Shakespeare's "Deceptive Cadence": a Study in the Structure of Hamlet Author(S): Jackson G

George Washington University

Shakespeare's "Deceptive Cadence": A Study in the Structure of Hamlet Author(s): Jackson G. Barry Source: Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Spring, 1973), pp. 117-127 Published by: Folger Shakespeare Library in association with George Washington University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2868850 . Accessed: 13/06/2014 08:01

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This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Shakespeare's"Deceptive Cadence": A Studyin theStructure of Hamlet

JACKSON G. BARRY

V.aP { ATE in Act III, Hamlet, his anger mountingwith the cas- cade of suspicion,spying, incest, and treachery,discovers he has been betrayedeven in the privacyof his mother'scham- ber. He strikesat the figureof the betrayer,whom, at least j momentarily,he takes to be his uncle, but with the arras pulled aside he finds,instead of Claudius, poor bumbling Polonius.At thispoint, the possible resolution of revengedissolves in repentance forthe "wretched, rash, intruding, fool" for whose accidentalslaughter Hamlet realizes he must "answer well." The effecton an audience of this sudden abortedresolution is similarto the effectof what in classicalmusic is called a "deceptivecadence," in whichthe usual impressionof conclusiongiven by the chordsof the "perfect"cadence is brokenwhen the concludingtonic chord of thesequence "is-deceptively-replaced by someother chord,"' just as theKing, on whom Hamlet's revengemust be concluded,is-deceptively-replaced by Polonius. In the design of the tragic rhythmof Hamlet, this "deceptivecadence" modifiesthe last segmentof the tragic curve to effecta more subtle and varied emotionalsweep. It becomes one of the factorswhich raise the raw materialsof the dramaticrevenge formula and the narrativetales of Am- lethto a profoundlyreverberating play. The examinationof the structuralplace and effectof the stabbingof Polonius undertakenhere will, hopefully,cast some light on the important subjectof Shakespeare'stragic design: the relativelylittle-studied skill which builds into a potentialdramatic performance a relevantpattern of events reflecting,and exciting the feel of, some of our deepest life experiences, such as the violentpassage fromwillfullness to compassionwe travelwith King Lear. This is not to offerany freshinterpretation of Hamlet in the usual sense of a pyschologyof the charactersand their behavior.It is, instead, a descriptionof the effectof one of the structuralpatterns manifest in theplay.2 The analogy to music, specificallyto the deceptive cadence, is purely suggestiveand not meant to imply that the stabbingof Polonius is a deceptive cadence in Hamlet or that Shakespearewas consciouslytrying to imitatea formwhich is most frequentlyemployed in music composedafter

I See Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionaryof Music (Cambridge,Mass., i956), p. io8. 2 A briefsummary of the most importantstructural patterns found in Hamlet appearsas an appendixto the author'sDramatic Structure: The Shapingof Experience(Berkeley, I970).

