Okay, let me try and clear this section of the play up. In Act III Scene V, line 182 Hamlet tells the Queen NOT to "let the bloat king" tempt her again to bed, "pinch wanton" on her cheek, etc. Then he tells her to LET him know or NOT to let him know (here I am slightly confused) that he is "Not in madness but mad in craft". Do you know what I'm saying? The lines could be interpreted either way. What is Hamlet asking of the Queen here and why?

-- Patrick Walker (the_right_hand_of_doom@msn.com), April 05, 2003

Answers

Can't find my bloody script just at the moment, so I'm going from memory: be tolerant.

It's WS screwing with your mind. The key is Hamlet's 'Not this that I bid you do.' That is, the Queen asks him, 'What shall I do?' and he tells her, 'Don't do what I'm about to tell you to do.' It refers to ALL of what he says that follows - the whole passage down to the lines about the ape breaking its neck down. So when Hamlet tells Gertrude that she should 'Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed', Hamlet means she should not let Claudius do that. And when Hamlet suggests she should let Claudius get her to disclose that Hamlet is 'not in madness but mad in craft', Hamlet means that she should not do that either. Get it? The lines cannot be interpreted either way. That would only be the case if the speech was broken up. But Hamlet's sense is fluid: that Claudius will tempt her to bed and make love to her IN ORDER TO get her to confess the truth that Hamlet is not in madness. Gertrude gets it, and promises Hamlet (somewhat flowerily) that she won't breathe a word of it.

-- catherine england (catherine_england@hotmail.com), April 05, 2003.

Yes, but the problem lies for me when Hamlet says after this "T'were good you let him know". Why do you think Hamlet still wants the king to think he is mad or otherwise?

-- Patrick Walker (the_right_hand_of_doom@msn.com), April 05, 2003.

''Twere good you let him know' still has reference to 'Not this ... that I bid you do: Hamlet has just told Gertrude to spill the beans to Claudius; he then goes on to ask, 'For who ... would from [Claudius] such dear concernings hide?' That is, Hamlet is saying, Confess to Claudius that I'm not mad, ... for who would hide that from Claudius?

It's just that he is definitely of course telling her not to let Claudius know, but rather to hide the fact from Claudius, because he has prefaced the whole spiel with Don't do 'this ... that I bid you do.'

Now, why do I think Hamlet still wants the King to think he is mad. Because he has been and still is plotting against Claudius to kill Claudius: killing a king is, as is indeed shouted at the end of the play, 'Treason'. Also, because he has just murdered Polonius, Claudius' favourite lord. Publically, his best defence against both charges - indeed his only defence - is madness, insanity. Hamlet has no evidence that he can present to others in his defence for killing Claudius that Claudius killed King Hamlet. Even if he did have, in the eyes of the law, he would have no excuse at all, really, for sanely having killed Polonius.

Plus, obviously if Claudius thinks his opponent is mad, he's not going to work so hard against Hamlet as he would if he knew Hamlet was fully on the ball and out to get him. Actually, though, we know that Claudius has begun to think that Hamlet is not mad; Hamlet may even suspect that Claudius is now thinking this; but it'd still be stupid for someone (Gertrude) to hand the truth to Claudius on a platter.

-- catherine england (catherine_england@hotmail.com), April 05, 2003.

Wooooah! Hang on a moment. You are confusing me!! You say that "Hamlet is saying, Confess to Claudius that I'm not mad, ... for who would hide that from Claudius?" and then you say "It's just that he is definitely of course telling her not to let Claudius know, etc". Please could you begin from the start of that speech and tell me exactly what you think Hamlet is saying?

-- Patrick Walker (the_right_hand_of_doom@msn.com), April 05, 2003.

You know, I might do that, when I find my bloody script. In the meantime, remember what I said in my first response:

The key is Hamlet's 'Not this that I bid you do.' That is, the Queen asks him, 'What shall I do?' and he tells her, 'Don't do what I'm about to tell you to do.' It refers to ALL of what he says that follows - the whole passage down to the lines about the ape breaking its neck down. ...

I was just saying that again, in a different way. So the speech is, in paraphrase and abridged, more or less: Don't do what I'm about to tell you to do: let Claudius tempt you to bed and make love to you in order to get you to tell him that I'm not mad, but plotting against him; it would be good if you let him know that, for who would hide such important business ('dear concernings') from such a scumball as Claudius when you could tell the scumball to find out what would happen ('try conclusions').

I can't remember all the insults Hamlet uses to mean Claudius. Or the bit about the ape in detail. But the ape bit is basically recounting a tale of an ape who jumped off a roof to see what would happen: it thought it might be able to fly like some birds it had let loose from a basket, but when it climbed in the basket and then jumped out like the birds, it fell and broke its neck. Ie, don't do stupid things to see what will happen.

More briefly than that, it is: Let that bastard of a King think I'm mad rather than telling him that I'm plotting to wrangle out his guts and boil them for dinner.

i guess Hamlet is using a form of the rhetorical trick of expressing a meaning by appearing to state the opposite. You might want to compare Mark Antony's 'Brutus is an honourable man' speech in JULIUS CAESAR ('Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. ... ' JULIUS CAESAR III.ii).

-- catherine england (catherine_england@hotmail.com), April 05, 2003.

Please bear in mind that the script of 'Hamlet', was at no point ever meant to be performed in it's entirety. There are many points throughout the play in which Hamlet contradicts himself, therefore it is down to the directors intentions as to which interpretation is used. The lines can be vastly edited and still make sense. Alternatively, put yourself if you can, into the shoes of the character. He is emotionally messed up by the death of his father, the betrayal by his mother, seeing his fathers ghost, being told of the murderous act committed by Claudius. Surely we may be able to grant him a little le-way in his actions. Just as we would, surely in the same situation, be scattered in thought, unsure of what to do, so is Hamlet, therefore he frequently changes his mind. Basically towards the end of the scene, Hamlet, by telling his mother to "let the bloat King tempt you again to bed" he is infact telling her to act normal. He does not want to arouse suspicion in the new King. Claudius has alot of power and as we see when he sends Hamlet to his death in England (or attempts to) he wants Hamlet out of the way. By his mother sleeping with the king, as she has been doing, Claudius will hopefully think that nothing is going on. Finally, Hamlet's feigned madness renders him harmless, (so that he can go behind the King's back unexpectedly). Hopefully this has been of a little help to your enquiry. Ellen.

-- Ellen Armstrong (virtualjes@aol.com), February 15, 2005.

Not quite so. Yes, Hamlet says, "let the bloat King tempt you again to bed"; but he has prefaced this whole section with 'Not this, by no means, that I bid you do'. So what he then goes on to tell her to do is what he is saying she should not do. Why should she not do these things? Because she is 'a queen, fair, sober, wise', with more 'sense and secrecy' than to give in to the wheedlings and seductions of Claudius the paddock, bat and gib.

By explaining it all like this, Hamlet is able to put it in the most immediately graphic, and therefore convincing, terms, really showing how wrong and dangerous doing these things would be.

-- catherine england (catherine.england@arts.usyd.edu.au), February 15, 2005.