Hamlet

Scene i, K\)t acatremg Classics

SHAKESPEARE

EDITED WITH A LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE, AN ACCOUNT OF

THE THEATRE IN HIS TIME, AND ' NUMEROUS

AIDS TO -THE STUDY OF THE PLAY

BY

SAMUEL THURBER, Jr.

NEWTON TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL

AND

A. B. DE MILLE

SECRETARY OF THE NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH i ALLYN AND BACON

ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO

COPYRIGHT, 1922 BY SAMUEL THURBER, JR.

AUG \'ci%27

Nortooott press

J. S. Gushing Co. —Berwick & Smith Co.

NorT^ood, Mass., U.S.A.

Foreword

In revising the edition of "Hamlet" published by Samuel Thurber in 1897, the editors have been influenced by changed conditions of English teaching in high schools since his work was done. The number of pupils has enorxnously increased and as a consequence reference material has become inadequate to the demand, literary preparation has grown to be more general and less specialized, while boys and girls of the present day have broader aims and ideals. These conditions call for a different type of annotation from that of twenty-five years ago.

Recent problems arising from the study of "Hamlet" with college preparatory, commercial, and technical classes, have led to the inclusion in the present edition of certain features not to be found in the original work. It has been the aim of the editors to provide such equipment as may make possible a thorough study of the play even in cases where libraries are restricted or not accessible. Among the new features thus provided are the following : fuller and more informational notes ; a discussion of the sources of the play; a list of familiar quotations from "Hamlet"; an account of Shakespeare the man — his life, work, reputation — and the theatre for which he wrote ; a hst of practical, usable topics for oral and written composition ; suggestions as to the acting of portions of Shakespeare's plays by boys and girls; and finally, a glossary for use in a rapid reading of the

iii

Foreword.

tragedy. This new matter will be found in the appendix following the text of the play.

To the following firms we would express our thanks for courteous privileges extended in the use of copyrighted material : Messrs. Henry Holt and Company, selections from '' Shakespeare's Workmanship," by Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch, and from " Ten More Plays of Shakespeare," by Professor Stopford Brooke ; The Oxford University Press, a passage from Mr. G. S. Gordon's Introduction to his edition of "Hamlet."

It is hoped that this additional material will not only increase the interest of the student, but that it will also lighten the labor of the teacher.

SAMUEL THURBER, Jr.

A. B. DE MILLE.

IV

Contents

List of Illustrations .

Milton's Sonnet on Shakespeare List oe Characters

PAGE

Act I

Scene I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.

Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo.

Ber. Who 's there?

Fran. Nay, answer me : stand, and unfold yourself.

Ber. Long live the king 1

Fran. Bernardo?

Bet. He. s

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.

Ber. 'T is now struck twelve ; get thee to bed, Francisco.

Fran. For this relief much thanks: 't is bitter cold. And I am sick at heart.

Ber. Have you had quiet guard ?

Fran. Not a mouse stirring. lo

Ber. Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho ! Who 's there ?

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Hor. Friends to this ground.

Mar. And liegemen to the Dane. 15

Fran. Give you good night.

Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier :

Who hath relieved you ?

Fran. Bernardo has my place.

Give you good night. [Exit.

I

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene i.

Mar. Holla! Bernardo!

Ber. Say,

What, is Horatio there ?

Hor. A piece of him,

Ber. Welcome, Horatio : welcome, good Marcellus. 20

Mar. What, has this thing appeared again to-night ?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says 't is but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us : 25

Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night ; That if again this apparition come.

He may approve our eyes and speak to it.

Hor. Tush, tush, 't will not appear.

Ber. Sit down awhile ; 30

And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story What we have two nights seen.

Hor. Well, sit we down.

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber. Last night of all, 35

When yond same star that 's westward from the pole Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one, —

Enter Ghost.

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again ! 40

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that 's dead.

Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.

Act I. Scene i.

Act I, Scene 1. ^ Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

Mar. Thou art a scholar ; speak to it, Horatio.

Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

Hor. Most like : it harrows me with fear and wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar. Question it, Horatio. as

Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march ? by heaven I charge thee, speak !

Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See, it stalks away 1 so

Hor. Stay ! speak, speak ! I charge thee, speak !

[Exit Ghost.

Mar. 'T is gone, and will not answer.

Ber. How now, Horatio ! you tremble and look pale : Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on 't? ss

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the king?

Hor. As thou art to thyself : Such was the very armor he had on 60

When he the ambitious Norway combated ; So frowned he once, when, in an angry parle, He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice : 'T is strange.

Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. 66

Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not ; But in the gross and scope of my opinion,

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Act i, Scene i.

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch yj

So nightly toils the subject of the land, And why such daily cast of brazen cannon. And foreign mart for implements of war ; Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 75

Does not divide the Sunday from the week ; What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-laborer with the day Who is 't that can inform me ?

