| Son. | What is a traitor? |
| Lady Macduff. | Why, one that swears and lies. |
| Son. | And be all traitors that do so? |
| Lady Macduff. | Everyone that does so is a traitor, and must be hanged. |
Garnet, as a matter of fact, was hanged in May, 1606; and it is to be feared that the audience applauded this passage.
(2) The Porter's soliloquy on the different applicants for admittance has, in idea and manner, a marked resemblance to Pompey's soliloquy on the inhabitants of the prison, in Measure for Measure, iv. iii. 1 ff.; and the dialogue between him and Abhorson on the 'mystery' of hanging (iv. ii. 22 ff.) is of just the same kind as the Porter's dialogue with Macduff about drink.
[248] In the last Act, however, he speaks in verse even in the quarrel with Laertes at Ophelia's grave. It would be plausible to explain this either from his imitating what he thinks the rant of Laertes, or by supposing that his 'towering passion' made him forget to act the madman. But in the final scene also he speaks in verse in the presence of all. This again might be accounted for by saying that he is supposed to be in a lucid interval, as indeed his own language at 239 ff. implies. But the probability is that Shakespeare's real reason for breaking his rule here was simply that he did not choose to deprive Hamlet of verse on his last appearance. I wonder the disuse of prose in these two scenes has not been observed, and used as an argument, by those who think that Hamlet, with the commission in his pocket, is now resolute.
[249] The verse-speech of the Doctor, which closes this scene, lowers the tension towards that of the next scene. His introductory conversation with the Gentlewoman is written in prose (sometimes very near verse), partly, perhaps, from its familiar character, but chiefly because Lady Macbeth is to speak in prose.
NOTE A.
EVENTS BEFORE THE OPENING OF THE ACTION IN HAMLET.
In Hamlet's first soliloquy he speaks of his father as being 'but two months dead,—nay, not so much, not two.' He goes on to refer to the love between his father and mother, and then says (i. ii. 145):