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

[Sidenote: Assune | to refraine night,] And that shall lend a kinde of easinesse

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto :-

[8]That monster custome, who all sence doth eate Of habits deuill,[9] is angell yet in this That to the vse of actions faire and good, He likewise giues a frock or Liuery That aptly is put on]

[Footnote 1: madness 129.]

[Footnote 2: Here is the correspondent speech in the 1st Q. I give it because of the queen's denial of complicity in the murder.

Queene Alas, it is the weakenesse of thy braine.
Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy hearts griefe:
But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen,
I neuer knew of this most horride murder:
But Hamlet, this is onely fantasie,
And for my loue forget these idle fits.

Ham . Idle, no mother, my pulse doth beate like yours,
It is not madnesse that possesseth Hamlet.]

[Footnote 3: Not in Q. ]

[Footnote 4: - time being a great part of music. Shakspere more than once or twice employs music as a symbol with reference to corporeal condition: see, for instance, As you like it , act i. sc. 2, 'But is there any else longs to see this broken music in his sides? is there yet another dotes upon rib-breaking?' where the broken music may be regarded as the antithesis of the healthful music here.]

[Footnote 5: swoln, pampered : an allusion to the purse itself, whether intended or not, is suggested.]

[Footnote 6: bend, bow .]

[Footnote 7: To assume is to take to one: by assume a virtue , Hamlet does not mean pretend -but the very opposite: to pretend is to hold forth, to show ; what he means is, 'Adopt a virtue'-that of
abstinence -'and act upon it, order your behaviour by it, although you may not feel it. Choose the virtue-take it, make it yours.']

[Footnote 8: This omitted passage is obscure with the special Shaksperean obscurity that comes of over-condensation. He omitted it, I think, because of its obscurity. Its general meaning is plain enough-that custom helps the man who tries to assume a virtue, as well as renders it more and more difficult for him who indulges in vice to leave it. I will paraphrase: 'That monster, Custom, who eats away all sense, the devil of habits, is angel yet in this, that, for the exercise of fair and good actions, he also provides a habit, a suitable frock or livery, that is easily put on.' The play with the two senses of the word
habit is more easily seen than set forth. To paraphrase more freely: 'That devil of habits, Custom, who eats away all sense of wrong-doing, has yet an angel-side to him, in that he gives a man a mental dress, a habit, helpful to the doing of the right thing.' The idea of hypocrisy does not come in at all. The advice of Hamlet is: 'Be virtuous in your actions, even if you cannot in your feelings; do not do the wrong thing you would like to do, and custom will render the abstinence easy.']

[Footnote 9: I suspect it should be ' Of habits evil '-the antithesis to angel being monster .]

[Page 178]

To the next abstinence. [A] Once more goodnight, And when you are desirous to be blest, Ile blessing begge of you.[1] For this same Lord, I do repent: but heauen hath pleas'd it so,[2] To punish me with this, and this with me, That I must be their[3] Scourge and Minister. I will bestow him,[4] and will answer well The death I gaue him:[5] so againe, good night. I must be cruell, onely to be kinde;[6] Thus bad begins,[7] and worse remaines behinde.[8] [Sidenote: This bad]

[B]

Qu . What shall I do? [Sidenote: Ger .]

Ham . Not this by no meanes that I bid you do: Let the blunt King tempt you againe to bed, [Sidenote: the blowt King] Pinch Wanton on your cheeke, call you his Mouse, And let him for a paire of reechie[9] kisses, Or padling in your necke with his damn'd Fingers, Make you to rauell all this matter out, [Sidenote: rouell] [Sidenote: 60, 136, 156] That I essentially am not in madnesse. But made in craft.[10] 'Twere good you let him know, [Sidenote: mad] For who that's but a Queene, faire, sober, wise, Would from a Paddocke,[11] from a Bat, a Gibbe,[12] Such deere concernings hide, Who would do so, No in despight of Sense and Secrecie, Vnpegge the Basket on the houses top: Let the Birds flye, and like the famous Ape To try Conclusions[13] in the Basket, creepe And breake your owne necke downe.[14]

Qu . Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, [Sidenote: Ger .]

