 And you must put me in your heart for friend, 
 Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, 
 That he which hath your noble father slain 
 Pursued my life. 
 
loo HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Laer. It well appears: but tell me 
 
 Why you proceeded not against these feats, 
 So crimeful and so capital in nature, 
 As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, 
 You mainly were stirr'd up. 
 
 King. O, for two special reasons; 
 
 Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, lo 
 
 But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother 
 Lives almost by his looks ; and for myself — 
 My virtue or my plague, be it either which — 
 She 's so conjunctive to my life and soul. 
 That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, 
 I could not but by her. The other motive, 
 Why to a public count I might not go, 
 Is the great love the general gender bear him; 
 Who, dipping all his faults in their affection. 
 Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, 20 
 
 Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows. 
 Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, 
 Would have reverted to my bow again. 
 And not where I had aim'd them. 
 
 Laer. And so have I a noble father lost ; 
 A sister driven into desperate terms. 
 Whose worth, if praises may go back again, 
 Stood challenger on mount of all the age 
 For her perfections: but my revenge will come. 
 
 King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think 
 That we are made of stuff so flat and dull 31 
 
 That we can let our beard be shook with danger 
 And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more: 
 I loved your father, and we love ourself ; 
 And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine — 
 
 Eiiter a Messenger. 
 
 How now ! what news ? 
 
 Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: 
 
 This to your majesty; this to the queen. 
 
 King. From Hamlet! who brought them? 
 
 Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: 
 They were given me by Claudio; he received them 40 
 
 Of him that brought them. 
 
 King. Laertes, you shall hear them. 
 
 Leave us. \Exit Messenger. 
 
 [Reads'] ' High and mighty. You shall know I am set 
 naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to 
 
Scene 7.] HAMLET. loi 
 
 see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon 
 thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more 
 strange return. ' Hamlet.' 
 
 What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? 50 
 Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? 
 
 Laer. Know you the hand? 
 
 Ki?tg. 'T is Hamlet's character. 'Naked!' 
 
 And in a postscript here, he says ' alone '. 
 Can you advise me? 
 
 Laer. I 'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come; 
 It warms the very sickness in my heart, 
 That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, 
 ' Thus didest thou'. 
 
 King. If it be so, Laertes — 
 
 As how should it be so? how otherwise? — - 
 Will you be ruled by me? 
 
 Laer. Ay, my lord; 60 
 
 So you will not o'errule me to a peace. 
 
 King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, 
 As checking at his voyage, and that he means 
 No more to undertake it, I will work him 
 To an exploit, now ripe in my device, 
 Under the which he shall not choose but fall: 
 And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe. 
 But even his mother shall uncharge the practice 
 And call it accident. 
 
 Laer. My lord, I will be ruled ; 
 
 The rather, if you could devise it so 70 
 
 That I might be the organ. 
 
 King. It falls right. 
 
 You have been talk'd of since your travel much. 
 And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality 
 Wherein, they say, you shine : your sum of parts 
 Did not together pluck such envy from him 
 As did that one, and that, in my regard, 
 Of the unworthiest siege. 
 
 Laer. What part is that, my lord? 
 
 King. A very riband in the cap of youth. 
 Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes 
 The light and careless livery that it wears 80 
 
 Than settled age his sables and his weeds, 
 Importing health and graveness. Two months since. 
 Here was a gentleman of Normandy : — 
 I've seen myself, and served against, the French, 
 And they can well on horseback: but this gallant 
 
I02 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat; 
 
 And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, 
 
 As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured 
 
 With the brave beast : so far he topp'd my thought, 
 
 That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, 90 
 
 Come short of what he did. 
 
 Laer. A Norman was't? 
 
 King. A Norman. 
 
 Laer. Upon my Hfe, Lamond. 
 
 Kiitg. The very same. 
 
 Laer. I know him well : he is the brooch indeed 
 And gem of all the nation. 
 
 King. He made confession of you, 
 And gave you such a masterly report 
 For art and exercise in your defence 
 And for your rapier most especial, 
 
 That he cried out, 't would be a sight indeed, loo 
 
 If one could match you : the scrimers of their nation, 
 He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye 
 If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his 
 Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy 
 That he could nothing do but wish and beg 
 Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him. 
 Now, out of this, — 
 
 Laer. What out of this, my lord? 
 
 King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? 
 Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, 
 A face without a heart? 
 
 Laer. Why ask you this? no 
 
 King. Not that I think you did not love your father; 
 But that I know love is begun by time ; 
 And that I see, in passages of proof, 
 Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. 
 There lives within the very flame of love 
 A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it ; 
 And nothing is at a like goodness still ; 
 For goodness, growing to a plurisy, 
 Dies in his own too much : that we v/ould do. 
 We should do when we would ; for this 'would' changes 120 
 And hath abatements and delays as many 
 As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; 
 And then this ' should ' is like a spendthrift's sigh. 
 That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer : — 
 Hamlet comes back : what would you undertake, 
 To show yourself your father's son in deed 
 
Scene 7.] HAMLET. 103 
 
 More than in words? 
 
 Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. 
 
 Ki7ig. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize ; 
 Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, 
 Will you do this, keep close within your chamber. 130 
 
 Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home : 
 We '11 put on those shall praise your excellence 
 And set a double varnish on the fame 
 The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together 
 And wager on your heads : he, being remiss, 
 Most generous and free from all contriving, 
 Will not peruse the foils ; so that, with ease, 
 Or with a little shuffling, you may choose 
 A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice 
 Requite him for your father. 
 
 Laer. I will do 't : 140 
 
 And, for that purpose, I '11 anoint my sword. 
 I bought an unction of a mountebank, 
 So mortal that, but dip a knife in it. 
 Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare. 
 Collected from all simples that have virtue 
 Under the moon, can save the thing from death 
 That is but scratch'd withal : I '11 touch my point 
 With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly. 
 It may be death. 
 
 King. Let 's further think of this ; 
 
 Weigh what convenience both of time and means 1 50 
 
 May fit us to our shape : if this should fail, 
 And that our drift look through our bad performance, 
 'T were better not assay'd : therefore this project 
 Should have a back or second, that might hold. 
 If this should blast in proof Soft ! let me see : 
 We '11 make a solemn wager on your cunnings : 
 Iha't: 
 
 When in your motion you are hot and dry — 
 As make your bouts more violent to that end — 
 And that he calls for drink, I '11 have prepared him 160 
 
 A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, 
 If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, 
 Our purpose may hold there. 
 
 Enter Queen. 
 
 How now, sweet queen ! 
 Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, 
 So fast they follow : your sister 's drown'd, Laertes. 
 
I04 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 Laer. Drown'd! O, where? 
 
 Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook, 
 That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ; 
 There with fantastic garlands did she come 
 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples 170 
 
 That liberal shepherds give a grosser name. 
 But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them : 
 There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 
 Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke ; 
 When down her weedy trophies and herself 
 Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; 
 And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up : 
 Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes ; 
 As one incapable of her own distress. 
 
 Or like a creature native and indued 180 
 
 Unto that element : but long it could not be 
 Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, 
 Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay 
 To muddy death. 
 
 Laer. Alas, then, she is drown'd? 
 
 Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. 
 
 Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, 
 And therefore I forbid my tears : but yet 
 It is our trick; nature her custom holds. 
 Let shame say what it will : when these are gone, 
 The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord: 190 
 
 I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, 
 But that this folly douts it. \Exit. 
 
 Kiiig. Let 's follow, Gertrude : 
 
 How much I had to do to calm his rage ! 
 Now fear I this will give it start again ; 
 Therefore let 's follow. [Exeunt 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Scene I. A churchyard. 
 Enter two Clowns, with spades., &^c. 
 
 First Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wil- 
 fully seeks her own salvation? 
 
 Sec. Clo. I tell thee she is : and therefore make her grave 
 straight : the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian 
 burial. 
 
Scene i.] HAMLET. 105 
 
 First Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in 
 her own defence ? 
 
 Sec. Clo. Why, 't is found so. 
 
 First Clo. It must be 'se offendendo'; it cannot be else. 
 For here lies the point : if I drown myself wittingdy, it argues 
 an act : and an act hath three branches ; it is, to act, to do, 
 and to perform : argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver, — 
 
 First Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here 
 stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and 
 drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, — mark you that; 
 but if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not 
 himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens 
 not his own life. 
 
 Sec. Clo. But is this law? 
 
 First Clo. Ay, marry, is 't ; crowner's quest law. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Will you ha' the truth on 't? If this had not been 
 a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian 
 burial. 
 
 First Clo. Why, there thou say'st : and the more pity that 
 great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or 
 hang themselves, more than their even Christian. Come, my 
 spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, 
 and grave-makers : they hold up Adam's profession. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Was he a gentleman? 
 
 First Clo. 'A was the first that ever bore arms. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Why, he had none. 39 
 
 First Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou under- 
 stand the Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam digged': 
 could he dig without arms ? I '11 put another question to 
 thee : if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thy- 
 self— 
 
 Sec. Clo. Go to. 
 
 First Clo. What is he that builds stronger than either the 
 mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 
 
 Sec. Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a 
 thousand tenants. 5° 
 
 First Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith : the gallows 
 does well ; but how does it well? it does well to those who do 
 ill : now thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than 
 the church: argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't 
 again, come. 
 
 Sec. Clo. ' Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, 
 or a carpenter?' 
 
 First Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. 
 
io6 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Marry, now I can tell. 60 
 
 First Clo. To't. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. 
 
 Enter Hamlet atid Horatio, at a distance. 
 
 First Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your 
 dull ass will not mend his pace with beating ; and, when you 
 are asked this question next, say ' a grave-maker^ : the houses 
 that he makes last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: 
 fetch me a stoup of liquor. \Exit Sec. Clown. 
 
 [He digs, and sings. 
 
 In youth, when I did love, did love, 
 
 Methought it was very sweet, . 70 
 
 To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove, 
 
 O, methought, there was nothing meet. 
 
 Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he 
 sings at grave-making? 
 
 Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. 
 Ham. 'T is e'en so : the hand of little employment hath the 
 daintier sense. 
 
 Fi7-st Clo. [Sings] 
 
 But age, with his stealing steps 
 
 Hath claw'd me in his clutch, 80 
 
 And hath shipped me intil the land. 
 As if I had never been such. 
 
 \Throws up a skull. 
 
 Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once : 
 how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw- 
 bone, that did the first murder ! It might be the pate of a 
 politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches ; one that would 
 circumvent God, might it not? 
 
 Hor. It might, my lord. 89 
 
 Ham. Or of a courtier : which could say ' Good morrow, 
 sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?' This might be my 
 lord such-a-one,that praised my lord such-a-one's horse, when 
 he meant to beg it ; might it not? 
 
 Hor. Ay, my lord. 
 
 Hajn. Why, e'en so : and now my Lady Worm's ; chapless, 
 and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade : here 's 
 fine revolution, an we had the trick to see 't. Did these bones 
 cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with 'em? 
 mine ache to think on 't. loi 
 
Scene i.] HAMLET. 107 
 
 First Clo. \Sings\ 
 
 A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, 
 
 For and a shrouding sheet : 
 O, a pit of clay for to be made 
 For such a guest is meet. 
 
 {^Throws up another skull. 
 
 Ham. There 's another : why may not that be the skull of 
 a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, 
 his tenures, and his tricks.? why does he suffer this rude knave 
 now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, 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 vouchers, his recoveries : 
 is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, 
 to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch 
 him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the 
 length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very con- 
 veyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box ; and must 
 the inheritor himself have no more, ha? 
 
 Hor. Not a jot more, my lord. 
 
 Hajn. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? 
 
 Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. 
 
 Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance 
 in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose grave's this, 
 sirrah ? 
 
 First Clo. Mine, sir. 
 
 [Sings'] O, a pit of clay for to be made 
 
 For such a guest is meet. 1 30 
 
 Ham. I think it be thine, indeed ; for thou lies-t in 't. 
 
 First Clo. You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not 
 yours : for my part, I do not lie in 't, and yet it is mine. 
 
 Ham. Thou dost lie in 't, to be in 't and say it is thine : 't is 
 for the dead, not for the quick ; therefore thou liest. 
 
 First Clo. 'T is a quick lie, sir ; 't will away again, from me 
 to you. 140 
 
 Ham. What man dost thou dig it for? 
 
 First Clo. For no man, sir. 
 
 Ham. What woman, then? 
 
 First Clo. For none, neither. 
 
 Ham. Who is to be buried in't? ' 
 
 First Clo. One that was a woman, sir ; but, rest her soul, 
 she's dead, 
 
 Ha7n. How absolute the knave is ! we must speak by the 
 card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, 
 these three years I have taken note of it ; the age is grown 
 
io8 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel 
 of the courtier, he galls his kibe. How long hast thou been 
 a grave-maker? 
 
 First Clo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to 't that day 
 that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. 
 
 Ham. How long is that since? 
 
 First Clo. Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: 
 it was the very day that young Hamlet was born ; he that is 
 mad, and sent into England. 
 
 Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? 
 
 First Clo. Why, because he was mad : he shall recover his 
 wits there ; or, if he do not, it 's no great matter there. 
 
 Ham. Why? 
 
 First Clo. 'Twill not be seen in him there; there the men 
 are as mad as he. 170 
 
 Ham. How came he mad? 
 
 First Clo. Very strangely, they say. 
 
 Ham. How strangely? 
 
 First Clo. Faith, e'en with losing his wits. 
 
 Ham. Upon what ground? 
 
 First Clo. Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton 
 here, man and boy, thirty years. 
 
 Ham. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot? 179 
 
 First Clo. r faith, if he be not rotten before he die, he 
 will last you some eight year or nine year : a tanner will last 
 you nine year. 
 
 Ha?n. Why he more than another? 
 
 First Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, 
 that he will keep out water a great while ; and your water is 
 a sore decayer of your dead body. Here's a skull now; this 
 skull has lain in the earth three and twenty years. 191 
 
 Ha?n. Whose was it? 
 
 First Clo. A mad fellow's it was : whose do you think it 
 was? 
 
 Ham. Nay, I know not. 
 
 First Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue ! a' poured 
 a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, 
 was Yorick's skull, the king's jester. 
 
 Ham. This? 200 
 
 First Clo. E'en that. 
 
 Ham. Let me see. \Takes the skulF\ 
 
 Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite 
 jest, of most excellent fancy : he hath borne me on his back 
 a thousand times ; and now, how abhorred in my imagina- 
 tion it is ! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I 
 
Scene i.J HAMLT^T. 109 
 
 have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? 
 your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that 
 were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock 
 your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my 
 lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to 
 this favour she must come ; make her laugh at that. Prithee, 
 Horatio, tell me one thing. 
 
 Hor. What 's that, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion 
 i' the earth? 
 
 Hor. E'en so. 220 
 
 Ham. And smelt so? pah! \Piits down the skull. 
 
 Hor. E'en so, my lord. 
 
 Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio ! Why 
 may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till 
 he find it stopping a bung-hole? 
 
 Hor. 'T were to consider too curiously, to consider so. 
 
 Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with 
 modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it : as thus : Alex- 
 ander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into 
 dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam; and why of 
 that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a 
 beer-barrel ? 
 
 Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, 
 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away : 
 O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, 
 Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! 
 But soft ! but soft ! aside : here comes the king, 
 
 E7tter Priests, &^c. in procession; the Corpse of OPHELIA, 
 Laertes and Mourners followingj King, Queen, their 
 trains., &^c. 
 
 The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow? 
 
 And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken 
 
 The corse they follow did with desperate hand 
 
 Fordo it own life : 't was of some estate. 
 
 Couch we awhile, and mark. SJR.etiring with Horatio. 
 
 Laer. What ceremony else? 
 
 Ham. That is Laertes, 
 
 A very noble youth : mark. 
 
 Laer. What ceremony else? 
 
 First Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarged 
 As we have warranty : her death was doubtful ; 250 
 
 And, but that great command o'ersways the order, 
 She should in ground unsanctified have lodged 
 
T-T \ A "■ T, T-< rT^ 
 
 iio HAMLii^T. [Act V. 
 
 Till the last trumpet ; for charitable prayers, 
 Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her : 
 Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants, 
 Her maiden strewments and the bringing home 
 Of bell and burial. 
 
 Laer. Must there no more be done? 
 
 Fi'rs^ Priest. No more be done : 
 
 We should profane the service of the dead 
 To sing a requiem and such rest to her 260 
 
 As to peace-parted souls. 
 
 Laer. Lay her i' the earth : 
 
 And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
 May violets spring I I tell thee, churlish priest, 
 A ministering angel shall my sister be, 
 When thou liest howling. 
 
 Ham. What, the fair Ophelia I 
 
 Queen. Sweets to the sweet : farewell ! [Scattering flowers. 
 I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife ; 
 I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid. 
 And not have strew'd thy grave. 
 
 Laer. O, treble woe 
 
 Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, 270 
 
 Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense 
 Deprived thee of! Hold ofl'the earth awhile, 
 Till I have caught her once more in mine arms : 
 
 [Leaps into the grave. 
 Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead. 
 Till of this flat a mountain you have made. 
 To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head 
 Of blue Olympus. 
 
 Hani. [Advancing^ What is he whose grief 
 Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow 
 Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand 
 Like wonder- wounded heroes? This is I, 280 
 
 Hamlet the Dane. [Leaps into the grave. 
 
 Laer. The devil take thy soul ! 
 
 [Grappling with him. 
 
 Ham. Thou pray'st not well. 
 I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat ; 
 For, though I am not splenitive and rash, 
 Yet have I something in me dangerous. 
 Which let thy wiseness fear : hold off thy hand. 
 
 King. Pluck them asunder. 
 
 Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet! 
 
 All. Gentlemen, — 
 
Scene i.] HAMLET. in 
 
 Hor. Good my lord, be quiet. 
 
 \The Attendants part tke?n, and they come out of the 
 ' ■•• - ■ " - ■' grave. 
 
 Hani. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme 
 Until my eyelids will no longer wag. 290 
 
 Queeti. O my son, what theme? 
 
 Ham. I loved Ophelia : forty thousand brothers 
 Could not, with all their quantity of love, 
 Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her? 
 
 King. O, he is mad, Laertes. 
 
 Queen. For love of God, forbear him. 
 
 Ham. 'S wounds, show me what thou 'It do : 
 Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself? 
 Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile? 
 
 I '11 do 't. Dost thou come here to whine? 300 
 
 To outface me with leaping in her grave? 
 Be buried quick with her, and so will I : 
 And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw 
 Millions of acres on us, till our ground, 
 Singeing his pate against the burning zone. 
 Make Ossa like a wart ! Nay, an thou 'It mouth, 
 1 '11 rant as well as thou. 
 
 Queen. This is mere madness : 
 
 And thus awhile the fit will work on him ; 
 Anon, as patient as the female dove, 
 
 When that her golden couplets are disclosed, 310 
 
 His silence will sit drooping. 
 
 Ham. Hear you, sir; 
 
 What is the reason that you use me thus? 
 I loved you ever : but it is no matter ; 
 Let Hercules himself do what he may, 
 The cat will mew and dog will have his day. {Exit. 
 
 King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. 
 
 \Exit Horatio. 
 [To Laertes] Strengthen your patience in our last night's 
 
 speech ; 
 We '11 put the matter to the present push. 
 Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. 
 This grave shall have a living monument : 320 
 
 An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ; 
 Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt. 
 
112 HAMLET. r^Act V. 
 
 ScenI^, II. A hall ill the castle- 
 Enter liAl.lLST 2^^-^ ■Hors.ATlo. 
 
 Ham. So much for this, sir : now shall you see the other ; 
 You do remember all the circumstance? 
 
 Hor. Remember it, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, 
 That would not let me sleep : methought I lay 
 Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly — 
 And praised be rashness for it, let us know, 
 Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 
 When our deep plots do pall : and that should teach us 
 There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, lo 
 
 Rough-hew them how we will, — 
 
 Hor. That is most certain. 
 
 Ham. — Up from my cabin. 
 My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark 
 Groped I to find out them ; had my desire, 
 Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew 
 To mine own room again ; making so bold, 
 My fears forgetting manners, to unseal 
 Their grand commission ; where I found, Horatio, — 
 
 royal knavery ! — an exact command, 
 
 Larded with many several sorts of reasons 20 
 
 Importing Denmark's health and England's too, 
 
 With, ho ! such bugs and goblins in my life, 
 
 That, on the supervise, no leisure bated. 
 
 No, not to stay the grinding of the axe. 
 
 My head should be struck off. 
 
 Hor. Is't possible? 
 
 Ham. Here's the commission: read it at more leisure. 
 But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed? 
 
 Hor. I beseech you. 
 
 Hajn. Being thus be-netted round with villanies, — 
 Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, 30 
 
 They had begun the play — I sat me down. 
 Devised a new commission, wrote it fair: 
 
 1 once did hold it, as our statists do, 
 
 A baseness to write fair and labour'd much 
 How to forget that learning, but, sir, now 
 It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know 
 The effect of what I wrote? 
 
 Hon Ay, good my lord. 
 
 Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 113 
 
 As England was his faithful tributary, 
 
 As love between them like the palm might flourish, 40 
 
 As peace should still her wheaten garland wear 
 
 And stand a comma 'tween their amities, 
 
 And many such-like 'As 'es of great charge, 
 
 That, on the view and knowing of these contents-, 
 
 Without debatement further, more or less, 
 
 He should the bearers put to sudden death, 
 
 Not shriving-time allow'd. 
 
 Hor. How was this seal'd? 
 
 Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. 
 I had my father's signet in my purse, 
 
 Which was the model of that Danish seal; 50 
 
 Folded the writ up in form of the other, 
 Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely, 
 The changeling never known. Now, the next day 
 Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent 
 Thou know'st already. 
 
 Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to 't. 
 
 Hmn. Why, man, they did make love to this employment; 
 They are not near my conscience; their defeat 
 Does by their own insinuation grow: 
 
 'T is dangerous when the baser nature comes 60 
 
 Between the pass and fell incensed points 
 Of mighty opposites. 
 
 Hor. Why, what a king is this ! 
 
 Hani. Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon — 
 He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, 
 Popp'd in between the election and my hopes, 
 Thrown out his angle for my proper life. 
 And with such cozenage — is 't not perfect conscience. 
 To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd. 
 To let this canker of our nature come 
 In further evil? 70 
 
 Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England 
 What is the issue of the business there. 
 
 Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine; 
 And a man's life 's no more than to say ' One '. 
 But I am very sorry, good Horatio, 
 That to Laertes I forgot myself; 
 For, by the image of my cause, I see 
 The portraiture of his: I '11 court his favour: 
 But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me 
 Into a towering passion. 
 
 Hor. Peace! who comes here? 80 
 
 (885) H 
 
114 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 Eitter OSRIC. 
 
 Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. 
 
 Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water- 
 fly? 
 
 Hor. No, my good lord. 
 
 Ham. Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to 
 know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a beast be 
 lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess: 
 'tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of 
 dirt. 90 
 
 Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should 
 impart a thing to you from his majesty. 
 
 Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put 
 your bonnet to his right use ; 't is for the head. 
 
 Osr. I thank your lordship, it is very hot. 
 
 Ha?n. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is nor- 
 therly. 
 
 Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. 100 
 
 Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my 
 complexion. 
 
 Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, — as 'twere, — 
 I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify 
 to you that he has laid a great wager on your head: sir, this 
 is the matter, — 
 
 Hajn. I beseech you, remember — 
 
 [Hamlet moves him to put on his hat. 
 
 Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. 
 Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an 
 absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of 
 very soft society and great showing: indeed, to speak 
 feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you 
 shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman 
 would see. 
 
 Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; 
 though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the 
 arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in respect of 
 his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to 
 be a soul of great article ; and his infusion of such dearth and 
 rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is 
 his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, 
 nothing more. 
 
 Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. 
 
 Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentle 
 man in our more rawer breath ? 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. i!5 
 
 Osr. Sir? 130 
 
 Hor. Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? 
 You will do 't, sir, really. 
 
 Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman? 
 
 Osr. Of Laertes ? 
 
 Hor. His purse is empty already; all's golden words are 
 spent. 
 
 Ham. Of him, sir. 
 
 Osr. I know you are not ignorant — 
 
 Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it 
 would not much approve me. Well, sir? 
 
 Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is — - 
 
 Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with 
 him in excellence ; but, to know a man well, were to know 
 himself 
 
 Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation 
 laid on him by them, in his meed he 's unfellowed. 1 50 
 
 Ha7n. What 's his weapon ? 
 
 Osr. Rapier and dagger. 
 
 Ha7ii. That's two of his weapons: but, well. 
 
 Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary 
 horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take it, 
 six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, 
 hangers, and so: three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear 
 to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, 
 and of very liberal conceit. 160 
 
 Ham. What call you the carriages ? 
 
 Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you 
 had done. 
 
 Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. 
 
 Ham. The phrase would be more german to the matter, 
 if we could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might be 
 hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses against six 
 French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited 
 carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish. Why 
 is this ' imponed', as you call it? 171 
 
 Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes be- 
 tween yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits : 
 he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to im- 
 mediate trial, if your lordship would voachsafe the answer. 
 
 Ham. How if I answer ' no ' ? 
 
 Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in 
 trial. 179 
 
 Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his 
 majesty, 't is the breathing time of day with me ; let the foils 
 
ii6 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 be brought, the gentleman willing, and the knig hold his 
 purpose, I will win for him an I can; if not, I will gain 
 nothing but my shame and the odd hits. 
 
 Osr. Shall I re-deliver you e'en so? 
 
 Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will. 
 
 Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. 
 
 Ham. Yours, yours. \Exit Osri'c] He does well to 
 commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. 
 
 Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head. 
 
 Ham. He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. 
 Thus has he — and many more of the same breed that I 
 know the drossy age dotes on — only got the tune of the time 
 and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection, 
 which carries them through and through the most fond and 
 winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the 
 bubbles are out. 
 
 Enter a Lord, 
 
 Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by 
 young Osric, who brings loack to him, that you attend him 
 in the hall ; he sends to know if your pleasure hold to play 
 with Laertes, or that you will take longer time. 
 
 Ham. I am constant to my purposes; they follow the 
 king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or 
 whensoever, provided I be so able as now. 211 
 
 Lord. The king and queen and all are coming down. 
 
 Ham. In happy time. 
 
 Lord. The queen desires you to use some gentle entertain- 
 ment to Laertes before you fall to play. 
 
 Ham. She well instructs me. \Exit Lord. 
 
 Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. 
 
 Ham. I do not think so: since he went into France, I 
 have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. 
 But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here about my heart: 
 but it is no matter. 
 
 Hor. Nay, good my lord, — 
 
 Ha7n. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, 
 as would perhaps trouble a woman. 
 
 Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it : I will fore- 
 stal their repair hither, and say you are not fit. 229 
 
 Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special 
 providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is not to 
 come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, 
 yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man knows 
 aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes? 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 117 
 
 Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, OsRic, and 
 Attendants with foils ^ &^c. 
 
 King. Con-.e, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. 
 \The Kingptits 'Laertes' hand ijtto Ha?nlefs. 
 Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I Ve done you wrong; 
 But pardon 't, as you arp a gentleman. 
 This presence knows, 
 
 And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd 240 
 
 With sore distraction. What I have done. 
 That might your nature, honour and exception 
 Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. 
 Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet: 
 If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away. 
 And when he 's not himself does wrong Laertes, 
 Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. 
 Who does it, then? His madness: if 't be so, 
 Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd ; 
 His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy. 250 
 
 Sir, in this audience, 
 Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil 
 Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, 
 That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house, 
 And hurt tny brother. 
 
 Lcier. I am satisfied in nature. 
 
 Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most 
 To my revenge : but in my terms of honour 
 I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement, 
 Till by some elder masters, of known honour, 
 I have a voice and precedent of peace, 260 
 
 To keep my name ungored. But till that time, 
 I do receive your ofifer'd love like love, 
 And will not wrong it. 
 
 Ham. I embrace it freely ; 
 
 And will this brother's wager frankly play. 
 Give us the foils. Come on. 
 
 Laer. Come, one for me. 
 
 Ham,. I '11 be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance 
 Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, 
 Stick fiery off indeed. 
 
 Laer. You mock me, sir. 
 
 Ha77i. No, by this hand. 
 
 King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, 
 You know the wager? 271 
 
 Ham. Very well, my lord; 
 
 / 
 
ii8 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. 
 
 King. I do not fear it; I have seen you both: 
 But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds. 
 
 Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. 
 
 Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length? 
 
 [ They prepare to play. 
 
 Osr. Ay, my good lord. 
 
 King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. 
 If Hamlet give thg. first or second hit, 
 
 Or quit in answer of the third exchange, 280 
 
 Let all the battlements their ordnance fire ; 
 The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath ; 
 And in the cup an union shall he throw, 
 Richer than that which four successive kings 
 In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups; 
 And let the kettle to the trumpet speak. 
 The trumpet to the cannoneer without, 
 The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, 
 ' Now the king drinks to Hamlet'. Come, begin: 
 And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. 290 
 
 Ham. Come on, sir. 
 
 Laer. Come, my lord, \They play. 
 
 Ham. One. 
 
 Laer. No. 
 
 Ham. Judgement. 
 
 Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. 
 
 Laer. Well ; again. 
 
 King. Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; 
 Here 's to thy health. 
 
 [Trumpets sound, and can?to?t shot off within. 
 Give him the cup. 
 
 Ham. I '11 play this bout first ; set it by awhile. 
 Come. \They play^ Another hit; what say you? 
 
 Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. 
 
 King. Our son shall win. 
 
 Quee?i. He's fat, and scant ot breath. 
 
 Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: 
 The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. 300 
 
 Ham. Good madam ! 
 
 King. Gertrude, do not drink. 
 
 Queen. I will, my lord ; I pray you, pardon me. 
 
 King. [Aside] It is the poison'd cup : it is too late. 
 
 Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam ; by and by. 
 
 Quee7i. Come, let me wipe thy face. 
 
 Laer. My lord, I '11 hit him now. 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 119 
 
 King. I do not think 't. 
 
 Laer. [Aside] And yet 't is almost 'gainst my conscience. 
 
 Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes : you but dally ; 
 I pray you, pass with your best violence ; 
 I am afeard you make a wanton of me. 310 
 
 Laer. Say you so? come on. \They play. 
 
 Osr. Nothing, neither way, 
 
 Laer. Have at you now ! 
 
 \Laertes woujids Hamlet; then., in scufflijtg., they 
 chaftge rapiers., a?td Hamlet woiwds Laertes. 
 
 King. Part them ; they are incensed. 
 
 Ham. Nay, come, again. \The Queen falls. 
 
 Osr. Look to the queen there, ho ! 
 
 Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord? 
 
 Osr. How is 't, Laertes? 
 
 Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric ; 
 I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. 
 
 Ham. How does the queen? 
 
 King. She swounds to see them bleed. 
 
 Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink, — O my dear Hamlet, — 
 The drink, the drink ! I am poison'd. [Dies. 
 
 Ham. O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd: 322 
 
 Treachery I Seek it out. 
 
 Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; 
 No medicine in the world can do thee good ; 
 In thee there is not half an hour of life; 
 The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, 
 Unbated and envenom'd : the foul practice 
 Hath turn'd itself on me ; lo, here I lie, 
 
 Never to rise again : thy mother 's poison'd : 330 
 
 I can no more : the king, the king 's to blame. 
 
 Ham. The point envenom'd too ! 
 Then, venom, to thy work. [Stabs the King. 
 
 All. Treason ! treason ! 
 
 Ki7tg. O, yet defend me, friends ; I am but hurt. 
 
 Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, 
 Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? 
 Follow my mother. [King dies. 
 
 Laer. He is justly served ; 
 
 It is a poison temper'd by himself 
 
 Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet : 340 
 
 Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, 
 Nor thine on me ! [Dies. 
 
 - Ham. Heaven make thee free of it ! I follow thee. 
 I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu ! 
 
I20 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 You that look pale and tremble at this chance, 
 That are but mutes or audience to this act, 
 Had I but time — as this fell sergeant, death, 
 Is strict in his arrest — O, I could tell you — 
 But let it be. Horatio, I am dead ; 
 
 Thou livest ; report me and my cause aright 350 
 
 To the unsatisfied. 
 
 ' Hor. Never believe it : 
 
 I am more an antique Roman than a Dane : 
 Here's yet some liquor Left. 
 
 Ham. h'Sy thou'rt a man, 
 
 Give me the cup : let go ; by heaven, I '11 have 't. 
 
 good Horatio, what a wounded name. 
 
 Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! 
 If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart. 
 Absent thee from felicity awhile, 
 And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, 
 To tell my story. \March afar off, and shot within. 
 
 What warlike noise is this? 360 
 
 Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, 
 To the ambassadors of England gives 
 This warlike volley. 
 
 Ham. O, I die, Horatio; 
 
 The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit : 
 
 1 cannot live to hear the news from England ; 
 But I do prophesy the election lights 
 
 On Fortinbras : he has my dying voice ; 
 So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, 
 Which have solicited. The rest is silence, \pies. 
 
 Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince ; 
 And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! 371 
 
 Why does the drum come hither? \March within. 
 
 Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and others. 
 
 Fort. Where is this sight? 
 
 Hor. What is it ye would see? 
 
 If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. 
 
 Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, 
 What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, 
 That thou so many princes at a shot 
 So bloodily hast struck? 
 
 First Amb. The sight is dismal ; 
 
 And our affairs from England come too late : 
 The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, 380 
 
 To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd, 
 
 ^r^ 
 
Scene 2.] HAMLET. 121 
 
 That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead : 
 Where should we have our thanks? 
 
 Hor. Not from his mouth, 
 
 Had it the abihty of life to thank you : 
 He never gave commandment for their death. 
 But since, so jump upon this bloody question, 
 You from the Polack wars, and you from England, 
 Are here arrived, give order that these bodies 
 High on a stage be placed to the view; 
 
 And let me speak to the yet unknowing world 390 
 
 How these things came about: so shall you hear 
 Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, 
 Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters, 
 Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, 
 And, in this upshot, purposes mistook 
 Fall'n on the inventors' heads : all this can I 
 Truly deliver. 
 
 Fort. Let us haste to hear it. 
 
 And call the noblest to the audience. 
 For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune : 
 I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, 400 
 
 Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. 
 
 Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak. 
 And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more : 
 But let this same be presently perform'd. 
 Even while men's minds are wild ; lest more mischance, 
 On plots and errors, happen. 
 
 Fort. Let four captains 
 
 Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage ; 
 For he was likely, had he been put on, 
 To have proved most royally : and, for his passage, 
 The soldiers' music and the rites of war \\o 
 
 Speak loudly for him. 
 Take up the bodies : such a sight as this 
 Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. 
 Go, bid the soldiers shoot. 
 
 \A dead march. Exeunt.^ bearing off the dead bodies; 
 after which a peal of ordnance is shot off. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 T'hese notes should be used with the Glossary, to which the student is 
 referred for all matters of merely verbal interpretatiiu. 
 
 Reference is made throughout to the lines of the Globe text. Where 
 this might have caused any inconvenience, the lines of the 
 ' present edition have been added in italics. 
 
 The symbols Q i, Q 2, Q 3, Q 4, Q 5, Q 6 denote the quarto editions 
 of 1603 (first sketch), 1604, 1605, 161 1, the undated fifth quarto, and 
 1637; F I, F 2, F 3, F4, the folio editions of 1623, 1632, 1664, 1685. 
 Qq. denotes the consent of all the quartos except Q i, Ff. that of all 
 the folios. 
 
 Reference on points of grammar is made to the sections of the 3rd 
 edition of Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar; for passages from other 
 plays to Macmillan's Globe edition of the poet. The parallel text of 
 Q I, Q 2, and F i may be profitably studied in Victor's edition 
 {Shakespeare Reprints, Marburg, 1891). 
 
 Dratnatis Personce. This list is not in the Qq. or Ff. It was 
 added by Rowe. The spelling adopted is that of F i. 
 
 The division into Acts and Scenes is traditional ; neither being 
 given before the Players' Quarto of 1676, and in that only the Acts. 
 The earlier Qq. have not got it, and in the Ff. it only extends as far 
 as act ii. sc. 2. Mr. Rose {New Shakspere Society Transactions, 
 iSyj-g) has argued that the accepted division is incorrect ; but it 
 would not be convenient to adopt any other here. 
 
 Mr. Rose's paper will, however, repay careful study. He would 
 retain the present endings of acts i. and iv. Act ii. he would end 
 with the present iii. I, and act iii. with the present iv. 3. "Such 
 an arrangement", he says, "is thoroughly Shakespeai-ian ; each act 
 has its unity — the first is filled by the Ghost, the second by Hamlet's 
 assumed madness and the king's attempts to fathom it, the third by 
 the doings of one tremendous night, the fourth contains miscellaneous 
 intermediate incidents, and the fifth ends all things." 
 
 Act I.— Scene 1. 
 
 Elsinore. A platform before the castle. Notes of locality are not 
 given in the Qq. and Ff.; but Elsinore is mentioned in ii. 2. 278, 
 and the platform, or terrace, in i. 2. 252. 
 
 The two opening scenes put the spectator in full possession of the 
 situation of affairs in Denmark. The death and character of the late 
 king, his reappearance to denote some unknown evil, the threats of 
 war, and the consequent need for strong men, are emphasized in the 
 first ; the second adds the personal relations of Hamlet with the 
 royal house, and depicts his state of mind at the beginning of the 
 action. Coleridge has an excellent note on Shakespeare's first 
 
Scene i.] NOTES. 123 
 
 scenes. " With the single exception of Cymbelhte they either place 
 before us at one glance both the past and the future in some effect 
 which implies the continuance and full agency of its cause, as in the 
 feuds and party-spirit of the servants of the two houses in the first 
 scene oi Ro7neo and Juliet; or in the degrading passion for shows and 
 public spectacles, and the overwhelming attachment for the newest 
 successful v\^ar-chief in the Roman people, already become a populace, 
 contrasted with the jealousy of the nobles in Jii/ms Cocsar; — or they 
 at once commence the action so as to excite a curiosity for the ex- 
 planation in the following scenes, as in the storm, of wind and waves, 
 and the boatswain in The Tempest, instead of anticipating our curi- 
 osity, as in most other first scenes, and in too many other first acts ; 
 — or they act, by contrast of diction suited to the characters, at once 
 to heighten the effect, and yet to give a naturalness to the language 
 and rhythm of the principal personages, either in that of Prospero and 
 Miranda by the appropriate lowness of the style, or, as in King Jokn^ 
 by the equally appropriate stateliness of official harangues or narra- 
 tives, so that the after blank verse seems to belong to the rank and 
 quality of the speakers, and not to the poet ; — or they strike at once 
 the key-note and give the predominant spirit of the play, as in the 
 Twelfth Night and in Macbeth;— ox finally, the first scene comprises 
 all these advantages at once, as in Hamlet.'^'' 
 
 Horatio is carefully differentiated from Marcellus, Bernardo, and 
 Francisco : they are unlettered soldiers ; he is a scholar, and, as 
 such, has his t©uches both of imagination and scepticism. 
 
