Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Lords
Claudius
Guildenstern‡
Gertrude Did he receive you well?
Rosencrantz
Guildenstern‡
Gertrude *Did you assay him
Rosencrantz
Polonius‡ ’Tis most true,
Claudius
Rosencrantz
*Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Gertrude‡ I shall obey you.
Ophelia Madam, I wish it may.
[Exit Gertrude with Lords]
Polonius
Claudius (Aside) Oh, ’tis too* true.
55.1*Exeunt Claudius and Polonius
55.2*Enter Hamlet
Hamlet‡
Ophelia Good my lord,
Hamlet No, not I*,
Ophelia
Ophelia My lord?
Ophelia What means your lordship?
Ophelia Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with* 110honesty?
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.‡‡‡
115Ophelia‡ 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.
Hamlet Get thee to a* nunnery† – why wouldst thou be a breeder of 120sinners? 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 offences 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 125crawling between earth and heaven*? 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.
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† 135you make of them. To a nunnery go, and quickly too. Farewell.‡‡
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*, you nickname* God’s creatures, and †make your 140wantonness your ignorance*. Go to, I’ll no more on’t, †it hath made †me mad. I say we will have no mo*† marriages*. Those that are married already, all but one shall live, the rest shall keep as they are. To *a nunnery, go. Exit‡‡‡‡‡
ophelia‡
Claudius‡
Exeunt
Textual variants
3.1 ] Act III. Scene I. Q 1676
Explanatory notes
1 drift of circumstance steering of roundabout enquiry. Compare Polonius’s ‘encompassment and drift of question’, 2.1.10. For ‘circumstance’ (which means circuitous talk, as in 1.5.127), Q2 reads ‘conference’.
2 puts on Claudius may intuit that Hamlet is assuming a guise of madness.
3 Grating The physical action of roughening by scraping and rasping.
7 forward disposed, inclined.
8 crafty madness an affected madness (see ‘mad in craft’ at 3.4.189). This affected madness is also cunning, in that it protects Hamlet from revealing more than he wishes.
13–14 Niggard … reply Rosencrantz is anxious to cover up the cross-examination which led to the disclosure that they were being employed by Claudius. Unfortunately, this leads him into contradicting Guildenstern about Hamlet’s readiness to answer questions.
14–15 assay … To i.e. try him with the suggestion of.
17 o’er-raught (over-reached) came up to and passed, overhauled.
21 This night This conversation is taking place on the day after the events of the previous scene. See 2.2.493.
26 edge keenness (of appetite).
27 on to So F. Q2 reads ‘into’, but the sense of ‘drive … on’ is ‘urge on’, as contrasted with ‘drive me into a toil’ at 3.2.314–15, where the image is of penning in a hunted animal.
29 closely secretly, applying to Claudius’s purpose. But when Hamlet arrives he shows no knowledge of having been ‘sent for’.
31 Affront come face-to-face with.
32 Lawful espials This extra-metrical phrase occurs only in F, where it appears in a parenthesis at the end of 31. An ‘espial’ is a spy.
33, 44 bestow ourselves station or position ourselves.
34 frankly freely, without obstacle.
43 Gracious i.e. your grace (to the king) – not a usual form of address.
44 this book a prayer-book (see 47, 89).
45 colour provide a pretext for.
46 loneliness being alone.
47 devotion’s visage a face expressing devoutness.
50 How smart … conscience Claudius confirms for the audience that he is guilty and, for the moment, conscience-stricken. He does not, however, identify his crime or sin.
52 to the thing that helps it as compared with the cosmetic adornment.
56 To be, or not to be Concerning the placing of this soliloquy and the nunnery scene which follows, see the Textual Analysis, 270. For a discussion of the soliloquy itself, see Introduction, 41–2.
56 that is the question There are many opinions on the precise question posed by ‘to be …’ They tend to fall into two categories: (1) Hamlet is debating whether or not to take his own life; and (2) Hamlet is considering the value or advantages of human existence.
57 in the mind to suffer ‘to endure mentally’. The phrasing sets pain suffered in the mind against bodily action.
58 slings missiles (by metonymy: that-which-throws standing for that-which-is-thrown; Latin funda could similarly mean either sling or slingshot). A sling may be a hand-sling, a ballista, or even a cannon.
