|
. the Tragical History of . H A M L E T . Prince of Denmark .
(Notes)
- Scene 17 [~ Thieves of Mercy ~] (Act 4 scene 6)
hw 2972- Setting: Inside the Castle;
The Lobby;
Daytime.
(Horatio enters;
a Gentleman enters)
---
The setting is reasonably the Lobby, a place already explicitly established in the play. The last Scene was in the Throne Room. Horatio has followed the others out of the Throne Room to the Lobby. He is detained here by the Gentleman. Claudius and Laertes have continued on, for Claudius to present his case to Laertes and his friends. Ophelia has gone outside, followed by Gertrude.
The original Q2 stage direction is "Enter Horatio and others." These "others" are not the Sailors, who have not entered yet. The others are extras who would be found in the Lobby during business hours: a guard or two, a servant or two, a couple of courtiers, etc., the usual Castle traffic.
The Gentleman is our old friend, again. In need of someone to tell Horatio about the sailors with the letters, and being an absolute Johannes Factotum, he simply did it, himself.
hw 2973, to hw 2977- Horatio: What are they that would speak with me?
Gentleman: Seafaring men sir; they say they have letters for you.
Hora: Let them come in.
I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.
(Sailors enter)
---
Horatio did not plan to remain at Elsinore so long. He thought he would attend the funeral for King Hamlet, and then return to the university, but he was delayed by the events of the marriage and the coronation which followed close upon the funeral, and then by the Ghost, and Hamlet's desire to have him stay. Horatio's relatives and friends who are writing to him are addressing their letters to Wittenberg, expecting him to be there by now, not at Elsinore. Of those who are far away from Horatio, and likely to write to him, only Hamlet would expect him to still be at Elsinore.
Observe the similarity to the start of the Baker's Daughter Scene, when Ophelia wished to see Gertrude. Gertrude, there, said she would not "speak with her;" here, Horatio questions who would speak with me. In both Scenes, the Gentleman then has an utterance. Then, in the earlier Scene, Horatio said "let her come in," and here he says, Let them come in. This supports that, in the earlier Scene, the "come in" line was correctly Horatio's, as Q2 shows, which he spoke after Gertrude merely nodded permission.
In undertone, the world is the world of the play, the world of Hamlet. Within the play world, the locations are the world of Hamlet in its various parts, and Hamlet is the only one who would be expected to write to Horatio. The named characters, besides Hamlet, who are away in other "parts" of the play world, are only Reynaldo and R & G, who would not likely write to Horatio.
The Sailors are a couple of the pirates. They have remained outside the door, staying out of sight as much as possible, very uneasy at being in the Castle and so close to the guards and the military personnel at Elsinore. The Gentleman gestures to them, and they enter, at his command.
His job done, the Gentleman fades away. As before, one is not permitted to specify an exit for him. He never really leaves.
hw 2978, to hw 2984- Sailor: God bless you, sir.
Horatio: Let him bless thee, too.
Sailor: He shall, sir, and please him; there's a letter for you sir; it came
from the Ambassador that was bound for England, if your name be
Horatio, as I am let to know it is.
---
The sailor is a pirate. His remark and please him is ironic. The pirate means that if God blesses him, God must only be doing so to please himself, as the pirate knows he hasn't merited any blessing.
Hamlet is genuinely the Danish Ambassador to England, so credentialed by Claudius. According to the supposed diplomatic mission, if it were truly a mission to collect the tribute, Hamlet's role is that of a social Ambassador, the person who would shake the hands and do the socializing with the English monarch and dignitaries. Then, R & G would accompany Hamlet as his diplomatic aides, who handle the papers and do the clerical work. That's how Claudius has arranged it to look. So, R & G are carrying the paperwork, not Hamlet.
hw 2985, to hw 3002- Horatio (reads the letter):
Horatio;
when thou shalt have over-looked this, give these
fellows some means to the King; they have letters for him.
Ere we
were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave
us chase; finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled
valor, and in the grapple I boarded them; on the instant, they got
clear of our ship, so I alone became their prisoner; they have dealt
with me like thieves of mercy, but they knew what they did; I am to
do a turn for them;
let the King have the letters I have sent, and
repair thou to me with as much speed as thou wouldest fly death;
I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb, yet are
they much too light for the bord of the matter;
these good fellows
will bring thee where I am; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their
course for England, of them I have much to tell thee; farewell.
So that thou knowest thine,
Hamlet.
---
Over-looked has a double meaning. In plain reading, it means when Horatio has read the letter. In undertone, it means when Horatio has overlooked that the letter was brought to him in an unusual way by suspicious characters.