 I. The scene opens amid nervous suspense; there is a tradition 
 that it was written in a charnel-house. '"Tis bitter cold", and 
 silent, and the watcher is "sick at heart". On two previous nights 
 the ghost has appeared, to Bernardo and Marcellus. Bernardo's 
 agitation shows itself in the way he challenges the guard, instead of 
 waiting to be challenged. 
 
 6. upon, immediately after; cf. Much Ado, v. i. 258, "And fled 
 he is upon this villany", and Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 191. 
 
 13. rivals. Q i has partners, but the sense is the same. See 
 Glossary, s.v. 
 
 15. this ground, the land of Denmark. 
 
 16. Give you, probably an ellipse for *God give you', rather 
 than for 'I give you'. 
 
 ig. A piece of him, not merely a humorous answer, equivalent 
 to 'something like him'. Horatio hints that although he is there 
 in bodily presence, he is not in sympathy with his friend's expectation 
 of seeing the ghost. 
 
 21. This line is given to Horatio in Q 2, to Marcellus in Q i 
 and F I. In the one case the actor will speak of 'this thing' with 
 horroi?, in the other with derision. 
 
124 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 31. assail your ears is followed somewhat irregularly by "what 
 we have seen" because it is practically equivalent to 'tell you'. Cf. 
 Abbott, S/i. Gr. § 252. 
 
 36. yond same star, probably the Great Bear, which swings 
 round the pole. Shakespeare's diction is unfettered by any laws 
 beyond those of his free-will. He says 'this time last night' if he 
 pleases, or he expands the same idea in a descriptive and allusive 
 fashion. Similarly in lines 118-9 he paraphrases the moon as 
 
 "the moist star 
 Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands". 
 
 42. a scholar. Exorcisms were of course performed in Latin in 
 the palindrome " Signa te signa, temere me tangis et angis". Cf 
 Much Ado, ii. I. 264, "I would to God some scholar would conjure 
 her". 
 
 44. harrows. So F i. Q i has horrors, Q 2 horrows. Cf. 
 Milton, Camus, 565, "Amaz'd I stood, harrowed with fear and grief". 
 
 Horatio's scepticism has vanished once for all before "the sensible 
 and true avouch" of his own eyes. Hamlet's persistent doubts and 
 questionings do not occur to him, though, indeed, he is inclined to 
 explain the spirit as an 'illusion' (line 127). 
 
 46. usurp'st, in the wide sense of 'usest without right', appli- 
 cable equally to the 'time of night' and the appearance of the king. 
 
 60. For the difficulty of time suggested by Horatio's reminiscence, 
 and connected with that of Hamlet's age, see v. i. 154, note. 
 
 62, 63. The reading of Q i, Q 2, F i, is — 
 
 ' ' when in an angry parle 
 He smote the sleaded {sledded, F i) pollax on the ice". 
 
 The interpretation of the lines has puzzled commentators. There 
 are two possible meanings: (i) We may read with Malone the 
 sledded Folacks, i.e. 'the Poles who ride in sledges'. The form 
 Polack occurs in ii. 2. 63, 75 ; iv. 4. 23, and v. 3. 287. "An angry 
 parle" will then mean 'a skirmish', and the allusion will be to some 
 war, not with the Norwegians, but with the Poles. (ii) "The 
 sledded poleaxe" may be a poleaxe weighted with a sledge or 
 hammer at the back. I have preferred the second explanation for 
 three reasons: {a) a 'parle' or parley elsewhere in Shakespeare 
 always means a conference; {b) a conference is more likely than a 
 battle to take place *on the ice', i.e. on some bordering stream, 
 which would be neutral ground; {c) Horatio only saw the elder 
 Hamlet once (i. 2. 186), and presumably on a peaceful occasion, when 
 his beaver was up, so that his appearance could be remembered; 
 {d) the whole phrase suits best with some moment of sudden wrath, 
 and not with a day's fighting. Moltke needlessly proposes to read 
 leaded, edged, or sledged poleaxe. 
 
Scene i.] NOTES. 125 
 
 65. jump. So Q 2. F I has the more commonplace yV/j-/. 
 
 68. i.e. 'speaking generally'; 'Some evil is portended', says 
 Horatio, ' though I know not precisely what'. 
 
 70. Good, an appellative, 'good sirs'; cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 13. 
 
 72. toils, makes to toil ; Shakespeare uses many verbs transitively, 
 especially in a causal sense, which are now only used intransitively; 
 cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. §§ 290, 291. 
 
 85. so, i.e. as valiant; cf. Macbeth, i. i. 16, "brave Macbeth — 
 well he deserves that name". 
 
 87. Well ratified by law and heraldry; i.e. not only according 
 to the civil law, but also according to the formalities of the court 
 of chivalry. This court, a characteristic mediaeval institution, took 
 cognizance of matters of coat-armour or heraldry proper, and also, 
 to some extent, of international law. See Appendix to my edition 
 of Richard 11. in the Falcon Series. 
 
 90. a moiety competent, an equivalent slice of territory. 
 
 96. unapproved, untried. Q i reads inapproved; Q 2 and F i un- 
 improved, which might mean 'unemployed', 'not turned to account'; 
 Q.{. Julius CcEsar, ii. I. 159, "His means, if he improve them, may 
 well stretch so far". But the idea of 'mettle of proof is a common 
 one. 
 
 98. list. Q I reads sight, in the modern slang sense. 
 
 100. hath a stomach in 't, gives an opportunity for courage. 
 
 loi. our state, our rulers. 
 
 108-125. These lines are not in F i. 
 
 log. The meaning ascribed by the watchers to the coming of the 
 ghost shows that no suspicion of the king's murder had as yet been 
 awaked in the court. 
 
 112. Horatio is not minimizing the importance of the apparition; 
 it is a small thing, but it portends great trouble. 
 
 114. The prodigies in Rome are described m. Julius Ccesar, act i. 
 sc. 3, where Cassius speaks of them (line 70) as 
 
 " instruments of fear and warning 
 Unto some monstrous state". 
 
 The Julius C(2sar passage is taken from North's Plutarch ; this in 
 Hamlet perhaps partly from Lucan, Pharsalia, i. 526 — 
 " Ignota obscurse viderunt sidere noctes, 
 ardentemque polum flammis, coeloque volantes 
 obliquas per inane faces, crinemque timendi 
 sideris, et terris mutantem regna cometen". 
 
 Lucan mentions also the eclipse and the appearance of the dead in 
 the streets. 
 
126 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 117. The connection of this line with the preceding is so abrupt 
 that some editors have thought that Hues 121-125 should come be- 
 tween them. Others insert a conjectural line, as Boaden's "7"/^^ 
 heavens too spoke in silent prodigies ", or attempt to emend the text. 
 Malone has — 
 
 Astres with trains of fire — a7id dews of blood 
 
 Disastrous dimmed the sun. 
 
 For the last line of this Staunton would substitute Distempered the 
 sun, or Discoloured the smi. But a comet cannot very well dim the 
 sun, and astres is a very rare word, and "disasters in the sun" are 
 clearly sun-spots. The simplest explanation is that a line is missing, 
 but it is useless to try and rewrite it. — Comets were supposed to 
 cause the phenomenon of red dews, which is now said to proceed 
 from innumerable butterflies, each of which lets fall a drop of red 
 liquid as it emerges from the chrysalis. 
 
 119. The influence of the moon upon the tides is again alluded 
 to in Winter'' s Tale, i. 2. 426 — 
 
 "you may as well 
 Forbid the sea for to obey the moon". 
 
 Either because of this influence, or for the paleness of its radiance, 
 especially as seen through clouds, Shakespeare frequently applies the 
 epithet 'watery' to the moon. 
 
 120. almost to doomsday. In the description of the second 
 coming of the Son of Man, given in S. Matt. xxiv. 29, it is prophesied 
 that the sun shall "be darkened, and the moon not give her light". 
 Cf. also Rev. vi. 12, "the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and 
 the moon became as blood". 
 
 127. Crossing the spot where an apparition appeared was supposed 
 to bring down its evil influence on the rash spectator. 
 
 138. they say. Cf. lines 149, 165. Horatio is a scholar and 
 acquainted with theories of the supernatural. He knows the com- 
 mon causes which make spirits walk. 
 
 139. The stage-directions, here and in line 127, are from Q 2. 
 
 154. extravagant and erring. The Latin extravagare and errare 
 both mean, in their radical sense, ' to wander abroad'. Shakespeare 
 is fond of such uses, which seem to suggest a larger measure, at 
 least of Latin scholarship, than he is usually credited with. 
 
 161. dare stir. So Q 2. F i has can walk, Q i dare walk. 
 
 162. Planets, when in their malignant aspect, were supposed to 
 injure the incautious traveller by night; cf. Coriolanus, ii. 2. 117 — 
 
 "with a sudden reinforcement struck 
 Corioli like a planet". 
 
 We still use the phrase 'moonstruck'; see, e.g., R. Browning, One 
 Word More, xvL 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 127 
 
 163. takes. So Q I, Q 2. F i YidiSialks. 'To take' is 'to affect', 
 'to charm'. See Glossary, j.z'. 
 
 165. Horatio is half attracted by ^he imaginative theory, half 
 sceptical. 
 
 166. russet. The earliest colour of dawn is not red but grey. 
 Cf. Much Ado, V. 3. 29 — 
 
 "the gentle day 
 Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about 
 Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey"; 
 
 and Romeo and Jtiliet, iii. 5. 19, "I'll say yon grey is not the 
 morning's eye". 
 
 167. eastern. So F i. Q 2 has eastward. A comparison be- 
 tween this beautiful metaphor and the cruder version given in Q I 
 will show the subtle art with which Shakespeare carried out his 
 revision of the play. Q i has — 
 
 " But see, the sun in russet mantle clad 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high mountain top". 
 
 The art consists in the rearrangement of the alliteration so as to 
 connect the words in a more melodious fashion. 
 
 170. The first mention of Hamlet in the play, preparing us for 
 the introduction of him in the next scene. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 Hamlet's brief dialogue vv^ith the King and Queen and his subse- 
 quent soliloquy sufficiently acquaint us with his mood. He has no 
 idea of his uncle's crime, though he detests his character; but his 
 moral sense has received a severe shock from his mother's marriage. 
 The whole world appears to him, in consequence, under the dominion 
 of evil; he would gladly be quit of it. But that cannot be, and, 
 moreover, he cannot do anything, nor even speak his feelings out. 
 He must take refuge in irony and sarcasm, or, when possible, in 
 silence. 
 
 Claudius is a hypocrite, but his hypocrisy is that of a statesman ; 
 he plays his part with a dignity and a keen insight into what is need- 
 ful for the welfare of the state, which explain how the council came 
 to choose him king. 
 
 The scene opens with a bridal procession. It is the custom of the 
 stage for Hamlet to come on last, slowly and reluctantly, and clad 
 in black, amongst the glittering draperies of the court. 
 
 The stage-direction is that of F I ; Q 2 has Enter Claudius King 
 of Denmark, Gertrad the Queen, Connsaile as Polonius and his son 
 Laertes, Hamlet cum aliis. I believe that the curious phrase Conn- 
 saile as Polonius contains a trace of the name Coratnbis, which occurs 
 in the stage-direction of Q I. If the name was somehow left in the 
 MS. side by side with the substituted Polonius, the printer may 
 
128 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 have tried to make sense of it in his own way. Cf. ii. i. i, note, 
 and Appendix A. 
 
 7. This line explains the "wisest" of line 6. 
 
 II. an. ..a. So Q2.; Fi has one. ..one. The Fi reading rather 
 strains the antithesis. But cf. Winter's Tale, v. 2. 80, ' ' She had 
 one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that 
 the oracle was fulfilled". For the idea cf. the daKpvoev yeXdaacra 
 ('laughing tearfully') of Homer, Iliad, vi. 484. It is an oxymoron, 
 which the grammarians describe as ' a contrast by juxtaposition of 
 opposing ideas '. Shakespeare is fond of the conceit ; a good instance 
 is in Romeo and Juliet, i. i. 182— , 
 
 "Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! 
 O anything, of nothing first create ! 
 O heavy lightness ! serious vanity ! 
 Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms ! 
 Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! 
 Still- waking sleep, that is not what it is ". 
 
 He burlesques it, however, in Midsummer Nighfs Dream, v. i, 56. 
 
 17. that you know is parenthetical, 'that which you already 
 know '. 
 
 18. a weak supposal of our worth, a supposal that our worth 
 is weak. Such transpositions of adjectives are common in Shake- 
 speare; cf. Macbeth, ii. i. 55, "Tarquin's ravishing strides ". 
 
 21. His hope of gain is allied with his poor opinion of his adver- 
 sary. 
 
 22. After a long parenthesis the foregoing subject is often recalled 
 by a pronoun ; cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 242. 
 
 24. Cf. i. I. 87. 
 
 25, Claudius mentions his brother three times in this carefully- 
 prepared speech, and always with an epithet of affection or flattery. 
 
 31. in that gives the grounds for Norway's interference. 
 
 32. proportions, of the army, horse to foot, &c. 
 
 34. Q I has Cornelia and Voltemar. 
 
 38. delated. So Q 2; P' i ha.?, dilated, Q i related. 'Dilated articles' 
 would mean ' articles set out at large ' ; ' delated articles ' is ' articles 
 setting forth what powers are delated, delegated, or made over to 
 you'. 
 
 60. The metaphor is legal, Laertes' will is like a deed, illegal 
 until his father's hard-won consent has ratified it. Lines 58-60, 
 except the sentence " He hath, my Lord", are omitted in F I. 
 
 62. Take thy fair hour, enjoy the privileges of youth. 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 129 
 
 65. Hamlet is now Claudius' son, and therefore in a closer relation- 
 ship to him than that of a mere kinsman. But in feeling they are 
 far from ' kind ' or ' affectionate ' towards each other. 
 
 66. too much i' the sun. Hamlet ironically replies that he is 
 too much in the sunshine of the royal presence to be gloomy. There 
 may also be a play of words between S7in and son : * You call me 
 your son, and so I am, a mere prince, who should be a king'. 
 Hamlet does not dwell on his loss of the crown, but it is one of the 
 bitter drops in his cup; cf v. 2. 65, " Popped in between the election 
 and my hopes ". ' To be i' the sun ' appears also to be a proverbial 
 phrase for ' to be miserable '. 
 
 74. Hamlet's reply means, 'it is common; but does it hurt the 
 less?' The same idea is repeated in The Tempest, ii. i. 3 — - 
 
 " Our hint of woe 
 Is common ; every day some sailor's wife, 
 The masters of some merchant and the merchant 
 Have just our theme of woe ". 
 
 And still more exactly in Tennyson, In Memoriam, vi. — 
 
 " One writes, that ' Other friends remain ', 
 That ' Loss is common to the race ' — 
 And common is the commonplace, 
 And vacant chaff well meant for grain. 
 
 " That loss is common would not make 
 My own less bitter, rather more : 
 Too common ! Never morning wore 
 To evening, but some heart did break ". 
 
 78. customary suits, either ' the conventional garb of mourning ' 
 or ' the suits which I am accustomed to wear '. 
 
 82. moods, less the inner feelings than the outward poses or atti- 
 tudes of grief. Hamlet is contrasting the appearance with the reality. 
 Therefore the shows of F I is better than the shapes of Q 2. 
 
 92. obsequious sorrow, in the double sense of ' dutiful sorrow ' 
 and 'sorrow as shown in obsequies, or funeral rites'. 
 
 95. incorrect, rather a participle than an adjective, referring more 
 to the process than the result; 'not corrected', 'not trained into the 
 right attitude '. 
 
 97. unschool'd. Cf. Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 161, "an un- 
 lessoned girl, unschooled, impractised ". Shakespeare, like Milton, 
 is fond of piling up negative adjectives in this way, 
 
 gg. any the most vulgar thing to sense. Cf. Cymbeline, i. 4. 
 65, "any the rarest"; He7iry VIII. ii. 4. 48, "one the wisest"; and, 
 for the transposition, Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 419^;. 
 
 no. nobility, apparently in the sense of 'a high degree'. 
 ( 885 ) I 
 
I30 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 112. impart, used intransitively, 'impart myself, 'offer myself. 
 Several emendations have been suggested to avoid the intransitive 
 use, the best being Mason's, Do I my part toward yo2i. 
 
 113. Wittenberg. The university was really founded in 1502. 
 It was made famous by Martin Luther. 
 
 114. The subject is repeated in the pronoun; cf. line 22, and 
 Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 243. 
 
 117. cousin, the usual term of courtesy used by a king to his 
 nobles. 
 
 125. " The king's intemperance is very strongly impressed; every- 
 thing that happens to him gives him occasion to drink" (Johnson). 
 Additional solemnity is to be imparted to the present revel by the 
 firing of salutes; cf. v. 2. 278, sqq. 
 
 126. tell appears to be used intransitively for 'speak', without 
 an object. 
 
 129. The idea of suicide, which occupies Hamlet's mind in iii. I. 
 56 sqq.^ has already occurred to him. 
 
 too too. Such reduplications have an intensive force, and are 
 common in Elizabethan writers ; cf. iii. 3. 8, and Sonnet ex. " Even 
 to thy pure and most most loving breast ". 
 
 solid. The contrast is with ' dew ', and therefore the use of the 
 word here need not imply that Hamlet is fat; cf. v. 2. 271, note. 
 But too too solid is only the reading of F I. Q 2 has too too sallied and 
 Q I too much gi'iev'd and sallied. I incline to think that sallied is 
 right, in the sense of 'vexed'; cf. ii. I. 39 (Q2), and cf. Wordsworth, 
 Ode on the Intimations of hjimortality^ vii. "fretted by sallies of his 
 mother's kisses ". 
 
 132. Cf. Cytnbeline, iii. 4. 77 — 
 
 "Against self-slaughter 
 There is a prohibition so divine 
 That cravens my weak hand". 
 
 It need hardly be said that there is nothing about self- slaughter in 
 the Bible. "Unless it be the Sixth Commandment, the 'canon' 
 must be one of natural religion." (Bp. Wordsworth.) 
 
 134. uses, the customary, usual occupations of life. 
 
 138. two months; cf. iii. 2. iii. 
 
 140. Shakespeare, like Gray and Keats, accents Hyperion, in- 
 stead of Hyperion. Hyperion was the Titanic Sun-god; cf. iii. 4. 
 56. 
 
 149. Niobe, a daughter of Tantalus, boasted that she had more 
 sons and daughters than Leto. Consequently Apollo and Artemis 
 slew her children with arrows, and she herself was turned by Zeus 
 into a stone upon Mount Sipylus in Lydia, where she sheds tears all 
 the summer long ; cf. Sophocles, Antigone, 823. 
 
Scene 2,] NOTES. 131 
 
 150. Q I has devoid of reason. Discourse is the Latin disc7irsiis, 
 the process of the intellect from premises to conclusion in an argu- 
 ment. 
 
 154. unrighteous, because her subsequent conduct gave then-i the 
 lie. 
 
 158. nor it cannot. The double negative is frequent in Shake- 
 speare; cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 406. 
 
 159. Hamlet does not speak of his mother's disgrace in public, 
 nor, until the command of the Ghost is laid upon him, upbraid her in 
 private. 
 
 160. The news of the apparition breaks in upon Hamlet's musings. 
 It excites him, he eagerly questions concerning it, and jumps at once 
 to the conclusion that ther.e has been some foul play. This has not 
 struck the others, but then Hamlet is ready to think the worst of 
 his uncle. 
 
 161. Hamlet is full of thought when he first greets the new-comer, 
 then he looks up, and recognizes his friend. 
 
 163. I'll change. ..with you, either, 'I will be your servant, 
 you my friend ', or ' I will call you, and you me, friend '. Cf. line 
 254. 
 
 167. Good even, sir. This is spoken to Bernardo. 
 
 175. Satire; directly the surprise of seeing Horatio has worn off, 
 the bitterness of Hamlet's heart rises to his lips. The reading is 
 that of Q I, F I. Q 2 has /or to drink. 
 
 182. my dearest foe. Shakespeare uses the epithet 'dear' of 
 anything that nearly touches the emotions in any way. See Glossary, 
 s.v. 
 
 186. Horatio is about to say, as he says in line 189, 'I saw him 
 yesternight '. He breaks off nervously and substitutes ' once '. For 
 that occasion cf. i. i. 60-63, notes. 
 
 187. Cf. Julius Cczsar, v. 5- 73 — 
 
 "His life was gentle, and the elements 
 So mixed in him that nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world, ' This was a man ! ' " 
 
 igo. who, Shakespeare often uses 'who' for ' whom ' ; cf. Abbott, 
 Sh. Gr. § 274. 
 
 193, attent. In the transitional state of the language during the 
 Elizabethan period, shortened forms of common words are frequently 
 found, Cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 22, and 'avouch' (i. i. 37). 
 
 198, the dead waste. Q 2, F i have wast, which may represent 
 ' waste ' or ' waist '; Q i has vast. Both ' waste ' and ' vast ' have tlie 
 sense of ' emptiness ', ' stillness ', " The vast of night " occurs in '/'/le 
 Tempest, i. 2. 327. "The waist of night " is found in Marston's 
 
132 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 Malecontent. 'Waist' and 'middle' would here be tautologous, but 
 such tautologies are frequent in Shakespeare's exuberant vocabulary. 
 
 200. at point. So Q 2 ; F i has at all points. In either case the 
 meaning is 'completely'; cf. Glossary, s.v. poifit. 
 
 202. slow and stately. Adjectives are often used for adverbs ; 
 cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. %i. 
 
 204. distill'd. So Q2; Fi has bestilled. 'Distilled to jelly' is 
 an odd phrase. To ' distil ' is properly to convert into drops (Lat. 
 stilla) of liquid; here it seems to mean 'softened', 'weakened'. 
 Many emendations have been proposed, as, be-chilled, dissolved. 
 betJi rilled. 
 
 It is no doubt the quaking of jelly that Shakespeare has in mind. 
 
 205. act, like the Latin actus, is here used of the patient, rather 
 than the agent. 
 
 216. it. Cf. v. I. 293. In Shakespeare's time his was just begin- 
 ning to give place to its as the genitive of it. Transition forms are 
 it, as here, and ifs. It occurs about fourteen times in F i. In the 
 Authorized Version of the Bible, his is almost invariable, but // occurs 
 in Leviticus, xxv. 5, "of it own accord"; cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 228; 
 and Craik, English of Shakespeare, p. 91. 
 
 222. writ down. So Q 2, F i ; Q i has right done. 
 
 226. I do not think that Hamlet's rapid questions imply any doubt 
 of his friend's good faith. He is immensely impressed with the 
 story, and curious to know every detail. 
 
 242. Cf. Sonnet xii. 4, "And sable curls all silvered o'er with 
 white ". 
 
 244. Hamlet professes to think the ghost an ' illusion', as Horatio 
 did. But to himself he calls it 'my father's spirit'. But the doubt 
 comes back to him, and it is long before he can satisfy himself; cf. 
 i. 4. 40 ; ii. I. 580. 
 
 The belief that supernatural appearances were the work of evil 
 spirits was common in Elizabethan times. In Macbeth, v. 8. 19, the 
 witches are called "juggling fiends", 
 
 248. tenable. So Q 2 ; F i has treble. 
 
 254. Cf. line 163. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 The principal elements in the situation of things at Elsinore have 
 been put before us in the first two scenes ; the need for a man of 
 action, and the supernatural suggestion of some hidden evil in scene 
 I, the position and nature of Hamlet in scene 2. The presenc scene 
 completes the picture by showing the contrast to Hamlet afforded by 
 the family of Polonius, who may be taken as typical of the court at 
 Elsinore. All are carefully drawn on a lower scale than his, shallow 
 
Scene 3.] NOTES. i33 
 
 where he is subtle, commonplace where he is original. None the 
 less, the portrait of the gentle maiden, Ophelia, is touched so as to 
 win our sympathies. She is no mate for Hamlet ; yet in her own 
 sphere she is a beautiful and lovable character. Polonms is a 
 politician without being a statesman, Laertes an apt representative 
 of gilded youth as it existed at the court of Elizabeth. Both have 
 low ideals ; the father is consumed with the conceit of his own 
 intellect and experience, which have shown him only the lower side 
 of humanity; the son is ' Italianate', degraded in tone by his life in 
 a foreign city; both are incredulous, not only of the purity and 
 honour of Hamlet, but of that of Ophelia herself. 
 
 2. as, not 'because', but 'according as', 'whensoever'. Cf. 
 Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 109. 
 
 6. a toy in blood, a passing fancy of youth. For the use of 
 'toy' cf. i. 4. 76, "toys of desperation". 
 
 12. The Scriptural metaphor of the temple of the body recurs in 
 Macbeth, ii. 3. 72— 
 
 " Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 
 The Lord's anointed temple". 
 
 21. safety. So Q 2 ; F l has sanctity. ' Safety' must of coarse 
 be scanned as a trisyllable ; cf. Essay on Metre, § 6 (in). 
 
 26. act and place. So Q 2; F i has sect atid force. 
 
 Lines 36-39 are preceded by inverted commas in Q 2, perhaps 
 because thev are of the nature of maxims. Lines 61-77, and some 
 lines which 'take the place of Polonius' speech 115, sqq., are similarly 
 printed in Q i . 
 
 45 Laertes' advice is such as his own experience has taught him. 
 Ophelia is partly impressed by her brother's worldly wisdom, yet 
 she is not without an intimation of the shallowness of it. 
 
 50. Notice the change from the plural to the singular, characteristic 
 of the loose Elizabethan syntax ; and for the opposite construction, 
 see iii. 2, 200. Cf. also Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 415. 
 
 the primrose path. Cf. Macbeth, ii. 3. 51, "Some of all pro- 
 fessions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire ; and 
 Alps Well, iv. 5. 56, "the flowery way that leads to the broad gate 
 and the great fire". Also R. L. Stevenson, Underwoods i. xi.— 
 ' ' Life is over, life was gay ; 
 We have come the primrose way". 
 
 57. There. 'The natural explanation of the word is that Polonius 
 lays his hand upon Laertes' head. But F I reads you are stayed for 
 there. 
 
 59. The precepts of Polonius may be summed up in the Greek 
 ii-qUv Br^o^v, 'Don't go too far; avoid excess ; don't commit your- 
 self. They are delivered in the formal sententious way character- 
 istic of the old man. 
 
134 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 64. dull thy palm, make thy friendliness too common. 
 
 65. comrade. So F i ; Q i, Q 2 both read courage. 
 
 74, Are of a most select. ..in that. This line is a well-known 
 crux. The following are the readings of the three earliest editions : — 
 
 Q I. And they of France of the chief rancke and siatio7i 
 Are of a 77iost select and generall chiefe in that. 
 
 Q 2. And they in Fraunce of the best ranch and station 
 Or of a most select and getter ous chiefe in that. 
 
 F I. And they in France of the best ranch and station 
 Are of a most select and generotis cheffin that. 
 
 Evidently F i gives a nearer approach to a possible text than either 
 of the Qq. Moreover it is shown by lines 65, 76, to afford a better 
 version of this speech than Q 2. The principal explanations and 
 emendations are — 
 
 {a) That given in the text, which is due to Collier. I think that 
 the presence of chiefe in line 73 (Q i text) may have led to the 
 erroneous substitution oi chiefe for choice in line 74. When the play 
 was revised the exact cause of the repetition may have been missed, 
 best substituted for chiefe in line 73, and the wrong word left in 
 line 74. 
 
 {b) Chief vasiy be a substantive, meaning literally 'head', and so 
 'eminence' or 'superiority'. 
 
 {c) Both sense and scansion may be improved by reading, as the 
 Cambridge editors suggest — 
 
 Are most select and generous, chief in that. 
 
 Staunton and Ingleby read sheaf in the sense of 'set', 'clique'; 
 according to the Euphuistic phrase 'gentlemen of the best sheaf, 
 which occurs in Jonson's Magnetic Lady, act iii. sc. 4, Ingleby 
 also suggests that the courage of the Qq. in line 65 is Euphuistic 
 for 'a gallant'. 
 
 76. loan. So F I ; Q 2 has love. 
 
 78. Polonius' last maxim appears so profoundly true, if taken in 
 its highest sense of 'Be true to your own ideal', that critics have 
 doubted whether he is meant to be altogether ridiculous. But it 
 must be remembered that the phrase may also be interpreted as 
 * Look after yourself first, and you will find that honesty is the best 
 policy'. And it would be a characteristic bit of Shakespeare's 
 irony to put into Polonius' mouth words which really convey a great 
 *"ieaning, but which he only understands in a far lower sense. 
 
 81. ' May my blessing make my warnings the more acceptable.' 
 
 88. Neither Polonius nor Laertes conceives that Hamlet may be 
 genuinely in love with Ophelia. They interpret him after their own 
 standard. And so Ophelia's ignorance is poisoned ; she becomes 
 ready to distrust her lover, and to take her father's part against him. 
 
Scene 4.J NOTES. 135 
 
 107. Polonius' delight in playing upon words is one side of his 
 supreme satisfaction with himself, and especially with his powers of 
 expression. Cf. ii. 2. 85, sqq. 
 
 109. Running it. This is Collier's conjecture for the Wrong it 
 of Q 2, and Roaming it of F 2. The phrase means ' hunting it 
 through every twist and turn, as a greyhound hunts a hare'. Pope's 
 Wronging it is nearer to Q 2, but less pointed. Warburton's 
 Wrijtging it is another possible alternative. 
 
 112, go to; a common phrase of reproach, or, rarely, of en- 
 couragement. Cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 185. 
 
 115, springes to catch woodcocks, a proverbial phrase for the 
 entangling of a simpleton. Cf. v. 2. 317. Harting states that the wood- 
 cock was supposed to have no brains. The Clarendon Press editors 
 quote Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 72 (ed. Arber), "When Comedy 
 comes upon the stage, Cupid sets up a springe for woodcocks, which 
 are entangled ere they descry the line, and caught before they mis- 
 trust the snare ". 
 
 116. prodigal, adjective for adverb ; cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. §1. 
 122. ' Do not entreat or entertain his suit so readily.' 
 
 130. bonds. This is the reading of the Qq. Ff., and there does 
 not appear to be any reason to follow the majority of modern editors 
 in accepting Theobald's emendation, bazvds. 
 
 131. This is for all, once for all. 
 
 133. It is unnecessary to read momenfs for the moment of Q 2 
 and Fi: for the use of 'moment' as an adjective cf. i. 5. 33, 
 "Lethe wharf". 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 The elements of the tragedy are now before the mind of the 
 spectator ; the revelation of the ghost is the spark which sets them 
 in motion. With this the first act, or prologue to the main action, 
 naturally ends. Hamlet's problem is presented- to hnii ; the question 
 is, " What will he make of it?" This must be decided in the course 
 of the play by the laws of his character and circumstances. His 
 first impulse is to believe and to revenge ; yet, even so early as this, 
 the hastily conceived design of simulating madness is a foretaste of 
 what is to follow. 
 
 Scenes 4 and 5 are dramatically continuous ; they are only separated 
 scenically by the need for a slight change of locality. 
 
 I. it is. So Qq., F2, 3; F i, 2 have is it 
 
 8. Hamlet's speculative turn of mind is well illustrated in this 
 passage. In the moment of nervous tension he finds a natural outlet 
 in pursuing general reflections on an irrelevant matter, reflections 
 which soon carry him into the deeps of philosophy. 
 
136 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 g. the swaggering up-spring reels. Pope and Johnson lekned 
 'up-spring' to Claudius, and interpreted it as 'upstart' or 'usurper'. 
 It is more probably an epithet of ' reels ', the whole expression being 
 governed by ' keeps '. Elze points out that the word corresponds 
 to hiipfaiif, a wild German dance. There is a passage in Dekker's 
 Gidls Horn-book worth quoting, "Teach me, thou sovereign 
 skinker, how to take the German's upsy freeze, the Danish rousa ". 
 
 11. The kettle-drum was a characteristically Danish instrument; 
 cf. Cleveland, Fuscara or the Bee Errant — 
 
 " Tuning his draughts with drowsy hums, 
 As Danes carouse by kettle-drums ". 
 
 12. his pledge. Cf. sc. 3, lines 124, sqq. 
 
 15. The English appear to have shared, in Shakespeare's time, a 
 reputation for tippling with the nations of northern Europe. The 
 drunkenness of the Germans is satirized in Merchant of Venice, 
 act i. scene 2, and it appears from contemporary records that the 
 Danes came under the same condemnation; cf. Howell's Letters, 
 i. 6. 2 (1632), "The king [Christian IV,] feasted my lord 
 [Leicester] once, and it lasted from eleven of the clock till towards 
 the evening, during which time the king began thirty-five healths". 
 
 16. ' A custom which it is more honourable to break than to 
 observe,' 
 
 Lines 18-37 ai-e omitted in F i. 
 
 ig. swinish phrase, phrase that makes us out to be swine, 
 
 24. There is some irony in putting into Hamlet's mouth a truth 
 which his own history is so notably to illustrate. It is ' by the 
 o'ergrowth of some complexion ', that is, the natural tendency to 
 over-speculation in him, that he comes to failure. 
 
 32. nature's livery or fortune's star. Both phrases mean the 
 same. The natural ' livery ', ' temperament ', or ' complexion ' of a 
 man depends on the star he chanced to be born under. Cf. Much 
 Ado, ii. I, 349, where Beatrice explains her lively nature, "Then 
 there was a star danced, and under that was I born ". 
 
 36, 37. These lines have puzzled commentators more than any other 
 in the play. Furness, in his Varioru7n edition, devotes six pages to 
 the criticism upon them, and the Cambridge editors enumerate some 
 forty readings. 
 The Q 2 text is — 
 
 the dram of eale 
 Doth all the noble substance of a doubt 
 To his owne scandle. 
 
 And the general sense is clearly, that a little leaven leavens the 
 whole lump, a small fault brings scandal upon the whole of a noble 
 character. But there can be little question that the Q 2 text is 
 
Scene 4.] NOTES. 137 
 
 corrupt, and the wildest attempts have been made to emend it. It is 
 hardly necessary for the purposes of this edition to catalogue these. 
 They may be found in Furness, or in the Cambridge Shakespeare. 
 
 No explanation appears to me plausible which does not retain 
 the word eale. " A dram of eale " may mean — 
 
 (i) A dram of a decoction of eels. Cf. Maplett, Green Forest 
 (1567), quoted by Mr. W. M. Rossetti in Notes and Queries for 
 October 30, 1869, "The eel being killed and addressed in wine, 
 whosoever chaunceth to drinke of tliat wine so used shall ever after- 
 wards lolhe wine ". 
 
 (2) A dram of reproach. Mr. T. Davies states in Notes and 
 Queries for March 11, 1876, that 'eale' in the sense of 'reproach 
 is still used in the western counties. 
 
 (3) Still more simply : a dram of e'il or evil. Very strong support 
 is given to this interpretation by the Q 2 reading of dcale for ' devil ' 
 in ii. 2. 627. 
 
 Then for the next line. It is surely desirable to make the 
 slightest possible change in the Q 2 text that will afford a reason- 
 able sense. The choice appears to me to lie between two emenda- 
 tions — 
 
 ( 1 ) Doth all the noble substance offer doubt. 
 
 (2) Doth all the noble substance oft adoubt. 
 
 In either case the meaning is the same, 'The dram of evil brings 
 doubt upon the whole noble substance, lowering it to its own scan- 
 dalous level'. The form 'adoubt' would be parallel to 'abase', 
 the prefix giving it a causal sense. 
 
 In view of the uncertainty of the question I have thought it best 
 to let the Q 2 reading stand in the text. 
 
 38. his, the ordinary possessive form both of 'he' and 'it' in 
 Shakespeare. Cf. i. 2. 216, note, and Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 228. 
 
 40. of health, in opposition to 'damned'; an angel or spirit 
 from heaven. 
 
 43. questionable shape, i.e. arousing obstinate questionings or 
 problems in Hamlet's mind that need an answer. 
 
 47. canonized, not ' sainted ', but ' buried according to the 
 canon or ordinance of the church'. 
 
 48. cerements. Q i has ceremojties. 
 
 49. inurn'd. So F i; Q 2 has the more commonplace interred. 
 
 54. fools of nature, the sport of nature. 
 
 The construction is rather cramped. " What may this mean" is 
 followed by {a) "that thou...revisit'st ", and {b) "to shake our dis- 
 position": " We fools of nature" is explanatory of the "our". 
 
 71. his. Cf. line 38, note. 
 
 73. your sovereignty of reason. Possibly ' your sovereignty ' 
 may be a courtier's phrase, like 'your highness'; but I think a 
 
138 HAMLET. [Act I. 
 
 better sense is got by taking the whole phrase as equivalent to 
 'reason, the sovereign quality in you'. Cf. i. 2. 1 10, " nobility of 
 love". In that case 'deprive' is used in the rather exceptional 
 sense of ' destroy '. 
 
 Lines 75-78 are not in F I. The idea is further developed in 
 King Lear^ act iv. sc. 6. 
 
 83. the Nemean lion, one of the mythical monsters slain by 
 Hercules. 
 
 nerve. Elizabethan usage inverts the senses now given to ' nerve ' 
 and 'sinew'. Cf. Glossary, s.v. 
 
 Scene 5. 
 
 2. My hour, i.e. the hour of cock-crow; cf. i. i. 147, sqq. 
 
 11. to fast in fires. 'Fast' appears to be used here in the very 
 general sense of undergoing penance. Various emendations have 
 been suggested, such as to roast in fires ; to waste in fires ; to lasting 
 fires. 
 
 12. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid, vi. 739 — 
 
 " Ergo exercentur poenis, veterumque malorum 
 Supplicia expandunt. Aliae panduntur inanes 
 Suspens3e ad ventos ; aliis sub gurgite vasto 
 Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni." 
 
 17. Cf. Midsu7timer NigJWs Dream, ii. I. 153 — 
 
 " And certain stars shot madly from their spheres 
 To hear the sea-maid's music". 
 
 19. an end, 'A' or 'an' appears to be often a dialectical form 
 of ' on '. See Glossary, s.v. 
 
 20. the fretful porpentine. The porpentine or porcupine was 
 supposed to shoot out its quills, like arrows, when fretted. 
 
 21. eternal blazon, revelation of the things belonging to eternity. 
 
 30. This is Hamlet's first impulse before the natural reaction of 
 his character sets in. The speech is full of irony, considering the 
 course the play is to take. 
 
 meditation. This does not seem to mean, as Warburton 
 suggests, the mystical contemplation of God, or anything beyond 
 'thought' in the ordinary sense. 'As quick as thought' is a 
 common phrase enough. 
 
