Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 4 Scene 4 - My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth

Hamlet

Please see the bottom of the page for full explanatory notes and helpful resources.

ACT IV SCENE IV	A plain in Denmark.
	Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS	Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
	Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
	Craves the conveyance of a promised march
	Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
	If that his majesty would aught with us,
	We shall express our duty in his eye;
	And let him know so.
Captain	I will do't, my lord.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS	Go softly on.
	Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers.
	Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others.
HAMLET	Good sir, whose powers are these?
Captain	They are of Norway, sir.	10
HAMLET	How purposed, sir, I pray you?
Captain	Against some part of Poland.
HAMLET	Who commands them, sir?
Captain	The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras.
HAMLET	Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
	Or for some frontier?
Captain	Truly to speak, and with no addition,
	We go to gain a little patch of ground
	That hath in it no profit but the name.
	To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;	20
	Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
	A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
HAMLET	Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Captain	Yes, it is already garrison'd.
HAMLET	Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
	Will not debate the question of this straw:
	This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
	That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
	Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
Captain	God be wi' you, sir.	30
	Exit
ROSENCRANTZ	Will't please you go, my lord?
HAMLET	I'll be with you straight go a little before.
	Exeunt all except HAMLET.
	How all occasions do inform against me,
	And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
	If his chief good and market of his time
	Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
	Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
	Looking before and after, gave us not
	That capability and god-like reason
	To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
	Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple	40
	Of thinking too precisely on the event,
	A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
	And ever three parts coward, I do not know
	Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
	Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
	To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
	Witness this army of such mass and charge
	Led by a delicate and tender prince,
	Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
	Makes mouths at the invisible event,	50
	Exposing what is mortal and unsure
	To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
	Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
	Is not to stir without great argument,
	But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
	When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
	That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
	Excitements of my reason and my blood,
	And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
	The imminent death of twenty thousand men,	60
	That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
	Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
	Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
	Which is not tomb enough and continent
	To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
	My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
	Exit

Next: Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 5

__________

Explanatory Notes for Act 4, Scene 4
From Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Ed. K. Deighton. London: Macmillan.

_________

1. from me greet, bear my greetings to.

2. by his license, if he will allow it.

3, 4. Craves ... kingdom, desires that, according to promise, he may be allowed to transport his forces across Denmark: the rendezvous, the appointed place of meeting; Fr. rendez, 2nd person plural, imperative, of rendre, to render, bring, and vous, the plural of the 2nd personal pronoun; a military term for the place appointed for soldiers to assemble.

5. would ... us, wishes to see us for any purpose.

6. We shall ... eye, we shall be ready to appear before him in person and do homage to him; for in his eye, Steevens compares A. C. ii. 2. 212, "Her gentlewomen ... tended her i' the eyes," and says "the phrase seems to have been a formulary for the royal presence."

7. And let him know so, and therefore tell him so. For this change of construction, cp. M. A. v. 1. 303, 4, "I do embrace your offer; and dispose (i.e. do you dispose) For henceforth of poor Claudio. "

8. softly, slowly; i.e. with the troops under your command.

9. powers, forces; as frequently in Shakespeare.

10. of Norway, belonging to Norway.

11. How purposed, with what object have they marched hither?

15, 6. Goes it ... frontier? is the expedition directed against the mainland of Poland, or only some outlying portion of that kingdom?

17. with no addition, without exaggeration.

18. to gain, to make ourselves masters of.

19. That hath ... name, whose only value lies in the name of possession.

20. To pay ... it, I would not pay five ducats, not even five, for the lease of it.

21. Norway, the king of Norway.

22. ranker, higher; literally more exuberant in growth; sold in fee, sold out and out, not merely farmed; a 'fee' originally signified an estate feudally held of another person, and an estate in fee simple is the greatest estate or interest which the law of England allows any person to possess in landed property.

23. then, if it is worth no more than that.

25, 6. Two thousand ... straw, the decision of this petty quarrel will cost the lives of at least two thousand men, and the waste of, etc.; for debate, = decide by combat, cp. Lucr. 1421, "It seem'd they would debate with angry swords"; the word is from the O. F. debatre, to beat down.

