The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 57

Then vp he rose, and don'd[5] his clothes, and dupt[5] the chamber dore, Let in the Maid, that out a Maid, neuer departed more._

_King_. Pretty _Ophelia._

_Ophe_. Indeed la? without an oath Ile make an [Sidenote: Indeede without]

end ont.[6]

_By gis, and by S. Charity, Alacke, and fie for shame: Yong men wil doo't, if they come too't, By c.o.c.ke they are too blame.

Quoth she before you tumbled me, You promis'd me to Wed: So would I ha done by yonder Sunne_, [Sidenote: (He answers,) So would]

_And thou hadst not come to my bed._

_King_. How long hath she bin this? [Sidenote: beene thus?]

_Ophe_. I hope all will be well. We must bee patient, but I cannot choose but weepe, to thinke they should lay him i'th'cold ground: My brother [Sidenote: they wouid lay]

shall knowe of it, and so I thanke you for your good counsell. Come, my Coach: Goodnight Ladies: Goodnight sweet Ladies: Goodnight, goodnight. _Exit_[7]

[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. 'G.o.d yeeld you,' that is, _reward you_. Here we have a blunder for the contraction, 'G.o.d 'ild you'--perhaps a common blunder.]

[Footnote 2: For the silly legend, see Douce's note in _Johnson and Steevens_.]

[Footnote 3: imaginative brooding.]

[Footnote 4: We dare no judgment on madness in life: we need not in art.]

[Footnote 5: Preterites of _don_ and _dup_, contracted from _do on_ and _do up_.]

[Footnote 6: --disclaiming false modesty.]

[Footnote 7: _Not in Q_.]

[Page 200]

_King_. Follow her close, Giue her good watch I pray you: Oh this is the poyson of deepe greefe, it springs All from her Fathers death. Oh _Gertrude, Gertrude_, [Sidenote: death, and now behold, o _Gertrard, Gertrard_,]

When sorrowes comes, they come not single spies,[1]

[Sidenote: sorrowes come]

But in Battaliaes. First, her Father slaine, [Sidenote: battalians:]

Next your Sonne gone, and he most violent Author Of his owne iust remoue: the people muddied,[2]

Thicke and vnwholsome in their thoughts, and whispers [Sidenote: in thoughts]

For[3] good _Polonius_ death; and we haue done but greenly [Sidenote: 182] In hugger mugger[4] to interre him. Poore _Ophelia_ Diuided from her selfe,[5] and her faire Iudgement, Without the which we are Pictures, or meere Beasts.

Last, and as much containing as all these, Her Brother is in secret come from France, Keepes on his wonder,[6] keepes himselfe in clouds, [Sidenote: Feeds on this[6]]

And wants not Buzzers to infect his eare [Sidenote: care]

With pestilent Speeches of his Fathers death, Where in necessitie of matter Beggard, [Sidenote: Wherein necessity]

Will nothing sticke our persons to Arraigne [Sidenote: person]

In eare and eare.[7] O my deere _Gertrude_, this, Like to a murdering Peece[8] in many places, Giues me superfluous death. _A Noise within_.

_Enter a Messenger_.

_Qu_. Alacke, what noyse is this?[9]

_King_. Where are my _Switzers_?[10]

[Sidenote: _King_. Attend, where is my Swissers,]

Let them guard the doore. What is the matter?

_Mes_. Saue your selfe, my Lord.

[Sidenote: 120] The Ocean (ouer-peering of his List[11]) Eates not the Flats with more impittious[12] haste

[Footnote 1: --each alone, like scouts.]

[Footnote 2: stirred up like pools--with similar result.]

[Footnote 3: because of.]

[Footnote 4: The king wished to avoid giving the people any pretext or cause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry--to the queen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to the popular indignation. _Hugger mugger--secretly: Steevens and Malone._]

[Footnote 5: The phrase has the same _visual_ root as _beside herself_--both signifying '_not at one_ with herself.']

[Footnote 6: If the _Quarto_ reading is right, 'this wonder' means the hurried and suspicious funeral of his father. But the _Folio_ reading is quite Shaksperean: 'He keeps on (as a garment) the wonder of the people at him'; _keeps his behaviour such that the people go on wondering about him_: the phrase is explained by the next clause. Compare:

By being seldom seen, I could not stir But, like a comet, I was wondered at.

_K. Henry IV. P. I_. act iii. sc. 1.]

[Footnote 7: 'wherein Necessity, beggared of material, will not scruple to whisper invented accusations against us.']

[Footnote 8: --the name given to a certain small cannon--perhaps charged with various missiles, hence the better figuring the number and variety of 'sorrows' he has just recounted.]

[Footnote 9: _This line not in Q._]

[Footnote 10: Note that the king is well guarded, and Hamlet had to lay his account with great risk in the act of killing him.]

[Footnote 11: _border, as of cloth_: the mounds thrown up to keep the sea out.

The figure here specially fits a Dane.]

[Footnote 12: I do not know whether this word means _pitiless_, or stands for _impetuous_. The _Quarto_ has one _t_.]

[Page 202]

Then young _Laertes_, in a Riotous head,[1]

Ore-beares your Officers, the rabble call him Lord, And as the world were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, Custome not knowne, The Ratifiers and props of euery word,[2]

[Sidenote: 62] They cry choose we? _Laertes_ shall be King,[3]

[Sidenote: The cry]

Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds, _Laertes_ shall be King, _Laertes_ King.

_Qu_. How cheerefully on the false Traile they cry, [Sidenote: _A noise within_.]

Oh this is Counter you false Danish Dogges.[4]

_Noise within. Enter Laertes_[5]. [Sidenote: _Laertes with others_.]

_King_. The doores are broke.