Closet scene

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A Conflated Version

This scene can take a quarter of an hour to play. (Once, the story goes, a London critic wrote he'd just seen Hamlet "performed in its eternity.") It's a bulge in the play, which already can drag in the middle. Not only a "poem unlimited," it's a play unfinished, with multiple texts and loose ends. Versions played at Oxford and Cambridge, or at Court -- or the first recorded production, which was by amateurs, sailors on the Red Dragon, Captain's Log 7 September 1607 -- these must have been all very different performances. But Originalists say: "This is what Shakespeare must have written in the draft manuscript." Intentionalists say: "This is what he meant." Scholars: "It's the poetry that matters." Pragmatists: "This reads better than this." Purists: "Pick the Folio or the Second Quarto and stick with it." And Conflationists: "Any version (or combination) is fair game to cut and paste -- the play's the thing." Here's a conflation:

2375-6    Pol   He will come straight.
2377                  Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear
                                  with [1]
2378                  And that your Grace hath stood between
2379   Much heat and him. I'll silence me in here.
2380   Pray you -- be round [2] with him.
2381        Ham   [Within] Mother, Mother. Mother!
2382        Ger   I'll warrant [3] you, fear me not.
2383                    Withdraw, I hear him coming.
2385        Ham   [Enters] Now Mother, what's the matter? [4]
2386        Ger   Hamlet, thou [5] hast thy father much offended.
2387        Ham   Mother, you [6] have my father much offended.
2388        Ger   Come, come! You [7] answer with an idle [8] tongue.
2389        Ham   Go, go! You question with a wicked tongue. [9]
2390        Ger   Why -- how now, Hamlet,
2392   Have you forgot me?
2393        Ham   No by the Rood [10] not so.
2394   You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife,
2395   And -- were it not so -- you are my mother.
2396          Ger   Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. [11]
2397-8     Ham   Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not budge.
2399   You go not till I set you up a glass [12]
2400   Where you may see the inmost part of you.
2401         Ger   What wilt thou do -- thou wilt not murder me?
2402   Help. Help, help. Ho!
2403        Pol      What -- how help? Ho! Help! Help, help!
2404        Ham   How now, a rat! [13] Dead for a ducat [14] -- dead!
2405        Pol   O -- I am slain. [Falls]
2406        Ger   Oh, me! What hast thou done?
2407        Ham   Nay, I know not -- is it the king? [15]
2408        Ger   Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
2409        Ham   A bloody deed. Almost as bad -- good Mother --
2410                     As kill a king and marry with his brother. [16]
2411        Ger     As kill a king? [17]
2412        Ham   Aye, Lady, it was my word.
2413   Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool! Farewell.
2414   I took thee for thy better. [18] Take thy fortune,
2415   Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
2416   Leave wringing of your hands! Peace, sit you down
2417   And let me wring your heart -- for so I shall
2418   If it be made of penetrable stuff,
2419   If damned custom have not brazed [19] it so
2420   That it be proof and bulwark [20] against sense.
2421        Ger   What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
2422   In noise so rude against me? [21]
2423        Ham Such an act
2424   That blurs the grace and blush [22] of modesty,
2425   Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
2426   From the fair forehead [23] of an innocent love
2427   And sets a blister 24] there, makes marriage vows
2428   As false as dicers' oaths. [25]
2437   Look here upon this picture, and on this,
2438   The counterfeit presentment of two brothers, [26]
2439   See what a grace was seated on this brow,
2440   Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself,
2441   An eye like Mars to threaten and command,
2444   A combination and a form indeed
2445   Where every god did seem to set his seal
2446   To give the world assurance of a man. [27]
2447   This was your husband. Look you now what follows,
2448   Here is your husband like a mildewed ear, [28]
2449   Blasting [29] his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
2450   Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed
2451   And batten[30] on this moor? [31] Ha, have you eyes?
2452   You cannot call it love, for at your age
2453   The heyday [32] in the blood [33] is tame, it's humble,
2454   And waits upon the judgment, and what judgment
2455   Would step from this -- to this?
2456+4   O shame, where is thy blush? [34]
2457   Rebellious hell,
2458   If thou canst mutiny in a matron's bones,
2459   To flaming youth, let virtue be as wax
2460   And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame
2461   When the compulsive ardor gives the charge,
2462   Since frost itself as actively doth burn, [35]
2463   And reason panders [36] will.
2464        Ger O Hamlet, speak no more!
2465   Thou turnst mine eyes into my very soul
2466   And there I see such black and grained spots
2467   As will not leave their tinct. [37]
2468        Ham   Nay but to live
2469   In the rank sweat of an enseamed [38] bed
2470   Stewed in corruption, honeying, and making love
2471   Over the nasty sty.
2472        Ger   O speak to me no more!
2473   These words like daggers enter in mine ears. [39]
2474   No more, sweet Hamlet.
2475        Ham A murderer and a villain --
2476   A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe [40]
