The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 50

[Footnote 1: madness 129.]

[Footnote 2: Here is the correspondent speech in the _1st Q._ I give it because of the queen's denial of complicity in the murder.

_Queene_ Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine.

Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe: But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen, I neuer knew of this most horride murder: But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie, And for my loue forget these idle fits.

_Ham_. Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours, It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet.]

[Footnote 3: _Not in Q._]

[Footnote 4: --_time_ being a great part of music. Shakspere more than once or twice employs _music_ as a symbol with reference to corporeal condition: see, for instance, _As you like it_, act i. sc. 2, 'But is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? is there yet another dotes upon rib-breaking?' where the _broken music_ may be regarded as the ant.i.thesis of the _healthful music_ here.]

[Footnote 5: _swoln, pampered_: an allusion to the _purse_ itself, whether intended or not, is suggested.]

[Footnote 6: _bend, bow_.]

[Footnote 7: To _a.s.sume_ is to take to one: by _a.s.sume a virtue_, Hamlet does not mean _pretend_--but the very opposite: _to pretend_ is _to hold forth, to show_; what he means is, 'Adopt a virtue'--that of _abstinence_--'and act upon it, order your behaviour by it, although you may not _feel_ it. Choose the virtue--take it, make it yours.']

[Footnote 8: This omitted pa.s.sage is obscure with the special Shaksperean obscurity that comes of over-condensation. He omitted it, I think, because of its obscurity. Its general meaning is plain enough--that custom helps the man who tries to a.s.sume a virtue, as well as renders it more and more difficult for him who indulges in vice to leave it. I will paraphrase: 'That monster, Custom, who eats away all sense, the devil of habits, is angel yet in this, that, for the exercise of fair and good actions, he also provides a habit, a suitable frock or livery, that is easily put on.' The play with the two senses of the word _habit_ is more easily seen than set forth. To paraphrase more freely: 'That devil of habits, Custom, who eats away all sense of wrong-doing, has yet an angel-side to him, in that he gives a man a mental dress, a habit, helpful to the doing of the right thing.' The idea of hypocrisy does not come in at all. The advice of Hamlet is: 'Be virtuous in your actions, even if you cannot in your feelings; do not do the wrong thing you would like to do, and custom will render the abstinence easy.']

[Footnote 9: I suspect it should be '_Of habits evil_'--the ant.i.thesis to _angel_ being _monster_.]

[Page 178]

To the next abstinence. [A] Once more goodnight, And when you are desirous to be blest, Ile blessing begge of you.[1] For this same Lord, I do repent: but heauen hath pleas'd it so,[2]

To punish me with this, and this with me, That I must be their[3] Scourge and Minister.

I will bestow him,[4] and will answer well The death I gaue him:[5] so againe, good night.

I must be cruell, onely to be kinde;[6]

Thus bad begins,[7] and worse remaines behinde.[8] [Sidenote: This bad]

[B]

_Qu_. What shall I do? [Sidenote: _Ger_.]

_Ham_. Not this by no meanes that I bid you do: Let the blunt King tempt you againe to bed, [Sidenote: the blowt King]

Pinch Wanton on your cheeke, call you his Mouse, And let him for a paire of reechie[9] kisses, Or padling in your necke with his d.a.m.n'd Fingers, Make you to rauell all this matter out, [Sidenote: rouell]

[Sidenote: 60, 136, 156] That I essentially am not in madnesse.

But made in craft.[10] 'Twere good you let him know, [Sidenote: mad]

For who that's but a Queene, faire, sober, wise, Would from a Paddocke,[11] from a Bat, a Gibbe,[12]

Such deere concernings hide, Who would do so, No in despight of Sense and Secrecie, Vnpegge the Basket on the houses top: Let the Birds flye, and like the famous Ape To try Conclusions[13] in the Basket, creepe And breake your owne necke downe.[14]

_Qu_. Be thou a.s.sur'd, if words be made of breath, [Sidenote: _Ger_.]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto;_--

the next more easie:[15]

For vse almost can change the stamp of nature, And either[16] the deuill, or throwe him out With wonderous potency:]

[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto:_--

One word more good Lady.[17]]

[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, after the custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farce now: when she seeks the blessing of G.o.d, he will beg hers; now, a plain _good night_ must serve.]

[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of _pleased_. It is here a transitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sentence is, 'pleased it so, _in order to_ punish us, that I must' &c.]

[Footnote 3: The noun to which _their_ is the p.r.o.noun is _heaven_--as if he had written _the G.o.ds_.]

[Footnote 4: 'take him to a place fit for him to lie in.']

[Footnote 5: 'hold my face to it, and justify it.']

[Footnote 6: --omitting or refusing to embrace her.]

[Footnote 7: --looking at Polonius.]

[Footnote 8: Does this mean for himself to do, or for Polonius to endure?]

[Footnote 9: reeky, smoky, fumy.]

[Footnote 10: Hamlet considers his madness the same that he so deliberately a.s.sumed. But his idea of himself goes for nothing where the experts conclude him mad! His absolute clarity where he has no occasion to act madness, goes for as little, for 'all madmen have their sane moments'!]

[Footnote 11: _a toad_; in Scotland, _a frog_.]

[Footnote 12: an old cat.]

[Footnote 13: _Experiments_, Steevens says: is it not rather _results_?]

[Footnote 14: I fancy the story, which so far as I know has not been traced, goes on to say that the basket was emptied from the house-top to send the pigeons flying, and so the ape got his neck broken. The phrase 'breake your owne necke _downe_' seems strange: it could hardly have been written _neck-bone_!]

[Footnote 15: This pa.s.sage would fall in better with the preceding with which it is vitally one--for it would more evenly continue its form--if the preceding _devil_ were, as I propose above, changed to _evil_. But, precious as is every word in them, both pa.s.sages are well omitted.]

[Footnote 16: Plainly there is a word left out, if not lost here. There is no authority for the supplied _master_. I am inclined to propose a pause and a gesture, with perhaps an _inarticulation_.]

[Footnote 17: --interrogatively perhaps, Hamlet noting her about to speak; but I would prefer it thus: 'One word more:--good lady--' Here he pauses so long that she speaks. Or we _might_ read it thus:

_Qu._ One word more.

_Ham._ Good lady?

_Qu._ What shall I do?]

[Page 180]

And breath of life: I haue no life to breath What thou hast saide to me.[1]

[Sidenote: 128, 158] _Ham._ I must to England, you know that?[2]

_Qu._ Alacke I had forgot: Tis so concluded on. [Sidenote: _Ger._]