27-9. This is ... dies, this morbid desire in the body politic to quarrel about nothing, a desire due to superabundance of wealth and the idleness of a long peace, is like an abscess in the physical body which bursts inwardly without showing any visible cause of the man's death; i.e. this readiness to quarrel merely for the sake of quarrelling shows an unhealthy condition in a state; so, in i. H. IV. iv. 2. 32, the idle, discontented, fellows whom Falstaff enlists are called "the cankers of a calm world and a long peace";
imposthume, from "O.F. apostume, an 'inward swelling full of corrupt matter'; Cot. — Lat. apostema, an abscess.... Here the prefix im - is due to mere corruption" (Skeat, Ety. Dict.). Cp. Beaumont and Fletcher, Four Plays in One, "the two imposthumes That choke a kingdom's welfare, — ease and wantonness."

30. God ... you, merely a courteous form of bidding farewell.

32. How all ... me, how everything that happens seems to denounce my irresolution! inform against me, being a charge against me as informers do against guilty persons; cp. R. II. ii. 1. 242, "what they will inform ... 'gainst any of us all." [Please click here for analysis of Hamlet's soliloquy.]

34. market of his time, that for which he brings his time for sale as beasts are brought on market-day.

35. a beast, no more, thus making himself no better than a brute beast.

36, 7. made us ... after, endowed us with such comprehensive faculties, faculties which concern themselves with both the future and the past; not like those of brute beasts which seem concerned with the present moment only.

39. to fust, to grow fusty, mouldy; literally 'tasting of the cask,' from O. F. fuste, a cask.

40. craven, cowardly: literally one who sues for mercy.

41. Of thinking, which consists in thinking: precisely, minutely.

42. 3. A thought ... coward, a mode of thinking which, if quartered, will be found to be made up of one part of wisdom to three parts of cowardice.

44. 'This ... do,' this act still remains to be done; for the infinitive active where we use the passive, see Abb. § 359.

46. Examples ... me, so plain and material that the dullest man could not fail to recognize them as such.

47. Witness, for instance; literally 'let this army witness'; charge, cost.

48. delicate and tender, brought up in ease and luxury, and so not naturally inclined to such rough work.

50. Makes ... event, laughs at the possible consequences; cp. ii. 2. .344, "makes mows."

51. mortal, liable to death.

53. an egg-shell, the merest, most worthless, trifle.

54. Is not to stir, Furness thinks that the negative belongs to the copula, and that there should be a comma after not: argument, cause of quarrel.

55. But greatly ... straw, but to be prompt to find in the slightest trifle provocation for fighting. [Please click here for further analysis of Fortinbras' motivation.]

51. When ... stake, when honour is concerned; when it is honour that is the subject of attack; cp. T. N. iii. 1. 129, "Have you not set mine honour at the stake And baited it with all unmuzzled thoughts...?" Schmidt takes at the stake, as equivalent to 'at stake,' as in Oth. iv. 2. 13.

56-9. How stand ... sleep? how unworthy is my position, then, who though my father has been murdered and my mother's good fame destroyed, — facts which should be sufficient to stir both my reason and my passion, — still allow things to remain exactly as they were without making the smallest effort to remedy them.

61. for a ... fame, for the sake of such a fanciful whim as the desire of fame; for trick, in this sense, cp. M. M. iii. 1. 114, "Why would he for a momentary trick Be perdurably fined?" Schmidt takes trick as = trifle, as in Cor. iv. 4. 21. [Please click here for more on the problem this passage presents.]

62. like beds, as readily as they would to their beds: plot, small strip of land.

63. Whereon ... cause, too small to hold the combatants for it.

64. which is ... continent, which is not large enough to be the tomb and cover; continent, that which contains; cp. A. C. iv. 4. 40, "Heart once be stronger than thy continent, Crack thy frail case!"

________

How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Ed. K. Deighton. London: Macmillan, 1919. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2010. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet_4_4.html >.

How to cite the scene review questions:
Mabillard, Amanda. Hamlet: Scene Questions for Review. Shakespeare Online. 27 Dec. 2013. < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet_4_4.html >.