 32. the fat v/eed. "If Shakespeare had any particular plant 
 in mind, it must have been the asphodel, with its numerous bulbs, 
 thick sown over the meadows of the lower regions." (Tschischwitz.) 
 But the image seems rather to have been suggested by the heavy 
 growth of shapeless weeds on wooden piles rising and falling with 
 the motion of the water. 
 
Scene 5.] NOTES. 139 
 
 33. roots. So Q 2 ; F I has rots. 
 
 Lethe, a river or lake in the infernal regions of Greek mythology, 
 whose waters gave forgetfulness of the past to those who drank. For 
 the use of the substantive as an adjective of. i. 3. 133, note. 
 
 40. Cf. i. 3. 256, ' I doubt some foul play '. 
 
 42. Shakespeare does not fall into the error of making his villains 
 obviously mean, after the fashion of melodrama. Unless they had 
 the gifts and powers to accomplish their ends, their success would 
 appear unconvincing, and the whole motive of the play hollow. 
 
 46. seeming- virtuous. As to the extent of Gertrude's guilt see 
 notes on act iii. sc. 4. 
 
 47. Cf. iii. I. 53, sqq., and the use of the same idea in Tennyson's 
 Locksley Hall — 
 
 "Is it well to wish thee happy? — having known me — to decline 
 On, a range of lower feelings and a narrower heart than mine!" 
 
 53. The natural order is 'as virtue never will be moved'. It is 
 altered, to bring out the antithesis of 'virtue' and ' lust'. 
 
 56. sate. So F I ; Q 2 has sort. 
 
 61. secure, in the sense of the Latin securiis, implying less 
 security itself, than a sense of security which may be mistaken. 
 
 62. cursed Hebona. So Q 2 ; F i has cursed hehenon. Hebona 
 is generally supposed to be henbane {Hyoscyamus niger), which is a 
 narcotic poison. Pliny {Nat. Hist. xxv. 4) states that the oil of it, 
 dropped into the ears, stupefies the wits. On the other hand Dr. 
 Brinsley Nicholson (New Sh. Soc. Transactions, 1880-2) argues that 
 the plant meant is the yew. He shows that the name ebenus was 
 applied to the yew; that Spenser's mention of "a heben bow" and 
 "a heben lance" require a tough wood, and that, though the pro- 
 perties of neither plant exactly correspond to Shakespeare's de- 
 scription, the yew was supposed to curdle the blood, and so pro- 
 duce a kind of leprosy. Marlowe speaks of " the juice of hebon ", 
 but without showing which plant is meant. The ebenus or ebony 
 is not poisonous. 
 
 63. Ambroise Pare, a surgeon, was suspected of having poured 
 poison into the ear of Francis II. when he was dressing it. 
 
 73. The imperfect line allows a sufficient pause for Hamlet and 
 the audieiice to realize the horror of the situation. 
 
 75. dispatch'd, suddenly bereft. 
 
 75. Cf. iii. 3. 81. 
 
 77. disappointed. Shakespeare, like Milton, is fond of piling 
 up these picturesque negative adjectives and participles. ' Dis- 
 appointed ' is here used in its radical sense, ' not made ready ' ; cf. i. 
 I. 154, note. Capell proposed to read unappointed, but the niore 
 
I40 HAMLET. [Act I. Scene 5. 
 
 varied rhythm appears preferable. Pope's unanointed has the 
 additional defect of being identical in meaning with ' unaneled ', 
 which, however, Pope interpreted as ' without a knell being rung '. 
 
 80. Many critics think that this line should be spoken by Hamlet, 
 but all the Qq. Ff give it to the Ghost. 
 
 go. uneffectual, either because it is lost in the rays of the sun, 
 or, more probably, because it is light without heat. Cf Nash, The 
 Unfortunate Traveller, ' ' The ostrich, the most burning-sighted bird 
 of all others, insomuch as the female of them hatcheth not her eggs 
 by covering them, but by the effectual rays of her eyes ". 
 
 97, this distracted globe. It is the stage tradition for the actor 
 to put his hand to his head at these words. 
 
 98. " Shakespeare alone could have produced the vow of Hamlet 
 to make his memory a blank of all maxims and generalized truths, 
 that 'observation had copied there' — followed immediately by the 
 speaker noting down the generalized fact, line 108." (Coleridge.) 
 
 105. Hamlet, already revolted by his mother's marriage, assumes, 
 as indeed the Ghost appears to do in line 85, that she had a share in 
 the greater crime. 
 
 107. tables, writing tablets of slate or ivory, often made in the 
 form of a book, with clasps. They were perhaps covered with wax, 
 and written on with a sharp-pointed instrument. 
 
 Hamlet's action is symbolical of the scholar and philosopher^ not 
 the man of deeds. 
 
 112. I cannot help thinking that some of the rude humour in the 
 latter part of this scene is a survival from the older play, and was 
 retained to please the groundlings. It can, of course, be treated as 
 having a dramatic value. It affords an outlet for Hamlet's excite- 
 ment, and belongs to the exalted state of mind in which he con- 
 ceives the idea of pretending madness. This scheme has plainly 
 been formed by line 171. 
 
 The distribution of the speeches is that of Q 2 ; that of F i differs 
 slightly. 
 
 116. Hamlet parodies Horatio's call, by imitating that of a 
 falconer to his hawk. 
 
 124. Hamlet is on the point of saying 'but the king', when his 
 heart fails him, and he ingeniously turns off the sentence. 
 
 136. S. Patrick, according to Moberly the patron saint of 
 blunders and confusion, and therefore fitly invoked when ' the times 
 were out of joint'. Or he may be thought of as concerned with un- 
 expiated crime. Cf. Dekker, The Honest Whore, "S. Patrick, you 
 know, keeps Purgatory ". 
 
 there is, not in Hamlet's words, but in Claudius' deeds. 
 
Act II. Scene i.J NOTES. 141 
 
 138. an honest ghost, not a devil in his father's shape, as both 
 Horatio and himself have thought possible. Yet this very doubt 
 recurs in ii. 2. 580. 
 
 148. Most European nations swore by the sword, in heathen 
 times by the edge, in Christian by the cross hilt. 
 
 156, Hie et ubique. Shakespeare rarely introduces Latin words 
 in ordinary dialogue, which makes it the more likely that this scene 
 contains fragments of an older play. 
 
 167. our. So F I ; Q 2 has yoi^f. 
 
 174. One of the many lines which Shakespeare, as a practical 
 playwright, leaves to be interpreted by the actor. 
 
 189. Hamlet's lurking sense of his own ineffectiveness bursts out 
 in these lines. 
 
 The events of act i. are more or less continuous, from twelve 
 o'clock on one night to dawn on the next. An interval follows, as 
 to the length of which see note on act ii. sc, 2 ad Jin. 
 
 Act II.— Scene I. 
 
 Act i. has been a sort of prologue ; it contains the possibilities of 
 which the remaining Acts show the tragic development. As usual 
 with Shakespeare, there is a crisis or turning-point at about the 
 middle of the play, in the scene where Hamlet has a definite oppor- 
 tunity of killing the king and misses it (act iii. scene 3). Up to 
 that point we are concerned with the Cause of the tragedy, the 
 action and reaction of the Ghost's injunction and Hamlet's character 
 upon each other, the puttings off, the assumed madness. After that, 
 follows the Effect ; the successive fatal consequences due to that one 
 cause are unrolled before us. 
 
 The first part of scene I is chiefly important as showing us at 
 once that a considerable interval has elapsed. Laertes has had time 
 to reach Paris and make friends there. It leads up to the more 
 important question, 'What has become of Hamlet during the 
 interval? Is Claudius dead yet?' 
 
 The stage-direction of the text is that of F I. Q 2 has £nter old 
 Polonins with his man or two. This is interesting, because the 
 words "-with his man or too'' look like an attempt to make sense of 
 the name Montana, which was apparently left in the MS. side by 
 side with the substituted Reynaldo. Q 1 has Enter Corambis and 
 Montaito. Cf. i. 2. i, note, and Appendix A. 
 
 7. Danskers. 'Danske' is a common variant for 'Denmark'. 
 
 10. encompassment and drift, roundabout and gradual course ; 
 cf. the phrase 'to fetch a compass'. 
 
 11. more nearer. The double comparative is not infrequent in 
 Shakespeare; cf. iii. 2. 316; iii. 4. 167; v. 2. 119. 
 
142 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 The thought is, ' You will get nearer by indirect than direct 
 questions '. Polonius characteristically repeats this in other words 
 in lines 65, 66. 
 
 17. The exactness and minuteness of Polonius' instructions is 
 another sign of his self-conceit. He will leave nothing to the com- 
 mon-sense of'his agent. 
 
 20. forgeries, in the general sense of ' false attributions '. 
 
 28. This speech shows at once the lowness of Polonius' moral 
 tone and the futility of his intellect, with its love of nice and mean- 
 ingless distinctions. 
 
 35. Of general assault. Dyce explains this as ' common to all 
 young men'. But I think 'a savageness...of general assault' may 
 also mean ' a passionate desire to assail all kinds of experience'. 
 
 38. a fetch of warrant. So F i ; Q 2 has a fetch of zvit. A 
 warranted or approved device. 
 
 39. sullies. So F I; but Q 2 has sallies; cf. i. 2. 129, note. 
 
 41. Here Polonius nods wisely, and beckons with his forefinger 
 to fill up the line. 
 
 45. in this consequence, with such words as follow. 
 50. Polonius' memory is something senile. 
 
 59. Is there an allusion here to the famous quarrel in a tennis- 
 court between Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Oxford? 
 
 64. of reach is explained by i. 4. 56, "thoughts beyond the 
 reaches of our souls ". 
 
 65. assays of bias, attempts that resemble the curved round- 
 about course of a bowl ; cf Glossary, s.v. bias. 
 
 68. have me, understand me. 
 
 71. in yourself, personally, as well as by the report of others. 
 
 73. ' Let him go his own way without interference.' 
 
 74. Hamlet has not yet accomplished his purpose of revenge. The 
 assumption of madness gives him time to consider the subject on 
 every side, and the process fascinates him. One element in the 
 situation is his utter solitariness ; he needs the help of spiritual 
 sympathy if he is to brace himself to the required effort. But where 
 is it to come from? He turns naturally to his love Ophelia; yet he 
 knows, in his heart that she is not strong enough to give him what 
 he wants. He makes one last attempt to disabuse himself of this 
 impression, but her eyes only confirm it, and he reluctantly quits 
 her for ever. 
 
 85. Hamlet is already regarded as mad in the court; the only 
 question is, the reason? Polonius now jumps to the conclusion — 
 through love. The disorder of Hamlet's attire, which may have 
 been due either to intention or to preoccupation, also presents itself 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 143 
 
 as a symptom of love-sickness; cf. As Yoii Like It, iii, 2. 297, "your 
 hose should be ungartered, your bonnet unhanded, your sleeve un- 
 buttoned, your shoe untied, and everything about you demonstrating 
 a careless desolation ". 
 
 102. the very ecstasy, precisely the ecstasy. 
 
 103. fordoes, destroys. 'For' has the negative sense of 'to 
 one's hurt', common in the German ver. 
 
 108. Cf. i. 3. 122. 
 
 114. This again must be taken as irony. Polonius is falling 
 into this error even while he comments on it; cf. i. 5. 98, note. 
 
 118, iig. The expression is obscure. Probably Polonius is think- 
 ing of himself. His words seem to mean, ' If I make Hamlet's 
 love for my daughter known, it may bring dislike on me; but 
 probably, on the whole, more trouble would come out of keeping it 
 dark'. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 This long scene contains two main dramatic motives. In the latter 
 part of it, from the entry of the players, we get the gradual approach 
 to that crisis of the action which is brought about by the play-scene. 
 The rest gives us, so to speak, a summary of the mental condition of 
 Hamlet and of his attitude to the court during the months of delay. 
 The points to notice are: (i) the assumption of madness, which de- 
 ceives Gertrude, Ophelia, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, though 
 the king, who has a better key to Hamlet's behaviour than any of 
 these, is not without his suspicions; (2) the delight which Hamlet 
 takes in the opportunity thus afforded him of pouring irony upon his 
 enemies, and especially upon Polonius; (3) his invariable tendency 
 to pass from the consideration of his own position into general satii^e 
 and invective upon society. It is to be observed that Hamlet is not 
 always acting the madman; he only does so, for instance, with 
 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, when he begins to suspect their good 
 fai-th. And further, the pretence is easy to him. It only requires 
 a slight exaggeration of his natural self. His thoughts and feelings, 
 especially under conditions of nervous excitement, are always on a 
 plane hardly intelligible to ordinary men. To appear mad he has 
 only to relax the control which he normally keeps over them. 
 
 Rosencrantz and Gziildenstern. Q i has Rossencraft and Gilder- 
 stone. The names are Danish ; they occur as those of Danish 
 students at Padua in 1587-9 and 1603 respectively, and a Danish 
 courtier called Rosencrantz attended the coronation of James I. 
 
 2. Moreover that, besides the fact that ; an unusual sense. 
 
 6. Since, So F i here and in line 13. Q 2 has the old-er form 
 Sith in both cases. 
 
144 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 11. of, applied to time, frequently takes the place of 'from'; cf. 
 Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 167. 
 
 12. humour. So F i ; Q 2 has havioiir. 
 
 34. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are utterly commonplace men. 
 The interchange of their names here is a subtle hint of their 
 nonentity. They have been friends of Hamlet, superficially (lines 
 19, 228, 277), but they are not upon the same ethical or intellectual 
 level as he is. 
 
 40. The introduction here of the Norway theme serves a double 
 purpose. It marks the lapse of time since act i. sc. 2 (see note at 
 end of this scene), and it again calls to our attention the need for a 
 strong hand in Denmark, emphasized already in act i. sc. i. This is 
 done at intervals throughout the play. 
 
 42. The self-conceit of Polonius is only equalled by his effusive 
 loyalty — to an usurper. 
 
 still, novi? as ever. 
 
 47. Polonius' statesmanship — a cunning both vulgar and shallow^ 
 — is the point on which above all others he prides himself. 
 
 52. the fruit. So Q 2; F i has the news, of which Hunter would 
 make the nuts, in the sense of 'It will be nuts to him' (I). The meta- 
 phor is only from the dessert, which comes after a feast. 
 
 56. the main, the obvious dominant fact in her life and that of 
 her son. 
 
 57. There is no sign here that Gertrude knows anything of the 
 nature of King Hamlet's death. 
 
 61. Upon our first, directly he had heard us. 
 
 67. borne in hand, handled, treated; cf. Macbeth, iii. i. 81, 
 *How you were borne in hand'. 
 
 73. three thousand. So F i ; Q 2 has three-score thousand, but 
 the F I reading is supported by the scansion and by Q i. 
 
 81. more consider'd time, time more fit for consideration. 
 Passive participles are often used in senses that are not exactly 
 passive; cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. §374. 
 
 90. Again the irony of making a man utter his own condemnation. 
 
 98. figure, in the sense of rhetorical device. 
 
 log. This letter is no doubt a genuine love-letter of Hamlet's, 
 written before the opening of the play, and before Ophelia had been 
 instructed by her father to 'repel his letters' (i. 3. 122; ii. i. 109). 
 The terminology of it is no sign of madness. Love-letters have at 
 all times been written in a nice and exalted vein ; with an Elizabethan 
 this would naturally result in such affectations and conceits as the 
 Euphuists and Sir Philip Sidney had rendered popular. But to 
 
Scene 2.} NOTES. 145 
 
 those who are not in love, love's language may well appear ridiculous 
 or even insane. Cf. Midsiumner Night'' s Dream, v. i. 7 — 
 "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
 Are of imagination all compact". 
 
 no; beautified, a fantastic variant for 'beautiful'; cf. Nash's 
 dedication of Christ'' s Tears over Jerusalem (1594), "To the most 
 beautified lady, the Lady Elizabeth Carey". 
 
 III. It is one of Polonius' absurdities to fancy himself a connoisseur 
 of literature and the drama. His is one of those character-parts 
 which gain incredibly by the voice and gesture of the actor. 
 
 113. "Women anciently had a pocket in the fore part of their 
 stays, in which they not only carried love-letters and love-tokens, 
 but even their money and their materials for needle- work." 
 (Steevens.) 
 
 123. this machine, his earthly body. 
 
 135. table-book, note-book, the 'tables' of i. 5. 107. The idea 
 is, 'If I had kept their secret as closely as a desk or table-book 
 would have kept letters intrusted to them'. 
 
 139, round, not 'circuitously' but 'directly', 'straight out'; the 
 common sense of 'roundly'; cf. As You Like It, v. 3. 11, "Shall 
 we clap into it roundly, without hawking or spitting, or saying we are 
 hoarse". 
 
 141. out of thy star. The idea is that persons in different ranks 
 in life ai^e under the influence of different stars, and therefore, like 
 them, belong to different spheres; cf. Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 156, "in 
 my stars I am above thee". 
 
 146-50. Considering that Hamlet was never mad, this chronicle of 
 the stages of his malady is exquisite. 
 
 160. four hours. This is the reading of all the Qq. Ff. ; at the 
 same time I think that Hanmer's conjecture for hours is probably 
 right. 
 
 167. The queen alone has any sympathy for Hamlet, whether in 
 his love (line 1 14) or in his madness. 
 
 171. There is nothing corresponding to the remainder of this scene 
 in the same place in Q I, but a good deal of the matter follows 
 the scene that corresponds to our act iii. sc. I. Hamlet's dislike of 
 Polonius is very marked ; as the father of his love Ophelia, as the 
 courtier of his uncle, as a man of the world, and as a fool, he is dis- 
 pleasing to the prince in every aspect, 
 
 174, a fishmonger. This taunt is purposely obscure, and con- 
 veys no meaning to Polonius. There are two possible explanations 
 of what Hamlet may have intended by it. Coleridge gives one : 
 "That is, you are sent to fish out my secret". Or 'fishmonger' may 
 be used in a sense which it appears sometimes to bear, of a seller of 
 (885) K 
 
146 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 women's chastity. Here and in lines 182 sqq., Hamlet seems to 
 suggest that Polonius would willingly make a market of his daughter. 
 
 181. Hamlet is still harping on Ophelia, so his irrelevance is not 
 so great as it appears. Just as life comes out of carrion, so may she 
 be the child of Polonius. 
 
 182. a god kissing carrion. Both Q 2 and F i read a good 
 kissing carrion ; the emendation is Warburton's. It may be justified 
 by I Henry IV. ii. 4. 1 13, " Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish 
 of butter?" and Edward III. (1596)— 
 
 " The freshest summer's day doth sooner taint 
 The loathed carrion that it seems to kiss". 
 
 If the reading of the Qq. Ff. is retained, the interpretation must be, 
 ' If the sun can breed maggots of a dead dog, what will become of 
 Ophelia? She too is 'good kissing carrion' {i.e. 'carrion good to 
 kiss'). 'Therefore let her not walk i' the sun.' 
 
 185. i' the sun, in the sunshine of princely favours; cf. i. 2. 67. 
 
 195. There is no reason to find an allusion here to Juvenal, Satire 
 X. 188, as Englished by Sir John Beaumont, or to any book in par- 
 ticular. Hamlet is clearly extemporizing on Polonius' peculiarities. 
 
 214. The words and suddenly .. .between him are left out in Q 2: 
 probably it is an accidental omission. 
 
 221. Hamlet's transitions from banter to seriousness are frequent 
 and pathetic. The effect, however, would be all the same upon his 
 hearers. 
 
 Lines 244-274 {24^-2yj) occur in F I, but not in Q 2. 
 
 256 [2^4). One of the startling sayings, which make one feel that 
 Shakespeare has sounded the heights and depths of all philosophies. 
 
 262. bad dreams, the vision of his father, forcing him out of his 
 favourite life of imagination and philosophy into the uncongenial 
 world of action. 
 
 270. outstretched. "Hamlet is thinking of the strutting stage 
 heroes." (Delius.) 
 
 Hamlet 'cannot reason'. The paradox he puts forward in this 
 speech is not intended to suffer analysis. 
 
 276. dreadfully attended, not merely by his servants, but by his 
 own ' bad dreams '. 
 
 277. in the beaten way of friendship, without ceremony, 
 speaking as friend to friend. 
 
 280 {277). Cf. i. 5. 185. 
 
 282. too dear a halfpenny, too dear at a halfpenny, valueless. 
 For the omission of 'at' the Clarendon Press editors quote Chaucer, 
 Canterbury Tales, 8875, "dere y-nough a jane"; and 12723, "dere 
 y-nough a leeke ". 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 147 
 
 Hamlet has not been playing the madman up to this point. He 
 is unfeignedly glad to see his friends, and takes pleasure in a wit- 
 combat with them. Suddenly his suspicions are aroused, and con- 
 firmed by their shuffling. He at once glides into an extravagance of 
 speech, which easily convinces them of his insanity. 
 
 304 &c. There is nothing really mad in this speech of Hamlet's, it 
 is the natural expression of his pessimistic mood; but to theunphilo- 
 sophical mind — the plain man — all views of life that go in the least 
 beneath the surface will appear lunacy. 
 
 322 (j/c?), Hamlet's thoughts are always returning to Ophelia. 
 
 329. lenten. Lent being a fast, 'lenten' is the reverse of joyous 
 or festive. 
 
 332. Hamlet's love of the drama is characteristic of his literary 
 temperament. Shakespeare uses this episode of the players to intro- 
 duce a certain amount of — ^what is unusual with him — topical allusion 
 to the fortunes of his company, and to vexed questions of dramatic 
 controversy. We need not assume that all the literary criticism put 
 in Hamlet's mouth represents Shakespeare's own opinions. It may 
 rather be that which would belong to the point of view of a scholar 
 and courtier, such, for instance, as we find in Sir Philip Sidney's 
 Apologie for Poetrie. 
 
 The players, hovs^ever, are not merely incidental ; they have a share 
 in the working out of the plot. Their coming suggests to Hamlet a 
 plan by which he may apply a crucial test to the king, and settle at 
 once all doubts as to the ghost's revelation. 
 
 335. the humorous man, the character part of the piece. Cf. 
 the title-page of Merry Wives, Q 3, ' The Merry Wives of Windsor, 
 with the humours of Sir John Fal^taff\ Jonson's comedies, Every 
 Man in his Humour, Every Man out of his Humour, &c., are full of 
 such character studies. 
 
 337. tickle o' the sere. F i has tickled a th^ sere. The words 
 the clown .. .sere are omitted in Q 2. The phrase occurs in Howard's 
 Defensative against the poison of supposed prophecies (1620), "Dis- 
 covering the moods and humours of the vulgar sort to be so loose 
 and tickle of the sere". The meaning is pretty obvious — 'easily 
 moved to laughter', but how is it arrived at? Perhaps the metaphor 
 is from a 'sere' or 'dry' throat, which is easily tickled. An ingenious 
 explanation is given by Dr. Nicholson in Notes and Queries for July 22, 
 1 87 1. A 'sere' or 'sear' is part of the mechanism of a trigger. 
 Halliwell quotes in his Archaic Dictionary from Lombard (1596), 
 " Even as a pistol that is ready charged and bent will fly off by and 
 by, if a man do but touch the scare". Thus "tickle o' the sere" 
 means ' ready to go off at once', like a hair-trigger. 
 
 338. 'The lady shall say her mind, even if she has to say more 
 than is set down for her, and so spoils the blank verse.' 
 
148 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 343-347. On the 'travelling', the 'inhibition', the 'innovation', 
 see Introduction, p. 15, and Appendix D. 
 
 Lines 352-379 occur in F i, but not in Q 2. 
 
 354-358. On the 'aery of children' and the 'berattling of the 
 common stages', see Introduction, p. 15, and Appendix D. 
 
 355- cry out... question. This is generally interpreted as 'cry 
 out in a high childish treble ' or ' cry out, dominating convei-sation '. 
 I believe it really means, ' cry out on the burning question of the 
 day, the question that is at the top, most prominent '. 
 
 359. afraid of goose-quills, afraid of being satirized. 
 
 363. the quality, the profession of actors. 
 
 366. if their means are no better. This phrase seems to support 
 the belief that the profession of an actor vi^as looked on with some 
 contempt, even by literary men, Shakespeare is supposed to refer 
 to this in Sonnet cxi. — 
 
 " O, for my sake do you with Fortune chide. 
 The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds. 
 That did not better for my life provide 
 Than public means which public manners breeds. 
 Thence comes it that my name receives a brand ", &c. 
 
 378. Hercules and his load, perhaps an allusion to the sign of 
 the Globe Theatre, Hercules bearing the world for Atlas. 
 
 381. Hamlet quotes the case of his uncle as another instance of the 
 change of fashion. His choice of an illustration shows the preoccu- 
 pation of his thoughts. 
 
 383. his picture in little. Does this mean a miniature, or his 
 picture on a coin? 
 
 396. I am but mad north-north-west, I am only mad when 
 the wind is in one point of the compass, only touched with madness. 
 
 397. a handsaw. So Q 2, F i. Hanmer proposed hernshaiv, or 
 ' heron ', but the phrase as spelt in the text is proverbial. But very 
 likely ' handsaw ' may be a corruption of ' heronshaw '. Authorities 
 on falconry say that the birds fly with the wind, and therefore, when 
 it is from the south, the sportsman would have his back to the sun 
 and be able to distinguish them without being dazzled. ' Hawk ', 
 however, is said to be a name given to a kind of tool used by 
 plasterers. 
 
 406. o' Monday morning. I do not think there is any special 
 point in this phrase. Hamlet affects to be talking of indifferent 
 matters, that Polonius may not think any attention has been paid to 
 his approach. 
 
 410. Hamlet maliciously spoils the effect of Polonius' announce- 
 ment by being the first to speak of actors. 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 149 
 
 412. Buz, buz, according to Blackstone an interjection used at 
 Oxford, equivalent to ' Stale news!' 
 
 414. i.e. 'Have they come 'upon your honour'? Then your 
 honour is — an ass.' 
 
 416. A satire on the numerous subdivisions of the drama. The 
 licence given to the King's Company in 1603 entitles them "freely to 
 use and exeixise the art and faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies, 
 Histories, Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls, Stage plays, and such 
 other like". 
 
 418. scene individable, or poem unlimited, Delius explains 
 these as referring respectively to plays that observed and that dis- 
 regarded the Unity of Place. 
 
 419. 420. Seneca was the fashionable Latin model for tragedy, 
 Plautus for comedy; Shakespeare's Comedy of Eri'ors is based upon 
 the Menaechmi of Plautus. A translation of this play by Warner 
 appeared in 1595. Ail the plays of Seneca had been translated by 
 1 58 1. The Inflitence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy is the title of 
 an interesting book by Dr. J. Cunliffe. 
 
 420. Plautus. Q I has the curious reading Plato. 
 
 the law of writ and the liberty. This again means pieces 
 written according to rules and without rules, ' classical ' and ' ro- 
 mantic ' dramas. Collier, however, explains it ' written and extem- 
 porized plays '. 
 
 422. Jephthah had a daughter, and was ready to sacrifice her, as 
 Polonius would Ophelia; cf. line 174, note. 
 
 426. A ballad &rv\\\\.&^ Jesphas Dowgther at his death was entered 
 on the Stationers' Register in 1567-8, and another, or perhaps the 
 same, en\.\t\Q.(l Jepha Jtidge of Israel in 1624. Various forms are in 
 existence ; in one the first stanza runs as follows : — 
 
 " I red that many years ago, 
 When Jepha Judge of Israel, 
 Had one fair daughter and no more. 
 
 Whom he loved so passing well. 
 And as by lot God wot. 
 It came to pass so like it was, 
 Great war there should be. 
 
 And who should be the chief, but he, but he". 
 
 In 1602 a drama was written for Henslowe on the same subject by 
 Dekker and Chettle. 
 
 438. the first row... chanson. So Q2, and the reading is sup- 
 ported and explained by that of Q I, the first verse of the godly ballet. 
 F I, however, has Pons Chanson, explained by Hunter as equivalent 
 to chanson du pont neuf ' a popular ballad '. 
 
I50 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 439. my abridgement, the players, who are "the abstract and 
 brief chronicles of the time " (line 548). But Hamlet may also mean 
 that the coming of the players cuts short or abridges his discourse ; 
 or again, that they serve as an entertainment to abridge or while 
 away the time. Cf. Midsununei' Night's Dream, v. I. 39, " Say, 
 what abridgement have you for this evening?" 
 
 442. valanced, with a beard. This is the Q 2 reading ; F i has 
 valiant. 
 
 445. It should be remembered that on the Elizabethan stage female 
 parts were taken by boys. 
 
 448. cracked within the ring. " There was a ring on the coin, 
 within which the sovereign's head was placed; if the crack extended 
 from the edge beyond this ring, the coin was rendered unfit for 
 currency." (Douce.) 
 
 450. The French appear to have had an unenviable reputation as 
 sportsmen, of pursuing all birds, and not only the nobler game. 
 
 454 {452)- me, the ethic dative, introducing a person interested in 
 the action of the verb; cf. ii. i. 6, and Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 220. 
 
 457. caviare, a Russian delicacy, made of sturgeons' roes. 
 
 the general, the multitude. 
 
 The phrase may be illustrated by a quotation from Nicholas Breton's 
 The Courtier and the Countryman (1597): "Another of the fine 
 dishes... was a little barrel of caviary; which was no sooner opened 
 and tasted, but quickly made up again, and was sent back with this 
 message : ' Commend me to my good lady, and thank her honour, 
 and tell her we have black soap enough already ; but if it be any 
 better thing, I beseech her ladyship to bestow it upon a better friend 
 that can better tell how to use it '. Now if such be your fine dishes, 
 I pray you let me alone with my country fare." 
 
 459. in the top of mine, with greater authority than mine. 
 
 460. well digested in the scenes, the scenes carefully arranged 
 to advance the plot. 
 
 461. modesty, correctness, propriety, the opposite of extrava- 
 gance, a common sense of the Latin modestia. 
 
 466. by very much more handsome than fine, i.e. its beauty 
 was not that of elaborate ornament, but that of order and proportion. 
 
 468. iEneas' tale to Dido, There are many critical difficulties 
 in understanding exactly what Shakespeare meant by this recitation 
 episode ; but they can only be briefly touched on here. 
 
 To begin with, there can be no doubt that Hamlet, at least, does 
 not quote the lines in irony ; they are not, to him, mere burlesque. 
 The speech which introduces them is clearly intended for serious 
 criticism, and, moreover, if they were burlesque, the point of the 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 151 
 
 episode in leading up to Hamlet's comparison of himself with the 
 player (lines 576, sqq. ) would be dulled. Nevertheless, the lines as 
 they stand do read to me as the most absolute burlesque. Compare 
 them with the passage, with whicli they were obviously meant to 
 challenge comparison, the tale of Aeneas to Dido in Marlowe and 
 N ash.' s Dido, Queen of Carthage, ii. I. 214, sqq. (Cf. Appendix E. ) 
 The work of the earlier writer is inflated enough, but surely Shake- 
 speare, with his ' coagulate gore ' and his ' eyes like carbuncles ', 
 excels him in bombast and extravagance. I am aware that this is 
 not the view of all critics, and it is opposed to the high aesthetic 
 authority of Coleridge, who writes: "The fancy that a burlesque 
 was intended sinks below criticism ; the lines, as epic narrative, are 
 superb". Perhaps Schlegel's explanation is the true one, that the 
 bombast is necessary to a play within a play. He says : " This ex- 
 tract must not be judged of by itself, but in connection with the place 
 where it is introduced. To distinguish it as dramatic poetry in the 
 play itself, it was necessary that it should rise above its dignified 
 poetry in the same proportion that the theatrical elevation does above 
 simple nature." Or perhaps we must not confuse Shakespeare with 
 Hamlet; the actor- playwright, the xoxi\z.Xi\\.z\'sA. par excellence, maybe 
 gently satirizing the point of view of the university and court wit and 
 scholar, with his ' law of writ ', his unities and classical models. But 
 there are further difficulties in this explanation. It agrees well enough 
 with the criticism which is put into Hamlet's mouth. The play is 
 said to be characterized by order and proportion, "well digested in 
 the scenes ", free from irrelevancies and affectations, and therefore 
 "caviare to the general". This is exactly what might be said of 
 any ' classical ' play, such as Ferrex and Porrex. But when we 
 come to the speech itself, all this is forgotten. The style is that of 
 an early turgid romantic play, full of affectations, and indeed the 
 play of Dido, Queen of Carthage, which it imitates, is essentially 
 romantic and not classical in character. So that it is impossible to 
 say that any quite satisfactory solution of the difficulty has been 
 arrived at. 
 
 472. the Hyrcanian beast, the tiger; an obvious reference to 
 Virgil, Aeneid, iv. 266 — 
 
 ' ' duris genuit te cautibus horrens 
 Caucasus, Hyrcanaeque admorunt ubera tigres". 
 
 492. Rebellious to his arm. Does this explain the sense of 
 Macbeth, i. 2. 56, "Point against point rebellious"? 
 
 495. This line affords the nearest verbal parallel between this 
 passage and the corresponding one in Dido, Queen of Carthage-, cf. 
 that play, ii. i. 254 — 
 
 ' ' Which he disdaining, whisked his sword about. 
 And with the wind thereof the king fell down". 
 
 Mr. Fleay suggested in Macmillan' s Magazine for Dec. 1874, that 
 this scene was one of Nash's additions to Marlowe's play, and that 
 
152 HAMLET. [Act II. 
 
 Shakespeare wrote his speech in rivalry. In a later work, however, 
 he assigns the scene to Marlowe. 
 
 496. The last three lines are represented by a blank in Q 2. 
 
 502. a painted tyrant, a tyrant in a picture. 
 
 503. ' Indifferent to his own will and the matter he had in hand. 
 
 517. fellies. Q 2 h.Q.s follies, F i /allies. 
 
 522. a jig, a humorous performance by a clown, given after the fall 
 of the curtain. It included music, dancing, and coarse humour, and 
 probably resembled some of the ' turns' at a modern music-hall more 
 than anything else. The titles of jigs by Kempe and others occur 
 in the Stationers' Registers. 
 
 525, 526. mobled. So Q 2 ; F i has inobled. 
 
 527. Polonius is rather bored, but he thinks* it well to interpolate 
 a criticism, in order to keep up his character as a judge of literature. 
 The criticism is rather an unfortunate one, however. 
 
 531. o'er-teemed, worn out with bearing children. 
 
 540. Dryden did not know that 'milch' only meant 'moist', and 
 wrote of this passage in the preface to his Troihcs and Cressida, 
 " His making milch the burning eyes of heaven was a pretty toler- 
 able flight too; and I think no man ever drew milk out of eyes 
 before him". 
 
 541. passion, like 'milch', is governed by 'made'. 
 
 549. Cf. line 439, note. 
 
 550. This line, like line 359, appears to show that personal satire 
 was a considerable feature of the Elizabethan stage. 
 
 564. a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines. There is 
 a mare's-nest controversy on these lines in the Transactions of the 
 New Shakspere Society for 1874. I have no doubt that they are 
 to be found in Lucianus' speech (iii. 2. 266, sqq.). They are inter- 
 rupted by the king's sudden rising. Others think that they are to 
 be found in the Player King's speech (iii. 2. 196, sqq.), because this 
 speech is philosophical and therefore characteristic of Hamlet. But 
 the only object of altering the play could be to introduce a scene 
 exactly parallel to Claudius' crime. 
 
 570. The suggestion that the player could only refrain from mock- 
 ing Polonius out of courtesy to Hamlet is delicious. 
 
 576. Hamlet has been smitten by the player's emotion, obvious 
 even to Polonius (line 542), into a consciousness of his own weakness. 
 As a student of the drama he is aware of the profound influence of 
 acting upon the minds of the spectators. Hitherto he has been, so 
 he thinks, deterred from action by doubts as to the genuineness of 
 the ghost. Now he makes the play, altered for the purpose, a test 
 of the king's guilt, — and then, no more hesitation. 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 153 
 
 580. wann'd. So Q 2 ; F i has warni'd. 
 
 584. The pauses m this speech (cf. lines 593, 603, 610, 616) are 
 filled up by intervals of meditation. 
 
 595. John - a - dreams. The word recurs in Armin's Nest of 
 Ninnies (1608), "His name is John, indeed, says the cynic; but 
 neither John-a-nods, nor John-a-dreams, yet either as you take it". 
 
 601. Cf. Richard II. i. I. 44, "With a foul traitor's name stuft 
 I thy throat"; and i. I. 124 — 
 
 "as low as to thy heart, 
 through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest". 
 
 605. For the belief that pigeons were gentle because they had no 
 gall cf. Drayton, Eclogue Ix. — 
 
 *' a milk-white dove 
 About whose neck was in a collar wrought 
 Only like me my mistress hath no gall". 
 
 617. About, about it, to business. 
 
 627. This was a common explanation of the supernatural. It is 
 that put forward in James the First's Demonologie, and is found also 
 in SirT, Browne's A'e'/^^/f Medici: "I believe... that these apparitions 
 and ghosts of departed persons are not the wandering souls of men, 
 but the unquiet walks of devils, prompting and suggesting unto us 
 murder blood and villainy, instilling and stealing into our hearts, 
 that the blessed spirits are not at rest in their graves, but wander 
 solicitous of the affairs of the world". 
 
 631. such spirits, such humours, as melancholy. 
 
 633. More relative, more closely related, more definite. 
 
 this, i.e. the story of the ghost. Hamlet has taken out his 
 tablets to compose the 'dozen or sixteen lines'; in these same tablets 
 he has written his note after the ghost's departure (i. 5. 109), and he 
 now taps them significantly. He is happy now, for he can put off 
 his whole problem, with a good conscience, until the result of his 
 congenial device is made clear. 
 
 An interval of at least a month has elapsed between acts i. and ii. 
 There has been time for Laertes to reach France and want fresh 
 supplies (ii. I. i), for the ambassadors to return from Norway (ii. 2. 
 40), for Hamlet's reputation for madness to be established, and for 
 Rosencrantz and Guildenstei-n to be sent for (ii. 2. 3). Cf. also iii. 2. 
 136 and note ad loc. with i. 2. 147. From the beginning of act ii. 
 the action is fairly continuous to the end of act iv. sc. 3. Act iii. 
 sc. 2 is on the 'morrow night' to act ii. sc. 2 (ii. 2. 563), and act iii. 
 sc. I is doubtless on the morrow morning. It will be remembered 
 that Mr. Rose has shown reason for supposing that act iii. sc. i is 
 really part of act ii. 
 
154 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 Act III.— Scene I. 
 
 This short scene sums up the precise situation of affairs at the 
 moment when the crisis is coming on. There are tliree points to be 
 noticed. 
 
 (i) Hamlet has resolved to make the play the solution of all his 
 doubts; if that test shows the king guilty, he shall die. Even as 
 he forms this determination, his heart fails him. He turns to an 
 alternative which has dimly presented itself before (i. 2. 132), and 
 deliberately considers the desirability of suicide. But such a way 
 out of the difficulty is too simple, too easy for his over-speculative 
 nature. He sees the future filled with countless possibilities, which 
 puzzle his will, and this enterprise also loses the name of action. 
 
 (2) Hamlet has long known that no help is to be had from 
 Ophelia. Yet when she appears before him, his old tenderness 
 revives. He speaks gently to her, and then — discovers that she is 
 deceiving him, acting as a decoy for Polonius. This obliges him 
 to play the madman again, and his paradoxes express a feeling of 
 revulsion from the poor foolish girl. His mother's sin has already 
 made him lose faith, in womanhood, and now he sees Ophelia, 
 too, spotted with all the vileness of her sex. He assails her with 
 reproaches so inappropriate to herself that she can only take them 
 as the sign of a shattered mind. 
 
 (3) With Polonius and the like Hamlet's acting is successful; 
 but the king is shrewder. His suspicions are awaked, and he at 
 once plots to get his nephew out of the way. Hamlet has, there- 
 fore, gone too far on the path of delay, and though he does not 
 know it, the opportunities of revenge are fast slipping away from him. 
 
 I. drift of circumstance, roundabout methods; cf. i. 5. 127; 
 ii. I. 10. 
 
 5. Cf. ii. 2. 304. 
 
 13. This hardly appears to give a fair account of what really 
 took place, unless indeed we accept Clarke's somewhat strained 
 interpretation ' He was sparing in speech, when we questioned him ; 
 but of demands respecting ourselves he was very free in return'. 
 Warburton proposed to read — 
 
 Most free in question, but of our demands 
 Niggard in his reply. 
 
 32, The phrase lawful espials is not found in Q 2. 
 
 43. Polonius and the king hide behind an arras. The book 
 given to Ophelia is doubtless a prayer-book; cf. the following lines 
 and the word ' orisons ' in line 89. 
 
 46. Here again the truth of Polonius' words affords an ironical 
 contrast to the meanness of his actions. 
 
 49. This speech is the first hint of any sting of conscience in 
 Claudius; cf. act iii. sc. 3. 
 
Scene i.] NOTES. 155 
 
 52. the thing that helps it, the waiting-maid; cf. the well- 
 known saying, ' No man is a hero to his valet-de-cha7nbre\ 
 
 Lines 57, 58 are an expansion of the idea ' to be'; lines 59, 60 of 
 ' not to be '. Hamlet may propose to take arms either by attacking 
 the king, and so exposing himself to probable death, or, more 
 likely, by killing himself. The metaphor contained in "take arms 
 against a sea of troubles" has been criticised as being confused and 
 absurd; hut the difficulty, if there is any, disappears when it is 
 shown that there is an allusion to a custom attributed to the Kelts by 
 many classical writers. Shakespeare may have read of it in Aristotle 
 or Strabo or Nicolas Damascenus, but most probably in Abraham 
 Fleming's translation of K^^vaxi^ Histories (1576), book xii. : " Some 
 of them are so bold, or rather desperate, that they throw them- 
 selves into the foaming floods with their swords drawn in their 
 hands, and shaking their javelins, as though they were of force and 
 violence to withstand the rough waves, to resist the strength of the 
 stream, and to make the floods afraid lest they should be wounded 
 with their weapons ". 
 
 61. to say, Bailey objected to these words as breaking the 
 sense, and proposed straightway. But I think they are meant as a 
 hint that it is not a real end. 
 
 67. this mortal coil. ' Coil ' generally means ' turmoil ' ; cf. 
 Glossary, s.v.\ but it is often explained here as 'body', and the 
 phrase is compared to Merchant of Venice, v. i. 64, "this muddy 
 vesture of decay ", and to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bondiica, iv. 4, 
 "the case of flesh". The body is conceived of as wound round 
 the soul like a coil of rope. Various editors have suggested clay, 
 soil, veil, spoil ( = ' slough '). 
 
 6g. of so long life, so long lived. 
 
 70. the whips and scorns of time, i.e. of the temporal world. 
 In Armin's Nest of Ninnies (1608) occurs the phrase, "there are, 
 as Hamlet says, things called whips in store ". If the reference is 
 to Shakespeare's Hamlet, it may either be a misquotation of this 
 passage, or it may preserve a reading not found in any of the Qq. 
 Ff. But of course it may refer to the older Haj7ilet. 
 
 76. a bare bodkin; the sense is probably ' a mere bodkin ', rather 
 than ' an unsheathed bodkin '. 
 
 80. No traveller returns. "Then how about the Ghost?", 
 asked Theobald; to which Coleridge replied, "Kit be necessary 
 to remove the apparent contradiction — if it be not rather a gi-eat 
 beauty — surely it were easy to say that no traveller returns to this 
 world as to his home or abiding place ". 
 
 83. conscience, the exercise of conscious thought, speculation 
 on the future. This speech is not merely ironical. Hamlet has 
 become aware of the flaw in his own character, though he attributes 
 it to humanity in general. 
 
156 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 86. pitch. So Q 2; F i \\.2,% pit-h (of. i. 4, 22, "pith and mar- 
 row"). 'Pitch' is 'height', the metaphor being from falconry. 
 
 96. ' I may have given you love-tokens, but never my life, my 
 very self.' 
 
 103. At this moment Hamlet hears a rustle behind the arras, and 
 immediately suspects Ophelia's good faith. He begins to speak 
 cynically out of the disbelief in women which his mother has now 
 taught him. For the antithesis between 'honest' and 'fair' cf. 
 the dialogue between Touchstone and Audrey in As You Like It, act 
 iii. sc. 3. 
 
 119. inoculate. The metaphor is of course from gardening ; cf. 
 Glossary, s.v. 
 
 120. of it, of our old stock. 
 
 122. Hamlet again becomes tender to Ophelia; he tries by self- 
 accusation to persuade her that his love was little loss. He is not 
 entirely insincere; he feels that those evil tendencies are really 
 dormant in him, though they will very likely never come into action. 
 He is ' crawling between earth and heaven ', without the strength 
 to take definitely the way either of good or of evil. And, as often 
 in the crises of life, he feels compelled to confess what is worst in 
 him. Cf. the self-accusations of Malcolm in Macbeth, act iv. sc. 3. 
 
 132 {130). Hamlet suddenly determines to test Ophelia by the 
 question, 'Where's your father?' She lies to him, and he then 
 bursts into a partly genuine, partly assumed extravagance of invec- 
 tive against womankind, unfairly enough applying it all to her. 
 
 142 [137). Get thee to a nunnery, i.e. 'breed no children'. In 
 line 122 the implied reason was the wickedness of man; now it is 
 the falseness of woman. 
 
 148 {142). paintings... face. So Q2; F i hzs> prattlings . . .pace. 
 Line 51 supports the Q 2 reading; cf. also Merchant of Veriice, 
 iii. 2. 88, sqq. — 
 
 "Look on beauty 
 And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight". 
 
 151 {144). Hamlet is satirizing various forms of feminine affectation 
 or unreality, the painted face, the affected speech and walk, the use 
 of dubious words in pretended innocence. What particular affectation 
 is meant by 'nick-name God's creatures'? Perhaps such discourse 
 as that of Beatrice to Benedick in the first scene of Much Ado, a 
 merely superficial raillery, covering other feelings. 
 
 155. all but one. Claudius is the one. 
 
 157. Ophelia sinks down in a chair, her face buried in her hands. 
 Hamlet is just leaving the stage, when he turns round, gently 
 approaches her, raises a lock of her hair, and presses it to his lips, 
 before he finally goes. — So Mr. Beerbohm Tree plays the part, and 
 Kean used some similar business. 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 157 
 
 161. mould of form, model on which all formed themselves. 
 
 167. blown, in full blossom. 
 
 171. The double negative is common in Shakespeare and Eliza- 
 bethan writers generally. Cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 406. 
 
 175. for to. When 'to' lost its prepositional force and became 
 merely the sign of the infinitive, 'for' was added to strengthen the 
 sense of motion or purpose. Cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 152. 
 
 178. tribute. Aethelred the Unready (994) began the practice of 
 buying off the Danish invaders of England. Hence arose the tax 
 known as Danegelt, which was levied long after the invasions had 
 ceased, though it was no longer paid to the Danes. 
 
 184. Polonius still sticks to his own theory. 
 
 192. Eaves-dropping appears to be Polonius' one conception of 
 statesmanship. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 This important scene finally convinces Hamlet of the king's guilt ; 
 it closes with a resolution to 'do bitter business'. Hamlet is through- 
 out in a state of extreme nervous tension ; at the success of his plot 
 he breaks into the wildest excitement. Hence the nonsense he talks 
 to Ophelia, and his riotous fooling of the courtiers. The episodes 
 with the players and Horatio serve partly as a quiet opening to the 
 turbulent emotions of the play-scene, partly to show that Hamlet's 
 action is fundamentally sane and rational. It is characteristic of him 
 to be able to interest himself at such a critical moment in the niceties 
 of the actor's art. 
 
 I. The effectiveness of restraint, of the middle course between 
 ranting and tameness — that is the gist of Hamlet's counsel. 
 
 10 {8). Cf. Every Woman in her Hti7no2tr (1609), "As none wear 
 hoods but monks and ladies, and feathers but forehorses . . . none 
 periwigs but players and pictures". 
 
 12. the groundlings, the inferior part of the audience, who paid 
 a penny for standing room in the yard or 'pit' of the theatre. Cf. 
 Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, Induction, "The understanding gentle- 
 men of the ground here asked my judgment". 
 
 15. Termagant, supposed to be a god of the Saracens, a bois- 
 terous character often represented in the mysteries. Cf. Guy of War- 
 wick, where the Sultan says — 
 
 "So help me Mahoun of might 
 
 And Termagaunt my god so bright"; 
 
 and Bale, Acts of English Votaries [Reliqices, i. 77), "Grennyng 
 upon her lyke Termagauntas in a play". In i Henry IV. v. 4. 114 
 the word is used as an adjective, "that hot termagant Scot". Skeat 
 
158 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 derives it from the Ital. Trivigante, the moon who wanders (Lat. 
 vagari) through the heavens in a threefold aspect (Lat. ter\ as Hecate, 
 Selene, Artemis. 
 
 16. Herod, another common character in the mysteries. It was 
 traditionally played with as much noise and rant as possible. Cf. the 
 stage-direction in the Coventry play of The Nativity, "Here Erode 
 ragis in thys pagond, and in the strete also". In the Chester play 
 of The Slaughter of the Innocents (ed. Sh. Soc. p. 153) he is made to 
 say — • 
 
 "For I am kinge of all mankinde, 
 I byde, I beate, I lose, I bynde, 
 I maister the moone, take this in mynde, 
 
 That I am moste of mighte, 
 I am the greatest above degree, 
 That is, that was, that ever shalbe". 
 
 Chaucer [Miller''s Tale, 3384) says of the parish clerk, Absolon, 
 " He pleyeth Herodes up on a scaffold hye". 
 
 24 {20). The saying that the stage should hold the mirror up to 
 nature should be taken strictly in accordance with the context ; it is 
 not a pronouncement in favour of realism on the stage, but only a 
 plea for naturalness of gesture and speech in acting. 
 
 50 {48). The following lines are inserted here in Q i. There is 
 nothing corresponding to them in Q 2 or F I : — 
 
 "And then you have some again, that keeps one suit 
 Of jests, as a man is known by one suit of 
 Apparell, and gentlemen quotes his jests down 
 In their tables, before they come to the play, as thus : 
 'Cannot you stay till I eat my porridge?' and, 'You owe me 
 A quarter's wages'; and, 'My coat wants a cullison'; 
 And, 'Your beer is sour'; and blabbering with his lips, 
 And thus keeping in his cinque-pace of jests. 
 When, God knows, the warm Clown cannot make a jest 
 Unless by chance, as the blind man catches a hare ; 
 Masters! tell him of it". 
 
 It seems to have been the common practice of the clowns to insert 
 'gag' in their parts, like a modern actor of Gaiety burlesque. Stowe 
 praises the 'extemporal wit' of Thomas Wilson and Richard Tarlton. 
 It has been suggested that the passage in Q I was aimed especially 
 at the famous comic actor, William Kempe, who probably acted the 
 serving-men of Shakespeare's earlier comedies. He appears to have 
 left the Chamberlain's company in 1599, but in 1602 he had returned 
 to them, and this may well explain the omission of the passage in 
 Q 2 and F i. Cf. Introduction, page 16. 
 
 59. Hamlet's admiration for Horatio, a man of such opposite 
 character to himself, is very natural. Apparently he has confided 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. i59 
 
 in him to some extent, though probably Horatio was hardly capable 
 of fully understanding or helping Hamlet in his difficulties. 
 
 66. pregnant, because the fawning courtesy may lead to 'thrift' or 
 'profit'. 
 
 74. "According to the doctrine of the four humours, desire and 
 confidence were seated in the blood, and judgment in the phlegm, 
 and the due mixture of the humours made a perfect character." 
 (Johnson. ) 
 
 75. Doubtless Hamlet recurs to the idea suggested here in the 
 episode of the recorders. 
 
 81. One scene, the ' dozen or sixteen lines' of ii. 2. 565. See 
 note ad loc. 
 
 84. i.e. ' make a mental note of every action'. 
 
 95. idle. If this really means 'mad', it is a pretty clear proof 
 that the madness is assumed. Cf. Glossary, s.v. 
 
 98. the chameleon's dish. Cf. Two Genthmen of Verotia, ii. i. 
 178, "Though the chameleon Love can feed on the air"; and Sir 
 T. Browne, Pseiuiodoxia Epidemica, iii. xx. " Concerning the cha- 
 meleon, there generally passeth an opinion that it liveth only upon 
 air, and is sustained by no other aliment". 
 
 99. promise -crammed. Claudius has promised Hamlet that he 
 shall be his 'son', when he should be king (i. 2. 64); and Hamlet 
 has promised to slay Claudius, but does not do it. 
 
 102. are not mine, do not refer to my question. 
 
 108. Julius Caesar. There are numerous records of performances 
 of plays, both in Latin and English, in the colleges of Oxford and 
 Cambridge. In 1607 C(Bsar and Pompey or Casar's Revenge was 
 acted at Trinity, Oxford ; this was in English. A Latin play on 
 Caesar's death was acted at Christ Church in 1582. It will be re- 
 membered that Shakespeare's own Julius Ca:sar appeared about 
 1601, the probable date of the first version^ oi Hamlet. 
 
 109. i' the Capitol. The murder of Csesar actually took place 
 in the Theatre of Pompey, which stood in the Campus Martius. 
 Here, as in Julius Ccesar and Atitony and Cleopatra, Shakespeaiie 
 transfers the scene of it to the Capitol. 
 
 132. Hamlet means that 'your only jig-maker' is what would 
 have been expected to cause sorrow, the death of a husband and 
 father. 
 
 136. two months. In i. 2. 138 it was 'not two', and in i. 2. 
 153 the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude was said to have taken 
 place ' within a month'. This leaves about a month for the interval 
 between acts i. and ii. Cf. act ii. sc. 2, note, ad fin. 
 
 138. I '11 have a suit of sables. The obvious sense is, ' I '11 
 
i6o ' HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 give up mourning, throw off niy inky cloak'. But 'sable' certainly 
 means as a rule black. Probably the meaning here is ' robes 
 trimmed with the fur of sables ', which were sumptuous and ex- 
 pensive, and not regarded as mourning. Others take the word as 
 equivalent to the French isabelle or ' flame-colour'. 
 
 144. Apparently this is a line from a ballad. It is again quoted 
 in Lovis Labour's Lost, iii. i. 30. The 'hobby-horse' was a 
 character in the may-games and morris-dances. It was represented 
 by a man astride upon a stick with a horse's head upon it. It ap- 
 pears to have been suppressed at the Reformation, and to this fact 
 the ballad probably referred. 
 
 145. It was common for the action of a play to be briefly repre- 
 sented in dumb-show at the beginning, not, however, on the English 
 stage, but on that of Denmark. Hunter quotes a description of 
 such a performance given by Danish soldiers in 1688, from the diary 
 of Abraham de la Pryme. It would seem, however, that in this case 
 the device rather gives away Hamlet's design to surprise the king. 
 The dumb-show must have prepared him for what followed. 
 
 147. miching mallecho, 'secret mischief (cf. Glossary, s.vv.), 
 in a double sense, of the poisoner's crime, and of Hamlet's own 
 secret plot. There is a similar double-entendre in the use of the title 
 'The Mousetrap' (line 247). 
 
 165. Here at least, whatever may have been his purpose in act ii. 
 sc. 2, Shakespeare imitates the cruder style of the earlier English 
 tragic drama. Both the rhymes and the stilted language are char- 
 acteristic thereof. Cf. the laboured periphrases by which lines 165 
 to 168 express the fact that thirty years have passed, with Shake- 
 speare's own parallel phrase in i. i. 36. 
 
 175. distrust yoUj am distrustful for you; cf. i. 3. 51, "fear me 
 not". 
 
 177. holds quantity, are proportionate to each other. For the 
 use of a singular verb with a double substantive cf. Abbott, Sh. Gr. 
 §336. 
 
 178. ' They have naught either of fear and love, or they have both 
 in extremity.' 
 
 240. Note the irony of putting this in the Queen's mouth. 
 
 249. Vienna. Q i has Guyana. 
 
 Gonzago. In Q i the name is given as Albertus. Moreover 
 in Q I Albertus and Baptista are throughout called Duke and 
 Duchess-, in Q 2, except for this line^ they are always King ?^Vidc 
 Queen. The retention of the titles of Q i, even in one place only, 
 betrays that a change has been made. 
 
 253. A proverbial expression, found in Lyly, and in Damon and 
 Pythias (1582), "I know the gall'd horse will soonest wince". 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 161 
 
 255, a chorus. In Wiriter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V., 
 a chorus is introduced to explain the progress of tlie action. 
 
 257. the puppets, the He and She, the actors in the comedy of 
 love. At 'puppet shows' or 'motion', as in the modern Punch and 
 Judy show, the dialogue was spoken by some one on or behind the 
 stage. Cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. I. 100, "O excellent 
 motion! O exceeding puppet ! Now will he interpret to her". So 
 Greene, in his Groatsworth of Wit, says of himself, "It was I that 
 ...for seven years' space was absolute interpreter of the puppets". 
 And Nash, in his Fieire Penniless, "the puling accent of her voice 
 is like a feigned treble, or one's voice that interprets to the 
 puppets". Hamlet wantonly insults Ophelia with cynical talk of 
 love. 
 
 262. mistake, i.e. take amiss. So Q 2, F i, with an obvious 
 reference to the Marriage Service. Many editors adopt Pope's 
 must take. 
 
 265. Cf. The True Tragedie oj Richard the Third (p. 61, Sh. 
 Soc. reprint) — 
 
 " The screeking raven sits croaking for revenge, 
 Whole herds of beasts comes bellowing for revenge ". 
 
 266. This speech is doubtless Hamlet's 'dozen or sixteen hues'; 
 cf. ii. 2. 565, note. 
 
 268. midnight weeds. Cf. iv. 7. 143, and Macbeth, iv. i. 25, 
 " Root of hemlock digged i' the dark". 
 
 269. Hecate, or Diana in her aspect as an infernal goddess, was 
 regarded in the Middle Ages as the queen of witches. 
 
 274. No such Italian form of the story can be identified. 
 
 277. This line is omitted in Q 2, probably by accident, a^- it occurs 
 in Q I. As Mr. Beerbohm Tree plays the part, Hamlet's excitement 
 increases during the delivery of Lucianus' — his own — speech. He 
 creeps across the iloor of the hall, muttering the words from a 
 written paper, and as the King rises, he leaps up wildly, tears the 
 paper, and scatters the fragments in the air. 
 
 282, In the rest of the scene, Hamlet indulges the excitement 
 which he has held pent up during the play. But his elation is, at 
 any rate at first, less' at knowing the truth than at the artistic success 
 of his dramatic venture. The source of Hamlet's quatrain is un- 
 known, if it is a quotation at all. 
 
 go weep ; cf the passage on Jaques and the weeping deer in 
 As You Like It, act ii. sc. i. 
 
 286. this, this specimen of play writing. 
 
 287. turn Turk, go to the bad ; the phrase recurs in Much Ado, 
 iii. 4. 57. Cf. Cooke, Greene's Tu Quoqiie (1614), "This it is to 
 turn Turk, from an absolute and most complete gentleman, to a 
 most absurd and ridiculous lover". 
 
 (885) ^ 
 
1 62 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 288. Provincial roses, the double damask rose, Gerard's Rosa 
 provincialis, so called either from Provence, or from Provins, a town 
 forty miles from Paris. 
 
 290. Half a share. A collection of papers of the year 1635, 
 printed by Mr. Halli well-Phillipps in his Outlines of the Life of Shake- 
 speare, vol. i. p. 312, throws much light on the internal economy 
 of the King's Company. The profits were divided between the 
 'actors' and the 'housekeepers' or proprietors, some of whom were 
 actors also — witness the following extract, "That the house of the 
 Globe was formerly divided into sixteen partes, whereof Mr. Cuthbert 
 Burbidge and his sisters had eight, Mrs. Condell four, and Mr. 
 Heminges four. That Mr. Tailor and Mr. Lowen were long since 
 admitted to purchase four partes between them from the rest, viz., 
 one part from Mr. Heminges, two partes from Mrs. Condell, and 
 halfe a part a peece from Mr. Burbidge and his sister". 
 
 292. The friendship of Damon and Pythias was famous in an- 
 tiquity. 
 
 294. Jove himself; cf iii. 4. 46. 
 
 295, A very, very — pajock. The word 'pajock' is humorously 
 substituted for 'ass', which would — more or less — have rhymed. 
 Many explanations of it have been given, but Dyce has shown that 
 in Scotland the peacock is often called a 'peajock', just as the 
 turkey is a 'bubbly-jock'. Therefore we may be content, with 
 Pope, to see an allusion to the fable of the birds choosing the pea- 
 cock as king instead of the eagle. Mr. Irving adds a point by 
 looking at a peacock-feather fan which he has taken from Ophelia's 
 lap. Skeat, however, derives 'pajock' from 'patch', ' a pied fool ', 
 and this explanation is supported by Spenser's use of 'patchocke' for 
 ragamuffin. Claudius is called 'a king of shreds and patches' in 
 iii. 4. 102. Prof Leo suggests that Hamlet leaves his sentence un- 
 finished, and \};\z.t pajock is a misprint for a stage-direction Hiccups ! 
 
 303. A recorder appears to have been a l^ute with a hole bored 
 in the side, and covered with gold-beaters' skin, so as to approach the 
 effect of the human voice. 
 
 316. more richer. Cf. ii. i. 11, note. 
 
 345. were she ten times our mother. This sounds mere folly 
 to Rosencrantz, but Hamlet intends to reproach, not to be reproached. 
 
 348. these pickers and stealers, these hands, in allusion to the 
 phrase in the catechism, "Keep my hands from picking and steal- 
 ing". Cf As You Like It, iv. i. iii, "By this hand, it will not 
 kill a fly ". 
 
 354. Hamlet ironically suggests a cause for his distemper which 
 Rosencrantz will understand. As a matter of fact the loss of the 
 crown is a small item in his score against Claudius. More is made 
 of it in Q I and in Belleforest. 
 
Scene 3.] NOTES. ' 163 
 
 358. Malone quotes from Whetstone, Promos and Cassandra 
 (1578), "Whylst grass doth growe, oft starves the seely steede"; 
 and from The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1578), " While grass doth 
 growe, the silly horse he sterves ". 
 
 360. To withdraw with you. He beckons Guildenstern aside, 
 as if to impart a secret to him. 
 
 365. Guildenstern's speech was mere words, with no intelligible 
 meaning. 
 
 372. as lying, at which Guildenstern has shown himself profi- 
 cient. 
 
 373. and thumb. So F i; Q 2 has and the umber. 
 385. this little organ, himself, rather than the recorder. 
 
 397. backed like a weasel. The full absurdity of Polonius' 
 complaisance is only realized by remembering that the back of a 
 camel is its most conspicuous part, and quite unlike that of a 
 weasel. 
 
 412. Nero was the murderer of his mother Agrippina. 
 
 417. seals, the seal of deeds. 
 
 Hamlet ends the scene on a note of the firmest resolution. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 Hamlet has his opportunity to translate resolution into action and 
 misses it. Critics have objected to what they regard as the cold- 
 blooded cruelty of his reasons for not killing the king while he is 
 praying. But they do not observe that these are not reasons, only 
 excuses. Hamlet would kill the king if he could, but he has delayed 
 so long that he cannot now commit himself to the definite immediate 
 act. But the hour is slipping from him. Claudius, in spite of his 
 momentary weakness of contrition, is determined to be quit, in one 
 way or another, of this dangerous prince. 
 
 5. The terms of our estate, the conditions on which the safety 
 of our crown depends. 
 
 7. lunacies. So F i; Q 2 has browes. 
 
 9. many many. Cf. i. 2. 129, " too too solid flesh " 
 
 II. Cf. Laertes' speech, i. 3. 10, sqq. 
 
 15. The cease... dies is a somewhat tautological expression. 
 Bailey proposed to read Deceasing majesty. 
 
 30. As a matter of fact, it was Polonius' own suggestion. Cf iii. 
 I. 184. 
 33. of vantage, from a point of vantage. 
 
 35. dear my lord. ' My lord ', ' my liege ', become practically 
 a single noun, like the French milord. 
 
i64 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 37. Claudius' better self is strong enough to make him repent 
 his crime, not to lead him to give up the fruits of it. The touch 
 of remorse is artistically necessary to prevent his becoming a mere 
 abstract character, beyond the reach of our understanding and sym- 
 pathy. ' 
 
 37. the primal eldest curse, the curse of Cain 
 
 39. as sharp as will, sharp enough, if nothing were in the way, 
 to determine the will. Theobald proposed as '' twill. 
 
 45. Cf. Lady Macbeth's washing of her hands in Macbeth, v. i. 
 31, and ii. 3. 60 — 
 
 " Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
 Clean from my hand?" 
 
 62. For the omission of the auxiliary verb with compelled cf. i. 2. 
 90, and Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 403. 
 
 Claudius' confession removes the last vestige of doubt from the 
 spectators' minds as to the truth of the ghost's story. 
 
 75. Once Hamlet begins to ' scan ' and speculate he is lost. 
 
 78. A pause, while Hamlet reflects in silence. 
 
 80. Cf. i. 5. 76, sqq. 
 
 full of bread. Cf. Ezekiel, xvi. 49, " Behold, this was the ini- 
 quity of thy sister Sodom; pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of 
 idleness was in her and her daughters". 
 
 83. ' So far as we can tell by inference, not direct knowledge.' 
 
 93? 94- This passage "recalls very forcibly some of those painfully 
 realistic representations of the torments of the damned, which are to 
 be found in various illustrated books of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries" (Marshall). The damned souls in the miracle plays were 
 always represented with black faces. Cf. Henry V. ii. 3. 42, "Do 
 you not remember, a' saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose, and a' 
 said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire ". Mr. Symons quotes 
 R. Browning, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister — 
 
 " If I trip him just a dying 
 
 Sure of heaven as sure can be. 
 Spin him round, and send him flying 
 Off to hell, a Manichee ". 
 
 06. This line is terribly ironical; Hamlet's delay only prolongs the 
 days of his ineffectiveness and failure. 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 Much critical controversy has been spent on the question of Ger- 
 trude's guilt or innocence in the matter of her husband's murder. I 
 think the natural inference from this scene (especially line 30), and 
 
Scene 4.] NOTES. 165 
 
 from the Ghost's story in act i. scene 5, is that slie knew nothing of 
 it. She was guilty of a sinful love for Claudius, but was not an accom- 
 plice in his greater crime. Hamlet, indeed, assumes throughout that 
 the stain of murder as well as of adultery is upon her, but he is natu- 
 ralJy inclined to take the blackest view. It is noteworthy that in the 
 First Quarto the Queen's innocence is much more definitely declared 
 (cf. Appendix A). 
 
 In any case, it is his mother's faithlessness in love that is most 
 bitterly in Hamlet's mind, and with this he chiefly upbraids her. At 
 first he is successful ; the stings of remorse begin to make themselves 
 felt. Then comes the ghost, and she is convinced that Hamlet is 
 mad. From that moment she is overcome with fear, a)id his words 
 pass over her unheeded. For the rest of the play her heart is cleft 
 in twain ; she vacillates to the end between good and evil, between 
 her son and her lover. 
 
 4. silence. So Q 2, F i. Many editors accept Hanmer's emenda- 
 tion sconce. 
 
 g, 10. thy father... my father, Claudius... the elder Hamlet. 
 
 24. Hamlet evidently thinks that the king is concealed behind the 
 arras. He aims a blow at him out of pure impulse, M'ithout waiting 
 to consider. And thus in the death of Polonius comes the first 
 tragic result of his delay. 
 
 33. Hamlet is too intent on the business in hand to give Polonius 
 more than a brief epitaph. 
 
 42. the rose, the charm, the grace; cf. iii. I. 160. The idea is 
 that Gertrude's wicked love makes the purest love seem a shameful 
 thing. 
 
 44. sets a blister there. Harlots were branded in the forehead ; 
 cf. iv. 5. 119, and Cotnedy of Errojs, ii. 2. 138, "tear the stained 
 skin off my harlot-brow". 
 
 49. this solidity and compound mass, the earth itself. For 
 the idea of the whole universe being affected by a sin, cf Milton, 
 Paradise Lost., ix. 1000 — 
 
 " Earth trembled from her entrails, as again 
 In pangs, and nature gave a second groan ; 
 Sky loured, and, muttering thunder, some sad drops 
 Wept at completing of the mortal sin - 
 Original". 
 
 53. Opinions differ as to the action that should accompany this 
 line on the stage. I have very little doubt that Hamlet draws a 
 miniature, a 'picture in little' (ii. 2. 384), of his father from his 
 pocket, and then turns to point at one of Claudius that hangs on the 
 wall of the closet. Both Irving and Salvini suppose the pictures to 
 be seen with the mind's eye only. 
 
i66 HAMLET. [Act III. 
 
 95. Ct. iii, 2. 414. 
 
 98. a vice of kings. The Vice was a stock character in the 
 Moralities ; he appears to have personified the weaker side of human 
 nature (hence his name) ; but practically he was a buffoon, and sup- 
 plied the comic element in the dramas. Thus he is one of the ances- 
 tors of Shakespeare's fools. Several allusions to the Vice and his 
 dagger of lath appear in the plays; cf. e.g. Twelfth Night, iv. 2. 
 132— 
 
 " I '11 be with you again 
 In a trice 
 
 Like to the old Vice, 
 Your need to sustain ; 
 
 Who, with dagger of lath, 
 In his rage and his wrath. 
 Cries, ah, ha! to the deVil". 
 
 Thus "a vice of kings" means practically 'a Yxwgpour rire\ 
 
 102. shreds and patches. The Vice, like his successor the Fool, 
 appears to have been often dressed in motley. Cf. Mr. Skeat's inter- 
 pretation of 'pajock' in iii. 2. 295, note. 
 
 103. At his previous apparition the Ghost was visible to all those 
 present, now he only allows himself to be seen by Hamlet, just as 
 the ghost in Macbeth appears to the king only. 
 
 106. Here, as in ii. 2. 593, sqq., Hamlet is quite conscious of his 
 own weakness. 
 
 107. lapsed in time and passion, having allowed both time 
 and the passion of revenge to slip by. 
 
 122. start up and stand. ' Hair', partly perhaps owing to the 
 influence of 'soldiers', is treated as a plural. 
 
 126. A reminiscence of the biblical phrase, "I say unto you, If 
 these should hold their peace, the very stones should cry out". 
 
 133. Cf. iii. I. 171, note. 
 
 139 &c. Those who believe that Hamlet was really mad get over 
 this speech by pointing out that nearly all insane patients are prepared 
 to solemnly assert their own sanity. 
 
 150. avoid what is to come, not 'avoid the future', but ' avoid 
 sin in the future'. 
 
 151. 'Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your former 
 offences.' 
 
 152. Even in his tenderness Hamlet cannot quite forget the bitter- 
 ness of cynicism. 
 
 157. the worser; cf. in. 2. 316, note. 
 
 160. Assume, not 'pretend', but 'acquire'. 
 
Scene 4.] NOTES. 167 
 
 Lines 161-165 are not in F i. 
 
 161. all sense, all consciousness ot sinning. 
 
 162. Of habits devil, the evil genius of our habits. Q 2 has no 
 comma after 'eat', and Theobald proposed to read — 
 
 PVAo all sense doth eat 
 Of habits evil. 
 
 Lines 168-170 ( down to the vfoxA pote7icy) are not in F i. 
 
 169. And either... the devil. Q 2 h^% And either the drt/il, an 
 obvious misprint. Some such emendation as lay, curb, quell, shame, 
 or perhaps house, throne, is necessary. 
 
 172. same is used sarcastically, as so often in Shakespeare. 
 
 182. The rest of this speech is meant ironically. 
 
 bloat. So Theobald for the bloivt of Q 2, bbint of F i. 
 
 183. mouse, a term of endearment. Cf Love s Labour'' s Lost, 
 V. 2. 19, and Twelfth Night, i. 5. 69, " Good my mouse of virtue, 
 answer me ". 
 
 194. The only other possible allusion to this lost story is in a 
 letter of Sir John Suckling, " It is the story of the jackanapes and 
 the partridges ; thou starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee, and 
 then let'st out another, and starest after that till it is gone too." 
 
 195. To try conclusions, to see what will happen. 
 
 200. I must to England. How does Hamlet know this? 
 The scheme was imparted to Polonius in iii. i. 177, to Rosencrantz 
 and Guildenstern in iii. 3. 4. Hamlet has had no chance of learn- 
 ing it from them ; and if he knew of it, he must have seen the 
 danger of leaving the king alive. Moreover in iv. 3. 48 he expresses 
 surprise at the news of his intended voyage. 
 
 210, Hamlet puns on the two senses of 'craft', viz. 'ship' and 
 ' guile '. 
 
 211. packing, plotting; perhaps also with reference to the other 
 sense of ' being off'. 
 
 213. Hamlet has always a keen scent for the ironies of life. 
 
 I am inclined to accept Mr. Rose's suggestion that the first three 
 scenes of the traditional act iv. should really be regarded as part of 
 act iii. Then if with him we give act iii. sc. i to act ii., the 
 events of act iii. will be those of 'one tremendous night'. Act iv. 
 w^ill cover Hamlet's absence, and act v., as now, begin with his 
 return. By this arrangement we get well set on foot in act iii. two 
 chains of effects springing from Hamlet's critical failure in act iii. 
 sc. 3. These are the attempt of Claudius upon his life, and the 
 death of Polonius, with its results. For the working out of these 
 chains see note to act iv. sc. 4, inii. 
 
i68 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Act IV.— Scene I. 
 
 This scene is practically continuous with act iii, sc. 4. As soon 
 as Hamlet has left his mother's closet, Claudius enters, to know the 
 result of the interview. He finds the Queen overwhelmed and 
 hardly able to speak — the combined effect of her son's reproaches 
 and of her grief at his ecstasy. 
 
 12. good old man, for so, in spite of his tediousness (ii. 2. 95), 
 Polonius appeared to those gifted with less keen perceptions than 
 Hamlet's. Even Claudius had faith in him (ii. 2. 154). 
 
 27. he weeps. There does not seem to be anything in the 
 last scene to justify this statement. Some critics think that Ger- 
 trude is henceforward on Hamlet's side, and is here doing her best 
 to put his conduct in a favourable light. I doubt this; when in 
 the presence of Claudius, she se ;ms to be under his influence still. 
 
 40. This line is apparently incomplete in Q 2. F i omits lines 
 41-5, and ends the scene with^ — 
 
 And what ''s untimely done. Oh come away. 
 My soul is full of discord and dismay. 
 
 The most likely emendation of the Q 2 text is Capell's so, haply, 
 slander. Tschischwitz suggests by this, suspicion. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 In this scene and the following, Hamlet continues his assumption 
 of madness. He is not at all unwilling to be sent to England ; it 
 will oblige him to a further delay ; and he promises himself an in- 
 tellectual treat in checkmating any design which his companions 
 may have against him. 
 
 12, a sponge; cf Barnabe Rich, Faults, Faults, and Nothing else 
 but Fatclts (1606), "Vespasian, when reproached for bestowing 
 high office upon persons most rapacious, answered ' that he served 
 his turn with such officers as with spunges, which, when they had 
 drunk their fill, were then the fittest to be pressed ". Both Shake- 
 speare and Rich are indebted for the idea to Suetonius, Vita Vesp. 
 c. 16. In Q I this passage occurs near the end of act iii. sc. 2. 
 
 ig. like an ape. So F i ; but the Q 2 reading, like an apple, is 
 nearly as good. Q I has as an Ape doth mits. 
 
 29. Here, as in ii. 2. 269, Hamlet is probably talking deliberate 
 nonsense. But the interpretations of various grave editors may be 
 found in Fujness' Variortim edition. 
 
 32. Cf. Psalm cxliv. " Man is like a thing of naught", and the 
 contemptuous use of the phrase in Midsu7nmer Nighfs Dream, iv. 2. 
 13, "a paramour is, God bless us, a thing of naught". 
 
Scene 4.] NOTES. 169 
 
 Hide fox, and all after. This phrase is omitted in Q 2 : it 
 is said to be a name for ' hide and seek '. Perhaps Hamlet rushes 
 from the room, leaving the rest to pursue him ; or perhaps the fox 
 is Polonius, who, if he does not now, will soon stink like one. Cf 
 iv. 3- 37- 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 9. Cf Lyly, Euphues (p. 67. ed. Arber), "A desperate disease is to 
 be committed to a desperate doctor ". 
 
 21-23. worms... emperor... diet. There is an allusion to the 
 famous Diet or convocation of the dignities of the German Empire 
 held at Worms in 1521. It was before this that Luther was sum- 
 moned to appear. 
 
 The thought here is very similar to that of v. i. 218, sqq. 
 
 33. a progress, the technical term for a royal journey of state 
 through the provinces. 
 
 48. Cf. iii. 4. 200, note. 
 
 50. ' Whatever your purposes are, the angels are fighting on my 
 side.' 
 
 63. free awe, awe which does not need compulsion. 
 
 66. congruing. So Q 2 ; F i has conjuring. 
 
