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Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others
Much pomp and circumstance. Much is being made of Hamlet’s little play. There is the excitement of social festivity and the air practically crackles with electricity. The hope had been that the prince may be coming back to himself and out of his unknowing woe. It is also a critical scene for the real play:
All the preparation for an act and a half leads to this moment: when the great sound, and the panoply, bring the two mighty opposites face to face, for the first time (except perhaps in passing) since act one, scene two [Marvin Rosenberg].
KING CLAUDIUS
How fares our cousin Hamlet?
Hamlet is in antic mood, even seeming manic. He is up and primed. He immediately twists Claudius’s courteous greeting by punning on ‘fares’:
HAMLET
Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.
KING CLAUDIUS
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.
HAMLET
No, nor mine now.
[To POLONIUS]
My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?
LORD POLONIUS
That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET
What did you enact?
LORD POLONIUS
I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.
HAMLET
It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf
there. Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ
Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.
Now Gertrude will reach out to Hamlet:
Gertrude’s invitation to Hamlet suggests a real affection, something more than conventional display for the court’s sake. [...]
Only we as Gertrude can know how much we care for this unruly son - who has begun the evening by offending Claudius and the old man, and now by indirection, us. Do we care about him? Love him? Will we try to calm him? Appease his madness? Try to neutralize his present belligerence? Prevent further unpleasantness between him and the new husband for whom we must show affection? Make peace between them? Show Hamlet love? Scold him? We have declared ourselves worried by his transformation, have attributed it to our own hasty marriage. What strange thing might he do now? We must enjoy - or seem to enjoy - this play he put on for us.
Through the whole of this long scene we-Gertrude will speak only twice more, briefly; we will endure insults that remind us of our guilt, sense the strange growing uneasiness of our husband, wonder and perhaps agonize at the irrational behavior of this son - almost entirely in silence. In silence we will have to experience and convey, moment by moment, our own progressive anxiety that will contribute to increasing the tension of this scene, and propel us toward the climactic private confrontation in the next scene [in the bed chamber with Polonius behind the arras]. {Marvin Rosenberg}
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
HAMLET
No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
LORD POLONIUS
[To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?
Polonius is still playing the fishmonger, and Hamlet will relate to Ophelia as though she were little more than a peasant whore.
HAMLET
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
[Sitting down at OPHELIA's feet.]
OPHELIA
No, my lord.
HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant CoUNTry matters?
OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA
What is, my lord?
HAMLET
Nothing.
Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia so? Why does Shakespeare? If ever the poet deserved to be whipped, Theobald wrote, it was for this. Bradley was shocked by the “disgusting and insulting grossness” of Hamlet’s language. Dover Wilson thought Hamlet’s “savagery towards a gentle and inoffensive child,” treating her like a prostitute, was “inexcusable on the ordinary reading... irreconcilable with everything else we are told about him.” [Marvin Rosenberg]
Mr. Granville-Barker offers a considerate defense: Hamlet is merely holding up the mirror to Polonius and the King, showing everyone at court how Ophelia is being used as sexy bait. It is they who hold out Ophelia as so much juicy meat, and so he is treating her as she is offered, and as she allows herself to be offered. He is also using his bitter feelings to display his antic whims and somewhat disturbing behavior, giving himself more of a shield for other more pointed provocations that he will be offering up shortly, striking closer at the crown. For what he says next is still within earshot of the royal couple and the royal court for all to hear, and there will be more to come.
OPHELIA
You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET
Who, I?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.
OPHELIA
Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year.
Everyone has come to indulge Hamlet and see the show he has put together, and he has put on quite a show himself, slamming and shaming everybody from the King and Queen to Polonius and Ophelia. Fortunately, the trumpet sounds to break off this unrelenting assault by the prickly prince, and the play begins with the dumb show.
Much pomp and circumstance. Much is being made of Hamlet’s little play. There is the excitement of social festivity and the air practically crackles with electricity. The hope had been that the prince may be coming back to himself and out of his unknowing woe. It is also a critical scene for the real play:
All the preparation for an act and a half leads to this moment: when the great sound, and the panoply, bring the two mighty opposites face to face, for the first time (except perhaps in passing) since act one, scene two [Marvin Rosenberg].
KING CLAUDIUS
How fares our cousin Hamlet?
Hamlet is in antic mood, even seeming manic. He is up and primed. He immediately twists Claudius’s courteous greeting by punning on ‘fares’:
HAMLET
Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.
KING CLAUDIUS
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.
HAMLET
No, nor mine now.
[To POLONIUS]
My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?
LORD POLONIUS
That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET
What did you enact?
LORD POLONIUS
I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.
HAMLET
It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf
there. Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ
Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.
Now Gertrude will reach out to Hamlet:
Gertrude’s invitation to Hamlet suggests a real affection, something more than conventional display for the court’s sake. [...]
Only we as Gertrude can know how much we care for this unruly son - who has begun the evening by offending Claudius and the old man, and now by indirection, us. Do we care about him? Love him? Will we try to calm him? Appease his madness? Try to neutralize his present belligerence? Prevent further unpleasantness between him and the new husband for whom we must show affection? Make peace between them? Show Hamlet love? Scold him? We have declared ourselves worried by his transformation, have attributed it to our own hasty marriage. What strange thing might he do now? We must enjoy - or seem to enjoy - this play he put on for us.
Through the whole of this long scene we-Gertrude will speak only twice more, briefly; we will endure insults that remind us of our guilt, sense the strange growing uneasiness of our husband, wonder and perhaps agonize at the irrational behavior of this son - almost entirely in silence. In silence we will have to experience and convey, moment by moment, our own progressive anxiety that will contribute to increasing the tension of this scene, and propel us toward the climactic private confrontation in the next scene [in the bed chamber with Polonius behind the arras]. {Marvin Rosenberg}
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
HAMLET
No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
LORD POLONIUS
[To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?
Polonius is still playing the fishmonger, and Hamlet will relate to Ophelia as though she were little more than a peasant whore.
HAMLET
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
[Sitting down at OPHELIA's feet.]
OPHELIA
No, my lord.
HAMLET
I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Do you think I meant CoUNTry matters?
OPHELIA
I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA
What is, my lord?
HAMLET
Nothing.
Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia so? Why does Shakespeare? If ever the poet deserved to be whipped, Theobald wrote, it was for this. Bradley was shocked by the “disgusting and insulting grossness” of Hamlet’s language. Dover Wilson thought Hamlet’s “savagery towards a gentle and inoffensive child,” treating her like a prostitute, was “inexcusable on the ordinary reading... irreconcilable with everything else we are told about him.” [Marvin Rosenberg]
Mr. Granville-Barker offers a considerate defense: Hamlet is merely holding up the mirror to Polonius and the King, showing everyone at court how Ophelia is being used as sexy bait. It is they who hold out Ophelia as so much juicy meat, and so he is treating her as she is offered, and as she allows herself to be offered. He is also using his bitter feelings to display his antic whims and somewhat disturbing behavior, giving himself more of a shield for other more pointed provocations that he will be offering up shortly, striking closer at the crown. For what he says next is still within earshot of the royal couple and the royal court for all to hear, and there will be more to come.
OPHELIA
You are merry, my lord.
HAMLET
Who, I?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.
OPHELIA
Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year.
Everyone has come to indulge Hamlet and see the show he has put together, and he has put on quite a show himself, slamming and shaming everybody from the King and Queen to Polonius and Ophelia. Fortunately, the trumpet sounds to break off this unrelenting assault by the prickly prince, and the play begins with the dumb show.
