Hamlet - Act 3 Scene 4
The Queen's closet.
Enter GERTRUDE and POLONIUS
"Your grace" is a respectful term of address for the Queen, as well as a reference to her mild temperament or gentle way with Hamlet, in contrast to Polonius' more controlling style of parenting.
POLONIUS
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screened and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.
HAMLET
[Within]
Mother, mother, mother!
Polonius typically hides out of view of the audience, though clever staging (or the possibilities of film) may allow the audience to see Polonius' reactions to the scene.
GERTRUDE
I'll warrant you,
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
[POLONIUS hides behind the arras]
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Now, mother, what's the matter?
GERTRUDE
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
This is the first time we have seen Hamlet alone with Gertrude, and Polonius' lines suggest that she has been a lenient parent until now. Her attempt to "be round with him" meets substantial resistance from her son, as Hamlet twists her words and turns them against her.
HAMLET
Mother, you have my father much offended.
GERTRUDE
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
HAMLET
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
GERTRUDE
Why, how now, Hamlet!
HAMLET
What's the matter now?
GERTRUDE
Have you forgot me?
The "rood" is the cross; Hamlet swears an oath which adds force to his denial, and may also indicate a rising intensity to his words.
Gertrude gives up, and her words suggest that she is leaving the room; Hamlet's next line would accompany an action of blocking her exit, or of forcing her back into the room, prompting her fear of violence.
HAMLET
No, by the rood, not so:
You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And – would it were not so! – you are my mother.
GERTRUDE
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
GERTRUDE
What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!
POLONIUS
[Behind]
What, ho! Help, help, help!
After all of Hamlet's hesitation and consideration in the previous scene, he is now quick to act, even overly rash, stabbing Polonius through the curtain. "For a ducat" means "I'd bet a ducat on it," an expression of certainty.
HAMLET
[Drawing]
How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Killing POLONIUS [through the arras]
POLONIUS
[Behind]
O, I am slain!
Falls and dies
GERTRUDE
O me, what hast thou done?
HAMLET
Nay, I know not:
Is it the King?
The dialogue continues for several lines between the stabbing and Hamlet's discovery of his victim. He may be intent on his mother in these moments, or paralyzed by the enormity of his own action.
GERTRUDE
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
HAMLET
A bloody deed! Almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
GERTRUDE
As kill a king!
HAMLET
Ay, lady, ‘twas my word.
"Discovers" is a significant and ambiguous term here. Hamlet literally "dis-covers" Polonius in lifting the arras, but he may drop the curtain or leave it open. If Polonius remains visible to the audience during the rest of the scene, he adds a visual reminder of the murder, and a counterpoint to Hamlet's protestations of sanity.
[Lifts up the arras and discovers POLONIUS]
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! Sit you down,
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff,
If damnèd custom have not brassed it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
GERTRUDE
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
In confronting his mother, Hamlet shifts away from thought of his father's murder and back to her marriage to Claudius, with all the vehemence he displayed in 1.2. Hamlet here describes this marriage (and/or the sex that attends it) as a sin against love, marriage, fidelity, and religion itself, though he is unable or unwilling to name the act itself.
HAMLET
Such an act
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
GERTRUDE
Ay me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
The text does not specify where Hamlet obtains these "pictures," which are usually taken to be miniatures, as these were in vogue during Shakespeare's time. Gertrude may have the images in her room, though productions often have Hamlet carrying his father's image, and the image of Claudius either in the room or around Gertrude's neck. The "pictures" could also be coins, which would be engraved with the head of the king in profile.
Hamlet's description of his father as an assemblage of Roman gods seems fanciful, but the casting of Claudius and the Ghost will determine how close the audience's experience is to Hamlet's perception. The further the actors' appearance is from this description, the more cause the audience has to doubt Hamlet's analysis (or sanity) in this moment.
Hamlet's assertion that love (or sexual desire) fades with age may be an insight into his character and into Claudius and Gertrude's relationship. Some modern productions present Gertrude's second marriage as very physical, though many depict it as stately, or quite loving. It's understandable that Hamlet has difficulty with his mother having a sexual relationship, though he sometimes seems uncomfortable around physicality in general.
The image of ingrained, unremovable spots which signify guilt is one which Gertrude famously shares with Lady Macbeth.
HAMLET
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildewed ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it love; for at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
Is apoplexed; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled
But it reserved some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.
O shame! Where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
Since frost itself as actively doth burn
And reason panders will.
GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grainèd spots
As will not leave their tinct.
Here Hamlet seems to have disengaged from the conversation. Rather than responding to his mother's confession, he is intent on articulating his own disgust (reflected in powerful images of rot and disease), which builds in intensity until the Ghost's entrance. Hamlet's loss of control here may be reflected in his action, so that Gertrude's pleas respond not only to his words, but to a physical threat as well.
