Oh, my offence is rank

I attended a Great Lives lecture on Abraham Lincoln delivered by Michael Burlingame at UMW the other night . Like so many others, I am intrigued that Lincoln continues to capture the popular imagination in some pretty powerful and playful ways long after his death. During the lecture I was taken by the fact that Lincoln preferred King Claudius’s soliloquy to Hamlet’s oft-quoted “to be or not to be….” I didn’t really remember Claudius’s soliloquy so I looked it up after the lecture, and it comes in Act III, Scene III at line 37. I’ve reproduced it below.

Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder”?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned and retain th’ offense?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offense’s gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law. But ’tis not so above.
There is no shuffling. There the action lies
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limèd soul that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels. Make assay.
Bow, stubborn knees, and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe.
All may be well. (kneels)

There was some dark shit going on with Lincoln.

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2 Responses to Oh, my offence is rank

  1. Reverend says:

    And the punctuation by Claudius after Hamlet’s own take on the manner:

    [Rising] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
    Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

  2. Paul says:

    I’m sure it’s because I’ve got Bava on the brain, but I saw that line about “bosom black as death” and immediately thought of our friend Asa. There’s a feeling of being trapped that runs throughout the soliloquy that feels very familiar from watching Bava’s films, although his characters generally don’t share Claudius’ feelings of guilt.

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