-# -^ b'' "« t5 Q^ c % .<^ ^-. ^ '^^0^ \> ^ ^ * " A , ^ ^cP< .^^ 9^0^ ^^^ ^^ ■V ^ -O. '0.x' ,^^", ,.„,V'°'• % ^-.> <>' .^ ." ^> ^ ,r. . 4- °^ o >*^^.o,%;-^^^^^ \/.# ..<^ ».^-v^^ ' .^6' o.V-^^^'n^ -b. ^0 . ^-^ ^'b h. ^0.,-^ <^ / '^ "r /^ i'j To Hamlet Edwin Booth or )iot to be : that is the question. — Act in. Scene i, K\)t acatremg Classics SHAKESPEARE HAMLET EDITED WITH A LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE, AN ACCOUNT OF THE THEATRE IN HIS TIME, AND ' NUMEROUS AIDS TO -THE STUDY OF THE PLAY BY SAMUEL THURBER, Jr. NEWTON TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL AND A. B. DE MILLE SECRETARY OF THE NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH I/' i ALLYN AND BACON BOSTON NEW YORK ' CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO COPYRIGHT, 1922 BY SAMUEL THURBER, JR. 1 AUG \'ci%27 Nortooott press J. S. Gushing Co. —Berwick & Smith Co. NorT^ood, Mass., U.S.A. -> PCUe81433 (p9i-^ FOREWORD In revising the edition of "Hamlet" published by Sam- uel Thurber in 1897, the editors have been influenced by changed conditions of English teaching in high schools since his work was done. The number of pupils has enor- xnously increased and as a consequence reference mate- rial has become inadequate to the demand, literary prep- aration has grown to be more general and less specialized, while boys and girls of the present day have broader aims and ideals. These conditions call for a different type of annotation from that of twenty-five years ago. Recent problems arising from the study of "Hamlet" with college preparatory, commercial, and technical classes, have led to the inclusion in the present edition of certain features not to be found in the original work. It has been the aim of the editors to provide such equip- ment as may make possible a thorough study of the play even in cases where libraries are restricted or not acces- sible. Among the new features thus provided are the following : fuller and more informational notes ; a discus- sion of the sources of the play; a list of familiar quota- tions from "Hamlet"; an account of Shakespeare the man — his life, work, reputation — and the theatre for which he wrote ; a hst of practical, usable topics for oral and written composition ; suggestions as to the acting of portions of Shakespeare's plays by boys and girls; and finally, a glossary for use in a rapid reading of the iii Foreword. tragedy. This new matter will be found in the appen- dix following the text of the play. To the following firms we would express our thanks for courteous privileges extended in the use of copyrighted material : Messrs. Henry Holt and Company, selections from '' Shakespeare's Workmanship," by Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch, and from " Ten More Plays of Shake- speare," by Professor Stopford Brooke ; The Oxford University Press, a passage from Mr. G. S. Gordon's Introduction to his edition of "Hamlet." It is hoped that this additional material will not only increase the interest of the student, but that it will also lighten the labor of the teacher. SAMUEL THURBER, Jr. A. B. DE MILLE. IV CONTENTS List of Illustrations . Milton's Sonnet on Shakespeare List oe Characters PAGE vii HAMLET IX xi, 141 1 Appendix Origin and Publication of " Hamlet ' The Meter of "Hamlet" . Stage History of "Hamlet " Comments on the Characters Familiar Passages in "Hamlet" What We Know about Shakespeare Shakespeare's Plays and Poems Shakespeare's Popularity in His Own Day Shakespeare's Fame since His Death The Theatre of Shakespeare's Day . Acting Shakespeare .... Suggested Scenes for Dramatization . Books of Interest to Students of Shakespeare Explanatory Notes Subjects tor Oral and Written Composition Glossary of Difficult or Unusual Words 143 159 166 169 182 187 200 214 219 228 250 257 259 261 353 363 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Edwin Booth as Hamlet To he, or not to he: Who 's there ? that is the question. — Act III, Scene i . — Act I, Scene i Frontispiece FACING PAGE 1 Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. — Act I, Scene i 3 But I have that within which passeth show; These hut the trappings and the suits of woe. — Act I, Scene 2 10 The air hites shrewdly; it is very cold. — Act I, Scene 4 22 Sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head. . — Act I, Scene 5 28 Slanders, sir. — Act II, Scene 2 44 There is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to color. — Act II, Scene 2 47 Forbes-Robertson as Hamlet The Play 's the thing Wherein I 'II catch the conscience of the king. — Act II, Scene 2 57 I was the more deceived. — Act III-, Scene i . . . ' . .62 vii List of Illustrations. What, frighted with false fire ! after page — Act III, Scene 2 74 Give me some light : away ! — Act III, Scene 2 74 Noiv might I do it pat, noiv he is praying. facing page — Act III, Scene 3 . . „ . .81 On him, on him ! Look you how pale he glares ! — Act III, Scene 4 . . . . .87 There 's rosemary, that '5 for remembrance. — Act IV, Scene 5 104 * A grave- maker ' : the houses that he makes last till doomsday. — Act V, Scene i 116 Alas, poor Yorick ! — Act V, Scene i 120 Come on, sir. — Act V, Scene 2 135 Shakespeare's House at Stratford-on-Avon .... 190 The Room Where Shakespeare Was Born .... 190 Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery 192 Interior of Anne Hathaway's Cottage 192 Holy Trinity Parish Church, Stratford-on-Avon . . .198 Inscription on Shakespeare's Tomb 198 Inscription on Shakespeare's Monument, Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon . 198 The Globe Theatre . .236 Interior of an Elizabethan Theatre ...... 236 Vlll SHAKESPEARE What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones The labor of an age in piled stones ? Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid Under a star-3^ointing pyramid ? Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? Thou in our wonder and astonishment Hast built thyself a live-long monument. For whilst to the shame of slow-endeavoring art Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued book Those Delphic lines with deep impression took, Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving. Dost make us marble with too much conceiving ; And, so sepulchred, in such pomp dost lie That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. JOHN MILTON. ix; HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. 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, 1 „ -r, > ofi&cers Bernardo, J > courtiers. 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. i 1 Pf?v^^ " " ^^ "^H Wi^^^^^^^M 1 ^SH^BH^^T B p ^m W0 ■J 11 ^n ■'^" "'''''■■' i" >S ^^^H l^^^i' ^ I'M \ 1 1 I v^^^^ ■ B^k"^! <'' 1 v'/^^ ^k3 ^H ^» B'' ^S ^^^^^M ^^^^^^Kl V }, / W-' B w ^ ^^ ^^E hV''^'''" m 1 \ i ^^^S Hi ^^^^^B^'" 'v' 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 1 Fran. Bernardo? Bet. He. s Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. Ber. 'T is now struck twelve ; get thee to bed, Fran- cisco. Fran. For this relief much thanks: 't is bitter cold. And I am sick at heart. Ber. Have you had quiet guard ? Fran. Not a mouse stirring. lo Ber. Well, 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. Mar. And liegemen to the Dane. 15 Fran. Give you good night. Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier : Who hath relieved you ? Fran. Bernardo has my place. Give you good night. [Exit. I Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene i. Mar. Holla! Bernardo! Ber. Say, What, is Horatio there ? Hor. A piece of him, Ber. Welcome, Horatio : welcome, good Marcellus. 20 Mar. What, has this thing appeared 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 : 25 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, 35 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 ! 40 Ber. In the same figure, like the king that 's dead. 2 Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. Act I. Scene i. Act I, Scene 1. ^ Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Mar. Thou art a scholar ; speak to it, Horatio. Ber. Looks it not like 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. as 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 1 so Hor. Stay ! speak, speak ! I charge thee, speak ! [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? ss Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. Is it not like the king? Hor. As thou art to thyself : Such was the very armor he had on 60 When he the ambitious Norway combated ; So frowned he once, when, in an angry parle, He smote the sledded Polacks 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. 66 Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not ; But in the gross and scope of my opinion, 3 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene i. This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch yj 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 75 Does not divide the Sunday from the week ; What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-laborer 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 appeared to us. Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride. Dared to the combat ; in which our valiant Hamlet — For so this side of our known world esteemed him — 85 Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a sealed compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit, with his Hfe, 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 returned To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher ; as, by the same covenant, And carriage of the article designed. His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, 9s Of unimproved mettle hot and full. Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes, 4 Act I, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in 't ; which is no other — loo As it doth well appear unto our state — 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, 105 The source of this our watch and the chief head Of this post-haste and romage in the land. Ber. I 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 no 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 pahny state of Rome, A httle ere the mightiest Juhus fell, The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead ns 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 : 120 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 cHmatures and countrymen. — 12s But soft, behold ! lo, where it comes again ! Re-enter Ghost. I'U cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion! S Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. x\ct i, Scene i. If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, 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 : [Cock crows. If thou art privy to thy country's fate. Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak ! 135 Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy hfe Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, 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. 'T is here ! Mar. '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, 14s And our vain blows mahcious mockery. Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. Hor. And then it started Hke a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard. The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, iso 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 iss This present object made probation. 6 Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark, 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 : i6o And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm. So hallowed and so gracious is the time. Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. 165 But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern 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. 175 Scene IL A room of state in the castle. Enter the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, VoLTiMAND, Cornelius, Lords, and Attendants. . 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, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 5 That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves. • 7 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 2. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we, as 't were with a defeated joy, — 10 With one auspicious and one 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 barred Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone is 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 failed to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands LobL by his father, with all bonds of law. To our most valiant brother. So much for him. 25 Now for ourself and for this time of meeting : This 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 CorneHus, and you, Voltimand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway ; as Giving to you no further personal power To business with the king, more than the scope Of these dilated articles allow. 8 Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. y / \ In that and all things will we show our duty. 40 King. We doubt it nothing : heartily farewell. [Exeunt VoUimand 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, 45 That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? The head is not more native to the heart. 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, so Your leave and favor 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 ss 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 laborsome petition, and at last Upon his will I sealed my hard consent : 60 I do beseech you, give him leave to go. King. 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, — . 9 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 2. Ham. [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind. 6s King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ? Ham. Not so, my lord ; I am too much i' the sun. « Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look hke a friend on Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailed hds 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 ? 7s Ham. Seems, madam ! nay, it is ; I know not ' seems.' 'T is 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 'havior 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 passe th show ; 8s 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 In fiHal obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow : but to persever 10 Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. In obstinate condolement is a course Of impious stubbornness ; 't is unmanly grief ; It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, 9S A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschooled : 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 natiu-e. 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, los * This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth This unpre vailing 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 ns Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye. Our chiefest courtier, cousin, 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 King. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply : Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come ; This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet H Hamlet, Prince o^ Denmark. Act i, Scene 2. Sits smiling to ij ^ar' : in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, 12s But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell. And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Com.e away. [Exeunt all but Hamlet. Ham. O, that this too too sohd flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew ! 130 Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! O God ! God ! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. Seem to me all the uses of this world ! Fie o^ 't ! ah fie ! 't is an unweeded garden, 13s 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 I 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 — 14s Let me not think on 't — Frailty, thy name is woman ! — A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father's body. Like Niobe, all tears : — why she, even she — O God ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 150 Would have mourned longer — married with my uncle, .My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules : within a month : 12 Act I, Scene 2. Hamlc^tj, Pjciiice of Denmark. Ere yet the salt of most unrighteo}is 1 Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, 155 She married. O, most wicked speed ! 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 do I forget myseK. 160 Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. Ham. Sir, my good friend ; I '11 change that name with you: And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ? Marcellus ? Mar. My good lord — 165 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. Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, 170 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. 17s Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student ; I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio 1 the funeral baked II meats 13 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 2. Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. i8o Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! My father I — ■ methinks I see my father, Eor. Where, my lord ? Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. Hor. I saw him once ; he was a goodly king. i8s 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. Ham. Saw? who? Hor. My lord, the king, your father. Ham. The king my father I 190 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, 19s Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch. In the dead vast and middle of the night. Been thus encountered. A figure like your father, Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe, Appears before them, and with solemn march 200 Goes slow and stately by them : thrice he walked By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes. Within his truncheon's length ; whilst they, distilled Almost to jelly with the act of fear, Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me 20s In dreadful secrecy impart they did ; And I with them the third night kept the watch : 14 Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. Where, as they had deUvered, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes : I knew your father ; 210 These hands are not more like. Ham. But where was this? Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watched. Ham. Did you not speak to it ? Hot. . My lord, I did ; But answer made it none : yet once me thought It lifted up its head and did address 215 Itself to motion, like as it would speak ; But even then the morning cock crew loud. And at the sound it shrunk in haste away. And vanished from our sight. Ham. 'T is very strange. Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 't is true ; 220 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 ? ^^7 ^^ ^^' "^^ ^^^^' Ham. Armed, say you ? 225 „ ' Armed, my lord. Ham. From top to toe ? „ ' \ - My lord, from head to foot. Ber. J -^ ' Ham. Then saw you not his face ? Hor. O, yes, my lord ; he wore his beaver up. ' 15 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 2. Ham. What, looked he frowningly? 230 Hot. a countenance more in sorrow than in anger. Ham. Pale or red ? Hot. Nay, very pale. • Ham. And fixed his eyes upon you ? Hor. Most constantly. Ham. I would I had been there. Hor. It would have much amazed you. 23s Ham. Very like, very like. Stayed it long ? Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. Mar. ^^^ i Longer, longer. Hor. Not when I saw 't. Ham. His beard was grizzled, — no ? Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, 240 A sable silvered. 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, 24s If you have hitherto concealed this sight. Let it be tenable in your silence stiU ; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night. Give it an understanding, but no tongue : I will requite your loves. So, fare you well : 250 Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, I '11 visit you. All. Our duty to your honor. 16 Act I, Scene 3. Hamlet, Pniice of Denmark. Ham. Your loves, as mine to you : farewell. [Exeunt all hut Hamlet. My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well ; I doubt some foul play : would the night were come ! 255 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 in Polonius' house. Enter Laertes and Ophelia. Laer. My necessaries are embarked : 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 favor, s 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 suppHance of a minute ; No more. Oph. No more but so? Laer. Think it no more : 10 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 is The virtue of his wiU : but you must fear. His greatness weighed, his will is not his own ; For he himself is subject to his birth : 17 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 3. He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself ; for on his choice depends 20 The safety and the 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 25 As he in his particular act and place May give his saying deed ; which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain, If with too credent ear you list his songs, 30 Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmastered 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. ss 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, 4S A 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 puffed and reckless hbertine, 18 Act I, Scenes. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Himself the primrose path of daUiance treads, so 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! 