*†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 our* players do, I had as lief*† the town-crier spoke* my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with* your hand thus†, but use all gently; for in †the 5very 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 totters*†, to very rags, to split* the ears of the groundlings†, who for the most part are capable of† 10nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows† and noise. I would* have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant† – it out-Herod†s Herod. I Pray you avoid it.‡
i Player I warrant your honour.
Hamlet Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your 15tutor. 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, 20and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure†. Now this overdone, or come tardy off†, though it makes* the unskilful† laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure† †of *the which one must in your allowance† o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. Oh, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others 25praise* and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having th’accent* of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor 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†.‡
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† 35the 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
How now my lord, will the king hear this piece of work?
Polonius And the queen too, and that presently†.
Rosencrantz Ay my lord.
Exeunt Rosencrantz*** and Guildenstern
Hamlet What ho*, Horatio!
Enter Horatio
Horatio Here sweet lord, at your service.
Horatio
Hamlet Nay, do not think I flatter,
Horatio Well my lord†.
*Sound a flourish
*Danish march (trumpets and kettle-drums). Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Other Lords attendant, with his Guard carrying torches‡
Hamlet Excellent i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish†: I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons† so.
90Hamlet And what* did you enact?
Polonius †I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i’th’Capitol. Brutus killed me.
Gertrude Come hither my dear* Hamlet, sit by me.
Hamlet No good mother, here’s metal more attractive†.
Polonius Oh ho, do you mark that?
Hamlet Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Hamlet I mean, my head upon your lap?
Ophelia Ay my lord.
Ophelia I think nothing my lord.
Ophelia What is, my lord?
Hamlet Nothing†.
Ophelia You are merry my lord.
Hamlet Who, I?
Hamlet O 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.
115Hamlet‡ So long? Nay then †let the devil* wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. O 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 byrlady*† a must* build churches then, or else shall a* suffer not thinking on†, with the †hobby-horse, whose epitaph is, ‘For O, 120†for O, the hobby-horse is forgot.’
120.1****†Hoboys play. The dumb-show enters‡
120.2Enter a King and a 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. *He lies him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon *comes in *another man, takes off his crown, kisses it, *pours poison in *the sleeper’s ears, and *leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, *and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with some *two or three mutes, *comes in again, *seeming to *condole with her. The dead body is carried away. The poisoner woos the Queen with gifts. She seems *†harsh awhile, but in the end accepts *his love.* Exeunt
Ophelia What means this my lord?
*Enter Prologue
*Ophelia Will a tell us what this show meant?
Hamlet‡ Ay, or any show† that you’ll* 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.
Ophelia‡ ’Tis brief my lord.
135.1Enter the Player King and Queen
Player King
*Player Queen
Player King
Player Queen Oh confound the rest!
*Player Queen
Player King
Player Queen
205Hamlet‡ If she should break it now!
Player King
Sleeps
Player Queen Sleep rock thy brain,
Hamlet‡ Oh but she’ll keep her word.
Hamlet No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest, no offence i’th’world.
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 o’ that*? Your majesty, and we that have free† souls, it 220*touches us not. Let the galled jade winch†, our withers† are unwrung†.
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.
225Ophelia You are keen† my lord, you are keen.
Ophelia Still better and worse†.
Hamlet So you mistake† your* husbands. Begin, murderer. Pox*, leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come, †the croaking raven doth 230bellow for revenge.‡
Lucianus‡
Pours the poison in his ears
Hamlet‡ **A poisons him i’th’garden for’s* 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.
Gertrude How fares my lord?
Polonius Give o’er the play.
Claudius‡ Give me some light. Away!
245.1Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio‡
250Would 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.
Horatio You might have rhymed.
Horatio Very well my lord.
Hamlet Upon the talk of the poisoning†?
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern‡
265Hamlet‡ Ah ha*! – Come, some music! Come, the recorders!
Guildenstern‡ Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
270Hamlet‡ Sir, a whole history.
Guildenstern The king, sir –
Hamlet Ay sir, what of him?
Guildenstern Is in his retirement marvellous distempered†.
Hamlet‡ With drink sir?
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†, 280and 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.
285Guildenstern 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.
290*Rosencrantz 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.
Hamlet‡ O wonderful son that can so stonish* a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration? Impart*.
Rosencrantz‡ My lord, you once did love me.
305Rosencrantz 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.
Rosencrantz How can that be, when you have the voice of the king 310himself for your succession in Denmark?
Hamlet Ay sir*, but while the grass grows† – the proverb is something *†musty.
Enter the Players with recorders
Oh, the recorders*. Let me see one*. To withdraw with you† – Why do you go about to recover† the wind of me, as if you would drive 315me into a toil?‡
Guildenstern O 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.
Guildenstern Believe me I cannot.
Hamlet I do beseech you.
Guildenstern I know no touch of it my lord.
Hamlet ’Tis* as easy as lying. Govern these ventages† with your fingers* 325and 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 utterance of harmony. I have not the skill.
Hamlet Why look you now how unworthy a thing you make of me. 330You 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 335me what instrument you will, though you can fret† me*, you cannot play upon me.‡‡‡
Enter Polonius
God bless you sir.‡
Polonius My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently†.
Hamlet Methinks it is like a weasel.
Polonius It is backed like a weasel.
Polonius Very like a whale.
345*Hamlet Then I will* come to my mother by and by†. – †They fool me to the top of my bent. – I will come by and by.
*Polonius I will say so. Exit
Hamlet‡ By and by is easily said. – Leave me, friends.
Exeunt all but Hamlet
Textual variants
3.2] Scene II Capell
81 SD ] This edn; Enter Trumpets and Kettle Drummes, King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia. Q2; Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosincrance, Guildensterne, and other Lords attendant, with his Guard carrying Torches. Danish March. Sound a Flourish. F
135 SD ] P. Alexander; Enter King and Queene Q2; Enter King and his Queene F
147 Following this line Q2 inserts For women feare too much, euen as they loue,
Explanatory notes
0 SD two or three So F. Q2 gives ‘three’; for Shakespeare’s MS to be so specific against an MS with theatre influence is remarkable, especially as there is no need for three players. Probably a compositor’s omission.
1 The time is the evening of the same day. Hamlet now appears sane and utterly intent on the acting of his play.
3 I had as lief It would be as agreeable to me that.
4 thus Hamlet makes the exaggerated gestures he criticizes.
