Enter HORATIO and [a Gentleman].
HORATIO What are they that would speak with me?
GENTLEMAN Sea-faring men, sir. They say they have letters for you.
HORATIO Let them come in.
[Exit Gentleman.]
I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted if not from Lord Hamlet.
Enter Sailors.
SAILOR God bless you, sir.
HORATIO Let Him bless thee too.
SAILOR ’A shall, sir, an please Him. There’s a letter for you, sir – it came from th’ambassador that was bound for England – if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. (4.6.1-11)
In a play not short on abrupt transitions, this is one of the most pleasingly random: after all the high drama of the previous scene, one might expect to be catching up with Hamlet. But no—or not quite—here are some random sailors! Initially Horatio is as confused as the audience may be: what are they that would speak with me? what’s going on, who is it, you say? Sea-faring men, sir, says the obliging, anonymous gentleman, who has somehow found himself carrying a message from random sailors to this minor court hanger-on. Sailors. They say they have letters for you. (The gentleman could be supercilious, dubious, even suspicious.) But Horatio has his own suspicions: let them come in. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted if not from Lord Hamlet. He’s the only person I can think of who’d write to me from the distance that sailors as couriers would suggest! Sailors, plural, it seems—safety in numbers—although only one does the talking. One imagines woolly hats held anxiously in hands, the silent sailor nodding along, offering moral support. The speaking sailor is polite, if not courtly: God bless you, sir, and Horatio is perhaps amused by this colloquial greeting, and he returns it politely: let Him bless thee too. The sailor approves of this: ’a shall, sir, an please him. He will, if it pleases him to do so. But to the point: there’s a letter for you sir—it came from th’ambassador that was bound for England. He means Hamlet, by ambassador, but he seems to be being cautious, perhaps with a little pause, a glance at his companion, before saying it. And then he checks, this is the crucial thing to be ascertained: if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. We’ve got the right man, haven’t we? That’s what we’ve been told. This is a canny sailor, doing as he’s been told, taking care; he knows that something’s afoot.