55 The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail. And you are stayed for. There; my blessing with thee ! And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned 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-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware 65 Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in. Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice ; \ Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 70 But not expressed in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ; For the apparel oft proclaims the man, A nd they in France of the best rank and station Arc most select and generous in that. Nei^er a borrower nor a lender be ; 7S For Idfean oft loses both itself and friend, 19 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 3. And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all : to thine own self be true, j And it must follow, as the night the day, \i Thou canst not then be false to any man; If 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 locked, 85 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 honor. W^hat is between you ? give me up the truth. Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me. Pol. Affection ! pooh I 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 thinky Pol. Marry, I '11 teach you : think yourself a bal>,y ; 105 20 / I Act I, Scene 3. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 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 no In honorable fashion. Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it ; go to, go to. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord. With almost all the holy vows of heaven. Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, ns When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows : these blazes, daughter, Giving more Hght 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 125 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. The better to beguile. This is for all : 130 I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth. Have you so slander any moment's 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, izs 21 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 4. Scene IV. The platform. Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and 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. Ham. No, it is struck. Hor. Indeed ? I heard it not : then it draws near the season s Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. [A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot of, 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, lo The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge. Hor. Is it a custom ? Ham. Ay, marry, is 't : But to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom 15 More honored in the breach than the observance. This heavy-headed revel east and west Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations : They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase Soil our addition ; and indeed it takes 20 From our achievements, though performed 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, 22 Act I, Scene 4. Hamlet, PHncc of Denmark. As, in their birth — wherein they are not guilty, 25 Since nature cannot choose his origin — By the o'er growth 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 35 From that particular fault : the dram of eale Doth all the noble substance of a doubt To his own scandal. Hor. Look, my lord, it comes ! Enter Ghost. Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, 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 ! 4s 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 inurned. Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, so To cast thee up again. What may this mean. That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel . 23 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 4. Revisit'st thus the ghmpses of the moon, Making night hideous ; and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition ss With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? Say, why is this ? wherefore? what should we do ? [Ghost beckons 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. Hor. 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 hfe at a pin's fee ; 6s 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 reasoi And draw you into madness ? think of it : The very place puts toys of desperation, / ' 7S Without more motive, into every brain That looks so many fathoms to the sea And hears it roar beneath. Ham. It waves me still. 24 Act I, Scene 5. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. Go on ; I 'U 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 called. Unhand me, gentlemen. By heaven, 1 '11 make a ghost of him that lets me ! 85 I say, away ! Go on : I '11 follow thee. [Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. Mar. Let 's follow ; 't is 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. [Exeunt, Scene V. Another part of the platform. Enter Ghost and Hamlet. Ham. Where wilt thou lead me ? speak ; I '11 go no further. Ghost. Mark me. Ham. 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, but lend thy serious hearing 5 To what I shall unfold. Ham. Speak ; I am bound to hear. 25 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 5. Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. Ham. What? Ghost. I am thy father's spirit, Doomed 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 is 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, hst, O, list ! If thou didst ever thy dear father love — Ham. OGod! Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. 25 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, 30 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, 3S A serpent stung me ; so the whole ear of Denmark 26 Act I, Scene 5. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused : but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown. Ham. O my prophetic soul ! 40 My uncle ! Ghost. Ay, that Hcentious, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, — O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce ! — won to his shameful lust 45 The will of my most seeming- virtuous queen : Hamlet, what a falling-off 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 linked, $5 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 in the afternoon, 60 Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole. With juice of cursed hebenon 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 65 That swift as quicksilver it courses through 27 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 5. The natural gates and alleys of the body, And with a sudden vigor 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 barked 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 dispatched : 7s Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled. No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head : O, horrible ! O, horrible ! most horrible ! 80 If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not ; 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, 85 To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once ! The glow-worm shows the matin to be near. And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire : Adieu, adieu ! Hamlet, remember me. , [Exit. 89 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 stifHy up. Remember thee! Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe. Remember thee ! 9S Yea, from the table of my memory I '11 wipe away all trivial fond records, 28 Sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head. Act I. Scene 5. Act I, Scene 5. Hamlet, Pritice of Denmark. All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there ; And thy commandment all alone shall hve loo Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmixed with baser matter : yes, by heaven ! O most pernicious woman ! villain, villain, smiling, damned villain ! My tables, — meet it is I set it down, los 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 ; It is ' Adieu, adieu ! remember me.' 1 have sworn 't. no ^^^' \ [Within] My lord, my lord, — Hor. J Mar. [Within] Lord Hamlet, — Hor. [Within] Heaven secure him ! Ham. So be it I Hor. [Within] 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 ? ns Ham . O , wonderful ! Hor. Good my lord, tell it. Ham. No ; you '11 reveal it. Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven. Mar. Nor I, my lord. Ham. How say you, then ; would heart of man once think it? 29 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene 5. But you '11 be secret? ^ * } Ay, by heaven, my lord. 120 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, 12s 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. Such as it is ; and for mine own poor part, Look you, I '11 go pray. 130 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, 135 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. As you are friends, scholars and soldiers. Give me one poor request. 140 Hor. What is 't, my lord? 'we will. Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night. ^^ ' } My lord, we will not. Mar. J ^ ' Ham. Nay, but swear 't, 30 Act I, Scenes. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Hor. In faith, My lord, not I. Mar. Nor I, my lord, in faith. Ham. Upon my sword. Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already. i4s Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. Ghost. [Beneath] Swear. Ham. Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, truepenny ? Come on — you hear this fellow in the cellarage — Consent to swear. Hor. Propose the oath, my lord. iso Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword. Ghost. [Beneath] Swear. Ham. Hie et ubique ? then we '11 shift our ground. Come hither, gentlemen, iss And lay your hands again upon my sword : Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword. Ghost. [Beneath] Swear. Ham. Well said, old mole ! canst work i' the earth so fast ? i6o 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 your philosophy. 165 But come ; Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, 31 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ii, Scene l. As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on, 170 That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, With arms encumbered 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 i76 That you know aught of me : this not to do, So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear. Ghost. [Beneath] Swear. 180 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 ; 185 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 I Nay, come, let 's go together. [Exeunt. ACT II. Scene I. A room in Polonius' 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, 32 Act II, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Before you visit him, to make inquire Of his behavior. Rey. My lord, I did intend it. s 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 lo 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? is 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 dishonor 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, 25 You may go so far. Rey. My lord, that would dishonor 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 ; 30 That 's not my meaning : but breathe his faults so quaintly That they may seem the taints of liberty, 33 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act II, Scene 1. The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, A savageness in unreclaimed blood, Of general assault. • Rey. But, my good lord, — as Pol. Wherefore should you do this? 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 httle soiled 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 ; 4S ' 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 some- thing : where did I leave? si 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 ; 55 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 : ' see you now ; 34 Act II, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth : 60 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? 65 Rey. My lord, I have. Pol. God be wi' you ; fare you well. Rey. Good my lord ! Pol. Observe his inclination in yourself. Rey. I shall, my lord. Pol. And let him ply his music. Rey. Well, my lord. 70 Pol. Farewell ! [Exit Reynaldo. 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 ; 7S No hat upon his head ; his stockings fouled, Ungartered and down-gyved to his ancle ; 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 80 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? 35 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ii, Scene i. Oph. He took me by the wrist and held me hard ; Then goes he to the length of all his arm ; 8s And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face As he would draw it. We '11 wait upon you. Ham. No such matter : 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 friendship, what make you at Elsinore ? 265 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 46 Act II, Scene 2. Hamlet, Prlnce of Denmark, 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. 271 Guil. What should we say, my lord ? Ham. Why, anything, 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 color : I know the good king and queen have sent for you. 276 Ros. To what end, my lord? 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. 283 Ros. [Aside to Guil.] What say you? Ham. [Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you. — If you love me, hold not off. Guil. My lord, we were sent for. 287 Ham. I will tell you why; so shaU 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 m.y mirth, forgone all custom of exercises ; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposi- tion that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majesti- cal roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty ! in form and moving how 47 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ii, Scene 2. express and admirable ! in action how like an angel ! in apprehension how Kke a god I the beauty of the world ! the paragon of animals ! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust ? man delights not me : no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. 304 Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said ' man delights not me ' ? 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. s" 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 shaU halt for 't. What players are they ? 319 Ros. Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city. Ham. 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. 32s Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city ? are they so followed ? Ros. No, indeed, are they not. Ham. How comes it ? do they grow rusty ? Ros. Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace : 48 Act II, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. 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 hither. 336 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 after- wards, 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? 343 Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides ; and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to contro- versy : there was, for a while, no money bid for argu- ment, 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. 351 Ham. Do the boys carry it away ? Ros. Ay, that they dOj my lord; Hercules and his load too. Ham. It is not very strange ; for mine uncle is king of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while my father hved, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hun- dred ducats a-piece for his picture in Httle. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philoso- phy could find it out. 360 [Flourish of trumpets within. 49 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ii, Scene 2. Guil. There are the players. Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come then : the appurtenance of v^^elcome is fash- ion and ceremony : let me comply with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertain- ment than yours. You are welcome : but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived. Guil. In what, my dear lord? Ham. I am but mad north-north-west : when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. Enter Polonius. Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen ! 371 Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern ; and you too : at each ear a hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts. 37s 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. 380 Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Ros- cius was an actor in Rome, — Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. Ham. Buz, buz ! 385 Pol. Upon mine honor, — Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, — • Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical- 50 Act II, Scene 2. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. pastoral, 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 hberty, these are the only men. Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou ! 395 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. 400 Ham. Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah? Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daugh- ter that I love passing well. Ham. Nay, that follows not. Pol. WTiat follows, then, my lord? 40s 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 abridgements come. 4" 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 w^hen I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of un current gold, be 51 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ii, Scene 2. not cracked within the ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see : we '11 have a speech straight : come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech. 423 First Play. 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 ; 't was caviare to the general : but it was — as I received it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine — an excellent play, well 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 savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection; but called it an honest method, as whole- some 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 hve in your memory, begin at this line : let me see, let me see — * The rugged Pyrrhus, Hke the Hyrcanian beast,' — 440 it is not so : — it begins with Pyrrhus : — ' The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose 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 smeared With heraldry more dismal ; head to foot 446 Now is he total gules ; horridly tricked With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Baked and impasted with the parching streets, 52 Act II, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. That lend a tyrannous and damned light 4so 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. 4ss Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion. First Play. ' Anon he finds him Striking too short at Greeks ; his antique sword, RebelUous to his arm, Hes where it falls, 460 Repugnant to command : unequal matched, Pyrrhus at Priam drives ; in rage strikes wide ; But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ihum, Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top 46s Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear : for, lo ! his sword, Which was dechning on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seemed i' the air to stick : So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, 470 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 wind speechless and the orb below 47s As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause, Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work ; And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall On Mars' s armor forged for proof eterne 480 53 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ii, Scene 2. 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, 485 And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven. As low as to the fiends ! ' Pol. This is too long. Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee say on : he 's for a jig or a tale, or he sleeps : say on : come to Hecuba. 491 First Play. ' But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen — ' Ham. ' The mobled queen ? ' Pol. That 's good ; ' mobled queen ' is good. First Play. 'Run barefoot up and down, threaten- ing the flames 495 With bisson rheum ; a clout upon that head - Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe. 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 steeped, 500 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pro- nounced : 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 clamor that she made, 505 Unless things mortal move them not at all. Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, 54 Act II, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. And passion in the gods.' Pol. Look, whether he has not turned his color and has tears in 's eyes. Pray you, no more. 510 Ham. 'T is well ; I '11 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. si6 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 honor and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in. Pol. Come, sirs. 524 Ham. Follow him, friends : we '11 hear a play to-mor- row. [Exit Polonius with all the Players hut the First.] Dost thou hear me, old friend ; can you play the Murder of Gonzago? First Play. Ay, my lord. 529 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 Play. Ay, my lord. 533 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 ! 