habit with him. Here are some more instances: ‘Thrift, thrift, Horatio’; ‘Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me’; ‘Come, deal justly with me: come, come’; ‘Wormwood, wormwood!’ I do not profess to have made an exhaustive search, but I am much mistaken if this habit is to be found in any other serious character of Shakespeare.[1]
And, in the second place—and here I appeal with confidence to lovers of Hamlet—some of these repetitions strike us as intensely characteristic. Some even of those already quoted strike one thus, and still more do the following:
| (a) | Horatio. | It would have much amazed you. |
| Hamlet. | Very like, very like. Stay’d it long? | |
| (b) | Polonius. | What do you read, my lord? |
| Hamlet. | Words, words, words. | |
| (c) | Polonius. | My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. |
| Hamlet. | You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal: except my life, except my life, except my life. | |
| (d) | Ophelia. | Good my lord, |
| How does your honour for this many a day? | ||
| Hamlet. | I humbly thank you, well, well, well. |
Is there anything that Hamlet says or does in the whole play more unmistakably individual than these replies?[2]
(2) Hamlet, everyone has noticed, is fond of quibbles and word-play, and of ‘conceits’ and turns of thought such as are common in the poets whom Johnson called Metaphysical. Sometimes, no doubt, he plays with words and ideas chiefly
- ↑ It should be observed also that many of Hamlet’s repetitions can hardly be said to occur at moments of great emotion, like Cordelia’s ‘And so I am, I am,’ and ‘No cause, no cause.’
Of course, a habit of repetition quite as marked as Hamlet’s may be found in comic persons, e.g. Justice Shallow in 2 Henry IV. - ↑ Perhaps it is from noticing this trait that I find something characteristic too in this coincidence of phrase: ‘Alas, poor ghost!’ (I. v. 4), ‘Alas, poor Yorick!’ (v. i. 202).
