The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 81

Let go, by Heauen Ile haue't. [Sidenote: hate,]

[Sidenote: 114, 251] Oh good _Horatio_, what a wounded name,[3]

[Sidenote: O G.o.d _Horatio_,]

(Things standing thus vnknowne) shall liue behind me.

[Sidenote: shall I leaue behind me?]

If thou did'st euer hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicitie awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in paine,[1]

[Sidenote: _A march a farre off._]

To tell my Storie.[4]

_March afarre off, and shout within._[5]

What warlike noyse is this?

_Enter Osricke._

_Osr_. Yong _Fortinbras_, with conquest come from Poland To th'Amba.s.sadors of England giues this warlike volly.[6]

_Ham_. O I dye _Horatio_: The potent poyson quite ore-crowes my spirit, I cannot liue to heare the Newes from England, [Sidenote: 62] But I do prophesie[7] th'election lights [Sidenote: 276] On _Fortinbras_, he ha's my dying voyce,[8]

So tell him with the occurrents more and lesse,[9] [Sidenote: th']

Which haue solicited.[10] The rest is silence. O, o, o, o.[11]

_Dyes_[12]

_Hora_. Now cracke a n.o.ble heart: [Sidenote: cracks a]

Goodnight sweet Prince, And flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest, Why do's the Drumme come hither?

[Footnote 1: His care over his reputation with the people is princely, and casts a true light on his delay. No good man can be willing to seem bad, except the _being good_ necessitates it. A man must be willing to appear a villain if that is the consequence of being a true man, but he cannot be indifferent to that appearance. He cannot be indifferent to wearing the look of the thing he hates. Hamlet, that he may be understood by the nation, makes, with n.o.ble confidence in his friends.h.i.+p, the large demand on Horatio, to live and suffer for his sake.]

[Footnote 2: Here first we see plainly the love of Horatio for Hamlet: here first is Hamlet's judgment of Horatio (134) justified.]

[Footnote 3: --for having killed his uncle:--what, then, if he had slain him at once?]

[Footnote 4: Horatio must be represented as here giving sign of a.s.sent.

_1st Q._

_Ham_. Vpon my loue I charge thee let it goe, O fie _Horatio_, and if thou shouldst die, What a scandale wouldst thou leaue behinde?

What tongue should tell the story of our deaths, If not from thee?]

[Footnote 5: _Not in Q._]

[Footnote 6: The frame is closing round the picture. 9.]

[Footnote 7: Shakspere more than once or twice makes the dying prophesy.]

[Footnote 8: His last thought is for his country; his last effort at utterance goes to prevent a disputed succession.]

[Footnote 9: 'greater and less'--as in the psalm,

'The Lord preserves all, more and less, That bear to him a loving heart.']

[Footnote 10: led to the necessity.]

[Footnote 11: _These interjections are not in the Quarto._]

[Footnote 12: _Not in Q._

All Shakspere's tragedies suggest that no action ever ends, only goes off the stage of the world on to another.]

[Page 274]

[Sidenote: 190] _Enter Fortinbras and English Amba.s.sador, with_ [Sidenote: _Enter Fortenbra.s.se, with the Emba.s.sadors._]

_Drumme, Colours, and Attendants._

_Fortin_. Where is this sight?

_Hor_. What is it ye would see; [Sidenote: you]

If ought of woe, or wonder, cease your search.[1]

_For_. His quarry[2] cries on hauocke.[3] Oh proud death, [Sidenote: This quarry]

What feast is toward[4] in thine eternall Cell.

That thou so many Princes, at a shoote, [Sidenote: shot]

So bloodily hast strooke.[5]

_Amb_. The sight is dismall, And our affaires from England come too late, The eares are senselesse that should giue vs hearing,[6]

To tell him his command'ment is fulfill'd, That _Rosincrance_ and _Guildensterne_ are dead: Where should we haue our thankes?[7]

_Hor_. Not from his mouth,[8]

Had it[9] th'abilitie of life to thanke you: He neuer gaue command'ment for their death.

[Sidenote: 6] But since so iumpe[10] vpon this bloodie question,[11]

You from the Polake warres, and you from England Are heere arriued. Giue order[12] that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view, And let me speake to th'yet vnknowing world, [Sidenote: , to yet]

How these things came about. So shall you heare Of carnall, bloudie, and vnnaturall acts,[13]

Of accidentall Judgements,[14] casuall slaughters[15]

Of death's put on by cunning[16] and forc'd cause,[17]

[Sidenote: deaths and for no cause]

And in this vpshot, purposes mistooke,[18]

Falne on the Inuentors heads. All this can I [Sidenote: th']

Truly deliuer.

_For_. Let vs hast to heare it, And call the n.o.blest to the Audience.

For me, with sorrow, I embrace my Fortune, I haue some Rites of memory[19] in this Kingdome, [Sidenote: rights of[19]]

[Footnote 1: --for here it is.]

[Footnote 2: the heap of game after a hunt.]

[Footnote 3: 'Havoc's victims cry out against him.']

[Footnote 4: in preparation.]

[Footnote 5: All the real actors in the tragedy, except Horatio, are dead.]

[Footnote 6: This line may be taken as a parenthesis; then--'come too late' joins itself with 'to tell him.' Or we may connect 'hearing' with 'to tell him':--'the ears that should give us hearing in order that we might tell him' etc.]