In "That patient merit of th'unworthy takes", what does merit mean exactly?

Question

In the famous Hamlet's soliloquy, I am not quite clear on the role/meaning of merit in the following:

The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,

My understanding of the line "The spurns that patient merit of th'unworthy takes", is "The insults that a forbearing/diligent person receives from the unworthy". Here I treat 'of' as 'from', but I just conveniently replace 'merit' with 'person'. The word 'merit' as a noun, however, means good quality/virtue, as in: The argument has no merit. The convoluted way I have always made sense of this to myself is to think of it as "the person whose merit is patience". Is that more or less it? If so, please give me some other similar examples from literature if possible. Thank you!

Answer 1

I am glad others find this passage rather incomprehensible.

My tangling with it was to rearrange the syntax: "the spurns that patient merit takes of the unworthy."

If we can understand "of" to be "from" then I think the meaning would fit into the context of the whole, that those who have the merit to be patient will receive insults from the unworthy (the bullies in life)--and who wants to put up with that?

Answer 2

I generally agree with @user105936, but where I disagree is the interpretation that "those who have the merit to be patient will receive insults from the unworthy." Hamlet is a prince, and he will receive spurns from th' unworthy. If he has the merit of patience, then he will take the spurns [with grace].

Sparknotes interprets the passage as:

the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad

Coincidentally, I recently meditated on Hamlet's speech, and my interpretation is that the line you quote is the last item in a list of things that he knows he must endure if he continues to live. He then switches to an examination of suicide and the uncertainties that come with it. Therefore, I believe the lines you quote are best interpreted in a way that describes the most suffering possible, for Hamlet, if Hamlet chooses to live.

Summary: I agree with you that merit means value, and I believe that Hamlet is saying that people who are patient with the spurns of th'unworthy have merit.

Answer 3

Here's a substantial revision of my original answer. After waving my arms in the mirror and reciting for an hour, I'm convinced I'm right. I'd be very interested in any comments.

Merit refers to a person who has won merit, in other words, a man with great accomplishments.

The unworthy thus refers to men who have either no accomplishments or even faults. 'Spurn' is literally 'to kick', so the sentence means "the abuse that men with great accomplishments receive from men with none'

The word 'patient' is crucial here. 'Patient' can be positive, in the sense of 'steadfast' but it also has a sense of 'long-suffering' and this can be quite negative. There is an example of this in Coriolanus:

First Conspirator. Your native town you enter'd like a post,
And had no welcomes home: but he returns,
Splitting the air with noise. 

Second Conspirator. And patient fools, 3880
Whose children he hath slain, their base throats tear
With giving him glory.

I suggest that patient here also has this connotation: long-suffering to no purpose, passive and without spine. It is thus a form of irony; you could put scare quotes around it.

I think that this interpretation is supported by a deliberately ambiguous use of 'take'; this is usually brushed off as 'receive', but here I think it also suggests 'to accept'; in modern English, 'to put up with'.

I think the overall structure here also favors this view: it is the last, and most outrageous, of a list of insults and humiliations ('slings and arrows') that are hard to accept, that Hamlet tells himself he won't accept, and as the most outrageous, and least acceptable, it justifies the action proposed in the very next lines: "When he himself might his quietus make/With a bare bodkin..." Are you going to be a sucker? A fool? (raving) Or be a man and do something?

Anyway, my 2 cents.

Answer 4

Sorry this isn't in verse form, but I'm on my phone, and copy/paste doesn't copy format.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?

I hate old literature, and Shakespeare especially, but I'll give it a go. I have no idea what the passage actually means; this is just an alternate interpretation to chew on.

The line directly after your quote is where the text seems to take a turn, essentially saying, "If all these bad things happen in life, then why...?" Meaning that your quote should just be another item among the list of bad things.

If we look at it that way, then the structure might be rearranged such that patient is a noun (referring to a patient person or all patient people in general), and the corresponding verb is takes. In this assumption, merit means something like deserve, and the unworthy most likely refers to those who aren't worthy of judging "him/them" (the ambiguous subject [patient]).

Consider:

The spurns that patient people take, though they may deserve it, from those who aren't worthy to say such things.

Answer 5

I think "patient merit" is a short way of saying "a person who acts with patient merit" - like a good, diligent student or a person who does his work well or does other good acts over a period of time. If life were fair, that person and his acts of patient merit would get praise and respect and recognition. Instead. that person is treated poorly by (takes the spurns of, is spurned by) people who are not as worthy (not as good, not as hardworking, not as charitable, etc.) as he is.

Answer 6

This is not so complicated. This sentence lists several wrongs done by people to one another. I guess this grievance was put at the end of the list because it was the most poetically awkward phrase and/or it fit the verse structure.

The phrase in question is, "and the spurns that patient merit of th' unworthy takes." "Patient merit" simply means being steadfastly honorable. The phrase alludes to the problem that, if you are committed to a noble life, there will come assholes aiming to take advantage of you and your good morals and run off crying, "Sucker!" In the case of this story, what was filched was his father's life and his kingdom.

Hamlet, in these 13 syllables, describes the hazard of living a principled life.

Answer 7

Would we wait for our everyday tasks which are admittedly undeserving of big rewards to receive praise or notoriety if we could just end our lives with no fear of eternal punishment.

Thanks Kim Kutcher. I want to go to college and take more composition and writing. I truly welcome constructive criticism.

Answer 8

In my view "merit" stands for "meritorious person", a person who has merits. The adjective patient is subject to interpretations.
I would tend to understand it in this way:

• The spurns that a meritorious person takes patiently of/from unworthy people.

Shakespeare substitues the expression "meritorious person" by another word that is near, by "merit", the positive quality such a person has. I guess this kind of metaphor is called metonomy, but I have to verify this term.

Yes, metonomy is the device when a word is replaced by something closely connected with it. http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/metonymy?q=metonymy For example when you say "the Crown" for "the King" or "the White House" for "the President (USA)".

Answer 9

Or you could just read and feel, from the beginning, the quote from "to be or not to be" and feel the author's pain and when you get to the sentence "the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes"... You will automatically feel the sense of the ""looks or thorns thrown at you by innocent quiet bystanders that have no value in your life""... Read it over and over again, and then again, and feel what he is portraying, the value of life and who means what to your value, even when your life is invaluable to you. "the insult or reject of a respected silenced individual, for no means or reason, has no worth or emphasis in your life"... Meaning,... the insults of this usual quiet and respectful person should not be of your concern because they are not impressionable to you because of who you are.""