LEMDO Classroom: Hamlet, Editor’s Choice

Edition: HamletHamlet, Editor’s Choice

Act 1, Scene 1

Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels.

Barnardo

Who’s there?

Francisco

Nay, answer me

. Stand and unfold yourself

Barnardo

Long live the King!

Francisco

Barnardo?

Barnardo

He.

Francisco

You come

most carefully upon your hour

Barnardo

’Tis now struck

twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.

Francisco

For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

Barnardo

Have you had quiet guard?

Francisco

Not a mouse stirring.

Barnardo

Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals

of my watch, bid them make haste.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Francisco

I think I hear them.—Stand, ho! Who is

there?

Horatio

Friends to this ground

Marcellus

And liegemen to the Dane

Francisco

Give you good night.

Marcellus

Oh, farewell, honest soldier

. Who hath

relieved you?

Francisco

Barnardo hath my place. Give

you good night.

Exit Francisco.

Marcellus

Holla, Barnardo!

Barnardo

Say, what,

is Horatio

there?

Horatio

A piece of him.

Barnardo

Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.

Horatio

What, has

this thing appeared again tonight?

Barnardo

I have seen nothing.

Marcellus

Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy

And will not let belief take hold of him,

Touching

this dreaded sight twice seen of us.

Therefore I have entreated him along

With us

to watch the minutes of this night

That if again this apparition come

He may approve

our eyes and speak to it.

Horatio

Tush, tush,

’twill not appear.

Barnardo

Sit down awhile

And let us once again assail your ears,

That are so fortified against our story

What we two nights have

seen.

Horatio

Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.

Barnardo

Last night of all,

When yond same

star that’s westward from the pole

Had made his

course t’illume

that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating

one—

Enter the Ghost.

Marcellus

Peace, break thee off! Look where it comes again!

Barnardo

In the same figure like the King that’s dead.

Marcellus

Thou art a scholar

. Speak to it, Horatio.

Barnardo

Looks it

not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.

Horatio

Most like. It harrows

me with fear and wonder.

Barnardo

It would be spoke to.

Marcellus

Question

, Horatio.

Horatio

What art thou that usurp’st

this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes

march?

By heaven, I charge

thee speak!

Marcellus

It is offended.

Barnardo

See, it stalks away.

Horatio

Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak!

Exit the Ghost.

Marcellus

’Tis gone, and will not

answer.

Barnardo

How now, Horatio, you tremble and look pale.

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on’t

Horatio

Before

my God, I might not this believe

Without the sensible

and true avouch

Of mine own

eyes.

Marcellus

Is it not like the King?

Horatio

As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armor he

had on

When he the ambitious

Norway

combated.

So frowned he once, when in an angry parle

He smote the sledded Polacks

on the ice.

’Tis strange.

Marcellus

Thus twice before, and jump

at this dead hour,

With martial stalk

hath he gone by

our watch.

Horatio

In what particular thought to work

I know not,

But in the gross and scope of mine

opinion

This

bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Marcellus

Good now

, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch

So nightly toils the subject

of the land,

And why

such daily cast

of brazen

cannon

And

foreign mart

for implements of war,

Why such impress

of shipwrights, whose sore task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week:

What might be toward

, that this sweaty haste

Doth make the night joint-laborer with the day?

Who is’t that can inform me?

Horatio

That

can I.

At least the whisper goes so: our last King,

Whose image even but now appeared to us,

Was as you know by Fortinbras of Norway

Thereto pricked on

by a most emulate

pride

Dared to the combat

; in which our valiant Hamlet—

For so this side of our known world

esteemed him—

Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed

compact

Well ratified by law and heraldry

Did forfeit, with his life, all those

his lands

Which he stood seized of

, to

the conqueror;

Against the which a moiety competent

Was gagèd by our King

, which had returned

To the inheritance of Fortinbras

Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same cov’nant

And carriage of the article designed

His fell to Hamlet

. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimprovèd

mettle hot and full

Hath in the skirts

of Norway here and there

Sharked up a list

of landless

resolutes

For food and diet to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in’t, which is no other,

it doth well appear unto our state

But to recover of us

by strong hand

And terms compulsative

those foresaid lands

So by his father lost. And this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations,

The source

of this our watch, and the chief head

Of this post-haste and rummage

in the land.

Barnardo

I think it be no other but e’en so.

Well may it sort that

this portentous figure

Comes armèd through our watch so like the King

That was and is the question

of these wars.

Horatio

A mote

it is to trouble the mind’s eye.

In the most high and palmy

state of Rome,

A little ere

the mightiest Julius

fell,

The graves stood tenantless

, and the sheeted

dead

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets,

stars with trains of fire and dews of blood

Disasters

in the sun; and the moist star

Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands

Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.

And even the like precurse of feared

events,

As harbingers preceding still the fates

And prologue to the omen coming on,

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

Unto our climatures and countrymen.

Enter Ghost

again.

But soft

, behold, lo,

where it comes again!

I’ll cross it

though it blast me

.—Stay, illusion!

It spreads his arms.

If thou hast any sound or use of voice,

Speak to me!

If there be any good thing to be done

That may to thee do ease and grace to me,

Speak to me!

If thou art privy to

thy country’s fate,

Which happily

foreknowing may avoid,

Oh, speak!

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life

Extorted

treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they say, you

spirits oft walk in death,

Speak of it. Stay and speak!

The cock crows.

Stop it, Marcellus!

Marcellus

Shall I strike at it

with my partisan

Horatio

Do, if it will not stand.

Barnardo

’Tis here.

Horatio

’Tis here.

Exit Ghost.

Marcellus

’Tis gone.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence,

For it is as the air, invulnerable

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Barnardo

It was about to speak when the cock crew.

Horatio

And then it started

like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard

The cock, that is the trumpet

to the morn

Doth with his lofty

and shrill-sounding

throat

Awake the god of day

, and, at his warning

Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

Th’extravagant

and erring

spirit hies

To his confine;

and of the truth herein

This present object made probation

Marcellus

It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say

that ever ’gainst

that season comes

Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated,

The

bird of dawning

singeth all night long,

And then they say no spirit can walk

abroad;

The nights are wholesome, then

no planets strike

No fairy

takes

, nor witch hath power to charm

So hallowed and so gracious

is that

time.

Horatio

So have I heard and do in part believe it.

But look,

the morn

in russet

mantle clad

Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward

hill.

Break we our watch up, and by my advice

Let us impart what we have seen tonight

Unto young Hamlet, for, upon my life,

This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.

Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it

As needful in our loves

, fitting our duty?

Marcellus

Let’s

do ’t, I pray, and I this morning know

Where we shall find him most conveniently

Exeunt.

Act 1, Scene 2

Flourish

. Enter Claudius

, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, and his sister Ophelia, Lords attendant including Voltemand and Cornelius.

King

Though yet of Hamlet our

dear brother’s death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted

To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe,

Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature

That we with wisest sorrow think on him

Together with remembrance of ourselves.

Therefore our sometime

sister, now our queen,

Th’imperial jointress

this warlike state,

Have we as ’twere with a defeated joy,

With one auspicious and one

dropping eye

With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole

Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred

Your better wisdoms

, which have freely gone

With this affair along.

For all, our thanks.

Now follows that you know:

young Fortinbras,

Holding a weak supposal of our worth

Or thinking by our late

dear brother’s death

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame

Co-leaguèd with this

dream of his advantage

He hath not failed to pester us with message

Importing

the surrender of those lands

Lost by his father, with all bonds

of law

To our most valiant brother. So much for him.

Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting,

Thus much the business is: we have here writ

To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,

Who, impotent

and bed-rid,

scarcely hears

Of this his nephew’s purpose, to suppress

His further gait

herein, in that the levies,

The lists, and full proportions are all made

Out of his subject

; and we here dispatch

You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,

For bearers

of this greeting

to old Norway,

Giving to you no further personal power

To business with the King more than the scope

Of these dilated

articles allow.

Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.

Cornelius and Voltemand

In that and all things will we show our duty.

King

We doubt it nothing

. Heartily farewell.

Exeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.

And now, Laertes, what’s the news with you?

You told us of some

suit. What is’t, Laertes?

You cannot speak of reason to the Dane

And lose

your voice.

What wouldst thou beg, Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?

The head is not more native

to the heart,

The hand more instrumental to the mouth,

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.

What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

Laertes

Dread my lord,

Your leave and favor

to return to France,

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark

To show my duty in your coronation,

Yet now I must confess, that duty done,

My thoughts and wishes bend again toward

France

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.

King

Have you your father’s leave? What says Polonius?

Polonius

H’ath

, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave

By laborsome petition, and at last

Upon his will I sealed my hard consent

I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

King

Take thy fair hour

, Laertes. Time be thine,

And thy best graces spend it at thy will.

But now, my cousin

Hamlet, and my son—

Hamlet

A little more than kin, and less than kind.

King

How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

Hamlet

Not so

, my lord, I am too much i’th’ sun.

Queen

Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color

off

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark

Do not forever with thy vailèd lids

Seek for thy noble father in the dust.

Thou know’st ’tis common

: all that lives

must die,

Passing through nature to eternity.

Hamlet

Ay, madam, it is common.

Queen

If it be,

Why seems it so particular

with thee?

Hamlet

Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not seems.

’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother

Nor customary

suits of solemn black,

Nor windy suspiration

of forced breath,

No, nor the fruitful river

in the eye,

Nor the dejected havior

of the visage,

Together with all forms, moods

, shapes

of grief

That can denote

me truly. These indeed seem,

For they are actions that a man might play.

But I have that within which passeth

show;

These but the trappings and the suits

of woe.

King

’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet

To give these mourning duties to your father.

But you must know

your father lost a father;

That father lost

, lost

his, and the survivor bound

In filial obligation for some term

To do obsequious

sorrow; but to persever

In obstinate condolement

is a course

Of impious stubbornness. ’Tis unmanly grief.

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,

A heart unfortified

, a mind

impatient,

An understanding simple

and unschooled;

For what we know must be and is as common

As any the most vulgar thing to sense

Why should we in our peevish opposition

Take it to heart? Fie, ’tis a fault to heaven,

A fault

against the dead, a fault to nature

To reason most absurd, whose common theme

Is death of fathers, and who still

hath cried

From the first corpse

till he that died today

“This must be so.” We pray you throw to earth

This unprevailing

woe, and think of us

As of a father; for let the world take note

You are the most immediate

to our throne,

And with no less nobility of love

Than that which dearest father bears his son

Do I impart toward

you. For

your intent

In going back to school in Wittenberg

It is most retrograde

to our desire,

And we beseech you bend you

to remain

Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,

Our chiefest courtier, cousin

, and our son.

Queen

Let not thy mother lose

her prayers

, Hamlet.

I pray thee

stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.

Hamlet

I shall in all my best

obey you, madam.

King

Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply.

Be as ourself

in Denmark.—Madam, come.

This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet

Sits smiling to

my heart, in grace

whereof

No jocund

health that Denmark

drinks today

But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell

And the King’s rouse

the heavens

shall bruit again

Respeaking earthly thunder

. Come, away!

Flourish. Exeunt all but Hamlet

Hamlet

Oh, that this too too solid

flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve

itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting

had not fixed

His canon

’gainst self-slaughter

! Oh, God, God,

How weary

, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem

to me all the uses

of this world!

Fie on’t, ah, fie!

’Tis an unweeded garden

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely

. That it should come to this!

But two months

dead—nay, not so much, not two!

So excellent a king, that was to this

Hyperion

to a satyr

, so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem

the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,

Must I remember? Why, she would

hang on him

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on.

And yet within a month—

Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman!

A little month

, or ere

those shoes were old

With which she followed my poor father’s body

Like Niobe

, all tears, why, she, even she—

Oh, God

, a beast that wants discourse of reason

Would have mourned longer!—married with my

uncle,

My father’s brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules

. Within a month,

Ere yet the salt of

most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing of her gallèd

eyes,

She married. Oh, most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous

sheets!

It is not, nor it cannot come to good,

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo.

Horatio

Hail

to your lordship!

Hamlet

I am glad to see you well.—

Horatio, or I do forget

myself!

Horatio

The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

Hamlet

Sir, my good friend, I’ll change that name with you.

And what make you from Wittenberg,

Horatio?—

Marcellus.

Marcellus

My good lord.

Hamlet

I am very glad to see you. ( To Barnardo. ) Good even, sir.

To Horatio

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?

Horatio

A truant disposition, good my lord

Hamlet

I would not have

your enemy say so,

Nor shall you do my

ear that violence

To make it truster of your own report

Against yourself.

I know you are no truant.

But what is your affair in Elsinore?

We’ll teach you to drink deep

ere you depart.

Horatio

My lord, I came to see

your father’s funeral.

Hamlet

I prithee

do not mock me, fellow student

I think it was to see

my mother’s wedding.

Horatio

Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon

Hamlet

Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Would I had met my dearest

foe in heaven

Ere I had ever

seen that day, Horatio!

My father

—methinks I see my father.

Horatio

Oh, where,

my lord?

Hamlet

In my mind’s eye, Horatio.

Horatio

I saw him once. ’A

was a goodly

king.

Hamlet

’A

was a man, take him for all in all

I shall not look upon his like again.

Horatio

My lord, I think I saw him yesternight

Hamlet

Saw? Who?

Horatio

My lord, the King your father.

Hamlet

The King my father?

Horatio

Season your admiration

for a while

With an attent

ear till I may deliver,

Upon the witness of these gentlemen,

This marvel

to you.

Hamlet

For God’s

love, let me hear!

Horatio

Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch

In the dead waste

and middle of the night

Been thus encountered: a figure like your father

Armed at all points

, exactly, cap-à-pie

Appears before them, and with solemn march

Goes slow

and stately by them.

Thrice

he walked

By their oppressed and fear-surprisèd eyes

Within his truncheon’s

length, whilst they, distilled

Almost to jelly

with the act

of fear,

Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me

In dreadful

secrecy impart they did,

And I with them the third night kept the watch,

Where, as

they had delivered, both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good,

The apparition comes. I knew your father.

These hands are not more like.

Hamlet

But where was this?

Marcellus

My lord, upon the platform

where we watched

Hamlet

Did you not speak to it

Horatio

My lord, I did,

But answer made it none. Yet once methought

It lifted up it head

and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak

;

But even then the morning cock crew loud,

And at the sound it shrunk in haste away

And vanished from our sight.

Hamlet

’Tis very strange.

Horatio

As I do live, my honored lord, ’tis true,

And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

Hamlet

Indeed, indeed

, sirs, but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch tonight?

All

We do, my lord.

Hamlet

Armed, say you?

All

Armed, my lord.

Hamlet

From top to toe?

All

My lord, from head to foot.

Hamlet

Then saw you not his face

Horatio

Oh, yes, my lord, he wore his beaver

up.

Hamlet

What looked he, frowningly?

Horatio

A countenance

Act 1, Scene 3

Enter Laertes, and Ophelia his sister.

Laertes

My necessaries are embarked

. Farewell.

And sister, as

the winds give benefit

And convoy

assistant,

do not sleep

But let

me hear from you.

Ophelia

Do you doubt that?

Laertes

For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor

Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,

A violet in the youth of primy nature

Forward

, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,

The perfume and suppliance of a minute,

No more.

Ophelia

No more but so?

Laertes

Think it no more.

For nature crescent

does not grow alone

In thews and bulk

, but as this temple

waxes

The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal.

Perhaps he loves you now,

And now no soil nor cautel

doth besmirch

The virtue of his will

; but you must fear,

His greatness weighed

, his will is not his own,

For he himself is subject to his birth.

He may not, as unvalued persons

do,

Carve for himself

, for on his choice depends

The safety

and health of the whole

state,

And therefore must his choice be circumscribed

Unto the voice and yielding

of that body

Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it

As he in his particular act and place

May give his saying deed

, which is no further

Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.

Then weigh

what loss your honor may sustain

If with too credent

ear you list

his songs,

Or lose

your heart, or your chaste treasure open

To his unmastered importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,

And keep within

the rear of your affection,

Out of the shot and danger of desire.

The chariest

maid is prodigal enough

If she unmask her beauty to the moon.

Virtue itself scapes

not calumnious

strokes

The canker

galls the infants of the spring

Too oft before their buttons be disclosed

And in the morn and liquid dew of youth

Contagious blastments

are most imminent.

Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear.

Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

Ophelia

I shall the effect

of this good lesson keep

As watchman to my heart

. But, good my brother,

Do not, as some ungracious

pastors do,

Show me the steep

and thorny way to heaven

Whilst, like a

puffed

and reckless libertine,

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,

And recks not his own rede

Enter Polonius

Laertes

Oh, fear me not

I stay too long. But here my father comes.

A double blessing is a double grace;

Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Polonius

Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail

And you

are stayed for. There,

my blessing with thee,

And these few precepts in thy memory

See

thou character

. Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportioned thought his act

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar

Those friends

thou hast, and their adoption

tried

Grapple them to

thy soul with

hoops of steel

But do not dull thy palm

with entertainment

Of each new-hatched, unfledged

comrade

. Beware

Of entrance to a

quarrel, but, being in,

Bear’t that th’opposèd

may beware of thee.

Give every man thine ear

, but few thy voice.

Take each man’s censure

, but reserve thy judgment

Costly thy habit

as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy

—rich, not gaudy,

For the apparel oft proclaims the man

And they in France of the best

rank and station

Are

of all most select and generous, chief

in that

Neither a borrower nor a lender be

For loan

oft loses

both itself and friend,

And borrowing

dulleth edge of

husbandry

This above all: to thine

own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day

Thou canst not then be false to any man

Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!

Laertes

Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

Polonius

The time invites

you. Go. Your servants tend

Laertes

Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well

What I have said to you.

Ophelia

’Tis in my memory locked,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laertes

Farewell.

Exit Laertes.

Polonius

What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

Ophelia

So please you, something touching

the Lord

Hamlet.

Polonius

Marry

, well bethought

’Tis told me he hath very oft of late

Given private time to you, and you yourself

Have of your audience

been most free and bounteous.

If it be so—as so ’tis put on me

And that in way of caution—I must tell you

You do not understand yourself

so clearly

As it behooves

my daughter and your honor

What is between you? Give me up the truth.

Ophelia

He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders

Of his affection to me.

Polonius

Affection? Pooh, you speak like a green

girl,

Unsifted

in such perilous circumstance.

Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Ophelia

I do not know, my lord, what I should think.

Polonius

Marry, I’ll

teach you. Think yourself a baby

That you have ta’en his tenders for true pay

Which are not sterling

. Tender yourself more dearly

Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase

Running

it thus

—you’ll tender me a fool

Ophelia

My lord, he hath importuned me with love

In honorable fashion

Polonius

Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to.

Ophelia

And hath given countenance

to his

speech, my lord,

With

almost all the holy vows of heaven.

Polonius

Ay, springes to catch woodcocks.

I do know

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul

Lends the tongue vows.

These blazes, daughter,

Giving more light than heat, extinct in both

Even in their promise as it is a-making

You must not take

for fire. From

this time, daughter,

Be something

scanter of your maiden presence.

Set your entreatments at a higher rate

Than a command to parley

For

Lord Hamlet,

Believe so much in him

that he is young,

And with a larger tether

may he walk

Than may be given you. In few

, Ophelia,

Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers

Not of that dye

which their investments show

But mere implorators

of unholy suits,

Breathing

like sanctified and pious bawds

The better to beguile

. This is for all

I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth

Have you so slander any moment

leisure

As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.

Look to’t, I charge you. Come your ways.

Ophelia

I shall obey, my lord.

Exeunt.

Act 1, Scene 4

Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus

Hamlet

The air bites shrewdly

; it is very cold.

Horatio

It is a nipping

and an eager

air.

Hamlet

What hour now?

Horatio

I think it lacks of

twelve.

Marcellus

No, it is

struck.

Horatio

Indeed? I heard it not. It then

draws near the season

Wherein the spirit held his wont

to walk.

A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces

goes off.

What does

this mean, my lord?

Hamlet

The King doth wake

tonight and takes his rouse

Keeps wassail

, and the swagg’ring

upspring reels

;

And as he drains

his drafts of Rhenish

down

The kettledrum

and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

Horatio

Is it a custom?

Hamlet

Ay, marry

, is’t,

But

to my mind, though I am native here

And

to the manner born

, it is a custom

More honored in the breach than the observance.

This heavy-headed revel

east and west

Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations.

They clepe

us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition,

and indeed it takes

From our achievements, though performed at height

The pith and marrow of our attribute.

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,

As in their birth

, wherein they are not guilty,

Since nature cannot choose his

origin,

By the

o’ergrowth of some complexion,

Oft breaking down the pales

and forts of reason,

Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens

The form of plausive manners

, that these men,

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,

Being Nature’s livery, or Fortune’s star,

His

virtues else

, be they as pure as grace,

As infinite as man may undergo

Shall in the general censure take corruption

From that particular fault. The dram of evil

Doth all the noble substance often dout

To his own scandal

Enter Ghost.

Horatio

Look, my lord, it comes!

Hamlet

Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned

Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts

from hell,

Be thy intents

wicked or charitable,

Thou com’st in such a questionable shape

That I will

speak to thee. I’ll call thee Hamlet,

King, father, royal Dane. Oh

, answer me!

Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell

Why thy canonized

bones, hearsèd

in death,

Have burst their cerements

? Why the sepulcher

Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned

Hath oped

his ponderous and marble jaws

To cast thee up again? What may this mean

That thou, dead corpse

, again in complete steel

Revisits thus the glimpses

of the moon

Making night hideous, and we fools of nature

So horridly to shake our disposition

With thoughts beyond the

reaches

of our souls?

Say, why is this? Wherefore? What should we do?

The Ghost beckons Hamlet

Horatio

It beckons you to go away with it,

As if it some impartment

did desire

To you alone.

Marcellus

Look with what courteous action

It wafts

you to a more removèd ground.

But do not go with it.

Horatio

No, by no means

Hamlet

It will not speak. Then I will

follow it.

Horatio

Do not, my lord.

Hamlet

Why, what should be the fear?

I do not set my life at a pin’s fee

And for

my soul, what can it do to that,

Being a thing immortal as itself?

The Ghost beckons Hamlet.

It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.

Horatio

What if it tempt you toward the flood

, my lord,

Or to the dreadful summit

of the cliff

That beetles

o’er his base

into the sea,

And there assume

some other horrible form

Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason

And draw you into madness? Think of it:

The very place puts toys of desperation

Without more motive, into every brain

That looks so many fathoms

to the sea

And hears it roar beneath

The Ghost beckons Hamlet.

Hamlet

It wafts

me still.

—Go on, I’ll follow thee.

Marcellus

You shall not go, my lord.

They attempt to restrain him.

Hamlet

Hold off

your hands

Horatio

Be ruled. You shall not go.

Hamlet

My fate cries out

And makes each petty

artery

in this body

As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve

The Ghost beckons Hamlet.

Still am I called

. Unhand me, gentlemen!

By heav’n

, I’ll make a ghost of him that lets

me.

I say, away!

—Go on, I’ll follow thee.

Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.

Horatio

He waxes

desperate with imagination

Marcellus

Let’s follow. ’Tis not fit thus to obey him.

Horatio

Have after.

To what issue

will this come?

Marcellus

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Horatio

Heaven will direct it

Marcellus

Nay, let’s follow him.

Exeunt

Act 1, Scene 5

Enter Ghost and Hamlet.

Hamlet

Whither

wilt thou lead me? Speak. I’ll go no further.

Ghost

Mark me.

Hamlet

I will.

Ghost

My hour is almost come

When I to sulf’rous

and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

Hamlet

Alas, poor ghost!

Ghost

Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

To what I shall unfold.

Hamlet

Speak. I am bound

to hear.

Ghost

So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

Hamlet

What?

Ghost

I am thy father’s spirit,

Doomed for a certain term

to walk the night,

And for the day confined to fast

in fires,

Till the foul crimes

done in my days of nature

Are burnt and purged

away. But that

I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison house,

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word

Would harrow up

thy soul, freeze thy young blood,

Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres

Thy knotted

and combinèd locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end

Like quills upon the fretful

porpentine

But this eternal blazon

must not be

To ears of flesh and blood. List, Hamlet, oh, list

If thou didst ever

thy dear father love—

Hamlet

O God!

Ghost

Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

Hamlet

Murder?

Ghost

Murder most foul, as in the best it is

But this most foul, strange,

and unnatural.

Hamlet

Haste me to know’t, that I

with wings as swift

As meditation or the thoughts of love

May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost

I find thee apt,

And duller shouldst thou be than the fat

weed

That rots

itself

in ease on Lethe

wharf

Wouldst thou

not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:

’Tis given out

that, sleeping in my

orchard

A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark

Is by a forgèd process

of my death

Rankly abused.

But know, thou noble youth,

The serpent that did sting

thy father’s life

Now wears his crown.

Hamlet

Oh, my prophetic soul! My uncle?

Ghost

Ay,

that incestuous

, that adulterate

beast,

With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous

gifts

—

Oh, wicked wit and gifts, that have the power

So to seduce!—won to his

shameful lust

The will of my most seeming virtuous queen.

Oh, Hamlet, what a falling off

was there!

From me, whose love was of that dignity

That it went hand in hand even with the vow

I made to her

in marriage, and to decline

Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor

those of mine. But virtue, as it never will be moved,

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,

So lust

, though

to a radiant angel

linked,

Will sate itself

a celestial bed

And prey

on garbage.

But soft

, methinks I scent

the morning

’s air.

Brief let me be. Sleeping within my

orchard,

My custom always of

the afternoon

Upon my secure hour

, thy uncle stole

With juice of cursèd hebona

in a vial

And in

the porches of my

ears

did pour

The

leperous distillment

, whose effect

Holds such an enmity with blood of man

That swift as quicksilver

it courses

through

The natural gates and alleys

of the body,

And with a sudden vigor it doth posset

And curd

like eager

droppings into milk

The thin and wholesome blood; so did it mine,

And a most instant tetter

barked

about,

Most lazarlike

with vile and loathsome crust

All my smooth body.

Thus was I sleeping by a brother’s hand

Of life, of crown, of queen

at once dispatched

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin

Unhousled, disappointed, unaneled,

No reck’ning

made, but sent to my account

With all my imperfections on

my head.

Oh, horrible, oh, horrible, most horrible!

If thou hast nature

in thee, bear it not.

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couch for luxury

and damnèd incest

But howsomever thou pursues

this act,

Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive

Against thy mother aught

; leave her to heaven

And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge

To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.

The glow-worm shows the matin

to be near

And ’gins to pale his

uneffectual fire.

Adieu, adieu, Hamlet!

Remember me.

Exit

Hamlet

O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?

And shall I couple

hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold

, my heart,

And you, my sinews

, grow not instant old,

But bear me stiffly

up. Remember thee?

Ay,

thou poor ghost, whiles

memory holds a seat

In this distracted globe.

Remember thee?

Yea, from the table

of my memory

I’ll wipe away all trivial fond

records

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past

That youth and observation copied there

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume

of my brain,

Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, yes

, by heaven.

Oh, most pernicious woman!

Oh, villain, villain, smiling damnèd villain!

My tables, my tables—

meet

it is I set it down

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

At least I am

sure it may be so in Denmark.

So, uncle, there you are

. Now to my word.

It is “Adieu, adieu, remember me.”

I have sworn’t.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus

calling first from within.

Horatio

My lord, my lord!

Marcellus

Lord Hamlet

Horatio

Heavens secure him!

Hamlet

So be it.

Marcellus

Illo, ho, ho, my lord!

Hamlet

Hillo, ho, ho, boy, come, bird,

come!

Marcellus

How is’t,

my noble lord?

Horatio

What news, my lord?

Hamlet

Oh, wonderful!

Horatio

Good my lord, tell it.

Hamlet

No, you’ll

reveal it.

Horatio

Not I, my lord, by heaven.

Marcellus

Nor I, my lord.

Hamlet

How say you then, would heart of man once

think it—

But you’ll be secret?

Both

Ay, by heaven, my lord.

Hamlet

There’s ne’er

a villain dwelling in all Denmark

But he’s an arrant knave.

Horatio

There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave

To tell us this.

Hamlet

Why, right, you are i’th’ right.

And so, without more circumstance

at all

I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:

You as your business and desires

shall point

you

(For every man hath

business and desire,

Such as it is), and for my

own poor part,

Look you, I’ll

go pray.

Horatio

These are but wild and whirling

words, my lord.

Hamlet

I am

sorry they offend you—heartily,

Yes, faith, heartily.

Horatio

There’s no offense, my lord.

Hamlet

Yes, by Saint Patrick

, but there is, Horatio

And much offense

too

. Touching

this vision here,

It is an honest

ghost, that let me tell you.

For

your desire to know what is between us,

O’ermaster it

as you may. And now, good friends,

As you are

friends, scholars, and soldiers

Give me one poor request.

Horatio

What is’t, my lord? We will.

Hamlet

Never make known what you have seen tonight.

Both

My lord, we will not.

Hamlet

Nay, but swear’t

Horatio

In faith, my lord, not I

Marcellus

Nor I, my lord, in faith.

Hamlet

Upon my sword.

He holds out his sword.

Marcellus

We have sworn, my lord, already.

Hamlet

Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.

Ghost cries under the stage.

Ghost

Swear.

Hamlet

Ha, ha, boy, say’st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny

?—

Come on, you hear

this fellow in the cellarage

Consent to swear.

Horatio

Propose the oath, my lord.

Hamlet

Never to speak of this that you have seen.

Swear by my sword.

Ghost

Swear.

They swear

Hamlet

Hic et ubique?

Then we’ll shift our

ground.

He moves them to another spot.

Come hither, gentlemen,

And lay your hands again upon my sword.

Never to speak of this that you have heard

Swear by my sword.

Ghost

Swear by his sword.

They swear.

Hamlet

Well said, old mole. Canst work i’th’ earth so fast?

A worthy pioneer

—Once more remove

, good friends.

They move once more.

Horatio

Oh, day

and night, but this is wondrous strange.

Hamlet

And therefore as a stranger give it welcome

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy

. But come,

Here as before: never, so help you mercy

How strange or odd some’er

I bear myself

(As I perchance hereafter shall think meet

To put an antic

disposition on

That you at such times

seeing me never shall,

With arms encumbered

thus, or this headshake

Or by pronouncing of some doubtful

phrase

As, “Well, well

, we know,” or “We could an if

we would,”

Or “If we list

to speak,” or “There be, an if they

might

,”

Or such ambiguous giving out

, to note

That you know aught

of me. This not to do

So grace and mercy at your most need help you

Swear

Ghost

Swear.

They swear.

Hamlet

Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit.—So, gentlemen,

With all

my love I do commend me to you

And what so poor a man as Hamlet is

May do t’express his love and friending

to you,

God willing, shall not lack

. Let us go

in together,

And

still

your fingers on your lips, I pray.

The time is out of joint

. Oh, cursèd spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!

They wait for him to leave first.

Nay, come, let’s go together.

Exeunt.

Act 2, Scene 1

Enter old Polonius, with his man Reynaldo or two.

Polonius

Give him

this

money, and these notes, Reynaldo.

He gives money and papers.

Reynaldo

I will, my lord.

Polonius

You shall do marv’lous

wisely, good Reynaldo,

Before you visit him, to make inquire

Of his behavior.

Reynaldo

My lord, I did intend it.

Polonius

Marry

, well said, very well said. Look you, sir,

Inquire me

first what Danskers

are in Paris,

And how

, and who, what means

, and where they keep

What company, at what expense; and finding

By this encompassment and drift of question

That they do know my son, come you more nearer

Than your particular demands will touch it

;

Take you

, as ’twere, some distant knowledge of him,

As thus

: “I know his father, and his friends, And in part him.” Do you mark this, Reynaldo?

Reynaldo

Ay, very well, my lord.

Polonius

“And in part him. But,” you may say, “not well, But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild, Addicted so and so,” and there put on him

What forgeries

you please—marry, none so rank

As may dishonor him, take heed of that,

But, sir, such wanton

, wild, and usual slips

As are companions noted and most known

To youth and liberty.

Reynaldo

As gaming

, my lord?

Polonius

Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing,

Quarreling

, drabbing

—you may go so far.

Reynaldo

My lord, that would dishonor him.

Polonius

Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge

You must not put another scandal on him

That he is open to incontinency

;

That’s not my meaning. But breathe

his faults so quaintly

That they may seem the taints of liberty

The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,

A savageness in unreclaimèd

blood,

Of general assault

Reynaldo

But, my good lord—

Polonius

Wherefore should you do this?

Reynaldo

Ay, my lord, I would know that.

Polonius

Marry sir, here’s my drift,

And I believe it is a fetch of warrant

You laying these slight sullies

on my son

As ’twere a thing a little soiled i’th’ working

Mark you, your party in converse

, him you would sound

Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes

The youth you breathe

of guilty

, be assured

He closes with you in this consequence

“Good sir” (or so), or “friend,” or “gentleman,”

According to the phrase and the addition

Of man and country.

Reynaldo

Very good, my lord.

Polonius

And then, sir, does ’a this, ’a does—what was I about to say?

By the mass

, I was about to say something.

Where did I leave

Reynaldo

At “closes in the consequence.”

At “friend,” or so, and “gentleman.”

Polonius

At “closes in the consequence.” Ay, marry, He closes with you thus

: “I know the gentleman, I saw him yesterday”—or t’other

day, Or then, or then—“with such and such

, and as you say, There was ’a gaming,

there o’ertook

in’s rouse

, There falling out

at tennis,” or perchance “I saw him enter such a house of sale

,”

Videlicet

, a brothel, or so forth. See you now,

Your bait of falsehood takes

this carp

of truth,

And thus do we of wisdom and of reach

With windlasses

and with assays of bias

By indirections find directions

out;

So by my former lecture

and advice

Shall you my son. You have me

, have you not?

Reynaldo

My lord, I have.

Polonius

God b’wi’ ye, fare ye well.

Reynaldo

Good my lord.

Polonius

Observe his inclination in yourself.

Reynaldo

I shall, my lord.

Polonius

And let him

ply his music.

Reynaldo

Well, my lord.

Exit Reynaldo. Enter Ophelia.

Polonius

Farewell.—How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?

Ophelia

Alas, my lord

, I have been so affrighted!

Polonius

With what, i’th’ name of God

Ophelia

My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber

Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,

No hat upon his head

, his stockings fouled

Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle

Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,

And with a look so piteous in purport

As if he had been loosèd out of hell

To speak of horrors, he comes before me.

Polonius

Mad for thy love?

Ophelia

My lord, I do not know,

But truly I do fear it.

Polonius

What said he?

Ophelia

He took me by the wrist, and held me hard.

Then goes he to the length of all his arm,

And with his other hand thus o’er his brow

He falls to such perusal of my face

As ’a

would draw it. Long stayed he so.

At last, a little shaking of mine arm,

And thrice his head thus waving up and down,

He raised a sigh so piteous and profound

That

it did seem to shatter all his bulk

And end his being. That done, he lets me go,

And with his head over his shoulder

turned

He seemed to find his way

without his eyes,

For out o’ doors

he went without their help

And to the last bended their light on me.

Polonius

Come, go with me.

I will go seek the King.

This is the very ecstasy

of love,

Whose violent property fordoes itself

And leads the will to desperate

undertakings

As oft as any passion

under heaven

That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.

What, have you given him any hard words

of late?

Ophelia

No, my good lord, but as you did command

I did repel his letters, and denied

His access to me.

Polonius

That hath made him mad.

I am sorry that with better heed

and judgment

I had not quoted

him. I feared

he did but trifle

And meant to wrack

thee; but beshrew my jealousy!

By heaven, it

is as proper to our age

To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions

As it is common for the younger sort

To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King.

This must be known

, which, being kept close,

might move

More grief to hide than hate to utter love.

Come

Exeunt.

Act 2, Scene 2

Flourish. Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern

with others.

King

Welcome, dear

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Moreover that we much did long to see you,

The need we have to use you did provoke

Our hasty

sending. Something have you heard

Of Hamlet’s transformation—

so I call it

Since not

th’exterior nor the inward man

Resembles

that

it was. What it should be,

More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him

So much from th’understanding of himself,

I cannot dream of.

I entreat you both

That, being of

so young days brought up with him

And since so neighbored to his youth and humor,

That you vouchsafe your rest

here in our court

Some little time, so by your companies

To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather

So much as from occasions you may glean

Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus

That, opened

, lies within our remedy.

Queen

Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,

And sure I am two men there is

not living

To whom he more adheres. If it will please you

To show us so much gentry

and good will

As to expend your time with us awhile

For the supply and profit of our hope

Your visitation shall receive such thanks

As fits a king’s remembrance.

Rosencrantz

Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,

Put your dread pleasures

more into command

Than to entreaty.

Guildenstern

But we both obey,

And here give up ourselves in the full bent

To lay our service

freely at your feet

To be commanded.

King

Thanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle Guildenstern.

Queen

Thanks, Guildenstern, and gentle Rosencrantz.

And I beseech you instantly to visit

My too-much-changèd son.—Go, some of you,

And bring these gentlemen

where Hamlet is.

Guildenstern

Heavens make our presence and our practices

Pleasant and helpful to him!

Queen

Ay, amen.

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and other Courtiers

. Enter Polonius.

Polonius

Th’ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,

Are joyfully returned.

King

Thou still

hast been the father of good news.

Polonius

Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,

I hold my duty as I hold my soul,

Both to my God and to

my gracious

king;

And I do think—

or else this brain of mine

Hunts not the trail of policy

so sure

As it hath used to

do—that

I have found

The very cause

of Hamlet’s lunacy.

King

Oh, speak of that! That do I long

to hear.

Polonius

Give first admittance to th’ambassadors.

My news shall be the fruit

to that great feast.

King

Thyself do grace

to them, and bring them in.

Polonius goes to bring in the ambassadors

He tells me, my sweet Queen, that

he hath found

The head

and source of all your son’s distemper.

Queen

I doubt

it is no other but the main:

His father’s death, and our o’erhasty

marriage.

Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.

King

Well, we shall sift him

.—Welcome, my good friends.

Say, Voltemand

, what from our brother

Norway?

Voltemand

Most fair return

of greetings and desires

Upon our first

, he sent out

to suppress

His nephew’s levies

, which to him appeared

To be a preparation ’gainst the Polack,

But, better looked into, he truly found

It was against your highness; whereat grieved

That so his sickness, age, and impotence

Was falsely borne in hand

, sends out arrests

On Fortinbras, which he in brief obeys,

Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine

Makes vow before his uncle never more

To give th’assay of arms

against your majesty.

Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,

Gives him three thousand crowns

in annual fee

And his commission to employ those soldiers

So levied (as before) against the Polack,

With an entreaty herein further shown

Giving a letter to the King

That it might please you to give quiet pass

Through your dominions for his enterprise

On such regards of safety and allowance

As therein

are set down.

King

It likes

us well,

And at our more considered

time we’ll read,

Answer, and think upon this business.

Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labor.

Go to your rest. At night we’ll feast together.

Most

welcome home!

Exeunt Ambassadors.

Polonius

This business is well ended.

My liege

and madam, to expostulate

What majesty should be, what duty is,

Why day is day, night night, and time is time,

Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.

Therefore, since brevity

is the soul of wit

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes

I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.

Mad call I it, for to define true madness,

What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?

But let that go.

Queen

More matter with less art.

Polonius

Madam, I swear I use no art at all.

That he is mad

, ’tis true. ’Tis

true ’tis pity,

And pity ’tis ’tis

true—a foolish figure

But farewell it, for I will use no art.

Mad let us grant him, then. And now remains

That we find out the cause of this effect,

Or rather say

the cause of this defect,

For this effect defective comes by cause.

Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.

Perpend

I have a daughter—have whilst she is mine

—

Who in her duty and obedience, mark,

Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise

He reads from the letter

“To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia.” That’s an ill phrase, a vile

phrase; beautified is a vile phrase. But you shall hear. “These in her excellent white bosom, these, etc.

”

Queen

Came this from Hamlet to her?

Polonius

Good madam, stay

awhile, I will be faithful.

He reads the letter

.“Doubt thou the stars are fire

, Doubt that the sun doth move,

Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt

I love.”

O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers

. I have not art to reckon

my groans. But that I love thee best, oh, most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is

to him, Hamlet.

This

in obedience hath my daughter shown

me,

And, more above,

hath his solicitings

As they fell out, by time, by means, and place,

All given to mine ear

King

But how hath she received his love?

Polonius

What do you think of me?

King

As of a man faithful and honorable.

Polonius

I would fain

prove so.

But what might you think,

When I had seen this hot love on the wing—

As I perceived it (I must tell you that)

Before my daughter told me—what might you,

Or my dear majesty your queen here, think

If I had played the desk or table-book

Or given my heart a winking

, mute and dumb,

Or looked upon this love with idle sight,

What might you think? No, I went round

to work,

And my young mistress thus I did bespeak

“Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star.

This must not be.” And then I precepts

gave her

That she should lock herself from his resort,

Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.

Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,

And he, repulsèd

, a short tale to make,

Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,

Thence to a watch

, thence into a weakness,

Thence to a lightness

, and by this declension

Into the madness wherein

now he raves,

And all we mourn

for.

King

( To Queen ) Do you think ’tis this?

Queen

: It may be, very like.

Polonius

Hath there been such a time—I’d fain

know that—

That I have positively said “’Tis so”

When it proved otherwise?

King

Not that I know.

Polonius

Take this from this,

if this be otherwise.

If circumstances lead me, I will find

Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed

Within the center

King

How may we try

it further?

Polonius

You know sometimes he walks four hours together

Here in the lobby

Queen

So he does

indeed.

Polonius

At such a time, I’ll loose

my daughter to him.

Be you and I behind an arras

then;

Mark the encounter. If he love her not,

And be not from his reason fall’n thereon

Let me be no assistant for a state

But

keep a farm and carters

King

We will try it.

Enter Hamlet reading on a book.

Queen

But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Polonius

Away, I do beseech you both, away.

I’ll board him presently

. Oh, give me leave.

—

Exit King and Queen.

How does my good Lord Hamlet?

Hamlet

Well, God-a-mercy.

Polonius

Do you know me, my lord?

Hamlet

Excellent, excellent well. You’re

a fishmonger

Polonius

Not I, my lord.

Hamlet

Then

I would you were so honest a man.

Polonius

Honest, my lord?

Hamlet

Ay, sir, to be honest, as this world

goes, is to be one man

picked out of ten

thousand.

Polonius

That’s very true, my lord.

Hamlet

For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion

—Have you a daughter?

Polonius

I have, my lord.

Hamlet

Let her not walk i’th’ sun.

Conception

is a blessing, but as

your daughter may conceive, friend, look to’t.

Polonius

( Aside ) How say you by that? Still harping on

my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first. ’A said I was a fishmonger. ’A is

far gone, far gone.

And truly, in my youth I suffered much extremity for love,

very near this. I’ll speak to him again.—What do you read, my lord?

Hamlet

Words, words, words.

Polonius

What is the matter

, my lord?

Hamlet

Between who?

Polonius

I mean the matter that you read,

my lord.

Hamlet

Slanders sir; for the satirical rogue

says here that old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and

plumtree

gum, and that they have a plentiful lack

of wit

, together with most weak hams

—all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty

to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, shall grow old

as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward.

Polonius

( Aside ) Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.—Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

Hamlet

Into my grave.

Polonius

( Aside ) Indeed, that’s out of the air

. How pregnant

sometimes his replies are! A happiness

that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity

could not so prosperously

be delivered of. I will leave him, and

suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter

.—My honorable lord, I will most humbly

take my leave of you.

Hamlet

You cannot, sir,

take from me anything that I will more

willingly part withal

—except my life, except my life,

except my life.

Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

Polonius

Fare you well, my lord.

Hamlet

These tedious old fools!

Polonius

( To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ) You go to seek the Lord Hamlet?

There he is.

Rosencrantz

( To Polonius ) God save you, sir.

Exit Polonius.

Guildenstern

honored lord!

Rosencrantz

My most dear lord!

Hamlet

My excellent

good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?

Rosencrantz

As the indifferent

children of the earth.

Guildenstern

Happy

in that we are not over-happy

. On Fortune’s cap

we are not the very button

Hamlet

Nor the soles of her shoe?

Rosencrantz

Neither, my lord.

Hamlet

Then you live about her waist

, or in the middle of her favors

Guildenstern

Faith

, her privates

we.

Hamlet

In the secret parts of Fortune? Oh, most true, she is a strumpet

. What’s the news?

Rosencrantz

None, my lord, but that

the world’s grown honest.

Hamlet

Then is doomsday near.

But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular.

What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?

Guildenstern

Prison, my lord?

Hamlet

Denmark’s a prison.

Rosencrantz

Then is the world one.

Hamlet

A goodly one, in which there are many confines

, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’th’ worst.

Rosencrantz

We think not so, my lord.

Hamlet

Why, then ’tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.

Rosencrantz

Why, then your ambition makes it one. ’Tis too narrow for your mind.

Hamlet

Oh, God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guildenstern

Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Hamlet

A dream itself is but a shadow.

Rosencrantz

Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow’s shadow.

Hamlet

Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars’ shadows.

Shall we to th’court? For, by my fay

, I cannot reason.

Both

We’ll wait upon

you.

Hamlet

No such matter.

I will not sort

you with the rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended.

But, in the beaten way

of friendship, what make

you at Elsinore

Rosencrantz

To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.

Hamlet

Beggar that I am, I am even

poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny.

Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free

visitation? Come, come, deal

justly with me. Come, come, nay, speak.

Guildenstern

What should we say, my lord?

Hamlet

Why, anything—but to th’ purpose

You were sent for, and there is a kind of

confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to color

. I know the good King and Queen have sent for you.

Rosencrantz

To what end, my lord?

Hamlet

That you must teach me. But let me conjure

you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth,

by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could

charge you withal,

be even

and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.

Rosencrantz

( Aside to Guildenstern ) What say you?

Hamlet

( Aside ) Nay, then, I have an eye of you.

—If you love me, hold not off.

Guildenstern

My lord, we were sent for.

Hamlet

I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery,

and your

secrecy to the King and Queen molt no feather.

I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise

; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition

that this goodly frame

, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory. This most excellent canopy the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament

, this majestical roof fretted

with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me

than

a foul and pestilent congregation

of vapors. What a piece of work

is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties

, in form and moving

how express

and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In

apprehension

, how like a god; the beauty of the world;

the paragon of animals. And yet to me what is this quintessence

of dust? Man delights not me, no, nor woman

neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Rosencrantz

My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

Hamlet

Why did you laugh, then,

when I said man delights not me?

Rosencrantz

To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment

the players shall receive from you. We coted

them on the

way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.

Hamlet

He that plays the King shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me.

The Adventurous

Knight shall use his foil and target

, the Lover shall not sigh

gratis

, the Humorous Man shall end his part in peace,

the Clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o’th’ sear

, and the Lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for’t

. What players are they?

Rosencrantz

Even those you were wont to take such delight in

, the tragedians

of the city.

Hamlet

How chances it

they travel

? Their residence

both in reputation and profit was better both ways.

Rosencrantz

I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation

Hamlet

Do they hold the same estimation

they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed?

Rosencrantz

No, indeed, they are not.

Hamlet

How comes it? Do they grow rusty?

Rosencrantz

Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace.

But there is, sir, an eyrie

of children, little eyases

, that cry out on the top of question

, and are most tyrannically

clapped for’t. These are now the fashion, and so berattle the common stages

—so they call them—that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills

and dare scarce come thither.

Hamlet

What, are they children? Who maintains ’em? How are they escoted

? Will they pursue the quality

no longer than they can sing?

Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players

—as it is most like

if their means are not better

—their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim against their own succession

Rosencrantz

Faith

, there has been much to-do

on both sides, and the nation

holds it no sin to tarre

them to controversy. There was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.

Hamlet

Is’t possible?

Guildenstern

Oh, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Hamlet

Do the boys carry it away?

Rosencrantz

Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load

too.

Hamlet

It is not very strange

, for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mows

at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty, a

hundred ducats

apiece

for his picture in little.

’Sblood,

there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

Flourish for the players.

Guildenstern

There are the players.

Hamlet

Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands

, come

.Th’appurtenance of welcome

is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply with you in

this garb,

lest my

extent to the players

, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward

, should more appear like entertainment

than yours

. You are welcome. But my uncle-father

and aunt-mother

are deceived.

Guildenstern

In what, my dear lord?

Hamlet

I am but mad north-north-west

; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw

Enter Polonius.

Polonius

Well be

with you, gentlemen.

Hamlet

Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too, at each ear a hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts.

Rosencrantz

Haply

he is

the second time come to them, for they say an old man is twice a child.

Hamlet

I will prophesy he

comes to tell me of the

players. Mark it.— You say right, sir, o’Monday morning, ’twas then

indeed.

Polonius

My lord, I have news to tell you.

Hamlet

My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor

in Rome—

Polonius

The actors are come hither, my lord.

Hamlet

Buzz, buzz.

Polonius

Upon my

honor—

Hamlet

Then came

each actor on his ass.

Polonius

The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral

, scene individable, or poem unlimited.

Seneca

cannot be too heavy nor Plautus

too light. For the law of writ and the liberty,

these

are the only men.

Hamlet

O Jephthah, judge of Israel

, what a treasure hadst thou?

Polonius

What a treasure had he, my lord?

Hamlet

Why,

One fair daughter and no more, The which he lovèd passing

well.

Polonius

( Aside ) Still on my daughter.

Hamlet

Am I not i’th’ right, old Jephthah?

Polonius

If you call me Jephthah

, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.

Hamlet

Nay, that follows not.

Polonius

What follows then, my lord?

Hamlet

Why,

“ As by lot

, God wot

”

And then you know,

“ It came to pass, As most like it was.

”

The first row of the pious chanson

will show you more

, for look where my abridgment comes.

Enter four or five Players.

Hamlet

You are welcome,

masters

, welcome all.—I am glad to see thee well. Welcome, good friends.—Oh, my old friend! Thy

face is valanced

since I saw thee last. Com’st thou to beard

me in Denmark?— What, my young lady

and mistress

! By’r Lady

, your ladyship is nearer heaven

than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine

. Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold

, be not cracked within

the ring

.—Masters, you are all welcome. We’ll e’en to’t,

like French falconers:

fly at anything we see. We’ll have a speech straight

. Come, give us a taste of your quality

. Come, a passionate speech.

First Player

What speech, my good lord

Hamlet

I heard thee speak me

a speech once, but it was

never acted, or, if it was, not above once;

for the play, I remember, pleased not the million,

’twas caviare

to the general

. But it was, as I received it, and others whose judgments

in such matters cried in the top of mine

, an excellent play, well digested in the scenes,

set down with as much

modesty

as cunning

. I remember one said there were no sallets

in the lines to make the matter

savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict

the author of affectation

, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine

One speech

in’t

I chiefly loved:

’twas Aeneas’ tale to Dido

, and thereabout of it

especially where

he speaks of Priam’s

slaughter.

If it live in your

memory, begin at this line—let me see, let me see—

The rugged

Pyrrhus

,like th’Hyrcanian beast

—

’Tis

not so, it begins with Pyrrhus.

The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,

Black as his purpose, did the night resemble

When he lay couchèd

in the ominous horse,

Hath now this dread and black

complexion smeared

With heraldry more dismal

. Head to foot

Now

is he total gules

, horridly tricked

With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,

Baked and empasted

with the parching streets

That lend a tyrannous

and damnèd

light

To their vile murders.

Roasted in wrath

and fire,

And thus o’ersizèd

with coagulate

gore,

With eyes like carbuncles

, the hellish Phyrrhus

Old grandsire Priam seeks.

So proceed you.

Polonius

’Fore God, my Lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.

First Player

Anon

he finds him,

Striking too short at Greeks. His antique

sword,

Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,

Repugnant to command.

Unequal matched,

Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,

But with the whiff and wind of his fell

sword

Th’unnervèd father

falls. Then senseless Ilium,

Seeming to feel this blow

, with flaming top

Stoops to his base

, and with a hideous crash

Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear; for lo! his sword,

Which was declining

on the milky

head

Of reverend

Priam, seemed i’th’ air to stick.

So as a painted

tyrant Pyrrhus stood,

And, like

a neutral to his will and matter

Did nothing.

But as we often see against

some storm

A silence in the heavens, the rack

stand still,

The bold winds speechless, and the orb

below

As hush as death

, anon the dreadful thunder

Doth rend the region

, so, after Pyrrhus’ pause,

A rousèd vengeance sets him new a-work,

And never did the Cyclops’

hammers fall

On Mars his

armor forged for proof eterne

With less remorse

than Pyrrhus’ bleeding

sword

Now falls on Priam.