HAMLET
Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed,
Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty –
GERTRUDE
O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!
HAMLET
A murderer and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!
GERTRUDE
No more!
HAMLET
A king of shreds and patches –
The Ghost's entrance may be as quiet and simple as walking through a door, or it may be an occasion for all sorts of effects-- trap doors, smoke, thunder – depending on whether the production wishes for quiet intensity or spectacular drama in this moment. The First Quarto reads "Enter Ghost in his night-gown," a very different image from the armored figure in Act 1, which might suggest a simpler entrance and demeanour.
The Ghost reiterates its somewhat confusing demands: revenge for Old Hamlet's death, and concern for Gertrude.
Enter Ghost
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
GERTRUDE
Alas, he's mad!
HAMLET
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, say!
Ghost
Do not forget: this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.
HAMLET
How is it with you, lady?
Gertrude's inability to see the Ghost is never explained, but it renders this encounter different from the ones in Act 1, where the Ghost's presence was confirmed by other witnesses. The lack of confirmation here makes the Ghost's appearance ambiguous, as it may be a sign of Hamlet's madness, especially given Gertrude's depiction of his distraught expression.
Hamlet's description here recalls his description of the Player in 2.2: he suggests that his father's image and story would serve to make stones rise up and take action, just as the Player's speech, linked with Hamlet's story, would incite listeners to act. Paradoxically, Hamlet then claims that the Ghost's glare moves him to pity, robbing him of the will to enact revenge.
GERTRUDE
Alas, how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
HAMLET
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
GERTRUDE
To whom do you speak this?
HAMLET
Do you see nothing there?
GERTRUDE
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
HAMLET
Nor did you nothing hear?
GERTRUDE
No, nothing but ourselves.
HAMLET
Why, look you there! Look, how it steals away!
My father, in his habit as he lived!
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!
The Ghost's exit is fairly straightforward, "stealing away" through the door, or "portal." The comment about his "habit" (i.e. outfit) is a reminder of the play's concern with clothing.
Exit Ghost
GERTRUDE
This the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.
"Ecstasy," from the Latin ex-stasis meaning "to stand outside oneself," here means madness or extreme passion. The more Hamlet tries to convince his mother of the Ghost's presence, the more certain she becomes that her son is insane.
Hamlet returns to images of rot, here comparing Gertrude's guilt to an infection which can kill while remaining hidden; by contrast, confession and action can release the infection and allow for healing. Hamlet's final lines posit himself as virtue, having to apologize to vice (either Gertrude or Gertrude's crimes) for permission to aid her, an image which is sincere, but also arrogantly self-righteous.
HAMLET
Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have uttered: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
GERTRUDE
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Hamlet again employs the image of clothing (the "frock or livery"), but in a new way: outward behaviour, he explains, may begin as something artificial or "put on," but it gradually grows easier and more comfortable, until eventually it becomes an expression of oneself. Thus "use," or repeated action, can "change the stamp of nature," though this process applies to both good habits and bad.
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,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain tonight,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either tame the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:
And when you are desirous to be blessed,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
In another rapid transition, Hamlet shifts from his role as confessor to his mother, back to the consequences of his recent homicide.
"Behind" here means "still to come;" this was a common idiom in Shakespeare's time, though confusing to modern readers and audiences. Hamlet is saying that Polonius' death is a bad beginning, with worse consequences to follow.
[Pointing to POLONIUS]
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
To punish me with this and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.
GERTRUDE
What shall I do?
Hamlet's meaning is clear enough: he is telling his mother not to reveal his sanity (and, thus, his pretense) to Claudius. But his phrasing is confusing, as he presents his advice in the negative, exhorting his mother to do it, but also telling her not to follow his advice.
The "famous ape" is a reference to a folktale in which the ape, known for reckless imitation, carries a basket of birds to the rooftop, releases the birds, attempts to copy their flight, and breaks his neck in the resultant fall. The implication is that Gertrude's revelation of Hamlet's secrets (releasing the birds), would ultimately cause her own destruction.
HAMLET
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.
GERTRUDE
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.
Claudius' plan to exile Hamlet to England has not been mentioned onstage to either Hamlet or Gertrude, so it's interesting that they are both aware of it already.
HAMLET
I must to England; you know that?
GERTRUDE
Alack,
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.
"Engineer" in this context is a military miner, who used explosives to destroy opposing fortifications; a "petard" is a small bomb used in such operations. Hamlet imagines himself as a counter-miner, able to disrupt his enemies' plans and cause them to be caught in their own traps, though he does not explicitly mention which enemy he means.
HAMLET
There's letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon. O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
This man shall set me packing:
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.
Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS