(cid:2) Hamlet William Shakespeare Fully annotated,with an Introduction,by Burton Raffel With an essay by Harold Bloom the annotated shakespeare Burton Raffel,General Editor Yale University Press • New Haven and London Copyright © 2003by Burton Raffel. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced,in whole or in part,including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107and108 of the U.S.Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Essay by Harold Bloom reprinted by permission of Chelsea House. Designed by Rebecca Gibb Set in Bembo type by The Composing Room of Michigan,Inc. Printed in the United States of America by R.R.Donnelley & Sons. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shakespeare,William,1564‒1616. Hamlet /William Shakespeare ;fully annotated,with an introduction by Burton Raffel ;with an essay by Harold Bloom. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. isbn0-300-10105-8(paperbound) isbn0-300-10175-9(cloth) 1. Hamlet (Legendary character)—Drama. 2. Murder victims’ families—Drama. 3. Fathers—Death—Drama. 4. Princes—Drama. 5. Revenge—Drama. 6. Denmark—Drama. I. Raffel,Burton. II. Bloom,Harold. III. Title. pr2807.a2r34 2003 822.3(cid:2)3—dc21 2003005805 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10987654321 For my four sisters:Catherine,Teresa,Joan,and Martha (cid:2) contents AboutThis Book ix Introduction xv The Tragedy of Hamlet,Prince of Denmark 1 An Essay by Harold Bloom 229 Further Reading 245 Finding List 249 (cid:2) about this book W ritten four centuries ago,in a fairly early form of Modern English, Hamlet is a notoriously dense, complex text of remarkable depth and beauty.Many of the play’s social and historical underpinnings necessarily need explanation for the modern reader.But what needs even more, and far more detailed,explanation are the very words. ’A did comply with his dug,before ’a sucked it.Thus has he,and many more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes on,only got the tune of the time and, out of a habit of encounter,a kind of yeasty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions.And do but blow them to their trial,the bubbles are out. This is Hamlet himself,in act 5,scene 2,speaking to his friend and companion,Horatio,about Osric,an outrageously fashion- able courtier who has just left them.Hamlet is profoundly dis- gusted by Osric’s speech and behavior.But in the most basic of all senses of “meaning,”what is this fiercely contemptuous speech all about? What is it (what are its words) saying?Longtime schol- ix about this book ars of Elizabethan literature have learned to fully understand;they delight in teaching the play to those less well learned.But what can the unlearned,trying to read Hamlet,make of what surely of- ten seems to them,in passages like that just quoted,a kind of weirdly surrealistic jumble? Hamlet. ’A1did comply2with his dug,3before ’a sucked it.Thus has he,and many more of the same bevy4that I know the drossy5age dotes on,only got6the tune7of the time and,out of an habit of encounter,8a kind of yeasty collection,9which carries them through and through10 the most fanned and winnowed11opinions.And do but blow them to their trial,12the bubbles are out.13 I believe annotations of this sort create the necessary bridges from Shakespeare’s four-centuries-old English across to ours.The only “difficult”word I have not explained is “dote”;the omission is de- liberate.Many readers new to matters Elizabethan will already understand this still-current,and largely unchanged,word.“Tune,” 1he 2observe the formalities of politeness 3the nipple of his nurse’s breast 4company,crowd (primarily used with reference to women) 5scum-filled,rubbish-ridden 6“only got”(cid:2)“have/have acquired/caught only” 7style,frame of mind 8“an habit of encounter”(cid:2)“a settled/habitual/rote way of face-to-face meeting” 9“yeasty collection”(cid:2)“fermenting/restlessly turbid/frothy/foaming collection/summary/abstract” 10“through and through”(cid:2)“from beginning to end,over and over again” 11“fanned and winnowed”(cid:2)“(long since) thoroughly blown about and sifted” 12examination,test,proof 13popped,extinguished x about this book meaning “melody,”is of course a word familiar to all speakers of the language.But its sense,here,“style,frame of mind,”will not similarly be clear.The same is true of such familiar expressions as “only got”and “through and through.”Some readers,to be sure, will comprehend their unusual, historical meanings without glosses.And when it comes to words like “dote,”those who are not familiar with the modern meaning will easily find a clear,simple definition in any modern dictionary.And they may be obliged to make fairly frequent use of such a dictionary:there are a good many words,in Hamlet, to be found in modern dictionaries and not glossed here.But there are just as surely readers who will not understand Shakespeare’s intended meaning,absent such glosses as I here offer.And it seems to me my editorial responsibility to guarantee as complete verbal accessibility as I am able to provide. I followed the same principle in compiling The Annotated Milton, published in 1999,and classroom experience has validated that de- cision.Classes of mixed upper-level undergraduates and graduate students have more quickly and thoroughly transcended language barriers than ever before.This allows the teacher to move more promptly and confidently to the nonlinguistic matters that have made Milton a great and important poet.Shakespeare’s language is more or less equally difficult.No one who has not understood the wordsofHamletcan either fully or properly come to grips with the imperishable matter of the play. Not all of Hamlet will appear so impenetrable. But the in- evitable forces of linguistic change,operant in all living tongues, have inevitably created wide degrees of obstacles to ready com- prehension—not only sharply different meanings but subtle,par- tial shifts in meaning which allow us to think that we understand when,alas,we do not.Speakers of Dutch and German,too,expe- xi