This is an interesting repetition. Usually a repetition happens within the line and this one sandwiches a line from Hamlet. But because Laertes doesn’t hear Hamlet – it really is an internal repetition for him. That is, as far as Laertes is concerned, he just says this line twice in a row.
Is he asking different people or asking the priest twice, one more forcefully than the other?
Mark.
Is there another character in Shakespeare who says “mark” as much as Hamlet?
It feels like he’s always getting someone to note something. I mean, he is an observant dude – and it does follow that once you’ve observed something, you want to bring another’s attention to it. Certainly that is partly why I blog, why I talk with people, why I podcast – to share what I have observed with others. I want them to mark what I have observed.
That is Laertes, a very noble youth.
Does Horatio really not know Laertes? He’s seen Ophelia, for sure. But I guess, yeah, Laertes left at the top of the play and I suppose it is possible that he could have missed him.
But it is curious that Hamlet describes him as just a noble youth. It would be more logical to describe him as Ophelia’s brother or Polonius’ son. Horatio should have a sense of those people even if he didn’t have much contact with Laertes.
However – it would sort of give the game away early if Hamlet mentioned Ophelia at this moment. Better to describe Laertes on his own merits and then realize it is his sister going in the ground.
What ceremony else?
Before I saw a military funeral, I don’t think I was particularly inclined toward ceremony. I did not quite see the point of burial rites of graveside services or any of the rituals to mark the passing of a person.
But I get it now. It’s powerful. Ceremony marks the passage clearly and definitely. It is over. The life lived has passed and it has been marked.
Couch we awhile, and mark.
My favorite bit of Kenneth Branagh’s delightful film, A Midwinter’s Tale, is when one of the (not very professional) actors confesses that whenever he forgets a line or what he’s supposed to do, he says, “Crouch we here awhile and lurk.” And then crouches behind something and waits. I do not think this line exists anywhere in the canon – at least not exactly – but I do so love it.
And it DOES sound a great deal like “Couch we awhile, and mark.”
And one could use it for just such an eventuality just as easily.
‘Twas of some estate.
This is kind of a fun way to say that someone is rich or well-to-do. It’s like a way that only someone of estate would say it.
It makes me think about all those articles and studies that point out how the wealthy never want to call themselves rich – they like to say things like “comfortable.” I can imagine that “of some estate” might well fit into that same category.
This doth betoken the corse they follow did with desperate hand fordo its own life.
It’s unlikely that he would say this to the gravedigger – as one would presume that the gravedigger would know all this very well. Not that Hamlet would be above a condescending passing on of obvious knowledge – but it feels more likely that he’s saying this to Horatio. Which reminds me of my pet theory that Horatio is more foreigner than friend. He affords the opportunity for Hamlet to explain customs and traditions that would not require explanations to a native Dane. Horatio allows Hamlet to give us some context.
And with such maimed rites?
The place I came to write is surprise closing in five minutes. My own rites are being a bit maimed against my will today. I have not had time to do any of the things I came here to do. So. This line analysis is a bit lame, the ritual has been maimed and we will have to proceed again tomorrow.
Who is this they follow?
The logistics of this are tricky. If the King, Queen and courtiers are following the body – then the body would seem to be the first “person” out onstage but he doesn’t say anything about it until after he’s acknowledged the king and train.
I suppose, the way to do it is for those two “But soft”s to be the seeing of the coffin and then he circles back around to the coffin once he’s processed who’s here.
So it’s: dead body, King, Queen, courtiers…
Wait, if they’re here who is that dead body? Who is dead that those folks are here?
And wait – what’s missing?
Some of the usual trappings.
So was this dead body a suicide?
It’s a lot to follow that train of thought.
But it is logical.
The queen, the courtiers.
I’m looking at the text on Genius.com. I used to photocopy pages from my New Penguin edition but this has become easier. I just look at it on my smartphone and boom. I know the next line.
The problem with this convenience, though, is that it has no context. There are no indications of where Genius pulled their text from – which edition, which copy. There are major variations between editions, especially with this play, as there are three original sources – the first folio, the 2nd Quarto and the 1st, known as the Bad Quarto. And almost every edition is some combination of all three – cobbled together by an editor. But who edited the Genius text?
I mean, we, the Genius users, can edit the notes – but the actual text?
There are none of the deep cut textual notations that are characteristic of the Arden edition – so there is nothing to clue us in to editorial choices or variations.
I’m wondering about this now because the stage direction of the funeral processions entrance happens right before this line in the Genius “edition.” Is it always thus?
I imagine there are editions that might read: Here comes the King, the Queen, the courtiers.
But this edition has chosen (or not chosen, just pulled from some unknown source) to set the king apart from the rest. To insert a period where there might, in other cases, be a comma.
I might need to look at some actual editions.
The Hamlet Project 