The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 41

To desperation turne my trust and hope,[8]

And Anchors[9] cheere in prison be my scope]

[Footnote 1: All that is wanted to make a real enemy of an unreal friend is the seasoning of a requested favour.]

[Footnote 2: 'Our thoughts are ours, but what will come of them we cannot tell.']

[Footnote 3: 'May Day and Night lock from me sport and repose.']

[Footnote 4: 'May strife pursue me in the world and out of it.']

[Footnote 5: In all this, there is nothing to reflect on his mother beyond what everybody knew.]

[Footnote 6: _This speech is in the margin of the Quarto._]

[Footnote 7: _Not in Q._]

[Footnote 8: 'May my trust and hope turn to despair.']

[Footnote 9: an anch.o.r.et's.]

[Page 148]

_King_. Haue you heard the Argument, is there no Offence in't?[1]

_Ham_. No, no, they do but iest, poyson in iest, no Offence i'th'world.[2]

_King_. What do you call the Play?

_Ham._ The Mouse-trap: Marry how? Tropically:[3]

This Play is the Image of a murder done in _Vienna: Gonzago_ is the Dukes name, his wife _Baptista_: you shall see anon: 'tis a knauish peece of worke: But what o'that? Your Maiestie, and [Sidenote: of that?]

wee that haue free soules, it touches vs not: let the gall'd iade winch: our withers are vnrung.[4]

_Enter Lucia.n.u.s._[5]

This is one _Lucia.n.u.s_ nephew to the King.

_Ophe_. You are a good Chorus, my Lord.

[Sidenote: are as good as a Chorus]

_Ham_. I could interpret betweene you and your loue: if I could see the Puppets dallying.[6]

_Ophe_. You are keene my Lord, you are keene.

_Ham_. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge.

[Sidenote: mine]

_Ophe_. Still better and worse.

_Ham_. So you mistake Husbands.[7] [Sidenote: mistake your]

Begin Murderer. Pox, leaue thy d.a.m.nable Faces, [Sidenote: murtherer, leave]

and begin. Come, the croaking Rauen doth bellow for Reuenge.[8]

_Lucian_. Thoughts blacke, hands apt, Drugges fit, and Time agreeing: Confederate season, else, no Creature seeing:[9] [Sidenote: Considerat]

Thou mixture ranke, of Midnight Weeds collected, With Hecats Ban, thrice blasted, thrice infected, [Sidenote: invected]

Thy naturall Magicke, and dire propertie, On wholsome life, vsurpe immediately. [Sidenote: vsurps]

_Powres the poyson in his eares_.[10]

_Ham_. He poysons him i'th Garden for's estate: [Sidenote: A poysons for his]

[Footnote 1: --said, perhaps, to Polonius. Is there a lapse here in the king's self-possession? or is this speech only an outcome of its completeness--a pretence of fearing the play may glance at the queen for marrying him?]

[Footnote 2: 'It is but jest; don't be afraid: there is no reality in it'--as one might say to a child seeing a play.]

[Footnote 3: Figuratively: from _trope_. In the _1st Q._ the pa.s.sage stands thus:

_Ham_. Mouse-trap: mary how trapically: this play is The image of a murder done in _guyana_,]

[Footnote 4: Here Hamlet endangers himself to force the king to self-betrayal.]

[Footnote 5: _In Q. after next line._]

[Footnote 6: In a puppet-play, if she and her love were the puppets, he could supply the speeches.]

[Footnote 7: Is this a misprint for 'so you _must take_ husbands'--for better and worse, namely? or is it a thrust at his mother--'So you mis-take husbands, going from the better to a worse'? In _1st Q._: 'So you must take your husband, begin.']

[Footnote 8: Probably a mocking parody or burlesque of some well-known exaggeration--such as not a few of Marlowe's lines.]

[Footnote 9: 'none beholding save the accomplice hour:'.]

[Footnote 10: _Not in Q._]

[Page 150]

His name's _Gonzago_: the Story is extant and writ [Sidenote: and written]

in choyce Italian. You shall see anon how the [Sidenote: in very choice]

Murtherer gets the loue of _Gonzago's_ wife.

_Ophe_. The King rises.[1]

_Ham_. What, frighted with false fire.[2]

_Qu_. How fares my Lord?

_Pol_. Giue o're the Play.

_King_. Giue me some Light. Away.[3]