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 Shakespeare 
 Hamlet 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
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 HAMLET 
 
 PRINCE OF DENMARK 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 SAMUEL THURBER 
 
 ALL 
 
 TWO COPIES RECEIVED 
 

 Copyright, 1897, fy 
 SAMUEL THURBER. 
 
 /?- 3?i'3^ 
 
 Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Norwood, Mass. 
 Presswork by H. M. Plimpton & Co., Printers and Binders, Norwood, Mass. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In preparing notes to explain the text of Hamlet I 
 have followed my usual practice of seeking to help the 
 teacher by helping the pupil. Working absolutely with- 
 out help, the young reader makes his way through our 
 English classics too slowly and laboriously, toiling in 
 vain over details, and so failing to get large impressions. 
 Above all things, the school must keep the study of 
 English literature interesting, or else the school practi- 
 cally belies the very end and aim of the subject it pro- 
 fesses to teach. All the poets and the prose writers have 
 striven to interest their contemporaries and their poster- 
 ity. The classics are those who succeeded and still suc- 
 ceed in this endeavor ; the great classics are those who 
 have succeeded in a pre-eminent degree. 
 
 Hence, whatever else, in a school course, a strenuous 
 discipline may, for training's sake, insist on keeping 
 hard and dry, the English literature must ever be tem- 
 pered with the warmth of liking and curiosity. The 
 primal relation of literature to the mind is an appeal for 
 attention, an effort to stimulate, to please. We cannot 
 lose sight of this truth and treat poetry as if it Avere 
 science, which we can absolutely withdraw from and 
 view as an objective thing. 
 
 The human questions, of character and motive, of con- 
 science and remorse, that arise in every Shakespearian 
 
 ill 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 play, and especially in Hamlet, must, to inexperienced 
 readers, be made accessible in spite of the obscurities of 
 the language, and must be shown to have literary and 
 historical relations of far-reaching importance. For it is 
 to be said that the youag reader, while he is by certain dif- 
 ficulties checked and perplexed, slips unconsciously over 
 others, careful study of which might bring to him a rich 
 reward. What we are wont to call the recitation, — a 
 function that too often is little else than a process of 
 questioning about matters committed to memory, the 
 teacher had better fill with conversation, eliciting from 
 as many individuals as possible avowals of belief or 
 doubt. The tests of success in the teaching of classic 
 literature are these : Does the great writer exert over 
 the youth we have instructed something of the power 
 legitimately due to his greatness? Do we bring it to 
 pass that to the adolescent mind the modern homage 
 paid to the ancient poet seems a natural and intelligible 
 phenomenon ? Do we at least succeed in implanting in 
 our pupils a curiosity about Shakespeare which in some 
 individuals may, with maturer years, expand into a 
 Shakespeare-reading habit ? 
 
 Whoever at the present day, in elucidation of Hamlet, 
 offers edification by the margent, has to begin with 
 acknowledgement of his indebtedness to Purness' Vario- 
 rum. The Hamlet literature, long too vast for any but 
 a specialist, has found its competent specialist and mas- 
 ter in Furness, whose edition of the play makes it, for 
 the average student, absolutely needless to go further in 
 research. I wish the Furness Hamlet were larger than 
 it is, could the additional pages be occupied by fur- 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 ther original comment — such as we have learned to 
 search for in the crowded notes — from Mr. Furness' 
 own pen. 
 
 The text here printed is that of the Cambridge, with 
 occasional divergence, — when authority seemed suffi- 
 cient, — for the sake of giving a more natural reading, 
 and with such slight omissions of lines as the educational 
 purpose of the edition suggested. The line-numbering 
 is that of the Globe Shakespeare, thus facilitating refer- 
 ence to Bartlett's Concordance and to Schmidt's Lexicon. 
 
HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. 
 
 DEAMATIS PEKSONvE. 
 
 Claudius, king of Denmark. 
 Hamlet, son to the late, and nephew to 
 
 the present king-. 
 P0LONIU8, lord chamberlain. 
 Horatio, friend to Hamlet. 
 Laertes, son to Polonius. 
 voltimand, 
 Cornelius, 
 eosenouantz, 
 guildenstern, 
 
 OSKIC, 
 
 A Gentleman, 
 A Priest. 
 Makoellus, 
 Bernardo, 
 
 -courtiers. 
 
 officers. 
 
 Franc rsoo, a soldier. 
 
 Eeynaldo, servant to Polonius. 
 
 Players. 
 
 Two Clowns, Grave-diggers. 
 
 FoRTiNBRAS, priuce of Norway. 
 
 A Captain. 
 
 English Ambassadors. 
 
 Gertrude, queen of Denmark, and 
 
 mother to Hamlet. 
 
 Ophelia, daughter to Polonius. 
 
 Lords, Ladies, Oflicers, Soldiers, Sailors, 
 
 Messengers, and other Attendants. 
 
 Ghost of Hamlet's Father. 
 
 Scene : Denmark. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Scene I. Elsinoo'e. A platform before the castle. 
 Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo. 
 
 Ber. Who 's there ? 
 
 Fran. Nay, answer me : stand, and unfold yourself. 
 Ber. Long live the king ! 
 Fran. Bernardo ? 
 Ber. He. 
 
 Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. 
 Ber. 'T is now struck twelve ; get thee to bed, Fran- 
 cisco. 
 
 B 1 
 
2 HAMLET. 
 
 Fran. For this relief much thanks : 't is bitter cold, 
 And I am sick at heart. 
 
 Be7\ Have you had quiet guard ? 
 
 Fran. Not a mouse stirring. 10 
 
 Ber. Well, good night. 
 If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, 
 The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. 
 
 Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho ! Who 's 
 there ? 
 
 Enter Horatio and Makcellus. 
 
 Hor. Friends to this ground. 15 
 
 Mar. And liegemen to the Dane, 
 
 Fran. Give you good night. 
 
 Mar. 0, farewell, honest soldier : 
 
 Who hath relieved you ? 
 
 Fran. Bernardo has my place. 
 
 Give you good night. \^Exit. 
 
 Mar. Holla ! Bernardo ! 
 
 Ber. Say, 
 
 What, is Horatio there ? 
 
 Hor. A piece of him. 
 
 Ber. Welcome, Horatio : welcome, good Marcellus. 20 
 
 Mar. What, has this thing appeared again to-night ? 
 
 Ber. I have seen nothing. 
 
 Mar. Horatio says 't is but our fantasy, 
 And will not let belief take hold of him 
 Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us : 25 
 
 Therefore I have entreated him along 
 With us to watch the minutes of this night; 
 That if again this apparition come, 
 He may approve our eyes and speak to it. 
 
ACT I. SCENE I. 3 
 
 Hor. Tush, tush, 't will not appear. 
 
 Be7\ Sit down awhile ; so 
 
 And let us once again assail your ears. 
 That are so fortified against our story 
 What we have two nights seen. 
 
 Hor. Well, sit we down. 
 
 And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. 
 
 Ber. Last night of all, 35 
 
 When yond same star that 's westward from the pole 
 Had made his course to illume that part of heaven 
 Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, 
 The bell then beating one, — 
 
 Enter Ghost. 
 
 Mar. Peace, break thee ofE ; look, where it comes 
 again ! 40 
 
 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, Horatio. 
 
 Hor. Most like : it harrows me with fear and wonder. 
 . Be7'. It would be spoke to. 
 
 Ma7'. Question it, Horatio. 45 
 
 Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, 
 Together with that fair and warlike form 
 In which the majesty of buried Denmark 
 Did sometimes march ? by heaven I charge thee, speak ! 
 
 Mar. It is offended. 
 
 Ber. See, it stalks away ! 50 
 
 Hor. Stay ! speak, speak ! I charge thee, speak ! 
 
 [Exit GJiost. 
 
 Mar. 'T is gone, and will not answer. 
 
 Ber. How now, Horatio ! you tremble and look pale : 
 
4 HAMLET. 
 
 Is not this soBiething more than fantasy ? 
 
 What think you on 't ? 65 
 
 Sor. Before my God, I might not this believe 
 Without the sensible and true avouch 
 Of mine own eyes. 
 
 Mar. Is it not like the king ? 
 
 Hor. As thou art to thyself : 
 Such was the very armor he had on 60 
 
 When he the ambitious Norway combated ; 
 So frowned he once, when, in an angry parle. 
 He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice : 
 'Tis strange. 
 
 Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour. 
 With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. (56 
 
 Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not ; 
 But in the gross and scope of my opinion. 
 This bodes some strange eruption to our state. 
 
 Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows. 
 Why this same strict and most observant watch 71 
 
 So nightly toils the subject of the land, 
 And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, 
 And foreign mart for implements of war ; 
 Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 75 
 Does not divide the Sunday from the week ; 
 What might be toward, that this sweaty haste 
 i)oth make the night joint-laborer with the day : 
 Who is 't that can inform me ? 
 