Out

, out, thou strumpet Fortune!

All you gods

In general synod

take away her power,

Break all the spokes and fellies

from her wheel,

And bowl the round nave

down the hill of heaven

As low as to the fiends!

Polonius

This is too long.

Hamlet

It shall to the barber’s

with your beard.—Prithee, say on. He’s for a jig

, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on. Come to Hecuba

First Player

But who, oh, who,

had seen

the moblèd

queen—

Hamlet

The moblèd queen!

Polonius

That’s good. Moblèd queen is good.

First Player

Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning the flames

With bisson rheum

, a clout

upon

that head

Where late

the diadem

stood, and, for a robe,

About her lank and all-o’erteemèd loins

A blanket in th’alarm

of fear caught up—

Who this had seen

, with tongue in venom steeped

’Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have pronounced

;

But if

the gods themselves did see her then,

When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport

In mincing with his sword her husband’s

limbs,

The instant burst of clamor that she made,

Unless things mortal move them not at all,

Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven

And passion

in the gods.

Polonius

Look whe’er

he has not turned his color

, and has tears in’s eyes.—Prithee

, no more.

Hamlet

’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest of this

soon. ( To Polonius ) Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed

? Do ye

hear, let them be well used

, for they are the abstracts

and brief chronicles of the time.

After your death you were better have a bad epitaph

than their ill report while you live

Polonius

My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

Hamlet

God’s bodykins

, man, much better

. Use every man after his desert and

who should

scape whipping? Use them after

your own honor and dignity; the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

Polonius

Come, sirs.

Exit Polonius.

Hamlet

Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play tomorrow. ( Aside to the First Player ) Dost thou hear me, old friend, can you play “The Murder of Gonzago”?

First Player

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

We’ll ha’t

tomorrow night. You could for a need

study

a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines

, which I would set down and insert in’t, could you

not?

First Player

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock

him not. (Exeunt Players.) My good friends, I’ll leave you till

night. You are welcome to Elsinore.

Rosencrantz

Good my lord.

Hamlet

Ay, so, God b’wi’ you

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Now I am alone.

Oh, what a rogue and peasant

slave am I!

Is it not monstrous that this player here,

But

in a fiction,

in a dream of passion,

Could force his soul so to his whole

conceit

That from her working

all his visage

wanned

Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting

With forms to his conceit?

And all or nothing?

For Hecuba?

What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba

That he should weep for her? What would he do

Had he the motive and the cue

for passion

That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,

And cleave the general ear

with horrid

speech,

Make mad the guilty, and appal the free

Confound the ignorant

, and amaze

indeed

The very faculties

of eyes and ears. Yet I,

A dull and muddy-mettled

rascal, peak

Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause

And can say nothing; no, not for a king

Upon whose property

and most dear life

A damned defeat

was made. Am I a coward?

Who calls me villain? Breaks my pate across?

Plucks off my beard

and blows it in my face?

Tweaks me by th’

nose? Gives me the lie i’th’ throat

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this,

Ha? ’Swounds

, I should take it

; for it cannot be

But

I am pigeon-livered

, and lack gall

To make oppression bitter,

or ere

this

I should ha’ fatted

all the region kites

With this slave’s offal

. Bloody, bawdy

villain!

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless

villain!

Oh, vengeance!

Why

, what an ass am I!

This is most brave

That I, the son of a dear father murdered

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,

And fall a-cursing like a very drab

A scullion

. Fie upon’t, foh! About

, my brain

Hum

, I have heard

That guilty creatures sitting at a play

Have

by the very cunning

of the scene

Been struck so to the soul that presently

They have proclaimed their malefactions

;

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak

With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players

Play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks;

I’ll tent him to the quick

. If ’a but

blench

I know my course. The

spirit that I have seen

May be the devil

, and the devil

hath power

T’assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps,

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

As he is very potent with such spirits

Abuses

me to damn me. I’ll have grounds

More relative

than this. The play’s the thing

Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.

Exit.

Act 3, Scene 1

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords.

King

And

can you by no drift of circumstance

Get from him why he puts on this confusion,

Grating so harshly all his days of quiet

With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Rosencrantz

He does confess he feels himself distracted,

But from what cause, ’a

will by no means speak.

Guildenstern

Nor do we find him forward

to be sounded

But with a crafty madness keeps aloof

When we would bring him on to some confession

Of his true state.

Queen

Did he receive you well?

Rosencrantz

Most like a gentleman.

Guildenstern

But with much forcing of his disposition

Rosencrantz

Niggard of question

, but of our demands

Most free in his reply.

Queen

Did you assay him to

any pastime?

Rosencrantz

Madam, it so fell out

that certain players

We o’erraught

on the way. Of these we told him,

And there did seem in him a kind of joy

To hear of it. They are

about the court

And, as I think, they have already order

This night to play before him.

Polonius

’Tis most true,

And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties

To hear and see the matter.

King

With all my heart,and it doth much content me

To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen,

Give him a further edge

, and drive his purpose on

these delights.

Rosencrantz

We shall, my lord.

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Lords.

King

Sweet Gertrude, leave us too

For we have closely

sent for Hamlet hither,

That he, as ’twere by accident, may here

Affront

Ophelia.

Her father and myself, lawful espials

Will

so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,

We may of their encounter frankly judge,

And gather by him, as he is behaved,

If’t be th’affliction of his love or no

That thus he suffers for.

Queen

I shall obey you.

And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish

That your good beauties be the happy cause

Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues

Will bring him to his wonted

way again,

To both your honors.

Ophelia

Madam, I wish it may.

Exit Queen.

Polonius

Ophelia, walk you here.—Gracious

, so please you,

We will bestow ourselves. ( To Ophelia, as he gives her a book ) Read on this book

That show of such an exercise

may color

Your loneliness

. We are oft to blame

in this,

’Tis too much proved

, that with devotion’s visage

And pious action we do sugar

o’er

The devil himself.

King

( Aside ) Oh, ’tis too true!

How smart

a lash that speech doth give my conscience!

The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plast’ring art

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it

Than is my deed to my most painted word.

Oh, heavy burden!

Enter Hamlet.

Polonius

I hear him coming. Let’s withdraw,

my lord.

The King and Polonius conceal themselves.

Hamlet

To be, or not to be, that is the question,

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings

and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep—

No more

—and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to;

’tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To

die, to

sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud

man’s contumely

The pangs of disprized

love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office

, and the spurns

That patient merit of th’unworthy

takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?

Who would

these fardels

bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary

life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveler returns

, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills

we have

Than

fly to others that we know not of.

Thus conscience

does make cowards of us all

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied

o’er with the pale cast of thought

And enterprises of great pith

and moment

With this regard

their currents

turn awry

And lose

the name of action. Soft you now

The fair Ophelia!—Nymph

, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

Ophelia

Good my lord,

How does your honor for this many a day?

Hamlet

I humbly thank you, well, well, well.

Ophelia

My lord, I have remembrances of yours

That I have longèd long to redeliver.

I pray you now receive them.

Hamlet

No, not I.

I never gave you aught

Ophelia

My honored lord, you know

right well you did,

And with them words of so sweet breath composed

As made these things

more rich. Their perfume lost,

Take these again, for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax

poor when givers prove unkind,

There, my lord.

She offers Hamlet the remembrances.

Hamlet

Ha, ha! Are you honest

Ophelia

My lord?

Hamlet

Are you fair

Ophelia

What means your lordship?

Hamlet

That if you be honest and fair,

your honesty should

admit no discourse to your beauty.

Ophelia

Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce

than with honesty

Hamlet

Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to

a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness

. This was sometime a paradox

, but now the time gives it proof.

I did love you once.

Ophelia

Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

Hamlet

You should not have

believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate

our old stock but we shall relish of it.

I loved you not.

Ophelia

I was the more deceived.

Hamlet

Get thee to

a nunnery

. Why wouldst

thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest

, but yet I could accuse me

of such things

that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious,

with more offenses

at my beck

than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give

them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth

? We are arrant

knaves, all

; believe none of us.Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father?

Ophelia

At home, my lord.

Hamlet

Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere

but in’s own house. Farewell.

Ophelia

Oh, help him, you sweet heavens!

Hamlet

If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy

dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny

. Get thee to a nunnery. Go, farewell.

Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters

you make

of them. To a nunnery go, and quickly too

. Farewell.

Ophelia

O heavenly

powers, restore him!

Hamlet

I have heard of your paintings too

, well enough. God hath given you one face

, and you make yourselves

another. You jig

, you amble, and you lisp

, and nickname God’s creatures

, and make your wantonness your ignorance.

Go to

, I’ll no more on’t

; it hath made me mad. I say we will have no more marriages

. Those that are married already,

all but one

, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.

Exit.

Ophelia

Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!

The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword

Th’expectancy and rose

of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mold of form

Th’observed of all observers

, quite, quite down,

And I

, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That sucked the honey of his music

vows,

Now see that

noble and most sovereign reason

Like sweet bells jangled out of tune

and harsh,

That unmatched form and feature

of blown youth

Blasted with ecstasy.

Oh, woe is me

T’have seen

what I have seen, see what I see!

Enter King and Polonius stepping forward from concealment.

King

Love? His affections

do not that way tend,

Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,

Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul

O’er which his melancholy sits on brood

And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose

Will be some danger; which to prevent,

I have in quick determination

Thus set it down

: he shall with speed to England

For the demand of our neglected tribute.

Haply

the seas, and countries different,

With variable objects

, shall expel

This something-settled

matter in his heart,

Whereon his brains still

beating puts him thus

From fashion of himself.

What think you on’t?

Polonius

It shall do well.

But yet do I believe

The origin and commencement of his grief

Sprung from neglected love.—How now, Ophelia?

You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said,

We heard it all.—My lord, do as you please,

But if you hold it fit, after the play

Let his queen-mother all alone entreat him

To show his grief

. Let her be round

with him,

And I’ll be placed (so please you)

in the ear

Of all their conference. If she find him not

To England send him, or confine him where

Your wisdom best shall think.

King

It shall be so;

Madness in great ones must not unwatched

go.

Exeunt.

Act 3, Scene 2

Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players.

Hamlet

Speak the

speech, I pray you, as I pronounced

it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth

it, as many of your players

do, I had as lief

the town crier

had spoke

my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your

hand, thus,

but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion

, you must acquire and beget

a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear

a robustious

periwig-pated

fellow tear

a passion to tatters

, to very rags, to split

the ears of the groundlings

, who for the most part are capable of

nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise

I would

have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant

. It out-Herods

Herod

. Pray you avoid it.

Player

I warrant

your honor.

Hamlet

Be not too tame, neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o’erstep

not the modesty of nature.

For anything

so o’erdone

is from the purpose

of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold as ’twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her

own feature, scorn her own image

, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.

Now this overdone, or come tardy off

, though it make

the unskillful

laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of the which

one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theater of others. Oh, there be players

that I have seen play, and heard others praise

, and that highly,

not to speak it profanely

, that, neither having th’accent

of Christians nor the gait

of Christian, pagan, nor no man

, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought

some of nature’s journeymen

had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably

Player

I hope we have reformed that indifferently

with us, sir.

Hamlet

Oh, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them

that will themselves laugh,

to set on

some quantity of barren

spectators to laugh too,

though in the meantime

some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready. (Exeunt Players.

) (Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

) ( To Polonius ) How now, my lord, will the King hear this piece of work?

Polonius

And the Queen too,

and that presently

Hamlet

Bid the players make haste.

Exit Polonius.

Will you two help to hasten them?

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

We will, my lord.

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Hamlet

What ho,

Horatio!

Enter Horatio.

Horatio

Here, sweet lord, at your service.

Hamlet

Horatio, thou art e’en

as just

a man

As e’er my conversation coped

withal.

Horatio

Oh, my dear lord—

Hamlet

Nay, do not think I flatter,

For what advancement may I hope from thee

That no revenue

hast but thy good spirits

To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?

No, let the candied

tongue lick

absurd pomp

And crook the pregnant

hinges of the knee

Where thrift may follow fawning

Dost thou hear?

Since my dear soul was mistress of her

choice

And could of men distinguish her election,

Sh’hath

sealed thee for herself

, for thou hast been

As one in suff’ring all that suffers nothing,

A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards

Hast

ta’en with equal thanks; and blest are those

Whose blood and judgment

are so well commingled

That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger

To sound what stop

she please. Give me that man

That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him

In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As I do thee.—Something too much of this

.—

There is a play tonight

before the King.

One scene of it comes near the circumstance

Which I have told thee of my father’s death.

I prithee, when thou see’st

that act afoot,

Even with the very comment of thy

soul

Observe my

uncle. If his occulted

guilt

Do not itself unkennel

in one speech

It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen,

And my imaginations are as foul

As Vulcan’s stithy

. Give him heedful note

For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,

And after we will both our judgments join

censure of his seeming.

Horatio

Well, my lord,

If ’a

steal aught the whilst

this play is playing

And scape detecting

, I will pay the theft.

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and other lord attendant with his Guard carrying torches. Danish march. Sound a flourish

Hamlet

They are coming to the play. I must be idle.

Get you a place.

King

How fares our cousin Hamlet?

Hamlet

Excellent, i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish; I eat the air, promise-crammed.

You cannot feed capons

so.

King

I have nothing with

this answer, Hamlet. These words are not mine

Hamlet

No, nor mine now.

( To Polonius ) My lord, you

played once i’th’ university,

you say?

Polonius

That I did

, my lord, and was accounted

a good actor.

Hamlet

And what

did you enact?

Polonius

I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i’th’ Capitol.

Brutus killed me.

Hamlet

It was a brute

part

of him to kill so capital a calf

there.—Be the players ready?

Rosencrantz

Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.

Queen

Come hither, my dear

Hamlet, sit by me.

Hamlet

No, good mother, here’s mettle

more attractive.

Polonius

( To the King ) Oho, do you mark that?

Hamlet

( To Ophelia, as he lies at her feet ) Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

Ophelia

No, my lord.

Hamlet

I mean, my head upon your lap.

Ophelia

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

Do you think I meant country matters

Ophelia

I think nothing

, my lord.

Hamlet

That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.

Ophelia

What is, my lord?

Hamlet

Nothing.

Ophelia

You are merry, my lord.

Hamlet

Who, I?

Ophelia

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

Oh, God, your only jig-maker.

What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within’s

two hours.

Ophelia

Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord.

Hamlet

So long? Nay, then, let the devil

wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables.

Oh, heavens! Die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by’r Lady

, ’a must build churches then, or else shall ’a suffer not thinking on

, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, “For oh, for oh, the hobby-horse

is forgot.”

Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters. Enter Players as a King and Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him. She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck. Lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the King’s ears, and exits. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts. She seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. Exeunt Players

Ophelia

What means this, my lord?

Hamlet

Marry, this is

miching mallico

. It

means mischief

Ophelia

Belike

this show imports the argument of the play.

Enter a Player as Prologue.

Hamlet

We shall know by this fellow.

The players cannot keep counsel

; they’ll tell all.

Ophelia

Will ’a

tell us what this show meant?

Hamlet

Ay, or any show that you will

show him. Be not you

ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.

Ophelia

You are naught

, you are naught. I’ll mark

the play.

Prologue

For us and for our tragedy

Here stooping to your clemency

We beg your hearing patiently.

Exit.

Hamlet

Is this

a prologue, or the posy of a ring

Ophelia

’Tis brief

, my lord.

Hamlet

As woman’s

love.

Enter two Players as King and his Queen.

King

Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart

gone round

Neptune’s salt wash

and Tellus’ orbèd

ground

And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen

About the world have times twelve thirties

been

Since love our hearts and Hymen

did our hands

Unite commutual

in most sacred bands

Queen

So many journeys may the sun and moon

Make us again count o’er ere love be done!

But woe is me, you are so sick of late,

So far from cheer and from your former

state,

That I distrust you

. Yet though I distrust,

Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must.

For women fear too much, even as they love,

And

women’s fear and love holds

quantity:

In neither

aught, or in extremity.

Now what my love

is, proof

hath made you know,

And as my love is sized

, my fear is so.

Where love is great, the littlest

doubts are fear;

Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

King

Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;

My operant powers their

functions

leave to do.

And thou shalt live in this fair world behind

Honored, beloved; and haply one as kind

For husband shalt thou

—

Queen

Oh, confound the rest!

Such love must needs be treason in my breast.

In second husband let me be accurst!

None

wed the second but who

killed the first.

Hamlet

Wormwood, wormwood.

Queen

The instances

that second marriage move

Are base respects of thrift

, but none of love.

A second time I kill my husband

dead

When second husband kisses me in bed.

King

I do believe you think

what now you speak,

But what we do determine, oft we break.

Purpose is but the slave to memory,

Of violent birth, but poor validity,

Which now like

fruit unripe

sticks on the tree,

But fall unshaken when they mellow be.

Most necessary ’tis that we forget

To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.

What to ourselves in passion we propose,

The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.

The violence

of either grief or

joy

Their own enactures

with themselves destroy.

Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;

Grief joys, joy grieves,

on slender accident.

This world is not for aye

, nor ’tis not strange

That even our loves should with our fortunes change;

For ’tis a question left us yet to prove

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.

The great man down

, you mark his favorites

flies

;

The poor advanced makes friends of enemies;

And hitherto

doth love on fortune tend

For who not needs

shall never lack a friend,

And who in want a hollow friend doth try

Directly seasons him

his enemy.

But orderly to end where I begun

Our wills and fates do so contrary run

That our devices still

are overthrown;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.

So, think

thou wilt

no second husband wed,

But die thy thoughts

when thy first lord is dead.

Queen

Nor earth to me give

food, nor heaven light,

Sport and repose lock from me day and night,

To desperation turn my trust and hope,

An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope!

Each opposite that blanks the face of joy

Meet what I would have well, and it destroy!

Both here and hence

pursue me lasting strife,

If once a widow, ever I be wife!

Hamlet

If she should break it now

King

’Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.

My spirits grow dull, and fain

I would beguile

The tedious day

with sleep.

Queen

Sleep rock thy brain,

And never come mischance between us twain!

The Player King sleeps.

Exit

Player Queen

Hamlet

Madam, how like you

this play?

Queen

The lady doth protest too much

, methinks.

Hamlet

Oh, but she’ll keep her word.

King

Have you heard the argument

? Is there no offense in’t?

Hamlet

No, no, they do but jest

, poison in jest. No offense

i’th’ world.

King

What do you call the play?

Hamlet

“The Mousetrap.”

Marry, how? Tropically.

This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna.

Gonzago is

the Duke’s

name, his wife Baptista. You shall see anon. ’Tis a knavish piece of work, but what of that?

Your majesty and we that have free

souls, it touches

us not.

Let the galled

jade wince

, our withers are unwrung.

(Enter Lucianus.

) This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.

Ophelia

You are as good as a chorus

, my lord.

Hamlet

I could interpret between you and your love if I could see the puppets

dallying

Ophelia

You are keen

, my lord, you are keen.

Hamlet

It would cost you a groaning to take off mine

edge.

Ophelia

Still better and worse.

Hamlet

So you mis-take your husbands.

—Begin, murderer.

Pox, leave

thy damnable faces

and begin. Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.

Lucianus

Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing,

Confederate

season, else no creature seeing,

Thou mixture rank

, of midnight weeds collected,

With Hecate’s ban

thrice blasted

, thrice infected

Thy natural magic and dire property

wholesome life usurp

immediately.

Pours the poison in his ears. Exit.

Hamlet

’A

poisons him i’th’ garden for his

estate

. His name’s Gonzago. The story is extant, and written in very choice Italian.

You shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife.

Ophelia

The King rises.

Hamlet

What, frighted with false fire?

Queen

How fares my lord?

Polonius

Give o’er the play.

King

Give me some light. Away!

The Courtiers

Lights, lights, lights!

Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.

Hamlet

“Why, let the strucken

deer go weep, The heart ungallèd

play, For some must watch

while some must sleep;

Thus runs the world away

.”

Would not this

, sir, and a forest of feathers

—if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me

—with two provincial

roses

on my razed

shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players

sir

Horatio

Half a share.

Hamlet

A whole one, I.

For thou dost know, O Damon

dear,

This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself, and now reigns here

A very, very pajock.

Horatio

You might have rhymed.

Hamlet

O good Horatio, I’ll take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?

Horatio

Very well, my lord.

Hamlet

Upon the talk of the poisoning?

Horatio

I did very well note him.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Hamlet

Aha,

come, some music! Come, the recorders

For if the King like not the comedy,

Why, then belike

he likes it not, pardie

Come, some music.

Guildenstern

Good my lord, vouchsafe

me a word with you.

Hamlet

Sir a whole history

Guildenstern

The King, sir—

Hamlet

Ay, sir, what of him?

Guildenstern

Is in his retirement

marvelous distempered

Hamlet

With drink

, sir?

Guildenstern

No, my lord, rather with choler.

Hamlet

Your wisdom should show itself more

richer

to signify this to his doctor

, for, for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more

choler.

Guildenstern

Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame

, and start

not so wildly from my affair.

Hamlet

I am tame sir. Pronounce

Guildenstern

The Queen your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

Hamlet

You are welcome.

Guildenstern

Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed

. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome

answer, I will do your mother’s commandment. If not, your pardon

and my return shall be the end of my business

Hamlet

Sir, I cannot.

Guildenstern

What, my lord?

Hamlet

Make you a wholesome answer; my wit’s diseased. But, sir, such answer

as I can make, you shall command, or rather, as you say,

my mother.

Therefore no more, but to the matter. My mother, you say.

Rosencrantz

Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck

her into amazement and admiration.

Hamlet

Oh, wonderful son, that can so ’stonish

a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration

? Impart

Rosencrantz

She desires to speak with you in her closet

ere you go to bed.

Hamlet

We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?

Rosencrantz

My lord, you once did love me.

Hamlet

So I do still

, by these pickers and stealers

Rosencrantz

Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper

? You do surely

bar the door upon

your own liberty

if you deny your griefs to

your friend.

Hamlet

Sir, I lack advancement.

Rosencrantz

How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?

Enter the Players, with recorders.

Hamlet

Ay, sir,

but “while the grass grows”

—the proverb is something

musty.—Oh, the recorders. Let me see one.

( He takes a recorder. ) To withdraw

with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me

, as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guildenstern

Oh, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly

Hamlet

I do not well understand that

. Will you play upon this pipe?

Guildenstern

My lord, I cannot.

Hamlet

I pray you.

Guildenstern

Believe me, I cannot.

Hamlet

I do beseech you.

Guildenstern

I know no touch of it, my lord.

Hamlet

It is

as easy as lying. Govern these ventages

with your fingers

and thumb

, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent

music. Look you, these are the stops.

Guildenstern

But these cannot I command to any utt’rance of harmony. I have not the skill.

Hamlet

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery

, you would sound me

from my lowest note to the top of my compass

, and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ

, yet cannot you make it speak

. ’Sblood,

do you think I am

easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me

, you cannot play upon me

. (Enter Polonius.

) ( To Polonius, as he enters ) God bless you, sir.

Polonius

My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently

Hamlet

Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a

camel?

Polonius

By th’ mass, and ’tis like

a camel indeed.

Hamlet

Methinks it is like a weasel.

Polonius

It is backed like a weasel.

Hamlet

Or like a whale.

Polonius

Very like a whale.

Hamlet

Then I will

come to my mother by and by. ( Aside ) They fool me to the top of my bent

. ( Aloud ) I will come by and by

Polonius

I will say so.

Exit

Hamlet

“By and by”

is easily said.—Leave me, friends.

Exeunt

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

’Tis now the very witching time

of night,

When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes

out

Contagion

to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,

And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on. Soft, now

to my mother.

O heart, lose

not thy nature

! Let not ever

The soul of Nero

enter this firm

bosom.

Let me be cruel, not unnatural;

I will speak daggers

to her, but use none.

My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites:

How in my words somever she be shent,

To give them seals never my soul consent!

Exit

Act 3, Scene 3

Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

King

I like him

not, nor stands it safe with us

To let his madness range

. Therefore prepare you.

I your commission will forthwith dispatch

And he to England shall along with you.

The terms of our estate may not endure

Hazard so dangerous

as doth hourly grow

Out of his lunacies

Guildenstern

We will ourselves provide

Most holy and religious fear

it is

To keep those many many bodies

safe

That live and feed upon your majesty.

Rosencrantz

The single and peculiar

life is bound

With all the strength and armor of the mind

To keep itself from noyance

, but much more

That spirit

upon whose weal

depends and rests

The lives of many. The cease

of majesty

Dies not alone, but like a gulf

doth draw

What’s near it with it. It is

a massy

wheel

Fixed on the summit

of the highest mount,

To whose huge

spokes ten thousand lesser things

Are mortised

and adjoined

, which, when it falls

Each small annexment, petty consequence,

Attends

the boist’rous

ruin

. Never alone

Did the king sigh, but with

a general

groan.

King

Arm you, I pray you, to

this speedy voyage,

For we will fetters put upon

this fear

Which now goes too free-footed.

Rosencrantz

and Guildenstern

We will haste us.

Exeunt gentlemen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Enter Polonius.

Polonius

My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet

Behind the arras

I’ll convey myself

To hear the process

. I’ll warrant

she’ll tax him home

And, as you said—and wisely was it said—

’Tis meet

that some more audience than a mother,

Since nature makes them partial

, should o’erhear

The speech of vantage

. Fare

you well, my liege

I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed,

And tell you what I know.

King

Thanks, dear my lord.

Exit Polonius

Oh, my offense is rank! It smells to heaven.

It hath the primal eldest curse

upon’t,

A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,

Though inclination be as sharp as will

;

My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,

And like a man to double business bound

I stand in pause where I shall first begin,

And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand

Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,

Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens

To wash it white as snow?

Whereto serves mercy

But to confront the visage of offense?

And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,

To be forestallèd

ere we come to fall,

Or pardoned

being down? Then I’ll look up.

My fault is past

. But, oh, what form of prayer

Can serve my turn? “Forgive me my foul murder”?

That cannot be, since I am still possessed

Of those effects for which I did the murder:

My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.

May one be pardoned and retain th’offense

In the corrupted currents of this world

Offense’s gilded hand

may shove by

justice,

And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize

itself

Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above:

There is no shuffling

, there the action lies

In his

true nature

, and we ourselves compelled,

Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults

To give in evidence. What then? What rests

Try what repentance can

. What can it not?

Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?

O wretched state, O bosom black as death,

O limèd

soul, that, struggling to be free,

Art more engaged

! Help, angels! Make assay.

Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel,

Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!

All may be well.

He kneels. Enter Hamlet.

Hamlet

Now might I do it pat, now

’a

is a-praying,

And now I’ll do’t.

He draws his sword.

And so ’a goes

to heaven,

And so am I revenged

. That would be scanned

A villain kills my father, and for that,

I, his sole

son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

Why,

this is hire and salary,

not revenge.

’A

took my father grossly, full of bread,

With all

his crimes broad blown

, as flush

as May,

And how his audit

stands, who knows save

heaven?

But in our circumstance and course of thought

’Tis heavy with him

. And am I then revenged

To take him in the purging of his soul,

When he is fit and seasoned

for his passage?

He sheathes his sword.

Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent

When he is drunk asleep

, or in his rage

Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed,

At gaming, swearing,

or about some act

That has no relish

of salvation in’t,

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,

And that his soul may be as damned and black

As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays

This physic

but prolongs thy sickly days.

Exit.

King

My words fly up, my thoughts

remain below.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Exit.

Act 3, Scene 4

Enter Queen Gertrude and Polonius.

Polonius

’A will come straight.

Look you lay home to him.

Tell him his pranks have been too broad

to bear with,

And that your grace hath screened and stood between

Much heat and him. I’ll silence me e’en

here

Pray you, be round with him.

Hamlet

(Within.) Mother, mother, mother!

Queen

I’ll warrant

you. Fear me not.

Withdraw; I hear him coming.

Polonius conceals himself behind the arras.

Enter Hamlet.

Hamlet

Now mother, what’s the matter?

Queen

Hamlet, thou hast thy father

much offended.

Hamlet

Mother, you

have my father

much offended.

Queen

Come, come, you answer with an idle

tongue.

Hamlet

Go, go, you question with a wicked

tongue.

Queen

Why, how now

, Hamlet?

Hamlet

What’s the matter now?

Queen

Have you forgot me

Hamlet

No, by the rood

, not so.

You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife,

And—

would it were not so!—you are

my mother.

Queen

Nay, then, I’ll set those to you that can speak

Hamlet

Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge.

You go not till I set you up a glass

Where you may see the inmost

part of you.

Queen

What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?

Help, help, ho!

Polonius

( Behind the arras ) What ho! Help, help, help!

Hamlet

How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat

, dead!

Hamlet thrusts through the arras with his sword.

Polonius

( Behind the arras ) Oh, I am slain!

Polonius falls onto the stage floor, dead

Queen

Oh, me, what hast thou done?

Hamlet

Nay I know not. Is it the King?

Queen

Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Hamlet

A bloody deed—almost as bad, good mother,

As kill

a king, and marry with his brother.

Queen

kill a king?

Hamlet

Ay, lady, it was

my word.

He parts the arras and discovers the dead Polonius.

Thou wretched, rash,

intruding fool, farewell!

I took thee for thy better

. Take thy fortune.

Thou find’st to be too busy

is some danger.

To the Queen

Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit you down,

And let me wring your heart, for so I shall

If it

be made of penetrable stuff,

If damnèd custom

have not brazed

it so

That it is

proof

and bulwark against sense.

Queen

What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Hamlet

Such an act

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,

Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off

the rose

From the fair forehead of an innocent love

And sets a blister

there, makes marriage vows

As false as dicers’ oaths—oh, such a deed

As from the body of contraction

plucks

The very soul, and sweet religion makes

A rhapsody of words

. Heaven’s face doth

glow

O’er

this solidity and compound mass

With tristful

visage, as against the doom,

Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen

Ay me, what act,

That roars so loud and thunders in the index

Hamlet

( Showing her two likenesses

, of Hamlet senior and Claudius ) Look here upon this picture, and on this,

The counterfeit presentment

of two brothers.

See what a grace was seated on this brow

Hyperion’s

curls, the front

of Jove himself,

An eye like Mars

to threaten and

command,

A station

like the herald Mercury

New lighted

on a heaven-kissing

hill,

A combination and a form indeed

Where every god did seem to set his seal

To give the world assurance of a man.

This was your husband. Look you now what follows:

Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear

Blasting

his wholesome brother

. Have you eyes?

Could you on this fair mountain leave

to feed

And batten on this moor

? Ha, have you eyes?

You cannot call it love, for at your age

The heyday in the blood

is tame, it’s humble,

And waits upon

the judgment, and what judgment

Would step

from this to this? Sense

, sure, you have,

Else could you not have motion, but sure that sense

Is apoplexed

, for madness would not err

Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled

But it reserved some quantity of choice

To serve in such a difference

. What devil was’t

That thus hath cozened

you at hoodman-blind

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,

Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans

all,

Or but a sickly part of one true sense

Could not so mope

. O shame, where is thy blush?

Rebellious hell,

If thou canst mutine

in a matron’s bones,

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax

And melt in her own fire.

Proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardor

gives the charge,

Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And

reason panders

will

Queen

Oh, Hamlet speak no more!

Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul

And there I see such black and grainèd

spots

As will not leave their tinct

Hamlet

Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamèd

bed

Stewed

in corruption, honeying

and making love

Over the nasty sty

Queen

Oh, speak to me no more!

These words like daggers enter in my

ears.

No more, sweet Hamlet.

Hamlet

A murderer and a villain,

A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe

Of your precedent lord

, a vice of kings

A cutpurse

of the empire and the rule,

That from a shelf the precious diadem

stole

And put it in his pocket—

Queen

No more!

Enter Ghost

in his nightgown

Hamlet

A king of shreds and patches

—

Seeing the Ghost

Save me and hover o’er me with your wings,

You heavenly guards! What would you, gracious

figure?

Queen

Alas, he’s mad!

Hamlet

Do you not come your tardy son to chide,

That, lapsed in time and passion

, lets go by

Th’important

acting of your dread command?

Oh, say!

Ghost

Do not forget. This visitation

Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.

But look, amazement on thy mother sits.

Oh, step between her and her fighting soul!

Conceit

in weakest bodies strongest works.

Speak to her, Hamlet.

Hamlet

How is it

with you, lady?

Queen

Alas,

how is’t with you,

That you do bend

your eye on vacancy,

And with th’incorporal

air do hold discourse?

Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,

And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’alarm

Your bedded

hair, like life in excrements

Start up and stand on end

. O gentle

son,

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper

Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

Hamlet

On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!

His form and cause conjoined

, preaching to stones

Would make them capable.

( To the Ghost ) Do not look upon me,

Lest

with this piteous action you convert

My stern effects

. Then what I have to do

Will want true color, tears perchance for blood.

Queen

To whom

do you speak this?

Hamlet

Do you see nothing there?

Queen

Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.

Hamlet

Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen

No, nothing but ourselves.

Hamlet

Why, look you there, look how it steals away!

My father in his habit

he lived.

Look where he goes, even now out at the portal

Exit Ghost.

Queen

This is the very coinage

of your brain.

This bodiless creation ecstasy

Is very cunning in.

Hamlet

Ecstasy?

My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time,

And makes as healthful music. It is not madness

That I

have uttered. Bring me to the test,

And I the

matter will reword

, which madness

Would gambol from

. Mother, for love of grace,

Lay not that

flattering unction

to your soul

That not your trespass but my madness speaks.

It will but skin and film

the ulcerous place,

Whiles

rank corruption, mining

all within,

Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven,

Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come,

And do not spread the compost on

the weeds

To make them ranker

. Forgive me this my virtue

For in the fatness

of these

pursy times

Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,

Yea, curb and woo

for leave to do him good.

Queen

Oh, Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

Hamlet

Oh, throw away the worser part of it,

And live

the purer with the other half.

Good night. But go not to my

uncle’s bed;

Assume

a virtue if you have it not.

That monster custom, who all sense doth eat,

Of habits devil

, is angel yet in this,

That to the use of actions fair and good

He likewise gives a frock or livery

That aptly

is put on.

Refrain tonight

And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence; the next more easy:

For use almost can change the stamp of nature

And either in

the devil

, or throw him out

With wondrous potency.

Once

more good night,

And when you are desirous to be blest,

I’ll blessing beg of you.

For

this same lord,

I do repent; but heaven hath pleased it so

To punish me with this, and this with me

That I must be their scourge and minister

I will bestow

him, and will answer well

The death I gave him. So, again, good night.

I must be cruel only to be kind.

Thus

bad begins, and worse remains behind.

One word more, good lady.

Queen

What shall I do?

Hamlet

Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:

Let the bloat

King tempt you again to bed,

Pinch wanton on your cheek

, call you his mouse

And let him, for a pair of reechy

kisses,

Or paddling

in your neck

with his damned fingers,

Make you to ravel

all this matter out

That I essentially am not in madness,

But mad

in craft

. ’Twere good

you let him know,

For who that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise,

Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,

Such dear concernings hide?

Who would do so?

No, in dispite of sense and secrecy

Unpeg the basket on the house’s top,

Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,

To try conclusions, in the basket creep,

And break your own neck down

Queen

Be thou assured, if words be made of breath

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

What thou hast said to me.

Hamlet

I must to England. You know that?

Queen

Alack, I had forgot. ’Tis so concluded on.

Hamlet

There’s letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,

They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way

And marshal me to knavery

. Let it work

For ’tis the sport

to have the enginer

Hoised

with his own petard

, and’t shall go hard

But I will delve one yard below their mines,

And blow them at the moon.

Oh ’tis most sweet

When in one line two crafts directly meet.

This man shall set me packing.

I’ll lug the guts into the neighbor room.

Mother, good night indeed

. This counselor

Is now most still, most secret, and most grave

Who was in life a foolish

prating knave.

—

Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you

.—

Good night, mother.

Exit Hamlet, tugging in Polonius

Act 4, Scene 1

Enter King, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

King

There’s matter

in these sighs, these profound heaves

You must translate

; ’tis fit we understand them.

Where is your son?

Queen

( To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ) Bestow this place on us a little while.

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Ah, my good lord

, what have I seen tonight!

King

What, Gertrude

? How does Hamlet?

Queen

Mad as the sea

and wind when both contend

Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,

Behind the arras hearing something stir,

Whips out his rapier, cries

, “A rat, a rat!”

And in this

brainish apprehension

kills

The unseen good old man.

King

Oh, heavy

deed!

It had been so with us had we

been there.

His liberty is full of threats to all—

To you yourself, to us, to everyone.

Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered

It will be laid to us

, whose providence

Should have kept short

, restrained, and out of haunt

This mad young man. But so much was our love,

We would not understand what was most fit,

But like the owner

of a foul disease,

To keep it from divulging

, let

it feed

Even on the pith

of life. Where is he gone?

Queen

To draw apart the body he hath killed,

O’er whom his very madness, like some ore

Among a mineral of metals base,

Shows itself pure:

’a

weeps

for what is done.

King

Oh, Gertrude, come away!

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch

But we will ship him hence, and this vile

deed

We must with all our majesty and skill

Both countenance and excuse

.—Ho, Guildenstern!

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Friends both, go join you with some further aid.

Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,

And from his mother’s closet

hath he dragged

him.

Go seek him out, speak fair

, and bring the body

Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.

Exit Gentlemen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Come, Gertrude

, we’ll call up our wisest friends

To let

them know both what we mean to do

And what’s untimely done. So envious slander,

Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,

As level as the cannon to his blank,

Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name

And hit the woundless air.

Oh, come away!

My soul is full of discord and dismay.

Exeunt.

Act 4, Scene 2

Enter Hamlet.

Hamlet

Safely stowed.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

(within

) Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!

Hamlet

But soft, what noise?

Who calls on Hamlet? Oh, here they come.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Rosencrantz

What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Hamlet

Compounded

it with dust, whereto ’tis kin.

Rosencrantz

Tell us where ’tis, that we may take it thence

And bear it to the chapel.

Hamlet

Do not believe it.

Rosencrantz

Believe what?

Hamlet

That I can keep your counsel and not mine own.

Besides,to be demanded of

a sponge, what replication

should be made by the son of a king?

Rosencrantz

Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

Hamlet

Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance

, his rewards, his authorities

. But such officers do the King best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape an apple

in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowed.

When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

Rosencrantz

I understand you not, my lord.

Hamlet

I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Rosencrantz

My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.

Hamlet

The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.

The King is a thing

—

Guildenstern

A thing, my lord?

Hamlet

Of nothing.

Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after!

Exeunt.

Act 4, Scene 3

Enter King, and two or three.

King

I have sent to seek him and to find the body.

How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!

Yet must not we put the strong law on him;

He’s loved of the distracted multitude

Who like not in their judgment but their eyes,

And where ’tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weighed,

But ne’er

the offense.

To bear all smooth and even,

This sudden sending him away must seem

Deliberate pause.

Diseases desperate grown

By desperate appliance

are relieved,

Or not at all.

Enter Rosencrantz.

King

How now, what hath befall’n?

Rosencrantz

Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,

We cannot get from him.

King

But where is he?

Rosencrantz

Without

, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.

King

Bring him before us.

Rosencrantz

( Calling ) Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.

Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern with Guards.

King

Now Hamlet, where’s Polonius?

Hamlet

At supper.

King

At supper? Where?

Hamlet

Not where he eats, but where ’a is

eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en

at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet.

We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves

for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service:

two dishes but to one table.

That’s the end.

King

Alas, alas!

Hamlet

A man may fish with the worm that hath eat

of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

King

What dost thou mean by this?

Hamlet

Nothing but to show you

how a king may go a progress

through the guts of a beggar.

King

Where is Polonius?

Hamlet

In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’th’ other place yourself. But if indeed

you find him not within this month

, you shall nose

him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King

( To some attendants

) Go seek him there.

Hamlet

’A will

stay till you

come.

Exeunt attendants.

King

Hamlet, this deed of thine

, for thine especial safety—

Which we do tender

, as we dearly

grieve

For that which thou hast done—must send thee hence

With fiery quickness.

Therefore prepare thyself.

The bark

is ready, and the wind at help,

Th’associates tend

, and everything is bent

For England.

Hamlet

For England!

King

Ay, Hamlet.

Hamlet

Good.

King

So is it if thou knew’st our purposes.

Hamlet

I see a cherub

that sees them

. But come, for England! Farewell, dear mother.

King

Thy

loving father, Hamlet.

Hamlet

My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh

, and so,

my mother.

Come, for England!

Exit.

King

Follow him at foot

.Tempt

him with speed aboard.

Delay it not. I’ll have him hence tonight.

Away! For everything is sealed and done

That else leans on th’affair.

Pray you, make haste.

Exeunt all but the King.

And England

, if my love thou hold’st at aught,

As my great power thereof may give thee sense,

Since yet thy cicatrice

looks raw and red

After the Danish sword, and thy free awe

Pays homage to us, thou mayst not coldly set

Our sovereign process

, which imports at full

By letters congruing

to that effect

The present

death of Hamlet. Do it, England,

For like the hectic

in my blood he rages,

And thou must cure me. Till I know ’tis done,

Howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun

Exit.

Act 4, Scene 4

Enter Fortinbras and a Captain with his army over the stage.

Fortinbras

Go, captain, from me greet the Danish King.

Tell him that by his license

Fortinbras

Craves

the conveyance

of a promised march

Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.

If that

his majesty would aught with us

We shall express our duty in his eye

;

And let him know so.

Captain

I will do’t, my lord.

Fortinbras

( To his soldiers ) Go softly on

Exeunt all but the Captain

. Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, etc

Hamlet

( To the Captain ) Good sir, whose powers

are these?

Captain

They are of Norway, sir.

Hamlet

How purposed, sir, I pray you?

Captain

Against some part of Poland.

Hamlet

Who commands them, sir?

Captain

The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.

Hamlet

Goes it

against the main

of Poland, sir,

Or for some frontier?

Captain

Truly to speak, and with no addition

We go to gain a little patch of ground

That hath in it no profit but the name

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it

Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole

A ranker

rate, should it be sold in fee

Hamlet

Why then the Polack

never will defend it.

Captain

Yes, it is already garrisoned.

Hamlet

Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats

Will not debate the question of this straw.

This is th’impostume

of much wealth and peace,

That inward breaks

, and shows no cause without

Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

Captain

God b’wi’ you

, sir.

Exit.

Rosencrantz

Will’t please you go, my lord?

Hamlet

I’ll be with you straight

. Go a little before.

Exeunt all but Hamlet.

How all occasions do inform

against me,

And spur my dull revenge! What is a man

If his chief good and market

of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.

Sure he that made us with such large discourse

Looking before and after

, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust

in us unused. Now, whether it be

Bestial oblivion

, or some craven

scruple

Of thinking too precisely on th’event

—

A thought which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom

And ever three parts coward—I do not know

Why yet I live to say this thing’s to do

Sith

I have cause, and will, and strength, and means

To do’t. Examples gross

as earth exhort me.

Witness this army of such mass and charge

Led by a delicate and tender

prince,

Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed

Makes mouths

at the invisible event,

Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death, and danger dare

Even for an eggshell

. Rightly to be great

Is not to stir without great argument,

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

When honor’s at the stake.

How stand I, then,

That have a father killed, a mother stained,

Excitements of my reason and my blood

And let

all sleep, while to my shame I see

The imminent death of twenty thousand men

That for a fantasy and trick of fame

Go to their graves like beds

, fight for a plot

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause

Which is not tomb enough and continent

To hide the slain? Oh, from this time forth,

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Exit.

Act 4, Scene 5

Enter Queen and Horatio.

Queen

I will not speak with her.

Horatio

She is importunate,

Indeed, distract

. Her mood will needs be pitied.

Queen

What would she have?

Horatio

She speaks much of her father, says she hears

There’s tricks

i’th’ world, and hems

, and beats her heart

Spurns

enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt

That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing,

Yet the unshapèd use

of it doth move

The hearers to collection

; they yawn

at it,

And botch

the words up fit to

their own thoughts,

Which

, as her winks and nods and gestures yield

them,

Indeed would make one think there might be

thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

Queen

’Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding

minds.

Let her come in.

Horatio withdraws to admit Ophelia.

Queen

( Aside ) To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is

Each toy

seems prologue to some great amiss

So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Enter Ophelia distracted, playing on a lute, and her hair down, singing.

Ophelia

Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

Queen

How now

, Ophelia?

OpheliaShe sings.

How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat

and staff,

And his sandal shoon

Queen

Alas, sweet lady, what imports

this song?

Ophelia

Say you? Nay, pray you, mark

Song.

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone.

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone

Oho!

Queen

Nay, but Ophelia—

Ophelia

Pray you, mark. (Song

White his shroud as the mountain snow—

Enter King.

Queen

Alas, look here, my lord.

Ophelia Song.

Larded

with sweet flowers,

Which

bewept to the grave

did not go

With true-love showers

King

How do you,

pretty lady?

Ophelia

Well God’ield you.

They say the owl was a baker’s daughter.

Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

King

Conceit

upon her father.

Ophelia

Pray you

, let’s

have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you this:

Song.

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day

All in the morning betime

And I a maid at your window

To be your Valentine.

Then up he

rose, and donned his clothes

And dupped

the chamber door,

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

King

Pretty Ophelia—

Ophelia

Indeed, la?

Without an oath I’ll make an end on’t

Song.

By Gis and by Saint Charity,

Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do’t if the

y come to’t;

By Cock

, they are to blame

Quoth she, “Before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed.”

He answers

“So would I ha’ done

, by yonder sun, An

thou

hadst not come to my bed.

”

King

How long hath she been thus

Ophelia

I hope all will be well. We must be patient. But I cannot choose but weep to think they would

lay him i’th’ cold ground. My brother shall know of it. And so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies, good night,

sweet ladies, good night, good night.

Exit.

King

( To Horatio.

) Follow her close. Give her good watch, I pray you.

Exit Horatio.

Oh, this is the poison of deep grief! It springs

All from her father’s death, and now behold!

Oh, Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come,

they come not single spies

But in battalions.

First, her father slain;

Next, your son gone, and he most violent author

Of his own just remove

; the people muddied

Thick

and unwholesome in their thoughts

and whispers

For good Polonius’ death, and we have done but greenly

In hugger-mugger

to inter him; poor Ophelia

Divided from herself and her fair judgment,

Without the which we are pictures or mere beasts;

Last, and as much containing

as all these,

Her brother is in secret come from France,

Feeds on this wonder

, keeps himself in clouds

And wants not buzzers

to infect his ear

With pestilent speeches of his father’s

death,

Wherein

necessity, of matter beggared,

Will nothing stick our person

to arraign

In ear and ear

. O my dear Gertrude,

this,

Like to a murd’ring piece

, in many places

Gives me superfluous death.

A noise within. Enter a Messenger.

Queen

Alack, what noise is this?

King

Where is my Switzers?

Let them guard the door.

What is the matter?

Messenger

Save yourself, my lord!

The ocean, overpeering of his list

Eats not the flats

with more impiteous

haste

Than young Laertes, in a riotous head

O’erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord,

And, as the world were now but to begin,

Antiquity forgot, custom not known,

The ratifiers and props of every word

They

cry

, “Choose we! Laertes shall be king!”

Caps

, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds:

“Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!”

Queen

How cheerfully on the false trail they cry

A noise within.

Oh, this is counter

, you false Danish dogs!

King

The doors are broke.

Enter Laertes with others.

Laertes

Where is this king?—Sirs

, stand you all without

All

No, let’s come in.

Laertes

I pray you, give me leave.

All

We will, we will.

Laertes

I thank you. Keep

the door.

Exeunt followers.

O thou vile

king,

Give me my father!

Queen

Calmly, good Laertes.

Laertes

That drop of blood that’s calm

proclaims me bastard,

Cries “Cuckold!” to my father, brands the harlot

Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd brow

Of my true mother.

King

What is the cause, Laertes,

That thy rebellion looks so giant-like

?—

Let him go, Gertrude.

Do not fear our person.

There’s such divinity doth hedge

a king

That treason can but peep to what it would,

Acts little of his will

.—Tell me, Laertes,

Why thou art thus incensed?—Let him go, Gertrude.—

Speak, man.

Laertes

Where is

my father?

King

Dead.

Queen

But

not by him.

King

Let him demand his fill.

Laertes

How came he dead? I’ll not be juggled with

To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!

Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!

I dare damnation. To this point I stand

That both the worlds I give to negligence

Let come what comes, only I’ll be revenged

Most throughly

for my father.

King

Who shall stay

you?

Laertes

My will, not all the world’s

And for

my means, I’ll husband

them so well

They shall go far with little.

King

Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty

Of your dear father’s death

, is’t

writ in your revenge

That, swoopstake,

you will draw both

friend and foe,

Winner and loser

Laertes

None but his enemies.

King

Will you know them, then?

Laertes

To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms,

And, like the kind life-rend’ring pelican,

Repast them with my blood.

King

Why, now you speak

Like a good child and a true gentleman.

That I am guiltless of your father’s death,

And am most sensibly

in grief

for it,

It shall as level

to your judgment ’pear

As day does to your eye.

A noise within.

Voices within

Let her come in!

Laertes

How now, what noise is that?

Enter Ophelia, as before.

O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt

Burn out the sense and virtue

of mine eye!

By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by

weight

Till

our scale turns

the beam.

O rose of May,

Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!

O heavens, is’t possible a young maid’s wits

Should be as mortal as an old man’s life

Nature is fine in love, and where ’tis fine

It sends some precious instance of itself

After the thing it loves.

OpheliaSong

They bore him bare-faced

on the bier

Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny

And on

his grave rained

many a tear.

Fare you well, my dove.

Laertes

Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade

revenge,

It could not move thus.

Ophelia

You must sing “a-down, a-down,

” an

you call him “a-down-a.” Oh, how the wheel

becomes it!It is the false steward

that stole his master’s daughter.

Laertes

This nothing’s more than matter.

Ophelia

There’s rosemary; that’s for remembrance. Pray you,

love, remember. And there is pansies;

that’s for thoughts.

Laertes

A document

in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Ophelia

There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’Sundays.

You may wear

your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say ’a made

a good end.

She sings.

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy

Laertes

Thought and afflictions

, passion

, hell itself

She turns to favor

and to prettiness.

OpheliaSong.

And will ’a not come again?

And will ’a not

come again?

No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy deathbed,

He never will come again.

His beard was

as white

as snow,

All flaxen

was his poll

He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan

God ’a’ mercy

on his soul!

And of all Christian souls, I pray God.

God b’wi’ you!

Exeunt Ophelia

and the Queen, following her.

Laertes

Do you see this

, O God

King

Laertes, I must commune

with your grief,

Or you deny me right.

Go but apart

Make choice of whom your

wisest friends you will,

And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me.

If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touched

, we will our kingdom give,

Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours

To you in satisfaction

; but if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,

And we shall jointly labor with your soul

To give it due content.

Laertes

Let this be so.

His means of death, his obscure burial

—

No trophy, sword,

nor hatchment

o’er his bones,

No noble rite

, nor formal ostentation

—

Cry to be heard as ’twere from heaven to earth,

That I must call’t

in question.

King

So you shall,

And where th’offense is, let the great ax fall.

I pray you go with me.

Exeunt.

Act 4, Scene 6

Enter Horatio, with an Attendant

i.e., Servingman.

Horatio

What

are they that would speak with me?

Servingman

Sailors

, sir. They say they have letters

for you.

Horatio

Let them come in. ( Exit Servingman.

) I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

Sailor

God bless you, sir.

Horatio

Let him bless thee too.

Sailor

’A shall,

sir, an’t

please him. There’s a letter for you, sir. It comes from th’ambassador

that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio

, as I am let to know

it is.

He gives a letter.

Horatio

Reads the letter

“ Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked

this, give these fellows some means

to the King; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea

, a pirate

of very warlike appointment

gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valor, and in

the grapple

I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship, so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy

, but they knew what they did:

I am to do a good turn

for them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou

to me with as much haste

as thou wouldest fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear

will make thee dumb, yet are they much too light for the bore

of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz

and Guildenstern hold their course for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. He that

thou knowest thine, Hamlet. ”

Come

, I will give

you way

for these your letters,

And do’t the speedier that you may direct me

To him from whom you brought them.

Exeunt

Act 4, Scene 7

Enter King and Laertes.

King

Now must your conscience

my acquittance seal

And you must put me in your heart for friend,

Sith

you have heard, and with a knowing ear,

That he which hath your noble father slain

Pursued my life.

