Hamlet · William Shakespeare
[A]
_Clowne sings._[6] _A Pickhaxe and a Spade, a Spade_, [Sidenote: _Clow. Song._] _for and a shrowding-Sheete: O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete_. _Ham_. There's another: why might not that bee the Scull of of a Lawyer? where be his [Sidenote: skull of a] Quiddits[7] now? his Quillets[7]? his Cases? his [Sidenote: quiddities] Tenures, and his Tricks? why doe's he suffer this rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce[8] [Sidenote: this madde knaue] with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his Action of Battery? hum. This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of Land, with his Statutes, his Recognizances, his Fines, his double [Footnote 7: a lawyer's quirks and quibbles. See _Johnson and Steevens_. _1st Q._ now where is your Quirkes and quillets now,] [Page 232] Vouchers, his Recoueries: [1] Is this the fine[2] of his Fines, and the recouery[3] of his Recoueries,[1] to haue his fine[4] Pate full of fine[4] Dirt? will his Vouchers [Sidenote: will vouchers] vouch him no more of his Purchases, and double [Sidenote: purchases & doubles then] ones too, then the length and breadth of a paire of Indentures? the very Conueyances of his Lands will hardly lye in this Boxe[5]; and must the Inheritor [Sidenote: scarcely iye; | th'] himselfe haue no more?[6] ha?
_Hor_. Not a iot more, my Lord. _Ham_. Is not Parchment made of Sheep-skinnes? _Hor_. I my Lord, and of Calue-skinnes too. [Sidenote: Calues-skinnes to] _Ham_. They are Sheepe and Calues that seek [Sidenote: which seek] out assurance in that. I will speake to this fellow: whose Graue's this Sir? [Sidenote: this sirra?] _Clo_. Mine Sir: [Sidenote: _Clow_. Mine sir, or a pit] _O a Pit of Clay for to be made, for such a Guest is meete._[7] _Ham_. I thinke it be thine indeed: for thou liest in't. _Clo_. You lye out on't Sir, and therefore it is not [Sidenote: tis] yours: for my part, I doe not lye in't; and yet it [Sidenote: in't, yet] is mine. _Ham_. Thou dost lye in't, to be in't and say 'tis [Sidenote: it is] thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quicke, therefore thou lyest. _Clo_. Tis a quicke lye Sir, 'twill away againe from me to you.[8] _Ham_. What man dost thou digge it for? _Clo_. For no man Sir. _Ham_. What woman then? _Clo_. For none neither. _Ham_. Who is to be buried in't? _Clo_. One that was a woman Sir; but rest her Soule, shee's dead. [Footnote 6: 'must the heir have no more either?' _1st Q_. and must The honor (_owner?_) lie there?] [Page 234] _Ham_. How absolute[1] the knaue is? wee must [Sidenote: 256] speake by the Carde,[2] or equiuocation will vndoe vs: by the Lord _Horatio_, these three yeares[3] I haue [Sidenote: this three] taken note of it, the Age is growne so picked,[4] [Sidenote: tooke] that the toe of the Pesant comes so neere the heeles of our Courtier, hee galls his Kibe.[5] How [Sidenote: the heele of the] long hast thou been a Graue-maker? [Sidenote: been Graue-maker?]
_Clo_. Of all the dayes i'th'yeare, I came too't [Sidenote: Of the dayes] that day[6] that our last King _Hamlet_ o'recame [Sidenote: ouercame] _Fortinbras_. _Ham_. How long is that since? _Clo_. Cannot you tell that? euery foole can tell [Sidenote: 143] that: It was the very day,[6] that young _Hamlet_ was [Sidenote: was that very] borne,[8] hee that was mad, and sent into England, [Sidenote: that is mad] _Ham_. I marry, why was he sent into England? _Clo_. Why, because he was mad; hee shall recouer [Sidenote: a was mad: a shall] his wits there; or if he do not, it's no great [Sidenote: if a do | tis] matter there. _Ham_. Why? _Clo_. 'Twill not be scene in him, there the men [Sidenote: him there, there] are as mad as he. _Ham_. How came he mad? _Clo_. Very strangely they say. _Ham_. How strangely?[7] _Clo_. Faith e'ene with loosing his wits. _Ham_. Vpon what ground? _Clo_. Why heere in Denmarke[8]: I haue bin sixeteene [Sidenote: Sexten] [Sidenote: 142-3] heere, man and Boy thirty yeares.[9] _Ham_. How long will a man lie 'ith' earth ere he rot? _Clo_. Ifaith, if he be not rotten before he die (as [Sidenote: Fayth if a be not | a die] we haue many pocky Coarses now adaies, that will [Sidenote: corses, that will] scarce hold the laying in) he will last you some [Sidenote: a will] eight yeare, or nine yeare. A Tanner will last you nine yeare.