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions I i8 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY his death.However, since formalpatterns in music are perforcemore obvious and betterunderstood than in the representationalarts, the musical analogy is intendedto suggestthe subtleformal possibilities and meaningsavailable to thecreator of dramaticworks.3 To see more clearlythe accomplishmentof Hamlet and particularlythe special effectof the stabbingof Polonius, it will be helpfulto look at the generalpattern of the revengeformula which, as PercySimpson said, had as itsgreatest glory that it contributedHamlet to theEnglish drama.4 The natural arrangementof thispopular Elizabethan plot gives us: (i) the discoveryor re- ceivingof thewrong which must be revenged;(2) the struggleto consummate thisrevenge-usually, for obvious dramaticpurposes, not a simpletask and a task thatinvolves the dangerthat the herohimself may be killedbefore his in- tended victim; (3) the final satisfactionof hero-and audience-in a successfulrevenge.5 The basic patternmay be considerablyvaried fromplay to play. In The Spanish Tragedy Kyd passed the torch of revenge from the ghost, Don Andrea, who watches and rages but, of course,cannot act directly,to Ho- ratio; then,when the young man is hanged in the arbor,to his father,Hi- eronimo,who thus discovershis wrong and becomesthe true revengerafter about one-thirdof the play has passed. In the later The Revenger'sTragedy, Vindici, smartingfrom the wrong done his mistressby the old and lech- erous Duke, swears his revengein the veryfirst lines of the play while the decadentroyal family passes acrossthe stage.Revenge upon the Duke is com- pleted in the thirdact, but Tourneurextended the totalexpiation of evil for two more acts until the whole debauched familyis wiped out and honest Antoniotakes the throne. The characteristicsof the revengepattern are quite propitiousfor drama. The firstaction of sensingthe troubleand discoveringits cause makes foran excellentfirst unit-conventionally "Act I" although no absolute law says that the dramaticstructure must be so divided.This allows an authorto in- troduce suspense from the very beginning: there is somethingunnatural; what is it? The resolutionof the firstgeneralized suspicion in the discovery of the cause allows a minor firstclimax which leads to the more concen- tratedstruggle with that evil which will take up the centralsection of the play. This discoveryof wrong representsthe essence of the dramaticstroke, for the revenger,once assaultedby the knowledgeof the injurydone him, moves into a period of intensetemporality. Time cannot be turnedback- the hero cannot unlearnwhat he now knows and his only course is to set things right. ("The time is out of joint, 0 cursed spite,/Thatever I was born to set it right!" [I. v. I88-89].)6 Considerableemotional imbalance

3 Anotherexample of the use of musical analogies in Shakespearecriticism occurs in A. P. Rossiter'sdivision of RichardIII into five symphonicmovements. See the titularessay in Angel withHorns and OtherShakespeare Lectures (New York, i96i), pp. 7-9. 4Percy Simpson,"The Theme of Revengein ElizabethanDrama," in Studiesin Elizabethan Drama (Oxford,I955), p. I78. 5 Compare the briefsummary of eventspresumed for Kyd's Hamlet in FredsonT. Bowers, ElizabethanRevenge Tragedy (Gloucester, Mass., I959), p. 269. 6 All referencesto Hamlet are to The New ShakespeareEdition, ed. John Dover Wilson (Cambridge,i968).

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SHAKESPEARE'S "DECEPTIVE CADENCE" 119 is introducedhere, the wound smarts,and each view of the guilty un- punished tormentsthe hero. The plunge into the state of this painfully heavy knowledgemay be sudden as it is essentiallywith Hieronimo,or it may but focus what was already felt as a general malaise. In any case, a goal is introducedand, as it were,a clockis thrustin thehero's face. The second period is one of strugglewhich, in the ideal revenge,should be single minded and swiftbut usually, like the actual experiencesit re- flects,shows a patternof frustrations,delays, and regrets.The forcewhich can so deeplyand morallyinjure cannotbe easy to defeat.A shot or stab in the back is entirelyinappropriate. The opponentsmust go the full course in this contest,the lengthand heat of which will at least partiallybe deter- mined by the proportioningdemands of a balanced over-allstructure. Some- times the antagonistsmust spar in the knowledge of their enmity,some- times the revengermust work by stealth-as, in The Revenger'sTragedy, Vindici employsthe disguise of the pander, Piato. This centralsection of suspenseand surpriseis oftenthe most rewardingpart of the patternto the writerof melodrama,for here is the opportunityfor proliferationof sus- penseful incidents.It was in this section also that the early writer was temptedto ladle in Italianatevillainies. But the aggravationmust not continue too long. The audience's need for a tidypattern and the increasingdesperation with which the protagonists might be expectedto press theirstruggle move us toward the ultimateend of revenge,the killing of the guilty party.7Again the revengeformula is a good provider.The achievementof revenge,almost always in the agree- ably final formof death, offersan excellentdramatic resolution, satisfying both our curiosityas to whetherand how the goal will be achievedand our sense of "poetic justice" in which a desire for balanced form seems inex- tricablymixed with our moral demands. So the poison is swallowed, the blade slidhome; he who killedis killedin return. The revengepattern does not require the death of its agent. Once the guiltyparty has receivedhis fatal due the patternis complete,balance is restored,expectation and whateversuspense was introducedare laid to rest. Thus the revengepattern is not in itselfa tragicpattern. What makes the great Elizabethan revengeplay, like Hamlet, a tragedyis the combination of the two patternsof revengeand tragedywhereby the necessityfor taking vengeancecondemns the hero in takinganother's life to lose his own.8 The tensionof the centralsection of such a tragedyis considerablyheightened throughthe revenger'srealization that that period,now hurrying,now drag- ging, which separateshim from his goal may well be the only remaining