In comparison with the original printing, I have changed the format, to make the letter a little easier to read. In Q2, the body of the letter is printed in a continuous block, and the closing clause and signature are printed on one line, in italics. I have respected the original line endings in a way, however. To see the original line endings in the body of the letter, as printed in Q2, move the shorter lines, as I show them, up to the end of the preceding line.
Two days old is Hamlet's figure of speech he uses to express feeling newborn, in the poetic sense. He felt born again in getting away from Elsinore. Hamlet's letter to Claudius will allude to the same concept, of being reborn.
Thieves of mercy is facetiousness by Hamlet. He means the pirates are the kind of people who have no mercy of their own, that they have ever been taught, under any moral standard. So, for them to display the quality of mercy, they must have stolen mercy from somebody else, or they wouldn't have any at all. They're the kind of people who'd have to steal mercy to have any. It's similar to what Hamlet told Gertrude in the Closet Scene, where he said she should assume a virtue, if she had it not, with "assume" having a root meaning of "take;" in other words, if she had no virtue she should steal some.
Bord is the correct word in the playtext, exactly as printed in Q2. It's a foreign language word. The word bord is Old French, for the side of a ship. Hamlet means that even though the words he has to tell Horatio will be like a cannon going off, figuratively speaking, nevertheless, the words are too light, too small a caliber, to break through the side of the "ship of truth" about Claudius. The truth of Claudius defeats Hamlet's ability to express it, he means. It has allusion to the sea battle between Hamlet's ship and the pirate ship. In plain reading, the word can be taken as "board," with reference to the planking used to make the sides of a ship. There is probably some additional allusion intended to the boards of a theater stage, since stage performance is a recurrent theme.
Turn means "favor," and with allusion to the turnings of the Wheel of Fortune. The pirates have asked Hamlet to turn the Wheel of Fortune in their favor, if he can. The favor the pirates want is for Hamlet to try to kill the King of Denmark for them. This goes back to Hamlet's remark near the end of the Closet Scene, when he mentioned two crafts meeting. Hamlet's "craft" and the pirates' "craft" have met in the favor the pirates want Hamlet to do. The pirates want the King killed to further disrupt Danish naval operations, and give them more and better opportunities for piracy. It was the death of King Hamlet, and the change to Claudius's government in Denmark, that interrupted Danish naval patrols, and gave the pirates the chance to attack Hamlet's ship. The pirates want the anarchy at sea to continue. Hamlet has promised the pirates, that since they asked so nicely, he will try to kill Claudius for them. There is profound irony in that Claudius's murder of his brother caused derangement of Danish naval patrols, which leads to Hamlet returning to England when Claudius thought he was sending Hamlet away forever.
The closing, So that thou knowest thine, is a code phrase used by Hamlet to assure Horatio that the letter is genuine, and truly by Hamlet. The phrase was not prearranged. Hamlet is relying on Horatio's intelligence to identify the closing for what it is. Horatio easily does so. Hamlet included the phrase because a question might arise in Horatio's mind, about what the letter says, since Hamlet is a prisoner according to the letter, and he could be forced to write something that is untrue and deceptive. With the closing, Hamlet assures Horatio that what the letter says is true, and it's alright. The pirates are not literary people, those few who are even literate, and they would not think to add such a closing if they forced Hamlet to write a letter. Going back to the personal recognition idea, introduced in the first Scene of the play, the closing is Hamlet's way of telling Horatio "who's there," that it's really Hamlet's words in the letter, and not somebody else's.
hw 3003, to hw 3005- Hora: Come, I will you way for these your letters,
And do it the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.
(all exit)
---
The Folio words Horatio's first line as "I will give you way." That is correctly the idea, for plain reading. However, the line offers a more metric reading without "give." The addition of "give" causes a stumble in the meter. It is credible the author omitted "give" for poetic reasons, leaving it to be inferred - the inference is not difficult - and that Q2 is correct. I therefore follow Q2.
Also, the line offers a pun on way with "weigh." The word "weigh" has an obsolete meaning of "esteem" or "value." Horatio is saying to the pirates, "I will weigh (esteem) you for the sake of these letters (although I do not esteem you, personally.)"
Direct, in plain reading, means "guide." The word direct is from a root meaning "rule." In the undertone, Horatio is saying he'll allow the pirates to "rule" him, as far as finding Hamlet goes. This anticipates Claudius's later question to Laertes, in the next Scene, when Claudius will ask if Laertes will agree to be ruled by him.
Horatio leaves with the pirates, to see that the letters are delivered to Claudius, and then to go to Hamlet.
End of Scene 17
|
Back to Scene 16:
Both Text and Notes, in Frames
Scene 16 Text, only
Scene 16 Notes, only
|
(Regained)