 Hor. That can I ; 
 
 At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, 80 
 
 Whose image even but now appeared to us. 
 Was, as you know, by Tortinbras of Norway, 
 Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride, 
 
ACT I. SCENE I. 5 
 
 Dared to the combat ; in \yhich our valiant Hamlet — 
 
 For so this side of our known world esteemed him — 85 
 
 Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a sealed compact, 
 
 Well ratified by law and heraldry, 
 
 Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands 
 
 Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror ; 
 
 Against the which, a moiety competent 90 
 
 Was gaged by our king ; which had returned 
 
 To the inheritance of Fortinbras, 
 
 Had he been vanquisher ; as, by the same covenant, 
 
 And carriage of the article designed. 
 
 His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, 95 
 
 Of unimproved mettle hot and full, 
 
 Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there 
 
 Sharked up a list of lawless resolutes. 
 
 For food and diet, to some enterprise 
 
 That hath a stomach in 't ; which is no other — lOO 
 
 As it doth well appear unto our state — 
 
 But to recover of us, by strong hand 
 
 And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands 
 
 So by his father lost : and this, I take it. 
 
 Is the main motive of our preparations, 105 
 
 The source of this our watch and the chief head 
 
 Of this post-haste and romage in the land. 
 
 Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so : 
 Well may it sort that this portentous figure 
 Comes armed through our watch ; so like the king lio 
 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, 
 The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead 115 
 
6 HAMLET. 
 
 Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets : 
 
 As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, 
 
 Disasters in the sun ; and the moist star 
 
 Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands 
 
 Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse : 120 
 
 And even the like precurse of fierce events, 
 
 As harbingers preceding still the fates 
 
 And prologue to the omen coming on, 
 
 Have heaven and earth together demonstrated 
 
 Unto our climatures and countrymen. — 125 
 
 But soft, behold ! lo, where it comes again ! 
 
 Re-enter Ghost. 
 
 I '11 cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion ! 
 
 If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, 
 
 Speak to me : 
 
 If there be any good thing to be done, 130 
 
 That may to thee do ease and grace to me. 
 
 Speak to me : \_Cock crows. 
 
 If thou art privy to thy country's fate. 
 
 Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, 
 
 0, speak ! 135 
 
 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, 
 
 Speak of it : stay, and speak ! Stop it, Marcellus. 
 
 Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan ? 140 
 
 Hor. Do, if it will not stand. ' 
 
 Ber. 'T is here ! 
 
 Hor. 'T is here ! 
 
 Mar. 'T is gone ! \_Exit Ghost. 
 
 We do it wrong, being so majestical, 
 
ACT I. SCENE I. 7 
 
 To offer it the show of violence ; 
 
 For it is, as the air, invuhierable, 146 
 
 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, 150 
 
 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat 
 ^ Awake the god of day ; and, at his warning. 
 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air. 
 The extravagant and erring spirit hies 
 To his confine : and of the truth herein 155 
 
 This present object made probation. 
 
 Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. 
 Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long : 160 
 
 And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike. 
 No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
 So hallowed and so gracious is the time. 
 
 Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. 165 
 But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad. 
 Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill : 
 Break we oiu- watch up ; and by my advice. 
 Let us impart what we have seen to-night 
 Unto young Hamlet ; for, upon my life, 170 
 
 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 
 Where we shall find him most conveniently. [Exeunt. 175 
 
8 HAMLET. 
 
 Scene II. A room of state in the castle. 
 
 Enter the King, 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 
 To be contracted in one brow of woe. 
 Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 6 
 
 That we with wisest sorrow think on him, 
 Together with remembrance of ourselves. 
 Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, 
 The imperial jointress to this warlike state, 
 Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy, — 10 
 
 With one auspicious and one dropping eye, 
 With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, 
 In equal scale weighing delight and dole, — 
 Taken to wife : nor have we herein barred 
 Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 15 
 
 With this affair along. For all, our thanks. 
 Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, 
 Holding a weak supposal of our worth, 
 Or thinking by our late dear brother's death 
 Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20 
 
 Colleagued with the dream of his advantage. 
 He hath not failed to pester us with message. 
 Importing the surrender of those lands 
 Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, 
 To our most valiant brother. So much for him. 25 
 
 Now for ourself and for this time of meeting : 
 This much the business is : we have here writ 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. . 9 
 
 To Korway, uncle of young Fortinbras, — 
 
 Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears 
 
 Of this his nephew's purpose, — to suppress 30 
 
 His further gait herein ; in that the levies. 
 
 The lists and full proportions, are all made 
 
 Out of his subject : and we here dispatch 
 
 You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, 
 
 For bearers of this greeting to old Norway ; 35 
 
 Giving to you no further personal power 
 
 To business with the king, more than the scope 
 
 Of these dilated articles allow. 
 
 Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. 
 
 Cov. ) 
 
 [- In that and all things will we show our duty. 40 
 
 King. We doubt it nothing : heartily farewell. 
 
 \^Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius. 
 And now, Laertes, what 's the news with you ? 
 You told us of some suit ; what is 't, Laertes ? 
 You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, 
 And lose your voice : what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, 45 
 That shall not be my offer, not thy asking ? 
 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 wouldst thou have, Laertes ? 
 
 Laer. My dread lord, 50 
 
 Your leave and favor to return to France ; 
 From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, 
 To show my duty in your coronation. 
 Yet now, I must confess, that duty done. 
 My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France 55 
 And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. 
 
10 . HAMLET. 
 
 King. Have you your father's leave ? What says 
 Polonius ? 
 
 Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow 
 leave 
 By laborsome petition, and at last 
 
 Upon his will I sealed my hard consent : 60 
 
 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 son, — 
 
 Ham. [Aside'] A little more than kin, and less than 
 kind. 65 
 
 Ki7ig. How is it that the clouds still hang on you ? 
 
 Ham. Not so, my lord ; I am too much i' the sun. 
 
 Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off. 
 And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. 
 Do not forever with thy vailed lids 70 
 
 Seek for thy noble father in the dust : 
 Thou know'st 't is common : all that lives must die, 
 Passing through nature to eternity. 
 
 Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. 
 
 Queen. If it be, 
 
 Why seems it so particular with thee ? 75 
 
 Ham. Seems, madam ! nay, it is ; I know not 'seems.' 
 'T is not alone my inky cloak, good mother, 
 Nor customary suits of solemn black, 
 Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, 
 No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, 80 
 
 Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, 
 Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief. 
 That can denote me truly : these indeed seem, 
 For they are actions that a man might play : 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 11 
 
 But I have that within which passeth show ; 85 
 
 These but the trappings and the suits of woe. 
 
 King. 'T is sweet and commendable in your nature, 
 Hamlet, 
 To give these mourning duties to your father: 
 But, you must know, your father lost a father ; 
 That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound 90 
 
 In filial obligation for some term 
 To do obsequious sorrow : but to persever 
 In obstinate condolement is a course 
 Of impious stubbornness; 't is unmanly grief; 
 It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, 95 
 
 A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, 
 An understanding simple and unschooled : 
 For what we know must be and is as common 
 As any the most vulgar thing to sense. 
 Why should we in our peevish opposition 100 
 
 Take it to heart ? Fie ! 't is a fault to heaven, 
 A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, 
 To reason most absurd; whose common theme 
 Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried. 
 From the first corse till he that died to-day, 105 
 
 ' This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth 
 This nnprevailing woe, and think of us 
 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 110 
 
 Than that which dearest father bears his son, 
 Do I impart toward you. For your intent 
 In going back to school in Wittenberg, 
 It is most retrograde to our desire : 
 And we beseech you, bend you. to remain 115 
 
12 HAMLET. 
 
 Here, in the cheer and comfort of onr eye, 
 Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. 
 
 Quee7i. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet : 
 I pray thee, stay with us ; go not to Wittenberg. 
 
 Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. 120 
 
 King. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply : 
 Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come ; 
 This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet 
 Sits smiling to my heart : in grace whereof, 
 No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, 125 
 
 But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell. 
 And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again, 
 K,e-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. 
 
 l^Exeunt all but Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. 0, that this too too solid flesh would melt, 
 Thaw and resolve itself into a dew ! 130 
 
 Or that the Everlasting had not fixed 
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter ! God ! God ! 
 How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable. 
 Seem to me all the uses of this world ! 
 Fie on 't ! ah fie ! 't is an unweeded garden, 135 
 
 That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature 
 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 satyr ; so loving to my mother 140 
 
 That he might not beteem the winds of heaven 
 Visit 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 — 145 
 
 Let me not think on 't — Frailty, thy name is woman! — 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 13 
 
 A little month, or ere those shoes were old 
 
 With which she followed my poor father's body, 
 
 Like Niobe, all tears : — why she, even she — 
 
 God ! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 150 
 
 Wonld have mourned longer — married with my uncle, 
 
 My father's brother, but no more like my father 
 
 Than I to Hercules : within a month : 
 
 Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears 
 
 Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, 155 
 
 She married. 0, most wicked speed, to post 
 
 With such dexterity to incestuous sheets ! 
 