 70. were ne'er begun. So F i ; Q 2 has will ne^er begin. 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 The present Act works out the results of Hamlet's failure until 
 they bring about the catastrophe of act v. There are two main 
 threads of incident. Firstly, there is the failure of the plot against 
 Hamlet's life, which leads to his return to England, and drives 
 Claudius to new devices; and secondly, Hamlet's unkindness to 
 Ophelia, together with the death of Polonius, sends her mad. 
 Laertes returns, burning for revenge, and readily becomes the king's 
 accomplice. 
 
 The stress laid upon the fortunes of Ophelia in the latter part of 
 the play has its dramatic purpose. It impresses us with the fact that 
 Hamlet's ineffectiveness has its tragic results outside his own life; 
 and at the same time the pathos of the situation makes us feel pity 
 rather than anger towards him, since his deep affection for Ophelia 
 is manifest throughout. And it is essential to the effect of tragedy 
 that the sympathies of the spectator should be at the end with the 
 hero. 
 
 The scene with the captain serves as a transition to the new Act ; 
 and at the same time strikes the note of contrast between Hamlet 
 and Fortinbras, the strong practical man. The perception of this 
 contrast is characteristically put in Hamlet's own mouth. 
 
lyo HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Attempts have been made, without much success, to find an allusion 
 in the expedition of Fortinbras to some enterprise of Raleigh or Essex 
 or some other Elizabethan worthy. 
 
 3. Craves. So Q2; F i has clai7?is. 
 
 6. in his eye. Cf. iv. 7. 46, and Aiito7iy and Cleopatra^ ii. 2. 
 212 — 
 
 " Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, 
 So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes ". 
 
 The phrase occurs as a technical one for ' in the royal presence ' in 
 the household books of James the First's reign. In F i the scene 
 ends with line 8. 
 
 36. Cf. i. 2. 150. 
 
 40, 41, some craven scruple... on the event. Hamlet describes 
 his own weakness better than anyone can do it for him. 
 
 50. Makes mouths at, mocks at. 
 
 53. Is it by irony that Hamlet repeats Polonius' counsel? Cf. i. 
 3- 65. 
 
 6o. twenty thousand. It was only 'two thousand' in line 25, 
 
 66. my thoughts, always thoughts, never deeds. 
 
 A comparison of ii. 2. 58, sqq., with line 2 of this scene points to 
 an interval of a few days between scenes 3 and 4, in order that 
 Claudius' ' license ' may reach Fortinbras. These must be spent by 
 Hamlet in travelling from Elsinore — though it is on the sea (i. 4. 71) 
 — to the port. Yet both i. 3. I and iv. 3. 43 imply that the port is 
 close at hand. But iv. 3. 54 shows that Flamlet started directly 
 after scene 3. 
 
 In any case, a longer interval follows this scene, during which 
 Laertes returns from France. 
 
 Scene 5. 
 
 The interest of scenes 5 and 7 lies partly in the ingenuity with 
 which the king turns Laertes to his purposes, partly in the pathos 
 of Ophelia's madness and death. Laertes is a youth of high spirit 
 and true emotions, but his French training has left him without high 
 principle, and he is weak enough to be easily led. The genuine 
 insanity of Ophelia is a pendant to that assumed by Hamlet; the 
 immediate cause is her father's death, yet the loss of her lover must 
 also have affected her deeply. The character of the songs she sings 
 — they are not given in full in this edition — is not inconsistent with 
 perfect purity; all who have had experience of mad patients can 
 confirm this ; and therefore it gives no support to the curious theory, 
 held by no less a critic than Goethe, that she had been Hamlet's 
 mistress. 
 
Scene 5.] NOTES. 171 
 
 2. Gent. So Q 2 ; these speeches are given in F I to Horatio, 
 and lines 14, 15 to the Queen. 
 
 g. to collection, to collect some meaning from it. 
 
 II. which; the antecedent appears to be ' the words'. 
 
 17. Gertrude is still weakly remorseful. 
 
 23. The music used for Ophelia's songs upon the stage is said to 
 have been handed down by tradition from Shakespeare's time. It is 
 printed in Furness' Variorum edition, and in Chappell's Popular 
 Music of the Olden Tijne, vol. i. 
 
 D. G. Rossetti used this first stanza as the opening of a beautiful 
 little poem called Ait Old Song Ended. 
 
 26. The cockle hat, staff, and sandals were the guise of a pilgrim, 
 often the disguise of a lover. Notice the confusion in Ophelia's 
 mind throughout between her father and her sweetheart. She hardly 
 knows which is dead. Of course she never had any conception of 
 how Polonius came by his death. That was kept a profound secret 
 in the court, and Claudius himself was suspected in consequence. 
 
 38. did go. Both Q 2 and F i read did not go., surely in error. 
 
 41. There is a monkish legend that a baker's daughter was turned 
 into an owl for refusing bread to our Saviour. It is said by Douce 
 to be well known in Gloucestershire, and Mr. Leland ( The English 
 Gipsies) found it among the gipsies, among whom the name for an 
 owl is Maromengro's Chavi, or Baker's Daughter. The connection 
 in Ophelia's mind is simply the idea of a sudden transformation, or 
 change of circumstances, such as her father's death and Hamlet's 
 absence have brought about for her. 
 
 48. It was the custom for the first girl seen by a man on the 
 morning of Feb. 14th to be regarded as his valentine, or true-love, 
 for the year. 
 
 89. in clouds, in mysterious reserve; the emendation inclosed is 
 quite superfluous. 
 
 95. a murdering-piece. This is generally explained as a piece 
 of artillery, the French meui'triere. But may it not mean a play 
 representing murder? for Claudius' present situation affects him, as 
 such a play would do, through the imagination. And what more 
 likely than that he explained, to Gertrude, his perturbation of act iii. 
 sc. 2 as due solely to the power of imagination ? 
 
 97. Switzers. The kings of France had long a Swiss body- 
 guard ; so that the term ' Switzers ' became really equivalent to 
 ' guards '. 
 
 105. This may mean that the rabble supports every word that 
 Laertes utters ; but I think it refers rather to ' custom ' and ' anti- 
 quity ' ; unless the word ' king ' is used as these direct, it is meaning- 
 less. 
 
172 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 iig. Cf. iii. 4. 44, note. 
 
 brows. Both Q 2 and F i read brow. 
 
 123. Such sentiments are common in Shakespeare (cf. e.g. Richard 
 II. passim), but they are generally put in the mouths of kings them- 
 selves, or their supporters. 
 
 130. Laertes' vigour of revenge is no doubt an intentional contrast 
 to the languor of the quite equally sincere Hamlet. 
 
 142, swoopstake. Both Q 2 and F i have soopstake ; Q i has 
 swoopstake-like. In a swoopstake or sweepstake the winner draws 
 all the stakes from the board ; so the king suggests that Laertes 
 means to make a general clearance of friend and foe. The ' winner 
 and loser ' of line 143 is, of course, not the same metaphor, only 
 suggested by it. 
 
 146. the kind life -rendering pelican. F i reads ludicrously 
 politician. It was a common belief that the pelican either fed its 
 young or restored them to life when dead, with its own blood. Many 
 attempts have been made to explain the origin of this story, but it 
 appears to be a pure legend. Moreover, it originally belonged to 
 the vulture— the pelican of heraldry is really a kind of vulture — and 
 was only transferred to the pelican by a mistake of the compilers of 
 the Vulgate. (See the Academy, xxv. 97, 243.) In the Middle Ages 
 the pelican symbolized first the Resurrection, then the Eucharist. 
 A curious change took place at the Reformation. Both the Catholic 
 conceptions of the Eucharist and the use of symbolism in religion 
 fell into disfavour, and the pelican became thenceforward an emblem 
 of self-sacrifice generally, and, in especial, of true kingship. The 
 emblem-books of the period illustrate this abundantly. So does 
 Lyly, of whose curious Eupliuism the display of fantastic similes 
 from unreal natural history is characteristic. He calls Elizabeth 
 " that good Pelican that to feede hir people spareth not to rend hir 
 owne personne ". From Lyly the tradition passed to Shakespeare. 
 For Shakespeare, the young of the pelican represent filial ingrati- 
 tude. Goneril and Regan are called ' ' those pelican daughters " 
 {Lear., iii. 4. 77); and John of Gaunt, in his rebuke to Richard II. 
 {Richard II. ii. I. 126), says — 
 
 "That blood already, like the pelican, 
 Hast thou tapped out and drunkenly caroused ". 
 
 In Edwao'd III. iii. 5. 1 11, which may or may not be by Shakespeare, 
 Edward asks the meaning of the device on some colours, and the 
 Black Prince replies — 
 
 "A pelican, my lord. 
 Wounding her bosom with her crooked beak, 
 That so her nest of young ones may be fed 
 With drops of blood that issue from her heart. 
 The motto ' Sic et vos '. And so should you ". 
 
Scene 5.] NOTES. 173 
 
 153. Let her come in. In Q 2 this is given to Laertes; F i has 
 it as part of a stage-direction. A noise within. Let her come in, 
 
 157. rose of May. Cf. iii. i. 160; iii. 4. 42. 
 
 160. Neither here nor in act i. sc. 3 is Laertes, in spite of his 
 affection for Ophelia, quite able to understand her. 
 
 161-163. These lines are not in Q 2. Nature, at its finest in 
 Ophelia's love, has sent her wits after Polonius. 
 
 165. Hey non nonny. Such meaningless refrains are common 
 in old songs; cf. the ' adown adoM^n' of line 170, and the 'down, 
 adown, adowna ' of Merry Wives, i. 4. 44. ' Hey, nonny, nonny ' 
 occurs in Balthazars song "Sigh no more ladies. Sigh no more'"' 
 {Mtich Ado, ii. 3. 64), and " With a hey, and a ho, and a hey 
 nonino" in "It was a lover and his lass" {As Yoti Like Lt, v. 3. 17). 
 
 172. how the wheel becomes it. These are old-fashioned 
 ballads, which Ophelia has heard to the music of her nurse's spin- 
 ning-wheel. Steevens' statement that ' wheel ' means a refrain is 
 probably purely imaginative. 
 
 The story or ballad of ' the false steward ' and ' his master's 
 daughter ' is unknown. 
 
 174. more, more touching. 
 
 175. Ophelia distributes her flowers appropriately, the rosemary 
 and pansies to Laertes, the fennel and columbine to Claudius, the 
 rue and daisy to the queen. 
 
 rosemary, often strewn on biers, to signify remembrance; cf. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5. 79 — 
 
 " Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary 
 On this fair corse"; 
 
 also Winter'' s Tale, iv. 4. 74 — 
 
 ' ' For you there 's rosemary and rue ; these keep 
 Seeming and savour all the winter long ; 
 Grace and remembrance be to you both ". 
 
 176. pansies are for thoughts, because of their name, the French 
 pensees. The flower is also a country emblem of love and courtship. 
 
 178. Laertes uses thoughts in a sense it sometimes has, of 
 ' melancholy '. 
 
 180. fennel symbolizes flattery and columbine ingratitude; cf. 
 Chapman, All Fools, ii. i — 
 
 " What's that? a columbine? 
 No ; that thankless flower fits not my garden ". 
 
 181. rue, a bitter plant with medicinal virtues. It was symboli- 
 cal of repentance, and was therefore usually mingled with the holy 
 
174 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 water, and known as 'herb of grace', or ' herbygrass '. This name 
 was also sometimes given to wormwood, another symbol of remorse 
 (cf. iii. 2. 19). When Ophelia says to the queen, ' You must wear 
 your rue with a difference', she probably means, ' For you it signi- 
 fies repentance, for me only regret'. Cf. Richa7'd II. iii. 4. 104 — 
 
 ' ' Here did she fall a tear ; here in this place 
 I '11 set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace ; 
 Rue, even for ruth, shall shortly here be seen. 
 In the remembrance of a weeping queen ". 
 
 183. a difference is properly an heraldic bearing, meant to dis- 
 tinguish the arms of one branch of the same family from another. 
 
 184. a daisy, for faithlessness, as violets are for faithfulness; cf. 
 Greene, Quips for an Upstart Courtier, ' ' Next them grew the dis- 
 sembling daisy to warn such light-of-love wenches not to trust every 
 fair promise that such amorous bachelors make them". 
 
 they withered all. Faithfulness, says Ophelia, left the world 
 with my father. Yet here, too, Hamlet must be in her thoughts ; cf. 
 i. 3. 7, where Laertes compared his love for her to ' A violet in the 
 youth of primy nature'. 
 
 187. bonny sweet Robin. Cf Two Noble Kinsmen, \v. i. lo"] — 
 
 ' ' I can sing the Broome 
 And Bonny Robin". 
 
 The tune is found in several Elizabethan song-books ; the words are 
 pst, but they appear to have been a ballad on Robin Hood. 
 
 I go. This is a song known in the song-books as The Mer?y Milk- 
 maids, or The Milkmaids^ Du?nps. 
 
 195. This scene is ridiculed in Jonson, Chapman, and Marston's 
 Eastward Hoe (1604), iii. i — , 
 
 " His head as white as milk, 
 All flaxen was his hair ; 
 But now he is dead. 
 And laid in his bed, 
 And never will come again". 
 
 Hamlet is introduced in the same scene as a half-mad footman. 
 
 213. burial. So F i ; Q 2 hSiS funeral. 
 
 216. Cf. Genesis, iv. 10, "The voice of thy brother's blood 
 crieth unto me from the ground " ; and Richard II. i. i. 104 — 
 
 "Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries 
 Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth. 
 To me for justice and rough chastisement ". 
 
Scene 7.] NOTES. i75 
 
 Scene 6. 
 
 This scene serves to keep the fortunes of Hamlet in our mind dur- 
 ing the period of his absence. It is simultaneous with scenes 5 and 
 7, the action of which is practically continuous, and in a modern play 
 it would probably be made to take place in a corner of the same hall, 
 while the King and Laertes whisper apart. 
 
 2. Sea-faring men. So Q 2; F i has sailors. 
 
 21. thieves of mercy, merciful thieves; cf "brow of woe", for 
 ' woeful brow ', in i. 2. 4. 
 
 they knew what they did. A theory has been founded on this 
 phrase, coupled with Hamlet's mysterious allusion to two crafts 
 meeting in one line, and his expressed intention to delve one yard 
 below his enemies' mines (iii. 4. 210), that the pirate was of his own 
 procuring. But surely Hamlet's mine was merely the altering of the 
 letters. (See v. 2. 12, sqq.) 
 
 26. the bore of the matter. The metaphor is from a gun that 
 will carry heavy shot. 
 
 Scene 7. 
 
 The Laertes motive and the Ophelia motive of scene 5 are con- 
 tinued here. Laertes proves an easy tool for the king's ingenious 
 villany. His naturally impetuous temper, made degenerate by 
 such a life in France as is suggested in act iii. sc. I, snatches at 
 even an ignoble chance of revenge. It is noteworthy that in Q i 
 the proposal to use a poisoned foil comes from Claudius. 
 
 15. his sphere. The Ptolemaic astronomy regarded the universe 
 as composed of ten orbs or hollow spheres, one within the other. 
 In the inmost seven of these the planets had their courses ; in the 
 eighth the fixed stars ; the other two were the Crystalline and the 
 Primum Mobile. There are many allusions to this arrangement in 
 Shakespeare; e.g. Midsujnmer Nighfs Dream, ii. i. 153 — 
 
 " And certain stars shot madly from their spheres 
 To hear the sea-maid's music ". 
 
 18. Cf. iv. 3. 4. 
 
 20. that turneth wood to stone. Springs whose water is 
 highly charged with lime will petrify with a deposit of it any object 
 put into them. Harrison, Description of England (ed. New Sh. 
 Soc. pp. 334, 349), mentions several such, one at King's Newnham 
 in Warwickshire. There is a famous one also at Knaresborough. 
 The Clarendon Press editors quote Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 
 63), "Would I had sipped of that river in Caria, which turneth 
 those that drink of it to stone ". 
 
 21. Convert his gyves to graces. I suppose the idea in 
 'gyves' is 'faults which shpuld be fetters on his popularity'. 
 
176 HAMLET. [Act IV. 
 
 Clarke interprets, "turn all my attempts to restrain him into so 
 many injuries perpetrated against his innocence and good qualities". 
 Theobald proposed gybes, Daniel gyres. 
 
 22, so loud a wind. So F i ; Q 2 has so loved Arm'd. 
 
 28. of all the age, qualifies 'challenger', not 'mount'. Mo- 
 berly points out that the King of Hungary, at his coronation, stands 
 on the Mount of Defiance at Presburg and challenges the world to 
 dispute his claim, 
 
 30. sleeps. The plural form occurs in Phaer's Aeneid, ii. "in 
 Sleepes and drinking drownd ". 
 
 33. Claudius hopes to hear from England of the success of his plot 
 against Hamlet's life. He is ironically made to express this hope 
 just before Hamlet's letter is brought in. 
 
 34, I loved... we love, Claudius' affection for Polonius was 
 personal, not merely official, 
 
 37. this to the queen. Nothing more is said of this letter, but 
 Q I has a scene where Horatio tells the Queen of Hamlet's danger, 
 and she acknowledges that her husband is a villain, 
 
 59. ' How can Hamlet be returning, and yet — it is his own 
 character — how otherwise?' But several critics would read How 
 should it not be so ? 
 
 63, checking at. The metaphor is from falconry; the hawk is 
 said to check when she leaves her proper game for some other bird. 
 
 68. shall uncharge, i.e. shall not charge or accuse, 
 
 69-82, These lines, from " My lord" to "graveness", are not in 
 Fi. 
 
 73. Hamlet is by no means a bookworm ; which accounts for his 
 popularity with the common people, and for Ophelia's description of 
 him in iii, I. 159, sqq. 
 
 82. Importing health and graveness. Warburton proposed 
 wealth, and Malone explained 'health' as meaning 'attention to 
 health'; but probably it refers back to 'careless livery'; cf a 
 similar construction in iii. i. 159, "the courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, 
 eye, tongue, sword ", 
 
 84, One remembers the feats of chivalry at Elizabeth's court, in 
 which Sidney contended with ' that sv/eet enemy, France ', 
 
 86, The mythical Centaur was doubtless in Shakespeare's mind, 
 
 93. Lamond. So F i ; Q 2 has La7nord. Mr. Elliot Browne 
 suggests an allusion to a famous swordsman, Pietro Monte, who was 
 instructor to Louis the Seventh's Master of Horse, In the English 
 translation of Castiglione's // Cortegiam, bk. i., he is called Peter 
 Mount. 
 
 112-119. 'Love is a thing of time, not of eternity; it has a 
 beginning and an end,' 
 
Scene 7.] NOTES. 
 
 177 
 
 123. The recognition of a 'should' when it is too late is like a 
 spendthrift's sigh for his squandered estate, a bitter-sweet sensation. 
 It was a belief that sighing drew blood from the heart ; of. Romeo 
 andjidiet, iii. 5. 59, "Dry sorrow drinks our blood". 
 
 139. a pass of practice, either 'a treacherous pass' (cf. line 
 68), or, 'a pass in which you are practised', or, 'a pass by way of 
 friendly exercise ', 
 
 146. Under the moon; cf. iii. 2. 268, note. 
 151. shape, design. 
 
 163. The scenic apparatus of Shakespeare's time would have 
 been inadequate to represent Ophelia's death upon the stage; even 
 now it would be difficult. Even in Ibsen's Rosmershohn, which ends 
 with a suicide by drowning, the event is only reported by a witness 
 who sees it from a window, 
 
 164. Cf. Locrine, v. 5 — ■ 
 
 " One mischief follows on another's neck. 
 
 Who would have thought so young a maid as she 
 With such a courage would have sought her death ". 
 
 165. his hoar leaves. The willow leaf with its silvery underside 
 is always a conspicuous object in river scenery; cf. Lowell, Among 
 My Books, "Shakespeare understood perfectly the charm of indirect- 
 ness, of making his readers seem to discover for themselves what he 
 means to show them. If he wishes to tell that the leaves of the 
 willow are gray on the underside, he does not make it a mere fact of 
 observation by bluntly saying so, but makes it picturesquely reveal 
 itself to us as it might in nature ". 
 
 170. crow- flov^ers, generally the buttercups, sometimes the 
 Lychnis Flos cuaili, or Ragged Robin. 
 
 long purples, the country name for various species of Orchis, 
 the Orchis mascula or Orchis maculata. 
 
 178. tunes. So F i and Q i; Q 2 has iatids, i.e. chants, so 
 called from the psalm Laudate Do77iinu7n. The F I reading suits 
 better the character of Ophelia's songs in scene 5. 
 
 Lady, 
 
 This scene is ridiculed in Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful 
 V, ii. 3— 
 
 " I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, 
 I '11 drown myself to a most dismal ditty ". 
 
 189. these, the tears, for which he is apologizing. 
 
 192. douts. So Knight for the dotibts of F i ; Q 2 has drowns. 
 
 An interval of a very few days separates the Acts ; leaving time 
 for Hamlet to return from the seaport (cf. iv. 4, note, ad fin.), and 
 for preparation to be made for Ophelia's burial. 
 
 (885) M 
 
178 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 Act v.— Scene I, 
 
 This scene does not advance the action much, for Hamlet's quarrel 
 with Laertes has very little to do with their subsequent encounter ; 
 it only serves to bring into contrast the opposing characters of the 
 two men. But we want a moment or two of relief before the breath- 
 less rush with which the play closes, and this the grim humour of 
 the grave-diggers and Hamlet's moralizing afford. The solemnity 
 of Ophelia's burial helps us to realize the pathos of her fate, and 
 therein the tragedy of Hamlet's failure. 
 
 The dialogue between the clowns affords an example of Shake- 
 speare's unrivalled power of insight into the mental habits and modes 
 of reasoning of uneducated people. 
 
 g. se offendendo, a mistake of the clown's for se defertdeiido, a 
 phrase used not in suicide cases, but in verdicts of justifiable homi- 
 cide. It has been suggested that the reasoning in this speech and 
 the next is a parody of the arguments used in the inquest on a certain 
 Sir James Hales, reported in Plowden's Commentaries (3 Eliz. ). 
 
 14. goodman delver. The First Clown, who takes the lead, is 
 the sexton ; the Second an ordinary labourer. 
 
 32. even Christian, fellow Christian. But there is, of course, 
 an allusion to the supposed equality of all Christians in the sight of 
 the Church. 
 
 35. Adam's profession. Cf. Tennyson's Lady Clara Vere de 
 Vere, "the grand old gardener and his wife", and the well-known 
 couplet — 
 
 "When Adam delved and Eve span, 
 Who was then the gentleman?" 
 
 38. This must be satire on the ludicrous statements of writers on 
 heraldry, as to the antiquity of their science. The Q 2 text here 
 runs : 'A was the first that ever bore arms. I HI put another question 
 to thee. The printer's eye seems to have slipped from one arms to 
 another. 
 
 44. confess thyself^ It is a proverb ' Confess thyselt, and be 
 hanged '. Hence the idea of a gallows-maker in the Second Clown's 
 mind. 
 
 45. Go to. The phrase here expresses the Second Clown's vague 
 sense that he is being chaffed. It corresponds to the ' Garn, who 
 are you a gitting at?' of the modern Londoner, 
 
 59. and unyoke, and then thy task is done. 
 
 68. get thee to Yaughan. So F i ; Q 2 has get thee in. 
 Collier proposed Get thee to — ( Yawns) ! Yaughan is a Welsh name, 
 and there is therefore no need to regard it as a corruption of the 
 German Johan. Probably the allusion is to some well-known tavern- 
 
Scene i.] NOTES. 179 
 
 keeper. That there was a tavern attached to the Globe theatre is 
 proved by the sonnet on the burning of that playhouse (Collier, 
 Annals of the Stage, i. 388). The passage looks like one of the bits 
 of clown's gag satirized in iii. 2. 42 (see quotation from Q i in note 
 ad loc). 
 
 69. The Clown's song is an inaccurate version of three stanzas of 
 The aged lover renoicnceth love, from TottePs Miscellany (1557). It 
 is attributed in Gascoigne's Epistle to a Voting Gentleman, prefatory 
 to his poems, and in Harl. MS. 1703, to Lord Vaux. In Totters 
 Miscellany (ed. Arber, p. 173) the verses run as follows — 
 
 ' I lothe that I did loue, 
 In youth that I thought swete : 
 As time requires for my behove 
 Me thinkes they are not mete. 
 
 For age with steyling steppes. 
 Hath clawed me with his crowche, 
 And lusty life away she leapes, 
 As there had bene none such. 
 
 A pikeax and a spade 
 And eke a shrowdyng shete 
 A house of clay for to be made, 
 For such a gest most mete." 
 
 75. ' Custom hath made it proper or natural to him to take his 
 employment easily.' 
 
 90. Cf. Tinion of Athens, i. 2. 216 — 
 
 " And now I remember, my lord, you gave 
 Good words the other day of a bay courser 
 I rode on ; it is yours, because you liked it ". 
 
 100. loggats, a game resembling bowls, but played on a floor 
 instead of a green. The loggats are pear-shaped pieces of wood, 
 and are pitched, not rolled. 
 
 103. for and, a strong form of ' and ', equivalent to the earlier 
 ' and eke '. 
 
 106 &c. The exact interpretation of these law-terms is not of much 
 importance to the interpretation of the play, but, according to Lord 
 Campbell, they are "all used seemingly with a full knowledge of 
 their import ". 
 
 115 {113). the fine of his fines. The first 'fine' has the sense 
 of end. This line is omitted in Q 2. The printer's eye has appar- 
 ently slipped from the first his recoveries to the second; cf line 38, 
 note. 
 
i8o HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 126. in that, i.e. in legal parchments, which give no assurance 
 against death. 
 
 149. by the card, with precision ; the origin of the expression 
 being probably from the accuracy with which charts are drawn out. 
 Staunton, however, refers it to the ' card ' of etiquette, or book of 
 good manners; cf. v. 2. 114. Yet a third explanation is that it 
 refers to the card or ' plat ' on which an actor's ' part ' was copied 
 out for him. Some of these Elizabethan ' plats ' are still preserved. 
 Cf. Appendix A. 
 
 170. Cf. Marston, Malcontent, iii. i, "your lordship shall ever 
 finde... amongst a hundred Englishmen fourscore and ten madmen". 
 
 177. thirty years. This statement, coupled with that in line 160 
 that the Sexton ' came to 't ' on the day of Hamlet's birth, is on the 
 face of it conclusive that Hamlet is a man of thirty. This is con- 
 sistent with the thirty years of married life of the Player King and 
 Queen (iii. 2. 165), and also, as it seems to me, with Hamlet's de- 
 veloped character and philosophy. Several critics, however, point 
 to considerations which lead them to regard him as nearer twenty 
 than thirty ; Professor Minto would treat him as a youth of seven- 
 teen. The chief of these considerations are : 
 
 (i) Hamlet's mother is still young enough to love and be loved. 
 But so was the Player Queen ; and iii. 3. 68, 83 imply that Gertrude 
 is a middle-aged matron. 
 
 (ii) Hamlet is called 'young Hamlet' (i. 3. 123), and his love for 
 Ophelia spoken of as "a violet in the youth of primy nature", &c, 
 (i. 3. 7, sqq.). But Henry V., who is made by Shakespeare at least 
 twenty-six when he comes to the throne, is spoken of as " in the 
 very May-morn of his youth ". Cf. also the phrase in Much Ado, 
 iii. 3. 140, " How giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between 
 fourteen and five and thirty". 
 
 (iii) Hamlet has barely left Wittenberg, and the Elizabethan noble 
 rarely stayed at the University beyond seventeen. Certainly, in 
 England, but not in Denmark. Cf. Nash, Pierce Penniless' Stippli- 
 cation to the Devil (Sh. Soc. p. 27), " For fashion sake some [Danes] 
 will put their children to school, but they set them not to it till they 
 are fourteen years old, so that you shall see a great boy with a beard 
 learn his ABC, and sit weeping under the rod when he is thirty 
 years old ". 
 
 The fact is that many men among the northern nations are no 
 older at thirty than Hamlet is represented. Mr. Furnivall thinks 
 that Shakespeare meant Hamlet to be about twenty when he began 
 the play, but found it necessary to make him older as he went on ! 
 Mr. Marshall suggests that this bit, and the " fat and scant of breath " 
 bit (v. 2. 298), were put in to make the part fit the personality of 
 Burbage. 
 
 igo. three and twenty years. This date, together with Ham- 
 let's boyish reminiscences of Yorick, is quite consistent with the 
 
Scene i.] NOTES. i8i 
 
 'thirty years' of line 177. Q i, however, has, in place of both the 
 other two passages — 
 
 " Look you, here's a skull hath been here this dozen years. 
 Let me see, ay, ever since our last King Hamlet 
 Slew Fortinbras in combat, young Hamlet's father, 
 He that 's mad ". 
 
 198. Yorick. Dr. Nicholson finds in this passage a compliment to 
 Tarlton, Kempe's great predecessor as a comic actor. The name 
 may be a corruption of the Danish yi?>'^, or of the Roricus of Saxo- 
 Grammaticus. This Roricus was Hamlet's grandfather. Mr. 
 Latham identifies Yorick with the Eric who plays Claudius' part in 
 the German version of the play; and suggests that the idea of his 
 being a jester may be a confusion due to existence of some Gesta 
 Erici Regis. Is not this a little far-fetched? 
 
 • 211. on a roar. The nearest parallel is Rape of Lucrece, 1494 — 
 
 " For sorrow, like a heavy -hanging bell 
 
 Once set on ringing, with his own weight goes ". 
 
 213. Cf. iii. I. 148. 
 
 240. The personal note of the remainder of the scene is a curious 
 contrast to the impersonal generalized tone of the speculations 
 in which Hamlet has just been indulging. Observe that he has 
 only just reached Elsinore and knows nothing of Ophelia's fate. 
 It is not revealed to him until line 264, where Laertes speaks of ' my 
 sister '. 
 
 All the dialogue that follows has the rhythmical dignity of a 
 dirge; see, e.g.., the speeches beginning with lines 249, 261, 266, 
 277, 292. 
 
 244. it; cf. ii. I. 216, note. 
 
 250. doubtful. There is nothing in the description of Ophelia's 
 death given by Gertrude in iv. 7. 163, sqq., to show that it was 
 voluntary. 
 
 255. her virgin crants. Q 2 has crants, F i rites. Warburton 
 proposed chants, but ' crants ' is probably the same word as the 
 ' corances ' of Chapman's Alphonsus. It signifies ' crowns ' or 
 ' garlands ', and refers here to the garlands which it was customary 
 to carry before the biers of unmarried women and then to hang up in 
 the church. 
 
 256. the bringing home. A funeral is here compared to the pro- 
 cession of a bride from church. The same idea is the motive of a 
 beautiful ^/^^ by Mr. Robert Bridges {Shorter Poems, ^. 16). Cf. 
 also Romeo and Juliet, iv. i. 84. 
 
 261. Even Laertes, shallow and debauched boy as he is, is digni- 
 fied and ennobled by sorrow. His love for his sister is the redeeming 
 point in him. 
 
i82 HAMLET. Act V. 
 
 363. violets are Ophelia's flowers throughout; cf. i. 3. 7; iv. 
 5- 184. 
 
 Cf. also Persius, Satire i. 
 
 " e tumulo fortunataque favilla 
 Nascentur violse " ; 
 
 and Tennyson, In Memoriam, xviii. — 
 
 " 'Tis well; 'tis something; we may stand 
 Where he in English earth is laid, 
 And from his ashes may be made 
 The violets of his native land". 
 
 269. treble woe. So Q 2; F i has tei-rible woei\ 
 
 276. Olympus, Pelion, and Ossa are three mountains in the north 
 of Thessaly. The Giants, warring with the Gods, are said to havQ 
 piled them upon each other in an attempt to scale heaven. 
 
 277. blue, again the ' picturesque ' epithet. 
 279. the wandering stars, the planets. 
 
 290. Hamlet has forgotten everything else, his delayed revenge, 
 his mother's sin, his own danger, even his pessimism, everything 
 but just the love which he had put from him. He is a philosopher, 
 but his action is usually swayed by impulse. 
 
 292. I loved Ophelia. Cf the denial of iii. i. 115, 120, 'I loved 
 you once..T loved you not'. 
 
 299, Woo't drink up eisel. This line is one of the half-dozen 
 cruces of the play. Q I reads vessels^ Q 2 Esill, F i Esile. There 
 are two plausible explanations, between which the reader may 
 choose : 
 
 (i) Some river may be intended, and if so, it is probably the 
 Yssel^ a northern branch of the Rhine, which runs not far from 
 Denmark. Steevens, however, conjectured Weissel, Hanmer Nile, 
 and Elze Nihis, the two latter being probably led by the mention of 
 crocodiles. 
 
 (ii) Theobald proposed eisel, meaning 'vinegar'; cf. Glossary, 
 s.v. The advantage of this explanation is that it suggests a nasty 
 drink, corresponding to such an unsavoury food as a crocodile, rather 
 than an impossibly huge one. 
 
 305. Almost insensibly Hamlet has slipped from the expression of 
 real feeling into the half-simulated extravagances, the ' wild and 
 whirling words ' that have become almost a second nature to him. 
 
 306. Ossa ; cf. line 276, note. 
 
 307-311. Q 2 gives these lines to the Queen; F i, in error, to 
 the King. 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 183 
 
 310. her golden couplets. The dove never lays niore than two 
 eggs, and the young, when first hatched, are covered with a golden 
 down. 
 
 315. The idea is, ' Nothing can prevent inferior creatures, such as 
 Laertes, from following their natvire, and now and then they get a 
 chance to come to the front '. The proverbial expression, ' Every 
 dog hath his day' is found in four other places in Elizabethan 
 literature. In spite of this the emendation proposed by Mr. Street, 
 dog will have his bay, is so plausible that I incline to adopt it. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 It is necessary first that Hamlet's reappearance should be explained. 
 This is done by his narrative to Horatio. Then follows the brief 
 scene with Osric, which declares Hamlet's character to be funda- 
 mentally unchanged ; and then comes the end. Hamlet's revenge is 
 accomplished at last, not dehberately, but by a sudden impulse, and 
 at what a cost ! Claudius died justly, but — over and beyond Ophelia 
 — the blood that is shed is at Hamlet's door. ' The rest is silence ', 
 and the entry of Fortinbras and Hamlet's dying submission sym- 
 bolize the triumph of another order of mind. 
 
 I. this, the fate of Ophelia; the other, Hamlet's adventures. 
 
 6. Rashly. This is more characteristic of Hamlet than he knows : 
 if he is effective at all, it is always rashly, from impulse, and not 
 from a ' deep plot '. 
 
 g. pall. So Q 2; F i \s3& park; Pope suggested t^z'/. 
 
 10. The metaphor is from the making of skewers or some such 
 thing. 
 
 21. Cf. iv. 3. 60, sqq. 
 
 22. This is generally explained, ' "With the suggestion of such 
 dangers, if I am allowed to live '. I think it means rather ' With 
 such exaggeration of the actual facts of my life '. 
 
 31. they, not 'my enemies' but 'my brains'. HanJet means 
 that under the stress of circumstances he acted without stopping to 
 think it over. 
 
 33. A piece of affectation which only a clever young man of 
 Hamlet's type could be guilty of. Cf. Montaigne (tr. Florio, 1603, 
 p. 125) "I have in my time seen some, who by writing did earnestly 
 get both their titles and living, to disavow their apprentisage, mar 
 their pen, and affect the ignorance of so vulgar a quality ". 
 
 42. a comma 'tween their amities. I think Johnson explains 
 this rightly, " A comma is the note of connection and continuity of 
 sentences ; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction ". 
 But various editors have thought it necessary to conjecture commere, 
 comate, cement, and so forth. 
 
1 84 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 47- Cf. i. 5- 77- 
 
 57. I doubt if we have the materials to say whether Rosencrantz 
 and Guildenstern were fully aware of the tenor of their commission 
 to England. In the Hystorie of Hamblett they are certainly guilty. 
 But in any case they had already (ii. 2. 282, sqq.) given Hamlet 
 proof of their willingness to sacrifice friendship to the bidding of the 
 king. 
 
 61. the pass and fell incensed points. These are merely 
 two ways of expressing the same idea. In fencing you make the 
 pass with the point. 
 
 63. Does it not. ..stand me now upon. Is it not imperative 
 upon me? Cf Richard III. iv. 2. 59 — 
 
 " It stands me much upon 
 To stop all hopes " ; 
 
 and Richard II. ii. 3. 138, "It stands your grace upon". The 
 similar phrase 'It lies on' occurs in Coriolamis, iii. 2. 52, "It lies 
 you on to speak ". See Abbott, Sh. Gr. § 204. 
 
 65. One of Hamlet's few allusions to his disinheritance. 
 
 68-82. These lines are not in Q 2. 
 
 73. the interim is mine. A reflection likely to give Hamlet 
 satisfaction; an interim — a further chance of delay. 
 
 78. court. So Rowe for the count of Qq. Ff. I think that the 
 emendation is justified by line 237. 
 
 80. Osric, a type of the empty-headed courtier or man about 
 town, the affected fribble, parleying Euphuism or the Sidneian 
 tongue, and so covering his nothingness with a nicety of borrowed 
 phrase. 
 
 84. this water-iiy, this ephemeral frail creature that flits so idly 
 over the surface of a tragic pool. 
 
 89. a chough. The idea is probably rather ' an ignorant provin- 
 cial' than 'a chattering crow'. See Glossary, s.v. 
 
 94. Cf. the scene with Polonius, iii. 2. 391, sqq. Theobald 
 quotes Juvenal, Satire iii. 
 
 ' ' igniculum brumae si tempore poscas, 
 Accipit endromidem ; si dixeris, gestuas, sudet ". 
 
 108. Cf Love''s Laboi'.r^s Lost, v. I. 103, "I do beseech thee 
 remember thy courtesy ; I beseech thee apparel thy head ". The 
 phrase is a curious one. It was etiquette or courtesy to stand bare- 
 headed before a superior, and yet perhaps a higher courtesy to omit 
 the ceremony when requested. But this refinement is not in Osric. 
 
 109-142 {108-T40). These lines are omitted in F I. 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 185 
 
 112. differences, qualities that distinguish him from ordinary 
 men; cf. the heraldic use (iv. 5. 183, note). 
 
 113. feelingly, with insiglit and nice perception. 
 
 114. the card or calendar of gentry. The metaphor may be 
 from the shipman's card {Macbeth, i. 3. 17) or chart, by which a ship's 
 course is directed ; or more likely from some card or booklet giving 
 rules of etiquette. So in Lyly a ' card ' is a set of moral precepts or 
 examples. 
 
 117. Hamlet parodies Osric, and succeeds in making himselt 
 quite unintelligible to him in his own tongue. 
 
 120. yet but yaw neither, and yet but stagger in the attempt 
 to overtake his perfections; cf. Glossary, s.v. yaw. Q 3 \vdA yet btit 
 i-aw. Staunton suggested and wit but yaw ; Tschischwitz and yet 
 btit row. 
 
