5

[Scattering flowers.
Ihop'd, thou should'st have beenmy Hamlet'swife;
I thought thybride-bed to havedeck'd,sweetmaid, 10
And not have strew'd thy grave.

Laer. O, treble woe

Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Depriv'd thee of!-Hold off the earth a while,
'Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
[Laertes leaps into the grave.
Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead;
"Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
To over-top old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

Ham. [advancing.] What is he, whose grief
Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
Conjures thewand'ring stars, and makes them stand
Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I,
[Hamlet leaps into the grave.

Hamlet the Dane.
Laer. The devil take thy soul!

[Grappling with him. Ham. Thou pray'st not well.

I pr'ythee take thy fingers from my throat;
For though I am not splenetive and rash,
Yet have I in me something dangerous,

Which let thy wisdom fear: Hold off thy hand.
King. Pluck them asunder.

Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet!

All. Gentlemen,—

Hor. Good my lord, be quiet.

[The Attendants part them.

Ham. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love

Make up my sum.-What wilt thou do for her?
King. O, he is mad, Laertes.

Queen. For love of God, forbear him.

Ham. Shew me what thou 'lt do:

Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?

Woo't drink up Esil!? eat a crocodile?

I'll do't.- Dost thou come here to whine?
To out-face me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
And, if thou prate of mountains, let the throw
Millions of acres on us; 'till our ground,
15 Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou 'It mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

Queen. This is mere madness:

And thus a while the fit will work on him:
20 Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclos'd2,
His silence will sit drooping.

Ham. Hear you, sir;

What is the reason that you use me thus?
25I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

30

[Exit.
King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon
him.-
[Exit Hor.
Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;
[To Laertes.

We'll put the matter to the present push.—
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.-
35 This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;

Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this 40

Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.

A Hall in the Palace.
Enter Hamlet and Horatio.
Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see
the other;-

'Mr. Theobald comments on this passage thus: "This word has through all the editions been distinguished by Italic characters, as if it were the proper name of some river; and so, I dare say, all the editors have from time to time understood it to be. But then this must be some river in Denmark; and there is none there so called; nor is there any near it in name, that I know of, but Yssel, from which the province of Overyssel derives its title in the German Flanders. Besides, Hamlet is not proposing any impossibilities to Laertes, as the drinking up a river would be: but he rather seems to mean, wilt thou resolve to do things the most shocking and distast.ul to human nature? and, behold, I am as resolute. The poet wrote: Wilt drink up Eisel! eat a crocodile? i. e. wilt thou swallow down large draughts of vinegar? The proposition, indeed, is not very grand; but the doing it might be as distasteful and unsavoury, as eating the flesh of a crocodile.”—Ön this comment Mr. Steevens remarks as follows: "Hamlet certainly meant (for he says he will rant) to dare Laertes to attempt any thing, however difficult or unnatural; and might safely promise to follow the example his antago nist was to set, in draining the channel of a river, or trying his teeth on an animal whose scales are supposed to be impenetrable. Had Shakspeare meant to make Hamlet say-Wilt thou drink vinegar? he probably would not have used the term drink up; which means totally to exhaust; neither is that challenge very magnificent, which only provokes an adversary to hazard a fit of the heart-burn or the cholic. The commentator's Yssel would serve Hamlet's turn or mine. In an old Latin account of Denmark and the neighbouring provinces I find the names of several rivers little differing from Esil, or Elsill, in spelling or pronunciation. Such are the Essa, the Esil, and some others." 2 Mr. Steevens says, to disclose was anciently used for to hatch. To exclude is the technical term at present. During three days after the pigeon has hatched her couplets, (for she lays no more than two eggs,) she never quits her nest, except for a few moments in quest of a little food for herself; as all her young require in that early state, is to be kept warm, an office which she never entrusts to the male.

You do remember all the circumstance?
Hor. Remember it, my lord!

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of
fighting,

That would not let me sleep; methought, I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes'. Rashly,
And prais'd be rashness for it-Let us know,
Our indiscretion sometime serves us well,
When our deep plots do fail: and that should

teach us,

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will2.
Hor. That is most certain.

Ham. Up from my cabin,

My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire;
Finger'd their packet; and, in fine, withdrew
To mine own room again: making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unseal

5

Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair:
I once did hold it, as our statists' do,

A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service: Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote ?

