The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 40

Now what my loue is, proofe hath made you know, [Sidenote: my Lord is proofe]

And as my Loue is siz'd, my Feare is so. [Sidenote: ciz'd,]

[B]

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--

For women feare too much, euen as they loue,]

[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--

Where loue is great, the litlest doubts are feare, Where little feares grow great, great loue growes there.]

[Footnote 1: _Enter_ not in _Q._]

[Footnote 2: Commonly _posy_: a little sentence engraved inside a ring--perhaps originally a tiny couplet, therefore _poesy_, _1st Q._, 'a poesie for a ring?']

[Footnote 3: Emphasis on ''Tis.']

[Footnote 4: Very little blank verse of any kind was written before Shakspere's; the usual form of dramatic verse was long, irregular, rimed lines: the Poet here uses the heroic couplet, which gives a resemblance to the older plays by its rimes, while also by its stately and monotonous movement the play-play is differenced from the play into which it is introduced, and caused to _look_ intrinsically like a play in relation to the rest of the play of which it is part. In other words, it stands off from the surrounding play, slightly elevated both by form and formality. 103.]

[Footnote 5: _1st Q._

_Duke._ Full fortie yeares are past, their date is gone, Since happy time ioyn'd both our hearts as one: And now the blood that fill'd my youthfull veines, Ruunes weakely in their pipes, and all the straines Of musicke, which whilome pleasde mine eare, Is now a burthen that Age cannot beare: And therefore sweete Nature must pay his due, To heauen must I, and leaue the earth with you.]

[Footnote 6: Here Hamlet gives the time his father and mother had been married, and Shakspere points at Hamlet's age. 234. The Poet takes pains to show his hero's years.]

[Footnote 7: This line, whose form in the _Quarto_ is very careless, seems but a careless correction, leaving the sense as well as the construction obscure: 'Women's fear and love keep the scales level; in _neither_ is there ought, or in _both_ there is fulness;' or: 'there is no moderation in their fear and their love; either they have _none_ of either, or they have _excess_ of both.' Perhaps he tried to express both ideas at once. But compression is always in danger of confusion.]

[Page 144]

_King._ Faith I must leaue thee Loue, and shortly too: My operant Powers my Functions leaue to do: [Sidenote: their functions]

And thou shall liue in this faire world behinde, Honour'd, belou'd, and haply, one as kinde.

For Husband shalt thou----

_Bap._ Oh confound the rest: [Sidenote: _Quee._]

Such Loue, must needs be Treason in my brest: In second Husband, let me be accurst, None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.[1]

_Ham._ Wormwood, Wormwood. [Sidenote: _Ham_. That's wormwood[2]]

_Bapt._ The instances[3] that second Marriage moue, Are base respects of Thrift,[4] but none of Loue.

A second time, I kill my Husband dead, When second Husband kisses me in Bed.

_King._ I do beleeue you. Think what now you speak: But what we do determine, oft we breake: Purpose is but the slaue to Memorie,[5]

Of violent Birth, but poore validitie:[6]

Which now like Fruite vnripe stickes on the Tree, [Sidenote: now the fruite]

But fall vnshaken, when they mellow bee.[7]

Most necessary[8] 'tis, that we forget To pay our selues, what to our selues is debt: What to our selues in pa.s.sion we propose, The pa.s.sion ending, doth the purpose lose.

The violence of other Greefe or Ioy, [Sidenote: eyther,]

Their owne ennactors with themselues destroy: [Sidenote: ennactures]

Where Ioy most Reuels, Greefe doth most lament; Greefe ioyes, Ioy greeues on slender accident.[9]

[Sidenote: Greefe ioy ioy griefes]

This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange That euen our Loues should with our Fortunes change.

For 'tis a question left vs yet to proue, Whether Loue lead Fortune, or else Fortune Loue.

[Footnote 1: Is this to be supposed in the original play, or inserted by Hamlet, embodying an unuttered and yet more fearful doubt with regard to his mother?]

[Footnote 2: This speech is on the margin in the _Quarto_, and the Queene's speech runs on without break.]

[Footnote 3: the urgencies; the motives.]

[Footnote 4: worldly advantage.]

[Footnote 5: 'Purpose holds but while Memory holds.']

[Footnote 6: 'Purpose is born in haste, but is of poor strength to live.']

[Footnote 7: Here again there is carelessness of construction, as if the Poet had not thought it worth his while to correct this subsidiary portion of the drama. I do not see how to lay the blame on the printer.--'Purpose is a mere fruit, which holds on or falls only as it must. The element of persistency is not in it.']

[Footnote 8: unavoidable--coming of necessity.]

[Footnote 9: 'Grief turns into joy, and joy into grief, on a slight chance.']

[Page 146]

The great man downe, you marke his fauourites flies, [Sidenote: fauourite]

The poore aduanc'd, makes Friends of Enemies: And hitherto doth Loue on Fortune tend, For who not needs, shall neuer lacke a Frend: And who in want a hollow Friend doth try, Directly seasons him his Enemie.[1]

But orderly to end, where I begun, Our Willes and Fates do so contrary run, That our Deuices still are ouerthrowne, Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our owne.[2]

[Sidenote: 246] So thinke thou wilt no second Husband wed.

But die thy thoughts, when thy first Lord is dead.

_Bap._ Nor Earth to giue me food, nor Heauen light, [Sidenote: _Quee._]

Sport and repose locke from me day and night:[3]

[A]

Each opposite that blankes the face of ioy, Meet what I would haue well, and it destroy: Both heere, and hence, pursue me lasting strife,[4]

If once a Widdow, euer I be Wife.[5] [Sidenote: once I be a be a wife]

_Ham._ If she should breake it now.[6]

_King._ 'Tis deepely sworne: Sweet, leaue me heere a while, My spirits grow dull, and faine I would beguile The tedious day with sleepe.

_Qu._ Sleepe rocke thy Braine, [Sidenote: Sleepes[7]]

And neuer come mischance betweene vs twaine, _Exit_ [Sidenote: _Exeunt._]

_Ham._ Madam, how like you this Play?

_Qu._ The Lady protests to much me thinkes, [Sidenote: doth protest]

_Ham._ Oh but shee'l keepe her word.

[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:_--