Hamlet - Act 4 Scene 5
Elsinore. A room in the castle.
Some time appears to have passed between the previous scene and this one, which may be indicated in characters' costumes and behaviour. The next few scenes shift the focus away from Hamlet to the consequences of Polonius' murder.
Enter GERTRUDE, HORATIO, and a Gentleman
GERTRUDE
I will not speak with her.
Gentleman
She is importunate, indeed distract:
Her mood will needs be pitied.
GERTRUDE
What would she have?
In the Folio version of the play, the Gentleman is cut, and his lines given to Horatio.
The speech does not mention Ophelia by name, nor does it mention madness outright, though both are heavily implied.
Gentleman
She speaks much of her father; says she hears
There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
HORATIO
'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
Gertrude's initial refusal to speak with or see Ophelia is never explained, and may result from a personal dislike or from the continuing onslaught of tragic events. Gertrude's speech here, most likely an aside, hints at some sin of her own, which may be her marriage, or her complicity in Hamlet's exile or in Polonius' murder.
GERTRUDE
Let her come in.
Exit HORATIO
To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA
OPHELIA
Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
Ophelia's appearance here may be quite striking; in Shakespeare's day, the (male) actor would have worn a wig that resembled unkempt hair, a stage convention for madwomen. As Ophelia is truly mad, her costume or bearing may echo Hamlet's feigned madness. Many modern productions have her enter wearing some item of Polonius' clothing, to depict her clinging to the memory of her father.
GERTRUDE
How now, Ophelia!
OPHELIA
[Sings]
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon.
GERTRUDE
Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
OPHELIA
Say you? Nay, pray you, mark.
There has been much discussion of Ophelia's songs. They appear to have been created by Shakespeare, though they have the feel of folk-ballads. The audience may not have known the tunes, but the material and themes would likely have been familiar.
Ophelia's songs link to her griefs and concerns, dealing with death and loss, love, sex, and betrayal.
Sings
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.
GERTRUDE
Nay, but, Ophelia–
OPHELIA
Pray you, mark.
Sings
White his shroud as the mountain snow–
Enter CLAUDIUS
GERTRUDE
Alas, look here, my lord.
The word "not" in this line mars both the rhythm of the song and its sense. It is frequently played as Ophelia's own addition, changing the words of the traditional song in order to upbraid Claudius for his decision to bury Polonius in secret, rather than with full rites.
In a medieval legend, a baker's daughter who refused food to Christ was transformed into an owl in punishment. Whether Ophelia means this comment for herself or for Claudius is unclear.
OPHELIA
[Sings]
Larded with sweet flowers
Which bewept to the grave did not go
With true-love showers.
CLAUDIUS
How do you, pretty lady?
OPHELIA
Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's
daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
what we may be. God be at your table!
CLAUDIUS
Conceit upon her father.
OPHELIA
Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they
ask you what it means, say you this:
The song plays on the double meaning of "maid" as both "young woman" and "virgin," thus telling of a young man who convinces a young woman to sleep with him. The song may provide a hint as to Ophelia's relationship with Hamlet.
Sings
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donned his clothes,
And dupped the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
CLAUDIUS
Pretty Ophelia!
OPHELIA
Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't:
The song continues into a dialogue between the lovers. She claims that, before they slept together, he promised to marry her; he responds that he would have married her, had she not slept with him. Again, this may provide insight into Ophelia's past with Hamlet. "By cock" was a colloquial pronunciation of "by God," though the sexual meaning would have been present as well.
Like Hamlet when he feigned madness, Ophelia in her actual madness shifts rapidly from one emotion to another and from one thought to the next.
Sings
By Gis and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!
Young men will do't if they come to’t,
By cock, they are to blame.
Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed.
So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.
CLAUDIUS
How long hath she been thus?
OPHELIA
I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I
cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him
i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it:
and so I thank you for your good counsel.
Come, my coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies;
good night, good night.
Exit
Claudius' command here hints at a fear that Ophelia may become suicidal, foreshadowing her imminent death.
CLAUDIUS
Follow her close; give her good watch,
I pray you.
Exit HORATIO
Claudius makes a point of insisting on Hamlet's responsibility for his own exile, distracting from Claudius' role in the decision.
Evidently, Claudius had Polonius buried in secret, without the ceremony that should attend the funeral of a lord; Claudius now has cause to regret this decision, as it seems to have aggravated Ophelia's madness and earned the enmity of Laertes and the general public.
Claudius' language suggests that his relationship with Gertrude is still strong and intimate, regardless of any rifts created by Hamlet's interference in 3.4.
O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,
When sorrows come, they come not single spies
But in battalions. First, her father slain:
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: the people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,
For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,
In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia
Divided from herself and her fair judgment,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France;
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggared,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death.
A noise within
GERTRUDE
Alack, what noise is this?
Swiss guards traditionally guarded the Pope, and were used as royal guards in many countries in Shakespeare's day.
CLAUDIUS
Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.
Enter another Gentleman
What is the matter?
Shakespeare inserts a rebellion, adding substantial action and intrigue to the play, but he keeps all of the major combat offstage, which cuts down on both time and cost.
The Gentleman's critique of the rabble links to the play's larger themes: Claudius has already disrupted order and tradition by murdering his brother to achieve the crown. Now new disruptions follow, as Laertes' followers wish to depose Claudius.
