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

[Sidenote: ascaunt the Brooke] That shewes his hore leaues in the glassie streame:
[Sidenote: horry leaues] There with fantasticke Garlands did she come,[15]
[Sidenote: Therewith | she make] Of Crow-flowers,[16] Nettles, Daysies, and long Purples, That liberall Shepheards giue a grosser name; But our cold Maids doe Dead Mens Fingers call them:
[Sidenote: our cull-cold] There on the pendant[17] boughes, her Coronet weeds[18] Clambring to hang;[19] an enuious sliuer broke,[20] When downe the weedy Trophies,[19] and her selfe, [Sidenote: her weedy]

[Footnote 1: 'that though I should gall him but slightly,' or, 'that if I gall him ever so slightly.']

[Footnote 2: proper arrangement.]

[Footnote 3: 'fit us exactly, like a garment cut to our shape,' or perhaps 'shape' is used for intent, purpose. Point thus : 'shape. If this should faile, And' &c.]

[Footnote 4: This seems to allude to the assay of a firearm, and to mean ' burst on the trial .' Note 'assaid' two lines back.]

[Footnote 5: There should be a pause here, and a longer pause after
commings : the king is contriving. 'I ha't' should have a line to itself, with again a pause, but a shorter one.]

[Footnote 6: Veney, venue , is a term of fencing: a bout, a thrust-from venir, to come -whence 'commings.' (259) But cunnings , meaning skills , may be the word.]

[Footnote 7: 'As' is here equivalent to 'and so.']

[Footnote 8: -to the end of making Hamlet hot and dry.]

[Footnote 9: for the special occasion.]

[Footnote 10: thrust. Twelfth Night , act iii. sc. 4. 'he gives me the stuck in with such a mortal motion.' Stocco in Italian is a long rapier; and stoccata a thrust. Rom. and Jul ., act iii. sc. 1. See
Shakespeare-Lexicon .]

[Footnote 11: 'may' does not here express doubt , but intention .]

[Footnote 12: If this be the right reading, it means, 'so fast they insist on following.']

[Footnote 13: He speaks it as about to rush to her.]

[Footnote 14: -the choice of Ophelia's fantastic madness, as being the tree of lamenting lovers.]

[Footnote 15: -always busy with flowers.]

[Footnote 16: Ranunculus: Sh. Lex. ]

[Footnote 17: -specially descriptive of the willow.]

[Footnote 18: her wild flowers made into a garland.]

[Footnote 19: The intention would seem, that she imagined herself decorating a monument to her father. Hence her Coronet weeds and the Poet's weedy Trophies .]

[Footnote 20: Sliver , I suspect, called so after the fact, because
slivered or torn off. In Macbeth we have:

slips of yew
Slivered in the moon's eclipse.

But it may be that sliver was used for a twig , such as could be torn off.

Slip and sliver must be of the same root.]

[Page 224]

Fell in the weeping Brooke, her cloathes spred wide, And Mermaid-like, a while they bore her vp, Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,[1]
[Sidenote: old laudes,[1]] As one incapable of[2] her owne distresse, Or like a creature Natiue, and indued[3] Vnto that Element: but long it could not be, Till that her garments, heauy with her drinke, [Sidenote: theyr drinke] Pul'd the poore wretch from her melodious buy,[4]
[Sidenote: melodious lay] To muddy death.[5]

Laer . Alas then, is she drown'd? [Sidenote: she is]

Queen . Drown'd, drown'd.

Laer . Too much of water hast thou poore Ophelia , And therefore I forbid my teares: but yet It is our tricke,[6] Nature her custome holds, Let shame say what it will; when these are gone The woman will be out:[7] Adue my Lord, I haue a speech of fire, that faine would blaze,
[Sidenote: speech a fire] But that this folly doubts[8] it. Exit. [Sidenote: drownes it.[8]]

Kin . Let's follow, Gertrude : How much I had to doe to calme his rage? Now feare I this will giue it start againe; Therefore let's follow. Exeunt .[9]

[10] Enter two Clownes.

Clown . Is she to bee buried in Christian buriall,
[Sidenote: buriall, when she wilfully] that wilfully seekes her owne saluation?[11]

Other . I tell thee she is, and therefore make her
[Sidenote: is, therefore] Graue straight,[12] the Crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian buriall.

Clo . How can that be, vnlesse she drowned her selfe in her owne defence?

Other . Why 'tis found so.[13]

Clo . It must be Se offendendo ,[14] it cannot bee else:
[Sidenote: be so offended, it]

[Footnote 1: They were not lauds she was in the habit of singing, to judge by the snatches given.]

[Footnote 2: not able to take in, not understanding, not conscious of.]

[Footnote 3: clothed, endowed, fitted for. See Sh. Lex. ]

[Footnote 4: Could the word be for buoy -'her clothes spread wide,' on which she floated singing-therefore her melodious buoy or float?]

[Footnote 5: How could the queen know all this, when there was no one near enough to rescue her? Does not the Poet intend the mode of her death given here for an invention of the queen, to hide the girl's suicide, and by circumstance beguile the sorrow-rage of Laertes?]

[Footnote 6: 'I cannot help it.']

[Footnote 7: 'when these few tears are spent, all the woman will be out of me: I shall be a man again.']

[Footnote 8: douts : 'this foolish water of tears puts it out.' See Q. reading. ]

[Footnote 9: Here ends the Fourth Act, between which and the Fifth may intervene a day or two.]

[Footnote 10: Act V. This act requires only part of a day; the funeral and the catastrophe might be on the same.]

[Footnote 11: Has this a confused connection with the fancy that salvation is getting to heaven?]

[Footnote 12: Whether this means straightway , or not crooked , I cannot tell.]

[Footnote 13: 'the coroner has settled it.']

[Footnote 14: The Clown's blunder for defendendo .]

[Page 226]

for heere lies the point; If I drowne my selfe wittingly, it argues an Act: and an Act hath three branches. It is an Act to doe and to performe;
[Sidenote: it is to act, to doe, to performe, or all: she] argall[1] she drown'd her selfe wittingly.

Other . Nay but heare you Goodman Deluer. [Sidenote: good man deluer.]

Clown . Giue me leaue; heere lies the water; good: heere stands the man; good: If the man goe to this water and drowne himsele; it is will he nill he, he goes; marke you that? But if the water come to him and drowne him; hee drownes not himselfe. Argall, hee that is not guilty of his owne death, shortens not his owne life.

Other . But is this law?

Clo . I marry is't, Crowners Quest Law.

Other . Will you ha the truth on't: if this had [Sidenote: truth an't] not beene a Gentlewoman, shee should haue beene buried out of[2] Christian Buriall. [Sidenote: out a]

Clo . Why there thou say'st. And the more pitty that great folke should haue countenance in this world to drowne or hang themselues, more then their euen[3] Christian. Come, my Spade; there is no ancient Gentlemen, but Gardiners, Ditchers and Graue-makers; they hold vp Adams Profession.

Other . Was he a Gentleman?

Clo . He was the first that euer bore Armes. [Sidenote: A was]

[4] Other . Why he had none.

Clo . What, ar't a Heathen? how dost thou vnderstand the Scripture? the Scripture sayes Adam dig'd; could hee digge without Armes?[4] Ile put another question to thee; if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confesse thy selfe--

Other . Go too.

Clo . What is he that builds stronger then either the Mason, the Shipwright, or the Carpenter?

Other . The Gallowes-maker; for that Frame outliues a thousand Tenants. [Sidenote: that outliues]

[Footnote 1: ergo , therefore.]

[Footnote 2: without . The pleasure the speeches