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

1st Q.

confest a murder
Committed long before.
This spirit that I haue seene may be the Diuell,
And out of my weakenesse and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such men,
Doth seeke to damne me, I will haue sounder proofes,
The play's the thing, &c.]

[Footnote 2:

'Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;' &c.

Macbeth , iii. 4.]

[Footnote 3: In the 1st Q. Hamlet, speaking to Horatio (l 37), says,

And if he doe not bleach, and change at that,-

Bleach is radically the same word as blench :-to bleach, to blanch, to blench- to grow white .]

[Footnote 4: Emphasis on May , as resuming previous doubtful thought and suspicion.]

[Footnote 5: -caused from the first by his mother's behaviour, not constitutional.]

[Footnote 6: -'such conditions of the spirits'.]

[Footnote 7: Here is one element in the very existence of the preceding act: doubt as to the facts of the case has been throughout operating to restrain him; and here first he reveals, perhaps first recognizes its influence. Subject to change of feeling with the wavering of conviction, he now for a moment regards his uncertainty as involving unnatural distrust of a being in whose presence he cannot help feeling him his father. He was familiar with the lore of the supernatural, and knew the doubt he expresses to be not without support.-His companions as well had all been in suspense as to the identity of the apparition with the late king.]

[Page 116]

Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosincrance, Guildenstern, and Lords. [1] [Sidenote: Guyldensterne, Lords.]

[Sidenote: 72] King. And can you by no drift of circumstance
[Sidenote: An can | of conference] Get from him why he puts on[2] this Confusion: Grating so harshly all his dayes of quiet With turbulent and dangerous Lunacy.

Rosin. He does confesse he feeles himselfe distracted, [Sidenote: 92] But from what cause he will by no meanes speake.
[Sidenote: a will]

Guil. Nor do we finde him forward to be sounded, But with a crafty Madnesse[3] keepes aloofe: When we would bring him on to some Confession Of his true state.

Qu. Did he receiue you well?

Rosin. Most like a Gentleman.

Guild. But with much forcing of his disposition.[4]

Rosin. Niggard of question, but of our demands Most free in his reply.[5]

Qu. Did you assay him to any pastime?

Rosin. Madam, it so fell out, that certaine Players We ore-wrought on the way: of these we told him,
[Sidenote: ore-raught[6]] And there did seeme in him a kinde of ioy To heare of it: They are about the Court, [Sidenote: are heere about] And (as I thinke) they haue already order This night to play before him.

Pol. 'Tis most true; And he beseech'd me to intreate your Majesties To heare, and see the matter.

King. With all my heart, and it doth much content me To heare him so inclin'd. Good Gentlemen,

[Footnote 1: This may be regarded as the commencement of the Third Act.]

[Footnote 2: The phrase seems to imply a doubt of the genuineness of the lunacy.]

[Footnote 3: Nominative pronoun omitted here. ]

[Footnote 4: He has noted, without understanding them, the signs of Hamlet's suspicion of themselves.]

[Footnote 5: Compare the seemingly opposite statements of the two: Hamlet had bewildered them.]

[Foonote 6: over-reached -came up with, caught up, overtook.]

[Page 118]

Giue him a further edge,[1] and driue his purpose on
[Sidenote: purpose into these] To these delights.

Rosin. We shall my Lord. Exeunt.
[Sidenote: Exeunt Ros. & Guyl. ]

King. Sweet Gertrude leaue vs too, [Sidenote: Gertrard | two] For we haue closely sent for Hamlet hither, [Sidenote: 84] That he, as 'twere by accident, may there
[Sidenote: heere] Affront[2] Ophelia . Her Father, and my selfe[3] (lawful espials)[4] Will so bestow our selues, that seeing vnseene We may of their encounter frankely iudge, And gather by him, as he is behaued, If't be th'affliction of his loue, or no, That thus he suffers for.

Qu. I shall obey you, And for your part Ophelia ,[5] I do wish That your good Beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlets wildenesse: so shall I hope your Vertues [Sidenote: 240] Will bring him to his wonted way againe, To both your Honors.[6]

Ophe. Madam, I wish it may.

Pol. Ophelia , walke you heere. Gracious so please ye[7]
[Sidenote: you,] We will bestow our selues: Reade on this booke,[8] That shew of such an exercise may colour Your lonelinesse.[9] We are oft too blame in this,[10]
[Sidenote: lowlines:] 'Tis too much prou'd, that with Deuotions visage, And pious Action, we do surge o're [Sidenote: sugar] The diuell himselfe.

[Sidenote: 161] King. Oh 'tis true: [Sidenote: tis too true] How smart a lash that speech doth giue my Conscience? The Harlots Cheeke beautied with plaist'ring Art Is not more vgly to the thing that helpes it,[11] Then is my deede, to my most painted word.[12] Oh heauie burthen![13]

[Footnote 1: ' edge him on'-somehow corrupted into egg .]

[Footnote 2: confront .]

[Footnote 3: Clause in parenthesis not in Q. ]

[Footnote 4: -apologetic to the queen.]

[Footnote 5: - going up to Ophelia -I would say, who stands at a little distance, and has not heard what has been passing between them.]

[Footnote 6: The queen encourages Ophelia in hoping to marry Hamlet, and may so have a share in causing a certain turn her madness takes.]

[Footnote 7: - aside to the king .]

[Footnote 8: - to Ophelia: her prayer-book. 122.]

[Footnote 9: 1st Q.

And here Ofelia , reade you on this booke,
And walke aloofe, the King shal be vnseene.]

[Footnote 10: - aside to the king. I insert these asides , and suggest the queen's going up to Ophelia, to show how we may easily hold Ophelia ignorant of their plot. Poor creature as she was, I would believe Shakspere did not mean her to lie to Hamlet. This may be why he omitted that part of her father's speech in the 1st Q. given in the note immediately above, telling her the king is going to hide. Still, it would be excuse enough for her , that she thought his madness justified the deception.]

[Footnote 11: -ugly to the paint that helps by hiding it-to which it lies so close, and from which it has no secrets. Or, 'ugly to' may mean, 'ugly compared with .']

[Footnote 12: 'most painted'- very much painted . His painted word is the paint to the deed. Painted may be taken for full of paint .]

[Footnote 13: This speech of the king is the first assurance we have of his guilt.]

[Page 120]

Pol. I heare him comming, let's withdraw my Lord.
[Sidenote: comming, with-draw]
Exeunt. [1]

Enter Hamlet. [2]

Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the Question: Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune, [Sidenote: 200,250] Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles,[3] And by opposing end them:[4] to dye, to sleepe No more; and by a sleepe, to say we end The Heart-ake, and the thousand Naturall shockes That Flesh is heyre too? 'Tis a consummation Deuoutly to be wish'd.[5] To dye to sleepe, To sleepe, perchance to Dreame;[6] I, there's the rub, For in that sleepe of death, what[7] dreames may come,[8] When we haue shuffle'd off this mortall coile, [Sidenote: 186] Must giue vs pawse.[9] There's the respect That makes Calamity of so long life:[10] For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time, The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely,