Part 4

Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous, that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit, That, from her working, all his visage wann'd;[64] Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit?[65] And all for nothing! For Hecuba? What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue[66] for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; Make mad the guilty, and appal the free; Confound the ignorant, and amaze, indeed, The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Like John a-dreams,[67] unpregnant of my cause,[68] And can say nothing; no, not for a king, Upon whose property and most dear life A damn'd defeat was made.[69] Am I a coward? Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i'the throat, As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this, Ha? Why, I should take it: for it cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall To make oppression bitter;[70] or, ere this, I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal: Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless[71] villain! O, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a scold, unpack my heart with words, And fall a cursing, like a very drab, A scullion! Fye upon't! fye! About, my brains![72] I have heard That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul, that presently They have proclaim'd their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players Play something like the murder of my father Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; I'll tent him to the quick:[73] if he do blench,[74] I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy (As he is very potent with such spirits), Abuses me to damn me: I'll have good grounds More relative than this:[75] The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

[_Exit_, R.H.]

END OF ACT SECOND.

Notes

## Act II

[Footnote II.1: _Polonius_,] Doctor Johnson describes Polonius as "a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with observation, confident in his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining into dotage. A man positive and confident, because he knows his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak." The idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom will solve all the phenomena of the character of Polonius.]

[Footnote II.2: _His bulk_,] Frame.]

[Footnote II.3: _Ecstacy of love_;] _i.e._, madness of love. In this sense the word is now obsolete.]

[Footnote II.4:

_This must be known; which being kept close, might move More grief to hide than hate to utter love._]

_i.e._, this must be made known to the king, for (being kept secret) the hiding Hamlet's love might occasion more mischief to us from him and the queen, than the uttering or revealing of it will occasion hate and resentment from Hamlet.

It was the custom of Shakespeare's age, to conclude acts and scenes with a couplet, a custom which was continued for nearly a century afterwards.]

[Footnote II.5: _The understanding of himself_,] _i.e._, the just estimate of himself.]

[Footnote II.6: _Vouchsafe your rest_] Please to reside.]

[Footnote II.7: _Of us_,] _i.e._, over us.]

[Footnote II.8: _In the full bent_,] To the full stretch and range--a term derived from archery.]

[Footnote II.9: _The trail of policy_] The _trail_ is the _course_ of an animal pursued by the scent.]

[Footnote II.10: _Expostulate_] To _expostulate_ is to discuss, to put the pros and cons, to answer demands upon the question. _Expose_ is an old term of similar import.]

[Footnote II.11: _Perpend._] _i.e._, reflect, consider attentively.]

[Footnote II.12: _Most beautified Ophelia_,] Heywood, in his History of Edward VI., says "Katharine Parre, Queen Dowager to King Henry VIII., was a woman _beautified_ with many excellent virtues." The same expression is frequently used by other old authors.]

[Footnote II.13: _In her excellent white bosom_,] The ladies, in Shakespeare's time, wore pockets in the front of their stays.]

[Footnote II.14: _These, &c._] In our poet's time, the word _these_ was usually added at the end of the superscription of letters.]

[Footnote II.15: _I am ill at these numbers_;] No talent for these rhymes.]

[Footnote II.16: _O most best_,] An ancient mode of expression.]

[Footnote II.17: _Whilst this machine is to him_,] Belongs to, obey his impulse; so long as he is "a sensible warm motion," the similar expression to "While my wits are my own."]

[Footnote II.18: _And more above_,] _i.e._, moreover, besides.]

[Footnote II.19: _His solicitings_,] _i.e._, his love-making, his tender expressions.]

[Footnote II.20: _If I had played the desk, or table book_;] This line may either mean _if I had conveyed intelligence between them_, or, _known of their love, if I had locked up his secret in my own breast, as closely as it were confined in a desk or table book._]

[Footnote II.21: _Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb_;] _i.e._, connived at it.]

[Footnote II.22: _With idle sight_;] _i.e._, with indifference.]

[Footnote II.23: _Round to work_,] _i.e._, roundly, without reserve.]

[Footnote II.24: _Which done, she took the fruits of my advice_;] She took the _fruits_ of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then made _fruitful._--JOHNSON.]

[Footnote II.25: _I'll board him presently._] Accost, address him.]