7 In reality,circumstances might prevent an ultimatecollision and allow hot angers to cool as in the patternof contemporarycold war. What combinationof culturalexpectation and lack of "good gestalt"makes this now familiarpattern seem so artisticallyinferior to the Aristotelian structureis outsidethe limitsof the presentessay. However, it is interestingthat classical music, to whichwe have alreadydrawn analogies,demands full closurewhile modernmusic avoids it. 8Eleanor Prosser,in Hamlet and Revenge (Stanford,Calif., i967), has suggestedthe Eliza- bethansand modernsmust take personalrevenge as a morallyrepugnant act, not a sacredduty. Her conclusionsdo not affectthe natureof our basic patternof revenge,but theydo add some weightto the suggestionthat where the tragicpattern is added to the revengepattern the moral distasteand guilt involvedin the requiredmurder give a typicallytragic feeling.

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 120 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY period of his own life. At least part of the delay of Hamlet's revengemust be creditedto the progresshe must make to a full realizationand acceptance of the cost of revenge:to the point where "the readinessis all" (V. ii. 220). It is a measure of the depth of Shakespeare'splay as opposed to modern revengemelodramas that the murderof even as stained a regicideas Clau- dius cannotbe achievedwithout incurring fatal guilt for the hero.9 With the double death-of the wrongdoerand his scourge-the play is effectivelyand doubly ended; full closure is effected.The audience will see now, completein retrospect,the events in which the state of wrong is discovered,guilt is assigned and revenge declared,obstacles and counter- plots are overcome,and, finally,revenge is *broughtabout. Many writers, good and not so good, have recognizedthe potentialof this basic storyform which it is possibleto transformto somethingsuperb or merelyto fill with the hollow mechanicsof melodrama: poison, daggers,dark corridors,and villainousplots. In a few cases, of which Hamlet is certainlyone, the deep human meaning of the patternof eventshas been realized and manifested in an individualplot and language which can show forthhuman experience in itsprofoundest aspects. One of the many ways in which Shakespeareachieved this was through the sophisticatedemotional design of the action,an aspect viewed here pri- marilythrough one sectionof that dramaticdesign which seems to function in the whole the way a deceptivecadence does in a musical composition.By sketchingin very brief and broad strokesthe significantvariations Shake- speare worked upon the old formula,it should be possible to throw the place of this"deceptive cadence" into sharper relief. The play begins on a troublednight in a troubledrealm as Shakespeare took most of the firstact to move fromthe generalill to the specificwrong, accumulatingan almost Greek feeling for the polluted topocosm which Hamlet must purify.The heinous wrong done him throughthe murderof his fatherand seductionof his motheris revealedto Hamlet, accordingto pattern,in Act I. However,Shakespeare so contrivedit that the truthof this revelationmust remainin doubt until the playingout of the murderin the "Gonzago" play. This allowed him to commencethe centralconflict in Act II with a specificand weightywrong on Hamlet's mind but to delay and build the suspense of the head-on conflictbetween Hamlet and Claudius by keeping the nature of Hamlet's evidence of the crime still in question ("The spiritthat I have seen/May be a devil" [II.ii.602-3]). This in turn allows the veryeffective variety in the relationof the two protagonistswhich so intensifiesafter the Mousetrap Scene, saving the play from becoming merelya seriesof melodramaticstrategies and counterstrategieson more or less the same level of involvementwith perhapsonly mountingdesperation to lead towardthe end. Shakespeare'sfamous play-within-a-playhas, of course, a double-edged effectfor it confirmsnot only Hamlet's suspicionsbut those of Claudius as

9In some sense the convergenceof these two Renaissancepatterns of revengeand Christian death recall the forceAristotle remarked in the convergenceof ihe typicallyGreek patternsof discoveryand reversalwhere Oedipus' discoveryof his origin tumbledhim fromking to the mostdespised of subjects(Poetics, XI).

