humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/hamlet.5.1.html

MM:
This is my second commentary on Act 5, Scene 1.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance

First Clown
Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull
ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when
you are asked this question next, say 'a
grave-maker: 'the houses that he makes last till
doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: fetch me a
stoup of liquor.

Exit Second Clown

He digs and sings

In youth, when I did love, did love,
Methought it was very sweet,
To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove,
O, methought, there was nothing meet.

MM:
Youth is sometimes a happy time. Yet, old age could be coming, if we
live that long. So, this world is full of happiness and pain. It
depends on our karmas, what we get. Satan tries to emphasize the
happiness, but even if we get it in this world, to a degree, it is
ephemeral, transitory, and basically, an illusion.

HAMLET
Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he
sings at grave-making?

MM:
Okay, let's remember that Hamlet is the MASTER. He teaches us our
business, which should be God-Realization. The grave-digger is
nonchalant and has been deceived by Satan.

HORATIO
Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

MM:
Horatio is a wise disciple of Hamlet. He knows that the grave-digger
has such sanskaras (impressions) in his mind, due to past karmas.

HAMLET
'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath
the daintier sense.

MM:
As opposed to fighting with the mind.

First Clown
[Sings]
But age, with his stealing steps,
Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
And hath shipped me intil the land,
As if I had never been such.

Throws up a skull

MM:
We have been born many times, and we have died many times. It is a
cycle which could last for millions of years, unless we follow a
Master, such as Hamlet.

HAMLET
That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once:
how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were
Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It
might be the pate of a politician, which this ass
now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God,
might it not?

MM:
Master Hamlet discusses the possibilities of human life. We can go in
multifarious directions. The best would be the direction of Sat Guru
Bhakti. Then we could circumvent God. This is very clearly
mysticism.

HORATIO
It might, my lord.

HAMLET
Or of a courtier; which could say 'Good morrow,
sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?' This might
be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord
such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

MM:
More worldly possibilities. These types of desires will keep one in
the cycle of births and deaths, possibly for millions of years.

HORATIO
Ay, my lord.

MM:
Everybody presents an aspect of the Lord. The Master presents to us
the highest aspect, obviously. We should follow him, to reach the
Creator.

HAMLET
Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and
knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade:
here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to
see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding,
but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on't.

MM:
Hamlet wants us to think about the purpose of human life.

First Clown
[Sings]
A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade,
For and a shrouding sheet:
O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.

Throws up another skull

MM:
Death is inevitable. What will we do while we are alive? Will we
follow the Master and lay up treasure in heaven? Will we waste the
human opportunity.

HAMLET
There's another: why may not that be the skull of a
lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets,
his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he
suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the
sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of
his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be
in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,
his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers,
his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and
the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him
no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than
the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The
very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in
this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?

MM:
Nobody owns anything in this world, ultimately, because all has to be
left behind. Only spiritual treasure, which we get by meditation,
will go with us.

HORATIO
Not a jot more, my lord.

HAMLET
Is not parchment made of sheepskins?

HORATIO
Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too.

HAMLET
They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance
in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose
grave's this, sirrah?

MM:
He says the worldly people are like sheep and calves. They seek
happiness in this illusory world.

First Clown
Mine, sir.

Sings

O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.

HAMLET
I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't.

MM:
When we wallow in the world, we become saturated with worldly desires,
unless we follow a Master out of it.

First Clown
You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not
yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine.

MM:
This is comical. I think only a Mystic would understand this one.
First Clown says that Hamlet "lies out on't, and therefore it is not
his." The Master has access beyond this illusory world, so he will
not be pulled back here for another birth. First Clown says he
doesn't lie in the "grave," but yet it is his. It means that he will
meet his death one day, and he will be buried. It means that death is
inevitable, but we should meditate, while we are living, to gain
freedom from Satan, as Hamlet has already done.

HAMLET
'Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine:
'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

MM:
Very beautiful. How would anyone bereft of mystic knowledge
understand this? Hamlet is the Master, he can make people "quick."
It means to give them the spiritual access beyond Satan. Those lucky
souls can go beyond Satan in the twinkling of an eye. Hamlet, the
Master, is pointing out the possibility that the First Clown could
conquer death, if he would follow the Master. Hamlet is saying that
the First Clown is being pessimistic, even in the presence of the
Master, who offers us ETERNITY.

First Clown
'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away gain, from me to
you.

MM:
First Clown sees his mistake and admits it to the Master. He learns,
unlike others who never seem to learn anything.

HAMLET
What man dost thou dig it for?

First Clown
For no man, sir.

HAMLET
What woman, then?

First Clown
For none, neither.

HAMLET
Who is to be buried in't?

First Clown
One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.

HAMLET
How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the
card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord,
Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of
it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the
peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he
gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a
grave-maker?

MM:
This is Kal Yuga (Iron Age). Ego is on the increase now. There is
less respect for Masters in this age. In previous ages, there was
more love and devotion for Masters. This indicates that Shakespeare
was Shaykh Kabir, IMO. Kabir had mentioned that he had appeared in
all the Yugas (Ages.)

First Clown
Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day
that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

HAMLET
How long is that since?

First Clown
Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it
was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that
is mad, and sent into England.

HAMLET
Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?

First Clown
Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits
there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there.

