Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
_Son._ What is a traitor?
_Lady Macduff._ Why, one that swears and lies.
_Son._ And be all traitors that do so?
_Lady Macduff._ Everyone that does so is a traitor, and must
be hanged.
Garnet, as a matter of fact, _was_ hanged in May, 1606; and it is to be
feared that the audience applauded this passage.
(2) The Porter's soliloquy on the different applicants for admittance
has, in idea and manner, a marked resemblance to Pompey's soliloquy on
the inhabitants of the prison, in _Measure for Measure_, IV. iii. 1 ff.;
and the dialogue between him and Abhorson on the 'mystery' of hanging
(IV. ii. 22 ff.) is of just the same kind as the Porter's dialogue with
Macduff about drink.]
[Footnote 248: In the last Act, however, he speaks in verse even in the
quarrel with Laertes at Ophelia's grave. It would be plausible to
explain this either from his imitating what he thinks the rant of
Laertes, or by supposing that his 'towering passion' made him forget to
act the madman. But in the final scene also he speaks in verse in the
presence of all. This again might be accounted for by saying that he is
supposed to be in a lucid interval, as indeed his own language at 239
ff. implies. But the probability is that Shakespeare's real reason for
breaking his rule here was simply that he did not choose to deprive
Hamlet of verse on his last appearance. I wonder the disuse of prose in
these two scenes has not been observed, and used as an argument, by
those who think that Hamlet, with the commission in his pocket, is now
resolute.]
[Footnote 249: The verse-speech of the Doctor, which closes this scene,
lowers the tension towards that of the next scene. His introductory
conversation with the Gentlewoman is written in prose (sometimes very
near verse), partly, perhaps, from its familiar character, but chiefly
because Lady Macbeth is to speak in prose.]
NOTE A.
EVENTS BEFORE THE OPENING OF THE ACTION IN _HAMLET_.
In Hamlet's first soliloquy he speaks of his father as being 'but two
months dead,--nay, not so much, not two.' He goes on to refer to the
love between his father and mother, and then says (I. ii. 145):
and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears, why she, even she--
O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle.
It seems hence to be usually assumed that at this time--the time when
the action begins--Hamlet's mother has been married a little less than a
month.
On this assumption difficulties, however, arise, though I have not found
them referred to. Why has the Ghost waited nearly a month since the
marriage before showing itself? Why has the King waited nearly a month
before appearing in public for the first time, as he evidently does in
this scene? And why has Laertes waited nearly a month since the
coronation before asking leave to return to France (I. ii. 53)?
To this it might be replied that the marriage and the coronation were
separated by some weeks; that, while the former occurred nearly a month
before the time of this scene, the latter has only just taken place; and
that what the Ghost cannot bear is, not the mere marriage, but the
accession of an incestuous murderer to the throne. But anyone who will
read the King's speech at the opening of the scene will certainly
conclude that the marriage has only just been celebrated, and also that
it is conceived as involving the accession of Claudius to the throne.
Gertrude is described as the 'imperial jointress' of the State, and the
King says that the lords consented to the marriage, but makes no
separate mention of his election.
The solution of the difficulty is to be found in the lines quoted above.
The marriage followed, within a month, not the _death_ of Hamlet's
father, but the _funeral_. And this makes all clear. The death happened
nearly two months ago. The funeral did not succeed it immediately, but
(say) in a fortnight or three weeks. And the marriage and coronation,
coming rather less than a month after the funeral, have just taken
place. So that the Ghost has not waited at all; nor has the King, nor
Laertes.
On this hypothesis it follows that Hamlet's agonised soliloquy is not
uttered nearly a month after the marriage which has so horrified him,
but quite soon after it (though presumably he would know rather earlier
what was coming). And from this hypothesis we get also a partial
explanation of two other difficulties, (_a_) When Horatio, at the end of
the soliloquy, enters and greets Hamlet, it is evident that he and
Hamlet have not recently met at Elsinore. Yet Horatio came to Elsinore
for the funeral (I. ii. 176). Now even if the funeral took place some
three weeks ago, it seems rather strange that Hamlet, however absorbed
in grief and however withdrawn from the Court, has not met Horatio; but
if the funeral took place some seven weeks ago, the difficulty is
considerably greater. (_b_) We are twice told that Hamlet has '_of
late_' been seeking the society of Ophelia and protesting his love for
her (I. iii. 91, 99). It always seemed to me, on the usual view of the
chronology, rather difficult (though not, of course, impossible) to
understand this, considering the state of feeling produced in him by his
mother's marriage, and in particular the shock it appears to have given
to his faith in woman. But if the marriage has only just been celebrated
the words 'of late' would naturally refer to a time before it. This time
presumably would be subsequent to the death of Hamlet's father, but it
is not so hard to fancy that Hamlet may have sought relief from mere
_grief_ in his love for Ophelia.
