top of my compass: and there is much music, excelle voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speal 'S blood,' do you think that I am easier to be played o than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, thoug you can fret me,2 you cannot play upon me.

God bless you, sir!

Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, an presently.

Ham. Do you see that cloud, that's almost in shap like a camel?

Pol. By the mass, and 't is like a camel, indeed.
Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel.

Pol. It is backed like a weasel.

Ham. Or like a whale?

Pol. Very like a whale.

Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by.3-[Aside. They fool me to the top of my bent.-I will come by and by

'S blood.] In the middle ages originated those awful oaths b the blood, life, wounds, death, body, foot, &c., of the Redeeme which afterwards became so profanely familiar in the forms-zound or's wounds (God's wounds), 's death, 's foot, &c. Chaucer, in th

Pardoner's Tale, says―

It is grisly for to hear them swear;

Our blissful Lordes body they to-tear.'

2 Fret me.] To fret means to irritate; it also means to furnis guitars, &c., with frets, or little ridges that cross the finger-boar under the strings and mark the stops. Our dramatist, no doub here intended a quibble. 'Rhetoric and eloquence (as Plato saith is an art which quickeneth men's spirits at her pleasure; and h chiefest skill is to know how to move passions and affections th roughly, which are as stops and sounds of the soul, that would played upon with a fine-fingered hand of a cunning master,' North Plutarch, Pericles.

3 By and by.] Immediately.

Pol. I will say so.

[Exit POL.

Ham. By and by is easily said.-Leave me, friends. [Exeunt Ros., GUIL., HOR., &c.

is now the very witching time of night;

Then churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out ontagion to this world: Now could I drink hot blood, nd do such bitter business as the day

ould quake to look on.

Soft! now to my mother.

heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever he soul of Nero 1 enter this firm bosom : et me be cruel, not unnatural :

will speak daggers to her, but use none;
y tongue and soul in this be hypocrites,-
ow in my words soever she be shent,2

3

O give them seals 3 never, my soul, consent!

[Exit.

SCENE III.-A Room in the same.

Enter KING, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with us
let his madness range. Therefore, prepare you;
our commission will forthwith despatch,
ad he to England shall along with you:

e terms of our estate may not endure
zard so dangerous as doth hourly grow
t of his lunacies.

The soul of Nero.] Nero ordered his mother Agrippina to be n. Agrippina, after the death of her husband Domitius, had rried the emperor Claudius her uncle; and this circumstance, haps, suggested the name for Hamlet's uncle.

Shent.] Hurt.

Give them seals.] Confirm, fulfil, or make good the words.

Guil.

We will ourselves provide: 1

Most holy and religious fear it is,

To keep those many many bodies safe,
That live and feed upon your majesty.

Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
What 's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,
Fixed on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortised and adjoined; which, when it alls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,

Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,

Which now goes too free-footed.

Ros., Guil.

We will haste us. [Ex. Ros. and Gu

Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. My lord, he 's going to his mother's closet: Behind the arras I 'll convey myself,

To hear the process; I'll warrant she 'll tax him home. And, as you said, and wisely was it said,

'T is meet that some more audience than a mother, Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear The speech of vantage.2 Fare you well, my liege:

1 Ourselves provide.] Prepare ourselves.
2 Of vantage.] With advantage.

F

'll call upon you ere you go to bed, nd tell you what I know.

King.

Thanks, dear my lord. [Exit POL.

•, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
brother's murder!-Pray can I not;
'hough inclination be as sharp as will,
ly stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
nd, like a man to double business bound,
stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Vere thicker than itself with brother's blood,-
there not rain enough in the sweet heavens,
Co wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy,
But to confront the visage of offence?

nd what 's in prayer but this two-fold force,To be forestalled ere we come to fall,

Or pardoned being down? Then I'll look up;
Hy fault is past. But, O, 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 the offence?
n the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
And oft 't is seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: But 't is not so above:
There is no shuffling, there the action lies

n his true nature; and we ourselves compelled,
Cven to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: What can it not?
et what can it, when one can not repent!

O wretched state! O bosom black as death!

O limed soul, that struggling to be free

Art more engaged! Help, angels! make assay; 1

Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe !

All

may be well!

[Retires, and kne

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is 2 praying;
And now I'll do 't:—and so he goes to heaven:
And so am I revenged? That would be scanned: 3
A villain kills my father; and, for that,

I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.

O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven !
But in our circumstance 5 and course of thought
"T is heavy with him: And am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
No.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage;

1 Make assay.] Make trial: Claudius says this to himself. 2 Now he is.] Now that, or while, he is.

3 That would be scanned.] That wants to be considered. use of the verb would occurs in the quotation in Note 2, p. 95, was formerly very common. It is frequent in Bacon's writings. 4 Grossly, &c.] In the midst of worldly indulgence, unpurified fasting and humiliation.

5 Circumstance.] Circumstance of thought seems to mean jecture.