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SHAKESPEARE'S "DECEPTIVE CADENCE" 121 well. As befitsa good antagonist,Claudius is no fool and has doubted all along that the young man is merelylovesick. From now on each is fore- warned of the danger to expect fromthe other,yet neitherhas as yet the perfectinstrument for destroyinghis adversary.Hamlet has his passion aroused but is full of stops-when he comes upon the King at prayer-and starts-when he stabs the figure behind the arras-and has no specific plan. Claudius has a devilishplan but still fearsto harm the Prince in Den- mark. Instead he sends Hamlet away where, outside the royal control, the King's plans miscarry-undoubtedlyinspiring the elaborate reinforce- mentsof his finaltreachery. Thus, in the revengeformula, the wrong has been discovered,the guilt has been assigned and revenge sworn, plots and counterplotshave been tried. The momentum which has accumulated through the Mousetrap Scene could be sustainedin increasinglyserious conflictsuntil its resolution in successfulrevenge. Instead Shakespearechose to write a "deceptive cadence"or falseresolution by brieflysustaining the tensionfrom "now could I drink hot blood" (III. ii. 393) to III. iv where it is dischargedin the rage whichspurts out as thoughthe hoped for revenge were being consummated. In terms merelyof plot the stabbingof Polonius constitutesno vastly unusual device. It is an incidentin which the revengermakes a mistake which thwartshis purpose-in this case by gettinghim hustledoff to Eng- land underguard-and thus extendsthe play and heightensthe suspense.In the tightlyconstructed Hamlet this mistakealso is the cause of the revenger's death-througha son who also revengeshis father-and constitutesas well a mortal sin which Hamlet must expiate. However, somethingmore than plot,as the logical progressof events,is at issue here forthe emotionalshape of these events is importantas well. Some clarificationof Shakespeare's designmay come froma look at the verydifferent structural use of the Closet Scene in thenarrative versions that preceded the play. The two most likely sources for the tale, the versionin the Historica Danica, Books III and IV, by Saxo Grammaticusand Belleforest'sHis- toirestragiques (in turn based on an Italian versionby Matteo Bandello), both consistof a wanderingstory which begins beforeHamlet's birthwith the award of Gertrude (Gerutha) to Hamlet's fatherand continuesfor some time afterHamlet slays his uncle withoutbeing killed himself.10Both versionsare roughlysimilar in essentialsand are certainlyso in the structural place they give to the incidentwe are concernedwith. That is, the uncle (Fengon-Claudius), suspectingthe madness with which the young Prince was attemptingto shield himselfin the obviouslyhostile Court, made two attemptsto discoverthe truthof Hamlet's condition: firstusing the charmsof a young gentlewomanwho, it turnedout, loved Hamlet and did not betrayhis disguise,and secondby placing a spy in a conferencebetween Hamlet and his mother.The "argument"to chapter3 of the Belleforestver-

V' See Dover Wilson, New ShakespeareHamlet, pp. xii-xxiv.The English versionof Belle- forestmay be convenientlyconsulted in the VariorumHamlet, ed. Horace Howard Furness(New York, I965), II, 91-113. Frank S. Hook commentson Belleforest'sHamlet in The FrenchBandello (Columbus,Mo., 1948), p. I8. Sir Israel Gollancz offersboth sourcesand commentaryin The Sourcesol "Hamlet" (London, i967; originallypublished i926).