4–6 in the very torrent … acquire and beget a temperance Hamlet describes an acting process by which the actors should obtain, even as they generate intense emotion, a balance and control that they should then convey in their performance.
7 robustious rough and rude.
8 periwig-pated wearing a wig.
9 groundlings Audience members who stood in the open yard of the amphitheatre, admission to which was the least expensive option.
9 are capable of have a capacity for, can understand.
10 inexplicable dumb-shows Shakespeare does not use ‘inexplicable’ elsewhere. The context of dumb-shows, by which Hamlet invokes old-fashioned spectacles, suggests ‘meaningless’.
11 Termagant A deity supposed to be worshipped by Muslims, invoked to signify a user of excessive or senseless terms.
11 Herod Ruler of Judaea from 37 BCE to 4 BCE; familiar as a ranting tyrant in the medieval biblical cycles who ordered the slaughter of children in an attempt to kill Jesus Christ.
15 Suit … action ‘action’ is used here in two different senses, both belonging to the theatre. First, it means acting – in its fullest sense of an actor’s management of himself on the stage, and not just gesture (OED 6). In the second phrase, it means the action of the play. ‘[W]ord’ also has two meanings; first, the language of the play, and, in the second phrase, the actor’s speech. Hamlet instructs the Player to let his acting be governed by what he is given to speak, and to let his speech be governed by what he is given to act.
16 modesty restraints, limitations, measure. Compare 2.2.400.
17 from away from.
18 mirror Reveals things not as they seem, but as they really are.
19 scorn i.e. that which is to be scorned.
20 the very … pressure i.e. gives an impression of the shape of our times in the clearest detail. Many commentators think that ‘very age’ and ‘body of the time’ are separate and parallel phrases, but the run of the sentence clearly puts ‘age and body’ together.
21 come tardy off done inadequately or imperfectly.
21 unskilful ignorant and undiscerning.
22 censure judgement.
22–3 of the which one of one of whom.
23 your allowance i.e. what you will permit or sanction, hence ‘your scale of values’.
27–8 nature’s journeymen These bad actors must have been made not by God (hence Hamlet’s ‘not to speak it profanely’), but by some of Nature’s hired men, little better than apprentices.
29 abominably Spelt in Q2 and F ‘abhominably’, indicating what, from a false etymology, they thought the word meant: ‘away from the nature of man’.
30 indifferently reasonably well.
34 necessary question i.e. essential part of the plot.
38 presently immediately.
44 e’en Emphatic, like modern ‘absolutely’.
44 just Not ‘judicious’ but ‘honourable’, ‘upright’.
45 my conversation coped withal my encounters with people have brought me in touch with.
48 Scan ‘That nó revénue hást but thý good spirits’.
48 spirits inner qualities.
50–1 The courtier kissing his patron’s hands and bowing is pictured, in beast-fable fashion, as a fawning dog licking and crouching – though the dog is nowhere specifically mentioned.
50 candied sugared.
50 absurd ridiculous in its vanity and self-love. Accent on first syllable.
51 pregnant ‘quick, ready, prompt’ (Johnson).
52 thrift (‘thriving’) profit, prosperity.
54–5 And could … herself From the time Hamlet’s soul could be discriminating in her choice amongst men, she has marked you out. So Q2. F’s meaning is different: ‘and could discriminate amongst men, her choice hath marked you out’.
55 sealed … herself In the legal sense, put a lawful seal on you as her property; hence, ‘solemnly attested that you are hers’. There are biblical resonances as well with Ephesians 4.30, 2 Cor. 1.22, and Rom 11.5, 28 (see Naseeb Shaheen, Biblical References in Shakespeare’s Plays (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1999), 549).
59 blood and judgement passion and reason.
59 commeddled mixed together; ‘meddle’ is common, but ‘commeddle’ is rare, and F gives ‘commingled’.
61 stop Note produced by closing a finger-hole in a wind instrument (Shakespeare’s Words).
66 circumstance circumstances, details.
69–70 Even with … uncle i.e. use your most intense powers of observation in watching my uncle; ‘comment’ stands for the power to comment.
70 occulted hidden.
71 unkennel come into the open. The word was used of dislodging or driving a fox from his hole or lair.
71 in one speech Thompson and Taylor point out that this could refer either to Hamlet’s inserted lines (2.2.493–4) or to the anticipated admission of guilt by Claudius (2.2.542–5).
72 a damnèd ghost … seen the ghost which we have seen came from hell (and was an impostor and a liar).
73 my imaginations what Hamlet’s mind has suggested to him in the wake of the conversation with the Ghost. To have given credence to the Ghost, and built on its tale, shows a disease of his mind.
74 Vulcan’s stithy In classical mythology, Vulcan is the god of fire, and thus his stithy (= forge) was regarded as hellish.
77 In censure of his seeming in weighing up his appearance. They will have to infer from his outward expression what he is actually feeling.
77 Well my lord Expresses Horatio’s concurrence and approval.
78 If a steal aught i.e. if he conceals anything.
80 idle Not ‘unoccupied’, but ‘idle-headed’ = crazy.
81 SD F’s rich version of this grand entry shows how the theatre worked on the bare essentials given by Shakespeare (as recorded in Q2). The two versions have been conflated by suggesting that F’s ‘Danish March’ was, in fact, played by Q2’s ‘Trumpets and Kettle Drummes’. F’s ‘Sound a flourish’ has also been separated from the main body of the SD, since it is the warning flourish that alerts Hamlet to the entry.
82 fares Hamlet chooses to understand this in its alternative sense of being fed.
82 cousin Any close relation. OED notes that the term was often used by a sovereign to another sovereign, or to one of his nobles. Compare 1.2.117, ‘our cousin and our son’. Hamlet and Claudius now come together for the first time since the second scene of the play.
83 the chameleon’s dish The chameleon was supposed to live on air.
84 capons castrated cocks, fattened for the table.
85 have nothing with gain nothing from.
85–6 are not mine do not belong to my question.
91–2 I did enact … killed me For this as an allusion to Shakespeare’s own Julius Caesar, see Introduction, 7–8.
93 part action (compare 2 Henry IV 4.5.63 (Riverside)) – but also, continuing the theatre-language, ‘part to play’, role.
93 calf Commonly used for a dolt or stupid person.
