Hamlet's Rest II

At the end of Hamlet, shortly after Hamlet finally dies, following a series of rehearsals or simulacrums (“I am dead” 5.2.286, “I am dead” 5.2.291, “O, I die” 5.2.305, and finally, “He gives a long sigh and dies” 5.2.312: Shakespeare 2008) that began with his first soliloquy, “O that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew” (1.2.129–30), Fortinbras enters and, looking at the bodies on the floor, exclaims1This quarry cries on havoc. O proud Death,What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,That thou so many princes at a shotSo bloodily hast struck? (5.2.316–19)The term “quarry” designates, since before Shakespeare's time, the pile of dead animals at the end of a hunt. Here, it describes the dead bodies of Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes present in this scene, while also connoting all the deaths and dead bodies shown or referred to in the full play: Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's homonymous father, Fortinbras's homonymous father, Yorick, and all the anonymous soldiers, civilians, and nameless humans (and nonhumans) who—we can infer—died through and because of the wars and conflicts mentioned and/or implied in the story (the wars between Norway and Denmark, and between Denmark and England, the invasion of Norway to Poland, etc.).“At a shot,” as Fortinbras says, all these uncountable bodies were bloodily struck and now compose, in this last scene, the sight of “woe or wonder” (5.2.315) in front of our eyes. In fact, Hamlet ends precisely with this sight, at the moment Fortinbras orders this sight's disappearance, the bodies are taken away, and a peal of ordnance is shot.FORTINBRAS (. . .) Take up the bodies. Such a sight as thisBecomes the field, but here shows much amiss.Go, bid the soldiers shoot.A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the bodies, after the which a peal of ordnance is shot off. (5.2.354–58)How is this dead or mortal multiplicity and its accountability or unaccountability inscribed in and how does it function within the play's plot and Hamlet's own acts? A clue for this counting or reckoning—and perhaps for the full play—is given at the beginning of this scene, the last one in the play, in a kind of aphorism Hamlet utters, when he explains to Horatio how he substituted the letter that Guildenstern and Rosencrantz took to England, provoking thus their deaths instead of his own. After restating the cause, purpose, and justification of his vengeance (the revengeful murder that he describes as a “perfect conscience”) in response to Horatio's observation that the king will soon find out about Rosencrantz's and Guildenstern's deaths, Hamlet says aphoristically,2 “It will be short: the interim is mine; and a man's life no more than to say ‘one’” (5.2.74–75).The idea or image of the equivalency between “a man's life” and the figure of “one” was a common proverbial sentence in early seventeenth-century England. R. W. Dent cites two examples in his Shakespeare's Proverbial Language: “G. Meriton Sermon of Nobilitie B2v: Every man in himselfe is but as a figure of 1/ 1618,” and “G. Strode Anatomie of Mortalitie D5: Our life is a poynt, and lesse then a poynt, a figure of one, to which we can adde no cipher, it is but the least peece of time, that may be measured out, a moment and lesse then a moment” (1981, 186) The idea is related as well to the commonplace of eternal judgment as an audit, since each man owes God a debt/death to be repaid,3 expressed by Hamlet's father's ghost himself at the beginning of the play:Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled,No reckoning made, but sent to my accountWith all my imperfections on my head. (1.5.77–79)The same idea is later reiterated by Hamlet, the son, in reference to his father's ghost: “And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?” (3.3. 82).If, as we can see, this figure of “one” is always related to temporality, and thus to the end of time/accounting/reckoning, what is its relation with what Hamlet calls “the interim” and his claim of ownership of it in the aphorism? Let's listen to the sentence again and its clauses: “It will be short: the interim is mine; and a man's life no more than to say ‘one’” (5.2. 74–75). After the future tense of the verb to be (“It will be short”), the following two clauses are linked primarily through the repetition of the same verb and tense, “is,” elided in the second clause. But what is the relation between these two judgments of the type “S is P”—one of possession or ownership, and one of de-finition, literally putting an end to something (a man's life)—besides the obvious allusion to the facility and speediness in which a man's life can come to an end at the hands of another? And here we must ask: but what about 68,000 to 140,000 human lives as those lost in Hiroshima, and 35,000 to 80,000 in Nagasaki, between August 6 and 9, 1945 (and not only human, but also animal and plant lives, etc.), struck at once in the space of three days? Since such a massive number of lives extinguished in a few moments was inconceivable in Shakespeare's time, have its double occurrence (and reverberation in other tragedies, and unaccountable “instantaneous” deaths, even when they took 2, 4, 5, 6 years or more, like the Holocaust and the ongoing pandemic), as well as its inscription in our collective psyche, changed how we read the lines in this aphorism, and how we read Hamlet and its final quarry and tally? this allusion to the and of what is the relation between these two clauses by a and an elided In other what is the relation between these two of “is,” and are they in the aphorism, as their at each perhaps the between the clauses is not to or their judgments is “the interim is “a man's life is no more than to say but to the “is,” the of the verb the not to its but to the of relation between two is A is and so a relation like is in the of the or the that is the my claim is that these lines not of an but a as it in of listen to these clauses “the interim is mine; and a man's life no more than to say we can and this “one” with the term and a man's life or can by this of R. be about the between and Hamlet's toward Shakespeare like Hamlet's of on on because he no Shakespeare a of be a for and, more an for an image of for to this of is as “a of to and to with on and the interim is and a life a a no more than to say is the interim not only the one between the present moment and of Hamlet's plot and his own (and in the final etc.), but also the one between and in Hamlet's own this would not only the play's and but also its for and be a figure of (and of as “the of space and the of and the would have in the and the of and of in in with this of for all its or well the that of not only for the but also in the of and at the end of the is to as but of it given the and to a . on the of at precisely this in was . was only years since himself a for to