537 Ham. Ay, so, God be wi' ye ; [Exeunt Rosencrantz and ss Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ii, Scene 2. Guildenstern] Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! Is it not monstrous that this player here, S4o 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 wanned, Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting 54S 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 sso That I have ? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech. Make mad the guilty and appal the free. Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. sss 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 560 A damned 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 ? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat. As deep as to the lungs? who does me this? 56s Ha! 'Swounds, I should take it : for it cannot be 56 Hamlet Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson The play '5 the thing Wherein I 7/ catch the conscience of the king. — Act II. Scene 2. Act II, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall To make oppression bitter, or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites 570 With this slave's offal : bloody, beastly villain ! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain ! O, vengeance ! Why, what an ass am I ! This is most brave. That I, the son of a dear father murdered, S7s Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell. Must, vixen -like, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, A scuUion ! Fie upon 't ! foh ! About, my brain ! I have heard 580 That guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions ; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak 585 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 590 May be the devil : and the de\n.l hath power To assume a pleasing shape ; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy. As he is very potent with such spirits. Abuses me to damn me : I '11 have grounds 595 More relative than this : the play 's the thing Wherein I '11 catch the conscience of the king. [Exit. 57 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene l. ACT III. Scene I. A room in the castle. Enter KiisiG, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. King. And can you, by no drift of circumstance, Get from him 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 ; s 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 much forcing of his disposition. Ros. Niggard of question ; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply. Queen. Did you assay him To any pastime ? is Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players 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 beseeched me to entreat your majesties S8 Act III, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. To hear and see the matter. King. With all my heart ; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined. 25 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, We may of their encounter frankly judge. And gather by him, as he is behaved, ss 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 honors. Opk 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 color 45 Your loneHness. We are oft to blame in this, — 'T is too much proved — that with devotion's visage 59 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene l. And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself. King. [Aside] O, 't is too true ! How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience I The harlot's cheek, beau tied with plastering art, si Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word : heavy burthen ! Pol. I hear him coming : let 's withdraw, my lord, ss [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 wished. To die, to sleep ; To sleep : perchance to dream : ay, there 's the rub ; 6s For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When 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, 7° The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of offlce and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 60 Act III, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. When he himself might his quietus make 75 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 undiscovered 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, 85 And enterprises of great pith 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 remembered. Oph. Good my lord, 90 How does your honor 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 ; 9s I never gave you aught. Oph. My honored 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 ? 61 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 1. Oph. My lord? Ham. Are you fair? los Oph. What means your lordship ? Ram. 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 transform honesty from what it is than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness : this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. us 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 rehsh of it : I loved you not. Oph. I was the more deceived. 120 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? 130 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 1 62 / was the more Act III. Scene i. Act III, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 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 ! 141 Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough ; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves an- other : you jig, you amble, and you hsp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your igno- rance. Go to, I '11 no more on 't ; it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages : those that are mar- ried 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 ! 150 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 ! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, iss That sucked the honey of his music vows. Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ; That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy : O, woe is me, 160 To have seen what I have seen, see what I see ! Re-enter King and Polonius. King. Love ! his affections do not that way tend ; Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, 63 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act ill, Scene 2. Was not like madness. There 's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits on brood ; i6s 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 : 170 Haply the seas and countries different With variable objects shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart, Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus From fashion of himself. What think you on 't? 17s 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 ; 180 But, if you hold it fit, after the play Let his queen mother all alone entreat him 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, i8s To England send him, or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think. King. It shall be so : Madness in great ones must not unwatched 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, \ 64 Act III, Scene 2. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my hnes. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently ; for in the very tor- rent, 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 robus- tious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to spht the ears of the groundUngs, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexphcable dumb-shows and noise : I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er- doing Termagant ; it out-herods Herod : pray you, avoid it. First Play. I warrant your honor. u Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own dis- cretion 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 pla3dng, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 't were, 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 overdone, 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 pro- fanely, 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 jour- neymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. 6s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act in, Scene 2. First Play. I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir. 35 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 ambition 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. 45 Ham. Bid the players make haste. [Exit Polonius. Will you two help to hasten them ? „ * ) We will, my lord. Ros. J ' -^ [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Ham. What ho I Horatio ! Enter Horatio. Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. so Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man As e'er my conversation coped withal. Hor. O, my dear lord, — Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter ; For what advancement may I hope from thee That no revenue hast but thy good spirits, ss To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered? 66 Act III, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. 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 60 And could of men distinguish, her election Hath sealed thee for herself ; for thou hast been 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 6s Whose blood and judgment 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, 70 As I do thee. — Something too much of this. — There is a play to-night before the king ; 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, 7s Even with the very comm.ent 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 80 As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note ; For I mine eyes will rivet to his face. And after we will both our judgments join In censure of his seeming. Hor. Well, my lord : If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, 85 And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft. 67 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 2. Ham. They are coming to the play ; I must be idle : Get you a place. Danish march. A flourish. Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and others. King. How fares our cousin Hamlet ? 89 Ham. Excellent, i' faith ; of the chameleon's dish ; I eat the air, promise-crammed : you cannot feed capons so. King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet ; these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now. [To Polonius] My lord, you played once i' the university, you say ? 95 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 i' the Capitol ; Brutus killed me. 100 Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be the players ready ? Ros. Ay, my lord ; they stay upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. 104 Ham. No, good mother, here 's metal more attractive. Pol. [To the King] O, ho ! do you mark that? Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap ? [Lying down at Ophelia's feet. Oph. You are merry, my lord. Ham. Who, I? Oph. Ay, my lord. "o 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. 68 Act III, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. 114 Ham. So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I '11 have a suit of sables. O heavens I die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outHve his Hfe 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, 1 for, O I the hobby-horse is forgot.' 121 Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters. Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen em- bracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes ojf 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, seeming 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 ? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it meaiis mischief. Oph. Behke this show imports the argument of the play. 126 Enter Prologue. " Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel ; they '11 tell all. 69 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 2. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant ? Ham. Ay, or any show that you '11 show him. 130 Oph. I 'U mark the play. Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. [Exit. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring ? 13s 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 borrowed sheen uo About the world have times twelve thirties been Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands Unite commutual in most sacred bands. P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o'er ere love be done ! 14s 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 ; iso 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 : i Where love is great, the Httlest doubts are fear ; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there, iss , P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too ; I 70 Act III, Scene 2. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. My operant powers their functions leave to do : And thou shalt Hve in this fair world behind, Honored, beloved ; and haply one as kind For husband shalt thou — P. Queen O, confound the rest ! i6o Such love must needs be treason in my breast : In second husband let me be accurst ! None wed the second but who killed the first. Ham. [Aside\ Wormwood, wormwood. P. Queen. The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love : i66 A second time I kill my husband dead. When second husband kisses me in bed. P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak ; But what we do determine oft we break. 170 Purpose is but the slave to memory. Of violent birth, but poor vaUdity : Which now, Hke fruit unripe, sticks on the tree ; But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. Most necessary 't is that we forget 17s 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 : 180 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, iss 71 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 2. ^Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. The great man down, you mark his favorite flies ; The poor advanced makes friends of enemies. And hitherto doth love on fortune tend ; For who not needs shall never lack a friend, 190 And who in want a hollow friend doth try, Directly seasons him his enemy. But, orderly to end where I begun. Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown ; 19s Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own : So think thou wilt no second husband wed ; But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven Hght! Sport and repose lock from me day and night ! 200 To desperation turn my trust and hope ! An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope ! Each opposite that blanks the face of joy Meet what I would have well and it destroy ! Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife, 201 If, once a widow, ever I be wife ! Ham. If she should break it now 1 P. King. 'T is deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile ; My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep. [Sleeps. P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain ; 210 And never come mischance between us twain ! [Exit. Ham. Madam, how Hke you this play? Queen. The lady protests too much, me thinks. 72 Act III, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark^ Ham. O, but she '11 keep her word. 214 King. 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 ? 219 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 ; 't is 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 unwrung. 226 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. — Begin, murderer ; pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come : ' the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.' 232 Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; Confederate season, else no creature seeing ; Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, 23s With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, Thy natural magic and dire property, On wholesome life usurp immediately. [Pours the poison into 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 73 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 2. choice Italian : you shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. 242 Oph, The king rises. Ham. What, frighted with false fire ! Queen. How fares my lord ? 24s Pol. Give o'er the play. King. Give me some hght : away ! All. Lights, lights, hghts ! [Exeunt all hut Hamlet and Horatio. Ham. Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The hart ungalled play ; 250 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 Provin- cial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir ? 256 Hor. Half a share. Ham. A whole one, I. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was 260 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? 26s Hor. Very well, my lord. Ham. Upon the talk of the pqisoning? Hor. I did very well note him. Ham. Ah, ha I Come, some music ! come, the recorders I 270 74 What, frighted with false fire ! Act III. Scene 2. Gwe me some light : away . — Act III. Scene 2. Act III, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. For if the king like not the comedy, Why then, behke, 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. 27s Guil. The king, sir, — Ham. Ay, sir, what of him ? Guil. Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. Ham. With drink, sir? Guil. No, my lord, rather with choler. 280 Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to his doctor ; for, for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler. Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and start not so wildly from my affair. 286 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. 290 Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a whole- some answer, I will do your mother's commandment : if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business. 29s Ham, Sir, I cannot. Guil. What, my lord ? Ham. Make you a wholesome answer ; my wit 's dis- eased : but, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall 75 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act III, Scene 2. command ; or, rather, as you say, my mother : therefore no more, but to the matter : my mother, you say, — 301 Ros. Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her into amazement and admiration. Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother 1 But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admi- ration ? 306 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 ? 310 Ros. My lord, you once did love me. Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers. 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. 31s Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark ? Ham. Ay, but sir, ' While the grass grows,' — the proverb is something musty. 320 Re-enter Players with recorders. O, the recorders I 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. 32s Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe ? Guil. My lord, I cannot. 76 Act III, Scene 2. Hamlet, Princc of Denmark. Ham. I pray you. Guil. Believe me, I cannot. 330 Ham. I do beseech you. Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord. Ham. 'T is as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops. 336 Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony ; I have not the skill. Ham. 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 mystery; 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. 'S blood, 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 ! 348 Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. 350 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 hke a weasel. zss Ham. Or like a whale ? Pol. Very Hke a whale. 77. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 3. 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. 360 Pol. I will say so. Ram. By and by is easily said. [Exit Polonius. Leave me , friends. [Exeunt all but Hamlet. 'Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out 36s 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. heart, lose not thy nature ; let not ever The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom : 370 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. 37s Scene III. A room in the castle. Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you ; I your commission wiU forthwith dispatch. And he to England shall along with you : The terms of our estate may not endure s Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies. Guil. We will ourselves provide : Most holy and religious fear it is 78 Act III, Scene 3. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. To keep those many many bodies safe That hve and feed upon your majesty. lo Ros, The single and pecuHar Hfe is bound, With aU the strength and armor 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 is Dies not alone ; but, like a gulf, doth draw What 's near it with it : it is a massy wheel, Fixed on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoined ; 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, 25 Which now goes too free-footed. Ros. GuU. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. ' \ We will haste us. Enter Polonius. Pol. My lord, he 's going to his mother'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, 79 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 3. And tell you what I know. King. Thanks, dear my lord. 3s [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 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 4S 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 pardoned being down? Then I'll look up ; . so 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 possessed Of those effects for which I did the murder. My crown, mine own ambition and my queen. 55 May one be pardoned 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 compelled, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 80 Act III, Scene 3. