846-7 trupenny]
Mackay (1884, pp. 64-5): <p. 64>“Forby, quoted in Halliwell’s ‘Archaic Dictionary,’ thinks that the application of this phrase by
Hamlet to the ghost of his father (Act I. Sc. 5) is unseemly and incongruous, and is of opinion that it means staunch and trusty, true to his purpose or pledge. Mr. Collier, led astray apparently by the word ‘cellarage’ that occurs in the same passage, where the ghost, ‘from below,’ exclaims to
Horatio and Marcellus, whom
Hamlet adjures to secrecy, ‘Swear!’ describes
True-Penny as a mining term that signifies a particular indication in the soil, of the direction in which ore is to be found. Surely perverted ingenuity never went further! Forby’s explanation, derived from the ordinary English sense of
true, though it takes no account of the word
penny, is infinitely preferable to Mr. Collier’s. It is nevertheless possible that
True-Penny, apparently used by </p. 64> <p. 65> Shakspeare [sic] in a jocular and disrespectful sense, was intended by the poet to conceal or slur over the deep tragic emotion of
Hamlet’s mind, so that his two friends might not suspect the intensity of his feeling; especially as further on in the scene, where the ghost from below again urges them to ‘swear,’ he addresses him familiarly as ‘old mole [859].’
Hamlet has, however, addressed the apparition once before with the words, ‘Alas, poor ghost! [688]’; and afterwards, in the third reiteration of ‘swear,’ adjured it with the words, ‘Rest, rest, perturbed spirit’; neither of which phrase partakes of irreverence. Perhaps the Keltic etymology of
True-Penny, as employed in this passage, expresses the real meaning, and conceals a play upon the words identical in sound, but in meaning, in Keltic and Saxon. In Keltic
truagh (pronounced
tru-a) signifies unhappy, wretched, miserable; and
peine, torment or punishment. This, as a phrase of commiseration, should be read by the gloss of the ghost’s first speech to
Hamlet:— ‘I am thy father’s spirit Doomed for a certain time to walk the night, And for the day condemned to fast in fires; Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, Are burnt and purged away’ [694-98]. In this sense,
truagh peine would be a phrase of the deepest pity, and would better suit the solemn character of the whole scene than the ludicrous
True-Penny in the Saxon sense.
True-Penny has not been traced to any writer before or contemporary with Shakespeare; and Johnson’s and other dictionaries cite him as the sole authority for it.” </p. 65>