_Ham_. Nay, I know not. _Clo_. A pestlence on him for a mad Rogue, a pou'rd a Flaggon of Renish on my head once. This same Scull Sir, this same Scull sir, was _Yoricks_ [Sidenote: once; this same skull sir, was sir _Yoricks_] Scull, the Kings Iester. _Ham_. This? _Clo_. E'ene that. _Ham_. Let me see. Alas poore _Yorick_, I knew [Sidenote: _Ham_. Alas poore] him _Horatio_, a fellow of infinite Iest; of most excellent fancy, he hath borne me on his backe a [Sidenote: bore] thousand times: And how abhorred[1] my Imagination [Sidenote: and now how | in my] is, my gorge rises at it. Heere hung those [Sidenote: it is:] lipps, that I haue kist I know not how oft. Where be your Iibes now? Your Gambals? Your Songs? Your flashes of Merriment that were wont to set the Table on a Rore? No one[2] now to mock your [Sidenote: not one] own Ieering? Quite chopfalne[3]? Now get you to [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.
_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 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.] [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 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.] [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 rash, [Sidenote: For though | spleenatiue rash,] Yet haue I something in me dangerous, [Sidenote: in me something] Which let thy wisenesse feare. Away thy hand. [Sidenote: wisedome feare; hold off they] _King_. Pluck them asunder. _Qu. Hamlet, Hamlet_. [Sidenote: _All_. Gentlemen.] _Gen_. Good my Lord be quiet. [Sidenote: _Hora_. Good] _Ham_. Why I will fight with him vppon this Theme, Vntill my eielids will no longer wag.[4] _Qu_. Oh my Sonne, what Theame? _Ham_. I lou'd _Ophelia_[5]; fortie thousand Brothers Could not (with all there quantitie of Loue) Make vp my summe. What wilt thou do for her?[6] _King_. Oh he is mad _Laertes_.[7] _Qu_. For loue of God forbeare him. _Ham_. Come show me what thou'lt doe. [Sidenote: _Ham_ S'wounds shew | th'owt fight, woo't fast, woo't teare] Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy selfe? Woo't drinke vp _Esile_, eate a Crocodile?[6] Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine; [Sidenote: doost come] To outface me with leaping in her Graue? Be[8] buried quicke with her, and so will I. And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throw Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground Sindging his pate against the burning Zone, [Sidenote: 262] Make _Ossa_ like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth, Ile rant as well as thou.[9]
There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out of the grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I would suggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's book on Grave-Mounds, I read of a 'female skeleton in a grave six feet deep, ten feet long, and eight feet wide.' Such a grave would give room for both beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the common representation.] [Footnote 6: The gallants of Shakspere's day would challenge each other to do more disagreeable things than any of these in honour of their mistresses. '_Ésil._ s.m. Ancien nom du Vinaigre.' _Supplement to Academy Dict._, 1847.--'Eisile, _vinegar_': Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dict_., from Somner's _Saxon Dict._, 1659.--'Eisel (_Saxon), vinegar; verjuice; any acid_': Johnson's _Dict_. _1st Q_. 'Wilt drinke vp vessels.' The word _up_ very likely implies the steady emptying of a vessel specified--at a draught, and not by degrees.] [Footnote 9: The moment it is uttered, he recognizes and confesses to the rant, ashamed of it even under the cover of his madness. It did not belong _altogether_ to the madness. Later he expresses to Horatio his regret in regard to this passage between him and Laertes, and afterwards apologizes to Laertes. 252, 262.
Perhaps this is the speech in all the play of which it is most difficult to get into a sympathetic comprehension. The student must call to mind the elements at war in Hamlet's soul, and generating discords in his behaviour: to those comes now the shock of Ophelia's death; the last tie that bound him to life is gone--the one glimmer of hope left him for this world! The grave upon whose brink he has been bandying words with the sexton, is for _her_! Into such a consciousness comes the rant of Laertes. Only the forms of madness are free to him, while no form is too strong in which to repudiate indifference to Ophelia: for her sake, as well as to relieve his own heart, he casts the clear confession of his love into her grave. He is even jealous, over her dead body, of her brother's profession of love to her--as if any brother could love as he loved! This is foolish, no doubt, but human, and natural to a certain childishness in grief. 252. Add to this, that Hamlet--see later in his speeches to Osricke--had a lively inclination to answer a fool according to his folly (256), to outherod Herod if Herod would rave, out-euphuize Euphues himself if he would be ridiculous:--the digestion of all these things in the retort of meditation will result, I would fain think, in an understanding and artistic justification of even this speech of Hamlet: the more I consider it the truer it seems. If proof be necessary that real feeling is mingled in the madness of the utterance, it may be found in the fact that he is immediately ashamed of its extravagance.]
