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

time is time, Were nothing but to waste Night, Day and Time. Therefore, since Breuitie is the Soule of Wit,
[Sidenote: Therefore breuitie] And tediousnesse, the limbes and outward flourishes,[6] I will be breefe. Your Noble Sonne is mad: Mad call I it; for to define true Madnesse, What is't, but to be nothing else but mad.[7] But let that go.

Qu . More matter, with lesse Art.[8]

Pol . Madam, I sweare I vse no Art at all: That he is mad, 'tis true: 'Tis true 'tis pittie, [Sidenote: hee's mad] And pittie it is true; A foolish figure,[9]
[Sidenote: pitty tis tis true,]

[Footnote 1: time given up to, or filled with consideration; or, perhaps , time chosen for a purpose.]

[Footnote 2: He is always feasting.]

[Footnote 3: Now for his turn! He sets to work at once with his rhetoric.]

[Footnote 4: to lay down beforehand as postulates.]

[Footnote 5: We may suppose a dash and pause after ' Dutie is '. The meaning is plain enough, though logical form is wanting.]

[Footnote 6: As there is no imagination in Polonius, we cannot look for great aptitude in figure.]

[Footnote 7: The nature of madness also is a postulate.]

[Footnote 8: She is impatient, but wraps her rebuke in a compliment. Art, so-called, in speech, was much favoured in the time of Elizabeth. And as a compliment Polonius takes the form in which she expresses her dislike of his tediousness, and her anxiety after his news: pretending to wave it off, he yet, in his gratification, coming on the top of his excitement with the importance of his fancied discovery, plunges immediately into a very slough of art , and becomes absolutely silly.]

[Footnote 9: It is no figure at all. It is hardly even a play with the words.]

[Page 80]

But farewell it: for I will vse no Art. Mad let vs grant him then: and now remaines That we finde out the cause of this effect, Or rather say, the cause of this defect; For this effect defectiue, comes by cause, Thus it remaines, and the remainder thus. Perpend, I haue a daughter: haue, whil'st she is mine, [Sidenote: while] Who in her Dutie and Obedience, marke, Hath giuen me this: now gather, and surmise.

The Letter .[1]
To the Celestiall, and my Soules Idoll, the most
beautified Ophelia . That's an ill Phrase, a vilde Phrase, beautified is a vilde Phrase: but you shall heare these in her thus in her excellent white bosome, these.[2] [Sidenote: these, &c]

Qu . Came this from Hamlet to her.

Pol . Good Madam stay awhile, I will be faithfull.
Doubt thou, the Starres are fire , [Sidenote: Letter ]
Doubt, that the Sunne doth moue; Doubt Truth to be a Lier, But neuer Doubt, I loue.[3] O deere Ophelia, I am ill at these Numbers: I haue not Art to reckon my grones; but that I loue thee best, oh most Best beleeue it. Adieu.
Thine euermore most deere Lady, whilst this
Machine is to him , Hamlet. This in Obedience hath my daughter shew'd me:
[Sidenote: Pol . This showne] And more aboue hath his soliciting, [Sidenote: more about solicitings] As they fell out by Time, by Meanes, and Place, All giuen to mine eare.

King . But how hath she receiu'd his Loue?

Pol . What do you thinke of me?

King . As of a man, faithfull and Honourable.

Pol . I wold faine proue so. But what might you think?

[Footnote 1: Not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 2: Point thus : 'but you shall heare. These, in her excellent white bosom, these :'

Ladies, we are informed, wore a small pocket in front of the bodice;-but to accept the fact as an explanation of this passage, is to cast the passage away. Hamlet addresses his letter, not to Ophelia's pocket, but to Ophelia herself, at her house-that is, in the palace of her bosom, excellent in whiteness. In like manner, signing himself, he makes mention of his body as a machine of which he has the use for a time. So earnest is Hamlet that when he makes love, he is the more a philosopher. But he is more than a philosopher: he is a man of the Universe, not a man of this world only.

