I'll tent him to the quick; if he but blench
I know my course.
Meanwhile, the king's own mind is far from at ease; at the opening of Act III we are for the first time informed from his own lips of his burden of guilt. His efforts to learn the cause of Hamlet's madness have been unavailing; and he is filled with uneasiness, not knowing what turn this madness may take.
There's something in his soul
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger.
So Claudius determines, even before the play-scene, that Hamlet shall be sent to England. His fear of the possible developments of Hamlet's insanity should be constantly borne in mind during the scenes which follow.
How far Hamlet is from being really mad appears in his conversation with Horatio, the one friend at court whom he can trust. He has told Horatio of the revelations of the Ghost, and now informs him of his device to catch the conscience of the king.
There is a play tonight before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death.
So he urges Horatio to observe the king closely, to see "if his occulted guilt do not itself unkennel in one speech." If the King does not betray himself under this test, then Hamlet's convictions in regard to the murder are morbid and erroneous.[1] The "one speech" may conceivably be one self-betraying utterance by Claudius; but, in view of the emphasis which Shakspere lays on the speech inserted in the play, it seems more likely to be Hamlet's addition to the 'Murder of Gonzago.'
This brings us to the point where closer analysis must begin, and where the main questions of the present investigation must be considered.
- ↑ "and my imaginations are as foul as Vulcan's stithy." Note that "imagination" had not in Shakspere always its modern significance, and that it sometimes meant a wrong idea or conceit. Cf. Schmidt: 'Shakspere Lexicon,' Vol. I, p. 571.