2477   Of your precedent lord, a vice [41] of kings --
2478   A cut-purse of the Empire [42] and the rule,
2479   That from a shelf [43] the precious diadem stole
2480   And put it in his pocket.
2481        Ger   No more.
2483        Ham   A king of shreds and patches. [44] [Enter Ghost]
2484   Save me and hover o'er me with your wings
2485   You heavenly guards! What would your gracious
                                  figure?
2486        Ger   Alas, he's mad.
2487        Ham   Do you not come your tardy son to chide
2488   That lapsed [45] in time, and passion [46] lets go by
2489   The important acting of your dread command? O say!
2490        Ghost   Do not forget, this visitation
2491   Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose,
2492   But look, amazement on thy mother sits,
2493   O step between her, and her fighting soul.
2494   Conceit [47] in weakest bodies [48] strongest works.
2495   Speak to her, Hamlet. [49]
2496        Ham   How is it with you, Lady?
2497        Ger   Alas, how is't with you?
2498   That you bend your eye on vacancy
2499   And with th' incorporeal [50] air do hold discourse.
2506         Ham   On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares.
2507   His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones
2508   Would make them capable! [51] Do not look upon me,
2509   Lest with this piteous action you convert
2510   My stern effects [52] -- then, what I have to do
2511   Will want true color -- tears, perchance, for
                                     blood. [53]
2512        Ger   To whom do you speak this?
2513        Ham   Do you see nothing there?
2514        Ger   Nothing at all yet I see.
2515        Ham   Nor did you nothing hear?
2516        Ger   No, nothing but ourselves.
2517         Ham   Why look you there, look how it steals away,
2518   My father in his habit [54] as he lived.
2519   Look where he goes, even [55] now, out at the portal.
   [Exit Ghost]
2520        Ger   This is the very coinage of your brain,
2521   This bodiless creation, ecstasy [56] is very cunning
                                     in. [57]
2522        Ham   Ecstasy! My pulse as yours doth temperately keep
                                     time
2524   And makes as healthful music. [58] It is not madness
2525   That I have uttered.
2528   Lay not that flattering unction to your soul:
2529   That not your trespass but my madness speaks. [59]
2532   Confess yourself to heaven, [56]
2533   Repent what's past, avoid what is to come,
2534   And do not spread the compost o'er the weeds
2535   To make them ranker. [61]
2539-40    Ger   O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. [62]
2541        Ham   O throw away the worser part of it
2542   And leave the purer with the other half.
2543   Good night, but go not to mine uncle's bed.
2544   Assume a virtue if you have it not: [63] Refrain
                                     tonight. [64]
2544+1   That monster custom (who all sense doth eat)
2544+2   Of habits, Devil, is Angel yet in this: [65]
2544+3   That to the use of actions fair and good [66]
2544+4   He likewise gives a frock or livery [67]
2544+5   That aptly [68] is put on. Refrain tonight
2545   And that shall lend a kind of easiness
2546   To the next abstinence, [69]
2546+1   For use almost can change the stamp of nature [70]
2546+2   And either shame the devil, or throw him out
2546   With wondrous potency. [71] Once more, good night,
2547   And when you are desirous to be blest,
2548   I'll blessing beg of you. [72] For this same lord
2549   I do repent -- but heaven hath pleased it so
2550   To punish me with this, and this with me, [73]
2551   That I must be their scourge and minister. [74]
2552   I will bestow [75] him and will answer well [76]
2553   The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
2554   I must be cruel only to be kind.
2555   Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. [77]
2555+1   One word more good Lady.
2556        Ger   What shall I do?
2557        Ham   Not this: by no means that I bid you do.
2558   Let the bloat [78] king tempt you again to bed,
2559   Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse,
2560   And let him for a pair of [79] reechy [80] kisses,
2561   Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers [81]
2562   Make you to ravel all this matter out:
2563   That I essentially am not in madness
2564   But mad in craft -- t'were good you [not] [82] let him
                                     know.
2573        Ger   Be thou assured, if words be made of breath
2574   And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
2575   What thou hast said to me. [83]
2576        Ham   I must to England, you know that.
2577        Ger   Alack, I had forgot
2577   'Tis so concluded on.
2577+1    Ham There's letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows --
2577+2   Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged  [84]--
2577+3   They bear the mandate: They must sweep me away
2577+4   And marshal [85] me to knavery: let it work,
2577+5   For 'tis the sport [86] to have the engineer [87]
2577+6   Hoist with his own petard. [88] An't shall go hard
2577+7   But I will delve one yard below their mines [89]
2577+8   And blow them at the moon: O 'tis most sweet
2577+9   When in one line, two crafts directly meet. [90]
   This man shall set me packing,
2579   I'll lug the guts into the neighbor room.
2580   Mother, good night indeed. This counselor
2581   Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, [91]
2582   Who was in life a foolish prating [92] knave.
2583   Come sir, to draw toward an end with you. [93]
2584   Good night, Mother.
   [Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius]