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. To give in evidence. What then? what rests? Try what repentance can : what can it not ? 6s Yet what can it when one cannot repent ? O wretched state ! O bosom black as death ! O limed soul, that, strugghng 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 scanned ; 75 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, 'T is heavy with him : and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, 8s When he is fit and seasoned for his passage ? No! Up, sword ; and know thou a more horrid hent : When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage. At gaming, swearing, or about some act 9c That has no relish of salvation in 't ; Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven^ 81 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 4. And that his soul may be as damned 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 : 96 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 screened and stood between Much heat and him. I '11 sconce me even here. Pray you, be round with him. s 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. Ham. 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 ! Ham. What's the matter now? Queen. Have you forgot me ? Ham. No, by the rood, not so: 82 Act III, Scene 4. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife ; 15 And — ■ would it were not so ! — you are my mother. Queen. Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. 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 ! Ham. [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. Queen. O me, what hast thou done ? Ham. Nay, I know not : 25 Is it the king? Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this ! Ham. A bloody deed ! almost as bad, good mother, As kiU a king, and marry with his brother. Queen. As kill a king ! Ham. Ay, lady, 't was my word. 30 [Lifts up the arras and 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, zs If it be made of penetrable stuff, If damned custom have not brassed it so That it is proof and bulwark against sense. 83 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act in, Scene 4. 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 bHster there ; makes marriage-vows As false as dicers' oaths : O, such a deed 45 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 soHdity and compound mass. With tristful visage, as against the doom, so 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 ; 55 Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself ; An eye Hke Mars, to threaten and command ; A station Hke the herald Mercury New-Hghted 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 mildewed ear. Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes ? 6s Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, 84, Act III, Scene 4. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. 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 judgment : and what judgment 70 Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have. Else could you not have motion ; but sure, that sense Is apoplexed ; for madness would not err. Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled But it reserved some quantity of choice, 7S To serve in such a difference. What devil was 't That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-bhnd ? Eyes without feeling, feeUng without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smeUing sans all, Or but a sickly part of one true sense 80. Could not so mope. O shame ! where is thy blush ? RebeUious 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 8s When the compulsive ardor gives the charge. Since frost itself as actively doth burn And reason panders will. Queen. 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. Ham. Nay, but to live Stewed in corruption, — Queen. O, speak to me no more ; These words, hke daggers, enter in mine ears ; No more, sweet Hamlet ! 8s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 4. Ham. A murderer and a villain ; A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 9s Of your precedent lord ; a vice of kings ; A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket 1 i Queen. No more ! Ham. A king of shreds and patches, — i©o Enter Ghost. Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings. Your heavenly guards ! What would your gracious figure ? Queen. Alas, he 's mad ! Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by 105 The important acting of your dread command? O, say ! Ghost. Do not forget : this visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But, look, amazement on thy mother sits : no O, step between her and her fighting soul : Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works : Speak to her, Hamlet. Ham. How is it with you, lady ? Queen. Alas, how is 't with you. That you do bend your eye on vacancy ns And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep ; And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, Your bedded hair, like hfe in excrements. Starts up, and stands an end. O gentle son, 120 86 On him, on him ! Look you, how pale he glares ! — Act III. Scene 4. Act III, Scene 4. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 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 conjoined, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. Do not look upon me ; 125 Lest with this piteous action you convert My stern effects : then what I have to do Will want true color ; tears perchance for blood. Queen. To whom do you speak this ? Ham. Do you see nothing there? Queen. Nothing at all ; yet all that is I see. 130 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 : 13s This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in. Ham. Ecstasy ! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music : it is not madness That I have uttered : bring me to the test, 140 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, 14s Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven ; 87 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iii, Scene 4. Repent what 's past ; avoid what is to come ; And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue ; 150 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. Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it, iss And Hve the purer with the other half. Good night : Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel yet in this, 160 That to the use of actions fair and good He Hkewise gives a frock or livery. That aptly is put on. — Once more, good night : And when you are desirous to be blessed, 165 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 17© 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 ? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do : 17s Let the bloat king, for a pair of reechy kisses, 88 Act III, Scene 4. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. 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, i8o Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib. 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, i8s 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 hfe, I have no hfe to breathe What thou hast said to me. 19° Ham. I must to England ; you know that ? Queen. Alack, I had forgot : 't is so concluded on. Ham. There 's letters sealed : and my two school- fellows. Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged, They bear the mandate ; they must sweep my way, 195 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, 200 When in one Hne two crafts directly meet. This man shall set me packing : I '11 lug the guts into the neighbor room. Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor Is now most still, most secret and most grave, 20s 89 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene l 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 Polonius. ACT IV. Scene I. A room in the Castle. Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and 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, my good lord, what have I seen to-night ! s King. What, Gertrude ? How does Hamlet ? Queen. Mad as the sea and wind, when both con- tend 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 Uberty is full of threats to all ; To you yourself, to us, to every one. 15 Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered? It will be laid to us, whose providence 90 Act IV, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Should have kept short, restrained 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 hfe. Where is he gone? Queen. To draw apart the body he hath killed : O'er whom his very madness, like some ore 25 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 ! Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Friends both, go join you with some further aid : Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him ; 35 Go seek him out ; speak fair, and bring the body Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Come, Gertrude, we '11 call up our wisest friends ; /Vnd let them know, both what we mean to do, A.nd what 's untimely done. So, haply, slander, — 40 \Vhose y/hisper o'er the world's diameter, \s level as the cannon to his blank. Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name, \nd hit the woundless air. O, come away ! My soul is full of discord and dismay. . [Exeunt, as 91 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 2. Scene II. Another room in the castle. Enter Hamlet. Ham. Safely stowed. ^^^' ' [Within] Hamlet ! Lord Hamlet ! Guil. Ham. What noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come. Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body ? 5 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. Ham. Do not believe it. Ros. Beheve what ? lo Ham. That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what repHcation should be made by the son of a king ? Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord ? 14 Ham. 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, Hke an ape doth nuts, in the corner of his jaw ; first mouthed, to be > last swallowed : when he needs what you have gleaned, ; it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. 21 Ros. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it : a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. 24 92 Act IV, Scene 3. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing — Guil. A thing, my lord ! 29 Ham. Of nothing : bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. [Exeunt. Scene III. Another room in the castle. Enter King, attended. King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it Jthat this man goes loose I Yet must not we put the strong law on him : He 's loved of the distracted multitude. Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes : 5 And where 't is so, the offender's scourge is weighed. 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 befallen? Ros. Where the dead body is bestowed, 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. is Ros. Ho, Guildenstern ! bring in my lord. . 93 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 3. Enter Hamlet and Guilden stern. King. Now, Hamlet, where 's Polonius ? Ham. At supper. King. At supper ! where ? 19 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 ser- vice, two dishes, but to one table : that 's the end. 25 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. King. What dost thou mean by this ? Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the body of a beggar. si King. Where is Polonius ? Ham. In heaven ; send thither to see : if your messen- ger find him not there, seek him i' the other place your- self. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. 37 King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants. Ham. He will stay till ye come. [Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, — Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve 41 For that which thou hast done, — must send thee hence 94 Act IV, Scene 3. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. With fiery quickness : therefore prepare thyself ; The bark is ready, and the wind at help, The associates tend, and everything is bent 45 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 England ! Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. 50 Ham. 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 abroad ; Delay it not ; I '11 have him hence to-night. ss. Away ! for every thing is sealed and done That else leans on the affair : pray you, make haste. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and 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 60 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 conjuring to that effect. The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England ; 6s For like the hectic in my blood he rages. And thou must cure me : till I know 't is done, Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. [Exit, 95 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 4. Scene IV. A plain in Denmark. 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, s 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, and others. Ram. 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. Ham. Who commands them, sir? Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, is Or for some frontier ? Cap. Truly to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a Httle 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 of the Pole A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Cap. Yes, it is already garrisoned. Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats 96 Act IV, Scene 4. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Will not debate the question of this straw : 26 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 ? 30 Earn. I '11 be with you straight. Go a Httle before. [Exeunt all except Hamlet. 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. 3S Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capabihty and god-Hke reason To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be Bestial obUvion, or some craven scruple 40 Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I hve to say ' This thing 's to do ; ' Sith I have cause and will and strength and means 45 To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me : Witness this army of such mass and charge Led by a dehcate and tender prince, Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed Makes mouths at the invisible event, so 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, 97 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 5. But greatly to find quarrel in a straw ss When honor 's at the stake. How stand I then, . That have a father killed, a mother stained, Excitements of my reason and my blood. And let all sleep, while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, 60 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 ! [Exit, Scene V. Elsinore. 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. 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 ; 5 Spurns enviously at straws ; speaks things in doubt, That carry but half sense : her speech is nothing, Yet the unshaped use of it doth move The hearers to collection ; they aim at it. And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts ; 10 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. 98 Act IV, Scene 5. Hamlet, Priiice of Denmark. Hor. 'T were good she were spoken with ; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. is 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, OpheHa ! Oph. [Sings] How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat and staff, 25 And his sandal shoon. Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song? Oph. Say you? nay, pray you, mark. [Sings] 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, Opheha, — Oph. Pray you, mark. [Sings] White his shroud as the mountain snow, — as 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. 99 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 5. King. How do you, pretty lady ? 40 Oph. Well, God 'ild 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 : 46 [Sings] To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime. And I a maid at your window. To be your Valentine. 50 King. How long hath she been thus ? Oph. 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. [Exit. 57 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 60 When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions. First, her father slain : Next, your son gone ; and he most violent author Of his own just remove : the people muddied. Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers, 65 For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly. In hugger-mugger to inter him : poor Ophelia Divided from herself and her fair judgment, 100 Act IV, Scene 5. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts : Last, and as much containing as all these, 70 Her brother is in secret come from France ; Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father's death ; Wherein necessity, of matter beggared, 7s 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. 80 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 Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord ; 85 And, as the world were now but to begin, 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 : 90 ' Laertes shall be king, Laertes king ! ' Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry ! O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs ! King. The doors are broke. j^Noise within. lOI Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 5. Enter Laertes, armed; Dsines following, Laer, Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all with- out. 95 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. thou vile king, Give me my father ! Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard, loo Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother. King. What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ? Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person : los There 's such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would. Acts httle of his will. Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude. Speak, man. no 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: To hell, allegiance ! vows, to the blackest devil ! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit ! ns I dare damnation. To this point I stand, I02 Act IV, Scene 5. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. 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 : 120 And for my means, I '11 husband them so well, They shall go far with httle. King. Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father's death, is 't writ in your revenge. That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe, 125 Winner and loser ? Laer. None but his enemies. King. 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. King. Why, now you speak 130 Like a good child and a true gentleman. That I am guiltless of your father's death, And am most sensibly in grief for it, It shall as level to your judgment pierce As day does to your eye. Danes. [Within] Let her come in. 13s 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 by weight. Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May 1 140 103 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 5. 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 Ufe ? Nature is fine in love, and where 't is fine, It sends some precious instance of itself 145 After the thing it loves. Oph. [Sings] They bore him barefaced on the bier ; Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny ; And in his grave rained many a tear : — Fare you well, my dove ! iso 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. O, how the wheel becomes it ! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. 156 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. Laer. A document in madness, thoughts and remem- brance fitted. 161 Oph. There 's fennel for you, and columbines : there 's rue for you ; and here 's some for me : we may call it herb of 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, — 167 [Sings] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy. Laer. Thought and afEiction, passion, hell itself. She turns to favor and to prettiness. 170 104 There '5 rosemary, that 's for remembrance. — Act IV. Scene 5. Act IV, Scene 5. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Oph, [Sings] And will he not come again ? And will he not come again ? No, no, he is dead : Go to thy death-bed : He never will come again. 175 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 ! 180 And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye. [Exit. Laer. Do you see this, O God ? King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart. Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, 185 And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me : If by direct or by collateral hand They find us touched, we will our kingdom give, Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours. To you in satisfaction ; but if not, 190 Be you content to lend your patience to us. And we shall jointly labor with your soul To give it due content. Laer. Let this be so ; His means of death, his obscure funeral — No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, 19s No noble rite nor formal ostentation — Cry to be heard, as 't were from heaven to earth, That I must call 't in question. 105 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 6. King. So you shall ; And where the offence is let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me. [Exeunt. 