Hamlet
prove _"a breeder of sinners;"_ for though _conception_
(understanding) in general be a blessing, yet as Ophelia might
chance to _conceive_ (to be pregnant), it might be a calamity.
Hamlet's abrupt question, _"Have you a daughter?"_ is evidently
intended to impress Polonius with the belief of the Prince's
madness.--MALONE.]
[Footnote II.28: _The satirical rogue_] Hamlet alludes to
Juvenal, who in his 10th Satire, describes the evils of long
life.]
[Footnote II.29: _How pregnant his replies_] Big with meaning.]
[Footnote II.30: _Beaten way of friendship_,] Plain track, open
and unceremonious course.]
[Footnote II.31: _Rights of our fellowship and constancy of our
youth_,] Habits of familiar intercourse and correspondent years.]
[Footnote II.32: _A better proposer_] An advocate of more address
in shaping his aims, who could make a stronger appeal.]
[Footnote II.33: _Even_] Without inclination any way.]
[Footnote II.34: _Nay, then, I have an eye of you._] _i.e._, I
have a glimpse of your meaning. Hamlet's penetration having shown
him that his two friends are set over him as spies.]
[Footnote II.35: _So shall my anticipation prevent your
discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no
feather._] Be beforehand with your discovery, and the plume and
gloss of your secret pledge be in no feather shed or tarnished.]
[Footnote II.36: _Express_] According to pattern, justly and
perfectly modelled.]
[Footnote II.37: _Paragon_] Model of perfection.]
[Footnote II.38: _Lenten entertainment_] _i.e._, sparing, like
the entertainments given in Lent.]
[Footnote II.39: _We coted them on the way_;] To cote, is to pass
by, to pass the side of another. It appears to be a word of
French origin, and was a common sporting term in Shakespeare's
time.]
[Footnote II.40: _The humorous man shall end his part in peace_;]
The fretful or capricious man shall vent the whole of his spleen
undisturbed.]
[Footnote II.41: _The lady shall say her mind freely, or the
blank verse shall halt for't._] _i.e._, the lady shall mar the
measure of the verse, rather than not express herself freely and
fully.]
[Footnote II.42: _Travel?_] Become strollers.]
[Footnote II.43: _It is not very strange; for my uncle is king of
Denmark_;] This is a reflection on the mutability of fortune, and
the variableness of man's mind.]
[Footnote II.44: _Make mouths at him_] _i.e._, deride him by
antic gestures and mockery.]
[Footnote II.45: _In little._] In miniature.]
[Footnote II.46: _I know a hawk from a hern-shaw._] A hernshaw is
a heron or hern. _To know a hawk from a hernshaw_ is an ancient
proverb, sometimes corrupted into _handsaw_. Spencer quotes the
proverb, as meaning, _wise enough to know the hawk from its
game._]
[Footnote II.47: _Buz, buz!_] Sir William Blackstone states that
_buz_ used to be an interjection at Oxford when any one began a
story that was generally known before.]
[Footnote II.48: _Then came each actor on his ass._] This seems
to be a line of a ballad.]
[Footnote II.49: _Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too
light._] An English translation of the tragedies of Seneca was
published in 1581, and one comedy of Plautus, viz., the
Menœchme, in 1595.]
[Footnote II.50: _For the law of writ and the liberty, these are
the only men._] The probable meaning of this passage is,--_For
the observance of the rules of the Drama, while they take such
liberties, as are allowable, they are the only men_--_writ_ is an
old word for _writing_.]
[Footnote II.51: _As by lot, God wot_,] There was an old ballad
entitled the song of Jephthah, from which these lines are
probably quotations. The story of Jephthah was also one of the
favourite subjects of ancient tapestry.]
[Footnote II.52: _The first row of the pious Chanson_] This
expression does not appear to be very well understood. Steevens
tells us that the _pious chansons_ were a kind of _Christmas
carols_, containing some scriptural history thrown into loose
rhymes, and sung about the streets. The _first row_ appears to
mean the _first division_ of one of these.]
[Footnote II.53: _My abridgment comes._] Hamlet alludes to the
players, whose approach will shorten his talk.]
[Footnote II.54: _Thy face is valanced_] _i.e._, fringed with a
beard. The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the
tester of a bed.]
[Footnote II.55: _Com'st thou to beard me_] To _beard_ anciently
meant to set _at defiance_. Hamlet having just told the player
that his face is valanced, is playing upon the word _beard_.]
[Footnote II.56: _By the altitude of a chopine._] A chioppine is
a high shoe, or rather clog, worn by the Italians. Venice was
more famous for them than any other place. They are described as
having been made of wood covered with coloured leather, and
sometimes _even half a yard high_, their altitude being
proportioned to the rank of the lady, so that they could not walk
without being supported.]