Note on the text: The primary source here is the Enfolded Hamlet of Bernice W. Kliman, ©1996, a conflation of the 1604/05 Second Quarto and the First Folio of 1623. (at www.leoyan.com/global-language.com/ENFOLDED/) Through Line Numbers (TLNs) are based on the Folio. Depending on what readings seem most sensible and accessible to the modern ear, textual choices have been made on a line-by-line, within-line, and word-by-word basis from the melded version. The First Quarto of 1603 has been consulted where possible in an attempt to resolve conflicts in meaning between the Folio and Second Quarto. Spelling is updated to US English, and each line has been repunctuated in accordance with my understanding of the text -- J Groves

This scene in Gertrude's closet is on two downloadable MP4 files, HD, about 10 minutes each:

25 ShakespeareReadsFreud

Gertrude’s closet: A distracted Hamlet kills Polonius, savages his mother, and sees the Ghost.
00 12 Almereyda: chilling
04 42 Zeffirelli: hysterical
09 10 end

26 ShakespeareReadsFreud

Gertrude’s closet, a third version: Hamlet shames his mother with portraits of her husbands.
00 12 Branagh: Hamlet parentified

09 46 end

In the Almereyda clip, Ethan Hawke is perfect, as is Bill Murray. The scene is boiled down to a third of its length but you don't really miss the rest. It is a phenomenal adaptation and the best short version (except Gertrude's pauses -- this is an argument, she should be trampling on the ends of his lines).

The Zeffirelli version has Mel Gibson reprising Olivier's Freudian Hamlet, being quite kissy with his mother. At least he's not chopping at rocks with his (father's) broadsword or tearing pages out of a valuable manuscript (neither of which would Hamlet do). Paul Scofield's Ghost is perfect. And the odd thing is, you can juxtapose segments of the two clips -- one in modern dress, the other with a crude medieval set and feel -- and despite the visual contrast, they join seamlessly in an emotional sense, demonstrating the power of the undergirding poetry.

And the expensive, perfectly faithful (to the Folio) Branagh version is visually beautiful and sympathetic to Hamlet and Gertrude. Branagh and Christie are amazing together. There's still the Freudian thing, but rather than an erotic edge, here is a Hamlet more mature than Gertrude, she's the child and he the chastising father -- all without making her immature. Rather, he's hyper-mature, the precocious child. But her shamed half smile of recognition as he describes her sex life is three seconds of film genius -- you know every intimate thing by her facial expression alone.

FOOTNOTES

[ 1] outrageous, coarse

[ 2] direct, firm

[ 3] guarantee

[ 4] mater = mother; typical subtextual Latin pun

[ 5] thou, familiar

[ 6] you, less familiar, so ironically respectful

[ 7] mirroring back his more formal address

[ 8] unproductive, insolent

[ 9] They face each other, mirror images, as the two couplets (2386-9) doubly reflect one another.

[10] the Cross

[11] She's incautious, Polonius is behind the arras and can call for help. But it's bad judgment: she's recklessly stirring Hamlet up and will tragically bear some blame for what ensues.

[12] yet again the mirrors; like 'ears' a dominant leitmotiv

[13] traitor; cf The Mousetrap

[14] idiomatic, I'd wager money, a gambler's coin, a ducat.

[15] It's dawning on him it couldn't be Claudius, whom he's just left at prayer (unless Elsinore has secret passages).

[16] trying to externalize his guilt over Polonius

[17] She's uncomprehending, evidence she was not accessory to the murder.

[18] Unconsciously, because he's just left Claudius -- is this a wish, a nightmare?

[19] fire-hardened

[20] Hamlet is full of this type of doubling.

[21] Genuinely baffled: she does not see herself as adulterous.

[22] hendiadys (Gk "one through two") What could be a noun and its modifier -- graceful blush of modesty or blushing grace of modesty -- is instead rendered as two nouns. Shakespeare rarely uses this construction before Hamlet and then suddenly uses it scores of times. In the later tragedies he uses it with decreasing frequency -- why, nobody knows. Wm Empson says it shows the Elizabethans' lust for language, that such constructions force you to think poetically.