97 metal more attractive literally, a substance more magnetic; figuratively, a person more appealing. But ‘mettle’ (the spelling in both Q2 and F) means also ‘disposition’, ‘spirit’.
103 country matters the sort of thing that goes on among rustics in the country; coarse or indecent things; sex (with a pun on the first syllable of country).
107 Nothing ‘Thing’ was commonly used to refer to the sexual organ of either men or women; ‘nothing’ was also used to refer to the female genitals.
111 your only jig-maker i.e. ‘there’s no one like me for providing farcical entertainments’.
114 twice two months Compare 1.2.138 – it was then less than two months since the former king’s death: a further indication of the gap in time between Acts 1 and 2.
115–16 let the devil … sables ‘sables’ means the fur of a northern animal, the sable, which is brown. But ‘sable’ is also the heraldic word for ‘black’. So this is a typical riddling remark of Hamlet’s. Since his father has been dead so long, the devil can have his mourning garments and he will start wearing rich furs – but, by the pun, he will actually continue mourning.
118 byrlady Compare 2.2.388. This is F’s spelling. Q2’s ‘ber lady’ may represent Shakespeare’s spelling and pronunciation.
119 not thinking on being forgotten.
119–20 hobby-horse … forgot The hobby-horse was one of the additional characters in the Morris dance in the traditional English summer festivities. A man wore a huge hooped skirt in the likeness of a horse. The phrase ‘the hobby horse is forgot’ is very common (see OED) and nearly always had a sexual connotation (see Othello 4.1.154 (Riverside); Winter’s Tale 1.2.276 (Riverside)). A. Brissenden (RES xxx (1979), 1–11) describes how the horse used to sink to the ground as though dead, then come to energetic life again. So the hobby-horse does not die to be forgotten, but comes back with a vengeance, like Hamlet’s father.
120 SD The versions of the dumb-show in Q2 and F differ in three ways: (1) Q2 accidentally omits what is almost certainly part of the original SD (chiefly ‘She kneels…unto him’, 2–3); (2) F firms up for stage presentation, altering the music, identifying characters (‘Fellow’, ‘King’, ‘Mutes’), and inserting exits; (3) F substitutes more familiar and descriptive words like ‘loath and unwilling’ for ‘harsh’.
What is printed here is an eclectic version, accepting some changes from F, but preserving Q2’s language.
There are three problems about the dumb-show. (1) It is most unusual for a dumb-show to mime the action of the entire play to follow; (2) Did Hamlet know the dumb-show was going to be presented? (3) Why does Claudius not react? As regards (1), the show clearly puzzles Ophelia, and is therefore probably meant to seem rather peculiar. As regards (2), although Hamlet’s ensuing remarks can be interpreted as showing anger towards the players, they do not in the least demand that interpretation, and it is safer to assume that the sponsor of the play knew what was going to take place. (3) There are many ways of explaining Claudius’s silence, but an impassive, or nearly impassive, Claudius is theatrically very effective, providing an enigma for Hamlet and Horatio, as well as the audience.
120.1 Hoboys Oboes.
120.3 protestation solemn vow.
120.10 harsh i.e. she is disdainful, cross.
122 miching mallecho Another insoluble problem. ‘[M]iching’ is F’s word; Q2 has ‘munching’. ‘[M]iching’ is a good English word meaning ‘skulking’; ‘mallecho’ (Q2, Mallico; f, Malicho) may be for Spanish malhecho, a misdeed.
123 Belike … play? ‘Perhaps this dumb-show explains what the play is about?’
125 they’ll tell all It would seem unnecessary to point out that this is a joke, but some have taken it as a sign of Hamlet’s anxiety lest his scheme should be sabotaged.
127 any show … Hamlet continues his bawdy innuendos.
129 naught wicked.
133 posy inscribed motto or rhyme; a shortened version of ‘poesie’, which is how the word is spelt in F and Q1.
135 SD King … Queen According to Hamlet in 216–18, it is a Duke called Gonzago and his wife Baptista. F makes an effort to call the Queen-Duchess ‘Bap.’ or ‘Bapt’ in speech headings – no doubt to distinguish her from Gertrude – but does nothing to alter ‘King’. Interestingly, Q1 calls them Duke and Duchess throughout.
136 Phoebus’ cart The chariot of the classical god of the sun, i.e. the sun.
136–9 The emphasis on thirty years of marriage has been compared with the emphasis on Hamlet’s age as 30 at 5.1.122–38.
137 Neptune’s … Tellus’ orbèd ground The ocean and the sphere of the earth, the globe.
138 borrowed sheen reflected light.
140 Hymen God of marriage.
146 distrust you worry about your health.
148 Fear and love go together in a woman. Either they are both non-existent, or they are both present in full. For Shakespeare’s hesitations here, see Textual Analysis, 255–6.
150 proof experience, trial.
151 sized in size.
152–3 These two lines are omitted in F. See Textual Analysis, 255–6.
155 leave to do cease to perform.
161 None wed … first No explicit accusation or indictment of Gertrude for the murder of Hamlet Sr has been made so far in the play. (Hamlet accuses her at 3.4.30.)
162 wormwood Artemisia absinthium, a bitter herb.
163 instances motives.
164 thrift profit, advancement.
167–78 The whole of this speech makes gnomic comments on Hamlet’s own predicament.
169 Purpose is … memory The fulfilment of plans depends on memory.
170 Of violent birth Very strong at the beginning.
170 validity health and strength.
175–6 in passion … purpose lose Extends the sentiment of 169, only now the fulfilment of a plan depends upon the maintenance of emotional fervour.
177–8 The violence … destroy Repeats the preceding couplet. Violent grief and joy, when they cease, destroy the ‘enactures’ or actions which are associated with them.
179–80 Where joy … accident Those who have most capacity for joy have most capacity for grief, and the one changes into the other on the slightest occasion.
181 for aye for ever.
187 hitherto to this extent.
187 tend attend, wait.
189 try make trial of.
190 seasons As in 1.3.81, ‘to season’ means ‘to cause change by the passage of time’, usually ‘to ripen’, but here simply ‘changes (him into)’.
193 devices schemes, plans.
200 anchor’s cheer the fare of an anchorite or religious hermit.
200 scope limit.
201 opposite opposing force.
201 blanks blanches, makes pale. Not used elsewhere by Shakespeare.
