Weeping for Hecuba

“Stand and unfold yourself,” the sentinel commands the cloaked figure approaching on the bitterly cold battlements. ¹ The same might have been commanded of Hamlet when he first enters at the court nuptials, inappropriately dressed in a dark cloak. ² He, too, appears to be concealing something. But what Hamlet conceals cannot, like a hidden weapon, be brandished: “I have that within which passes show” (1.1.85). The grief he bears cannot be externalized because it is in excess of all customary “forms, moods, shapes” (1.1.82). Instead it must remain fast within: “Break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (1.1.159), inaccessible to the prying Gertrude and Claudius as well as to generations of querying critics. And yet there is a scene in which Hamlet does give vent to his grief, not only openly but flamboyantly. He not only speaks, he overspeaks; even the deferential Horatio bids him “be quiet” (5.1.260). He not only acts, he overacts; his mother apologizes for his intemperance, and so later will he.