Hor. Ay, good my lord.

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,— As England was his faithful tributary;

[rish, 10 As love between them like the palm might flouAs peace should still her wheaten garland wear, And stand a comma 'tween their amities; And many such-like as's of great charge,That on the view and knowing of these contents, 15 Without debatement further, more, or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allow’d.

Hor. How was this seal'd?

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant;

Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio, 20 I had my father's signet in my purse,

3

A royal knavery; an exact command,-
Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,-
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated“,
No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.

Hor. Is't possible?

Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more

1

25

30

Which was the model of that Danish seal:
Folded the writ up in form of the other; [safely;
Subscrib'd it; gave 't the impression; plac'd it
The changeling never known: Now, the next
day

Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this
employment;

They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Doth by their own insinuation 10 grow :

'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensed points
35 Of mighty opposites.

Mutines, the French word for seditious or disobedient fellows in an army or fleet: Bilboes, the ship's prison. Mr. Steevens adds, that "the bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where instruments of steel were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand Shakspeare's allusion completely, it should be known, that as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very close together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep. Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement." Dr. Johnson comments on this passage thus: Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with saying, That he rashly---and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rashly---praised be rashness for it---Let us not think these events casual; but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we sometimes succeed by indiscretion, when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual superintendance and agency of the Divinity. The observation is just, and will be allowed by every human being who shall reflect on the course of his own life." A bug was no less a terrific being than a goblin. We call it at present a bugbear. 4 Bated, for allowed.To abate signifies to deduct; this deduction, when applied to the person in whose favour it is made, is called an allowance: Hence our author takes the liberty of using bated for allowed. ' Dr. Johnson explains the following lines thus: "Hamlet is telling how luckily every thing fell out; he groped out their commission in the dark without waking them; he found himself doomed to immediate destruction. Something was to be done for his preservation. An expedient occurred, not produced by the comparison of one method with another, or by a regular deduction of consequences, but before he could make a prologue to his brains, they had begun the play: Before he could summon his faculties, and propose to himself what should be done, a complete scheme of action presented itself to him: His mind operated before he had excited it." A statist is a statesman. 'í. e. did me eminent service. Dr. Johnson explains this expression thus: "The comma is the note of connection and continuity of sentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction. Shakspeare had it perhaps in his mind to write That unless England complied with the mandate, war should put a period to their amity; he altered his mode of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, that Peace should stand a comma between their amities."-This (he adds) is not an easy style; but is it not the style of Shakspeare?" ? A changeling is a child which the fairies are supposed to leave in the room of that which they steal. 10 Insinuation, for corruptly obtruding themselves into his service.

8

Har.

Hor. Why, what a king is this!

Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon?

[ther; He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my moPopt in between the election and my hopes; 5 Thrown out his angle for my proper life, [science, And with such cozenage; is't not perfect conTo quit him with this arm; and is 't not to be damn'd,

To let this canker of our nature come
In further evil?

[England, Hor. It must be shortly known to him from What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine;
And a man's life's no more than to say, one.
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For, by the image of my cause, I see
The portraiture of his: I'll count his favours 2:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.

Hor. Peace; who comes here?
Enter Osrick.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to
Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know
this water-fly3?

Hor. No, my good lord.

great wager on your head: Sir, this is the matter, Ham. I beseech you, remember

[Hamlet moves him to put on his hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good faith.-Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society, and great shewing: Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry; for you 10 shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see'.

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;-though, I know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetic of memory; and 15 yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sail'. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirrour; and, who else 20 would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

25

Ham. Thy state is the more gracious: for 'tis a vice to know him: He hath much land, and fer-30 tile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess: 'Tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his ma-33 jesty.

Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit: Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.

Osr. I thank your lordship, 'tis very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.

Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. Ham. But yet, methinks, it is very sultry and hot; or my complexion

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, as 'twere,-I cannot tell how.-My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap
the gentleman in our more rawer breath?
Osr. Sir?

Hor. Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do 't, sir, really.

Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman?

Osr. Of Laertes?

Hor. His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know, you are not ignorant

Ham. I would, you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me:-Well, sir. Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is.