Laertes

It well appears. But tell me

Why you proceeded

not against these feats

So crimeful

and so capital in nature,

As by your safety, greatness,

wisdom, all things else,

You mainly

were stirred up.

King

Oh for two special reasons,

Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed

And yet to me they’re

strong. The Queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks, and for myself—

My virtue or my plague, be it either which

—

She’s so conjunctive

to my life and soul

That, as the star moves not but in his

sphere,

I could not but by her. The other motive

Why to a public count

I might not go

Is the great love the general gender

bear him,

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection

Would

, like the spring that turneth wood to stone

Convert his gyves

to graces, so that my arrows,

Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind

Would have reverted to my bow again,

And not where I had aimed them.

Laertes

And so have I a noble father lost,

A sister driven into desp’rate terms

Whose worth

, if praises may go back again

Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections.

But my revenge will come.

King

Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull

That we can let our beard be shook with danger

And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more.

I loved your father, and we love ourself,

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—

Enter a Messenger with letters.

King

How now? What news?

Messenger

Letters, my lord, from Hamlet.

This

to your majesty, this to the Queen.

He gives letters.

King

From Hamlet! Who brought them?

Messenger

Sailors, my lord, they say. I saw them not.

They were given me by Claudio

. He received them.

King

Laertes, you shall hear them. ( To the Messenger ) Leave us.

Exit Messenger.

He reads.“High and mighty, you shall know I am set naked

on your kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes, when I shall first, asking your pardon

thereunto

, recount

the occasion

of my sudden and more strange

return.

Hamlet.

”

What

should this mean? Are all the rest come back?

Or is it some abuse, and no

such thing?

Laertes

Know you the hand?

King

’Tis Hamlet’s character

. “Naked!”

And in a postscript here he says “alone.”

Can you advise me

Laertes

I am

lost in it, my lord. But let him come.

It warms the very sickness in my heart

That I shall live

and tell him to his teeth

“Thus diddest

thou.

”

King

If it be so, Laertes—

As how should it be so, how otherwise?

—

Will you be ruled by me?

Laertes

Ay, my lord,

If so you’ll

not o’errule me to a peace.

King

To thine own peace. If he be now returned

As checking

at his voyage

, and that

he means

No more to undertake it, I will work him

To an exploit, now ripe in my device

Under the which he shall not choose but fall

;

And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe

But even his mother shall uncharge the practice

And call it accident.

Laertes

My lord, I will be ruled,

The rather if you could devise it so

That I might be the organ

King

It falls right.

You have been talked of since your travel

much,

And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality

Wherein they say you shine. Your sum of parts

Did not together pluck such envy from him

As did that one, and that, in my regard,

Of the unworthiest siege

Laertes

What part is that, my lord?

King

A very ribbon

in the cap of youth,

Yet needful too, for youth no less becomes

The light and careless livery that it wears

Than settled age his sables and his weeds

Importing health and graveness

Two

months since

Here was a gentleman of Normandy.

I have

seen myself, and served against, the French,

And they can

well on horseback

, but this gallant

Had witchcraft in’t

; he grew into

his seat,

And to such wondrous doing brought his horse

As had he

been incorpsed and demi-natured

With the brave beast.

So far he passed

thought

That I in forgery of shapes and tricks

Come short of what he did.

Laertes

A Norman

was’t?

King

A Norman.

Laertes

Upon my life, Lamord

King

The very same.

Laertes

I know him well. He is the brooch

indeed

And gem of all the

nation

King

He made

confession of you

And gave you such a masterly report

For art and exercise in your defense

And for your rapier most especially

That he cried out ’twould be a sight indeed

If one could match you. Th’escrimers of their nation,

He swore, had

neither motion, guard, nor eye

If you opposed them.

Sir, this

report of his

Did Hamlet so envenom

with his envy

That he could nothing do but wish and beg

Your sudden coming o’er to play with him.

Now, out of this—

Laertes

What

out of this

, my lord?

King

Laertes, was your father dear to you?

Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,

A face without a heart?

Laertes

Why ask you this?

King

Not that I think you did not love your father,

But that I know love is begun by time

And that I see, in passages of proof

Time qualifies

the spark and fire of it.

There lives within the very flame of love

A kind of wick

or snuff

that will abate it,

And nothing is at a like goodness still

For goodness, growing to a pleurisy

Dies in his own too much

. That we would do

We should do when we would, for this would changes

And hath abatements

and delays as many

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,

And then this should is like a spendthrift’s sigh

That

hurts by easing.

But to the quick of th’ulcer

Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake

To show yourself your father’s son in deed

More than in words?

Laertes

To cut his throat i’th’ church.

King

No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize

Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,

Will you do this

: keep close

within your chamber.

Hamlet returned shall know you are come home.

We’ll put on those shall

praise your excellence

And set a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine

together,

And wager on

your heads. He being remiss

Most generous

, and free from all contriving,

Will not peruse the foils

, so that with ease,

Or with a little shuffling, you may choose

A sword unbated

, and in a pass

of practice

Requite him for your father.

Laertes

I will do’t,

And for that purpose

I’ll anoint my sword.

I bought an unction

of a mountebank

So mortal that, but dip

a knife in it,

Where it draws blood no cataplasm

so rare

Collected from all simples that have virtue

Under the moon

, can save the thing from death

That is but scratched withal

. I’ll touch

my point

With this contagion, that if I gall

him slightly,

It may be death.

King

Lets further think of this

Weigh

what convenience both of time and means

May fit us to our shape

. If this should fail,

And that our drift look through our bad performance

’Twere better not essayed

. Therefore this project

Should have a back or second, that might hold

If this should

blast in proof.

Soft

, let me see.

We’ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings

—

I ha’t!

When in your motion you are hot and dry—

make your bouts more violent to that end—

And that he calls for drink, I’ll have prepared

him

A chalice for the nonce

, whereon but sipping,

If he by chance escape your venomed stuck

Our purpose may hold there.

Enter Queen.

How now, sweet queen?

Queen

One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,

So fast they

follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes.

Laertes

Drowned!

Oh, where?

Queen

There is a willow grows aslant a

brook

That shows his hoar leaves

in the glassy stream.

Therewith fantastic garlands did she make

Of crowflowers

, nettles, daisies, and long purples

That liberal

shepherds give a grosser name

But our cold

maids do dead men’s fingers call them.

There on the pendent

boughs her crownet weeds

Clamb’ring to hang

, an envious sliver

broke,

When down her weedy trophies

and herself

Fell in the weeping brook

. Her clothes spread wide,

And mermaid-like

awhile they bore her up,

Which time

she chanted snatches of old lauds

As one incapable of

her own distress,

Or like a creature native and endued

Unto that element

. But long it could not be

Till that

her garments, heavy with their

drink

Pulled the poor wretch

from her melodious lay

To muddy death.

Laertes

Alas, then

she is

drowned.

Queen

Drowned, drowned.

Laertes

Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,

And therefore I forbid my tears.

But yet

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,

Let shame say what it will. ( He weeps. ) When these are gone,

The woman will be out.

Adieu, my lord.

I have a speech of fire

that fain

would blaze,

But that this folly douts

it.

Exit.

King

Let’s follow, Gertrude.

How much I had to do to calm his rage!

Now fear I this will give it start again;

Therefore let’s follow.

Exeunt.

Act 5, Scene 1

Enter two Clowns

with spades and mattocks

Clown

Is she to be buried in Christian burial

, that

willfully seeks her own salvation

Clowns

I tell thee she is, and therefore

make her grave straight

. The crowner hath sat

on her, and finds it Christian burial

Clown

How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense

Clowns

Why, ’tis found so

Clown

It must be se offendendo

, it cannot be else, for here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches: it is to act, to do,

and to perform

. Argal

, she drowned herself wittingly.

Clowns

Nay, but hear you, Goodman Delver

Clown

Give me leave. Here lies the water; good. Here stands the man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he

, he goes. Mark you that.

But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

Clowns

But is this law?

Clown

Ay, marry

, is’t, crowner’s quest

law.

Clowns

Will you ha’ the truth on’t

? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’Christian

burial

Clown

Why, there thou say’st

, and the more pity that great folk should have countenance

in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christian

. Come, my spade. There is no ancient

gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and gravemakers. They hold up

Adam’s profession.

Clowns

Was he a gentleman?

Clown

’A

was the first that ever bore arms

Clowns

Why, he had none.

Clown

What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam digged. Could he dig without arms?

I’ll put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself

—

Clowns

Go to.

Clown

What is he that builds stronger than either the mason

, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

Clowns

The gallows-maker, for that frame

outlives a thousand tenants.

Clown

I like thy wit well, in good faith, the gallows does well. But how does it well? It does well

to those that do ill. Now, thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church. Argal, the gallows may do well to thee

. To’t again

, come.

Clowns

“Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?”

Clown

Ay, tell me that, and unyoke

Clowns

Marry, now I can tell.

Clown

To’t.

Clowns

Mass

, I cannot tell.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio afar off.

Clown

Cudgel thy brains

no more about it, for your dull ass

will not mend

his pace with beating; and when you are asked this question next, say “a grave-maker.” The houses that he makes lasts

till doomsday. Go get thee to Johan

. Fetch me a stoup

of liquor.

( Exit Second Clown. ) ( The First Clown digs. )

Sings

In youth when I did love, did love,

Methought it was very sweet

To contract—oh—the time for—a—my behove

Oh, methought there—a—was nothing—a—

meet

Hamlet

Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that ’a sings at grave-making

Horatio

Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness

Hamlet

’Tis e’en so

. The hand of little employment hath the daintier

sense.

Clown sings.

Clown

But age with his stealing steps

Hath clawed

me in his clutch,

And hath shipped me intil

the land

As if I had never been such

The Clown throws up a skull.

Hamlet

That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once. How the knave jowls

it to the ground,

as if ’twere

Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder

! This

might be

the pate of a politician

, which this ass now o’er-offices

, one that would

circumvent God, might it not?

Horatio

It might, my lord.

Hamlet

Or of a courtier, which could say, “Good morrow, sweet lord, how dost thou, good lord

” This might be my Lord Such-a-one, that praised my Lord Such-a-one’s horse when ’a

meant

to beg it

, might it not?

Horatio

Ay, my lord.

Hamlet

Why, e’en so. And now my Lady Worm’s

, chapless

, and knocked about the mazard

with a sexton’s spade. Here’s fine revolution

, an

we had the trick to see’t. Did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggets with ’em?

Mine ache to think on’t.

Sings.

Clown

A pickax and a spade, a spade,

For and

a shrouding

sheet;

Oh, a pit of clay

for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

He throws up another skull.

Hamlet

There’s another. Why might not

that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities

now, his quillets

, his cases, his tenures

, and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude

knave now to knock him about the sconce

with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery

? H’m!

This fellow might be in’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries

. Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries

, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt

? Will his vouchers

vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too,

than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures?

The very conveyances of his lands

will hardly

lie in this box

, and must th’inheritor

himself have no more, ha?

Horatio

Not a jot more, my lord.

Hamlet

Is not parchment made of sheepskins?

Horatio

Ay, my lord, and of calves’ skins

too.

Hamlet

They are sheep and calves which

seek out assurance

in that. I will speak to this fellow.—Whose grave’s this, sirrah

Clown

Mine, sir.

Sings.

Oh, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

Hamlet

I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in’t.

Clown

You lie out on’t, sir, and therefore ’tis not

yours. For my part, I do not lie in’t, and yet

it is mine.

Hamlet

Thou dost lie in’t, to be in’t and say ’tis thine

. ’Tis for the dead, not for the quick

; therefore thou liest.

Clown

’Tis a quick

lie, sir; ’twill away again from me to you.

Hamlet

What man dost thou dig it for?

Clown

For no man, sir.

Hamlet

What woman, then?

Clown

For none, neither.

Hamlet

Who is to be buried in’t?

Clown

One that was a woman, sir, but, rest her soul, she’s dead.

Hamlet

( To Horatio ) How absolute

the knave is! We must speak by the card

, or equivocation

will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three

years I have taken

note of it

, the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel

of the courtier

he galls

his kibe

.—How long hast thou been grave-maker?

Clown

Of all

the days

i’th’ year, I came to’t that day that our last King Hamlet overcame

Fortinbras.

Hamlet

How long is that since?

Clown

Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the very day

that young Hamlet was born—he that is mad

and sent into England.

Hamlet

Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

Clown

Why, because ’a was mad. ’A

shall recover his wits there, or if ’a do not, ’tis

no great matter there.

Hamlet

Why?

Clown

’Twill not be seen in him there. There

the men

are as mad as he.

Hamlet

How came he mad?

Clown

Very strangely, they say.

Hamlet

How strangely?

Clown

Faith, e’en with losing

his wits.

Hamlet

Upon what ground

Clown

Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton

here, man and boy, thirty years.

Hamlet

How long will a man lie i’th’ earth ere he rot?

Clown

I’faith

, if ’a

be not rotten before ’a die—

as we have many pocky corses

nowadays

that will scarce hold the laying in

—’a will

last you

some eight year, or nine year.

A tanner will last you nine year.

Hamlet

Why he more than another?

Clown

Why, sir,

his hide is so tanned with his trade that ’a will keep out water a great while;

and your water is a sore

decayer of your whoreson dead body.

( He picks up a skull. ) Here’s a skull now: this skull

hath lain you i’th’ earth

three-and-twenty years

Hamlet

Whose was it?

Clown

A whoreson

mad fellow’s it was. Whose do you think it was?

Hamlet

Nay, I know not.

Clown

A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! ’A poured

a flagon of Rhenish

on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick’s

skull, the King’s jester.

Hamlet

This?

Clown

E’en that.

Hamlet

Let me see. ( taking the skull ) Alas

, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne

me on his back a thousand times, and now how

abhorred in my imagination it is

! My gorge rises

at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.—Where be your gibes

now? Your gambols

, your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one

now to mock your own grinning

? Quite chopfall’n

? Now get you

to my lady’s chamber

and tell her, let her paint

an inch thick, to this favor

she must come. Make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

Horatio

What’s that, my lord?

Hamlet

Dost thou think Alexander

looked o’this

fashion i’th’ earth?

Horatio

E’en so.

Hamlet

And smelt so? Pah!

He throws the skull down.

Horatio

E’en so, my lord.

Hamlet

To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why

may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till ’a

find it stopping a bunghole

Horatio

’Twere to consider too curiously

to consider so.

Hamlet

No, faith, not a jot. But to follow him thither

with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it

, as thus

: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust

, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam

, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel?

Imperial Caesar

, dead and turned to clay,

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

Oh, that that earth

which kept the world in awe

Should patch a wall t’expel the winter’s

flaw

Enter King, Queen, Laertes, and a coffin containing the corpse of Ophelia, in funeral procession, with the Doctor or Priest, with Lords attendant.

But soft

, but soft; aside

! Here comes the King,

The Queen, the courtiers. Who is that

they follow?

And with such maimèd rites

? This doth betoken

The corpse they follow did with desp’rate

hand

Fordo it

own

life. ’Twas of some estate

Couch we

awhile and mark.

Hamlet and Horatio conceal themselves. Ophelia’s body is taken to the grave.

Laertes

What ceremony else?

Hamlet

( Aside to Horatio ) That is Laertes, a very noble youth. Mark.

Laertes

What ceremony else?

Priest

Her obsequies

have been as far enlarged

As we have warrantise

. Her death was doubtful

And, but that great command o’ersways the order

She should in ground unsanctified have

lodged

Till the last trumpet

. For

charitable prayers

Shards, flints

, and pebbles should be thrown on her;

Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants

Her maiden strewments

, and the bringing home

Of bell and burial

Laertes

Must there no more be done?

Priest

No more be done.

We should profane the service of the dead

To sing sage

requiem and such rest

to her

As to peace-parted souls.

Laertes

Lay her i’th’ earth,

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets

spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,

A minist’ring angel shall my sister be

When thou liest howling

Hamlet

( To Horatio ) What, the fair Ophelia!

Queen

( Scattering flowers ) Sweets to the sweet! Farewell.

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife.

I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid,

And not t’have

strewed thy grave.

Laertes

Oh, treble woe

Fall ten times treble

on that cursèd head

Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense

Deprived thee of

!—Hold off

the earth awhile,

Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.

He leaps in the grave.

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead

Till of this flat

a mountain you have made

T’o’ertop

old Pelion, or the skyish head

Of blue Olympus

Hamlet

( Coming forward ) What is he whose grief

Bears such an emphasis

, whose phrase of sorrow

Conjures

the wand’ring stars

, and makes them stand

Like wonder-wounded

hearers?

This is I,

Hamlet the Dane

Laertes

( Grappling with Hamlet

) The devil take thy soul!

Hamlet

Thou pray’st not well.

I prithee take thy fingers from my throat,

For

, though I am not splenative and rash

Yet have I something in me

dangerous,

Which let thy wiseness

fear. Away

thy hand!

King

Pluck them asunder.

Queen

Hamlet, Hamlet!

All

Gentlemen!

Horatio

Good my lord, be quiet.

Hamlet and Laertes are parted.

Hamlet

Why, I will fight with him upon this theme

Until my eyelids will no longer wag

Queen

Oh, my son, what theme?

Hamlet

I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers

Could not with all their

quantity of love

Make up my sum.—What wilt thou do for her?

King

Oh, he is mad, Laertes.

Queen

For love of God, forbear him

Hamlet

’Swounds

, show me what thou’lt

do.

Woo’t

weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t fast?

Woo’t tear thyself?

Woo’t drink up eisil

? Eat a crocodile?

I’ll do’t.

Dost thou

come

here to whine?

To outface me with leaping in her grave?

Be buried quick

with her, and so will I.

And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw

Millions of acres on us, till our ground,

Singeing his pate against the burning zone,

Make Ossa like

a wart

. Nay, an thou’lt mouth,

I’ll rant as well as thou.

Queen

This is mere

madness,

And thus awhile

the fit will work on him;

Anon, as patient as the female dove

When that her golden couplets

are disclosed

His silence will sit drooping.

Hamlet

( To Laertes ) Hear you, sir,

What is the reason that you use

me thus?

I loved

you ever. But it is no matter.

Let Hercules himself do what he may,

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

Exit Hamlet.

King

I pray you

, good Horatio, wait upon

him.

And Horatio

exits too

. Aside to Laertes

Strengthen your

patience in

our last night’s speech;

We’ll put the matter to the present push

.—

Good Gertrude

, set some watch over your son.—

This grave shall have a living monument

An hour of quiet shortly

shall we see;

Till then

, in patience our proceeding be.

Exeunt

Act 5, Scene 2

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Hamlet

So much for this, sir. Now let me see,

the other.

You do remember all the circumstance?

Horatio

Remember it, my lord

Hamlet

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting

That would not let me sleep. Methought

I lay

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes

. Rashly

And praised be

rashness for it: let us know

Our indiscretion

sometime

serves us well

When our deep

plots do pall

, and that should learn

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew

them how we will.

Horatio

That is most certain.

Hamlet

Up from my cabin,

My sea-gown

scarfed

about me, in the dark

Groped I to find out them

, had my desire,

Fingered

their packet, and in fine

withdrew

To mine own room again, making so bold,

My fears forgetting manners, to unseal

Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio—

, royal

knavery!—an exact command,

Larded

with many several

sorts of

reasons

Importing

Denmark’s health, and England’s too

With, ho!

such bugs and goblins in my life

That on the supervise, no leisure bated

No, not to stay

the grinding

of the ax,

My head should be struck off.

Horatio

Is’t possible?

Hamlet

( Showing a document ) Here’s the commission. Read it at more leisure.

But wilt thou hear me

how

I did proceed?

Horatio

I beseech you.

Hamlet

Being thus benetted round with villainies

—

Ere

I could make a prologue to my brains,

They had begun the play

—I sat me down,

Devised a new commission, wrote it fair.

I once did hold

it, as our statists

do,

A baseness

to write fair

, and labored much

How to forget that learning, but, sir, now

It did me

yeoman’s

service.

Wilt thou know

Th’effect

of what I wrote?

Horatio

Ay, good my lord.

Hamlet

An earnest conjuration

from the King,

As England was his faithful tributary

As love between them like the palm should flourish

As peace should still

her wheaten garland

wear

And stand a comma

’tween their amities,

And many suchlike

ases of great charge,

That on the view and knowing

of these contents,

Without debatement further more or less

He should the

bearers

put to sudden death,

Not shriving time

allowed.

Horatio

How was this sealed?

Hamlet

Why, even in that was heaven ordinant

I had my father’s signet

in my purse,

Which was the model

of that Danish seal;

Folded the writ up in the form of th’other

Subscribed

it, gave’t th’impression

, placed it safely,

The changeling

never known. Now the next day

Was our sea fight, and what to this was sequent

Thou know’st

already.

Horatio

So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz

go to’t.

Hamlet

Why, man, they did make love to this employment.

They are not near my conscience. Their defeat

Does

by their own insinuation

grow.

’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes

Between the pass and fell incensèd points

Of mighty opposites

Horatio

Why, what a King is this!

Hamlet

Does it not, think’st thee

, stand me now upon

—

He that hath killed my King and whored my mother,

Popped in between th’election and my hopes

Thrown out his angle

for my proper life

And with such coz’nage

—is’t not perfect conscience

To quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damned

To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil

Horatio

It must be shortly known to him from England

What is the issue of the business there.

Hamlet

It will be short.

The interim’s mine, and a man’s life’s no more

Than to say one

. But I am very sorry, good Horatio,

That to Laertes I forgot myself,

For by the image of my cause I see

The portraiture of his. I’ll court

his favors

But sure the bravery

of his grief did put me

Into a tow’ring passion.

Horatio

Peace, who comes here?

Enter young Osric, a courtier.

Osric

Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Hamlet

I humbly

thank you, sir. ( Aside to Horatio ) Dost know this water-fly

Horatio

( Aside to Hamlet ) No, my good lord.

Hamlet

( Aside to Horatio ) Thy state is the more gracious

, for ’tis a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the King’s mess.

’Tis a chuff

, but, as I say

, spacious in the possession of dirt

Osric

Sweet lord, if your lordship

were at leisure

, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

Hamlet

I will receive it, sir

, with all

diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet

to his

right use. ’Tis for the head.

Osric

I thank your lordship, it is very

hot.

Hamlet

No, believe me, ’tis very cold. The wind is northerly.

Osric

It is indifferent

cold, my lord, indeed.

Hamlet

But yet methinks

it is very sultry and hot for

my complexion

Osric

Exceedingly, my lord, it is very sultry

, as ’twere—I cannot tell how. But, my lord

, his majesty bade me signify to you that ’a has

laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter—

Hamlet

( Reminding Osric once more about his hat ) I beseech you, remember.

Osric

Nay, good my lord,

for my

ease, in good faith.

Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes—believe me, an absolute

gentlemen, full of most excellent differences

, of very soft society

and great showing

. Indeed, to speak feelingly

of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry

, for you shall find in him the continent of what part

a gentleman would see

Hamlet

Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you, though I know to divide him inventorially would dazzle

th’arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw

neither, in respect of his quick sail

. But in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

Osric

Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

Hamlet

The concernancy

, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath

Osric

Sir?

Horatio

( To Hamlet ) Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue

? You will do’t

, sir, really

Hamlet

( To Osric ) What imports the nomination

of this gentleman?

Osric

Of Laertes?

Horatio

( To Hamlet ) His purse is empty already; all’s golden words are spent.

Hamlet

( To Osric ) Of him, sir.

Osric

I know you are not ignorant—

Hamlet

I would you did, sir. Yet in faith if you

did, it would not much approve me

. Well, sir?

Osric

Sir, you

are

not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is—

Hamlet

I dare not confess that, lest

I should compare with him in excellence. But to know a man well were to know himself.

Osric

I mean, sir, for his weapon

. But in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he’s unfellowed.

You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is at his weapon.

Hamlet

What’s his weapon?

Osric

Rapier and dagger.

Hamlet

That’s two of his weapons—but well

Osric

The King, sir,

hath wagered

with him

six Barbary horses

, against the which he has impawned

, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards

, with their assigns

, as girdle

, hangers, or so.

Three of the carriages

, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit

Hamlet

What call you the carriages?

Horatio

( To Hamlet ) I knew you must be edified by the margin

ere you had done.

Osric

The carriages

, sir, are the hangers.

Hamlet

The phrase would be more germane

to the matter if

we could carry cannon

by our sides; I would it might be

hangers till then.

But on. Six

Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited

carriages: that’s the French bet

against the Danish. Why is this impawned, as

you call it?

Osric

The King, sir, hath laid, sir,

that in a dozen passes between yourself

and him, he shall not exceed you three hits. He hath laid on’t

twelve for nine

, and it would

come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer

Hamlet

How if I answer no?

Osric

I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

Hamlet

Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his majesty, it is

the breathing time of day

with me. Let

the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the King

hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can;

if not, I will

gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.

Osric

Shall I re-deliver you e’en

so?

Hamlet

To this effect, sir, after what flourish your nature will.

Osric

I commend my duty

to your lordship.

Hamlet

Yours, yours.

( Exit Osric.

) ’A does

well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for’s turn.

Horatio

This lapwing

runs away with the shell on his head.

Hamlet

’A did

comply

with his dug

before ’a sucked

it. Thus has he,

and many

more of the same bevy

that I know the drossy age dotes on, only got the tune of the time and outward habit

of encounter, a kind of yeasty

collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned

and winnowed

opinions; and do but blow them to their trial

, the bubbles are out.

Enter a Lord.

Lord

My lord, his majesty commended him

to you by young Osric

, who brings back to him that you attend him in the hall. He sends to know if your pleasure hold to play

with Laertes, or that

you will take longer time?

Hamlet

I am constant to my purposes; they follow the King’s pleasure. If his fitness speaks, mine is ready

: now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord

The King and Queen and all are coming down.

Hamlet

In happy time.

Lord

The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment

to Laertes before you fall to play

Hamlet

She well instructs me.

Exit Lord.

Horatio

You will lose this wager

, my lord.

Hamlet

I do not think so. Since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds

. But thou

wouldst

not think how ill all’s here

about my heart

, but it is no matter.

Horatio

Nay, good my lord—

Hamlet

It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gaingiving

as would perhaps trouble a woman.

Horatio

If your mind dislike anything, obey it

. I will forestall their repair

hither and say you are not fit.

Hamlet

Not a whit

, we defy augury

. There’s a special providence

in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now

, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what

is’t to leave betimes?

Let be.

Trumpets, drums, and officers with cushions. Enter King, Queen, and Lords including Laertes and Osric, and all the state, with other Attendants with foils and gauntlets, a table, and flagons of wine on it.

King

Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

The King puts Laertes’s hand into Hamlet’s.

Hamlet

( To Laertes

) Give me your pardon, sir. I’ve

done you wrong,

But pardon’t as you are a gentleman. This presence

knows,

And you must needs have heard, how I am punished

With a sore

distraction

. What I have done

That might your nature, honor, and exception

Roughly awake, I hear proclaim was madness.

Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet.

If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away,

And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes,

Then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it.

Who does it, then? His madness. If’t be so,

Hamlet is of the faction

that is wronged;

His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.

Sir, in this audience

Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil

Free me so far in your most generous thoughts

That I have shot my arrow

o’er the house

And hurt my brother

Laertes

I am satisfied in nature

Whose motive

in this case should stir me most

To my revenge. But in my terms of honor

I stand aloof, and will

no reconcilement,

Till by some elder masters of known honor

I have a voice and precedent

of peace

To keep

my name ungored.

But till

that time

I do receive your offered love like love,

And will not wrong it.

Hamlet

I do embrace

it freely

And will this brother’s wager frankly play.—

Give us the foils. Come on.

Laertes

Come, one for me.

Hamlet

I’ll be your foil

, Laertes. In mine ignorance

Your skill shall like a star i’th’ darkest night

Stick fiery off

indeed.

Laertes

You mock me, sir.

Hamlet

No, by this hand.

King

Give them the foils, young Osric

Foils are handed to Hamlet and Laertes.

Cousin Hamlet,

You know the wager.

Hamlet

Very well, my lord.

Your grace has laid the odds o’th’weaker

side

King

I do not fear it; I have seen you both.

But since he is bettered,

we have therefore odds

Laertes

This is too heavy. Let me see another.

He exchanges his foil for another.

Hamlet

This likes

me well. These foils have all a length

Osric

Ay, my good lord.

They prepare to play.

King

Set me the stoups

of wine upon that table.

If Hamlet give the first or second hit,

Or quit in answer of the third exchange

Let all the battlements their ordnance

fire

The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath

And in the cup an union

shall he throw

Richer then that which four successive kings

In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups,

And let the kettle

to the trumpet

speak,

The trumpet to the cannoneer

without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to

earth

“Now the King drinks to Hamlet.” Come, begin.

Trumpets the while.

And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

Hamlet

Come on, sir.

Laertes

Come, my lord.

They play. Hamlet scores a hit.

Hamlet

One.

Laertes

No.

Hamlet

( To Osric ) Judgment.

Osric

A hit, a very

palpable hit.

Laertes

Well, again.

King

Stay

. Give me drink. Hamlet this pearl is thine.

He drinks, and throws a pearl in Hamlet’s cup.

Here’s to thy health.—Give him the cup.

Trumpets sound, and shot goes off.

Hamlet

I’ll play this bout first. Set it by

awhile.

Come. ( They fence. )Another hit. What say you?

Laertes

A touch, a touch, I do confess.

King

( To the Queen ) Our son shall win.

Queen

He’s fat

and scant of breath.—

Here, Hamlet, take my napkin

, rub thy brows.

The Queen takes a cup of wine to offer a toast to Hamlet.

The Queen carouses

to thy fortune, Hamlet.

Hamlet

Good madam.

King

Gertrude

, do not drink.

Queen

I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me.

She drinks.

King

( Aside ) It is the poisoned cup. It is too late.

Hamlet

I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.

Queen

Come, let me wipe thy face.

Laertes

( Aside to the King ) My lord, I’ll hit him now.

King

( Aside to Laertes ) I do not think’t.

Laertes

( Aside ) And yet ’tis almost ’gainst my conscience

Hamlet

Come for the third, Laertes,

you do but dally.

I pray you, pass

with your best violence;

I am afeard

you make a wanton of me.

Laertes

Say you so? Come on.

They play.

Osric

Nothing neither way.

Laertes

Have at you now!

Laertes wounds Hamlet with his unbated rapier. In scuffling they change rapiers. Hamlet wounds Laertes.

King

Part them! They are incensed.

Hamlet

Nay, come again.

Laertes falls down. The Queen falls down.

Osric

Look to the Queen there, ho!

Horatio

They bleed on both sides. ( To Hamlet ) How is it,

my lord?

Osric

How is’t, Laertes?

Laertes

Why, as a woodcock to mine own

springe

, Osric;

I am justly killed with mine own treachery.

Hamlet

How does the Queen?

King

She swoons

to see them bleed.

Queen

No, no, the drink, the drink, O my dear Hamlet,

The drink, the drink! I am poisoned.

She dies.

Hamlet

Oh, villainy! Ho!

Let the door be locked.

Treachery! Seek it out.

Exit Osric.

Laertes

It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet

, thou art slain.

No med’cine

in the world can do thee good;

In thee there is not half an hour of life

The treacherous

instrument is in thy hand

Unbated

and envenomed. The foul practice

Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie

Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poisoned.

I can no more. The King, the King’s to blame

Hamlet

The point envenomed too? Then, venom, to thy work.

He hurts the King.

All

Treason, treason!

King

Oh, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.

Hamlet

( Forcing the King to drink ) Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous,

damnèd Dane,

Drink off

this potion. Is thy union

here?

Follow my mother.

The King dies.

Laertes

He is justly served.

It is a poison tempered

by himself.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.

Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,

Nor thine on me!

He dies.

Hamlet

Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.

I am dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu.

You that look pale and tremble at this chance

That are but mutes

or audience to this act,

Had I but time, as this fell sergeant

Death

Is strict

in his arrest, oh, I could tell you—

But let it be. Horatio, I am dead,

Thou liv’st.

Report me and my cause aright

To the unsatisfied.

Horatio

Never believe it.

I am more an antique Roman

than a Dane.

Here’s yet some liquor left.

He attempts to drink from the poisoned cup, but is prevented by Hamlet.

Hamlet

As thou’rt a man,

Give me the cup! Let go! By heaven I’ll ha’t

Oh, God, Horatio

, what a wounded name,

Things standing thus unknown, shall live

behind me!

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,

Absent thee from felicity awhile,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain

To tell my story.

March afar off, and shout within.

What warlike noise is this?

Enter Osric.

Osric

Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To th’ambassadors of England gives this warlike volley

Hamlet

Oh, I die, Horatio.

The potent poison quite o’ercrows

my spirit.

I cannot live to hear the news from England,

But I do prophesy th’election lights

On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice

So tell him, with th’occurrents

more and less

Which have solicited

. The rest is silence.

Oh, oh, oh, oh!

He dies.

Horatio

Now cracks

a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

March within.

Why does the drum come hither?

Enter Fortinbras and the English Ambassadors, with Drum, Colors, and Attendants.

Fortinbras

Where is this sight?

Horatio

What is it ye

would see?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

Fortinbras

This

quarry cries on havoc.

O proud

Death,

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell

That thou so many princes at a shot

So bloodily hast struck?

Ambassador

The sight is dismal,

And our affairs from England come too late.

The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,

To tell him his

commandment is fulfilled,

That Rosencrantz

and Guildenstern are dead.

Where should we have our thanks?

Horatio

Not from his mouth,

Had it th’ability of life to thank you;

He never gave commandment for their death.

But since so jump upon this bloody question

You from the Polack wars and you from England

Are here arrived, give

order that these bodies

High on a stage

be placèd the view,

And let me speak to th’yet

unknowing world

How these things came about. So shall you hear

Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,

Of accidental judgments

, casual

slaughters,

Of deaths

put on by cunning and forced

cause

And in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall’n on th’inventors’

heads. All this can I

Truly deliver

Fortinbras

Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.

I have some rights

of memory

in this kingdom,

Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Horatio

Of that I shall have also

cause to speak,

And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more.

But let this same be presently

performed,

Even while

men’s minds are wild, lest

more mischance

On plots

and errors happen.

Fortinbras

Let four captains

Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,

For he was likely, had he been put on

To have proved most royal

; and for his passage

The soldiers’ music

and the rites

of war

Speak

loudly for him.

Take up the body

. Such a sight as this

Becomes the field

, but here shows

much amiss.

Go bid the soldiers shoot.

Exeunt marching, after the which a peal of ordnance are shot off.

FINIS

Annotations

1.1

Location: Elsinore Castle, Denmark. A guard platform.

Who’s there?

Q2’s WHose there? is presumably a typographical or copying error for Who’s there? as in F1. Q1 reads who is that?

answer me

Francisco lays stress on the word me. Since he is the one who has been on watch, he should be saying Who’s there to Barnardo, the new arrival, not the other way around. The inversion of proper order is indicative of the mood of uneasy terror.

unfold yourself

Identify who you are.

struck

Q2 reads strooke, F1 strook. Omitted in Q1.

rivals

Partners.

Q1 reads partners.

Stand, ho! Who is

F1’s Stand: who’s could be authorial, or it could be a compositor’s approximation for Q2’s more metrically correct stand, ho, who is.

ground

Country, land.

liegemen to the Dane

Subjects of the Danish king.

soldier

Q2’s plural souldiers can make sense if Marcellus, arriving with Horatio, assumes that the two of them are replacing two guardsmen previously on watch. Or plural could be a copying error. Most editors prefer Q1/F1’s soldier (Soldier).

hath

Here and throughout, F1’s substitution of has for Q1/Q2’s hath, and similarly with does/doth, etc., could be editorial or compositorial sophistication.

Give

May God give.

Horatio

Q1/F1 both assign this speech to Marcellus. The skeptical tone of the question favors Q2’s Hora., i.e., Horatio, but either is possible, and Q1/F1 could be an authorial choice.

fantasy

Fantastic imaginings.

Touching

Regarding, concerning.

along / With us

To come along with us.

F1’s along / With vs, Q1’s along with vs, and Q2’s along, / With vs are equally plausible.

With … night

To keep watch with us tonight.

approve

Confirm, corroborate.

two nights have

F1’s two Nights haue is plausible as an authorial correction of Q1/Q2’s haue two nights, though both are possible.

Last … all

In the night just before the present one.

yond … pole

Probably Arcturus, a bright star just to the west of the Big Dipper and the pole star or polaris that is directly north in the night sky.

his

Its.

t’illume

To illuminate.

beating

Q2/F1 read beating. Q1’s towling, i.e., tolling, is attractive, but may be a reporter’s word substitution for what he heard.

Enter the Ghost

F1 places this stage direction opposite and to the right of Peace, break thee of in line 44 (TLN 51). The entrance itself presumably preceded Peace, breake thee of, as indicated in Q1/Q2.

scholar

One trained in the Latin of the Church and thus qualified to interrogate a ghost.

Looks it

F1 reads Lookes it; Q2 reads Lookes a. The form ’a, signifying he, occurs often in Q2, only once in Hamlet F1. The usual change to he could be scribal or compositorial (Arden 3), but F1’s it here could be authorial.

harrows

Q2’s horrowes may be a variant form of F1’s harrowes, or possibly a copying error. Q1 reads horrors.

It would … spoke to

According to a widely held belief, ghosts could not speak until spoken to.

Question it

Q1/F1’s Question it is a plausible substitution for Q2’s Speak to it, especially since Q2’s reading could be an inadvertent repetition from line 49, be spoke to.

thou that usurp’st

You who wrongfully assert your authority over.

buried Denmark

The buried former King of Denmark, Hamlet’s dead father.

sometimes

Formerly.

on’t

Of it.

sensible

Evident to the senses (especially sight).

avouch

Authority, confirmation.

This word, necessary for the sense, is supplied from Q1/Q2. An inadvertent omission in F1.

Norway

King of Norway.

parle

Parley, conference with the enemy.

sledded Polacks

Poles traveling on sleds.

Q1/Q2 read sleaded pollax, F1 sledded Pollax. Most editors take this to represent sledded Polacks; pole-axe is another possibility, though sleaded or sledded are hard to reconcile with that reading.

jump

Precisely.

F1’s iust (just) is possibly an authorial change, though perhaps instead a copying error for the more striking iump in Q1/Q2.

stalk

Stride.

to work

To organize my thoughts.

in … mine opinion

In my opinion, as I consider the whole topic.

Q1/F1’s substitution of my for Q2’s mine is likely to be editorial, like many similar substitutions in F1.

bodes

Foretells.

Good now

I.e., I implore you all.

toils the subject

Imposes toil on the subjects, the citizens.

why

Q2’s reading, with, makes intelligible sense, though Q1/F1’s why produces a better grammatical structure for the sentence and is favored by most editors. Q2’s with could be a typographical or copying error.

cast

Casting.

F1’s Cast is favored by most editors, since the idea of casting goes so well with brass cannon. Although Q1/Q2’s cost is intelligible, it could easily be a copying error.

brazen

Brass.

foreign mart

Shopping abroad.

The fact that Q2 agrees with Q1 in the spelling forraine here, and ship-writes in the next line, suggests that Q2 is following Q1 at this point (Arden 3).

impress

Impressment, conscription.

Does … week

I.e., Requires them to work on Sunday just like every other day of the week.

toward

About to happen.

Doth … day

I.e., Demands that work continue all twenty-four hours.

Fortinbras of Norway

Old Fortinbras, King of Norway (with whom old Hamlet fought as described in lines 64-5 (TLN 76-7) above; not young Fortinbras, nephew of this present king.

pricked on

Egged on, incited.

emulate

Competitive, rivalrous.

Dared … combat

Challenged to fight, one on one.

this side … world

I.e., all of Western Europe.

sealed

Confirmed by an official seal.

heraldry

The laws and pageant customs of chivalry.

Q2’s heraldy is either a variant spelling or copying error for Q1/F1’s heraldrie (Heraldrie).

those

Q2’s these may be an error corrected to those in Q1/F1, but both are intelligible.

seized of

Possessed of.

Q2’s seaz’d of is arguably more idiomatic than F1’s seiz’d on, which could be a copying error.

Against … King

In return for which a comparable portion of land was pledged by our King of Denmark.

which had returned

Which was to have been assigned.

F1’s which had return’d is preferred by most editors to Q2’s which had returne, an easy error for F1’s more plausible reading; but Q2’s reading is possible. Omitted in Q1.

cov’nant

Contractual agreement.

Q2’s comart is a hapax legomenon or word occurring only once in English, and may be an error for the more familiar Cou’nant in F1, but it is conceivably what Shakespeare first wrote. Omitted in Q1.

And … design[ed]

And intent of the contact in question.

Editors have generally preferred F2’s And … designed as flowing more plausibly than the reading in Q2/F1 (And … desseigne [designe]), but the Q2/F1 reading is possible. Omitted in Q1.

His … Hamlet

Old Fortinbras’s lands would have been transferred to old Hamlet.

Of … full

Full of untested fiery spirits.

skirts

Outskirts.

Sharked … landless resolutes

Rounded up a troop of restlessly ambitious younger sons and other gentry without landed title.

Q2’s lawlesse resolutes suggests instead a group of desperadoes. The F1 correction adopted here could be authorial.

For … in’t

To feed and supply a bold enterprise demanding appetite and raw courage for such a venture.

As … state

F1 treats this as a parenthetical remark, introduced by And. Q2’s As introduces an explanatory point. The F1 reading could be a copying error, but is intelligible. Omitted in Q1.

of us

From us.

compulsative

F1’s Compulsatiue is more or less equivalent to Q2’s compulsatory, but F1’s reading is metrically superior in the line, and may be an authorial choice. Omitted in Q1.

his father

The old King of Norway, now dead, brother of the present Fortinbras of Norway.

source

Motivation.

post-haste and rummage

Frenetic activity and bustle.

Arden 3 wonders if the Q2 spelling, Romeage, and that of F1, Romage, anticipate the following discussion (in Q2 only, however) of the most high and palmy state of Rome (line 117, TLN 124.6). Omitted in Q1.

I think … countrymen

These lines appear in Q2 only, not in F1 or Q1. The cut could have been to shorten the play for performance.

Well … sort that

That could well explain why.

question

Focus of contention.

mote

Speck of dust.

Q2’s moth is a common early modern spelling of mote.

palmy

Flourishing, prosperous, worthy to bear the palm in a conventional symbol of victory.

ere

Before.

Julius

Julius Caesar.

Caesar’s assassination in Rome on March 15, 44 BC, is dramatized in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, where the event is heralded by many of the same prodigious omens cited in these lines.

tenantless

Unoccupied.

sheeted

Shrouded in grave-clothes.

Just as, like (?).

Something may be missing here from the original text.

stars … blood

Comets and their trails drizzling blood.

Disasters

Unfavorable astrological signs or aspects.

the moist star

I.e., the moon, governess of tides.

Neptune’s empire stands

The sea depends.

Neptune is the Roman god of the sea.

Was … eclipse

The moon in eclipse was a foreboding sign of the day of Judgment and second coming of Christ predicted in Matthew 24.29 and Revelation 6.12.

And even … countrymen

And no less fearful predictions of frightening happenings, serving as prognostictors and prologues incessantly preceding the calamatous events that are fated to come, are the means by which heaven and earth together make manifest to our regions and peoples what they can expect.

feared

Q2’s feare could easily be a copying error for F1’s feared.

soft

I.e., gently, wait, hold on.

cross it

I.e., stand in its way, confront it; also, hold up a Christian cross in front of it (as Horatio may do here).

blast me

Strike or wither me with a curse.

It spreads his arms

His means its.

This stage direction is omitted in Q1/F1.

art privy to

Are possessed with secret knowledge of.

happily

Haply, perchance.

you

Q2’s your is possible as an indefinite pronoun, suggesting in your spirits the meaning “the sorts of spirits people talk about,” but the word in Q2 may be an easy error for you, the Q1/F1 reading.

The cock crows

Q2 introduces here this stage direction missing in Q1/F1.

strike at it

Q2’s it could easily be an error for F1’s at it, and F1 scans more smoothly, but Q2 is possible as it stands. Omitted in Q1.

partisan

Long-handled, broad-bladed spear.

Exit Ghost

This F1/Q1 stage direction is omitted in Q2. In Q1 it is placed two lines earlier than in F1.

started

Moved suddenly and violently.

trumpet

Trumpeter, herald.

morn

Q2 reads morne, Q1 morning. F1’s day is also possible, but may have been an anticipation of day in line 158.

the god of day

Eos or Aurora, goddess of the dawn.

extravagant and erring

Wandering, unrestrained.

hies

Hastens.

probation

Proof.

say

F1’s sayes may be an error for Q2’s say.

ever ’gainst

Just before.

The bird of dawning

The rooster.

Q2’s This and Q1/F1’s The are more or less interchangeable here.

can walk

Q2’s dare sturre, F1’s can walke, and Q1’s dare walke are more or less equally plausible. F1’s version may be authorial, though not certainly so.

no planets strike

No planets exert their baleful influence.

Q1 reads no planet srikes.

takes

Bewitches.

Q1/Q2’s takes, though rarely used without an object (Arden 3), seems more plausible than F1’s talkes, which could be a misprint.

charm

Cast a spell, enchant.

gracious

Suffused with divine grace.

that

F1’s the might possibly be an authorial revision, but it is also plausibly a weaker copying substitute for Q1/Q2’s more concrete that.

russet

Reddish brown.

eastward

Q2’s Eastward and F1’s Easterne are more or less interchangeable. Some editors (e.g., Oxford) prefer F1 as potentially an authorial revision, but it could be a copying error. Q1 reads mountaine top for eastward (eastern) hill.

Let’s

F1’s Let is presumably a transcription error for Q1/Q2’s Lets.

conveniently

Q2’s conuenient is an acceptable form of the adverb in early modern English, but Q1/F1’s conueniently makes for an equally acceptable iambic pentameter line and may represent the author’s preference.

[1.2]

Location: A room of state in the castle.

Flourish

A trumpet fanfare announcing the arrival of royalty, etc.

Q2’s entry SD begins with a Florish not mentioned in F1 or Q1, spells the Queen’s name Gertrad (often Gertrard elsewhere), and specifies Cum Alijs, with others, to cover the Lords Attendant included, along with his [Laertes’s] Sister Ophelia, in F1’s SD. Q1 names Corambis as the equivalent of Polonius, names the two Ambassadors, and specifies with Attendants.

our

My.

The royal we, seen also in lines 2, 3, 6, 7 (ourselves), 8, 10, etc.

sometime

Former.

F1’s sometimes is an alternate spelling. Q1 omits the first sixteen of this scene in Q2/F1.

imperial jointress

Joint possessor of the throne.

F1’s of offers what may be a more precise meaning than Q2’s to, and could be authorial. Omitted in Q1.

With one … one dropping eye

With one eye smiling and the other tear-stained and lowered in grief.

Q2’s With an auspicious, and a dropping eye is more or less equivalent in meaning to F1’s With one Auspicious, and one Dropping eye. F1’s version is plausibly though not certainly authorial. Omitted in Q1.

dole

Sorrow.

Your better wisdoms

The sage advice of you elders and statesmen (like Polonius).

have freely … along

Have freely given consent to this marriage.

Now … know

You need to be aware of the following circumstances.

In Q2/F1, knowe is followed by no punctuation mark. An editorially added colon seems useful to the sense. F1, with a comma after followes, may suggest Now it follows from what’s been said that you know already about Fortinbras. Omitted in Q1.

a weak … worth

A low estimate of our power and authority.

late

Recent.

disjoint … frame

Totally disordered.

Co-leaguèd with this … advantage

Combined with this illusory dream of his having us at a disadvantage.

F1’s the dream could be authorial, but Q2’s this dream is more deictically specific, and F1’s reading could be a copying or compositorial error. Omitted in Q1.

Importing

Concerning, signifying.

with … bonds of law

well ratified by law and heraldry, as Horatio put it at 1.1.91, TLN 104.

Q2’s bands means the same as F1’s Bonds and may be a simple spelling variant. Omitted in Q1.

impotent and bed-rid

Wasted by disease and confined to bed.

to suppress … subject

I.e., insisting that the Norwegian king put an end to Fortinbras’s proceeding any further in this business, since the raising of troops and supplies is all made up out of the King of Norway’s subjects (and are therefore at his disposal for military purposes, not young Fortinbras’s). (The lists means The roster of the troops levied.)

gait

Q2/F1 print gate.

For bearers

To serve as bearers.

Q2’s For bearers is a better reading than F1’s For bearing, which may be a copying error.

dilated

Expanded, set out at length; but if the word is meant to be delated (Q2’s spelling), it would mean “offered for your acceptance, presented to you as herein limited and defined.”

Q1 reads related.

let … duty

Let your swift carrying out of my command give testimony of your dutiful obedience.

nothing

Not in the slightest.

Exeunt … Cornelius

This stage direction, taken from F1 (Exit Voltemand and Cornelius), is omitted in Q1/Q2.

the Dane

The Danish king.

lose your voice

Waste your speech.

F1 prints loose your voyce.

That … asking

I.e., That I will offer almost before you ask.

native

Closely related.

instrumental … mouth

Useful in carrying out what is verbally commanded.

Dread my lord

My awe-inspiring lord and master.

F1’s Dread my Lord may be an authorial substitution for Q2’s My dread Lord. Q1 reads My gratious Lord.

leave and favor

Gracious permission.

And … pardon

And submissively ask your gracious permission and forgiveness for my having asked such a favor.

H’ath

He has.

Q2’s Hath represents a contraction of He hath to facilitate scansion. F1’s He hath (also in Q1) may be a copyist’s or compositor’s sophistication.

wrung … consent

This Q2 passage is omitted in F1 and reads quite differently in Q1.

I sealed … consent

I gave my reluctant consent, as though affixing a seal to a document of approval.

Take … hour

Seize your opportunity while there is still time, while you are young.

And … will

And may you spend your time guided by your best qualities and inclinations.

cousin

Anyone related by blood or kinship but not of the immediate family.

A little … kind

I.e., Involved in a family relationship that is at once too close and yet lacking in loving affection.

Kind puns on the ideas of (1) blood relationship and (2) kindly feeling. The line is often spoken as an aside, though not necessarily.

Not so

F1’s Not so is metrically better than Q2’s Not so much, and avoids the chiming repetition of Q2’s Not so much … too much. F1 is generally viewed as authorial here. Omitted in Q1.

too much i’th’ sun

I.e., (1) too closely related as step-son to Claudius (2) too much in the sunshine of royal favor.

Q2 reads in the sonne; F1 reads i’th'Sun. Omitted in Q1.

nighted color

(1) dark mourning garments (2) melancholy.

F1’s nightly colour is perfectly intelligible and could be an authorial revision, but could perhaps be instead a sophistication by a copyist or compositor puzzled by the more striking and unusual nighted of Q2. Omitted in Q1.

Denmark

The King of Denmark.

vailèd lids

Lowered eyelids.

common

(1) a common occurrence (2) as Hamlet uses the term in line 74, vulgar, disgusting.

particular

Personal.

good mother

Q2’s cold mother (coold mother in the original) is perhaps intelligible, but Hamlet is not likely to accuse his mother publicly of lack of feeling, and F1’s good is a sensible correction of what may be a typographical error in Q2.

customary

Traditional on a mourning occasion.

suspiration

Sighing.

fruitful river

Abundance of tears.

havior

Expression.

moods

Outward manifestations of feeling.

shapes

Q2’s chapes may be a variant spelling or copying error for shapes. F1’s shewes, shows, could be authorial, or it could be a somewhat less vivid substitute in copying for Q2’s puzzling chapes. Omitted in Q1.

denote

Q2’s deuote seems clearly to be an easy typographical error for denote, the F1 reading. Omitted in Q1.

passeth

Q2’s passes is interchangeable with F1’s passeth. Shakespeare may have preferred the latter in the F1 text, though it could also be a sophistication by copyist or compositor.

trappings

Outward decorative signs.

That father lost

That father who is now dead.

obsequious

Appropriate to obsequies or funerals.

persever

This Q2/F1 spelling captures the accent needed on the second syllable. Omitted in Q1.

condolement

Grieving, lamentation.

unfortified

Insufficiently armed against adversity.

a mind

The Q2 reading, or minde, is intelligible, but F1’s a Minde may well represent authorial revision or correction. Omitted in Q1.

simple

Ignorant.

For … to sense

For since everything that happens to us must be as common as the most ordinary experience.

still

Continually, always.

the first corpse

The body of the first human ever to have died, Abel.

