Another Ophelia scene!!!
Previous post:
Act 1, Scene I: The Crazy Occult Forays of Marcellus and Horatio.
Act 1, Scene II: Claudius is the villain, but he's still hotter than you.
Act 1, Scene III: Ophelia's virginity is a national treasure. Just ask her dad and brother.
Act 1, Scene IV: That a ghoooooooooost?
Act 1, Scene V: "'Who's your daddy?' Now that's just inappropriate."
Now, we come to Act 2, and a scene which fills me, at least, with enormous gratitude that Polonius is going to die in the not too distant future, because Lord God the man does run on.
Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO
LORD POLONIUS
Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO
I will, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
Before you visit him, to make inquire
Of his behavior.
REYNALDO
My lord, I did intend it.
Has Laertes written and asked for an advance on his allowance, or is Polonius simply sending him extra money as an excuse to spy on him? If Laertes did write, Polonius probably has good reason to be checking up on him. If he didn't...well. I'm not a parent. Maybe I'd do the same.
LORD POLONIUS
Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
What company, at what expense; and finding
By this encompassment and drift of question
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it:
Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
And in part him: ' do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO
Ay, very well, my lord.
Allow me to pause and giggle at the absurdity of Polonius teaching anyone how to be subtle.
*pause*
*giggle*
Thanks. Polonius's instructions to Reynaldo here remind me of Hamlet's instructions to Horatio and Marcellus at the end of the previous scene. Both Polonius and Hamlet give their listeners detailed, blow by blow lessons how to pretend that they know less than they actually do. Considering Polonius and Hamlet could hardly be less alike, the congruence is striking. It's almost like pretense and surveillance were themes in this play, or something.
LORD POLONIUS
'And in part him; but' you may say 'not well:
But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
Addicted so and so:' and there put on him
What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.
REYNALDO
As gaming, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
Drabbing: you may go so far.
REYNALDO
My lord, that would dishonour him.
LORD POLONIUS
'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge
You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency;
That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
That they may seem the taints of liberty,
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
Of general assault.
I wonder, aside from being a continuation of the above point, if the purpose of this scene isn't largely to show, in relief, how howlingly unfair Ophelia's position is. I mean, here's her father, so afraid she'll dishonor him one way or another that he won't even permit Ophelia to speak to Hamlet, telling a complete stranger to start some rumors about his son being drunk, dissolute, and promiscuous, because a) that will make him look cute and b) will help him find out whether or not Laertes really is any of those things. Laertes' reputation can afford talk like that, 'cuz's he got boyparts. Whereas having girlparts means you're guilty till proven innocent. Only you're never innocent of being Eve's flesh.
REYNALDO
But, my good lord,--
LORD POLONIUS
Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO
Ay, my lord,
I would know that.
LORD POLONIUS
Marry, sir, here's my drift;
And I believe, it is a fetch of wit:
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working, Mark you,
Your party in converse, him you would sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
He closes with you in this consequence;
'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman,'
According to the phrase or the addition
Of man and country.
REYNALDO
Very good, my lord.
I wonder whether Reynaldo really needed to have that spelled out to him, or whether he was just so fascinated by Polonius's magnificent stupidity that he just couldn't bear to let the spectacle end. I've done that before.
LORD POLONIUS
And then, sir, does he this--he does--what was I
about to say? By the mass, I was about to say
something: where did I leave?
REYNALDO
At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,'
and 'gentleman.'
WHEN YOU'RE PUTTING YOURSELF TO SLEEP, POLONIUS, IT'S TIME TO STFU ALREADY.
LORD POLONIUS
At 'closes in the consequence,' ay, marry;
He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman;
I saw him yesterday, or t' other day,
Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say,
There was a' gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
There falling out at tennis:' or perchance,
'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'
Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.
See you now;
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out:
So by my former lecture and advice,
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
REYNALDO
My lord, I have.
Two things:
1) Polonius doesn't mention Laertes by name a single time all this while he's talking about him. Just, "my son", over and over. Which might be taken as a gloss on his general approach to parenting.
2.) "By indirections find directions out" could sort of be the log line for the entire play, couldn't it?