59–60 take arms … by opposing end them The alternative to patient endurance of earthly woes is to fight against them and to be destroyed in the process. The result is ‘self-slaughter’, whether direct or indirect.
63 consummation completion, fitting end, or conclusion.
65 rub impediment (from the game of bowls).
67 shuffled … coil got rid of the turmoil of living. There is a sense of malpractice or fraudulence here, as there is in the use of ‘shuffled’ at 3.3.61 and 4.7.136, where it implies ‘manipulat[ion] with intent to deceive’.
68 respect consideration.
69 of so long life so long-lived.
70 time the times; compare 1.5.189.
74 of th’unworthy takes receives from unworthy people.
75 quietus discharge or acquittance of accounts (from the law phrase quietus est); frequently used in connection with death, probably because of the original Latin sense of repose and peace.
76 a bare bodkin a mere dagger. (‘bodkin’ was the name for sharp pointed instruments with various different uses; probably Hamlet is not being very specific.)
76 fardels burdens.
79 bourn boundary, frontier.
80 No traveller returns For many commentators, the Ghost’s appearance in Elsinore contradicts this portrayal of the afterlife. But, as Jenkins points out, the Ghost’s confinement to ‘fast in fires’ hardly counts as a return. Hamlet’s phrasing echoes biblical, classical, and humanist treatments of the after-life.
80 puzzles the will i.e. brings it to a halt in confusion; ‘puzzle’ was a stronger word than it is now.
83 conscience the inner knowledge of right and wrong (though many commentators claim it means ‘introspection’ or fear of punishment).
83–8 It is in these lines that, for the first time in the soliloquy, Hamlet turns, if indirectly, to the question of killing Claudius, and, as in the second soliloquy, he upbraids himself for being tardy. Thinking too much about the rights and wrongs of suicide stultifies the impulse to do away with oneself: thinking too much about rights and wrongs stultifies all action, including the one he’s supposed to be engaged in.
84 native hue natural colour or complexion.
85 sicklied o’er unhealthily covered.
85 cast tinge, tint. Though Hamlet has in mind the pallor of a sick man, the nearness of ‘o’er’ and ‘cast’ suggests also the pallor of clouds staining the face of the sun, as in Sonnet 33.
85 thought contemplation. Thinking causes the sickness of inaction.
86 pitch height, scope.
87 With this regard On this account.
88 soft you As usual, ‘soft’ as a verb in the imperative means ‘restrain yourself, leave off, be cautious’. Compare 1.1.126, 1.5.58, 3.2.353, 4.2.3, 4.4.8, 4.7.153, 5.1.184.
89 Nymph Perhaps a sarcastic, perhaps a tender, way to address Ophelia.
91 for this many a day It is often pointed out that Ophelia had met Hamlet yesterday as she reported in 2.1. But that was an unsettling interview, and the line registers Ophelia’s nervousness about being placed in front of Hamlet on behalf of Claudius and Polonius.
93 remembrances keepsakes, gifts.
98 of so sweet breath composed ‘breath’ can here mean ‘utterance’ or ‘language’; Ophelia may refer to words either spoken or written.
99 Their perfume lost The sweetness of both the words and the gifts has disappeared, because of the unkindness of the giver.
103 honest chaste. Hamlet’s sudden, violent change of topic and tone may indicate that he suspects her in a more general sense, perhaps for not mentioning her own part in the breach between them. Some editors suggest that Hamlet recognizes that she has become Claudius and Polonius’s ‘decoy’ (Wilson).
107–8 your honesty … your beauty your virtue should not allow your beauty to converse with it. (An alternative gloss is ‘your virtue ought to keep away those who want to chat with your beauty’; if that is correct, then Ophelia misunderstands him.)
117 inoculate our old stock The image is from grafting fruit trees or bushes. We cannot so engraft a new stem of virtue onto the old sinful trunk as to eradicate all trace of our previous nature.
117 relish have a touch or tinge.
