Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/153

Of violent birth but poor validity;
Which now, like^{[a 1]} fruit unripe; sticks on the tree,
But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt;^{[b 1]} 205
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion endings doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either^{[a 2]} grief or joy
Their own enactures^{[a 3][b 2]} with themselves destroy;
Where joy most revels grief doth most lament; 210
Grief joys, joy grieves,^{[a 4]} on slender accident.
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change,
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune or else fortune love. 215
The great man down, you mark his favourite^{[a 5]} flies;
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies;
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
For who not needs shall never lack a friend;
And who in want a hollow friend doth try 220

1. 202. like] F, the Q.
2. 208. either] Q, other F.
3. 209. enactures] Q, enactors F.
4. 211. Grief . . . grieves] F, Greefe ioy, ioy griefes, Q.
5. 216. favourite] Q, fauourites F.

Shakespeare's, designed to lessen the improbability of the "murder of Gonzago" so exactly fitting the occasion; designed also to show Hamlet as a critic of theatrical art, and indirectly to instruct an Elizabethan audience in theatrical matters. Undoubtedly this speech reflects back on both the Queen and Hamlet himself, but this was Shakespeare's doing, and clearly intentional; if we were forced to identify Hamlet's lines, we must needs point to the speech of Lucianus. Sir H. Irving, as Hamlet, mutters the Poisoner's words with suppressed passion while they are being delivered by the actor.

1. 204, 205.] Our resolves are debts to ourselves; why embarrass ourselves by inconvenient payments?
2. 209. enactures] fulfilments, carrying into act.