SPEECHES AND ACTS:SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET & SELECTED WORKS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH I

Transnational HamletPOLONIUS (to Laertes)For the apparel oft proclaims the man,And they in France of the best rank and stationAre of a most select and generous chief in that. (I.iii)

HAMLET (to Horatio)But, to my mind, though I am native hereAnd to the manner born, it is a customMore honoured in the breach than the observance. This heavy-headed revel east and westMakes us traduced and taxed of other nations.They clepe us drunkards and with swinish phraseSoil our addition. And, indeed, it takesFrom our achievements, though performed at height,The pith and marrow of our attribute. (I.iv)

KING Attend!Where is my Switzers? Let them guard the door. (IV.v)

HAMLET (to Osric)But on. Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages—that’s the French bet against the Danish. (V.ii)

OSRIC Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,To th’ambassadors of England givesThis warlike volley. (V.ii)

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

MARCELLUSGood now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,Why this same strict and most observant watchSo nightly toils the subject of the land,And why such daily cast of brazen cannonAnd foreign mart for implements of war,Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore taskDoes not divide the Sunday from the week.What might be toward that this sweaty hasteDoth make the night joint labourer with the day?Who is ’t that can inform me? (I.i)

This warlike stateCAPTAINTruly to speak, and with no addition,We go to gain a little patch of groundThat hath in it no profit but the name.To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;Nor will it yield to Norway nor the PoleA ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.HAMLETWhy, then, the Polack never will defend it.CAPTAINYes, it is already garrisoned.HAMLETTwo thousand souls and twenty thousand ducatsWill not debate the question of this straw.This is th’impostume of much wealth and peace,That inward breaks and shows no cause withoutWhy the man dies. (IV.iv)

Claudian tactics

KINGHow dangerous is it that this man goes loose!Yet must not we put the strong law on him.He’s loved of the distracted multitude,Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;And where ’tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weighed,But never the offense. (IV.iii)

What a king is this?HORATIOSo Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to ’t.HAMLETWhy, man, they did make love to this employment.They are not near my conscience. Their defeatDoes by their own insinuation grow.’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed pointsOf mighty opposites.HORATIONWhy, what a king is this! (V.ii)

Counsellor as sponge

ROSENCRANTZ Take you me for a sponge, my lord?HAMLET Ay, sir, that soaks up the King’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in the end. He keeps them like an ape an apple in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed, to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.ROSENCRANTZ I understand you not, my lord. (IV.ii)

Truth(?)-seeking

POLONIUS (to Reynaldo)Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth;And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,With windlasses and assays of bias,By indirections find directions out. (II.i)

The Danish court as stage?

And all little enough: for we Princes, I tell you, are set on stages, in the sight and view of all the world duly observed. The eyes of many behold our actions; a spot is soon spied in our garments, a blemish quickly noted in our doings. —Queen Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots

...or as ‘prison’?

KINGIt shall be so.Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. (III.ii)

OPHELIAO, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state,The glass of fashion and the mold of form,Th’observed of all observers, quite, quite down! (III.i)

King and populaceGUILDENSTERNMost holy and religious fear it isTo keep those many many bodies safeThat live and feed upon your Majesty.ROSENCRANTZThe single and peculiar life is boundWith all the strength and armour of the mindTo keep itself from noyance, but much moreThat spirit upon whose weal depends and restsThe lives of many. The cess of majestyDies not alone, but like a gulf doth drawWhat’s near it with it; or it is a massy wheelFixed on the summit of the highest mount,To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser thingsAre mortised and adjoined, which, when it falls,Each small annexment, petty consequence,Attends the boist’rous ruin. Never aloneDid the king sigh, but with a general groan. (III.iii)

Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being at this time resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe should dare to invade the border of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. —Queen Elizabeth I, To the English Troops at Tilbury, Facing the Spanish Armada

LAERTES (to Ophelia)...Perhaps he loves you now,And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirchThe virtue of his will; but you must fear,His greatness weighed, his will is not his own,For he himself is subject to his birth.He may not, as unvalued persons do,Carve for himself, for on his choice dependsThe safety and the health of this whole state.And therefore must his choice be circumscribedUnto the voice and yielding of that bodyWhereof he is the head. Then, if he says he loves you,It fits your wisdom so far to believe itAs he in his particular act and placeMay give his saying deed, which is no furtherThan the main voice of Denmark goes withal. (I.iii)

Is Hamlet his own person?

Philosopher-queen

I know the title of a king is a glorious title ... To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it, than it is pleasant to them that bear it. For myself, I was never so much enticed with the glorious name of a king or royal authority of a queen, as delighted that God hath made me His instrument to maintain His truth and glory, and to defend his kingdom (as I said) from peril, dishonour, tyranny and oppression. —Elizabeth I, The Golden Speech

Emperor/beggarHAMLET... Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes but to one table....KINGWhat dost thou mean by this?HAMLETNothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

What a piece of work is a manHAMLET (to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern)I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises, and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the Earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’er-hanging firmament, this majestical roof, fretted with golden fire—why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable; in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? (II.ii)