Hor. That can I ;

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80

Whose image even but now appeared to us. Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride. Dared to the combat ; in which our valiant Hamlet — For so this side of our known world esteemed him — 85 Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a sealed compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit, with his Hfe, all those his lands Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror : Against the which, a moiety competent 90

Was gaged by our king ; which had returned To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher ; as, by the same covenant, And carriage of the article designed.

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, 9s

Of unimproved mettle hot and full.

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes,

Act I, Scene 1. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

For food and diet, to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in 't ; which is no other — loo

As it doth well appear unto our state —

But to recover of us, by strong hand

And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands

So by his father lost : and this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations, 105

The source of this our watch and the chief head

Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so : Well may it sort that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch ; so like the king no

That was and is the question of these wars.

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and pahny state of Rome, A httle ere the mightiest Juhus fell,

The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead ns

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets : As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse : 120

And even the like precurse of fierce events, As harbingers preceding still the fates And prologue to the omen coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our cHmatures and countrymen. — 12s

But soft, behold ! lo, where it comes again !

Re-enter Ghost.

I'U cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!

S

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. x\ct i, Scene i.

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Speak to me :

If there be any good thing to be done, 130

That may to thee do ease and grace to me,

Speak to me : [Cock crows.

If thou art privy to thy country's fate.

Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,

O, speak ! 135

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy hfe

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

Speak of it : stay, and speak ! Stop it, Marcellus.

Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan ? 140

Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber. 'T is here !

Hor. 'T is here !

Mar. 'T is gone ! [Exit Ghost.

We do it wrong, being so majestical.

To offer it the show of violence ;

For it is, as the air, invulnerable, 14s

And our vain blows mahcious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

Hor. And then it started Hke a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard.

The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, iso

Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day ; and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine : and of the truth herein iss

This present object made probation.

Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark,

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long : i6o

And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm. So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. 165

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill : Break we our watch up ; and by my advice. Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet ; for, upon my life, 170

This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar. Let 's do 't, I pray ; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most conveniently. [Exeunt. 175

Scene IL A room of state in the castle.

Enter the King, Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, VoLTiMAND, Cornelius, Lords, and Attendants. .

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 5

That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves.

• 7

Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we, as 't were with a defeated joy, — 10

With one auspicious and one dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage. In equal scale weighing delight and dole, — Taken to wife : nor have we herein barred Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone is

With this affair along. For all, our thanks. Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth.

Or thinking by our late dear brother's death Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20

Colleagued with the dream of his advantage, He hath not failed to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands LobL by his father, with all bonds of law. To our most valiant brother. So much for him. 25

Now for ourself and for this time of meeting : This much the business is : we have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras, — Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew's purpose, — to suppress 30

His further gait herein ; in that the levies, The lists and full proportions, are all made Out of his subject : and we here dispatch You, good CorneHus, and you, Voltimand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway ; as

Giving to you no further personal power To business with the king, more than the scope Of these dilated articles allow.

Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark.

Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.

y / \ In that and all things will we show our duty. 40

King. We doubt it nothing : heartily farewell.

[Exeunt VoUimand and Cornelius.

And now, Laertes, what 's the news with you? You told us of some suit ; what is 't, Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, And lose your voice : what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, 45 That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? The head is not more native to the heart. The hand more instrumental to the mouth. Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

Laer. My dread lord, so

Your leave and favor to return to France ; From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, To show my duty in your coronation.

Yet now, I must confess, that duty done. My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France ss

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.

King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius ?

Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave By laborsome petition, and at last

Upon his will I sealed my hard consent : 60

I do beseech you, give him leave to go.

King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes ; time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will ! But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, — .

Ham. [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind. 6s

King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ?

Ham. Not so, my lord ; I am too much i' the sun. «

Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look hke a friend on Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailed hds 70

Seek for thy noble father in the dust : Thou know'st 't is common : all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.

Queen. If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee ? 7s

Ham. Seems, madam ! nay, it is ; I know not ' seems.' 'T is not alone my inky cloak, good mother. Nor customary suits of solemn black.

Nor windy suspiration of forced breath. No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, 80

Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage. Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief, That can denote me truly : these indeed seem, For they are actions that a man might play : But I have that within which passe th show ; 8s

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

King. 'T is sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father : But, you must know, your father lost a father ; That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound 90

In fiHal obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow : but to persever

Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark.

In obstinate condolement is a course

Of impious stubbornness ; 't is unmanly grief ;

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, 9S

A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,

An understanding simple and unschooled :

For what we know must be and is as common

As any the most vulgar thing to sense.

