Аст IV. SCENE V.

Scene V reverts to Ophelia and Laertes (compare Act I, Scene III, for contrast) -to Ophelia mad in reality, as Hamlet is mad in seeming; to Laertes rushing headlong to the same revenge (for "a father kill'd") with which Hamlet has been dallying. And it looks directly back to the murder of Polonius -itself the result of Hamlet's fatal delay, and forward to the catastrophe. For the gentle and innocent Ophelia is caught in the net which Hamlet's failure to act at the crucial moment has woven, and her madness becomes a new and potent factor in Laertes's already fixed determination to be revenged. That determination is at first directed against the King. But before the scene is ended, its transfer from the King-through "the witchcraft of his wit"-to Hamlet is foreshadowed.

6. Spurns enviously: kicks spitefully. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, III, v, 17: " [He] spurns the rush that lies before him." For envious in the sense of "malicious," cf. IV, vii, 174. In her madness Ophelia wreaks pitiful vengeance on whatever trifling objects come in her way.

6-13. Observe, as you read on in the scene, how aptly the Gentleman has characterized Ophelia's broken speeches.

9. To collection: to an attempt to gather her meaning. Aim guess, conjecture.

15. Ill-breeding minds: minds that hatch mischief.

19. Artless jealousy: suspicion that knows no art to conceal itself. Guilt is so full of such suspicion, that it betrays itself by its very fear that it will betray itself. The Queen's speech reveals to us, for the first time in the play, something of her inner thoughts.

25. Cockle-hat: a hat with a scallop-shell in it-one of the insignia of a pilgrim. A pilgrim's garb was a conventional disguise for a lover; Romeo, for example, went so disguised to the Capulets' ball (cf. especially Romeo and Juliet, I, V, 95 ff.). 26. Shoon: an archaic plural of shoe. Ophelia is singing snatches of old ballads that deal with the two themes uppermost in her distracted mind-love and death.

38. Both Quartos and Folios read: "did not go." If this is the true reading-and it is difficult not to take it soOphelia probably has funeral" (line 213; cf. 41. God 'ild you:

dimly in mind her father's "obscure line 84), and so inserts the "not." God yield you-i. e., I thank you. 41. They say, etc. The reference is to an old legend of a baker's daughter who reproved her mother for putting too large a piece of dough in the oven to bake a loaf for Christ, and who was transformed into an owl. Ophelia's next words perhaps indicate a pathetic half-consciousness of some change that she has undergone.

45. Conceit upon: fancies about.

70. My brother shall know of it. Observe the hint here given of Laertes's return, as another example of Shakespeare's craftsmanship.

84. In hugger-mugger: secretly, clandestinely-with the added idea of haste.

89. Broods over the strange thing that has happened, keeps his thoughts to himself.

94. In ear and ear: either, in each other's ears; or, in everybody's ears.

95. A murdering-piece: a cannon loaded with case-shot, that scatter, when fired.

96. Superfluous death: more deaths than one.

97. Switzers: Swiss guards-employed by the King of France in Shakespeare's day, and still by the Pope in ours. 99. Overpeering of his list: rising above its boundaries. 105. The line refers to "antiquity" and "custom."

110. Counter. "To run counter" is to follow the trail in the wrong direction. Cf. the preceding line.

118-20. Cf. III, iv, 42-44.

122, 126. Let him go, Gertrude. Whatever else Claudius may be, this scere shows that he is no coward. And Gertrude's devotion to him is here unmistakable.

124. Peep: look-used with a touch of contempt. Treason can only get a peep at what it wants; it cannot act out its will.

133-36. One function of Laertes in the play is to stand in sharpest contrast to Hamlet. Each has a father's death to avenge; and Laertes's swift recourse to action throws into the strongest possible relief Hamlet's procrastination. With Laertes's curt dismissal of this world and the next in line 134 compare especially Hamlet's broodings in III, i, 76-82.

142. Swoopstake: indiscriminately. The figure is from a game of cards, where the winner draws the stakes of both sides. 146-47. The pelican was fabled to pierce its breast with its bill, and feed its young with its blood.

[Re-enter Ophelia]. Why does Shakespeare bring Ophelia back at this point? Cf. lines 168-69.

161-63. The general idea of these lines is clear, but the expression is somewhat obscure. Fine seems to mean "delicate, sensitive"; instance is "proof, token." The "precious instance" is Ophelia's sanity, which has followed Polonius ("the thing it loves") to his grave.

