i He may approve our eyes, and speak to it. And let us once again affail your ears, Hor. Well, fit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all, [pole, So nightly toils the fubject of the land? 5 Does not divide the Sunday from the week? Hor. That can I; When yon same star, that's westward from the ro At least the whisper goes so. Our last king, Had made his course to illume that part of heaven The bell then beating one, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look where it Enter Gboft. Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. Whose image even but now appear'd to us, [wonder. 20 Against the which, a moiety competent Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear and Mar. Speak to it, Horatio. [night, Hor. What art thou, that ufurp'st this time of Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of bury'd Denmark (fpeak. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; speak; I charge thee, speak. [Exit Gboft. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. Is not this something more than phantasy? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Mar. Is it not like the king? [hour, Mar. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead But, in the gross and scope 5 of mine opinion, Mar. Good now, fit down, and tell me, he Was gaged by our king; which had return'd 25 His fell to Hamlet: Now, fir, young Fortinbras, Ber. I think, it be no other, but even fo: Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. 45 The graves stood tenantlers, and the sheeted dead Why this same strict and most obfervant watch 55 Unto our climatures and countrymen. j. e. add a new teftimony to that of our eyes. 2 To barrow is to conquer, to fubdue. The 3 He speaks of a prince of Poland whom he flew in battle. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. A fled, or fledge, is a carriage made ufe of in the cold countries. 4 i. e. what particular train of thinking to follow. 5 i. e. general thoughts, and tendency at large. • Carriage is import: defign'd, is formed, drawn up between them. 7 Unimproved, for unrefined. 8 To spark up may mean to pick up without distinction, as the sbarkfish collects his prey. 9 Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for constancy, refolution. tumultuous hurry. Palmy for victorious, flourishing. 12 Difafters is here finely used in its original fignification of evil conjunction of stars. 13 Fierce, for conspicuous, glaring. 14 Omen, for fate. word is of Saxon origin. 10. e. Re-enter But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! Speak to me: 5 If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life A Room of State. II. Enter the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Voltimand, Cornelius, Lords and Attendants. King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's The memory be green; and that it us befitted 10 To be contracted in one brow of woe; Yet so far hath difcretion fought with nature, [Cock crows. 15 The imperial jointress of this warlike state, Speak of it:-stay, and speak.-Stopit, Marcellus. Ber. 'Tis here! Hor. 'Tis here! Mar. 'Tis gone! We do it wrong, being so majestical, For it is, as the air, invulnerable, [Exit Gboft. And our vain blows malicious mockery. Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,- 25 Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death, 30 Loft by his father, with all bands of law, This bird of dawning fingeth all night long: To our most valiant brother.-So much for him. And then, they say, no spirit dares ftir abroad; 40 You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know duty. 45 Farewel; and let your haste commend your duty. 50 And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt. 55 That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of fpirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various places of abode. 2 i. e. got out of its bounds. 3 Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the Common People, informs us, " It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cock-crowing the midnight spirits forsake these lower regions, and go to their proper places." 4 This is a very ancient superstition. 5 No fairy ftrikes with lameness or diseases. 6 The meaning is, He goes to war so indiscreetly, and unprepared, that he has no allies to fupport him but a dream, with which he is colleagued or confederated. or gait is here used in the northern sense, for proceeding, passage. 1 Gate i. e. the articles when dilated. The diffolve. The head is not more native to the heart, Laer. My dread lord, Your leave and favour to return to France; [mark, Yet now, I must confefs, that duty done, But, you must know, your father loft a father; 5 In obstinate condolement", is a course My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France, 10 For what, we know, must be, and is as common And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. King. Have you your father's leave? What And thy best graces spend it at thy will.- As any the most vulgar thing to sense, [Afide. King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? [fun 3.25 Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much i' the Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. [die, Why feems it so particular with thee? [feems. To give those mourning duties to your father: 20 As of a father: for, let the world take note, Manent Hamlet. [Exeunt. Ham. O, that this too too folid flesh would melt, 45 Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! 150 Fie on't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, The fenfe is, The head is not formed to be more useful to the heart, the hand is not more at the fervice of the mouth, than my power is at your father's service. 2 Hanmer observes, It is not unreasonable to suppose that this was a proverbial expression, known in former times for a relation fo confufed and blended, that it was hard to define it. Dr. Johnson afferts kind to be the Teutonick word for child: Hamlet therefore, he adds, answers with propriety, to the titles of cousin and fon, which the king had given him, that he was fomewhat more than coufin, and less than fon. Mr. Steevens says, that a jingle of the fame fort is found in another old play, and feems to have been proverbial, as he has met with it more than once. 3 Mr. Farı per questions whether a quibble between fun and for be not here intended. 