Hamlet

Hamlet is in Shakespeare's Plays.

Pepy's Diary. 13 Feb 1661. At the office all the morning; dined at home, and poor Mr. Wood with me, who after dinner would have borrowed money of me, but I would lend none. Then to Whitehall by coach with Sir W. Pen (age 39), where we did very little business, and so back to Mr. Rawlinson's (age 47), where I took him and gave him a cup of wine, he having formerly known Mr. Rawlinson (age 47), and here I met my uncle Wight, and he drank with us, and with him to Sir W. Batten's (age 60), whither I sent for my wife, and we chose Valentines' against to-morrow1, my wife chose me, which did much please me; my Lady Batten Sir W. Pen (age 39), &c. Here we sat late, and so home to bed, having got my Lady Batten to give me a spoonful of honey for my cold.

Note 1. The observation of St. Valentine's day is very ancient in this country. Shakespeare makes Ophelia sing "To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window To be your Valentine". Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5.-M. B.

Pepy's Diary. 24 Aug 1661. Home and there met Capt. Isham (age 33) inquiring for me to take his leave of me, he being upon his voyage to Portugal, and for my letters to my Lord which are not ready. But I took him to the Mitre [Map] and gave him a glass of sack, and so adieu, and then straight to the Opera, and there saw "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", done with scenes very well, but above all, Betterton (age 26)1 did the prince's part beyond imagination. Hence homeward, and met with Mr. Spong and took him to the Sampson in Paul's churchyard, and there staid till late, and it rained hard, so we were fain to get home wet, and so to bed.

Note 1. Sir William Davenant (age 55) introduced the use of scenery. The character of Hamlet was one of Betterton's (age 26) masterpieces. Downes tells us that he was taught by Davenant (age 55) how the part was acted by Taylor of the Blackfriars, who was instructed by Shakespeare himself.

Pepy's Diary. 27 Nov 1661. This morning our maid Dorothy and my wife parted, which though she be a wench for her tongue not to be borne with, yet I was loth to part with her, but I took my leave kindly of her and went out to Savill's (age 52), the painter, and there sat the first time for my face with him; thence to dinner with my Lady; and so after an hour or two's talk in divinity with my Lady, Captain Ferrers and Mr. Moore and I to the Theatre [Map], and there saw "Hamlet" very well done, and so I home, and found that my wife had been with my aunt Wight and Ferrers to wait on my Lady to-day this afternoon, and there danced and were very merry, and my Lady very fond as she is always of my wife. So to bed.

Pepy's Diary. 05 Dec 1661. By and by came Sir W. Pen (age 40), and he and I staid while Sir W. Batten (age 60) went home to dinner, and then he came again, and Sir W. Pen (age 40) and I went and dined at my house, and had two mince pie sent thither by our order from the messenger Slater, that had dressed some victuals for us, and so we were very merry, and after dinner rode out in his coach, he to Whitehall, and my wife and I to the Opera, and saw "Hamlet" well performed. Thence to the Temple [Map] and Mrs. Turner's (age 38) (who continues still very ill), and so home and to bed.

Pepy's Diary. 28 May 1663. And so to the Duke's house; and there saw "Hamlet" done, giving us fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton (age 27). Who should we see come upon the stage but Gosnell, my wife's maid? but neither spoke, danced, nor sung; which I was sorry for. But she becomes the stage very well.

