The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 8

_All._ Longer, longer. [Sidenote: _Both._]

_Hor._ Not when I saw't.

_Ham._ His Beard was grisly?[1] no. [Sidenote: grissl'd]

_Hor._ It was, as I haue seene it in his life, [Sidenote: 138] A Sable[2] Siluer'd.

_Ham._ Ile watch to Night; perchance 'twill wake againe.

[Sidenote: walke againe.]

_Hor._ I warrant you it will. [Sidenote: warn't it]

[Sidenote: 44] _Ham._ If it a.s.sume my n.o.ble Fathers person,[3]

Ile speake to it, though h.e.l.l it selfe should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you haue hitherto conceald this sight; Let it bee treble[5] in your silence still: [Sidenote: be tenable in[4]]

And whatsoeuer els shall hap to night, [Sidenote: what someuer els]

Giue it an vnderstanding but no tongue; I will requite your loues; so, fare ye well: [Sidenote: farre you]

Vpon the Platforme twixt eleuen and twelue, [Sidenote: a leauen and twelfe]

Ile visit you.

_All._ Our duty to your Honour. _Exeunt._

_Ham._ Your loue, as mine to you: farewell. [Sidenote: loves,]

My Fathers Spirit in Armes?[6] All is not well: [Sidenote: 30,52] I doubt some foule play: would the Night were come; Till then sit still my soule; foule deeds will rise, [Sidenote: fonde deedes]

Though all the earth orewhelm them to mens eies.

_Exit._

[Footnote 1: _grisly_--gray; _grissl'd_--turned gray;--mixed with white.]

[Footnote 2: The colour of sable-fur, I think.]

[Footnote 3: Hamlet does not _accept_ the Appearance as his father; he thinks it may be he, but seems to take a usurpation of his form for very possible.]

[Footnote 4: _1st Q_. 'tenible']

[Footnote 5: If _treble_ be the right word, the actor in uttering it must point to each of the three, with distinct yet rapid motion. The phrase would be a strange one, but not unlike Shakspere. Compare _Cymbeline_, act v. sc. 5: 'And your three motives to the battle,'

meaning 'the motives of you three.' Perhaps, however, it is only the adjective for the adverb: '_having concealed it hitherto, conceal it trebly now_.' But _tenible_ may be the word: 'let it be a thing to be kept in your silence still.']

[Footnote 6: Alone, he does not dispute _the idea_ of its being his father.]

[Page 34]

_SCENA TERTIA_[1]

_Enter Laertes and Ophelia_. [Sidenote: _Ophelia his Sister._]

_Laer_. My necessaries are imbark't; Farewell: [Sidenote: inbarckt,]

And Sister, as the Winds giue Benefit, And Conuoy is a.s.sistant: doe not sleepe, [Sidenote: conuay, in a.s.sistant doe]

But let me heare from you.

_Ophel_. Doe you doubt that?

_Laer_. For _Hamlet_, and the trifling of his fauours, [Sidenote: favour,]

Hold it a fas.h.i.+on and a toy in Bloud; A Violet in the youth of Primy Nature; Froward,[2] not permanent; sweet not lasting The suppliance of a minute? No more.[3]

[Sidenote: The perfume and suppliance]

_Ophel_. No more but so.[4]

_Laer_. Thinke it no more.

For nature cressant does not grow alone, [Sidenote: 172] In thewes[5] and Bulke: but as his Temple waxes,[6]

[Sidenote: bulkes, but as this]

The inward seruice of the Minde and Soule Growes wide withall. Perhaps he loues you now,[7]

And now no soyle nor cautell[8] doth besmerch The vertue of his feare: but you must feare [Sidenote: of his will, but]

His greatnesse weigh'd, his will is not his owne;[9] [Sidenote: wayd]

For hee himselfe is subiect to his Birth:[10]

Hee may not, as vnuallued persons doe, Carue for himselfe; for, on his choyce depends The sanct.i.ty and health of the weole State.

[Sidenote: The safty and this whole]

And therefore must his choyce be circ.u.mscrib'd[11]

Vnto the voyce and yeelding[12] of that Body, Whereof he is the Head. Then if he sayes he loues you, It fits your wisedome so farre to beleeue it; As he in his peculiar Sect and force[13]

[Sidenote: his particuler act and place]

May giue his saying deed: which is no further,

[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto_.]

[Footnote 2: Same as _forward_.]

[Footnote 3: 'No more' makes a new line in the _Quarto_.]

[Footnote 4: I think this speech should end with a point of interrogation.]

[Footnote 5: muscles.]

[Footnote 6: The body is the temple, in which the mind and soul are the wors.h.i.+ppers: their service grows with the temple--wide, changing and increasing its objects. The degraded use of the grand image is after the character of him who makes it.]

[Footnote 7: The studied contrast between Laertes and Hamlet begins already to appear: the dishonest man, honestly judging after his own dishonesty, warns his sister against the honest man.]

[Footnote 8: deceit.]

[Footnote 9: 'You have cause to fear when you consider his greatness: his will &c.' 'You must fear, his greatness being weighed; for because of that greatness, his will is not his own.']

[Footnote 10: _This line not in Quarto._]

[Footnote 11: limited.]

[Footnote 12: allowance.]

[Footnote 13: This change from the _Quarto_ seems to me to bear the mark of Shakspere's hand. The meaning is the same, but the words are more individual and choice: the _sect_, the _head_ in relation to the body, is more pregnant than _place_; and _force_, that is _power_, is a fuller word than _act_, or even _action_, for which it plainly appears to stand.]