[Footnote II.26: _You are a fishmonger._] This was an expression better understood in Shakespeare's time than at present, and no doubt was relished by the audience of the Globe Theatre as applicable to the Papists, who in Queen Elizabeth's time were esteemed enemies to the Government. Hence the proverbial phrase of _He's an honest man and eats no fish_; to signify he's a friend to the Government and a Protestant.]

[Footnote II.27: _For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrion,----Have you a daughter?_] _i.e._, Hamlet having just remarked that honesty is very rare in the world, adds, that since there is so little virtue, since corruption abounds everywhere, and maggots are _bred_ by the sun, which is a god, even in a dead dog, Polonius ought to take care to prevent his daughter from walking in the sun, lest she should prove _"a breeder of sinners;"_ for though _conception_ (understanding) in general be a blessing, yet as Ophelia might chance to _conceive_ (to be pregnant), it might be a calamity. Hamlet's abrupt question, _"Have you a daughter?"_ is evidently intended to impress Polonius with the belief of the Prince's madness.--MALONE.]

[Footnote II.28: _The satirical rogue_] Hamlet alludes to Juvenal, who in his 10th Satire, describes the evils of long life.]

[Footnote II.29: _How pregnant his replies_] Big with meaning.]

[Footnote II.30: _Beaten way of friendship_,] Plain track, open and unceremonious course.]

[Footnote II.31: _Rights of our fellowship and constancy of our youth_,] Habits of familiar intercourse and correspondent years.]

[Footnote II.32: _A better proposer_] An advocate of more address in shaping his aims, who could make a stronger appeal.]

[Footnote II.33: _Even_] Without inclination any way.]

[Footnote II.34: _Nay, then, I have an eye of you._] _i.e._, I have a glimpse of your meaning. Hamlet's penetration having shown him that his two friends are set over him as spies.]

[Footnote II.35: _So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather._] Be beforehand with your discovery, and the plume and gloss of your secret pledge be in no feather shed or tarnished.]

[Footnote II.36: _Express_] According to pattern, justly and perfectly modelled.]

[Footnote II.37: _Paragon_] Model of perfection.]

[Footnote II.38: _Lenten entertainment_] _i.e._, sparing, like the entertainments given in Lent.]

[Footnote II.39: _We coted them on the way_;] To cote, is to pass by, to pass the side of another. It appears to be a word of French origin, and was a common sporting term in Shakespeare's time.]

[Footnote II.40: _The humorous man shall end his part in peace_;] The fretful or capricious man shall vent the whole of his spleen undisturbed.]

[Footnote II.41: _The lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't._] _i.e._, the lady shall mar the measure of the verse, rather than not express herself freely and fully.]

[Footnote II.42: _Travel?_] Become strollers.]

[Footnote II.43: _It is not very strange; for my uncle is king of Denmark_;] This is a reflection on the mutability of fortune, and the variableness of man's mind.]

[Footnote II.44: _Make mouths at him_] _i.e._, deride him by antic gestures and mockery.]

[Footnote II.45: _In little._] In miniature.]

[Footnote II.46: _I know a hawk from a hern-shaw._] A hernshaw is a heron or hern. _To know a hawk from a hernshaw_ is an ancient proverb, sometimes corrupted into _handsaw_. Spencer quotes the proverb, as meaning, _wise enough to know the hawk from its game._]

[Footnote II.47: _Buz, buz!_] Sir William Blackstone states that _buz_ used to be an interjection at Oxford when any one began a story that was generally known before.]

[Footnote II.48: _Then came each actor on his ass._] This seems to be a line of a ballad.]

[Footnote II.49: _Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light._] An English translation of the tragedies of Seneca was published in 1581, and one comedy of Plautus, viz., the Menœchme, in 1595.]

[Footnote II.50: _For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men._] The probable meaning of this passage is,--_For the observance of the rules of the Drama, while they take such liberties, as are allowable, they are the only men_--_writ_ is an old word for _writing_.]

[Footnote II.51: _As by lot, God wot_,] There was an old ballad entitled the song of Jephthah, from which these lines are probably quotations. The story of Jephthah was also one of the favourite subjects of ancient tapestry.]

