Dear Daniel,
(Continuing our previous correspondence)
Frequently, Shakespeare will use what I like to think of as "hinge words," where a word with many connotations will act as a sort of poetic connective tissue. Think of "nature," "nothing," or "fool," in
Lear, "honest" in
Othello, "bear / bore / born / bare / etc." in many plays (a tight example runs through the "
To be or not to be" speech), but especially
The Winter's Tale, and so on. I think that these words will often phase in and out of active signification, but their main use is to connect a series of ideas that recur in the play.
A minor example in Hamlet is "matter:"
1. Hamlet. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? 830
And shall I couple hell? Hold, hold, my heart!
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee? 835
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live 840
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter.
2.Gertrude. More matter, with less art.1190
3.Polonius. What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet. Between who?
Polonius. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
4. First Player. 'Anon he finds him,
Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command. Unequal match'd, 1545
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
Th' unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash 1550
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear. For lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' th' air to stick.
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
And, like a neutral to his will and matter, 1555
Did nothing.
5. Claudius. Love? his affections do not that way tend;
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, 1855
Was not like madness.
There's something in his soul
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger; which for to prevent,
I have in quick determination 1860
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England
For the demand of our neglected tribute.
Haply the seas, and countries different,
With variable objects, shall expel
This something-settled matter in his heart, 1865
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
As you can see, "matter" glosses for a few different terms in Hamlet: "substance," "conflict," "being," "significance," and "textual content," as above. My favorite usage of the word, however, opens the Closet Scene:
Hamlet. Now, mother, what's the matter?
This isn't the first time that "matter" has been used in close textual proximity to "mother" (Lat: 'mater'), but it is the one where this quiet pun is best highlighted.
I hope that you are well,
agm