The murder of Abel at the hands of his brother Cain, depicted in Genesis 4, is the first recorded death in the Bible after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden for their having disobeyed God. Q2’s course and F1’s Coarse are variant spellings of corse, corpse. Omitted in Q1.

unprevailing

Profitless.

most immediate

Next in succession.

For

As for.

Wittenberg

The German city on the River Elbe, home to the famous university where in 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Schlosskirke, in what is conventionally regarded as the opening salvo of the Protestant Reformation. See also TLN 301. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus represents its protagonist as having studied and taught at Wittenberg.

retrograde

Contrary.

Q2 prints retrogard.

bend you

Yield to our wishes.

courtier, cousin

F1 reads Courtier Cosin. The lack of a comma after Courtier could suggest a compound idea, courtier-cousin, but is more probably a simple misprint for Q2’s courtier, cosin.

lose her prayers

Fail to achieve the thing she prays for.

Q2 prints loose her prayers.

pray thee

F1’s prythee could be an authorial correction of Q2’s pray thee, but could instead be an editorial sophistication.

in all my best

To the best of my ability.

Hamlet pointedly replies to his mother, not to the King. He uses the formal you rather than thee, as was appropriate in addressing a parent.

Be as ourself

Enjoy the privileges and status of royalty. (The plural ourself indicates the royal plural; it means myself, I as king.) The King invites Hamlet to enjoy the same privileges as the King himself.

Sits smiling to

Pleases.

grace

Honor.

jocund

Cheerful, merry, joyful.

Denmark

The King of Denmark, Claudius.

Hamlet’s disapproval of heavy drinking among the Danes as a custom / More honored in the breath than the observance, in 1.4.15 ff., is directed particularly at Claudius, who uses any public ceremony as the opportunity to raise a toast. Drinking is emblematic of his worldly covetousness.

tell

Sound, announce.

The firing of artillery is to mark the occasion, as at 1.4.6 ff.

rouse

Bout of drinking, ceremonial toast.

F1 prints Rouce, presumably a spelling variant of Q2’s rowse.

heavens

F1’s Heauens may be an authorial correction of Q2’s heauen.

bruit again

Loudly echo.

Respeaking earthly thunder

Echoing our cannon.

Perhaps trumpets and kettledrums are to sound also, as at 1.4.6 ff. and 5.2.282.

Flourish … Hamlet

This is Q2’s stage direction. F1 reads Exeunt. Manet Hamlet. Q1 reads Exeunt all but Hamlet.

solid

Q1/Q2’s sallied is possible as perhaps meaning “assailed, beseiged.” Solid, the F! reading, accords well with “melt” in this same line. Editors have sometimes emended to “sullied,” “contaminated, defiled.”

resolve

Dissolve.

the Everlasting

God.

canon

Divine law.

self-slaughter

Q2’s seale slaughter appears to be a typographical error in place of F1’s Selfe-slaughter.

Oh, God, God

Q2’s reading here may seem metrically superior to F1’s O God, O God, and F1’s reading could be a compositorial sophistication. On the other hand, Q2’s seale slaughter and, in the next line, wary for weary point to carelessness in the setting of these Q2 lines. In Q1, Hamlet twice exclaims O God in this soliloquy.

weary

Q2’s wary is an easy error for F1’s weary.

Seem

F1’s Seemes is a possible reading, since early modern usage allowed this use of the singular verb in agreement with a noun like All, and Shakespeare sometimes uses this pattern; but Q2’s Seeme is a more reliable reading, since the line of transmission to the printed page is more direct than in F1, and Seemes is an easy misprint for Seeme. Omitted in Q1.

uses

Customs, doings.

ah, fie

F1’s Oh, fie, fie could be authorial, or could be a sophistication of Q2’s ah fie.

rank and gross in nature

Offensively vigorous in growth and coarse in their very natures.

Proverbially, Weeds come forth on the fattest soil if it is untilled (Dent W241).

merely

Completely.

come to this

Q2’s reading, come thus, is possible in the sense of work out this way, but F1’s come to this seems better metrically and logically. Omitted in Q1.

two months

Hamlet may be exaggerating, for bitter effect, the brevity of interval between his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage; at 3.2.73 (TLN 2982) Ophelia insists to Hamlet that twice two months have passed since the death of his father. (Of course she says this later on, in Act 2, after the ambassadors have returned from Norway.) A few lines later in this present scene Hamlet reduces the interval still further, to within a month (lines 145-7, TLN 329-31).

to this

Compared to Claudius.

Hyperion

Titan sun-god in Greek mythology.

In Greek, Hyperion means “the high one.” He was one of the Titans, the son of Ge or Gaia (earth) and Uranus (the heavens), and brother of Cronos.

satyr

Lecherous half-goat, half-human deity of classical mythology.

F1 reads Satyre, Q2 satire. The satyr, a companion of Bacchus or Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, was half-human but typically with a goat’s legs, tail, ears, and horns. It was noted for its excessive sexual cravings and was habitually drunk (hence, in Hamlet’s mind, like Claudius).

might not beteem

Would not allow.

F1’s beteene is presumably a copying error for Q2’s beteeme.

would

Q2’s should implies admonition to be dutiful. The F1 reading, would, suggests habitual action, and is preferred by most editors.

As if … fed on

As if her desire and love for her husband was augmented by the intense pleasure of that love.

Cleopatra, in Antony and Cleopatra, 2.2.247-8, is similarly described by Enobarbus as a woman who makes hungry where most she satisfies.

within a month … A little month

Compare this interval of time with But two months dead at line 138 (TLN 322) above.

or ere

Even before.

Niobe

When Niobe boasted that her fourteen children outnumbered those of Leto, Leto’s children Apollo and Artemis slew all of Niobe’s children as a punishment for their mother’s hubris or pride. Turned by Zeus into a stone, Niobe never ceased her bitter tears, flowing as a spring from the rock. The story of Niobe and her children is told by (among others) Ovid in his Metamorphoses, 6.146-312.

why, she, even she—

F1’s repetition here, Why she, euen she, improves the line’s meter and seems authorial; Q2’s version (why she) could be the result of inadvertent omission.

God

F1’s substitution of Heauen for Q1/Q2’s God here may be in response to the Act to Restrain Abuses of Players, 1606. Also at 1.2.196 TLN 386) and 1.5.25 (TLN 709).

wants discourse of reason

Lacks the ability to reason.

Hercules

Hero of classical mythology noted for his twelve labors, deeds requiring Herculean strength.

F1’s of and Q2’s in are more or less interchangeable—whether authorially intended or an accident of transmission in F1 is hard to say.

gallèd

Inflamed, irritated.

post

Hasten.

incestuous

Judaeo-Christian tradition (see Leviticus 18.16 and 20.21), incorporated into the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, forbade a man to marry his brother’s wife’ as Claudius has done in this play, and, historically as Henry VIII had done by marrying his dead brother Arthur’s wife, Katharine of Aragon. As Arden 3 notes, Henry’s disavowal of his marriage to Katharine on the grounds that it was sinful (so that the marriage might be annulled and he be allowed to marry Anne Boleyn) was the precipitating event of the English break with Rome and the beginning of the English Reformation. Yet as Arden 3 also notes, Claudius and Gertrude, though burdened with many feelings of guilt and remorse, do not include incest in the list of things for which they are sorry.

Enter … Barnardo

This is the Q2 stage direction. F1 reads Enter Horatio, Barnard, and Marcellus. Q1 reads Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

or I do … myself

I.e., I know you as well as I know myself.

Hamlet, distracted and unhappy, does not recognize at first that Horatio is among those who have just entered and whom he initially greets with the conventional formula, I am glad to see you well. Compare today’s formulaic How are you?

change that name with you

Share and exchange mutually the name of friend with you, rather than having you address me as your master. If anything, I am your servant.

make you from

Are you doing away from.

See also TLN 356. As Arden 3 observes, the text does not explain how Hamlet could have failed to note the presence of Horatio at the funeral and marriage, nor does it explain how Horatio could be so knowledgeable about court politics in Denmark when he has been at Wittenberg with Hamlet.

Marcellus … to see you

Hamlet, realizing that in his excitement at seeing Horatio he has not observed the social niceties of greeting the others who have just arrived, repairs that little slip by welcoming Marcellus by name and then Barnardo with Good even, sir, before returning to his question to Horatio.

have

Q2’s heare and F1’s haue are equally plausible. The F1 reading could be authorial, or it could be a misprint or miscopying.

Nor … yourself

Nor will I trust my own ears if they tell me you are calling yourself a truant, a delinquent.

to drink deep

Q2’s for to drinke is acceptable Elizabethan English, but F1’s to drinke deepe may be an authorial revision. Omitted in Q1.

to see

The absence of see in Q2, a word necessary for the sense and present in Q1/F1, is no doubt a simple omission.

hard upon

Quickly afterwards.

The funeral … tables

The food left uneaten from the funeral banquet, including meat pies and pastries, provided cold leftovers for the marriage festivities. A bitterly satiric exaggeration, as Arden 3 notes. Even Hamlet has admitted that a month has elapsed between the two events (lines 145-7 above, TLN 329-31), and that his father is But two months dead (line 138, TLN 322), while Ophelia later avers at 3.2.73 (TLN 2982) that twice two months have passed since the death of the old king.

dearest

Direst, most hated, bitterest.

Ere I had ever

F1’s Ere I had euer, equivalent in meaning to Q2’s Or euer I had, may be an authorial change, even though Q2 is intelligible as it stands. Q1 reads Ere euer I had.

Oh, where

The Oh in F1’s Oh where, omitted in Q2, could be an interpolation or an authorial change. Q1’s Where tends to support the reading of Q2.

’A

He.

See also TLN 376.He, the commonly used form in Q1/F1, is probably a sophistication of the colloquial form (a) in Q2.

yesternight

Last night.

Season your admiration

Moderate your astonishment.

attent

Attentive.

God’s

F1’s Heauens is presumably an expurgation to avoid the blasphemy in Q2’s Gods.

dead waste

Lifeless desolation.

Perhaps with a pun in waste on waist, middle. Q1’s vast has appealed to some editors as suggesting a huge empty space. Both Q2 and F1 read wast.

Armed at all points

Provided with weapons in every detail.

Q2’s Armed at point conveys the same meaning as F1’s Armed at all points, which may be an authorial change.

cap-à-pie

From head to foot.

Q2 reads Capapea, Q1 Capapa, F1 Cap a Pe. From old French cap-a-pie; in modern French de pied en cap (Arden 3).

slow

Slowly.

stately by them. Thrice

F1’s punctuation (stately: By them thrice) is possible, but may be a misprint for Q2’s more plausible stately by them; thrice …

fear-surprisèd eyes

Eyes that show sudden surprise and fear.

truncheon’s

A truncheon is a military officer’s baton or staff, a sign of his office.

distilled

Editors generally prefer Q2’s distil’d to F1’s bestil’d, which could be an easy copying error.

act

Effect.

dreadful

Full of dread, dread-inspired.

Where, as

Q2/F1 both read Whereas, an easy copying error.

These hands … like

These two hands of mine are not more like each other than this apparition was like your father.

platform

Battlements of the castle.

watched

Stood watch.

F1’s watcht is certainly plausible as referring to the previous night, and is perhaps confirmed by Q1’s watched, but Q2’s watch also makes good sense.

it head

Its head. (It head is the older, uninflected genitive form.)

Its is more common in Shakespeare, but the correction to its in Q4 has no authority. F1, like Q2, reads it; Q1 reads his.

did address … speak

Moved in such a way as to suggest that it was about to speak.

even

Just.

writ down in our duty

Prescribed in the duty we owe you.

Indeed, indeed

The repetition, Indeed, indeed in Q1/F1 is, in the opinion of Arden 2, an actor’s interpolation, like Very like, very like at line 241 (TLN 435) below, but in both instances the repetition may suggest a verbal trait of the speaker. The second indeed in Q1/F1 improves the metrical pentameter line. Q2 reads Indeede.

All

I.e., Marcellus, Barnardo, and Horatio.

See also TLNs 422 and 424. F1’s Both in these lines points to Marcellus and Barnardo as those who respond here, without Horatio, who then steps in at line 232, TLN 426, but Q2’s All is confirmed by Q1. The differences here could point to changes in stage production at different times.

Then … face?

The hypothetical statement in Q2, ending in a (faint) period, ends with a question mark in Q1/F1.

beaver

Visor on the helmet.

What looked he, frowningly?

How did he look? Frowningly? Did it appear that he was frowning?

F1’s What, lookt he frowningly? interprets What as an exclamation. Q1 reads How look’t he, frowningly?

countenance

Expression.

I would

I wish.

Very like, very like

Very likely.

The repetition, Very like, very like in Q1/F1 is, in the opinion of Arden 2, an actor’s interpolation, like Indeed, indeed at line 225 (TLN 418), but the pattern may also suggest insistency, and the Q1/F1 reading could be authorial.

tell

Count.

hundred

Q2’s hundreth is a common early modern spelling of hundred.

Both

I.e., Marcellus and Barnardo.

Q2’s Both seems preferable here to F1’s All, since Horatio disagrees in the next line with the guards’ estimate of time. Q1 assigns to Marcellus alone, which is perfectly possible.

grizzled, no?

Grey or mingled with grey, was it not? (expecting an affirmative answer.)

F1’s grisly? No. is possible as an alternative spelling and punctuation of grissly, no?, meaning “grizzled, was it not” (but not grisly, “inspiring horror or disgust”). Q1’s grisleld, no. tends to confirm Q2’s grissl’d, no.

sable silvered

Black sprinkled with silver-grey.

The sable, prized then and now for its fur, is a carnivorous weasel-like mammal.

watch

Stand watch.

walk

Q2’s walke, confirmed by Q1, seems right, even though F1’s wake is possible in the sense of be awake in the night.

warr’nt

Guarantee.

Q2’s spelling, warn’t, indicates pronunciation in one syllable, as called for in the scansion as arranged in Q2. F1’s warrant you may be part of the rearrangement of the lineation, in which I’le watch … walke againe is a single verse line, as it is not in Q2. This is perhaps more likely to be a rationalization by a copyist or compositor rather than by the author. Q1 reads warrant.

hold my peace

Be silent.

tenable

Able to be held.

F1’s treble is perhaps possible in the sense of trebly, invoking a threefold obligation to remain silent, but Q2’s tenable is more plausible, and is confirmed by Q1’s tenible.

whatsomever

Whatsoever.

Q1/F1’s whatsoeuer is actually the preferred form in Shakespeare’s printed texts, but Q2’s whatsomeuer is also used and appears to be the original spelling here; whatsoeuer could be the Q1/F1 compositors’ following of printing house practice.

requite

Repay.

you

F1’s ye, here and elsewhere, may represent compositorial practice. Q1/Q2 print you.

eleven

Q2 reads a leauen.

Exeunt

The placement of this stage direction here is thus indicated in Q1/Q2/F1, before Hamlet says your loves, as mine to you. Farewell. Presumably he says this to them as they are leaving.

Your loves … to you

I.e., I accept your duty as love, and I pledge my love to you in that same sense. Compare Hamlet’s insistence at line 163 above (TLN 350) on exchanging mutually the name of friend with Horatio rather than allowing Horatio to speak of himself as Hamlet’s servant. Your loues, in Q2 at TLN 455, seems addressed to all the men (compare Your loue in F1), as indicated in the speech headings All in Q2/F1; so too with you in TLN 451, where F1 has ye. F1’s shift to the singular in these two instances seems out of keeping with you in TLN 451 and 453 in F1 and Q2.

doubt

Suspect, fear.

Foul

Q2’s fonde can be defended as meaning “foolish or mad,” but is more plausibly a simple misreading of Q1/F1’s foule.

[1.3]

Location: Polonius’s apartment in the castle, or some place nearby.

Enter Laertes, and Ophelia his sister.

Q1/F1 omit his sister.

embarked

Loaded on board a sailing vessel.

Spelled inbarked in Q1/Q2 and imbark’t in F1. The means of travel from the Danish court to Paris is perhaps unclear, but travel by water to Le Havre in France or indeed further upstream on the River Seine would lessen the need for a difficult and dangerous land journey. Laertes assumes too, in the following lines, that letters to and from his sister will travel by water.

Whenever.

And convoy is assistant, do

And as means of transportation are available, do.

F1’s And Conuoy is assistant; doe may be an authorial revision of Q2’s seemingly erroneous And conuay, in assistant doe. Q2’s conuay is possible, but probably a misprint for F1’s Conuoy.

But let

Without letting.

For … favor

As for Hamlet and the attentions he pays you, which must be regarded as trifing.

F1’s favours and Q2’s favour are equally plausible. F1 might be an authorial change or a result of copying.

a fashion … blood

A passing fancy prompted by sexual attraction.

A violet … primy nature

I.e., Natural impulses in the springtime of their vigor.

Forward

Insistent, eagerly pulsating, early-blooming and soon to fade.

F1’s Froward might possibly mean “ungovernable,” but is more likely a misprint or variant spelling for Q2’s Forward.

The perfume … minute

Something sweet to supply the pleasures of a moment.

Q2’s The perfume and suppliance of a minute gives an example of hendiadys, a figure of speech in which two usually independent words are connected by and rather than having one modify the other. F1’s reading of this line, The suppliance of a minute? may feature an unintentional omission of perfume and, to the detriment of the scansion. Lineation here follows Q2.

No more but so?

Printed as a statement ending in a period in the early texts, but plausibly a question.

For nature … withal

For all living creatures (especially humans), as they mature, grow not in physical strength alone, but as the body ages the inner qualities of mind and soul develop also. (Thews are sinews. Inward service is the inner life.)

Laertes seems to be warning Ophelia that as Hamlet grows older, his interests may change. Q2/F1 print cressant for crescent. Omitted in Q1.

bulk

Bulk.

The plural form of Q2’s bulkes may have been picked up in error from thewes previously in the line. F1’s Bulke is plausibly authorial.

this temple

The body, temple of the soul.

Q2’s this temple refers to the body; F1’s his would seem grammatically to refer back to nature, a possible reading but less clear, and his would be an easy misprint for this.

soil nor cautel

Stain or deceit.

The virtue of his will

The sincerity of his desires and intentions.

F1’s The vertue of his feare is almost certainly an erroneous copying of Q2’s The vertue of his will, prompted by the copyist’s eyeskip to feare at the end of the line. This is the last line on Folio page 115.

His greatness weighed

When his royal rank is taken into consideration.

For … birth

This line is omitted in Q2, probably inadvertently. The idea somewhat repeats that of the previous line, but the omission could have been an error.

unvalued persons

Persons of ordinary social standing.

Carve for himself

Help himself to the choicest morsel of the roast, i.e., choose for himself.

To be one’s own carver is a proverbial phrase (Dent C110).

safety

F1’s sanctity is a possible reading. It is sometimes emended to sanity, which fits well with health. Q2’s safety is more secure as a reading.

the whole

F1’s the could be an authorial correction of Q2’s this, or could be an editorial sophistication. F1’s weole is presumably a misprint for Q2’s whole.

voice and yielding

Expressed opinion and consent.

that body

The body politic, the state.

in his particular act and place

In the particular circumstances to which he is restricted by his high station.

F1 reads in his peculiar Sect and force, i.e., in his particular rank and power, a possible reading but less convincing than Q2. Editors disagree in choosing between Q2 and F1.

May … deed

May do as he promises.

Than … withal

Than general opinion in Denmark will go along with.

Cf. the proverb Saying and doing are two things (Dent S119).

weigh

Q2 prints way. F1 reads weigh.

credent

Credulous, trusting.

list

Listen to.

lose

Q2’s loose may simply be a common variant spelling of F1’s lose, but could suggest the loosening of moral restraints.

unmastered importunity

Uncontrolled urgency of desire.

And keep within … desire

I.e., Don’t let your passionate feelings lead you where you will be vulnerable to his amorous assaults.

A military metaphor. A shot is the range of a weapon, such as a gun or bow and arrow. Q2’s you in make fine sense, but F1’s within could be an authorial revision.

The chariest … Virtue … The canker

Q2 introduces these three lines with quotation marks, suggesting their proverbial nature.

chariest

Most modest.

is prodigal … moon

Is taking enough of a risk if she merely expose herself to the chaste moon.

The moon (Diana, Artemis, Phoebe), as a symbol of chaste affection, was widely associated with Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabethan ladies were careful to mask themselves from the sun; Ophelia is being urged to be even more cautious than that.

scapes

The aphetic form of escapes.

calumnious

Slanderous.

The canker … spring

The cankerworm injures the budding flowers of springtime.

before their buttons be disclosed

Before their buds are open.

F1’s the may be a misprint for Q2’s their.

in … youth

In the early time of life, a time that has the freshness and innocence of the dew-sprinkled dawn.

blastments

Blightings.

Youth … near

Youth yields to the rebellion of the flesh without any outside promptings.

watchman to my heart

Guardian over my affections.

F1’s watchmen could refer plurally to the various points Laertes has made, but it may instead be a simple copying error for Q2’s watchman.

ungracious

Ungodly, lacking in spiritual grace.

Whilst, like a

F1’s Whilst like a improves the metrical cadence and clarifies the meaning of Q2’s Whiles a. The missing like in Q2 could easily be an error of omission.

puffed

Bloated or swollen (presumably with the arrogance of youth).

recks … rede

Pays no heed to his own best advice.

Q2 reads reakes … reed. F1 reads reaks … reade.

Enter Polonius

The Q2 text, adopted here, places this entrance before Laertes says, Oh, fear me not. In F1 the entrance follows that line. The F1 arrangement is logical enough, suggesting that Laertes is then prompted by his father’s entrance to say I stay too long. But on the large Elizabethan stage actors often enter a bit early to give them time to reach the other actors already on stage, and the overlap can be meaningful as the audience hears what the entering actor does not yet hear. Q2’s providing a speech prefix for Laertes’s Oh, fear me not seems necessary only because the line occurs after the entrance. Q1 delays the entrance until Corambis, the Q1 equivalent of Polonius, is about to speak. Some editors choose to have Polonius enter before I stay too long. Capell prefers to see the entrance after But here my father comes. All are possible stagings.

fear me not

Don’t worry about me.

In some recent productions, Laertes is cutting off his sister by saying this; he doesn’t need a lecture from her, even if he has just taken it upon himself to inform her of her duty to self, family, and God.

A double … leave

The goddess Occasion or Opportunity has smiled upon me by provided me the chance to say goodbye to my father a second time and thereby receive from him a second blessing.

In some modern productions, Laertes (and his sister too) are both rather put off by their father’s tedious moralizing. If so, Laertes’s speech here is tinged with irony; he thinks he’s already been through the business of saying goodbye to his father.

The wind … sail

I.e., You have a following wind now, so don’t delay.

your … you

Polonius’s use of the more formal pronoun you here has the effect of suggesting that the readiness of the wind for departure applies to Laertes and others on the vessel. Polonius shifts to the intimate thee as he bestows his blessing and throughout his speech of advice to his son (though F1 does read my blessing with you, perhaps influenced by the earlier uses of you).

you are stayed for. There, my blessing

You are being waited for on board. There now, take my blessing.

Presumably Polonius gestures, perhaps by laying his hands on the head of his kneeling son, or an embrace, or a pat on the shoulder. F1’s you are staid for there: my blessing suggests instead, you are being waited for there, on board. Take my blessing. Editors generally favor the Q2 reading, you are stayed for, there my blessing.

See thou character

See to it that you inscribe.

Q2’s Looke makes perfect sense, but F1’s See may be an authorial revision.

Nor … act

And do not act upon any thought that is inadequately thought through or miscalculated.

Be … vulgar

Be sociable but not indiscriminate in your social dealings.

Those friends

F1’s The friends, though perfectly intelligible, could be an error in transmission for Q2’s Those friends.

and their adoption tried

And their suitability as potential companions having been tested and screened.

F1’s to scans better than Q2’s vnto, and may be authorial.

hoops of steel

Metal hoops such as would be used to hold together the sides of a barrel.

dull thy palm

I.e., shake hands so often as to make the gesture essentially meaningless.

entertainment

Greeting with a handshake.

new-hatched, unfledged

Newly hatched in the nest and still unable to fly.

F1 reads vnhatch’t, vnfleg’d. Q2 reads new hatcht vnfledgd. Q1 reads vnfledgd. The prefix vn in F1’s vnhatch’t oould have been an erroneous anticipation of the following prefix vn in vnpledg’d, thereby misreading Q2’s new hatcht.

comrade

F1’s Comrade offers an easy meaning, even though Q2’s courage is confirmed by Q1, and, as Arden 3 points out, the u in courage could easily have been misread as m in Elizabethan handwriting.

Bear’t that th’opposèd

Manage the business so that your adversary.

censure

Opinion, judgment.

reserve thy judgment

Do not abandon your own opinion of what is said.

habit

Clothing, dress.

fancy

Extravagant fashion.

For … man

We are what we wear.

Are of all … in that

Are of all people the most refined in manners and in choosing what to wear.

Q2’s Or of a and Q1/F1’s Are of a both seem in need of emendation. Many editors choose Are of all. F1 reads cheff for Q1/Q2’s chiefe.

Q2’s boy seems altogether less likely than F1’s be, and could be an easy misprint, but possibly Polonius could be addressing Laertes this way while omitting the understood verb.

loan

Q2’s loue is certainly less persuasive than F1’s lone, i.e., “loan,” and a confusing of these two words is easy.

loses

Q2 reads looses, often a variant spelling of F1’s loses.

dulleth

F1’s duls the is certainly plausible, and could be authorial, but it could instead by a compositorial sophistication of Q2’s dulleth.

husbandry

Thrift.

My … thee

May my blessing enable my advice to mature and ripen in your mind.

invites

Q2’s inuests is possible in the sense of “besieges, presses upon,” or “make an investment in,” but F1’s inuites seems more plausible and may be authorial.

tend

Attend, are waiting.

touching

Concerning.

Marry

I.e., By the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.)

well bethought

Appropriately thought of; I’m glad you mentioned that.

audience

Hearing, attention.

put on me

Presented or suggested to me.

understand yourself

Appreciate your situation.

behooves

Befits.

honor

Reputation.

tenders

Offers.

green

Inexperienced.

Unsifted

Untried.

I’ll

Q2’s I will is corrected to Ile in F1. The alteration could be authorial, or editorial sophistication.

his

Q2’s these and F1’s his are equally plausible. The alteration could be authorial, or it could be editorial sophistication or miscopying. Compare his in the same phrase three lines earlier.

sterling

Lawful currency.

F1 prints starling, Q2 sterling.

Tender … dearly

(1) Take better care of yourself; (2) Hold out for a better bargain, i.e., marriage.

not to crack … thus

I.e., if I may use a metaphor from horsemanship, at the risk of running it so hard that it is broken-winded.

Running

Q2’s Wrong can make sense if emended to Pope’s Wronging. F1’s Roaming lends itself to Collier’s emendation, Running. Warburton proposes Wringing. Running applies well to the metaphor of running a horse until it is broken-winded.

tender … fool

(1) make me look foolish, and yourself as well; (2) present me with a grandchild. (The word fool could be applied to babies, often endearingly.)

fashion

Mere form, conventional flattery. (Playing on Ophelia’s fashion in the previous line in the more usual sense of manner.)

Go to, go to

I.e., What nonsense. (An expression of impatient dismissal.)

F1 prints go too, go too.

countenance

Authority, confirmation.

With almost all the holy vows of heaven

F1’s slight abbreviation in with all the vowes of Heauen may possibly have been dictated by F1’s awkward re-lineation.

springes … woodcocks

Traps to catch proverbially gullible birds.

Cf. Dent F626, The fowler is caught in his own net, and Laertes’s similar reference to the woodcock caught in its own springe or trap at 5.2.226 (TLN 3783) below. Q2’s springs may be a spelling variant for F1’s springes.

When … Lends the tongue vows

When passionate desire rages, how prodigally the soul prompts the tongue to promise anything to the desired person.

Q2’s Lends and F1’s Giues are similar in meaning. F1’s reading could be authorial choice or a copyist’s substitution; perhaps it erroneously anticipates Giuing in the next line.

extinct … a-making

Lacking any real feeling or warmth of affection from the very first moment of the promise-making.

take

Mistake.

From this time, daughter

F1 reads For for Q2’s from, and adds Daughter to the end of this line, plausibly enough but somewhat unmetrically, and perhaps mistakenly picking up the last word of line 118 (TLN 583). On the other hand, Polonius is much given to verbal repetitions of this sort.

something

Somewhat.

F1’s somewhat may be authorial, but it might instead be a compositor’s or copyist’s sophistication or misreading for Q2’s something.

Set your entreatments … parley

Do not offer to surrender your chastity simply because he has requested a meeting to discuss terms.

Q2 reads intreatments. Parle in Q2 is a common form of parley, the form printed in F1.

For

As for.

so much in him

This much concerning him.

tether

Q2 prints tider, F1 tether.

In few

In brief.

brokers

Go-betweens, solicitors.

Not of that dye … show

Not truly of the color that their garments seem to show. (The vows are not what they seem.)

F1’s the eye may be a misprint for Q2’s that die, i.e., dye, meaning much the same as in F1 but with a clearer image. Most editors prefer the Q2 reading as the more reliable. F1 could easily be a copying error of confusing d with e in secretary hand.

implorators

Solicitors.

F1’s implorators and Q2’s imploratotors, i.e., imploratators, presumably mean the same thing. Presumed derivation from the now-obsolete French implorateurs would seem to militate against imploratators, which the OED does not recognize as a separate word.

Breathing

Speaking.

bawds

Although Theobald’s widely adopted emendation of Q2/F1’s bonds to bawds aptly continues the metaphor of brokers and implorators, Arden 3 retains bonds, noting the link to vows and suits in the previous four lines.

beguile

Q2’s beguide is authoritatively corrected to beguile in F1.

This is for all

This is once for all; I don’t want to have to say it again.

slander any moment leisure

Abuse any moment’s leisure (or any occasion).

Come your ways

Come along.

[1.4]

Location: The battlements or rampart walls of the castle.

shrewdly

Keenly, sharply.

Q2’s shroudly is perhaps an inviting reading, but could well be a copying error for F1’s shrewdly. Q1 reads shrewd.

it is very cold.

F1 poses this as a question: is it very cold? Probably this is a misprint for Q2’s it is very colde.

It is a nipping

Q2’s It is nipping, without the article a, can mean “It is very cold,” but the rhythm of F1’s It is a nipping seems more metrical and convincing.

eager

Biting, keen, sharp.

From French aigre, sour.

lacks of

Is just short of.

It then

F1’s then it may be a deliberate rewriting of Q2’s it then or else a miscopying; see a similar possible dislectic metathesis in note 1.4.1 above.

season

Time.

held his wont

Was accustomed.

pieces

I.e., of cannon, ordnance.

This Q2 stage direction is omitted in F1. Q1 prints Sound Trumpets at line 4.

doth wake

Revels into the night.

takes his rouse

Carouses.

Keeps wassail … reels

Drinks many toasts and drunkenly reels his way through a lively German dance called the upspring.

Perhaps the dance itself is imagined to be performed with drunken reeling or staggering. F1’s wassels (i.e., wassails) is possibly an intentional rewriting of Q2’s wassell in the singular, or may just be a result of miscopying. The difference in meaning of the two texts here is not material.

Rhenish

Rhine wine.

bray … pledge

Raucously celebrate his draining the cup in his many celebratory toasts.

marry

I.e., by the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.)

As at 1.3.9, TLN 556.

But

Q2’s But and F1’s And both make sense. F1’s reading may be an authorial choice, though it could instead be a mistaken anticipation of the same word in the next line.

to the manner born

Having a lifelong familiarity with this custom.

More … observance

Better neglected than followed.

This … scandal

This Q2 passage is omitted in Q1/F1, perhaps to shorten for performance, though some editors argue that the passage may have been judged to be expendable because it slows down the action.

This … nations

This drunken reveling causes us to be defamed and censored everywhere (east and west) by all other nations.

Q2’s reueale is presumably intended for revel.

clepe

Call.

Q2’s clip is presumably intended for clepe.

and with … addition

And tarnish our reputation by calling us swine.

Compare the proverb, As drunk as a swine (Dent S1042).

though performed at height

No matter how outstandingly performed.

The pith … attribute

The very essence of the reputation we should enjoy.

for … in them

Because of some inborn vicious inclination in them.

birth

The qualities bestowed on them by their parents and ancestors.

his

Its.

By the o’ergrowth … complexion

I.e., By one element of our constitution gaining undue dominance over the others.

Pope plausibly emends Q2’s their o-ergrow’th to the overgrowth.

pales

Palisades, barrier fences, serving as a fortification.

o’erleavens … manners

I.e., prompts excessive behavior, thereby corrupting what would otherwise be acceptable and pleasing manners (much as too much yeast causes excessive swelling in the dough).

Being … star

Being the result of an inborn condition or a gift of Fortune, goddess of chance.

Whether Nature and Fortune exerted the larger influence on human life was a favorite debating topic in the Renaissance.

His virtues else

Such a person’s virtues in other respects.

Pope emended His virtues to Their virtues, to agree grammatically with particular men, them, their, they, and these men in line 25-32, but Elizabethan usage gave Shakespeare a certain degree of flexibility in such matters.

undergo

Sustain.

Shall … corruption

Shall in the court of public opinion acquire a misconstrued reputation.

The dram … scandal

I.e., The tiny amount (literally, one eighth of an ounce) of evil qualities often blots or brings disrepute upon the noble substance of the whole. (To dout is to extinguish, blot out.)

A famously difficult passage, obscured by cruxes. Q2’s eale is often emended to evil and of a doubt to often dout, as it is in the present text. Oxford emends Q2’s of a doubt to over-daub. Possibly the sentence is incomplete owing to the entrance of the Ghost.

Angels … us

May angels who minister grace defend us!

Be thou … damned

Whether you are a good angel or a demon.

Bring … blasts

Whether you bring gentle breezes from heaven or pestilent gusts.

Be thy intents

Whether your intentions are.

F1’s euents is very probably an error for Q2’s intents.

F1’s doubling of Q2’s Oh into Oh, oh, could be an actor’s interpolation. Q2 scans better.

canonized

Consecrated.

Pronounced with the stress on the second of three syllables.

hearsèd

Laid in a coffin.

cerements

Grave clothes.

inurned

Entombed, placed in an urn for ashes of the dead.

F1’s enurn’d is an attractive reading, and plausibly authorial, even though urn burial is more a Roman custom than English practice, and Q2’s interred is confirmed by Q1.

corpse

Q2 prints corse, F1 Coarse.

complete steel

Full armor.

The spelling of Q2/F1 is compleat; Q1 reads compleate. Old spelling makes clear that the accent falls on the first syllable.

the glimpses … moon

The sublunary world, all that is fitfully lit by pale moonlight.

we fools of nature

We mere mortals, limited to natural knowledge and subject to nature.

So … disposition

To unsettle our mental composure so horrendously.

the reaches

The capacities.

F1’s thee;reaches would appear to be a miscopying error for Q1/Q2’s the reaches.

[The] Ghost beckons Hamlet

Q2 prints Beckins. F1 prints Ghost beckons Hamlet. Omitted in Q1.

impartment

Communication, imparting of information.

A term seemingly coined by Shakespeare.

wafts

F1’s wafts is convincing as an emendation of Q1/Q2’s waues. The same correction occurs in line 81 below.

Then I will

F1’s Then will I in place of Q2’s Then I will could be either authorial or the result of imperfect copying. An easy error of metathesis. This scene in F1 appears to contain a number of copying errors; see notes above.

a pin’s fee

The value of a pin.

The proverb Not worth a pin (Dent P334) characterizes anything of very small value.

for

As for.

flood

Sea.

summit

Q2 reads Somnet, F1 Sonnet. Both must be in error for summit, as corrected by Rowe.

cliff

Q2 reads cleefe.

beetles o’er his base

Threateningly overhangs its base like bushy eyebrows.

Q2’s bettles seems intended for F1’s beetles. Q1 reads beckles.

assume

F1’s shift to the indicative mood in assumes, rather than the subjunctive assume in Q2 that follows from the subjunctive tempt in the line 53, may or may be a copying error.

deprive your sovereignty of reason

Take away from you the supremacy of reason over passion.

Your sovereignty also hints at the fact that Hamlet is Prince of Denmark and heir to the throne.

The very … beneath

This Q2 four-line passage is omitted in F1.

toys of desperation

Imaginings of desperate acts, such as suicide.

fathoms

Units of depth measurement at sea of about six feet.

wafts

F1 replaces Q2’s waues with wafts, as earlier at line 63, TLN 648.

hands

F1’s hand is intelligible if Hamlet is addressing one of the persons who are trying to restrain him, but it could easily be a copying error for Q2’s hands.

My fate cries out

My destiny summons me.

each petty

Even the most insignificant.

artery

Spelled arture in Q2, Artire in F1, and Artiue in Q1.

the Nemean lion’s nerve

A sinew of the huge lion (from Nemea, near Corinth in Greece) slain by Hercules in the first of his twelve labors.

called.

F1 prints this as a question: cal’d? perhaps implying that the Ghost has once again gestures to Hamlet to follow him. But question marks sometimes serve as exclamation marks in early printed texts.

lets

Hinders.

imagination

Q2’s imagion is presumably a copying error for F1’s imagination.

Have after

Let’s go after him.

issue

Outcome.

direct it

I.e., the issue or outcome (line 91, TLN 677).

[1.5]

Location: The battlements of the castle, as before. The scene is virtually continuous, though the stage is momentarily bare and we are to understand that the Ghost and Hamlet have moved to a new location on the battlements.

Whither

Q2’s Whether is a common early modern spelling of Whither. F1’s Where is possibly authorial, but could instead by a copyist’s or compositor’s sophistication.

bound

(1) destined, ready; (2) obligated, duty-bound. The Ghost replies to the second of these meanings.

fast

Do penance by fasting.

A conventional punishment in Purgatory.

crimes

Sins.

my days of nature

My days on earth as a mortal.

purged

In Roman Catholic doctrine, Purgatory (not actually mentioned by name in this play) is an intermediate state after death for the purging of sins. If an individual has died in God’s grace but has committed sins not yet pardoned (owing, as in this present instance, to a sudden death leaving no time for confessing those sins to a priest), the soul can make satisfaction in Purgatory for those sins and thus become fit for heaven. Reformation leaders in Europe and England, beginning with Martin Luther in 1517, denounced Purgatory as a Roman Catholic superstition placing unwarranted emphasis on the sacraments of Confession and Last Rites or Extreme Unction, and on the essential role of priesthood in offering forgiveness for sins. Reformation churches generally reduced the list of Holy Sacraments from seven (Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Holy Orders, Marriage, and Last Rites) to two (Baptism and the Eucharist).

But that

Were it not that.

harrow up

Lacerate, tear up, uproot.

spheres

Eye-sockets

Compared here to the crystalline spheres or orbits in which, according to Ptolemaic astronomy, the heavenly bodies moved around the earth.

knotted … locks

Hair neatly combed and arranged in its proper place.

F1’s knotty is possible, and could be authorial, but it may instead be an error for Q1/Q2’s knotted.

on end

The eighteenth-century actor-manager, David Garrick, wore a trick wig that would stand its hairs on end as a sign of fright. Q2/F1’s an end is a normal early modern spelling of Q1’s on end. See 3.4.124-5 below, where the Queen sees Hamlet’s hair standing on end; the effect is caused there by the appearance of the Ghost, though the Queen in unable to see that.

fretful

Peevish.

F1’s fretful (Q1, fretfull) may be an authorial choice. The word seems intended to convey the sense of terrifying; Q2’s fearfull may suggest, less appropriately here, frightened.

porpentine

Shakespeare’s usual spelling of porcupine.

The spelling is Porpentine in Q1/Q2/F1.

eternal blazon

Revelation of the secrets of the supernatural world.

List, Hamlet, oh, list

Listen.

F1’s List, Hamlet, oh list may be authorial, or perhaps an actor’s interpolation; Q2 reads list, list, list.

O God!

F1’s Oh Heauen is presumably an expurgation for Q1/Q2’s O God; see note at 1.2.150 (TLN 334) above. Q1 reads O God.

Murder … it is

Murder is foul even under the best of circumstances.

Murder is regularly spelled Murther here and elsewhere in F1/Q2, though Murder in Q1.

Haste me to know’t, that I

F1’s Hast hast me to know it, / That with shows signs of interpolation in the second hast (haste), and in the omission of I after that, since F1 has adopted a makeshift lineation in place of Q2’s plausibly regular scansion. F1’s omission of I after That is also probably a copying error.

with wings … love

Compare the proverb, As swift as thought, Dent T240.

fat

Torpid, lethargic, gross, bloated.

rots itself

Q1/Q2’s rootes it selfe(i.e., sluggishly remains motionless) and F1’s rots it selfe are both plausible. F1’s reading emphasizes decay, and may be an authorial choice.

Lethe

The river of forgetfulness in Hades.

Wouldst thou

If you would not.

’Tis given out

The official story goes.

F1’s It’s giuen out could be a copyist’s or compositor’s sophistication of Q2’s 'Tis giuen out.

my orchard

My garden.

Here and elsewhere (as in lines 42, 59, 63, and 137, TLNs 728, 743, 748, and 823 for example), the shift from Q1/Q2’s frequent use of my to F1’s mine before a vowel may be compositorial.

forgèd process

Fabricated account.

Rankly abused

Grossly deceived.

sting

Elizabethans generally believed that poisonous snakes attacked their victims with their tongues rather than their fangs.

incestuous

See 1.2.157 (TLN 341) and note above.

adulterate

Adulterous.

Whether the Ghost suspects or knows that his brother had been involved with Queen Gertrude in an adulterous affair before the murder is not clear, though the Ghost’s insistence later in this speech that the Queen is to be spared and left to the workings of her conscience (lines 84-8 below, TLN 769-73) tends to suggest that he does not regard her as guilty to such a heinous degree. Neither Hamlet nor the Ghost ever applies the term adulterous to her. The term is sometimes applied in Scripture to sexual unions that occasion moral disapproval, as for example between partners that are of different religious persuasions.

with traitorous gifts

(1) with perfidious natural gifts; (2) with seductive presents.

F1’s hath in place of Q2’s with here is presumably a copying error.

won to his

F1’s won to to this is very probably an error for Q2’s won to his, even though this is defensible.

what a falling off

F1’s what a falling off is the natural idiom. Q2’s what falling off may be a simple error.

even with the vow

With the very vow.

Compared with.

But virtue … garbage

But just as true virtue will remain steadfast even when tempted by unchaste desire disguising itself as an angel, lust conversely will attempt to glut its insatiable appetite even in a heavenly bed, and then, unsatisfied with that, turn to prey on filth.

So lust, though

Q2’s So but though is presumably a misreading of F1’s So Lust, though.

angel

Q2’s Angle (Q1 angle) is clearly intended for F1’s Angell.

sate itself

Satisfy its craving.

F1’s sate is clearly superior to Q2’s sort, which may be an error resulting from a misreading of a as or. But Q2’s sort is possible, since it can mean “situate, place.” Q1 reads fate.

prey

Q2 prints pray, a spelling variant. F1 prints Will sate itself … prey on Garbage all on one line, TLN 742.

soft

Wait a minute, hold on.

methinks … morning’s air

The Ghost here confirms the tradition that Horatio has reported at 1.1.148 ff. (TLN 155 ff.): ghosts who visit the world of the living at night are supposed to return to their confines by dawn.

Q1/F1’s Mornings in place of Q2’s morning is equally plausible, even if it could perhaps be a compositorial sophistication or misreading. Q1/Q2/F1’s sent is a common spelling of scent.

of the afternoon

Q2’s of the afternoone is more striking and unusual to our ears than Q1/F1’s in the afternoon. Q1/F1’s reading could be authorial, or could be a compositorial sophistication or mishearing, or copying error.

secure hour

A time free from worries, and a safe time when one can relax one’s guard.

hebona

A poison.

The name of this unidentified poison may be related to henbane, of the nightshade family, the Latin name of which,Hyoscyamus niger, suggests ebony, or possibly ebanus, yew.

F1’s Hebenon is a spelling of this word not found elsewhere other than in the juice of Hebon in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, 3.4.101. Q1/Q2 read Hebona.

vial

F1’s Violl is presumably intended for Q1/Q2’s viall.

the porches of my ears

I.e., the entranceways to my head.

Supposedly an Italian method of poisoning, used to murder the Duke of Urbino in 1538 and mentioned in Marlowe’s Edward II, 5.4.34-5. The notion here, that such a method would introduce the poison to course through The natural gates and alleys of the body, is physiologically dubious.

leperous distillment

A distillation causing a leprosy-like disfigurement.

quicksilver

Mercury.

alleys

Q1/Q2 reads allies, F1 Allies.

posset / And curd

Thicken and curdle (causing the blood to clot like sour cream).

F1’s posset is more persuasive than Q2’s possesse, and is probably authorial.

eager

Sour, acid.

F1 reads Aygre, Q1/Q2 eager.

tetter

Eruption of scabs or blisters.

barked … crust

Enveloped with a loathsome scaly crust, like the bark of a tree-trunk.

F1’s bak’d may well be an error for Q2’s barckt (Q1, barked).

lazarlike

Leper-like.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the man had died of a grievous sickness and had lain in the earth four days, so that his body was loathsome (John 11). Traditionally, his putrid condition came to be associated with leprosy.

of queen

F1’s and queen may be a miscopying of Q2’s of queen, which continues the rhetorical series of of.

dispatched

Deprived.

even … sin

When my sins were at their height.

Unhousled … unaneled

Without having partaken of the sacrament of the Mass, unprepared because of not having made deathbed confession and not having received absolution, and not anointed with the holy oil of Extreme Unction. These are specific terms from Roman Catholic practice. Housel signifies the host, the bread and wine that are consecrated in the Mass as the body and blood of Christ.

Q2 prints Vnhuzled, disappointed, vnanueld, F1 Vnhouzzeld, disappointed, vnnaneld.

reck’ning

Settling of spiritual accounts, making restitution for sins.

Oh … most horrible!

This line has sometimes been assigned to Hamlet by actor-managers and by editors, partly at least to offer a break in the Ghost’s harangue.

nature

I.e., the natural feelings of a son for his father.

luxury

Lechery.

incest

See notes at 1.2.157 (TLN 341) and 1.5.43 (TLN 729) above.

howsomever thou pursues

F1’s howsoeuer thou pursuest may be a sophistication of Q2’s howsomeuer thou pursues. Compare whatsomever at 1.2.254, TLN 441, above.

aught

Anything, any punishment.

Q2/F1 print ought, Q1 aught.

matin

Morning.

’gins … his

Begins … its.

Adieu, adieu, Hamlet

F1’s Adue, adue, Hamlet is no less intelligible than Q2’s (Adiew, adiew, adiew), and may be authorial, though it could be an interpolation.

Exit

This exit, indicated in Q1/F1 but not Q2, could be effected by means of the stage trap door, in light of the Ghost’s crying out under the stage at line 157 (TLN 845) below. On the other hand, the Ghost’s entrance in 3.4 in his night gown, according to Q1, might seem more appropriate if he enters and leaves by means of a stage door. Stage tradition, at all events, has generally chosen to have him enter and exit in 1.4 and 1.5 by means of stage doors rather than the trap.

couple

Add.

Hold, hold

Hold fast; do not panic; do not waver.

Q2’s hold, hold and F1’s hold are equally plausible; F1 may be an authorial correction, or an omission in copying.

sinews

Tendons, muscles.

stiffly

Strongly, vigorously.

Q2’s swiftly is possible, since Hamlet sees that he has reason for haste, and is accordingly retained here, but stiffly seems more a propos here.

whiles … globe

As long as memory continues to function in my distracted head. (With perhaps a glance at the Globe Theatre, where these lines are being spoken.)

F1’s replacement of Q2’s whiles with while may be a compositorial sophistication.

table

Wax writing tablet.

Compare the use of the plural in My tables, my tables in line 107 below.

fond

Foolish.

records

Stressed on the second syllable.

All saws … past

All wise sayings copied from books, all shapes or images drawn on the tablet of my memory, all past impressions.

That … there

That I observed and noted down when I was young.

book and volume

Voluminous book.

Yes, yes

F’s second yes, added to Q2’s yes, could be authorial, or an actor’s interpolation, or a copying error.

My tables, my tables—meet … down

Hamlet may actually have a wax tablet on which he proceeds to note his observation, or he may be speaking metaphorically. Two tablets might be hinged together as a sort of notebook; hence perhaps the plural tables.

F1’s repetition of My Tables, my Tables could be an interpolation; it is extra-metrical in F1’s verse line. But it may be authorial. Q2 reads My tables. Compare the previous note.

meet

Fitting.

I am

F1’s I’m could be a sophistication of Q2’s I am.

there you are

I.e., I’ve noted that down (literally or metaphorically).

Now to my word

Now to the business of fulfilling what I have promised.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus

The entrance here is as in Q2, before Horatio says My lord, my lord! F1 places the SD after Horatio and Marcellus have said this line within. Either they call out before they enter, or, as in Q2, enter on stage but are understood by the audience not yet to have seen Hamlet in the dark of night.

Horatio

Q2 assigns this speech as here to Horatio alone, F1 to Horatio and Marcellus. See previous note.

Heavens secure him!

May heaven keep him safe!

Horatio and Marcellus have worried, at 1.4.71 (TLN 658), ff., that the Ghost might tempt Hamlet toward the sea or cliff and there deprive him into madness.

F1’s Heauen replaces Q2’s Heauens. Oaths are probably more accurately reported in Q2.

Hamlet

Q2 gives this line, as here, to Hamlet, spoken evidently to himself in confirmation of his resolve to carry out his father’s commands. In F1, less plausibly, the line is spoken by Marcellus as though by way of his agreeing with Horatio in wishing for Hamlet’s safety.

Marcellus / Illo, … lord

Marcellus is hallooing to Hamlet, seeking still to find him. Hamlet has not yet spoken to them to assure them he is safe.

F1 assigns this hallooing to Horatio, not Marcellus as in Q2. The rapid-fire succession of short speeches here leaves this passage vulnerable to errors in copying, though F1’s reading could be authorial.

Hillo … come, bird, come

Hamlet halloos in reply, as though he were calling out to a hawk or falcon, commanding it to return to its master. Hamlet may be mocking their halloos, or this may be part of the wild and whirling words or antic disposition that he begins to adopt.

F1’s come bird, come may be an authorial correction of Q2’s come, and come. Q1 assigns the speech to Mar.

you’ll

F1’s you’l could be authorial, or an editorial sophistication of Q2’s you will.

once

Ever.

Ay, by heaven, my lord

F1 plausibly adds my Lord to Q2’s I by heauen. The addition is testified to also by Q1.

There’s ne’er … knave

Hamlet seems about ready to tell them what he has learned from the Ghost, but then jestingly turns the matter aside with a self-evident truism: there’s no villain in Denmark who is not a thoroughgoing villain.

F1’s nere for Q2’s neuer is an adjustment that may have been prompted by F1’s change in Q2’s lineation of TLN 814 from two lines to one.

i’th’ right

F1’s slight abbreviation of Q2’s in the right to i’th’ right may be editorial, or could be authorial.

circumstance

Elaboration.

desires

F1’s desires is attractive and could be authorial, though the repetition of business and desire in the next line makes a plausible case in TLN 821 for Q2’s desire.

Look you, I’ll

F1’s Looke you, Ile is plausibly an authorial emendation of Q2’s I will; it could be an actor’s interpolation, but even then could have authorial endorsement.

whirling

F1’s hurling is possible, but it may also be the result of an accidentally dropped w from Q2’s more plausible whurling and Q1’s wherling.

offense … offense

See also TLN 830. Horatio in line 140 means “There was no offense in what you just said; no need to apologize.” Hamlet, in line 142, changes the meaning of the word to apply to Claudius’s crime: There certainly IS a great offense’ against all human decency and law.

Saint Patrick

The keeper of Purgatory, according to tradition.

Horatio

In F1’s version of this line, Hamlet repeats Horatio’s my lord instead of saying Horatio’s name. This may be simply a copying error, though it could be Hamlet’s sardonic way of emphasizing his point: There IS indeed an offense.

too

Q2 reads to, a common spelling variant of F1’s too.

Touching

Concerning, regarding.

honest

Genuine and truthful.

For

As for, regarding.

O’ermaster it

F1 reads Oremaster’t, Q2 Oremastret, Q1 Or’emaister it.