into a while the of the to have the of and the in years after the this as much about the and of and when first of as a at the in then it as a about what these are now and how they are not only as the of and but also as the of a by but in many on and before only as well as of a of like and and so two years after the his to in by a reference to what was to be last before and by own with to his and relation to and I was on at the in I a when I out that to the same And I this what he in on this “I and I have in two but of not in a that would not be on the of and of its the in is the of as an that does not its own and then always in a because the is when and first on out in was it in a letter to as a full of but an to the to which it is to and the it by a and of in we one can even read as a response to and as shown in a are and to this in at his himself while of by about on years after the of to what these of and figure in or perhaps even own with and In other how the of the and in of with and own of and in and what in his in is an with in in the same or the same of In other the of or with and of and (the first of which was given as a in the and by at the of in by on the within this the of only to the two that and are or does the to the of of and within and are these as not only but also of type or is kind of to be with in the a of of other than the of would be a of not the more than one but also a of of the other than we these and the of the itself are by a or the that and of the of the with its two in than and than or more how I would to also one first of the in of at the end of the when of or in which to for itself the before other in the last than the life of a one by that life or the life of the that the the of a to other than a But this he this after what also an or of the as a more or the of and life the the as an or and then as a within the same last of the he or what not only an but also a at an as an to or of the is are . . . “And one must with not have one must not not be to with which are more than one the more than more one to the in to at and its on we can see, is here in its or the into a that the figure of one In these the also the that of “one” not with the and with its or no more one or one to the multiplicity and the or of the one is reiterated in the following of of in that not the of the and anonymous of and The of this be more than one of than more this can a not the or or of with or a with or a also the than one of and to of to to which also on the of one, in this one like and at the end the about and but he the or that they and to one what would have his first this taken “I my first would have of the and the which he always on in to it or it say something that is for can only what would have we that and is precisely that than one of and that itself only at the of its own In this for and the is itself “the of of the of to and it is not a or in the as something to be it is and “the of and the than (the that as well in a of in not only the but the we must in the space between and and what is the between a or and a following their of the of of in other was in his judgment of the and between his own and (and when he in his of a in to when this same does with all those that not how to or how does the of in of or with and with the of a the of to their or we are up of and to the between and And given in the not as an but as an of the how would those with and own series of and and, since they always to their own with their own of an or of the between his and (and perhaps the to their as the series of that bodies of to of the of their when the or and the or to Shakespeare's and as a space in this and and and with their on and the of the be to have with a Hamlet the “I am dead” and which as we a also by and at the end of the last of and and and with an and of the multiplicity and the in front of the and the quarry in front of the “It is at at at other in and it it it a to have the it is not other by other with all the and and 9, two of Since each of was was a (. . .) are no will his own. have and 9, In this scene, Hamlet is not is it he is it or not to as he the lines of be or not to In this or multiplicity of and Hamlet's own would be with his and his but also with the of his with his as with himself as with the of the king and his two bodies, with his Claudius, and with Laertes and Fortinbras as his in the also the double of his and after he of here but they also are and In a we say that in the of and all the other and each as they to between the and the and as they and himself when he of as series of and In this scene, or each one, like Hamlet and and “I am But in the of finally one, no one can say it and finally, In this as or of the and and the same than than one but the of their and are not we in of as a to all of these and of as the and of Such for (and many a series of of within this he the one kind of that what he calls its we must the of will have that of the and of the of of the in its or its of the of the of say in to too and save a of the of and “a of but here we finally, like an the of But what is the or function of within a and can it and what would this more than one ghost or not one In other are the other of (the the the and and the one of the to and its not precisely this on in of the of and what is by and does not or when he on of of and response to it in on and what is the of in their or as the (and of that and their of (the in of is not only but also the of a or of an to in other of a to is a of the he he it to the of and he does so in an to the itself or to it to the by the In his on itself as to and but in this it is an or the of the in other the of as of the of and of the of the and of on my to and to of the of and of the to of out with a to a full of the that in with what is not a or but also an to be in his of of the and of and at to what in is precisely a of of the and a that does not into this of would have “a on this of that this the of the does not the and at the of the it calls one to what always the of itself and the as and as a of this or does not or “the at the of the what does it with or how does it for In other when can the of be or be taken off the or bearing off the bodies, after the which a peal of ordnance is shot before the the like Guildenstern's and Rosencrantz's deaths and his own and to or what in the when it the of a and the But the or ownership to the is an and what is its relation to the counting or the end of Hamlet, a few lines before he dies, Hamlet Horatio to of and in his thou in in this in my we Hamlet's and Horatio's we can that the of Hamlet, as we have read it or it on was of this this interim in Horatio's Such a would the play, its first to the last one bid the soldiers a story by Horatio an interim or in his the we as Hamlet would have a of Hamlet's own for an and a repetition of a that always while in is the of the and, as in his would have to the of the of the of the