_Hor_. I, good my Lord. _Ham_. An earnest Coniuration from the King, As England was his faithfull Tributary, As loue betweene them, as the Palme should flourish, [Sidenote: them like the | might florish,] As Peace should still her wheaten Garland weare, And stand a Comma 'tweene their amities,[7] And many such like Assis[8] of great charge, [Sidenote: like, as sir of] That on the view and know of these Contents, [Sidenote: knowing] Without debatement further, more or lesse, He should the bearers put to sodaine death, [Sidenote: those bearers] Not shriuing time allowed. _Hor_. How was this seal'd? _Ham_. Why, euen in that was Heauen ordinate; [Sidenote: ordinant,] I had my fathers Signet in my Purse, Which was the Modell of that Danish Seale: Folded the Writ vp in forme of the other, [Sidenote: in the forme of th'] Subscrib'd it, gau't th'impression, plac't it safely, [Sidenote: Subscribe it,] The changeling neuer knowne: Now, the next day Was our Sea Fight, and what to this was sement, [Sidenote: was sequent] Thou know'st already.[9] _Hor_. So _Guildensterne_ and _Rosincrance_, go too't. [Footnote 9: To what purpose is this half-voyage to England made part of the play? The action--except, as not a few would have it, the very action be delay--is nowise furthered by it; Hamlet merely goes and returns. To answer this question, let us find the real ground for Hamlet's reflection, 'There's a Divinity that shapes our ends.' Observe, he is set at liberty without being in the least indebted to the finding of the commission--by the attack, namely, of the pirate; and this was not the shaping of his ends of which he was thinking when he made the reflection, for it had reference to the finding of the commission. What then was the ground of the reflection? And what justifies the whole passage in relation to the Poet's object, the character of Hamlet?
This, it seems to me:-- Although Hamlet could not have had much doubt left with regard to his uncle's guilt, yet a man with a fine, delicate--what most men would think, because so much more exacting than theirs--fastidious conscience, might well desire some proof more positive yet, before he did a deed so repugnant to his nature, and carrying in it such a loud condemnation of his mother. And more: he might well wish to have something to _show_: a man's conviction is no proof, though it may work in others inclination to receive proof. Hamlet is sent to sea just to get such proof as will not only thoroughly satisfy himself, but be capable of being shown to others. He holds now in his hand--to lay before the people--the two contradictory commissions. By his voyage then he has gained both assurance of his duty, and provision against the consequence he mainly dreaded, that of leaving a wounded name behind him. 272. This is the shaping of his ends--so exactly to his needs, so different from his rough-hewn plans--which is the work of the Divinity. The man who desires to know his duty that he may _do_ it, who will not shirk it when he does know it, will have time allowed him and the thing made plain to him; his perplexity will even strengthen and purify his will. The weak man is he who, certain of what is required of him, fails to meet it: so never once fails Hamlet. Note, in all that follows, that a load seems taken off him: after a gracious tardiness to believe up to the point of action, he is at length satisfied. Hesitation belongs to the noble nature, to Hamlet; precipitation to the poor nature, to Laertes, the son of Polonius. Compare Brutus in _Julius Caesar_--a Hamlet in favourable circumstances, with Hamlet--a Brutus in the most unfavourable circumstances conceivable.]
_Ham_. What's his weapon?[3] _Osr_. Rapier and dagger. [Sidenote: _Cour._] _Ham_. That's two of his weapons: but well. _Osr_. The sir King ha's wag'd with him six [Sidenote: _Cour_. The King sir hath wagerd] Barbary Horses, against the which he impon'd[4] as I [Sidenote: hee has impaund] take it, sixe French Rapiers and Poniards, with [Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:-- [5] here is newly com to Court _Laertes_, belieue me an absolute gentlemen, ful of most excellent differences,[6] of very soft society,[7] and great [Sidenote: 234] showing[8]: indeede to speake sellingly[9] of him, hee is the card or kalender[10] of gentry: for you shall find in him the continent of what part a Gentleman would see.[11] [Sidenote: 245] _Ham_.[12] Sir, his definement suffers no perdition[13] in you, though I know to deuide him inuentorially,[14] would dosie[15] th'arithmaticke of memory, and yet but yaw[16] neither in respect of his quick saile, but in the veritie of extolment, I take him to be a soule of great article,[17] & his infusion[18] of such dearth[19] and rarenesse, as to make true dixion of him, his semblable is his mirrour,[20] & who els would trace him, his vmbrage, nothing more.[21] _Cour_. Your Lordship speakes most infallibly of him.[22] _Ham_. The concernancy[23] sir, why doe we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?[24]
_Cour_. Sir.[25] _Hora_. Ist not possible to vnderstand in another tongue,[26] you will too't sir really.[27] _Ham_. What imports the nomination of this gentleman. _Cour_. Of _Laertes_.[28] _Hora_. His purse is empty already, all's golden words are spent. _Ham_. Of him sir.[29] _Cour_. I know you are not ignorant.[30] _Ham_. I would you did sir, yet in faith if you did, it would not much approoue me,[31] well sir. _Cour_.] [Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:-- _Ham_. I dare not confesse that, least I should compare with him in excellence, but to know a man wel, were to knowe himselfe.[32] _Cour_. I meane sir for this weapon, but in the imputation laide on him,[33] by them in his meed, hee's vnfellowed.[34]] [Page 258] their assignes,[1] as Girdle, Hangers or so[2]: three of [Sidenote: hanger and so.] the Carriages infaith are very deare to fancy,[3] very responsiue[4] to the hilts, most delicate carriages and of very liberall conceit.[5] _Ham_. What call you the Carriages?[6]
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.