The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 44

_Polon_. My Lord; the Queene would speak with you, and presently.

_Ham_. Do you see that Clowd? that's almost in [Sidenote: yonder clowd]

shape like a Camell. [Sidenote: shape of a]

_Polon_. By'th'Misse, and it's like a Camell [Sidenote: ma.s.se and tis,]

indeed.

_Ham_. Me thinkes it is like a Weazell.

_Polon_. It is back'd like a Weazell.

_Ham_. Or like a Whale?[3]

_Polon_. Verie like a Whale.[4]

_Ham_. Then will I come to my Mother, by and by: [Sidenote: I will]

[Sidenote: 60, 136, 178] They foole me to the top of my bent.[5]

I will come by and by.

[Footnote 1: --with allusion to the _frets_ or _stop-marks_ of a stringed instrument.]

[Footnote 2: --_to Polonius_.]

[Footnote 3: There is nothing insanely arbitrary in these suggestions of likeness; a cloud might very well be like every one of the three; the camel has a hump, the weasel humps himself, and the whale is a hump.]

[Footnote 4: He humours him in everything, as he would a madman.]

[Footnote 5: Hamlet's cleverness in simulating madness is dwelt upon in the old story. See '_Hystorie of Hamblet, prince of Denmarke_.']

[Page 158]

_Polon_.[1] I will say so. _Exit_.[1]

_Ham_.[1] By and by, is easily said. Leaue me Friends: 'Tis now the verie witching time of night, When Churchyards yawne, and h.e.l.l it selfe breaths out [Sidenote: brakes[2]]

Contagion to this world.[3] Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter businesse as the day [Sidenote: such busines as the bitter day]

Would quake to looke on.[4] Soft now, to my Mother: Oh Heart, loose not thy Nature;[5] let not euer The Soule of _Nero_[6] enter this firme bosome: Let me be cruell, not vnnaturall.

[Sidenote: 172] I will speake Daggers[7] to her, but vse none: [Sidenote: dagger]

My Tongue and Soule in this be Hypocrites.[8]

How in my words someuer she be shent,[9]

To giue them Seales,[10] neuer my Soule consent.[4]

[Sidenote: _Exit._]

_Enter King, Rosincrance, and Guildensterne_.

_King_. I like him not, nor stands it safe with vs, To let his madnesse range.[11] Therefore prepare you, [Sidenote: 167] I your Commission will forthwith dispatch,[12]

[Sidenote: 180] And he to England shall along with you: The termes of our estate, may not endure[13]

Hazard so dangerous as doth hourely grow [Sidenote: so neer's as]

Out of his Lunacies. [Sidenote: his browes.]

_Guild_. We will our selues prouide: Most holie and Religious feare it is[14]

To keepe those many many bodies safe That liue and feede vpon your Maiestie.[15]

_Rosin_. The single And peculiar[16] life is bound With all the strength and Armour of the minde,

[Footnote 1: The _Quarto_, not having _Polon., Exit, or Ham._, and arranging differently, reads thus:--

They foole me to the top of my bent, I will come by and by, Leaue me friends.

I will, say so. By and by is easily said, Tis now the very &c.]

[Footnote 2: _belches_.]

[Footnote 3: --thinking of what the Ghost had told him, perhaps: it was the time when awful secrets wander about the world. Compare _Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 1; also act iii. sc. 2.]

[Footnote 4: The a.s.surance of his uncle's guilt, gained through the effect of the play upon him, and the corroboration of his mother's guilt by this partial confirmation of the Ghost's a.s.sertion, have once more stirred in Hamlet the fierceness of vengeance. But here afresh comes out the balanced nature of the man--say rather, the supremacy in him of reason and will. His dear soul, having once become mistress of his choice, remains mistress for ever. He _could_ drink hot blood, he _could_ do bitter business, but he will carry himself as a son, and the son of his father, _ought_ to carry himself towards a guilty mother--_mother_ although guilty.]

[Footnote 5: Thus he girds himself for the harrowing interview. Aware of the danger he is in of forgetting his duty to his mother, he strengthens himself in filial righteousness, dreading to what word or deed a burst of indignation might drive him. One of his troubles now is the way he feels towards his mother.]

[Footnote 6: --who killed his mother.]

[Footnote 7: His words should be as daggers.]

[Footnote 8: _Pretenders_.]

[Footnote 9: _reproached_ or _rebuked_--though oftener _scolded_.]

[Footnote 10: 'to seal them with actions'--Actions are the seals to words, and make them irrevocable.]

[Footnote 11: _walk at liberty_.]

[Footnote 12: _get ready_.]

[Footnote 13: He had, it would appear, taken them into his confidence in the business; they knew what was to be in their commission, and were thorough traitors to Hamlet.]

[Footnote 14: --holy and religious precaution for the sake of the many depending on him.]

[Footnote 15: Is there not unconscious irony of their own parasitism here intended?]

[Footnote 16: _private individual_.]

[Page 160]

To keepe it selfe from noyance:[1] but much more, That Spirit, vpon whose spirit depends and rests [Sidenote: whose weale depends]

The lives of many, the cease of Maiestie [Sidenote: cesse]

Dies not alone;[2] but like a Gulfe doth draw What's neere it, with it. It is a ma.s.sie wheele [Sidenote: with it, or it is]

Fixt on the Somnet of the highest Mount, To whose huge Spoakes, ten thousand lesser things [Sidenote: hough spokes]

Are mortiz'd and adioyn'd: which when it falles, Each small annexment, pettie consequence Attends the boystrous Ruine. Neuer alone [Sidenote: raine,]

Did the King sighe, but with a generall grone. [Sidenote: but a[3]]

_King._[4] Arme you,[5] I pray you to this speedie Voyage; [Sidenote: viage,]