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto; -

the next more easie:[15] For vse almost can change the stamp of nature, And either[16] the deuill, or throwe him out With wonderous potency:]

[Footnote B: Here in the Quarto: -

One word more good Lady.[17]]

[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, after the custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farce now: when she seeks the blessing of God, he will beg hers; now, a plain
good night must serve.]

[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of pleased . It is here a transitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sentence is, 'pleased it so, in order to punish us, that I must' &c.]

[Footnote 3: The noun to which their is the pronoun is heaven -as if he had written the gods .]

[Footnote 4: 'take him to a place fit for him to lie in.']

[Footnote 5: 'hold my face to it, and justify it.']

[Footnote 6: -omitting or refusing to embrace her.]

[Footnote 7: -looking at Polonius.]

[Footnote 8: Does this mean for himself to do, or for Polonius to endure?]

[Footnote 9: reeky, smoky, fumy.]

[Footnote 10: Hamlet considers his madness the same that he so deliberately assumed. But his idea of himself goes for nothing where the experts conclude him mad! His absolute clarity where he has no occasion to act madness, goes for as little, for 'all madmen have their sane moments'!]

[Footnote 11: a toad ; in Scotland, a frog .]

[Footnote 12: an old cat.]

[Footnote 13: Experiments , Steevens says: is it not rather results ?]

[Footnote 14: I fancy the story, which so far as I know has not been traced, goes on to say that the basket was emptied from the house-top to send the pigeons flying, and so the ape got his neck broken. The phrase 'breake your owne necke downe ' seems strange: it could hardly have been written neck-bone !]

[Footnote 15: This passage would fall in better with the preceding with which it is vitally one-for it would more evenly continue its form-if the preceding devil were, as I propose above, changed to evil . But, precious as is every word in them, both passages are well omitted.]

[Footnote 16: Plainly there is a word left out, if not lost here. There is no authority for the supplied master . I am inclined to propose a pause and a gesture, with perhaps an inarticulation .]

[Footnote 17: -interrogatively perhaps, Hamlet noting her about to speak; but I would prefer it thus: 'One word more:-good lady-' Here he pauses so long that she speaks. Or we might read it thus:

Qu. One word more.
Ham. Good lady?
Qu. What shall I do?]

[Page 180]

And breath of life: I haue no life to breath What thou hast saide to me.[1]

[Sidenote: 128, 158] Ham. I must to England, you know that?[2]

Qu. Alacke I had forgot: Tis so concluded on. [Sidenote: Ger. ]

Ham. [A] This man shall set me packing:[3] Ile lugge the Guts into the Neighbor roome,[4] Mother goodnight. Indeede this Counsellor [Sidenote: night indeed, this] Is now most still, most secret, and most graue, [Sidenote: 84] Who was in life, a foolish prating Knaue.
[Sidenote: a most foolish] Come sir, to draw toward an end with you.[5] Good night Mother.

Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius. [6] [Sidenote: Exit. ]

[7]

Enter King. [Sidenote: Enter King, and Queene, with
Rosencraus and Guyldensterne.]

King. There's matters in these sighes. These profound heaues You must translate; Tis fit we vnderstand them. Where is your Sonne?[8]

Qu. [B] Ah my good Lord, what haue I seene to night?
[Sidenote: Ger. | Ah mine owne Lord,]

King. What Gertrude ? How do's Hamlet ?

Qu. Mad as the Seas, and winde, when both contend
[Sidenote: Ger. | sea and] Which is the Mightier, in his lawlesse fit[9]

[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto :-

[10]Ther's letters seald, and my two Schoolefellowes, Whom I will trust as I will Adders fang'd, They beare the mandat, they must sweep my way And marshall me to knauery[11]: let it worke, For tis the sport to haue the enginer Hoist[12] with his owne petar,[13] an't shall goe hard But I will delue one