Scene Questions for Review

1. Many comparisons can be made between Fortinbras and Hamlet. Both are young princes, both are seeking revenge for a slain father, and both have had their crown taken by an uncle. But there are also some key differences between them. How many can you think of? Why does Hamlet admire Fortinbras? For more on Fortinbras, please click here.

2. Hamlet's conversation with the Captain and his subsequent pivotal soliloquy appear in Q2 but, quite surprisingly, not in the First Folio. What effect would its absence have on the play overall?

3. Hamlet is not without its share of improbabilities and contradictions. In his discussion with the Captain, Hamlet believes that Fortinbras' motive for fighting over such an insignificant piece of land is "the imposthume of much wealth and peace", but in Hamlet's soliloquy he says it is Fortinbras' value of honor that makes him "find quarrel in a straw." Might there be a way to explain this incongruity? Is it possible that the passage "Two thousand souls...dies" (lines 25-30) should belong to the Captain instead of Hamlet?

____

More to Explore

Hamlet: The Complete Play with Explanatory Notes

Analysis of Uncle Claudius

Claudius and the Condition of Denmark

O Jephthah - Toying with Polonius

The Death of Polonius and its Impact on Hamlet's Character

Blank Verse and Diction in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Analysis of the Characters in Hamlet

Introduction to Hamlet

The Hamlet and Ophelia Subplot

The Norway (Fortinbras) Subplot

Deception in Hamlet

_____

Points to Ponder ... Hamlet's last soliloquy is crucial to our understanding of his character development. By the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet brings to a halt his solemn contemplation on the immoral act of murderous revenge, and finally accepts it as his necessary duty. It is not that Hamlet has presented a solid and reasonable argument to convince himself of his terrible responsibility; rather he has driven himself to the conclusion with intense and distorted thoughts. Full soliloquy analysis...

_____

Hamlet: Problem Play and Revenge Tragedy

Plot Summary of Hamlet

The Elder Hamlet: The Kingship of Hamlet's Father

Hamlet's Relationship with the Ghost

Philological Examination Questions on Hamlet

Quotations from Hamlet (with commentary)

Hamlet Study Quiz (with detailed answers)

Analysis of I am sick at heart (1.1)

Hamlet: Q & A

Soliloquy Analysis: O this too too... (1.2)

Soliloquy Analysis: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!... (2.2)

Soliloquy Analysis: To be, or not to be... (3.1)

Soliloquy Analysis: Tis now the very witching time of night... (3.2)

Soliloquy Analysis: Now might I do it pat... (3.3)

Soliloquy Analysis: How all occasions do inform against me... (4.4)

_____

The First Hamlet Review ... In Hamlet: An Historical and Comparative Study, Elmer Edgar Stoll writes that the first known critical notes on Hamlet appeared in 1699 in James Drake's Antient and Modern Stages Survey'd. Drake wrote:

Nothing in Antiquity can rival this plot for the admirable distribution of Poetick Justice. The Criminals are not only brought to execution, but they are taken in their own Toyls, their own Stratagems recoyl upon 'em, and they are involved them selves in that mischief and ruine, which they had projected for Hamlet. Polonius by playing the Spy meets a Fate, which was neither expected by nor intended for him. Guildenstern and Rosencrans, the Kings Decoys, are counter-plotted, and sent to meet that fate, to which they were trepanning the Prince. The Tyrant himself falls by his own plot, and by the hand of the Son of that Brother, whom he had Murther'd. Laertes suffers by his own Treachery, and dies by a Weapon of his own preparing. Thus every one's crime naturally produces his Punishment, and every one (the Tyrant excepted) commences a Wretch almost as soon as a Villain.

_____

Ophelia's Burial and Christian Rituals

The Baker's Daughter: Ophelia's Nursery Rhymes

Hamlet as National Hero

Claudius and the Dumb-Show: Why Does he Stay?

Claudius and the Mousetrap

In Secret Conference: The Meeting Between Claudius and Laertes

Defending Claudius - The Charges Against the King

Hamlet's Silence

An Excuse for Doing Nothing: Hamlet's Delay

Foul Deeds Will Rise: Hamlet and Divine Justice

Shakespeare's Fools: The Grave-Diggers in Hamlet