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

in his own play.]

[Page 268]

[Sidenote: 266] Qu . He's fat, and scant of breath.[1] Heere's a Napkin, rub thy browes,
[Sidenote: Heere Hamlet take my napkin] The Queene Carowses to thy fortune, Hamlet .

Ham . Good Madam.[2]

King . Gertrude , do not drinke.

Qu . I will my Lord; I pray you pardon me.[3]

[Sidenote: 222] King . It is the poyson'd Cup, it is too late.[4]

Ham . I dare not drinke yet Madam, By and by.[5]

Qu . Come, let me wipe thy face.[6]

Laer . My Lord, Ile hit him now.

King . I do not thinke't.

Laer . And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.[7]
[Sidenote: it is | against]

Ham . Come for the third.
Laertes , you but dally, [Sidenote: you doe but] I pray you passe with your best violence, I am affear'd you make a wanton of me.[8] [Sidenote: I am sure you]

Laer . Say you so? Come on. Play.

Osr . Nothing neither way. [Sidenote: Ostr. ]

Laer . Haue at you now.[9]

In scuffling they change Rapiers. [10]

King . Part them, they are incens'd.[11]

Ham . Nay come, againe.[12]

Osr . Looke to the Queene there hoa. [Sidenote: Ostr. | there howe.]

Hor . They bleed on both sides. How is't my [Sidenote: is it] Lord?

Osr . How is't Laertes ? [Sidenote: Ostr. ]

Laer . Why as a Woodcocke[13] To mine Sprindge, Osricke , [Sidenote: mine owne sprindge Ostrick ,] I am iustly kill'd with mine owne Treacherie.[14]

Ham . How does the Queene?

King . She sounds[15] to see them bleede.

Qu . No, no, the drinke, the drinke[16]

[Footnote 1: She is anxious about him. It may be that this speech, and that of the king before (266), were fitted to the person of the actor who first represented Hamlet.]

[Footnote 2: -a simple acknowledgment of her politeness: he can no more be familiarly loving with his mother.]

[Footnote 3: She drinks, and offers the cup to Hamlet.]

[Footnote 4: He is too much afraid of exposing his villainy to be prompt enough to prevent her.]

[Footnote 5: This is not meant by the Poet to show suspicion: he does not mean Hamlet to die so.]

[Footnote 6: The actor should not allow her: she approaches Hamlet; he recoils a little.]

[Footnote 7: He has compunctions, but it needs failure to make them potent.]

[Footnote 8: 'treat me as an effeminate creature.']

[Footnote 9: He makes a sudden attack, without warning of the fourth bout.]

[Footnote 10: Not in Q.

The 1st Q. directs:- They catch one anothers Rapiers, find both are wounded , &c.

The thing, as I understand it, goes thus: With the words 'Have at you now!' Laertes stabs Hamlet; Hamlet, apprised thus of his treachery, lays hold of his rapier, wrenches it from him, and stabs him with it in return.]

[Footnote 11: 'they have lost their temper.']

[Footnote 12: -said with indignation and scorn, but without suspicion of the worst.]

[Footnote 13: -the proverbially foolish bird. The speech must be spoken with breaks. Its construction is broken.]

[Footnote 14: His conscience starts up, awake and strong, at the approach of Death. As the show of the world withdraws, the realities assert themselves. He repents, and makes confession of his sin, seeing it now in its true nature, and calling it by its own name. It is a compensation of the weakness of some that they cannot be strong in wickedness. The king did not so repent, and with his strength was the more to blame.]

[Footnote 15: swounds, swoons .]

[Footnote 16: She is true to her son. The maternal outlasts the adulterous.]

[Page 270]

Oh my deere Hamlet , the drinke, the drinke, I am poyson'd.

