11 To serve in such a difference. What devil was't, 13 O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious Hell, And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame, O Hamlet, speak no more: soul; Queen. As will not leave their tinct.14 Ham. In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,15 Stew'd in corruption, Queen. Nay, but to live O, speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter in mine ears: Ham. A murderer and a villain; 16 A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards!-- What would your gracious figure? 11 Hoodman-blind is the old game of blindman's-buff. 12 To mope is to be dull and stupid. 18 Mutine for mutiny. This is the old form of the verb. Shakespeare ca.ls mutineers mutines in a subsequent scene. 14 "Grained spots" are spots ingrained, or dyed in the grain. 15 Enseamed is a term borrowed from falconry. It is well known that the seam of any animal was the fat or tallow; and a hawk was said to be en seamed when she was too fat or gross for flight. 16 An allusion to the old Vice or jester, a stereotyped character in the Moral-plays, which were going out of use in the Poet's time. The Vice wore a motley or patchwork dress; hence the shreds and patches applied in this instance. See page 233, note 15. 17 When the Ghost goes out, Hamlet says, - "Look, how it steals away! my father, in his habit as he liv'd." It has been much argued whether the Queen. Alas, he's mad! Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation Is but to whet thy almost-blunted purpose. Ham. How is it with you, lady? Queen. Alas, how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, Ham. On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capable.21 Do not look upon me; Lest with this piteous action you convert My stern affects: 22 then what I have to do Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood. Ham. Queen. Do you see nothing there? No, nothing but ourselves. Ghost should wear armour here, as in former scenes. The question is set at rest by the stage-direction in the first quarto: "Enter the Ghost, in his night-gown." See, however, note 23, of this scene. 18 The sense appears to be, having failed in respect both of time and of purpose. Or it may be, having allowed passion to cool by lapse of time. 19 Conceit again for conception, imagination. 20 That is, like excrements alive, or having life in them. Hair, nails feathers, &c., were called excrements, as being without life. 21 Would put sense and understanding into them. The use of capable for susceptible, intelligent, not peculiar to Shakespeare. 22 The old copies have effects, which was apt to be misprinted for affects. The latter was often used for affections, which might signify any mood or temper of mind looking to action. Mr. White and some other late editors retain effects, but I can find no meaning in it that will run smooth with the context. Hamlet is afraid lest the "piteous action" of the Ghost should make his stern mood or temper of revenge give place to tenderness, so that he will see the ministry enjoined upon him in a false light, and go to shed ding tears instead of blood. Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he liv'd! Look where he goes, even now, out at the portal! [Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.23 Ham. Ecstasy! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, And I the matter will re-word; which madness Confess yourself to Heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg; Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.24 Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half. Good night but go not to my uncle's bed; That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat 28 The Ghost in this scene, as also in the banquet-scene of Macbeth, 18 plainly what we should call a subjective ghost; that is, existing only in the heated imagination of the beholder. As the Queen says, insanity is very fertile in such "bodiless creations." It is not so with the apparition in the former scenes, as the ghost is there seen by other persons. To be sure, it was part of the old belief, that ghosts could, if they chose, make themselves visible only to those with whom they were to deal; but this is just what we mean by subjective. The ancients could not take the idea of subjective visions, as we use the term. For this reason I have long thought that the introduction of the Ghost on the stage in this scene ought to be discontinued. 24 To curb is to curve, bend, or truckle; from the French courber. 25 The meaning is, that custom eats out all sense or consciousness of evil habits. The old copies have devil instead of evil; but the hopeless disagreement of editors about it, and the hard straining to justify it, show that devil can hardly be right. On the other hand, evil makes the whole passage orderly, coherent, and apt. Though custom is a monster in that it takes away all sense of evil habits, yet it is an angel in this respect, that it also works in a manner equally favourable to good actions. For use almost can change the stamp of nature, [Pointing to POLONIUS I do repent: but Heaven hath pleas'd it so," 27 The death I gave him. So, again, good night. — Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. - Queen. What shall I do? do: Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. "Twere good you let him know; And break your own neck down. 82 29 Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. 26 Curb is wanting in all the old copies. Sense and verse alike require that or some equivalent word. 27 It hath pleas'd Heaven so to punish. 28 The pronoun their refers to Heaven, which is here a collective noun, put for the heavenly powers. 29 Mouse was a term of endearment. Thus Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy: "Pleasant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon." 30 Reeky and reechy are the same word, and applied to any vaporous exhalation. 81 A paddock is a toad; a gib, a cat. See page 256, note 9. 82 To try conclusions is the old phrase for trying experiments, or putting a thing to the proof. The passage alludes, apparently, to some fable or story now quite forgotten. Sir John Suckling, in one of his letters, refers to "the story of the jackanapes and the partridges." Ham. I must to England; you know that? I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on. Alack, Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two school-fellows,— Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; Hoist with his own petar; 83 and 't shall go hard But I will delve one yard below their mines, I'll lug the [corse] into the neighbour room. — [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS. ACT IV. SCENE I. Elsinore. A Room in the Castle. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN. STERN. King. There's matter in these sighs, heaves, these profound You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them. ? Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. [Exeunt ROSE. and GUILD. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! Queen. Mad as the sea and wind when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, He whips his rapier out, and cries A rat! a rat! The unseen good old man. 83 Hoist for hoised. To hoyse was the old verb. A petar was a kind of 'mortar used to blow up gates. It shall go hard means I will try hard. See page 134, note 8. |