But here another question arises; May not the words 'of late' include,
or even wholly refer to,[250] a time prior to the death of Hamlet's
father? And this question would be answered universally, I suppose, in
the negative, on the ground that Hamlet was not at Court but at
Wittenberg when his father died. I will deal with this idea in a
separate note, and will only add here that, though it is quite possible
that Shakespeare never imagined any of these matters clearly, and so
produced these unimportant difficulties, we ought not to assume this
without examination.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 250: This is intrinsically not probable, and is the more
improbable because in Q1 Hamlet's letter to Ophelia (which must have
been written before the action of the play begins) is signed 'Thine ever
the most unhappy Prince _Hamlet_.' 'Unhappy' _might_ be meant to
describe an unsuccessful lover, but it probably shows that the letter
was written after his father's death.]
NOTE B.
WHERE WAS HAMLET AT THE TIME OF HIS FATHER'S DEATH?
The answer will at once be given: 'At the University of Wittenberg. For
the king says to him (I. ii. 112):
For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire.
The Queen also prays him not to go to Wittenberg: and he consents to
remain.'
Now I quite agree that the obvious interpretation of this passage is
that universally accepted, that Hamlet, like Horatio, was at Wittenberg
when his father died; and I do not say that it is wrong. But it involves
difficulties, and ought not to be regarded as certain.
(1) One of these difficulties has long been recognised. Hamlet,
according to the evidence of Act V., Scene i., is thirty years of age;
and that is a very late age for a university student. One solution is
found (by those who admit that Hamlet _was_ thirty) in a passage in
Nash's _Pierce Penniless_: 'For fashion sake some [Danes] will put their
children to schoole, but they set them not to it till they are fourteene
years old, so that you shall see a great boy with a beard learne his
A.B.C. and sit weeping under the rod when he is thirty years old.'
Another solution, as we saw (p. 105), is found in Hamlet's character. He
is a philosopher who lingers on at the University from love of his
studies there.
(2) But there is a more formidable difficulty, which seems to have
escaped notice. Horatio certainly came from Wittenberg to the funeral.
And observe how he and Hamlet meet (I. ii. 160).
_Hor._ Hail to your lordship!
_Ham._ I am glad to see you well:
Horatio,--or I do forget myself.
_Hor._ The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
_Ham._ Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?
Marcellus?
_Mar._ My good lord--
_Ham._ I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.[251]
But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
_Hor._ A truant disposition, good my lord.
_Ham._ I would not hear your enemy say so,
Nor shall you do my ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
_Hor._ My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
_Ham._ I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
Is not this passing strange? Hamlet and Horatio are supposed to be
fellow-students at Wittenberg, and to have left it for Elsinore less
than two months ago. Yet Hamlet hardly recognises Horatio at first, and
speaks as if he himself lived at Elsinore (I refer to his bitter jest,
'We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart'). Who would dream that
Hamlet had himself just come from Wittenberg, if it were not for the
previous words about his going back there?
How can this be explained on the usual view? Only, I presume, by
supposing that Hamlet is so sunk in melancholy that he really does
almost 'forget himself'[252] and forget everything else, so that he
actually is in doubt who Horatio is. And this, though not impossible, is
hard to believe.
'Oh no,' it may be answered, 'for he is doubtful about Marcellus too;
and yet, if he were living at Elsinore, he must have seen Marcellus
often.' But he is _not_ doubtful about Marcellus. That note of
interrogation after 'Marcellus' is Capell's conjecture: it is not in any
Quarto or any Folio. The fact is that he knows perfectly well the man
who lives at Elsinore, but is confused by the appearance of the friend
who comes from Wittenberg.
(3) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent for, to wean Hamlet from his
melancholy and to worm his secret out of him, because he has known them
from his youth and is fond of them (II. ii. 1 ff.). They come _to_
Denmark (II. ii. 247 f.): they come therefore _from_ some other country.
Where do they come from? They are, we hear, Hamlet's 'school-fellows'
(III. iv. 202). And in the first Quarto we are directly told that they
were with him at Wittenberg:
_Ham._ What, Gilderstone, and Rossencraft,
Welcome, kind school-fellows, to Elsanore.
_Gil._ We thank your grace, and would be very glad
You were as when we were at Wittenberg.
Now let the reader look at Hamlet's first greeting of them in the
received text, and let him ask himself whether it is the greeting of a
man to fellow-students whom he left two months ago: whether it is not
rather, like his greeting of Horatio, the welcome of an old
fellow-student who has not seen his visitors for a considerable time
(II. ii. 226 f.).
(4) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet of the players who are