Ham . Oh Villany! How? Let the doore be lock'd. Treacherie, seeke it out.[1]

Laer . It is heere Hamlet .[2]
Hamlet ,[3] thou art slaine, No Medicine in the world can do thee good. In thee, there is not halfe an houre of life; [Sidenote: houres life,] The Treacherous Instrument is in thy hand, [Sidenote: in my] Vnbated and envenom'd: the foule practise[4] Hath turn'd it selfe on me. Loe, heere I lye, Neuer to rise againe: Thy Mothers poyson'd: I can no more, the King, the King's too blame.[5]

Ham . The point envenom'd too, Then venome to thy worke.[6]
Hurts the King. [7]

All . Treason, Treason.

King . O yet defend me Friends, I am but hurt.

Ham . Heere thou incestuous, murdrous,
[Sidenote: Heare thou incestious damned Dane,] Damned Dane, Drinke off this Potion: Is thy Vnion heere?
[Sidenote: of this | is the Onixe heere?] Follow my Mother.[8] King Dyes. [9]

Laer . He is iustly seru'd. It is a poyson temp'red by himselfe: Exchange forgiuenesse with me, Noble Hamlet ; Mine and my Fathers death come not vpon thee, Nor thine on me.[10] Dyes. [11]

Ham . Heauen make thee free of it,[12] I follow thee. I am dead Horatio , wretched Queene adiew. You that looke pale, and tremble at this chance, That are but Mutes[13] or audience to this acte: Had I but time (as this fell Sergeant death Is strick'd in his Arrest) oh I could tell you. [Sidenote: strict]

[Footnote 1: The thing must be ended now. The door must be locked, to keep all in that are in, and all out that are out. Then he can do as he will.]

[Footnote 2: -laying his hand on his heart, I think.]

[Footnote 3: In Q. Hamlet only once.]

[Footnote 4: scheme, artifice, deceitful contrivance ; in modern slang,
dodge .]

[Footnote 5: He turns on the prompter of his sin-crowning the justice of the king's capital punishment.]

[Footnote 6: Point : 'too!'

1st Q. Then venome to thy venome, die damn'd villaine.]

[Footnote 7: Not in Quarto.

The true moment, now only, has at last come. Hamlet has lived to do his duty with a clear conscience, and is thereupon permitted to go. The man who asks whether this be poetic justice or no, is unworthy of an answer. 'The Tragedie of Hamlet' is The Drama of Moral Perplexity .]

[Footnote 8: A grim play on the word Union: 'follow my mother '. It suggests a terrible meeting below.]

[Footnote 9: Not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 10: His better nature triumphs. The moment he was wounded, knowing he must die, he began to change. Defeat is a mighty aid to repentance; and processes grow rapid in the presence of Death: he forgives and desires forgiveness.]

[Footnote 11: Not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 12: Note how heartily Hamlet pardons the wrong done to himself-the only wrong of course which a man has to pardon.]

[Footnote 13: supernumeraries . Note the other figures too- audience, act -all of the theatre.]

[Page 272]

But let it be: Horatio , I am dead, Thou liu'st, report me and my causes right [Sidenote: cause a right] To the vnsatisfied.[1]

Hor . Neuer beleeue it. [Sidenote: 134] I am more an Antike Roman then a Dane: [Sidenote: 135] Heere's yet some Liquor left.[2]

Ham . As th'art a man, giue me the Cup. Let go, by Heauen Ile haue't. [Sidenote: hate,] [Sidenote: 114, 251] Oh good Horatio , what a wounded name,[3]
[Sidenote: O god Horatio ,] (Things standing thus vnknowne) shall liue behind me.
[Sidenote: shall I leaue behind me?] If thou did'st euer hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicitie awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in paine,[1]
[Sidenote: A march a farre off. ] To tell my Storie.[4]
March afarre off, and shout within. [5] What warlike noyse is this?

Enter Osricke.

Osr . Yong Fortinbras , with conquest come from Poland To th'Ambassadors of England giues this warlike volly.[6]

Ham . O I dye Horatio : The potent poyson quite ore-crowes my spirit, I cannot liue to heare the Newes from England, [Sidenote: 62] But I do prophesie[7] th'election lights [Sidenote: 276] On Fortinbras , he ha's my dying voyce,[8] So tell him with the occurrents more and lesse,[9] [Sidenote: th'] Which haue solicited.[10] The rest is silence. O, o, o, o.[11]