He first makes Horatio and Marcellus
swear never to make known what they have _seen_. Then, on
shifting his ground, he makes them swear never to speak of
what they have _heard_. Then, moving again, he makes them
swear that, if he should think fit to play the antic, they
will give no sign of knowing aught of him. The oath is now
complete; and, when the Ghost commands them to swear the last
time, Hamlet suddenly becomes perfectly serious and bids it
rest. [In Fletcher's _Woman's Prize_, V. iii., a passage
pointed out to me by Mr. C.J. Wilkinson, a man taking an oath
shifts his ground.]
NOTE F.
THE PLAYER'S SPEECH IN _HAMLET_.
There are two extreme views about this speech. According to
one, Shakespeare quoted it from some play, or composed it for
the occasion, simply and solely in order to ridicule, through
it, the bombastic style of dramatists contemporary with
himself or slightly older; just as he ridicules in _2 Henry
IV._ Tamburlaine's rant about the kings who draw his chariot,
or puts fragments of similar bombast into the mouth of Pistol.
According to Coleridge, on the other hand, this idea is 'below
criticism.' No sort of ridicule was intended.
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