HAMLET                     Rebellious hell,

If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax

And melt in her own fire; proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,

Since frost itself as actively doth burn

And reason pardons will.

GERTRUDE                O Hamlet, speak no more.

Thou turn’st my very eyes into my soul

And there I see such black and grained spots

As will leave there their tinct.          (3.4.80-89)

Hamlet imagines Gertrude as possessed by lust, her actions and apparent desire as devilish: rebellious hell, if thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones—if even women of a certain age can act in such a way, well, to flaming youth let virtue be as wax and melt in her own fire. With this sort of example, if this is the sort of thing the middle-aged are getting up to, then young people will be having an absolute free for all, giving full rein to every one of their lustful impulses. (And there’s a prurient erotic charge in his evocation of heat, melting, liquescence.) Proclaim no shame when the compulsive ardour gives the charge—no one will need to hold back, no need to feel ashamed of giving in to your instincts, it’s just scratching an itch! Go for it! Everyone! After all, frost itself as actively doth burn and reason pardons will. Gertrude should be frosted with age, cold and dry, but she’s the very opposite, burning bright with desire and desire satisfied—and she’ll find any old excuse to justify it. Unapologetic! Shameless!

Finally, it seems, Hamlet needs to draw breath—and what he’s been saying has, it seems, struck home for Gertrude. O Hamlet, speak no more, alas, not in the sense of shut up, but rather, you’ve said enough, I can’t bear this any longer. Thou turn’st my very eyes into my soul—you’ve confronted me with what I truly am, what I’ve become—and there I see such black and grained spots as will leave there their tinct. I look at myself and I see something dirty, stained, polluted. The sort of stains that can’t be washed away, indelible, a mark of sin and shame. (Grained—which is the F reading, Q2 has grieved—is the term used for something dyed in grain, where the dye has really got into the fibres of the fabric and won’t fade…)