And my imaginations are as foul As Vulcan's stithy." 10 Give him heedful note, For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, And, after, we will both our judginents join In censure of his seeming. Hor. Well, my lord; If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, Ham. They're coming to the play; I must be idle: 11 Danish March. A Flourish. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Others. King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent, i̇' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-cramm'd.1 You cannot feed capons so. 12 King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now. -[To POLON.] My lord, you play'd once i' the University, you say? Pol. That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor. Ham. And what did you enact? Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was kill'd i' the Capitol; Brutus kill'd me.18 Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be the players ready? Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience. Oph. No, my lord. [Lying down at OPHELIA's Feet. Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap? 10 Vulcan's workshop or smithy; stith being an anvil. 11 Must seem idle; must behave as if his mind were purposeless, or intent upon nothing in particular. 12 Because the chameleon was supposed to live on air. In fact, this and various other reptiles will live a long time without any visible food. The King snuffs offence in "I eat the air, promise-cramm'd," as implying that he has not kept his promise to Hamlet. 13 A Latin play on Cæsar's death was performed at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1582. Malone thinks that there was an English play on the same subject previous to Shakespeare's. Cæsar was killed in Pompey's portico, and not in the Capitol; but the error is at least as old as Chaucer's time. 14 He acted the part of a brute. The play on Capitol and capital is ob vious enough. Oph. Ay, my lord. You are merry, my lord. Ham. Who, I? Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within's two hours. Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. Ham. So long? Nay, then let the Devil wear black, 'fore I'll have a suit of sables." 15 O Heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year: but, by'r Lady, he must build churches then, or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse; whose epitaph is, For, 0, for, 0, the hobby-horse is forgot.16 Hautboys play. The Dumb-Show enters. Enter a King and a Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck; lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a Fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loth and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. [Exeunt. Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mis chief.17 Oph. Belike this show imports the argument of the play. a 15 Let the Devil put on mourning before I will. The old copies have for Instead of 'fore; which has been a great puzzle to the editors, since " suit of sables" is black. 'Fore is Warburton's correction, and is clearly right, notwithstanding so many have rejected it. 16 The Hobby-horse was a part of the old Morris-dance, which was used in the May-games. It was the figure of a horse fastened round a man's waist, the man's legs going through the horse's body, and enabling him to walk, but covered by a long footcloth; while false legs appeared where those of the man's should be, astride the horse. The Puritans waged a furious war against the Morris-dance; which caused the Hobby-horse to be left out of it: hence the burden of a song, which passed into a proverb. The plays of the times have many allusions to it. 17 Miching mallecho is lurking mischief, or evil doing. To mich, for to skulk, to lurk, was an old English verb in common use in Shakespeare's time; and mallecho or malhecho, misdeed, he borrowed from the Spanish. Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay. Prologue. For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord. Ham. As woman's love. Enter a King and a Queen. [Exit. P. King. Full thirty times hath Phœbus' cart gone round 19 Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground; And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen About the world have times twelve thirties been, Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands, Unite commutual in most sacred bands. P. Queen. So many journeys may the Sun and Moon Make us again count o'er ere love be done! But, woe is me! you are so sick of late, So far from cheer, and from your former state, Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know; Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; My operant powers their functions leave to do: And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, Honour'd, belov'd; and haply one as kind For husband shalt thou P. Queen. O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast: In second husband let me be accurst! None wed the second, but who kill'd the first. 18 Cart, car, and chariot were used indiscriminately. -"The style," says Coleridge, "of the interlude here is distinguished from the real dialogue by rhyme, as in the first interview with the players by epic verse.' Ham. [Aside.] Wormwood, wormwood! P. Queen. The instances that second marriage move When second husband kisses me in bed. P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak; But what we do determine oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory, Of violent birth, but poor validity; Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, 19 To Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. But, orderly to end where I begun, Our wills and fates do so contráry run, That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: So, think thou wilt no second husband wed; But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! ! 20 19 Enactures are determinations; what they enact. 20 Anchor is for anchoret, an old word for hermit. 21 To blank the face is to make it white or pale; to take the blood out of it. Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife, Ham. [To ОPH.] If she should break it now! Sweet, leave me here awhile: P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. P. Queen. [Sleeps. Sleep rock thy brain; [Exit. And never come mischance between us twain! Ham. Madam, how like you this play? Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. King. Have you heard the argument? offence in't? Is there no Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the world. King. What do you call the play? Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically.22 This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the Duke's name; 23 his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon: 'tis a knavish piece of work; but what of that? your Majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not: let the gall'd jade wince, our withers are unwrung. 24 Enter LUCIANUS. This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King. Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying. Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. Ham. Begin, murderer; leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come: -The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit and time agreeing; 22 Tropically is figuratively, or in the way of trope. 28 All the old copies read thus. Yet in the dumb-show we have, "Enter a King and Queen;" and at the end of this speech, "Lucianus, nephew to the king." This seeming inconsistency, however, may be reconciled. Though the interlude is the image of the murder of the Duke of Vienna, or in other words founded upon that story, the Poet might make the principal person in his fable a king. Baptista is always the name of a man. 24 The allusion is to a horse wincing as the saddle galls his withers. See page 269, note 2. 25 The use to which Shakespeare put the chorus may be seen in King Henry V. Every motion or puppet-show was accompanied by an interpreter or showman. |