 It is not nor it cannot come to good : 
 
 But break my heart ; for I must hold my tongue. 
 
 Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. 
 
 Hot. Hail to your lordship ! 160 
 
 Ham.' I am glad to see you well : 
 
 Horatio, — or do I forget myself. 
 
 Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant 
 ever. 
 
 Ham. Sir, my good friend ; I '11 change that name 
 with you : 
 And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ? 
 Marcellus ? 165 
 
 Mar. My good lord — 
 
 Ham. I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir. 
 But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ? 
 
 Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. 
 
 Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so, 170 
 
 Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, 
 To make it truster of your own report 
 Against yourself ; I know you are no truant. 
 
14 HAMLET. 
 
 But what is your affair in Elsinore ? 
 
 We 'II teach you to drink deep ere you depart. 175 
 
 Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. 
 
 Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student ; 
 I think it was to see my mother's wedding. 
 
 Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. 
 
 Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio ! the funeral baked 
 meats 180 
 
 Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. 
 Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven 
 Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! 
 My father ! — methinks I see my father. 
 
 Hor. Where, my lord? 
 
 Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. 185 
 
 Hor. I saw him once ; he was a goodly king. 
 
 Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, 
 I shall not look upon his like again. 
 
 Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. 
 
 Ham. Saw ? who ? 190 
 
 Hor. My lord, the king, your father. 
 
 Ham. The king my father ! 
 
 Hor. Season your admiration for a while 
 With an attent ear, till I may deliver. 
 Upon the witness of these gentlemen, 
 This marvel to you. 
 
 Ham. For God's love, let me hear. 195 
 
 Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, 
 Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch. 
 In the dead vast and middle of the night. 
 Been thus encountered. A figure like your father, 
 Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe, 200 
 
 Appears before them, and with solemn march 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 15 
 
 Goes slow and stately by them : thrice he walked 
 
 By their oppressed and fear-surprised eyes, 
 
 Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled 
 
 Almost to jelly with the act of fear, 205 
 
 Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me 
 
 lu dreadful secrecy impart they did ; 
 
 And I with them the third night kept the watch : 
 
 Where, as they had delivered, both in time. 
 
 Form of the thing, each word made true and good, 210 
 
 The apparition comes : I knew your father ; 
 
 These hands are not more like. 
 
 Ham. But where was this ? 
 
 Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watched. 
 
 Ham. Did you not speak to it ? 
 
 Hor. My lord, I did ; 
 
 But answer made it none : yet once methought 215 
 
 It lifted up its head and did address 
 Itself to motion, like as it would speak ; 
 But even then the morning cock crew loud, 
 And at the sound it shrunk in haste away. 
 And vanished from our sight. 
 
 Ham. 'T is very strange. 220 
 
 Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 't is true ; 
 And we did think it writ down in our duty 
 To let you know of it. 
 
 Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. 
 Hold you the watch to-night ? 225 
 
 ;^^l' \ We do, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Armed, say you ? 
 
 „ " y Armed, my lord. 
 
16 HAMLET. 
 
 Ham. From top to toe ? 
 
 MCLT. ) 
 
 My lord, from head to foot. 
 
 Ber. 
 
 Ham. Then saw you not his face ? 
 
 Hor. 0, yes, my lord ; he wore his beaver up. 230 
 
 Ham. What, looked he frowningly ? 
 
 Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. 
 
 Ham. Pale or red ? 
 
 Hor. Nay, very pale. 
 
 Ho,m. And fixed his eyes upon you ? 
 
 Hor. Most constantly. 235 
 
 Ham. I would I had been there. 
 
 Hor. It would have much amazed you. 
 
 Ham. Very like, very like. Stayed it long ? 
 
 Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a 
 
 hundred. 
 
 ]S£ar, ^ 
 
 Longer, longer. 
 
 Ber. 
 
 Hor. Not when I saw 't. 
 
 Ham. His beard was grizzled, — no ? 240 
 
 Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, 
 A sable silvered. 
 
 Ham. I will watch to-night; 
 
 Perchance 't will walk again. 
 
 Hor. I warrant it will. 
 
 Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, 
 I '11 speak to it though hell itself should gape 245 
 
 And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, 
 If you have hitherto concealed this sight, 
 Let it be tenable in your silence still ; 
 And whatsoever else shall hap to-night. 
 Give it an understanding, but no tongue : 250 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 17 
 
 I will requite your loves. So, fare you well : 
 Upou the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, 
 I '11 visit you. 
 
 All. Our duty to your honor. 
 
 Ha7n. Your loves, as mine to you : farewell. 
 
 \_Exeunt all hut Hamlet. 
 My father's spirit in arms ! all is not well ; 255 
 
 I doubt some foul play : would the night were come ! 
 Till then sit still, my soul : foul deeds will rise, 
 Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. 
 
 {Exit. 
 
 Scene III. A room in Polonius' house. 
 Enter Laertes and Ophelia. 
 
 Laer. My necessaries are embarked : farewell : 
 And, sister, as the winds give benefit 
 And convoy is assistant, do not sleep. 
 But let me hear from you. 
 
 Oph. Do you doubt that ? 
 
 Laer. For Hamlet and the trifling of his favor, 5 
 
 Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, 
 A violet in the youth of primy nature, 
 Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting. 
 The perfume and suppliance of a minute ; 
 No more. 10 
 
 Oph. No more but so ? 
 
 Laer. Think it no more : 
 
 For nature, crescent, does not grow alone 
 In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes, 
 The inward service of the mind and soul 
 Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, 
 c 
 
18 HAMLET. 
 
 And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch 15 
 
 The virtue of his will : but you must fear, 
 
 His greatness weighed, his will is not his own ; 
 
 For he himself is subject to his birth: 
 
 He may not, as unvalued persons do. 
 
 Carve for himself ; for on his choice depends 20 
 
 The safety and the health of this whole state ; 
 
 And therefore must his choice be circumscribed 
 
 Unto the voice and yielding of that body 
 
 Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, 
 
 It fits your wisdom so far to believe it 25 
 
 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 loss your honor may sustain. 
 
 If with too credent ear you list his songs, 30 
 
 Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open 
 
 To his unmastered importunity. 
 
 Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, 
 
 And keep you in the rear of your affection. 
 
 Out of the shot and danger of desire. 35 
 
 The chariest maid is prodigal enough. 
 
 If she unmask her beauty to the moon : 
 
 Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes : 
 
 The canker galls the infants of the spring. 
 
 Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, 40 
 
 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 else near. 
 
 Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, 45 
 As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 19 
 
 Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, 
 
 Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven ; 
 
 Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine. 
 
 Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, 50 
 
 And recks not his own rede. 
 
 Laer. O, fear me not. 
 
 I stay too long : but here my father comes. 
 
 Enter Polonius. 
 
 A double blessing is a double grace ; 
 Occasion smiles upon a second leave. 
 
 Pol. Yet here, Laertes ! aboard, aboard, for shame ! 55 
 The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail. 
 And you are stayed for. There ; my blessing with thee ! 
 And these few precepts in thy memory 
 See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue. 
 Nor any unproportioned thought his act. 60 
 
 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 
 Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple tliem to thy soul with hoops of steel ; 
 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 
 Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware 65 
 Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in. 
 Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. 
 Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice ; 
 Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement. 
 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 70 
 
 But not expressed in fancy ; rich, not gaudy ; 
 For the apparel oft proclaims the man. 
 And they in France of the best rank and station 
 Are most select and generous in that. 
 Neither a borrower nor a lender be ; 75 
 
20 HAMLET. 
 
 For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 
 
 And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 
 
 This above all : to thine own self be true, 
 
 And it must follow, as the night the day. 
 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man. 80 
 
 Farewell : my blessing season this in thee ! 
 
 Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. 
 
 Pol. The time invites you ; go ; your servants tend. 
 
 Laer. Farewell, Ophelia ; and remember well 
 What I have said to you. 85 
 
 Oph. 'T is in my memory locked. 
 
 And you yourself shall keep the key of it. 
 
 Laer. Farewell. \^Exit. 
 
 Pol. What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to you ? 
 
 Oph. So please you, something touching the Lord 
 Hamlet, 
 
 Pol. Marry, well bethought : " 90 
 
 'T is told me, he hath very oft of late 
 Given private time to you; and you yourself 
 Have of your audience been most free and bounteous : 
 If it be so, as so 't is put on me. 
 