In faith … not I

Horatio insists that he will not tell anyone what they have seen this night. In the next speech, Marcellus vows also to keep the secret. They are not refusing to swear; in fact, they both seemingly take the view that they have sworn already by what they just said in faith. But Hamlet insists that they now swear by his sword, an especially solemn oath since the sword hilt can be held so as to form a crucifix. Hamlet may hold it that way. Mel Gibson, in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1990 film Hamlet, holds his sword in such a way that the hilt forms a crucifix to ward off the potential evil of a supernatural visitation.

Ghost cries under the stage

Q1/Q2/F1 all specify that the Ghost cries under the stage, that is, beneath the main acting platform that was raised about 5 1/2 feet above the ground level of the yard, thereby providing room for such ghostly effects. (There is another instance in Antony and Cleopatra, 4.3.12, when the music of hoboys, an early oboe, is heard under the stage.) Evidently such sounds could be heard in the Globe Theatre. Q2 places this stage direction before the Ghost says Sweare; in F1 the stage direction is to the right of the line. In Q1 The Gost vnder the stage is printed below the Ghost’s Sweare.

truepenny

Honest fellow, as trustworthy as the penny.

Compare sterling, thoroughly excellent, conforming to the highest standard.

Come on, you hear

F1’s Come one you here is presumably a misprint for Q2’s Come on, you heare.

cellarage

Q2 prints Sellerige, F1 selleredge. This is OED’s first citation of the term.

[They swear.]

Seemingly, though not marked by stage directions in Q1, Q2, or F1, Horatio and Marcellus lay their hands on Hamlet’s sword to indicate that they are swearing the oath, here and again at lines 169 and 188 below. The Ghost is not satisfied until the oath has been sworn thrice’ a sacrosanct number. Alternatively, Horatio and Marcellus may resist swearing on the first two tries, preferring to be on safer ground.

Hic et ubique?

Here and everywhere? (Latin).

Traditionally, the devil was able to be everywhere at once.

shift our ground

Change where we are standing for another spot.

Q2’s shift our ground is more comprehensible than F1’s shift for ground, which may be a copying error, even if shift for ground can perhaps make intelligible sense.

Never … sword

F1’s reversal in this passage of Q2’s Swear … sword / Neuer … heard seems convincingly authorial, since it repeats the order of phrase of lines 161-2 (TLN 850-1) above, and ends with the phrase that is then reiterated by the Ghost.

mole … pioneer

The small tiny-eyed burrowing mole is here compared to the pioneer, a foot soldier who dug tunnels and trenches used in warfare.

F1’s i’th’ ground replacing Q2’s i’th’ earth may be in error as a result of recalling ground in line 164 above. Pioneer is spelled Pioner in Q2/F1.

remove

Move.

And … welcome

Compare the proverbial admonition, Give the stranger welcome (Dent S914.1).

your philosophy

This natural philosophy (i.e., science) that people talk about.

The your is probably impersonal, though Hamlet’s jibe does apply to Horatio particularly; the two of them love to argue over issues of natural history and skepticism vs. providential readings of human life on earth.

F1’s our Philosophy is probably a copying error; if not, it would seem to suggest that Hamlet is still trying to sort out for himself the rival claims of religion and science. Q1’s your supports the Q2 reading.

so help you mercy

As you hope for God’s mercy.

How … some’er

However strangely or oddly.

Q2’s so mere, i.e., some’er, is a common variant of soe’er, soever. F1’s so ere may be a compositorial sophistication. Compare whatsoever/whatomever at 1.2.253 and howsoever/howsomever at 1.5.84. Q1 reads soere.

think meet

Think it fit.

To put … on

To assume the wild and erratic behavior of a madman.

Q1/Q2/F1 print Anticke for antic.

times

F1’s time in place of Q2’s times is possible, but could easily be a copying error.

encumbered

Folded.

The folded arms and headshake are intended to suggest that the person has knowledge but dares not speak. Folded arms in particular could suggest love melancholy.

this headshake

Shaking my head thus.

Q2’s this head shake is clear, and F1’s thus, head shake could easily be an error from the compositor’s remembering thus earlier in the line.

doubtful

Ambiguous.

Well, well

F1’s well may be an error of transmission for Q1/Q2’s well, well.

an if

If. See also TLN 873.

list

Wished, chose.

There be … they might

There are those (namely, ourselves) who could talk if they so chose.

F1’s there might is likely to be an error of transmission for Q1/Q2’s they might.

giving out

Utterance, pronouncement.

note

Indicate.

aught

Anything.

Spelled aught in Q1, ought in Q2/F1.

This not to do

Q1/F1’s This (this) not to doe follows what Hamlet has said with more precise logic than Q2’s this doe sweare, and may be an authorial correction.

So … you

As you hope for God’s grace and mercy at your hour of greatest spiritual need.

Swear

This utterance by Hamlet, found in F1, is omitted in Q2.

With all

The F1 reading; Q2 reads Withall.

I do … to you

I give you my best wishes.

friending

Friendliness, friendship.

lack

Be lacking, be left undone.

still

Always, continually.

out of joint

Disjointed, lacking coherence.

The metaphor is derived from the medical procedure of setting bones that have been broken or separated at the joint.

Nay … together

When Horatio and Marcellus politely defer to Hamlet as of senior rank and thus entitled to go first, he insists on equalizing this business among friends.

[2.1]

Location: Polonius’s apartment in the castle, as in 1.3.

Enter old … two

The characterization of Polonius as old, the lack of a name here for Reynaldo, and the imprecise requirement of his man or two point to an authorial manuscript behind the text of Q2. F1 reads simply Enter Polonius, and Reynaldo. Q1 reads Enter Corambis, and Montano.

him

Laertes (as confirmed in lines 6 ff.).

this

F1’s his, though intelligible if Polonius means to send to Laertes some of his own money, is probably a misprint for Q2’s this.

marv’lous

Marvelously.

Q2 spells this meruiles, F1 maruels.

to make inquire

To inquire.

F1’s you make inquiry may be the result of imperfect copying of Q2’s to make inquire.

Marry

I.e., By the Virgin Mary. (A mild oath.)

As at 1.3.91 (TLN 556) and 1.4.15 (TLN 618) above.

Inquire me

Inquire on my behalf.

The me is colloquial.

Danskers

Danes.

how

How they live.

what means

What wealth they have.

keep

Dwell, frequent.

By … question

By this roundabout way of asking questions.

come … touch it

You will find out more this way than you would by making pointed inquiries.

More nearer is an emphatic double negative, an acceptable usage in Elizabethan English.

Take you

Assume, pretend.

As thus

F1’s And thus is probably a misprint for Q1/Q2’s As thus.

put on him

Impute to him.

forgeries

Invented tales.

rank

Gross.

wanton

Unrestrained.

gaming

Gambling.

Quarreling

Picking a quarrel with someone became an obsession with many young men intent on establishing themselves as persons of chivalric honor, to judge by young Kastril’s eagerness to learn how to quarrel in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, 3.3, and by Touchstone’s hilarious sendup of the seven causes or stages of quarreling in As You Like It, 5.4.43-102.

drabbing

Whoring.

Faith, no … charge

Well, that would depend on how well you could temper or mitigate the accusation.

F1’s Faith no is logically a negative response, and is thus a plausible correction of Q2’s Fayth.

incontinency

Chronic sexual overindulgence.

breathe

Name, utter.

F1/Q2 print breath, as also at l. 46 (TLN 936) below.

quaintly

Artfully, subtly.

Q2 spells the word quently, F1 quaintly.

taints of liberty

Faults arising from too much free living.

A savageness … assault

A wildness in untamed youth that afflicts most young men.

a fetch of warrant

A justifiable stratagem.

Q2’s a fetch of wit is plausible in the sense of a witty trick. F1’s a fetch warrant could be an authorial revision, or possibly a misreading of wit. It is generally preferred by editors. Q2’s wit could be a misreading of warrant.

sullies

Stains, blemishes.

Q2’s sallies (i.e., outbursts, criticisms) is possible, but a little forced, and an easy misreading of F1’s sulleyes (i.e., sullies, stains, blemishes) in Elizabethan handwriting.

i’th’ working

In the handling.

Q2’s with working makes sense, and could also be interpreted as wi’th’ working, but F1’s i’th’ working could be an authorial correction.

your … converse

The person you are conversing with.

sound

Sound out.

Having … guilty

If he has ever detected the young man you are asking about to be guilty of the offenses we have just enumerated.

Q2/F1 both print breath, a common variant spelling of breathe, as at line 32, TLN 923, above.

He closes … consequence

He takes you into his confidence in the following way.

and the addition

And the title, form of address.

Q2’s or the addistion is corrected in F1’s and the Addition. Some editors prefer Q2’s reading.

And then … say?

Printed in one line, as here, in Q2. F1 prints in two lines.

By the mass

F1 expurgates this oath.

leave

Leave off.

At friend, … gentleman

This F1 line is omitted in Q2.

closes with you thus

F1’s closes with you thus may be authorial as a replacement for Q2’s closes thus. The line scans persuasively in both Q2 and F1. The omission of with you in Q2 could be an oversight. Q1 reads closeth with him thus.

such and such

F1’s such and such is a substitution for Q2’s such or such. Either could be correct, and F1’s variant could be the work of some copyist of compositor, but the or in Q2 could have been repeated mistakenly from earlier in the line.

There … rouse

There he was gambling in that place, or overcome by drink.

Q2’s There was a gaming there, or tooke in’s rowse is possible, but is more plausibly corrected by F1’s There was he gaming, there o’ertooke in’s Rouse. The F1 alteration of a to he, on the other hand, is more likely to be an editorial improvement without authority. Q2’s or tooke is presumably intended for o’ertook.

falling out

Quarreling.

house of sale

Whorehouse.

F1 prints Saile for Q2’s sale.

Videlicet

Namely (Latin).

Q2 prints Videlizet, F1 Videlicet.

takes

F1’s takes is no doubt the corrected reading of Q2’s take, even if Q2’s plural form can be explained as agreeing with an implicitly plural sense of bait of falsehood.

carp

A fish.

F1’s Cape appears to be an obvious misprint of Q2’s carpe.

reach

Capacity, wide understanding.

windlasses

I.e., circuitous paths. (Literally, a hunter’s roundabout circuit to head off pursued animals.)

assays of bias

Indirect courses (resembling the curved path or bias of the bowling ball that is weighted to one side).

directions

The way things are going.

my former lecture

The set of instructions I’ve just given you.

have me

Understand me.

God … well

I.e., God be with you; farewell.

Q2 reads God buy ye, far ye well, F1 God buy you; fare you well.

Observe … yourself

Take a personal interest in observing his habits; judge his behavior from the perspective of your knowledge of your own inclinations.

Exit Reynaldo … Enter Ophelia

Q1/Q2/F1 all indicate that Reynaldo (called Montano in Q1) exits and that Ophelia enters before Polonius says Farewell, presumably to Reynaldo. The arrangement is possible on the large Elizabethan stage, where Reynaldo will no doubt still be visible for some moments longer—enough time for the loquacious Polonius to think of something further to say to him.

Alas, my lord

F1’s Alas my Lord as a substitute for Q2’s O my Lord, my Lord could be authorial, or possibly the work of a copyist or compositor.

God

F1’s Heauen is an expurgated substitute for Q2’s God.

chamber

Q2’s closset is perfectly acceptable, in the sense of a private chamber, but F1’s chamber could be an intentional alteration.

doublet all unbraced

Man’s close-fitting jacket all unfastened.

No … head

Hats were customarily worn indoors in the Elizabethan period.

fouled

Dirty and untidy.

Ungartered … ankle

Hamlet’s stockings, no longer held up by garters tied around the knees, have fallen down around his ankles, like a prisoner’s gyves or shackles.

in purport

In what it expressed.

As ’a

As if he.

As in other instances of this sort, F1’s correcting Q2’s As a (i.e., As if he) to As he is likely to be an editorial sophistication done by the compositor.

That

F1’s That could be authorial, or possibly a copyist’s or compositor’s sophistication of Q2’s As.

bulk

Body.

shoulder

F1’s shoulders is probably an error for Q2’s shoulder.

o’ doors

Q1 prints of doores, Q2 adoores, F1 adores.

help

Q1/F1’s helpe could be authorial, or a copyist’s or compositor’s correction of Q2’s helps.

Come, go with me

F1’s Goe with me omits the first word (perhaps unintentionally) of Q2’s Come, goe with mee.

ecstasy

Madness.

Whose … itself

Whose violent nature is self-destructive.

desperate

Polonius points to the possibility of suicide.

passion

F1’s passion may be authorial, though it could instead be a copying error for Q2’s passions.

heed

Attentiveness, care.

F1’s speed is intelligible, but could be a copying error for Q2’s more plausible heede.

quoted

Observed.

Q2’s coted could mean “outstripped, outmaneuvered,” but is more probably an alternative spelling of F1’s quoted.

feared

F1’s feare also makes good sense, but Q2’s fear’d is more in keeping with the past tense of the preceding words. F1 could be an easy typographical error.

wrack

Ruin, seduce.

beshrew my jealousy

A plague on my suspicious nature!

By heaven, it is … opinions

I swear, it is as characteristic for old men to overreach and read too much into the things we see.

F1’s It seemes it is as a replacement for Q2’s By heauen it is may be an expurgation of an oath.

known

Made known to the King.

Concealed.

might … love. / Come

Might ultimately cause even more unhappiness than would be the result of my well-intended but unwelcome announcing of bad news (about Hamlet’s mad love of Ophelia). Come with me.

F1 omits, perhaps through oversight, Q2’s Come at the end of the scene, following utter love. Presumably Polonius does instruct his daughter to come with him.

[2.2]

Location: The castle.

Flourish … Guildenstern [with others].

Q2 reads Flourish. Enter King and Queene, Rosencraus and Guyldensterne, F1 Enter King, Queene, Rosincrane, and Guildenstern Cum alijs, Q1 Enter King and Queene, Rossencraft, and Gilderstone. Spellings of these names vary throughout all three texts.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Spelled Rosencraus, and Guyldensterne in Q2, Rosincrane, and Guildensterne in F1, Rossencraft, and Gilderstone in Q1.

Moreover that

Besides the fact that.

sending

Sending for you.

so I call it

F1’s change of Q2’s so call it to so I call it could be a rephrasing on the part of the compositor or copyist, or could be authorial.

Since not

Since neither.

F1’s Since not could be an editorial sophistication of Q2’s Sith nor, or could be authorial.

that

What.

dream of

F1’s deeme of is possible in the sense of judge. Q2’s dreame of has the advantage of suggesting the bad dreams that a person guilty of murder might experience.

From.

brought … him

Compare 3.4.208 (TLN 2577.1) below, where Hamlet refers to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as my two schoolfellows.

And since … humor

And since you have been so well acquainted with his youthful ways.

F1’s since is substituted for Q2’s sith, as at line 6 above. F1’s humour is a plausible emendation of Q2’s hauior, but could be a miscopying.

vouchsafe your rest

Consent to stay.

your companies

The company of you both.

occasions you may glean

Opportunities you may gather or infer.

F1’s Occasions in place of Q2’s occasion could be authorial, or a copying error.

Whether … thus

This Q2 line is omitted in F1, perhaps inadvertently.

opened

Being revealed.

This use of what is for us a singular verb form with a plural object (two men) is common in Elizabethan usage. F1’s are in place of Q2’s is could be an authorial correction, or it could be a sophistication introduced by a copyist or compositor.

gentry

Courtesy.

For … hope

In order to aid us in furthering what we hope for.

As … remembrance

As would be a fitting gift of a king in rewarding your service.

of us

Over us.

your dread pleasures

The wishes of you who inspire awe and fear.

But we both obey

F1’s omission of But in Q2’s But we both obey could be an error of omission.

in the full bent

To the utmost extent of which we are capable. (A metaphor from drawing the bow in archery.)

service

F1’s Seruices could be a compositor’s sophistication of Q2’s seruice, or could be an authorial correction.

these gentlemen

F1’s the Gentlemen could be a careless copying of Q2’s more specific these gentlemen, or could be authorial.

practices

Doings.

Ay, amen

F1’s Amen could be an unintentionally shortened version of Q2’s I Amen.

Exeunt … Courtiers

F1 places Exit before the Queen says Amen, presumably in response to what Guildenstern has just said. On the broad Elizabethan stage, the exit occurs as she speaks. Q2 places Exeunt Ros. and Guild. to the right of the Queen’s I Amen, on the same line.

still

Always.

Assure … liege

F1’s Assure you, my good Liege, scans better than Q2’s I assure my good Liege and may be authorial.

and to

F1’s one to makes for a difficult reading and may be a misprint for Q2’s and to.

policy

Statecraft.

As it hath used to do

As it has customarily done.

F1’s As I haue vs’d to do may be a sophistication or miscopying of Q2’s As it hath vsed to doe. Q1 reads As it had wont to doe.

That do I long

F1’s that I do long may be a compositor’s normalizing of Q2’s that doe I long, or a simple error in copying; or could be authorial.

the fruit

The dessert.

F1’s the Newes erroneously echoes My newes earlier in the line; Q2 must be correct in reading the fruite.

grace

Ceremonious honor.

With a suggestion of a grace said before a meal, continuing the metaphor of the previous line.

[Polonius … ambassadors]

This exit is missing in all the early texts, but seems called for in order for Polonius to re-enter at line 57.1. Exits are not infrequently omitted in early texts.

my sweet Queen, that

F1’s reading here could be an authorial recasting of Q2’s my deere Gertrard, though it could instead be editorial tinkering.

head

Source.

doubt

Fear, suspect.

our o’erhasty

F1’s our o’rehasty scans better than Q2’s our hastie, and may be authorial.

Enter … Cornelius

Q2/F1 agree in placing the entrance of Voltemand and Cornelius (named as the Embassadors in Q2) before Claudius says Well, we shall sift him. The placement probably represents the necessity of bringing actors on stage in time to cross over its broad platform before they are addressed by the King. No doubt they are to enter as the King says his line to the Queen. F1 names Polonius in this entrance; he has left the stage at 53.1 to usher them in. Polonius is not mentioned in Q2; in that text, he may simply go to the door at line 53 and gesture for them to come now.

sift him

Question Polonius.

my good friends

F1’s omission of my in Q2’s my good friends could be an oversight. The line in Q2 scans better.

our brother

My fellow monarch.

return

Reciprocation.

desires

Good wishes.

Upon our first

At our first presentation of our mission.

His nephew’s levies

Young Fortinbras’s raising of troops.

he truly … was

He found that it in fact was.

impotence

Weakness.

borne in hand

Taken advantage of.

arrests

Orders to desist.

in fine

In conclusion.

give th’assay of arms

Make trial of military might.

three thousand crowns

Q1/F1’s three thousand Crownes scans better than Q2’s threescore thousand crownes, and is perhaps more plausible as a figure, but Q2 is defensible as a reading. A crown is a gold coin, often embossed with the figure of a crown.

fee

Income, payment.

quiet pass

Safe and uninterrupted passage.

his enterprise

F1’s his enterprise and Q2’s this enterprise are equally intelligible. F1 could authorial, or a simple error in transmission. Q1 reads that enterprise.

On … allowance

With such consideration for Denmark’s safety and for the permission granted to Fortinbras.

therein

In the document we have just delivered to you.

likes

Pleases.

considered

Suitable for deliberation.

Exeunt Ambassadors

Any other courtiers who are on stage may leave at this time, though not so indicated in any of the early texts.

well ended

F1’s very well ended unnecessarily adds very to Q’s well ended, which scans better if the line is paired metrically with Most welcome home. Q1 reads very well dispatched.

liege

One who is entitled to feudal allegiance or service.

expostulate

Expound, debate.

since brevity … wit

Since brevity is essential to sound reasoning and argument.

F1’s since Breuitie is the Soule of Wit is clearly superior grammatically and metrically to Q2’s breuite is the soule of wit; the absence in Q2 of since is easily explained as an inadvertent omission by a copyist or compositor.

And tediousness … flourishes

And since long-windedness can add nothing but decorative rhetorical flourishes.

More matter … art

Give us more substance with less artfulness.

he is mad

F1’s he is mad scans better than Q2’s hee’s mad. F1 could be a sophistication by copyist or compositor, but it could be authorial.

’tis ’tis true

F1’s it is true may be an imprecise copying or sophistication of Q2’s tis tis true.

figure

Figure of speech.

For … cause

For this defective behavior in Hamlet must have a cause.

Thus … thus

That pretty much sums up the situation, and leaves us to figure out what to make of it, what to do.

Polonius uses the rhetorical figures of antimetabole, the symmetrical repetition of words in inverted order, and epanalepsis, the symmeterical repetition of a word (or words) at the beginning and ending of a line.

Perpend

Consider.

F1 includes this word at the end of the previous line; Q2 drops the word to a separate line. Both are feasible metrically.

have whilst … mine

Who is legally mine until she marries.

F1’s substitution of whilst for Q2’s while could be editorial sophistication or imprecise copying, or could be authorial.

gather and surmise

Think about this and draw your own conclusions. (Gather may also suggest “gather around me.”)

the letter

This F1 stage direction is omitted in Q1/Q2.

These in her … etc.

I.e., These words are addressed to the spotlessly white bosom of the one I love. (Young ladies would often keep such love letters in their blouses, next to their hearts.) The etc. could be a part of the letter, or, more plausibly, Polonius’s way of summarizing what he chooses not to read.

F1 substitutes these in her for Q2’s thus in her; both are possible. F1 may be authorial, or mistaken copying. F1 also omits Q2’s &c. at the end of this speech; perhaps the compositor’s oversight.

stay

Hold on, wait.

I … faithful

I will do as I said I would.

[He reads the] letter

Q2 here prints Letter. Q1/F1 omit any stage direction.

Doubt … fire

Suspect or question the undoubted truth that the stars are fire (sooner than doubt my love for you).

Doubt … move

(This undoubted truth seems postulated on the traditional Ptolemaic cosmology with the earth at the center of the universe and the sun one celestial body that moves about it.)

ill … numbers

Lacking the skill needed to write verses like these, and too lovesick to do so.

reckon

(1) count, enumerate; (2) number metrically, scan.

machine is

Body belongs.

shown

F1’s shew’d, in place of Q2’s showne, could be the work of a copyist or compositor.

And, more above … mine ear

And moreover she has let me know when, by what means, and where his solicitings occurred (fell out).

Q2’s And more about could easily be a copying error of F1’s And more aboue. Conversely, Q2’s solicitings seems preferable to F1’s soliciting in agreeing with they in the next line, and the plural also suggests frequent occurrences.

fain

Gladly, willingly.

If … table-book

I.e., If I had noted all this in my memory-book but had done nothing about it; or, if I had acted as go-between.

Or … a winking, mute and dumb

Or if I had deliberately shut my eyes to what my heart suspected.

Q2’s working, with a suggested meaning of “Or if I had forced the workings of my heart to remain silent,” is plausibly an error for F1’s winking.

with idle sight

Complacently or uncomprehendingly.

round

Directly, energetically.

bespeak

Address.

out of thy star

Above your sphere or social station.

precepts

Orders.

F1’s precepts could be an authorial revision or correction of Q2’s prescripts, even if Q2’s reading is intelligible.

his resort

His having access to her.

Q2’s her resort might mean her having access to him, but is more probably a copying error.

repulsèd

Q2’s reading, repell’d, is perfectly intelligible, but F1’s repulsed is perhaps more likely to be an authorial revision than a compositor’s choice.

watch

Sleepless state.

Q2’s wath is presumably a misprint for F1’s Watch.

to a lightness

To lightheadedness.

F1’s to a Lightnesse is plausibly an authorial correction of Q2’s to lightnes, and is adopted by most editors.

declension

Decline, deterioration. (Playing also with a grammatical metaphor.)

wherein

F1’s whereon may be a miscopying of Q2.

mourn

F1’s waile is plausible, and could be an authorial revision, but Q2 seems hardly to need revision.

Do you think ’tis this

F1 here arguably scans better than Q2’s Do you thinke this if one were to pair it as a half-line with the preceding And all we mourn for, but Q2’s Do you thinke this scans better if paired with the following It may be very like. With three half lines in a row (144-6), the safest is to do no pairing here of short lines and to leave the three speeches as they stand. F1 may or may not be an authorial revision.

very like

Very likely.

F1’s very likely could be a sophistication of Q’s very like. See previous note on pairing of half lines.

I’d fain

I would gladly.

F1’s I’de fain is a plausible correction of Q2’s I would faine, and could be authorial.

Take this from this

The actor’s various options here include the gesture of miming the severing of his head from his body, or removing the chain of office from around his neck or his staff of office from his hands.

center

Center of the earth, traditionally regarded as wholly inaccessible.

try

Test.

lobby

Corridor or waiting-room.

does

Q2’s does is preferred by most editors to F1’s ha’s.

loose

Let loose (as if she were a caged animal about to be mated).

arras

Wall-hanging, tapestry.

thereon

On that account.

But

F1’s And strikes most editors as a weak substitution for Q2’s But.

carters

Cart drivers.

Enter Hamlet reading on a book

This is F1’s stage direction; Q1/Q2 read, simply, Enter Hamlet.

board him presently

Accost him immediately.

give me leave

Leave this to me; leave me alone to handle this.

Exit King and Queen

In F1, this exit is placed to the right of Polonius’s Ile boord him presently and before he says Oh give me leaue. In Q2, the exit is placed to the right of Polonius’s Away, I doe beseech you both away and before he says, Ile bord him presently. Both the Q2 and F1 arrangements can be made to work on the broad Elizabethan stage, where exits (and entrances) take time as actors are speaking. In both cases they exit as Polonius continues with things he wants to say to them. In Q1 only the Queen exits here; the King and Corambis remain on stage to instruct Ofelia how she is to read on a book, whereupon the King and Corambis hide; Hamlet enters to his To be, or not to be soliloquy and subsequent conversation with Ofelia (TLN 1695 ff.).

God-a-mercy

God have mercy, i.e., thank you.

Excellent, excellent well. You’re

Q2’s Excellent well, you are scans well; F1’s Excellent, excellent well: y’are could be an actor’s improvisation, and it also could be authorial. Q1 reads Yea very well, y’are.

fishmonger

Fish merchant.

one … ten thousand

Compare the proverb, A man (one) among a thousand (Dent M217). F1’s change of ten thousand to two thousand could be authorial, but may well be a copying error.

a good kissing carrion

A good piece of flesh for kissing.

Hamlet, in his mad guise, obliquely warns Polonius that Ophelia may respond to the heat of sexual desire by becoming pregnant, just as the sun presumably breeds maggots in rotting flesh—perhaps with a pun on sun and son, i.e., Hamlet himself, as son of the dead king.

i’th’ sun

In public; (2) into the sunshine of Hamlet’s princely favors (continuing the pun on sun/son in the previous lines).

Conception

(1) Understanding; (2) Conceiving a child.

but as

F1’s change of Q2’s but as into but not as yields up a different shade of meaning: “Conception (in the procreative sense) may be a blessing in most circumstances, but not if your daughter were to conceive. Keep that danger very much in mind.” The not could be authorial, or may be an erroneous addition.

look to’t

Take care, be wary.

harping on

Dwelling obsessively on.

Cf. the proverb, To harp on one (the same) string, Dent S936.

is far gone, far gone

F1’s is farre gone, farre gone could be an actor’s elaboration of Q2’s is farre gone (compare TLN 1211 above), but may have been authorial or have his endorsement.

What is the matter

What is the substance of what you are reading? (But Hamlet deliberately misunderstands, answering as if Polonius had asked, What is the quarrel between the people you are talking about?)

the matter that you read

F1’s dropping the that in Q2’s the matter that you read could be inadvertent or editorial. F1 erroneously prints the matter you meane, mistakenly picking up meane from I meane earlier in the line. See also the next note on F1’s other inaccuracies in this passage. Q1 prints the matter you reade.

rogue

F1’s slaue is equally plausible, with much the same meaning as “rogue,” and could be an authorial revision. But some of the numerous alterations of the speech in F1 seem questionable, such as locke for lack in TLN 1237, the omission of most in 1238, and the substitution of should be old for shall grow old in 1241, suggesting perhaps that the speech is best left as reported in Q2, including & plumtree for F1’s or Plum-Tree and your selfe for F1’s you your selfe.

purging … and plumtree gum

Are dropping thick, moist discharges like the sticky resins from various trees.

F1’s or could be an authorial correction of Q2’s &, but F1’s accuracy is questionable at this point; see previous notes.

lack

F1 reads locke, presumably in error for Q2’s lacke; see two previous notes.

wit

Understanding.

most weak hams

Exceedingly weak thighs.

F1’s dropping of most from Q2’s most weake hams may have been inadvertent; see previous notes.

honesty

Decency, honorable behavior.

you yourself, sir, shall grow old

F1’s you your selfe may be more accurate than Q2’s your selfe. On the other hand, Q2’s shall growe old seems more textually reliable than F1’s should be old, for reasons cited in the previous notes on line 182.

that’s out of the air

The air outdoors was thought to be noxious, especially for the sick and old.

pregnant

Cogent, full of meaning.

happiness

Aptness, felicity of expression.

sanity

Q2’s sanctity is manifestly a misprint for F1’s Sanitie.

prosperously

Successfully, effectively.

I will … daughter

Q2’s I will leaue him and my daughter is more fully represented by F1’s I will leaue him, / And sodainely contriue the meanes of meeting / Betweene him, and my daughter. Q2’s shorter version, as Arden 3 observes, may suggest that Shakespeare’s original intention was to have Hamlet’s encounter with Ophelia take place in this present scene, as happens in Q1, rather than in 3.1.

My honorable … humbly

F1’s My Honourable Lord, I will most humbly plausibly replaces Q2’s shorter My Lord, I will.

You cannot, sir

F1’s Sir, missing in Q2, could be an actor’s interpolation, but it seems so in keeping with Hamlet’s sardonic way of addressing Polonius that it sounds genuine.

that I will more

Q2’s that I will not more contains a double negative after cannot earlier in the sentence—a usage that is common enough in Elizabethan English, but one that is eliminated by F1’s revision, and is usually omitted by editors.

withal

With.

except my life, except my life.

F1’s abbreviation of Q2 to except my life, my life could be authorial, but perhaps is more likely to be the unintentional result of copying. Editors generally prefer the plaintive repetition in Q2.

Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz

These two enter in Q2 after Hamlet says except my life, except my life, except my life, and before Polonius says Fare you well my Lord to Hamlet; he then addresses the two with You go to seek the Lord Hamlet, there he is, and then presumably exits, though the exit is not marked in Q2. In F1 the two enter at TLN 1265, after Polonius has said (presumably to them) You goe to seeke my Lord Hamlet; there hee is. Q2’s arrangement works better on the large Elizabethan stage. F1 also does not mark Polonius’s exit. Q2 spells the names Guyldersterne, and Rosencraus, here and line 193 below.

the Lord Hamlet

Q2, and most editors, read the Lord Hamlet. F1 reads my Lord Hamlet. Q2/F1 both follow Hamlet with a colon. amlee

[Exit Polonius.]

No early text marks Polonius’s exit.

excellent

Q2’s extent is an obvious misprint, corrected in F1 to excellent.

indifferent

Ordinary, neither extremely fortunate nor unfortunate.

Happy

Fortunate.

over-happy

Q2’s euer happy is possible in the sense of always happy, but F1’s over-happy (extremely happy) has the attraction of continuing the idea of opposed opposites.

Fortune’s cap

F1’s Fortunes Cap seems manifestly superior to Q2’s Fortunes lap, which presumably would have no button.

button

Presumably, Fortune’s cap has a button at its highest point.

waist

F1 prints waste, Q2 wast.

in the middle … favors

In her genital area.

F1’s fauour could be a simple misprint for Q2’s fauors.

Faith

In good faith. (A mild oath.)

privates

(1) sexual members; (2) ordinary foot-soldiers; (3) informal friends and counselors, without official title.

strumpet

Whore. (Fortune was proverbially fickle in bestowing her favors.)

What’s the news?

F1’s Whats the newes? could be an authorial version of Q2’s What newes?, though both are perfectly intelligible.

but that

F1’s but that could be an authorial version of Q2’s but, though both are perfectly intelligible.

Then is doomsday near

The idea of the world growing honest is so radical as to be apocalyptic, a sure sign that the end is near.

Let me question … attended

This F1 passage is omitted in Q2, perhaps to reduce the length of performance. The idea that these lines might have offended Anne of Denmark, consort of King James VI and I, seems unlikely; the passage is more general than specific in its view of life as a prison, touching only tangentially on Denmark.

confines

Enclosures, places of confinement.

the very substance … of a dream

The goal of ambition is without substance, being nothing more than the unreal image of something that is itself mere illusion. (Rosencrantz repeats this idea in line 213.)

Then are … shadows

In that case, ordinary beggars must be more substantial, in that they lack ambition, whereas our monarchs and others, whom we make to seem greater than they really are by our adulation of them, are in fact only the unsubstantial shadows cast by our beggars.

fay

Faith.

wait upon

Accompany, attend.

No such matter

Certainly not. (Hamlet interprets their wait upon as meaning provide menial service. He will not treat his boyhood friends this way.)

sort

Class, categorize.

beaten way

Well-trodden path, tried-and-true course.

what make you

What are you doing.

Elsinore

Spelled Elsonoure in Q2, Elsonower in F1, Elsanour in Q1.

even

F1’s euen could be an authorial revision, albeit it could also be an easy miscopying of r for n in Q2’s euer.

too dear a halfpenny

Too expensive at even a mere halfpenny, a coin of little value; or, too expensive by a halfpenny for me to give in return for such worthless kindness.

free

Voluntary.

Come, come, deal

F1’s Come, deale could be authorial revision of Q2’s come, come, deal, or an unintentional dropping of Q2’s second come.

Why, anything—but to th’ purpose

Say anything you like, but let’s get to the main point.

Q2’s Any thing but to’th purpose suggests, sardonically, Anything, so long as it is not a straightforward answer. F1’s version may be authorial.

kind of

F1’s omission of Q2’s of is presumably inadvertent.

color

Disguise.

Q2’s spelling is cullour for F1’s oolor.

conjure

Solemnly entreat.

the consonancy … youth

The close friendship of our younger days and of our ages.

by what … could charge you withal

By whatever more earnest entreaty a more skillful proposer might urge.

F1’s could in place of Q2’s can is more suitable here and could be authorial.

even

On the level, straightforward.

of you

On you.

hold not off

Don’t hold back.

so shall … discovery, and

In that way, my speaking first will spare you the embarrassment of confessing the truth, and.

In place of Q2’s and, F1 here reads of, apparently in error.

molt no feather

I.e., lose none of its attractive appearance.

exercise

(Such as tennis or fencing.)

F1’s exercise and Q2’s exercises are equally intelligible; F1 may or may not be a conscious revision.

it goes so heavily … disposition

It weighs so heavily on my spirits.

F1’s heauenly seems opposite to the sense of what Hamlet is saying, and is probably an easy printing error for Q2’s heauily.

frame

Structure.

brave o’erhanging firmament

Splendid heavenly canopy hanging over us.

F1 omits Q2’s firmament, presumably in error.

fretted

Adorned, inlaid.

Probably with an allusions to the decorated heavens on the underside of the roof over the players’ heads in the Globe Theatre.

it appears no other thing to me than

F1’s language here rewords Q2’s it appeareth nothing to me but. The two are equally intelligible. F1 could be authorial.

congregation

Mass, assemblage.

What a piece of work

F1’s What a piece of worke supplies the indefinite article, a, that is missing from Q2’s What peece of worke.

how infinite in faculties … world

The punctuation of this passage differs significantly in Q2 and F1. Q2’s how infinit in faculties, in forme and moouing, how express and admirable in action, how like how like an Angel in apprehension; how like a God: the beautie of the world is improved upon in F1’s how infinite in faulty? in form and mouing how expresse and admirable? In Action, how like an Angel? in apprehension, how like a God? the beauty of the world. F1’s faculty may be a miscopying of Q2’s faculties, i.e., capabilities.

in form and moving

In shape and motion.

express

Well framed; expressive.

apprehension

Understanding, power of comprehending.

quintessence

Very essence.

Quintessence is the fifth essence, a distillation of the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Quintessence of dust is an oxymoron, an inherent contradiction.

no, nor woman

Q2’s nor women and F1’s no, nor Woman are equally intelligible. F1’s singular woman agrees better with man earlier in the sentence. Q1 reads nor woman.

you laugh, then

F1’s omission of then in Q2’s yee laugh then could be a simple oversight, especially since the next word is when. F1’s you in place of Q2’s yee could be authorial.

lenten entertainment

Meager reception (appropriate to Lent, the forty days of penitence and fasting from Ash Wednesday to Easter).

During Lent, the public theaters were not allowed to perform plays.

coted

Overtook and passed.

F1 reads coated, Q2 coted.

tribute of me

Payment; homage, praise from me.

Q2’s on me may be idiomatic in Elizabethan usage, or could be an error for F1’s of me.

foil and target

Sword and shield.

gratis

In vain, for nothing.

the Humorous … peace

The eccentric character, displaying the dominance in him of a particular humor (obsession, whim, fancy), will have full license to speak without interruption.

the Clown … sear

I.e., the Clown will make those laugh who are predisposed to laugh easily. (Only those spectators who are thus inclined will laugh at the Clown’s stale jokes.)

Q2, perhaps inadvertently, omits this phrase.

the Lady … blank verse shall halt for’t

The boy actor playing the female parts will be allowed to speak without interruption also, or the blank verse will limp.

Q2’s black is an error corrected in F1’s blanke.

were wont to take such delight in

Were accustomed to take such delight in.

F1 omits such in Q2’s take such delight, perhaps inadvertently.

tragedians

Actors (of comedy or tragedy).

travel

I.e., tour the provinces.

The Q2/F1 spelling, trauaile, suggests both travel and travail, labor. Q1 spells it trauell. they are not

residence

Remaining in the city, not on tour.

their inhibition … innovation

Their being restrained from public performance is the result of recent disturbances.

Hamlet may be referring to the recent revival in 1599-1600 of performances by the juvenile acting companies, whose marked tendency toward potentially libelous political satire had led to their being suppressed throughout the 1590s.

estimation

Esteem.

they are not

F1’s normalizing the word order () of Q2’s are they not could be authorial, or a sophistication. Following this speech, Q2 omits an extended passage found in F1 (2.2.237-43, TLN 1384-1408) alluding to the rivalry between the adult players and the boy actors in London at the time when Hamlet was written and performed.

keeps … pace

Continues at the usual pace.

eyrie

Nest, and the brood of chicks in it.

eyases

Young hawks, here signifying the boy actors.

cry … question

Shout more shrilly than their competitors.

tyrannically

Vehemently, outrageously.

berattle … stages

Make noisy clamor against the adult acting companies.

F1 reads be-ratled, an easy typographical error for berattle.

that many … goose quills

That many gentlemen fear being satirized in the juvenile companies’ plays.

Goose quills are the pens of the dramatists writing for the boys’ companies.

escoted

Maintained, provided for.

the quality

The acting profession.

no longer … sing

I.e., only until their voices break at adolescence.

to common players

Into adult actors for the public stage.

most like

Most likely.

F1 reads like most, an easy error of transposition for most like.

if … better

If they can find no better way to support themselves.

succession

I.e., future careers.

Faith

In good faith. (A mild oath.)

to-do

Ado.

nation

Populace.

tarre

Goad, incite (as in inciting dogs to attack a chained bear).

There … in the question

For a while, no money was offered to a playwright unless his play took part in the sharp controversy between the satirical writers for the juvenile companies and the dramatists who wrote for the adult companies.

throwing … brains

Lively exchanges in the battle of wits.

carry it away

Win the day.

Hercules and his load

Seemingly an allusion to the sign of the Globe Theater, which may have shown Hercules bearing the world on his shoulders in a Herculean labor.

very strange

F1’s alteration of Q2’s very strange to strange is perhaps inadvertent.

mows

Faces, grimaces.

F1 reads mowes, Q2 mouths, Q1 mops and moes, all yielding essentially the same meaning.

forty, fifty, a

F1’s alteration of Q2’s fortie, fifty a to forty, an is perhaps inadvertent.

ducats

Gold coins.

picture in little

Portrait in miniature.

’Sblood

By God’s (Christ’s) blood. (An oath.)

This Q2 profanity is excised from F1, presumably in response to the recently passed law against profanity.

Flourish for the players.

A fanfare, usually on trumpets, for important entrances, here announcing the arrival of the actors at Elsinore Castle. They do not enter on stage until line 276.1, at TLN 1466.

Q2 reads A Florish, F1 Flourish for the players. Omitted in Q1.

Your hands

Give me your hands.

come

Q2 reads come then, F1 come.

Th’appurtenance … ceremony

Ceremonious actions and gestures are the proper accompaniment to a welcome.

Let me … this garb

Let me comply with ceremonious custom in the proper manner by shaking hands with you.

F1’s the garb in place of Q2’s this garb could be a copying error.

lest my … players

Lest my extending a welcome to the actors.

Q2’s let me would appear to be an error, prompted by let mee earlier in the same sentence. It is corrected in F1 to lest my.

must … outward

Must necessarily display all the customary signs of a courteous welcome.

F1 reads outward, Q2 outwards.

entertainment

Reception, welcome.

than yours

Than the welcome I have extended to you.

uncle-father

Both uncle and stepfather.

aunt-mother

Both mother and now aunt (by the marriage which Hamlet considers incestuous).

mad north-north-west

Mad only a small degree from true north, i.e., not very mad; or, mad only when the wind blows from that direction.

I know … handsaw

I.e., Only a mad person would be unable to distinguish a hawk from a handsaw, and I have no trouble distinguishing them.

or handsaw might be intended for hernshaw, a heron.

Q2 prints hand saw, F1 Handsaw.

Well be

May all be well. (A conventional greeting.)

swaddling clouts

Clothes in which a baby is wrapped to keep it safe and still.

F1 reads swathing clouts, Q2 swadling clouts, Q1 swadling clowts.

Haply

Perhaps.

Happily in Q2/F1 is a normal spelling variant of Haply.

they say … child

Compare the proverb, Old men are twice children (Dent M570).

You say … o’Monday morning, ’twas then indeed

(Hamlet pretends to be in serious conversation with his friends.)

F1’s changes of Q2’s a Monday to for a Monday and of Q2’s t’was then to 'twas so could be minor authorial adjustments or else copying errors.

When Roscius was an actor

Quintus Roscius Gallus, the famous Roman actor, lived c. 126-62 BC.

Q2/F1 spell the name Rossius, Q1 Rossios. F1 omits was.

Buzz, buzz

An interjection, here conveying Hamlet’s contempt for Polonius’s telling the already stale news of the actors’ arrival.

came

F1’s can is usually regarded as a copying error for Q2’s came.

tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral

Omitted in Q2. F1’s expansion of Q2’s amusing list of genres by adding Tragicall-Historicall, Tragicall-Comicall-Historicall-Pastorall before scene indeuidible may be authorial.

scene individable, … unlimited

I.e., plays without scene breaks and unrestrained by rules, hence all-inclusive or unclassifiable—an absurdly catchall conclusion to Polonius’s list of dramatic categories.Shakespeare was already well known for writing plays that ignored the classical unities of time, place, and action.

Seneca

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BC-65 AD), the most widely read of Latin writers of tragedy.

Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254-184 BC), the most popular of Latin writers of comedy.

too light. For … liberty, these

F1 reads too light, for … Liberty. These; Q2 reads too light for … liberty: these.

For … liberty

For plays written according to the classical rules as well as for those that disregard these conventions.

Q2 omits any punctuation before for the lawe.

these

I.e., the actors, or possibly Seneca and Plautus.

Jephthah … Israel

The old-Testament patriarch (Judges 11:30-40) who vowed that he would sacrifice the first living thing he saw if God granted him the defeat of the Ammonites in battle; the first thing he saw turned out to be his daughter and only child.

Q2/F1 spell the name Iephta here and in line 266.

One … well

Hamlet quotes from a ballad about Jephthah and his daughter.

passing

Surpassingly, extremely.

Nay … not

I.e., (1) Just because you resemble Jephthah in having a daughter does not logically demonstrate that you love her; (2) You haven’t quoted the next line of the ballad.

What … lord?

Polonius asks, what does follow logically? But Hamlet answers as if Polonius had asked, what is the next line of the ballad?

by lot

By chance.

God wot

God knows.

As … was

As was most likely.

The first row of the pious chanson … more

The first line or stanza of this pious ballad will tell you more.

F1’s Pons Chanson in place of Q2’s pious chanson may be a simple copying error.

my abridgment comes

Actors are coming who will cut short what I was about to say, or who will make short my entertainment or diversion.

F1’s substitution of Abridgements come for Q1/Q2’s abridgment comes could be a copying error, or could be authorial.

Enter four or five Players

This is the F1 stage direction. Q2 reads Enter the Players, Q1 Enter players.

masters

Good sirs. (Said to social inferiors.)

Oh, my old friend! Thy

F1’s version, followed here, could be an authorial correction of Q2’s oh old friend, why thy.

valanced

I.e., fringed with beard.

Q2’s valanct, i.e., valanced, is preferred by editors. F1’s valiant could be a simple misprint.

beard

Confront, challenge, defy. (With obvious pun on the player’s beard.)

young lady

The boy actor, to whom the female roles are assigned.

mistress

Hamlet addresses the boy actor with playful and courtly hyperbole as if he/she, now coming to age as a young adult, were a woman to be admired and courted. (With no necessary suggestion of the modern sense of sexual partner.)

By’r Lady

By Our Lady (the Virgin Mary). A mild oath.

Q2’s By lady is perhaps a misprint for F1’s Byrlady and Q1’s burlady.

nearer heaven

(1) taller; (2) older, and thus nearer death.

F1’s neerer Heauen could be an authorial correction of Q2’s nerer to heauen, or could be a miscopying or editorial sophistication.

chopine

High platform shoe of Italian fashion.

uncurrent gold

Gold coin not legal because it is cracked or chipped inside the ring enclosing the image of the sovereign. Shaving or chipping gold coins was a common form of cheating.

cracked … ring

I.e., the young male’s voice having lost its soprano range suitable for acting female parts. (See previous note.)

We’ll e’en to’t, like French falconers:

We’ll go at it like the French

who are presumed here to be avid falconers, not discriminating as to what they loose their birds to fly at.

Q2’s weele ento’t like friendly Fankners is sensibly corrected to wee’l e’ne to’t like French Faulconers in F1, confirmed by Q1.

straight

At once.

quality

Skill in acting.

First Player

Here and subsequently, Q2 generally identifies this speaker as Player, F1 as I Play.

my good lord

F1’s my Lord may have accidentally dropped good from Q2’s my good Lord.

speak me

Speak for me or to me.

but it was

But the play containing this speech was.

caviare … general

I.e., a delicacy not generally appreciated by unsophisticated tastes.

F1 prints Cauairie, Q1/Q2 cauairy.

judgments

F1’s iudgement could be a miscopying of Q2’s iudgements.

cried … mine

Spoke with greater authority than mine.

well digested … scenes

Arranged in orderly fashion into scenes.

modesty

Moderation, restraint.

cunning

Skill.

were no sallets

I.e., were no spicy bits, improprieties. (Literally, salads.)

F1’s substitution of was for Q2’s were could have been compositorial.

indict

Accuse.

Q2/F1 read indite.

affectation

Q2’s affection has the same meaning as F1’s affectation.

as wholesome … than fine

F1 omits these words of Q2.

more handsome than fine

Graceful and natural in proportion rather than artfully ornamented.

One speech

F1’s One cheefe Speech may have been a result of the cut in F1 described two notes above, and perhaps erroneously anticipating cheefely lou’d a few words later in the same sentence. Q2 reads one speech.

Aeneas’ tale to Dido

The story of the fall of Troy, as told by Aeneas to Dido in Book I of Virgil’s Aeneid. The story, not told in Homer’s Iliad, had been dramatized by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe in Dido Queen of Carthage (c. 1585). Shakespeare tells a similar story, about ancient Rome, in The Rape of Lucrece. Q2’s talk is intelligible, and more or less interchangeable with F1’s tale, but F1 is confirmed by Q1 and is generally accepted as authorial.

thereabout of it

Around that part of it.

where

F1’s where as a substitute for Q2’s when could be authorial.

Priam’s slaughter

The slaying of Priam, King of Troy, by Pyrrhus, as Troy fell to the Greeks.

rugged

Shaggy, savage.

Pyrrhus

Pyrrhus, also known as Neoptolemus, was the son of Achilles, and was thus another son (like Hamlet or Laertes or Fortinbras) seeking to avenge his father’s death. Greek legend reports that Achilles, having been smitten by the charms of King Priam’s daughter Polyxena, went to the Temple of Apollo to negotiate the marriage, where he was wounded fatally in the heel by a poisoned arrow shot by Paris. The heel was Achilles’ only vulnerable spot—literally, his Achilles’ heel—since his mother, Thetis, in an attempt to bestow immortality on him, had dipped him as an infant into the River Styx, but held him by the ankle.

th’Hyrcanian beast

A tiger from Hyrcania, on the Caspian Sea, famed for its wild beasts.

sable arms

Black armor.

couchèd

Concealed.

the ominous horse

The fateful wooden Trojan horse, hidden inside of which thirty Greek warriors deceitfully gained access to the citadel of Troy.

heraldry more dismal

I.e., the blood that Pyrrhus has smeared on his already dark and terrifying appearance.

Q2’s heraldy may be a misprint, or an alternative spelling for F1’s Heraldry, confirmed by Q1.

dismal. Head to foot

F1’s punctuation, dismall: Head to foote is arguably more persuasively authorial than Q2’s dismall head to foote.

total gules

Totally red, as if in heraldic colors.

F1’s to take Geulles is presumably a misprint for Q2’s totall Gules. Q1 reads totall guise.

tricked

Smeared, decorated.

Baked … streets

Roasted and encrusted into a thick paste by the parching heat of the streets and burning houses.

tyrannous

Cruel, fierce.

and damnèd

F1’s omission of a in Q2’s and a damned could authorial, or a copying error or editorial sophistication.

To their vile murders

I.e., To the vile murders of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons mentioned three lines earlier.

Q2 reads To their Lords murther, i.e., to the murder of Priam. F! could be authorial. F1 prints vilde, a common alternate spelling, for vile.

o’ersizèd

Covered with size (a glutinous substance applied to canvases to make them ready for painting); also suggesting larger than life size.

coagulate

Congealed.

carbuncles

Large, fiery-red gems, thought to emit their own light.

So proceed you

This Q2 sentence is omitted in F1.

Anon

Soon.

antique

Ancient, long-used.

Q2/F1’s anticke may suggest both “ancient” and “antic,” i.e., comically or absurdly inadequate.

Repugnant to command

Resistant to Priam’s bidding.

Unequal matched

They being unequally matched.

F1’s vnequall match is defensible as meaning, It was an unequal match! Q2’s vnequall matcht is preferred by most editors. F1 could be the result of miscopying.

fell

Cruel, fierce.

Th’unnervèd father

The strengthless old man (and father of many sons).

Then senseless Ilium

Then the citadel of Troy, lacking the strength to defend itself.

F1’s Then senseless Ilium, missing from Q2, seems necessary for the meaning of what follows.

this blow

F1’s his blow and Q2’s this blow are both intelligible. F1 could be a miscopying of Q2.

his base

Its base.

declining

Descending.

milky

White-haired.

reverend

Worthy of deep respect.

F1’s reuerend and Q2’s reuerent are alternative spellings of the same word.

painted

Motionless, as in a painting.

And, like … matter

And, as though suspended between intent and fulfillment.

F1’s And at the head of this line, missing in Q2, improves both the grammar and the meter and is generally accepted as authorial.

against

Just before.

rack

Mass of clouds.

orb

Globe, earth.

As hush as death

Compare the proverbial expression, As dumb (silent, still) as death (the grave), Dent D133.1.

region

Sky.

Cyclops’

The Cyclopes were primordial one-eyed giants of Greek mythology who served as armor-makers in Vulcan’s smithy. The next line here presumes that they were the makers of armor for Mars, the god of war.

Mars his

Mars’s.

F1’s Mars his indicates pronunciation in two syllables. Q2’s Marses has much the same metrical effect.

for proof eterne

To provide eternal protection against assault.

remorse

Pity.

bleeding

I.e., covered with the blood of previous assaults, and anticipating the blood that is about to be shed by old Priam.

Out

An expression of outrage, fury, etc.

strumpet Fortune

The whorish goddess of Chance.

Said also of Fortune at 2.2.200, TLN 1280. F1 reads Strumpet-Fortune.

synod

Assembly.

fellies

The curved pieces of wood forming the exterior rim of a wheel, to which the spokes are attached.

Because Fortune’s wheel is ever turning (a proverbial expression, Dent F617), a person who is at the top of Fortune’s wheel one day may find himself or herself at the bottom the next. Q2’s follies and F1’s Fallies appear to be various compositorial attempts to wrestle with an unusual word.

nave

Wheel hub (all that would be left on a wheel if its spokes and fellies were broken).

the hill of heaven

Mount Olympus, home of the gods in Greek mythology.

jig

Comic entertainment with dance, often performed irrelevantly at the end of a play.

Hecuba

Wife of Priam and Queen of Troy.

But who, oh, who, had seen

But woe is me! Anyone who might have seen.

F1/Q1’s reading could be an authorial revision of Q2’s But who, a woe, had seene.

moblèd

Veiled, muffled.

F1’s inobled, here and in the next two lines, could mean made noble or perhaps deprived of nobility, but it may simply indicate how unusual and easily miscopied Q1/Q2’s mobled appears to be.

That’s good. Mobleèd queen is good.

F1 allows Polonius to repeat himself in a way that seems in character and is generally accepted as authorial, though editors also assume that Inobled is an error for moblèd. Q2 reads That’s good.

threat’ning the flames … rheum

I.e., weeping so with blinding tears that she seemed almost capable of extinguishing the flames of burning Troy.

F1’s flame could be a copying error for Q2’s flames.

clout

Cloth.

upon

F1’s unconvincing replacement of Q2’s vppon with about might have been influenced by the previous word clout.

late

Lately.

diadem

Crown.

lank … loins

Withered loins, utterly worn out with child-bearing.

th’alarm

F1’s th’Alarum, seconded by Q1, is also possible, suggesting a battle signal, but F1 may be authorial. Q2’s the alarme suggests anxiety, fearfulness.

Who this had seen

Whoever had seen this.

’Gainst … pronounced

Would have protested treasonously against Fortune’s fickle rule.

But if

But even if.

husband’s

F1’s Husbands seems a useful correction of Q2’s husband, But husband is defensible as an archaic uninflected form of the genitive (Arden 3).

Would … heaven

Would have caused the sun and other heavenly bodies to weep. (Milch means “milky, moist with tears.”)

And passion

And would have provoked compassionate pity.

whe’er

Whether.

Q2/F1 read where.

Prithee

F1’s Pray you may be an editorial or compositorial sophistication of Q2’s prethee.

the rest of this

F1’s shortening of Q2’s the rest of this to the rest could be a result of careless copying.

bestowed

Lodged.

well used

Well treated.

they are the abstracts … time

Actors give us a concise epitome of the age in which we live.

F1’s abstracts offers a plural noun in place of Q2’s adjectival abstract. F1 could be a copying error, or could be authorial.

you were … epitaph

I.e., you would do better to have been judged a bad person.

live

Q2’s liue makes good sense, and F1’s liued would be an easy copying error.

God’s bodykins

By God’s (Christ’s) dear little body. (An oath.)

Q2’s Gods bodkin is a variant spelling of F1’s Gods bodykins, with presumably only a coincidental resemblance to bodkin meaning “dagger.”

much better

Q2’s much better seems better than F1’s better, perhaps even much better. F1 could be a copying error. Q1 reads farre better.

should

F1/Q1’s should could be an authorial change of Q2’s shall, or could be an editorial sophistication.

after

According to.

Exit Polonius

F1 here reads Exit Polon. In Q2, Polonius exits with the players at 357.1 below. Q1 also indicates the exit of Corambis near that point. The delayed exit of Polonius in Q1/Q2 makes good sense of Hamlet’s Follow that lord, and look you mock him not at line 355; perhaps Polonius starts to exit here at 350.1 and then waits at the door for the players to follow him.

ha’t

Have it performed.

for a need

As required and necessary.

Q1/F1’s for a need is idiomatic and plausible authorial as a substitute for Q2’s for neede.

study

Learn, memorize.

dozen or sixteen lines

F1/Q1’s dosen (dozen) or sixteene lines could be a deliberate improvement of Q2’s dosen lines, or sixteene lines.

till

Q2’s tell seems an obvious misprint, corrected in F1’s til. Presumably Hamlet is here speaking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Good my lord

Rosencrantz politely bids Hamlet farewell, understanding that he has asked them to leave.

Ay, so, God b’wi’ you.… Now I am alone

Q2’s God buy to you and F1’s God buy’ye, i.e. God b’wi’ you, are early forms of our familiar Goodbye, as at 2.1.70 above, TLN 962. Hamlet presumably says goodbye to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as they leave, then speaks in soliloquy. Both F1 and Q2 print the line as a single line of verse, after the Exeunt.

Exeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]

F1 reads Exeunt. / Manet Hamlet. In Q2, Polonius exits here with the players; see note at 249.1 above.

But

Merely.

force … whole conceit

Bring his innermost being so entirely into accord with his conception of the role he is playing.

F1’s substitution of whole for Q2’s owne could be authorial.

from her working

As a result of, or in response to, his soul’s activity.

his visage

His face.

F1’s his visage is plausibly an authorial emendation of Q2’s the visage.

wanned

Turned pale.

F1’s warm’d is an easy transcription error of Q2’s wand, i.e., wanned.

in’s aspect

In his look.

F1’s in’s is a plausible substitution for Q2’s in his.

and his whole … conceit

And all his bodily gestures perfectly suited to what he was imagining.

Q2’s an is presumably a misprint for F1’s and.

to Hecuba

F1’s to Hecuba would seem to be an authorial correction of Q2’s to her.

the cue

F1’s the cue would seem to be an authorial correction of Q2’s that.

the general ear

Everybody’s ear.

horrid

Horror-causing.

appal the free

Horrify the innocent. (Appal conveys the literal sense of “make pale.”)

F1 reads apale, Q2 appale.

Confound the ignorant

Dumbfound those who know nothing of the crime that has been committed.

amaze

Stun, bewilder.

faculties

F1’s faculty could be a miscopying of Q2’s faculties, or could be authorial.

muddy-mettled

Dull-spirited.

peak

Mope.

Like John-a-dreams … cause

Like an idle dreamer, not quickened into action by my cause.

property

Person and identity as king.

A damned defeat

A murderous act deserving damnation.

Breaks … across

Slaps me across the face. (A profound insult.) Pate means head.

To break someone’s head in Elizabethan English is not to break it in two but to deliver a blow.

Plucks off my beard

Yanks at my beard.

Another deep insult, questioning the manliness of the one thus insulted. The beard could hardly be yanked entirely off, but the yank would be accompanied by a sharp slap to the face.

Gives … throat

Calls me an out-and-out liar.

(Again, an especially insulting gesture.)Compare the proverbial expression, To lie in one’s throat, Dent T268).

does me this

Does this to me.

’Swounds

By his (Christ’s) wounds. (A strong oath.)

F1’s Why is presumably an expurgated substitution for Q2’s strong oath, s’wounds.

take it

I.e., take it lying down, offering no response.

it cannot be / But

It cannot be otherwise than that.

pigeon-livered

Pigeons’ livers were thought to secrete no gall, thus making them mild and disinclined to anger.

To … bitter

To make my oppression bitter to me, and thus make me dangerous to my enemy.

ere

Before.

ha’ fatted

Q2’s a fatted, i.e., ha’ fatted or have fatted, may well be textual authentic reading here, sophisticated into haue fatted in F1.

all the region kites

All the kites (birds of prey) of the air.

this slave’s offal

This wretch’s entrails.

bawdy

Lewd, immoral.

F1’s a Bawdy may be a miscopying of Q2’s baudy.

kindless

Unnatural, lacking in affection for one’s kind.

Oh, vengeance!

This F1 reading is omitted in Q1/Q2. It is rejected by Arden 2 as an actor’s interpolation, but defended by other editors.

Why,

F1’s Who? is seemingly a copying error for Q2’s Why.

am I!

Following Am I? F1 adds I sure, often regarded as an unauthorized interpolation since the meter is clearer in Q2.

brave

Fine, admirable. (Said sarcastically.)

a dear father murdered

Q3’s a deere father murthered is a plausible emendation for Q2’s a dear murdered and F1’s the Deere murdered, either of which is possible but perhaps more likely to be copying errors.

drab

Whore.

scullion

I.e., menial, kitchen servant.

Q2 reads stallyon, i.e., whore; Q1 reads scalion, perhaps meaning kitchen wench, like F1’s Scullion. All are defensible and consistent with drab in the same line.

About

Go about it, get to work.

brain

Q2’s braines and Q1/F1’s Braine are equally defensible.

Hum

Q2’s Hum is omitted in Q1/F1.

cunning

Artfulness, skill.

presently

At once.

Compare the proverb, Murder will out (cannot be hid). Dent M1315.

malefactions

Evil deeds, crimes.

tent … quick

Probe his wound (i.e., his conscience) to its core.

If ’a but blench

If he flinches or turns pale.

F1’s If he but blench is generally accepted as authorial in place of Q2’s if a doe blench, though the changing of Q2’s ’a to F1’s he could be a copyist’s or printer’s sophistication.

be the devil

Q2’s be a deale could be a copying error for Q1/F1’s be the Diuell, confirmed by the repetition of the Diuel later in this line in F1.

Abuses

Deludes, deceives.

relative

Relevant, convincing.

[3.1]

Location: The castle.

And can … circumstance

Can you not, by means of roundabout inquiry.

The And (Q2 reads An) indicates that the scene begins in the midst of a discussion. Q2’s conference in place of F1’s circumstance makes sense if it means “conversation,” but editors often prefer F1’s circumstance, which may be authorial.

forward

Willing.

sounded

Probed, questioned.

disposition

Inclination, mood.

Niggard of question

Laconic, reluctant to initiate talk.

of our demands

In response to our questions.

assay him to

Endeavor to persuade him to try.

fell out

Happened.

o’erraught

Overtook, passed.

F1 reads ore-wrought, Q2 ore-raught.

are about the court

Have arrived and are present here in the court.

F1’s are about scans better than Q2’s are here about, in which the unnecessary here may have been mistakenly picked up from heare earlier in the line.

edge

Incitement.

on / To

Q2’s into is plausible enough, though F1’s on / To may be authorial. The lineation in F1 differs from that of Q2.

too

Q2’s two is plausible enough, though F1’s too could be an authorial revision.

closely

Privately.

here

F1’s there may be a copying error for Q2’s heere.

Affront

Confront, encounter.

lawful espials

Justifiable spies.

This F1 phrase, not found in Q2, is plausibly authorial. Q2’s omission may be the result of unintentional oversight.

Will

Q2’s Wee’le can make sense, but editors in general prefer F1’s Will, which sounds more colloquial and may indeed be authorial.

by … behaved

By his behavior.

wonted

Customary.

[Exit Queen.]

This exit, absent from Q2/F1, is indicated by an exit in Q1, albeit at an earlier point than in the other texts. This business, and the famous To be or not to be soliloquy, follow in Q1 after Polonius’s reading of Hamlet’s love letters to the King and Queen at TLN 1137-90.

Gracious

Your Grace (addressed to the King).

this book

Presumably, a book of devotion.

exercise

Religious exercise.

color

Give a plausible appearance to, justify.

loneliness

Q2’s lowliness is possible, in the sense of pious humility, but F1’s lonelinesse is more appropriate, and Q2’s reading is easily explained as an error in transmission.

to blame

Q2/F1’s too blame conveys the sense of too blameworthy, though To blame and too blame are often interchangeable in early modern English.

’Tis … proved

It is too often shown to be the case and too often practiced.

sugar

F1’s surge is an easy misprint for Q2’s sugar.

Oh, ’tis too true!

These words need not be said aside; they could be the King’s way of agreeing with what Polonius has just said, before the King pursues in tortured soliloquy the dark consequences of the idea. Conversely, the whole speech can be read as expressive of a guilty conscience.

Q2’s O tis too true may well be the authoritative reading; F1’s omission of too could be an easy oversight.

smart

Stinging.

beautied … art

Beautified by means of cosmetics.

to … helps it

In comparison with or in response to the cosmetic that gives the cheek its false beauty.

Enter Hamlet

Hamlet enters in Q2 before Polonius says I heare him coming, with-draw my Lord. He enters in F1 as he is about to begin his famous To be, or not to be soliloquy. The earlier Q2 entrance is sometimes interpreted as affording Hamlet an opportunity to quickly size up a plot to spy on him, but in his soliloquy Hamlet gives no indication of his having seen them. A likelier interpretation is that Q2’s entrance is directed at the actor playing Hamlet, giving him time to get on the large Elizabethan stage without a delay in the action, and for the audience to see him entering as the King and Polonius withdraw. Q1 gives an entirely different placement of this soliloquy and Hamlet’s confrontation of Ophelia; it occurs much earlier, after Polonius (called Corambis in Q1) has brought the King and Queen the letter that Ophelia (Ofelia) has received from Hamlet; this is at 2.2.154 and following in Q2/F1, and replaces the report in those texts of Hamlet’s craftily mad conversation with Polonius.

Let’s withdraw

Q2’s with-draw is perfectly clear, but F1’s let’s withdraw improves the meter, and the absence of let’s in Q2 may be a simple error of omission.

[The King … themselves]

The King and Polonius may step aside, behind an arras or wall-hanging.

F1 specifies Exeunt before Hamlet enters. The stage direction is omitted in Q2. Later, at 133.1, TLN 1818, Q2/F1 both specify Enter King and Polonius, meaning probably that they then come forward from concealment. The audience needs to be aware of their concealed presence throughout Hamlet’s encounter with Ophelia.

slings

Devices for propelling several kinds of missiles toward an enemy.

a sea of troubles

A sea of troubles (sorrows) is a proverbial expression (Dent S177.1).

To die, to sleep—

Q2 reads to die to sleepe without a comma or dash. The comma is supplied by F1. An easy omission in Q2.

No more

I.e., Death is nothing more than a prolonged sleep.

(A commonplace, beautifully rendered into music by Haydn in his round, Tod ist ein langer schlaf.)

wished. To

Q2’s lack of a period after wisht is presumably a copying or compositorial oversight. F1’s wish’d. To is generally adopted by editors.

rub

Impediment, difficulty. (Literally, an obstacle in the path of the ball in the game of bowls.)

shuffled … coil

Cast off our mortal flesh and the turmoil of existence.

respect

Consideration.

That … life

(1) That allows calamity to last so long; (2) that makes long life a calamity in itself.

the proud man’s contumely

The insolent abuse meted out by those of superior social rank.

Q2’s the proude mans contumely is universally preferred by editors to F1’s the poore mans Contumely. F1’s reading could easily be a copying error.

disprized

Scorned, undervalued.

Q2’s despiz’d is a viable reading, but may be a copying error corrected in F1’s dispriz’d.

office

Officialdom.

spurns

Insults; literally, kicks.

That … takes

That patient, deserving people must endure at the hands of unworthy persons.

might his quietus make

Might settle his accounts (at the end of his life).

A quietus was an affirmation that a bill had been paid, marked Quietus est, laid to rest.

With a bare bodkin

With nothing more elaborate than an unsheathed dagger.

these fardels

Such burdens.

F1’s these Fardles and Q2’s fardels are equally intelligible. Some editors regard these as unnecessary. Yet its presence in F1 may be authorial.

bourn

Boundary, border.

F1 reads Borne, Q2 borne.

No traveler returns

Since the Ghost of Hamlet’s father has just returned from the undiscovered country of the afterlife, this phrase here may refer more simply to the general proposition that death is final.

Q2 prints trauiler, F1 Traueller.

have / Than

Q2/F1’s haue, / Then could suggest subsequently as a meaning for Then, but Then is a common early modern spelling of Than.

conscience

(1) introspection, consciousness; (2) moral promptings, attuned to fear of divine punishment after death for sins committed while one is alive.

of us all

The phrase appears in F1, not in Q2. It is so highly satisfactory in sense and meter that Q2’s omission of it is generally regarded as a copying error.

the native hue of resolution

The natural color of one’s complexion (i.e., ruddiness) that signals manly courage.

sicklied

Q2’s sickled is presumably a typographical error for F1’s sicklied.

the pale cast of thought

The white-faced pallor that accompanies too much introspection.

great pith

High seriousness, profound importance.

Q2’s pitch, height, said of the highest point of a falcon’s flight, is a plausible reading, though F1’s pith is generally preferred by editors and may indeed be authorial.

moment

Momentousness, significance.

regard

Consideration.

currents

Courses.

awry

Askew, off the expected course.

F1’s away, though intelligible, may well be a misprint for Q2’s more incisive awry.

lose

Q2/F1 print loose, a common variant spelling.

Soft you now

I.e., Wait a minute. (Said as Hamlet sees Ophelia.)

in thy orisons / Be … remembered

Remember me in your prayers, sinner that I am.

Christian theology in medieval and Renaissance times dwelt on the innate sinfulness of all humans since the fall of Adam and Eve.

well, well, well

F1’s well, well, well fills out the meter of a short line in Q2 (I humbly thanke you well) and is generally regarded as authorial.

No, not I

F1’s No, no and Q2’s No, not I are interchangeable for meaning. F1’s reading may be authorial, but Q2 produces a better line metrically, and F1 could be the result of imperfect copying.

aught

Anything.

Q2/F1 print ought, a variant spelling.

you know

F1’s I know is intelligible, but Q2’s you know is more persuasive and is generally regarded as authorial. F1’s reading could easily be a miscopying.

these things

F1’s the things is intelligible, but Q2’s these things is more particular in its reference and is generally regarded as authorial. F1’s reading could easily be a miscopying.

Their perfume lost

F1’s then perfume left is perhaps intelligible (if left can be taken to mean “having departed”), but Q2’s their perfume lost is more particular in its reference and is generally regarded as authorial. F1’s reading could easily be a miscopying.

wax

Grow.

honest

(1) chaste; (2) truthful.

fair

Beautiful.

your honesty … your beauty

You should be chastely wary of any dealings with your beauty (since a beautiful woman is too often in danger of being seduced).

F1’s your Honesty should admit no discourse to your Beautie conveys much the same idea as in Q2’s you should admit / no discourse to your beautie, but with more pointed emphasis on the problematic nature of Honesty or chastity. F1’s version may be authorial. It is in a passage containing quite a few such misreadings.

commerce

Dealings.

than with honesty

F1’s then your honesty is perhaps intelligible as a shortened form of than with your honesty, but Q2’s then with honestie is clearer, and F1’s reading could be a typographical error in a passage containing quite a few such misreadings in F1.

his likeness

Its (honesty’s) likeness.

sometime a paradox

Formerly a seeming absurdity, a conundrum.

virtue cannot so inoculate … of it

Virtue cannot be grafted onto our inherently sinful nature without our retaining some taste or trace of the old stock, i.e., Adam’s Original Sin.

Q2’s euocutat is a problematic reading. Q3’s attempt at improvement with euacuate, i.e., evacuate, is possible, but F1’s innocculate may well be authorial. Q2’s euocutat is physically close to enocutat.

Get thee to

Q2’s omission of to seems inadvertent, and is corrected by F1.

nunnery

Convent (perhaps too with the suggestion of a brothel, since Hamlet is openly skeptical of the idea that beauty and chastity can coexist in women).

indifferent honest

Reasonably virtuous.

accuse me

Accuse myself.

beck

Command.

in, imagination to give

F1’s in imagination, to giue misplaces the comma of Q2’s in, imagination to giue.

heaven and earth

F1’s Heauen and Earth inverts Q2’s earth and heauen. Q1’s heauen and earth agrees with F1. The inversion could be authorial, or the work of a copyist or compositor.

arrant

Downright.

knaves, all

Both Q1 and F1 add all after knaves, presumably reflecting the dramatist’s choice. Q2’s omission could be inadvertent.

nowhere

F1’s no way is possible, but may be a copying error for Q1/Q2’s no where.

calumny

Slander.

a nunnery. Go, farewell.

F1’s correction of Q2’s a Nunry, farewell is plausibly, though not certainly, authorial.

monsters

Cuckolded men were popularly supposed to have monster-like horns on their foreheads as a sign of their being cheated on by their wives.

you make

You women make.

quickly too.

Q2 reads quickly to, F1 quickly too.

O heavenly

F1’s addition of O to Q2’s Heauenly could be authorial, or could be an editorial addition.

paintings too

Use of cosmetics, also.

F1’s pratlings is possible, but could be a copying error for Q2’s paintings, which seems more thematically consistent with Hamlet’s diatribe against women for making themselves faces other than what God has given them. On the other hand, the too in F1’s pratlings too could be authorial.

face

F1’s pace, meaning gait, can be linked to pratlings in F1’s version of Hamlet’s previous sentence, suggesting that both images are about mannerisms of speech and movement, but Q2’s face seems better suited to the image of women’s use of makeup, and is generally preferred as probably authorial.

yourselves

F1’s your selfe is possible, but Q2’s your selfes is more grammatically correct, and Q2 has the advantage of a more direct line of transmission from Shakespeare’s own papers.

You jig, you amble … lisp

You dance about, you swing your hips suggestively when you walk, you speak with an affected voice.

F1’s you gidge, you amble may well contain a copying error of gidge for Q2’s You gig, itself probably a spelling variant of You jig. On the other hand, F1 may be authorial in printing you amble in place of Q2’s & amble. The & may anticipate the next and in the sentence. Q2’s erroneous list is corrected in F1’s lispe. Q1 reads fig.

and nickname God’s creatures

I.e., and you impose new names and false appearances on the creatures of this world instead of accepting them as God made them.

In the Book of Genesis God gives names to his first creations, as when he called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas, and then ordained the abundance of moving creatures (1.10-25), but when he had created Adam, he turned the naming of the beasts and fowl over to him: he brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them, and so Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the fowl of the air (2.19-20). Hamlet accuses Ophelia of taking on this assignment frivolously and superficially.

F1’s and nickname Gods creatures is plausibly authorial in this sequence of clauses, in place of Q1/Q2’s you nickname Gods creatures.

and make your wantonness your ignorance.

And you excuse your bad behavior on the grounds that you didn’t know any better.

F1’s and make your Wantonnesse, your Ignorance may well be authorial in its second your, missing from Q2 in what could be a simple copying error.

Go to

An expression of impatience, as at 1.3.112 (TLN 578).

I’ll no more on’t

I won’t have any more of this.

no more marriages

F1/Q1’s no more Marriages may be authorial, though Q2 (no mo marriage) is also possible. Mo is an allowable spelling variant in early modern English.

all but one

Presumably, all but the King. (Whether Hamlet says this in the knowledge that the King is listening is a matter of interpretation.)

The courtier’s … sword

The three attributes are not listed in the same order as that used for the three types of persons; the pattern is more rhetorical than strictly logical. Sword clearly goes with the soldier; eye and tongue could indicate scholar and courtier, or the reverse (Arden 3).

Th’expectancy and rose

The hope and ornament.

F1’s Th’expectansie and Rose is better fitted metrically to the line than Q2’s Th’expectation, and Rose, and may well be an authorial emendation. The sense of the two readings is similar.

The glass … form

The mirror of true self-fashioning and the model of courtly behavior.

Th’observed … observers

The admired center of attention in the court.

And I

F1’s Haue I appears to be a misreading of Q2’s And I.

music

Sweetly and harmoniously uttered.

F1 reads Musicke; Q2’s musickt is also possible, and with much the same meaning, but F1 could well be the correction of a misprint.

that

Q2’s what may well be a misprint for F1’s more intelligible that, although, as Arden 2 notes, Ophelia’s syntax could be disjointed here.

sovereign reason

I.e., reason as properly the sovereign or ruler over the emotions and the senses.

tune

Q2’s time is perhaps just as viable a reading as F1’s tune, but tune may be an authorized revision.

feature

Form, image.

Q2’s stature is a viable reading, but F1’s Feature is more immediately understandable and may well be authorial.

blown youth

Youth in its full blossoming.

Blasted with ecstasy

Blighted with madness.

affections

Emotions, feelings.

sits on brood

Sits like a bird on a nest, about to hatch mischief (in the next line).

And … disclose

And I do fear that the fulfillment and the discovery (like the hatching of a chick as it emerges from its shell).

to prevent

F1’s to preuent is a perfectly acceptable alternative to Q2’s for to preuent, and is indeed more in line with twenty-first-century usage, even if F1 could be a sophistication or a copying error rather than authorial.

set it down

Determined, resolved the matter; put it in writing.

Haply

Perhaps.

variable objects

Various sights and surroundings to divert him.

something-settled

Somewhat fixated.

Q2/F1 do not hyphenate. Omitted in Q1.

Whereon … do well

F1’s lineation here is more plausible than that of Q2 (Whereon … beating / Puts … himselfe. / What … on’t? / Pol. It … well.), and may well be authorial.

still

Continually.

From … himself

Out of his normal mode of behavior.

his grief

F1’s this greefe is understandable, but may have been a mis-copying of Q2’s his greefe.

grief

F1’s Greefes is intelligible, but perhaps a mis-copying of Q2’s griefe.

round

Blunt.

As at 3.4.5 below.

placed (so please you)

F1’s plac’d so, please you is possible, with so meaning thus and please you an abbreviated version of so please you, but the F1 reading could easily be a copying error of Q2’s plac’d (so please you) by the misplacement of the comma.

find him not

Is unable to discover what is troubling him.

unwatched

Q2’s vnmatcht can make sense (countered by some stratagem, some opposite ploy), but may well be a copying error for F1’s vnwatch’d.

[3.2]

Location: A room of state in the castle.

two or three of the Players

F1 asks for two or three of the Players, while Q2 asks for three of the Players and Q1 merely specifies the Players, suggesting how flexible and casual such arrangements could be in performances at various times and for various audiences. Only one Player here is needed to answer Hamlet, but his lecture on acting is suitably addressed to the players who have arrived at Elsinore.

pronounced

Q2’s pronoun’d would appear to be an obvious misprint corrected in F1’s pronounc’d.

mouth

Declaim, speak exaggeratedly.

your players

Actors nowadays, the actors that people talk about.

Q2’s our Players is acceptable, but less idiomatic than Q1/F1’s your Players. Q2’s version could be a copying error.

I had as lief

I’d just as soon, be just as willing.

Q2/F1 print liue as a common spelling of lief.

town crier

Person assigned the responsibility of loudly proclaiming public announcements in the streets.

had spoke

Q2’s spoke is perfectly intelligible, but F1’s had spoke is plausibly authorial.

with your hand, thus

F1’s your hand thus can be made to yield good sense if punctuated with dashes before and after, but a simpler explanation is that Q2’s preceding with was inadvertently omitted by the F1 compositor.

whirlwind of your passion

F1’s omission of Q2’s your in Q2 may have been an oversight.

acquire and beget

Cultivate and nurture.

to hear

F1’s to see and Q2’s to heare are both intelligible, but Q2 can perhaps claim a more direct line of descent from Shakespeare’s papers, and the idea of hearing fits best with a noisy performance.

robustious

Boisterous, bombastic.

periwig-pated

Wig-wearing.

Q2’s perwig-pated is corrected in F1’s Pery-wig-pated. Q1 reads periwig.

tear

Q2 prints tere, Q1/F1 teare.

tatters

Q1/Q2’s totters is probably just a spelling variant of F1’s tatters.

split

Q2’s spleet is a spelling variant of Q1/F1’s split.

groundlings

Spectators who paid the lowest price of admission (usually a penny) and who stood in the yard around the raised platform stage.

The term groundlings, seemingly Shakespeare’s invention, has condescending connotations of low taste and gullibility in the spectators.

capable of

Able to understand.

dumb-shows and noise

Noisy spectacles (as differentiated from complex and intellectually demanding drama).

would

F1’s could is plausible, but may be a miscopying of Q1/Q2’s would.

Termagant

A supposed Mohammedan deity who, though not actually found in extant English medieval drama, had become a byword for tyrannical bluster, like Herod (see next note).

Compare Falstaff’s characterization of the Scottish warrior the Douglas, as that hot termagant Scot (1 Henry IV, 5.4.113-14).

Herod

King of Judea who ordered the massacre of all male children in his kingdom as a means of destroying the child that, wise men told him, was born King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2)—namely, Christ. This Herod was a figure of comic bluster in The Massacre of the Innocents and other episodes from the Christmas story in medieval religious drama.

warrant

Assure.

o’erstep

F1’s ore-stop is presumably a simple misprint for Q2’s ore-steppe.

the modesty of nature

Natural restraint and moderation.

anything

Q2/F1 print any thing.

o’erdone

F1’s ouer-done is perfectly intelligible. It could be a compositorial sophistication of Q2’s ore doone, though ouer-done does appear later in Q2 (and F1) in this same speech (TLN 1873).

from the purpose

Contrary to the purpose.

to hold … image

To show human nature an image of itself and scornful persons a picture of what they look like.

F1’s her owne Feature is intelligible as a correction of Q2’s her feature, introducing own as a parallel to her owne Image.

and the very … pressure

And the present state of affairs a likeness of itself as if impressed in wax. (His form means “its form.”)

come tardy off

Done lamely.

make the unskillful

Make those who lack critical discernment; the opposite of the judicious.

F1’s make is intelligible, and could be authorial, though it could instead be an editorial sophistication of Q2’s makes.

the censure of the which … allowance

The critical judgment of even one of whom must, in your scale of values.

F1’s The censure of the which may be an authorial correction of Q2’s the censure of which. Q2’s comma in which, one and F1’s comma in which One, are both misleading for modern readers.

praise

Q2’s prasyd is intelligible, but could be an error for praise, as in F1.

not to speak it profanely

I.e., I hope I will not be speaking profanely if I venture so far as to damn such bad actors as neither Christian, pagan, or any other part of the human race (as Hamlet says in the words that follow here).

gait

Q2/F1 print gate. Omitted in Q1.

nor no man

Nor mankind in general.

F1’s or Norman may suggest that the reading should be nor no man (Oxford). Q2 reads nor man.

nature’s journeymen

I.e., not Nature herself but merely one of her hired assistants.

abominably

F1/Q2’s abhominably, a spelling strongly preferred throughout Shakespeare’s texts, preserves a then-popular false etymology, as if the word were derived from Latin ab + homine, removed from human nature, instead of the truer derivation, ab + omen, far distant from the shades of the dead. Q1 reads abhominable.

indifferently

Tolerably, moderately well.

with us, sir

F1’s Sir added at the end of Q2’s with vs may be authorial.

of them

Some among them.

set on

Incite.

barren

Devoid of wit or judgment.

to laugh too

Q2’s to laugh to is a common spelling variant for F1’s to laugh too. The same spelling occurs in line 7 below.

Exeunt Players

Q1 reads exeunt players, F1 Exit Players. Omitted in Q2.

Enter … Guildenstern

F1, adopted here, plausibly prints this stage direction before Hamlet says to Polonius, in line 6, How now my Lord, / Will the King heare this peece of Worke? Q2’s placement of the speech after its stage direction (Enter Polonius, Guyldensterne, & Rosencraus) is nonetheless defensible from a theatrical point of view: Hamlet addresses Polonius as he and the two young men begin their entrance onto the broad Elizabethan stage.

presently

At once.

Exit Polonius

This F1 stage direction is omitted in Q1/Q2 but is plainly inferred in the dialogue.

We will, my lord

F1 plausibly assigns this speech to Both. Q2 assigns it one speaker, Ros., saying I my Lord.

Exeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]

F1 simplifies Q2’s Exeunt they two to Exeunt.

Enter Horatio

F1 brings Horatio on before Hamlet says to him, What hoa, Horatio? But Q2’s arrangement is equally good, or better; here, Hamlet calls out to his friend, who is offstage but near at hand, whereupon Horatio responds to the call.

e’en

Even, absolutely.

just

Judicious, honorable, trustworthy.

As … coped withal

As I have ever encountered in my experience with people.

For coped, Q2 prints copt, F1 coap’d.

revenue

The word revenue is here accented on the second syllable.

candied

Sugary, flattering.

tongue lick

Q2’s tongue licke is a necessary correction of F1’s tongue, like.

pregnant

Compliant.

Where … fawning

Wherever profit may accrue from abject flattery.

F1’s faining, i.e., putting on a pretense of flattering attention, is possible for Q2’s fauning, but Shakespeare often pairs the ideas of fawning and candy, as in Hotspur’s Why, what a candy deal of courtesy / This fawning greyhound [Bolingbroke] then did offer me! (1 Henry IV, 1.3.249-50; noted by Arden 3).

of her choice

F1’s of my choyse can make sense, suggesting that the soul is able to govern one’s choice of friends, but may be a copying error for Q2’s more easily intelligible of her choice.

And could … for herself

And could make discriminating choices among men, she (my soul) has marked you as her own, as though putting a legal seal on you to ensure possession.

Q2’s And could … distinguish her election, / S’hath … for herselfe is clear; F1’s version, And could … distinguish, her election / Hath … her selfe, though intelligible, may be a copying error. The thought in this passage owes much to Stoicism.

Hast

Q2’s Hast and F1’s Hath are both plausible, but Q2’s version has the advantages of being a better grammatical choice in a better textual line of authority. F1 could be an editorial attempt at correction or a copying error.

blood and judgment

Passion and reason.

commingled

Commingled.

F1’s co-mingled is a perfectly viable alternative to Q2’s comedled, and could be authorial, though it could instead be an editorial sophistication in place of Q2’s less familiar form.

stop

Hole in a recorder or similar wind instrument for controlling pitch.

This observation about the stop on a recorder anticipates Hamlet’s caustic exchange with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern later in this present scene (lines 227, TLN 2221, and following).

Something … of this

I.e., I’ve already said too much on this subject. (Hamlet obliquely apologizes to Horatio for having expressed so deeply and personally his affection and admiration.)

tonight

Q2/F1 read to night.

Even … thy soul

With your utmost powers of concentration.

F1’s reading of my soul can be made to yield sense, but much more plausible is Q2’s thy soul. An easy copying error.

occulted

Hidden.

itself unkennel

Reveal itself (as a fox might be flushed from its lair).

The word unkennel may have come to Shakespeare from the similarity of sound to uncle and occulted in the previous line.

one speech

Presumably Hamlet here refers to the speech that he has asked the First Player to memorize and insert into the upcoming performance of The Murder of Gongazo. See 3.1.331, TLN 1581-2, above.

Vulcan’s stithy

The stithy or workshop of Vulcan, blacksmith-god of fire (and husband of Venus). Stiths are anvils.

heedful note

Careful observation.

F1’s needfull note could be an easy copying error for Q2’s heedfull note, though both are possible, and, as Arden 3 observes, needful is more frequently used by Shakespeare than heedful.

In censure … seeming

In judgment of his appearance and behavior.

Q2’s In seems more idiomatic than F1’s To, though F1 is possible and could be authorial.

If ’a steal aught the whilst

If he gets away with anything while.

Q2/F1 print ought for aught. Omitted in Q1.

detecting

Having been detected.

Q2’s detected is defensible, but F1’s detecting seems more plausible and may represent a deliberate correction. It is commonly editors’ choice.

pay the theft

Pay for what has been stolen, i.e, make amends for my inadequate observation of the King.

Enter … flourish

Q2 (Enter Trumpets and Kettle Drummes, King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia) neglects to mention Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, other lords, and the King’s guard carrying torches, who are named in F1’s equivalent stage direction (Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrance, Guildensterne, and other Lords attendant with his Guard carrying torches. Danish March. Sound a Flourish). The Trumpets and Kettle Drummes mentioned in Q2 are presumably needed to sound the Flourish called for in F1. The Danish March is mentioned only in F1. Q1 reads, more simply, Enter King, Queene, Corambis, and other Lords.

be idle

(1) be unoccupied; (2) resume my mad guise.

How fares … Hamlet?

How are things with you, my kinsman Hamlet?

(But Hamlet, in his reply, plays on fares in the sense of dines.)

of the … promise-crammed

(1) I am feeding on air, like the chameleon (which was fabled to feed thus); (2) I am feeding myself with thoughts about succeeding to the Danish crown, having been given nothing but empty promises of succession. (Hamlet is heir apparent; the word sounds like air.)

Compare the proverb, Love is a chameleon that feeds on air (Dent L505.1, noted by Arden 3). Compare too the cramming of geese with feed to make pat de foie gros.

capons

(1) castrated roosters, often crammed with feed to make them succulent for the dinner table; (2) fools.

I have nothing with

I can make nothing of, can learn nothing from.

are not mine

Do not respond to what I asked and thus are meaningless to me.

nor mine now. … My lord,

These words are so longer mine, since I have uttered them and sent them forth into the air. [To Polonius] My lord,

F1’s nor mine. Now my Lord could be a mistranscribing of Q2’s nor mine now my Lord.

That I did

F1’s That I did could be an editorial or copying alteration of Q2’s That did I, or it could be an authorial change.

And what

F1’s And what could be an authorial correction of Q2’s What.

i’th’ Capitol

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Caesar is assassinated in the Capitol (3.1.12). Historically, Caesar was assassinated in Pompey’s porch, the colonnade of Pompey’s great open theater, dedicated in 55 BC. Shakespeare mentions that the conspirators are waiting for Cassius In Pompey’s porch (1.3.126).

brute

The word plays on Brutus, the name of one of the chief conspirators against Caesar and also a synonym in Latin for stupid. According to historical legend, Marcus Brutus’s great ancestor in the founding of the Roman republic, Lucius Junius Brutus, pretended to be stupid (much as Hamlet assumes a guise of madness) to throw off his tyrannical enemies; hence, his name Brutus, stupid. A passage in Henry V compares King Henry’s wild youth with the evasive tactics of the first Roman Brutus, / Covering discretion with a coat of folly (2.4.37-8; see Arden 3).

part

(1) action; (2) role in a play.

so capital a calf

I.e., so outstanding a fool.

With satirical wordplay on capital/Capitol; see the previous line.

stay … patience

Await instructions from you as to when to begin.

dear

F1’s good might be an authorial or editorial or copying substitution for Q2’s dear. Both are perfectly possible. In F1, in his reply (line 58), Hamlet repeats the word good with which his mother has addressed him; in Q2 he perhaps deliberately chooses not to use her word dear, but good. Either is potentially laden with ironic meaning.

mettle

(1) mettle, disposition, temperament. (2) metal, an attractive quality (much as a magnet attracts iron).

Q1/Q2 read mettle, F1 Mettle. A common variant spelling, sometimes, as here, with ambiguous play of meaning.

Lady … lap?

On stage, Hamlet often reclines at Ophelia’s feet.

I mean … Ay, my lord

These two F1 lines are omitted in Q2, perhaps inadvertently.

country matters

Rustic goings-on. (The obscene punning here on cunt continues in nothing; see next note.)

Nothing

(1) The oval figure of zero, suggesting a woman’s vagina; (2) No thing, no penis. (Thing is a common euphemism in this sense.)

your only jig-maker

I.e., if you talk of being merry, let me tell you that I’m very best singer and dancer of jigs (that is, of pointless vulgar merriment) you could hope to find. (Said sardonically.)

Jigs were often tacked on gratuitously at the ends of dramatic performances, for the diversion of the audience; see 2.2.328, TLN 1540, above.

within’s

Within these.

let the devil … sables

I.e., if mourning for my dead father has ceased after only two months, then the devil can wear mourning black for all I care, while I shift to the dark fur of the sable, outwardly suitable for remembrance of the dead but in fact quite soft and luxurious.

Q2’s deule, Q1’s diuell, and F1’s Diuel are common spelling variants for dev’l or devil.

by’r Lady

Q2’s ber Lady is presumably intended for by’r Lady.

or else … thinking on

Or else he must endure being wholly forgotten.

hobby-horse

A costuming device used in Morris dances and May-game sports in which the dancer is made up to resemble a horse and its rider by strapping the shape of a horse’s body around his waist.

Hamlet quotes from a lost ballad, occurring inLove’s Labor’s Lost , 3.1.27-8, lamenting the disappearance of Morrris dancing and such folk customs under pressure from zealous Puritan reformers.

Hautboys … Exeunt [Players]

The wording of this F1 stage direction varies from that of Q2, commencing with Hoboyes play in place of Q2’s trumpets, adding that the Queen makes shew of Protestation to the King, instructs the Poisoner to enter a second time with some two or three Mutes, substituting lament for condole, and ending the SD with an Exeunt not in Q2, but otherwise with little or any substantive difference. Presumably the exeunt (also omitted in Q1) is implicit in Q2; such SDs are not uncommonly omitted in playhouse documents, since the actors could be counted on to get themselves off stage at the correct time.

this is miching mallico

This is stealthy mischief.

F1’s this is Miching Malicho may be authoritative; the omission of is in Q2 could be inadvertent, and Q2’s munching seems to make little sense. Q1’s myching tends to confirm F1’s Malicho, though the meaning is obscure in all three versions. The Spanish malhecho means “a wicked act,” as noted by Hanmer and Tronch-Prez; see Arden 3.

F1’s That could an authorial correction of Q2’s it, or it could be a misreading or editorial sophistication.

Belike

Probably, perhaps.

imports the argument of the play

Signifies the plot.

Enter … Prologue

F1 brings the Prologue on several lines later, following line 81, just as he is about to speak. Q2’s placement, in the right margin opposite line 78, is theatrically more logical, and is adopted here; F1 seems to be following a literary convention. Q1’s entrance, opposite TLN 2003, is still earlier than Q2’s.

this fellow

F1’s these Fellowes could refer to the players who are about to appear in the play-within-the-play. Q2’s this fellow refers to the Prologue.

keep counsel

Keep a secret.

Q2’s omission of F1’s counsell is presumably inadvertent; the word is needed for the sense.

’a

F1’s they agrees grammatically with F1’s these fellowes in the previous line. Q2’s a, meaning “he,” is more likely to be authorial. It agrees with Q2’s this fellow.

Be not you

Provided you are not.

naught

Naughty, indecent. (Ophelia sees all too clearly the offensive thrust of Hamlet’s talk about her not being ashamed to show all.)

mark

Pay attention to.

For us … tragedy

F1 brings on the Prologue here as he is about to speak this line, not at 77.1 as in Q2.

stooping … clemency

Bowing to you, merciful and generous patrons.

[Exit.]

None of the early texts specifies an exit for the Prologue, and conceivably he is to remain on stage, but exits are often omitted.

posy … ring

Brief verse motto inscribed inside a ring.

Q1/F1’s Poesie is the fuller form of Q2’s posie.

Phoebus’ cart

The sun-god’s chariot, i.e., the sun itself.

Neptune’s salt wash

The sea, the realm of the god Neptune.

Tellus’ orbèd ground

The round earth, the realm of the goddess Tellus, Earth.

Q2’s reading, Tellus orb’d the ground, is possible, treating orbed as a verb, but is less likely than F1’s Tellus Orbed ground.

borrowed sheen

Light reflected from the sun.

times twelve thirties

The King reckons that he and his queen have been married thirty years, each year comprising a span of twelve lunar cycles.

Hymen

God of marriage.

commutual

Mutually, reciprocally.

bands

Bonds.

Queen

The Player Queen is called Baptista in F1.

your former

F1’s your is convincing; Q2’s our is perhaps defensible in the sense of referring collectively to the married couple, but is more likely to be an easy error for F1’s reading. On the other hand, F1’s forme would appear to be a simple misprint for Q2’s former.

distrust you

Am anxious about you.

Discomfort … must

It must not distress you at all, my lord.

For women … love

Women are apt to be extreme in their loving, and are fearful to the same excessive extent.

This line is omitted in F1. Q2, as it stands at the top of H2 and as adopted here, offers this line without a matching rhymed line in a passage of rhymed couplets, suggesting that Shakespeare either began and then abandoned this couplet or else wrote a couplet of which a line is still missing. The idea in this line is elaborated in the next two lines, suggesting that this line was a first thought, rewritten by the author.

And

And is found in Q2, not in F1, which reads For instead.

holds quantity

Are equal in proportions to each other.

Q2’s hold agrees with the plural subject, but F1’s holds may be authorial. This line is at the bottom of a column in F1.

In neither … extremity

Either women feel no anxiety if they do not love at all, or, if they love extremely, they are prone to extreme anxiety.

Q2’s Eyther none at the start of this line is superfluous and extra-metrical, and is omitted in F1; perhaps it was a start of the line that was then intended to be deleted. But since this is the first line on p. 268 of the Folio text, it too may be suspected to be a misreading (Arden 3).

love

Q2’s lord can make sense if the line is taken to mean, Experience has given you plentiful evidence of how I revere you as my lord and master, but F1’s loue is more plausible, and Q2’s reading could easily be a copying error.

proof

Experience.

And … so

And just as my love is great in quantity, my fear of losing you is proportionately huge.

Q2’s ciz’d is presumably a spelling variant of siz’d, as in F1.

Where … there

These two Q2 lines are omitted in F1, possibly deleted by the dramatist in revision. They repeat the idea of what the Player King has already said, but then such sententious summaries are often characteristic of aging speakers in Shakespeare.

the littlest

Even the littlest.

My … their functions leave to do

My vital faculties are ceasing to perform their functions.

F1’s my functions is intelligible, but is probably a copying error of Q2’s their functions prompted by My at the head of this line.

behind

After I am gone.

kind

F1’s end-stopped kinde. is presumably a copying error for kind, as in Q2, omitted as unnecessary in modern punctuation.

shalt thou—

I.e., shalt thou find (to complete the couplet by rhyming find with kind. (The Player King is interrupted by his consort.)

None

(1) Let no wife; (2) No wife does.

but who

Except she who.

Wormwood, wormwood

I.e., How bitter! (Wormwood is a bitter-tasting plant.)

F1’s Wormwood, wormwood may well be authorial. Q2 places That’s wormwood in the right margin; in F1 it is TLN 2049. The placement in the two texts is substantially the same.

instances

Motives, reasons.

move

Prompt, motivate.

base … thrift

Ignoble considerations of financial prudence.

you think

F1’s you. Think is presumably a copying error for you thinke as in Q2. Q1 reads you sweete.

Purpose … memory

Our good intentions are too often subject to forgetfulness.

Of … validity

Energetically conceived at first but lacking in staying power.

Which now like fruit unripe

Which purposeful intent, being immature and poorly thought through.

Q2’s version (reading the for F1’s like) is intelligible, but the seems like an error that is corrected in F1’s like.

Most … debt

It’s necessary and inevitable that in time we neglect to fulfill the obligations that we have imposed on ourselves.

The violence … destroy

Violent extremes of both grief and joy engender their own destruction in the very act of manifesting themselves.

F1’s other would appear to be a typographical error for eyther, other, as in Q2.

enactures

Fulfillments, enactments.

Q2’s ennactures and F1’s ennactors may be spelling variants of a word unique to Shakespeare, as noted by Arden 3.

Grief joys … accident

Grief turns to joy and joy to grief on the slightest occasion.

Q2’s Grief ioy could mean Grief turns to joy, but is more probably an error corrected in F1’s Greefe ioyes. Q2’s ioy griefes is probably meant for F1’s Ioy greeues.

for aye

For ever.

Whether love … fortune love

Whether Fortune or Love prevailed more mightily in the world’s affairs was a favorite debating topic in the Renaissance.

down

Fallen in fortune.

his favorites flies

His most favored supporter abandons him.

F1’s fauorites is a viable alternative to Q2’s fauourite, and could be a deliberate revision or correction; the coupling of a plural noun with a singular verb form is common in Elizabethan English.

The poor … enemies

When one of humble station is promoted, you’ll see his former enemies now becoming his friends.

hitherto

Up to this point in the argument, or, to this extent.

tend

Attend, play a subservient role.

who not needs

Anyone who has no need (of wealth or a friend).

And who … try

And anyone who, being in need, tests the generosity of an insincere friend.

Directly seasons him

Immediately turns him into.

begun

Began. (Begun is acceptable usage in early modern English.)

Our … run

What we wish for ourselves and what in fact happens to us are so opposite to each other.

devices still

Intentions continually.

Our thoughts … our own

No matter what we intend, the results go astray.

So, think

I.e., (1) So, go ahead and think, or, (2) So, even if you think now that.

Q1, Q2, and F1 all provide no comma after So, but it clarifies the sense for modern readers.

die thy thoughts

Either (1) your thoughts will die, or (2) let them die.

Nor earth to me give

Neither let earth give me.

F1’s Nor Earth to giue me is probably an unintended inversion of Q2’s Nor earth to me giue.

Sport … night

May day bar me from recreation and night from repose.

To … scope

These Q2 lines are omitted in F1, either inadvertently or deliberately.

An anchor’s … scope

May an anchorite’s or hermit’s fare be the extent of my portion of food and drink.

Theobald emends And in Q2 to An. Either sense is possible here, but And could easily be a copying error.

Each … destroy

May every adverse thing that causes the face of joy to turn blank or pale encounter and destroy everything that I wish to see prosper!

Both … strife

May eternal punishment pursue me in this life and the next.

If … wife

Q2’s version (If once I be a widdow, euer I be a wife) is clear enough in meaning, but hypermetrical; the unnecessary repetition of I be is avoided in F1’s more satisfactory If once a Widdow, euer I be Wife.

now

I.e., after the vows that she has sworn.

This line is printed in the right margin in Q2.

fain

Willingly.

[The Player King] … [Player Queen]

Q2’s Exeunt is misleading; the Player King must remain on stage, asleep, until he is poisoned by Lucianus, as indicated in F1’s Sleepes, with an Exit for the Player Queen, both in the right margin. The same distinction is implied in Q1 (exit Lady).

doth protest too much

Offers too many promises and protestations.

F1’s protests to much is certainly as intelligible as Q2’s doth protest too much. F1 could be authorial, or a copyist’s or compositor’s sophistication.

argument

Plot.

offense … offense

Something that offends one’s sensibilities … crime.

jest

Make believe.

The Mousetrap

Hamlet’s nickname here for The Murder of Gonzago hints to the audience at his plan to use the play to catch the conscience of the King (2.2.391, TLN 1645).

Marry, how? Tropically

How, indeed? Figuratively, as a trope or figure of speech, playing on words.

Q1’s trapically may suggest a play on words with Mousetrap. Q2 punctuates this passage marry how tropically; F1’s Marry how? Tropically is more indicative of the apparent meaning.

the Duke’s

I.e., the King’s.

The use here of Duke’s in Q1/Q2/F1 may suggest Shakespeare’s awareness of a historical incident in which the Duke of Urbino was allegedly murdered by Luigi Gonzaga in 1538. Gonzago is named Albertus in Q1.

free

Guiltless, unfettered.

touches

Concerns; injures.

Let … unwrung

Let the chafed horse wince and kick at being galled by its saddle or harness; our horse is not rubbed sore between its shoulder blades (i.e., only the guilty will be made uncomfortable by this story of a duke who murders in order to win the wife of his victim).

Q2 prints gauled for Q1’s galld and F1’s gall’d. Q2/F1’s winch is probably a spelling variant of Q1’s wince. Q2’s vnwrong is presumably a variant of F1’s vnrung.

Enter Lucianus

F1’s placement of this SD before Hamlet says This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King makes obvious sense, and is followed here, but in the Elizabethan theatre, with its broad stage, either placement can be made to work; in Q2’s version, where Hamlet’s entrance follows This is … to the King, Lucianus may be visible in the doorway as Hamlet speaks.

You are as good as a chorus

You serve as well as the actor whose function is to introduce forthcoming action on stage

(as in Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, Pericles,, and The Winter’s Tale).

F1’s shorter version (You are a good Chorus) is intelligible, but may be a copying error, through simple omission, of Q2’s You are as good as a Chorus.

I could … dallying

Hamlet imagines for himself the role of interpreter or chorus for a puppet show, with the suggestion too of being a go-between in an affair. Dallying continues the sexual suggestion, as do Hamlet’s quips in the following lines; see notes.

keen

Sharp, bitterly satirical (but see next note for Hamlet’s wordplay).

It would … edge

It would cost you a pregnancy to satiate the keenness of my sexual appetite.

Still … worse

I.e., Witty as always, albeit incorrigibly smutty. (These exchanges are said as playful banter, not as overt barbs.)

So … your husbands

I.e., That’s just the way you women take other men into your beds instead of your husbands.

Hamlet plays on the language of the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony in the Book of Common Prayer bidding bride and groom to take their new partners for better, for worse.

F1’s omission of your in its version of Q2’s your husbands is presumably simple eyeskip.

Pox, leave

Pox or Poxe is an exclamation of impatience, referring literally to the pock-marks caused by syphilis and other diseases. Leave means “leave off.”

Q2 omits Q1/F1’s a poxe (Pox).

damnable faces

Deplorable and devilish grimaces.

the croaking … revenge

As Bullough and others editors note, this is a version of two lines from The True Tragedy of Richard III (c. 1591): The screeching Raven sits croaking for revenge. / Whole heads [herds] of beasts come bellowing for revenge (Bullough, 3.339, 1892-3).