LORD POLONIUS
God be wi' you; fare you well.
REYNALDO
Good my lord!
LORD POLONIUS
Observe his inclination in yourself.
REYNALDO
I shall, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
And let him ply his music.
REYNALDO
Well, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
Farewell!
God, what a thankless part Reynaldo must be to play. How the hell did Branagh ever talk Gerard Depardieu into it?
Exit REYNALDO
Enter OPHELIA
How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
OPHELIA
O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
LORD POLONIUS
With what, i' the name of God?
I can't help but wince at the fact that Polonius is the only person she has to confide in when Hamlet comes along and freaks the fuck out at her.
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;
Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.
Question: Is this Hamlet putting on a show for Ophelia in hopes of starting a rumor that he's nuts? Or did Hamlet actually go find her after the scene with the ghost, in a panic, before remembering she can't talk with him? Did he know she had been forbidden to speak to him, or did Polonius prevent even that much communication between them?
To Ophelia, the sight of Hamlet in this condition seems almost as upsetting to her as the sight of his father's ghost was to Hamlet---it is as much a symbol of disorder in her world as the other was in his.
LORD POLONIUS
Mad for thy love?
OPHELIA
My lord, I do not know;
But truly, I do fear it.
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW, WE CAN'T TALK, REMEMBER?"
LORD POLONIUS
What said he?
OPHELIA
He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face
As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
At last, a little shaking of mine arm
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being: that done, he lets me go:
And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
For out o' doors he went without their helps,
And, to the last, bended their light on me.
We only hear about this exchange secondhand, maybe because witnessing it acted out in front of us would be too much like voyeurism? I think it would be, if you choose to read Hamlet as sincerely affected, which I do (otherwise this entire scene serves essentially no purpose, because in the very next scene Hamlet puts on quite enough of a show to convince Polonius he's crazy without going at him through Ophelia). I take Ophelia's account of the exchange more or less at face value---she's too freaked out to have time to make things up. She's terrified by his terror, minutely attuned to all his moods and actions (which is a symptom of both love and fear). And Hamlet cannot bear to take his eyes off her---he looks on her as though she's the only real and true thing in his world. Ophelia, of course, couldn't know what that signified.
Ahhhh, POLONIUS >:-( You ruin everything.
LORD POLONIUS
Come, go with me: I will go seek the king.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself
And leads the will to desperate undertakings
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
What, have you given him any hard words of late?
OPHELIA
No, my good lord, but, as you did command,
I did repel his fetters and denied
His access to me.
I love, love, love the bitter frustration Kate Winslet brings to this moment in the Branagh film, when she says "No, my good lord." Because this is crucial---here, in this moment, Ophelia sees exactly how much her obedience, which has cost her and Hamlet so much, means to her father. Which is to say, almost nothing. "What have you given him any hard words of late?" That implies that Polonius is making one of two assumptions about Ophelia: either he forgot about ordering her to stay away from Hamlet (which means he can't have understood at all how hard it was for her to do), or he assumes she disobeyed him---and yet he doesn't even seem angry about that possibility, just curious whether he's stumbled on the correct explanation for Hamlet's odd behavior, an explanation he could take to the king and so rise higher in his patron's favor. If Ophelia is anything like I was at that age, she's thinking to herself "I might have talked to Hamlet all I wanted, for all he seems to care." Once again, it becames plain that Ophelia is barely a person in her father's eyes.
LORD POLONIUS
That hath made him mad.
And once he gets an idea in his head, fire will not melt it out of him.
I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle,
And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealousy!
By heaven, it is as proper to our age
To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
As it is common for the younger sort
To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:
This must be known; which, being kept close, might move
More grief to hide than hate to utter love
And now he begins to second guess his own opinion, which would be an encouraging sign, but he's only worrying about the consequences to Hamlet, not his daughter---because his daughter is his own business, but he's responsible to the king for Hamlet. Horrible, horrible, most horrible---wouldn't you go crazy, if you were Ophelia?
Tomorrow we have Act 2, Scene II: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are jackasses.
