Hamlet - Act 2 Scene 2
A room in the castle
The presence of attendants suggests that this is a formal occasion, and Claudius and Gertrude may be sitting on thrones or positioned upstage to indicate their status.
This is the second of three conversations in which Hamlet's madness is discussed and described before the audience witnesses it directly. These repetitions remind the audience of the essential information, but also rouse our curiosity and whet our appetite to see the 'transformed' Hamlet.
Claudius is essentially assigning Hamlet's childhood friends to spy on him, but he cunningly presents the mission as an attempt to aid Hamlet's recovery.
Words such as "entreat," "vouchsafe," and "if it will please you" are out of place in this scene, as Rosencrantz points out: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are subjects, and must obey royal commands, but Claudius and Gertrude instead make requests and ask for favours. This may indicate genuine concern for Hamlet, or political cunning, or both, and the King and Queen may differ in their motivations.
Enter CLAUDIUS, GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN,
and Attendants
CLAUDIUS
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 call it,
Sith nor the 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 the understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
That, being of so young days brought up with him,
And sith so neighboured to his youth and havior,
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 occasion you may glean,
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
That, opened, lies within our remedy.
GERTRUDE
Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you;
And sure I am two men there are 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.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are often portrayed as similar, even interchangeable (they almost never appear separate from one another). This moment of address is frequently played as though Claudius has reversed their names and been corrected by Gertrude.
CLAUDIUS
Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
GERTRUDE
Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz;
And I beseech you instantly to visit
My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
GUILDENSTERN
Heavens make our presence and our practises
Pleasant and helpful to him!
GERTRUDE
Ay, amen!
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some Attendants
Enter POLONIUS
POLONIUS
The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
Are joyfully returned.
CLAUDIUS
Thou still hast been the father of good news.
Polonius may be attempting some flattery here in order to soften the blow later when he must confess his own failings.
POLONIUS
Have I, my lord? I assure 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.
Presumably Polonius draws Claudius apart, since Gertrude does not seem to hear this exchange. Alternatively, a production seeking to emphasize Polonius' senility might have him speaking in front of the Queen, unaware of his own indiscretion.
This notion of grace will recur later in the scene, when Hamlet sends Polonius to greet the Players. Sending a high-ranking official to greet and escort the ambassadors confers honour upon them.
Gertrude's delivery of this line indicates much about her character: is she regretful, conflicted, resigned, unworried? Her reaction here can demonstrate her feelings about Hamlet, Old Hamlet, Claudius, and the current situation.
CLAUDIUS
O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
POLONIUS
Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
CLAUDIUS
Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
Exit POLONIUS
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.
GERTRUDE
I doubt it is no other but the main:
His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
CLAUDIUS
Well, we shall sift him.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
Welcome, my good friends!
Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
Though the movement of Fortinbras' army through Denmark remains a potential threat, this news effectively ends the external threat that was so built up in 1.1, leaving the rest of the play to focus on the internal struggles – and internal corruption – of Denmark. Shakespeare employs a similar structure in Othello, first establishing and then removing the Turkish threat, shifting the play's focus to internal tensions.
VOLTIMAND
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 the 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 paper
That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprise,
On such regards of safety and allowance
As therein are set down.
Claudius may honestly believe Fortinbras' pledge, or he may remain wary, or else his usual caution may be overwhelmed by his desire to hear Polonius' news regarding Hamlet.
CLAUDIUS
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 labour:
Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:
Most welcome home!
Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
This is a common trope in Renaissance comedy: any time a learned old man claims to have a brief report, a long-winded and tedious speech is sure to follow. Shakespeare uses this device in Henry V and in Romeo & Juliet. In this moment, Polonius is very much a Dottore, the comically incompetent doctor-scholar of the Commedia Dell'arte.
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.
GERTRUDE
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 while she is mine –
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
Reads
'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. Thus:
This is a fairly standard salutation, and its surface meaning is that Hamlet intends his words for Ophelia's heart. Polonius, reading the letter aloud, may be more embarrassed by the mention of his daughter's "excellent white bosom."
Reads
'In her excellent white bosom, these, etc.'
GERTRUDE
Came this from Hamlet to her?
POLONIUS
Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
Reads
Hamlet's love poetry is fairly conventional, and also, by his own admission, not very good. The latter half of his letter, in prose, explains his inability to put his thoughts effectively into verse, again re-iterating the dichotomy between interior thought and exterior expression.
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, O 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.
CLAUDIUS
But how hath she
Received his love?
POLONIUS
What do you think of me?
CLAUDIUS
As of a man faithful and honourable.
Polonius interrupts his sentence to specify that he noticed the affair before Ophelia reported it, insisting on his own perceptive insight even as he is about to admit his oversight.