Why should we in our peevish opposition loo

Take it to heart ? Fie ! 't is a fault to heaven,

A fault against the dead, a fault to natiu-e.

To reason most absurd ; whose common theme

Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried.

From the first corse till he that died to-day, los

* This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth

This unpre vailing woe, and think of us

As of a father : for let the world take note,

You are the most immediate to our throne ;

And with no less nobility of love no

Than that which dearest father bears his son,

Do I impart toward you. For your intent

In going back to school in Wittenberg,

It is most retrograde to our desire :

And we beseech you, bend you to remain ns

Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye.

Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:

I pray thee, stay with us ; go not to Wittenberg. Ham, I shall in all my best obey you, madam. 120

King. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply :

Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come ;

This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet

H

Hamlet, Prince o^ Denmark. Act i, Scene 2.

Sits smiling to ij ^ar' : in grace whereof,

No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, 12s

But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell.

And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again,

Re-speaking earthly thunder. Com.e away.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.

Ham. O, that this too too sohd flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew ! 130

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! O God ! God ! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. Seem to me all the uses of this world ! Fie o^ 't ! ah fie ! 't is an unweeded garden, 13s

That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this ! But two months dead : nay, not so much, not two : So excellent a king ; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr ; so loving to my mother 140

That he might not beteem the, winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth I Must I remember ? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on : and yet, within a month — 14s

Let me not think on 't — Frailty, thy name is woman ! — A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father's body. Like Niobe, all tears : — why she, even she — O God ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 150

Would have mourned longer — married with my uncle, .My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules : within a month :

Act I, Scene 2. Hamlc^tj, Pjciiice of Denmark.

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteo}is 1

Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, 155

She married. O, most wicked speed !

It is not nor it cannot come to good :

But break my heart ; for I must hold my tongue.

Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo.

Hor. Hail to your lordship !

Ham. I am glad to see you well :

Horatio, — or do I forget myseK. 160

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend ; I '11 change that name with you: And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ? Marcellus ?

Mar. My good lord — 165

Ham. I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir. But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?

Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so. Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, 170

To make it truster of your own report Against yourself : I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore ?

We '11 teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. 17s

Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student ;

I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio 1 the funeral baked

II meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. i8o

Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! My father I — ■ methinks I see my father,

Eor. Where, my lord ?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I saw him once ; he was a goodly king. i8s

Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.

Ham. Saw? who?

Hor. My lord, the king, your father.

Ham. The king my father I 190

Hor. Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear, till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.

Ham. For God's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, 19s

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch. In the dead vast and middle of the night. Been thus encountered. A figure like your father, Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,

Appears before them, and with solemn march 200

Goes slow and stately by them : thrice he walked By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes. Within his truncheon's length ; whilst they, distilled Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me 20s

In dreadful secrecy impart they did ; And I with them the third night kept the watch :

Act I, Scene 2. Hamlet, PHnce of Denmark.

Where, as they had deUvered, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes : I knew your father ; 210

These hands are not more like.

Ham. But where was this?

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watched.

Ham. Did you not speak to it ?

Hot. . My lord, I did ;

But answer made it none : yet once me thought It lifted up its head and did address 215

Itself to motion, like as it would speak ; But even then the morning cock crew loud. And at the sound it shrunk in haste away. And vanished from our sight.

Ham. 'T is very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 't is true ; 220

And we did think it writ down in our duty To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night ?

^^7 ^^ ^^' "^^ ^^^^'

Ham. Armed, say you ? 225

„ ' Armed, my lord.

Ham. From top to toe ?

„ ' \ - My lord, from head to foot.

Ber. J -^ '

Ham. Then saw you not his face ?

Hor. O, yes, my lord ; he wore his beaver up. '

Ham. What, looked he frowningly? 230

Hot. a countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

Ham. Pale or red ?

Hot. Nay, very pale. •

Ham. And fixed his eyes upon you ?

Hor. Most constantly.

Ham. I would I had been there.

Hor. It would have much amazed you. 23s

Ham. Very like, very like. Stayed it long ?

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a

hundred.

Mar.

^^^ i Longer, longer.

Hor. Not when I saw 't.

Ham. His beard was grizzled, — no ?

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, 240

A sable silvered.

Ham. I will watch to-night ;

Perchance 't will walk again.

Hor. I warrant it will.

Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, I '11 speak to it though hell itself should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, 24s

If you have hitherto concealed this sight. Let it be tenable in your silence stiU ; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night. Give it an understanding, but no tongue : I will requite your loves. So, fare you well : 250

Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, I '11 visit you.

All. Our duty to your honor.

Act I, Scene 3. Hamlet, Pniice of Denmark.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you : farewell.

[Exeunt all hut Hamlet.

My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well ; I doubt some foul play : would the night were come ! 255 Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

[Exit.