The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - George MacDonald (best ereader for pc .txt) 📗

right Sir: for a
[Sidenote: sir, a Monday] Monday morning 'twas so indeed.[10] [Sidenote: t'was then indeede.]

Pol . My Lord, I haue Newes to tell you.

Ham . My Lord, I haue Newes to tell you. When Rossius an Actor in Rome--[11] [Sidenote: Rossius was an]

Pol . The Actors are come hither my Lord.

Ham . Buzze, buzze.[12]

Pol . Vpon mine Honor.[13] [Sidenote: my]

Ham . Then can each Actor on his Asse-- [Sidenote: came each]

[Footnote 1: If there be any logical link here, except that, after the instance adduced, no change in social fashion-nothing at all indeed, is to be wondered at, I fail to see it. Perhaps the speech is intended to belong to the simulation. The last sentence of it appears meant to convey the impression that he suspects nothing-is only bewildered by the course of things.]

[Footnote 2: his miniature.]

[Footnote 3: -to indicate their approach.]

[Footnote 4: com'ply -accent on first syllable-'pass compliments with you' (260)- in the garb , either 'in appearance,' or 'in the fashion of the hour.']

[Footnote 5: 'the amount of courteous reception I extend'-'my advances to the players.']

[Footnote 6: reception, welcome.]

[Footnote 7: He seems to desire that they shall no more be on the footing of fellow-students, and thus to rid himself of the old relation. Perhaps he hints that they are players too. From any further show of friendliness he takes refuge in convention-and professed convention-supplying a reason in order to escape a dangerous interpretation of his sudden formality-'lest you should suppose me more cordial to the players than to you.' The speech is full of inwoven irony, doubtful, and refusing to be ravelled out. With what merely half-shown, yet scathing satire it should be spoken and accompanied!]

[Footnote 8: A proverb of the time comically corrupted- handsaw for hernshaw -a heron, the quarry of the hawk. He denies his madness as madmen do-and in terms themselves not unbefitting madness-so making it seem the more genuine. Yet every now and then, urged by the commotion of his being, he treads perilously on the border of self-betrayal.]

[Footnote 9: used as a noun.]

[Footnote 10: Point thus : 'Mark it.-You say right, sir; &c.' He takes up a speech that means nothing, and might mean anything, to turn aside the suspicion their whispering might suggest to Polonius that they had been talking about him-so better to lay his trap for him.]

[Footnote 11: He mentions the actor to lead Polonius so that his prophecy of him shall come true.]

[Footnote 12: An interjection of mockery: he had made a fool of him.]

[Footnote 13: Polonius thinks he is refusing to believe him.]

[Page 100]

Polon . The best Actors in the world, either for Tragedie, Comedie, Historic, Pastorall: Pastoricall- Comicall-Historicall-Pastorall: [1] Tragicall-Historicall: Tragicall-Comicall-Historicall-Pastorall[1]: Scene indiuible,[2] or Poem vnlimited.[3] Seneca cannot
[Sidenote: scene indeuidible,[2]] be too heauy, nor Plautus too light, for the law of Writ, and the Liberty. These are the onely men.[4]

Ham . O Iephta Iudge of Israel, what a Treasure had'st thou?

Pol . What a Treasure had he, my Lord?[5]

Ham . Why one faire Daughter, and no more,[6] The which he loued passing well.[6]

[Sidenote: 86] Pol . Still on my Daughter.

Ham . Am I not i'th'right old Iephta ?

Polon . If you call me Iephta my Lord, I haue a daughter that I loue passing well.

Ham . Nay that followes not.[7]

Polon . What followes then, my Lord?

Ham . Why, As by lot, God wot:[6] and then you know, It came to passe, as most like it was:[6] The first rowe of the Pons[8] Chanson will shew you more,
[Sidenote: pious chanson] For looke where my Abridgements[9] come.
[Sidenote: abridgment[9] comes]

Enter foure or fiue Players.
[Sidenote: Enter the Players. ]

Y'are welcome Masters, welcome all. I am glad [Sidenote: You are] to see thee well: Welcome good Friends. O my
[Sidenote: oh old friend, why thy face is valanct[10]] olde Friend? Thy face is valiant[10] since I saw thee last: Com'st thou to beard me in Denmarke? What, my yong Lady and Mistris?[11] Byrlady [Sidenote: by lady] your Ladiship is neerer Heauen then when I saw [Sidenote: nerer to] you last, by the altitude of a Choppine.[12] Pray God your voice like a peece of vncurrant Gold be not crack'd within the ring.[13] Masters, you are all welcome: wee'l e'ne to't like French Faulconers,[14]
[Sidenote: like friendly Fankner] flie at any thing we see: wee'l haue a Speech

[Footnote 1: From [1] to [1] is not in the Quarto .]

[Footnote 2: Does this phrase mean all in one scene ?]

[Footnote 3: A poem to be recited only-one not limited , or divided into speeches.]

[Footnote 4: Point thus : 'too light. For the law of Writ, and the Liberty, these are the onely men':- either for written plays , that is,
or for those in which the players extemporized their speeches .

1st Q . 'For the law hath writ those are the onely men.']

[Footnote 5: Polonius would lead him on to talk of his daughter.]

[Footnote 6: These are lines of the first stanza of an old ballad still in existence. Does Hamlet suggest that as Jephthah so Polonius had sacrificed his daughter? Or is he only desirous of making him talk about her?]

[Footnote 7: 'That is not as the ballad goes.']

[Footnote 8: That this is a corruption of the pious in the Quarto , is made clearer from the 1st Quarto : 'the first verse of the godly Ballet wil tel you all.']

[Footnote 9: abridgment -that which abridges , or cuts short. His 'Abridgements' were the Players.]

[Footnote 10: 1st Q . 'Vallanced'- with a beard , that is. Both readings may be correct.]

[Footnote 11: A boy of course: no women had yet appeared on the stage.]

[Footnote 12: A Venetian boot, stilted, sometimes very high.]

[Footnote 13: -because then it would be unfit for a woman-part. A piece of gold so worn that it had a crack reaching within the inner circle was no longer current. 1st Q . 'in the ring:'-was a pun intended?]

[Footnote 14: -like French sportsmen of the present day too.]

[Page 102]

straight. Come giue vs a tast of your quality: come, a passionate speech.

1. Play. What speech, my Lord? [Sidenote: my good Lord?]

Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was neuer Acted: or if it was, not aboue once, for the Play I remember pleas'd not the Million, 'twas Cauiarie to the Generall[1]: but it was (as I receiu'd it, and others, whose iudgement in such matters, cried in the top of mine)[2] an excellent Play; well digested in the Scoenes, set downe with as much modestie, as cunning.[3] I remember one said there was no Sallets[4] in the lines, to make the [Sidenote: were] matter sauoury; nor no matter in the phrase,[5] that might indite the Author of affectation, but cal'd it
[Sidenote: affection,] an honest method[A]. One cheefe Speech in it, I
[Sidenote: one speech in't I] cheefely lou'd, 'twas Æneas Tale to Dido , and
[Sidenote: Aeneas talke to] thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of [Sidenote: when]
Priams [6] slaughter. If it liue in your memory, begin at this Line, let me see, let me see: The rugged Pyrrhus like th' Hyrcanian Beast.[7] It is
[Sidenote: tis not] not so: it begins[8] with Pyrrhus .[9]

[10] The rugged Pyrrhus , he whose Sable Armes[11] Blacke as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couched in the Ominous[12] Horse, Hath now this dread and blacke Complexion smear'd With Heraldry more dismall: Head to foote Now is he to take Geulles,[13] horridly Trick'd