119 Get thee to a nunnery Some commentators hear the ‘fairly common Elizabethan slang sense “brothel”’ (Shakespeare’s Bawdy). This sense does not erase from the passage the word’s standard meaning (convent). It gives focus to Hamlet’s attack on both men and women, including himself and Ophelia, for the kinds of moral frailty exemplified in sex and reproduction. Only in a convent will Ophelia be able to resist the inclinations of her own nature – or be protected from the desires of men such as Hamlet.
120 indifferent honest moderately virtuous.
122 proud, revengeful, ambitious Hamlet’s depiction of his own sinfulness may be part of his antic display, but it contains a nugget of truth.
126 Where’s your father? Some commentators think that Hamlet knew all the time he was being watched; some think he guessed it early in the interview; some think he learns it here.
132–3 be thou … thou shalt not escape calumny Regardless of her actual behaviour, Ophelia will be slandered for unchasteness.
134 monsters i.e. horned cuckolds, husbands with cheating wives.
138 jig This may refer more to singing than dancing. Compare Love’s Labour’s Lost 3.1.11–12 (Riverside), ‘to jig off a tune at the tongue’s end’.
138–9 you amble, and you lisp you walk and talk affectedly.
139–40 make your wantonness your ignorance pretend your licence is just simplicity and innocence.
140–1 it hath made me mad Hamlet calls attention to his emotional extremity.
141 mo more.
141–2 Those … all but one shall live All married couples, except one, may remain married, but all single people are to stay single (‘the rest shall keep as they are’). The exception is the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius, which Hamlet will end with the king’s death.
146 Th’expectancy The hope.
147 glass … form the ideal image of self-construction (self-fashioning) and the model of behaviour by which others shape themselves and their actions.
148 Th’observed of all observers Looked up to respectfully by all who turn to others for guidance. ‘Observe’ is a difficult word: see note to 1.5.101. Although it is possible that this could mean ‘one who is watched attentively by all who note men carefully’, the context of the previous line suggests the older meaning of ‘observe’.
153 blown youth youth in full bloom.
154 Blasted with ecstasy Destroyed by madness.
155 At the end of this line some copies of Q2 print ‘Exit’. Q1 also has Ophelia leave at this point.
156 affections emotions.
159 sits on brood Like a bird sitting on eggs – see ‘hatch’ in the next line.
164 tribute A historically imperfect reference to payment supplied by the English to save land from Viking attacks.
169 fashion of himself his own proper way of behaving.
177 round direct and outspoken.
179 find him not fails to discover his secret.
182 Madness … Though Claudius has just doubted the sincerity of Hamlet’s madness (158).
Performance notes from Shakespeare in Production
0 At Minneapolis Guthrie began the scene offstage with Claudius ad-libbing shouts at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, furious at their failure to find out the cause of Hamlet's ‘confusion’. Taken at a fast pace, the high-energy scene followed the first interval; Guthrie said, ‘This will wake ‘em up after the break’ (Rossi, pp. 17–18).
7 In rehearsals for the Burton production, Gielgud urged Redfield as Guildenstern, to be ‘smug with achievement’. Reading the scene much as Guthrie had, Redfield at first resisted this note because Guildenstern's report was one of failure (Letters, p. 85). Since the King concludes by urging the two to continue their surveillance, Guildenstern might in the course of the scene become confident of being in the King's good graces.
10 In the Branagh film Gertrude here and at 14b–15a seems a bit insistent about drawing them out, although she is less overtly impatient than Claudius.
12 Redfield saw Guildenstern as an ‘honest reporter’ whereas Rosencrantz was deviously trying ‘to put a good face on things’ (Letters, p. 85).
13 Evans: ‘Modifying this’ (G. I. Hamlet, p. 104).
21b–3 Evans: ‘Claiming the credit for himself’ (G. I. Hamlet, p. 104). ‘Philistine’ Michael Bryant, with Day Lewis, was ‘at first all middle-brow assurance that the drama – not something adults take seriously – will be pleasantly innocuous’ (Independent, 18 March 1989).
28–49 Irving excused Ophelia from complicity in the plot since much of what is said might have been spoken apart from her. At 43–9, Irving accordingly pictured Polonius as turning back and forth between Ophelia and the King, as he alternates between directing her where to walk and proposing to him, as an aside, that they ‘bestow’ themselves, then telling her to read upon a book and returning to him to moralize about hypocrisy (‘Notes … no. 2’, p. 525). A problem with this interpretation is that 45–6a, which Irving did not cut, seems to presuppose some knowing participation on Ophelia's part.