Confederate … seeing

A complicit or conspiring time, providing darkness so that no one will discover the crime.

Q1/F1 read Confederate, suggesting a time and occasion conspiring to assist the murderer by providing the secrecy of darkness. Q2’s Considerat is intelligible, but it may well be a copying error, especially in view of the long s and its resemblance to f in Q2.

rank

Foul, offensive.

Hecate’s ban

The curse invoked by Hecate, goddess of witchcraft.

Q1’s bane for Q2/F1’s ban could mean poison, and is a plausible reading.

blasted

Blighted.

infected

Q2’s inuected for Q1/F1’s infected is probably a copying error, though Arden 3 speculates that the Q2 reading could be an adjectival form meaning “cursed,” from invect, to curse, or invective, a curse.

dire property

Baleful power or quality.

usurp

Q1/Q2’s vsurps for F1’s vsurpe is a defensible reading in the declarative mode, but F1’s imperative usurp seems more appropriate to Lucianus’s murderous intent, and the error in Q1/Q2, if it is an error, would be an easy one.

Pours … Exit

F1 provides the stage direction, Poures the poyson in his eares. Omitted in Q2. The Exit is from Q1.

’A

He.

Q1/F1 read He.

estate

Property, i.e., the kingship.

written in very choice Italian

F1’s simplified version (writ in choyce Italian) of Q2’s written in very choice Italian could be a copyist’s or compositor’s work.

What … fire?

Q2 omits this line found in F1/Q1 (Q1 reads fires.) The omission could be inadvertent.

The Courtiers

The line is assigned in F1 to All, in Q2 to Pol. In Q1, the King says, Lights, I will to bed.

Exeunt … Horatio

The wording here is that of Q2. F1 reads Exeunt. / Manet Hamlet & Horatio, Q1 Exeunt King and Lordes.

Why … away

Seemingly from an unknown ballad, alluding to the folk tradition of the wounded deer that retires from company to weep in solitude as it dies.

Compare As You Like It , 2.1.33-6. Q2’s strooken and vngauled are spelling variants of F!’s strucken and vngalled. Q1’s spellings are stricken and vngalled.

ungallèd

Unafflicted.

watch

Stay awake.

Thus … away

That is the way of the world.

F1’s So in place of Q2’s Thus could be authorial or could be a copying approximation.

this

I.e., the play I have just presented and contributed some lines to.

forest of feathers

I.e., extravagantly plumed headgear worn by the actors.

if the rest … with me

Even if good fortune should desert me.

(To turn Turk is to renounce Christianity in favor of the Muslim religion.) Hamlet jestingly asks if his newly proven skill in theatrical matters might offer him a mean of livelihood if his fortunes turn otherwise against him.

two provincial roses

Two large rosettes of ribbon, worn decoratively over shoelaces and named for the region of Provence in southern France.

F1’s two Prouentiall Roses is a plausibly authorial, in place of Q2’s prouinciall Roses.

razed

Decoratively slashed.

F1’s rac’d is presumably a variant of Q2s raz’d.

fellowship … players, sir

Partnership in an acting company, sir. (A cry is a pack.)

F1’s sir added to Q2’s version at the end of this phrase, is plausibly authorial, though it could instead be caught up from the same word earlier in the speech.

For … pajock

This stanza, like that at lines 189-92 (TLN 2143-6) above, appears to be adapted from some unknown ballad.

Damon

The steadfast friend of Pythias in the story as dramatized in Richard Edwards’s Damon and Pythias, c. 1564-5, and derived from the often-told tale as found in Aristoxenus (fl. 335 BC), Cicero ( De Officiis 3.45), Diodorus Siculus (10.4), Valerius Maximus (first century AD), Castiglione (The Courtier, translated into English by Sir Thomas Hoby, 1561), and others, here appropriate to the friendship of Hamlet and Horatio.

This realm … pajock

This realm has been divested of its greatness by Jove himself, leaving the kingdom in the charge of a vain pretender to virtue and authority.

(Pajock, meaning “peacock” or “patchcock,” provides a ludicrous substitution for the word that would rhyme with was in line 198, presumably ass.)

Enter … Guildenstern

The placement here of this entry stage direction is as in F1, preceding Hamlet’s Oh, ha? Come some Musick (TLN 2163). In Q2 the entrance occurs some few lines later, before Guidenstern’s Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you (line 210, TLN 2168). Either arrangement is theatrically plausible. In F1 the two young men enter, whereupon Hamlet, seeing them, asks twice for music; in Q2 they enter when Hamlet, calling offstage, has twice requested some music.

recorders

Wind instruments characterized by a conical tube, a whistle mouthpiece, and eight finger holes; related to the flute.

For … pardie

As Arden 3 notes, a possible allusion to lines from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, c. 1587: And if the world like not this tragedy, / Hard is the hap of old Hieronimo (4.1.197-8).

belike

Perhaps.

pardie

A version of the French par dieu, by God).

Spelled perdy in Q1/Q2, perdie in F1.

vouchsafe

Grant.

history

Story, account.

his retirement

His withdrawal to his private chambers.

distempered

Out of temper.

With drink

Hamlet deliberately takes Guildenstern’s out of temper to mean “drunk,” supposing the four humors in the King’s body to have been thrown out of balance by excessive drinking.

rather with choler

Instead of that, with anger.

F1’s rather with choller could be an authorial revision of Q2’s with choller. Or it could instead be an editorial sophistication.

Your wisdom … choler

Hamlet’s sarcastic reply interprets choler in terms of humors theory, which saw choler as an excess of yellow bile producing indigestion as well as anger, and requiring purgation, usually bloodletting—with the ominous suggestion of Hamlet’s letting out some of the King’s blood. Purgation also suggests the spiritual cleaning through confession that the King is greatly in need of, with also the legal sense of clearing of guilt for a crime committed.

more richer

More rich in wisdom.

The double comparative is allowable in early modern usage.

his doctor

F1’s his Doctor may be an authorial correction of Q2’s the Doctor.

far more

F1’s far more in place of Q2’s more is plausibly authorial.

frame

Coherent order.

start

Shy away like a nervous horse.

F1’s start seems more plausible as a reading than Q2’s stare, which could easily be an error of copying.

Pronounce

Say what you have to say.

breed

(1) kind; (2) breeding, manners. (Guildenstern’s point is that Hamlet’s You are welcome, while seemingly polite, sounds sarcastic and not addressed to the issue at hand.)

wholesome

Healthy, sane.

pardon

Permission for me to depart.

my business

F1’s my Businesse is persuasive as a correction of Q2’s busines. The omission of my would be an easy error.

Guildenstern

F1 assigns this speech to Guild, Q2 to Ros. Either arrangement is possible. Guildenstern has just spoken, and Hamlet’s reply in line 225 could well be a response to him, but then Rosencrantz picks up the interrogation of Hamlet in the next speech, at line 225. The two young men speak as one person.

such answer

F1’s such answers is perfectly possible, but could be a copying error for Q2’s such answere, which agrees in number with answer previously in the sentence.

or rather, as you say, my mother

Instead, it is my mother’s command you are uttering, not your own.

F1’s rather you say may be a copying error of Q2’s rather as you say.

struck

F1’s stroke is either a variant spelling or copying error for Q2’s strooke, i.e., struck.

’stonish

F1’s astonish could be a sophistication of Q2’s stonish.

admiration

Bewilderment.

Impart

Speak, say something.

Q2’s addition of impart after Mothers admiration is in keeping with Hamlet’s sardonic mode of discourse with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in this scene. Its omission in F1 could be an authorial choice, or it could be inadvertent.

closet

Private chamber.

So I do still

F1’s So I do still may be an authorial revision of Q2’s And doe still, or could be the result of faulty transmission.

pickers and stealers

I.e., hands. In the Catechism in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, the person who is being prepared for Confirmation must vow to keep my hands from picking and stealing.

your cause of distemper

The cause of your disorder.

surely

F1’s freely can mean “voluntarily,” and is thus defensible as a possible authorial revision of Q2’s surely, but could be the result of copying error.

upon … liberty

I.e., upon your own freedom to act as you choose

(but also with the more threatening suggestion that as an insane person he may be locked up).

F1’s of your owne Libertie seems less idiomatic than Q2’s vpon your owne liberty and may be an error in copying.

deny your griefs to

Refuse to share your unhappiness with.

Enter the Players, with recorders

F1 places an equivalent SD, Enter one with a Recorder, at TLN 2215, after something musty in line 235. Q2’s placement, adopted here, plausibly indicates stage practice of getting characters on stage in a timely fashion. F1 limits the entrance to one Player, an indication perhaps of casting rearrangements or limitations. Hamlet’s dialogue shifts accordingly from his seeing the Recorders and asking let mee see one in Q2 to his seeing the Recorder and asking simply, Let me see. Q1 lacks any stage direction here.

Ay, sir, but while … grows

The whole proverb reads While the grass grows, the horse (steed) starves (Dent G423). Hamlet implies that his hopes of succeeding to the throne are distant at best, despite the King’s having named him most immediate to our throne at 1.2.109 (TLN 291).

F1’s I could be authorial as a replacement for Q2’s I sir; Q2’s version could inadvertently be picking up the Sir in line 233 (TLN 2210). Or F1’s omission of sir could be a mistake in copying.

something

Somewhat. (Unless, less plausibly, somewhat musty means “a stale thing.”)

withdraw

Speak privately.

recover … of me

Get to my windward side

(just as a hunter would position himself in such a way that the hunted game, scenting danger, would then be driven in the opposite direction and thus into the toil or net).

if my duty … unmannerly

If I am being bold in an unmannerly fashion, it is my affection for you that prompts me to be so.

I do … that

Hamlet sounds skeptical of Guildenstern’s protestations of love.

ventages

Finger holes, the stops (TLN 2231) on the recorder.

fingers

F1’s finger may be a copying error for Q2’s fingers.

thumb

Q2’s the vmber appears to be a misprint corrected in F1 to thumbe.

eloquent

F1’s excellent could possibly be an authorial change, or else a copying error for Q2’s eloquent.

mystery

(1) secret; (2) skill in one of the craft guilds, as practiced for example by musicians.

sound me

(1) fathom me to the depths of my mystery; (2) cause me to emit a sound.

to the top of my compass

To my limit or range.

F1’s to the top of my Compasse is plausibly authorial; Q2’s shorter version (to my compasse) may contain an inadvertent omission.

organ

Musical instrument (playing too on the idea of a human organ).

you make it speak

F1’s you make it is perhaps intelligible, but seems more probably to be an inadvertent shortening of Q2’s you make it speak. The correcting of s’bloud to Why in the following word may have led the erroneous excision of speak.

’Sblood

By God’s blood. (A strong oath.)

F1’s Why is a characteristic euphemism to meet the demands of censorship. Q1’s Zownds, By God’s wounds, is closely similar to Q2’s s’bloud and may point to an actor’s improvisation.

think I am

F1’s thinke, that I am may be a sophistication of Q2’s think I am.

can fret me

(1) can irritate me; (2) can press down on my frets or ridges on the fingerboard of a stringed instrument to guide the fingers in playing various notes.

Q2’s fret me not may have inadvertently dropped F1’s can while picking up an unnecessary negative from what follows in this sentence. Q1/F1’s can fret me is plausibly authorial.

play upon me

I.e., get me to play or dance to your tune.

Enter Polonius

Most editors follow Capell in moving this entrance, as is done here, to precede Hamlet’s God bless you, sir, which Q2/F1 print as a continuation of Hamlet’s speech, even if on the Elizabethan stage the intent of Q2/F1 is clear enough: Hamlet speaks as Polonius begins to enter. Q1 omits God bless you, sir.

and presently

I.e., and she means right now.

yonder cloud that’s … of a camel

F1’s that Clowd? That’s … like a Camell is possible, but more likely an erroneous copying of Q2’s yonder clowd that’s … of a Camel?

By th’ mass, and ’tis like

By th’ mass is a familiar oath, invoking the Holy Sacrament.

Q2 reads By’th masse and tis, like; F1 reads By’th'Misse, and it’s like. Omitted in Q1.

Then I will

F1’s Then will I could be authorial, but could easily be a copying error or sophistication of Q2’s Then I will.

by and by

At once.

They fool … bent

They humor my odd behavior to the limit of my endurance.

Literally, to … bent means to the extent to which a bow may be bent.

I will say so

F1 assigns this line to Polonius, indicating that he will pass on Hamlet’s announcement of intention to the Queen. Conversely, the line is printed in Q2 without a speech prefix as though it were a continuation of Hamlet’s speech, and provided with a comma, I will, say so, as though it should mean, Tell others that I promise to return shortly. F1’s arrangement appears to be authorial.

Exit

This exit SD is as it appears in F1, after Polonius’s I will say so. Q2 omits any SD here. Q1 prints exit Coram. after his Very like a whale, TLN 2253.

By and by … friends

By and by is easily said is Hamlet’s acerbic riposte to what Polonius has just said, uttered to him as he is leaving or to anyone who will listen, including the audience.

Leaue me Friends is then said in F1 to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who thereupon presumably leave, though Q2/F1 provide no exit direction for them. Q2 prints By and by is easily said as a continuation of Hamlet’s I will, say so. It is omitted in Q1. F1’s version is clearly superior, and appears to be authorial.

Exeunt … Guildenstern

Omitted in Q1/Q2. Earlier, before Corambis enters, Q1 reads Exit Rossencraft and Gilderstone.

witching time

A time for witchcraft, when spells are cast and evil is abroad.

breathes out / Contagion

Spreads its poisonous contagion.

F1’s breaths out, i.e., breathes out, may seem more consistent than Q2’s breakes out with the image of graves in churchyards that are yawning or gaping than does Q2’s breakes out.

such bitter … day

F1’s such bitter businesse as the day is plausibly authorial; Q2’s such busines as the bitter day appears to have reversed positions of words in error. But both versions are possible.

Soft, now

Gently, wait a minute, now.

F1’s punctuation, Soft now, could be authorial, but it may more simply a miscopying of Q2’s Soft, now.

lose

Q2/F1’s loose may well be a variant spelling of lose. Omitted in Q1.

nature

Natural feeling.

Nero

Despotic and emotionally unbalanced Roman emperor (37-68 AD) who had his mother Agrippina put to death.

The accusations against her that she had plotted against her paternal uncle and second husband Claudius to enable her son Nero to succeed to the throne, and that she had had an incestuous affair with her brother Caligula, suggest intriguing parallels to the story of Hamlet.

firm

Resolved.

speak daggers

Q2’s speak dagger may be an error easily corrected in F1’s speak daggers, which is more colloquial and closer to the proverbial look daggers. Cf. speak poniards in Much Ado, 2.1.232-3 (Arden 3).

How … consent

However much my words may rebuke her, let not my soul ever consent to ratify those words with violence. (Somever means “soever.”)

The royal seal serves to ratify acts and proclamations.

Exit

This stage direction, found in Q1/Q2, is omitted in F1.

[3.3]

Location: The castle.

him

I.e., his behavior.

range

Roam freely.

dispatch

Prepare, cause to be drawn up.

The terms … lunacies

A person in my exalted position should not have to put up with such hazardous threats as seem hourly to be erupting out of Hamlet’s feverish brain.

F1’s substitutions of dangerous for Q2’s near’s and Lunacies for Q2’s browes appear to be authorial revisions, though Q2 makes good sense as it stands.

We … provide

We will prepare ourselves.

religious fear

Sacred concern and wise caution.

bodies

I.e., subjects, the members of the body politic. The King’s life must be protected because he is the embodiment of the body politic.

single and peculiar

Individual and private.

noyance

Harm.

That spirit

The monarch.

weal

Well-being.

F1’s repetition of spirit here is almost certainly an error for Q2’s weale.

depends and rests

A verb frequently takes a singular form when it precedes a plural object, i.e., the lives (Arden 3).

cease

Cessation.

F1’s cease may be the correct form here, though it could be a sophistication of Q2’s cesse introduced by the copyist or printer.OEDcites other usages of cess as noun and verb.

gulf

Whirlpool.

with it. It is

F1, followed here, could be an authorial correction of Q2’s with it, or it is, or could be a sophistication.

massy

Massive.

summit

Q2/F1 read somnet (Somnet), evidently a variant spelling of summit.

huge

Q2’s hough appears to be a variant spelling or copying error for F1’s huge.

mortised and adjoined

Fastened by inserting a tenon, or projecting member at the end of a timber, into a groove or slot in an adjoining timber called the mortise.

falls

Descends, like the wheel of Fortune.

Each … consequence

I.e., Each lesser person serving and dependent on the King.

Attends

Takes part in, accompanies.

boist’rous

Tumultuous.

ruin

Q2’s raine (rain) can possibly be defended as meaning “downpour,” but is much more likely to be a misprint for F1’s Ruine.

but with a general

Q2’s but a general is possible, but is much more likely to be a misprint for F1’s but with a generall.

Arm you … to

Prepare yourselves … for.

upon

Q2’s about is intelligible, but F1’s vpon may well be authorial.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

F1’s Both in place of Q2’s Ros. may well be authorial.

closet

Private chamber (as at 3.2.228, TLN 2201).

arras

Tapestry hangings, as at 2.2.157, TLN 1197.

On the Elizabethan stage, the arras was presumably hung over a door or aperture such as the discovery space in the faade of the tiring-house.

process

Proceedings.

warrant

Promise, assure.

tax him home

Reprove him severely.

meet

Fitting.

Since … partial

Since their nearness of blood might render them less likely to see the business objectively.

of vantage

(1) from an advantageous position, or, (2) in addition.

liege

Liege lord, feudal superior to whom allegiance is due.

Exit [Polonius]

Q2 places Exit to the right, opposite Polonius’s And tell you what I knowe. F1 omits the stage direction. Editors normally place it, as it is placed here, after the King’s Thankes deere my Lord. In the theatre its Q2 placement probably means simply that Polonius exits as the King speaks this last line to him.

the primal eldest curse

The curse of Cain, whose murder of his brother Abel was the first such crime after the Fall of Man from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 4). See 1.2.105, TLN 287, and note, above.

Though … will

Even though my desire (to seek forgiveness in prayer) is as strong as my determination to do so. Or, as Arden 3 suggests, will here could mean “will to sin.”

to … bound

Simultaneously obliged to undertake two tasks that are mutually incompatible.

(The King wishes he could seek forgiveness while still holding on to the guilty rewards of his crime.)

What … snow?

The King alludes to three proverbial ideas, which, as Hibbard and Arden 3 note, contradict one another: (1) To wash one’s hands of a thing, Dent H122; (2) All the water in the sea cannot wash out this stain, W85; and (3) As white as (the driven) snow, S591. The Norton Shakespeare quotes Isaiah 1:15-18: I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. / Wash ye, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes … though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Were … blood

Were covered with a layer of a brother’s blood thicker than the hand itself.

Whereto … offense?

What function does mercy serve other than to confront sin face to face?

forestallèd

Prevented (from sinning).

pardoned

F1’s pardoned is the more persuasive reading because it is grammatically parallel with forstallèd. Q2’s pardon can easily be explained as an easy copying error in which the final -d of pardond was read as an e, and then dropped (Arden 3).

past

I.e., already committed, but susceptible to pardon.

th’offense

The thing for which one committed the crime.

currents … world

Ways of the world.

Offense’s gilded hand

The hand of the offender offering gold as a bribe.

shove by

Q2’s showe by could mean “appear next to” (Arden 3), but is more likely to be an easy copying error for F1’s shoue by (“shove by”).

the wicked prize

The prize wickedly desired and achieved.

shuffling

Evasion, trickery.

there the action … nature

There, in heaven, each deed is seen for what it truly is, in its true form, like a rigorously conducted case at law.

his

Its.

Even … faults

Face to face with our crimes.

To … evidence

To testify against ourselves.

(In heaven, an accused can be compelled to do this, not because heaven is tyrannical but because no guiltiness can be evaded at the heavenly bar of justice.)

rests

Remains to be said or done.

repentance can

Repentance can do.

limèd

Caught as if with birdlime, a sticky substance smeared on twigs to snare birds.

engaged

Entangled.

Make assay

Make some attempt. (Said by the King to himself, or possibly to the angels he hopes can hear him.)

do it pat, now

Do it opportunely and neatly, now that.

F1’s do it pat, now is persuasive as a reading and seems likely to be authorial. Q2’s doe it, but now could be a copying error.

’a

He.

See also TLNs 2351 and 2356. F1’s he in these instances, as elsewhere in this text, is likely to be an editorial sophistication in place of Q2’s a.

revenged

Q2’s reuendge is an easy error for F1’s reueng’d.

would be scanned

Needs to be looked into, or, could be interpreted as follows.

sole

F1’s foule is defensible, but more likely to be a misprint for Q2’s sole, all the more so in that the f of F1’s foule closely resembles a tall s.

Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge

Q2’s base and silly is intelligible as meaning unworthy and weak-spirited, but F1’s hyre and Sallery seems convincingly authorial. Q1’s a benefit may suggest that the phrase shifted in performance. On the other hand, Q2 offers what may be better readings in Why for F1’s Oh and in printing in two lines To heauen / Why, … reuendge, printed in F1 in one line.

grossly, full of bread

I.e., satiated with the pleasures of this world, rather than fasting and repenting.

Hamlet seems to be talking about his father’s spiritual unpreparedness for death when he was murdered; he died without being absolved of the normal but hazardous involvement in sinful appetite to which all mortals are prone. See the next note at 3.3.81. Compare Ezekiel 16:49: Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness. (Grossly could also refer to Claudius’s crime as lacking in decency.)

The absence of a comma in Q2’s grosly full of bread could suggest “excessively and indecently filled with bread,” whereas F1’s grossely, full of bread suggests that grossely and full of bread are parallel observations: “excessive and indecent in his pleasures, satiated as he was with those sinful delights.”

With all his crimes broad blown

With all of Hamlet Senior’s sins in full bloom.

The male personal pronouns are not perfectly clear in lines 80-5, but presumably Hamlet refers to his father’s ghost in lines 80-1, suffering the pangs of Purgatory for the sins not atoned for through Last Rites, so that (in lines 82-4) Hamlet cannot be sure about his father’s present spiritual welfare. If these lines also seem relevant to Claudius, the suggestion is appropriate. In line 85, at any rate, Hamlet then clearly applies him to Claudius, presently at prayer evidently trying to purge his soul of the crime and sin of brother-murder. We know that the prayer is ineffectual, but Hamlet cannot know that.

flush

Vigorously thriving.

F1’s fresh is intelligible and could be an authorial revision of Q2’s flush, but more plausibly could instead be a copying error.

his audit

Hamlet Senior’s spiritual reckoning.

save

Except for.

in our circumstance … thought

As seen from our mortal and necessarily limited perspective.

him

Claudius.

seasoned

Prepared, made ready.

F1 prints No at the end of line 86, whereas Q2 prints it, as here, on a separate line. Either can work satisfactorily in terms of scansion. The revision may be compositorial.

hent

I.e., occasion to be grasped.

Hent is sometimes emended to hint.

drunk asleep

I.e., dead drunk.

F1 has no comma in drunke asleepe; Q2’s drunk, a sleepe, separates the two into drunk or asleep. Both readings are plausible; F1 could be an authorial correction.

in his rage

Perhaps in a fit of sexual passion, though being in an uncontrollable rage would also put Claudius in danger of hellfire.

At gaming, swearing

Gambling, and swearing profusely.

Q2’s At game a swearing, supported by Q1’s at game swaring, suggests swearing profanely while gambling, whereas the F1 reading, At gaming, swearing, sets up the two as parallel and separate. F1 could be authorial.

relish

Trace, hint.

kick at heaven

Kick upwards as the body falls downward, suggesting also a spurning of heavenly reward and ineffectual kicking at the gates of heaven.

stays

Is waiting.

physic

Medicine (both the King’s being at prayer, and Hamlet’s consequent decision to postpone the killing).

[3.4]

Location: The castle.

Enter Queen [Gertrude] and Polonius

Q2 reads Enter Gertrard and Polonius, F1 Enter Queene and Polonius, Q1 Enter Queene and Corambis.

’A will … him

He will be here any moment. Be sure to reprove him soundly.

Printed in two lines in F1, one line in Q2. Q2 prints strait, F1 straight.

broad

Unrestrained, outrageous.

silence me e’en here

Q1’s shrowde my selfe is tempting as a reading. Q2 reads silence me euen heere; F1 reads silence me e’ene heere.

be round with him

Be blunt, forthright with him.

F1’s be round with him is clearer than Q2’s be round and appears to be authorial.

Mother, mother, mother!

This F1 line, plausibly authorial as an offstage exclamation, is omitted in Q2.

I’ll warrant you … not

I assure you on that score. Don’t worry about me.

Q2 reads Ile wait you, perhaps an error for Ile warn’t you; F1 reads Ile warrant you.

Enter Hamlet

Q2’s entry after Pray you be round is earlier than F1’s placement. The F1 placement after line 8, Withdraw; I hear him coming, is more literary in that the entrance occurs just as Hamlet is to speak. Q2’s placement evidently reflects staging practice, giving Hsmlet time to get across the broad stage before he speaks. The earlier entrance also affords an interesting juxtaposition; we see him approaching as Polonius confers furtively with the Queen and then withdraws to a hiding place. The arrangement surely does not mean that Hamlet overhears them and surmises what is going on; if that were the case, his killing of Polonius would be gratuitous murder.

thou … you

Throughout most of the scene, except for lines 11, 14, 17, 126, 133, and 141, the Queen uses the familiar thou in addressing her son, as was customary; he addresses her as you, the required respectful form.

thy father

Your stepfather, Claudius.

my father

The dead King Hamlet.

Hamlet’s replies to the Queen in lines 11 and 13 are replete with rhetorical devises of parison and isocolon (equal grammatical construction, length, and sound) in the antithetical pairing of statement and reply.

an idle

A foolish.

a wicked

F1’s an idle is intelligible, but is probably a copyist’s or compositor’s erroneous repetition of an idle in the previous line. Q2 reads a wicked.

how now

What’s this.

forgot me

Forgotten that I am your mother, to whom you respect. (But Hamlet answers in the sense of How could I forget that, in view of what you have done?)

rood

Cross of Christ.

And—would it were not so!—you are

F1’s But would you were not so. You are is possible, but may be an erroneous transcription of Q2’s And would it were it were not so, you are.

speak

I.e., talk sense into you.

glass

Mirror.

inmost

Q2’s most is almost surely a minim misreading of F1’s inmost.

Help, help, ho! / What ho, help, help, help!Dead … ducat

F1’s Helpe, helpe, hoe. / Pol. What hoa, helpe, helpe, helpe could be authorial or possibly a performance elaboration of Q2’s simpler Helpe how. / Pol. What how helpe.

Dead … ducat

I.e., I bet a ducat he’s dead; or, a ducat as the price for his life. (A ducat is a gold coin, as at 2.2.244, TLN 1410.)

[Hamlet … his sword]

Presumably, Hamlet stabs Polonius here as he says Dead for a ducat, dead! Polonius actually dies a line later, after crying out that he is mortally wounded.

F1 indicates the death here with the stage direction Killes Polonius, placed in the right margin opposite Polonius’s Oh I am slaine (TLN 2405); see next note. This stage direction is missing in Q1/Q2.

[Polonius … dead]

See previous note. It is here the F1 stage direction reads Killes Polonius in the right margin opposite Polonius’s Oh I am slaine. Omitted in Q1/Q2.

As kill

As to kill.

The Queen’s response seems to register shock and surprise at Hamlet’s suggestion of killing a king. Some commentators see the fact that Hamlet now drops this line of inquiry as evidence that he is satisfied on that score.

In Q1, after the Ghost exits from this scene, the Queen says to Hamlet, But as I haue a soule, I sweare by heauen, / I neuer knew of this most horride murder.

thy better

I.e., the King, your social and moral superior.

Q2’s thy better seems more plausible than F1’s thy Betters, shich could be an error in transcription.

busy

Nosy.

Compare the proverb, To be too busy is dangerous (Dent B759.1).

If … stuff

If your heart still has any sensitivity to feeling and emotion.

damnèd custom

Sinful habit.

brazed

Brazened, hardened.

The word, printed as brasd in Q2 and braz’d in F1, is sometimes modernized as brass’d or brassed.

F1’s is seems more colloquial than Q2’s be and may be an authorial choice.

proof … sense

Armored and thus made impenetrable against natural feeling.

off

Q2’s of is presumably a variant spelling of F1’s off.

sets a blister

I.e., affixes there the brand of a prostitute.

As Arden 3 observes, Henry VIII’s government did threaten to enact such a branding in 1537, though it seems not to have been put in practice in sixteenth-century England.

F1’s makes is clear in meaning, but Q2’s sets may be the more authentic reading; makes could have been mistakenly picked up by a transcriber from the same word later in the line.

contraction

The marriage contract.

and sweet … words

And turns sweet religion into a mere senseless jumble of words.

Heaven’s … the act

Heaven’s face blushes with shame at this solid earth, compounded as it is of the four elements, with sorrowful face as though the day of doom were at hand, and is sick with thinking of this horrid deed—i.e., Gertrude’s second marriage.

F1’s Yea in place of Q2’s Ore can be defended, if this solidity and compound mass is regarded as the subject of Is thought-sick (Arden 3), but Q2’s reading is easier. F1’s doth glow may be a truer reading than Q2’s dooes glowe, and F1’s tristfull in place of Q2’s heated appears to be an authorial revision; it is unlikely to have been the result of textual transmission.

index

Table of contents; prologue or preface.

Hamlet

Q2 mistakenly prints the speech prefix Ham. at the head of line 53, That roares … Index, properly presented in F1 as a continuation of the Queen’s speech begun in line 52.

two likenesses

The likenesses may be formal portraits on the wall, or miniatures, or coins, etc.

counterfeit presentment

Painted representation.

this brow

F1’s his Brow is entirely plausible, though Q2’s this brow has the advantage of pointing deictically to the portrait of Hamlet’s father rather than that of Claudius.

Hyperion’s

The sun-god’s.

front

Forehead, brow.

Mars

The god of war.

and

Q2’s and and F1’s or are both possible, but F1 could be a misprint.

station

Stance.

Mercury

Winged messenger of the gods.

New lighted

Newly alighted.

heaven-kissing

Reaching to the sky where it is kissed by the light of the sun.

Q2’s heaue, a kissing looks like a misreading of a manuscript copy; F1’s heauen-kissing appears to be authorial.

set his seal

Affix his seal of approval.

ear

Ear of grain.

Blasting

Blighting.

brother

F1’s breath is just possible, but is more plausibly a misprint of Q2’s brother. As Arden 3 points out, the misreading of a manuscript brother with its final er suspended would be easy.

leave

Leave off, cease.

And batten … moor

And gorge yourself on this barren, unfertile land.

The images of mountain and moor offer contrasts of high and low, handsome and barren. Moor may also suggest blackamoor, dark-skinned.

heyday in the blood

Sexual arousal.

waits upon

Is subservient to.

step

Collier’s proposed emendation to stoop appeals plausibly to some editors.

Sense … difference

This passage is omitted in F1, perhaps as an authorial choice or for purposes of shortening in performance.

Sense

Sensation and perception and through the five senses.

apoplexed

Paralyzed.

err

Err in this fashion, as you have done.

Nor … difference

Nor could your physical senses ever have been so enslaved to ecstasy (i.e., lunacy) as to have been unable to perceive the difference between Hamlet Senior and Claudius.

cozened … hoodman-blind

Cheated you at blindman’s bluff.

(Hamlet imagines a diabolical trick in which the devil, having covered the eyes of Gertrude with a scarf in the children’s game of blindman’s bluff, has steered her in such a way that she gropingly encountered Claudius.)

For cozened, Q2 prints cosund, F1 cousend, Q1 cosoned.

Eyes without … mope

I.e., Even a person deprived of the normal use of eyes, touch, hearing, and smell, or having nothing more a sickly portion of one of these physical senses, could err so obtusely and aimlessly.

These lines are omitted in F1, perhaps as an authorial choice or for purposes of shortening in performance.

sans

Without. (French.)

mutine

Mutiny.

To flaming … fire

Chastity among the young will melt like wax held over a candle flame. (We cannot hope for self-restraint in young people when older women set such a bad example.)

Proclaim … will

Call it no shameful business when the compelling ardor of youth gives the signal for attack by committing lechery, since the frost of old age burns with as active a fire of lust and mature reason perverts its proper function by making excuses for lust rather than restraining it.

On frost of old age, compare the proverbial phrase, To find (seek) fire in frost (Dent F283.1).

Ardor in line 87 is spelled Ardure (ardure) in F1/Q2.

And reason panders will

And reason forgives or makes excuses for sexual passion.

Although Q2’s pardons makes sense, F1’s panders is stronger, and may be authorial. Conversely, F1’s As may be a misprint for Q2’s And.

mine eyes into my very soul

F1’s version here is more persuasive than Q2’s my very eyes into my soule, in which very may simply have been misplaced in transmission.

grainèd

Ingrained, indelible.

Q2’s greeued may well be a simple minim misreading of F1’s grained, even though it is perhaps intelligible as it stands.

not leave their tinct

Not leave off their dark indelible stain.

F1’s version provides a forceful image of indelibility and may well be authorial, in place of Q2’s leaue there their tin’ct.

enseamèd

Saturated with the greasy filth of lust.

Q2’s inseemed appears to be a variant spelling of F1’s enseamed.

Stewed

Steeped. (Suggesting also stew, brothel.)

honeying

Indulging in lovey-dovey romantic behavior.

sty

Pigsty.

tithe

Tenth part. (To be a twentieth part of a tenth part would be to embody a mere 0.5 percent of something, i.e., virtually none at all.)

F1’s tythe is a more persuasive reading than Q2’s kyth, which may be the result of a copyist’s or printer’s confusing k with t in secretary hand (Arden 3); but Q2 is intelligible.

precedent lord

Former husband.

a vice of kings

A nonpareil of evil kings; with an allusion to the Vice, the gloating and insidious tempter to vice of many a late-medieval and sixteenth-century morality play.

cutpurse

Pickpocket.

the rule

The kingdom.

diadem

Crown.

Enter Ghost [in his nightgown]

Q1 provides what appears to be an informative stage direction here: Enter the ghost in his night gowne. Q2/F1 do not specify wear. Thomas Betterton, in the late seventeenth century, wore armor for this appearance, as in 1.1 and 1.4-5. Not until Henry Irving in 1874 was the nightgown put in use (Arden 3). Many editors move this SD to follow Hamlet’s A king of shreds and patches, but the placement in Q2/F1 is likely to represent stage practice, seen elsewhere in this play and especially in Q2, of giving the actor time to get on stage before he speaks. The overlap allows the audience to perceive the Ghost entering as Hamlet continues to upbraid his mother for her loose sexual conduct.

of shreds and patches

Of ragged patchwork, appropriate for a monarch (Claudius) who is a sham, in Hamlet’s view; suitable also for a fool or jester attired in motley.

What would you, gracious figure?

F1’s reading may be authorial; Q2’s what would your gracious figure? could be a copying error.

lapsed … passion

Having let time and passionate commitment (to revenge) slip away;

with a suggestion too that Hamlet has allowed himself to be distracted from his duty by a passionate berating of his mother.

important

Importunate, urgent.

Conceit

Imagination.

That you do bend

That you direct, focus.

Q2’s That you doe bend scans better than F1’s That you bend. Q1’s That thus you bend is close metrically to Q2.

th’incorporal

The immaterial, bodiless.

F1’s their corporall appears to be a misprint; perhaps, as Arden 3 suggest, the printer’s copy read theincorporall.

as … th’alarm

Like sleeping soldiers awakened by the call to arms.

bedded

(previously) lying flat.

like life in excrements

As if the hair, an outgrowth of the body, could take on a life of its own.

Because hair was assumed to be lifeless, its standing on end would suggest the presence of something ominous and unnatural. Excrement is derived from the Latin ex-crescere, to grow out of. Compare 1.5.16-21, where the Ghost tells Hamlet how even the lighest word describing the horror of Purgatory would cause Hamlet’s hairs to stand on end / Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. The famous eighteenth-century actor David Garrick employed a trick wig that would enable him to make his hair stand on end.

on end

Q2/F1 both read an end, a common spelling variant of on end.

gentle

Nobly born; chivalrous; honorable; kind.

distemper

Disorder, imbalance of mind.

His … conjoined

His appearance joined to his cause for appearing and speaking.

to stones

Even to stones.

Would … capable

Would make the stones capable of feeling and responding.

Lest … effects

Lest your pitiful looks divert me from accomplishing what I have to do, prompting me to weep when I should be shedding blood.

Q2/F1 print Least (a common early modern spelling) for Lest.

Will want … blood

Will not suit the occasion and will lack the proper justification for revenge.

To whom

F1’s To who is possible, since Shakespeare does sometimes use who in the accusative (Arden 3), but the idiom here is unusual and may be simply a copying error for Q2’s To whom.

Why … away

The Ghost is presumably starting to leave at this point. Portal two lines later appears to suggest that the Ghost will exit by a stage door, not a trap door in the stage floor.

habit

Garments.

(1) as when; (2) as if when.

portal

Doorway.

Q1/Q2/F1 agree here that the Ghost exits by a portall, not a trapdoor, whatever arrangement may have been used in 1.1 and 1.4-5.

very coinage

Mere invention.

This bodiless … cunning in

Madness (ecstasy) is very skillful in creating this kind of hallucination.

Ecstasy?

This exclamation, missing from Q2, is supplied from F1.

I, omitted in Q2, is supplied from F1.

reword

Repeat word for word.

gambol from

Skip away from.

that flattering unction

An ointment that comforts without healing.

F1’s a flattering Vnction is possible, but may be a misprint for Q2’s that flattering vnction.

skin and film

Cover with a thin layer of skin.

Whiles

F1’s Whilst could be authorial, or could be an editorial sophistication of Q2’s Whiles.

mining

Undermining.

F1’s or could signify o’er, but could instead by a miscopying for Q2’s on.

ranker

F1’s ranke is possible, but may be a misprint for Q2’s ranker.

this my virtue

My urging you to a virtuous course.

fatness

Grossness.

these pursy times

This corpulent, swollen, short-winded era. (Pursy is often said of a horse.)

F1’s this pursie times is possible, but is likely to be a misreading of Q2’s these pursie times.

curb … good

Bow obsequiously and beg for permission to serve vice.

F1’s courb, and woe is either a variant spelling or a misprint of Q2’s curbe and wooe.

cleft … twain

Compare the proverbial phrase, To cleave a heart in twain (Dent H329.1).

live

Q2’s leaue could mean “depart,” but F1’s liue offers a more plausible reading that may be authorial.

Assume

Give outward conformity to.

Q2’s Assune is presumably a misprint for F1’s Assume.

That monster … put on

This passage is omitted in F1, perhaps to shorten the play a little for performance. Some editors, finding the wording dense and obscure, wonder if the excision was for that reason. These two possible reasons for cutting are not mutually exclusive.

That … eat

Our monstrous proclivity for habit-forming behavior, which can so easily consume and overwhelm the physical senses.

Of habits devil

Being all too inclined toward evil habits.

a frock or livery

A garb, an outward appearance. (One can incline one’s soul, Hamlet says, toward virtue by willing oneself to adopt a virtuous stance; the outward behavior can then begin to shape the inner self.)

aptly

Readily.

Refrain tonight

Q2’s to refraine night is presumably a typographic or copying error (misplacing to) for Refrain tonight.

the next more easy … potency

This passage is omitted in F1; compare 2544.1-2544.5 and note above. The printer may have tripped over the repetition of the next … the next in Q2, To the next abstinence, the next more easie.

For use … nature

For by rigorously adopting a custom or habit we can come close to changing our very inborn nature.

Compare the proverb, Custom (use) is another (a second) nature (Dent C932).

And either [in] the devil

I.e., And custom or habit can either admit the devil into our hearts or throw him out.

To replace the word after either in Q2, various editors have suggested curb, shame, and in, among other possibilities. In plausibly sets up an antithetical thought in the line.

And when … of you

I.e., And when you are penitently ready to seek God’s blessing, I will ask your blessing as a dutiful son should.

For

As for.

heaven … this with me

I.e., it is (evidently) heaven’s pleasure that I am to be punished for having killed Polonius, just as he has been fatally punished at my hands for his snooping into other people’s business.

their scourge and minister

I.e., the heavens’ agent of just retribution.

bestow

Dispose of.

answer well

Offer a suitable account of, pay for, atone for.

Thus bad … remains behind

I.e., Thus we can begin to face difficulties, but at least the worst is over; or, worse calamities are still to come.

Compare the proverb, An ill (bad) beginning has an ill (bad) ending (Dent B261).

Q2’s This can plausibly refer to the killing of Polonius, but F1’s Thus may be authorial.

One … lady

This line is omitted in F1. Whether the omission was through oversight, or to shorten the text for performance, or because the author thought it superfluous, cannot be determined.

bloat

Bloated, puffy.

F1’s blunt is possible in the senses of insensitive, obtuse, abrupt of manner, but could be an easy transcription error for Q2’s blowt, i.e., bloat, bloated, puffy.

Pinch … cheek

Leave his sensual love pinches on your cheeks.

mouse

A term of endearment.

reechy

Reeking of filth.

paddling

Fingering amorously.

neck

(including the breasts).

ravel … out

Unravel, disclose.

Q2’s rouell is presumably a misprint or copying error, corrected in F1’s rauell.

mad in craft

Only seemingly mad as a cunning device.

F1’s made in place of Q2’s mad appears to be a copying error.

’Twere good

(Said with a sardonic irony that continues in the following eight lines.)

For … hide?

For why would any attractive, temperate, and wise queen wish to hide such important matters from a toad, a bat, a tom-cat?

(Said sardonically; of course such a woman would choose not to divulge Hamlet’s secret to a repulsive villain.)

sense and secrecy

The secrecy that common sense would seem to require.

Unpeg … down

In this AEsop-like beast fable, for which no source has been found, an ape releases some birds from a basketlike birdcage on a roof and then, mindlessly wishing to imitate them as an experiment (To try conclusions), gets into the cage himself and, attempting to fly, falls to the ground and breaks his neck. Presumably Hamlet is warning the Queen against coming too quickly to conclusions and rashly telling her husband that Hamlet’s madness is only pretense.

down

In the fall; or, utterly.

to breathe

To utter.

Q2/F1 print to breath, perhaps as a spelling variant of to breathe or else mistakenly copying breath at the end of the previous line and in the midst of the present line 204.

There’s letters … directly meet

This passage is omitted in F1, perhaps to shorten for performance.

sweep my way

Prepare a path before me.

marshal … knavery

Conduct me to where some treachery lies in wait for me.

work

Proceed.

’tis the sport

It’s a fine ironic joke.

enginer

Deviser of engines of war, such as bombs.

Sometimes modernized as engineer, but the connotations of that word today are like to mislead some readers into thinking of a modern engineer.

Hoised … petard

Blown skyward by his own explosive devices, such as were used to make a breach in fortifications.

Q2’s Hoist can be modernized as Hoised—spelled either way, it means “Hoisted.” Q2’s petar is presumably a misprint for petard.

and’t … mines

And it will be bad luck for me if I do not dig my tunnels underneath theirs. (Tunnels were used to attack enemy fortifications in siege warfare by undermining them and blowing them up from below.) Hamlet vows to outmaneuver Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

at the moon

Moon-high, way up into the air.

When … meet

When two cunning plots are on a collision course, as when mines and countermines confront each other.

This man shall set me packing

The dead Polonius will set me to cooking up schemes; set me to lugging off the corpse; pack me off to England.

good night indeed

F1’s punctuation—goodnight. Indeede—is intelligible, but misses the point of Hamlet’s having said good night twice already, at lines 165 and 183.

grave

(Playing on the grave where Polonius will now be buried; see note to line 222.)

a foolish prating knave

An egregiously chattering rascal.

F1’s omission of Q2’s most before foolish improves the meter of the line, and may be authorial. Q2’s most may be a mistaken repetition the word in the previous line.

draw … you

(1) finish up with you; (2) drag you to the place of burial, where you will continue to be most still, most secret, and most grave (line 220).

Exit Hamlet … Polonius

Q1/Q2/F1 all specify that Hamlet exits here, Q1/F1 adding that he drags the dead body of Polonius with him. Q1 F1 thus implicitly leave the Queen alone on stage; in Q2, the simple Exit could apply to Hamlet only, implicitly leaving the Queen alone on stage, but in Q2 the Queen then enters with her husband and the two courtiers, implying that she has briefly left. See the next two notes.

[4.1]

Location: The castle, with implicitly a scene break in Q2 but continuous with the previous action in F1. See next note.

Enter King … Guildenstern

No early text marks a new act at this point, or even a scene break. Q2, specifying that the King and Queen enter here with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, implies a scene break with the Queen exiting and immediately reentering; exits are not infrequently omitted in these early texts. The King’s statement to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at line 34 in both Q2 and F1 that Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, / And from his mother’s closet hath he dragged him, seems to imply that the present scene is not located in the Queen’s closet, as it was in 3.4. In Q2, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter with the King and Queen at the opening of the scene but are then bidden to leave so that the King and Queen may converse privately, at which point the two courtiers presumably exit, to reenter in Q2 at line 32. In F1, on the other hand, The King enters alone at the scene’s opening and addresses the Queen, who has presumably remained on stage; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern do not enter until line 32. Q1’s truncated version brings on the King and Lordes (presumably Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) at the scene’s beginning; again, the Queen has implicitly remained on stage. The present edition treats each text individually: in Q2, the Queen enters with her husband at the start of this scene as though she exited briefly at the end of 3.4, whereas the arrangement in Q1/F1 keeps the Queen on stage, with no scene break. The editor’s choice text similarly leaves the Queen on stage; following Q2, it brings Rosencrantz and Guildenstern briefly on stage with the King until the Queen dismisses tho two courtiers at line 4; they are recalled at line 32. The traditional marking of Act IV Scene 1 was not introduced until Q6, and has no textual authority.

matter

Significance, meaning.

F1’s matters may be a simple misprint of Q2’s matter.

sighs, these profound … translate

F1’s sighes. / These profound heaues / You must translate is a possible reading, but Q2’s sighes, these profound heaues, / You must translate may be authorial.

heaves

Heaving of the breast and shoulders as the Queen sobs.

translate

I.e., explain why you are weeping.

Bestow … while

This line is omitted in F1, which delays the entrance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern until line 32. The omission could be unintentional, or it could point to a change in staging.

[Exeunt … Guildenstern]

This exit is omitted in all the early texts. In F1 they have not yet entered. See note above at 4.1.0.1.

my good lord

F1’s reading here may be an authorial correction of Q2’s mine owne Lord.

Gertrude

Q2 prints Gertrard, as at line 28 below; F1 prints Gertrude, Q1 Gertred.

Mad … sea

Compare the proverbial phrase, As mad as the (troubled) sea (Dent S170). The proverbial language tends to confirm Q2’s sea; F1’s Seas could be a copying error.

Whips out his rapier, cries

F1’s He whips his Rapier out, and cries is a perfectly intelligible substitute for Q2’s Whips out his Rapier, cryes, but could be a copyist’s or compositor’s sophistication; Q2 enjoys a more reliable transmission. Q2’s line arguably scans better than F1’s. Q1’s whips me / Out his rapier, and cries tends to support Q2.

this brainish apprehension

This brainsick misapprehension.

F1’s his brainish apprehension could be authorial, but it could instead be a copying error for Q2’s this brainish apprehension. Q2 generally enjoys a more reliable line of transmission.

heavy

Grievous.

us … we

(The royal plural.)

Collations

Adopted reading (F1):

1.1

F1:

Actus Primus. Scoena Prima.

Q1:

Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels.

Q1:

Enter two Centinels.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Barnardo

Q1:

and throughout scene

Adopted reading (F1):

Who’s there?

Q2:

WHose there?

Q1:

STand: who is that?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Francisco.

Q1:

and throughout scene

Adopted reading (F1):

Barnardo?

Q2:

Barnardo.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

You come

Q1:

O you come

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

hour.

Q1:

watch.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivalshaste.

F1:

Well,hast.

Q1:

And if you meete Marcellus and Horatio, The partnershaste.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Stand, ho! Who is

Q2:

stand, ho, Who is

F1:

Stand: who’s

Q1:

See who goes

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

soldier.

Q2:

souldiers,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

hath

F1:

ha’s

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Say, what,

Q1:

Say,

Adopted reading (Q2):

Horatio

Q2:

Hora.

Q1, F1:

Mar.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

has

Q1:

hath

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

along

Q2:

along,

Adopted reading (F1):

F1:

us,

Q1, Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Tush, tush,

Q1:

Tut,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

awhile,

Q1:

I pray,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

fortified against our story,

Q1:

fortified,

Adopted reading (F1):

two nights have

Q1, Q2:

haue two nights

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

yond same

Q1:

yonder

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

t’illume

Q1:

To Iillumine

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

beating

Q1:

towling

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Enter the Ghost.

Q1, Q2:

preceding TLN 51 in Q1, Q2

F1:

the Ghost

opposite TLN 51 in F2

Adopted reading (Q2):

Peaceoff! Lookagain!

on one line in Q2

F1:

Peace,of: Lookeagaine.

Q1:

Break off your talke, seeagaine.

one one line

Adopted reading (F1):

Q2:

Adopted reading (F1):

harrows

Q1:

horrors

Q2:

horrowes

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

to.

F1:

too

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

Question

Q2:

Speake to

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

march?

Q1:

Walke?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

I charge

Q1:

by heauen I charge

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Ghost.

F1:

the Ghost.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

will not

Q1:

makes no

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Before

Q1:

Afore

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

mine own

Q1:

my owne

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

he the ambitious

F1:

th’Ambitious

Adopted reading (Malone):

Polacks

Q1, Q2:

pollax

F1:

Pollax

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

jump

F1:

just

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

hath he gone by

Q1:

he passed through

Adopted reading (Q2):

mine

F1:

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

why

Q2:

with

Adopted reading (F1):

cast

Q2:

cost

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

haste

Q1:

march

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

That

Q1:

Mary that

Adopted reading (Q2):

emulate pride,

F1:

emulate Pride)

Q1:

emulous cause,

Adopted reading (F1):

heraldry

Q2:

heraldy

Q1:

heraldrie,

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

those

Q2:

these

Adopted reading (Q2):

seized of, to

F1:

seiz’d on, to

Q1:

seazed of by

Adopted reading (F1):

returned

Q2:

return

Adopted reading (F1):

cov’nant

Q2:

comart,

Adopted reading (F2):

design[ed]

Q2:

desseigne,

F1:

designe,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

unimprovèd

Q1:

inapproued

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

list

Q1:

sight

Adopted reading (F1):

landless

Q1, Q2:

lawless

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

(And

Adopted reading (Q2):

compulsatory

F1:

Compulsatiue,

Adopted reading (F1):

rummage

Q2:

Romeage

Adopted reading (Q2):

I thinkcountrymen.

Q1, F1:

omitted in Q1, F1

Adopted reading (Q2):

mote

Adopted reading (Parrott-Craig__Collier_):

feared

Q2:

feare

Adopted reading (Q2):

Enter Ghost.

F1:

Enter Ghost againe.

Q1:

Enter the Ghostt.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

But soft, behold, lo,

Q1:

But loe, behold, see

Adopted reading (Q2):

It spreads his arms.

Q1, F1:

omitted in Q1, F1

Adopted reading (Pope):

Speak to me! Ifdone

Q2, F1:

Speakedone

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Thatgrace to me, Speak to me!

F1:

Thatspeak to me.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Whichavoid, Oh, speak!

F1:

Whichauoyd) Oh speake.

Q1:

Whichpreuent, O speake to me,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Extorted

Q1:

Or hoarded

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

you

Q2:

your

Adopted reading (Q2):

The cock crows.

Q1, F1:

omitted in Q1, F1

Adopted reading (F1):

at it

Q2:

Adopted reading (Sisson):

Exit Ghost.

Sisson:

placement here as in Sisson

Q2:

omitted in Q2

F1:

opposite “’Tis gone” in TLN 141 in F1

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

invulnerable,

Q1:

invelmorable,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

started

Q1:

faded

Adopted reading (Q2):

morn,

F1:

day,

Q1:

morning,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

lofty

Q1:

earely

Adopted reading (F1):

shrill-sounding

Q2:

shrill sounding

Q1:

shrill crowing

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

warning,

Q1:

sound,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

in sea or fire, in earth or air,

Q1:

in earth or ayre, in sea or fire,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Th’extravagant

Q1:

The strauagant

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

confine;

Q1:

confines,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

herein

Q1:

heereof

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

say

F1:

sayes,

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

The

Q2:

This

Adopted reading (Q2):

dare stir

F1:

can walke

Q1:

dare walke

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

planets strike,

Q1:

planet srikes,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

takes,

F1:

talkes,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

hallowedgracious

Q1:

gratious,hallowed

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

that

F1:

the

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

look,

Q1:

see

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

morn

Q1:

Sunne

Adopted reading (Q2):

eastward hill.

