The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 38

_Ham._ They are comming to the Play: I must [Sidenote: 60, 156, 178] be idle.[7] Get you a place.

_King._ How fares our Cosin _Hamlet_?

_Ham._ Excellent Ifaith, of the Camelions dish: [Sidenote: 154] I eate the Ayre promise-cramm'd,[8] you cannot feed Capons so.[9]

_King._ I haue nothing with this answer _Hamlet_, these words are not mine.[10]

_Ham._ No, nor mine. Now[11] my Lord, you plaid once i'th'Vniuersity, you say?

_Polon._ That I did my Lord, and was accounted [Sidenote: did I]

a good Actor.

[Footnote 1: Here follows in _1st Q._

Marke thou the King, doe but obserue his lookes, For I mine eies will riuet to his face: [Sidenote: 112] And if he doe not bleach, and change at that, It is a d.a.m.ned ghost that we haue seene.

_Horatio_, haue a care, obserue him well.

_Hor_. My lord, mine eies shall still be on his face, And not the smallest alteration That shall appeare in him, but I shall note it.]

[Footnote 2: I take 'my' to be right: 'watch my uncle with the comment--the discriminating judgment, that is--of _my_ soul, more intent than thine.']

[Footnote 3: He has then, ere this, taken Horatio into his confidence--so far at least as the Ghost's communication concerning the murder.]

[Footnote 4: a dissyllable: _st.i.thy_, _anvil_; Scotch, _studdy_.

Hamlet's doubt is here very evident: he hopes he may find it a false ghost: what good man, what good son would not? He has clear cause and reason--it is his duty to delay. That the cause and reason and duty are not invariably clear to Hamlet himself--not clear in every mood, is another thing. Wavering conviction, doubt of evidence, the corollaries of a.s.surance, the oppression of misery, a sense of the worthlessness of the world's whole economy--each demanding delay, might yet well, all together, affect the man's feeling as mere causes of rather than reasons for hesitation. The conscientiousness of Hamlet stands out the clearer that, throughout, his dislike to his uncle, predisposing him to believe any ill of him, is more than evident. By his incompetent or prejudiced judges, Hamlet's accusations and justifications of himself are equally placed to the _discredit_ of his account. They seem to think a man could never accuse himself except he were in the wrong; therefore if ever he excuses himself, he is the more certainly in the wrong: whatever point may tell on the other side, it is to be disregarded.]

[Footnote 5: 'bring our two judgments together for comparison.']

[Footnote 6: 'in order to judge of the significance of his looks and behaviour.']

[Footnote 7: Does he mean _foolish_, that is, _lunatic_? or _insouciant_, and _unpreoccupied_?]

[Footnote 8: The king asks Hamlet how he _fares_--that is, how he gets on; Hamlet pretends to think he has asked him about his diet. His talk has at once become wild; ere the king enters he has donned his cloak of madness. Here he confesses to ambition--will favour any notion concerning himself rather than give ground for suspecting the real state of his mind and feeling.

In the _1st Q._ 'the Camelions dish' almost appears to mean the play, not the king's promises.]

[Footnote 9: In some places they push food down the throats of the poultry they want to fatten, which is technically, I believe, called _cramming_ them.]

[Footnote 10: 'You have not taken me with you; I have not laid hold of your meaning; I have nothing by your answer.' 'Your words have not become my property; they have not given themselves to me in their meaning.']

[Footnote 11: _Point thus_: 'No, nor mine now.--My Lord,' &c. '--not mine, now I have uttered them, for so I have given them away.' Or does he mean to disclaim their purport?]

[Page 138]

_Ham._ And[1] what did you enact?

_Pol._ I did enact _Iulius Caesar_, I was kill'd i'th'Capitol: _Brutus_ kill'd me.

_Ham._ It was a bruite part of him, to kill so Capitall a Calfe there.[2] Be the Players ready?

_Rosin._ I my Lord, they stay vpon your patience.

_Qu._ Come hither my good _Hamlet_, sit by me. [Sidenote: my deere]

_Ham._ No good Mother, here's Mettle more attractiue.[3]

_Pol._ Oh ho, do you marke that?[4]

_Ham._ Ladie, shall I lye in your Lap?

_Ophe._ No my Lord.

_Ham._ I meane, my Head vpon your Lap?[5]

_Ophe._ I my Lord.[6]

_Ham._ Do you thinke I meant Country[7] matters?

_Ophe._ I thinke nothing, my Lord.

_Ham._ That's a faire thought to ly between Maids legs.

_Ophe._ What is my Lord?

_Ham._ Nothing.

_Ophe._ You are merrie, my Lord?

_Ham._ Who I?

_Ophe._ I my Lord.[8]

_Ham._ Oh G.o.d, your onely Iigge-maker[9]: what should a man do, but be merrie. For looke you how cheerefully my Mother lookes, and my Father dyed within's two Houres.

[Sidenote: 65] _Ophe._ Nay, 'tis twice two moneths, my Lord.[10]

_Ham._ So long? Nay then let the Diuel weare [Sidenote: 32] blacke, for Ile haue a suite of Sables.[11] Oh Heauens! dye two moneths ago, and not forgotten yet?[12] Then there's hope, a great mans Memorie, may out-liue his life halfe a yeare: But byrlady [Sidenote: ber Lady a]

he must builde Churches then: or else shall he [Sidenote: shall a]

[Footnote 1: 'And ' _not in Q._]

[Footnote 2: Emphasis on _there_. 'There' is not in _1st Q._ Hamlet means it was a desecration of the Capitol.]

[Footnote 3: He cannot be familiar with his mother, so avoids her--will not sit by her, cannot, indeed, bear to be near her. But he loves and hopes in Ophelia still.]

[Footnote 4: '--Did I not tell you so?']

[Footnote 5: This speech and the next are not in the _Q._, but are shadowed in the _1st Q._]