The 'To be, or not to be' Speech: Evidence, Conventional Wisdom, and the Editing of Hamlet

SUBSTANTIAL, conspicuous, and varied pieces of evidence demonstrate that Shakespeare designed the "To be, or not to be" speech to be perceived by experienced playgoers of his time as a feigned soliloquy. Plentiful evidence within the play implies that Hamlet pretends to speak to himself but actually intends the speech itself or an account of it to reach the ears of Claudius in order to mislead his enemy about his state of mind. External evidence demonstrates that experienced playgoers of the period did indeed make the inference intended by Shakespeare. I pointed out much of this evidence in a 1981 article and further evidence in subsequent articles and in a 2003 book. (1) The present essay will add numerous important confirming pieces of evidence. This accumulation of evidence refutes the post-Renaissance conventional assumption that the speech is meant to represent a sincere expression of Hamlet's thoughts. Post-Renaissance editors and commentators have ignored or dismissed this evidence and have projected post-Renaissance attitudes onto Shakespeare. The orthodox assumption leads to misunderstandings about the "To be" speech, about the character of Hamlet, about other features of the play, about Shakespeare's artistic goals and techniques, about Renaissance dramatic practices, and about the history of subjectivity. Evidence that the "To be" speech was designed as a feigned soliloquy (1) The content and form of the "To be" speech are radically different from the content and form of every one of Hamlet's extended soliloquies elsewhere in the play. In each of those speeches Hamlet exhibits a passionate, obsessive focus on his personal situation--on his mother's marriage to his hated uncle, on the Ghost's accusation, on his desire for revenge, and on his own machinations. In each speech Hamlet uses first-person-singular pronouns at a rate of at least one per four lines. In the soliloquy that ends the scene (2.2) before the one in which the "To be" speech occurs (3.1), Hamlet uses first-person-singular pronouns thirty-six times in fifty-nine lines. In sharp contrast, the "To be" speech is conspicuously impersonal. In a speech containing a long catalogue of grievances that might lead someone to contemplate suicide, Hamlet fails to mention any of the particular grievances that occupy his full attention during every one of his extended soliloquies elsewhere in the play. The omission of any reference to his personal situation is coupled with another kind of omission that makes the speech a tour de force of impersonality. In the entire thirty-four lines of the speech until he overtly addresses Ophelia, Hamlet never once uses a first-person-singular pronoun. (2) Near the end of the scene (1.5) in which the Ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Hamlet's uncle, Hamlet tells Horatio and Marcellus that in future he will "put an antic disposition on" (2) (1.5.171). The obvious reason that Hamlet will put on an act is to mislead Claudius or agents of Claudius about his state of mind. An alert playgoer realizes that, from this moment on, whenever Hamlet knows or suspects that Claudius or anyone Hamlet regards as an agent of Claudius is present, anything Hamlet says or does may be put on. What is an "antic disposition"? Or, more precisely, what is an "Anticke disposition" (Q2 and F)? The post-Renaissance association of this word with playfulness seriously misleads playgoers and readers about its meaning in Shakespeare's works. In Shakespeare's works its connotations included "grotesque," "macabre," and "morbid." Shakespeare repeatedly associated the word with death in general and suicide in particular. According to Richard II, "within the hollow crown" of a king "Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits" (3.2.160, 162). In Hamlet itself, Shakespeare associated the word specifically with suicide. The words now distinguished in both spelling and pronunciation as "antic" and "antique" were differentiated in Shakespeare's age neither in spelling (each was variously spelled "anticke," "antick," "antik," or "antike") nor in pronunciation (each was pronounced with the stress on the first syllable). …