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

moods before us, ought to understand Hamlet better than he understands himself. To himself, sitting in judgment on himself, it would hardly appear a decent cause of, not to say reason for, a moment's delay in punishing his uncle, that he was so weighed down with misery because of his mother and Ophelia, that it seemed of no use to kill one villain out of the villainous world; it would seem but 'bestial oblivion'; and, although his reputation as a prince was deeply concerned, any reflection on the consequences to himself would at times appear but a 'craven scruple'; while at times even the whispers of conscience might seem a 'thinking too precisely on the event.' A conscientious man of changeful mood wilt be very ready in either mood to condemn the other. The best and rightest men will sometimes accuse themselves in a manner that seems to those who know them best, unfounded, unreasonable, almost absurd. We must not, I say, take the hero's judgment of himself as the author's judgment of him. The two judgments, that of a man upon himself from within, and that of his beholder upon him from without, are not congeneric. They are different in origin and in kind, and cannot be adopted either of them into the source of the other without most serious and dangerous mistake. So adopted, each becomes another thing altogether. It is to me probable that, although it involves other unfitnesses, the Poet omitted the passage chiefly from coming to see the danger of its giving occasion, or at least support, to an altogether mistaken and unjust idea of his Hamlet.]

[Page 194]

There's trickes i'th'world, and hems, and beats her heart, Spurnes enuiously at Strawes,[1] speakes things in doubt,[2] That carry but halfe sense: Her speech is nothing,[3] Yet the vnshaped vse of it[4] doth moue The hearers to Collection[5]; they ayme[6] at it,
[Sidenote: they yawne at] And botch the words[7] vp fit to their owne thoughts


[ Continuation of quote from Quarto from previous text page :-

And spur my dull reuenge. [8]What is a man If his chiefe good and market of his time Be but to sleepe and feede, a beast, no more; Sure he that made vs with such large discourse[9] Looking before and after, gaue vs not That capabilitie and god-like reason To fust in vs vnvsd,[8] now whether it be [Sidenote: 52, 120] Bestiall obliuion,[10] or some crauen scruple Of thinking too precisely on th'euent,[11] A thought which quarterd hath but one part wisedom, And euer three parts coward, I doe not know Why yet I liue to say this thing's to doe, Sith I haue cause, and will, and strength, and meanes To doo't;[12] examples grosse as earth exhort me, Witnes this Army of such masse and charge, [Sidenote: 235] Led by a delicate and tender Prince, Whose spirit with diuine ambition puft, Makes mouthes at the invisible euent, [Sidenote: 120] Exposing what is mortall, and vnsure, To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,[13] Euen for an Egge-shell. Rightly to be great, Is not to stirre without great argument, But greatly to find quarrell in a straw When honour's at the stake, how stand I then That haue a father kild, a mother staind, Excytements of my reason, and my blood, And let all sleepe,[14] while to my shame I see The iminent death of twenty thousand men, That for a fantasie and tricke[15] of fame Goe to their graues like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,[16] Which is not tombe enough and continent[17] To hide the slaine,[18] ô from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.[19] Exit. ]

[Footnote 1: trifles.]

[Footnote 2: doubtfully.]

[Footnote 3: 'there is nothing in her speech.']

[Footnote 4: 'the formless mode of it.']

[Footnote 5: 'to gathering things and putting them together.']

[Footnote 6: guess.]

[Footnote 7: Ophelia's words.]

[Footnote 8: I am in doubt whether this passage from 'What is a man' down to 'unused,' does not refer to the king, and whether Hamlet is not persuading himself that it can be no such objectionable thing to kill one hardly above a beast. At all events it is far more applicable to the king: it was not one of Hamlet's faults, in any case, to fail of using his reason. But he may just as well accuse himself of that too! At the same time the worst neglect of reason lies in not carrying out its conclusions, and if we cannot justify Hamlet in his delay, the passage is of good application to him. 'Bestiall oblivion' does seem to connect himself with the reflection; but how thoroughly is the thing intended by such a phrase alien from the character of Hamlet!]

[Footnote 9: -the mental faculty of running hither and thither: 'We look before and after.' Shelley: To a Skylark .]

[Footnote 10: -the forgetfulness of such a beast as he has just mentioned.]