 And that in way of caution, I must tell you, 95 
 
 You do not understand yourself so clearly 
 As it behoves my daughter and your honor. 
 What is between you ? give me up the truth. 
 
 Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders 
 Of his affection to me. 100 
 
 Pol. Affection ! pooh ! you speak like a green girl. 
 Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. 
 Do you believe his tenders, as you call them ? 
 
 Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think, 
 
 Pol. Marry, I '11 teach you : think yourself a baby ; 105 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 21 
 
 That you have ta'en these tenders for trxie pay, 
 AVhich are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly ; 
 Or — not to cra(!k the wind of the poor phrase, 
 Eunning it thus — you '11 tender me a fool. 
 
 OpJi. My lord, he hath importuned me with love lio 
 In honorable fashion. 
 
 Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it ; go to, go to. 
 
 Ojih. And hath given countenance to his speech, my 
 lord. 
 With ahnost all the holy vows of heaven. 
 
 Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, 115 
 When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul 
 Lends the tongue vows : these blazes, daughter, 
 Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, 
 Even in their promise, as it is a-making, 
 You must not take for fire. Prom this time 120 
 
 Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence ; 
 Set your entreatments at a higher rate 
 Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, 
 Believe so much in him, that he is young. 
 And with a larger tether may he walk 125 
 
 Than may be given you : in few, Ophelia, 
 Do not believe his vows ; for they are brokers, 
 Not of that dye which their investments show. 
 But mere implorators of unholy suits, 
 Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, 130 
 
 The better to beguile. This is for all : 
 I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, 
 Have you so slander any moment's leisure. 
 As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. 
 Look to 't, I charge you : come your ways. 135 
 
 Oph. I shall obey, my lord. {^Exeunt. 
 
22 HAMLET. 
 
 Scene IV. The platform. 
 Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. 
 
 Ham. The air bites shrewdly ; it is very cold. 
 
 Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. 
 
 Ham. What hour now ? 
 
 Hor. I think it lacks of twelve. 
 
 Ham. No, it is struck. 
 
 Hor. Indeed ? I heard it not : then it draws near the 
 season 5 
 
 Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. 
 
 [^A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within. 
 What does this mean, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, 
 Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels ; 
 And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, 10 
 
 The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out 
 The triumph of his pledge. 
 
 Hor. Is it a custom ? 
 
 Ham. Ay, marry, is 't : 
 But to my mind, though I am native here 
 And to the manner born, it is a custom 15 
 
 More honored in the breach than the observance. 
 This heavy-headed revel east and west 
 Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations : 
 They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase 
 Soil our addition ; and indeed it takes 20 
 
 From our achievements, though performed at height, 
 The pith and marrow of our attribute. 
 So, oft it chances in particular men. 
 That for some vicious mole of nature in them. 
 
ACT I. SCENE IV. 23 
 
 As, in their birth — wherein they are not guilty, 25 
 
 Since nature cannot choose his origin — 
 
 By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, 
 
 Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, 
 
 Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens 
 
 The form of plausive manners, that these men, 30 
 
 Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect. 
 
 Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, — 
 
 Their virtues else — be they as pure as grace, 
 
 As infinite as man may undergo — 
 
 Shall in the general censure take corruption 35 
 
 From that particular fault : the dram of eale 
 
 Doth all the noble substance of a doubt 
 
 To his own scandal. 
 
 Hor. Look, my lord, it comes! 
 
 Enter Ghost. 
 
 Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! 
 Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned, 40 
 
 Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, 
 Be thy intents wicked or charitable. 
 Thou comest in such a questionable shape 
 That I will speak to thee : I '11 call thee Hamlet, 
 King, father, royal Dane : 0, answer me ! 45 
 
 Let me not burst in ignorance ; but tell 
 Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, 
 Have burst their cerements ; why the sepulchre. 
 Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned, 
 Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, 50 
 
 To cast thee up again. What may this mean. 
 That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel 
 Eevisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, 
 
24 HAMLET. 
 
 Making night hideous ; and we fools of nature 
 
 So horridly to shake our disposition 55 
 
 With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ? 
 
 Say, why is this ? wherefore ? what should we do ? 
 
 [GJiost beckons Hamlet. 
 
 Hor. It beckons you to go away with it, 
 As if it some impartment did desire 
 To you alone. 60 
 
 Mar. Look, with what courteous action 
 
 It waves you to a more removed ground : 
 But do not go with it. 
 
 Hor. N"o, by no means. 
 
 Ham. It will not speak ; then I will follow it. 
 
 Hor. Do not, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Why, what should be the fear ? 
 
 I do not set my life at a pin's fee ; 65 
 
 And for my soul, what can it do to that. 
 Being a thing immortal as itself ? 
 It waves me forth again : I '11 follow it. 
 
 Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, 
 Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff 70 
 
 That beetles o'er his base into the sea. 
 And there assume some other horrible form. 
 Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason 
 And draw you into madness ? think of it : 
 The very place puts toys of desperation, 75 
 
 Without more motive, into every brain 
 That looks so many fathoms to the sea 
 And hears it roar beneath. 
 
 Ham. It waves me still. 
 
 Go o\\ ; I '11 follow thee. 
 
 Mar. You shall not go, my lord. 80 
 
ACT I. SCENE V. 25 
 
 Ham. Hold off your hands. 
 
 Ho7'. Be rilled ; you shall not go. 
 
 Ham. My fate cries out, 
 
 And makes each petty artery in this body 
 As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. 
 Still am I called. Unhand me, gentlemen. 
 By heaven, I '11 make a ghost of him that lets me ! 85 
 
 I say, away ! Go on : I '11 follow thee. 
 
 l^Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. 
 
 Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. 
 
 Mar. Let 's follow; 't is not fit thus to obey him. 
 
 Hor. Have after. To what issue will this come ? 
 
 Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. 90 
 
 Hor. Heaven will direct it. 
 
 Mar. Nay, let 's follow him. [^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene V. Another 2^art of the platform. 
 
 Enter Ghost and Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Where wilt thou lead me ? speak ; I '11 go no 
 further. 
 
 Ghost. Mark me. 
 
 Ham. I will. 
 
 Ghost. My hour is almost come, 
 
 When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames 
 Must render up myself. 
 
 Ham. Alas, poor ghost ! 
 
 Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing 5 
 To what I shall unfold. 
 
 Ham. Speak ; I am bound to hear. 
 
 Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. 
 
 Ham. What ? 
 
26 HAMLET. 
 
 GJiost. I am thy father's spirit, 
 Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, 10 
 
 And for the day confined to fast in fires, 
 Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature 
 Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid 
 To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 
 I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 15 
 
 Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, 
 Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. 
 Thy knotted and combined locks to part 
 And each particular hair to stand an end, 
 Like quills upon the fretful porpentine : 20 
 
 But this eternal blazon must not be 
 To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, 0, list 
 If thou didst ever thy dear father love — 
 
 Ham. God ! 
 
 GTiost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. 
 
 Ham. Murder ! 26 
 
 Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is ; 
 But this most foul, strange and unnatural. 
 
 Ham. Haste me to know 't, that I, with wings as 
 swift 
 As meditation or the thoughts of love, 30 
 
 May sweep to my revenge. 
 
 Ghost. I find thee apt ; 
 
 And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed 
 That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, 
 Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear : 
 'T is given out that, sleeping in my orchard, 35 
 
 A serpent stung me ; so the whole ear of Denmark 
 Is by a forged process of my death 
 Eankly abused : but know, thou noble youth, 
 
ACT L SCENE V. 27 
 
 The serpent that did sting thy father's life 
 Now wears his crown. 
 
 IIa7n. my prophetic soul ! 40 
 
 My uncle ! 
 
 Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, 
 With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, — 
 wicked wit and gifts, that have the power 
 So to seduce ! — won to his shameful lust 45 
 
 The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen: 
 
 Hamlet, what a falling-off was there ! 
 From me, whose love was of that dignity 
 That it went hand in hand even with the vow 
 
 1 made to her in marriage, and to decline 50 
 Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor 
 
 To those of mine ! 
 
 But virtue, as it never will be moved, 
 
 Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, 
 
 So lust, though to a radiant angel linked, 55 
 
 Will sate itself in a celestial bed, 
 
 And prey on garbage. 
 
 But, soft ! methinks I scent the morning air ; 
 
 Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard. 
 
 My custom always in the afternoon, 60 
 
 Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, 
 
 With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial, 
 
 And in the porches of my ears did pour 
 
 The leperous distilment ; whose effect 
 
 Holds such an enmity with blood of man 65 
 
 That swift as quicksilver it courses through 
 
 The natural gates and alleys of the body, . '.' " -'■. 
 
