The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - LightNovelsOnl.com
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Meane time we thanke you, for your well-tooke Labour.
Go to your rest, at night wee'l Feast together.[2]
Most welcome home. _Exit Amba.s.s_.
[Sidenote: Exeunt Emba.s.sadors]
_Pol_. This businesse is very well ended.[3] [Sidenote: is well]
My Liege, and Madam, to expostulate[4]
What Maiestie should be, what Dutie is,[5]
Why day is day; night, night; and time is time, Were nothing but to waste Night, Day and Time.
Therefore, since Breuitie is the Soule of Wit, [Sidenote: Therefore breuitie]
And tediousnesse, the limbes and outward flourishes,[6]
I will be breefe. Your n.o.ble Sonne is mad: Mad call I it; for to define true Madnesse, What is't, but to be nothing else but mad.[7]
But let that go.
_Qu_. More matter, with lesse Art.[8]
_Pol_. Madam, I sweare I vse no Art at all: That he is mad, 'tis true: 'Tis true 'tis pittie, [Sidenote: hee's mad]
And pittie it is true; A foolish figure,[9]
[Sidenote: pitty tis tis true,]
[Footnote 1: time given up to, or filled with consideration; _or, perhaps_, time chosen for a purpose.]
[Footnote 2: He is always feasting.]
[Footnote 3: Now for _his_ turn! He sets to work at once with his rhetoric.]
[Footnote 4: to lay down beforehand as postulates.]
[Footnote 5: We may suppose a dash and pause after '_Dutie is_'. The meaning is plain enough, though logical form is wanting.]
[Footnote 6: As there is no imagination in Polonius, we cannot look for great apt.i.tude in figure.]
[Footnote 7: The nature of madness also is a postulate.]
[Footnote 8: She is impatient, but wraps her rebuke in a compliment.
Art, so-called, in speech, was much favoured in the time of Elizabeth.
And as a compliment Polonius takes the form in which she expresses her dislike of his tediousness, and her anxiety after his news: pretending to wave it off, he yet, in his gratification, coming on the top of his excitement with the importance of his fancied discovery, plunges immediately into a very slough of _art_, and becomes absolutely silly.]
[Footnote 9: It is no figure at all. It is hardly even a play with the words.]
[Page 80]
But farewell it: for I will vse no Art.
Mad let vs grant him then: and now remaines That we finde out the cause of this effect, Or rather say, the cause of this defect; For this effect defectiue, comes by cause, Thus it remaines, and the remainder thus. Perpend, I haue a daughter: haue, whil'st she is mine, [Sidenote: while]
Who in her Dutie and Obedience, marke, Hath giuen me this: now gather, and surmise.
_The Letter_.[1]
_To the Celestiall, and my Soules Idoll, the most beautified Ophelia_.
That's an ill Phrase, a vilde Phrase, beautified is a vilde Phrase: but you shall heare these in her thus in her excellent white bosome, these.[2] [Sidenote: these, &c]
_Qu_. Came this from _Hamlet_ to her.
_Pol_. Good Madam stay awhile, I will be faithfull.
_Doubt thou, the Starres are fire_, [Sidenote: _Letter_]
_Doubt, that the Sunne doth moue; Doubt Truth to be a Lier, But neuer Doubt, I loue.[3]
O deere Ophelia, I am ill at these Numbers: I haue not Art to reckon my grones; but that I loue thee best, oh most Best beleeue it. Adieu.
Thine euermore most deere Lady, whilst this Machine is to him_, Hamlet.
This in Obedience hath my daughter shew'd me: [Sidenote: _Pol_. This showne]
And more aboue hath his soliciting, [Sidenote: more about solicitings]
As they fell out by Time, by Meanes, and Place, All giuen to mine eare.
_King_. But how hath she receiu'd his Loue?
_Pol_. What do you thinke of me?
_King_. As of a man, faithfull and Honourable.
_Pol_. I wold faine proue so. But what might you think?
[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 2: _Point thus_: 'but you shall heare. _These, in her excellent white bosom, these_:'
Ladies, we are informed, wore a small pocket in front of the bodice;--but to accept the fact as an explanation of this pa.s.sage, is to cast the pa.s.sage away. Hamlet _addresses_ his letter, not to Ophelia's pocket, but to Ophelia herself, at her house--that is, in the palace of her bosom, excellent in whiteness. In like manner, signing himself, he makes mention of his body as a machine of which he has the use for a time. So earnest is Hamlet that when he makes love, he is the more a philosopher. But he is more than a philosopher: he is a man of the Universe, not a man of this world only.
We must not allow the fas.h.i.+on of the time in which the play was written, to cause doubt as to the genuine heartiness of Hamlet's love-making.]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q._
Doubt that in earth is fire, Doubt that the starres doe moue, Doubt trueth to be a liar, But doe not doubt I loue.]
[Page 82]
When I had seene this hot loue on the wing, As I perceiued it, I must tell you that Before my Daughter told me, what might you Or my deere Maiestie your Queene heere, think, If I had playd the Deske or Table-booke,[1]
Or giuen my heart a winking, mute and dumbe, [Sidenote: working]
Or look'd vpon this Loue, with idle sight,[2]
What might you thinke? No, I went round to worke, And (my yong Mistris) thus I did bespeake[3]
Lord _Hamlet_ is a Prince out of thy Starre,[4]
This must not be:[5] and then, I Precepts gaue her, [Sidenote: I prescripts]
That she should locke her selfe from his Resort, [Sidenote: from her]
[Sidenote: 42[6], 43, 70] Admit no Messengers, receiue no Tokens: Which done, she tooke the Fruites of my Aduice,[7]
And he repulsed. A short Tale to make, [Sidenote: repell'd, a]
Fell into a Sadnesse, then into a Fast,[8]
Thence to a Watch, thence into a Weaknesse, [Sidenote: to a wath,]
Thence to a Lightnesse, and by this declension [Sidenote: to lightnes]
Into the Madnesse whereon now he raues, [Sidenote: wherein]
And all we waile for.[9] [Sidenote: mourne for]
_King_. Do you thinke 'tis this?[10] [Sidenote: thinke this?]
