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Online Texts for Craig White's Literature Courses
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Selection 2 from William Shakespeare's
The
Tragedy of Hamlet,
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Instructor's note: In the preceding scene, a play-within-a-play ('The Mousetrap') depicts a king being murdered by his brother—a scene including a speech written by Hamlet that disturbingly re-creates the murder of old King Hamlet (Prince Hamlet's father) by his brother, the current King Claudius, who is Prince Hamlet's uncle.
The play upsets King Claudius, who abruptly leaves the audience, proving to Hamlet that Claudius feels guilt for the death of Old King Hamlet. The excerpt from scene 3 below depicts Claudius trying to pray for forgiveness for his crime. (In an omitted passage, Hamlet enters, sees Claudius, considers killing him on the spot, but backs off because if Claudius dies while praying he may go to heaven instead of hell.)
The excerpts below from Act 3 exhibit two important developments in the history and modernization of tragedy:
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In Act 3, Scene 3, Hamlet overhears Claudius in prayer comparing his killing of his brother to the Biblical story of the sons of Adam and Eve, in which Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4: 1-8). Classical Greek tragedy enacted or referred to figures from Greek mythology, but Renaissance tragedy may incorporate narratives from Judeo-Christian scripture. (In the next scene, though, Hamlet refers to Apollo and Zeus.)
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Act 3, Scene 4 has become famous or notorious for its potential as representation of the Oedipal conflict. At the very center of the play is a scene involving a mother-son conversation on incest interrupted by the ghost of Gertrude’s (first) husband and Hamlet’s father, the murdered king—in his nightgown! Modern directors and producers, who know Freud’s Oedipus Conflict, often heighten the sexual possibilities that earlier productions of the play may have ignored.
Act 3, Scene 3.
A room in the castle. . . .
CLAUDIUS (King):
O, my offence is rank it smells
to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon it,
[primal
eldest curse = Cain’s murder of Abel, Genesis 4]
A brother's murder. Pray can I not . . .
What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow?
. . .
[Retires and
kneels]
[As the scene continues (omitted), Hamlet enters, sees Claudius, considers killing him on the spot, but backs off because if Claudius dies while praying he may go to heaven instead of hell.]
ACT 3, SCENE 4
The Queen's closet. [“closet” = private room, maybe bedroom]
Enter QUEEN
GERTRUDE and POLONIUS [the king's & queen's chief advisor].
POLONIUS [to Queen Gertrude]: 'A will come straight. Look you lay home to him. [‘A = all; lay home = be direct; him = Hamlet]
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your Grace hath screened and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here;
Pray you be round with him. [be round = don’t go easy] [5]
HAMLET: [Within] Mother, Mother, Mother!
GERTRUDE: I'll warrant you, fear me not. Withdraw, ["I'll warrant you" = I'll do as you say]
I
hear him coming. [Polonius hides
behind the arras.]
[arras
= tapestry]
[Enter HAMLET.
]
HAMLET: Now, mother, what's the matter?
HAMLET: Mother, you have my father much offended. [my father = old King Hamlet]
GERTRUDE: Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. [idle = unhelpful] [great mother-son dialogue]
HAMLET: Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
GERTRUDE: Why, how now, Hamlet?
HAMLET: What's the matter now?
GERTRUDE: Have you forgot me? ["aren't you considering my feelings?] [15]
HAMLET: No, by the rood, not so: [rood = cross]
You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,
And would it were not so, you are my mother.
GERTRUDE: Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. ["If I can't talk with you, I'll find someone who can."]
HAMLET: Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass [glass = mirror] [20]
Where you may see the inmost part of you. [productions often have Hamlet hold up a mirror to his mother's face]
GERTRUDE: What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? [Hamlet is usually shown to have grabbed Gertrude and held her close]
Help ho!
POLONIUS: [Behind]. What ho, help!
HAMLET: [Drawing (his sword or rapier)] How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead! [ducat = coin] [25]
[Kills Polonius through the arras.] [arras = hanging tapestry; Hamlet, hearing Polonius shout from behind the tapestry, thrusts his sword through the tapestry, thinking the person on the other side may be Claudius, whom he wants to kill]]
POLONIUS: [Behind] O, I am slain.
GERTRUDE: O me, what hast thou done?
HAMLET: Nay, I know not, is it the King? [Hamlet hopes he has killed King Claudius]
GERTRUDE: O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! [great Renaissance-royal mom-talk]
HAMLET: A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother. [the crime that initiates the conflict in Hamlet] [30]
GERTRUDE: As kill a king! [Gertrude's surprised reaction may imply that, while she has married Claudius, she has not suspected Claudius as the cause of King Hamlet's death]
HAMLET: Ay, lady, it was my word.
[Parts the arras
and sees Polonius.]
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better [Claudius]. Take thy fortune;
Thou findest to be too busy is some danger. — [Hamlet regards Polonius as a busy-body whose officiousness got him into this trouble]
[speaks to Queen Gertrude>] Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit you down, [your, you = Gertrude] [35]
And let me wring your heart, for so I shall
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damned custom have not brassed it so [brassed = hardened]
That it be proof and bulwark against sense. [bulwark = fortified]
GERTRUDE: What have I done, that thou dare wag thy tongue [40]
In noise so rude against me?
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
. . . makes marriage vows [45]
As false as dicers' oaths, O, such a deed [dicers’ = gamblers’]
As from the body of contraction plucks [contraction = marriage contract, betrothal]
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words. Heaven's face does glow
O'er this solidity and compound mass [this . . . mass = the earth] [50]
With heated visage, as against the doom; [the doom = Judgment Day]
Is thought-sick at the act. [As with Thebes being sick b/c of Oedipus's crimes, Hamlet implies that heaven is angry with earth over the Danish court's murder and incest]
That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
[index
= prologue]
[In the following speech, Hamlet typically shows
Gertrude two pictures, one of old King Hamlet, the other of his brother, the new
king
Claudius, old Hamlet's brother.]