 And with a sudden vigor it doth posset f=./ •sfs ''■>■>■ f^^'Sl '"<^* 
 
 And curd, like eager droppings into milk, ^. '<X'\ A --P '\\ ///L ^ 
 
28 HAMLET. 
 
 The thin and wholesome blood : so did it mine ; 70 
 
 And a most instant tetter barked about, 
 Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, 
 All my smooth body. 
 Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand 
 Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatched : 75 
 
 Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, 
 Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled. 
 No reckoning made, but sent to my account 
 With all my imperfections on my head: 
 0, horrible ! 0, horrible ! most horrible ! • 80 
 
 If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not ; 
 Let not the royal bed of Denmark be 
 A couch for luxury and damned incest. 
 But, howsoever thou pursuest this act. 
 Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive 85 
 
 Against thy mother aught : leave her to heaven 
 And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge. 
 To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once ! 
 The glow-worm shows the matin to be near. 
 And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire : 90 
 
 Adieu, adieu ! Hamlet, remember me. [^Exit. 
 
 Ham. all you host of heaven ! earth ! what else ? 
 And shall I couple hell ? 0, fie ! Hold, hold, my heart ; 
 And you, my sinews, grow not instant old. 
 But bear me stiffly up. Kemember thee ! 95 
 
 Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat 
 In this distracted globe. Remember thee ! 
 Yea, from the table of my memory 
 I '11 wipe away all trivial fond records. 
 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, lOO 
 
 That youth and observation copied there ; 
 
ACT I. SCENE V. 29 
 
 And thy comnianduient all alone shall live 
 
 Within the book and volume of my brain, 
 
 Unmixed with baser matter : yes, by heaven ! 
 
 most pernicious woman ! 105 
 
 villain, villain, smiling, damned villain ! 
 My tables, — meet it is I set it down, 
 
 That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain ; 
 At least I 'm sure it may be so in Denmark : [^Vriting. 
 So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word ; iio 
 
 It is ' Adieu, adieu ! remember me.' 
 
 1 have sworn 't. 
 
 TT . C [Witliin] My lord, my lord, — 
 
 Mar. [ Withiyi] Lord Hamlet, — 
 
 Hor. [^Within^ Heaven secure him ! 
 
 Ham. So be it ! 
 
 Hor. [ Within'] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy ! come, bird, come, 115 
 
 Enter Horatio and Makcellus. 
 
 3Iar. How is 't, my noble lord ? 
 
 Hor. What news, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. 0, wonderful ! 
 
 Hor. Good my lord, tell it. 
 
 Ham. No ; you '11 reveal it. 
 
 Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven. 120 
 
 Ifar. Nor I, my lord. 
 
 Ham. How say you, then ; would heart of man once 
 think it ? 
 But you '11 be secret ? 
 
 j^f^^^. j ^y^ by heaven, my lord. 
 
30 HAMLET. 
 
 Ham. There 's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark 
 But lie 's an arrant knave. 
 
 Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the 
 grave 125 
 
 To tell us this. 
 
 Ham. Why, right ; you are i' the right ; 
 
 And so, without more circumstance at all, 
 I hold it fit that we shake hands and part : 
 You, as your business and desire shall point you ; 
 For every man has business and desire, 130 
 
 Such as it is ; and for mine own poor part, 
 Look you, I '11 go pray. 
 
 Ho7\ These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. 
 
 Ham. I 'm sorry they offend you, heartily ; 
 Yes, 'faith, heartily. 
 
 Hor. There 's no offence, my lord. 135 
 
 Ham. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, 
 And much offence too. Touching this vision here. 
 It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you : 
 Por your desire to know what is between us, 
 O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends, 140 
 As you are friends, scholars and soldiers, 
 Give me one poor request. 
 
 Hor. What is 't, my lord ? we will. 
 
 Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night. 
 
 Hor ) 
 
 y My lord, we will not. 145 
 
 Ham. Nay, but swear 't, 
 
 Hor. In faith, 
 
 My lord, not I. 
 
 Mar. Nor I, my lord, in faith. 
 
 Ham. Upon my sword. 
 
ACT I. SCENE V. 31 
 
 Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already. 
 
 Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. 
 
 Ghost. l^Beneath'] Swear. 
 
 Havi. Ah, ha, boy ! say'st thou so ? art thou there, 
 truepenny ? 150 
 
 Come on — you hear this fellow in the cellarage — 
 Consent to swear. 
 
 Sor. Propose the oath, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen, 
 Swear by my sword. 
 
 Ghost. \^Beneath'] Swear. 155 
 
 Ham. Hie et ubique ? then we '11 shift our ground. 
 Come hither, gentlemen. 
 And lay your hands again upon my sword : 
 Never to speak of this that you have heard. 
 Swear by my sword. 160 
 
 Ghost. [^Beneath'] Swear. 
 
 Ham. Well said, old mole ! canst work i' the earth so 
 fast? 
 A worthy pioner ! Once more remove, good friends. 
 
 Hor. day and night, but this is wondrous strange ! 
 
 Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. 
 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 166 
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 
 Bat come ; 
 
 Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, 
 How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, 170 
 
 As I perchance hereafter shall think meet 
 To put an antic disposition on. 
 That you, at such times seeing me, never shall. 
 With arms encumbered thus, or this head-shake. 
 Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, 175 
 
32 HAMLET. 
 
 As ' Well, well, we know,' or ' We could, an if we would,^ 
 
 Or ' If we list to speak,' or ' There be, an if they might,' 
 
 Or such ambiguous giving out, to note 
 
 That you know aught of me : this not to do. 
 
 So grace and mercy at your most need help you, 180 
 
 Swear. 
 
 Ghost. [^BeneatJi] S^vear. 
 
 Ham. Eest, rest, perturbed spirit! {_They swear.'] 
 So, gentlemen. 
 With all my love I do commend me to you : 
 And what so poor a man as Hamlet is 185 
 
 May do, to express his love and friending to you, 
 God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together ; 
 And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. 
 The time is out of joint : cursed spite. 
 That ever I was born to set it right ! 190 
 
 Nay, come, let 's go together. [Exeunt. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Scene I. A room in Polonius' hoicse. 
 Enter Polonius and Rbynaldo. 
 
 Pol. Give him this money and these notes, Eeynaldo. 
 
 Bey. I will, my lord. 
 
 Pol. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo, 
 Before you visit him, to make inquire 
 Of his behavior. 5 
 
 Pey. My lord, I did intend it. 
 
 Pol. Marry, well said ; very well said. Look you, sir. 
 Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris ; 
 And how, and who, what means, and where they keep. 
 What company, at what expense ; and finding 
 
ACT II. SCENE I. 33 
 
 By this encompassment and drift of question lo 
 
 That they do knoAV my son, come you more nearer 
 
 Than your particular demands will touch it : 
 
 Take you, as 't were, some distant knowledge of him ; 
 
 As thus, ' I know his father and his friends, 
 
 And in part him : ' do you mark this, Reynaldo ? 15 
 
 Mey. Ay, very well, my lord. 
 
 Fol. ' And in part him ; but ' you may say ' not well : 
 But, if 't be he I mean, he 's very wild ; 
 Addicted so and so : ' and there put on him 
 What forgeries you please ; marry, none so rank 20 
 
 As may dishonor him ; take heed of that ; 
 But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips 
 As are companions noted and most known 
 To youth and liberty. 
 
 Bey. As gaming, my lord. 
 
 Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling, 
 Drabbing : you may go so far. 26 
 
 Bey. My lord, that would dishonor him. 
 
 Pol. 'Faith, no ; as you may season it in the charge. 
 You must not put another scandal on him. 
 That he is open to incontinency ; 30 
 
 That 's not my meaning : but breathe his faults so quaintly 
 That they may seem the taints of liberty, 
 The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, 
 A savageness in unreclaimed blood, 
 Of general assault. 
 
 Mey. But, my good lord, — 
 
 Pol. "Wherefore should you do this ? 
 
 Bey. Ay, my lord, 
 
 I would know that. 
 
 Pol. Marry, sir, here 's my drift ; 
 
34 HAMLET. 
 
 And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant : 
 
 You laying these slight sullies on my son, 
 
 As 't were a thing a little soiled i' the working, 40 
 
 Mark you. 
 
 Your party in converse, him you would sound, 
 
 Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes" 
 
 The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured 
 
 He closes with you in this consequence ; 45 
 
 ' Good sir,' or so, or ' friend,' or ' gentleman,' 
 
 According to the phrase or the addition 
 
 Of man and country. 
 
 Bey. Very good, my lord. 
 
 Pol. And then, sir, does he this — he does — what was 
 I about to say ? By the mass, I was about to say some- 
 thing : where did I leave ? 51 
 
 Bey. At ' closes in the consequence,' at ' friend or so,' 
 and 'gentleman.' 
 