200 • Scene VI. Another room in the castle. Enter Horatio and a Servant. Hor. What are they that would speak with me ? Serv. Sailors, 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. s Enter Sailors. First Sail. God bless you, sir. Hor. Let him bless thee too. First Sail. 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 over- looked 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 valor, 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 106 Act IV, Scene 7. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. will make thee dumb ; yet are they much too Hght 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. Farewell. 28 ' 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 VH. Another room in 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. Laer. It well appears : but tell me s 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 stirred up. King. O, for two special reasons; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinewed, 10 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, is I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a pubUc count I might not go, 107 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 7. 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 shghtly timbered for so loud a wind. Would have reverted to my bow again. And not where I had aimed them. Laer. And so have I a noble father lost ; 25 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 30 That we are made of stuff so fiat and dull 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 our self ; And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine — ss Enter 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 ? Mes. 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 108 Act IV, Scene 7. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. 47 ' Hamlet.' What should this mean ? Are all the rest come back ? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? so Laer. Know you the hand ? King. '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, s$ That I shall hve 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 ; So you will not o'errule.me to a peace. 60 King. To thine own peace. If he be now returned, 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 : 65 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 That I might' be the organ. 109 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 7. King. It falls right. 70 You have been talked of since your travel much, And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quahty 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, 7s 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 Than settled age his sables and his weeds, 80 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 Had witchcraft in 't ; he grew unto his seat ; 85 And to such wondrous doing brought his horse. As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured With the brave beast : so far he topped my thought. That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks. Come short of what he did. Laer. A Norman was 't ? 9° King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamond. King. 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, 9s And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defence IIQ Act IV, Scene 7. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. And for your rapier rnost especially, That he cried out, 't would be a sight indeed, If one could match you : the scrimers of their nation, loo 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. los 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 ? King. Not that I think you did not love your father ; But that I know love is begun by time ; m 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 ; us And nothing is at a like goodness still ; For goodness, growing to a plurisy. Dies in his own too much : that we would do, We should do when we would ; for this ' would ' changes And hath abatements and delays as many 120 As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; And then this ' should ' is Hke a spendthrift 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 125 More than in words ? Ill Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act iv, Scene 7. Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize ; Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber. Hamlet returned shall know you are come home : 130 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, 13s 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 : And, for that purpose, I '11 anoint my sword. 140 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 c4s That is but scratched 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 May fit us to our shape : if this should fail, isc And that our drift look through our bad performance, 'T were better not assayed : therefore this project Should have a back or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proof. Soft ! let me see : 1X2 Act IV, Scene 7. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. We '11 make a solemn wager on your cunnings : iss 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 A chaHce for the nonce, whereon but sipping, i6o If he by chance escape your venomed stuck, Our purpose may hold there. Enter Queen. How now, sweet queen ! Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heels So fast they follow : your sister's drowned, Laertes. Laer. Drowned ! O, where ? i6s 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 That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, 170 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 ; 175 And, mermaid-Hke, awhile they bore her up : Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes ; As one incapable of her own distress, Or Hke a creature native and indued Unto that element : but long it could not be 180 Till that her garments, heavy with their drink. Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay 113 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act v, Scene l To muddy death. Laer. Alas, then, she is drowned? Queen. Drowned, drowned. Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, i8s 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 : I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, 190 But that this folly douts it. [Exit. King. 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, b'c. First Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that wilfully 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. 5 First Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned her- self 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 wit- tingly, it argues an act : and an act hath three branches ; 114 Act V, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. it is, to act, to do, to perform : argal, she drowned her- self wittingly. Sec. Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver, — 14 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. 20 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. 25 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 gentle- men but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers : they hold up Adam's profession. 3x Sec. Clo. Was he a gentleman ? First Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. Sec. Clo. Why, he had none. First Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand 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 pur- pose, confess thyself — 39 Sec. Clo. Go to. First Clo. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? "S Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act v, Scene i Sec. Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. 44 First Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith : the gal- lows does well; but how does it well? it does well to those that 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 ship- wright, or a carpenter ? ' 51 First Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. Sec. Clo. Marry, now I can tell. First Clo. To 't. Sec. Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. ' ss Enter Hamlet and 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. 60 [He digs, and sings.] [Exit Sec. Clown. In youth, when I did love, did love, Methought it was very sweet. 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? 66 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. 7c 116 Act V, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. First Clo. [Sings] But age, with his steahng steps, Hath clawed me in his clutch. And hath shipped me intil the land. As if I had never been such. 74 [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 poHtician, which this ass now o'er- reaches ; one that would circumvent God, might it not? Hor. It might, my lord. 80 Ham. Or of a courtier ; which could say ' Good mor- row, 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. 85 Ham. 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. 90 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. 94 [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 117 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act v, Scene i. 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 recog- nizances, 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 conveyances 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. no Ham. 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 as- surance in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose grave 's this, sirrah? us First Clo. Mine, sir. [Sings] O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet. Ham. I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't. 1 20 First Clo. You he 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. ' 126 First Clo. 'T is a quick he, sir ; 't will away again, from me to you. 118 Act V, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ham. What man dost thou dig it for ? First Clo. For no man, sir. 130 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. 135 Ham. 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 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? 141 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 ? 144 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. isi Ham. Why ? First Clo. 'T will not be seen in Him there ; there the men are as mad as he. Ham. How came he mad ? iss First Clo. Very strangely, they say. Ham. How strangely ? First Clo. Faith, e'en with losing his wits. Ham. Upon what ground? 119 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act v, Scene i. First Clo. Why, here in Denmark: I have been sex- ton here, man and boy, thirty years. i6i Ham. How long will a man He i' the earth ere he rot? First Clo. V faith, if he be not rotten before he die — as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce hold the laying in — he will last you some eight year or nine year : a tanner will last you nine year. 167 Ham. 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. 173 Ham. Whose was it ? First Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was : whose do you think it was ? 176 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. 180 Ham. This ? First Clo. E'en that. Ham. Let me see. [Takes the skull] 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 have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merri- ment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not 120 ^^7^^ ^^^ n i^^^^^^J ^k^ l^ " 4 ^'I^fe^ Hi'^^^r^ F^<^ !^^^^«:'^ r I.^^K f ^^4/'*-.^^B ?v ^''A' ttiK''^ v_ x^t|^H|^H^^H| ^^^^PA ^^^^ ^y P^^^^^iT^M ir^^UM "~i imm^H^^m^^^ ^^ ^i^^^^^^H bI^^sI^Hf %\i4 ^%\i>^H|HP^^R_^^P^ i^^^^SM^fep fA -^i^ijs- ««« fly ■ -iii , ~««^J^. .^ "i \ . '5 l^^^il^^ m Z 1 ,,..;•' 'm'^ff^^^^ .11 J- p; ji:':l ■ m " «... ; _ ;./■; ■' R. r* ' ,<■■■' ''V ■ %' =«Mt| } |.'sSj% , "^ttif^:''''::,^^ :.:....■-) » IIP 1 ""^l:-:: ,:, :vi^ i "'Ibs:'. ^ ill li ■1 1;^: ■%, -■' teiSi'- ' ^^^-^^ ^^^,^^^;; ""■'?«• ^^fe' ■ «ii»^ ^1|^ \ 1 #';«:? ^ ■i!j^^^i^2^™P*"^©' i 1 "'■^'"""'****'*'~ ■■'■ ^ipl- J im Act V, Scene 2. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ham. Come on, sir. Laer. Come, my lord. [They play. Ham. One. Laer. No. Ham. Judgment. Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer. Well; again. King. Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine ; 27s Here 's to thy health. [Trumpets sound, and cannon shot of 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. Queen. He 's fat, and scant of breath. 280 Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows : The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. Ham. Good madam ! King. Gertrude, do not drink. . Queen. I will, my lord ; I pray you, pardon me. King. [Aside] It is the poisoned cup ; it is too late. Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. 286 Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. Laer. My lord, I 'U hit him now. King. I do not think 't. Laer. [Aside] And yet 't is almost 'gainst my con- science. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes : you but dally ; 290 I pray you, pass with your best violence ; 13s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act v, Scene 2. I am afeard you make a wanton of me.* Laer. Say you so ? Come on. [They play. Osr. Nothing, neither way. 294 Laer. Have at you now ! [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. King. Part them ; they are incensed. Ham. Nay, come, again. [The Queen falls. Osr. Look to the queen there, ho I 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 killed with mine own treachery. 300 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 poisoned. [Dies. Ham. O villany ! Ho ! let the door be locked : Treachery ! Seek it out. 30s 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 envenomed : the foul practice 310 Hath turned itself on me ; lo, here I lie. Never to rise again : thy mother's poisoned : ' I can no more : the king, the king 's to blame. Ham. The point ! — envenomed too ! Then, venom, to thy work. [Stabs the King. 315 136 Act V, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark. AIL Treason ! treason ! King. O, yet defend me, friends ; I am but hurt. Ham. Here, thou Hcentious, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here ? Follow my mother. [King dies. Laer. He is justly served ; 320 It is a poison tempered by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet : 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. 325 I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu ! 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 teU you — 330 But let it be. Horatio, I am dead ; Thou Hvest ; report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied. Hor. Never believe it : I am more an antique Roman than a Dane : Here 's yet some hquor left. Ham. As thou 'rt a man, 335 Give me the cup : let go ; by heaven, I '11 have 't. O good Horatio, what a wounded name. Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart. Absent see from felicity awhile, 340 And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. [March afar of, and shot within. What warlike noise is this ? 137 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: Act v, Scene 2. Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives This warHke volley. Ham. O, I die, Horatio ; 34S The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit : I cannot live to hear the news from England ; But I do prophesy the election hghts On Fortinbras : he has my dying voice ; So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, 350 Which have solicited. The rest is silence. [Dies.' Hot. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince ; And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest ! Why does the drum come hither? [March within. Enter Fortinbras, the Enghsh Ambassadors, and others. Fort. Where is this sight ? Ear. What is it ye would see ? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. 356 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 Amh. The sight is dismal; 360 And our affairs from England come too late : The ears are senseless that should give us hearing To tell him his commandment is fulfilled, That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead : 364 Where should we have our thanks ? Hor. Not from his mouth, 138 Act V, Scene 2. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Had it the ability 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 370 High on a stage be placed to the view ; And let me speak to the yet unknowing world How these things came about : so shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, 375 Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fallen on the inventors' heads : all this can I Truly deliver. Fort. Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. 380 For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune : I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, 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 : 385 But let this same be presently performed. 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, 390 To have proved most royally : and, for his passage, The soldiers' music and the rites of war Speak loudly for him. Take up the bodies : such a sight as this 139 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act v, Scene 2. Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. 39s Go, bid the soldiers shoot. [A dead march. Exeunt, bearing of the dead bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off. 140 A LIST OF THE PERSONS OF THE DRAMA, WITH THE SCENES IN WHICH THEY APPEAR Claudius i 2, ii 2, iii i 2 3, iv i 3 5 7, v i 2. Hamlet . i 2 4 5, 11 2, iii i 2 3 4, iv 2 3 4, v 12. POLONIUS I 2 3, II I 2, III I 2 3 4. Horatio . . . . . . i i 2 4 5, iii 2, iv 5 6, v i 2. Laertes . . . . . . . i 2 3, iv 5 7, v i 2. voltimand i 2, ii 2. Cornelius i 2, 11 2. ROSENCRANTZ II 2, IH I 2 3, IV I 2 3 4. GUILDENSTERN II 2, III I 2 3, IV I 2 3 4. OSRIC V 2. A Gentleman iv 5. A Priest v i. Marcellus ." I I 2 4 5. Bernardo 112. Francisco 11. ReYNALDO . II I. Players 11 2, ill 2. Two Clowns ...... V I. Fortinbras IV 4, V 2. A Captain iv 4. English Ambassadors . . . v 2 . Gertrude . i 2, 11 2, iii i 2 4, iv i 5 7, v i 2. Ophelia i 3, 11 i, iii i 2, iv 5. Ghost I I 4 5, III 4. 141 APPENDIX ORIGIN AND PUBLICATION OF "HAMLET" Shakespeare produced his plays and poems during a period of twenty years, which is almost equally divided by the close of the sixteenth century. Before ,, Hamlet ''■ 1600 most of the comedies had been written, marks a together with all the historical plays except shak^^ ^^ "Henry VIII." Of the tragedies only two speare's had appeared — "Romeo and Juliet" and ^^^t^ods. "Titus Andronicus." After 1600 came the series of great tragedies — " Julius Caesar," "Hamlet," "Othello," "King Lear," "Macbeth," and "Antony and Cleopatra." The year mentioned marked a change in the growth of his genius, a time when he was no longer satisfied to express his thoughts and ideas about life in comedies and historical plays and turned to something with deeper dramatic significance. The first plays in which the change is seen — "Julius Caesar" and "Hamlet" — show some interesting resem- blances. A study of the language reveals cer- ^, . ^ , . 1 1 1 • i- 1 ^^® ideal- tain points of similarity, and the chief charac- ist in the ters have not a little in common. Both plays world of action, deal with the idealist thrust into the world of action. Brutus as well as Hamlet is unfitted for the work he is called upon to do ; both, in the end, bungle it badly 143 Appendix. — Hamle t jhrough delay and uncertainty, Brutus from errors of judgment. The peculiar difficulties which would naturally beset men of this type — their reaction to the circumstances in which they found themselves — presented a dramatic problem which had a strong attrac- tion for Shakespeare at this period ; Hamlet, indeed, may well be considered the finished picture of which Brutus was the first sketch. In "King Henry V," written only a year or so before '^ Julius Caesar," he had set forth a strong and heroic man* of action — a leader who could reanimate his drooping soldiers by a "little touch of Harry in the night " ; the two later plays portray men, temperamentally unfitted for action, placed in positions where action is imperative. What will such men do in the circumstances ? — that is the central theme. "Hamlet cannot act," says Professor Dowden, " because his moral energy is sapped by a kind ... of despair about life, because his ideas are more to him than deeds. . . . Brutus does act, but he acts as an idealist and theorizer might, with no eye for the actual bearing of facts, and no sense of the true importance of persons ... his public action is a series of practical mistakes." Brutus says: Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream, and Hamlet : The time is out of joint : O, cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right ! 144 Origin and Publication. The mental attitude expressed by such despairing utter- ances as these indicates a moral fiber that cannot hold out against "the wreckful siege of battering days." Very different is the spirit in which Henry V meets his problems : 'T is true we are in great danger ; The greater, therefore, should our courage be. . . There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out. Much has been written upon the reasons for this change in Shakespeare's point of view — this turning to the darker truths of life.