[Footnote II.52: _The first row of the pious Chanson_] This expression does not appear to be very well understood. Steevens tells us that the _pious chansons_ were a kind of _Christmas carols_, containing some scriptural history thrown into loose rhymes, and sung about the streets. The _first row_ appears to mean the _first division_ of one of these.]

[Footnote II.53: _My abridgment comes._] Hamlet alludes to the players, whose approach will shorten his talk.]

[Footnote II.54: _Thy face is valanced_] _i.e._, fringed with a beard. The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the tester of a bed.]

[Footnote II.55: _Com'st thou to beard me_] To _beard_ anciently meant to set _at defiance_. Hamlet having just told the player that his face is valanced, is playing upon the word _beard_.]

[Footnote II.56: _By the altitude of a chopine._] A chioppine is a high shoe, or rather clog, worn by the Italians. Venice was more famous for them than any other place. They are described as having been made of wood covered with coloured leather, and sometimes _even half a yard high_, their altitude being proportioned to the rank of the lady, so that they could not walk without being supported.]

[Footnote II.57: _Like French falconers_,] The French seem to have been the first and noblest falconers in the western part of Europe. The French king sent over his falconers to show that sport to King James the First.--_See Weldon's Court of King James._]

[Footnote II.58: _Quality_;] Qualifications, faculty.]

[Footnote II.59: _Caviare to the general_;] Caviare is the spawn of fish pickled, salted, and dried. It is imported from Russia, and was considered in the time of Shakespeare a new and fashionable luxury, not obtained or relished by the vulgar, and therefore used by him to signify anything above their comprehension--general is here used for the people.]

[Footnote II.60: _As much modesty as cunning._] As much propriety and decorum as skill.]

[Footnote II.61: _Falls with the whiff and wind of his fell sword_] Our author employs the same image in almost the same phrase:

"The Grecians _fall Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword._"

_Tr. & Cress. V. 3. Tr._]

[Footnote II.62: _The rack_] The clouds or congregated vapour.]

[Footnote II.63: _The mobled queen?_] Mobled is veiled, muffled, disguised.]

[Footnote II.64: _All his visage wann'd_;] _i.e._, turned pale or wan.]

[Footnote II.65: _His whole functions suiting with forms to his conceit?_] _i.e._, his powers and faculties--the whole energies of his soul and body giving material forms to his passion, such as tone of voice, expression of face, requisite action, in accordance with the ideas that floated in his conceit or imagination.]

[Footnote II.66: _The cue_] The point--the direction.]

[Footnote II.67: _Like John a-dreams_,] Or dreaming John, a name apparently coined to suit a dreaming, stupid person; he seems to have been a well-known character.]

[Footnote II.68: _Unpregnant of my cause_,] _i.e._, not quickened with a new desire of vengeance; not teeming with revenge.]

[Footnote II.69: _Defeat was made._] Overthrow.]

[Footnote II.70: _Lack gall to make oppression bitter_;] _i.e._, lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression.]

[Footnote II.71: _Kindless_] Unnatural.]

[Footnote II.72: _About, my brains!_] Wits to work.]

[Footnote II.73: _I'll tent him to the quick:_] _i.e._, probe him--search his wounds.]

[Footnote II.74: _Blench_,] Shrink, start aside.]

[Footnote II.75: _More relative than this:_] Directly applicable.]

## ACT III.

## SCENE I.--A ROOM IN THE CASTLE.

_Three chairs on_ L.H., _one on_ R.

_Enter_ KING _and_ QUEEN, _preceded by_ POLONIUS. OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, _and_ GIULDENSTERN, _following_ (R.H.)

_King._ (C.) And can you, by no drift of conference, Get from him why he puts on this confusion?

_Ros._ (R.) He does confess he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak.

_Guild._ (R.) Nor do we find him forward[1] to be sounded But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state.

_Queen._ (R.C.) Did you assay him[2] To any pastime?

_Ros._ Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We o'er-raught on the way:[3] of these we told him; And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it: They are about the court; And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him.

_Pol._ 'Tis most true: And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties To hear and see the matter.

_King._ With all my heart; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclin'd. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, And drive his purpose on to these delights.

_Ros._ We shall, my lord.

[_Exeunt_ ROSENCRANTZ _and_ GUILDENSTERN, R.H.]