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 122 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY sion makes this veryclear: "How Fengon, uncle to Hamlet, a second time to intraphim in his politickmadness, caused one of his counsellorsto be secretlyhidden in the Queens chamber."1 Afterthe second failure,fearing the impulsivePrince even more, the uncle hurriedHamlet off to England, presumablyto his death. This pair of incidents,the two traps for Hamlet, has the string-of-beadsfeeling of crude narrativetechnique. The hero moves from one adventure to another without much cumulative-dramatic- change. In the narrativethere is no Mousetrap Scene; Hamlet's suspicion of Claudius needs no confirmation-andconsequent intensification. The killing of the spy appears in the early-middlepart of the patternof eventsand is definitelyoverbalanced by the Prince's extendedadventures in England, to which place he will returnfor furtherimportant actions after he finishesoff his uncle. In Shakespearethe stabbingof the spy-now no longer a name- less courtierbut a particularman intimatelyconnected with Hamlet's court life and, as it develops throughLaertes, with his death-is the beginning of the end. Thus in the narrativethis stabbingand even the brutal dis- membermentwhich Hamlet wreaks on the body count merelyas the de- featof one more trick.There is no indicationthat the Hamlet of the storyis especiallykeyed up to takingrevenge on the King at this particulartime or that in strikingat a hidden figurehe thinks,even for a moment,that he has achieved that goal. Indeed, in both narrativesFengon-Claudius is very carefulto be away at thetime. Thus Shakespearetransmuted his material,using a more-or-lessindiffer- ent narrativeincident as a dramatic crux-importantin the plot as the cause of Laertes' fatal passion for revenge;important morally as part of the burdenof guilt Hamlet carriesas ministerand scourge;'2and importantin the emotionalsweep as a brief,short-circuited, false ending siphoningoff some of the too high tensionin anticipationof the trueending. It is this lat- ter effectas "deceptivecadence" in the emotionalpattern of the play which is the centralissue here and, just as in the musical formto which we have drawn an analogy,the effectwill be most apparentin the "feel" of a performance. The effectof III.iv of course depends upon its relationto the previous scenes,especially III.ii -to which it is a sort of resolution.By Act II the ominousmystery of the battlementshas become a specificthreat in the per- son of Claudius, and the ghostlychill surroundingthe gruffsoldiers de- scendsto the halls of the castlewith the deceitof spyingcourtiers, fools, and women. After a series of confrontationsinvolving only small groups of people,the whole Court is assembledat III. ii.go for the firsttime since the second scene of the play. The King's firstline here ("How faresour cousin Hamlet?") seems an ingenuousattempt to pick up theirrelationship again fromthe time when Claudius had found the Prince too long melancholyon theirlast direct confrontation seven scenes ago (I. ii). At the entranceof the royalspectators the stage probablyholds a greater

