The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 65

[Footnote 12: If this be the right reading, it means, 'so fast they insist on following.']

[Footnote 13: He speaks it as about to rush to her.]

[Footnote 14: --the choice of Ophelia's fantastic madness, as being the tree of lamenting lovers.]

[Footnote 15: --always busy with flowers.]

[Footnote 16: Ranunculus: _Sh. Lex._]

[Footnote 17: --specially descriptive of the willow.]

[Footnote 18: her wild flowers made into a garland.]

[Footnote 19: The intention would seem, that she imagined herself decorating a monument to her father. Hence her _Coronet weeds_ and the Poet's _weedy Trophies_.]

[Footnote 20: _Sliver_, I suspect, called so after the fact, because _slivered_ or torn off. In _Macbeth_ we have:

slips of yew Slivered in the moon's eclipse.

But it may be that _sliver_ was used for a _twig_, such as could be torn off.

_Slip_ and _sliver_ must be of the same root.]

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Fell in the weeping Brooke, her cloathes spred wide, And Mermaid-like, a while they bore her vp, Which time she chaunted s.n.a.t.c.hes of old tunes,[1]

[Sidenote: old laudes,[1]]

As one incapable of[2] her owne distresse, Or like a creature Natiue, and indued[3]

Vnto that Element: but long it could not be, Till that her garments, heauy with her drinke, [Sidenote: theyr drinke]

Pul'd the poore wretch from her melodious buy,[4]

[Sidenote: melodious lay]

To muddy death.[5]

_Laer_. Alas then, is she drown'd? [Sidenote: she is]

_Queen_. Drown'd, drown'd.

_Laer_. Too much of water hast thou poore _Ophelia_, And therefore I forbid my teares: but yet It is our tricke,[6] Nature her custome holds, Let shame say what it will; when these are gone The woman will be out:[7] Adue my Lord, I haue a speech of fire, that faine would blaze, [Sidenote: speech a fire]

But that this folly doubts[8] it. _Exit._ [Sidenote: drownes it.[8]]

_Kin_. Let's follow, _Gertrude_: How much I had to doe to calme his rage?

Now feare I this will giue it start againe; Therefore let's follow. _Exeunt_.[9]

[10]_Enter two Clownes._

_Clown_. Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall, [Sidenote: buriall, when she wilfully]

that wilfully seekes her owne saluation?[11]

_Other_. I tell thee she is, and therefore make her [Sidenote: is, therefore]

Graue straight,[12] the Crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian buriall.

_Clo_. How can that be, vnlesse she drowned her selfe in her owne defence?

_Other_. Why 'tis found so.[13]

_Clo_. It must be _Se offendendo_,[14] it cannot bee else: [Sidenote: be so offended, it]

[Footnote 1: They were not lauds she was in the habit of singing, to judge by the s.n.a.t.c.hes given.]

[Footnote 2: not able to take in, not understanding, not conscious of.]

[Footnote 3: clothed, endowed, fitted for. See _Sh. Lex._]

[Footnote 4: _Could_ the word be for _buoy_--'her clothes spread wide,'

on which she floated singing--therefore her melodious buoy or float?]

[Footnote 5: How could the queen know all this, when there was no one near enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of her death given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl's suicide, and by circ.u.mstance beguile the sorrow-rage of Laertes?]

[Footnote 6: 'I cannot help it.']

[Footnote 7: 'when these few tears are spent, all the woman will be out of me: I shall be a man again.']

[Footnote 8: _douts_: 'this foolish water of tears puts it out.' _See Q.

reading._]

[Footnote 9: Here ends the Fourth Act, between which and the Fifth may intervene a day or two.]

[Footnote 10: Act V. This act _requires_ only part of a day; the funeral and the catastrophe might be on the same.]

[Footnote 11: Has this a confused connection with the fancy that salvation is getting to heaven?]

[Footnote 12: Whether this means _straightway_, or _not crooked_, I cannot tell.]

[Footnote 13: 'the coroner has settled it.']

[Footnote 14: The Clown's blunder for _defendendo_.]

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for heere lies the point; If I drowne my selfe wittingly, it argues an Act: and an Act hath three branches. It is an Act to doe and to performe; [Sidenote: it is to act, to doe, to performe, or all: she]

argall[1] she drown'd her selfe wittingly.

_Other_. Nay but heare you Goodman Deluer. [Sidenote: good man deluer.]

_Clown_. Giue me leaue; heere lies the water; good: heere stands the man; good: If the man goe to this water and drowne himsele; it is will he nill he, he goes; marke you that? But if the water come to him and drowne him; hee drownes not himselfe. Argall, hee that is not guilty of his owne death, shortens not his owne life.

_Other_. But is this law?