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

[Sidenote: a leauen and twelfe] Ile visit you.

All. Our duty to your Honour. Exeunt.

Ham. Your loue, as mine to you: farewell. [Sidenote: loves,] My Fathers Spirit in Armes?[6] All is not well: [Sidenote: 30,52] I doubt some foule play: would the Night were come; Till then sit still my soule; foule deeds will rise,
[Sidenote: fonde deedes] Though all the earth orewhelm them to mens eies.
Exit.

[Footnote 1: grisly -gray; grissl'd -turned gray;-mixed with white.]

[Footnote 2: The colour of sable-fur, I think.]

[Footnote 3: Hamlet does not accept the Appearance as his father; he thinks it may be he, but seems to take a usurpation of his form for very possible.]

[Footnote 4: 1st Q . 'tenible']

[Footnote 5: If treble be the right word, the actor in uttering it must point to each of the three, with distinct yet rapid motion. The phrase would be a strange one, but not unlike Shakspere. Compare
Cymbeline , act v. sc. 5: 'And your three motives to the battle,' meaning 'the motives of you three.' Perhaps, however, it is only the adjective for the adverb: ' having concealed it hitherto, conceal it trebly now .' But tenible may be the word: 'let it be a thing to be kept in your silence still.']

[Footnote 6: Alone, he does not dispute the idea of its being his father.]

[Page 34]


SCENA TERTIA [1]


Enter Laertes and Ophelia . [Sidenote: Ophelia his Sister. ]

Laer . My necessaries are imbark't; Farewell: [Sidenote: inbarckt,] And Sister, as the Winds giue Benefit, And Conuoy is assistant: doe not sleepe,
[Sidenote: conuay, in assistant doe] But let me heare from you.

Ophel . Doe you doubt that?

Laer . For Hamlet , and the trifling of his fauours,
[Sidenote: favour,] Hold it a fashion and a toy in Bloud; A Violet in the youth of Primy Nature; Froward,[2] not permanent; sweet not lasting The suppliance of a minute? No more.[3]
[Sidenote: The perfume and suppliance]

Ophel . No more but so.[4]

Laer . Thinke it no more. For nature cressant does not grow alone, [Sidenote: 172] In thewes[5] and Bulke: but as his Temple waxes,[6]
[Sidenote: bulkes, but as this] The inward seruice of the Minde and Soule Growes wide withall. Perhaps he loues you now,[7] And now no soyle nor cautell[8] doth besmerch The vertue of his feare: but you must feare
[Sidenote: of his will, but] His greatnesse weigh'd, his will is not his owne;[9] [Sidenote: wayd] For hee himselfe is subiect to his Birth:[10] Hee may not, as vnuallued persons doe, Carue for himselfe; for, on his choyce depends The sanctity and health of the weole State.
[Sidenote: The safty and | this whole] And therefore must his choyce be circumscrib'd[11] Vnto the voyce and yeelding[12] of that Body, Whereof he is the Head. Then if he sayes he loues you, It fits your wisedome so farre to beleeue it; As he in his peculiar Sect and force[13]
[Sidenote: his particuler act and place] May giue his saying deed: which is no further,

[Footnote 1: Not in Quarto .]

[Footnote 2: Same as forward .]

[Footnote 3: 'No more' makes a new line in the Quarto .]

[Footnote 4: I think this speech should end with a point of interrogation.]

[Footnote 5: muscles.]

[Footnote 6: The body is the temple, in which the mind and soul are the worshippers: their service grows with the temple-wide, changing and increasing its objects. The degraded use of the grand image is after the character of him who makes it.]

[Footnote 7: The studied contrast between Laertes and Hamlet begins already to appear: the dishonest man, honestly judging after his own dishonesty, warns his sister against the honest man.]

[Footnote 8: deceit.]

[Footnote 9: 'You have cause to fear when you consider his greatness: his will &c.' 'You must fear, his greatness being weighed; for because of that greatness, his will is not his own.']

[Footnote 10: This line not in Quarto. ]

[Footnote 11: limited.]

[Footnote 12: allowance.]

[Footnote 13: This change from the Quarto seems to me to bear the mark of Shakspere's hand. The meaning is the same, but the words are more individual and choice: the sect , the head in relation to the body, is more pregnant than place ; and force , that is power , is a fuller word than act , or even action , for which it plainly appears to stand.]

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Then the maine voyce of Denmarke goes withall. Then weigh what losse your Honour may sustaine, If with too credent eare you list his Songs; Or lose your Heart; or your chast Treasure open [Sidenote: Or loose] To his vnmastred[1] importunity. Feare it Ophelia , feare it my deare Sister, And keepe within the reare of your Affection;[2]
[Sidenote: keepe you in the] Out of the shot and danger of Desire. The chariest Maid is Prodigall enough, [Sidenote: The] If she vnmaske her beauty to the Moone:[3] Vertue it selfe scapes not calumnious stroakes, [Sidenote: Vertue] The Canker Galls, the Infants of the Spring
[Sidenote: The canker gaules the] Too oft before the buttons[6] be disclos'd, [Sidenote: their buttons] And in the Morne and liquid dew of Youth, Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then, best safety lies in feare; Youth to it selfe rebels, though none else neere.[6]

Ophe . I shall th'effect of this good Lesson keepe, As watchmen to my heart: but good my Brother [Sidenote: watchman] Doe not as some vngracious Pastors doe, Shew me the steepe and thorny way to Heauen; Whilst like a puft and recklesse Libertine Himselfe, the Primrose path of dalliance treads, And reaks not his owne reade.[7][8][9]

Laer . Oh, feare me not.[10]

Enter Polonius .

I stay too long; but here my Father comes: A double blessing is a double grace; Occasion smiles vpon a second leaue.[11]

Polon . Yet heere Laertes ? Aboord, aboord for shame, The winde sits in the shoulder of your saile, And you are staid for there: my blessing with you;
[Sidenote: for, there my | with thee]

[Footnote 1: Without a master; lawless.]

[Footnote 2: Do not go so far as inclination would lead you. Keep behind your liking. Do not go to the front with your impulse.]

[Footnote 3: - but to the moon-which can show it so little.]

[Footnote 4: Opened but not closed quotations in the Quarto .]

[Footnote 5: The French bouton is also both button and bud .]

[Footnote 6: 'Inclination is enough to have to deal with, let alone added temptation.' Like his father, Laertes is wise for another-a man of maxims, not behaviour. His morality is in his intellect and for self-ends, not in his will, and for the sake of truth and righteousness.]

[Footnote 7: 1st Q .

But my deere brother, do not you
Like to a cunning Sophister,
Teach me the path and ready way to heauen,
While you forgetting what is said to me,
Your selfe, like to a carelesse libertine
Doth giue his heart, his appetite at ful,
And little recks how that his honour dies.

'The primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.'
- Macbeth , ii. 3:

'The flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire.'
All's Well , iv. 5.]

[Footnote 8: 'heeds not his own counsel.']

[Footnote 9: Here in Quarto, Enter Polonius. ]

[Footnote 10: With the fitting arrogance and impertinence of a libertine brother, he has read his sister a lecture on propriety of behaviour; but when she gently suggests that what is good for her is good for him too,-'Oh, fear me