The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 17

[Footnote A: Roger Ascham, in his _Scholemaster_, if I mistake not, sets the age, up to which a man should be under tutors, at twenty-nine.]

[Footnote 1: 'Sweare' _not in Quarto_.]

[Footnote 2: They do not this time shift their ground, but swear--in dumb show.]

[Footnote 3: --for now they had obeyed his command and sworn secrecy.]

[Footnote 4: 'cursed spight'--not merely that he had been born to do hangman's work, but that he should have been born at all--of a mother whose crime against his father had brought upon him the wretched necessity which must proclaim her ignominy. Let the student do his best to realize the condition of Hamlet's heart and mind in relation to his mother.]

[Footnote: 5 This first act occupies part of a night, a day, and part of the next night.]

[Page 64]

ACTUS SECUNDUS.[1]

_Enter Polonius, and Reynoldo._ [Sidenote: _Enter old Polonius, with his man, or two._]

_Polon._ Giue him his money, and these notes _Reynoldo_.[2]

[Sidenote: this money]

_Reynol._ I will my Lord.

_Polon._ You shall doe maruels wisely: good _Reynoldo_, [Sidenote: meruiles]

Before you visite him you make inquiry [Sidenote: him, to make inquire]

Of his behauiour.[3]

_Reynol._ My Lord, I did intend it.

_Polon._ Marry, well said; Very well said. Looke you Sir, Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris; And how, and who; what meanes; and where they keepe: What company, at what expence: and finding By this encompa.s.s.e.m.e.nt and drift of question, That they doe know my sonne: Come you more neerer[4]

Then your particular demands will touch it, Take you as 'twere some distant knowledge of him, And thus I know his father and his friends, [Sidenote: As thus]

And in part him. Doe you marke this _Reynoldo_?

_Reynol._ I, very well my Lord.

_Polon._ And in part him, but you may say not well; But if't be hee I meane, hees very wilde; Addicted so and so; and there put on him What forgeries you please: marry, none so ranke, As may dishonour him; take heed of that: But Sir, such wanton, wild, and vsuall slips, As are Companions noted and most knowne To youth and liberty.

[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto._

Between this act and the former, sufficient time has pa.s.sed to allow the amba.s.sadors to go to Norway and return: 74. See 138, and what Hamlet says of the time since his father's death, 24, by which together the interval _seems_ indicated as about two months, though surely so much time was not necessary.

Cause and effect _must_ be truly presented; time and s.p.a.ce are mere accidents, and of small consequence in the drama, whose very idea is compression for the sake of presentation. All that is necessary in regard to time is, that, either by the act-pause, or the intervention of a fresh scene, the pa.s.sing of it should be indicated.

This second act occupies the forenoon of one day.]

[Footnote 2: _1st Q._

_Montano_, here, these letters to my sonne, And this same mony with my blessing to him, And bid him ply his learning good _Montano_.]

[Footnote 3: The father has no confidence in the son, and rightly, for both are unworthy: he turns on him the cunning of the courtier, and sends a spy on his behaviour. The looseness of his own principles comes out very clear in his anxieties about his son; and, having learned the ideas of the father as to what becomes a gentleman, we are not surprised to find the son such as he afterwards shows himself. Till the end approaches, we hear no more of Laertes, nor is more necessary; but without this scene we should have been unprepared for his vileness.]

[Footnote 4: _Point thus_: 'son, come you more nearer; then &c.' The _then_ here does not stand for _than_, and to change it to _than_ makes at once a contradiction. The sense is: 'Having put your general questions first, and been answered to your purpose, then your particular demands will come in, and be of service; they will reach to the point--_will touch it_.' The _it_ is impersonal. After it should come a period.]

[Page 66]

_Reynol._ As gaming my Lord.

_Polon._ I, or drinking, fencing, swearing, Quarelling, drabbing. You may goe so farre.

_Reynol._ My Lord that would dishonour him.

_Polon._ Faith no, as you may season it in the charge;[1]

[Sidenote: Fayth as you]

You must not put another scandall on him, That hee is open to Incontinencie;[2]

That's not my meaning: but breath his faults so quaintly, That they may seeme the taints of liberty; The flash and out-breake of a fiery minde, A sauagenes in vnreclaim'd[3] bloud of generall a.s.sault.[4]

_Reynol._ But my good Lord.[5]

_Polon._ Wherefore should you doe this?[6]

_Reynol._ I my Lord, I would know that.

_Polon._ Marry Sir, heere's my drift, And I belieue it is a fetch of warrant:[7] [Sidenote: of wit,]

You laying these slight sulleyes[8] on my Sonne, [Sidenote: sallies[8]]

As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'th'working: [Sidenote: soiled with working,]

Marke you your party in conuerse; him you would sound, Hauing euer seene. In the prenominate crimes, [Sidenote: seene in the]

The youth you breath of guilty, be a.s.sur'd He closes with you in this consequence: Good sir, or so, or friend, or Gentleman.

According to the Phrase and the Addition,[9] [Sidenote: phrase or the]

Of man and Country.

_Reynol._ Very good my Lord.

_Polon._ And then Sir does he this?

[Sidenote: doos a this a doos, what was _I_]

He does: what was I about to say?

I was about to say somthing: where did I leaue?

[Sidenote: By the ma.s.se I was]

_Reynol._ At closes in the consequence: At friend, or so, and Gentleman.[10]

[Footnote 1: _1st Q._

I faith not a whit, no not a whit,

As you may bridle it not disparage him a iote.]