207 spirits vital spirits.
211 doth protest makes protestation or promises.
213–14 Is there … no offence i’th’world Claudius is probably asking whether there is anything censorable in the play, but Hamlet chooses to interpret it as a question about whether there is something criminal in it. Hamlet’s assurance that it is only a mock-crime includes the first verbal mention of poison in the inset play.
216 Tropically As a trope, a figure of speech.
219 free innocent. See 2.2.516.
220 Let … winch ‘galled jade’ is a poor horse with saddle-sores, ‘winch’ = ‘wince’. It was a common saying that it was the galled horse that would soonest wince (Tilley H700).
220 withers The high part of a horse’s back, between the shoulder-blades.
220 unwrung not pressed tight, pinched or chafed. See OED wring ν 4.
221 nephew to the king In identifying Lucianus thus, Hamlet brings together past and future: Claudius’s killing of his brother, and his own projected killing of his uncle.
223–4 I could … dallying I could act as a chorus in explaining what goes on between you and your lover if I could see the dalliance or flirting in the form of a puppet show. Many commentators suspect some indecent secondary meaning in ‘puppets’, which is fully in keeping with Hamlet’s treatment of Ophelia. The explanation may well lie in Q1’s ‘poopies’. It has been shown by H. Hulme that ‘poop’ meant the female genitals (Hilda M. Hulme, Explorations in Shakespeare’s Language: Some Problems of Lexical Meaning in the Dramatic Text (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963), 114). That the word could mean ‘rump’ is clear from OED, and the obscene use is probably only an extension of that meaning, probably to the genital organs of either sex.
225 keen sharp and bitter.
226 groaning of childbirth or loss of maidenhead. ‘[E]dge’ = sexual appetite.
227 Still better and worse Ophelia refers to Hamlet’s continual ‘bettering’ of her meaning, i.e. ‘Always a “better” meaning with a more offensive slant’.
228 mistake i.e. mis-take, trick: ‘with such vows (for better or for worse) you falsely take your husbands’.
229–30 the croaking … revenge Simpson noted (NV) in 1874 that this was a ‘satirical condensation’ of two lines from The True Tragedy of Richard III (printed 1594): ‘The screeking raven sits croaking for revenge, / Whole herds of beasts come bellowing for revenge’ (Malone Society Reprint, 1892–3).
231 apt ready.
232 Confederate season i.e. this moment of time is his ally, and his only witness.
233 of midnight weeds collected put together from weeds gathered at midnight; ‘[C]ollected’ refers to the mixing of the weeds, the concoction, and not the picking. Compare 4.7.143.
234 Hecat Hecate, goddess of witchcraft.
234 ban curse.
235 dire property baleful quality.
236 usurp So F. Q2 reads ‘usurps’, but it is quite clear from the syntax that Lucianus is invoking the poison to work.
237 estate position (as king). Compare 3.3.5.
241 false fire gunfire with blank charge.
245 Lords Q2 gives this to Polonius; F to ‘All.’ The royal guard came in bearing torches (81 SD above); Claudius orders these torchbearers to light him to his own quarters.
246–9 Why, let …world away This song or ballad has not been identified.
247 ungalled uninjured.
248 watch keep awake.
250 this The success of the performance?
250 forest of feathers The plumes which were a derided feature of the gallant’s outfit were a notable feature of theatre costume.
251 turn Turk with me To ‘turn Turk’ is to renounce one’s religion, apostasize or become a renegade; ‘with’ has here the sense of ‘against’ (as we still use it in ‘fight’ or ‘compete’ with someone). So the phrase means ‘renege on me’, or ‘renounce and desert me’.
251 provincial roses Roses orginating either from Provins in northern France or from Provence. (Jenkins in a long note strongly defends the latter origin.) Hamlet is speaking of rosettes and not the real flowers.
251 razed shoes Shoes which were ‘razed’, ‘rased’ or ‘raced’ were ornamented by cuts or slits in the leather.
252 fellowship partnership; the technical term was a ‘share’.
252 cry pack (of hounds).
255 Damon Known from classical literature as a paragon (with Pythias) of friendship.
256 dismantled stripped, divested; i.e. the realm lost Jove himself (sovereign god of the Romans) as king.
258 pajock T. McGrath, in 1871 (cited in NV), cleverly suggested that ‘pajock’ is the ‘patchock’ used by Edmund Spenser in A View of the Present State of Ireland (ed. W. L. Renwick (London: Scholartis Press, 1934), 64) in a context suggesting a despicable person: ‘as very patchocks as the wild Irish’. This is supported by OED sv Patchcock. In the following line, Horatio suggests that he expected Hamlet to finish with a rhyme, likely ‘ass’.
263 Upon the talk of the poisoning May refer either to Lucianus’s words (231–6) or to Hamlet’s outburst (237–9).
264 SD So placed by F. Q2 places it later, after 268. F shows Hamlet pointedly ignoring Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by calling for music and singing a little song.
266–7 if … perdy It has been suggested that this is an echo of the lines in The Spanish Tragedy (4.1.197–8), also referring to a revenger’s playlet, ‘And if the world like not this tragedy, / Hard is the hap of old Hieronimo’. (‘Perdy’ = by God.)
273 distempered out of humoral balance. But the word was also used as a euphemism for being drunk, as Hamlet’s bland enquiry indicates.
275 choler anger.
277 purgation The practice, based on humoral theory, of getting rid of the excess yellow bile that has distempered Claudius. See 1.4.27.
277 signify announce.
277–8 for me … more choler the way in which I would cure him of his distemper would make him much angrier.
279 frame ordered structure.
280 start make a sudden movement, like a startled horse.
281 tame subdued; i.e. a manageable horse that will not ‘start’.
286 wholesome healthy, i.e. sane.
287 pardon permission (to leave).
292 command have at your service.
296 admiration wonder.
301 were she … mother In sane conversation, this would go with a refusal to obey.
304 pickers and stealers hands. From the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer: ‘To keep my hands from picking and stealing’.
306 bar … liberty Rosencrantz means Hamlet would be more free in his mind, less burdened, if he would communicate his problems.
308 I lack advancement Hamlet brazenly offers the explanation which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had previously suggested and which he had denied (2.2.241–4).
311 while the grass grows – While waiting for the grass to grow, the horse starves. As Hamlet indicates, this is an old proverb (Tilley G423).