Polonius is describing events which the audience has already seen. Depending on the production, his account may be quite accurate, or he may be distorting events in order to make himself look better.
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, repulsed – 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.
CLAUDIUS
Do you think 'tis this?
GERTRUDE
It may be, very likely.
POLONIUS
Hath there been such a time—I’d fain know that –
That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
When it proved otherwise?
Claudius' response is ambiguous – it could indicate his support for Polonius, or his doubts in the advisor's abilities.
Polonius' gesture is ambiguous, but has generally been interpreted to suggest his own beheading: putting his life on the line to vouch for his interpretation.
CLAUDIUS
Not that I know.
POLONIUS
[Pointing to his head and shoulder]
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 centre.
CLAUDIUS
How may we try it further?
POLONIUS
You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.
GERTRUDE
So he does indeed.
Polonius takes on the role of director or stage-manager, arranging a scene for Claudius to watch. Polonius' interest in meddling and surveillance will have dire consequences, not least for himself.
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.
CLAUDIUS
We will try it.
GERTRUDE
But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
POLONIUS
Away, I do beseech you, both away:
I'll board him presently.
The scene very quickly shifts from a public audience to a private conversation, and there may be some comedy to be had from the hasty and furtive exit of Claudius, Gertrude, and their court.
Exeunt CLAUDIUS, GERTRUDE, and Attendants
Enter HAMLET, reading
O, give me leave.
How does my good Lord Hamlet?
HAMLET
Well, God-a-mercy.
POLONIUS
Do you know me, my lord?
This is Hamlet's first appearance in the play since the Ghost's revelations in 1.5. He may be in a new costume, no longer in mourning black, or perhaps disheveled in the manner described by Ophelia in 2.1. He may also affect a variety of mannerisms to indicate his supposed madness.
HAMLET
Excellent well; you are 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 refers to spontaneous generation, the commonly-held belief that maggots and other vermin were produced in rotting matter by the light of the sun. By implication, Hamlet links this idea to anxieties about the chastity of women, and of Ophelia in particular. This notion will recur for Hamlet in 3.1, but he may be using it here merely to mock Polonius' over-protective parenting.
It is worth noting that Polonius addresses the audience directly here. Though Hamlet retains his intimate relationship with the audience through his many soliloquies, that bond is shared by other characters as well.
HAMLET
For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god
kissing carrion – Have you a daughter?
POLONIUS
I have, my lord.
HAMLET
Let her not walk i' the sun. Conception is a blessing, but
not 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; he said I was a fishmonger:
he 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's "slanders" can be biting insults if Polonius is played as an old man. Hamlet consistently uses his feigned madness as an opportunity to insult and humiliate Polonius, who may or may not be aware of the treatment he receives.
HAMLET
Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here that
old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled,
their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree 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 yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if
like a crab you could go backward.
The setting for the scene appears to have shifted from indoors to outdoors, as this line suggests that Hamlet and Polonius are in a gallery or courtyard. The open platform stage of the playhouse in Shakespeare's time would mean that this change can take place with no shifting of scenery.
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
Indeed, that is out o' the air.
[Aside]
Polonius here hits on an essential aspect of the idea of madness: insanity reveals inner thought as much as it conceals it. Hamlet's madness may hide his intentions, but it also allows him to express himself much more freely than he otherwise might. As the play progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to determine how much of Hamlet's madness is feigned, and how much is real.
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 honourable lord, I will most
humbly take my leave of you.
HAMLET
You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more
willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except
my life.
POLONIUS
Fare you well, my lord.
Presumably, Polonius is out of hearing, and Hamlet shares his frustration with the audience. Are we meant to join him in mocking Polonius? The scene can be played to give Polonius more sympathy, or to make him an object of scorn.
HAMLET
These tedious old fools!
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
POLONIUS
You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
ROSENCRANTZ
[To POLONIUS]
God save you, sir!
Exit POLONIUS
The greetings used by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are fairly formal, while Hamlet's response is both casual and warm. This meeting could be staged to indicate the intimate friendship of these characters, or to suggest the formality or awkwardness of their current situation, or both.
GUILDENSTERN
My honoured 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.
This exchange seems quite friendly, a group of old friends falling into playful old habits. As the scene develops, the dynamic of Hamlet probing for information while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern evade becomes more evident and more pointed.
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
favours?
GUILDENSTERN
'Faith, her privates we.
The image of Fortune as a goddess-figure was a convention of Renaissance drama, poetry, and art. Fortune was typically portrayed with a wheel, indicating both ceaseless movement and sudden reversals. Because of her changeable and indiscriminant nature, she was also conventionally portrayed as a strumpet or whore.
