Part 20 (1/2)
In 1605--we believe, a few months before 'Volpone' [46]--'Eastward Hoe'
came out, a comedy written by Ben Jonson, Chapman, and Marston, in which, as already stated, the connection between Hamlet and Ophelia is derided in a low, burlesque manner.
Shakspere, in order to flagellate Montaigne's mean views about womankind, puts into the mouth of Ophelia, when she has no longer the control of her tongue, the hideous words:--'Come, my coach!' and 'Oh, how the wheel become it!' [47] This is a satirical hit, rapidly indicated, but only understood by those who had carefully read Montaigne's book. Ben Jonson, Chapman, and Marston try to make capital out of these expressions, by deriding and denouncing them to the crowd, in order to defame Shakspere.
Girtred (Gertrud, name of Hamlet's mother, the Queen,) is the figure under which Ophelia is ridiculed in 'Eastward Hoe.' [48] The first is a girl of loosest manners. Her ambition torments her to marry a n.o.bleman, in order to obtain a 'coach.' To her mother (Mrs. Touchstone) she incessantly speaks words of most shameless indecency, which cannot be repeated; more especially as regards her 'coach,' for which she asks ever and anon. A lackey, called _Hamlet_, must procure it to her.
We will give some fragments of that scene. The remainder cannot be offered to a modern circle of general readers.
_Enter_ Hamlet, _a Foote-man, in haste_.
_Hamlet_. What coachman--my ladye's coach! for shame!
Her ladis.h.i.+p's readie to come down.
_Enter_ Potkinne, _a Tankard-bearer_.
_Potkinne_. 'Sfoote! Hamlet, are you madde? Whither run you nowe? You should brushe up my olde mistresse!
Thereupon neighbours come together, all impelled by the greatest curiosity 'to see her take coach,' and wis.h.i.+ng to congratulate her.
_Gertrud_. Thank you, good people! My coach for the love of Heaven, my coach! In good truth, I shall swoune else.
_Hamlet_. Coach, coach, my ladye's coach! [_Exit_ Hamlet.
After a little conversation between mother and daughter, which we must leave out, Hamlet enters again:
_Hamlet_. Your coach is coming, madam.
_Gertrud_. That's well said. Now Heaven! methinks I am eene up to the knees in preferment....
But a little higher, but a little higher, but a little higher!
There, there, there lyes Cupid's fire!
_Mrs. Touchstone_. But must this young man (Hamlet), an't please you, madam, run by your coach all the way a foote?
_Gertrud_. I by my faith, I warrant him; hee gives no other milke, as I have another servant does.
_Mrs. Touchstone_. Ahlas! 'tis eene pittie meethinks; for G.o.d's sake, madam, buy him but a hobbie horse; let the poore youth have something betwixt his legges to ease 'hem. Alas! we must doe as we would be done too.
That is all we dare to quote from this comedy; but it quite suffices to characterise the meanness of the warfare which Jonson's clique carried on against Shakspere.
However, the lofty ideas contained in 'Hamlet' could not be lowered by such an attack; they became the common property of the best and n.o.blest.
Those ideas were of too high a range, too abstract in their nature, to be easily made a sport of before the mult.i.tude. A few pleasantries, used by Shakespeare in a moment of easy-going style, were laid hold of maliciously, and caricatured most indecently, by his antagonists, in order to entertain the common crowd there with. Innocent children, moreover, were made to act such satires: 'little eyases, that cry out on the top of the question, and are most tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the fas.h.i.+on, and so berattle the common stages.'
Not less than in 'Volpone,' the tendency of 'Hamlet' as regards religious questions is, in the most evident manner, ridiculed in John Marston's 'Malcontent.' Although this satire (so the play is called in the preface 'To the Reader') appeared before 'Volpone,' we yet thought it more useful first to speak of Jonson's comedy being the work of Shakspere's most formidable adversary.
'The Malcontent' was printed in 1604; and soon afterwards (in the same year) a second edition appeared, augmented by the author, as well as enriched by a few additions from the pen of John Webster. [49] The play is preceded by a Latin Dedication to Ben Jonson, which sufficiently shows that a close friends.h.i.+p must have existed, at that time, between the two. [50] The satire is replete with phrases taken from 'Hamlet'
for the purpose of mockery; and they are introduced in the loosest, most disconnected manner, thus doubly showing the intention and purpose. Marston's style is pointedly described in 'The Return from Parna.s.sus;' and we do not hesitate to say that the following criticism was written in consequence of his 'Malcontent:'--
Methinks he is a ruffian in his style, Withouten bands or garters' ornament: He quaffs a cup of Frenchman's [51] Helicon, Then roister doister in his oily terms, Cuts, thrusts, and foins at whomsoever he meets...
Tut, what cares he for modest close-couch'd terms, Cleanly to gird our looser libertines?...