^ Here, however, we can only call attention to the fact and proceed to discuss the matter of how ''Hamlet" came into existence. Young persons studying a Shakespearian play for the first time are often surprised, and sometimes even dis- tressed, to learn that the stories of the drama- originality tist's works were not original with him. Origi- of plot un- nality of plot seems to them the chief requi- ^"^p^^*^"*- site of greatness; a worker in second-hand material falls under their scorn ; they begin to wonder just why this borrower of other men's ideas has been rated so highly and so profoundly admired by their elders. This is not strange. Action, movement, complication of events, — all that goes to make up a plot, — is interest- ing and therefore important to boys and girls. They are naturally more concerned with what the hero does, than how he does it, or how he talks, or what he is like. More- over, in our novel-reading, inventive age, — in our age ^ See page 210. 14s Appendix. of "movies" and of everything new and startling, — it is not surprising that false values are given to things just because they are original. It is difficult even for mature people to see that originality of plot in story or play is really the least important element in the final test of its worth. They must be reminded that any one with a little clever inventiveness can work out a compli- cated and entirely new series of events. Thousands of short stories and novels appear every year in our maga- zines with plots that are skillfully woven and often remarkably original. Beyond that they have nothing to recommend them, so that after a moment's curiosity to see "how they come out," they are completely neg- lected and soon forgotten. The fact that in plot and action they are "something new" and clever gives them no claim whatsoever to the enduring fame of literature. It is therefore not a sign of weakness or of a shallow mind to find Shakespeare making use of material already at his disposal. On the contrary, it is evi- Shake- dence of wisdom and good judgment. He speare not ° V • i a writer of was above bothering his head with new plots original ^^ amuse his audiences. All his mind and stones. skill and strength were needed for more essen- tial things. Old plays, Italian novels, Plutarch's Lives, chronicles of EngUsh history, furnished him with inci- dents and characters with which to work. The best elements of these he skillfully chose, made over, and com- bined ; but next to nothing did he himself invent. The force of his wonderful genius was spent in drawing characr ter so clearly and so true to human nature that the men and women of his plays became distinct personalities 146 Origin and Publication. that have lived now for three hundred years in the hearts of the people. Falstaff, Portia, Shylock, Rosalind, Hamlet, Desdemona, Macbeth, Juliet, Lear, — these are as real as any who have lived in the annals of history. Then again, the language and the poetry of the plays, the sentiments, the wit, and above all the artistic blending of thought and character and action, are his and his alone. The sources of the stories which Shakespeare used no one ever reads. They are commonplace, flat, and un- worthy of our interest. Yet these same stories re- molded, polished, and filled with the inspiration of Shakespeare's genius, have become masterpieces of literature. It is well that Shakespeare was not attracted to the inventing of elaborate and original plots, for he must have been busy enough as it was. In their . , . . Advantages demand for novelty m stage attractions of using old audiences then required a new play, on an material ^ ^ / , for plays, average of every sixteen or seventeen days. Intense rivalry existed between the various companies of actors. In their struggle for popularity, which meant their daily bread, playwrights turned off their work with astonishing rapidity. Thus in the twenty years of his London activity Shakespeare wrote, in whole or in part, about forty plays. "Driven by the necessity of speed on the one hand, and by anxiety to catch the popular fancy on the other, is it any wonder thai he never stopped to devise a plot? What need was there that he should do so? The manager of the company had many an old play which, at one time or another, had been submitted to the test of public approval. ... To such plays, if Appendix. selected for revision, a certain amount of popularity was thus assured in advance ; and as for the plot, — the barest skeleton sufficed for Shakespeare. He knew that he could remodel it into fair proportions and relume it with life. Of all that goes to make up one of his dramas, the plot in itself, in its mere outlines, is of less importance than any other element in it. Of course, in the nature of things, it is not to be supposed that after he had selected the old play to be rejuvenated he either adhered to it closely, or refused hints from other sources. Old ballads, books of travels, histories, the gossip of the day, — all were put under contribution. As Emerson says : ' Every master has found his materials collected, and power lay in his sympathy with his people, and in his love for the materials he wrought in. ' " ^ The story of Hamlet is an ancient legend of the North. It was first set forth in writing in the "Historia t)anica" Origin of of Saxo Grammaticus (the " "scholar"), a " Hamlet." Danish historian of the twelfth century. His work was first printed at Paris, in 15 14. Some years later (1570) the tale was included in the "Histoires Tragiques" of a French writer, Francis de Belleforest. Thence, it was translated into English as "The Hystorie of Hamblet." The "Hystorie," with one or two excep- tions, closely follows the French version and it may be summarized here as indicating the form of the historical narrative in Shakespeare's time. Horvendile, the father of Hamblet, was treacherously slain by his brother Fengon at a banquet. Fengon by false witnesses cleared his own name from disgrace and 1 Dr. H. H. Furness : New Variorum Edition, " Merchant of Venice." 148 Origin and Publication. married Geruth, wife of the murdered man. Hamblet, seeing that Fengon planned to "send him the same way his father Horvendile was gone," feigned ^j^^ "Hvs- madness. Fengon set spies on him, one of torie of whom concealed himself in a room where ^^ ^ ' Hamblet was to meet his mother. The prince came in and, suspecting treachery, discovered the counselor behind the arras. He slew him and then cut the body in pieces and disposed of it. In the interview with his mother he made her see the evil she had done. Fengon after this caused Hamblet to be sent to England and dispatched with him two courtiers with written orders for his death at the hands of the English king. But Hamblet discovered the orders and changed them so that they commanded the execution of the courtiers, while he himself should receive the daughter of the king in marriage. Hamblet stayed in England for a year ; then, having seen the courtiers executed and having been betrothed to the king's daughter, he returned to Denmark. There he found his funeral rites being held, but changed them into a great celebration of his return. He managed to make all his foes drunk and, as they lay helpless in the main hall, set fire to the palace. Then, while the castle was burning, he went to his uncle's room, woke him up and promptly chopped off his head. The people thereupon made him King of Denmark.. Hamblet next went to England, but the King tried secretly to put him to death ; whereupon he slew the King and ''returned again into Denmark with two wives." Another uncle, named Wiglerus, then assailed him. He was betrayed by one of his wives, and slain. So runs the "Hys torie." 149 Appendix. This strange, wild tale seems to have attracted the attention of English playwrights, for there is evidence Early ^^ ^ Hamlet play as early as 1589. It is a Hamlet '^revenge" play, and since it was attacked ^ ^^' by a writer of the day, it must have been fairly successful. This writer complains of upstart play- makers who "run through every art and thrive by none," and says that if any one will take a translation of Seneca (a Latin dramatist much admired at the time) and ''in treat him faire in a frostie morning, he will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfulls of tragical speaches." Another writer refers to the ''ghost, which cried so miserably at the theatre, like an oyster- wife, Hamlet revenge.^' This early play was not by Shakespeare, but was acted by his company in 1594 — which brings us to the question of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." As is the case with many of the plays, we find an early record of "Hamlet" in the Register of the Stationers Shake Company. This famous old organization, speare's incorporated in 1556, for nearly three hundred *™ ®*- years regulated the publication of books in England. It was, indeed, the official method, during Queen Elizabeth's reign, of granting a license to a pub- lisher. The record for July 26, 1602, among other notices of books "allowed to be printed," contains the following entry : ^ James Robertes, Entered for his copie under the hands of Master ' Pas field and master Waterson warden. A booke called " The revenge of Hamlett Prince of Denmark " as yt was latlie acted by the Lord Chamberleyn his servantes. ISO Origin and Publication. This means, simply: ''The version of 'Hamlet' recently acted by Shakespeare's Company." Though "entered," it was never printed. The reason for its entry was that Roberts wanted to prevent any one else printing the play. In the following year, however, it actually was printed, with a title-page stating that it was written "by William Shake-speare " and had been acted at various times by "his Highnesse servantes in the citie of London" and at Oxford and Cambridge and elsewhere. It is the same play and the same company, which has now passed under the patronage of the King, James I. This is the earliest version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" that has come down to us. But this first printed version contains many obvious faults — so many, indeed, that it is now considered to be a "pirated" edition, issued without any authority and based on a rough copy made in the theater by a shorthand writer. It is known as the "First Quarto. " ^ In those days, while a play was still popular on the stage the author tried to keep it out of print, fearing that its appearance in book form might hurt attendance at the theater. But here was a case where an unauthorized edition had appeared, and one which (as we shall see presently) was calculated to give a false idea of the play. Some one, therefore — the manager of the company, or the printer James Roberts, or Shakespeare himself — was stirred up to issue another edition which should be a true rendering of the drama. In 1604, then, appeared the "Second Quarto." The title-page is emphatic : ^See page 201. Appendix. THE Tragicall Historie of HAMLET, Prince of Denmarke. By William Shakespeare. New imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was, according to the true and perfect Coppie. AT LONDON, Printed by I. R. for N. L. and are to be sold at his shoppe under Saint Dunstons Church in Fleetstreet, 1604. This version is immensely superior to the edition of 1603 in sense and accuracy, and was evidently intended to drive the latter out of the market. Two other quartos appeared during Shakespeare's lifetime, and two more after his death — the last in 1637. All these are virtual reprints of the Second Quarto. The collected edition of the plays published in 1623 — the famous "First Folio "^ — contains a " Hamlet " which differs in some respects from the Second Quarto ; it is not so long and it has a few passages which are not found in the Quarto. The play in its present form — the "authorized text" — is based upon a combination of the Quarto and the Folio editions. ■* The matter may be briefly summed up. The com- pany of players to which Shakespeare belonged possessed an old crude "HamJet" of the "revenge" type, which they acted between 1589 and 1600. The company met ^ See page 201. 152 Origin and Publication. with diflSculties in London and was forced to ''travel" (see II. 2 in the play), and Shakespeare used this old play for a rapidly written drama which was first acted in 1601. When the company returned to London, their play was pirated by an unscrupulous bookseller (probably by means of a shorthand writer in the theater) and published as a quarto in 1603. The stu- pidity of the shorthand writer is shown by such crudities as "Rossencraft and Gilderstone" for "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern," and by the utter absurdity of render- ings like this version of the opening lines of Hamlet's soliloquy (HI. i. 56 ff.) : To be or not to be, I there 's the point, To die, to sleepe, is that all ? I all : No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes. For in that dreame of death, when wee awake, And borne before an everlasting Judge ; From whence no passenger ever returned, The undiscovered country, at whose sight The happy smile, and the accursed damn'd. A correct and authorized edition was put forth. in 1604 — the Second Quarto. But, as frequently happens on the stage during a long "run," the play needed cutting and changing as time went on. Some of the speeches proved too long; now and then new passages were added. These changes were made in the acting-copy, and when Shakespeare's friends published the great Folio of 1623 they used the amended stage version as the basis of their text. Scholars have made a correlation of the two texts and from this correlation has come our present" Hamlet." 153 Appendix. It will readily be understood that such revision and alteration gave rise to puzzling complications in the text ; ; there are several obscure passages, and some which have never been satisfactorily cleared up. These obscuri- ties, however, present little real difficulty. The story itself is interesting ; the characters stand vividly before us, while the struggle between Hamlet's wish to do what he knows ought to be done and his inability to trans- late the wish into action, forms a study which grows more enthralling as we read on into the play.] ''The amount of ingenious discussion on certain difficult places in ' Hamlet ' tends to give a wrong impression of the play. Careless scribes, careless typesetters, Elizabethan actors carelessly inserting changes in the text, have all left their marks, but nevertheless in almost every instance so clear is the thought, so compelling the emotion of the whole passage that he who is able to respond to the feeling may pass swiftly 'on, nor miss it because of those moments when the exact meaning is dubious. Read again and again, each time ' Hamlet ' will reveal new beauties in its combined accuracy and imaginativeness of phrase, its profundity and fidelity of characterization, and its subtle surmounting of technical dramaturgic difficulties. It is the masterpiece of Shakespeare's masterpieces." ^ 1 From the Introduction to Shakespeare's Hamlet, edited by George P. Baker (Tudor Edition). Used by permission of The Macmillan Company, Publishers. IS4 The Supposed Difficulties. THE SUPPOSED DIFFICULTIES OF "HAMLET" More has been written about " Hamlet," probably, than about any other of Shakespeare's plays. Especially during the last hundred years has this been << Hamlet " the case. In England, in France, in Ger- and the many — more particularly in Germany — critics, scholars have toiled to interpret the meaning of the play. Some of their suggestions and theories are wise; some are not ; a few are amazing. They differ not only about the meaning, but about the actual events, about what actually occurred. Where was Hamlet when the murder of his father took place ? Was he mad, or only pretend- ing? Was he really in love with Ophelia? How much did his mother know? Is the play an allegory of life, filled with Shakespeare's theories of good and evil, wherein the very names of the characters have a mys- terious significance? The net result of all this is that many people have come to consider "Hamlet" a very difficult play, full of perplexing problems. But if we remember a few elementary facts, we shall find that there ought to be no real difficulty for the person of average intelligence. Let us forget, for Not a dif- the moment, all about the scholars and the ^^ult play, critics, and think of one or two simple things. In the first place, ''Hamlet" was written by a man who was an actor and who had been associated with actors all his life. In the second place, it was written as a play, not as a philosophical problem ; a play to be acted on a stage before an audience. Again, it was intended not Appendix. for an audience of scholars and critics, but for the ordinary man. Lastly, it was understood and enjoyed by the ordinary man before any of the modern critical opinion had come into existence. ; To the playgoers of Shake- speare's time and later there was nothing mysterious about " Hamlet." What held these audiences was the interest of the story, the masterly character-drawing, the effective dramatic situations, the noble verse. The best way to understand the play is, of course, to see it acted ; the next best way is to read it aloud with a group of friends. A certain " background knowledge" of Shakespeare and his times is necessary, to be sure; but if the play be read as a play, with due regard to what the author aimed at in his characters and situations, most, if not all, of the supposed difficulties will disappear. The development of this drama, which has fascinated so many playgoers, is, after all, neither obscure nor involved. A young prince, manly, popular, well educated, suddenly loses his father under circumstances that are peculiarly painful to him. He is summoned home from college, finds that his uncle is in possession of the kingdom which he himself is heir to, and that the marriage of his mother has ''followed hard upon." His deep love for his father causes him the keenest suffering. He cannot reconcile himself to the new state of affairs and while he is still burdened with this load of grief there appears to him the spirit of his father with a tale of surpassing horror. What will he do? Denounce the murderer? But there is no evidence in support of so incredible an accusation — he has but the word of a ghost. Can he slay the King? 156 The Supposed Difficulties. But the King is married to his mother and is, moreover^ his father's brother. Would he look about him for help ? There is no one to turn to. His friends fail him in time of need : Ophelia, the girl he loves, proves weak and untrustworthy ; his two fellow-students turn out to be spies of the King; Polonius is nothing but a "tedious old fool." Horatio, indeed, remains — but how can Horatio help him? He is alone ; but he has no real privacy. He is watched almost from the first moment of the play. Under the constant sense of espionage, he feigns madness. This is a disguise under which he finds relief for his dis- tempered thoughts and an opportunity to work out some plan. What will be done in these peculiarly difficult cir- cumstances ? This is the problem that interested Shake- speare, and that interests us. Hamlet finds out the truth eventually by means of the Players. What next? He has a chance to slay the King — shall he seize it ? Would a man of his training and antecedents stab treacherously, from behind ? Shakespeare knew, and we know, that the thing was impossible. So, with his problem still unsolved, he is shipped off to England; he escapes and comes back. But now he has made up his mind — "the interim is mine." What was the plan of revenge we are not permitted to see, however, for the treachery of the King brings about his death within a very short period after his return, before he has time to act. Would he eventu- ally have accomplished his vengeance? This we can never know — "the rest is silence." 157 Appe-ndix. Summarizing thus, we find nothing that Hes outside the range of our own thoughts about Hfe. The play is The play a ^^^ intended to teach a lesson in mental condi- section of tions ; it is not intended to teach any lesson ; ^ ®' it is a piece of life set before us on the stage. If we realize this, and realize, too, how Shakespeare has breathed into his work the very breath of life, our minds will be freed from the weight of problems and theories and we shall not find anything that we fail to under- stand. IS8 The Meter. THE METER OF ''HAMLET In writing his plays Shakespeare used the poetical form known as "blank verse." The reason why he wrote in poetry was that it had become established as the proper medium for dramatic work during the growth of the drama in the past few centuries. The Mysteries and Miracle Plays, and the Moralities/ were all written in verse — very crude for the most part, but showing the wish and effort to differentiate the language of the stage from the language of everyday life. As time went on and the taste of the public began slightly to improve, there came to be some endeavor to create a higher type of poetry for dramatic work. Thus, about the middle of the sixteenth century (1562) we find a play written in English blank verse. This play was called " Gorboduc " and, though stilted and artificial, and uninteresting from our point of view, it possesses for the student of literature two features of great value : it marks the beginning of true English tragedy, and it shows the possibilities of a verse-form much more dignified than that which had so long been used in the older stage performances. This verse-form was employed by Christopher Marlowe when he wrote his great tragedies, " Tamburlaine," ''Dr. Faustus," and ''The Jew of Malta." He makes his reason perfectly clear : From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits. And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay ; We '11 lead you to the stately tents of war. . . . 1 See pages 230-231. 