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He may approve our eyes, and speak to it.
Hor. Tush! tush: 'twill not appear.
Ber. Sit down a while:

And let us once again affail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.

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?
And why fuch daily caft of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war?
Why fuch impress of ship-wrights, whose fore task

5 Does not divide the Sunday from the week?
What might be toward, that this sweaty hafte
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is't, that can inform me?

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
Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,

The bell then beating one,

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look where it
comes again!

Enter Gboft.

Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Ho-
ratio.

Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which, our valiant Hamlet
15 (For so this fide of our known world esteem'd him)
Did flay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratify'd by law, and heraldry,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror:

[wonder. 20 Against the which, a moiety competent

Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear and
Ber. It would be spoke to.

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.
Did sometime march? By heaven I charge thee,
Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See! it stalks away.

Hor. Stay; speak; I charge thee, speak.

[Exit Gboft.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and
look pale:

Is not this something more than phantasy?
What think you of it?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,
Without the sensible and true avcuch
Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the king?
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the fledded Polack 3 on the ice.
'Tis strange.

[hour,

Mar. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead
With martial stalk he hath gone by our watch.
Hor. In what particular thought to work, I
know not;

But, in the gross and scope 5 of mine opinion,
This bodes fome strange eruption to our state.

Mar. Good now, fit down, and tell me, he
that knows,

Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquisher; as, by that covenant,
And carriage of the articles design'd,

25 His fell to Hamlet: Now, fir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved 7 mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprize
30 That hath a stomach 9 in't; which is no other
(As it doth well appear unto our state)
But to recover of us, by strong hand,
And terms compulfatory, those forefaid lands
So by his father loft: And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The fource of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this poft-hafte and romage 10 in the land.

Ber. I think, it be no other, but even fo:
Well may it fort, that this portentous figure
40 Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was, and is the question of these wars.

Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

45 The graves stood tenantlers, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;
Stars shone with trains of fire; dews of blood fell;
Disafters 12 veil'd the fun; and the moift star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
50 Was fick almost to dooms-day with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce 13 events,-
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen 14 coming on,-
Have heaven and earth together demonftrated

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

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But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illufion!
If thou hast any found, or use of voice,

Speak to me:

5

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, haply, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

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
death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

10 To be contracted in one brow of woe;

Yet so far hath difcretion fought with nature,
That we with wifeft forrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our fometime sister, now our queen,

[Cock crows. 15 The imperial jointress of this warlike state,

Speak of it:-stay, and speak.-Stopit, Marcellus.
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber. 'Tis here!

Hor. 'Tis here!

Mar. 'Tis gone!

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the shew of violence;

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.
Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-founding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air 1,
The extravagant 2 and erring spirit hies
To his confine 3: and of the truth herein

Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,-
With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,-
20 Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along:---For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,--
Holding a weak supposal of our worth;

25 Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,---
Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message
Importing the surrender of those lands

30 Loft by his father, with all bands of law,

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This bird of dawning fingeth all night long:

To our most valiant brother.-So much for him.
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting:
Thus much the business is: We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
35 Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress
His further gait 7 herein; in that the levies,
The lifts, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his fubject:-and we here dispatch

And then, they say, no spirit dares ftir abroad; 40 You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,

For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles & allows.

The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes 5, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have feen to-night
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning

know

duty.

45 Farewel; and let your haste commend your duty.
Vol. In that and all things will we shew our
King. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewel.
[Exeunt Voltimand, and Cornelius.

50 And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some fuit; What is't, Laertes ?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And lose your voice: What would'st thou beg.
Laertes,

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,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What would'st thou have, Laertes?

Laer. My dread lord,

Your leave and favour to return to France; [mark,
From whence though willingly I came to Den-
To thew my duty in your coronation;

Yet now, I must confefs, that duty done,

But, you must know, your father loft a father;
That father loft, loft his 5; and the furvivor bound
In filial obligation, for some term
To do obsequious forrow: but to perféver

5 In obstinate condolement", is a course
Of impious stubbornness: 'tis unmanly grief:
It shews a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortify'd, or mind impatient;
An understanding fimple and unschool'd:

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
says Polonius?
[low leave,
Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my
By labourfome petition: and, at last,
Upon his will I feal'd my hard confent:
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be
thine,

And thy best graces spend it at thy will.-
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my fon,-
Ham. A little more than kin, and less than kind 2.

As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish oppofition,
Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
15 To reafon most abfurd, whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cry'd,
From the first corse, 'till he that died to-day,
This must be fo. We pray you throw to earth
This unprevailing woe; and think of us

[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.
Do not, for ever, with thy vailed 4 lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
Thou know'st, 'tis common all, that live, must
Paffing through nature to eternity.

Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.
Queen. If it be,

[die,

Why feems it so particular with thee? [feems.
Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of folemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected haviour of the vifage,
Together with all forms, modes, shews of grief,
That can denote me truly: These, indeed, seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within, which pafleth show;
These, but the trappings and the suits of woe.
King. 'Tis fweet and commendable in your na-
ture, Hamlet,

To give those mourning duties to your father:

20 As of a father: for, let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And, with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his fon,
Do I impart 10 toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our defire:
And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the chear and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefeft courtier, coufin, and our fon.
30 Queen. Let not thy mother lofe her prayers,
Hamlet;
I pray thee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madaru.
King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply;
35 Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof,
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great canon to the clouds shall tell;
40 And the king's rouze the heaven shall bruit again,
Re-fpeaking earthly thunder. Come, away.

Manent Hamlet.

[Exeunt.

Ham. O, that this too too folid flesh would melt,

45 Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 12 'gainst self-flaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, ftale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

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!
But two months dead! -nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was to this,
Hyperion to a fatyr1: so loving to my mother,
That he might not let e'en the winds of heaven
Vifit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: And yet, within a month,-
Let me not think on't: Frailty, thy name is

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.
Ham. The king my father 1

Hor. Seafon your admiration for a while

With an attent ear; 'till I may deliver,
10 Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

Ham. For heaven's love, let me hear.
Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

A little month; or ere those shoes were old,
With which the follow'd my poor father's body, 15 In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Like Niobe, all tears :-why she, even she,

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,

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Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Arm'd at all points, exactly cap-à-pé,
Appears before them, and, with folemn march,
Goes flow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd

Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd
Almoft to jelly, with the act of fear,

Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful fecresy impart they did;

25 And I with them, the third night, kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

30

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Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.

45 Hold you the watch to-night?

All. We do, my lord.
Ham. Arm'd, say you?
All. Arm'd, my lord.

Ham. From top to toe?

50 All. My lord, from head to foot.
Ham. Then faw you not his face?
Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
Ham. What, look'd he frowningly?
Hor. A countenance more

55 In forrow than in anger.
Ham. Pale, or red?

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you?
Hsr. Most constantly.

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.
Ham. Very like,

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;
Perchance, 'twill walk again.
Hor. I warrant, it will.

Ham. If it affume my noble father's person,
I'll fpeak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this fight,
Let it be tenable in your filence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll vifit you.

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

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[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;
Occasion smiles upon a fecond leave.

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,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

Opb. No more but so?
Laer. Think it no more:

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
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
50 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy foul with hoops of steel;
But do not duil thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrades. Beware

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

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