 131. in another tongue. Horatio is sarcastic. 'What! you 
 can chatter in a jargon that is certainly not English ; can't you under- 
 stand in it too? pray try'. 
 
 162. ' You want a comment in the margin to explain the text.' 
 
 172. It is difficult to make out from Osric exactly what the wager 
 is. Probably 'a dozen' is a vague general term. The king bets 
 that Laertes will not make as much as twelve hits for Hamlet's nine. 
 It might of course take twenty-one passes to decide this. 
 
 igo {188). Hamlet's courtesies are becoming a little irritable. 
 
 196 {192). So Q 2. F I has mine {nine F 2) more of the same bevy. 
 I am inclined to suggest many more of the same bread, to help out the 
 ' yesty ' metaphor below. 
 
 200. fond and winnowed. So F i. Q 2 has prophane and tren- 
 nowed', Warburton proposed fanned and winnowed, Johnson sane 
 and renowned, Tschischwitz profound and winnowed; Nicholson 
 thinks that the second word is vinewed or fenowed {i.e. 'rotten'). 
 The F I text may stand, in the sense of ' foolish and over-refined '. 
 The whole speech is obscure. Osric is a type of the foolish young 
 man about town^ who picks up the phrases and tricks of style fashion- 
 able at the moment, and uses them without any originality or under- 
 standing ; who parleys Euphuism after Lyly, and Arcadianism after 
 Sidney. Hamlet says of him and his kind that they have only got the 
 slang of the day and its manner of dialogue. These borrowings (or 
 ' collection ') act as yeast to ' raise ' or fill with bubbles the bread of 
 their absurd and fantastic opinions : if you blow them to their 
 trial {i.e. talk to them with any originality in their own vein) the 
 bubbles burst, their golden words are spent. 
 
 203-218 {ig8-2i6). These Hnes are omitted in F i. 
 
186 HAMLET. [Act V. 
 
 222. With Hamlet's presentiment of coming evil compare that of 
 Antonio in Merchant of Venice, i. i, and that of Hermione in The 
 Winter's Tale, ii. i. 
 
 231. Cf. S. Matthew, x. 29, "Are not two sparrows sold for a 
 farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your 
 Father ". 
 
 234. The text is Johnson's. Q 2 reads since no man of ought he 
 leaves, knowes what ist to leave betimes, let be ; and F i since no man 
 ha's ought of what he leaves. What isH to leave betimes? 
 
 260. 'An opinion and precedent to show that I am justified in 
 making peace.' The wish to be right with the public opinion of his 
 world is characteristic of Laertes. 
 
 266. For the double meaning of foil, see Glossary, s.v. The use 
 of the pun, to produce a grimly ironical effect, is quite in Shake- 
 speare's later manner, after the mere delight in punning for its own 
 sake had disappeared. 
 
 274. he is better'd, he has the better reputation. The odds 
 have been really laid on Laertes, so the phrase ' laid the odds ' in 
 line 272 must be taken in the general sense of ' made a bet '. 
 
 283. union. So F i. Q 2 has unice; Q 3 onixe. 
 
 285. Cf. i. 2. 285. Commentators quote several illustrations of 
 this noisy Danish custom. 
 
 293. The so-called 'union' is doubtless poison in reality. 
 
 298. fat, and scant of breath. It has been thought that this is 
 an unpoetic description of ' ' the glass of fashion and the mould of 
 form ", and that it is to be explained by the physical peculiarities of 
 the actor Burbage. Very probably ' fat ' means little more than 
 ' out of training '. 
 
 310. ' You trifle with me as if I were a child.' 
 
 312. They change rapiers. This stage-direction may be explained 
 in three ways : — 
 
 (i) Both swords maybe knocked out of the combatants' hands, 
 and in the hurry each may pick up his opponent's ; or 
 
 (2) Laertes only may drop his sword ; Hamlet may put his foot on 
 it, and courteously offer his own. This was Salvini's way of playing 
 the scene; or 
 
 (3) Laertes may try to disarm Hamlet by gripping the hilt of his 
 sword at close quarters. In a fencing school Hamlet's proper reply 
 would be to perform the same manoeuvre, and so the two would 
 change weapons. 
 
 317. Cf. i. 3. 115, note. 
 
 343. of it, of Hamlet's death. 
 
Scene 2.] NOTES. 1^7 
 
 347. Ci. Sylvester, Translation Oj Du Bartas— 
 
 "And death, dread serjeant of the th' eternal Judge, 
 Comes very late to his sole -seated lodge ". 
 
 as, an ellipse, ' Had I but time — which I have not, as '. 
 352. Cf. Macbeth, v. 8. I— 
 
 "Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
 On mine own sword?" 
 
 354. a wounded name; cf. line 261, "to keep my name un- 
 gored ". 
 
 358. felicity, the felicity of death, the "consummation devoutly to 
 be wished ". 
 
 375. cries on havoc, cries out against the butchery. 
 
 376. eternal. It is suggested that here, and in i. 5. 21, Julius 
 CcEsa?', i. 2. 160, Othello, iv. 2. 130, 'eternal' is used for 'infernal'. 
 But the usual sense of ' eternal ' world at least fit this passage and 
 that in Julius Ccesar. 
 
 383. his mouth, the king's. 
 
 400. rights of memory, claims which are not forgotten. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 THE FIRST QUARTO OF 1603. 
 
 It is difficult, without actually reprinting the Q i version oiHamlet, 
 to give an exact idea of its character and its divergencies from the 
 received text. The student should by all means read it for himself 
 in Griggs' facsimile, or better still, in Dr. Wilhelm Victor's parallel 
 text edition (No. 2 of Shakespeare Reprints, Marburg, 1 891), It is 
 also to be found in Furness' New Variorum Hamlet, vol. ii.., and 
 in the Cambridge Shakespeare, vol. ix. I propose, however, in this 
 Appendix to briefly mention the points on the consideration of which 
 the theory as to the nature of Q I given in the Introduction is based. 
 They appear to me to justify the three following propositions : — 
 
 A. Q I is an imperfect and mutilated copy of the play. 
 
 B. The version from which it was taken was different from that 
 
 represented by Q 2 and F I. 
 
 C. This version, as well as the later one, was the work of Shake- 
 
 speare. 
 
 I will take these in their turn. 
 
 A. There can be no doubt that whatever Q I represents it repre- 
 sents it very badly. In many places it is so garbled and mutilated 
 
 Q I a muti- that it would be unintelligible without a knowledge of 
 
 lated copy. the later texts. It is most probably one of the ' stolen 
 and surreptitious copies ' mentioned in the preface to the folio of 1623. 
 And I think we may assume that it was not stolen from any written 
 copy of the play. No combination of an imperfect draft and a mole- 
 eyed printer would be sufficient to account for the result. Moreover, 
 the errors are in many cases manifestly due to mishearing and not to 
 misreading. The more probable hypothesis is that the printer sent 
 an agent to the theatre while Hamlet was being acted, and that he, 
 with or without the aid of shorthand, took down such notes as he 
 could of the dialogue ■"■. These were afterwards strung together 
 
 1 Shorthand was invented before 1602. The schemes proposed in Timothy 
 Bright's Ckaracterie (1588) and Bales' Art of Brachygrapkie (1590) are not of 
 much use; but John WilUs' Art of Stenographie (1602) is more practical. The 
 method was certainly used for pirating plays. Heywood complains of it in two 
 or three places. In the prologue to the Rape of Lucrece (1608), he speaks of it 
 being only ' copied by the ear', and in that to If you know me, you know Nobody, 
 he says that the audience — 
 
 "Did throng the seats, the boxes, and the stage 
 So much that some by stenography drew 
 The plot : put it in print : scarce one word true ". 
 
 Cf. also Marston's Malecontent, and Webster's The Devil's Law Case (1623)— 
 " Do you hear, officers ! 
 
 You must take great care that you let in no brachygraphy men to take notes". 
 See Levy, Shakespeaje and Shorthand. 
 
APPENDIX A. 189 
 
 into something resembling a play. They were in parts extremely 
 scanty, and were either left incomplete or else very roughly pieced 
 out. It has been suggested that some hack-poet was employed to 
 revise them; but that is extremely unlikely. Not Chettle, nor 
 Munday, nor any of Henslowe's crew of scribblers could have pro- 
 duced quite such an indigesta moles. Their lines might have lacked 
 wit and imagination, but they would at least have made sense, and 
 to some extent have scanned. And the same reasons which make it 
 unlikely that Q I was printed from a written text dispose of the idea 
 that a sight of the ' prompter's copy ' was obtained for the revision ; 
 it is, however, just possible that two or three of the subordinate 
 actors may have lent their 'parts'.^ The speeches belonging to 
 Horatio, Marcellus, and Voltemar are perhaps better represented than 
 the rest. 
 
 Those characteristics of Q I which may fairly be attributed to the 
 shortcomings of the reporter fell under four main heads. 
 
 i. He appears to have left out bits of the dialogue here and there. 
 In a few places this can be shown almost with certainty. Thus, for 
 i. 4. 69-71 Q r has — 
 
 " What if it tempt you toward the flood my Lord, 
 That heckles ore his bace into the sea". 
 
 Here it is pretty obvious that the line 
 
 "Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff" 
 
 has been dropped out. This being so, it is natural to suppose that 
 the same thing has occurred in other passages, and especially where 
 Q I only gives a line or two at the beginning and another line or two 
 at the end of what appears as a long speech in Q 2. The shortness of 
 the play in Q I confirms this view. It contains only 2143 lines to the 
 3891 of the Globe text. But it is impossible to say how much of this 
 is due to omissions, and how much to a fuller expansion in Q 2 of 
 the first form of the play. 
 
 ii. In many passages the words have been taken down nearly 
 right, but the reporter has failed to observe the proper distribution 
 into lines, and has replaced it by one of his own. Thus part of 
 Hamlet's soliloquy in i. 2 becomes — 
 
 " O God within two moneths ; no not two ; maried, 
 Mine uncle : O let me not thinke of it. 
 My father's brother : but no more like 
 My father, then I \.o Hercules. 
 Within two months ere yet the salt of most 
 Unrighteous teares had left their flushing 
 In her galled eyes : she married, O God, a beast 
 Devoyd of reson would not have made 
 Such speede : Frailtie, thy name is Woman, 
 Why she would hang on him, as if increase 
 Of appetite had growne by what it looked on ". 
 
 ■^ Actors' parts appear to have been copied for them on pasteboards, known as 
 'plats' or 'cards' (cf. v. i. 149, note). Some of these are still extant: three, The 
 Battle of Alcazar, Frederick and Basilea, and The Dead Maiis Fortune, have 
 been facsimiled for Mr, Halliwell-Phillipps. 
 
I90 HAMLET. 
 
 Similarly prose is often printed as if it were verse, and verse some- 
 times as prose. 
 
 iii. Often the reporter's hearing has failed him, and he has put 
 down, instead of the words actually spoken, others resembling them 
 in sound. This is the origin of such mistakes as 'impudent' for 'im- 
 potent' (i. 2. 29), 'right done' for 'writ down' (i. 2. 223), 'cere- 
 monies ' for ' cerements ' (i_. 4. 48), ' martin ' for ' matin ' (i. 5. 89). 
 
 iv. Where the notes are very scanty and the reporter has forgotten 
 the context, he has strung them together with words of his own. The 
 result is a curious medley of Shakespearian phrases bereft of their 
 meaning like a church-window filled with fragments of glass from 
 some shattered design. Thus, for i. 2. loi sqq. Q 2 has — 
 
 "It is a fault gainst heaven, fault gainst the dead, 
 A fault gainst nature, and in reason's 
 Common course most certain 
 None lives on earth, but he is born to die ". 
 
 Here the reporter seems to have been misled by some note of the 
 words 'from the first corpse (course Q 2)', and to have turned reason's 
 ' common theme ' into ' common course '. 
 
 B. After making all allowance for the reporter's haphazard way 
 of working, I cannot persuade myself that the Ha77ilet which he saw 
 Q I a different ^^ the theatre and tried to reproduce was the Hai^ilet of 
 version to Q 2 Q 2. There are wide differences between the two ver- 
 and F i. sions which none of the blundering mental processes 
 
 just enumerated are adequate to explain. They are, however, quite 
 consistent with the theory that we have in Q I a slovenly version of 
 an early and crude form of the play. 
 
 i. The order of the scenes is slightly different from that of Q 2. 
 The chief variation is that the 'To be or not to be ' soliloquy and 
 the interview between Hamlet and Ophelia (iii. i in Q 2) precede 
 in Q I the ' fishmonger ' scene with Polonius and the entry of the 
 players (ii. 2 in Q 2). 
 
 ii. Many of the names of the characters are different. Leartes, 
 Ofelia, Gertred^ Cornelia, Voltemar, Rossencraft, Gildersfone, may 
 be mere corruptions aided by mishearing for the Laertes, Ophelia, 
 Gerirard or Gertrad {Gertrude, F i), Corneliits, Volteniand, Rosen- 
 crans or Rosencraus {Rosincrance F i ), Guildensterne of Q 2. Duke and 
 Duchess for King oxid Queen (iii. 2. 165) are of no importance. But 
 some further explanation is needful of the substitution of Gonzago for 
 Alberttcs (iii. 2. 250), and of Polonius and Reynaldo for Corambis 
 and Montano. Let alone the Corai7ibus in the German play (Intro- 
 duction, pp. 12, 13, and Appendix C) and the traces of the old names 
 in the stage-directions of Q 2 (cf. notes to i. 2. I and ii. i. l), no- 
 thing will persuade me to the theory gravely held by Dr. Tanger 
 that these are mere mistakes due to similarity of sound. Other 
 instances of the change of names at the revision of a play are to be 
 found in the Petruchio and Grumio of The Taming of the Shrew, 
 which replace the Rerando and Sander oi The Taming of a Shrew, 
 
APPENDIX A. 191 
 
 and in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Hianour, where the Italian 
 names of the first version give way to English ones in the second. 
 
 iii. There are passages where the Q I text does not appear to be 
 corrupt, but where it yet differs widely from Q 2, and as a rule is 
 markedly inferior in richness of vocabulary and depth of thought. 
 Such differences appear to point directly to revision. Excellent 
 instances may be found in Ophelia's two speeches concerning Hamlet. 
 Cf. with the iii. I. 158 sqq. of Q 2, the following of Q I : — 
 
 " Great God of heaven, what a quick change is this? 
 The Courtier Scholar Soldier, all in him 
 All dasht and splintered thence, O woe is me, 
 To a scene what I a seene, see what I see ". 
 
 And this with the ii. i. 77 sqq. of Q 2 — 
 
 "O young Prince Hamlet, the only floure of Denmark, 
 Hee is bereft of all the wealth he had. 
 The Jewell that adorn'd his feature most 
 Is filcht and stolne away, his wit's bereft him. 
 Hee found mee walking in the gallery all alone. 
 There comes hee to mee with a distracted looke. 
 His garters lagging downe, his shooes untide, 
 And fixt his eyes so stedfast on my face 
 As if they had vow'd, this is their latest object. 
 Small while he stoode, but gripes me by the wrist. 
 And there he holdes my pulse till with a sigh 
 He doth unclaspe his holde, and parts away 
 Silent, as is the mid time of the night : 
 And as he went, his eie was still on mee. 
 For thus his head ouer his shoulder looked. 
 He seemed to finde the way without his eies: 
 For out of doores he went without their helpe. 
 And so did leave me." 
 
 I do not think that the same hand which garbled the other parts 
 out of the play is likely to have produced these neat paraphrases. 
 
 iv. There are other passages in Q I which have no representatives 
 at all in Q 2. Only a few of these are of any length. One is given 
 in the notes to iii. 2. 52; another is a scene between Horatio and 
 Gertrude which comes between iv. 5 and iv. 6 of the received text. 
 It is hard to see how these can have come into existence if they were 
 not part of the play as heard by the reporter. 
 
 V. In several important respects the characterization of Q I is 
 different from that of Q 2. I do not dwell on the point that Hamlet 
 himself is far less subtly represented. This may be merely the 
 result of the accidental omission by the reporter of some of the 
 delicate touches in the delineation of the complete play. But there 
 are at least two variations which must surely be deliberate. One is 
 that our sense of Laertes' guilt is diminished by the fact that in Q i 
 the proposal to use a poisoned foil comes not from him, but from 
 Claudius. The other, that the character of Gertrude is put in quite 
 a different light. In Q 2 the extent of her guilt is left vague and 
 doubtful, and to the end she wavers between husband and son. In 
 Q I she is made to protest very definitely her innocence of the murder, 
 and thenceforward to show herself a strong partisan of Hamlet's. 
 
192 HAMLET. 
 
 This is her position in the Historie of Hamlet also, and the modifica- 
 tion of it shown in Q 2 seems to me clearly the result of design. It 
 was Shakespeare's intention that Hamlet should stand alone. 
 
 C. Assuming then that Q i and Q 2 represent two successive forms 
 of Hamlet, a first sketch and a revision, are we justified in treating 
 Both ver- them both as the work of Shakespeare ; or ought we to 
 sions by suppose that the first sketch contains any appreciable 
 
 Shakespeare, amount of the pre-Shakespearian Hatnlet, in the exis- 
 tence of which we have good reason to believe (Appendix B)? I 
 prefer the former view, although the Clarendon Press editors give the 
 weight of their authority to a theory that Q I is the early Ha^nlet 
 partly revised by Shakespeare, and that this revision had not gone 
 much beyond act ii. I do not accept this. I believe that Q i is 
 Shakespeare's independent treatment of the subject suggested to him 
 by the older play. If he borrowed anything beyond the outline of 
 the plot, it was probably the fooling, meant to tickle the groundlings, 
 at the end of i. 5. It is true that the three last acts are not only more 
 incoherent in themselves than the two earlier, but also that they 
 depart more from Q 2 ; but this is capable of many explanations. 
 The reporter may have grown tired of his task. So far as the 
 dialogue goes, in the few places where we get it uncorrupted there 
 is nothing inconsistent with its being Shakespeare's. It is not all 
 at his highest level ; it may have been hastily written for a provincial 
 tour, and one need hardly be surprised that what is retained in 
 Q 2 is better than what is rejected; but it does not, any of it, appear 
 to have any affinity with the kind of thing that the pre-Shakespearian 
 Hajnlet probably was. I do not want, however, to lay too much 
 stress on this question of style, for after all, the passages in question 
 are necessarily the more colourless and commonplace, and I do not 
 believe that I or anyone else have a sufficiently acute critical sense 
 to say definitely of such that they are or are not Shakespeare's. 
 Much more important is the essential identity, in other respects than 
 style, of even the last three acts of Q I with Q 2. Almost all the 
 details, the incidents and touches of characterization, the deep and 
 imaginative sayings, are there at least in germ. I need only endorse 
 Mr. Furnivall's remark, that if Q i is not Shakespeare's, then ' ' the 
 credit of three-fifths of the character of Hamlet, and about one-half 
 of the working out of it, belong to the author of the old Harnlef\^ 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 THE PRE-SHAKESPEARIAN HAMLET. 
 
 There are several allusions in contemporary literature to a play on 
 Hamlet, which can hardly have been Shakespeare's, at the close of 
 
 '^ Forewords to Qiiarto 2, 1604. (Griggs' Facsimile.) 
 
APPENDIX B. 193 
 
 the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries. It is worth 
 while to collect them here, 
 
 1. From an epistle by Thomas Nash, prefixed to Greene's Mena- 
 phon: Camilla's alar77i to slumbering Euphues, 1589 — 
 
 "He turne backe to my first text, of studies of delight, and talke a 
 little in friendship with a few of our triviall translators. It is a 
 common practice now a dales amongst a sort of shifting companions, 
 that runne through every arte and thrive by none to leave the trade 
 of Noveri7it whereto they were borne, and busie themselves with the 
 endevours of art, that could scarcelie latinize their necke verse if 
 they should have neede ; yet English Seneca read by candle-light 
 yeeldes manie good sentences, as Blould is a beggar, and so foorth : 
 and if you intreate him faire in a frostie morning, he will afoord you 
 whole Hamlets, I should say Handfulls of tragical speaches. But O 
 grief! Tempus edax reruiw, — what is it that will last always? The 
 sea exhaled by drops will in continuance be drie ; and Seneca, let 
 bloud line by line, and page by page, at length must needs die to our 
 stage. " 
 
 It has been thought possible that although Menaphon was not 
 published until 1589, Nash's Epistle may have been written as early 
 as 1587. 
 
 2. From the Diary of Philip Henslowe for 1594, while the Lord 
 Chamberlain's and the Lord Admiral's men were playing for him at 
 Newington Butts — 
 
 "9. of June 1594. Rd. at hamlet, viijs." 
 
 The play appears only to have been played once at this time, and 
 is not marked n[ew] e[nterlude]. 
 
 3. From Lodge's Wifs miserie, and the World's mad^iesse, 1596 — 
 " [Hate Virtue is] a foul lubber, and looks as pale as the wisard of 
 
 the ghost, which cried so miserally at the theator, like an oyster- 
 wife, Hamlet revenge". 
 
 4. The following, though subsequent to the First Quarto ot 1603, 
 may possibly refer to the early play. The actual phrase " Hamlet 
 revenge," does not occur in the text of Shakespeare's play, as it has 
 reached us, though the exhortation to revenge is given in other 
 words in i. 5. 8, and i. 5. 25. 
 
 From Dekker's Satiromastix, 1602 — 
 
 ^'' Ashiius. Wod I were hanged if I can call you any names but 
 Capitaine and Tucca. 
 
 Tucca. No. Fye'st; my name's Hamlet revenge: thou hast 
 been at Parris garden, hast not?" 
 
 Tucca comes on "his boy after him, with two pictures under his 
 cloak"; cf. iii. 4. 53. 
 
 5. From Westward Hoe, 1 607 — 
 
 "I, but when light wives make heavy husbands, let these hus- 
 bands play mad Hamlet; and crie revenge" . 
 
 6. From Armin's Nest of Nineties, 1608 — 
 
 " ther are, as Hamlet saies, things cald whips in store". 
 < 885 ) N 
 
194 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 Ci. iii. I. 70, note. 
 
 7. From Rowland's The Night Raven, 1618 — 
 
 "I will not cry Hamlet Reuenge my greeves, But I will call 
 Hang-man Retienge on theeves". 
 
 An attempt has been made to show that Shakespeare's play be- 
 longs to the sixteenth century, on the strength of the following MS. 
 note in Gabriel Harvey's copy of Speght's Chaucer — 
 
 ' ' The younger sort take much delight in Shakespeare's Ve^tics and 
 Adonis, but his Lucrece and his tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Den- 
 marke, have it in them to please the wiser sort ". 
 
 But though Harvey doubtless purchased the volume in 1598, as 
 this date occurs both at the beginning and end of it, the MS. notes 
 therein appear to have been written at various subsequent times. 
 
 We may gather from the above passages that the play was known 
 at least as early as 1589 (possibly 1587) ; that it was played at_ the 
 Theater, at Newington Butts, and at Paris Garden ; that it contained 
 the ghost; and that the phrase, "Hamlet revenge", made an im- 
 pression on the popular imagination. 
 
 Mr. Fleay [Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, s.v. 
 Kyd, ii.. 26) suggests that the author of this older Hamlet was 
 Thomas Kyd. It certainly appears likely that the attack in Nash's 
 epistle to Menaphon was aimed at him. 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 "FRATRICIDE PUNISHED." 
 
 Most of our information respecting the early performances of 
 English plays in Germany is derived from Cohn's invaluable Shake- 
 speare in Germany, to which the student is referred for further infor- 
 mation. The following facts bear upon the relations of Fratricide 
 Punished to our Hamlet. 
 
 (i) In Heywood's Apology for Actors (ed. Shakesp. Soc. p. 40) 
 it is stated that ' ' the King of Denmarke, father to him that now 
 reigneth, entertained into his service a company of English 
 comedians, commended unto him by the honourable the Earle of 
 Leicester ". 
 
 (2) Cohn shows that this king was Frederick II., who died 1588. 
 Leicester's players went to the court of the Elector of Saxony in 
 1586, subsequently returned to England and became the nucleus of 
 the company with which Shakespeare was connected throughout his 
 dramatic career. See Fleay, Chronicle of the London Stage, passim. 
 
 (3) There is a diary kept by an officer of the Saxon court at 
 Dresden in 1626, which contains a list of plays performed by ' the 
 English actors '. Amongst these occurs Ha7nlet a Prince in Den- 
 marck. 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 
 195 
 
 (4) The existing text of Fratricide Punished is from a MS. dated 
 ' Pretz, den 27 October, 17 10'. It is printed by Cohn, and trans- 
 lated in Furness' New Variorum Hamlet, ii. 121. 
 
 Dr. Latham {Two Dissertatioris on Hamlet, 1872) argues, but not, 
 I think, very conclusively, that the date of Fratricide Punished can 
 be fixed to about 1589, by an allusion to the expedition to Portugal 
 in that year. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 THE 'TRAVELLING' OF THE PLAYERS (Act ii. 
 scene 2, line 343). 
 
 The passage in which Rosencrantz explains the reasons why 
 Hamlet's favourite company of tragedians are 'travelling' appears in 
 a different form in each of the three versions. They may here be 
 given together for purposes of comparison. 
 
 FIRST QUARTO. 
 
 Hajn. How comes it that they trauell ? Do they grow restie ? 
 Gil. No my lord, their reputation holds as it was wont. 
 Ham. How then? 
 Gil. Yfaith my Lord, noueltie carries it away, 
 
 For the principall publike audience that 
 
 Came to them, are turned to private playes, 
 
 And to the humour of children. 
 
 SECOND QUARTO. 
 
 Ham. How chances it they trauaile? their residence both in reputation, and profit 
 
 was better both wayes. 
 Ros. I thinke their inhibition, comes by the means of the late innouasion. 
 Ham. Doe they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the City ; are 
 
 they so followed ? 
 Ros. No indeede are they not. 
 
 FIRST FOLIO. 
 
 Ham. How chances it they trauaile ? their residence both in reputation and profit 
 was better both wayes. 
 
 Rosin. I thinke their Inhibition comes by the meanes of the late Innouation? 
 
 Ham. Doe they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the City? Are 
 they so follow'd? 
 
 Rosi?i. No indeed, they are not. 
 
 Ham. How comes it ? Doe they grow rusty ? 
 
 Rosin. Nay, their indeauour keepes in the wonted pace ; But there is Sir an ayrie 
 of Children, little Yases, that crye out on the top of question ; and are 
 most tyrannically clap't for 't : these are now the fashion, and so 
 be-ratled the common Stages (so they call them) that many wearing 
 Rapiers, are affraide of Goose-quils, and dare scarce come thither. 
 
 It will be seen that the reason for the ' travelling ' assigned in Q i 
 is the popularity of a rival company, of children; in Q 2 an 'in- 
 hibition ' due to an ' innovation ' ; in F 2, both these causes are men- 
 tioned. 
 
 The title-page of Q i shows us that Hamlet, in the early days of its 
 career, was acted out of London. It is not unnatural, therefore, to 
 
196 HAMLET. 
 
 seek in this passage an allusion to some 'travelling' of Shakespeare's 
 own company, which may help to determine the date of the play. It 
 will be well to take the two points separately. 
 
 i. The ''Inhibition'' and ^ Innovation \ — It would appear that 
 ' inhibition ' was a technical term for an order restraining theatrical 
 performances, or the performances of a particular company, from 
 taking place in London. The ' inhibition ' here spoken of has been 
 identified with various such orders issued at different times during 
 the long struggle between the theatrical or court and the anti- 
 theatrical or city parties, represented respectively by the Privy 
 Council and the Corporation. (See Halliwell-Phillipps, Otdlines of 
 the Life of Shakespeare, and Fleay, Chronicle History of the London 
 Stage. ) So, too, the ' innovation ' has been interpreted as ' the new 
 practice of introducing polemical matter on the stage', or 'the new- 
 morals of the Puritan party '. But we are helped to a better ex- 
 planation by the fuller knowledge of the history of the Globe 
 company, which is due chiefly to Mr. Fleay. In 1 60 1 the company 
 was in disgrace at court owing to the share they had taken in the 
 conspiracy of Essex and Southampton. A performance of Richard 
 II. had been given by them to encourage the conspirators.^ For the 
 OTily time during a long period of years they were not invited to take 
 part in the Christmas festivities. Probably they travelled during 
 the autumn; they seem to have been at Aberdeen in October^ and 
 at Cambridge about the same date;^ and if so, this is most likely the 
 ' travelling ' alluded to in the play. Then the ' inhibition ' will be 
 the refusal of permission to act at court, and the ' innovation ', the 
 political innovation or conspiracy which led to it. 
 
 ii. The Aery of Children. — Can this allusion also be referred to 
 this same year, 1601? • It was just at this time that the children of 
 the Chapel Royal were acting at the Blackfriars. They took a 
 prominent part in the stage-controversy known as the ' war of the 
 theatres', and amongst other plays they produced between 1597 and 
 1603, Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels and his Poetaster, satirical 
 plays, full of attacks on rival poets and players, and answering well 
 to the description given in the text. Moreover, the Q I phrase, 'the 
 humours of children', seems to point to Jonson's fondness for painting 
 ' humours ' or comic types. Witness the titles of his earlier plays. 
 Every Man in his Htimour and Every Man out of his Humour. If 
 the allusion has been correctly identified, Hamlet may be the play in 
 which Shakespeare ' put down ' Ben Jonson.* 
 
 1 See Mr. Hales' Notes attd Essays, and the Introduction to my edition of 
 Richard II. (Falcon Series). 
 
 2 Cf. Macbeth (Warwick Series), Introduction, p. 11, and the excursus on 
 Shakespeare in Scotland in Knight's Shakespeare. 
 
 3 Kempe and Burbage are introduced in the 2nd part of The Returne from 
 Parnasstis, a Cambridge play with a local scene, probably written in 1601. (Cf. 
 Macray's edition of the play, and Fleay, Biographical Chronicle of the English 
 Drama, ii. 349.) 
 
 * Cf. The Returne from Parnassus. Mr. Fleay, however, thinks that the play 
 meant was Troiltts and Cressida. 
 
APPENDIX E. 
 
 197 
 
 The question remains, why was the point about the ' innovation ' 
 omitted in Q l, and that about the children in Q 2? The first difficulty 
 is easily explained. When the reporter went to the theatre, — pro- 
 bably early in 1602, as the book was entered in the Stationers' 
 Registers in July of that year, — Elizabeth was still on the throne. 
 Whatever the Globe company chose to do in the provinces, they 
 would have been ill-advised to allow any allusion to the facts of their 
 disgrace to stand in the play when it was acted in town. Just in 
 the same way, the most objectionable scene of Richard IL, from a 
 political point of view, was omitted from the two editions of the play 
 published in Elizabeth's lifetime. In 1604, however, the date of Q 2, 
 she was dead, and such nice caution became no longer necessary. 
 At the same time another change of circumstances led to the omis- 
 sion of the attack on the player-children. By 1604 the so-called 
 ' war of the theatres ' was over, Jonson and Shakespeare were pro- 
 bably friends again, and the latter had no desire to print anything 
 discourteous to the former.^ In the meantime, however, the passage 
 had been elaborated at the general revision of the play to the form 
 in which it is found in F I. As to the re-appearance of both the 
 allusions in 1623, probably they had remained throughout in the 
 theatre copy of the play. When F i was published, both the matters 
 to which they referred had become ancient history, and there was no 
 reason why they should be suppressed. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 "DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE." 
 
 It is worth while to reprint the passage from Dido, Queen of 
 Carthage, parodied in Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2. The play was pub- 
 lished, as by Marlowe and Nash, in 1594, the year after Marlowe's 
 death. It is usually supposed to have been left incomplete by 
 him, and finished by Nash. Mr. Fleay, however, thinks that it was 
 an early play, written by the two in collaboration. The passage in 
 question is from act ii. sc. i : — 
 
 j^n 
 
 At last came Pyrrhus, fell and full of ire, 
 
 His harness dropping blood, and on his spear 
 
 The mangled head of Priam't youngest son ; 
 
 And, after him, his band of Myrmidons, 
 
 With balls of wild-fire in their murdering paws, 
 
 Which made the funeral flame that burnt fair Troy; 
 
 All which hemmed me about, crying, "This is he ! " 
 Dido. Ah, how could poor ^neas scape their hands? 
 
 1 Cf. the omission, probably for similar reasons, in Q 2 of the attack upon 
 Kempe, which appeared in Q i — iii. 2. 50, note. 
 
198 HAMLET. 
 
 ^En. My mother Venus, jealous of my health, 
 
 Convey'd me from their crooked nets and bands ; 
 So I escaped the furious Pyrrhus' wrath : 
 Who then ran to the palace of the king, 
 And at Jove's altar finding Priamus, 
 About whose withered neck hung Hecuba, 
 Folding his hand in hers, and jointly both 
 Beating their breasts, and falling on the ground, 
 He, with his falchion's point raised up at once. 
 And with Megaera's eyes, star'd in their face, 
 Threatening a thousand deaths at every glance : 
 To whom the aged king thus, trembling, spoke; 
 " Achilles' son, remember what I was, 
 Father of fifty sons, but they are slain ; 
 Lord of my fortune, but my fortune's turned : 
 King of this city, but my Troy is fired ; 
 And now am neither father, lord, nor king : 
 Yet who so wretched but desires to live? 
 O, let me live, great Neoptolemus ! " 
 Not moved at all, but smiling at his tears. 
 This butcher, whilst his hands were yet held up, 
 Treading upon his breast, struck off his hands. 
 
 Dido. O, end, ^neas ! I can hear no more. 
 
 ^n. At which the frantic queen leaped on his' face. 
 And in his eyelids hanging by the nails, 
 A little while prolonged her husband's life. 
 At last, the soldiers pull'd her by the heels, 
 And swung her howling in the empty air, 
 Which sent an echo to the wounded king : 
 Whereat he lifted up his bed-rid limbs, 
 And would have grappled with Achilles' son. 
 Forgetting both his want of strength and hands; 
 Which he disdaining, whisk'd his sword about, 
 And with the wind thereof the king fell down ; 
 Then from the navel to the throat at once 
 He ripp'd old Priam; at whose latter gasp 
 Jove's marble statue gan to bend the brow. 
 As loathing Pyrrhus for this wicked act. 
 Yet he, undaunted, took his father's flag. 
 And dipp'd it in the old king's chill-cold blood. 
 And then in triumph ran into the streets. 
 Through which he could not pass for slaughter'd men ; 
 So, leaning on his sword, he stood stone-still, 
 Viewing the fire where with rich Ilion burnt. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 GOETHE AND COLERIDGE ON HAMLET. 
 
 These two passages are the foundation of modern Shakespeare 
 criticism : — 
 
 (i) From Goethe's Wilhelm Meister [I'j^]. 
 
 "I sought for every indication of what the character of Hamlet was 
 before the death of his father ; I took note of all that this interesting 
 youth had been, independently of that sad event, independently of 
 
APPENDIX F. 199 
 
 the subsequent terrible occurrences, and I imagined what he might 
 have been without them. 
 
 " Tender and nobly descended, this royal flower grew up under the 
 direct influences of majesty; the idea of the right and of princely 
 dignity, the feeling for the good and the graceful, with the conscious- 
 ness of his high birth, were Unfolded in him together. He was a 
 prince, a born prince. Pleasing in figure, polished by nature, 
 courteous from the heart, he was to be the model of youth and the 
 delight of the world. 
 
 "Without any supreme passion, his love for Ophelia was a pre- 
 sentiment of sweet needs. His zeal for knightly exercises was not 
 entirely his own, not altogether natural to him ; it had rather to be 
 quickened and inflamed by praise bestowed upon another. Pure 
 in sentiment, he knew the honourable-minded, and would prize the 
 repose which an upright spirit enjoys, resting on the frank bosom of 
 a friend. To a certain degree he had learned to discern and value 
 the good and the beautiful in arts and sciences; the vulgar was 
 offensive to him ; and if hatred could take root in his tender soul, it 
 was only so far as to make him despise the false and fickle courtiers, 
 and scornfully to play with them. He was calm in his temper, 
 simple in his behaviour, neither content in idleness, nor yet too 
 eager for employm-ent. An academic routine he seemed to continue 
 even at court. He possessed more mirth of humour than of heart ; 
 he was a good companion, compliant, modest, discreet, and could 
 forget and forgive an injury; yet never able to unite himself with 
 one who overstept the limits of the right, the good, and the becoming. 
 
 " Figure to yourselves this youth, this son of princes, conceive him 
 vividly, bring his condition before your eyes, and then observe him 
 when he learns that his father's spirit walks ; stand by him in the 
 terrible night when the venerable ghost itself appears before him. 
 A horrid shudder seizes him : he speaks to the mysterious form ; he 
 sees it beckon him ; he follows it and hearkens. The fearful accusa- 
 tion of his uncle rings in his ears ; the summons to revenge, and the 
 piercing reiterated prayer : ' Remember me ! ' 
 
 ' ' And when the ghost has vanished, whom is it we see standing 
 before us? A young hero panting for vengeance? A born prince, 
 feeling himself favoured in being summoned to punish the usurper of 
 his crown? No! Amazement and sorrow overwhelm the solitary 
 young man ; he becomes bitter against smiling villains, swears never 
 to forget the departed, and concludes with the significant ejacula- 
 tion : ' The time is out of joint : O cursed spite, that ever I was 
 born to set it right ! ' 
 
 "In these words, I imagine, is the key to Hamlet's whole pro- 
 cedure. To me it is clear that Shakespeare sought to depict a great 
 deed laid upon a soul unequal to the performance of it. In this view 
 I find the piece composed throughout. Here is an oak tree planted 
 in a costly vase, which should have received into its bosom only 
 lovely flowers; the roots spread out, the vase is shivered to pieces. 
 
200 HAMLET. 
 
 "A beautiful, jDure, noble, and most moral nature, without the 
 strength of nerve which makes the hero, sinks beneath a burden 
 which it can neither bear nor throw off; every duty is holy to him, 
 . — this too hard. The impossible is required of him, — not the im- 
 possible in itself, but the impossible to him. He winds, turns, 
 agonizes, advances, and recoils, ever reminded, ever reminding him- 
 self, and at last almost loses his purpose from his thoughts, without 
 ever again recovering his peace of mind. " 
 
 (2) From Coleridge's Notes and Lectures iipon Shakespeare (1808). 
 