31a Unwilling to join in the plot (Daily Telegraph, 2 May 1907), and struggling with herself (C. Russell, Marlowe, p. 322), Marlowe here has a ‘shocked expression’ and at 36b ‘shows pain’ (promptbook).
37b Evans: ‘Kissing him’ (G. I. Hamlet, p. 105).
38–42 Defending Ophelia's ‘half willing’ complicity, Helena Faucit points out the Queen's hope at 40b–1 that her ‘virtues/Will bring him to his wonted way again’ (Female Characters, p. 13).
54 Q2 has Hamlet enter before Polonius's last line rather than after it as in F. In Q1 he enters still earlier, before Ophelia is instructed to ‘read on this book’. Calling attention to these early entrances, Irving felt that Hamlet here had ‘a half-awakened sense’ of the eavesdropping but this awareness only ‘faintly lingered in his mind’. Not until 126 does he remember that he is watched (‘Notes … no. 2’, p. 524).
55 With Macready, Ophelia turns the leaves of her missal, ‘her back being turned towards Hamlet’ (promptbook 29). Left alone, Marlowe shows ‘great distress’: ‘extends hand tenderly toward Hamlet, hurried exit, glancing back left [where Hamlet enters]’ (promptbook). Tree: ‘From her coign of vantage [a small arbor] Ophelia listens to the self-torturings of Hamlet … and she falls upon her knees praying over her lover’ (‘Hamlet’, p. 869). Jacobi, Pryce, and Branagh addressed the speech directly to Ophelia.
56–88 From the beginning this soliloquy has been regarded as special. It was frequently referred to by Shakespeare's contemporaries. It is the one speech from the play that Samuel Pepys chose to memorize. Its first line may well be the best-known single line in Shakespeare and indeed in world drama. Actors have sought to make it seem fresh (and to discourage auditors from reciting it with them). Mochalov, for example, ‘did not enter slowly, sunk in deep meditation, but came in almost running in a state of extreme nervous excitement, and then, stopping, cried: “To be or not to be” – and after several minutes of contemplation threw himself into an armchair, and uttered despairingly – “that is the question”’ (Speaight, Stage, p. 113).
With Garrick, ‘Hamlet, who is in mourning … comes on to the stage sunk in contemplation, his chin resting on his right hand, and his right elbow on his left, and gazes solemnly downwards. And then, removing his right hand from his chin, but, if I remember right, still supporting it with his left hand, he speaks’ (Lichtenberg, Visits, p. 16). Joshua Steele in 1775 contrasted Garrick's delivery of this speech with ‘the stile of a ranting actor’. The volume of the latter ‘swelled with forte and softened with piano’ whereas Garrick's delivery was ‘nearly uniform, something below the ordinary force, or, as a musician would say, sotto voce’ (Essay, p. 47). Steele recorded in his own system of notation (which I have translated into modern musical symbols) the ponderous rhythm – perhaps influenced by Quin (p. 14) – in which he himself spoke the first line (p. 40):
With this, Steele contrasted Garrick's lighter and more conversational delivery:
Garrick used a downward intonation for ‘to be’ in ‘or not to be’ and for ‘question’. His rhythm for 60–1 was:
At 63 Garrick spoke ‘heir to’ with an upward intonation in such a way as to ‘give the idea of the sense being suspended, for the thought which immediately follows’ (pp. 47–8).
