The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 22

_Qu_. It may be very likely. [Sidenote: like]

_Pol_. Hath there bene such a time, I'de fain know that, [Sidenote: I would]

That I haue possitiuely said, 'tis so, When it prou'd otherwise?

_King_. Not that I know.

_Pol_. Take this from this[11]; if this be otherwise, If Circ.u.mstances leade me, I will finde Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeede Within the Center.

_King_. How may we try it further?

[Footnote 1: --behaved like a piece of furniture.]

[Footnote 2: The love of talk makes a man use many idle words, foolish expressions, and useless repet.i.tions.]

[Footnote 3: Notwithstanding the parenthesis, I take 'Mistris' to be the objective to 'bespeake'--that is, _address_.]

[Footnote 4: _Star_, mark of sort or quality; brand (45). The _1st Q_.

goes on--

An'd one that is vnequall for your loue:

But it may mean, as suggested by my _Reader_, 'outside thy destiny,'--as ruled by the star of nativity--and I think it does.]

[Footnote 5: Here is a change from the impression conveyed in the first act: he attributes his interference to his care for what befitted royalty; whereas, talking to Ophelia (40, 72), he attributes it entirely to his care for her;--so partly in the speech correspondent to the present in _1st Q_.:--

Now since which time, seeing his loue thus cross'd, Which I tooke to be idle, and but sport, He straitway grew into a melancholy,]

[Footnote 6: See also pa.s.sage in note from _1st Q_.]

[Footnote 7: She obeyed him. The 'fruits' of his advice were her conformed actions.]

[Footnote 8: When the appet.i.te goes, and the sleep follows, doubtless the man is on the steep slope of madness. But as to Hamlet, and how matters were with him, what Polonius says is worth nothing.]

[Footnote 9: '_wherein_ now he raves, and _wherefor_ all we wail.']

[Footnote 10: _To the queen_.]

[Footnote 11: head from shoulders.]

[Page 84]

_Pol_. You know sometimes He walkes foure houres together, heere[1]

In the Lobby.

_Qu_. So he ha's indeed. [Sidenote: he dooes indeede]

[Sidenote: 118] _Pol_. At such a time Ile loose my Daughter to him, Be you and I behinde an Arras then, Marke the encounter: If he loue her not, And be not from his reason falne thereon; Let me be no a.s.sistant for a State, And keepe a Farme and Carters. [Sidenote: But keepe]

_King_. We will try it.

_Enter Hamlet reading on a Booke._[2]

_Qu_. But looke where sadly the poore wretch Comes reading.[3]

_Pol_. Away I do beseech you, both away, He boord[4] him presently. _Exit King & Queen_[5]

Oh giue me leaue.[6] How does my good Lord _Hamlet_?

_Ham_. Well, G.o.d-a-mercy.

_Pol_. Do you know me, my Lord?

[Sidenote: 180] _Ham_. Excellent, excellent well: y'are a Fish-monger.[7] [Sidenote: Excellent well, you are]

_Pol_. Not I my Lord.

_Ham_. Then I would you were so honest a man.

_Pol_. Honest, my Lord?

_Ham_. I sir, to be honest as this world goes, is to bee one man pick'd out of two thousand.

[Sidenote: tenne thousand[8]]

_Pol_. That's very true, my Lord.

_Ham_.[9] For if the Sun breed Magots in a dead dogge, being a good kissing Carrion--[10] [Sidenote: carrion. Have]

Haue you a daughter?[11]

_Pol_. I haue my Lord.

[Footnote 1: _1st Q_.

The Princes walke is here in the galery, There let _Ofelia_, walke vntill hee comes: Your selfe and I will stand close in the study,]

[Footnote 2: _Not in Quarto_.]

[Footnote 3: _1st Q_.--

_King_. See where hee comes poring vppon a booke.]

[Footnote 4: The same as accost, both meaning originally _go to the side of_.]

[Footnote 5: _A line back in the Quarto_.]

[Footnote 6: 'Please you to go away.' 89, 203. Here should come the preceding stage-direction.]

[Footnote 7: Now first the Play shows us Hamlet in his affected madness.

He has a great dislike to the selfish, time-serving courtier, who, like his mother, has forsaken the memory of his father--and a great distrust of him as well. The two men are moral antipodes. Each is given to moralizing--but compare their reflections: those of Polonius reveal a lover of himself, those of Hamlet a lover of his kind; Polonius is interested in success; Hamlet in humanity.]

[Footnote 8: So also in _1st Q_.]