_King._ Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; For we have closely sent[4] for Hamlet hither, That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia:[5] Her father and myself (lawful espials[6]), Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge; And gather by him, as he is behaved, If't be the affliction of his love or no That thus he suffers for.

_Queen._ (R.) I shall obey you: And for your part, Ophelia,

[OPHELIA _comes down_ L.H.]

I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honours.

_Oph._ Madam, I wish it may.

[_Exit_ QUEEN, R.H.]

_Pol._ Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves. Read on this book;

[_To_ OPHELIA.]

That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,-- 'Tis too much prov'd,[7] that, with devotion's visage And pious action, we do sugar o'er The devil himself.

_King._ O, 'tis too true! how smart A lash that speech doth give my conscience!

[_Aside._]

_Pol._ I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.

[_Exeunt_ KING _and_ POLONIUS, R.H.2 E., _and_ OPHELIA, R.H.U.E.]

_Enter_ HAMLET (L.H.)

_Ham._ To be, or not to be, that is the question:[8] Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,[9] And, by opposing end them?--To die,--to sleep, No more;--and by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To die,--to sleep,-- To sleep! perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,[10] Must give us pause:[11] There's the respect[12] That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,[13] The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,[14] The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make[15] With a bare bodkin?[16] Who would fardels bear,[17] To groan and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn[18] No traveller returns,[19] puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus, conscience does make cowards of us all;[20] And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment,[21] With this regard, their currents turn away, And lose the name of action.[22]--

[OPHELIA _returns._]

--Soft you now![23] The fair Ophelia:--Nymph, in thy orisons[24] Be all my sins remember'd.

_Oph._ (R.C.) Good my lord, How does your honour for this many a day?

_Ham._ (L.C.) I humbly thank you; well.

_Oph._ My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longèd long to re-deliver; I pray you, now receive them.

_Ham._ No, not I; I never gave you aught.

_Oph._ My honour'd lord, you know right well you did; And, with them, words of so sweet breath compos'd As made the things more rich: their perfume lost, Take these again; for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.

_Ham._ Ha, ha! are you honest?

_Oph._ My lord?

_Ham._ Are you fair?

_Oph._ What means your lordship?

_Ham._ That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.[25]

_Oph._ Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

_Ham._ Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness:[26] this was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.

_Oph._ Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

_Ham._ You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it:[27] I loved you not.

_Oph._ I was the more deceived.

_Ham._ Get thee to a nunnery: Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck[28] than I have thoughts to put them in,[29] imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do, crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?

_Oph._ At home, my lord.

_Ham._ Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.

_Oph._ O, help him, you sweet heavens!

_Ham._ If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; go; go.

_Oph._ Heavenly powers, restore him!

_Ham._ I have heard of your paintings[30] too, well enough; Heaven hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another:[31] you jig, you amble, and you lisp,[32] and nickname Heaven's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance.[33] Go to, I'll no more of't; it hath made me mad.

[HAMLET _crosses to_ R.H.]

I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married already, all but one,[34] shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.

[_Exit_ HAMLET, R.H.[35]]

_Oph._ (L.) O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The expectancy and rose of the fair state,[36] The glass of fashion[37] and the mould of form,[38] The observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That suck'd the honey of his musick vows,[39] Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh: O, woe is me, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

[_Exit_ OPHELIA, L.H.]

_Re-enter_ KING _and_ POLONIUS.

_King._ Love! his affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, Was not like madness. There's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits on brood; He shall with speed to England, For the demand of our neglected tribute: Haply, the seas, and countries different, With variable objects, shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart; Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus From fashion of himself. What think you on't?

_Pol._ It shall do well: But yet I do believe The origin and commencement of his grief Sprung from neglected love. My lord, do as you please; But, if you hold it fit, after the play, Let his queen mother all alone entreat him To show his grief: let her be round with him;[40] And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear Of all their conference. If she find him not,[41] To England send him; or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think.

_King._ It shall be so: Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.

[_Exeunt_, L.H.]

_Enter_ HAMLET _and a_ Player (R.H.)

_Ham._ (C.) Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief[42] the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hands thus;[43] but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious perrywig-pated fellow[44] tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings,[45] who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant;[46] it out-herods Herod:[47] Pray you, avoid it.

_1st Play._ (R.) I warrant your honour.