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

ignorance of the espial. Polonius thinks she is about to disclose what has passed, and
informs her of its needlessness. But it might well enough be taken as only an assurance of the success of their listening-that they had heard without difficulty.]

[Footnote 5: 'If she do not find him out': a comparable phrase, common at the time, was, Take me with you , meaning, Let me understand you .

Polonius, for his daughter's sake, and his own in her, begs for him another chance.]

[Footnote 6: 'in the insignificant, madness may roam the country, but in the great it must be watched.' The unmatcht of the Quarto might bear the meaning of countermatched .]

[Footnote 7: I should suggest this exhortation to the Players introduced with the express purpose of showing how absolutely sane Hamlet was, could I believe that Shakspere saw the least danger of Hamlet's pretence being mistaken for reality.]

[Footnote 8: He would have neither blundering nor emphasis such as might rouse too soon the king's suspicion, or turn it into certainty.]

[Footnote 9: 'liue'- lief ]

[Footnote 10: 1st Q.:-

I'de rather heare a towne bull bellow,
Then such a fellow speake my lines.

Lines is a player-word still.]

[Footnote 11: -smoothness such as belongs to the domain of Art, and will both save from absurdity, and allow the relations with surroundings to manifest themselves;-harmoniousness, which is the possibility of co-existence.]

[Footnote 12: those on the ground-that is, in the pit; there was no gallery then.]

[Footnote 13: receptive .]

[Footnote 14: -gestures extravagant and unintelligible as those of a dumb show that could not by the beholder be interpreted; gestures incorrespondent to the words.

A dumb show was a stage-action without words.]

[Footnote 15: Speech that is little but rant, and scarce related to the sense, is hardly better than a noise; it might, for the purposes of art, as well be a sound inarticulate.]

[Page 132]

Termagant[1]: it out-Herod's Herod[2] Pray you auoid it.

Player. I warrant your Honor.

Ham. Be not too tame neyther: but let your owne Discretion be your Tutor. Sute the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action, with this speciall obseruance: That you ore-stop not the [Sidenote: ore-steppe] modestie of Nature; for any thing so ouer-done, [Sidenote ore-doone] is fro[3] the purpose of Playing, whose end both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twer the Mirrour vp to Nature; to shew Vertue her owne [Sidenote: her feature;] Feature, Scorne[4] her owne Image, and the verie Age and Bodie of the Time, his forme and pressure.[5] Now, this ouer-done, or come tardie off,[6] though it make the vnskilfull laugh, cannot but make the [Sidenote: it makes] Iudicious greeue; The censure of the which One,[7]
[Sidenote: of which one] must in your allowance[8] o're-way a whole Theater of Others. Oh, there bee Players that I haue scene Play, and heard others praise, and that highly
[Sidenote: praysd,] (not to speake it prophanely) that neyther hauing the accent of Christians, nor the gate of Christian, Pagan, or Norman, haue so strutted and bellowed,
[Sidenote: Pagan, nor man, haue] that I haue thought some of Natures Iouerney-men had made men, and not made them well, they imitated Humanity so abhominably.[9]

[Sidenote: 126] Play. I hope we haue reform'd that indifferently[10] with vs, Sir.

Ham. O reforme it altogether. And let those that play your Clownes, speake no more then is set downe for them.[12] For there be of them, that will themselues laugh, to set on some quantitie of barren Spectators to laugh too, though in the meane time, some necessary Question of the Play be then to be considered:[12] that's Villanous, and shewes a most pittifull Ambition in the Fool that vses it.[13] Go make you readie. Exit Players

[Footnote 1: 'An imaginary God of the Mahometans, represented as a most violent character in the old Miracle-plays and Moralities.'- Sh. Lex. ]

[Footnote 2: 'represented as a swaggering tyrant in the old dramatic performances.'- Sh. Lex. ]

[Footnote 3: away from : inconsistent with.]

[Footnote 4: -that which is deserving of scorn.]