Kean was not ‘a grim debater of the pro and con of suicide: he was the man of misery driven by his loathing of life and the villany of those about him to escape all further ills by death’ (Examiner, 20 March 1814). Macready entered: ‘his hands behind him, the right hand clasping the left wrist like a vice, the eyes fixed in a gaze of concentrated abstraction’ (Kirk, ‘Tragedies’, p. 614). His delivery ‘in its disjointed reasoning and restless inner manner, conveys the idea of a man whose mind is but ill at rest’ (Theatrical Journal, 29 August 1840, p. 301). Fechter brought on an unsheathed sword as though contemplating suicide (Field, p. 105). Booth entered with his right hand on the back of his head. He sat, clasped his hands, and began to speak. At ‘by opposing’ he struck his breast; at ‘there's the rub’ he rose; at ‘cowards of us all’ he crossed right; at ‘enterprises’ he turned left (promptbook 111). Richard Burton, playing Booth in the film The Prince of Players, largely follows this choreography. Gielgud sought to place the speech in a line of progression: ‘the effect of despondency in “to be, or not to be” is a natural and brilliant psychological reaction from the violent and hopeless rage of the earlier speech [2.2.501–58]’ (Gilder, p. 55). Gielgud explained to Burton: ‘First he lashes himself for his own stupidity and then he becomes despondent and feels that he doesn't care one way or another and tries to determine if everything is worth it’ (Sterne, p. 68). Radovan Lukavsky, who played Hamlet in Prague in 1959, described the progression in his diary: ‘Either the King is a murderer or the Ghost is a damned soul … Hamlet's will to action is struggling. – And suddenly the desire simply to get away from it all, the longing for peace, to sleep, and never wake up’ (quoted in Rosenberg, p. 482).
In Q1 there is no such difficulty since in it this soliloquy precedes the ‘play's the thing’ soliloquy. Often the first interval comes just before this scene, lessening the abruptness of Hamlet's changing moods.
65 ‘Kemble prolonged the word dream “meditatingly”’ (Boaden, p. 101). Kevin Kline said ‘to sleep’ with a smile and sigh of satisfaction, then a change to a tone of concern at ‘perchance to dream’.
67 Burton made a downward sweep of his hands and a sway of his body to suggest ‘shuffling’.
72a Irving saw here a reference to ‘the poor girl to whom he has been compelled to appear heartless’ (‘Notes … no. 2’, p. 526).
76–82 Burton delivered this section almost as a lecture to the audience. Having whipped out a dagger after ‘bare bodkin’, Branagh in the film unknowingly for a moment points it right at Claudius, who is hiding behind a two-way mirror.
79 Salvini slowly pointed a finger downward – ‘Hamlets traditionally cast their eyes heavenward at this line instead of pointing in the direction of the grave’ (Carlson, Shakespearians, p. 84).
80 J. B. Booth emphasized returns (Gould, p. 60).
83 Stephen Dillane ‘gives a weary shrug of resignation, as if admitting that even the suicide option is closed down’ (Country Life, 17 November 1994).
88 Charles Kemble emphasized Hamlet's ‘mingled anguish’. His daughter Fanny, who acted Ophelia with him, was moved to tears by his tenderness, compassion, and ‘self-scorning’. (Journal, i, pp. 148–9).
At the Moscow Art Theatre ‘Kachalov's subtext in his encounter with Ophelia is “They are poisoning you. I should reveal to you what monstrous thing is tormenting me, but I cannot and will not. If you are like them, it means there is nothing holy in the world.” So, he imbues his voice with pity and understanding, not revulsion and contempt. His subtext for “Are you honest?” is “I want to show her to her face that I know all”’ (Senelick, p. 165).
88b Irving spoke these words as if about to develop a further thought which was interrupted when he saw Ophelia (Winter, Shakespeare, p. 358).
90a Barrett emphasized my (Shakespeariana, p. 37).
92 Hamlet's realization that he is being spied upon may well have originated around 1820 with J. B. Booth, the earliest instance so far discovered (Sprague, Actors, pp. 153–4). Clearly Kemble did not practice it. His promptbook does not indicate a ‘call’ for the King and Polonius until 119 (Promptbooks, p. 39). At this point Edwin Booth like his father sees the King and Polonius as they hide behind the hangings (Shattuck, p. 190).
92b When he spoke the third ‘well’, Maurice Evans's ‘voice broke and he turned quickly from Ophelia and the audience, as if suddenly shaken by the irony of his own reply. It was a revealing flash of anguish and in the contracted shoulders and instinctive lift of the hand to the face one had the impression of tears rising to the surface and with an effort suppressed’ (Williamson, Old Vic, p. 28). Kevin Kline, touched by Ophelia's ‘many a day’, spoke the three words tenderly, reaching towards her (televised 1990). In the Branagh film, Hamlet and Ophelia (Kate Winslet) kiss at this point, ‘a moment of bliss’ (Screenplay, p. 78) ‘but then she breaks away’.
