the speeches here set down for him. There are two objects which Hamlet has especially in view—the first is to seem to be in very high spirits, the next is, under cover of assumed gaiety, to watch most closely the demeanour of Claudius. When the King, Queen, and Court enter, they come prepared to witness an entertainment especially provided for them by Hamlet; the very fact that he should have turned his attention to such a subject has naturally caused much delight to his uncle and to his mother; to the former, because it seemed to relieve him from the vague fear that his nephew's brooding melancholy arose from his suspecting the true cause of his father's death; to the latter, because, with all her faults, she loved her son, and was glad of his taking pleasure in anything.

Hamlet avails himself of his privileges, as a supposed madman, to a considerable extent, making his apparently gay sallies of humour as bitter as possible to the feelings of those to whom they were addressed; but the actor should beware of allowing this bitterness to affect the tone of his voice—for instance, the speech to Ophelia

What should a man do but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within's two hours

should be uttered with perfect unconsciousness, as well as the following one; in fact, he should display an exaggerated levity, in which the exaggeration should be just sufficiently marked to show that it is the cloak which he purposely assumes to conceal his nervous agitation. Again, the words—

As woman's love

should be spoken in a light tone of satire, with a rapid glance at Ophelia, which is instantly diverted to the stage, on which the Players now appear.

It has always been the custom for the representative of Hamlet to hold something in his hand, with which to conceal the workings of his countenance as he watches the King; generally the actor takes Ophelia's fan; but I think Fechter and Salvini are right in substituting a manuscript, supposed to contain the speeches as altered and added to by Hamlet. It is to be noted that Hamlet does not interrupt the Players for some time, except with the one exclamation

Wormwood, wormwood.

Shakespeare has, like a true artist, given time for the mimic representation to work upon the conscience of Claudius, whose attention, at first carelessly bestowed upon the Players, grows absorbed as he gradually perceives the drift of what they are representing. The force of this scene would be much increased if the actor who plays the part of Claudius would observe more carefully this subtle touch of Shakespeare's, and would pass gradually from unforced gaiety at the beginning of the scene to indifference assumed

with effort, and finally, to agitation which he can no longer conceal. After the exit of the Player Queen, Hamlet turns to his mother ; with an affectation of easy politeness he asks her

Madam, how like you this play?

QUEEN. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
HAM. O, but she'll keep her word.

In saying this he turns away from the Queen and looks at Claudius,
who has recovered self-possession enough to trust himself to speak.
KING. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?
HAM. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest ; no offence i' the world.
This is said with light irony. The King, mastering his agitation,
asks with assumed indifference-

KING. What do you call the play?

HAM. The Mouse-trap. 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 touches us not let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.

I have often heard this speech spoken with far too manifest intention; it seems to me that Hamlet is anxious rather to remove any suspicion of his real purpose in causing this play to be represented it is with great difficulty that he restrains himself, but he does do so, remembering that the representation of his father's murder, on which he mainly relied in his attempt to make the occulted guilt of Claudius unkennel itself, was yet to come. The murderer now enters on the scene; Hamlet announces his name—

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. OPH. You are as good as a chorus, my lord.

HAM. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying.

In speaking this line Hamlet should not look at Ophelia, but keep his eyes on the Player. We are coming now to the most important speech which he had inserted, and he is feverishly anxious that the actor should speak the speech correctly:

Begin, murderer, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come: "The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.

It is with the greatest difficulty that he now represses his excitement, and is obliged to give himself the vent of exaggerated language. During the speech of Lucianus, who is in the act of pouring the poison into the sleeper's ear, he watches the King's face with the most intense eagerness. The next speech is the one to the ordinary interpretation of which I have so strongly objected :

HAM. He poisons him i' the garden for his 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.

It seems to me that the excitement of Hamlet should be here violently suppressed, and that he should not give way to it until the King and Court have all left. Claudius does not rise till the end of this speech, and for a moment he is unable to speak. The Queen evidently thinks that he is going to swoon, which very likely was not far from the truth; but he recovers himself by a great effort, and, calling for lights, hurries away: now Hamlet can let loose his pent-up excitement, which he does in the lines on which I have already commented at the beginning of this Appendix.

APPENDIX H.

866

ON THE SOLILOQUY, NOW MIGHT I DO IT PAT," ETC.

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying,
And now I'll do't: and so he goes to heaven :
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd :

A villain kills my father; and for that,

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.

He took my father grossly, full of bread,

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him and am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No.

;

Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent :
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed
At game, a-swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't;
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

I give here the words of this soliloquy as I have not given them in the text. It is very interesting to compare this scene carefully with the version given of it in the first Quarto (1603), in which it stands thus:*

Enter the KING.