Act 1, Scene I: The Crazy Occult Forays of Marcellus and Horatio.
Act 1, Scene II: Claudius is the villain, but he's still hotter than you.
Act 1, Scene III: Ophelia's virginity is a national treasure. Just ask her dad and brother.
Act 1, Scene IV: That a ghoooooooooost?
Act 1, Scene V: "'Who's your daddy?' Now that's just inappropriate."
Now, we come to Act 2, and a scene which fills me, at least, with enormous gratitude that Polonius is going to die in the not too distant future, because Lord God the man does run on.
Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO
LORD POLONIUS
Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
REYNALDO
I will, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
Before you visit him, to make inquire
Of his behavior.
REYNALDO
My lord, I did intend it.
Has Laertes written and asked for an advance on his allowance, or is Polonius simply sending him extra money as an excuse to spy on him? If Laertes did write, Polonius probably has good reason to be checking up on him. If he didn't...well. I'm not a parent. Maybe I'd do the same.
LORD POLONIUS
Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
What company, at what expense; and finding
By this encompassment and drift of question
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it:
Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
And in part him: ' do you mark this, Reynaldo?
REYNALDO
Ay, very well, my lord.
Allow me to pause and giggle at the absurdity of Polonius teaching anyone how to be subtle.
*pause*
*giggle*
Thanks. Polonius's instructions to Reynaldo here remind me of Hamlet's instructions to Horatio and Marcellus at the end of the previous scene. Both Polonius and Hamlet give their listeners detailed, blow by blow lessons how to pretend that they know less than they actually do. Considering Polonius and Hamlet could hardly be less alike, the congruence is striking. It's almost like pretense and surveillance were themes in this play, or something.
LORD POLONIUS
'And in part him; but' you may say 'not well:
But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
Addicted so and so:' and there put on him
What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.
REYNALDO
As gaming, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
Drabbing: you may go so far.
REYNALDO
My lord, that would dishonour him.
LORD POLONIUS
'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge
You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency;
That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
That they may seem the taints of liberty,
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
Of general assault.
I wonder, aside from being a continuation of the above point, if the purpose of this scene isn't largely to show, in relief, how howlingly unfair Ophelia's position is. I mean, here's her father, so afraid she'll dishonor him one way or another that he won't even permit Ophelia to speak to Hamlet, telling a complete stranger to start some rumors about his son being drunk, dissolute, and promiscuous, because a) that will make him look cute and b) will help him find out whether or not Laertes really is any of those things. Laertes' reputation can afford talk like that, 'cuz's he got boyparts. Whereas having girlparts means you're guilty till proven innocent. Only you're never innocent of being Eve's flesh.
REYNALDO
But, my good lord,--
LORD POLONIUS
Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO
Ay, my lord,
I would know that.
LORD POLONIUS
Marry, sir, here's my drift;
And I believe, it is a fetch of wit:
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working, Mark you,
Your party in converse, him you would sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
He closes with you in this consequence;
'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman,'
According to the phrase or the addition
Of man and country.
REYNALDO
Very good, my lord.
I wonder whether Reynaldo really needed to have that spelled out to him, or whether he was just so fascinated by Polonius's magnificent stupidity that he just couldn't bear to let the spectacle end. I've done that before.
LORD POLONIUS
And then, sir, does he this--he does--what was I
about to say? By the mass, I was about to say
something: where did I leave?
REYNALDO
At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,'
and 'gentleman.'
WHEN YOU'RE PUTTING YOURSELF TO SLEEP, POLONIUS, IT'S TIME TO STFU ALREADY.
LORD POLONIUS
At 'closes in the consequence,' ay, marry;
He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman;
I saw him yesterday, or t' other day,
Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say,
There was a' gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
There falling out at tennis:' or perchance,
'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'
Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.
See you now;
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out:
So by my former lecture and advice,
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
REYNALDO
My lord, I have.
Two things:
1) Polonius doesn't mention Laertes by name a single time all this while he's talking about him. Just, "my son", over and over. Which might be taken as a gloss on his general approach to parenting.
2.) "By indirections find directions out" could sort of be the log line for the entire play, couldn't it?
