Blog Question #4: Second Half

A place in Hamlet that I found the poetics particularly interesting relative to the plot is in Act 3, Scene 2:  Hamlet has had the players put on The Mousetrap to test Claudius for Hamlet's father's murder.  What Hamlet says after Claudius has gotten up and called for lights to exit is the piece that I chose.

"Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
    The hart ungalled play
For some must watch, while some must sleep;
    Thus runs the world away."

The translation might go:

"Why, let the wounded deer leave to weep and die,
    The unhurt one live,
For some must remain awake, while some must sleep;
    Thus this is the way of the world."

First, the part about the wounded deer is believed to be alluded to a popular belief in that time concerning wounded deer.  As it says in As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1:

"Under an oak whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood.
To the which place a poor sequestered stag,
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish, and indeed, my lord,
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat
Almost to bursting, and the big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase..."

Hamlet's "wounded deer" was Claudius.  Claudius was wounded with Hamlet's arrow of conscience because of the play, so as the "wounded deer" he left to weep on his sins of murder and incest.  Hamlet would also have him die for them.  If Claudius had been innocent of the crimes, he would have stayed with the others to enjoy the players and lived in innocence. There is in justice, that murderers are put to "sleep", while innocents may live. Thus Hamlet says that this justice keeps the world aright.

I liked the way that Hamlet, here, tells Horatio of Claudius' guilt and Hamlet's course for justice, but "hides" it in poetry.  The rhyme scheme of ABAB and the iambic rhythm produces poetry that sounds innocuous.  But Horatio may easily read between the lines.  Hamlet is saying that Claudius has failed the test of innocence and must die by Hamlet's hand.