4 With lowering eyes, caft-down eyes. 5 That is, Your father loft a father, i. e. your grandfather, which left grandfather Ufo loft his father. 6 Obfequious is here from obfequics or funeral ceremonies. 7 Gundolement, for for vow. & Incorrect, for untutor'd. 9 Nobiliry here soi.e. communicate whatever I can bestow. Rojidve means the fame as means generofity. 12 i, e. that he had not restrained fun ride by bis express law and peremptory prohibition. That That grows to feed; things rank, and gross in na ture, Possess it merely. That it should come to this! By what it fed on: And yet, within a month,- woman! 5 Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king. Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, 15 shall not look upon bis like again. Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Ham. Saw! who? Hor. My lord, the king your father. Hor. Seafon your admiration for a while With an attent ear; 'till I may deliver, Ham. For heaven's love, let me hear. A little month; or ere those shoes were old, O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reafon Would have mourn'd longer,-marry'd with my uncle, My father's brother; but no more like my father, 20 By their opprest and fear-surprized eyes, Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father, Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me 25 And I with them, the third night, kept the watch: 30 Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. 45 Hold you the watch to-night? All. We do, my lord. Ham. From top to toe? 50 All. My lord, from head to foot. 55 In forrow than in anger. Hor. Nay, very pale. Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you? By the Satyr is meant Pan, as by Hyperion, Apollo. Pan and Apollo were brothers, and the allution is to the contention between those gods for the preference in music. 2 i. e. I'll be your fervant, you shall be my friend. 3 It was anciently the general custom to give a cold entertainment to mourners at a funeral. In distant counties this practice is continued among the yeomanry. is moft immediate, confequential, important. 5 Eye is certainly more worthy of Shakspeare. is, temper it. Dearest 6 That Hor. Ham. I would I had been there. Hor. It would have much amaz'd you. Very like: Stay'd it long? Hor. While one with moderate hafte Might tell a hundred. Both. Longer, longer. Hor. Not when I saw it. Ham. His beard was grizzl'd? no? Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, A fable filver'd. Ham. I will watch to-night; Ham. If it affume my noble father's person, All. Our duty to your honour. Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewel. [Exeunt. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt fome foul play: 'would, the night were come! Till then fit still, my foul: Foul deeds will rise (Though all the earth o'erwhelm them) to men's [Exit. Laer. My neceffaries are embark'd; farewel: And, fister, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is assistant, do not fleep, But let me hear from you. Oph. Do you doubt that? His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own; For he himself is subject to his birth: He may not, as unvalued perfons do, Carve for himself; for on his choice depends 5 The safety and the health of the whole ftate; And therefore must his choice be circumfcrib'd Unto the voice and yielding of that body, Whereof he is the head: Then if he fays, he loves you, ro It fits your wisdom so far to believe it, As he in his particular act and place May give his saying deed; which is no further, Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Then weigh what lofs your honour may fustain, 15 If with too credent ear you lift his songs; Or lofe your heart; or your chaste treasure open To his unmaster'd 5 importunity. Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter; And keep you in the rear of your affection, 20 Out of the shot and danger of defire. The charieft maid is prodigal enough, If the unmask her beauty to the moon: Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes: The canker galls the infants of the spring, 25 Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd; And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary then: best safety lies in fear; Youth to itself rebels, though none elfe near. 30 Opb. I shall the effect of this good leffon keep, As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother, Do not, as fome ungracious paftors do, Shew me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whilft, like a puft and reckless libertine, 35 Himfelf the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own read 7. Laer. O, fear me not. I stay too long;-But here my father comes. Enter Polonius. 40 A double blessing is a double grace; Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame; Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, The wind fits in the shoulder of your fail, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lafting, Opb. No more but so? For nature, crescent, does not grow alone In thews 2, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, The inward service of the mind and foul 45 And you are staid for: There, -my blessings with you; [Laying bis band on Laertes' bead. And these few precepts in thy memory Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now; 55 Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, And now no foil, nor cautel 3, doth besmirch The virtue of his will: but, you must fear, Bear it that the oppofer may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: j. e. what is supplied to us for a minute. The idea seems to be taken from the short duration of vegetable perfumes. 2 i. e. in finews, muscular strength. 3 i. e. no fraud, deceit. seems here to comprise both excellence and porver, and may be explained the pure effect. • Chary is cautious. 7 That is, heeds not his own leffons. make thy palm callous by thaking every man by the hand. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promifcuous conversation make thy mind insensible to the difference of characters. 4 Virtue 5 i. e. licentious. The literal sense is, Do not Take |