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man 40 well, were to know himself.

45

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed " he's unfellow'd.

Ham. What's his weapon?

Osr. Rapier and dagger.

Hum. That's two of his weapons: but, well.

Osr. The king, sir, hath wager'd with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has impon'd12,

4

* A kind of jackdaw i. e. the general preceptor of calendar by which he is to choose i.e. You shall find him containcontemplate for imitation.

Dr.

1 i. ė. to requite him; to pay him his due. 2 Or, I will make account of them, i. e. reckon upon them, value them. A water-fly skips up and down upon the surface of the water, without any ap parent purpose or reason, and is thence the proper emblem of a busy trifler. peculiar to Cornwall. i. e. full of distinguishing excellencies. elegance; the card by which a gentleman is to direct his course; the his time, that what he does may be both excellent and seasonable. ang and comprising every quality which a gentleman would desire to Warburton says, this is designed as a specimen and ridicule of the court-jargon amongst the précieux of that time. The sense in English is, "Sir, he suffers nothing in your account of him, though to enumerate his good qualities particularly would be endless; yet when we had done our best, it would still come short of him. However, in strictness of truth, he is a great genius, and of a character so rarely to be met with, that to find any thing like him we must look into his mirrour, and his imitators will appear no more than his shadows." * Raw signifies unripe, immature; thence unformed, imperfect, unskilful.-The best account of him would be imperfect, in respect of his quick sail. The phrase quick sail was, I suppose, a proverbial term for activity of mind. 10 To approve, is to recommend to approbation. "1. e. in his excellence. 12 Dr. Johnson conjectures that imponed is pledged, impawned, so spelt to ridicule the affectation of uttering English words with French pronunciation.

as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

Ham. What call you the carriages?

Hor. I knew, you must be edified by the margent', ere you had done.

5

10

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more germane 2 to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides: I would, it might be hangers 'till then. But, on: Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages; that's the French bett against the Da-15 nish: Why is this impon'd, as you call it?

Osr. The king, sir, hath lay'd, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits: he hath lay'd on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, it 20 your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

Ham. How if I answer, no?

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: If it 25 please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me; let the foils be brought: the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I deliver you so?

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Enter a Lord.

Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osrick, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: he sends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

Hum. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all, are coming down.

Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are 30 not fit.

Osr. I commend mydutyto your lordship. [Exit. Ham. Yours, yours.-He does well, to com-33 mend it himself; there are no tongues else for 's

If

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is
a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.
t be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come,
It will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
the readiness is all: Since no man knows aught
of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes"?
Let be.

Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osrick, and
Attendants with foils, &c.

King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand
from me.

[The King puts the hand of Laertes into that

of Hamlet.

Dr. Warburton very properly observes, that in the old books the gloss or comment was usually printed on the margent of the leaf. 2 More a-kin. The meaning, Mr. Steevens believes, is-This is a forward fellow. * The meaning is, "These men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carries them through the most select and approved judgements. This airy facility of talk sometimes imposes upon wise men." i. e. These men of show, without solidity, are like bubbles raised from soap and water, which dance, and glitter, and please the eye, but if you extend them, by blowing hard, separate into a mist: so if you oblige these specious talkers to extend their compass of conversation, they at once discover the tenuity of their intellects. i. e. mild and temperate conversation. ' Hamlet means to say, I shall succeed with the advantage which I am allowed, I shall make more than nine hits for Laertes' twelve. Gain-giving is the same as mis-giving.

9

8

6

? Dr. Johnson comments on this passage thus: "Since no man knows aught of the state of life which he leaves, since he canot judge what other years may produce, why should he be afraid of leaving life betimes? Why should he dread an early death, of which he cannot tell whether it is an exclusion of happiness, or an interception of calamity? I despise the superstition of augury and omens, which has no ground in reason or piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction of Providence."

How

Laer. Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. Ham. How does the queen?

King. She swoons to see them bleed.

50 Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink,—0 my dear Hamlet!

2 An union is the finest sort of pearl, and has its place in all 3 Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the king may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet seems to suspect this, when he afterwards discovers the effects of the poison, and tauntingly asks him,—Is the union here? ↑ A wanton was a man feeble and effeminate.