Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, MacbethBradley, A. C. (Andrew Cecil)
General
Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth
Bradley, A. C. (Andrew Cecil)
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Tragedies
'Oh no,' it may be answered, 'for he is doubtful about Marcellus too;
and yet, if he were living at Elsinore, he must have seen Marcellus
often.' But he is _not_ doubtful about Marcellus. That note of
interrogation after 'Marcellus' is Capell's conjecture: it is not in any
Quarto or any Folio. The fact is that he knows perfectly well the man
who lives at Elsinore, but is confused by the appearance of the friend
who comes from Wittenberg.
(3) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sent for, to wean Hamlet from his
melancholy and to worm his secret out of him, because he has known them
from his youth and is fond of them (II. ii. 1 ff.). They come _to_
Denmark (II. ii. 247 f.): they come therefore _from_ some other country.
Where do they come from? They are, we hear, Hamlet's 'school-fellows'
(III. iv. 202). And in the first Quarto we are directly told that they
were with him at Wittenberg:
_Ham._ What, Gilderstone, and Rossencraft,
Welcome, kind school-fellows, to Elsanore.
_Gil._ We thank your grace, and would be very glad
You were as when we were at Wittenberg.
Now let the reader look at Hamlet's first greeting of them in the
received text, and let him ask himself whether it is the greeting of a
man to fellow-students whom he left two months ago: whether it is not
rather, like his greeting of Horatio, the welcome of an old
fellow-student who has not seen his visitors for a considerable time
(II. ii. 226 f.).
(4) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet of the players who are
coming. He asks what players they are, and is told, 'Even those you were
wont to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city.' He asks, 'Do
they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city?'
Evidently he has not been in the city for some time. And this is still
more evident when the players come in, and he talks of one having grown
a beard, and another having perhaps cracked his voice, since they last
met. What then is this city, where he has not been for some time, but
where (it would appear) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern live? It is not in
Denmark ('Comest thou to beard me in Denmark?'). It would seem to be
Wittenberg.[253]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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