To desperation turne my trust and hope,[8]
And Anchors[9] cheere in prison be my scope]
[Footnote 1: All that is wanted to make a real enemy of an unreal friend is the seasoning of a requested favour.]
[Footnote 2: "Our thoughts are ours, but what will come of them we cannot tell."]
[Footnote 3: "May Day and Night lock from me sport and repose."]
[Footnote 4: "May strife pursue me in the world and out of it."]
[Footnote 5: In all this, there is nothing to reflect on his mother beyond what everybody knew.]
[Footnote 6: _This speech is in the margin of the Quarto._]
[Footnote 7: _Not in Q._]
[Footnote 8: "May my trust and hope turn to despair."]
[Footnote 9: an anch.o.r.et"s.]
[Page 148]
_King_. Haue you heard the Argument, is there no Offence in"t?[1]
_Ham_. No, no, they do but iest, poyson in iest, no Offence i"th"world.[2]
_King_. What do you call the Play?
_Ham._ The Mouse-trap: Marry how? Tropically:[3]
This Play is the Image of a murder done in _Vienna: Gonzago_ is the Dukes name, his wife _Baptista_: you shall see anon: "tis a knauish peece of worke: But what o"that? Your Maiestie, and [Sidenote: of that?]
wee that haue free soules, it touches vs not: let the gall"d iade winch: our withers are vnrung.[4]
_Enter Lucia.n.u.s._[5]
This is one _Lucia.n.u.s_ nephew to the King.
_Ophe_. You are a good Chorus, my Lord.
[Sidenote: are as good as a Chorus]
_Ham_. I could interpret betweene you and your loue: if I could see the Puppets dallying.[6]
_Ophe_. You are keene my Lord, you are keene.
_Ham_. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge.
[Sidenote: mine]
_Ophe_. Still better and worse.
_Ham_. So you mistake Husbands.[7] [Sidenote: mistake your]
Begin Murderer. Pox, leaue thy d.a.m.nable Faces, [Sidenote: murtherer, leave]
and begin. Come, the croaking Rauen doth bellow for Reuenge.[8]
_Lucian_. Thoughts blacke, hands apt, Drugges fit, and Time agreeing: Confederate season, else, no Creature seeing:[9] [Sidenote: Considerat]
Thou mixture ranke, of Midnight Weeds collected, With Hecats Ban, thrice blasted, thrice infected, [Sidenote: invected]
Thy naturall Magicke, and dire propertie, On wholsome life, vsurpe immediately. [Sidenote: vsurps]
_Powres the poyson in his eares_.[10]
_Ham_. He poysons him i"th Garden for"s estate: [Sidenote: A poysonsfor his]
[Footnote 1: --said, perhaps, to Polonius. Is there a lapse here in the king"s self-possession? or is this speech only an outcome of its completeness--a pretence of fearing the play may glance at the queen for marrying him?]
[Footnote 2: "It is but jest; don"t be afraid: there is no reality in it"--as one might say to a child seeing a play.]
[Footnote 3: Figuratively: from _trope_. In the _1st Q._ the pa.s.sage stands thus:
_Ham_. Mouse-trap: mary how trapically: this play is The image of a murder done in _guyana_,]
[Footnote 4: Here Hamlet endangers himself to force the king to self-betrayal.]
[Footnote 5: _In Q. after next line._]
[Footnote 6: In a puppet-play, if she and her love were the puppets, he could supply the speeches.]
[Footnote 7: Is this a misprint for "so you _must take_ husbands"--for better and worse, namely? or is it a thrust at his mother--"So you mis-take husbands, going from the better to a worse"? In _1st Q._: "So you must take your husband, begin."]
[Footnote 8: Probably a mocking parody or burlesque of some well-known exaggeration--such as not a few of Marlowe"s lines.]
[Footnote 9: "none beholding save the accomplice hour:".]
[Footnote 10: _Not in Q._]
[Page 150]
His name"s _Gonzago_: the Story is extant and writ [Sidenote: and written]
in choyce Italian. You shall see anon how the [Sidenote: in very choice]
Murtherer gets the loue of _Gonzago"s_ wife.
_Ophe_. The King rises.[1]
_Ham_. What, frighted with false fire.[2]
_Qu_. How fares my Lord?
_Pol_. Giue o"re the Play.
_King_. Giue me some Light. Away.[3]