 Pol. At ' closes in the consequence,' ay, marry ; 
 He closes thus : ' I know the gentleman ; "■ 55 
 
 I saw him yesterday, or t' other day. 
 Or then, or then ; with such, or such ; and, as you say, 
 There was a' gaming ; there o'ertook in 's rouse ; 
 There falling out at tennis : ' or perchance, 
 ' I saw him enter such a house of sale,' 60 
 
 Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. 
 See you now ; 
 
 Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth : 
 And thus do we of wisdom and of reach. 
 With windlasses and with assays of bias, 65 
 
 By indirections find directions out : 
 So by my former lecture and advice. 
 Shall you my son. You have me, have you not ? 
 
ACT 11. SCENE I. 35 
 
 Bey. My lord, I have. 
 
 Pol. God be wi' you ; fare you well. 
 
 Bey. Good my lord ! 70 
 
 Pol. Observe liis inclination in yourself. 
 
 Bey. I shall, my lord. 
 
 Pol. And let him ply his music. 
 
 Bey. Well, my lord. 
 
 Pol. Farewell ! \_Exit Beynaldo. 
 
 Enter Ophelia. 
 
 How now, Ophelia ! what 's the matter ? 
 
 OjjJi. 0, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted ! 
 
 Pol. With what, i' the name of God ? 76 
 
 Gjjh- My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, 
 Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced ; 
 Ko hat upon his head ; his stockings fouled, 
 Ungartered and down-gyved to his ancle ; 80 
 
 Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other; 
 And with a look so piteous in purport 
 As if he had been loosed out of hell 
 To speak of horrors, — he comes before me. 
 
 Pol. Mad for thy love ? 85 
 
 Ojyh. My lord, I do not know ; 
 
 But truly, I do fear it. 
 
 Pol. What said he ? 
 
 Oj^h. He took me by the wrist and held me hard ; 
 Then goes he to the length of all his arm ; 
 And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, 
 He falls to such perusal of my face 90 
 
 As he would draw it. Long stayed he so ; 
 At last, a little shaking of mine arm 
 And thrice his head thus waving up and down, 
 
36 HAMLET. 
 
 He raised a sigh so piteous and profound 
 
 That it did seem to shatter all his bulk 95 
 
 And end his being : that done, he lets me go : 
 
 And, with his head over his shoulder turned. 
 
 He seemed to find his way without his eyes ; 
 
 For out o' doors he went without their help, 
 
 And, to the last, bended their light on me. 100 
 
 Pol. Come, go with me : I will go seek the king. 
 This is the very ecstasy of love. 
 Whose violent property fordoes itself 
 And leads the will to desperate undertakings 
 As oft as any passion under heaven 105 
 
 That does afflict our natures. I am sorry. 
 What, have you given him any hard words of late ? 
 
 Oph. No, my good lord, but, as you did command, 
 I did repel his letters and denied 
 His access to me. lie 
 
 JPol. That hath made him mad. 
 
 I am sorry that with better heed and judgement 
 I had not quoted him : I feared he did but trifle. 
 And meant to wreck thee ; but, beshrew my jealousy ! 
 By heaven, it is as proper to our age 
 To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions 115 
 
 As it is common for the younger sort 
 To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king : 
 This must be known ; which, being kept close, might 
 
 move 
 More grief to hide than hate to utter love. \^Exeunt. 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 37 
 
 Scene II. A room in the castle. 
 
 Enter King, Queen, Kosencrantz, Guildenstern, and 
 Attendants. 
 
 King. Welcome, dear Eosencrantz and Guildenstern ! 
 Moreover that we much did long to see you, 
 The need we have to use you did provoke 
 Our hasty sending. Something have you heard 
 Of Hamlet's transformation ; so call it, 5 
 
 Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man 
 Eesembles that it was. What it should be, 
 More than his father's death, that thus hath put him 
 So much from the understanding of himself, 
 I cannot dream of : I entreat you both, 10 
 
 That being of so young days brought up with him. 
 And sith so neighbored to his youth and humor 
 That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court 
 Some little time : so by your companies 
 To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, 15 
 
 So much as from occasion you may glean. 
 Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus. 
 That, opened, lies within our remedy. 
 
 Queen. Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you ; 
 And sure I am two men there are not living 20 
 
 To whom he more adheres. If it will please yon 
 To show us so much gentry and good will 
 As to expend your time with us awhile, 
 For the supply and profit of our hope. 
 Your visitation shall receive such thanks 25 
 
 As fits a king's remembrance. 
 
 Ros. Both your majesties 
 
38 HAMLET. 
 
 Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, 
 Put your dread pleasures more into command 
 Than to entreaty. 
 
 Guil. But we both obey, 
 
 And here give up ourselves, in the full bent 30 
 
 To lay our service freely at your feet, 
 To be commanded. 
 
 King. Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. 
 
 Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Kosencrantz. 
 And I beseech you instantly to visit 35 
 
 My too much changed son. Go, some of you, 
 And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. 
 
 Guil. Heavens make our presence and our practices 
 Pleasant and helpful to him ! 
 
 Queen. Ay, amen ! 
 
 \_JExeunt Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and some Attendants. 
 
 Enter Polonius. 
 
 Pol. The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, 40 
 Are joyfully returned. 
 
 King. Thou still hast been the father of good news. 
 
 Pol. Have I, my lord? I assure you, my good 
 liege, 
 I hold my duty, as I hold my soul. 
 
 Both to my God, and to my gracious king : 45 
 
 And I do think, or else this brain of mine 
 Hunts not the trail of policy so sure 
 As it hath used to do, that I have found 
 The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. 
 
 King. 0, speak of that ; that do I long to hear. 50 
 
 Pol. Give first admittance to the ambassadors ; 
 My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 39 
 
 King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. 
 
 \_Exit Polonius. 
 He tells me, my dear Gertrude he hath found 
 The head and source of all your son's distemper. 55 
 
 Queen. I doubt it is no other but the main ; 
 His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage. 
 
 King. Well, we shall sift him. 
 
 Re-enter Polonius, with Voltimand and Cornelius. 
 
 Welcome, my good friends ! 
 Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway ? 
 
 Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires. 60 
 Upon our first, he sent out to suppress 
 His nephew's levies ; which to him appeared 
 To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack ; 
 But, better looked into, he truly found 
 It was against your highness : whereat grieved, 65 
 
 That so his sickness, age and impotence 
 Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests 
 On Fortinbras ; which he, in brief, obeys ; 
 Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine 
 Makes vow before his uncle never more 70 
 
 To give the assay of arms against your majesty. 
 Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy. 
 Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee. 
 And his commission to employ those soldiers. 
 So levied as before, against the Polack : 75 
 
 With an entreaty, herein further shown, \_Giving a x>aper. 
 That it might please you to give quiet pass 
 Through your dominions for his enterprise. 
 On such regards of safety and allowance 
 As therein are set down. 80 
 
40 HAMLET. 
 
 King. It likes us well ; 
 
 And at our more considered time we '11 read, 
 Answer, and think upon this business. 
 Meantime we thank you for your well-took labor : 
 Go to your rest ; at night we '11 feast together ; 
 Most welcome home ! 85 
 
 [Exetmt Voltimand and Cornelius. 
 
 Pol. This business is well ended. 
 
 My liege, and madam, to expostulate 
 What majesty should be, what duty is. 
 Why day is day, night night, and time is time. 
 Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. 
 Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, 90 
 
 And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, 
 I will be brief : your noble son is mad : 
 Mad call I it ; for, to define true madness, 
 What is 't but to be nothing else but mad ? 
 But let that go. 95 
 
 Queen. More matter, with less art. 
 
 Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. 
 That he is mad, 't is true : 't is true 't is pity ; 
 And pity 't is 't is true : a foolish figure ; 
 But farewell it, for I will use no art. 
 
 Mad let us grant him, then : and now remains 100 
 
 That we find out the cause of this effect. 
 Or rather sayj the cause of this defect. 
 For this effect defective comes by cause : 
 Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. 
 Perpend. 105 
 
 I have a daughter — have while she is mine — 
 Who, in her duty and obedience, mark. 
 Hath given me this : now gather, and surmise. [_Reads. 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 41 
 
 ' To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most beautified 
 Ophelia/ — no 
 
 That 's an ill phrase, a vile phrase ; ' beautified ' is a vile 
 phrase : but you shall hear. Thus : [^Beads. 
 
 ' In her excellent vi^hite bosom, these, &c.' 
 Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her ? 
 Pol. Good madam, stay awhile ; I will be faithful. 115 
 
 l^lieads. 
 ' Doubt thou the stars are fire ; 
 
 Doubt that the sun doth move ; 
 Doubt truth to be a liar ; 
 But never doubt I love. 
 '0 dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have 
 not art to reckon my groans ; but that I love thee best, 
 most best, believe it. Adieu. 122 
 
 'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine 
 is to him, Hamlet.' 
 This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me, 125 
 
 And more above, hath his solicitings, 
 As they fell out by time, by means and place, 
 All given to mine ear. 
 
 iLing. But how hath she 
 
 Received his love ? 
 