 " I believe the character of Hamlet may be traced to Shakespeare's 
 deep and accurate science in mental philosophy. Indeed, that this 
 character must have some connection with the common fundamental 
 laws of our nature may be assumed from the -fact that Hamlet has 
 been the darling of every country in which the literature of England 
 hafS been fostered. In order to understand him, it is essential that 
 we should reflect on the constitution of our own minds. Man is 
 distinguished from the brute animals in proportion as thought pre- 
 vails over sense ; but in the healthy processes of the mind, a balance 
 is constantly maintained between the impressions from outward 
 objects and the inward operations of the intellect; for if there be an 
 overbalance in the contemplative faculty, man thereby becomes the 
 creature of mere meditation, and loses his natural power of action. 
 Now, one of Shakespeare's modes of creating characters is to con- 
 ceive any one intellectual or moral faculty in morbid excess, and then 
 to place himself, Shakespeare, thus mutilated or diseased, under 
 given circumstances. In Hamlet he seems to have wished to 
 exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention 
 to the objects of our senses and our meditation on the working of our 
 minds, — an equilibrium between the real and the imaginary worlds. 
 In Hamlet this balance is disturbed ; his thoughts and the images of 
 his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very 
 perceptions, instantly passing through the medizuji of his contempla- 
 tions, acquire, as they pass, a form and a colour not naturally their 
 own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual 
 activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon 
 it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities. This character 
 Shakespeare places in circumstances under which it is obliged to act 
 on the spur of the moment. Hamlet is brave and careless of death ; 
 but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, 
 and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve. Thus it is 
 that the tragedy presents a direct contrast to that of Macbeth ; the 
 one proceeds with the utmost slowness, the other with a crowded 
 and breathless rapidity." 
 
ESSAY ON METRE.1 
 
 § I. Metre as an indication of Date. 
 
 English blank verse did not come into use till the sixteenth century: 
 and at the commencement of its career, the rules which regulated its 
 employment were strict. It was only when the instrument was be- 
 coming familiar that experiments could be ventured upon, and varia- 
 tions and modifications freely introduced. The changes in the structure 
 of blank verse between the time when Shakespeare commenced writing 
 and the time of his retirement are great; and the variations in this 
 respect are among the most important indications of the date of any 
 given play. That is to say, broadly speaking, the less strictly regular 
 the metre, the later the play. 
 
 In the same way,, a gradually increasing disregard of other kindred 
 conventions marks the later plays as compared with the earlier. A 
 good deal of rhyme survives in the dialogue in the earlier plays; later 
 it is only to be found occasionally at the close of a scene or a speech 
 to round it off — probably a concession to stage tradition analogous to 
 the similar use of ' gnomae ' in Greek plays, and of a ' sentiment ' 
 in modern melodrama. 
 
 In the present play, the general characteristics of the metre appear 
 to be those of Shakespeare's middle period; but there are an unusual 
 number of irregularities; the intense excitement constantly finds vent 
 in rapid dialogue which overflows the bounds of metre. 
 
 The extensive use of prose in the play is worth careful notice. 
 Prose was at first used by Shakespeare for comic passages only, and 
 even when this limitation ceased to be observed, it continued as a 
 rule to be the medium of a lower plane of emotion than that repre- 
 sented by blank verse. Thus in the present play it is appropriate to 
 the discourse between Hamlet and the players (ii. 2 and iii. 2), be- 
 tween Hamlet and the clowns (v. i), between Hamlet and Osric 
 (v. 2). It is also, of course, used for letters (ii. 2; iv. 7), and the 
 speech of servants. But it is also used exceptionally in the middle 
 and later plays to produce special and peculiar effects, e.g. for the 
 sleep-walking scene (v. i) in Macbeth, and for Ophelia's madness 
 (iv. 5). Similarly, I think, Hamlet speaks in prose wherever he is 
 playing the madman ; where he is not so acting, in the soliloquies, 
 in the scenes with Horatio (iii. 2; v. 2), in the interview with his 
 mother (iii. 4), in the lament over Ophelia (v. i), then in blank verse. 
 
 1 This outline of Shakespeare's Prosody is adapted, by the kind permission ot 
 Mr. A. D. Innes, from the one written by him for his edition of Jjilius Ccesar, in 
 this series. 
 
202 HAMLET. 
 
 In the scene with OpheUa (iii. i) he passes from blank verse to prose 
 just at the point where he begins to suspect her good faith. Of 
 course while Hamlet speaks prose, personages of less dignity must 
 do the same ; the King, however, is not so bound (iv. 3). 
 
 The 'plays within the play' (ii. 2; iii. 2) are written in a stilted 
 and archaic style of blank verse, in order to produce an artificial 
 effect in comparison with the ordinary dialogue, as that itself is arti- 
 ficial when compared with the natural speech of ordinary life. (Cf. 
 notes ad locc. ) 
 
 Rhymed decasyllabic couplets are used to close a scene or a 
 speech; and Hamlet occasionally breaks into doggerel rhyme in 
 moments of excitement. 
 
 § 2. Form of Blank Verse. 
 
 Our study of versification is commonly restricted to that of Latin and 
 Greek. When we examine English verse-structure, a distinction at 
 once appears. In the classical verse the governing element is quan- 
 tity; in English it is stress. And inasmuch as stress is much less 
 definite than quantity, the rules of English verse cannot be given 
 with the same precision as those of Latin and Greek. But we may 
 begin with certain explanations as to what stress is not. A ' stressed ' 
 syllable is not the same as a long syllable; nor is stress the same as 
 jigwi-^-emphasis. Any strong or prolonged dwelling of the voice on 
 a syllable, for whatever reason, is stress. So, while a syllable must 
 be either long or short, there are many shades of gradation between 
 the unstressed and the strongly stressed. And as in Greek tragic 
 verse a long syllable may, in certain positions, take the place of a short 
 one, so a moderately stressed syllable may often in English take the 
 place of an unstressed one. 
 
 To start with, then, — to get at the basis of our metre — we will take 
 no account of weak stress, but treat of all syllables as if they must 
 either have no stress or a strong stress; and throughout, the word 
 stress, when used without a qualifying adjective, will mean strong 
 stress. The acute accent (') will be used to mark a stress, the grave 
 (^) to mark a weak stress, the " to mark a syllable sounded but not 
 stressed. 
 
 The primary form of the Shakespearian line is — five feet, each of two 
 syllables; each foot carrying one stress, on the second syllable; with 
 a sense pause at the end of the line, and generally a slight pause, 
 marked by a comma perhaps, after the 2nd or 3rd foot. This is 
 called a caesura. 
 
 But look' I the morn', | in rus' | set man' \ tie clad' (i. i. 166). 
 
 § 3. Normal Variations. 
 
 But if there were no variations on this, the effect would be mono- 
 tonous and mechanical after a very few lines. 
 
 (i) The first variation therefore is brought about by the stress in 
 
ESSAY ON METRE. 203 
 
 one or two of the feet being thrown on the first instead of the second 
 syllable, which is known as an ' inverted ' stress. 
 
 ist foot. Cost'ly I thy ha' | bit as' | thy purse' | can buy' (i. 3. 70). 
 
 2nd foot. The wind' | sits' in | the shoul' I der of | your sail' (i. 3. 56). 
 
 3rd foot. But this' I most foul' | strange' and | unna' | tural (i. 5. 28). 
 
 4th foot. Why thy' | canon' | ized bones', | he'arsed | in death' (i. 4. 47). 
 
 5th foot. Aifec' I tion ! pooh' ! | you speak' | like' a | green' girl (i. 3. loi). 
 
 The stress is thus thrown back much more commonly in the first foot 
 of the line than elsewhere : and in the other cases the stressed 
 syllable usually follows a pause. 
 
 (ii) Secondly, variety is introduced by the insertion of an extra 
 unstressed syllable which is not extra-metrical, analogous to the use 
 of an anapaest instead of an iambus. 
 
 ist foot. T am more' | an an' | tique Ro' | man than' | a Dane[ (v. 2. 352). 
 
 3rd foot. Of im' I pious stub' | bornness ; 't is' | unman' | ly grief (i. 2. 94). 
 
 3rd foot. Let' it I be te' | nable in' | your si' | lence still' (i. 2. 248). 
 
 4th foot. The light' | and care' | less li' | very that' | it wears' (iv. 7. 80). 
 
 5th foot. How wear' | y, stale', | flat' and | unpro' | f itable (i. 2. 133). 
 
 As a general rule, however, such extra syllables are very slightly 
 pronounced; not altogether omitted but slurred, as very often happens 
 when two vowels come next each other, or are separated only by a 
 liquid (see § 6). 
 
 (iii) The converse of this is the (very rare) omission of an unstressed 
 syllable. This is only found where the stress is very strong, or when 
 the omission is really made up for by a pause. 
 
 For'ward, | not per' | manent', I — swe'et, ] not la'st(ing) (i. 3. 8). 
 
 (iv) Extra-metrical unstressed syllables are added after a pause, 
 sometimes after the second foot, rarely after the third. 
 
 2nd foot. Till' the | last trum'(pet) : | for char' | ita' | ble prayers (v. i. 252). 
 3rd foot. That can' i denote' | me tru'(ly) : | these' in | deed' seem (1. 2. 83). 
 
 More frequently an extra-metrical syllable comes at the end of a 
 line, and this is common in this play. It is only in quite early plays 
 that it is at all unusual, only in the later ones that it is the normal 
 rhythm, 
 
 Whe'ther | 't is no' | bier in' | the mind' | to suf (fer) 
 
 The slings' ! and ar' | rows' of | outra' | geous for'(tune) 
 
 Or' to I take arms' | against' | a sea' | of trou'(bles) (iii. i. 57-9). 
 
 The increasing frequency of extra-metrical syllables is a useful 
 approximate guide to the date of a play. But they are never so 
 frequent in Shakespeare as in some of the younger dramatists. 
 
 (v) The variation which perhaps most of all characterizes the later 
 plays is the disappearance of the sense-pause at the end of the line. 
 At first, a clause running over from one line to the next is very rare: 
 in the last plays, it is extremely common. (The presence of a sense- 
 pause is not necessarily marked by a stop; it is sufficient for the 
 purpose that the last word should be dwelt on ; the pause may be 
 
204 HAMLET. 
 
 merely rhetorical, not grammatical. ) The proportion of overflow to 
 end-stopped lines in Hamlet is considerable. 
 
 §4. Weak Stresses. 
 
 The basis of scansion being thus settled, we may observe how the 
 rules are modified by weak or intermediate stresses, which are in fact 
 the chief protection against monotony. 
 
 (i) Lines in which there are not five strong stresses are very plenti- 
 ful; e.g. 
 
 Absent' | thee from' | feli' i city' | awhile' (v. 2. 358). 
 
 In the fifth foot particularly, the stress is often extremely slight ; 
 such 'light' or 'weak' endings are particularly characteristic of the 
 later plays. 
 
 (ii) On the other hand, lines in which there are two stressed 
 syllables in one foot are common. 
 
 His ca' I non gainst' | self-slaugh' | ter ! O' \ God' ! God' I (i. 2. 132). 
 
 A foot with a double stress is nearly always preceded by a pause, 
 or by a foot with a very weak stress only. 
 
 (iii) It will be observed that there are never fewer than three 
 strong stresses, and that any foot in which there is no strong stress 
 must at any rate have one syllable with a weak stress, and that very 
 often such a foot has two weak stresses; preventing the feeling that 
 the line is altogether too light. Thus a syllable which is quite un- 
 emphatic acquires a certain stress merely by length, as in some of the 
 above cases. And, speaking broadly, a very strong stress in one foot 
 compensates for a weak stress in the neighbouring foot. 
 
 § 5. Irregularities. 
 
 (i) Occasionally lines occur with an extra foot; i.e. an additional 
 stress after the normal ten syllables. 
 
 A wor I thy pi | oner. | Once more | remove [ good friends (i. 5. 162). 
 Had he | been van | quisher: | as by | the same co' | venant (i. i. 93). 
 
 And sometimes there is even an extra syllable added (§ 3 (iv)). 
 'Tis sweet i and com | menda | ble in | your na | ture Ham(let) (i. 2. 87). 
 
 But perhaps this should be scanned — 
 
 'Tis sweet | and com | mend'bl' in | your na | ture Ham(let). 
 
 Cf. § 6. 
 
 But this does not often occur in the course of a speech, and when 
 it does there is usually a break in the middle of the line. It is, how- 
 ever, decidedly common in broken dialogue. 
 
 Ham. 'Go on ; | I'll fol I low thee | 
 
 Mar. You shall 1 not go, | my lord (i. 4. 79). 
 
 And this is probably often to be explained by the second speaker 
 breaking in on the first, so that one or two syllables are pronounced 
 simultaneously. 
 
ESSAY ON METRE. 
 
 205 
 
 (ii) Short incomplete lines of various lengths are also found, 
 especially in broken, hurried, or excited dialogue, and at the be- 
 ginning or end of a speech. They are especially common in this 
 play. Sometimes the gap may be filled up by appropriate action, or 
 a dramatic pause. 
 
 (iii) Interjections and proper names (especially vocatives), even 
 short questions or commands, are frequently extra-metrical. 
 
 And shall | I cou | pie hell? | (O, fie !) | Hold, hold, | my heart (i. 5. 93). 
 
 In nearly every instance observe that an unusual stress or an 
 irregularity conies either after a pause, whether at the beginning of 
 a line or in the middle; or at the end of a line in which there is a 
 break. 
 
 § 6. Apparent Irregularities. 
 
 (i) Difficulties occasionally arise from the fact that words in 
 Shakespeare's day were sometimes accented in a different way from 
 that of the present day, and sometimes even bear a different accent 
 in different places in Shakespeare's own writing. Thus, we say 
 'por'tent', Shakespeare always 'portent". On the other hand, we 
 say 'complete", Shakespeare has sometimes 'complete" sometimes 
 'com'plete' (i. 4. 52). In effect we must often be guided by the 
 verse in deciding on which syllable of a word the accent should fall, 
 because custom had not yet finally decided in favour of a particular 
 syllable. Speaking broadly, the tendency of the modern pronuncia- 
 tion is to throw the accent far back. 
 
 (ii) Similarly, when two vowels come together (as in words end- 
 ing with -ion, -ius, -ious, and the like) we are in the habit of slurring 
 the first, and sometimes of blending it with the preceding consonant; 
 so that we pronounce 'ambit-i-on' 'ambishon'. In Shakespeare the 
 vowel in such cases is sometimes slurred and sometimes not, in the 
 same word in different places; usually the former in the middle of a 
 line, often the latter at the end. In such cases we must be guided 
 simply by ear in deciding whether the vowel is slurred or sounded 
 distinctly. And we have to decide in exactly the same way when we 
 are to sound or not sound the terminal -ed of the past participle. 
 
 So, too, ^praye7'^ is sometimes a monosyllable, sometimes a dis- 
 syllable. 
 
 And what 's | in pray | er but | this two- | fold force, 
 To be forestalled ere we come to fall, 
 Or pardon'd being down ? Then I '11 look up ; ^-^ 
 My fault I is past. | But, O, | what form | oi prayer 
 Can serve my turn? (iii. 3. 48). 
 
 (iii) So again in particular words, a vowel seems to be sometimes 
 mute, sometimes sounded. Thus we have memVy (i. 5. 96) and 
 memory (i. 5. 98); or again, unnafral (i. 4. 25) and unnatural 
 (i. 4. 28). 
 
 (iv) In a large number of words where a liquid (/, m, n, and 
 especially r) comes next to another consonant an indefinite vowel 
 
2o6 HAMLET. 
 
 sound is sometimes introduced between the two letters (just as now 
 in many places one may hear the word 'helm' pronounced 'helium'), 
 which may be treated as forming a syllable, and sometimes the vowel 
 is actually inserted, as in tAorou£-k = ' through'. 
 A somewhat exceptional instance is 
 
 Lends the 1 tongue vows: | these bla | zes daug- \ heter (i. 3. 117). 
 
 (v) Conversely, a light vowel sound coming next a liquid is often 
 sounded lightly and in effect dropped; so that such words as spirit 
 (i. I, 138), peril, quarrel, are practically monosyllables. (Hence 
 such a form as '' parlous'' — '' perilous'. Cf. i. 3. 102.) 
 
 Ham. Perchance | 't will walk | again | 
 
 Hot. I I warrant (Q2 warn^t) \ it will (i. 2. 244). 
 
 (vi) th and v between two vowels are often almost or entirely 
 dropped and the two syllables run into one: as in the words 'whether', 
 'whither', 'other', 'either', 'ever', 'never', 'even', 'over'. 'Heaven' 
 generally, 'evil', 'devil' sometimes, are treated as monosyllables, 
 Q 2 prints deale in ii. 2. 628. 
 
 Vowels separated by a zy or an h are habitually slurred and pro- 
 nounced practically as one syllable. 
 
 (vii) ' Fire ' and similar words which in common pronunciation 
 are dissyllables ('fi-er', &c.) are commonly but not always scanned 
 as monosyllables. 
 
 (viii) Other ordinary contractions, such as 'we'll' for 'we will', th' 
 for the before a vowel, &c., though not shown in the spelling, are 
 frequent. 
 
 § 7. General Hints. 
 
 (i) Often there are many possible ways of scanning a particular 
 line, and the one adopted must depend on the individual taste of the 
 reader. Thus he can frequently choose between § 3 (ii) and § 6. 
 (ii) Irregularities are most common, 
 
 {a) In passages of emotional excitement. 
 
 {b) Before or after pauses. 
 
 {c) Where proper names are introduced. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 a-, a degenerate preposition ; (i) 
 a-making (i. 3. 19), a-gaming 
 (ii. I. 58), for 'at'; cf. 'at gaming' 
 (iii. 3. 91); (2) John- a- dreams 
 (ii. 2. 596), for 'of; cf. Richard 
 II. i. 3. 76, 'John a Gaunt'. 
 
 absolute: (i) (v. i. 148), pre- 
 cise; (2) (v. 2. Ill), Osrician for 
 'faultless'. 
 
 abuse (iv. 7. 51), deception. 
 
 addition (i. 4. 20; ii. i. 47), that 
 which is added to a man to dis- 
 tinguish him, name, title; and so, 
 reputation; cf. Merry Wives, ii. 
 2. 312, "devils' additions, the 
 names of fiends". 
 
 admiration (i. 2. 192; iii. 2. 
 339, 342), astonishment. 
 
 aery (ii. 2. 354), an eagle's nest 
 or brood; from the Low Latin 
 area. 
 
 affront (iii. i. 31), come face to 
 face with. 
 
 alarm (iii. 4. 120), sudden attack; 
 from the Italian cry alV arme, to 
 arms! 
 
 amiss (iv. 5. 18), mischief. 
 
 an: (i) (i. 5. 19; iii. 4. 122), a 
 form of ' on ' , in the phrase ' an 
 end' ; (2) (i. 5. 177; iv. 6. 8 ; v. 2. 
 184), and, in the special sense of 
 'if. The form an was rarely 
 used in Shakespeare's time. Ex- 
 cept in a7i 't, it only occurs once in 
 F I ; but modern editors have ap- 
 propriated it to the conditional 
 sense of the word. And or an is 
 often strengthened, as in i. 5. 177, 
 by the addition of if. 
 
 anchor (iii. 2. 229), anchorite, 
 hermit. 
 
 anon (ii. 2. 490), immediately; 
 from the A,S. on dn, lit. 'in one' 
 (moment). 
 
 antic: (i) (v. 2. 352), ancient; 
 (2) (i. 5. 172), fantastic. Probably 
 the second sense is derived from 
 the first, but Murray connects it 
 with the Ital. antico, a cavern 
 adorned with grotesques. 
 
 appointment (iv. 6. 16), equip- 
 ment. 
 
 approve (i. i. 29), justify. 
 
 argal (v. i. 13), a clownish cor- 
 ruption of the Latin ergo, there- 
 fore. 
 
 argument (ii. 2. 372; iii. 2. 149, 
 242; iv. 4. 54), subject, especially 
 the subject of a drama. 
 
 arrant (i. 5. 124; iii. i. 131), 
 scoundrelly, lit. cowardly; from 
 M.E. arghen, A.S. eargian, to be 
 cowardly. 
 
 arras (ii. 2. 162 ; iv. i. 9), 
 tapestry, so called from Arras in 
 Artois in the north of France. 
 
 arrest (ii. 2. by, v. 2. 343), 
 legal restraint. 
 
 article (i. i. 94), clause in an 
 agreement, 
 
 assay: (i) (ii. i. 65), test; (2) 
 (ii. 2. 71), attempt. 
 
 assume (iii. 4. 160), acquire, 
 
 at : (i) (iv. 3. 46), used by Shake- 
 speare for the earlier a, a con- 
 traction of the A.S, on ; (2) (iv. 3. 
 56), near. 
 
 avouch (i. I. 57), acknowledg- 
 ment, 
 
 audit (iii. 3. 82), final account. 
 
 bar (i. 2. 14), exclude. 
 
 batten (iii. 4. Sj), grow fat: 
 cf. Coriolanus, iv. 5. 35, "batten 
 on cold bits", and Milton, Ly- 
 cidas, i. 29, "Battening our flocks 
 with the fresh dews of night". 
 
208 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 be, a form of by, used as a pre- 
 fix, intensifies and modifies, in 
 various ways, often very slight, 
 the sense of the word it is attached 
 to. Often it simply serves to form 
 a verb, as in berattle (ii. 2. 357), 
 belabour; beshrew (ii. i. 113), 
 curse; beteem (i. 2. 141), allow; 
 bespeak (ii. 2. 140), speak to, 
 address. 
 
 bear (i. 3. 67; iv. 3. 7), carry 
 on, administer: cf. Ccesar, ii. i. 
 226, 'bear it as our Roman actors 
 do'. 
 
 beaver (i. 2. 229), the movable 
 part of the helmet covering the 
 face, the visor. 
 
 bedded (iii. 4. 121), laid flat. 
 
 beetle (i. 4. 71), hang over. 
 
 bent (ii. 2. 30), inclination; so 
 at bent (iv. 3. 47), inclined. 
 
 bias(ii. i. 65), inclination to one 
 side ; from Low Latin bifax, ' one 
 who looks askew': (i) of a bowl, 
 (2) any preventing tendency. Cf. 
 John, ii. I. 574, "commodity, the 
 bias of the world ". 
 
 bilboes (v. 2. 6), iron fetters; 
 from Bilboa, correctly Bilbao, a 
 place of steel manufacture in Spain. 
 
 bisson (ii. 2. 529), blind, blind- 
 ing: probably from A. S. bi-, near, 
 and sion, to see; cf. Coriolanus 
 (ii. I. 70), "your bisson conspec- 
 tuities". 
 
 blank (iv. i. 42), the white mark 
 in the centre of a target. 
 
 blazon (i. 5. 21), proclamation. 
 
 blench (ii. 2. 626), start. 
 
 bodykins (ii. 2. 554), diminu- 
 tive of body, used in the oath, 
 'God's bodikins". 
 
 bore (iv. 6. 26), importance ; 
 lit. the calibre, or size of shot. 
 
 bourne (iii. i. 79), boundary. 
 
 brainish (iv. i. n), brainsick. 
 
 brave (ii. 2. 611), befitting, used 
 ironically. 
 bravery (v. 2. 79), ostentation. 
 
 bruit (i. 2. 127), announce 
 noisily. Cf. Macbeth, v. 7. 22, ' ' By 
 this great clatter one of greatest 
 note I Seems bruited". 
 
 bug (v. 2. 22), bugbear, bogy. 
 
 button (i. 3. 40), bud. 
 
 can (iv. 7. 85), are able, can do. 
 
 canker: (i) (i. 3. 39), a worm 
 that destroys blossoms ; (2) meta- 
 phorically (v. 2. 69), destructive 
 element. 
 
 capable; (i) (iii. 2. 13), able to 
 receive; (2) (iii. 4. 127V suscept- 
 ible. 
 
 cap a pe (i. 2. 200), from head 
 to foot ; Old Fr. de cap a pie. Cf. 
 Winter s Tale, iv. 4. 771, "I am 
 courtier cap a pe". 
 
 card (v. I. 149; V. 2. 114), 
 either a 'chart', or the face of a 
 compass, or a card with rules for 
 etiquette, or a player's 'part' or 
 ' plat ' : see notes ad locc. 
 
 carriage (i. i. 74), Osrician for 
 the ' hanger ' of a sword. 
 
 cast, noun (iii. i. 85), surface 
 colouring; cf. 'roughcast,' the 
 plaster surface of a wall. 
 
 cast, vb. (ii. i. 115), seek for a 
 lost scent — a hunting metaphor. 
 
 cataplasm (iv. 7. 144), plaster. 
 
 cautel (i. 3. 15), deceit. 
 
 cease (iii. 3. 15), death. 
 
 censure (i. 3. 69; i. 4. 35; iii. 
 2. 82), opinion. 
 
 cerement (i. 4. 48), a shroud of 
 waxed linen ; ■ from the Lat. cera, 
 wax. 
 
 choler (iii. 2. 315), anger, liter- 
 ally ' bile'. 
 
 chopine (ii. 2. 447), a high- 
 heeled shoe used by women in 
 Italy. 
 
 chough : (i ) generally a crow or 
 jackdaw; (2) (v. 2. 89), here only, 
 a clown, spelt chuff in i Henry IV. 
 ii. 2. 94. Cf. Cotgrave's Diction- 
 ary, s.v. Maschefouyn, "A chuffe. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 209 
 
 boor, lobcocke, lozell ; one that is 
 fitter to feed with cattell, than to 
 conuerse with men". 
 
 circumstance (i. 5. 127; iii. i. 
 I ; iii. 3. 83), a roundabout course. 
 
 clepe(i. 4. 19), call, name. A.S. 
 cleopian. The word, so common 
 in Chaucer, is rare in Elizabethan 
 English. Cf. Macbeth, iii. i. 93 ; 
 Love's Labour's Lost, v, i. 24; 
 Venus and Adonis, 995. 
 
 climature (i. i. 125), country. 
 Climate is similarly used in Ccesar, 
 i. 3. 32, "They are portentous 
 things I Unto the climate that they 
 point upon". 
 
 coil (iii. I. 67), either that which 
 is wrapped round, like a coil of 
 rope, a covering ; or turmoil, 
 bustle ; cf. Much Ado, v. 2. 98, 
 " Yonder 's old coil at home", 
 
 collateral (iv. 5. 206), indirect. 
 
 compass (iii. 2. 384), the extent 
 of a voice, the notes which it can 
 take. 
 
 competent (i. i. 90), equivalent. 
 
 complexion (i. 4. 27; v. 2. 102), 
 temperament, disposition. 
 
 comply (ii. 2. 39; v. 2. 195), be 
 courteous: in the usual sense of 
 complimetit. 
 
 compost (iii. 4. 151), manure. 
 
 conceit : (i) (ii. 2. 579, 583 ; iii. 
 4. 114), imagination; often in the 
 sense of (2) (iv. 5. 145 ; v. 2. 160) 
 fantastic imagination. 
 
 confine (i. i. 155; ii. 2. 252), 
 prison. 
 
 congrue (iv. 3. 66), agree, be 
 suitable . 
 
 conjunctive (iv. 7. 14), closely 
 united. 
 
 conscience . (i) (iv. 7. i), the 
 moral consciousness ; (2) (v. 2. 67), 
 morality; (3) (iii. i. 83), conscious- 
 ness generally, especially self- 
 consciousness, speculation. 
 
 consonancy (ii. 2, 295), agree- 
 ment. 
 
 (885) 
 
 continent, that which contains : 
 j (i)(iv. 4. 64), literally, 'cover'; (2) 
 (v. 2. 115), metaphorically, ' in- 
 I ventory'. 
 
 contraction (iii. 4. 46), mar- 
 riage contract. 
 
 conversation (iii. 2. 60), inter- 
 course; the sense of the Latin 
 conversari. 
 
 cope (iii. 2. 60), encounter. 
 
 cote (ii. 2. 329), pass by, out- 
 strip ; a technical term in coursing. 
 Cf Drayton, Polyolbion, xxiii. 
 1115— 
 
 "Each man notes 
 Which dog first turns the hare, 
 
 which first the other cotes" ; 
 and Turberville, ' ' In coursing at 
 a deer, if one greyhound go end- 
 ways by another, it is accounted a 
 cote". From the French c^^'£)_y^r, 
 to coast along. 
 
 counter (iv. 5. no), in the 
 wrong direction ; another technical 
 term of venery, used when a dog 
 follows the scent backwards; cf. 
 2 Henry IV. i. 2. 102, and Comedy 
 of Errors, iv. 2. 239, ' ' a hound 
 that runs counter, and yet draws 
 dry-foot well". From the Latin 
 contra, opposite to. 
 
 cozen (iii. 4. 78), cozenage (v. 
 
 2. 67), trick, trickery; lit. 'call 
 cousin', and so 'sponge upon', 
 ' beguile ' ; the French cousiner. 
 
 crants (v. i. 255), a garland, in 
 the especial sense of a maiden's 
 funeral garland, the German 
 kranz. The word is connected 
 with the Latin corona, crown ; cf 
 stage-direction to Chapman's ^Z- 
 phonsus, "Enter Saxon Mentz, 
 like Clowns with each of them a 
 Mitre with Corances on their 
 heads". 
 
 cry (iii. 2. 289), company; lit. 
 the noise of hounds, and so, a 
 pack of hounds ; cf. Midsummer 
 Night's Dream, "a cry more tune- 
 able | Was never holla'd to", and 
 Coriolanus, iii. 3. no, "you com- 
 mon cry of curs". 
 
 O 
 
2IO 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 cue (ii. 2. 60), hint, motive ; lit. 
 in stage terminology, the catch- 
 word by which an actor knows his 
 turn to speak; cf. Henry V. iii. 
 6. 130, ' ' now we speak upon our 
 cue". 
 
 curb (iii. 4. 155), bow, bend; 
 the French courber. 
 
 dear (i. 2. 182) is used of any- 
 thing that touches deeply, even if 
 it yields pain rather than pleasure ; 
 cf. Richard II. i. 3. 151, "my 
 dear exile"; King John, i. i. 257, 
 "my dear offence"; Macbeth, v, 
 2. 3, " their dear causes ". 
 
 defeat (ii. 2. 598), destruction. 
 
 delate (i. 2. 38), convey, in- 
 tnist ; Bacon appears to use the 
 word in this sense, but it generally 
 means ' accuse '. 
 
 design (i. i. 94), point out, 
 mention, designate. 
 
 die (i. 3. 128), colour, character. 
 
 dild (iv. 5. 41), in the phrase 
 'God dild you', probably a cor- 
 ruption of 'God yield you', pos- 
 sibly of 'God shield you'. This 
 form occurs in Sir John Oldcastle 
 (1600), but 'God 'ild you' is more 
 usual ; cf. e.g. Macbeth, i. 6. 13. 
 
 disclose, noun (iii. i. 174); vb. 
 (v. I. 310), hatch. 
 
 document (iv. 5. 178), lesson, 
 object - lesson ; from the Latin 
 docere, teach. 
 
 dole (i. 2. 13), grief; from the 
 Latin dolere, grieve. 
 
 dout (iv. 7. 192), extinguish; a 
 contraction of do out, just as don 
 is of do on ; cf i. 4. 37, note. 
 
 down-gyved (ii. i. 80), of 
 stockings, pulled down over the 
 ankles like gyves or fetters. Cf. 
 gyves. 
 
 drossy (v. 2. 197), pinchbeck, 
 imitative. The dross is the refuse 
 of an ore from which the pure 
 metal has been extracted. 
 
 ducat (iii. 4. 24), a gold coin, 
 
 the Italian ducato, from ducatus 
 (Duchy of Apulia) in the legend 
 upon it. 
 
 eager: (i) (i. 5. 69), acid, sour; 
 (2) (i. 4. 2), keen, biting; from the 
 O. F, egre (French aigre), Latin 
 acer, sharp. 
 
 ecstasy (ii. i. 102; iii. i. 168; 
 iii. 4. 74, 138, 139), excitement, 
 madness ; any state of being be- 
 side oneself; from Gr. \k = out, 
 (rT«<7;?= standing. 
 
 edge (iii. I. 26), keenness, desire. 
 
 effects (iii. 4. 129), actions ; cf 
 Macbeth, v. i. 12, ' ' do the effects 
 of watching". 
 
 eisel (v. I. 299), either the cor- 
 ruption of the name of a river, as 
 the Yssel or Weissel ; or vinegar. 
 Cf. So?i7iet cxi. , "I will drink 
 potions of eisel 'gainst my strong 
 infection"; cf. Chaucer, Romaufit 
 of the Rose, 217, "Breed | Kneden 
 with eisel strong and egre"; and 
 the eighth prayer in the Salisbury 
 Primer, 1555, ' O blessed Jesu ! . . . 
 I beseech thee for the bitterness 
 of the aysell and gaul that thou 
 tasted". 
 
 emulate (i. i. 83), emulous, 
 jealous. 
 
 enacture (iii. 2. 207), action. 
 
 encounter (ii. 2. 164; v. 2. 199), 
 meeting, behaviour, dialogue. 
 
 entertainment: (i) (ii. 2. 329), 
 reception, treatment ; (2) (i. 3. 64 ; 
 ii. 2. 392; V. 2. 216), in the special 
 sense of kindly treatment, cour- 
 tesy. 
 
 envious (iv. 7. 174) ; enviously 
 (iv. 5. 6), spiteful, spitefully, petu- 
 lantly. 
 
 escot (ii. 2. 362), paid, main- 
 tained ; from O, F. escotter ; A. S. 
 j-^c/r: payment, money shot into a 
 common fund, scdotan— to shoot. 
 
 eterne (ii. 2. 512), eternal. Cf. 
 Macbeth, iii. 2. 38, ' ' But in them 
 nature's copy 's not eterne". 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 211 
 
 exception (v. 2. 242), dislike; 
 as in the phrase, ' to take excep- 
 tion'. 
 
 excrement (iii. 4. 121), hair. 
 Cf. Comedy of Errors, ii. 2. 79, 
 ' ' Why is Time so niggard of hair, 
 being as it is so plentiful an excre- 
 ment?" 
 
 expostulate (ii. 2. 86), converse, 
 expound. 
 
 express (ii. 2. 317), expressive, 
 significant. 
 
 extent (ii. 2. 390), behaviour. 
 Cf. Twelfth Night, iv. i. 57, " In 
 this uncivil and unjust extent | 
 Against thy peace". 
 
 eyas (ii. 2. 355), nestling ; a term 
 of falconry for a young hawk just 
 taken from the nest, French 
 
 fantasy (i. i. 23; iv. 4. 61), 
 imagination, caprice. 
 
 fardel (iii, i. 76), bundle, bur- 
 den; said to be from the Arabic 
 fardah, through the Yx&a.Qh.farde. 
 
 fay (ii. 2. 271), faith. 
 
 fee: (i) (iv. 4. 22), land held as 
 private property ; (2) (i. 4. 65 ; ii. 
 2. 73), payment, value; from A.S. 
 feoh, cattle, property, connected 
 with 'L.dXvsx pecus, fecunia. 
 
 fell (v. 2. 61), cruel. 
 
 felly (ii. 2. 517), the rim of a 
 wheel. 
 
 fetch (ii. I. 38), stratagem. Cf, 
 Lear, ii, 4. 89 — 
 
 "Deny to speak with me? They 
 are sick? they are weary? 
 They have travell'd all the night ? 
 Mere fetches". 
 
 figure (i. I. 41, 109; i, 2. 199; 
 iii. 4. 104), form, shape. 
 
 flaw (v. I. 239), a gust of wind. 
 Cf, 2 Henry IV. iv, 4. 35 — 
 
 "As humorous as winter and as 
 sudden 
 As flaws congealed in the spring 
 of day". 
 
 flushing (i. 2, 155), either a 
 rush of water or a redness. 
 
 foil (v. 2. 265, 266, &c.): (i) a 
 blunted rapier, from 'foil', defeat; 
 (2) the gold-leaf used to set off a 
 jewel; from ha-tin fo/tzim, 'leaf. 
 Hence whatever serves to set off 
 anything else by contrast. 
 
 fond (i. 5. 99; V. 2. 200), foolish. 
 
 fordo (ii. I. T03 ; V. I. 244), de- 
 stroy. 
 
 forgery (iv. 7. 89), invention, 
 imagination. 
 
 fret: (i) (iii. 2. 388), vex, chafe, 
 with an allusion to the fret or stop 
 in a rnusical instrument ; from 
 A. S.fretan, short for for-etan {for, 
 'entirely'; etan, 'eat'), 'to eat 
 away', .'wear away', Cf, Lear, 
 i. 4. 307, "fret channels in her 
 cheeks" : (2) (ii. 2. 313), ornament; 
 from A, S. frcBtwian. Cf. Cyni- 
 belijie, ii. 4. 88, ' ' The roof of the 
 chamber | With golden cherubins 
 is fretted", 
 
 function (ii. 2. 582), bodily 
 activity. 
 
 fust (iv, 4. 39), grow mouldy ; 
 lit, ' taste of the cask ' , from O, F. 
 fuste, a stick, a cask ; Latin 
 fustis, a stick. 
 
 gain -giving (v. 2. 226), mis- 
 giving, the sense of 'gain' being 
 adverse, as in 'gainsay'. 
 
 gentry (ii, 2. 22 ; v. 2. 114), 
 courtesy. 
 
 gib (iii. 4. 190), a tom-cat ; cf, 
 I Henry IV. i, 2. 83, "As melan- 
 choly as a gib-cat". 
 
 goblin (i. 4. 40; v. 2. 22), a 
 mischievous spirit, from L. L. 
 gobelinus, dimin. of cohalus — 
 demon, 
 
 gorge (v, I. 207), stomach. 
 
 grained (iii. 4, 90), ingrained, 
 dyed in grain, i.e. of a fast colour, 
 M. E. engreynen, coined from F. 
 en (Lat. in), and O. F. graine, 
 ' ' the seed of herbs, also grain, 
 wherewith cloth is died in grain. 
 
212 
 
 KAMLET. 
 
 scarlet die, scarlet ingraine", Cot- 
 grave. From L. granum. 
 
 green (i. 3. loi), greenly (iv. 
 5. 83), foolish, foolishly. 
 
 gules (ii. 2. 479), red, an her- 
 aldic term. Cf, Timon, iv. 3. 59, 
 "With man's blood paint the 
 ground, gules, gules"; probably 
 from the open mouth of the her- 
 aldic lion, Lat. gula — ihxo'BX. 
 
 gjTves (iv. 7. 21), fetters; a Cel- 
 tic w^ord. Cf. Irish gabh — take; 
 con. M^ith Lat. capere—\.o take. 
 
 harbinger (i. i. 122), fore- 
 runner ; M. E. herbergeour, O. F. 
 herberg-er, one who provided 
 lodgings for a man of rank. 
 
 hatchment (iv. 5. 213), a coat 
 of arms hung up as a sign of the 
 death of the owner. 
 
 haunt (iv. i. 18), publicity. Cf. 
 Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 14. 54 — 
 " Dido and her vEneas shall want 
 troops. 
 
