2554-5 Hackett (1863, p. 162-5): <p.162> “A most thoughtless but outrageous license with
Shakespeare seems to have become invariable with the actors of Hamlet in the application of the lines—[quotes lines]. This couplet in every
stage-edition of the play is arranged to conclude the closet-scene, and every actor of
Hamlet whom I have seen, has more or less perverted the bard’s true meaning and more in </p.162><p.163> ignorance than cunning, as I hope, joined in casting a moral blot upon the character of
Hamlet, totally unwarranted by the text or context; the atrocity consists in the reigning fashion of rendering this couplet upon the
stage, which is as follows:—After the termination of the dialogue between
Hamlet and his mother, as it is abridged and arranged for representation, when
Hamlet utters the words—’So again, good night!’ the Queen is required to approach
Hamlet and to offer a parting
embrace, at which
Hamlet, seems shocked, and shudders, and shrinks back with averted palms, and pharisee-like refuses to allow her; the Queen then seems convulsed, bursts into tears, and rushes off one way whilst
Hamlet goes in the opposite direction, expressing first as an apparent excuse for such unrelenting hard-heartedness the couplet [quotes lines]. Whereas, if we carefully examine the original scene and the order of
Shakespeare’s language we find that this same couplet does not come in next after the last time of Hamlet’s saying—’Good night, mother!’ but, in the
midst of his advice, reflections, and varied expostulations with his mother, and when the
Ghost of his father . . . </p.163><p.164> had been dispelled by some sprinkling of cool patience, and his reasoning faculties had again resumed their sway. . . . </p.164><p.165> From the foregoing context . . . the obvious meaning of “I must be cruel only to be kind’ is ‘I must “wring your heart,” as I premised to you at the opening of this interview would be necessary when I peremptorily bade you so “let me,” and added—[quotes 3.4.18-19 (2397-2400)] ‘this seeming
cruelty of mine, in ripping up and exposing to your own censure your conduct, must be committed in order to prove to you by its effect the essential kindness of my ulterior object, which is your
reformation; when I began and put it to you roundly you became alarmed, and cried out for ‘Help!’ and I—mistaking the voice behind the arras for that of another person—slew Polonius unintentionally’: ‘This bad begins and worse remains behind,’
id est, ‘Thus, you should perceive, your own bad or wicked beginning, in being won to the shameful lust of your husband’s brother, my uncle, ended in worse consequence, to wit: my uncle’s murder of my father.’”</p.165>