F1:

Easterne Hill,

Q1:

mountaine top,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

loves,

Q1:

loue,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Let’s

Q1:

with broken letter “s” in Q1

F1:

Let

Adopted reading (F1):

conveniently.

Q2:

conuenient.

Adopted reading (F1):

[1.2]

F1:

Scena Secunda.

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

Flourish. Cornelius].

F1:

Enter Claudius King of Denmarke, Gertrude the Queene, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, and his Sister Ophelia, Lords Attendant.

including Voltemand and Cornelius, who enter in F1 at TLN 204, ln. 1.2.25

Q1:

Enter King, Queene, Hamlet, Leartes, Corambis, and the two Ambasadors, with Attendants.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Claudius

Q1, F1:

King

Adopted reading (Q2):

sometime

F1:

sometimes

Adopted reading (F1):

Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2):

an auspicious and a

F1:

one Auspicious, and one

Adopted reading (Arden_1):

followsknow:

F1:

follows,know

Q2:

followesknowe

Adopted reading (Q2):

this

F1:

the

Adopted reading (F1):

bonds

Q2:

bands

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

impotent

Q1:

impudent

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

gait

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

subject,

Q5:

subjects,

Adopted reading (F1):

CorneliusVoltemand,

Q2:

CorneliusValtemand,

Q1:

CorneliaVoltemar

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

bearers

F1:

bearing

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

this greeting

Q1:

these greetings

Adopted reading (Q2):

these delated

F1:

these dilated

Q1:

those related

Adopted reading (Q2):

Cornelius and Voltemand

F1:

Volt.

Q1:

Gent.

Adopted reading (F1):

Exeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

told us of some

Q1:

said you had a

Adopted reading (Q2):

lose

F1:

loose

Adopted reading (Q2):

My dread

F1:

Dread my

Q1:

My gratious

Adopted reading (Q2):

toward

F1:

towards

Adopted reading (Q2):

HavePolonius?

F1:

Haueleaue? What sayes Pollonius?

Q1:

Haueleaue, Leartes?

Adopted reading (Q2):

H’ath

Q1, F1:

He hath

Adopted reading (Q2):

wrungconsent.

F1:

omitted in F1

Q1:

wrung from me a forced graunt,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Andwill.

Q1:

Q1 provides an “Exit”, presumably for Laertes, at Q1’s equivalent of TLN 244

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

cousin

Q1:

princely Sonne

Adopted reading (F1):

Not so,

Q2:

Not so much,

Adopted reading (Arden_3):

in the son.

Q2:

in the sonne.

F1:

i’th’Sun.

Adopted reading (Q2):

nighted

F1:

nightly

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

lives

F2:

liue

Adopted reading (F1):

good

Q2:

coold

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

dejected havior of

Q1:

distracted hauiour in

Adopted reading (Q2):

shapes

F1:

shewes

Adopted reading (F1):

denote

Q2:

deuote

Adopted reading (Q2):

passes

F1:

passeth

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

trappings and the suits

Q1:

ornaments and sutes

Adopted reading (Q2):

’TisHamlet,

F1:

’Tiscommendable InHamlet,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

know

Q1:

thinke

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

father lost, lost

Q1:

father dead, lost

Adopted reading (F1):

a mind

Q2:

or minde

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

’tis a fault to heaven, A fault

Q1:

It is a fault gainst heauen, fault

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

to nature,

Q1:

gainst nature,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

corse

Q2:

course,

F1:

Coarse,

Adopted reading (Q2):

toward

F1:

towards

Adopted reading (F1):

you. For

Q2:

you for

Adopted reading (F1):

retrograde

Q2:

retrogard

Adopted reading (Q2):

courtier, cousin,

F1:

Courtier Cosin,

Adopted reading (F1):

lose

Q1, Q2:

loose

Adopted reading (Q2):

pray thee

F1:

prythee

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

I shallmadam.

F1:

I shallbest Obey you Madam.

Adopted reading (Q2):

rouse

F1:

Rouce,

Adopted reading (F1):

heavens

Q2:

heauen

Adopted reading (Q2):

Flourish. Exeunt all but Hamlet.

F1:

Exeunt Manet Hamlet.

Q1:

Exeunt all but Hamlet.

Adopted reading (F1):

too too solid

Q2:

too too sallied

Q1:

too much grieu’d and sallied

anon_ed.:

too too sullied

Adopted reading (F1):

self-slaughter.

Q2:

seale slaughter,

Adopted reading (Q2):

God, God,

F1:

God, O God!

Adopted reading (F1):

weary,

Q2:

wary,

Adopted reading (Q2):

Seem

F1:

Seemes

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Fie on’t, ah, fie!

F1:

Fie on’t? Oh fie, fie,

Adopted reading (F1):

to this!

Q2:

thus

Adopted reading (F1):

satyr,

Q2:

satire,

Adopted reading (Q2):

beteem

F1:

beteene

Adopted reading (F1):

would

Q2:

should

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

fed on.

Q1:

looked on.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

body,

Q1:

corse

Adopted reading (F1):

she, even she--

Q2:

she

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

God,

F1:

Heauen!

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

mine

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

F1:

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

gallèd

Adopted reading (Q2):

Marcellus, and Barnardo.

F1:

Barnard, and Marcellus.

Q1:

and Marcellus.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Hail

Q1:

Health

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

do forget

Q1:

much Forget

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

The sameever.

F1:

The same my Lord, Andeuer.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Siryou.

F1:

Sirfriend, Ileyou:

Q1:

Oyou:

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

good my lord.

Q1:

my good Lord.

Adopted reading (F1):

have

Q2:

heare

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

mine

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Elsinore?

F1:

Elsenour?

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

to drink deep

Q2:

for to drinke

Adopted reading (Q2):

I prithee

F1:

I pray thee

Q1:

O I pre thee

Adopted reading (F1):

student.

Q1, Q2:

studient,

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

to see

Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2):

Or ever I had

F1:

Ere I had euer

Q1:

Ere euer I had

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

My father--

Q1:

O my father,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Where,

F1:

Oh where

Adopted reading (Q2):

’A

Q1, F1:

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

goodly

Q1:

gallant

Adopted reading (Q2):

’A

Q1, F1:

Adopted reading (Q1):

man,all,

F1:

man,all:

Q2:

manall

Adopted reading (F1):

Saw? Who?

Q2:

saw, who?

Q1:

Saw, who?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Season

Q1:

Ceasen

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

attent

Q1:

attentiue

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

marvel

Q2:

maruile

F1:

maruell

Q1:

wonder

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

God’s

F1:

Heauens

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

hear!

Q1:

heare it.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

waste

Q1:

vast

Adopted reading (Q2):

Armed at point

F1:

Arm’d at all points

Q1:

Armed to poynt,

Adopted reading (Q2, Q1, F1):

cap-à-pie,

Adopted reading (Q2):

stately by them.

Q2:

stately by them;

F1:

stately: By them

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

walked

Q1:

walkes

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Byeyes

Q1:

Before their weake and feare oppressed eies

Adopted reading (Q1):

distilled

Q2:

distil’d

F1:

bestil’d

Adopted reading (F1):

jelly

F1:

Ielly

Q2:

gelly,

Q2:

gelly,

Q1:

gelly.

Adopted reading (Q5):

Where, as

Q1:

Where as

Q2, F1:

Whereas

Adopted reading (Q2):

watch.

Q1:

watched.

F1:

watcht.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Q1:

his

Q4:

its

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

writ down

Q1:

right done,

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

Indeed, indeed,

Q2:

Indeede

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

All

F1:

Both

Capell:

Marcellus and Barnardo

Arden_3__Q2:

Horatio, Marcellus, Barnardo

Adopted reading (Q2):

face.

Q1, F1:

face?

Adopted reading (Q2):

What looked he,

Q2:

What look’t he

F1:

What, lookt he

Q1:

How look’t he,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

would have

Q1:

would a

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

Very like, very like.

Q2:

Very like,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

haste

Q1:

pace

Adopted reading (Q2):

Both

F1:

All.

Q1:

Mar.

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

grizzled,

Q1:

grisseld,

Q2:

grissl’d,

F1:

grisly?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

silvered.

Q1:

siluer.

Adopted reading (Q1):

I willagain.

Q1:

I wil watch to night, perchance t’wil walke againe.

F1:

Ile watch to Night; perchance ’twill wake againe.

Q2:

I will watch to nigh Perchaunce twill walke againe.

Adopted reading (Q2):

warr’nt

Q1:

warrant

F1:

warrant you

Adopted reading (Q2):

tenable

Q1:

tenible

F1:

treble

Adopted reading (Q2):

whatsomever

Q1, F1:

whatsoeuer

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

hap

Q1:

chance

Adopted reading (F1):

So, fare

Q1:

so fare

Q2:

so farre

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

you

F1:

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

eleven

Q2:

a leauen

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

duty

Q1:

duties

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

loves,

F1:

loue,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

All is

Q1:

Well, all’s

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

Foul

Q2:

fonde

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

earth

Q1:

world

Adopted reading (F1):

scene 3

F1:

Scena Tertia.

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

Ophelia his sister.

F1:

Ophelia.

Q1:

Ofelia.

Adopted reading (F1):

embarked.

F1:

imbark’t;

Q1, Q2:

inbarked.

Adopted reading (Q2):

convey

Q2:

conuay,

F1:

Conuoy

Adopted reading (F1):

Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2):

favor,

F1:

fauours,

Adopted reading (Q2):

Forward,

F1:

Froward,

Adopted reading (Q2):

perfume and suppliance of a minute, No more.

F1:

suppliance of a minute? No more.

one one line

Adopted reading (most_editors):

No more but so?

Q2, F1:

No more but so.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

crescent

Q2, F1:

cressant

Adopted reading (F1):

bulk,

Q2:

bulkes,

Adopted reading (Q2):

this

F1:

his

Adopted reading (Q2):

will;

F1:

feare:

Adopted reading (F1):

Forbirth.

Q2, Q1:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

safetythis whole

F1:

sanctitythe weole

Adopted reading (Q2):

particular act and place

F1:

peculiar Sect and force

Adopted reading (F1):

weigh

Q2:

way

Adopted reading (F1):

lose

Q2:

loose

Adopted reading (Q2):

you in

F1:

within

Adopted reading (F1):

The chariest Virtue The canker

Q2:

The chariest Virtue The canker

F1:

quotation marks omitted in F1

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

strokes.

Q1:

thoughts,

Adopted reading (Q2):

the effect

F1:

th’effect

Adopted reading (Q2):

watchman

F1:

watchmen

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Show me the steep

Q1:

Teach me the path

Adopted reading (F1):

Whilst, like

Q2:

Whiles a

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

recksrede.

Q2:

reakesreed.

F1:

reaksreade.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Enter Polonius.

Q2:

placed to the right of “And reckes not his owne reed” and before “O feare me not” in Q2

F1:

Enter Polonius

placed after TLN 515 in F1

Q1:

Enter Corambis.

placed after the equivalent of TLN 519 in Q1

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

for. There,

F1:

for there:

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

thee,

F1:

you;

Adopted reading (Q2):

Look

F1:

See

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Those

F1:

The

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

adoption

Q1:

adoptions

Adopted reading (F1):

to thy soul

Q2:

vnto thy soule

Q1:

to thee

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

thy palm with entertainment

Q1:

the palme with entertaine,

Adopted reading (Q2):

each new-hatched

F1:

each vnhatch’t,

Q1:

euery new

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

courage.

F1:

Comrade.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

to a

Q1:

into a

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Bear’t that th’opposèd

Q1:

Beare it that the opposed

Adopted reading (Q2):

thy ear,

F1:

thine eare;

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

habit

Q1:

apparrell,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

fancy--

Q1:

fashion,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

best

Q1:

chiefe

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

Are

Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2):

generous, chief

F1:

generous cheff

Q1:

generall chiefe

Adopted reading (F1):

be,

Q2:

boy,

Adopted reading (F1):

loan

F1:

lone

Q2:

loue

Adopted reading (F1):

loses

Q2:

looses

Adopted reading (Q2):

dulleth edge

F1:

duls the edge

Parrott/Craig:

dulleth th’edge

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

thine

Q1:

thy

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

any man.

Q1:

any one,

Adopted reading (F1):

inuites

Q2:

invests

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

’Tislocked,

Q1:

It is already lock’t within my hart,

Adopted reading (Q2):

Lord

F1:

Q1:

prince

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

well bethought.

Q1:

thought on,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

As it behooveshonor.

Q1:

So well as befits my honor, and your credite.

Adopted reading (Q2):

I will

F1:

Ile

Adopted reading (Q2):

these

F1:

his

Adopted reading (Q2):

sterling.

F1:

starling.

Adopted reading (Collier):

Running

F1:

Roaming

Q2:

Wrong

Pope:

Wronging

Warburton:

Wringing

Adopted reading (Q2):

Go to, go to.

F1:

go too, go too.

Adopted reading (Pope):

speech, my lord, With

Q2, F1:

speech, My Lord, with

Adopted reading (Q2):

with almost all the holy vows

F1:

with all the vowes

Q1:

withall, such earnest vowes.

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

springes

Q2:

springs

Adopted reading (Q2):

soul Lends the tongue

F1:

Soule Giues the tongue

Q1:

tongue lends the heart

Adopted reading (Q2):

From

F1:

For

Adopted reading (Q2):

time

F1:

time Daughter,

Adopted reading (Q2):

something

F1:

somewhat

Adopted reading (F1):

parley.

Q2:

parle.

Adopted reading (F1):

tether

Q2:

tider

Adopted reading (Q2):

that dye

Q2:

that die

F1:

the eye,

Adopted reading (F1):

implorators

Q2:

imploratotors

Adopted reading (Theobald):

bawds

Q2, F1:

bonds

Adopted reading (F1):

beguile.

Q2:

beguide:

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

moment

Q3:

moments

Pope:

moment’s

Adopted reading (Capell):

Scene 4

Q1, Q2, F1:

omitted in Q1, Q2, F1

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

and Marcellus.

F1:

Marcellus.

Adopted reading (F1):

shrewdly;

Q2:

shroudly,

Q1:

shrewd;

Adopted reading (Q2):

it is very cold.

F1:

is it very cold?

Adopted reading (F1):

It is a nipping andair.

Q2:

It is nipping, and an eager ayre.

Q1:

It is an eager and An nipping winde,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Whatseason

Q2, F1:

lineation as here in Q2, F1

Arden_2:

relined with “What . . . twelve” and “No, . . . it not” as paired half-lines

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

hour now?

Q1:

houre i’st?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

it is

Q1:

t’is

Adopted reading (Q2):

It then

F1:

then it

Adopted reading (Q2):

A flourishtwo pieces goes off.

F1:

omitted in F1

Q1:

Sound Trumpets.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

does

Q1:

doth

Adopted reading (Q2):

wassail,

Q2:

wassell

F1:

wassels

Q1:

wassel,

Adopted reading (Q2):

swagg’ring

Q1, F1:

swaggering

Adopted reading (Q2):

drains

F1:

dreines

Q1:

dreames,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

kettledrum

Q2:

kettle drumme,

F1:

kettle Drum

Q1:

kettle, drumme,

Adopted reading (Q2):

But

F1:

And

Adopted reading (Q2):

Thisscandal.

Q1, F1:

omitted in Q1, F1

Adopted reading (Q2):

heavy-headed revel

Adopted reading (Q2):

clepe

Q2:

clip

Adopted reading (Pope):

the

Q2:

their

Adopted reading (Q2):

His

Pope:

Their

Adopted reading (Keightly):

evil

Q2:

eale

Kittredge:

e’il

Jennings:

ill

Adopted reading (Q2):

dout

Q2:

doubt

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Enter Ghost.

Q1:

Enter the Ghost.

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

intents

F1:

euents

Adopted reading (Q2):

Oh,

Q2:

F1:

Oh, oh,

Q1:

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

tell

Q11:

say

Adopted reading (Q2):

cerements?

F1:

cerments,

Q1:

ceremonies:

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

interred

F1:

enurn’d,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

oped

Q1:

burst

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

complete

Adopted reading (F1):

Revisitsglimpses

Q2:

Reuisitesglimses

Q1:

Reuisittsglimses

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

the

F1:

thee;

Adopted reading (F1):

[The] Ghost beckons Hamlet.

Q2:

Beckins.

in right margin at TLN 642

F1:

Ghost beckons Hamlet.

below TLN 642

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

waves

F1:

wafts

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

means.

Q1:

meanes my Lord.

Adopted reading (Q2):

I will

Q1, F1:

will I

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

as itself?

Q1:

like it selfe.

Adopted reading (Q2):

summitcliff

F1:

SonnetCliffe,

Adopted reading (F1):

beetles

Q2:

bettles

Q1:

beckles

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

assume

F1:

assumes

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

form

Q1:

shape,

Adopted reading (Q2):

The verybeneath.

Q1, F1:

omitted in Q1, F1

Adopted reading (F1):

Itthee.

Q2:

Itstill. Gothee.

Adopted reading (F1):

It wafts me still:

Q2:

It waves me still.

Q1:

Still am I called,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Youlord.

Q1:

My Lord, you shall not go.

Adopted reading (F1):

off

Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2):

hands!

F1:

hand.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Be ruled. Yougo.

Q1:

My Lord be rulde, you shall not goe.

Adopted reading (Q2):

artery

F1:

Artire

Q1:

Artiue

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

called.

F1:

cal’d?

Adopted reading (F1):

heav’n,

Q2:

heauen

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

I say, away!

Q1:

Away I say,

Adopted reading (F1):

Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.

Q2:

Exit Ghost and Hamlet.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

waxes

Q1:

waxeth

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

imagination.

Q2:

imagion.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Exeunt.

Q1:

exit.

Adopted reading (Capell):

Scene 5

Q1, Q2, F1:

omitted in Q1, Q2, F1

Adopted reading (Q1):

Whither

Q2:

Whether

F1:

Where

Adopted reading (Q2):

sulf’rous

F1:

sulphrous

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

for a certain term

Q1:

for a time

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Andfires,

Q1:

and all the day Confinde in flaming fire,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

burnt and purged

Q1:

purged and burnt

Adopted reading (Q2):

knotted

F1:

knotty

Adopted reading (Q1):

Q2, F1:

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

fretful

Q2:

fearefull

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

eternal

Q1:

same

Adopted reading (Q2):

List, list,

F1:

list Hamlet,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

If thou didst ever

Q1:

if euer thou didst

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

God!

F1:

Heauen!

Adopted reading (Q2):

Murder?

F1:

Murther?

Q1:

Murder.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

best it is,

Q1:

least tis bad,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

this most foul, strange,

Q1:

mine most foule, beastly,

Adopted reading (Q1):

Hasteknow’t, that I

Q1:

in a speech printed as prose

Q2:

Hastknow’t, that I

F1:

Hast, hastknow it, That

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

thoughts of love

Q1:

thought of it,

Adopted reading (Q2):

That roots

F1:

That rots

Q1:

which rootes

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

’Tismy

F1:

It’smine

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

The serpentlife

Q1:

he that did sting Thy fathers heart,

Adopted reading (Q2):

My uncle?

F1:

mine Vncle?

Q1:

my vncle! my vncle!

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Ay,

Q1:

Yea he,

Adopted reading (Q2):

with traitorous

F1:

hath Traitorous

Adopted reading (Q2):

to his

F1:

to to this

Adopted reading (F1):

what a

Q2:

what

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

the vow I made to her

Q1:

that vow, He made to you

at the equivalent of TLN 2446 in Q1

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Tomoved

Pope:

Tomine. Butmoved,

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

lust,

Q2:

but

Adopted reading (F1):

angel

Q1:

angle

Q2:

Angle

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Willbed Andgarbage.

F1:

WillGarbage.

Adopted reading (F1):

Will sate itself in

Q2:

Will sort it selfe in

Q1:

Would sate it selfe from

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

scent

Adopted reading (Q2):

morning

Q1, F1:

Mornings

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

F1:

mine

Adopted reading (Q2):

Q1, F1:

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

stole

Q1:

came,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

hebona

F1:

Hebenon

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Q1:

through

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

F1:

mine

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

lep’rous

F1:

leperous

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

courses

Q1:

posteth

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

alleys

Adopted reading (F1):

posset

Q2:

possesse

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

eager

F1:

Aygre

Adopted reading (Q1):

barked

Q2:

barckt

F1:

bak’d

Adopted reading (Q2):

Of life, of crown, of queen

F1:

Of life, of Crowne, and Queene

Q1:

Of Crowne, of Queene, of life, of dignitie

Adopted reading (F1):

Unhousled,unaneled,

F1:

Vnhouzzled,vnaneld,

Q2:

Vnhuzled,vnanueld,

Adopted reading (Q2):

reck’ning made,

F1:

reckoning made,

Q1:

reckoning made of,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

to my account

Q1:

vnto my graue,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

all my imperfections on

Q1:

all my accompts and sinnes vpon

Adopted reading (F1):

howsoeever thou pursuest

Q2:

howsomeuer thou pursues

Q1:

howsoeuer,

Adopted reading (Q2):

pursues

F1:

pursuest

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

aught;

Q2:

ought,

F1:

ought;

Adopted reading (Q2):

Adieu, adieu, adieu!

F1:

Adue, adue, Hamlet:

Q1:

Hamlet, adue, adue, adue:

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

Exit.

Q2:

SD omitted in Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

Hold, hold,

F1:

hold

Adopted reading (F1):

stiffly

Q2:

swiftly

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Ay,

Q1:

Yes

Adopted reading (Q2):

whiles

F1:

while

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

Yes, yes,

Q2:

yes

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

My tables--

F1:

My Tables, my Tables;

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

I am

F1:

I’m

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

my word.

Q1:

the words;

Adopted reading (Q2):

It isme. I have sworn’t.

F1:

It is;sworn’t.

Q1:

Soe t’is enough I haue sworne.

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Horatio

F1:

Hor. & Mar. within.

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

EnterMarcellus.

F1:

after TLN 797 in F1

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Heavens

F1:

Heauen

Adopted reading (Q2):

Hamlet

F1:

Mar.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Marcellus

Q1, F1:

Hor.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Hamlet

Q1:

Mar.

Adopted reading (F1):

bird,

Q2:

and

Q1:

boy,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

is’t,

F1:

ist’t

Adopted reading (Q2):

No, you will

F1:

No you’l

Q1:

No, not I, you’l

Adopted reading (F1):

heaven, my lord.

F1:

Heau’n, my Lord.

Q2:

heauen.

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

There’sDenmark

Q2:

There’svillaine, DwellingDenmarke

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

never

F1:

nere

Adopted reading (Q2):

Theregrave To tell us this.

F1:

Therefrom the Gravethis.

as if prose, but with a capital “G”

Q1:

There need no Ghost come from the graue to tell you this.

as prose, turned over

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

in the right.

F1:

i’th’right;

Adopted reading (Q2):

desire

Q1, F1:

desires

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

point

Q1:

leade

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

hath

F1:

ha’s

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

F1:

mine

Adopted reading (F1):

Look you, I’ll

Q2:

I will

Q1:

ile

Adopted reading (Q2):

whirling

F1:

hurling

Q1:

wherling

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

I am

F1:

I’m

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Horatio,

F1:

my Lord,

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

too.

Q2:

to,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

vision here,

Q1:

vision,

Adopted reading (Q1):

O’ermaster it

Q2:

Oremastret

F1:

Oremaster’t

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

As you are

Q1:

as yon are

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

soldiers,

Q1:

gentlmen,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

lord? We will.

Q1:

Lord?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

swear’t.

Q1:

sweare.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Ghoststage.

Q2:

below TLN 844 in Q2

F1:

opposite TLN 845

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Ghoststage.

Q1:

The Gost vnder the stage.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Ha, ha, say’sttruepenny? Come on, you hearcellerage. Consent to swear.

F1:

A ha boy, sayest thou so. Art thou there truepenny? Come one you here this fellow in the selleridge Consent to sweare.

Q1:

Ha, ha, come you here, this fellow in the sellerige, Here consent to sweare.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

of this that you have seen.

Q1:

what you haue seene to night,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

our

F1:

for

Adopted reading (Q2):

Swearsword Neverhave heard.

F1:

Neuerhaue heard: SweareSword.

Q1:

neuer to speake Of that which you haue seene, swearesword.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Swear by his sword.

Q1, F1:

Sweare.

Adopted reading (Q2):

i’th’earth so fast?

F1:

i’th’ground so fast?

Q11:

in the earth?

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

pioneer

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

remove, good friends.

Q1:

remoue.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Oh, day

Q1:

Day

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

your

F1:

our

Adopted reading (Q2):

some’er

F1:

so ere

Q1:

soere

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

antic

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

times

F1:

time

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

this headshake,

F1:

thus, head shake;

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Well, well,

F1:

well,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

they

F1:

there

Adopted reading (Q1):

aught

Q2, F1:

ought

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

this not to do,

Q2:

this doe sweare,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

you.

F1:

you. Sweare.

Adopted reading (F1):

With all

Q2:

Withall

Q1:

In all

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

lack.

Q1:

want,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Let us go

Q1:

Nay come lett’s go

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

And

Q1:

But

Adopted reading (F1):

Act 2, Scene 1

F1:

Actus Secundus.

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

Enter old Polonius, with his man or two.

F1:

Enter Polonius, and Reynoldo.

Q1:

Enter Corambis, and Montano.

Adopted reading (Q2):

this

F1:

his

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

marv’lous

Q2:

meruiles

F1:

maruels

Adopted reading (Q2):

him, to make inquire

F1:

him you make inquiry

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

F1:

And

Adopted reading (F1):

Faith, no,

Q2:

Fayth

Adopted reading (Q2):

A savagenessblood, Ofassault.

F1:

A sauagenesassaault.

in one line

Adopted reading (Q2):

unreclaimèd

Q2:

vnreclamed

F1:

vnreclaim’d

Adopted reading (F1):

warrant.

Q2:

wit,

Adopted reading (F1):

sullies

Q2:

sallies

Adopted reading (F1):

i’th’

Q2:

with

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

breathe

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

and

Adopted reading (Q2):

’a does this, ’a does--whatsay? By the mass, Isomething. Whereleave?

F1:

does he this? He does: whatsay? Ileaue?

Adopted reading (F1):

At friend, or so, and gentleman.

Q2:

omitted in Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

thus:

F1:

with you thus.

Adopted reading (Q2):

th’other

F1:

tother

Adopted reading (Q2):

such or such,

F1:

such and such;

Adopted reading (Q2):

’a gaming,

F1:

he gaming,

Adopted reading (F1):

there o’ertook

Q2:

there, or tooke

Adopted reading (Q2):

sale,

F1:

saile;

Q1:

lightnes

Adopted reading (F1):

Videlicet,

Q2:

Videlizet,

Q1:

viz.

Adopted reading (F1):

takes

Q2:

take

Adopted reading (Q2):

carp

F1:

Cape

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

out;

Q1:

forth,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

have me, have

Q1:

ha me, ha

Adopted reading (Q2):

b’wi’ ye, fare ye

F1:

buy you; fare you

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

let him

Q1:

bid him

Adopted reading (Singer):

Well, my lord. Polonius Farewell. Exit Reynaldo. Enter Ophelia

Q2:

Well, my lord. Exit Reynaldo. Enter Ophelia. Polonius Farewell.

F1:

Well, my lord. Exit. Enter Ophelia. Polonius Farewell:

Adopted reading (Q2):

Oh, my lord, my lord,

F1:

Alas my Lord,

Adopted reading (Q2):

i’th’name of God?

F1:

in the name of Heauen?

Adopted reading (F1):

chamber,

Q2:

closset,

Adopted reading (Q2):

Myknow, Butit.

F1:

Myit.

Adopted reading (Q2):

’a

F1:

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

That

Adopted reading (Q2):

shoulder

F1:

shoulders

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

his way

Q1:

the way

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

o’doors

Q1:

of doores

Adopted reading (Q2):

helps,

Q1, F1:

helpe;

Adopted reading (Q2):

Come, go

F1:

Goe

Adopted reading (F1):

passion

Q2:

passions

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

hard words

Q1:

crosse wordes

Adopted reading (Q2):

heed

F1:

speed

Adopted reading (F1):

quoted

Q2:

coted

Adopted reading (Q2):

feared

F1:

feare

Adopted reading (Q2):

By heaven, it

F1:

It seemes it

Adopted reading (Q2):

Come.

F1:

omitted in F1

Adopted reading (F1):

Scene 2

F1:

Scena Secunda.

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

Flourish. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

F1:

Enter King, Queene, Rosincrane, and Guildensterne Cum alijs.

Q1:

Enter King and Queene, Rossencraft, and Gilderstone.

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

so I

Adopted reading (Q2):

Sith nor

F1:

Since not

Adopted reading (Q2):

dream

F1:

deeme

Adopted reading (Q2):

sithhavior,

F1:

sincehumour,

Adopted reading (F1):

vouchsafe

Q2:

voutsafe

Adopted reading (Q2):

occasion

F1:

Occasions

Adopted reading (Q2):

Whetherthus

F1:

omitted in F1

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

are

Adopted reading (Q2):

But we

F1:

Adopted reading (Q2):

service

F1:

Seruices

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Thanks, Rosencrantz,Guildenstern. Thanks, GuildensternRosencrantz.

Q1:

Thankes Gulderstone,Rossencraft. Thankes Rossencraft,Gilderstone.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Myof you,

F1:

MySonne. Goof ye,

Adopted reading (Q2):

these

F1:

the

Adopted reading (Q2):

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Q2:

Exeunt Ros. and Guyld.

opposite TLN 1062, “Amen.” in Q2

F1:

Exit.

opposite TLN 1061, “Pleasant . . . him.”

Q1:

omitted in Q1

Adopted reading (Q2):

Ay, amen.

F1:

Amen.

after “Exit” in F1

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Enter Polonius.

Q1:

Enter Corambis and Ofelia.

Adopted reading (F1):

Assure you, my good liege,

Q2:

I assure my good Liege

Q1:

I assure your grace,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

soul,

Q1:

life,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

and

F1:

one

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

gracious

Q1:

soueraigne

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

I do think,

Q1:

I beleeue,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

trailsure

Q1:

trainewell

Adopted reading (Q2):

it hath used

F1:

I haue vs’d

Q1:

it had wont

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

that

Q1:

but

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

cause

Q1:

depth

Adopted reading (Q2):

do I

F1:

I do

Adopted reading (Q2):

fruit

F1:

Newes

Adopted reading (Q2):

dear Gertrude,

F1:

sweet Queene, that

Adopted reading (F1):

o’erhasty

Q2:

hastie

Adopted reading (Q2):

Enter Ambassadors.

Q1:

Enter the Amgassadors.

F1:

Enter Polonius, Voltumand, and Cornelius.

Adopted reading (Q2):

my good

F1:

good

Adopted reading (Q2):

Voltemand,

F1:

Voltumand,

Q1:

Voltemar,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

return

Q1:

returnes

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

sent out

Q1:

sent forth

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

Polack,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

th’assay

Q1:

the assay

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

three thousand

Q2:

threescore thousand

Adopted reading (Q2):

this

F1:

his

Q1:

that

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Most

Q1:

Right

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

Exeunt Ambassadors.

F1:

Exit Ambass.

Adopted reading (Q2):

well ended.

F1:

very well ended.

Q1:

very well dispatched.

Adopted reading (F1):

since brevity

Q2:

breuitie

Adopted reading (F1):

he is

Q2:

he’s

Adopted reading (Q2):

’tis ’tis

F1:

it is

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

rather say

Q1:

else to say

Adopted reading (Q2):

Thus itthus. Perpend.

F1:

Thus itPerpend.

in one line

Adopted reading (Q2):

have while she is

F1:

haue, whil’st she is

Q1:

Haue while shee’s

Adopted reading (F1):

the letter.

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

vile

F1:

vilde

Adopted reading (Bevington):

hear. Thus:

Q2:

heare: thus

F1:

heare these

Adopted reading (Q2):

etc.

Q1, F1:

omitted in Q1, F1

Adopted reading (Q2):

letter.

Q2:

opposite TLN 1144 in Q2

Q1, F1:

omitted in Q1, F1

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

thou the stars are

Q1:

that in earth is

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

sun doth

Q1:

starres doe

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

never doubt

Q1:

doe not doubt

Adopted reading (F1):

This

Q2:

Pol. This

Adopted reading (Q2):

shown

F1:

shew’d

Adopted reading (F1):

and, more above,

Q2:

and more about

Adopted reading (Q2):

solicitings,

F1:

soliciting,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

fain prove so.

Q1:

be glad to prooue so.

Adopted reading (F1):

winking,

Q2:

working

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

thy star.

F2:

thy Sphere.

Q1:

your starre,

Adopted reading (Q2):

prescripts

F1:

Precepts

Adopted reading (F1):

his

Q2:

her

Adopted reading (F1):

repulsèd,

Q2:

repell’d,

Adopted reading (Q3, F1):

watch,

Q2:

wath,

Adopted reading (F1):

a lightness,

Q2:

lightnes,

Adopted reading (Q2):

wherein

F1:

whereon

Adopted reading (Q2):

mourn

F1:

waile

Adopted reading (F1):

Do you think ’tis this?

Q2:

Doe you thinke this?

Think you ’tis so?

Adopted reading (Q2):

like.

F1:

likely.

Adopted reading (Q2):

I would

F1:

I’de

Q1:

I would very

Adopted reading (Q2):

Youtogether Herelobby.

F1:

Yousometimes He walkesheere In the Lobby.

Adopted reading (Q2):

does

F1:

ha’s

Adopted reading (Q2):

But

F1:

And

Adopted reading (F1):

Enter Hamlet reading on a book.

Q2:

Enter Hamlet.

Q1:

Enter Hamlet.

after the equivalent of TLN 1204 in Q1

Adopted reading (Q2):

Butreading.

F1:

Butwretch Comes reading.

Adopted reading (Q2):

Away,both, away.

Q2:

Away,both away,

F1:

Awayyou, both away,

Adopted reading (Capell):

Exit King and Queen.

F1:

opposite TLN 1207 in F1

Q2:

opposite TLN 1206 in Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

I’llleave.-- How doesHamlet?

F1:

Ilepresently. Exit King & Queen. Oh, giueHamlet?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Do youlord?

Q1:

Now my good Lord, do you know me?

This and the following passage from 2.2 and 3.1 is placed in Q1 after Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy and his interview with Ophelia, TLN 1710-1846.

Adopted reading (F1):

Excellent, excellent well.

Q2:

Excellent well,

Q1:

Yea very well,

Adopted reading (Q2):

You are

Q1, F1:

y’are

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Then

Q1:

Then sir,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

world

Q1:

age

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

is to be one man

Q1:

Is one man to be

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

ten

F1:

two

Adopted reading (Q2):

Fordaughter?

Q2:

as prose

F1:

Fordogge, beingCarrion---- Hauedaughter?

in two lines of prose, followed on another line by “Haue . . . daughter?”

Adopted reading (Q2):

Letto’t.

Q2:

in two separated lines of prose as though in verse, Let . . . blessing, / But . . . too’t.

F1:

Letto’t.

as prose

Adopted reading (Q2):

but as

F1:

but not as

Adopted reading (Q2):

’A said’A is

F1:

he saidhe is

Adopted reading (F1):

’far gone, far gone.

Q2:

farre gone,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

much extremity for love,

Q1:

much extasie in loue,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Words, words, words.

Q1:

Wordes, wordes.

Adopted reading (Q2):

that you read,

F1:

you meane,

Q1:

you reade

Adopted reading (Q2):

rogue

F1:

slaue

Q1:

Satyre

Adopted reading (Q2):

amber and

F1:

Amber, or

Adopted reading (Q2):

lack

F1:

locke

Adopted reading (Q2):

most weak

F1:

weake

Q1:

pittifull weake

Adopted reading (Q2):

for yourself, sir, shall grow

F1:

For you your selfe Sir, should be

Q1:

For sir, your selfe shalbe

Adopted reading (Q2):

Thoughlord?

F1:

Thoughmadnesse, Yetwalke OutLord?

Adopted reading (Q2):

Indeedof you.

F1:

Indeedo’th’Ayre: Howare? A happinesse Thaton, Whichnot Soof. Ihim, And. meeting Betweenedaughter. Myhumbly Takeof you.

Q1:

By the masse that’s out of the aire indeed, Very shrewd answers, My lord I will take my leaue of you.

Adopted reading (F1):

sanity

Q2:

sanctity

Adopted reading (F1):

I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and

Q2:

I will leaue him and

Adopted reading (F1):

honorable lord, I will most humbly

Q2:

Lord, I will

Adopted reading (F1):

cannot, sir, takewill more

Q2:

cannot takewill not more

Q1:

can take nothing from me sir, I will more

Adopted reading (Q2):

except my life, except my life, except my life.

F1:

except my life, my life.

Adopted reading (Q2):

the lord

F1:

my Lord

Q1:

Prince

Adopted reading (Q2):

Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

F1:

Enter Rosincran and Guildensterne.

before TLN 1266 in F1

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

Mine

Adopted reading (F1):

My excellentboth?

Q2:

My extentGuyldersterne? A Rosencraus,both?

evidently prose, but printed as though verse

Adopted reading (Q2):

Ah, Rosencrantz!you both?

F1:

Oh, Rosincrane,ye both?

Adopted reading (F1):

Happyover-happy. On Fortune’s cap webutton.

Q2:

Happy,euer happy on Fortunes lap, Webutton.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

waist,

Adopted reading (Q2):

favors.

F1:

fauour?

Adopted reading (Q2):

What news?

F1:

What’s the newes?

Adopted reading (Q2):

but

F1:

but that

Adopted reading (F1):

Butattended.

Q2:

omitted in Q2

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

Elsinore?

Adopted reading (Q2):

ever

F1:

euen

Adopted reading (Q2):

Come, come, deal

F1:

Come, deale

Adopted reading (F1):

Why, anything--but

Q2:

Any thing but.

Adopted reading (Q2):

th’purpose.

F1:

the purpose.

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

kind of

F1:

kinde

Adopted reading (F1):

color.

Q2:

cullour,

Adopted reading (F1):

could

Q2:

can

Adopted reading (Q2):

and your

F1:

of your

Adopted reading (Q2):

exercises;heavilyo’erhanging firmament,appeareth nothing to me but

F1:

exercise;heauenlyore-hanging,appears no other thing to mee, then

Adopted reading (F1):

What a piece

Q2:

What peece

Adopted reading (Q2):

faculties,

F1:

faculty?

Adopted reading (F1):

admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension,

Q2:

admirable in action, how like an Angell in apprehension,

Adopted reading (F1):

me, no, nor woman neither,

Q2:

me, nor women neither,

Q1:

me, no not woman too,

Adopted reading (Q2):

ye laugh, then,

F1:

you laugh,

Q1:

you laugh then,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

lenten

Adopted reading (Q2):

coted them on the

F1:

coated them on the

Q1:

boorded them a the

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

of me.

Q2:

on me,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Adventurous

Q1:

ventrous

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

shall not sigh

Q1:

shall sigh

Adopted reading (F1):

in peace, the Clowno’th’sear, and the Ladyhalt for’t.

Q2:

in peace, and the Lady shall say her minde freely: Or the black verse shall hault for’t.

Q1:

The clowne shall make them laugh That are tickled in the lungs, or the blanke verse shall halt for’t, And the Lady shall haue leaue to speake her minde freely.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

chances it

Q1:

comes it that

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

travel?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

innovation.

Adopted reading (Q2):

are they

F1:

they are

Adopted reading (F1):

Howload too.

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (F1):

rusty?

Q1:

restie?

Adopted reading (F1):

aerieeyases,

F1:

ayrieYases,

Adopted reading (F2):

berattle

F1:

be-ratled

Adopted reading (Pope):

most like

F1:

like most

Adopted reading (F1):

to-do

Adopted reading (Q2):

not very strange, for my

F1:

not strange: for mine

Adopted reading (1):

mows

F1:

mowes

Q2:

mouths

Q1:

mops and moes

Adopted reading (Q2):

twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece

F1:

twenty, forty, an hundred Ducates a peece

Q1:

a hundred, two hundred pounds

Adopted reading (Q2):

’Sblood, there

F1:

There

Adopted reading (F1):

[A] flourish for the players.

Q2:

A Florish.

Adopted reading (Q2):

come, then. Th’appurtenance

F1:

come: The appurtenance

Adopted reading (Q2):

this garb,

F1:

the Garbe,

Adopted reading (F1):

lest my

Q2:

let me

Adopted reading (Q2):

outwards,

F1:

outward)

Adopted reading (Q2):

hand saw.

F1:

Handsaw.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Enter Polonius.

Q1:

The Trumpets sound, Enter Corambis.

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

swaddling

F1:

swathing

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Haply

Q2, F1:

Happily

Adopted reading (Q2):

he is

F1:

he’s

Adopted reading (Q2):

I will prophesy he

F1:

I will Prophesie. Hee

Q1:

Ile prophecie to you, hee

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

of the

Q1:

a the

Adopted reading (Q2):

right, sir, o’Monday morning, ’twas then

F1:

right Sir: for a Monday morning ’twas so

Q1:

true, a Monday last, t’was

Adopted reading (Q2):

MyRome--

Q1, F1:

Mytell you. WhenRome--

Adopted reading (Q2):

Roscius was

F1:

Rossius

Q1:

Rossios was

Adopted reading (Q2):

F1:

mine

Adopted reading (Q2):

cameass.

F1:

canAsse----

Adopted reading (F1):

tragedy,poem unlimited.

Q2:

Tragedie, Comedy, History, Pastorall, Pastoricall Comicall, Historicall Pastorall, scene indeuidible, or Poem vnlimited.

Q1:

Comedy, Tragedy, Historie, Pastorall, Pastorall, Historicall, Historicall, Comicall, Comicall historicall, Pastorall, Tragedy historicall:

Adopted reading (Johnson):

light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these

Q2:

light for the lawe of writ, and the liberty: these

F1:

light, for the law of Writ, and the Liberty. These

Q1:

light: For the law hath writ those

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Jephthath,

Q1:

Iepha

Adopted reading (Capell):

Why, Onemore, The which. well.

Q1, F1:

Why onemore, The whichwell.

Q2:

Why onewell.

as prose

Adopted reading (Malone):

Why, As by lot, God wot,

Q2, F1:

as prose

Q1:

Why, by lot, or God wot,

Adopted reading (Pope):

Itpass, Asit was.

Q2, F1:

as prose

Q1:

itpasse, And so it was,

Adopted reading (Q2):

row of the pious chanson

F1:

rowe of the Pons Chanson

Q1:

verse of the godly Ballet

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

abridgment comes.

F1:

Abridgements come.

Adopted reading (F1):

Enter four or five Players.

Q2:

Enter the Players.

Q1:

Enter players.

opposite TLN 1467

Adopted reading (Q2):

You are welcome,

F1:

Y’are welcome

Q1:

Welcome

Adopted reading (Q1, F2):

my old

Q2:

old

Adopted reading (Q2):

why, thy

Q1:

thy

F1:

Thy

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

valanced

F1:

valiant

Adopted reading (F1):

By’r Lady,

Q2:

by lady

Q1:

burlady

Adopted reading (Q2):

to heaven

F1:

Heauen

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

within

Q1:

Adopted reading (F1):

e’en to’t,

Q2:

ento’t

Q1:

euen too’t,

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

French falconers:

Q2:

friendly Fankners,

Adopted reading (F1):

First Player

Q2:

Player.

Q1:

Players

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

my good lord?

F1:

my Lord?

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

was, not above once;

Q1:

were, Neuer aboue twice,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

million,

Q1:

vulgar,

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

caviary

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

general.

Q1:

million:

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

judgments

F1:

iudgement

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

as much

Q1:

as great

Adopted reading (Q2):

were no sallets

Q1, F1:

was no sallets

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

the matter

Q1:

them

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

indict

Q2, F1:

indite

Adopted reading (F1):

affectation

Q2:

affection

Adopted reading (Q2):

method, as wholesome as sweet, andfine. One speech in’t

Q1:

methode, as wholesome as sweete. Come, a speech in it

F1:

method. One cheefe Speeche in it,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

loved:

Q1:

remember

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

tale

Q2:

talke

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

thereabout of it

Q1:

then

Adopted reading (Q2):

when

Q1, F1:

where

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

speaks of Priam’s

Q1:

talkes of Princes

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

your

Q1:

thy

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

let me see, let me see--

Q1:

Let me see.

Adopted reading (Q1):

The ruggedbeast--

Q1:

as a verse line in Q1

Q2, F1:

run on as prose in Hamlet’s speech

Adopted reading (F1):

th’Hyrcanian

Q2:

Th’ircanian

Q1:

th’arganian

Adopted reading (Q2):

’Tis

F1:

It is

Q1:

No t’is

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

The ruggedarms

Q1, F1:

as a verse line

Q2:

run on as prose in Hamlet’s speech in Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

th’ominous

Q1, F1:

the ominous

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

this dread and black

Q1:

his blacke and grimme

Adopted reading (Q1, F1):

heraldry

Q2:

heraldy

Adopted reading (F1):

dismal. Head to foot Now

Q2:

dismall head to foote, Now

Q1:

dismall, head to foote, Now

Adopted reading (Q2):

gules,

F1:

Geulles,

Q1:

guise,

Adopted reading (Q2):

empasted

F1:

impasted

Adopted reading (Q2):

and a

F1:

and

Adopted reading (Q2):

their lord’s murder.

F1:

their vilde Murthers,

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Roasted in wrath

Q1:

Rifted in earth

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

coagulate

Q1:

calagulate

Adopted reading (Q2):

So proceed you.

F1:

omitted in F1

Q1:

So goe on.

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

’Fore . . spoken,accent and good discretion.

Q1:

Aforespoke,accent.

Adopted reading (F1):

First Player

Q1, Q2:

Player

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2, F1):

antique

Adopted reading (Q2, F1):

Repugnant to command.

Q1:

vnable to resist.

Adopted reading (Q2):

matched,

F1:

match,

Adopted reading (F1):

Then senseless Ilium

Q1, Q2:

omitted in Q1, Q2

Adopted reading (Q2):

this

F1:

his

Adopted reading (F1):

reverend

Q2:

reuerent

Adopted reading (F1):

And, like

Q2:

Adopted reading (Q2):

[And], likematter, Did nothing.

F1:

one one line in F1

Adopted reading (Q2):

Mars’s armor

F1:

Mars his Armours,

Adopted reading (Q2):

strumpet Fortune!

F1:

Strumpet-Fortune,

Adopted reading (F4):

fellies

Q2:

follies

F1:

Fallies

Adopted reading (Q1, Q2):

to the barber’s

F1:

to’th Barbars,

Adopted reading (F1):

First Player

Q1, Q2:

Play.

Characters

Hamlet

Ghost

King

Queen

Polonius

Laertes

Ophelia

Reynaldo

Horatio

Rosencrantz

Guildenstern

Barnardo

Francisco

Marcellus

Voltemand

Cornelius

Osric

The Courtiers

Queen

King

First Player

Player

Prologue

Lucianus

Fortinbras

Captain

Messenger

Servingman

Sailor

Clowns

Priest

Lord

Ambassador

Prosopography

Abby Flight

Remediator and encoder, 2024–present. Abby Flight completed her BA in English at the University of Victoria in 2024, and is now an MA student focusing on Medieval and Early Modern Studies.

David Bevington

David Bevington was the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. His books include From Mankind to Marlowe (1962), Tudor Drama and Politics (1968), Action Is Eloquence (1985), Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience (2005), This Wide and Universal Theater: Shakespeare in Performance, Then and Now (2007), Shakespeare’s Ideas (2008), Shakespeare and Biography (2010), and Murder Most Foul: Hamlet Through the Ages (2011). He was the editor of Medieval Drama (1975), The Bantam Shakespeare, and The Complete Works of Shakespeare. The latter was published in a seventh edition in 2014. He was a senior editor of the Revels Student Editions, the Revels Plays, The Norton Anthology of Renaissance Drama, and The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson (2012). Professor Bevington passed away on August 2, 2019.

Donald Bailey

Eric Rasmussen

Eric Rasmussen is Regents Teaching Professor and Foundation Professor of English at the University of Nevada. He is co-editor with Sir Jonathan Bate of the RSC William Shakespeare Complete Works and general editor, with Paul Werstine, of the New Variorum Shakespeare. He has received the Falstaff Award from PlayShakespeare.com for Best Shakespearean Book of the Year in 2007, 2012, and 2013.

James D. Mardock

James Mardock is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Associate General Editor for the Internet Shakespeare Editions, and a dramaturge for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and Reno Little Theater. In addition to editing quarto and folio Henry V for the ISE, he has published essays on Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other Renaissance literature in The Seventeenth Century, Ben Jonson Journal, Borrowers and Lenders, and contributed to the collections Representing the Plague in Early Modern England (Routledge 2010) and Shakespeare Beyond Doubt (Cambridge 2013). His book Our Scene is London (Routledge 2008) examines Jonson’s representation of urban space as an element in his strategy of self-definition. With Kathryn McPherson, he edited Stages of Engagement (Duquesne 2013), a collection of essays on drama in post-Reformation England, and he is currently at work on a monograph on Calvinism and metatheatrical awareness in early modern English drama.

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Beatrice Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Kate LeBere

Project Manager, 2020–2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019–2020. Textual Remediator and Encoder, 2019–2021. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English at the University of Victoria in 2020. During her degree she published papers in The Corvette (2018), The Albatross (2019), and PLVS VLTRA (2020) and presented at the English Undergraduate Conference (2019), Qualicum History Conference (2020), and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute’s Project Management in the Humanities Conference (2021). While her primary research focus was sixteenth and seventeenth century England, she completed her honours thesis on Soviet ballet during the Russian Cultural Revolution. She is currently a student at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool, working on her masters in library and information science.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He is the Founding Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions, of which he was the Coordinating Editor until 2017. In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Rae S. Rostron

Rae is studying a BA in English Literature at Durham University. She is particularly interested in representations of grief and trauma in literature and is currently researching femicide in the novel. Rae has interned for Creative Media Agency (NYC) and is an acting student researcher for King College London’s Psychology Department exploring loneliness in students.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

William Shakespeare

Bibliography

Shakespeare, William. Mr William Shakespeares comedies, histories & tragedies: Published according to the true originall copies. London: William Jaggard, 1623. STC 22273. ESTC S111228. DEEP 5081.

Shakespeare, William. Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. London: Robert Allot, 1632. STC 22274. ESTC S111233.

Shakespeare, William. The tragicall historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. London: Nicholas Ling and John Trundell, 1603. STC 22275. ESTC S111109. DEEP 347.

Shakespeare, William. The tragicall historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. London: Iames Roberts for Nicholas Ling , 1604. STC 22276. ESTC S111107.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

University of Victoria (UVIC1)

https://www.uvic.ca/

Witnesses

Janelle Jenstad, co-editor of this edition.

Shakespeare, William. Mr William Shakespeares comedies, histories & tragedies: Published according to the true originall copies. London: William Jaggard, 1623. STC 22273. ESTC S111228. DEEP 5081.

Shakespeare, William. Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. London: Robert Allot, 1632. STC 22274. ESTC S111233.

Shakespeare, William. The tragicall historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. London: Nicholas Ling and John Trundell, 1603. STC 22275. ESTC S111109. DEEP 347.

Shakespeare, William. The tragicall historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. London: Iames Roberts for Nicholas Ling, 1604. STC 22276. ESTC S111107.

Metadata

Authority title	Hamlet, Editor’s Choice
Type of text	Primary Source Text
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series
Source	This file has been converted from IML, the SGML markup language of the Internet Shakespeare Editions platform. IML files do not indicate the copy or copytext transcribed. LEMDO acknowledges that we are not the main source of transcription, and that we do not know the witness transcribed in this transcription. As time permits, we will compare this transcription to an open-access digital surrogate and align the transcription that surrogate. If you have worked on ISE and/or may have an idea as to the source of this file, please contact lemdo@uvic.ca.
Editorial declaration	No editorial declaration available at this time.
Edition
Encoding description
Document status	IML-TEI_INP
License/availability