HAMLET
In the secret parts of Fortune? O, 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.
These lines may be expressed sincerely, or playfully, or madly, and once more the mask of humour or madness allows Hamlet to vent his true feelings safely. His pretense both reveals the truth and conceals it.
HAMLET
A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards
and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the 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
O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell 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.
The logic to Hamlet's line is that beggars, who are not ambitious, are thus solid, whereas kings and heroes, full of ambition, are thus their shadows. The actual argument is probably less important here than the game: these are educated men playing at philosophy and trying to outdo each other by twisting one another's words and ideas. Mercutio, Romeo, and Benvolio indulge similar games in Romeo & Juliet.
HAMLET
Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to
the court? For, by my fay, I cannot reason.
ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN
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.
The rhythm of Hamlet's speech can heighten the tension of the scene. If he asks his questions in rapid succession, they may seem innocent or playful. If he pauses between questions, awaiting a response, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's continued silence points to their guilt or discomfort.
On the surface, Hamlet's line is a complaint about his servants. Its double meaning also refers to his private troubles: he is followed and haunted by the dread-inducing spectre of his father.
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, deal justly with
me: come, come; nay, speak.
GUILDENSTERN
What should we say, my lord?
HAMLET
Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent for;
and there is a kind of confession in your looks which
your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know
the good King and Queen have sent for you.
ROSENCRANTZ
To what end, my lord?
Hamlet once more plays the theatre critic, finding fault with his friends' performance: they are not skilled enough to lie effectively.
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?
Here, as in 3.2, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are out of their depth, and the two asides – theirs to one another, Hamlet's to the audience – reveal the game of intrigue and betrayal that underlies the friendly reunion.
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.
Once again, Hamlet may be dissembling here, or he may be sincere, or a combination of both. The feelings he describes are similar to those he articulated in 1.2, though here they tend more towards depression than rage. However, he does not mention anything about the Ghost, the murder, or the marriage, suggesting that he does not trust Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with this information.
HAMLET
I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent
your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and
Queen moult no feather. I have of late — but wherefore
I know not – lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of
exercises; 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 vapours. What a piece of work is a
man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! 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 demonstrates his knowldege of – and passion for – the stage, rattling off a list of standard parts for members of a traveling troupe, and adding his own commentary and criticism as well.
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 humourous man shall end his part in peace; the
clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled
o' the sere; 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 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, are they not.
HAMLET
How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
This discussion is explicitly meta-theatrical. The "tragedians of the city" are Shakespeare's own troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men). In the early 1600s, boys' companies were in vogue, and the popularity of the adult actors suffered.
At the same time, playwrights and poets were viciously satirizing each other in plays and pamphlets, a conflict which became known as "The War of the Theatres."
This discussion may have been added to the play while the company was on tour (possibly at Oxford and Cambridge), making the humour even more self-referential.
The reference is to Hercules carrying the earth and sky, having taken over the load from Atlas as part of the 11th of his 12 Labours. This image may have adorned the Globe playhouse, home of Shakespeare's company, again making the joke self-referential.
ROSENCRANTZ
Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
there is, sir, an aery 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 no 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
O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
HAMLET
Do the boys carry it away?
"Uncle-father" and "aunt-mother" refers to Hamlet's dissatisfaction with Claudius and Gertrude, but may also go much farther by positing their marriage as incest.
ROSENCRANTZ
Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
HAMLET
It is not very strange; for mine uncle is King of
Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred
ducats a-piece for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is
something in this more than natural, if philosophy
could find it out.
Flourish of trumpets within
GUILDENSTERN
There are the players.
Once again, Hamlet aims some mockery at Polonius, this time enlisting Rosencratnz and Guildenstern to join in.
HAMLET
Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,
come then: the 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
Happily he's 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
so indeed.
It seems surprising that Polonius goes to such lengths to recommend the players. Is he, like Hamlet, a fan of the troupe? Is he attempting to cajole Hamlet out of his depression?
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
Buz, buz!
Hamlet may be referring to an extant song, one which the audience might have recognized. Many would be familiar with the story of Jepthah, from the Book of Judges: before going off to fight the Amonites, Jephtah swore that, should he win, he would sacrifice to God the first thing he saw on his return; he was victorious, but upon his return, he was greeted by his daughter, whom he then sacrificed. The story's relevance to Hamlet's situation is tenuous, but it certainly does not bode well for Ophelia.
POLONIUS
Upon mine honour–
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 loved passing well.'
POLONIUS
[Aside]
Still on my daughter.
