The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 52

[Footnote 3: 'he, although mad'; 'his nature, in spite of his madness.']

[Footnote 4: by his weeping, in the midst of much to give a different impression.]

[Footnote 5: We have no reason to think the queen inventing here: what could she gain by it? the point indeed was rather against Hamlet, as showing it was not Polonius he had thought to kill. He was more than ever annoyed with the contemptible old man, who had by his meddlesomeness brought his death to his door; but he was very sorry nevertheless over Ophelia's father: those rough words in his last speech are spoken with the tears running down his face. We have seen the strange, almost discordant mingling in him of horror and humour, after the first appearance of the Ghost, 58, 60: something of the same may be supposed when he finds he has killed Polonius: in the highstrung nervous condition that must have followed such a talk with his mother, it would be nowise strange that he should weep heartily even in the midst of contemptuous anger. Or perhaps a sudden breakdown from attempted show of indifference, would not be amiss in the representation.]

[Footnote 6: 'both countenance with all our majesty, and excuse with all our skill.']

[Footnote 7: In the _Quarto_ a line back.]

[Footnote 8: _Not in Q._]

[Page 184]

And what's vntimely[1] done. [A] Oh come away, [Sidenote: doone,]

My soule is full of discord and dismay. _Exeunt._

_Enter Hamlet._ [Sidenote: _Hamlet, Rosencrans, and others._]

_Ham._ Safely stowed.[2] [Sidenote: stowed, but soft, what noyse,]

_Gentlemen within._ _Hamlet_. Lord _Hamlet_?

_Ham._ What noise? Who cals on _Hamlet_?

Oh heere they come.

_Enter Ros. and Guildensterne._[4]

_Ro._ What haue you done my Lord with the dead body?

_Ham._ Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis Kinne.[5]

[Sidenote: Compound it]

_Rosin._ Tell vs where 'tis, that we may take it thence, And beare it to the Chappell.

_Ham._ Do not beleeue it.[6]

_Rosin._ Beleeue what?

[Sidenote: 156] _Ham._ That I can keepe your counsell, and not mine owne. Besides, to be demanded of a Spundge, what replication should be made by the Sonne of a King.[7]

_Rosin._ Take you me for a Spundge, my Lord?

_Ham._ I sir, that sokes vp the Kings Countenance, his Rewards, his Authorities, but such Officers do the King best seruice in the end. He keepes them like an Ape in the corner of his iaw,[8] first [Sidenote: like an apple in]

mouth'd to be last swallowed, when he needes what you haue glean'd, it is but squeezing you, and Spundge you shall be dry againe.

_Rosin._ I vnderstand you not my Lord.

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

Whose whisper ore the worlds dyameter,[9]

[Sidenote: 206] As leuell as the Cannon to his blanck,[10]

Transports his poysned shot, may miffe[11] our Name, And hit the woundlesse ayre.]

[Footnote 1: unhappily.]

[Footnote 2: He has hid the body--to make the whole look the work of a mad fit.]

[Footnote 3: This line is not in the _Quarto_.]

[Footnote 4: _Not in Q. See margin above._]

[Footnote 5: He has put it in a place which, little visited, is very dusty.]

[Footnote 6: He is mad to them--sane only to his mother and Horatio.]

[Footnote 7: _euphuistic_: 'asked a question by a sponge, what answer should a prince make?']

[Footnote 8: _1st Q._:

For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth nuttes, In the corner of his Iaw, first mouthes you, Then swallowes you:]

[Footnote 9: Here most modern editors insert, '_so, haply, slander_'.

But, although I think the Poet left out this obscure pa.s.sage merely from dissatisfaction with it, I believe it renders a worthy sense as it stands. The antecedent to _whose_ is _friends_: _cannon_ is nominative to _transports_; and the only difficulty is the epithet _poysned_ applied to _shot_, which seems transposed from the idea of an _unfriendly_ whisper. Perhaps Shakspere wrote _poysed shot_. But taking this as it stands, the pa.s.sage might be paraphrased thus: 'Whose (favourable) whisper over the world's diameter (_from one side of the world to the other_), as level (_as truly aimed_) as the cannon (of an evil whisper) transports its poisoned shot to his blank (_the white centre of the target_), may shoot past our name (so keeping us clear), and hit only the invulnerable air.' ('_the intrenchant air_': _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 8). This interpretation rests on the idea of over-condensation with its tendency to seeming confusion--the only fault I know in the Poet--a grand fault, peculiarly his own, born of the beating of his wings against the impossible. It is much as if, able to think two thoughts at once, he would compel his phrase to utter them at once.]

[Footnote 10:

for the harlot king Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank And level of my brain, plot-proof;

_The Winter's Tale_, act ii. sc. 3.

My life stands in the level of your dreams,

_Ibid_, act iii. sc. 2.]

[Footnote 11: two _ff_ for two long _ss_.]

[Page 186]

_Ham._ I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleepes in a foolish eare.

_Rosin._ My Lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.

_Ham._ The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.[1] The King, is a thing----

_Guild._ A thing my Lord?

_Ham._ Of nothing[2]: bring me to him, hide Fox, and all after.[3] _Exeunt_[4]

_Enter King._ [Sidenote: _King, and two or three._]