11 The VariorumHamlet, II, 97. 12 See FredsonBowers, "Hamlet as Ministerand Scourge,"PMLA, LXX (I955), 740-49.

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SHAKESPEARE'S "DECEPTIVE CADENCE" 123 numberof peoplein moreelaborate costumes and in a moreelaborate set- tingthan it hasbefore or willagain until the final Fencing Scene.13 Using his long open stage,Shakespeare arranged the maximumof movementand soundby bringingon the royalparty with trumpets and kettledrums(Q2) or (as moreelaborately described in Fi) withlords attendant, the Guard carryingtorches, the playing of theDanish March and a flourish.14With this pageantrythey enter the scene-as they symbolicallyenter the trap-al- readyset by Hamlet, Horatio, and the Players. As the stage"audience" settles down, tension is ominouslyincreased by transferringthe main actionto the strange,slightly archaic performance of the "Gonzago"play counterpointed by Hamlet'sironic comments. The un- naturalrestraint is too much.As Lucianuspours the poisonin Gonzago's ear and Hamletadds his pointedfootnote that the murdererwill soon get the love of Gonzago'swife, the King rises,calls forlight, and rushesfrom thehall, involving an amountof timeand stagemovement which the brief linesand stage directions only vaguely suggest. Some senseof thisclimactic moment in performanceis conveyed by Ros- amondGilder's description of JohnGielgud's 1936 production: As theKing loses his self-control,Hamlet snatches the words from thePlayer: "He poisonshim in thegarden. . . . You shallsee anon how themurderer gets the love of Gonzago'swife." The wordsare a bomb thatblows the King to hisfeet. Like a coiledspring released, Hamlet is up thestairs, shouting above the hubbub. "What! frighted with false fire?" He standsin theKing's path, a threateningblack flame. The courtrushes out leftand right,melting before the impact of a battleit cannotun- derstand.Hamlet leaps onto the throne waving the pages of thescript abovehis headand shoutinghis triumphantjingle. The Ghost'swords havebeen confirmed a hundredfold! The guiltycreature has indeedbeen unkenneledand thestrain of monthsand dayshas suddenlysnapped. In an explosionof released tension, Hamlet tears the "dozen or sixteenlines" intoa thousandpieces and scattersthem abroad. Horatio is sentoff to fetchmusic, and Hamletthrows himself back on thethrone, shaken, his breathcoming in gasps, his whole body quivering.1.5 Hamlet exultswith Horatio,scorns the errandboys fromthe disturbed King and Queen,and finallyin a soliloquyreminiscent of MacbethII. i.49- 6i,16declares his readinessto takeblood (thoughresolving not to physically harmhis mother). Scenethree stretches the suspensein thiswitching time of night,which the torches,poetic imagery, and lightingimpress upon us. Fear and guilt suddenlycrystallized by Hamlet'splay impel the King to hastyplans in his secretconferences with his spies,then to the solitaryagony of soul search-

13 Numbersof people on stage will vary, of course, with the plan and resourcesof each producer,but here the festiveoccasion, the presenceof a troopof actors,and the centralplace in theplay itselfseem to demandthe most in theway of "production." 14 The New ShakespeareHamlet, III. ii. 89n. 15 RosamondGilder, JohnGielgud's Hamlet: A Record of Performance(New York, 1937), p. I69. 16 Eleanor Prossercomments on the traditionof calling upon nightto aid revenge(pp. 40, I 8i -83)-

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 124 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY ing and his attemptat prayer.17Hamlet chancesupon the undefendedKing, draws his sword,but abstains fromwhat he feels would be an insufficient revenge and what we know would be a dramaticallyinadequate resolution. Thus the emotion remains high, the suspense stretched,as the scene shiftsto thelong-awaited confrontation in Gertrude'scloset. The stored tensionmust be quickly let out to effectthe kind of "deceptivecadence" we have been concernedwith. Even Polonius is pithyas he directsGertrude to take a hard line with her son. Hamlet calls, Polonius rushesbehind the arras,and Hamlet enters.Mother and son come rightto the point. Gertrude'stwo, weak one-lineaccusations are flungback in sar- castic parody by Hamlet, and this.four-line exchange is followed by four halflines, finished out byHamlet's summary complaint: You are thequeen, your husband's brother's wife, Andwould it were not so, you are my mother. (ILI iv. I5-i6) The rage is too great,the repliesflung in her face too rapid,and the Queen offersto leave. Hamlet, pressingon, would force her down. Her cry for help is taken up by Polonius behind the arras,and Hamlet, now aware of the spy, draws his sword. "How now! a rat? dead, for a ducate, dead" (III. iv.23). The sword thruston this resoundingline (drummingthe re- peated t, d, and at sounds) dischargesthe energylike a lightningflash. The thunderrumbles briefly as the true natureof the deed is discovered,and the terrifiedGertrude is stunned to silence. All is accomplished in only thirty-threelines, and the scene, with almost two hundred more lines to run, is preparednow for an impassionedbut no longer hystericalconfron- tation between motherand son, both of whom, at this point, have a stain of seriousguilt. The anticlimaxon the discoveryof the true victim of Hamlet's rage, far frommerely providing a trickto keep the play going, deepens the patternof human experiencewith the sudden shortcircuiting of energiesand the concomitantrealization that a goal which had seemed within sight is now indefinitelypostponed. Tensions must be built up again, requiringnew beginningsand a new route to reach the cadence which will finallycor- rectlyresolve itself. This new route fromthe false resolutionto the true ending of the play begins as the Prince recoversfrom his abortiveand misdirected"revenge" with the guilt for the murder of Polonius on his shoulders,"I will be- stow him and will answer well/The death I gave him" (III. iv. I76-77),18 and the realizationthat the King who has previouslyonly barelytolerated him must now surelyact to be rid of the dangerousyoung madman. We know there will never be another opportunitylike the one in III. iii for Hamlet to take Claudius unguarded.This is so not just because a real per- son named "Claudius" would not take such a chance (a riskyspeculation