 Pol. What do you think of me ? 
 
 King. As of a man faithful and honorable. 130 
 
 Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you 
 think. 
 When I had seen this hot love on the wing — 
 As I perceived it, I must tell you that. 
 Before my daughter told me — Avhat might you. 
 Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, 135 
 
 If I had played the desk or table-book, 
 
42 HAMLET. 
 
 Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb, 
 
 Or looked upon this love with idle sight ; 
 
 What might you think ? No, I went round to work. 
 
 And my young mistress thus I did bespeak : 140 
 
 ' Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star ; 
 
 This must not be : ' and then I precepts gave her, 
 
 That she should lock herself from his resort. 
 
 Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. 
 
 Which done, she took the fruits of my advice ; 145 
 
 And he, repulsed — a short tale to make — 
 
 Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, 
 
 Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness. 
 
 Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, 
 
 Into the madness wherein now he raves, 150 
 
 And all we mourn for. 
 
 King. Do you think 'tis this? 
 
 Queen. It may be, very likely. 
 
 Pol. Hath there been such a time — I'd fain know 
 that — 
 That I have positively said ' 'T is so,' 
 When it proved otherwise ? 155 
 
 King. Not that I know. 
 
 Pol. [Pointing to his head mid shoulder'] Take this 
 from this, if this be otherwise : 
 If circumstances lead me, I will find 
 Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed 
 Within the centre. 
 
 Ki7ig. How may we try it further ? 
 
 Pol. You know, sometimes he walks four hours 160 
 together 
 Here in the lobby. 
 
 Queen. So he does indeed. 
 
ACT 11. SCENE II. 43 
 
 Pol. At such a time I '11 loose my daughter to him: 
 Be you and I behind an arras then ; 
 Mark the encounter : if he love her not 
 And be not from his reason fallen thereon, 165 
 
 Let me be no assistant for a state, 
 But keep a farm and carters. 
 
 King. We will try it. 
 
 Qwee/i. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes 
 reading. 
 
 Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away : 
 I '11 board him presently. 
 
 [Exeunt King, Queen, and Attendants. 
 
 Enter Hamlet reading. 
 
 0, give me leave : 170 
 
 How does my good Lord Hamlet ? 
 
 Hani. Well, God-a-mercy. 
 
 Pol. Do you know me, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Excellent well ; you are a fishmonger. 
 
 Pol. Not I, my lord. 175 
 
 Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. 
 
 Pol. Honest, my lord! 
 
 Ham. Ay, sir ; to be honest, as this world goes, is to 
 be one man picked out of ten thousand. 
 
 Pol. That 's very true, my lord. 180 
 
 Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, 
 being a god kissing carrion, — Have you a daughter ? 
 
 Pol. I have, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun : friend look to 't. 
 
 Pol. \_Aside'] How say you by that ? Still harping 
 on my daughter : yet he knew me not at first ; he said I 
 was a fishmonger : he is far gone, far gone : and truly in 
 
44 HAMLET. 
 
 my youth I suffered much extremity for love ; very near 
 this, I '11 speak to him again. What do you read, my 
 lord ? 193 
 
 Ham. Words, words, words. 
 
 Pol. What is the matter, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Between who ? 
 
 Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. 197 
 
 Ham. Slanders, sir : for the satirical rogue says here 
 that old men have grey beards, that their faces are 
 wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree 
 gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together 
 with most weak hams: all which, sir, though I most 
 powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty 
 to have it thus set down, for yourself, sir, should be old 
 as I am, if like a crab you could go backward. 206 
 
 Pol. [Aside'] Though this be madness, yet £heve is 
 method in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Into my grave. 
 
 Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside] How preg- 
 nant sometimes his replies are ! a happiness that often 
 madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so 
 prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and sud- 
 denly contrive the means of meeting between him and 
 my daughter. — My honorable lord, I will most humbly 
 take my leave of you. 218 
 
 Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I 
 will more willingly part withal : except my life, except 
 my life, except my life. 
 
 Pol. Fare you well, my lord. 
 
 Ham. These tedious old fools ! 
 
 .^ 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 46 
 
 Enter Eosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 
 Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet ; there he is. 
 
 Ros. \_To Polonius'] God save you, sir! 225 
 
 \_Exit Polonius. 
 
 Guil. My honored lord ! 
 
 Ros. My most dear lord ! 
 
 Ham. My excellent good friends ! How dost thou, 
 Guildenstern ? Ah, Rosencrantz ! Good lads, how do ye 
 both ? 230 
 
 Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. 
 
 Guil. Happy, in that we are not over-happy ; 
 On fortune's cap we are not the very button. 
 
 Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe ? 
 
 Ros. Neither, my lord. 
 
 Ham. What 's the news ? 240 
 
 Ros. None, my lord, but that the world 's grown 
 
 honest. 
 
 Ham. Then is doomsday near : but your news is not 
 true. Let me question more in particular : what have 
 you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, 
 that she sends you to prison hither ? 246 
 
 G^dl. Prison, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Denmark's a prison. 
 
 Ros. Then is the world one. 250 
 
 Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many con- 
 fines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the 
 worst. 
 
 Ros. We think not so, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Why, then, 't is none to you ; for there is noth- 
 ing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so : to me 
 it is a prison. 257 
 
46 HAMLET. 
 
 Mos. Why then, your ambition makes it one ; 't is too 
 narrow for your mind. 
 
 Ham. God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and 
 count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I 
 have bad dreams. 262 
 
 Guil. Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very 
 substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a 
 dream. 265 
 
 Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. 
 
 Bos. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light 
 a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow. 
 
 Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs 
 
 and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we 
 
 to the court ? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. 272 
 
 Bos. ) 
 
 fy -I \ We '11 wait upon yoiL 
 
 Ham. No such matter : I will not sort you with the 
 rest of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest 
 man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten 
 way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore ? 278 
 
 Bos. To visit you, my lord ; no other occasion. 
 
 Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks ; 
 but I thank you : and sure, dear friends, my thanks are 
 too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for ? Is it 
 your own inclining ? Is it a free visitation ? Come, 
 deal justly with me ; come, come ; nay, speak. 285 
 
 Guil. What should we say, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were 
 sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks 
 which your modesties have not craft enough to color : I 
 know the good king and queen have sent for you. 291 
 
 Bos. To what end, my lord ? 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 47 
 
 Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure 
 you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy 
 of our youth, by the obligation of oar ever-preserved love, 
 and by what more dear a better proposer could charge 
 you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you 
 were sent for, or no. 
 
 Bos. \_Aside to Ouil.'] What say you? 300 
 
 Ham. \_Aside\ Nay, then, I have an eye of you. — If 
 you love me, hold not off. 
 
 Guil. My lord, we were sent for. 
 
 Ham. I will tell you why ; so shall my anticipation 
 prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and 
 queen moult no feather. I have of late — but wherefore 
 I know not — lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of 
 exercises ; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposi- 
 tion that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a 
 sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, 
 look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majesti- 
 cal roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other 
 thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of 
 vapors.' What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in 
 reason ! how infinite in faculty ! in form and moving how 
 express and admirable ! in action how like an angel ! in 
 apprehension how like a god ! the beauty of the world ! 
 the paragon of animals ! And yet, to me, what is this 
 quintessence of dust? man delights not me : no, nor woman 
 neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. 323 
 
 Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. 
 
 Ham. AVhy did you laugh then, when I said 'man 
 delights not me ' ? 
 
 Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, 
 what lenten entertainment the jDlayers shall receive from 
 
48 HAMLET. 
 
 you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they 
 coming, to offer you service. 331 
 
 Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome ; his 
 majesty shall have tribute of me ; the adventurous knight 
 shall use his foil and target ; the lover shall not sigh 
 gratis ; the humorous man shall end his part in peace ; 
 the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled 
 o' the sere ; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or 
 the blank verse shall halt for 't. What players are 
 they ? 340 
 
 Mos. Even those you were wont to take delight in, the 
 tragedians of the city. 
 
 Ham. How chances it they travel ? their residence, 
 both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. 345 
 
 Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of 
 the late innovation. 
 
 Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when 
 I was in the city ? are they so followed ? 350 
 
 Ros. No, indeed, are they not. 
 
 Ham. How comes it ? do they grow rusty ? 
 