HAMLET: Look here upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. [counterfeit = made in imitation or art; cf. mimesis] [55]
See what a grace was seated on this brow: [this brow = the face of old King Hamlet, H’s father]
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself, [Hyperion = Apollo; front = appearance; Jove = king of gods]
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command, [Mars = god of war]
A station like the herald Mercury [station = bearing; Mercury = messenger of gods]
New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; [60]
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal
To give the world assurance of a man.
This was your husband.
Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear, [your husband: King Claudius; "mildewed ear" = blighted ear of corn] [65]
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha, have you eyes? [batten = feed, gorge; moor = hill]
You cannot call it love, for at your age
The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble, [70]
And waits upon the judgment, and what judgment ["the judgment" = death, Judgment Day]
Would step from this to this?
Else could you not have motion, but sure that sense
Is apoplexed, for madness would not err . . . [apoplexed = paralyzed]
. . . O shame, where is thy blush?
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, [mutine = mutiny, rebel]
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax [85]
And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, [ardor = sexual heat]
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will. [will = lust]
GERTRUDE: O Hamlet, speak no more!
Thou turnest my eyes into my very soul, [90]
And there I see such black and grained spots ["black & grained spots" = disease, corruption]
As will not leave their tinct. [leave tinct = give up stain]
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, [enseamed = greasy]
Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty! [sty = pig pen] [95]
GERTRUDE: O, speak to me no more!
These words like daggers enter in my ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet!
HAMLET: A murderer and a villain!
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe [tithe = tenth]
Of your precedent lord, a Vice of kings, ["your precedent lord" = old King Hamlet; i.e. Claudius doesn't compare]
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, ["cutpurse" = thief; i.e. Claudius] [100]
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket --
GERTRUDE: No more!
[Enter GHOST in
his night-gown] [ghost = Old King Hamlet,
H’s father, Gertrude’s 1st husband]
HAMLET: A king of shreds and patches —
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? [i.e., what do you want, father?] [105]
GERTRUDE: Alas, he's mad! [he = Hamlet; mad = crazy]
HAMLET: Do you not come your tardy son to chide, ["Are you here to reprimand me for not fulfilling the mission you gave me?]
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
Th' important acting of your dread command?
O, say! [110]
GHOST: Do not forget! This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. [whet = sharpen; blunted = dulled]
But look, amazement on thy mother sits,
O, step between her and her fighting soul.
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works, [115]
Speak to her, Hamlet. [One of Shakespeare's most beautiful moments: the ghost has come to reprimand Hamlet, but, seeing his former wife, asks his son to comfort the suffering woman]
HAMLET: How is it with you, lady? [Are you all right?]
GERTRUDE: Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy, [you look at the empty air and talk with it as though someone's there]
And with the incorporeal air do hold discourse? [incorporeal = empty]
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep, [crazy eyes] [120]
And as the sleeping soldiers in th' alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, [excrements = growths]
Start up and stand an end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? [What do you see?] [125]
HAMLET: On him, on him! look you how pale he glares! [him = old King Hamlet]
His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. — Do not look upon me,
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects, then what I have to do [130]
Will want true colour — tears perchance for blood.
GERTRUDE: To whom do you speak this?
HAMLET: Do you see nothing there?
GERTRUDE: Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.
HAMLET: Nor did you nothing hear?
GERTRUDE: No, nothing but ourselves.
HAMLET: Why, look you there, look how it steals away! [it = ghost of old King Hamlet] [135]
My father, in his habit as he lived! [habit = apparel, appearance]
Look where he goes, even now, out at the portal.
[Exit
GHOST]
GERTRUDE: This is the very coinage of your brain, [coinage = hallucination]
This bodiless creation ecstasy [ecstasy = madness]
Is very cunning in. [140]
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have uttered. Bring me to the test,
And I the matter will reword, which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, [gambol = run freely] [145]
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, [unction = comfort]
That not your trespass but my madness speaks; [Pay attention to your conscience, not my appearance]
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, [whiles = while]
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven, [150]
Repent what's past, avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue,
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, [155]
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
GERTRUDE: O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. [cleft . . . in twain = divided in two]
HAMLET: O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night, but go not to my uncle's bed — . . . [160]
I must be cruel only to be kind.
This bad begins and worse remains behind. [180]
One word more, good lady.
GERTRUDE: What shall I do?
HAMLET: Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed, [bloat king = Claudius]
. . . . [200]
HAMLET: . . . I'll lug the guts into the neighboring room. [lug the guts = drag Polonius’s corpse]
Mother, good night indeed. This counselor [This counselor = Polonius]
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, [215]
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.
[Exeunt
severally. Hamlet tugging in Polonius.]
[Instructor's note: See Freud's comments on the Oedipal Conflict represented by this scene. The most obvious Oedipal issue is the son's concern with the marital relations of the mother, specifically Hamlet's urging of Gertrude to not go to bed with Claudius.
[But Claudius is not Hamlet's real father, so what is the significance of Hamlet's hatred of his uncle? According to Freud, Old King Hamlet and King Claudius represent every child's progressive attitude toward the father figure. In very early childhood, the father figure (here, oldl King Hamlet) appears competent and worthy of respect in that a very young child's needs are easily fulfilled. As the child ages, however, the shortcomings of the father figure (here, new King Claudius) are exposed, and the child judges the father to be unworthy of the mother's love.]
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