172. The wheel. This reference is also obscure, but it is probable that Ophelia imagines that she is singing at the spinning-wheel. Compare the reference to the "old and plain" song that "the spinsters [i. e., spinners) and the knitters in the Do use to chant" (Twelfth Night, II, iv, 43-47). 172. It is the false steward, etc. This allusion has never been identified.

sun

174. This nothing's more than matter: these unintelligible words move more than if they had meaning.

175-86. Flowers have been regarded from time immemorial as having a symbolic language, and Ophelia is using it here, as Perdita uses it in Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 73 ff.

175-77. Rosemary

pansies. Rosemary was supposed to strengthen the memory; the reference to pansies is a play on the word (from French pensée, thought). Ophelia probably gives these to Laertes-possibly taking him for Hamlet. If so, the pray, love, remember" is a pathetic counterpart of the injunction of the Ghost.

178. Document: lesson, instruction. 180. Fennel

columbine: symbolic of flattery and un

chastity, and probably given to the King.

181. There's rue for you: i. e., for the Queen. For the significance of rue, cf. Richard II, III, iv, 105-06: "I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb o' grace: Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen."

182. We may call it, etc. That is, its religious name is the proper one for Sundays.

183. With a difference. A difference, in heraldry, was some mark by which the arms of one branch of a family were distinguished from those of another. What Ophelia means is that the Queen will wear hers for repentance, Ophelia hers for regret.

184. A daisy violets. The daisy often (not always) symbolized dissembling; violets stood for faithfulness. It is not clear to whom those flowers are given the daisy possibly to the Queen, the violets perhaps to Horatio.

188. Thought: here in its sense of anxious thought, melancholy.

199. And of all Christian souls: a common ending of epitaphs.

Аст IV. SCENE VI.

This scene serves to introduce the element of suspense, just as the King seems to have gained his point. His plan has miscarried; Hamlet is back on Danish soil; the opportunity that he seemed to have lost is in his hands again. And the question is, How will he use it?

20. Thieves of mercy: merciful thieves. See note on I, ii, 4.

21. They knew what they did: they knew what they were about. That is (probably), they had promise of reward. The phrase is sometimes taken to mean that the encounter with the pirates was prearranged by Hamlet, and that it was to this that he had referred in III, iv, 205-10. But this seems very unlikely. If Hamlet had any definite plan in his mind in the lines referred to (instead of merely the confidence that his wits would serve him at the critical moment), it was probably that of the exchange of the letters (see V, ii, 12-55). The fight with the pirates is rather to be thought of as a happy accident. Accident, to be sure, may not play too large a part in a tragedy, where the movement of events is chiefly determined by the inexorable working out of what is latent in character. But accident plays a vital part in life, and the dramatist may legitimately use it as it seems to be used here. What part is played by accident, for instance, in Macbeth?

26-27. Too light for the bore of the matter: the charge is too light, considering the caliber of the gun. That is, weighty as the words are, they are yet inadequate for the matter they have to express.

Аст IV. SCENE VII.

At the very moment when the King is about to disclose to Laertes the plan by which he thinks he has rid himself of Hamlet, word is brought that Hamlet has returned. Without a moment's hesitation Claudius seizes on the opportunity to turn Laertes to his purpose, and before Hamlet has a chance to act, a new and sinister plot is under way against him. And before the plot is fairly formed, Laertes's ardor for revenge is fanned to fierce flame by the account of Ophelia's death, and the act ends with a sense of crowding events moving swiftly to the catastrophe.

I. Conscience: consciousness (that all this is so), knowledge. See note on III, i, 83.

3-5. Can you make out what it is that the King has told Laertes? Notice Laertes's characterization of "these feats" in the next speech.

13. Be it either which: whichever of these it be. 15. See note on I, v, 17.

19-21. Springs which have the property referred to here are known in many localities. Gyves = fetters, and the literal meaning gives perfectly good sense: the people will regard as ornaments the fetters I impose upon him.

27. If praises may go back again:i. e., to what she was. 28. Stood on an eminence as challenger of all the age.

33. You shortly shall hear more. What the King expects that Laertes shall hear is the news of Hamlet's death. What he does hear is the news of his escape. Observe the dramatic irony of the situation.

34. I

we. In the first half of the line Claudius is

speaking as a man; in the second, as a king.

37. This to the queen. We hear no more of this letter;

why is it mentioned here?

40. Who is Claudio?

63. Checking at. A technical term from falconry. A hawk "checks," when it abandons its proper prey to fly after another.