[23] one of several references to the brow, cf TNL 2439-40

[24] connotation of venereal disease, the blister of the pox?

[25] gamblers' I.O.U.'s

[26] Locket portraits, like jeweled miniatures Nicholas Hilliard painted for Elizabeth and her Court.

[27] and a man's man at that

[28] disease again, this time grain (with allusion to seed)

[29] blighting with smut or fungus

[30] pasture, like an animal

[31] A swamp; a play on Claudius' complexion, dark, compared with old Hamlet's fairness?

[32] peak, high noon, "high-day"

[33] blood, the solvent and carrier of lust

[34] Cf 1 Corinthians 15, after Isaiah 25, "O death, where is thy sting ....?"

[36] frostbite does burn

[36] reason prostitutes itself to desire

[37] like a dye that can't be washed out

[38] larded with hogfat

[39] two dominant leitmotivs intersect, dagger and ears

[40] not one-twentieth of a tenth

[41] vicious, animalistic

[42] Denmark was an empire

[43] The sense of shelf here is something ordinary, functional -- implying this small man Claudius took the precious symbol of state in a common way, incommensurate with its dignity.

[44] as he's shredded the arras

[45] tardy son that delayed

[46] in passion rather than cold resolve?

[47] deceived imagination

[48] a body weakened by lust

[49] Its solicitude for Gertrude has been seen as evidence the Ghost couldn't be a goblin damned.

[50] disembodied

[51] His mission, together with his warlike form, could arouse the very rocks to battle.

[52] Your reproachful gaze undermines my ability to act.

[53] You'll substitute pale tears for hot blood.

[54] his habitual look (So, shouldn't it be in armor rather than a shroud as it's usually costumed?)

[55] I still see him.

[56] madness

[57] easily creates hallucinations -- The Ghost has just said that such visions are more likely in a weak-minded person.

[58] business: he may force her to feel his pulse

[59] he's not crazy, it's her o'erhasty marriage that did it

[60] to which heaven the Ghost commended her soul in Act I

[61] Picking up the overgrown Eden of the First Soliloquy.

[62] again: knives, swords, chopping

[63] Fake it till you make it.

[64] Echoes of St Augustine, who had supposedly said, "Lord, make me chaste - but not tonight."

[65] This much-emended phrase is correct as-is. It only needs re-punctuating to make perfect sense. Here is Hamlet's prescription for Gertrude's sex addiction (in his eyes, anyway): Custom is a monster that swallows reason -- but this Devil, habit, nonetheless can become an Angel by helping make a habit of virtue. (Custom and habit also mean clothing.)

[66] Hamlet has double constructions in many flavors, eg, legal -- 'will and testament,' bond and privilege. Usually the words are concordant: book and volume of my brain, heat and flame of thy distemper, pales and forts, slings and arrows, whips and scorns, gates and alleys, etc.

[67] the double construction, again, concordant

[68] when necessary

[69] One day at a time.

[70] Nurture can sometimes defeat Nature; will can overcome temperament and innate disposition.

[71] Shakespeare knows addiction and what to do about it, cf Mole of nature speech.

[72] multiple meanings, but mainly mutual forgiveness of each other and by God

[73] the concept of nemesis

[74] hendiadys, but this time the two words are discordant in meaning: their ministering whip, their whipping minister

[75] pack

[76] multiple layers: I'll explain well. I'll use the death. I'll pay for this death.

[77] The audience may expect this to be the scene's curtain couplet, but he gets a second wind.

[78] bloated, puffy (with drink)

[79] a few

[80] steaming and stinking

[81] This must be horrifying for Gertrude, it leaves her naked -- and she knows it's true.

[82] The word let means allow but also its opposite, prevent. He's forbidding her to unravel to Claudius he's not actually mad.

[83] And, indeed, Gertrude takes it as an injunction.

[84] serpent motif again

[85] lead me on

[86] not just winning, but with finesse

[87] driver

[88] blown up with a bomb, a mine

[89] Although it will be difficult, I'll come in a yard under their water-line.

[90] two ships on a collision course

[91] Though biting, this epitaph somehow also feels affectionate toward Polonius. Hamlet gives what he would wish on his own tombstone -- irony.

[92] yakking

[93] Hamlet pulls the curtain by lugging off the man who died behind one.

v.5

ClosetScene.doc

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James Groves,

Apr 11, 2010 3:28 PM

v.5

ClosetScene.pdf

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James Groves,

Apr 11, 2010 3:29 PM