LORD POLONIUS
God be wi' you; fare you well.
REYNALDO
Good my lord!
LORD POLONIUS
Observe his inclination in yourself.
REYNALDO
I shall, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
And let him ply his music.
REYNALDO
Well, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
Farewell!
God, what a thankless part Reynaldo must be to play. How the hell did Branagh ever talk Gerard Depardieu into it?
Exit REYNALDO
Enter OPHELIA
How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
OPHELIA
O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
LORD POLONIUS
With what, i' the name of God?
I can't help but wince at the fact that Polonius is the only person she has to confide in when Hamlet comes along and freaks the fuck out at her.
OPHELIA
My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;
Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell
To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.
Question: Is this Hamlet putting on a show for Ophelia in hopes of starting a rumor that he's nuts? Or did Hamlet actually go find her after the scene with the ghost, in a panic, before remembering she can't talk with him? Did he know she had been forbidden to speak to him, or did Polonius prevent even that much communication between them?
To Ophelia, the sight of Hamlet in this condition seems almost as upsetting to her as the sight of his father's ghost was to Hamlet---it is as much a symbol of disorder in her world as the other was in his.
LORD POLONIUS
Mad for thy love?
OPHELIA
My lord, I do not know;
But truly, I do fear it.
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW, WE CAN'T TALK, REMEMBER?"
LORD POLONIUS
What said he?
OPHELIA
He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face
As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
At last, a little shaking of mine arm
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
And end his being: that done, he lets me go:
And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
For out o' doors he went without their helps,
And, to the last, bended their light on me.
We only hear about this exchange secondhand, maybe because witnessing it acted out in front of us would be too much like voyeurism? I think it would be, if you choose to read Hamlet as sincerely affected, which I do (otherwise this entire scene serves essentially no purpose, because in the very next scene Hamlet puts on quite enough of a show to convince Polonius he's crazy without going at him through Ophelia). I take Ophelia's account of the exchange more or less at face value---she's too freaked out to have time to make things up. She's terrified by his terror, minutely attuned to all his moods and actions (which is a symptom of both love and fear). And Hamlet cannot bear to take his eyes off her---he looks on her as though she's the only real and true thing in his world. Ophelia, of course, couldn't know what that signified.
Ahhhh, POLONIUS >:-( You ruin everything.
LORD POLONIUS
Come, go with me: I will go seek the king.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself
And leads the will to desperate undertakings
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
What, have you given him any hard words of late?
OPHELIA
No, my good lord, but, as you did command,
I did repel his fetters and denied
His access to me.
I love, love, love the bitter frustration Kate Winslet brings to this moment in the Branagh film, when she says "No, my good lord." Because this is crucial---here, in this moment, Ophelia sees exactly how much her obedience, which has cost her and Hamlet so much, means to her father. Which is to say, almost nothing. "What have you given him any hard words of late?" That implies that Polonius is making one of two assumptions about Ophelia: either he forgot about ordering her to stay away from Hamlet (which means he can't have understood at all how hard it was for her to do), or he assumes she disobeyed him---and yet he doesn't even seem angry about that possibility, just curious whether he's stumbled on the correct explanation for Hamlet's odd behavior, an explanation he could take to the king and so rise higher in his patron's favor. If Ophelia is anything like I was at that age, she's thinking to herself "I might have talked to Hamlet all I wanted, for all he seems to care." Once again, it becames plain that Ophelia is barely a person in her father's eyes.
LORD POLONIUS
That hath made him mad.
And once he gets an idea in his head, fire will not melt it out of him.
I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle,
And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealousy!
By heaven, it is as proper to our age
To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
As it is common for the younger sort
To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:
This must be known; which, being kept close, might move
More grief to hide than hate to utter love
And now he begins to second guess his own opinion, which would be an encouraging sign, but he's only worrying about the consequences to Hamlet, not his daughter---because his daughter is his own business, but he's responsible to the king for Hamlet. Horrible, horrible, most horrible---wouldn't you go crazy, if you were Ophelia?
Tomorrow we have Act 2, Scene II: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are jackasses.