312 SD So Q2. F’s modification of this direction and the subsequent dialogue cut down the number of characters necessary. See Textual Analysis, 266–8.
313 To withdraw with you Hamlet moves Rosencrantz and Guildenstern aside with him.
314 recover gain. The huntsman will try to move to the windward of his prey, and so get the animal, scenting him, to run away from him and towards the trap.
316–17 if my duty … unmannerly ‘If my respectful attention seems to you too bold, you accuse love of being ill-mannered’.
324 ventages vents, i.e. finger holes of the recorder.
331 mystery the skills of a particular craft. I.e. you would learn the innermost secret of my working, as a musician would learn the secret of playing the recorder.
333 this little organ the recorder.
335 fret ‘frets’ are the raised bars for fingering on a lute, providing a pun with ‘irritate’.
338 presently immediately.
339 see yonder cloud This scene is supposed to be taking place indoors at night. But Shakespeare has already puzzled the difference between inside and outside in scenes between Hamlet and Polonius (see 2.2.201).
345 by and by presently, quite soon.
345–6 They fool me … bent They tax to the uttermost my capacity to play the madman.
349 witching time bewitching time, time of sorcery and enchantment. The reference is to the witches’ sabbath, when their ceremonies conjured up the devil in physical form.
351 Now could I drink hot blood Witches were supposed to open the graves of newly buried children whom their charms had killed, boil the bodies, and drink the liquid. Drinking of blood was one of the most frequent charges against witches. See Reginald Scot, Discovery of Witchcraft (London, 1584), E1.
353 Soft That’s enough! (see 3.1.88 note).
354 nature natural feelings (as regards his mother). Compare 1.5.81.
355 Nero Tyrannical Roman emperor who contrived the murder of his mother.
358 My tongue … hypocrites Hamlet establishes the disjunction between what he will say and what he feels or wishes.
359 shent castigated, punished (by rebuke or reproach).
360 give them seals i.e. by deeds.
Performance notes from Shakespeare in Production
0 Kean ‘enters with the players at his heels’, as if continuing ‘an easy mannered conversation’ (Finlay, Miscellanies, p. 223). Booth at the Winter Garden entered ‘reading a paper (presumably the speech which he had written for insertion in the play); this he rolled up as he began the “advice,” using it in gesticulations, and handing it to the First Player when he dismissed him’ (Mason 110).
1ff Irving did not ‘advise’ the players; he gave a royal ‘order’ (Terry, p. 104). Burton in 1964 spoke these lines not as reflections on the nature of dramatic art but as a set of rapidly delivered commands for the ambush of the King.
3–4 Irving here mimicked a gesture of the First Player in 2.2 (Towse, ‘Irving’, p. 666).
18–19 Irving paused, seeking the right word, then at ‘nature’ raised his hand in triumph over his head (Terry, pp. 104–5). Gielgud paused before ‘mirror’, seeking the clearest simile, then seemed to hold one in his hand (Gilder, p. 161).
36 Following ‘uses it’ Q1 uniquely specifies some interpolations by which a clown might try to get a laugh, from familiar catch-phrases and punch-lines from jests attributed to Richard Tarlton, the famous Elizabethan clown, to ‘blabbering with his lips’. The Q1 Prince seems to relish enumerating them. Does, he, in mimicry, blabber with his own lips? For the complete passage see The Three-Text Hamlet.
44ff Booth ‘takes him by both hands and bends upon him a look of love and trust … It is beautiful to see how he relies upon Horatio, keeps him near him in his trials, turns his eyes upon him often. He loved to clasp his hand, to exchange glances with him’ (Garland, ‘Lecture’, p. 29).
Supporting Henry Ainley in an all-star production in 1930, Godfrey Tearle as Horatio was variously praised as ‘manly’, ‘loyal’, ‘burly-tender’ – his ‘quiet distinction’, ‘muted integrity’ and ‘grave and commanding’ demeanour contrasting with Ainley's outbursts (Empire News, 27 April 1930). Agate also saw in him the ‘unalloyed spirit which Hamlet might so easily have been’ (Sunday Times, 27 April 1930).
In 1953 Burton gave this speech ‘with a gentle warmth and a touch of self-consciousness’ (Shakespeare at the Old Vic, London: Black, 1954, p. 54).
59–61 Irving was felt to be referring to himself (Academy, 7 November 1874, p. 519).
61–2 Of Gielgud: Hamlet's ‘words describe not only what Horatio is, but what he himself is not’ (Gilder, p. 163).
64a ‘As I do thee’ (Barrymore's studybook).
64b ‘With a gentle reserve’ (Tree, ‘Hamlet’, p. 873). Barrymore broke off his effusion to Horatio ‘with half-reluctant shyness’ (MacCarthy, Theatre, p. 57). With Burton in 1964 the half-line, prompted by a laugh off-stage of the court, meant: ‘we must not dally, must hurry’.
80 Macready ‘assumed the manner of an idiot, or of a silly and active and impertinent booby, by tossing his head right and left, and walking rapidly across the stage five or six times before the foot-lights and switching his hankerchief – held by a corner – over his right and left shoulder alternately, until the whole court have had time to parade and be seated’ (Hackett, ‘Notes’, p. 158). Ian McKellen in 1972 similarly twirled his handkerchief at this point (Trewin, Five & Eighty, p. 155).
82sd Both Q2 and F have the stage direction immediately before 80. Q2 reads: Enter Trumpets and Kettle Drummes, King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia; F reads: Enter King, Queene, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosincrance, Guildensterne, and other Lords attendant, with his Guard carrying Torches. Danish March. Sound a Flourish. Edwards has moved all but the ‘Flourish’ to 82. The ‘Danish March’ almost certainly involved trumpets and kettle drums. In The Magnificent Entertainment, Thomas Dekker described the 1603 coronation procession of King James and Queen Anne of Denmark: ‘to delight the Queene with her owne country Musicke, nine Trumpets, and a Kettle Drum, did very sprightly & actiuely sound the Danish March'. It may be that, as they sometimes did for the playhouses, royal trumpeters themselves played the same march at the Globe (Long, Music, pp. 119–20).
