The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by George MacDonald (read out loud books .TXT) 📖

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[Footnote 9: -and this reacts on his kind.]

[Footnote 10: 'all' not in Q. ]

[Footnote 11: Here, perhaps, he grows suspicious-asks himself why he is allowed this prolonged tête à tête .]

[Footnote 12: I am willing to believe she thinks so.]

[Footnote 13: Whether he trusts Ophelia or not, he does not take her statement for correct, and says this in the hope that Polonius is not too far off to hear it. The speech is for him, not for Ophelia, and will seem to her to come only from his madness.]

[Footnote 14: Exit .]

[Footnote 15: ( re-entering )]

[Footnote 16: 'So many are bad, that your virtue will not be believed in.']

[Footnote 17: 'Go' not in Q. ]

[Footnote 18: Exit, and re-enter. ]

[Footnote 19: Cornuti. ]

[Footnote 20: Exit. ]

[Footnote 21: 'O' not in Q. ]

[Footnote 22: ( re-entering )]

[Footnote 23: I suspect pratlings to be a corruption, not of the printed paintings , but of some word substituted for it by the Poet, perhaps prancings , and pace to be correct.]

[Footnote 24: 'your' not in Q. ]

[Footnote 25: As the present type to him of womankind, he assails her with such charges of lightness as are commonly brought against women. He does not go farther: she is not his mother, and he hopes she is innocent. But he cannot make her speak!]

[Page 128]

too, Ile no more on't, it hath made me mad. I say, we will haue no more Marriages.[1] Those that are
[Sidenote: no mo marriage,] married already,[2] all but one shall liue, the rest shall keep as they are. To a Nunnery, go.

Exit Hamlet . [Sidenote: Exit ]

[3] Ophe. O what a Noble minde is heere o're-throwne? The Courtiers, Soldiers, Schollers: Eye, tongue, sword, Th'expectansie and Rose[4] of the faire State,
[Sidenote: Th' expectation,] The glasse of Fashion,[5] and the mould of Forme,[6] Th'obseru'd of all Obseruers, quite, quite downe. Haue I of Ladies most deiect and wretched, [Sidenote: And I of] That suck'd the Honie of his Musicke Vowes: [Sidenote: musickt] Now see that Noble, and most Soueraigne Reason, [Sidenote: see what] Like sweet Bels iangled out of tune, and harsh,[7]
[Sidenote: out of time] That vnmatch'd Forme and Feature of blowne youth,[8]
[Sidenote: and stature of] Blasted with extasie.[9] Oh woe is me, T'haue scene what I haue scene: see what I see.[10]
[Sidenote: Exit .]

Enter King, and Polonius .

King . Loue? His affections do not that way tend, Nor what he spake, though it lack'd Forme a little, [Sidenote: Not] Was not like Madnesse.[11] There's something in his soule? O're which his Melancholly sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch, and the disclose[12] Will be some danger,[11] which to preuent [Sidenote: which for to] I haue in quicke determination [Sidenote: 138, 180] Thus set it downe. He shall with speed to England For the demand of our neglected Tribute: Haply the Seas and Countries different

[Footnote 1: 'The thing must be put a stop to! the world must cease! it is not fit to go on.']

[Footnote 2: 'already-( aside ) all but one-shall live.']

[Footnote 3: 1st Q .

Ofe. Great God of heauen, what a quicke change is this?
The Courtier, Scholler, Souldier, all in him,
All dasht and splinterd thence, O woe is me,
To a seene what I haue seene, see what I see. Exit .

To his cruel words Ophelia is impenetrable-from the conviction that not he but his madness speaks.

The moment he leaves her, she breaks out in such phrase as a young girl would hardly have used had she known that the king and her father were listening. I grant, however, the speech may be taken as a soliloquy audible to the spectators only, who to the persons of a play are but the spiritual presences.]

[Footnote 4: 'The hope and flower'-The rose is not unfrequently used in English literature as the type of perfection.]

[Footnote 5: 'he by whom Fashion dressed herself'- he who set the fashion . His great and small virtues taken together, Hamlet makes us think of Sir Philip Sidney-ten years older than Shakspere, and dead sixteen years before Hamlet was written.]

[Footnote 6: 'he after whose ways, or modes of behaviour, men shaped theirs'-therefore the mould in which their forms were cast;- the object of universal imitation .]

[Footnote 7: I do not know whether this means-the peal rung without regard to tune or time-or-the single bell so handled that the tongue checks and jars the vibration. In some country places, I understand, they go about ringing a set of hand-bells.]

[Footnote 8: youth in full blossom.]

[Footnote 9: madness 177.]

[Footnote 10: 'to see now such a change from what I saw then.']

[Footnote 11: The king's conscience makes him keen. He is, all through, doubtful of the madness.]

[Footnote 12: -of the fact- or fancy-egg on which his melancholy sits brooding]

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With variable Obiects, shall expell This something setled matter[1] in his heart Whereon his Braines still beating, puts him thus From[2] fashion of himselfe. What thinke you on't?

Pol . It shall do well. But yet do I beleeue The Origin and Commencement of this greefe [Sidenote: his greefe,] Sprung from neglected loue.[3] How now Ophelia ? You neede not tell vs, what Lord Hamlet saide, We heard it all.[4] My Lord, do as you please, But if you hold it fit after the Play, Let his Queene Mother all alone intreat him To shew his Greefes: let her be round with him, [Sidenote: griefe,] And Ile be plac'd so, please you in the eare Of all their Conference. If she finde him not,[5] To England send him: Or confine him where Your wisedome best shall thinke.

King . It shall be so: Madnesse in great Ones, must not vnwatch'd go.[6]
[Sidenote: unmatched]
Exeunt .

Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players .
[Sidenote: and three ]

Ham .[7] Speake the Speech I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you trippingly[8] on the Tongue: But if you mouth it, as many of your Players do,
[Sidenote: of our Players] I had as liue[9] the Town-Cryer had spoke my [Sidenote: cryer spoke] Lines:[10] Nor do not saw the Ayre too much your [Sidenote: much with] hand thus, but vse all gently; for in the verie Torrent, Tempest, and (as I may say) the Whirlewinde
[Sidenote: say, whirlwind] of Passion, you must acquire and beget a [Sidenote: of your] Temperance that may giue it Smoothnesse.[11] O it offends mee to the Soule, to see a robustious Perywig-pated
[Sidenote: to heare a] Fellow, teare a Passion to tatters, to [Sidenote: totters,] verie ragges, to split the eares of the Groundlings:[12]
[Sidenote: spleet] who (for the most part) are capeable[13] of nothing, but inexplicable dumbe shewes,[14] and noise:[15] I could haue such a Fellow whipt for o're-doing [Sidenote: would]

[Footnote 1: 'something of settled matter'- idée fixe .]

[Footnote 2: ' away from his own true likeness'; 'makes him so unlike himself.']

[Footnote 3: Polonius is crestfallen, but positive.]

[Footnote 4: This supports the notion of Ophelia's