Long Parliament

Pepy's Diary. 25 Mar 1664. Lady-day. Up and by water to White Hall, and there to chappell; where it was most infinite full to hear Dr. Critton (age 71). Being not knowne, some great persons in the pew I pretended to, and went in, did question my coming in. I told them my pretence; so they turned to the orders of the chappell, which hung behind upon the wall, and read it; and were satisfied; but they did not demand whether I was in waiting or no; and so I was in some fear lest he that was in waiting might come and betray me. The Doctor (age 71) preached upon the thirty-first of Jeremy, and the twenty-first and twenty-second verses, about a woman compassing a man; meaning the Virgin conceiving and bearing our Saviour. It was the worst sermon I ever heard him make, I must confess; and yet it was good, and in two places very bitter, advising the King (age 33) to do as the Emperor Severus did, to hang up a Presbyter John (a short coat and a long gowne interchangeably) in all the Courts of England. But the story of Severus was pretty, that he hanged up forty senators before the Senate house, and then made a speech presently to the Senate in praise of his owne lenity; and then decreed that never any senator after that time should suffer in the same manner without consent of the Senate: which he compared to the proceeding of the Long Parliament against my Lord Strafford. He said the greatest part of the lay magistrates in England were Puritans, and would not do justice; and the Bishopps, their powers were so taken away and lessened, that they could not exercise the power they ought. He told the King (age 33) and the ladies plainly, speaking of death and of the skulls and bones of dead men and women1, how there is no difference; that nobody could tell that of the great Marius or Alexander from a pyoneer; nor, for all the pains the ladies take with their faces, he that should look in a charnels-house could not distinguish which was Cleopatra's, or fair Rosamond's, or Jane Shoare's.

Note 1. The preacher appears to have had the grave scene in "Hamlet" in his mind, as he gives the same illustration of Alexander as Hamlet does.

Pepy's Diary. 13 Nov 1664. Dined at home very well, and spent all the afternoon with my wife within doors, and getting a speech out of Hamlet, "To bee or not to bee",' without book.

Pepy's Diary. 31 Aug 1668. Up, and to my office, there to set my journal for all the last week, and so by water to Westminster to the Exchequer, and thence to the Swan [Map], and there drank and did baiser la fille there, and so to the New Exchange and paid for some things, and so to Hercules Pillars,' and there dined all alone, while I sent my shoe to have the heel fastened at Wotton's, and thence to White Hall to the Treasury chamber, where did a little business, and thence to the Duke of York's playhouse and there met my wife and Deb. and Mary Mercer and Batelier, where also W. Hewer (age 26) was, and saw "Hamlet", which we have not seen this year before, or more; and mightily pleased with it; but, above all, with Betterton (age 33), the best part I believe, that ever man acted.

Books, Shakespeare's Plays, Hamlet Act IV

Hamlet Act IV Scene 7

Hamlet Act IV Scene 7 Part I

Enter King and Laertes.

Claudius. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And You must put me in your heart for friend,

Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,

That he which hath your noble father slain

Pursued my life.

Laertes. It well appears. But tell me

Why you proceeded not against these feats

So crimeful and so capital in nature,

As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,

You mainly were stirr'd up.3140

Claudius. O, for two special reasons,

Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,

But yet to me they are strong. The Queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,-

My virtue or my plague, be it either which,

She's so conjunctive to my life and soul

That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,

I could not but by her. The other motive

Why to a public count I might not go

Is the great love the general gender bear him,

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,

Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,

Convert his gives to graces; so that my arrows,

Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,

Would have reverted to my bow again,

And not where I had aim'd them.

Laertes. And so have I a noble father lost;

A sister driven into desp'rate terms,

Whose worth, if praises may go back again,

Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections. But my revenge will come.

Claudius. Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull

That we can let our beard be shook with danger,

And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more.

I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-

Hamlet Act IV Scene 7 Part II

[Enter a Messenger with letters.]

How now? What news?

Messenger. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:

This to your Majesty; this to the Queen.

Claudius. From Hamlet? Who brought them?

Messenger. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not.

They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them

Of him that brought them.

Claudius. Laertes, you shall hear them.

Leave us.

[Exit Messenger.]

Hamlet Act IV Scene 7 Part III

[Reads]'High and Mighty,-You shall know I am set naked on your

kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes;3180

when I shall (first asking your pardon thereunto) recount the

occasion of my sudden and more strange return. 'HAMLET.'

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?

Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

Laertes. Know you the hand?

Claudius. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked!'

And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'

Can you advise me?

Laertes. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come!

It warms the very sickness in my heart

That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,

'Thus didest thou.'

Claudius. If it be so, Laertes

(As how should it be so? how otherwise?),

Will you be rul'd by me?

Laertes. Ay my lord,

So you will not o'errule me to a peace.

Claudius. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd

As checking at his voyage, and that he means

No more to undertake it, I will work him

To exploit now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall;

And for his death no wind shall breathe

But even his mother shall uncharge the practice

And call it accident.

