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

[Sidenote: owne grinning,] my Ladies Chamber, and tell her, let her paint an
[Sidenote: Ladies table,] inch thicke, to this fauour[4] she must come. Make her laugh at that: prythee Horatio tell me one thing.

Hor . What's that my Lord?

Ham . Dost thou thinke Alexander lookt o'this [Sidenote: a this] fashion i'th' earth?

Hor . E'ene so.

Ham . And smelt so? Puh.

[Footnote 1: If this be the true reading, abhorred must mean
horrified ; but I incline to the Quarto .]

[Footnote 2: 'Not one jibe, not one flash of merriment now?']

[Footnote 3: -chop indeed quite fallen off!]

[Footnote 4: to this look -that of the skull.]

[Page 238]

Hor . E'ene so, my Lord.

Ham . To what base vses we may returne
Horatio . Why may not Imagination trace the Noble dust of Alexander , till he[1] find it stopping a
[Sidenote: a find] bunghole.

Hor . 'Twere to consider: to curiously to consider
[Sidenote: consider too curiously] so.

Ham . No faith, not a iot. But to follow him thether with modestie[2] enough, and likeliehood to lead it; as thus. Alexander died: Alexander was
[Sidenote: lead it. Alexander ] buried: Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is [Sidenote: to] earth; of earth we make Lome, and why of that Lome (whereto he was conuerted) might they not stopp a Beere-barrell?[3]

Imperiall Caesar , dead and turn'd to clay, [Sidenote: Imperious] Might stop a hole to keepe the winde away. Oh, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a Wall, t'expell the winters flaw.[4]
[Sidenote: waters flaw.] But soft, but soft, aside; heere comes the King.
[Sidenote: , but soft awhile, here]

Enter King, Queene, Laertes, and a Coffin ,
[Sidenote: Enter K. Q. Laertes and the corse. ]
with Lords attendant.

The Queene, the Courtiers. Who is that they follow,
[Sidenote: this they] And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken, The Coarse they follow, did with disperate hand, Fore do it owne life; 'twas some Estate.[5] [Sidenote: twas of some[5]] Couch[6] we a while, and mark.

Laer . What Cerimony else?

Ham . That is Laertes , a very Noble youth:[7] Marke.

Laer . What Cerimony else?[8]

Priest . Her Obsequies haue bin as farre inlarg'd, [Sidenote: Doct .] As we haue warrantis,[9] her death was doubtfull,[10]
[Sidenote: warrantie,] And but that great Command, o're-swaies the order,[11]

[Footnote 1: Imagination personified.]

[Footnote 2: moderation.]

[Footnote 3: 'Loam, Lome-grafting clay. Mortar made of Clay and Straw; also a sort of Plaister used by Chymists to stop up their Vessels.'- Bailey's Dict. ]

[Footnote 4: a sudden puff or blast of wind.

Hamlet here makes a solemn epigram. For the right understanding of the whole scene, the student must remember that Hamlet is philosophizing-following things out, curiously or otherwise-on the brink of a grave, concerning the tenant for which he has enquired-'what woman then?'-but received no answer.]

[Footnote 5: 'the corpse was of some position.']

[Footnote 6: 'let us lie down'-behind a grave or stone.]

[Footnote 7: Hamlet was quite in the dark as to Laertes' character; he had seen next to nothing of him.]

[Footnote 8: The priest making no answer, Laertes repeats the question.]

[Footnote 9: warrantise .]

[Footnote 10: This casts discredit on the queen's story, 222. The priest believes she died by suicide, only calls her death doubtful to excuse their granting her so many of the rites of burial.]

[Footnote 11: 'settled mode of proceeding.'- Schmidt's Sh. Lex. -But is it not rather the order of the church?]

[Page 240]

She should in ground vnsanctified haue lodg'd,
[Sidenote: vnsanctified been lodged] Till the last Trumpet. For charitable praier, [Sidenote: prayers,] Shardes,[1] Flints, and Peebles, should be throwne on her: Yet heere she is allowed her Virgin Rites,
[Sidenote: virgin Crants,[2]] Her Maiden strewments,[3] and the bringing home Of Bell and Buriall.[4]

Laer . Must there no more be done?

Priest . No more be done:[5] [Sidenote: Doct. ] We should prophane the seruice of the dead, To sing sage[6] Requiem , and such rest to her
[Sidenote: sing a Requiem] As to peace-parted Soules.

Laer . Lay her i'th' earth, And from her faire and vnpolluted flesh, May Violets spring. I tell thee (churlish Priest) A Ministring Angell shall my Sister be, When thou liest howling?

Ham . What, the faire Ophelia ?[7]

Queene . Sweets, to the sweet farewell.[8] [Sidenote: 118] I hop'd thou should'st haue bin my Hamlets wife: I thought thy Bride-bed to haue deckt (sweet Maid) And not t'haue strew'd thy Graue. [Sidenote: not haue]

Laer . Oh terrible woer,[9] [Sidenote: O treble woe] Fall ten times trebble, on that cursed head [Sidenote: times double on] Whose wicked deed, thy most Ingenioussence Depriu'd thee of. Hold off the earth a while, Till I haue caught her once more in mine armes:
Leaps in the graue. [10] Now pile your dust, vpon the quicke, and dead, Till of this flat a Mountaine you haue made, To o're top old Pelion , or the skyish head [Sidenote: To'retop] Of blew Olympus .[11]

Ham .[12] What is he, whose griefes [Sidenote: griefe] Beares such an Emphasis? whose phrase of Sorrow

[Footnote 1: 'Shardes' not in Quarto. It means potsherds .]

[Footnote 2: chaplet- German krantz, used even for virginity itself.]

[Footnote 3: strewments with white flowers. (?)]

[Footnote 4: the burial service.]

[Footnote 5: as an exclamation, I think.]

[Footnote 6: Is the word sage used as representing the unfitness of a requiem to her state of mind? or is it only from its kindred with
solemn ? It was because she was not 'peace-parted' that they could not sing rest to her.]

[Footnote 7: Everything here depends on the actor.]

[Footnote 8: I am not sure the queen is not apostrophizing the flowers she is throwing into or upon the coffin: 'Sweets, be my farewell to the sweet.']

[Footnote 9: The Folio may be right here:-'Oh terrible wooer!-May ten times treble thy misfortunes fall' &c.]

[Footnote 10: This stage-direction is not in the Quarto .

Here the 1st Quarto has:-

Lear . Forbeare the earth a while: sister farewell:
Leartes leapes into the graue.
Now powre your earth on Olympus hie,
And make a hill to o're top olde Pellon :
Hamlet leapes in after Leartes
Whats he that coniures so?

Ham . Beholde tis I, Hamlet the Dane.]

[Footnote 11: The whole speech is bravado-the frothy grief of a weak, excitable effusive nature.]

[Footnote 12: He can remain apart no longer, and approaches the company.]

[Page 242]

Coniure the wandring Starres, and makes them stand [Sidenote: Coniues] Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
Hamlet the Dane.[1]

Laer . The deuill take thy soule.[2]

Ham . Thou prai'st not well, I prythee take thy fingers from my throat;[3] Sir though I am not Spleenatiue, and