 And all the haunt be ours". 
 
 hautboy (iii. 2. 145, stage-dir. ), 
 a wooden wind-instrument resem- 
 bling the modern oboe. 
 
 havoc (v. 2. 375), slaughter; 
 said to be from A. S. hafoc, hawk, 
 so that ' Cry havoc ! ' is literally 
 ' Cry ware hawk ! ' 
 
 head (iv. 5. loi), armed force. 
 
 hectic (iv. 3. 68), fever. 
 
 hent (iii. 3. 88), grip ; or per- 
 haps 'way', 'course'. The word 
 is used in western counties for the 
 course of a ploughshare. 
 
 heyday (iii. 4. 69), wildness, 
 wantonness. 
 
 honesty: (i) (ii. 2. 204), becom- 
 ing, befitting; (2) (iii. i. 108), 
 chastity. 
 
 hoodman blind (iii. 4. 78), 
 blindman's buff, 
 
 hugger-mugger (iv. 5. 84), se- 
 crecy. 
 
 humour (ii. 2. 12), disposition. 
 The four chief types of disposition. 
 
 the sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, 
 melancholic, were supposed to de- 
 pend on the preponderance of 
 various humours in the blood. 
 
 husbandry (i. 3. tj), thrift. Cf. 
 Macbeth, ii. i. 4, "There's hus- 
 bandry in heaven, their candles 
 are all out". 
 
 impartment (i. 4. 59), com- 
 munication. 
 
 impasted (ii. 2. 481), made into 
 paste, clotted. 
 
 imperious (v. i. 236), imperial 
 
 implorator (i. 3. 129), one who 
 
 implores or solicits. 
 impone (v. 2. 155, 171), lay 
 
 upon ; Osrician for ' wager '. 
 
 import: (i) (i. 2. 23), purport; 
 (2) (iv. 3. 65; V. 2. 21), imply; (3) 
 (iii. 2. 149, &c. ), signify. 
 
 imposthume (iv. 4. 27), abscess. 
 
 impress (i. i. 75), enforced ser- 
 vice. Cf. modern ' press-gang '. 
 
 incapable (iv. 7. 179), unable 
 to understand. Cf. capable. 
 
 incorporal (iii. 4. 116), im- 
 material. 
 
 indenture (v, i, 119), agree- 
 ment, a legal term. Agreements 
 made in duplicate were cut with 
 indented edges to fit one another. 
 
 index (iii. 4. 52), explanatory 
 prologue. 
 
 indifferent (ii. 2. 3), of mode- 
 rate estate, neither high nor low. 
 
 indue (iv. 7. 180), furnish. 
 
 ingenious (v. i. 271), belonging 
 to the intellect, wise, 
 
 inhibition (ii. 2. 346), prohibi- 
 tion; used technically for a prohibi- 
 tion of theatrical performances by 
 authority. 
 
 inoculate (iii. i. 119), graft, 
 bud. 
 
 instance (iii. 2. 192), motive, 
 
 instant, adj. (i. v. 71), imme- 
 diate; adv. (i. V. 94), immediately. 
 
 investment (i. 3. 128), dress. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 213 
 
 jealousy (ii. i. 113; iv. 5. 19), 
 suspicion. 
 
 jowl (v. I. 84), thrust, throw. 
 
 jump (i. I. 65; V. 2. 386), ex- 
 actly. 
 
 kibe (v. I. 153), a sore on the 
 heel, chilblain, Cf. Lear, i. 5. 9, 
 ' ' If a man's brains were in 's heels, 
 were 't not in danger of kibes ". 
 
 kindless (ii. 2. 609), unnatural. 
 
 lard (iv. 5. 37; V. 2. 20), enrich; 
 lit. fatten. 
 
 learn (v. 2. 9), teach, 
 
 let: (i) (iv. 5. 54), allow; from 
 A. S. laitan\ (2) (i. 4. 85), hinder; 
 from A. S. lettan. 
 
 liberal (iv. 7. 171), licentious, 
 free-spoken. 
 
 list, noun: (i) (i. 1.98; i. 2. 32), 
 catalogue, number; (2) (iv. 5. 99), 
 border, boundary. The idea com- 
 mon to both meanings appears to 
 be that of a strip. 
 
 list, vb. : (i) (i. 5. 177), desire, 
 conn, with lust ; (2) (i. 3. 30 ; 
 i. 5. 22), listen. 
 
 loggats (v. I. 100), a game, 
 something like bowls, in which 
 wooden logs are thrown at a 
 'jack'; cf. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, 
 iv. 6, ' ' Now are they tossing of 
 his legs and arms | Like loggats 
 at a pear tree". 
 
 luxury (i. 5. 83), lust. 
 
 mallecho (iii. 2. 147), mischief, 
 the Span, malhecho. Cf. Shirley, 
 Gentleman of Venice, ' ' Be humble, 
 thou man of mallecho, or thou 
 diest". 
 
 marry (i. 4, 13, &c.), an ex- 
 clamation denoting indignation, 
 scorn, or vehement assertion; ori- 
 ginally an invocation of the B. V, 
 Mary, of whose name the word is 
 a corrupt form. Cf. Richard II. 
 i. 4. 16; iv, I. 114. 
 
 mart (i. i. 74), traffic. 
 
 mass (v. I. 62), the communion 
 service in the Catholic church ; 
 from the concluding words of the 
 priest, Ite, missa est. 
 
 matin (i. 5. 89), morning. 
 
 mazzard (v. i. 97), head, skull; 
 used again in Othello, ii. 3. 155. 
 
 miching (iii. 2. 147), secret; lit. 
 sneaking; cf. Florio, Ital. Diet., 
 ' ' Acciapinare : to miche, to shrug 
 or sneak in some corner"; and 
 Prompt. Parv. ' ' Mychyn, or stelyn 
 pryuely". 
 
 milch (ii. 2. 540), moist; not 
 confined to milk ; cf. Drayton, 
 Polyolbion,yi\\\. 171, "exhaling the 
 milch dew". 
 
 mineral (iv, i, 26), a mine or 
 vein of metal; cf. Hall, Satires, 
 bk, vi. — 
 ' ' Shall it not be a wild -fig in a wall. 
 
 Or fired brimstone in a mineral?" 
 
 mobled (ii. 2. 525), muffled, 
 wearing a mob-cap or ' clout ' 
 (line 529); cf. Shirley, Gentleman 
 of Venice, ' ' The moon does mobble 
 up herself". 
 
 m'Oiety (i. i. 90), portion, lit. 
 half. 
 
 mole (i. 4. 24), blemish. 
 
 mope (iii. 4. 81), be dull, with- 
 out activity. 
 
 mortal: (i) (iv. 4. 51; iv. 5. 60), 
 subject to death; and so (2) (ii, 2, 
 539; iii, I, 67), human; (3) (iv. 7. 
 143), causing death. 
 
 mortise (iii. 3. 20), fasten. A 
 mortise is a hole in a piece of wood 
 into which a projecting part of 
 another piece is fitted. 
 
 mountebank (iv. 7. 142), quack; 
 the Ital, montambatico, lit. one 
 who mounts a bench to proclaim 
 his wares. 
 
 mow (ii. 2. 301), grimace. 
 
 muddy-mettled (ii. 2. 593), 
 sluggish-natured. Mettle is 'sub- 
 stance', 'temper': another form of 
 metal; no distinction is made be- 
 tween the two words in old editions, 
 either in spelling or use. 
 
214 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 mutine (v. 2. 6), mutineer, rebel. 
 
 napkin (v. 2. 299), handkerchief. 
 
 native (i. 2. 47), at home, in 
 the place of one's birth. 
 
 nerve (i. 4. 83), muscle, the 
 ' sinew ' of modern English, where- 
 as the Elizabethan sinew often 
 corresponds rather to oiir nerve. 
 
 nonce (iv. 7. 16), always in the 
 phrase for the nonce. This is 
 the A. S. for then anes, where then 
 isthedat. of the article, and anes— 
 once. Thus ' for the once, for the 
 occasion '. (Skeat. ) 
 
 occurrents (v. 2. 368), occur- 
 rences, events. 
 
 o'erreach: (i) (iii. i. 17), over- 
 take; (2) (v. I. 87), outwit, with a 
 punning allusion to the literal 
 sense. 
 
 o'ersized (ii. 2. 284), smeared 
 over. 
 
 omen (i. i. 123), a fatal event 
 foretold by a sign ; more usually 
 the word means the sign itself, 
 but not in Shakespeare. 
 
 operant (iii. 2. 184), operative, 
 active. 
 
 ore (iv. I. 25), a mineral con- 
 taining precious metal. 
 
 orisons (iii. i. 89), prayers; 
 from Fr. oraiso7i, Lat. oratio. 
 
 ostentation (iv. 5. 209), display, 
 pageant. 
 
 paddock (iii. 4. 190), toad. Cf. 
 Macbeth, i. i. 9. The word is also 
 used in various parts of England 
 for a frog. 
 
 pajock (iii. 2. 295), probably 
 peacock. Dyce states that in the 
 north of Scotland a peacock is 
 popularly called a ' peajock '. 
 Skeat, however, would derive the 
 word from patch, a motley fellow, 
 a fool. Or it may be merely raga- 
 muffin, tatterdemalion, the ' king 
 of shreds and patches ' of iii. 4. 
 102. Mr. Ingleby quotes fatchocke 
 
 as applied by Spenser to a ragged 
 Irishman. 
 
 palmy (i. i. 113), glorious: the 
 palm being an emblem of superi- 
 ority; cf. V. 2. 40, and Timon, v. i. 
 12, "You shall see him a palm 
 in Athens again and flourish with 
 the highest". 
 
 paragon (ii. 2. 320), model, 
 pattern; from Span, paj-a con, in 
 comparison with. 
 
 parle (i. i. 62), parley, confer- 
 ence. From Fr. parler, speak, a 
 military term. Cf. Richard II. 
 i. I. 192; iii. 3. 33. 
 
 partisan (i. i. 140), halberd, 
 battle-axe; perhaps from the 
 O.Yi.Qf. partd, axe. 
 
 pass, noun (iv. 7. 139 ; v. 2. 61, 
 173), thrust, bout, at fencing. So 
 the vb. to pass (v. 2. 309). 
 
 periwig-pated (iii. 2. 10). A 
 periwig is false hair; the Fr. 
 perruque, Ital. perucca ; conn, 
 with Ital. piluccare, pull out hair. 
 Lat. pilus, a hair. 
 
 perpend (ii. 2. 105), consider. 
 
 peruse (iv. 7. 137), examine 
 closely. 
 
 petard (iii. 4. 207), a case or 
 shell filled with explosives. 
 
 picked (v. I. 151), refined, 
 dainty. 
 
 pioner (i. 5. 163), military 
 engineer. 
 
 pitch (iii. I. 86), importance, 
 lit. height: a metaphor from fal- 
 conry, in which the word denoted 
 the height to which a hawk soared 
 before it swooped. Cf 2 Henry 
 VI. ii. I. 5- 
 
 " But what a point, my lord, your 
 falcon made. 
 
 And what a pitch she flew above 
 the rest". 
 
 plausive (i. 4. 30), plausible. 
 
 plurisy (iv. 7. 118), properly 
 pleurisy, an affection of the lungs, 
 from the Gk. tcXiu^o.; but treated 
 as if it meant a ' plethora ' or ful- 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 215 
 
 ness of blood, and spelt as if from 
 Lat. plus, more. 
 
 point (i. 2. 200), summit of per- 
 fection, in the phrase at point, i.e. 
 perfectly ready. Cf. Macbeth, iv. 
 
 3- 135- 
 porpentiiie(i. 5. 20), porcupme. 
 posset (i. 5. 68), a hot thick 
 drink, generally made of curdled 
 milk; the phrase 'eat a posset' 
 occurs in Merry Wives, v. 5. 180. 
 Cf. also Macbeth, ii. 2. 6. 
 
 posy (iii. 2. 162), motto on a 
 ring, a corruption of poesy; cf. 
 Merchant of Venice, v. i. 148 — 
 ' A ring . . . whose posy was 
 For all the world like cutler's 
 
 poetry 
 Upon a knife". 
 power (iv. 4. 9), armed force. 
 practice (iv. 7. 66. 139), strata- 
 gem. 
 
 precurse (i. i. i2i),forerunmng, 
 omen. 
 
 pregnant (ii. 2. 212), ingenious, 
 full of subtle meaning. 
 present (iv. 3. 6^), immediate. 
 pressure (i. 5. 100; iii. 2. 27), 
 impression, character. 
 prevent (ii. 2. 305), anticipate. 
 primy (i. 5- 7). i" its prime, 
 spring-Hke, youthful; cf. Sonnet 
 iii. , "the lovely April of her 
 prime". 
 
 process: (i) (i. 5. 37". iii- 3- 29). 
 proceeding, course of events; cf. 
 Richard III. iv. 3. 32, "tell the 
 process of their death"; (2) (iv. 3. 
 65), order, decree. 
 
 proof: (i)(iii. 2. 179; iv. 7. 113, 
 1(55), trial; (2) (ii. 2. 512), strength. 
 Cf. Macbeth, i. 2. 54— 
 " Bellona's bridegroom, lapped in 
 
 proof". 
 So too the adj. (iii. 4. 38), and the 
 participle unapproved (i. i. 96)- 
 
 puffed (i. 3- 49; iv- 4- 49). in- 
 flated. , 
 
 pursy (iii. 4- i53). fat and 
 breathless. 
 
 push (v. I. 318), impulse, set- 
 ting in motion. 
 
 quality (ii. 2. 263), profession. 
 quarry (v. 2. 375), a heap of 
 dead game ; Fr. cur^e, the entrails 
 given to the hounds ; a technical 
 term of sport. Cf. Macbeth, iv. 
 3. 206. 
 
 question (ii. 2. 356), conversa- 
 tion; cf. notes ad loc. and As You 
 Like It, iii. 4. 39, "I met the duke 
 yesterday, and had much question 
 with him". 
 
 quick, noun (ii. 2. 626 ; iv. 7. 
 124), sensitive flesh, 
 
 quick, adj. (v. i. 137, 274, 302), 
 alive. 
 
 quiddity (v. i. 107), subtlety; 
 from Med. Lat. quidditas, the 
 ' whatness ' or nature of a thing, a 
 scholastic term ; and so ' a subtle 
 scholastic distinction '. 
 
 quietus (iii. i. 7S)^ discharge; 
 a lejal term for the acquittance 
 given by the exchequer at the 
 settlement of an account. Cf. 
 Sonnet cxxvi. — 
 
 "Her audit, though delayed, an- 
 swered must be, 
 A nd her quietus is to ren der thee " . 
 quillet (v. I. 108), trick, esp. 
 in argument ; from Lat. quidlibet, 
 anything you will. 
 
 quintessence (ii. 2. 321), an 
 extract of a thing containing its 
 chief qualities; so, the purest part 
 of a thing; of. As You Like It, iii. 
 2. 147— 
 " The quintessence of every sprite 
 
 Heaven would in little show ". 
 From Lat. quinta essentia, fifth 
 essence, the first four being the 
 four elements. 
 
 quit (v. 2. 68, 280), requite. 
 quote (ii. i. 112), observe; cf. 
 Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5. 233 — 
 ' ' I have with exact view perused 
 thee. Hector, 
 And quoted joint by joint ". 
 
2l6 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 rack (ii. 2. 506), cloud. 
 
 rank (iv. 4. 22), great, literally- 
 luxuriant. Cf. iii. 4. 152. 
 
 ravel (iii. 4. 186), loosen; woven 
 or twisted things are said to ' ravel ' 
 when the strands part ; cf. Richard 
 II. iv. I. 288— 
 ' ' Must I ravel out | My weaved up 
 
 folly?" 
 and cf. Macbeth, ii. 2. 37 — 
 ' ' Sleep that knits up the ravell'd 
 sleave of care ". 
 
 razed (iii. 2. 288), streaked, 
 slashed. Cf. Holme, Academy of 
 Armory, bk. iii. ch. i. p. 14: 
 ' ' Pinked or raised shooes, have 
 the over leather's grain part cut 
 into roses, or other devices ". 
 
 reck (i. 3. 51), care for, mind. 
 
 recorder (iii. 2. 303, 360), a kind 
 of small flute. Cf. Chappell, /^i^/a- 
 lar Music of the Olden Time, p. 246. 
 
 rede (i. 3. 51), counsel. 
 
 reechy (iii. 4. 184), stinking, 
 lit. smoky. 
 
 regard : (i) (iv. 7. 76), estima- 
 tion, opinion; (2) (iii. i. 87), con- 
 sideration ; (3) (ii, 2. 79), in the 
 phrase ' on such regards ', on such 
 conditions. 
 
 region, noun (ii. 2. 509), the 
 sky, properly a division of the sky 
 according to the science of the 
 Roman augurs ; so too the adj. 
 (ii. 2. 607); cf. Sonnet y^yiyim.., "The 
 region cloud hath masked him from 
 me now". 
 
 replication (iv. 2, 13), reply. 
 
 requiem (v. i. 260), a hymn 
 sung for the dead; from the Lat. 
 reqtiies, rest. 
 
 respect (iii. i. 68; iii. 2. 193), 
 consideration. 
 
 retrograde (i. 2. 114), contrary, 
 return (i. i. 91), fall to, without 
 any idea of previous possession. 
 
 rhapsody (iii. 4. 48), a collection 
 of meaningless words. Cf. Florio's 
 Montaigne, p. 68, ed. 1603, "This 
 
 concerneth not those mingle- 
 mangles of many kindes of stuffe, 
 or, as the Grecians call them, rap- 
 sodies ". The Gr. pa^/toSo? is pro- 
 perly 'one who strings'" songs to- 
 gether, a reciter of epic poetry". 
 
 rival (i. i. 13), associate. Cf. 
 the use of rivality in Antony and 
 Cleopatra, iii, 5. 8, " Caesar having 
 made use of him in the wars against 
 Pompey, presently denied him 
 rivahty ". 
 
 robustious (iii. 2. 10), sturdy, 
 Cf. Henry V. iii. 7. 159. 
 
 romage (i. i. 107), bustle. 
 
 rood (iii. 4. 14), cross, crucifix, 
 the same word as ' rod '. 
 
 round (iii. 1. 191; iii. 4. 5), plain- 
 spoken. Cf. Othello, i. 3. 90, "A 
 round unvarnished tale ". 
 
 rouse (i. 2. 127; i. 4. 8; ii. i. 58), 
 revel, noisy mirth: the German 
 rausch, a flare up. See the pas- 
 sage from Howell on ' the Danish 
 rousa ' quoted in the note to i. 4. 8. 
 The word has no connection with 
 carouse. 
 
 rub (iii. I. 65), obstacle, lit. 
 roughness or inequality in the 
 ground, especially on a bowling- 
 green. Cf. Richard II. iii. 4. 4, 
 " 'Twill make me think the world 
 is full of rubs ". 
 
 sallet (ii. 2. 462), spiciness, 
 indecency. The same word as 
 'salad'. 
 
 sans (iii. 4. 79), without; a 
 French word. 
 
 saw (i. 5. 100), maxim. Cf. 
 As You Like It, ii. 7. 156, " wise 
 saws and modern instances ". 
 
 scarf, vb. (v. 2. 13), fling on 
 like a scarf. Cf. Macbeth, iii. 2. 
 47, 'Sealing night | scarf up the 
 tender eye of pitiful day ". 
 
 scope (i. I. 68; i. 2. 37), extent, 
 range of action. From the Greek 
 ffxo'jri)?, 'mark to aim at'. 
 
 scrimer (iv. 7. loi), fencer; the 
 Fr. escriifieur. 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 217 
 
 season: (i) (i. 2. 192; ii, i. 28), 
 qualify, by throwing in an ingre- 
 dient; (2) (iii. 2. 219; iii. 3. 86), 
 mature, ripen. 
 
 seize (i. i. 89), a legal term, to 
 take seisin or possession. 
 
 sere (ii. 2. 337), the catch in the 
 mechanism of a gun which pre- 
 vents it from going off until it is 
 released by the trigger. 
 
 sergeant (v. 2. 347), bailiff. 
 
 set (i. 3. 122; iv. 3. 64), value. 
 
 shard (v. i. 254), fragment of 
 pottery. 
 
 shark (i. i. 98), gather together 
 without selection, as a shark col- 
 lects every kind of fish into its 
 maw. 
 
 shent (iii. 2. 416), reproached, 
 put to shame. 
 
 short (iv. I. 18), in the phrase 
 keep short, restrain. So take up 
 short in Henry V. ii. 4. 72. 
 
 siege (iv. 7. 77), rank; cf. Othello, 
 i. 2. 22, "men of royal siege". 
 
 simple (iv. 7. 145), medicinal 
 herb; orig. a single element in a 
 compound medicine. Cf. As You 
 Like It, iv. I. 16, "a melancholy 
 of mine own, compounded of many 
 simples". 
 
 sith(iv. 4. 45), since; both forms 
 are short for ' sithence '. 
 
 slander (i. 3. 132), disgrace, 
 waste, spoil. Cf. Much Ado, ii. 3. 
 47, " Tax not so bad a voice | To 
 slander music any m ore than once' ' . 
 
 sledded (i. i. 63), either 'borne 
 on sleds or sledges', or 'heavily 
 weighted'. Cf. sledge-hammer. 
 
 sliver (iv. 7. 174), small branch, 
 twig. Cf. the use of the verb in 
 Macbeth, iv. i. 28, "Slips of yew, 
 slivered in the moon's eclipse". 
 From A. S. sUfan, to cleave. 
 
 sort (i. I. 109), either 'suit', 
 'befit', or 'turn out', 'fall out'. 
 
 station (iii. 4. 58), attitude, 
 bearing. 
 
 statist (v. 2. 33), statesman; 
 used again in Cymbeline, ii. 4. 16. 
 
 still (ii. 2. 42; iv. 7. 117), al- 
 ways, constantly. 
 
 stithy (iii. 2. 79), anvil, smithy. 
 
 stop (iii. 2. 76, 376, 381), the 
 mechanism for regulating the pas- 
 sage of air in a wind-instrument. 
 
 stoup (v. I. 68 ; V. 2. 278), a 
 drinking vessel. 
 
 stuck (iv. 7. 162), a thrust in 
 fencing ; the Italian stoccado. 
 
 supervise (v. 2'. 23), inspection, 
 reading. 
 
 suppliance (i. 3. 9), diversion, 
 pastime, that which supplies or 
 fills up a vacant moment. 
 
 table (i. 5. 98; ii. 5. 107), tablet, 
 or memorandum-book ; so table- 
 book (ii. 2. 136). 
 
 take (i. i. 163), enchant. Cf. 
 Winters Tale, iv. 4. 118, "daffo- 
 dils that . . . take the winds of 
 March with beauty". 
 
 tarre (ii. 2. 370), set on, origi- 
 nally to incite dogs to fight. Cf. 
 Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 392, 
 ' ' Pride alone must tarre the mas- 
 tiffs on", 
 
 temper (v, 2. 339), mix. 
 
 tend: (i) (iii. i. 170), have a 
 tendency; (2) (i. 3. 83; iv. 3. 47; 
 iii. 2. 216), attend. 
 
 tender, noun (i. 3. 99, 103, 106), 
 offer; vb. (i) (i. 3. 107; iv. 3. 43), 
 treat tenderly, take care of; (2) 
 (i. 3. 109), show. Cf. Winters 
 Tale, iv. 4. 826, " I'll . . . tender 
 your persons to his presence". 
 
 tent (ii. 2. 626), search, prove, 
 try ; so the noun in Troilus and 
 Cressida, ii. 2. 16, and elsewhere. 
 
 tetter (i. v. 71), a thickening of 
 the skin in disease. 
 
 thews (i. 3. 12), muscles, 
 strength. 
 
 tickle (ii. 2. 337), unstable, 
 easily moved. 
 
218 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 top, vb. (iv. 7. 89), surpass. 
 
 toward (i. i. 71 ; v. 2. 376), at 
 hand. 
 
 toy: (i)(iv. 5. 18), trifle; (2) (i. 
 3. 6; i. 4. 75), idle fancy. 
 
 travel (ii. 2. 343), go on tour in 
 the provinces ; used technically of 
 theatrical companies. 
 
 trick, noun (iv. 4. 61), plaything. 
 Cf. Winter's Tale, ii. i. 51, "A 
 very trick for them to play at will". 
 
 trick, vb. (ii. 2. 479), adorn, pro- 
 perly an heraldic term ; "a trick 
 being a delineation of arms, in 
 w^hich the colours are distinguished 
 by their technical marks, w^ithout 
 any colour being laid on" (Dyce). 
 
 tropically (iii. 2. 247), meta- 
 phorically, from Gr. t^o'to?, a figure 
 of speech. 
 
 truepenny (i. v. 150), true, 
 honest fellovi^. 
 
 truncheon (i. 2. 104), staff. 
 
 tyrannically (ii. 2. 356), violent- 
 ly, as the part of the tyrant was 
 played in the mysteries. Cf. iii. 
 2. 15, "It out-herods Herod", 
 and note ad loc. 
 
 unaneled (i. 5. jj), without the 
 rite of extreme unction or anoint- 
 ing, a sacrament in the Catholic 
 Church. Cf. Sir T. More, " The 
 extreme unction, or anelynge, and 
 confirmacion, he sayed, be xyo sac- 
 raments of the church". 
 
 unbated (iv. 7. 39 ; v. 2. 328), 
 unblunted, without a button (cf. 
 foil); to bate is to 'abate, dimin- 
 ish', and so to 'blunt'; cf. Love's 
 Labour's Lost, i. i. 6, "bate his 
 scythe's keen edge". 
 
 unhouselled (i. 5. 77), without 
 the sacrament ; housel is from 
 A. S. ktisel, lit. sacrifice. 
 
 union (v. 2. 283, 337), an espe- 
 cially' fine pearl; probably from 
 Lat. unus in the sense of ' unique '. 
 
 unsifted (i. 3. 102), untried. 
 use (i. 2. 134; iii. 4. 163, 168), 
 habit, custom. 
 
 vail (i. 2. 70), lower; cf. Afer- 
 cha?it of Vejiice, i. i. 28, "vailing 
 her high-top lower than her ribs". 
 
 valanced (ii. 2. 442), fringed, 
 lit. with drapery; metaphorically 
 ' with a beard ' . 
 
 ventage (iii. 2. 373), a hole in a 
 musical instrument for the passage 
 of air. 
 
 very: (i) (ii. 2. 49), veritable, 
 real; (2) (iii. 4. 137; iv. 7. 78; v. 
 I. 119), mere. 
 
 virtue (iv. 5. 155; iv. 7. 145), 
 power, efficacy. 
 
 wake, vb. (i. 4. 8), revel by 
 night; cf. Sonnet Ixi. , "For thee 
 watch I while thou dost wake else- 
 where". A wake is properly the 
 Vigilia, or eve of the dedication of 
 a church, during which watch was 
 kept in it; then the annual feast 
 of dedication. 
 
 wassail (i. 4. 9), revelry; from 
 A. S. waes hael, be of health, a 
 formula used in drinking a toast. 
 
 windlass (ii. i. 65), a winding, 
 circuitous course ; so, a subtle 
 stratagem ; cf Golding, Ovid, 
 Met. bk. vii.— 
 
 ' ' like a wily fox he runs not forth 
 directly out, 
 Nor makes a windlasse over all 
 the champion fields about"; 
 
 and Mirror for Magistrates, 
 "Which by slie drifts and wind- 
 laces aloof, I They brought about". 
 
 woundless (iv. i. 44), invulner- 
 able. 
 
 writ (ii. 2. 420), writing, espe- 
 cially dramatic writing; cf note 
 ad loc. and Titus Androfiicus, ii. . 
 3. 264, ' ' This fatal writ | The 
 complot of this timeless tragedy". 
 
 yaw (v.2. 120), stagger, move un- 
 
GLOSSARY. 
 
 219 
 
 steadily ; used especially of ships. 
 Massinger, Very Woman, iii. 5, 
 has the substantive, ' ' O, the yaws 
 that she will make ! Look to vour 
 
 stern, dear mistress, and steer 
 right ". From the Scand. gaga, to 
 bend backwards, probably a re- 
 duplicated form oigo. 
 
INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 (The references are to the Notes ad locc. Other words will be 
 found in the Glossary. ) 
 
 abridgement, ii. 2. 439. 
 act, i. 2. 105. 
 an end, i. 5. 19. 
 any the most, i. 2. 99. 
 assays of bias, ii. i. 65. 
 assume, ii. 4. 160. 
 attent, i. 2. 193. 
 
 beautified, ii. 2. no. 
 buz, buz, ii. 2. 412. 
 by the card, v. i. 149. 
 
 canonized, i. 4. 47. 
 caviare, ii. 2. 457. 
 conscience, iii. i. 83. 
 cousin, i. 2. 117. 
 crants, v. i. 255. 
 cries on havoc, v. 2. 375. 
 crowflowers, iv. 7. 170. 
 
 Danskers, ii. i. 7. 
 dear, i. 2. 182. 
 delated, i. 2. 38. 
 difference, iv. 5. 183. 
 disappointed, i. 4. 77. 
 discourse, i. 2. 150. 
 dispatched, i. 4. 75. 
 distilled, i. 2. 204. 
 
 eale, i. 4. 36. 
 eisel, v. i. 299. 
 
 encompassment and drift, ii. i , 10. 
 erring, i. i. 154. 
 eternal, v. 2. 376. 
 eternal blazon, i. 5. 21. 
 even, v. i. 32. 
 extravagant, i. i. 154. 
 
 fast, i. 5. II. 
 
 fetch of warrant, ii. i. 38. 
 
 figure, ii. 2. 98. 
 fine, v. I. 115. 
 foil, v. 2. 266. 
 fordoes, ii. i. 103. 
 forgeries, ii. i. 20. 
 for to, iii. I. 175. 
 
 general, ii. 2. 457. 
 groundlings, iii. 2. 12. 
 
 handsaw, ii. 2. 397. 
 Hebona, i. 5. 62. 
 hobby-horse, iii. 2, 144. 
 
 impart, i, 2. 112. 
 
 incorrect, i. 2. 95. 
 
 in little, ii. 2. 383. 
 
 it, i. 2. 216. 
 
 i' the sun, i. 2. 66; ii. 2. 185. 
 
 jig, ii. 2. 522. 
 
 John a dreams, ii. 2. 595. 
 
 law of writ and the liberty, ii. 2. 
 
 420. 
 loggats, V. I. 100. 
 long purples, iv. 7. 170. 
 
 miching mallecho, iv. 2. 147. 
 milch, ii. 2. 540. 
 mistake, iv. 2. 262. 
 modesty, ii. 2. 461. 
 moiety competent, i. i. 90. 
 moods, i. 2. 82. 
 mortal coil, iii. i. 67. 
 murdering piece, iv. 5. 95. 
 
 nerve, i. 4. 83. 
 nobility, i. 2. iio. 
 
 obsequious, i. 2. 92. 
 
INDEX OF WORDS. 
 
 221 
 
 o'erteemed, ii. 2. 531. 
 
 of general assault, li. i. 35. 
 
 packing, iii. 4. 211. 
 pajock, iii. 2. 295. 
 pass of practice, iv. 7. 139. 
 pitch, iii. I. 86. 
 progress, iy. 3. 33. 
 puppets, iii. 2. 257. 
 
 recorder, iii. 2. 303. 
 round, ii. 2. 139. 
 
 sables, iii. 2. 138. 
 secure, i. 5. 61. 
 se offendendo, v. i. 9, 
 shape, iv. 7. 151. 
 swoopstake, iv. 5. 142. 
 
 table book, ii. 2. 135. 
 tables, i, 5, 107. 
 tell, i. 2. 126. 
 
 thieves of mercy, iv. 6. 21. 
 
 tickle o' the sere, ii. 2. 337. 
 
 too dear a halfpenny, ii. 2. 282. 
 
 too too, i. 2. 129. 
 
 toy, i. 3. 6. 
 
 turn Turk, iii. 2. 287. 
 
 unaneled, i. 5. 77. 
 unapproved, i. i. 96. 
 uncharge, iv. 7. 68. 
 upon, i. I. 6. 
 upspring, i. 4. 9. 
 uses, i. 2. 134. 
 usurp, i. I. 46. 
 
 valanced, ii. 2. 442, 
 virgin crants, v. I. 255. 
 
 wheel, iv. 5. 172. 
 
 who (for whojyi), i. 2. 190. 
 
 yaw, V. 2. 120. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 actors' shares, iii. i. 290. 
 
 "Adam's profession", v. 1/ 35. 
 
 adjective as adverb, iii. i. 202; iii. 3. 116. 
 
 "Aeneas' tale to Dido", ii. 2. 468. 
 
 ballad of Jephthah's daughter, ii. 2, 426, 
 
 biblical references, i. 3. 12; iv. 5. 216; v. 2. 231. 
 
 "bonny Sweet Robin", iv. 5. 187. 
 
 Breton (Nicholas) quoted, ii. 2. 457. 
 
 Browne's explanation of apparitions, ii. 2. 627. 
 
 Caesar, iii. 2. 108. 
 
 "canon 'gainst self-slaughter", i. 2. 132. 
 
 Capitol, iii. 2. 109. 
 
 " card or calendar of gentry ", v. 2. 114. 
 
 Centaur, iv. 7. 86. 
 
 "chameleon's dish", iii. 2. 98. 
 
 clown's song, v, I. 69. 
 
 Coleridge quoted, p. 123; i. 5. 98; iii. I. 80, 
 
 columbine, iv, 5. 180. 
 
 "cursed Hebona", i. 5. 62. 
 
 daisy, iv, 5. 184. 
 
 Danegelt, iii. I. 178. 
 
 "dear my lord", iii. 3. 35. 
 
 Delius quoted, ii. 2. 170. 
 
 "dews of blood", i. i. 117. 
 
 double comparative, ii. i. II; iii. 2. 316; iii. 4. 167; v. 2. 1 19. 
 
 double negative, i. 2. 158; iii. I. 171. 
 
 Douce quoted, ii. 2. 448. 
 
 drunkenness of Danes and Englishmen, i. 4. 15. 
 
 Dryden quoted, ii. 2. 540. 
 
 dumbshow, iii. 2. 145. 
 
 ellipse, i. I. 16. 
 
 ethic dative, ii. 2. 454. 
 
 "every dog has his day", v. I. 315. 
 
 ' ' fat and scant of breath ", v. 2, 298. 
 
 "fat weed ", i. 5. 32. 
 
 fennel, iv. 5. 180. 
 
 French sportsmen, ii. 2. 450. 
 
 Hamlet's age, v. i. 177. 
 
 Hamlet's love-letter, ii. 2. 109. 
 
 Hecate, iii. 2. 269. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 223 
 
 Hercules, ii. 2. 378. 
 
 Herod, iii. 2. 16. 
 
 "hide fox and all after", iv. 2. 32. 
 
 " humorous man ", ii. 2. 335. 
 
 "humours", iii. 2. 74. 
 
 " Hyrcanian beast ", ii. 2. 472. 
 
 Hyperion, i. 2. 140. 
 
 influence of stars, i. i. 162; ii. 2. 141. 
 
 intransitive verb used transitively, i. I. 72. 
 
 Jephthah, ii. 2. 422. 
 
 Johnson quoted, iii. 2. 74. 
 
 Jove, iii. 2. 294. 
 
 Lamond, iv. 7. 93. 
 
 legal metaphor, i. 2. 60. 
 
 legend of baker's daughter becoming an owl, iv. 5. 41. 
 
 Lethe, i. 5. 33. 
 
 Lowell quoted, iv. 7. 168. 
 
 Marshall quoted, iii. 3. 93. 
 
 moon's influence on tides, i. i. 119. 
 
 negative adjectives, i. 2. 97 ; i. 5. 77. 
 
 Nemean lion, i. 4. 83. 
 
 Niobe, i. 2. 149. 
 
 Olympus, V. i. 276. 
 
 Ophelia's songs, iv. 5. 23. 
 
 Ossa, V. i. 306. 
 
 oxymoron, i. 2. II. 
 
 pansies, iv. 5. 176. 
 
 pelican, iv. 5. 146. 
 
 Pelion, V. i. 276. 
 
 petrifying springs, iv. 7. 20, 
 
 Plautus, ii. 2. 420. 
 
 "primal eldest curse", iii. 3. 37. 
 
 prodigies in Rome, i. i. 114. 
 
 " provincial roses ", iii. 2. 288. 
 
 Ptolemaic astronomy, iv. 7. 15. 
 
 reduplication, i. 2. 129; iii. 3. 9. 
 
 repetition of subject, i. 2. 22, 114, 
 
 rosemary, iv. 5. 175. 
 
 rue, iv. 5. 181. 
 
 S. Patrick, i. 5. 136. 
 
 Schlegel quoted, ii. 2. 468. 
 
 Seneca, ii. 2. 419. 
 
 "sledded pole-axe", i. i. 62. 
 
 "springes to catch woodcocks", i. 3. II5. 
 
 Steevens quoted, ii. 2. 113. 
 
 Switzers, iv. 5. 97. 
 
 "take arms against a sea", iii. i. 57. 
 
 Termagant, iii. 2. 15. 
 
224 HAMLET. 
 
 textual notes, i. i. 13, 44, 63, 65, 96, 98, 117, 161, 163, 167; i. 2. 
 38, 82, 112, 129, 150, 175, 198, 200, 204, 222, 248; i. 3. 21, 
 26, 57, 65, 74, 76, 109, 130; i. 4. I, 36, 48, 49; i. 5. II, 33, 
 56, 167; ii. I. 39; ii. 2. 6, 12, 52, 73, 160, 182, 214, 221, 337, 
 397, 438, 442, 517, 525, 580; iii. I. 13, 67, 86, 148; iii. 2. 50, 
 249, 262, 277; iii. 3. 7; iii. 4. 4, 162, 169, 182; iv. i. 40; 
 iv. 3. 66, 70; iv. 4. 3; iv. 5. 38, 119, 142, 153, 213; iv. 6. 2; 
 • iv. 7. 21, 22, 59, 82, 178, 192; V. I. 38, 67, 225, 269, 299, 
 307; V. 2. 9, 42, 78, 120, 196, 200, 234, 283. 
 
 transposition of adjectives, i. 2. 18. 
 
 Tschischwitz quoted, i. 5. 32. 
 
 valentines, iv. 5. 48, 
 
 "vice of kings", iii. 4. 98. 
 
 violets, V. I. 263. 
 
 Wittenberg, i. 2. 113. 
 
 Worms, iv. 3. 21. 
 
 Yaughan, v. I. 68. • 
 
 Yorick, v. I. 198. 
 
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