93 With Walter Hampden Hamlet starts to go; Ophelia stops him, ‘forcing herself’ to begin ‘My lord’ (promptbook).
93–4 Of Terry, The Academy found ‘her lingering over the love- gifts’ to be ‘true, direct, and tender’ (7 November 1874, p. 19).
95 While Ophelia was returning his remembrances Forrest caught a glimpse of the eavesdroppers (promptbook).
101 Of Irving: Terry recalled ‘With what passionate longing his hands hovered over Ophelia’ (p. 104).
101b Kate Terry with Fechter: ‘Ophelia raises packet [of letters] to her lips, is about to kiss them, when she seems to remember she is watched. She drops her arms slowly and offers them to him’ (promptbook). In the Branagh film ‘he lashes out at the letters, sending them flying’ (Screenplay, p. 79)
103–17 Irving saw behind Hamlet's lines his consciousness of his mother's contaminating guilt. He realizes that Ophelia ‘is lost to him for ever’ (‘Notes … no.2’, pp. 528, 527).
112 Marlowe ‘shrinks’ at ‘bawd’ (promptbook).
113b–14a After ‘paradox’ Fechter ‘paused, looked sadly at the letters in his hand returned by the woman Hamlet loved’, and then continued, emphasizing now (Field, p. 105).
114b Pryce emphasized did (Observer, 6 April 1980). Branagh in 1992 underscored his last sentence by picking up one of the love-letters Ophelia had returned (Shakespeare Bulletin, Fall, 1994, p. 7).
115–118 ‘Those who ever heard Mrs. Siddons read the play of Hamlet, cannot forget the world of meaning, of love, of sorrow, of despair, conveyed in these two simple phrases’ (Jameson, Characteristics, p. 204).
118 Vanity Fair praised the ‘pathos and regret’ of Terry's delivery of this line (18 January 1879, p. 33). Marlowe: ‘despairingly’ (promptbook).
118b Kate Terry with Fechter: ‘As Ophelia turns away dejectedly, Hamlet suddenly takes her hand affectionately. She turns to him joyously. Hamlet drops her hand and says “Get thee to a nunnery”’ (promptbook).
120ff Booth ‘stands looking partly down at her, partly out from her, scowling a little as if in selfcondemnation; he seems to be reaching ahead in his thought and only partially conscious of the words he is actually speaking’ (Shattuck, p. 192).
Marlowe protests Hamlet's self-accusations, placing her hand on his shoulder after 121, 124a, and 126a. The first two times he ‘retreats’ from her; the third, he throws her away from him (promptbook).
122 Barrett darted ‘revengeful’ at the arras (Shakespeariana, p. 37).
125 Of Booth, Robins wonders: ‘Did any one, before or since, ever make meanness the reptile that he showed it, with his slight, dragging emphasis on “crawling”?’ (‘Hamlet’, p. 916).
Barrymore ‘paused after the word “earth”, and, by surrounding Ophelia's face with his hands and lowering his voice to a tone of longing tenderness, conveyed that she was “Heaven”’ (MacCarthy, Theatre, p. 59).
125b–6 Of Lillian Gish with Gielgud: Hamlet's ‘words are harsh but his tone is tender. He is not thinking of what they mean – not thinking at all. Their bodies sway toward each other – for a moment it seems as though their natural affection would break the nightmare spell, but “Go thy ways to a nunnery” cuts Ophelia to the quick and she walks away’ (Gilder, p. 155).
126 To the Daily Telegraph reviewer, it was solely the expression on Marlowe's face that told Hamlet they were being spied upon (2 May 1907).
With Barrymore, after ‘Go thy ways to a nunnery’, ‘Hamlet abruptly turned away from the weeping Ophelia and began to leave the stage … Polonius had intermittently been peeking out from behind his column to see what was going on … This time Hamlet's sudden move to leave caught Polonius unprepared … In a flash, Hamlet looked to Ophelia (who was unaware of what had passed), back to the column, back to Ophelia again, and in perfect fury shouted, “Where's your father?”’ (Grebanier, Actor, pp. 220–1).