17 Again Macbethechoes the imageryof the bloodyhand and newbornbabe, suggestingthe similarityof the guilt patternstouched on; see MacbethII. ii. 58-62 and I. vii. 2I. The Complete PelicanShakespeare, ed, AlfredHarbage (Baltimore,i969). 18 See Bowers,"Hamlet as Ministerand Scourge,"for the moral implicationshere.

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SHAKESPEARE'S "DECEPTIVE CADENCE" 125 since he reallywasn't aware of how close to death he had been at his pray- ers) but also because the structureof the play now demands a new and fully conscious confrontationbetween these two forces.Neither in terms of the structurenor of the implied needs of the charactersis the time yet ripefor this next major confrontation. In the meantime,before he is hurriedoff to England,Hamlet does achieve one major goal by reachingan understandingwith his mother,a kind of pacificationin which, althoughshe is not turned activelyagainst Claudius, she acknowledgesher degradationand her sin against her son and her firsthusband. This clears the decks of a particularlybothersome psycho- logical problem in anticipationof the final physicalconfrontations of the last act. Four shortscenes at the beginningof Act IV serve as a kind of denoue- mentto the stabbing.They containthe briefhide-and-go-seek with the body of Polonius; the ordering of Hamlet, Rosencrantz,and Guildensternto England; and, finally,Hamlet's view of the passage of Fortinbrasand his army(extremely well placedhere in thisfalse denouement in anticipationof the victoriousreturn of Fortinbrasto cap the real denouement).In the absence of Hamlet, we experiencea kind of dead time when the forcesof evil and confusionseem to work unrestrainedly.Ophelia loses her wits and finally drowns;Laertes storms the palace enragedat the death of his fatherand falls in with the treacherousKing's plot against Hamlet. These evils can be laid directlyor indirectlyto the actions of the absent Prince, whose abortive act of revengehas drawn more-and more sinister-consequencesthan he could have imagined. This low point on the tragiccurve, the momentof absence and despair, the "winterof our discontent,"is reachedin AMacbethat just about the same point.In the absenceof Malcolm and Macduff,the evil whichhas seized Scot- land seems supremeand even crushesthe innocentwife and child Macduff left behind. Our analogy to music suggestsa similar effectwhere, aftera partial conclusionroughly three-quarters of the way througha piece, the composerwill abandon the tonic and its most closely related tones to ex- plore more distant keys before returningto the familiar material with whichhe will make thetrue ending. With Act V, Hamlet, who has sent two more meddling fools to their deaths,returns to Denmark re-enteringthe main action literallyand figura- tively from the grave (V. i. 252), a fact which gives perhaps even more significanceto the "dead time" of his absence.19Here he takes upon himself the resultsof his fatedsituation and his own previousactions, resolving with his own death and the deathsof those who fall by or with him his in- volvementin the murder,treachery, spying, and deceit which has plagued his Court. This actual resolutionhighlights the abortivenature of the false ending. Hamlet at III. ii had never directlyexperienced the King's enmity toward him, though he could certainlyassume his uncle's hostilityand could easily detect the ruler's hand behind the wiles of Polonius, Rosen-

19In the narrativeversions Hamlet appearsin Denmarkon the day of his own, not Ophelia's funeral.