Staging of the play scene involves three centres of attention: the players; the King and Queen (seated), usually with Polonius (standing); and Ophelia (seated), Hamlet (on the floor at her feet), usually with Horatio (standing). The most common arrangement – there are instances in each century, especially the nineteenth – is to perform the playlet upstage centre, with the royal party downstage on one side and the Hamlet group on the other. This is the arrangement shown in two illustrations of eighteenth-century performances (Merchant, Shakespeare, pp. 46–7; Burnim, Garrick, pp. 164–5). Kemble in 1804 followed it (Promptbooks, p. 47). So did Macready (shown in Daniel Maclise's 1842 painting), except that in it Hamlet turned his back to the playlet while scrutinizing the King, a practice followed by Irving as well. The 1925 Birmingham Repertory production varied the pattern by placing the King and Queen on a bench facing the players, with their backs to the real audience.
Sometimes the royals have been placed on a dais or other elevation upstage centre with the players downstage and the Hamlet group on one side or the other. So they are shown in two eighteenth-century depictions (Merchant, Shakespeare, pp. 46–7). Commenting on Garrick, The Theatrical Review observed of the playlet that it ‘has been been usual for the Actors of it, to perform with their backs to the King and Queen’ (May, 1763). In Prague in 1927 this placement was used, with the players in silhouette.
Instead of the usual triangle, a twentieth-century pattern has distributed the three centres of attention in a diagonal. For example, in the 1937 Olivier/Guthrie production, the King and Queen are on high, stage left, while the players are in the centre at a middle level, and Hamlet and Ophelia, downstage right. For pictures of many of these arrangements, plus others, see Mander and Mitchenson, Hamlet, pp. 70–87.
What all these stagings have in common is the prominence given the Prince. At the beginning of the play he is invariably physically below the King and Queen, usually because he is downstage but always because he is sitting on the floor. The choreography of the scene shows his rise, literally as well as figuratively. Also Hamlet stands out because where the other characters are fixed in their assigned places, he has more and more been free to move about. First it was Kean and his famous ‘crawl’, emulated by some of his nineteenth-century successors. By 1935 Gielgud was much more active. As the King and Queen sat on thrones at the upper landing watching the players on the main stage, Hamlet roamed by way of the throne-area from one middle-landing vantage-point to the other, focusing first on the Queen, then on the King.
Many of these features were pushed to exciting extremes in the 1912 Moscow Art Theatre production. The King and Queen are high and remote, the players are on the narrow apron with their backs to the real audience. Kachalov's Hamlet is especially identified with the deep trap which runs the width of centre stage; he places Horatio on the edge of the apron from where he can observe the King from behind a pillar. Hamlet darts around the whole stage (in rehearsal Craig had told him that ‘Hamlet's movement must be like lightning cutting across the stage’). From his place at Ophelia's feet upstage, he leaps up and rushes into the trap to watch the dumb show, with his back to the King and with only his upper body visible, blindingly spotlighted. Later he returns to Ophelia, then the Queen, then back to the trap. Kachalov found the scene exhausting to play, not only because of these moves but because of the need to project his voice from the extremes of the stage, which had been opened to its full length and breadth.
82–120 Stanislavsky advised Kachalov that in this passage Hamlet ‘wants to slap the king in the face, but without revealing that it is a slap in the face; ditto to Polonius, ditto to Ophelia’ (Senelick, p. 142).
87a Fechter waved his hand, showing that those words ‘had passed into the air for all time’ (Field, p. 107).
87b–93a In the Branagh film, the two play this passage as if it were patter in a double-act, warming up the audience (Screenplay, p. 87).
94 To take off the rudeness of this line, Charles Kemble ‘tells Polonius “it was a brute part,” and then walks away, chuckling to himself over the remainder of the joke – “to kill so capital a calf there”’ (New York Evening Post, 18 September 1832).
115 Pryce's Hamlet ‘does a huge double-take on “So long?”’ (Gilbert, ‘Pryce’).
120sd Edwards amalgamates Q2 and F. Among other differences Q2 stipulates ‘trumpets’ rather than F's ‘hoboys’. Q2's Queen is less demonstratively loving to her husband (Q2 does not include F's ‘very lovingly’ or ‘She kneels and makes show of protestation unto him’) while Q2's King is more demonstrative towards her (where F has simply ‘Queen embracing him’, Q2 continues ‘and he her’). Q2's Queen is initially more resistant to the poisoner (‘harsh’ rather than F's ‘loath and unwilling’). The Q1 stage direction is much shorter than the other two; its Queen shows no affection at all.
The dumb show has customarily been cut in performance, thereby avoiding the risk of diminishing by repetition the impact of the climactic Mousetrap while obviating the question of why Claudius's conscience is able to resist the miming of his crime yet succumbs to the spoken version. Even when the dumb show is performed, this question is commonly sidestepped by freely adapting the scenario in such a way as to make it inexplicable and thus unthreatening, even ludicrous – as in the Williamson film, which features acrobats with funny noses and a maypole (bewilderingly, in this version it is the player Queen, not her lover, who uses one of its streamers to strangle the player King). Or Claudius may simply be inattentive. For the 1930 Gielgud production, its director saw the King as ‘enjoying his liquor; thus in the manner of our own late-comers to the stalls, he misses the point of the dumb show’ (Williams, Years, p. 162). For Burton Gielgud had the King at first preoccupied by ‘socializing with the Courtiers who regard the play as quaint and amusing’ (Sterne, p. 214). Even though Burton then takes away Claudius's goblet and forces him to watch, the King betrays no sign of guilt. Why not here but later? Presumably because Gielgud has omitted from his dumb show the reenactment of the poisoning. Yet allowing the King to witness the full dumb show as written can provide what Granville-Barker called ‘the first round of the war of nerves between Prince and King’ (Prefaces, p. 88). So a self-possessed King, like Patrick Stewart in the BBC-TV production, can help to build suspense by winning this opening round, appearing imperturbed, indeed vastly amused, when first confronted by the reenactment of his crime.
In the Olivier film the dumb show (which follows the originals closely) is substituted for the spoken version. The drawback is that although the King winces at the poisoning he does not break until after the whole dumb show is over, thus lessening Shakespeare's emphasis on the ‘talk of the poisoning’.
127–8 Gielgud directed Burton to ‘emphasize the alliteration in “Be not you ashamed to show,” so that the line sounds very bitter and bawdy. The court is shocked, but let's have one lady laugh lewdly at that’ (Sterne, p. 117).
