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

[Sidenote: viage,] For we will Fetters put vpon this feare,[6] [Sidenote: put about this] Which now goes too free-footed.

Both. We will haste vs. Exeunt Gent

Enter Polonius.

Pol. My Lord, he's going to his Mothers Closset: Behinde the Arras Ile conuey my selfe To heare the Processe. Ile warrant shee'l tax him home, And as you said, and wisely was it said, 'Tis meete that some more audience then a Mother, Since Nature makes them partiall, should o're-heare The speech of vantage.[7] Fare you well my Liege, Ile call vpon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know. [Sidenote: Exit.]

King. Thankes deere my Lord. Oh my offence is ranke, it smels to heauen, It hath the primall eldest curse vpon't, A Brothers murther.[8] Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharpe as will: My stronger guilt,[9] defeats my strong intent,

[Footnote 1: The philosophy of which self is the centre. The speeches of both justify the king in proceeding to extremes against Hamlet.]

[Footnote 2: The same as to say: 'The passing, ceasing, or ending of majesty dies not-is not finished or accomplished, without that of others;' 'the dying ends or ceases not,' &c.]

[Footnote 3: The but of the Quarto is better, only the line halts. It is the preposition, meaning without .]

[Footnote 4: heedless of their flattery . It is hardly applicable enough to interest him.]

[Footnote 5: 'Provide yourselves.']

[Footnote 6: fear active; cause of fear; thing to be afraid of; the noun of the verb fear , to frighten :

Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

A Midsummer Night's Dream , act v. sc. i.]

[Footnote 7: Schmidt ( Sh. Lex. ) says of vantage means to boot . I do not think he is right. Perhaps Polonius means 'from a position of advantage.' Or perhaps 'The speech of vantage' is to be understood as implying that Hamlet, finding himself in a position of vantage, that is, alone with his mother, will probably utter himself with little restraint.]

[Footnote 8: This is the first proof positive of his guilt accorded even to the spectator of the play: here Claudius confesses not merely guilt (118), but the very deed. Thoughtless critics are so ready to judge another as if he knew all they know, that it is desirable here to remind the student that only he, not Hamlet, hears this soliloquy. The falseness of half the judgments in the world comes from our not taking care and pains first to know accurately the actions, and then to understand the mental and moral condition, of those we judge.]

[Footnote 9: -his present guilty indulgence-stronger than his strong intent to pray.]

[Page 162]

And like a man to double businesse bound,[1] I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both[2] neglect; what if this cursed hand Were thicker then it selfe with Brothers blood, Is there not Raine enough in the sweet Heauens To wash it white as Snow? Whereto serues mercy, But to confront the visage of Offence? And what's in Prayer, but this two-fold force, To be fore-stalled ere we come to fall, Or pardon'd being downe? Then Ile looke vp, [Sidenote: pardon] My fault is past. But oh, what forme of Prayer Can serue my turne? Forgiue me my foule Murther: That cannot be, since I am still possest Of those effects for which I did the Murther.[3] My Crowne, mine owne Ambition, and my Queene: May one be pardon'd, and retaine th'offence? In the corrupted currants of this world, Offences gilded hand may shoue by Iustice [Sidenote: showe] And oft 'tis seene, the wicked prize it selfe Buyes out the Law; but 'tis not so aboue, There is no shuffling, there the Action lyes In his true Nature, and we our selues compell'd Euen to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To giue in euidence. What then? What rests? Try what Repentance can. What can it not? Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?[4] Oh wretched state! Oh bosome, blacke as death! Oh limed[5] soule, that strugling to be free, Art more ingag'd[6]: Helpe Angels, make assay:[7] Bow stubborne knees, and heart with strings of Steele, Be soft as sinewes of the new-borne Babe, All may be well.

[Footnote 1: Referring to his double guilt-the one crime past, the other in continuance.

Here is the corresponding passage in the 1st Q. , with the adultery plainly confessed:-

Enter the King.