[Footnote 5: impression , as on wax. Some would persuade us that Shakspere's own plays do not do this; but such critics take the
accidents or circumstances of a time for the body of it-the clothes for the person. Human nature is 'Nature,' however dressed .

There should be a comma after 'Age.']

[Footnote 6: 'laggingly represented'-A word belonging to time is substituted for a word belonging to space :-'this over-done, or inadequately effected'; 'this over-done, or under-done.']

[Footnote 7: 'and the judgment of such a one.' ' the which ' seems equivalent to and-such .]

[Footnote 8: 'must, you will grant.']

[Footnote 9: Shakspere may here be playing with a false derivation, as I was myself when the true was pointed out to me-fancying abominable derived from ab and homo . If so, then he means by the phrase: 'they imitated humanity so from the nature of man, so inhumanly .']

[Footnote 10: tolerably.]

[Footnote 11: 'Sir' not in Q. ]

[Footnote 12: Shakspere must have himself suffered from such clowns: Coleridge thinks some of their gag has crept into his print.]

[Footnote 13: Here follow in the 1st Q. several specimens of such a clown's foolish jests and behaviour.]

[Page 134]

Enter Polonius, Rosincrance, and Guildensterne .[1]
[Sidenote: Guyldensterne, & Rosencraus .]

How now my Lord, Will the King heare this peece of Worke?

Pol . And the Queene too, and that presently.[2]

Ham . Bid the Players make hast.

Exit Polonius .[3]

Will you two helpe to hasten them?[4]

Both . We will my Lord. Exeunt .
[Sidenote: Ros . I my Lord. Exeunt they two .]

Enter Horatio [5]

Ham . What hoa, Horatio ? [Sidenote: What howe,]

Hora . Heere sweet Lord, at your Seruice.

[Sidenote: 26] Ham .[7] Horatio , thou art eene as iust a man As ere my Conversation coap'd withall.

Hora . O my deere Lord.[6]

Ham .[7] Nay do not thinke I flatter: For what aduancement may I hope from thee,[8] That no Reuennew hast, but thy good spirits To feed and cloath thee. Why shold the poor be flatter'd? No, let the Candied[9] tongue, like absurd pompe, [Sidenote: licke] And crooke the pregnant Hindges of the knee,[10] Where thrift may follow faining? Dost thou heare,
[Sidenote: fauning;] Since my deere Soule was Mistris of my choyse;[11]
[Sidenote: her choice,] And could of men distinguish, her election Hath seal'd thee for her selfe. For thou hast bene
[Sidenote: S'hath seald] [Sidenote: 272] As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing. A man that Fortunes buffets, and Rewards Hath 'tane with equall Thankes. And blest are those, [Sidenote: Hast] Whose Blood and Iudgement are so well co-mingled,
[Sidenote: comedled,[12]] [Sidenote: 26] That they are not a Pipe for Fortunes finger, To sound what stop she please.[13] Giue me that man, That is not Passions Slaue,[14] and I will weare him In my hearts Core: I, in my Heart of heart,[15] As I do thee. Something too much of this.[16]

[Footnote 1: In Q. at end of speech. ]

[Footnote 2: He humours Hamlet as if he were a child.]

[Footnote 3: Not in Q. ]

[Footnote 4: He has sent for Horatio, and is expecting him.]

[Footnote 5: In Q. after next speech. ]

[Footnote 6: -repudiating the praise.]

[Footnote 7: To know a man, there is scarce a readier way than to hear him talk of his friend-why he loves, admires, chooses him. The Poet here gives us a wide window into Hamlet. So genuine is his respect for
being , so indifferent is he to having , that he does not shrink, in argument for his own truth, from reminding his friend to his face that, being a poor man, nothing is to be gained from him-nay, from telling him that it is through his poverty he has learned to admire him, as a man of courage, temper, contentment, and independence, with nothing but his good spirits for an income-a man whose manhood is dominant both over his senses and over his fortune-a true Stoic. He describes an ideal man, then clasps the ideal to his bosom as his own, in the person of his friend. Only a great man could so