134–5 ‘Most Hamlets insult Ophelia by hurling this reply at her. Fechter gave it as if communing with his own thoughts, and looked the while toward his mother’ (Field, p. 107).
160ff Guthrie at Minneapolis directed the scandalized Court to begin whispering here, growing more intense at 165–6, and – undaunted by the Player King's attempt to silence them – building to 204. All the while they are drawing apart from the King so that by the end of the playlet, they are all huddled together in back of Hamlet, leaving ‘the lone figure of the King’ (Rossi, pp. 48–9). At 237SD Claudius gasps uncontrollably, abruptly cutting off the whispering, and in this silence Hamlet can very softly say: ‘He poisons him i’ the garden for his estate’ while Claudius registers a series of fearful reactions after each phrase (Rossi, pp. 28–9).
162 Macready addressed ‘That's wormwood’ to Horatio (promptbook 37) as did Fechter (Field, p. 107).
205 Fechter: ‘to King and Queen’ (Field, p. 107). Irving spoke this line to Ophelia: he ‘looks at her and grows sad’ (Terry's rehearsal book).
212 On BBC-TV Jacobi emphasizes her.
213b With Frank Benson, Claudius addressed this question to Polonius (World, 7 March 1900).
216 Wilks was praised for ‘The Gayety, the unforc'd, soft, becoming negligence, with which, reclining at the Feet of Ophelia and toying with her Fan as if genteely Insignificant, He kept a Guard upon his Uncle's eye and watch'd (unnotic'd) the Effect of his Play's Influence’ (Prompter, 24 October 1735). Kemble used the same business (H. Martin, Remarks, pp. 6–7). Finlay adds that Kemble ‘answered the questions as to the name and plot of the play carelessly, as if they were interrupting his situation, and as if he took no interest in the play farther than that he had casually seen it’. In contrast, Finlay faulted Kean for dividing his attention between the play (which Hamlet already knew) and the King to the neglect of Ophelia (Miscellanies, p. 227). Fechter carries the manuscript pages of The Murder of Gonzago when giving his advice to the players and during the playlet uses it as a screen while he watches the King (Morning Chronicle, 23 March 1861).
216a Barrymore paused before and after saying ‘The Mousetrap’ (promptbook 156).
229ff Kachalov brought his face closer and closer to the King's, hypnotizing him with his eyes and voice, his tone rising to a shout for the first time in the performance until the King in panic calls for ‘light!’ As the King flees ‘in a series of ludicrous leaps’ along with the Court, the Prince wraps himself in the Player King's cloak: ‘capering and electrifying the house with … a kind of antic mummery whose hysteria concealed horror’ (Senelick, p. 167).
231–6 When J. B. Booth delivered these lines, playing Lucianus to Charles Kean's Hamlet, ‘each word dropped poison’ (Gould, p. 64). Here as earlier in the playlet, Gielgud beat ‘the measure of Lucianus’ lines as though he would whip them forward to their desperate goal’ (Gilder, p. 169). Branagh in 1992/3 took the vial from Lucianus and himself poured the poison in the Player King's ear (Cahiers Elisabethains, October, 1993, pp. 72, 78); in the film he turns on Claudius with the phial (Screenplay, p. 93).
233a–9 With Macready, when the poisoner produces a phial, the King starts; when the poison is poured (237), he covers his face with both hands; at ‘murderer’ (239) he rises (promptbook 129). Reviewers commented on the ‘strange fire’ in Macready's eyes, which were ‘fixed with serpent-fascination on the king’ (New Monthly Magazine, 1 July 1821, p. 333). He seemed to ‘read the thoughts that moved within his guilty uncle's breast; and when he starts up, and with a cry of exultation follows the craven and flying murderer to the door, the audience seemed relieved from a spell’ (Theatrical Journal, 5 September 1840).
237b–9 Barrymore ‘leans closely over King, speaking in his ear. King becomes terror-stricken, gives shriek’ (promptbook 156).
240–3 With Barrymore these lines were ‘all spoken simultaneously, characters all moving at the same time’ (promptbook 156).
240 With Irving, after the king rises, the Academy explains: ‘it is not so much by his rising, nor by Ophelia's words of surprise, as by the actor's [Irving’s] seething excitement, that you perceive the enterprise has succeeded’ (7 November 1874). In the end ‘he leaps in momentary wildness’ upon the vacant throne, ‘with an hysterical yell of triumph’ (Scott, Hamlets, p. 40).
241 Of Gielgud: ‘the house was really excited, and with that genuine excitement of a crowd when a goal is scored in a Cup final’ (Sunday Times, 11 May 1930, p. 6).
244 Playing opposite Derek Jacobi in the BBC-TV production, Patrick Stewart here coolly called for light, then held the torch to Hamlet's face, which Jacobi covered with his hands. When (like the First Player at 2.2.475) Jacobi then revealed his grinning, antic face, Stewart glanced around and shook his head as if to say ‘You see how impossible my nephew is …’ At the talk of the poisoning, his hand had gone up and down several times as if he wanted to shield his eyes but was restraining the impulse. Except for this momentary break, however, he kept his self-control.
245 ‘The Quarto [Q2] gives the line “Lights, lights, lights!” to Polonius only, while the Folio has “All.” It is very evident that in practice the cry for lights might well be started by Polonius but must be taken up by “All”’ (Webster, Shakespeare, p. 131).
245sd With Booth ‘the Players on the platform stage … stare in amazement and retire in doubt and chagrin’ (Shattuck, p. 217).
246 Gielgud ‘tears the “dozen or sixteen lines” into a thousand pieces and scatters them abroad’ (Gilder, p. 169).
246–58 Of Irving: ‘his body swaying the while from side to side in irrepressible excitement’ he recites the doggerel stanzas; at 258 he referred to Ophelia's peacock-feathered fan, which he still retained (Towse, ‘Irving’, p. 666).
248–9 Garrick always ‘wound up his burst of exultation … by three flourishes of his pocket-handkerchief over his head, as he paced the stage backwards and forwards. It was once remarked, as an extraordinary deviation, that he added a fourth flourish’ (Cole, Charles Kean, i, p. 283). Davies wished he would vary the practice (iii, pp. 93–4). Describing Macready, Forster caught the irony of the aftermath: ‘As he stands there, in the flushed excitement of a triumph, we feel that he is satisfied with the discovery alone … and that to act upon it was as far from his thoughts as ever’ (Dramatic Essays, p. 11).
264sd So F and Q1. Q2 has Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter later, at 269. The earlier entrance allows for unspoken interaction. Edwards suggests that Hamlet ‘pointedly ignores’ them. Or, if unobserved, they may have a chance to appraise the situation and exchange looks. Or perhaps the earlier entry simply gave them more time to cross the large Elizabethan stage.
265 ‘Fechter tore the leaves from his play-book and scattered them in the air … he put his hand to his throat as if choking. “Ah, ha!” became a gasp; he leaned upon Horatio and, for relief, for solace, called for music’ (Field, p. 108). Of Booth: ‘the “ah“ is an indrawn sound like a moan, the “ha“ an expulsion of breath like a low, sorrowful, but triumphant laugh’ (Shattuck, p. 209).
268 Of Macready: as usual after his ‘highest flights of passion’ he subsided into his natural gentleness; ‘he drooped his head upon Horatio's shoulder, and asked in the tone of a sick man for some music’ (Lady Pollock, Macready, p. 107).
269 In the 1964 Burton production, Gielgud directed Redfield, who had been exaggeratedly servile and alarmed, to: ‘bully Hamlet now! You must tell him off! He's behaved disgracefully – let him have it! … You’ve got the King on your side now. You’re not afraid of Hamlet any more’ (Redfield, Letters, p. 90).
270–8 Irving delivers 270 ‘with choler’ and through 278 ‘he is apparently full of high spirits – blazing away all the while’ (Terry's rehearsal book – the notes for this scene are not in Terry's hand).
274 Macready said these words rapidly, not as a question but as an ‘exclamation denoting an unquestionable conclusion’ (Hackett, Notes, p. 159).
282 Redfield with Burton in 1964: ‘the que-e-en, your mo-o-ther’, as if to say: ‘surely you’ll pay attention to her'.
297 Forbes-Robertson spoke ‘O wonderful son …’ with ‘tender melancholy’ (Daily News, 13 September 1897, p. 6).
301a–2 Macready gave a ‘long pause’ after ‘mother’ (promptbook 37). Booth: ‘This is [Hamlet’s] first use of the royal plural. He is resolved now to assume his rights’ (studybook). He spoke ‘trade’ with a ‘hard, sarcastic tone, implying in the word a reproach for their conspiracy against him’ (Shattuck, p. 211).
303–8 With Forbes-Robertson ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sharply differentiated, the former being the more sympathetic of the two. When (after the play) he appeals to Hamlet by their mutual friendship the Prince appears to be about to make some confidence to him when he catches the sinister look of Guildenstern fixed upon him and turns it off with an obviously affected “I lack advancement”, and his indignation in the “recorders” passage which immediately follows is directed only against Guildenstern’ (Crosse, Diaries, ii, 1898).
308 With Gielgud this line ‘is not merely a statement, but a proclamation of his thwarted right to power’ (Gilder, p. 171).
313 In rehearsal with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Stanislavsky ‘moved back and forth, forcing them to chase him like foxhounds. He led this “chase” at a hectic tempo and then suddenly stopped short, tossing them a line, so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with no time to halt crashed into him’ (Senelick, p. 143).
325 Burton rolled the ‘r’ in ‘brrreath’ up the scale.
330 Irving: ‘dropping all humorous banter and blazing out’ (Terry's rehearsal book).
334a Irving: ‘breaking a pipe across his knee’ (Terry's rehearsal book). Of Forbes-Robertson: ‘Unlike Irving he does not smash the recorder on his knee.’ Instead of rage he projected ‘a quiet sense of superiority over the two courtiers who foolishly fancied that it would be easy to play on him’ (Graphic, 18 September 1897, p. 374).
336 At this point Irving threw away the two pieces of his pipe (Terry's rehearsal book). Then he interpolated the sponge passage from 4.2.11–19, with Rosencrantz ‘angry’ at ‘Take you me for a sponge?’ and Hamlet emphasizing ‘Sponge, you shall be dry again’ with an added ‘you shall!’ At 337, he, in backing up, came upon Polonius. He turned and spoke the line, bowing low (Terry's rehearsal book).
337 With Booth, in these four words, ‘there is such weariness, there is such scorn of this miserable, dishonest, luxurious court, there is such despair of a noble nature set upon by ignoble natures, there is such impatience of this last crafty, unscrupulous, lying courtier, that the grace of speech is more bitter than a curse’ (Calhoun, ‘Booth’, p. 81).
339ff ‘Ion Swinley [as Hamlet] watched the camel-backed cloud through all the changes Hamlet suggests while Ernest Milton, with mocking attention, ‘never looked away from the old man's foolish, assenting face’ (Queen, 2 July 1924). In the Branagh film Polonius's manner towards ‘cold-eyed’ Hamlet moves from ‘barely civil’ to ‘vicious’ (Screenplay, p. 98).
343 Forrest paused after ‘or’ ‘as if rummaging for a simile’ (promptbook).
348b Irving spoke the word ‘friends’ with sarcasm. He wishes Horatio goodnight ‘very tenderly, though rather absently and wearily – extending his hand which Horatio kisses’ (Terry's rehearsal book). With Barrymore, too, Hamlet and Horatio exchanged goodnights (promptbook 156).
349ff Irving: Large bell strikes 12 (promptbook). After the ironic comedy of the ‘clouds’ exchange, Kingsley meant to shock the audience by abruptly floating ‘that black-magic, terrifying Halloween thing on this sea of laughter’ (Maher, Soliloquies, p. 84). Pennington sees Hamlet's ‘melodramatic rhetoric’ here as a retreat from action, ‘making himself an actor whose deeds are only gestures’; accordingly, he spoke it wearing a Player's cloak, as – he points out – Dillane would wear the Player King's crown and Fiennes a Player's mask (Hamlet, p. 92n).
351–6 Kevin Kline spoke 351–3a in a ‘spooky stage-whisper’; at ‘soft’ the ‘elation and energy’ of the first lines was checked by his straining resolve not to harm his mother: ‘Let me be cruuu-elll, not unnaturrrrell’ (Maher, Soliloquies, p. 193).
353a George Grizzard makes ‘an underhand stabbing motion’ then checks it (Rossi, p. 85).
357 Warner unbuckled his sword belt (Maher, Soliloquies, p. 57).