We must not allow the fashion of the time in which the play was written, to cause doubt as to the genuine heartiness of Hamlet's love-making.]

[Footnote 3: 1st Q.

Doubt that in earth is fire,
Doubt that the starres doe moue,
Doubt trueth to be a liar,
But doe not doubt I loue.]

[Page 82]

When I had seene this hot loue on the wing, As I perceiued it, I must tell you that Before my Daughter told me, what might you Or my deere Maiestie your Queene heere, think, If I had playd the Deske or Table-booke,[1] Or giuen my heart a winking, mute and dumbe, [Sidenote: working] Or look'd vpon this Loue, with idle sight,[2] What might you thinke? No, I went round to worke, And (my yong Mistris) thus I did bespeake[3] Lord Hamlet is a Prince out of thy Starre,[4] This must not be:[5] and then, I Precepts gaue her,
[Sidenote: I prescripts] That she should locke her selfe from his Resort, [Sidenote: from her] [Sidenote: 42[6], 43, 70] Admit no Messengers, receiue no Tokens: Which done, she tooke the Fruites of my Aduice,[7] And he repulsed. A short Tale to make, [Sidenote: repell'd, a] Fell into a Sadnesse, then into a Fast,[8] Thence to a Watch, thence into a Weaknesse, [Sidenote: to a wath,] Thence to a Lightnesse, and by this declension [Sidenote: to lightnes] Into the Madnesse whereon now he raues, [Sidenote: wherein] And all we waile for.[9] [Sidenote: mourne for]

King . Do you thinke 'tis this?[10] [Sidenote: thinke this?]

Qu . It may be very likely. [Sidenote: like]

Pol . Hath there bene such a time, I'de fain know that,
[Sidenote: I would] That I haue possitiuely said, 'tis so, When it prou'd otherwise?

King . Not that I know.

Pol . Take this from this[11]; if this be otherwise, If Circumstances leade me, I will finde Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeede Within the Center.

King . How may we try it further?

[Footnote 1: -behaved like a piece of furniture.]

[Footnote 2: The love of talk makes a man use many idle words, foolish expressions, and useless repetitions.]

[Footnote 3: Notwithstanding the parenthesis, I take 'Mistris' to be the objective to 'bespeake'-that is, address .]

[Footnote 4: Star , mark of sort or quality; brand (45). The 1st Q . goes on-

An'd one that is vnequall for your loue:

But it may mean, as suggested by my Reader , 'outside thy destiny,'-as ruled by the star of nativity-and I think it does.]

[Footnote 5: Here is a change from the impression conveyed in the first act: he attributes his interference to his care for what befitted royalty; whereas, talking to Ophelia (40, 72), he attributes it entirely to his care for her;-so partly in the speech correspondent to the present in 1st Q .:-

Now since which time, seeing his loue thus cross'd,
Which I tooke to be idle, and but sport,
He straitway grew into a melancholy,]

[Footnote 6: See also passage in note from 1st Q .]

[Footnote 7: She obeyed him. The 'fruits' of his advice were her conformed actions.]

[Footnote 8: When the appetite goes, and the sleep follows, doubtless the man is on the steep slope of madness. But as to Hamlet, and how matters were with him, what Polonius says is worth nothing.]

[Footnote 9: ' wherein now he raves, and wherefor all we wail.']

[Footnote 10: To the queen .]

[Footnote 11: head from shoulders.]

[Page 84]

Pol . You know sometimes He walkes foure houres together, heere[1] In the Lobby.

Qu . So he ha's indeed. [Sidenote: he dooes indeede]

[Sidenote: 118] Pol . At such a time Ile loose my Daughter to him, Be you and I behinde an Arras then, Marke the encounter: If he loue her not, And be not from his reason falne thereon; Let me be no Assistant for a State, And keepe a Farme and Carters.