127 Faucit thought that Ophelia ‘fears to tell the truth, lest, in this too terrible paroxysm of madness which now possesses him, Hamlet might possibly kill her father’ (Female Characters, p. 15), a fear that of course proves premonitory. Oscar Wilde thought he detected an expression of ‘quick remorse’ on Terry's face at this point (quoted by Wingate, Heroines, p. 305), but the reviewer who found that ‘the innocence of her reply … leaves no doubt that this Ophelia is an unconscious agent’ (Standard, 31 December 1878) seems closer to the mark since Irving goes to elaborate lengths to place the best possible construction on her apparent lie (‘Notes … no. 2’, p. 525). Of Booth's silent response to Ophelia's words: ‘no reproach could be so terrible as … the pain of the face he turns from her’ (Calhoun, ‘Booth’, p. 81). Alec Guinness at the Old Vic responded with a ‘sorrowful shake of the head with a half smile’ (Crosse, Diaries, xvii).
128–9 Barrett hurled this speech at the arras (Shakespeariana, p. 37).
133 Marlowe: Here and each time hereafter, Hamlet's ‘get thee to a nunnery’ (at 135 and 142) comes after Marlowe has extended her arms to him ‘appealingly’ (promptbook).
134b ‘Indicates with a gesture the cuckold's horns’ (Booth's studybook). Burton also made the gesture.
136 Marlowe: ‘desperately’ (promptbook). The line ‘seemed torn out of a stricken soul and from that time her disaster was foreshadowed upon us not as the weakness of a commonplace intellect overthrown, but as the inevitable and only possible ending of a great and shattered life’ (C. Russell, Marlowe, p. 323).
138–9 Booth: ‘“You jig, you amble, and you lisp“ (he is holding his right hand before him palm upward, and on each of these stressed words he gives it a little outward jerk such as cardplayers do when dealing’ (Shattuck, p. 194).
139–40 Jonathan Pryce kissed Harriet Walter brutally, then, ‘starts pushing her up against the wall, his hand to her breast, then down to her crotch – she and he finally wind up on the floor – he, reeling away in disgust and anger – wiping his mouth in self-disgust’ (Gilbert, ‘Pryce’).
140–1 Branagh emphasized hath (Country Life, 14 July 1988), as did Jacobi, who directed Branagh, in his BBC-TV portrayal.
142 Macready made Hamlet ‘walk up close to the King's place of concealment, and there vociferate his parting speech’ (Hackett, Notes, p. 157).
143 Following Kean's famous return to kiss Ophelia's hand, subsequent Hamlets have rung their own changes on the business. Fechter turned mutely with outstretched arms and Ophelia advanced ‘as if to embrace him’ but ‘suspicion again hardens him, and he waves her off’ (Orchestra, 28 May 1864). To Tree ‘the tragedy of the situation lay in the fact that Ophelia goes to her death ignorant of Hamlet's love’. As she sobs, he returns unobserved, ‘tenderly kisses one of the tresses of her hair, silently steals from the room’ (‘Hamlet’, p. 871).
144ff As Ophelia Mrs. Siddons was praised for ‘her expression of grief mixed with terror at the behaviour of Hamlet’ (St. James Chronicle, 3–5 March 1772). Terry spoke these lines as ‘the epitaph, not of her lost love, but of Hamlet's shattered reason’ (Punch, 11 January 1870, p. 10). With Pryce, Harriet Walter's ‘perplexed and guilt-ridden sense of responsibility … provides a fully understandable transition to Ophelia's subsequent madness, which for once seems a perfectly logical development’ (Plays and Players, May, 1980).
148 Glenda Jackson shouted here ‘as if to the spying king and father’ (Shakespeare Survey, 19 (1966), p. 115).
156–69 In the Branagh film, Polonius (Richard Briers) comforts Ophelia, cradling her in his arms, stroking her head.
163b–4 E. S. Willard as Barrett's King added the explanation in the fear ‘that the old courtier may suspect the scheme he has formed’ (Evening Standard, 17 October 1884, p. 3).
180b–1a In the Richard Chamberlain TV version (1970), Michael Redgrave's hitherto genial Polonius here turned ruthless.