Gentleman
Save yourself, my lord:
The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king:'
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds:
'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'
GERTRUDE
How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
CLAUDIUS
The doors are broke.
In the absence of large armies and fight scenes, much of the tension of the scene is created by offstage noises (shouts, trumpets, cannons, sounds of fighting, crashes) and the onstage characters' reactions.
Noise within
Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following
LAERTES
Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.
Danes
No, let's come in.
Many productions keep Laertes' followers offstage here, saving on extra performers and costumes, and keeping the confrontation entirely between Laertes and Claudius.
LAERTES
I pray you, give me leave.
Danes
We will, we will.
[They retire without the door]
Laertes is, in this moment, a perfect echo and contrast to Hamlet. Where Hamlet has delayed and plotted, Laertes storms into the room, at the head of an army, loudly demanding his vengeance. In performance, Laertes generally enters this scene armed, posing an immediate danger to the unarmed Claudius and Gertrude.
LAERTES
I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king,
Give me my father!
GERTRUDE
Calmly, good Laertes.
LAERTES
That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard,
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here, between the chaste unsmirchèd brow
Of my true mother.
As Claudius' lines indicate, Gertrude repeatedly interposes herself between Laertes and Claudius, attempting to defend her husband.
Claudius' argument about the divine aura of kings is deeply ironic given his own status as a traitor, murderer, and usurper, but also may be an indication of his confidence and authority.
CLAUDIUS
What is the cause, Laertes,
That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?
Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person:
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude.
Speak, man.
LAERTES
Where is my father?
CLAUDIUS
Dead.
GERTRUDE
But not by him.
CLAUDIUS
Let him demand his fill.
Laertes again stands in stark contrast to Hamlet in his lack of concern for religious issues. As long as he attains his revenge, he claims, he does not care if his soul is damned in the process.
LAERTES
How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father.
CLAUDIUS
Who shall stay you?
"My will" is idiomatic here, so that the phrase means, "if I have my will, nothing will stand in my way."
"Sweepstake" is a gambling term, still in use today, in which the winner takes all the stakes from the table. The point is also a reminder of Hamlet's indiscriminate revenge which has slain Polonius while leaving Claudius alive.
LAERTES
My will, not all the world:
And for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.
CLAUDIUS
Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?
LAERTES
None but his enemies.
CLAUDIUS
Will you know them then?
The pelican, in medieval and Renaissance tradition, was thought to pierce its own breast in order to feed its blood to its young, and was thus considered a symbol for Christ's sacrifice and charity.
LAERTES
To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms;
And like the kind life-rendering pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
CLAUDIUS
Why, now you speak
Like a good child and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensible in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce
As day does to your eye.
Danes
[Within]
Let her come in.
Laertes seems to be calming down, and may have lowered or sheathed his weapon; the renewed noise might startle him into a renewed state of alertness, as he encounters Ophelia.
Laertes claims that Ophelia's love for her father has caused her wits to follow Polonius into death, as an act of faithful attraction.
LAERTES
How now! What noise is that?
Re-enter OPHELIA
O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt,
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight,
Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens! Is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.
OPHELIA
[Sings]
They bore him barefaced on the bier;
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
And in his grave rained many a tear–
Fare you well, my dove!
Laertes, moved from rage to grief by Ophelia's appearance, now begins to work himself back towards revenge.
Ophelia now becomes a director, instructing Laertes (and perhaps the others) how to join in on the song's refrain.
LAERTES
Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,
It could not move thus.
OPHELIA
[Sings]
You must sing a-down a-down,
An you call him a-down-a.
O, how the wheel becomes it!
It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.
LAERTES
This nothing's more than matter.
Ophelia hands out flowers to the assembled characters, identifying each flower's symbolic meaning. She may enter carrying an actual funeral bouquet, or she may find the flowers in the room, or else, in her madness, may be referring to other objects or to empty air.
Ophelia's lines give no indication as to which character receives which flowers, though the symbolism of each gift may be significant: fennel symbolizes flattery, columbines represent thanklessness (and may also stand for cuckoldry), rue symbolizes repentance or regret, daisies are the emblem of dissemblers, and violets represent faithfulness.
OPHELIA
There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love,
remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
LAERTES
A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance
fitted.
OPHELIA
There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue for you;
and here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays:
O you must wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy:
I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my
father died: they say he made a good end–
Sings
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
LAERTES
Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
She turns to favour and to prettiness.
Ophelia's final song is a heart-wrenching lament which seems to specifically describe Polonius, and her farewell again foreshadows her impending death.
OPHELIA
[Sings]
And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,
Go to thy death-bed,
He never will come again.
His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan:
God ha' mercy on his soul!
And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye.
Exit
The judgement scene which Claudius proposes never occurs onstage, but the proposal serves to indicate how much influence Claudius now has over Laertes, and the growing collusion between the two.
The details of Polonius' burial have been hinted at earlier in the scene, but Laertes now gives specifics, arguing that Polonius was denied the proper recognition for his rank and service.
LAERTES
Do you see this, O God?
CLAUDIUS
Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will.
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,
To you in satisfaction; but if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.
LAERTES
Let this be so;
His means of death, his obscure funeral –
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite nor formal ostentation –
Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call't in question.
Gertrude has remained silent throughout this exchange, though she may react physically to the suggestion of "the great axe," as a danger to Hamlet's life.
CLAUDIUS
So you shall;
And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.
Exeunt