The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 14

[Footnote 8: --in appeal to G.o.d whether he had not loved his father.]

[Footnote 9: The horror still acc.u.mulates. The knowledge of evil--not evil in the abstract, but evil alive, and all about him--comes darkening down upon Hamlet's being. Not only is his father an inhabitant of the nether fires, but he is there by murder.]

[Page 52]

As meditation, or the thoughts of Loue, May sweepe to my Reuenge.[1]

_Ghost._ I finde thee apt, And duller should'st thou be then the fat weede[2]

[Sidenote: 194] That rots it selfe in ease, on Lethe Wharfe,[4]

[Sidenote: rootes[3]]

Would'st thou not stirre in this. Now _Hamlet_ heare: It's giuen out, that sleeping in mine Orchard, [Sidenote: 'Tis]

A Serpent stung me: so the whole eare of Denmarke, Is by a forged processe of my death Rankly abus'd: But know thou n.o.ble youth, The Serpent that did sting thy Fathers life, Now weares his Crowne.

[Sidenote: 30,32] _Ham._ O my Propheticke soule: mine Vncle?[5]

[Sidenote: my]

_Ghost._ I that incestuous, that adulterate Beast[6]

With witchcraft of his wits, hath Traitorous guifts.

[Sidenote: wits, with]

Oh wicked Wit, and Gifts, that haue the power So to seduce? Won to to this shamefull l.u.s.t [Sidenote: wonne to his]

The will of my most seeming vertuous Queene: Oh _Hamlet_, what a falling off was there, [Sidenote: what failing]

From me, whose loue was of that dignity, That it went hand in hand, euen with[7] the Vow I made to her in Marriage; and to decline Vpon a wretch, whose Naturall gifts were poore To those of mine. But Vertue, as it neuer wil be moued, Though Lewdnesse court it in a shape of Heauen: So l.u.s.t, though to a radiant Angell link'd, [Sidenote: so but though]

Will sate it selfe in[8] a Celestiall bed, and prey on Garbage.[9]

[Sidenote: Will sort it selfe]

But soft, me thinkes I sent the Mornings Ayre; [Sidenote: morning ayre,]

Briefe let me be: Sleeping within mine Orchard, [Sidenote: my]

My custome alwayes in the afternoone; [Sidenote: of the]

Vpon my secure hower thy Vncle stole

[Footnote 1: Now, _for the moment_, he has no doubt, and vengeance is his first thought.]

[Footnote 2: Hamlet may be supposed to recall this, if we suppose him afterwards to accuse himself so bitterly and so unfairly as in the _Quarto_, 194.]

[Footnote 3: Also _1st Q_.]

[Footnote 4: landing-place on the bank of Lethe, the h.e.l.l-river of oblivion.]

[Footnote 5: This does not mean that he had suspected his uncle, but that his dislike to him was prophetic.]

[Footnote 6: How can it be doubted that in this speech the Ghost accuses his wife and brother of adultery? Their marriage was not adultery. See how the ghastly revelation grows on Hamlet--his father in h.e.l.l--murdered by his brother--dishonoured by his wife!]

[Footnote 7: _parallel with; correspondent to_.]

[Footnote 8: _1st Q_. 'fate itself from a'.]

[Footnote 9: This pa.s.sage, from 'Oh _Hamlet_,' most indubitably a.s.serts the adultery of Gertrude.]

[Page 54]

With iuyce of cursed Hebenon[1] in a Violl, [Sidenote: Hebona]

And in the Porches of mine eares did poure [Sidenote: my]

The leaperous Distilment;[2] whose effect Holds such an enmity with bloud of Man, That swift as Quick-siluer, it courses[3] through The naturall Gates and Allies of the Body; And with a sodaine vigour it doth posset [Sidenote: doth possesse]

And curd, like Aygre droppings into Milke, [Sidenote: eager[4]]

The thin and wholsome blood: so did it mine; And a most instant Tetter bak'd about, [Sidenote: barckt about[5]]

Most Lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth Body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a Brothers hand, Of Life, of Crowne, and Queene at once dispatcht; [Sidenote: of Queene]

[Sidenote: 164] Cut off euen in the Blossomes of my Sinne, Vnhouzzled, disappointed, vnnaneld,[6] [Sidenote: Vnhuzled, vnanueld,]

[Sidenote: 262] No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head; Oh horrible, Oh horrible, most horrible: If thou hast nature in thee beare it not; Let not the Royall Bed of Denmarke be A Couch for Luxury and d.a.m.ned Incest.[7]

But howsoeuer thou pursuest this Act, [Sidenote: howsomeuer thou pursues]

[Sidenote: 30,174] Taint not thy mind; nor let thy Soule contriue [Sidenote: 140] Against thy Mother ought; leaue her to heauen, And to those Thornes that in her bosome lodge, To p.r.i.c.ke and sting her. Fare thee well at once; The Glow-worme showes the Matine to be neere, And gins to pale his vneffectuall Fire: Adue, adue, _Hamlet_: remember me. _Exit_.

[Sidenote: Adiew, adiew, adiew, remember me.[8]]

_Ham._ Oh all you host of Heauen! Oh Earth: what els?

And shall I couple h.e.l.l?[9] Oh fie[10]: hold my heart; [Sidenote: hold, hold my]

And you my sinnewes, grow not instant Old;

[Footnote 1: Ebony.]

[Footnote 2: _producing leprosy_--as described in result below.]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. 'posteth'.]

[Footnote 4: So also _1st Q_.]

[Footnote 5: This _barckt_--meaning _cased as a bark cases its tree_--is used in _1st Q_. also: 'And all my smoothe body, barked, and tetterd ouer.' The word is so used in Scotland still.]

[Footnote 6: _Husel (Anglo-Saxon)_ is _an offering, the sacrament.

Disappointed, not appointed_: Dr. Johnson. _Unaneled, unoiled, without the extreme unction_.]

[Footnote 7: It is on public grounds, as a king and a Dane, rather than as a husband and a murdered man, that he urges on his son the execution of justice. Note the tenderness towards his wife that follows--more marked, 174; here it is mingled with predominating regard to his son to whose filial nature he dreads injury.]

[Footnote 8: _Q_. omits _Exit_.]

[Footnote 9: He must: his father is there!]

[Footnote 10: The interjection is addressed to _heart_ and _sinews_, which forget their duty.]

[Page 56]

But beare me stiffely vp: Remember thee?[1] [Sidenote: swiftly vp]

I, thou poore Ghost, while memory holds a seate [Sidenote: whiles]

In this distracted Globe[2]: Remember thee?

Yea, from the Table of my Memory,[3]

Ile wipe away all triuiall fond Records, All sawes[4] of Bookes, all formes, all presures past, That youth and obseruation coppied there; And thy Commandment all alone shall liue Within the Booke and Volume of my Braine, Vnmixt with baser matter; yes, yes, by Heauen: [Sidenote: matter, yes by]

[Sidenote: 168] Oh most pernicious woman![5]

Oh Villaine, Villaine, smiling d.a.m.ned Villaine!

My Tables, my Tables; meet it is I set it downe,[6]

[Sidenote: My tables, meet]

That one may smile, and smile and be a Villaine; At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmarke; [Sidenote: I am]