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 126 SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY crantz,and Guildenstern.Such a directconfrontation between Hamlet and Claudius withoutthe mask of civility,therefore, becomes an object of special interestfor the audience,what Francisque Sarcey has called the "obliga- toryscene."20 When this final confrontationdoes take place, it begins by indirection in that Hamlet faces not Claudius but Laertes in what is supposed to be a sportingmatch with bated foils. Shakespeare,however, superbly arranged it so that the wounded Laertes passes offthe guilt onto its true instigator ("the king, the king's to blame" [V. ii 3i81), at which point Hamlet, knowing himselfmortally struck by Claudius' treachery,can face him directly,wound him with the same envenomedfoil, and forcedown his throat the wine which Claudius himselfpoisoned for Hamlet and which has already killed Hamlet's mother.Sarcey's admired Scribe could hardly have done better,yet, of course,Shakespeare managed his design upon the materials and depthsof hightragedy. This should clarifyas far as descriptioncan the structuralplace of what I have been callinga "deceptivecadence" in the stabbingof Polonius.The effectof form is, of course, "formal" and has traditionallydefied an easy translationinto contentor meaning.Yet the experienceof this century of "pure form" has been that the merely formal is merely boring and that in the greatestworks of formalart thereis meaningor at least sugges- tion. Some of the meaningwhich inheresin the patternof revengeand the structureof Hamlet, which is a refinementof it,must now be considered. The revengepattern places an emotionalshape onto time with the irre- versiblediscovery of wrong. This plunge into a period of heightenedten- sion, hastenedtoward a difficultand often distastefulgoal, is surely a familiar experiencefrom many significantsituations whether they literally involve a wrong that we must set rightor simplyany importantassigned task. The tragicresonance of the patterncomes throughthe necessarygoal which is necessarilydestructive. Hamlet is, of course,an unusuallylong play which requires a structureof some complexityto give varietyto the ex- perienceit provokes.21One importantelement of this structure,I have sug- gested,is the "deceptivecadence" in which Shakespearesummons up our excitementthen dashes it down in the false resolutionof III. iv. The effect offersboth the refreshmentof the variety of approach introducedand throughthis felt responsea connectionwith the meaningfulexperience of beginningsand resolutions,accomplishments and failuresin our lives. The patternof experiencebeneath Hamlet has a kind of emotionalshape which may fitcertain experiences not directlyinvolved with the play, allow- ing these analogous experiencesto add their connotationsto the spreading significanceof the work. Consider,for example,the patternof fatal illness: the suspicion,from vague symptomsto the positiveidentification and con- firmationof the disease; the battlewith the illnesswhich now seems to focus and directone's life; and finallythe resolutionof victoryor defeatfor the

20 See William Archer,Play-Making: A Manual of Craftsmanship(New York, i960), pp. 147-69. 21 For an instructivecomparison with a modernlong play considerEugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journeyinto Nightwhich gains its considerableeffect by an unvariedand unrelentingdrive.

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.187 on Fri, 13 Jun 2014 08:01:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions SHAKESPEARE'S "DECEPTIVE CADENCE" 127 organismover its attacker.The parallel may be strengthenedin the particu- lar instanceof the "deceptivecadence" by notingthat betweenthe diagnosis and the death or cure there is very oftena lull of false hopes and partial cures beforethe contagionand the organismmeet in theirdirect and final clash.22 All this has made of Hamlet a play whose tragic rhythmdiffers mark- edly from the narrativesources on which it was based and from other revengeplays. Of course,it is not a matterof indifferencewhat kind of materialsuch a patternis imposed upon, and here the nature of Hamlet as the sentientrevenger offers the meaningfuluse of a patternof eventswhich sees the hero act precipitouslyand out of time only to bear to his finalmore weightyreckoning the guilt and consequencesof his mistake.Finally, this tragic rhythmwhich may be imagined from the text and fully and im- mediatelysensed in the sweep of performance,makes the experienceof the play both satisfyingin itselfand suggestiveof a significantcontour which our own experienceoften assumes.

Universityof Maryland

22 It is interestingto speculatethat the multipleimages of disease which Caroline Spurgeon detectedin thisplay suggestthat Shakespeare himself felt the same analogyof basic pattern;see Shakespeare'sImagery and What It Tells Us (Boston,1958; originallypublished Cambridge, Eng., 1935), p. 316.

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