SC. I.]
PRINCE OF DENMARK
101
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,[a 1]
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,[b 1] 85
And enterprises of great pitch[a 2][b 2] and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry[a 3]
And lose the name of action.[b 3] Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia?[a 4] Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
Oph. Good my lord, 90
How does your honour for this many a day?
- ↑ 85. thought] often used of anxious or melancholy thought, as in Julius Cæsar, II. i. 187: "take thought and die for Caesar." See IV. v. 187.
- ↑ 86. pitch] height, as in King Richard III. III. vii. 188; used of a falcon's soaring, 1 King Henry VI. II. iv. II. The Folio pith is preferred by many editors, and appears in late Quartos from 1676 onwards.
- ↑ 88. action] With the thought of action this soliloquy opens and closes. The train of ideas is as follows:— Active resistance to evil or passive fortitude—which is more worthy of me? To end troubles—perhaps by one's own death? Well, the sleep of death will be most welcome; but what if there be terrible dreams? The fear of the hereafter is universal, else men would not endure the ills of life; and thus it is that, perplexed by calculating consequences, we drop away from heroic action. Parallels, as possible sources for parts of this soliloquy, have been pointed out in Catullus (no traveller returns), Cardan (death a sleep), Seneca (no traveller returns, and fear of futurity), Montaigne (sea of troubles, death a desirable "consummation," conscience makes cowards), Cornelius Agrippa (country of the dead irremeable), Marlowe's Edward II. (Mortimer goes as a traveller to discover countries yet unknown). It seems probable, as Professor Skeat notices, that there are reminiscences here of the translation ascribed to Chaucer of The Romaunt of the Rose, lines 5637-5696; the word fardels is perhaps one of the echoes from this passage. It is worth noting that Mr. G. Macdonald eliminates the thought of suicide from the soliloquy, supposing that the bare bodkin is imagined as directed against an enemy. Suicide, indeed, is not the theme of the soliloquy, but it incidentally enters into it. "Clelia" in his God in Shakespeare construes the opening sentence thus: "Whether 'tis nobler to bear evil or to resist it the question is To be, or not to be, i.e. Is there a life after death?" The note of interrogation after "end them," line 60, was first introduced by Pope.
