It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him barefaced on the bier;
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
And on his grave rains many a tear ;—

Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade reve It could not move thus.

Oph. You must sing, A-down a-down, an you call a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it! 1 It is the steward, that stole his master's daughter.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. There's rosemary, 2 that's for remembrance; love, remember: and there is pansies, 3 that 's for thou Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and ren brance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines :- -th rue for you; and here's some for me:-we may c herb-grace o' Sundays:-O, you must wear your

4

1 How the wheel becomes it!] How well the rota or burden song becomes it.

2 Rosemary.] Rosemary was anciently supposed to possess a which strengthened the memory, and it was therefore distribu marriages and funerals. 'The rosemary that was washed in water to set out the bridal, is now wet in tears to furnish her b Dekkar's Wonderful Year. 'Let's dip our rosemaries in on bowl of sack to this brave girl.' Mayne's City Match, v. 1.

3 Pansies.] The word is from the French-pensées, thought 4 Herb-grace.] Ophelia gives the fennel and columbines king-plants respectively denoting lust and ingratitude; the herb of sorrow, she appropriates to the queen and herself, rem that this plant may be worn with a difference, by which she that it may be sometimes used as an emblem of penitential sorr 'Here did she drop a tear; here, in this place,

I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace.' K. Richard II

with a difference. There's a daisy :-I would give you some violets; but they withered all when my father died :-They say he made a good end,

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,

Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself
She turns to favour and to prettiness.

Oph. And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard as white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll:
He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan:
Gramercy on his soul!

1

And of all christian souls, I pray God.-God be wi' you!

Laer. Do you see this, O God?

[Exit OPHELIA.

King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,

Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,

To you in satisfaction; but if not,

Be

you

content to lend your patience to us, And we shall jointly labour with your soul To give it due content.

1 Gramercy.] The second quarto has God 'a mercy. The word gramercy (Fr. grand merci), means thanks, and is here used with an impropriety not uncommon in old ballads.

His means of death, his obscure burial-
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,-

Cry to be heard, as 't were from heaven to earth,
That I must call 't in question.

King.

So you shall;

And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall.

I pray you, go with me.

[E

SCENE VI.-Another Room in the same.

Enter HORATIO, and a Servant.

Hor. What are they that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, sir; they say they have letters for y Hor. Let them come in.

I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

1 Sail. God bless you, sir!

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

[Exit Se

1 Sail. He shall, sir, an 't please him. There's a for you, sir,-it comes from the ambassador that bound for England,—if your name be Horatio, as I a to know it is.

Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked the these fellows some means to the king; they have letters for him we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appoi gave us chace: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we pu compelled valour; in the grapple I boarded them: on the i they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew wh did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the

have sent; and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear, will make hee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and uildenstern hold their course for England; of them I have much o tell thee. Farewell. He that thou knowest thine,

HAMLET.

Come, I will give you way for these your letters;
And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.

SCENE VII.-Another Room in the same.

Enter KING and LAERTES.

[Exeunt.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, nd you must put me in your heart for friend; ith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, !hat he which hath your noble father slain, 'ursued my life.

Laer.
It well appears:-But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
o crimeful and so capital in nature,

s by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
ou mainly were stirred up.

King.

O, for two special reasons;

Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinewed,
and yet to me they are strong. The queen, his mother,
ives almost by his looks; and for myself,

My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,)
he's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
hat, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,

s the great love the general gender 1 bear him:

The general gender.] The common people.

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,

Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aimed them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms,—
Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections :— -But my revenge

will come.

King. Break not your sleeps for that you mu

think

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,

That we can let our beard be shook with danger,
And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more
I loved your father, and we love ourself;

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,—

How now! what news?

Mess.

Enter a Messenger.

Letters, my lord, from Hamlet

;

This to your majesty; this to the queen.

King. From Hamlet! Who brought them?
Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not
They were given to me by Claudio, he received then
King. Laertes, you shall hear them :-Leave us.

[Exit Mess

[Reads.] High and mighty, You shall know, I am set n your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your king when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the sions of my sudden and more strange return. HAM

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back
Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
Laer. Know you the hand?