The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 56

[Footnote 8: I am in doubt whether this pa.s.sage from 'What is a man'

down to 'unused,' does not refer to the king, and whether Hamlet is not persuading himself that it can be no such objectionable thing to kill one hardly above a beast. At all events it is far more applicable to the king: it was not one of Hamlet's faults, in any case, to fail of using his reason. But he may just as well accuse himself of that too! At the same time the worst neglect of reason lies in not carrying out its conclusions, and if we cannot justify Hamlet in his delay, the pa.s.sage is of good application to him. 'b.e.s.t.i.a.ll oblivion' does seem to connect himself with the reflection; but how thoroughly is the thing intended by such a phrase alien from the character of Hamlet!]

[Footnote 9: --the mental faculty of running hither and thither: 'We look before and after.' _Sh.e.l.ley: To a Skylark_.]

[Footnote 10: --the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has just mentioned.]

[Footnote 11: --the _consequences_. The scruples that come of thinking of the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they were _craven_ scruples, that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the n.o.ble self-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to result from the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands at least absolute a.s.surance of guilt? or that 'a thinking too precisely on the event,' to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an un wounded name behind him?]

[Footnote 12: This pa.s.sage is the strongest there is on the side of the ordinary misconception of the character of Hamlet. It comes from himself; and it is as ungenerous as it is common and unfair to use such a weapon against a man. Does any but St. Paul himself say he was the chief of sinners? Consider Hamlet's condition, tormented on all sides, within and without, and think whether this outbreak against himself be not as unfair as it is natural. Lest it should be accepted against him, Shakspere did well to leave it out. In bitter disappointment, both because of what is and what is not, both because of what he has done and what he has failed to do, having for the time lost all chance, with the last vision of the Ghost still haunting his eyes, his last reproachful words yet ringing in his ears, are we bound to take his judgment of himself because it is against himself? Are we _bound_ to take any man's judgment because it is against himself? I answer, 'No more than if it were for himself.' A good man's judgment, where he is at all perplexed, especially if his motive comes within his own question, is ready to be against himself, as a bad man's is sure to be for himself. Or because he is a philosopher, does it follow that throughout he understands himself?

Were such a man in cool, untroubled conditions, we might feel compelled to take his judgment, but surely not here! A philosopher in such state as Hamlet's would understand the quality of his spiritual operations with no more certainty than another man. In his present mood, Hamlet forgets the cogency of the reasons that swayed him in the other; forgets that his uppermost feeling then was doubt, as horror, indignation, and conviction are uppermost now. Things were never so clear to Hamlet as to us.

But how can he say he has strength and means--in the position in which he now finds himself? I am glad to be able to believe, let my defence of Hamlet against himself be right or wrong, that Shakspere intended the omission of the pa.s.sage. I lay nothing on the great lack of logic throughout the speech, for that would not make it unfit for Hamlet in such mood, while it makes its omission from the play of less consequence to my general argument.]

[Footnote 13: _threaten_. This supports my argument as to the great soliloquy--that it was death as the result of his slaying the king, or attempting to do so, not death by suicide, he was thinking of: he expected to die himself in the punishing of his uncle.]

[Footnote 14: He had had no chance but that when the king was on his knees.]

[Footnote 15: 'a fancy and illusion.']

[Footnote 16: 'which is too small for those engaged to find room to fight on it.']

[Footnote 17: 'continent,' _containing s.p.a.ce_.]

[Footnote 18: This soliloquy is ant.i.thetic to the other. Here is no thought of the 'something after death.']

[Footnote 19: If, with this speech in his mouth, Hamlet goes coolly on board the vessel, _not being compelled thereto_ (190, 192, 216), and possessing means to his vengeance, as here he says, and goes merely in order to hoist Rosincrance and Guildensterne with their own petard--that is, if we must keep the omitted pa.s.sages, then the author exposes his hero to a more depreciatory judgment than any from which I would justify him, and a conception of his character entirely inconsistent with the rest of the play. He did not observe the risk at the time he wrote the pa.s.sage, but discovering it afterwards, rectified the oversight--to the dissatisfaction of his critics, who have agreed in restoring what he cancelled.]

[Page 196]

Which as her winkes, and nods, and gestures yeeld[1] them, Indeed would make one thinke there would[2] be thought, [Sidenote: there might[2] be]

Though nothing sure, yet much vnhappily.

_Qu_. 'Twere good she were spoken with,[3] [Sidenote: _Hora_.]

For she may strew dangerous coniectures In ill breeding minds.[4] Let her come in. [Sidenote: _Enter Ophelia_.]

To my sicke soule (as sinnes true Nature is) [Sidenote: _Quee_. 'To my[5]]

Each toy seemes Prologue, to some great amisse, [Sidenote: 'Each]

So full of Artlesse iealousie is guilt, [Sidenote: 'So]

It spill's it selfe, in fearing to be spilt.[6] [Sidenote: 'It]

_Enter Ophelia distracted_.[7]

_Ophe_. Where is the beauteous Maiesty of Denmark.

_Qu_. How now _Ophelia_? [Sidenote: _shee sings_.]

_Ophe. How should I your true loue know from another one?

By his c.o.c.kle hat and staffe, and his Sandal shoone._

_Qu_. Alas sweet Lady: what imports this Song?

_Ophe_. Say you? Nay pray you marke.

_He is dead and gone Lady, he is dead and gone, At his head a gra.s.se-greene Turfe, at his heeles a stone._ [Sidenote: O ho.]

_Enter King_.

_Qu_. Nay but _Ophelia_.

_Ophe_. Pray you marke.

_White his Shrow'd as the Mountaine Snow._ [Sidenote: _Enter King_.]

_Qu_. Alas looke heere my Lord,

[Sidenote: 246] _Ophe. Larded[8] with sweet flowers_: [Sidenote: Larded all with]

_Which bewept to the graue did not go_, [Sidenote: ground _Song_.]

_With true-loue showres_,

[Footnote 1: 'present them,'--her words, that is--giving significance or interpretation to them.]

[Footnote 2: If this _would_, and not the _might_ of the _Quarto_, be the correct reading, it means that Ophelia would have something thought so and so.]

[Footnote 3: --changing her mind on Horatio's representation. At first she would not speak with her.]

[Footnote 4: 'minds that breed evil.']

[Footnote 5: --as a quotation.]

[Footnote 6: Instance, the history of Macbeth.]

[Footnote 7: _1st Q. Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing._

Hamlet's apparent madness would seem to pa.s.s into real madness in Ophelia. King Lear's growing perturbation becomes insanity the moment he sees the pretended madman Edgar.

The forms of Ophelia's madness show it was not her father's death that drove her mad, but his death by the hand of Hamlet, which, with Hamlet's banishment, destroyed all the hope the queen had been fostering in her of marrying him some day.]

[Footnote 8: This expression is, as Dr. Johnson says, taken from cookery; but it is so used elsewhere by Shakspere that we cannot regard it here as a scintillation of Ophelia's insanity.]

[Page 198]

_King_. How do ye, pretty Lady? [Sidenote: you]

_Ophe_. Well, G.o.d dil'd you.[1] They say the [Sidenote: good dild you,[1]]

Owle was a Bakers daughter.[2] Lord, wee know what we are, but know not what we may be. G.o.d be at your Table.

[Sidenote: 174] _King_. Conceit[3] vpon her Father.

_Ophe_. Pray you let's haue no words of this: [Sidenote: Pray lets]

but when they aske you what it meanes, say you this:

[4] _To morrow is S. Valentines day, all in the morning betime, And I a Maid at your Window to be your Valentine.