The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 70

_Laer_. Must there no more be done?

_Priest_. No more be done:[5] [Sidenote: _Doct._]

We should prophane the seruice of the dead, To sing sage[6] _Requiem_, and such rest to her [Sidenote: sing a Requiem]

As to peace-parted Soules.

_Laer_. Lay her i'th' earth, And from her faire and vnpolluted flesh, May Violets spring. I tell thee (churlish Priest) A Ministring Angell shall my Sister be, When thou liest howling?

_Ham_. What, the faire _Ophelia_?[7]

_Queene_. Sweets, to the sweet farewell.[8]

[Sidenote: 118] I hop'd thou should'st haue bin my _Hamlets_ wife: I thought thy Bride-bed to haue deckt (sweet Maid) And not t'haue strew'd thy Graue. [Sidenote: not haue]

_Laer_. Oh terrible woer,[9] [Sidenote: O treble woe]

Fall ten times trebble, on that cursed head [Sidenote: times double on]

Whose wicked deed, thy most Ingenioussence Depriu'd thee of. Hold off the earth a while, Till I haue caught her once more in mine armes: _Leaps in the graue._[10]

Now pile your dust, vpon the quicke, and dead, Till of this flat a Mountaine you haue made, To o're top old _Pelion_, or the skyish head [Sidenote: To'retop]

Of blew _Olympus_.[11]

_Ham_.[12] What is he, whose griefes [Sidenote: griefe]

Beares such an Emphasis? whose phrase of Sorrow

[Footnote 1: 'Shardes' _not in Quarto._ It means _potsherds_.]

[Footnote 2: chaplet--_German_ krantz, used even for virginity itself.]

[Footnote 3: strewments with _white_ flowers. (?)]

[Footnote 4: the burial service.]

[Footnote 5: as an exclamation, I think.]

[Footnote 6: Is the word _sage_ used as representing the unfitness of a requiem to her state of mind? or is it only from its kindred with _solemn_? It was because she was not 'peace-parted' that they could not sing _rest_ to her.]

[Footnote 7: _Everything_ here depends on the actor.]

[Footnote 8: I am not sure the queen is not _apostrophizing_ the flowers she is throwing into or upon the coffin: 'Sweets, be my farewell to the sweet.']

[Footnote 9: The Folio _may_ be right here:--'Oh terrible wooer!--May ten times treble thy misfortunes fall' &c.]

[Footnote 10: This stage-direction is not in the _Quarto_.

Here the _1st Quarto_ has:--

_Lear_. Forbeare the earth a while: sister farewell: _Leartes leapes into the graue._ Now powre your earth on _Olympus_ hie, And make a hill to o're top olde _Pellon_: _Hamlet leapes in after Leartes_ Whats he that coniures so?

_Ham_. Beholde tis I, _Hamlet_ the Dane.]

[Footnote 11: The whole speech is bravado--the frothy grief of a weak, excitable effusive nature.]

[Footnote 12: He can remain apart no longer, and approaches the company.]

[Page 242]

Coniure the wandring Starres, and makes them stand [Sidenote: Coniues]

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, _Hamlet_ the Dane.[1]

_Laer_. The deuill take thy soule.[2]

_Ham_. Thou prai'st not well, I prythee take thy fingers from my throat;[3]

Sir though I am not Spleenatiue, and rash, [Sidenote: For though spleenatiue rash,]

Yet haue I something in me dangerous, [Sidenote: in me something]

Which let thy wisenesse feare. Away thy hand.

[Sidenote: wisedome feare; hold off they]

_King_. Pluck them asunder.

_Qu. Hamlet, Hamlet_. [Sidenote: _All_. Gentlemen.]

_Gen_. Good my Lord be quiet. [Sidenote: _Hora_. Good]

_Ham_. Why I will fight with him vppon this Theme, Vntill my eielids will no longer wag.[4]

_Qu_. Oh my Sonne, what Theame?

_Ham_. I lou'd _Ophelia_[5]; fortie thousand Brothers Could not (with all there quant.i.tie of Loue) Make vp my summe. What wilt thou do for her?[6]

_King_. Oh he is mad _Laertes_.[7]

_Qu_. For loue of G.o.d forbeare him.

_Ham_. Come show me what thou'lt doe.

[Sidenote: _Ham_ S'wounds shew th'owt fight, woo't fast, woo't teare]

Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy selfe?

Woo't drinke vp _Esile_, eate a Crocodile?[6]

Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine; [Sidenote: doost come]

To outface me with leaping in her Graue?

Be[8] buried quicke with her, and so will I.

And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throw Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground Sindging his pate against the burning Zone, [Sidenote: 262] Make _Ossa_ like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth, Ile rant as well as thou.[9]

[Footnote 1: This fine speech is yet spoken in the character of madman, which Hamlet puts on once more the moment he has to appear before the king. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; its extravagance to his a.s.sumed insanity. It must be remembered that death is a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the death of Ophelia may even be some consolation to him.

In the _Folio_, a few lines back, Laertes leaps into the grave. There is no such direction in the _Q_. In neither is Hamlet said to leap into the grave; only the _1st Q._ so directs. It is a stage-business that must please the _common_ actor of Hamlet; but there is nothing in the text any more than in the margin of _Folio_ or _Quarto_ to justify it, and it would but for the horror of it be ludicrous. The coffin is supposed to be in the grave: must Laertes jump down upon it, followed by Hamlet, and the two fight and trample over the body?

Yet I take the '_Leaps in the grave_' to be an action intended for Laertes by the Poet. His 'Hold off the earth a while,' does not necessarily imply that the body is already in the grave. He has before said, 'Lay her i'th' earth': then it was not in the grave. It is just about to be lowered, when, with that cry of 'Hold off the earth a while,' he jumps into the grave, and taking the corpse, on a bier at the side of it, in his arms, calls to the spectators to pile a mountain on them--in the wild speech that brings out Hamlet. The quiet dignity of Hamlet's speech does not comport with his jumping into the grave: Laertes comes out of the grave, and flies at Hamlet's throat. So, at least, I would have the thing acted.

There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out of the grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I would suggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's book on Grave-Mounds, I read of a 'female skeleton in a grave six feet deep, ten feet long, and eight feet wide.' Such a grave would give room for both beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the common representation.]

[Footnote 2: --_springing out of the grave and flying at Hamlet_.]