before the of the and always of this in beginning to he a of this we in and the is linked not to but to what they the in his on in The the idea of the as of “a that present (the well with The and it in their last a than the one of or is the of the and of is no that between two it is the that is an the is not of the but is it of to The the is always a dead it is an that is and dead does not come after what it with the or of the but as the of the in which we it as to come and as in the of an the are on one each and an or Hamlet's and Hamlet's are precisely these between the murder of Hamlet's and his between the to his is this the not that the ghost also Hamlet to not the of Denmark be / A for and before will to and Hamlet's between his of the letter to the king of and the out of the deaths of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz and the of between the moment of his with the and his between his to Horatio and the end of such of to his and so Hamlet's in our and these or are of our own dead or time, in their to all the of and is this too in the of the also of and to own as a and of the of an on the of is an of an and of the and the as and is for and what the in his last as . A we we were to the we would not be that it is a kind of when referred to as the of the and of in he was precisely to as his The of my for which was a of the in is more, to the himself in his after the not be referred to such a in the of an of to the to to the or the but to our and that to the to that that which the the A of life which can say to is the and such a of life that say to that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew” is a of a of we have as with to a a on the of as and as a of does itself this on the of in other what is the relation the and after of and we have to and as of with and must into as well as he made, or he on the are not only with the of and in and the of the and in but also with the and of the and in which well as and but also and such and can be in relation to and his the of this a by himself in his to and (and later in own on but not in the The of can the relation between and in and (and own or does it in the of an between these two with his of and his of and with his the and the early as not a also or at least by and of (and in (a also a with up to the that the to it that to say is my In the same on when on this on the and his to a what be as his own figure of the or as he calls the in the is in this while as a it describes it as the of a for a of “It is not a a a the figure of those the of and / or my this who a figure of does the figure of in these And the figure of the they the one claim ownership of and the of for that like Hamlet with the or at least to we of with a which was by at the beginning of in with other and in as an of and as of In this describes the life of precisely as the life that not only does not and but that and in it itself how does one itself or in such a was also a a space with for something to or its even as it The term for is the is in the as in a something into a or But and or its must not only and this or here on and between of and a that would literally are but also itself what this or as in the is as into to like a quarry on as Hamlet's last in the is or “the is that is the will have the of the at least Horatio himself and perhaps what the after the of the life of as was and and not and these two in which is or to which is it to the of its and or to the of and the of the possession or ownership of what after the mortal not the of Hamlet's perhaps of all Hamlet is the that the the in that of what may we have off this mortal in a a later with in by in his his and and shortly after in their relation to and as one of a precisely by a of for our we not to in that would itself in a And this for two The first is in the a in a to the or more to the the of the of Our of must be not to that must to a or but the as the of the in of the in an to these and in two in the of a kind of of a of and also in two in the of the of a on the that one must in the of a of in the of what is for each his own what calls the of each a of this a few years later and so calls the of each and which is the same as is a and at in the of the of and this its in the between the and the what is the relation of this as and the the or of the in other what is the relation here between as the of present and such as they and as a space of an always and to we and is not of the and something with and is precisely the of a In this the to as to other in the the is the to the as its own in the the with the and the between a to and a to its with the of and and lines of and so in their and is in no a or out, the of and and is precisely to the of such I with when he a of between the . and the or a between two and one as that they are In such a as the one by and with is no such between and and like the of of the through the and human, through all of etc.), of or or or they are always in a of that to to their or is also what and to on their and or to each At the same time, this is what and (and their of of the of or the of and for a or In other this is what their and a one can such a of through a of and of the of the term in the the of the between an and a itself one that one, not the same one but the same on all the The on of an that will be in its on the of the one and only will always be an by the on within and in our this between the and the we can ask: the the what is by the multiplicity that full and thus the counting of is it the that are by the of the full into one, a full final or we In the the of are not to the one because they are not are not of or with and their are with their have no for a to be what they is not always a and a for “the or the or an is to like not as precisely the the of and thus always a of itself into a But would such an not a to be this finally not the too of and all its not only and but also and to be not even in a final have we all that (and all in this tally? when our own of the within Hamlet, we in a the was not the on Claudius, but the of the in the not the of Denmark be / A for and we the relation between and in a relation that of the of The of its it is not and it and its as the only when is to the and thus as the of the of the it the or while is in out that is not “the figure of those it is that in the (and perhaps in the of all a linked to the and the the of and as in in its of the that the and of as a figure of the of in does a (the to a in of Our last would in our own of the same and and between (and and into the of and in the by and of “O, must with a a I would but they all when my say he a my

Ancient history · Art · Art history · HAMLET (protein complex · Literature · Soliloquy · Theology · History · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Samuel Beckett and Modernism · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

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