[Footnote 11: -the consequences . The scruples that come of thinking of the event, Hamlet certainly had: that they were craven scruples, that his thinking was too precise, I deny to the face of the noble self-accuser. Is that a craven scruple which, seeing no good to result from the horrid deed, shrinks from its irretrievableness, and demands at least absolute assurance of guilt? or that 'a thinking too precisely on the event,' to desire, as the prince of his people, to leave an un wounded name behind him?]

[Footnote 12: This passage is the strongest there is on the side of the ordinary misconception of the character of Hamlet. It comes from himself; and it is as ungenerous as it is common and unfair to use such a weapon against a man. Does any but St. Paul himself say he was the chief of sinners? Consider Hamlet's condition, tormented on all sides, within and without, and think whether this outbreak against himself be not as unfair as it is natural. Lest it should be accepted against him, Shakspere did well to leave it out. In bitter disappointment, both because of what is and what is not, both because of what he has done and what he has failed to do, having for the time lost all chance, with the last vision of the Ghost still haunting his eyes, his last reproachful words yet ringing in his ears, are we bound to take his judgment of himself because it is against himself? Are we bound to take any man's judgment because it is against himself? I answer, 'No more than if it were for himself.' A good man's judgment, where he is at all perplexed, especially if his motive comes within his own question, is ready to be against himself, as a bad man's is sure to be for himself. Or because he is a philosopher, does it follow that throughout he understands himself? Were such a man in cool, untroubled conditions, we might feel compelled to take his judgment, but surely not here! A philosopher in such state as Hamlet's would understand the quality of his spiritual operations with no more certainty than another man. In his present mood, Hamlet forgets the cogency of the reasons that swayed him in the other; forgets that his uppermost feeling then was doubt, as horror, indignation, and conviction are uppermost now. Things were never so clear to Hamlet as to us.

But how can he say he has strength and means-in the position in which he now finds himself? I am glad to be able to believe, let my defence of Hamlet against himself be right or wrong, that Shakspere intended the omission of the passage. I lay nothing on the great lack of logic throughout the speech, for that would not make it unfit for Hamlet in such mood, while it makes its omission from the play of less consequence to my general argument.]

[Footnote 13: threaten . This supports my argument as to the great soliloquy-that it was death as the result of his slaying the king, or attempting to do so, not death by suicide, he was thinking of: he expected to die himself in the punishing of his uncle.]

[Footnote 14: He had had no chance but that when the king was on his knees.]

[Footnote 15: 'a fancy and illusion.']

[Footnote 16: 'which is too small for those engaged to find room to fight on it.']

[Footnote 17: 'continent,' containing space .]

[Footnote 18: This soliloquy is antithetic to the other. Here is no thought of the 'something after death.']

[Footnote 19: If, with this speech in his mouth, Hamlet goes coolly on board the vessel, not being compelled thereto (190, 192, 216), and possessing means to his vengeance, as here he says, and goes merely in order to hoist Rosincrance and Guildensterne with their own petard-that is, if we must keep the omitted passages, then the author exposes his hero to a more depreciatory judgment than any from which I would justify him, and a conception of his character entirely inconsistent with the rest of the play. He did not observe the risk at the time he wrote the passage, but discovering it afterwards, rectified the oversight-to the dissatisfaction of his critics, who have agreed in restoring what he cancelled.]

[Page 196]

Which as her winkes, and nods, and gestures yeeld[1] them, Indeed would make one thinke there would[2] be thought,
[Sidenote: there might[2] be] Though nothing sure, yet much vnhappily.

Qu . 'Twere good she were spoken with,[3] [Sidenote: Hora .] For she may strew dangerous coniectures In ill breeding minds.[4] Let her come in. [Sidenote: Enter Ophelia .] To my sicke soule (as sinnes true Nature is)
[Sidenote: Quee . 'To my[5]] Each toy seemes Prologue, to some great amisse, [Sidenote: 'Each] So full of Artlesse iealousie is guilt, [Sidenote: 'So] It spill's it selfe, in fearing to be spilt.[6] [Sidenote: 'It]

Enter Ophelia distracted .[7]

Ophe . Where is the beauteous Maiesty of Denmark.

Qu . How now Ophelia ? [Sidenote: shee sings .]

Ophe. How should I your true loue know from another one? By his Cockle hat and staffe, and his Sandal shoone.

Qu . Alas sweet Lady: what imports this Song?

Ophe . Say you? Nay pray you marke.
He is dead and gone Lady, he is dead and gone, At his head a grasse-greene