Since only the First Player speaks in this scene, the ranks of the players may have been filled out with hired men, or 'extras,' and would thus change depending on who was available.
In the players' troupe, as in Shakespeare's, the female parts would be played by boys. Hamlet teases the boy-actor, who would become unsuitable for women's parts when his voice changed.
The speech comes from the tale of Aeneas and Dido, part of Ovid's Aeneid. The story had been adapted by Marlowe for his play Dido, Queen of Carthage, in the early 1590s (it was published in 1594, after Marlowe's death).
The speech details the final battle of the Trojan War, in which Pyrrhus, having emerged from the Trojan Horse, slays Priam, the King of Troy, while Queen Hecuba watches and laments. The scenario echoes and distorts the stories of the play: an old king is brutally killed by a younger man, as the old queen looks on in grief. Pyrrhus, the murderer, is both Claudius and Hamlet (or the avenger Hamlet wishes he could be); Priam, the king-victim is both Old Hamlet and Claudius (the victim of Hamlet's fantasies); Hecuba is a stand-in for Gertrude, and for the grief which Hamlet wishes she'd displayed for his father, and the care she now displays for Claudius.
Shakespeare evokes and exaggerates Marlowe's heightened style in this speech, a style which would have been several years out of fashion by the time Hamlet was performed. The style may be considered an homage, or a parody, or a mixture of both, but it evokes a past style, and presents it in counterpoint to Shakespeare's style (and Hamlet's).
HAMLET
Am I not i' the 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 abridgement comes.
Enter four or five Players
You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad to
see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old friend!
Thy face is valenced since I saw thee last: comest thou
to beard me in Denmark? What, my young lady and
mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to 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 any
thing 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 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
savoury, 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 it 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 the Hyrcanian beast–'
It is 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 impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damnèd light
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
So, proceed you.
Polonius' praise may be deserved, or it may indicate his obsequious nature, but it raises questions about Hamlet's performance: does Hamlet act well? How does his delivery of the speech compare with the Player's?
Shakespeare again toys with conventions of performance and criticism. Polonius' comments could easily be leveled at Hamlet, and Hamlet's counter-attack could be Shakespeare's response to his own critics.
The language of this speech is full of passion, and its over-wrought writing could invite and support an over-wrought performance. Polonius' comment here (and Hamlet's later) suggest that the Player performs in a heightened fashion, filling his delivery and his appearance with the emotion of the speech. Hamlet's speech at the end of the scene suggests that Hamlet himself is watching, fascinated, as the Player's speech gives vent to Hamlet's private desires.
Hamlet's claim for the importance of actors and the theatre can become an explicit meta-theatrical joke if it is delivered to the audience as well as Polonius.
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
The 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' the 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,
Arousèd vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars's armour 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, O, who had seen the moblèd queen– '
HAMLET
'The moblèd queen?'
POLONIUS
That's good; 'moblèd queen' is good.
Hamlet may be mocking Polonius here, but his point is significant: in arguing for charity rather than propriety, he echoes the play's conflict between Christian values and political expedience.
First Player
'Run barefoot up and down, threatening 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'er-teemèd loins,
A blanket, in the 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 clamour 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, whether he has not turned his colour and has tears
in’s eyes. Pray you, no more.
HAMLET
'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon. Good
my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do
you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstract
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 honour and dignity: the less they deserve,
the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.
POLONIUS
Come, sirs.
HAMLET
Follow him, friends. We'll hear a play tomorrow.
Exit POLONIUS with all the Players but the First
Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the Murder of
Gonzago?
At this point, Hamlet seems to be considering speech, rather than action. He is not explicitly contemplating murder, but rather imagining the ability to speak with such skill that Claudius would go insane, innocent hearers (perhaps including Gertrude) would be horrified, and all Denmark would be astonished.
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.
Exit First Player
My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are
welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ
Good my lord!
HAMLET
Ay, so, God be wi' ye;
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
Hamlet asks these questions of himself, but he may also use them to confront the audience directly, retreating as he confronts his own cowardice or inaction.
Here Hamlet begins to think about direct action and revenge, only to immediately take up the opposition between actions and words.
The notion that murders are exposed through supernatural agency is supported by the appearance of the Ghost. This idea occurs in other plays as well, most notably Macbeth.
Hamlet's plan to have the players perform The Murder of Gonzago appears to emerge spontaneously out of this speech, which is odd, given that he already put that plan into action earlier in the scene.
Hamlet once again returns to the doubt surrounding the Ghost, which may be "honest" or misleading, again invoking the danger of damnation involved in revenge.
Now I am alone.
O, 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 own 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 for 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 the nose? Gives me the lie i' the 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 have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, 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! 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 he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To 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