In the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “extravagant” (adjective) has six definitions. According to the Oxford Pocket Dictionary, the current definition of “extravagant,” or what it has come to mean, is “lacking restraint in spending money or using resources” or “costing too much money.” However, the word “extravagant” that we know now originated from a different meaning. The word has been in use since the beginning of the Seventeenth Century and is recorded as being used in works by famous writers like Shakespeare and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Its definition was originally: “that wanders out of bounds; straying, roaming, vagrant” (OED).
The word “extravagant” shows up only once in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It can be found in Act 1, Scene 1, Line 154 (page 660 in Norton Anthology III Volume C). In the Norton Anthology, the word has a footnote that says: “wandering out of its confines,” which is similar to the aforementioned definition from the Oxford English Dictionary.
The passage in which the word is found is a short speech spoken by Horatio. It is interesting that Horatio uses this word in particular, and that this is the only line in the whole play in which the line is used, because of Horatio’s background as a character. In doing some research about Horatio, I found that his origins are largely unknown, almost as if Horatio himself is “out of his confines” in the play.
Additionally, this short speech follows the first entrance and exit of “Ghost.” Horatio pleads with the Ghost, asking the Ghost to tell them about what the future holds for the country. The Ghost, somewhat like Horatio, also seems to be “extravagant” in the sense that the Ghost is roaming and somewhat out of its confines, or out of place among the living. In fact, this is exactly how Horatio uses the word. He describes the Ghost or “spirit” as extravagant, saying: “I have heard the cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat awake the god of day, and at his warning, whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, the extravagant and erring spirit hies this present object made probation” (Lines 149-156). Horatio seems to be saying that the Ghost is out of place when the morning comes, or that the Ghost is most fitting in the dark of night.
The meaning of the word “extravagant” and its usage towards the beginning of Hamlet is important because it sets up the character of the Ghost. It creates a sort of mystery around the Ghost right from the Ghost’s very first appearance in the play. The uses of “extravagant” (meaning “out of place”) lets readers know that they should pay attention the Ghost, because the Ghost is “out of its confines,” or striking, and, in a way, conspicuous in its initial mystery.
In Othello, the title character–who comes from North Africa and has traveled many places–is described as “an extravagant and wheeling stranger.” I have always loved that phrase, and the use of “extravagant” to describe a kind of *geographical* or spatial excess, an out-of-place-ness.