The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by George MacDonald (big ebook reader TXT) 📕

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'to be overwise-to overreach ourselves'
'ambition, which o'erleaps itself,'
- Macbeth , act i. sc. 7.]

[Footnote 2: Polonius is a man of faculty. His courtier-life, his self-seeking, his vanity, have made and make him the fool he is.]

[Footnote 3: He hopes now to get his daughter married to the prince.

We have here a curious instance of Shakspere's not unfrequently excessive condensation. Expanded, the clause would be like this: 'which, being kept close, might move more grief by the hiding of love, than to utter love might move hate:' the grief in the one case might be greater than the hate in the other would be. It verges on confusion, and may not be as Shakspere wrote it, though it is like his way.

1st Q.

Lets to the king, this madnesse may prooue,
Though wilde a while, yet more true to thy loue.]

[Footnote 4: Not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 5: Q. has not Cum alijs. ]

[Footnote 6: 'Moreover that &c.': moreover is here used as a preposition, with the rest of the clause for its objective.]

[Footnote 7: Rosincrance and Guildensterne are, from the first and throughout, the creatures of the king.]

[Footnote 8: The king's conscience makes him suspicious of Hamlet's suspicion.]

[Footnote 9: 'from such an early age'.]

[Footnote 10: 'since then so familiar with'.]

[Footnote 11: 'to gather as much as you may glean from opportunities, of that which, when disclosed to us, will lie within our remedial power.' If the line of the Quarto be included, it makes plainer construction. The line beginning with ' So much ,' then becomes parenthetical, and to gather will not immediately govern that line, but the rest of the sentence.]

[Page 74]

Qu. Good Gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you, And sure I am, two men there are not liuing, [Sidenote: there is not] To whom he more adheres. If it will please you To shew vs so much Gentrie,[1] and good will, As to expend your time with vs a-while, For the supply and profit of our Hope,[2] Your Visitation shall receiue such thankes As fits a Kings remembrance.

Rosin. Both your Maiesties Might by the Soueraigne power you haue of vs, Put your dread pleasures, more into Command Then to Entreatie,

Guil. We both[3] obey, [Sidenote: But we] And here giue vp our selues, in the full bent,[4] To lay our Seruices freely at your feete, [Sidenote: seruice] To be commanded.

King. Thankes Rosincrance , and gentle Guildensterne .

Qu. Thankes Guildensterne and gentle Rosincrance ,[5] And I beseech you instantly to visit My too much changed Sonne. Go some of ye, [Sidenote: you] And bring the Gentlemen where Hamlet is, [Sidenote: bring these]

Guil. Heauens make our presence and our practises Pleasant and helpfull to him. Exit [6]

Queene. Amen. [Sidenote: Amen. Exeunt Ros. and Guyld. ]

Enter Polonius.

[Sidenote: 18] Pol. Th'Ambassadors from Norwey, my good Lord, Are ioyfully return'd.

[Footnote 1: gentleness, grace, favour.]

[Footnote 2: Their hope in Hamlet, as their son and heir.]

[Footnote 3: both majesties.]

[Footnote 4: If we put a comma after bent , the phrase will mean 'in the full purpose or design to lay our services &c.' Without the comma, the content of the phrase would be general:-'in the devoted force of our faculty.' The latter is more like Shakspere.]

[Footnote 5: Is there not tact intended in the queen's reversal of her husband's arrangement of the two names-that each might have precedence, and neither take offence?]

[Footnote 6: Not in Quarto. ]

[Page 76]

King. Thou still hast bin the Father of good Newes.

Pol. Haue I, my Lord?[1] Assure you, my good Liege,
[Sidenote: I assure my] I hold my dutie, as I hold my Soule, Both to my God, one to my gracious King:[2] [Sidenote: God, and to[2]] And I do thinke, or else this braine of mine Hunts not the traile of Policie, so sure As I haue vs'd to do: that I haue found [Sidenote: it hath vsd] The very cause of Hamlets Lunacie.

King. Oh speake of that, that I do long to heare.
[Sidenote: doe I long]

Pol. Giue first admittance to th'Ambassadors, My Newes shall be the Newes to that great Feast,
[Sidenote: the fruite to that]

King. Thy selfe do grace to them, and bring them in. He tels me my sweet Queene, that he hath found
[Sidenote: my deere Gertrard he] The head[3] and sourse of all your Sonnes distemper.

Qu. I doubt it is no other, but the maine, His Fathers death, and our o're-hasty Marriage.[4]
[Sidenote: our hastie]

Enter Polonius, Voltumand, and Cornelius.
[Sidenote: Enter Embassadors.]

King. Well, we shall sift him. Welcome good Frends:
[Sidenote: my good] Say Voltumand , what from our Brother Norwey?

Volt. Most faire returne of Greetings, and Desires. Vpon our first,[5] he sent out to suppresse His Nephewes Leuies, which to him appear'd To be a preparation 'gainst the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke,] But better look'd into, he truly found It was against your Highnesse, whereat greeued, That so his Sicknesse, Age, and Impotence Was falsely borne in hand,[6] sends[7] out Arrests On Fortinbras , which he (in breefe) obeyes,

[Footnote 1: To be spoken triumphantly, but in the peculiar tone of one thinking, 'You little know what better news I have behind!']

[Footnote 2: I cannot tell which is the right reading; if the Q.'s , it means, ' I hold my duty precious as my soul, whether to my God or my king '; if the F.'s , it is a little confused by the attempt of Polonius to make a fine euphuistic speech:-' I hold my duty as I hold my soul,-both at the command of my God, one at the command of my king .']

[Footnote 3: the spring; the river-head

'The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood'

Macbeth, act ii. sc. 3.]

[Footnote 4: She goes a step farther than the king in accounting for Hamlet's misery-knows there is more cause of it yet, but hopes he does not know so much cause for misery as he might know.]

[Footnote 5: Either 'first' stands for first desire , or it is a noun, and the meaning of the phrase is, 'The instant we mentioned the matter'.]

[Footnote 6: 'borne in hand'-played with, taken advantage of.

'How you were borne in hand, how cross'd,'

Macbeth, act iii. sc. 1.]

[Footnote 7: The nominative pronoun was not quite indispensable to the verb in Shakspere's time.]

[Page 78]

Receiues rebuke from Norwey: and in fine, Makes Vow before his Vnkle, neuer more To giue th'assay of Armes against your Maiestie. Whereon old Norwey, ouercome with ioy, Giues him three thousand Crownes in Annuall Fee,
[Sidenote: threescore thousand] And his Commission to imploy those Soldiers So leuied as before, against the Poleak: [Sidenote: Pollacke,] With an intreaty heerein further shewne, [Sidenote: 190] That it might please you to giue quiet passe Through your Dominions, for his Enterprize, [Sidenote: for this] On such regards of safety and allowance, As therein are set downe.

King . It likes vs well: And at our more consider'd[1] time wee'l read, Answer, and thinke vpon this Businesse. Meane time we thanke you, for your well-tooke Labour. Go to your rest, at night wee'l Feast together.[2] Most welcome home. Exit Ambass .
[Sidenote: Exeunt Embassadors]

Pol . This businesse is very well ended.[3] [Sidenote: is well] My Liege, and Madam, to expostulate[4] What Maiestie should be, what Dutie is,[5] Why day is day; night, night; and