HAMLET
Why?

First Clown
'Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men
are as mad as he.

MM:
Hamlet has been wrongly pigeonholed as being mad. The Master is sent
to this world, which is full of mad men. Everybody is groping in the
dark, in this physical world. Only a few quest for light.

HAMLET
How came he mad?

First Clown
Very strangely, they say.

HAMLET
How strangely?

First Clown
Faith, e'en with losing his wits.

MM:
What makes us mad? What makes us sinners? Answer: Losing our wits.
The Master comes to teach us how to regain our wits, how to
concentrate the mind and merge into the Holy Spirit.

HAMLET
Upon what ground?

First Clown
Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man
and boy, thirty years.

HAMLET
How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?

First Clown
I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we
have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce
hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year
or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year.

HAMLET
Why he more than another?

First Clown
Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that
he will keep out water a great while; and your water
is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.
Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth
three and twenty years.

HAMLET
Whose was it?

First Clown
A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was?

HAMLET
Nay, I know not.

First Clown
A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a
flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull,
sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.

HAMLET
This?

First Clown
E'en that.

HAMLET
Let me see.

Takes the skull

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know
not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your
gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell
me one thing.

MM:
Do we want to make the best use of human life?

HORATIO
What's that, my lord?

HAMLET
Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i'
the earth?

MM:
Even Masters must die, and their bodies must decompose.

HORATIO
E'en so.

HAMLET
And smelt so? pah!

Puts down the skull

HORATIO
E'en so, my lord.

HAMLET
To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may
not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

MM:
Shakespeare hints that Alexander was a Master, IMO. He was a disciple
of Aristotle.

HORATIO
'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

HAMLET
No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as
thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king.

MM:
To further emphasize his point, that we will be reduced to dust and
bones, Shakespeare mentions his own previous reincarnation, i.e.
Julius Caesar. He says he was "imperious." This was not just worldly
power, but spiritual power, to which he is referring.

Enter Priest, & c. in procession; the Corpse of OPHELIA, LAERTES and
Mourners following; KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, their trains, & c

The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow?
And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
The corse they follow did with desperate hand
Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.
Couch we awhile, and mark.

Retiring with HORATIO

LAERTES
What ceremony else?

HAMLET
That is Laertes,
A very noble youth: mark.

LAERTES
What ceremony else?

First Priest
Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful;
And, but that great command o'ersways the order,

MM:
Nobody can commit suicide unless God permits it.

First Priest continues:
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,
Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;
Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.

MM:
Is death final? Is this all there is at the end?

LAERTES
Must there no more be done?

First Priest
No more be done:
We should profane the service of the dead
To sing a requiem and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

MM:
We can do that. We can try.

LAERTES
Lay her i' the earth:
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be,
When thou liest howling.

MM:
She (Ophelia) was a beloved disciple of the Master, Hamlet. She will
be taken to a nice heaven and she will be an angel. The Priest might
end up howling.

HAMLET
What, the fair Ophelia!

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Sweets to the sweet: farewell!

Scattering flowers

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave.

LAERTES
O, treble woe
Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:

Leaps into the grave

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

MM:
We can be quick, follow the Master, or be dead and return to this
world. Those who follow the Master can reach Olympus.

HAMLET
[Advancing] What is he whose grief
Bears such an emphasis?

MM:
If a Master is grieved, it gets the attention of the Creator,
himself. He will take appropriate measures.

HAMLET continues:
whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures the wandering stars,

MM:
This is cryptic. The Master has a lot of power. He can conjure up
his power, at any time.

HAMLET continues:
and makes them stand
Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
Hamlet the Dane.

MM:
More emphasis that the MASTER is OMNIPOTENT.

Leaps into the grave

LAERTES
The devil take thy soul!

Grappling with him

HAMLET
Thou pray'st not well.
I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I something in me dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.

MM:
Hamlet warns Laertes not to offend God. Woe to him who offends God.
God told Abraham, "If they curse you, I will curse them."

KING CLAUDIUS
Pluck them asunder.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, Hamlet!

All
Gentlemen,--

HORATIO
Good my lord, be quiet.

The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave

HAMLET
Why I will fight with him upon this theme
Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
O my son, what theme?

HAMLET
I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?

MM:
Hamlet was the Master. He was greater than forty thousand brothers.

KING CLAUDIUS
O, he is mad, Laertes.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
For love of God, forbear him.

HAMLET
'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do:
Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?
I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

QUEEN GERTRUDE
This is mere madness:
And thus awhile the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
His silence will sit drooping.

MM:
We see our friends and family members die, be buried or burned. It is
a never-ending story. Are we going to follow the Master to achieve
eternity?

HAMLET
Hear you, sir;
What is the reason that you use me thus?
I loved you ever: but it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

MM:
This is a profound cryptic message. The Masters are used by God.
They often appear to be like us, for example, Hamlet leaping into the
grave, but they are more than we. They are beyond our imagination.

Exit

KING CLAUDIUS
I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.

Exit HORATIO

To LAERTES

Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;
We'll put the matter to the present push.
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

Exeunt

MM:
Trials and tribulations come and go in this world. Notice the
reference to "living monument." Our human life is an opportunity to
find a living monument to God, who is none other than the Master, the
Living Master.

Michael Martin