King . O that this wet that falles vpon my face
Would wash the crime cleere from my conscience!
When I looke vp to heauen, I see my trespasse,
The earth doth still crie out vpon my fact,
Pay me the murder of a brother and a king,
And the adulterous fault I haue committed:
O these are sinnes that are vnpardonable:
Why say thy sinnes were blacker then is ieat,
Yet may contrition make them as white as snowe:
I but still to perseuer in a sinne,
It is an act gainst the vniuersall power,
Most wretched man, stoope, bend thee to thy prayer,
Aske grace of heauen to keepe thee from despaire.]

[Footnote 2: both crimes.]

[Footnote 3: He could repent of and pray forgiveness for the murder, if he could repent of the adultery and incest, and give up the queen. It is not the sins they have done, but the sins they will not leave, that damn men. 'This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.' The murder deeply troubled him; the adultery not so much; the incest and usurpation mainly as interfering with the forgiveness of the murder.]

[Footnote 4: Even hatred of crime committed is not repentance: repentance is the turning away from wrong doing: 'Cease to do evil; learn to do well.']

[Footnote 5: -caught and held by crime, as a bird by bird-lime.]

[Footnote 6: entangled.]

[Footnote 7: said to his knees . Point thus:-'Helpe Angels! Make assay-bow, stubborne knees!']

[Page 164]

Enter Hamlet .

Ham .[1] Now might I do it pat, now he is praying,
[Sidenote: doe it, but now a is a praying,] And now Ile doo't, and so he goes to Heauen, [Sidenote: so a goes] And so am I reueng'd: that would be scann'd, [Sidenote: reuendge,] A Villaine killes my Father, and for that I his foule Sonne, do this same Villaine send [Sidenote: sole sonne] To heauen. Oh this is hyre and Sallery, not Reuenge.
[Sidenote: To heauen. Why, this is base and silly, not] He tooke my Father grossely, full of bread, [Sidenote: A tooke] [Sidenote: 54, 262] With all his Crimes broad blowne, as fresh as May,
[Sidenote: as flush as] And how his Audit stands, who knowes, saue Heauen:[2] But in our circumstance and course of thought 'Tis heauie with him: and am I then reueng'd, To take him in the purging of his Soule, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No. Vp Sword, and know thou a more horrid hent[3] When he is drunke asleepe: or in his Rage, Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, swearing, or about some acte [Sidenote: At game a swearing,] That ha's no rellish of Saluation in't, Then trip him,[4] that his heeles may kicke at Heauen, And that his Soule may be as damn'd and blacke As Hell, whereto it goes.[5] My Mother stayes,[6] This Physicke but prolongs thy sickly dayes.[7]
Exit .

King . My words flye vp, my thoughts remain below, Words without thoughts, neuer to Heauen go.[8]
Exit .

Enter Queene and Polonius . [Sidenote: Enter Gertrard and ]

Pol . He will come straight: [Sidenote: A will] Looke you lay home to him

[Footnote 1: In the 1st Q. this speech commences with, 'I so, come forth and worke thy last,' evidently addressed to his sword; afterwards, having changed his purpose, he says, 'no, get thee vp agen.']

[Footnote 2: This indicates doubt of the Ghost still. He is unwilling to believe in him.]

[Footnote 3: grasp . This is the only instance I know of hent as a noun. The verb to hent, to lay hold of , is not so rare. 'Wait till thou be aware of a grasp with a more horrid purpose in it.']

[Footnote 4: -still addressed to his sword.]

[Footnote 5: Are we to take Hamlet's own presentment of his reasons as exhaustive? Doubtless to kill him at his prayers, whereupon, after the notions of the time, he would go to heaven, would be anything but justice-the murdered man in hell-the murderer in heaven! But it is easy to suppose Hamlet finding it impossible to slay a man on his knees-and that from behind: thus in the unseen Presence, he was in sanctuary, and the avenger might well seek reason or excuse for not
then , not there executing the decree.]

[Footnote 6: 'waits for me.']

[Footnote 7: He seems now to