If damned custom have not brass'd it so That it be proof and bulwark against sense.1 Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? Hamlet. Such an act A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow; Queen. Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?4 Hamlet. Look here, upon this picture, and on this, 1 Feeling. 2 The marriage contract. 3 " Solidity and compound mass," i. e., the solid earth. 66 4 Shakespeare uses index for title or prologue. "The index was for merly placed at the beginning of a book, not at the end, as now."-ED WARDS. 5 “Counterfeit presentment,” i.e., portrait or likeness. 6 See Note 6, p. 31. 7 The face and head. 8 " 'Jupiter, Jove, or Zeus, king of the gods, supreme ruler of the universe, . . the most prominent of all the Olympian divinities: the others were obliged to submit to his will, and trembled at his all-powerful nod." — GUERBER: Myths of Greece and Rome, p. 39. 9 See Note 6, p. 74. A station1 like the herald Mercury 2 This was your husband. Look you now what follows. Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd 5 To serve in such a difference. What devil was't Could not so mope.8 Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots 1 Attitude; presence. 2 44 Mercury," son of Jupiter and Maia, messenger of the gods, and patron of travelers, merchants, etc., was remarkable for his agility and graceful As will not leave their tinct.1 These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears: Hamlet. A murderer and a villain; A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards !—What would your gracious figure? Hamlet. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, laps'd in time and passion,3 lets go by The important acting of your dread command ? Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation Hamlet. How is it with you, lady? “Such black and grained spots,” etc., i.e., stains so thoroughly ingrained that they cannot be removed. 2 "A vice of kings," i.e., a buffoon king; alluding to the vice, or clown, in the old Moral Plays, in which vice and virtue were frequently personated. 3 " Laps'd in time and passion" is thus explained by Dr. Johnson: "that having suffered time to slip, and passion to cool, lets go by," etc. 4 Imagination. Queen. Alas, how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with the incorporal1 air do hold discourse? Look you, how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, My stern effects:4 then what I have to do Will want true color; tears, perchance, for blood. Do you see nothing there? Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. Hamlet. Nor did you nothing hear? Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. Hamlet. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he liv'd! Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! 4 6 Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy [Exit Ghost. My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music. It is not madness That I have utter'd: bring me to the test, 1 Bodiless. 24 ''Life in excrements," i.e., in such excrescences as hair, nails, etc., which have no life in themselves. * Susceptible. ♦ Purposes or resolutions. And I the matter will Would gambol from. reword, which madness Mother, for love of grace, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Hamlet. O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half. Good night; but go not to mine uncle's bed: Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, That to the use of actions fair and good That aptly is put on.2 For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either master the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. Once more, good night; I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord, [Pointing to Polonius. 1 "Fatness of these pursy times," i.e., times grown insolent through gross indulgence. 2 "That monster, custom," etc., i. e. (to paraphrase the passage), that monster, custom, which by mere repetition" destroys in us the sense of evil in our bad actions, is an angel in this, that by the same habitual use it makes easy the practice of that which is good. |