[Footnote II.57: _Like French falconers_,] The French seem to
have been the first and noblest falconers in the western part of
Europe. The French king sent over his falconers to show that
sport to King James the First.--_See Weldon's Court of King
James._]
[Footnote II.58: _Quality_;] Qualifications, faculty.]
[Footnote II.59: _Caviare to the general_;] Caviare is the spawn
of fish pickled, salted, and dried. It is imported from Russia,
and was considered in the time of Shakespeare a new and
fashionable luxury, not obtained or relished by the vulgar, and
therefore used by him to signify anything above their
comprehension--general is here used for the people.]
[Footnote II.60: _As much modesty as cunning._] As much propriety
and decorum as skill.]
[Footnote II.61: _Falls with the whiff and wind of his fell
sword_] Our author employs the same image in almost the same
phrase:
"The Grecians _fall
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword._"
_Tr. & Cress. V. 3. Tr._]
[Footnote II.62: _The rack_] The clouds or congregated vapour.]
[Footnote II.63: _The mobled queen?_] Mobled is veiled, muffled,
disguised.]
[Footnote II.64: _All his visage wann'd_;] _i.e._, turned pale or
wan.]
[Footnote II.65: _His whole functions suiting with forms to his
conceit?_] _i.e._, his powers and faculties--the whole energies
of his soul and body giving material forms to his passion, such
as tone of voice, expression of face, requisite action, in
accordance with the ideas that floated in his conceit or
imagination.]
[Footnote II.66: _The cue_] The point--the direction.]
[Footnote II.67: _Like John a-dreams_,] Or dreaming John, a name
apparently coined to suit a dreaming, stupid person; he seems to
have been a well-known character.]
[Footnote II.68: _Unpregnant of my cause_,] _i.e._, not quickened
with a new desire of vengeance; not teeming with revenge.]
[Footnote II.69: _Defeat was made._] Overthrow.]
[Footnote II.70: _Lack gall to make oppression bitter_;] _i.e._,
lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression.]
[Footnote II.71: _Kindless_] Unnatural.]
[Footnote II.72: _About, my brains!_] Wits to work.]
[Footnote II.73: _I'll tent him to the quick:_] _i.e._, probe
him--search his wounds.]
[Footnote II.74: _Blench_,] Shrink, start aside.]
[Footnote II.75: _More relative than this:_] Directly
applicable.]
ACT III.
SCENE I.--A ROOM IN THE CASTLE.
_Three chairs on_ L.H., _one on_ R.
_Enter_ KING _and_ QUEEN, _preceded by_ POLONIUS. OPHELIA,
ROSENCRANTZ, _and_ GIULDENSTERN, _following_ (R.H.)
_King._ (C.) And can you, by no drift of conference,
Get from him why he puts on this confusion?
_Ros._ (R.) He does confess he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
_Guild._ (R.) Nor do we find him forward[1] to be sounded
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.
_Queen._ (R.C.) Did you assay him[2]
To any pastime?
_Ros._ Madam, it so fell out, that certain players
We o'er-raught on the way:[3] of these we told him;
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: They are about the court;
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.
_Pol._ 'Tis most true:
And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter.
_King._ With all my heart; and it doth much content me
To hear him so inclin'd.
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
_Ros._ We shall, my lord.
[_Exeunt_ ROSENCRANTZ _and_ GUILDENSTERN, R.H.]
_King._ Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
For we have closely sent[4] for Hamlet hither,
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia:[5]
Her father and myself (lawful espials[6]),
Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge;
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If't be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.
_Queen._ (R.) I shall obey you:
And for your part, Ophelia,
[OPHELIA _comes down_ L.H.]
I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.
_Oph._ Madam, I wish it may.
[_Exit_ QUEEN, R.H.]
_Pol._ Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves. Read on this book;
[_To_ OPHELIA.]
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,--
'Tis too much prov'd,[7] that, with devotion's visage
And pious action, we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
_King._ O, 'tis too true! how smart
A lash that speech doth give my conscience!
[_Aside._]
_Pol._ I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.
[_Exeunt_ KING _and_ POLONIUS, R.H.2 E., _and_
OPHELIA, R.H.U.E.]
_Enter_ HAMLET (L.H.)
_Ham._ To be, or not to be, that is the question:[8]
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,[9]
And, by opposing end them?--To die,--to sleep,
No more;--and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die,--to sleep,--
To sleep! perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,[10]
Must give us pause:[11] There's the respect[12]
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,[13]
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,[14]
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make[15]
With a bare bodkin?[16] Who would fardels bear,[17]
To groan and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn[18]