KING. O that this wet that falles vpon my face

Would wash the crime cleere from my conscience!
When I looke vp to heaven, I see my trespasse,

The earth doth still crie out vpon my fact,
Pay me the murder of a brother and a king,
And the adulterous fault I haue committed:
O these are sinnes that are vnpardonable:
Why say thy sinnes were blacker then is ieat,

Yet may contrition make them as white as snowe :

* See Allen's Reprint of "The Devonshire Hamlets" (i., pp. 58, 59). London: Sampson and Low, 1860.

M

I but still to perseuer in a sinne,

It is an act gainst the vniuersall power,

Most wretched man, stoope, bend thee to thy prayer,
Aske grace of heauen to keepe thee from despaire.
(He kneeles. Enters HAMLET.)

HAM. I so, come forth and worke thy last,

And thus hee dies: and so am I revenged:

No, not so he tooke my father sleeping, his sins brim full,
And how his soule stoode to the state of heauen

Who knowes, saue the immortall powres,

And shall I kill him now,

When he is purging of his soule ?

Making his way for heauen, this is a benefit,

And not reuenge: no, get thee vp agen,

When hee's at game swaring, taking his carowse, drinking drunke,

Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed,

Or at some act that hath no relish

Of saluation in't, then trip him

That his heeles may kicke at heauen,

And fall as lowe as hel: my mother stayes, This phisicke but prolongs thy weary dayes. KING. My wordes fly vp, my sinnes remaine below.

No King on earth is safe, if Gods his foe.

[Exit HAM.

[Exit KING.

If Shakespeare founded his "Hamlet" on an older play with the same title or treating of the same subject, I think that in this scene we have a very decided instance of the influence of the older work. The elaborate ferocity of this speech of Hamlet's is more in "King Cambyses" vein; it reminds me more of King Hieronimo than any other passage in Shakespeare's works.* True it is that in "Othello" we find almost as great ferocity of revenge, but there it is more in place, both as regards the character and nationality of Othello, no less than the subject of the tragedy; on Hamlet's lips such language seems forced and unnatural; indeed, its only justification is that it is intended to be so.

If we suppose that the Quarto of 1603 was not a mutilated version, but a rude transcript of the play as acted (in fact, a careless duplicate of the Prompter's copy), and that it contains much more of the older play unaltered than Shakespeare afterwards thought fit to retain, how we must wonder at the exquisite transformation which the first rude outline of the King's speech has undergone— into what a luminous and majestic form is the dark and flimsy shadow expanded !

The King's speech in the earlier version ends with a rhymed. couplet, this would seem to point to an older play as the source whence it was borrowed; so in the final couplet of the scene, in which Shakespeare has retained the rhyme, though he has altered the language with great effect. The original is bald and commonplace

My wordes fly vp, my sinnes remaine below.

No King on earth is safe, if God's his foe.

*I do not include that revolting play "Titus Andronicus" among Shake speare's works; he may have touched it, but not enough to wash away its original brutality, much less to claim it as his own.

How much more forcible and poetical is Shakespeare's finished

version--

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

The last line is a most beautiful and true thought elegantly and succinctly expressed. It would be out of place here to enter on the question as to how far we are enabled to form any idea of Shakespeare's mode of working, by carefully comparing the comparatively meagre version of the Quarto 1603 with the more elaborate, and avowedly authentic, copy of 1604; but I have no doubt that a patient analysis of the two versions will yield the most important results.*

I must now return to the consideration of Hamlet's soliloquy. From the version in the Quarto 1603 it is evident that Hamlet is intended either to enter with his sword drawn or to draw it immediately he sees the King; in the speech, as it stands now, the sword should not be drawn till the words

And now I'll do't:

It was, therefore, I think, an unnecessary exercise of ingenuity on the part of Mr. Collier's " Old Corrector" to insert the stage direction "his sword drawn." Mr. Collier adds-" ready to kill the King if his resolution had held ;" but Hamlet had made no resolution to kill the King at this moment; on the contrary, he was on his way to his mother's closet, and comes upon the King unexpectedly. Ernesto Rossi's entrance in this scene is more effective than that of either Salvini or Irving. He enters with his head down, as if deep in thought, revolving in his mind what he should say to his mother that might rouse her to a sense of her guilt; on seeing the King he starts and draws back; then the idea of killing the kneeling man strikes him suddenly, and he speaks the first line

Now might I do it pat, now he is praying ;

It is evidently the mention of the word " praying" which causes Hamlet to pause; the meaning of the first line I take to be "Now might I do it at once, now he is on his knees unable to defend himself, and so absorbed in his prayers that he is not even aware of my presence." Hamlet continues, drawing his sword

And now I'll do't:

making a step towards the King at the same time; then the sight of the kneeling figure and the associations of the word "praying," which he cannot forget, make him pause. What Hamlet really felt, but what he would not admit to himself that he did feel, was

* I may perhaps mention that I have had the Quarto 1603 collated with the text of the complete "Hamlet" verbatim and literatim; and that I hope to be able to publish the results of the analysis I have made of the differences between the two, which are much more important than is usually supposed.