3245 Enter Hamlet and Horatio a farre off] Goethe (1796; rpt. 1989, 5:5:179): <p. 179>“When Hamlet tells Horatio about his stepfather’s crime, Horatio advises him to go with him to Norway, gain control of the army and return with it in force. When Hamlet becomes too dangerous for both the king and the queen, they have no easier means of getting rid of him than sending him to join the fleet and instructing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to keep an eye on him; and when Laertes returns in the meantime, they send him after Hamlet, for Laertes is in a murderous temper. The fleet is delayed by unfavorable winds; Hamlet returns. His wandering through the churchyard could perhaps be better motivated. But his encounter [3449ff] with Laertes at the grave of Ophelia is a great moment and absolutely indispensable. The king can then decide that it would be better to rid himself of Hamlet at once. The celebration to mark his departure and his apparent reconciliation with Laertes is carried out with great ceremony, including chivalrous combats in which Hamlet and Laertes fence with each other. I cannot do without the four corpses at the end [3861]; no one should be left alive. And, since the people now have to elect a new king, Hamlet, as he dies, gives his vote to Horatio [3845].”

3245 Elze (ed. 1857): "Nach StR treten Hamlet und Horatio erst nach dem Gesunge des clown auf." ["According to StR [Steevens’ 1766 edition], Hamlet and Horatio first enter after the clown’s song."]

3245 Marshall (1875, pp. 93-95): <p. 93> “When Hamlet enters with Horatio we find him more than ever disposed to avail himself of any temporary distraction which may offer itself. How the two friends contrive to find themselves in the churchyard at this opportune moment we must not inquire too closely. This is, surely, one of those cases in which the dramatist may be allowed some license in the arrangement of his incidents. It is more important to observe that the character of Hamlet is here most admirably sustained, and that as he approaches, unconsciously, nearer to the fulfilment of his long delayed task, he becomes more prone to reflect and moralise on every circumstance which comes under his notice. He is wandering about in a purposeless manner, while his work of vengeance remains undone, while the solemn command of the Ghost, and the promptings of just self-defence, alike remain neglected, while the maiden that he loved so devotedly is lying on her bier—he does not know of her sad fate, it is true; Horatio, who had seen her in her pitiful distraction, but who was ignorant of her death, had, perhaps, scrupled to tell him the painful news;—still, it would have been only natural that he should have made all the haste he could to gain some tidings </p. 93> <p. 94>of his beloved; yet he lingers in this churchyard, and is lost in wonder because the vulgar sexton can find heart to sing while he is digging a grave. It is evident that hamlet is now in that condition into which sensitive natures, when opporessed by calamity, are very apt to sink—he is in a state of mental disturbance which in its very anxiety to escape from the subject which most weighs upon the mind is apt to confound itself, as far as unthinking observers care concerned, with heartless apathy. Alas! how little they know the terrible oppression which, in such unhappy men, wraps the heart round, like a leaden shroud: it is to this Hamlet afterwards alludes when he says to Horatio— [cites 3661] All the time that he is moralising on the skulls which the unfeeling grave-digger ‘jowls on the ground;’ while politician, courtier, lawyer, fine lady, jester, all in turn are the subjects of his cynical sermons; while he bandies jests with the rude but ready sexton; not for one moment is he able to escape from the cloud that hangs over him: he may smile at the pragmatical impertinence of the ‘absolute knave’ who answers his questions with so little respect, but the heavy weight at his heart grows none the lighter. There is something infinitely more tragic in these vain attempts to escape, though by means of the most trivial distractions, from the oppressive shadow of the rapidly approaching catastrophe, than in all the grand sonorous groanings of heroic tragedy.

“There are one or two points worth remarking in this scene: one is that the grave-digger, although he had been so long employed near Elsinore, evidently does not recognise Hamlet; we may conclude that his cloak would partially conceal him, and that as he would probably be in the same dress as that which he wore when taken by the pirates, his appearance would not show many signs of his princely rank. Another point is that from the words which this ‘clown’ uses in speaking of Hamlet—’He that is mad and sent into England—’ it would seem that the common people knew nothing more of the reason why he had been sent out of Denmark but that it was on account of his madness.

“Another point, which I should have thought would have attracted the attention, at least of the more modern commentators, is that we have here the same joke about the madness of all Englishmen, which has so long been a cardinal </p. 94> <p. 95> point of most foreigners’ creeds with regard to us,and which the eccentricity of some of our fellow-countrymen, when travelling, has helped to confirm. It would be curious to know whether the same opinion of us prevailed generally in Shakespeare’s time, and what was the origin of it.* </p. 95>

<p. 95> <n>*See Additional Note, No. 15.” </n> </p.95>

<p. 198> “Note 15.

“When did the madness of Englishmen take rank as a national characteristic on the Continent? It is hard to say. That inveterate virgin, Good Queen Bess, was sufficiently eccentric to impress the foreigners, who were allowed access to her beauteous presence, with an idea that she was slightly mad. Other monarchs in that age might be eccentric in their vices, but her especial oddity consisted in her virtues. There was a taint of insanity about them. Henry the Eighth was a perfect Bedlam in himself, and might well inspire foreigners with unfavourable views as the sanity of Englishmen. In the Plantagenets’ time, and in that of their immediate successors, the madness of Englishmen chiefly made itself remarkable by the audacious valour with which they gained victories over their foreign foes. Tom Coryat, that most acetious of travellers, might well spread far and wide a reputation for eccentricity on behalf of his countrymen; but his ‘Crudities’ were not given to the public till seven years after the publication of ‘Hamlet.’ One ought to examine carefully the journals and letters of foreigners, published during the 16th century, in order to trace the origin of our reputation for madness. In connection with this imputation on our national sanity, it would occur to every reader of Shakespeare to see what Portia has to say of her English suitor. On referring to the passage we find that not madness, nor eccentricity, but two other failings, are there imputed to our countrymen. [cites MV 1.2.59-69].

“Now, it is singular that up to a very few years ago these two defects were, not without justice, imputed pretty generally to our fellow-countrymen on the Continent—namely, that we could not speak any but our own language, and that our dress was of a non-descript character and in vile taste. The fact that our American cousins have outshone us in both particulars, that certain individual Englishmen have rather distinguished themselves by their fluency in foreign tongues, and that our style of dress has even found favour abroad—all these circumstances have combined to relieve us of these imputations; but still, in the case of the majority of English travellers they are not wholly unreasonable.” </p. 198>

3245 SD See n. 3250

3245 Edwards (ed. 1985): “Q2 provides the entry at [3256], which is clearly wrong, since Hamlet’s first remark indicates that they have been watching and listening.”

3245 a farre Dessen & Thomson(1999): This F1-only SD means “ on the stage but at a distance ” normally the SD refers to a sound in the distance offstage: “ a useful distinction is provided by Folio Hamlet’s ‘March afar off, and shoutwithin ‘(5.2.349 [3836]) where ‘afar off’ denotes a sound in the distance as distinct from the shout that presumably occurs just offstage‘ [within].