Laertes. My lord, I will be rul'd;

The rather, if you could devise it so

That I might be the organ.

Claudius. It falls right.

You have been talk'd of since your travel much,

And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality

Wherein they say you shine, Your sum of parts

Did not together pluck such envy from him

As did that one; and that, in my regard,

Of the unworthiest siege.

Laertes. What part is that, my lord?

Claudius. A very riband in the cap of youth-

Yet needfull too; for youth no less becomes

The light and careless livery that it wears

Than settled age his sables and his weeds,

Importing health and graveness. Two months since

Here was a gentleman of Normandy.

I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French,

And they can well on horseback; but this gallant

Had witchcraft in't. He grew unto his seat,

And to such wondrous doing brought his horse

As had he been incorps'd and demi-natur'd

With the brave beast. So far he topp'd my thought

That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,

Come short of what he did.

Laertes. A Norman was't?

Claudius. A Norman.

Laertes. Upon my life, Lamound.

Claudius. The very same.

Laertes. I know him well. He is the broach indeed

And gem of all the nation.

Claudius. He made confession of you;

And gave you such a masterly report

For art and exercise in your defence,

And for your rapier most especially,

That he cried out 'twould be a sight indeed

If one could match you. The scrimers of their nation

He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye,

If you oppos'd them. Sir, this report of his

Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy

That he could nothing do but wish and beg

Your sudden coming o'er to play with you.

Now, out of this-

Laertes. What out of this, my lord?

Claudius. Laertes, was your father dear to you?

Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,

A face without a heart,'

Laertes. Why ask you this?

Claudius. Not that I think you did not love your father;

But that I know love is begun by time,

And that I see, in passages of proof,

Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.

There lives within the very flame of love

A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;

And nothing is at a like goodness still;

For goodness, growing to a plurisy,

Dies in his own too-much. That we would do,

We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes,

And hath abatements and delays as many

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;3265

And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,

That hurts by easing. But to the quick o' th' ulcer!

Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake

To show yourself your father's son in deed

More than in words?

Laertes. To cut his throat i' th' church!

Claudius. No place indeed should murther sanctuarize;

Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,

Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber.

Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home.

We'll put on those shall praise your excellence

And set a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together

And wager on your heads. He, being remiss,

Most generous, and free from all contriving,

Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease,

Or with a little shuffling, you may choose

A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice,

Requite him for your father.

Laertes. I will do't!

And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword.

I bought an unction of a mountebank,

So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,

Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,

Collected from all simples that have virtue

Under the moon, can save the thing from death

This is but scratch'd withal. I'll touch my point

With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,

It may be death.

Claudius. Let's further think of this,

Weigh what convenience both of time and means

May fit us to our shape. If this should fall,

And that our drift look through our bad performance.

'Twere better not assay'd. Therefore this project

Should have a back or second, that might hold

If this did blast in proof. Soft! let me see.

We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings-

I ha't!

When in your motion you are hot and dry-

As make your bouts more violent to that end-

And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him

A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,

If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,

Our purpose may hold there.- But stay, what noise,

Hamlet Act IV Scene 7 Part IV

[Enter Queen.]

How now, sweet queen?

Gertrude. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,

So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.

Laertes. Drown'd! O, where?

Gertrude. There is a willow grows aslant a brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.

There with fantastic garlands did she come

Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.

There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds

Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;

Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element; but long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.

Laertes. Alas, then she is drown'd?

Gertrude. Drown'd, drown'd.

Laertes. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,

And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,

Let shame say what it will. When these are gone,

The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord.

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze

But that this folly douts it. Exit.

Claudius. Let's follow, Gertrude.

How much I had to do to calm his rage I

Now fear I this will give it start again;

Therefore let's follow.

Exeunt.

1851 to 1852. John Everett Millais 1st Baronet (age 21). "Ophelia". Hamlet Act IV Scene 7 Part IV in which Queen Gertrude describes Ophelia's death to Laertes. Millais painted the scene near Tolworth, Surrey [Map] using the River Hogsmill. Elizabeth Siddal (age 21) modelled in a bath-tub at 7 Gower Street, Camden [Map]. The initials PRB bottom right next to his signature.