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The players begin the so-called dumb show, a little scene done in mime.
Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love
Exeunt
OPHELIA
What means this, my lord?
HAMLET
Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.
OPHELIA
Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
[Enter Prologue]
HAMLET
We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot
keep counsel; they'll tell all.
OPHELIA
Will he tell us what this show meant?
HAMLET
Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you
ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
OPHELIA
You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.
But what does this dumb show mean? Does it not spoil Hamlet’s trap by the way it gives up the gig prematurely? I have read one interpretation, though I cannot recall where, that argues that Hamlet’s lines about mischief and how the players will tell all reflect his bitterness over what the players have done, and that the players did it because they could see how insulting it could be to Claudius and they wished to defuse the matter. I am not inclined to go with this interpretation, but it illustrates the interpretive problem.
We will follow the mainline interpretation which holds that the mime show begins the continuous tightening of the noose around Claudius’s conscience. As Marvin Rosenberg puts it, “The new king [Claudius] is to be confronted, in a prefatory way, with a visualization of his crime; but this is only to plant an uneasiness in him, not to be exacerbated until illuminated with language.”
This is still not a very happy interpretation, but Rosenberg also makes this interesting note, arguing that it is better to have the problem than to lose the mime:
The dumb show has often been cut, a pity, because it provides the ending to the Mousetrap that Hamlet will interrupt, before the Player Queen’s readiness to yield to the poisoner can be seen. The dumb show is a small jewel of drama itself, with expectation, reversals, and climax; the remarkable power of mime to involve spectators serves Shakespeare well here.
And now a player comes to deliver the prologue:
Prologue
For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
[Exit]
HAMLET
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
OPHELIA
'Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET
As woman's love.
Hamlet is still riding both Ophelia and his mother hard, as he speaks to be heard by the court, casting his own slings and arrows with his lewd suggestions, talking to them and about them as if they were tavern barmaids. But now the play begins in earnest.
Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love
Exeunt
OPHELIA
What means this, my lord?
HAMLET
Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.
OPHELIA
Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
[Enter Prologue]
HAMLET
We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot
keep counsel; they'll tell all.
OPHELIA
Will he tell us what this show meant?
HAMLET
Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you
ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
OPHELIA
You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.
But what does this dumb show mean? Does it not spoil Hamlet’s trap by the way it gives up the gig prematurely? I have read one interpretation, though I cannot recall where, that argues that Hamlet’s lines about mischief and how the players will tell all reflect his bitterness over what the players have done, and that the players did it because they could see how insulting it could be to Claudius and they wished to defuse the matter. I am not inclined to go with this interpretation, but it illustrates the interpretive problem.
We will follow the mainline interpretation which holds that the mime show begins the continuous tightening of the noose around Claudius’s conscience. As Marvin Rosenberg puts it, “The new king [Claudius] is to be confronted, in a prefatory way, with a visualization of his crime; but this is only to plant an uneasiness in him, not to be exacerbated until illuminated with language.”
This is still not a very happy interpretation, but Rosenberg also makes this interesting note, arguing that it is better to have the problem than to lose the mime:
The dumb show has often been cut, a pity, because it provides the ending to the Mousetrap that Hamlet will interrupt, before the Player Queen’s readiness to yield to the poisoner can be seen. The dumb show is a small jewel of drama itself, with expectation, reversals, and climax; the remarkable power of mime to involve spectators serves Shakespeare well here.
And now a player comes to deliver the prologue:
Prologue
For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
[Exit]
HAMLET
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
OPHELIA
'Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET
As woman's love.
Hamlet is still riding both Ophelia and his mother hard, as he speaks to be heard by the court, casting his own slings and arrows with his lewd suggestions, talking to them and about them as if they were tavern barmaids. But now the play begins in earnest.