159 Appendix. The '^rhyming mother wits" and the jests of "clownage" refer, of course, to the rough poetry and the rougher horse-play of the Mysteries and Moralities. Marlowe plainly says that his verse will aim at greater things than have been accomplished in the past. As a matter of fact he did what he expected to do. His poetry was deeply admired by his contemporaries, and twenty-five years after the appearance of the tame and pedestrian blank verse of ^'Gorboduc," "Marlowe's mighty line" brought about a revolution in the writing of the English drama. While not actually originating the form, he made it an entirely new thing and conferred upon it new power and vitality. '^ Shakespeare absorbed it, and gave it out again with its familiar cadences in ' Romeo and Juliet,' and later with many broad and lovely modi- fications. It has become the life-blood of our literature ; Marlowe's place is at the heart of English poetry, and his pulses still thrill in our verse." The blank verse line used by Shakespeare is known as *' iambic pentameter" — which means that it is made up of five "iambic" feet, or units, each foot consisting of two syllables with the accent on the second. Thus, we should indicate the meter of "Hamlet" as follows: y / / / / If thou I didst e|ver hold | me in | thy heart, | Absent | thee from | felic|ity | awhile,| / / / / / And in | this harsh | world draw | thy breath | in pain | (V. 2. 339-42) Of course, if this were the only form of the line it would soon grow very monotonous — as, indeed, it did become 160 The Meter. when first introduced. There must be many variations, many interchanges of the feet and shif tings of the accent, if the Hne is to serve its purpose to the full. This is just what happens in Shakespeare's plays. He begins with a restricted use of the meter, but as time goes on he uses it with more freedom and therefore with greater effect, until at last it becomes in his hands a perfect in- strument for the expression of what he has to say. His use of blank verse, however, is too large a subject for discussion here : all that can be done is briefly to indicate a few of the variations in '' Hamlet," which may serve to give some idea of Shakespeare's freedom and mastery. The passage quoted above illustrates the typical Shakespearian line — five feet, each of two syllables ; each foot having one accent, on the second syllable. Here are a few of the variations from this normal type : 1. Accent inversion. Sometimes the accent falls on the first syllable of the foot instead of on the second : Costly I thy hab|it as | thy purse [ can buy | (I. 3. 70) But this I most foul | strange and | unnat |ural | (I. 5. 28) / / / / / This a|bove all | : to thine | own self | be true | (I. 3., 78) 2. Extra syllables. These may come either within the line or at the end : / / V V • / / Let it I be ten|able in | your si|lence still | (I. 2. 247) • • / / / Whether | 't is no|bler in | the mind | to suf|fer / / / / / The slings | and ar|rows of | outrag|eous f or | tune (in. 1. 57-8) 161 Appendix. 3. Omission of syllables. There are many instances in '' Hamlet." y / / / / Your loves, | as mine | to you. | [Farewell. | (I. 2. 253) The pause here is filled by a bow or a wave of the hand as the three soldiers leave Hamlet. Incomplete lines are also used, to denote strong emotion — the gap being filled by appropriate action or by a dramatic pause : Ay, mar|ry is 't.| (I. 4. 13) Saw?| Who?| (I. 2. 189) I will I not speak | with her.| (IV. 5. i) Many other irregularities occur in Shakespeare's blank verse, but these are sufficient to indicate something of his method. A word should be said here about the use of prose in '' Hamlet." It comes quite frequently and always for very definite reasons. Such use of prose is a mark of Shake- speare's maturity ; in his early plays it does not appear, or appears very seldom. But as he gains in experience he introduces prose to vary the monotony of the verse and, more particularly, as the fitting mode of expression for comic characters or persons in the lower walks of life. Note, in " Hamlet," how appropriately it is brought in. Hamlet talks prose with the Players (II. 2, III. 2), with the Clowns (V. i), and with Osric (V. 2). He employs the same medium when he is acting the madman : observe especially the change from blank verse to prose when he begins to suspect Ophelia (III. i). Prose is also used in the letters and in the speech of servants. Other examples 162 The Meter. — outside of " Hamlet " — of prose employed for strong effects are to be seen in " Macbeth " (the Porter and Sleep- walking Scenes) and in " Juhus Caesar " (Casca's conversa- tion in Act I and Brutus's speech in Act III). The prose passages are characterized by the same care as that which distinguishes the poetry, and are always employed for definite dramatic purposes. Perhaps the most interesting thing (from our present point of view) about Shakespeare's blank verse is the fact that it lends itself so perfectly to the expression of what each character has to say. One realizes to the full, when listening to some great actor in any one of the great parts, how fittingly thought and expression are united. It is not always possible, however, thus to come in contact with the masters of interpretation; but we may still test for ourselves to some extent the degree of Shake- speare's mastery over his tools. Viewing the opening scene of '' Hamlet " on the stage, one does not realize that the whole is composed in poetry. So carefully is the dialogue managed, with such understanding and such infinite pains, that the use of blank verse adds vividness and power to a situation of exceptional strength. Let us visualize the thing for ourselves. Night; a single sentry pacing his lonely rounds under the star-strewn sky; deadly silence and bitter cold. Perhaps, beneath the ramparts, the long wash of the northern sea. The sentry does not hear the approach of his relief, and it is the latter who speaks first : Bernardo. Who's there? Francisco. Nay, answer me : stand and unfold yourself. Bern. Long live the king ! 163 Appendix. Fran. Bernardo ? Bern. He. Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. Bern. 'Tis now struck twelve: get thee to bed, Francisco. Fran. For this relief much thanks : 't is bitter cold, And I am sick at heart. Bern. Have you had quiet guard ? Fran. Not a mouse stirring. Bern. Well, good night. . . . Why was Francisco "sick at heart"? Why that rather anxious question of Bernardo's about ''quiet guard"? They are expecting something. Note how the interest becomes intensified upon the entrance of Horatio and Marcellus. Read the scene through aloud, intelligently, making it your aim to emphasize the speeches as they ought to be emphasized: you will be amazed to find how the rhythm of the blank verse leads the reading voice towards the correct interpretation. Here is a case where Shake- speare has not only indicated by the broken lines a strain and intensity of feeling, but has made the poetical form heighten, in a way that prose could never do, the intensity and the strain. That is, really, the wonderful thing about all of Shakespeare's blank verse — it actually en- forces the correct interpretation. Read over (aloud, once more) Hamlet's outburst of grief when he is left alone in the second scene of the first Act : O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, . . . and note how finely the movement of the verse brings out 164 The Meter. the bewilderment and the hopeless sorrow of the speaker. Take the speech at the end of the second Act : O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! Mark with what mastery the verse leads on the voice and the thought — through self-reproach and unreasoning fury to the deliberate planning at the close. Or, once more, consider the most famous of all the soliloquies : To be, or not to be, that is the question. . . . Is it not true that here one is compelled by the very structure and the strong forward march of the lines to read slowly and to ponder as one reads ? These considerations are not fanciful ; their truth will soon grow manifest to any thoughtful student of the play. And what has been said is merely a statement of the fact (which becomes clearer the more we familiarize ourselves with his work) that Shakespeare was a master in the use of the medium which he chose to give his plays to the world. i6S Appendix. STAGE HISTORY OF 'HAMLET" Some one has well said that the history of "Hamlet" is practically the history of the English-speaking stage. "Hamlet" ^^^ three hundred years it has engaged the on ship- attention of actor and audience more than any °^^ ' other play of Shakespeare. It has been the test by which the greatest actors have proved their skill. Its wide popularity in Shakespeare's own time is best shown, perhaps, by the fact that in 1607 it was acted on board an English ship at sea. In September of that year Captain Keeling, of the Dragon, was sailing to the East Indies in company with the Hector, Captain Hawkins. On the 5th, and again on the 31st of that month, "Hamlet " was performed by the crew of the Dragon. Captain Keeling writes: "I invited Captain Hawkins to a fish dinner, and had Hamlet acted aboard me : wch. I permit to keep my people from unlawful games, or sleepe." One would give much for further details of this performance. The first actor to take the part of Hamlet was Richard Burbage, a friend of Shakespeare's and the leading player Famous of his company. The fine tradition of his act- actors, jng was carried on by Thomas Betterton after 1660. Betterton's acting is referred to by Samuel Pepys (by no means a kindly critic) in his " Diary " as " the best part, I believe, that ever man acted." Betterton is said to have introduced scenery into the play — for we must remember that the scenery of Shakespeare's day existed largely in the imagination of the audience. David Gar- rick, Dr. Johnson's friend, was the leading interpreter of 166 Stage History. the part from 1734 to 1776. He made many alterations of his own in the text, chief of which was the omission of the Graveyard Scene. During the later years of the eighteenth century appeared the actor who, in the opinion of many, was the greatest of all Hamlets — John Philip Kemble. He restored the original text. Other great names in the part are Edmund Kean (1787-1833) ; Wil- liam Charles Macready (i 793-1 873), a warm friend of Charles Dickens; Edwin Booth (1833-1893) ; Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905) ; and, in our own time. Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, whose interpretation, like that of Irving, aroused the strongest interest and enthusiasm in this country. Besides the great actors, there is a long roll of famous actresses who have taken the parts of Ophelia or the Queen. Best known of these is Mrs. Siddons, the sister of John Kemble. One reason for the enduring popularity of the play is stated clearly enough in the words of a recent writer : " Forget the critics and it will seem to you that all of us, in our degree, must have thought and suffered much like Hamlet. We should not have spoken so well, without Shakespeare's help, but dumbly or with groans we must have pursued those trains of thought. We also might have looked at the bright sky, and contrasted it with the sudden joylessness of life. Hamlet does this in a passage of such splendour as only Shakespeare could have lent him. But our 'sky' and his 'canopy' are one. We also might have thought of suicide, as Hamlet did, and dimly groped into the question of a Hereafter. Hamlet's language is again beyond us, but his thoughts are not. Hamlet is not an abnormally constituted man acting in 167 Appendix. an abnormal way. Hamlet is each one of us. He is abnormal only in his circumstances and in the scale on which he is drawn." ^ It is just such considerations as these which have made the part of Hamlet the goal of all great players, from Burbage to Forbes-Robertson. In its truth to life, not less than in its beautiful language and masterly dramatic quality, the play remains both for those who act and those who look on the greatest of all Shakespearian dramas. 1 G. L. Gordon. i68 Characters. COMMENTS ON THE CHARACTERS Here are a few paragraphs from famous critics of Shakespeare. They are arranged chronologically. You will note that the character of Hamlet has been discussed from the Restoration down to the present time, and that there is much difference of opinion as to what Shakespeare meant him to be. Hamlet 26 (May 1663). By water to the Royal Theatre; but that was so full they told us we could have no room. And so to the Duke's house; and there saw "Hamlet" done, giving us fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton. 31 (August 1668). To the Duke of York's playhouse, and saw "Hamlet," which we have not seen this year before, or more ; and mightily pleased with it, but above all with Betterton, the best part, I believe, that ever man acted. — Samuel Pepys, "Diary." Our old dramatic poet, Shakespeare, may witness for our good ear and manly relish. . . . By the justness of his moral, the aptness of many of his descriptions, and the plain and natural turn of many of his characters, he pleases his audience, and often gains their ear, without a single bribe from luxury or vice. That piece of his, the tragedy of Hamlet, which appears to have most affected English hearts, and has perhaps been oftenest acted of any which have come upon our stage, is almost one continued moral; a series of deep 169 Appendix. reflections, drawn from one mouth, upon the subject of one single accident and calamity, naturally fitted to move horror and compassion. ■ — Antony, Earl of Shaftesbury, ''Advice to an Author," 1710. Now I am come to mention Hamlet's madness, I must speak my opinion of our poet's conduct in this particular. To conform to the groundwork of his plot, Shakespeare makes the young prince feign himself mad. I cannot but think this to be injudicious ; for, so far from securing himself from any violence which he feared from the usurper, which was his design in so doing, it seems to have been the most lij^ely way of getting himself confined, and con- sequently debarred from an opportunity of revenging his father's death. To speak truth, our poet, by keeping too close to the groundwork of his plot, has fallen into an absurdity ; there appears to be no reason at all in nature why this young prince did not put the usurper to death as soon as possible, especially as Hamlet is represented as a youth so brave and so careless of his own life. The case, indeed, is this : had Hamlet gone naturally to work, there would have been an end of our play. The poet, therefore, was obliged to delay his hero's revenge. His beginning his scenes of madness by his behavior to Ophelia was judicious, because by this means he might be thought to be mad for her, and not that his brain was disturbed by state affairs, which would have been dangerous. Laertes' character is a very odd one ; it is not easy to say whether it is good or bad ; but his consenting to the villainous contrivance to murder Hamlet makes him much more a bad man than a good one. Surely, revenge for 170 Characters. such an accidental murder as that of his father could never justify him in any treacherous practices. It does not appear whether Ophelia's madness was chiefly for her father's death or for the loss of Hamlet. It is not often that young women run mad for the loss of their fathers. It is more natural to suppose that her great sorrow proceeded from her father being killed by the man she loved, and thereby making it impossible for her ever to marry him. — Sir Thomas Hanmer, "Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet," 1736. If the dramas of Shakespeare were to be characterized each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of " Hamlet " the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merri- ment and solemnity; with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and solemnity not strained above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from the Apparition, that in the First Act chills the blood with horror, to the Fop in the last, that exposes affection to just contempt. The conduct is perhaps not wholly secure against objections. The action is, indeed, for the niost part, 171 Appendix. in continual progression, but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the madman most when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty. — Dr. Samuel Johnson, ''The Plays of Shakespeare," 1765. Hamlet, at the command of his father's ghost, under- takes with seeming alacrity to revenge the murder ; and declares that he will banish all other thoughts from his mind. He makes, however, but one effort to keep his word, and that is when he mistakes Polonius for the King. On another occasion he defers his purpose until he can find an opportunity of taking his uncle when he is least prepared for death. Though he assassinated Polo- nius by accident, yet he deliberately secures the execu- tion of his school-fellows, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Their end, as he declares in a subsequent conversation with Horatio, gives him no concern, for they obtruded them- selves into his affairs and he thought he had a right to destroy them. From his brutal conduct towards Ophelia he is no less accountable for her distraction and death. He interrupts the funeral, at which both the King and Queen were present ; and, by such an outrage to decency, renders it still more necessary for the usurper to lay a second stratagem for his life, though the first had proved abortive. . . . Dr. Johnson has observed that to bring about a reconciliation with Laertes he has availed him- self of a dishonest fallacy ; and to conclude, it is obvious 172 Characters. to the most careless spectator or reader, that he kills the King at last to revenge himself, not his father. — George Steevens, "The Plays of William Shakespeare," 1778. Hamlet's conversation with Laertes immediately before the fencing-scene was at the Queen's earnest entreaty; and though Dr. Johnson be pleased to give it the harsh name of "a dishonest fallacy," there are better, because more natural, judges who consider it as a most gentle and pathetic address; certainly Hamlet did not intend the death of Polonius ; hence, unwittingly and by mere accident he injured Laertes, who declared that he was "satisfied in nature." Let the conduct and sentiments of Laertes in this interview and in his conversation with the usurper, together with his villainous design against the life of Hamlet, be examined and tried by any rules of honor or humanity, natural or artificial, and he must be considered as a treacherous, cowardly, diaboHcal wretch. — Joseph Ritson, "Remarks," 1783. 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 procedure, and 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. 173 Appendix. A beautiful, pure, 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 's holy to him — this too hard. The impossible is required of him, — not the impossible in itself, but the impossible to him. How he winds, turns, agonizes, advances, and recoils, ever reminded, ever reminding himself, and at last almost loses his purpose from his thoughts without ever again recovering his peace of mind, ... — J. W. VON Goethe, "Wilhelm Meister," 1795. 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 this tragedy presents a direct contrast to that of Macbeth ; the one proceeds with the utmost slowness, the other with a crowded and breathless rapidity. The effect of this overbalance of the imaginative power is beautifully illustrated in the everlasting broodings and superfluous activities of Hamlet's mind, which, unseated from its healthy relation, is constantly occupied with the world within, and abstracted from the world without, — giving substance to shadows, and throwing a mist over all commonplace actualities. It is the nature of thought to be indefinite ; — definiteness belongs to external imagery alone. Hamlet feels this ; his senses are in a state of trance, and he looks upon external things as hieroglyphics. His soliloquy — : O that this too too solid flesh would melt, etc., springs from that ciuving_aiter_ the_indefinite — -for that which is not — which most easily besets men of genius; 174 Characters. and the self-delusion common to this temper of mind is finely exemplified in the character which Hamlet gives of himself — It cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall To make oppression bitter. He mistakes the seeing his chains for the breaking of them, delays action till action is of no use, and dies the victim of mere circumstance and accident. — S. T. Coleridge, "Notes and Lectures on Shakespeare," 1808. Shakespeare wished to impress upon us the truth; that action is the chief end of existence, — that no facul- ties of intellect, however brilliant, can be considered valuable, or indeed otherwise than as misfortunes, if they withdraw us from, or render us repugnant to, action. In enforcing this moral truth, Shakespeare has shown the fulness and force of his powers; all that is amiable and excellent in nature is combined in Hamlet, with the exception of one quality. He is a man living in meditation, called upon to act by every motive human and divine, but the great object of his life is defeated by continually resolving to do, yet doing nothing but resolve. — S. T. Coleridge, "Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton," 1812. Consider "Hamlet" in whatsoever light you will, it stands quite alone, most peculiarly apart from any other play of Shakespeare's. A vast deal has been written upon the subject, and by a great number of commentators, by men born in different countries, educated after different fashions. We might hope to see a second Shakespeare, if the world 175 Appendix. had ever possessed a commentator worthy of "Hamlet." Such a man as Shakespeare imagined in him to whom his hero bequeathed the task to report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied. " Hamlet," to my mind, is essentially a psychological exer- cise and study. The hero, from whose acts and feelings everything in the drama takes its color and pursues its course, is doubtless insane. But the species of mental malady under which he suffers, is of the subtlest character. — William Maginn, "Shakespeare Papers," 1836. Hamlet himself has caused more of perplexity and dis- cussion than any other character in the whole range of art. The charm of his mind and person amounts to an almost universal fascination. One man considers him great, but wicked; another, good, but weak; a third, that he lacks courage and dares not act ; a fourth that he has too much intellect for his will, and so reflects away the time of action; some conclude that his madness is half genuine; others, that it is wholly feigned. Doubtless there are facts in the delineation which, considered by themselves, would sustain any one of these views; but none of them seems reconcilable with all of the facts taken together. Yet, notwithstanding this diversity of opinion all agree in thinking of Hamlet as an actual person. While all are impressed with the truth of the character, no one is satisfied with another's explanation of it. The question is, Why such unanimity as to his being a man, and at the same time such diversity of opinion as to what sort of man he is ? — H. N. Hudson, "Introduction to Hamlet," 1870. 176 Characters. The fact is, that Shakespeare never intended to represent Hamlet as mad or half mad or verging on madness. He expressly made him a feigner of madness, and vrhen he wished to create real madness and contrast it with feigned madness, he created the real madness of Ophelia and did it with wonderful truth and skill. There is not a trace of madness in Hamlet. . . . Fancy a mad doctor asked by Claudius or Polonius about Hamlet, hearing him say : "I could be bounded in a nutshell and think myself king of infinite space, had I not bad dreams." What would he say, shaking his foolish head? "Sire, with the deepest regret, I am of opinion that Prince Hamlet is suffering from cerebral disease, likely, at any moment, to become dangerous." But if Horatio were present, he would say: ''What an ass the man is! What does he know? The Prince has thought this and talked of the idea in it a hundred times at Wittenberg." . . . After all, the main question with regard to this matter is — not whether Hamlet was mad or half mad or not mad at all — but whether Shakespeare meant him to be mad — and to that there is but one answer possible. — Stopford Brooke, ''Ten More Plays of Shakespeare," 1913. So much has been written upon " Hamlet," that one can hardly descry the play through the rolhng cloud of wit- ness. The critical guns detonate with such uproar, and exploding, diffuse such quantities of gas, as to impose on us that, moral stupor which I understand to be one of the calculated effects of heavy artillery in warfare. The poor infantry-man discerns not in the din that half of these missiles are flying in one direction, half in another, 177 Appendix. still less how large a proportion of both hit no mark at all. He can scarcely command nerve for a steady look at the thing itself. This loud authority confuses us all. It starts us thinking of ''Hamlet," not as an acted play but as a mystery, a psychological study, an effort of genius so grandiose, vast, vague, amorphous, nebulous, that men of admitted genius — even such men as Coleridge and Goethe, — tracking it, have lost their way in the profound obscure. Now, with all the courage of humility, I say that this is, nine-tenths of it, rubbish. I insist that we take Shake- speare first, and before any of these imposing fellows. At all events, he wrote the play, and they did not. . . . It is never a test of the highest art that it is unintelligible. It is rather the last triumph of a masterpiece — the triumph definitely passing it for a classic — that all men in their degree can understand and enjoy it. . . . Do we, knowing Shakespeare, suppose that he wrote the long- est of his plays to hide what he meant ? It is Ophelia who first brings word of Hamlet's derange- ment ; and we note how her old dotard of a father jumps at each piece of evidence, accepting with fresh glee what- ever confirms his wrong conclusion, until he can hold his delighted folly no longer. Come, go with me : I will go seek the king. This is the very ecstasy of love ! We note, moreover, that in deahng with all such compla- cent fools — not only Polonius, but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern — Hamlet deliberately and with rehsh enacts the madman. We watch him tucking his arm under Polonius's and drawing him aside : 178 ^ Characters. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel? . . . But he never talks Hke that to the sane man, Horatio. Horatio knows; Gertrude, his mother, knows too. . . . No, Hamlet is sane. Considering the shock he has undergone, we may almost say there was never man saner. — Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, "Notes on Shakespeare's Workmanship," 191 7. Other Characters Of the character of Ophelia, and the situation which she holds in the action of the play, I need say little. Every- thing about her is young, beautiful, artless, innocent, and touching. She comes before us in striking contrast to the Queen, who, fallen as she is, feels the influence of her simple and happy purity. Amid the frivolity, flattery, fawning, and artifice of a corrupted court, she moves in all the unpolluted loveliness of nature. But we feel from the first that her lot is to be mournful. The world in which she lives is not worthy of her and soon, as we connect her destiny with Hamlet, we know that darkness is to overshadow her, and that sadness and sorrow will step in between her and the ghost-haunted avenger of his father's murder. Perhaps the description of her death by the Queen is poetical rather than dramatic ; but its exquisite beauty prevails, and OpheHa, dying and dead, is the same Ophelia that first won our love. She has passed away from the earth like a beautiful air — a delightful dream. There would have been no place for her in the agitation and tempest of the final catastrophe. — Thomas Campbell, "Letters on Shakespeare," 1818. 179 Appendix. Neglected had Ophelia been by one and all, — all but Horatio, that noble soul of unpretending worth, and he knew not what ailed her till she was past all cure. He it is who feelingly, and poetically, and truly describes th^ maniac ; he it is who brings her in ; he it is who follows her away, — dumb all the while ! And who with right soul but must have been speechless amidst these gentle ravings ? — Thomas Campbell, " Blackwood's Magazine," 1833. From the first we have a sense of a most pathetic or- phaned loneliness about Ophelia. Throughout, she has no one to turn to, no woman to give her advice. (For let us note that, unlike many another heroine of Shake- speare's, she is not even allowed a waiting-maid. Save the Queen, there is no other woman in the play-bill. And what kind of help or advice could such a woman as the Queen give?) On the other hand, of male admonition. — of advice which is precisely the kind of advice she does not want — the poor child gets enough and to spare. Her brother has no sooner gone than her father turns on her and reads her another lecture — reams of worldly counsel, all withered, conventional. Poor Ophelia ! If Laertes and Polonius seem (and are) tedious as well as conventional, may we not recognize that Shakespeare deliberately made them so ? In this Court of Denmark an abyss of horror has been half-opened to us. Earth has parted, and for a moment given up its dead; has shut again not yet surrendering the secret. . . . On the stage . . . these two courtiers, father and son, prate saws on the proper conduct of life, meaningless as they 180 Characters. are wise ; batter them on the brain of a helpless girl. . . . She, a helpless victim, is being prated to her doom by father and brother, the only two in the world she might naturally have counted on for help. — Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, "Notes on Shakespeare's Workmanship," 191 7. Horatio is one of the very noblest and most beautiful of Shakespeare's characters; and there is not a single loose stitch in his make-up ; he is at all times superbly self-contained ; he feels deeply, but never gushes nor runs over ; a most manly soul, full alike of strength, tenderness, and solidity. But he moves so quietly in the drama that his rare traits of character have hardly had justice done them. Should we undertake to go through the play with- out him, we might feel then how much of the best spirit and impression of the scenes is owing to his presence. He is the medium whereby many of the hero's finest and noblest qualities are conveyed to us, yet himself so clear and simple and transparent that he scarcely catches the attention. . . . The great charm of Horatio's unselfish- ness is that he seems not to be himself in the least aware of it ; "as one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing." His mild scepticism at first, "touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us," is exceedingly graceful and scholarly. And indeed all that comes from him marks the presence of a calm, clear head, keeping touch and time perfectly with a good heart. — ^ H. N. Hudson, "Introduction to Hamlet," 1870. 181 Appendix. FAMILIAR PASSAGES IN "HAMLET" When you first take a play of Shakespeare's in hand, you soon begin to have the feehng that you have read this before, though you know you have not. The fact is, Shakespeare expressed the general mind and common feeling of us all in phrases so packed with meaning, so full of insight into human nature, so happy in figure and choice of words, that we have adopted them and added them to our stock of everyday language. Only the Bible has contributed more of these stock phrases to modern Enghsh speech. The result is that, without knowing it, we are constantly quoting words and even whole lines from Shakespeare's plays, as, for instance, when we speak of ''the king's Enghsh," "sweets to the sweet," "much virtue in If," "at a pin's fee," "what's in a name?" "brevity is the soul of wit," "last, but not least," "every inch a king," "the tyrant custom," "single blessedness," "as easy as lying," "the short and the long of it," "a lion among ladies," "for ever and a day," "give the devil his due," "in my mind's eye," "the game is up," "forget and forgive," "cudgel thy brains," "what's done is done," "the pink of courtesy," "parting is such sweet sorrow," "I '11 not budge an inch," etc. With the exception of "The Merchant of Venice" and "Macbeth," probably none of the plays has con- 182 Familiar Passages. tributed more familiar phrases to our speech to-day than ' ' Hamlet . ' ' Here are some of the most important . Others may be found in Bartlett's ''Familiar Quotations." It will interest you to try to place them by recalling when and where and by whom they wer2 spoken. How many of them had you heard of before you studied the play? 1. For this relief much thanks. 2. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad. Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. 3. A little more than kin, and less than kind. 4. Customary suits of solemn black. 5. O, that this too too soHd flesh would melt. 6. How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world ! 7. Hyperion to a satyr. 8. Frailty, thy name is woman ! 9. Thrift, thrift, Horatio ! the funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. 10. In my mind's eye. 11. He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again. In the dead vast and middle of the night. More in sorrow than in anger. Sweet, not lasting. The primrose path of dalliance. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel. Rich not gaudy. Neither a borrower nor a lender be. 183 Appendix. 19. To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. 20. To the manner born. 21. More honoured in the breach than the observance. 22. I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul. 23. The secrets of my prison house. 24. Sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head. 25. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. 26. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 27. The time is out of joint : O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right. 28. Brevity is the soul of wit. 29. 'T is true 't is pity ; And pity 't is 't is true. 30. Caviare to the general. 31. Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. 32. There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. 33. The play 's the thing. 34. The devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape. 35. To be, or not to be ; that is the question. 36. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. 37. The thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 38. 'T is a consummation Devoutly to be wished. 184 Familiar Passages. Ay, there 's the rub. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. The whips and scorns of time. The insolence of office. The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns. 44. Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all. 45. Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. 46. The glass of fashion and the mould of form, The observed of all observers. 47. Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh. 48. Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung. 49. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. Frighted with false fire ? They fool me to the top of my bent. I will speak daggers to her, but will use none. O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven. Dead, for a ducat, dead ! Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. 56. I must be cruel, only to be kind. 57. 'T is the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petar. 58. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. 59. There 's such divinity doth hedge a king. That treason can but peep to what it would. 60. There is pansies, that 's for thoughts. 61. Sweets to the sweet : farewell ! 62. The cat will mew and dog will have his day. 63. There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. 18s Appendix. 64. There 's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. 65. If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from feUcity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain To tell my story. 66. The rest is silence. 186 WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT SHAKESPEARE The facts that we know with absolute certainty about William Shakespeare can be given in a few meagre para- graphs. Some bare, prosaic records in Strat- ford and in the Stationers' Register in Lon- known don, a few signatures, a will, a deed or two, about an application for a coat-of-arms, an occasional Shake- . . speare. mention of his name in court proceedings, in lists of actors, and in the works of fellow authors, — this is about all we have as the basis for a life of one of the greatest men that the world has produced. Traditions and quaint fanciful stories exist, as we might expect, in infinite number and variety. Many of these date back to the poet's own time, and therefore may have in them at least an element of truth. By far the greater number, however, gained popularity nearly a century after his death, when the curiosity of an age intensely interested in the drama began to look back and talk about the most marvellous of all the makers of plays. Few of these later traditions can be relied upon. Yet from the few scrappy facts that we have, supplemented by the earUer legends, and above all by a study of the plays themselves, it is possible to make a story of the poet's life, which, though by no means complete, is full enough to give us a fairly clear understanding of his growth in fame and business prosperity, and his development as a dramatist. It is not strange that we know so Uttle about Shake- speare. His age was not one of biographical writing. To-day a man of not one tenth part of his genius is be- sought by reporters for interviews concerning his life ; 187 Appendix. he is persuaded by admiring friends to write his mem- oirs ; as his end approaches, every important newspaper „„ in the land has an article of several columns Why we know so ready to print the instant that word of his death little about comes over the wire. Three hundred and fifty Shake- years ago nothing of this kind was possible. Newspapers and magazines, genealogies and contemporary history did not exist. Encyclopaedias, dic- tionaries of names, directories, "blue-books," and volumes of " Who's Who " had not been dreamed of. Personal cor- respondence was meagre, and what few letters were written seldom were preserved. Above all, a taste for reading the lives of men had not been formed. In fact, it was not until fifty years after Shakespeare's time that the art of biograph- ical writing in England was really born. When we remem- ber, in addition to these facts, that actors and playwrights then held a distinctly inferior position in society, and by the growing body of Puritans were looked upon with con- tempt and extreme disfavor, it is not surprising that no special heed was paid to the life of Shakespeare. On the contrary, it is astonishing that we know as much as we do about him, — fully as much as we know about most of the writers of his time, and even of many who lived much later. In the records of the i6th century there are numer- ous references to Shakespeares living in the midland _,, , counties of England, especially in Warwick- father, John shire. For the most part, they seem to have Shake- been substantial yeomen and plain farmers of speare. sound practical sense rather than men of learn- ing or culture. Some of them owned land and prospered. Such a one was John Shakespeare, who moved to Strat- i88 Shakespeare's Life. ford-on- Avon about 1550 and became a dealer in malt and corn, meat, wool, and leather. He is referred to some- times as a glover and a butcher. Probably he was both, and dealt besides in all the staples that farmers about the village produced and brought to market to sell. The fact that he could not write, which was nothing unusual among men of his station in the i6th century, did not prevent his prospering in business. For more than twenty years after the earliest mention of his name in the Stratford records, he is spoken of frequently and always in a way to show us that his financial standing in the community was steadily increasing. He seems also to have been a man of affairs. From one office to another he rose until in 1568 he held the position of High Bailiff, or Mayor of Stratford. Eleven years earlier his fortunes had been increased by his marriage to Mary Arden, the daughter of a prosperous farmer of the neighboring village of Wilmcote, who be- queathed to his daughter a house, with fifty acres of land, and a considerable sum of money. It is not fair, there- fore, to speak of the father of William Shakespeare, as some have done, as " an uneducated peasant," or as "a provincial shopkeeper." At the time of the birth of his illustrious son he was one of the most prominent men in Stratford, decidedly well-to-do, respected and trusted by all. The year before John Shakespeare brought his bride from Wilmcote to Stratford-on-Avon, he had purchased a house in Henley Street, and there he and „^ ^ ^ ' The house his wife were living when their children were j^ which born. It was a cottage two stories high, with Shake- dormer windows, and of timber and plaster spearewas born, construction. Though frequently repaired and built over during the three hundred and fifty years that 189 Appendix. have passed, it still remains in general appearance much the same as it looked in 1556. Simple, crude, plain, — it is nevertheless the most famous house in England, if not in the world. Noted men and women from all parts of the earth have visited Stratford to see it. Essays, stories, and poems have been written about it. Preserved in the care of the Memorial Society, it is the shrine of the liter- ary pilgrim and the Mecca of tourists who flock during the summer to the quaint old village on the Avon. For here, in a small bare room on the second floor, William Shakespeare was born. How little we know of Shakespeare, compared with even a minor poet of the 19th century, is shown by the T\ 4. * 4.1, f ^ct that we are not certain of the exact date Date of tne poet's birth, on which the greatest of all poets was born. April 23, . The records of Holy Trinity Church in Strat- ford show that the child was baptized on April 26, 1564, and since it was the custom at that time for the baptism of children to take place on the third day after birth, it has been generally agreed that William was born on April 23, and that date is celebrated as his birthday. Tradition tells us, and probably truthfully, that it was also on this date, April 23, in 1616, that he died. Of the poet's boyhood we know next to nothing. It is a mistake, however, to assume that he lacked educational opportunities. There was in Stratford an ex- ^ ®" cellent free Grammar School such as a bailiff's speare's boyhood son would attend, and to which it is reasonable and school- to suppose that the boy was sent. Here he i^lV^^''^^" st"