 Ros. Nay, their endeavor keeps in the wonted pace : 
 but there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases, that 
 cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically 
 clapped for 't : these are now the fashion, and so berattle 
 the common stages — so they call them — that many 
 wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce 
 come hither. 360 
 
 Ham. What, are they children ? who maintains 'em ? 
 how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality 
 no longer than they can sing ? will they not say after- 
 wards, if they should grow themselves to common players 
 — as it is most like, if their means are no better — their 
 
ACT II. SCENE 11. 49 
 
 writers do tliem wrong, to make them exclaim against 
 their own succession ? 368 
 
 Bos. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides ; 
 and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to contro- 
 versy : there was, for a while, no money bid for argu- 
 ment, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the 
 question. 373 
 
 Ham. Is 't possible ? 
 
 Guil. 0, there has been much throwing about of 
 brains. 376 
 
 Ham. Do the boys carry it away ? 
 
 Bos. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his 
 load too. 
 
 Ha7n. It is not very strange ; for mine uncle is king 
 of Denmark, and those that would make mows at him 
 while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hun- 
 dred ducats a-piece for his picture in little. 'Sblood, 
 there is something in this more than natural, if philoso- 
 phy could find it out. 385 
 
 [Flourish of trumpets within. 
 
 Guil. There are the players. 
 
 Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your 
 hands, come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fash- 
 ion and ceremony : let me comply with you in this garb, 
 lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must 
 show fairly outward, should more appear like entertain- 
 ment than yours. You are welcome : but my uncle-father 
 and aunt-mother are deceived. 
 
 Guil. In what, my dear lord ? 395 
 
 Ham. I am but mad north-north-west : when the wind 
 is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. 
 
50 HAMLET, 
 
 Enter Polonius. 
 
 Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen ! 
 
 Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern ; and you too : at each 
 ear a hearer : that great baby you see there is not yet 
 out of his swaddling-clouts. 40l 
 
 Ros. Happily he 's the second time come to them ; for 
 they say an old man is twice a child. 
 
 Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the 
 players ; mark it. — You say right, sir : o' Monday 
 morning ; 't was so indeed. 407 
 
 Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. 
 
 Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Ros- 
 cius was an actor in Rome, — 410 
 
 Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Buz, buz ! 
 
 Pol. Upon mine honor, — 
 
 Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, — 
 
 Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, 
 comedy, history, pastoral, j)3,storal-comical, historical- 
 pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical- 
 pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited : Seneca 
 cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law 
 of writ and the liberty, these are the only men. 421 
 
 Ham. Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure 
 hadst thou ! 
 
 Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Why, ' 425 
 
 ' One fair daughter, and no more. 
 The which he loved passing well.' 
 
 Pol. [^Aside] Still on my daughter. 
 
 Ham. Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah ? 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 51 
 
 Pol. If you call me Jephtliali, my lord, I have a daugh- 
 ter that I love passing well. 431 
 
 Ham. Nay, that follows not. 
 
 Pol. What follows, then, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Why, 
 
 ' As by lot, God wot,' 435 
 
 and then, you know, 
 
 ^ It came to pass, as most like it Avas,' — 
 the first row of the pious chanson will show you more ; 
 for look, where my abridgements come. 
 
 Enter four or five Players. 
 
 You are welcome, masters ; welcome, all. I am glad to 
 see thee Avell. Welcome, good friends. 0, my old friend ! 
 thy face is valanced since I saw thee last : comest thou 
 to beard me in Denmark ? What, my young lady and 
 mistress ! By'r lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven 
 than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine. 
 Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be 
 not cracked within the ring. Masters, you are all 
 Avelcome. We '11 e'en to 't like French falconers, fly at 
 any thing. we see: we'll have a speech straight: come, 
 give us a taste of your quality ; come, a passionate 
 speech. 452 
 
 First Play. What speech, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was 
 never acted ; or, if it was, not above once ; for the play, I 
 remember, pleased not the million ; 't was caviare to the 
 general : but it was — as I received it, and others, whose 
 judgements in such matters cried in the top of mine — an 
 excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with 
 as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there 
 
52 HAMLET, 
 
 « 
 
 were no sallets in tlie lines to make the matter savory, 
 nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author 
 of affectation ; but called it an honest method, as whole- 
 some as sweet, and by very much more handsome than 
 fine. One speech in it I chiefly loved : 't was Eneas' 
 tale to Dido ; and thereabout of it especially, where he 
 speaks of Priam's slaughter : if it live in your memory, 
 begin at this line : let me see, let me see — 471 
 
 ' The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,' — 
 it is not so : — it begins with Pyrrhus : — 
 
 ' The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms. 
 Black as his purpose, did the night resemble 475 
 
 When he lay couched in the ominous horse, 
 Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared 
 With heraldry more dismal ; head to foot 
 Now is he total gules ; horribly tricked 
 With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, 480 
 Baked and impasted with the parching streets, 
 That lend a tyrannous and damned light 
 To their lord's murder : roasted in wrath and fire, 
 And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, 
 With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus 485 
 Old grandsire Priam seeks.' 
 So, proceed you. 
 
 Pol. 'Fore G-od, my lord, well spoken, with good accent 
 and good discretion. 
 
 First Play. ' Anon he finds him 490 
 
 Striking too short at Greeks ; his antique sword, 
 Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, 
 Repugnant to command : unequal matched, 
 Pyrrhus at Priam drives ; in rage strikes wide ; 
 But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword 495 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 53 
 
 The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, 
 
 Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top 
 
 Stoops to his base, and Avith a hideous crash 
 
 Takes prisoner Fyrrhus' ear : for, lo ! his sword, 
 
 Which was declining on the milky head 500 
 
 Of reverend Priam, seemed i' the air to stick : 
 
 So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood. 
 
 And like a neutral to his will and matter, 
 
 Did nothing. 
 
 Bat, as we often see, against some storm, 505 
 
 A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, 
 
 The bold wind speechless and the orb below 
 
 As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder 
 
 Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause, 
 
 Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work ; 5io 
 
 And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall 
 
 On Mars's armor forged for proof eterne 
 
 With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword 
 
 Now falls on Priam. 
 
 Out, out, thou strumpet, Portune! All you gods, 515 
 
 In general synod, take away her power ; 
 
 Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, 
 
 And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, 
 
 As low as to the fiends ! ' 
 
 Pol. This is too long. 520 
 
 Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee, 
 say on : he 's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps : 
 say on : come to Hecuba. 
 
 First Play. ' But who, 0, who had seen the mobled 
 queen — ' 525 
 
 Ham. * The mobled queen ? ' 
 
 Pol. That 's good ; ' mobled queen ' is good. 
 
54 HAMLET. 
 
 First Play. ' Run barefoot up and down, threatening 
 the flames 
 With bisson rheum ; a clout upon that head 
 Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, 530 
 
 About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins, 
 A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up ; 
 Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped, 
 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pro- 
 nounced : 
 But if the gods themselves did see her then 535 
 
 When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport 
 In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, 
 The instant burst of clamor that she made. 
 Unless things mortal move them not at all. 
 Would have made milch the burning eyes of 
 heaven, 540 
 
 And passion in the gods.' 
 Pol. Look, whether he has not turned his color and 
 has tears in 's eyes. Pray you, no more. 
 
 Ham. 'T is well ; I '11 have thee speak out the rest soon. 
 G-ood my lord, will you see the players well bestowed ? 
 Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the 
 abstract and brief chronicles of the time : after your 
 death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill 
 report while you live. 551 
 
 Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their 
 desert. 
 
 Ham. God's body kins, man, much better : use every 
 man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping ? 
 Use them after your own honor and dignity : the less 
 they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take 
 them in. 558 
 
 Pol. Come, sirs. 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 55 
 
 Ham. Follow him, friends : we '11 hear a play to-mor- 
 row. \_Exit Poloidus with all the Pkv/ers but the First.'] 
 Dost thou hear me, old friend ; can you play the Murder 
 of Gonzago ? 563 
 
 First Play. Ay, my lord. 
 
 Ham. We '11 ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a 
 need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, Avhich 
 I would set down and insert in 't, could you not ? 568 
 
 Fi7'st Play. Ay, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Very Avell. Follow that lord; and look you 
 mock him not. [E.vit First Player.^ My good friends, 
 I '11 leave you till night : you are welcome to Elsinore. 573 
 
 Bos. Good my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Ay, so, God be Avi' ye ; \_Exeunt Rosencrantz and 
 Guildensterji.] Now I am alone. 577 
 
 0, what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! 
 Is it not monstrous that this player here, 
 But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, 
 Could force his soul so to his own conceit 
 That from her working all his visage wanned, 580 
 
 Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspect, 
 A broken voice, and his whole function suiting 
 With forms to his conceit ? and all for nothing ! 
 For Hecuba ! 
 
 AVhat 's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, 585 
 
 That he should weep for her ? What would he do, 
 Had he the motive and the cue for passion 
 That I have ? He would drown the stage with tears 
 And cleave the general ear with horrid speech. 
 Make mad the guilty and appal the free, 590 
 
 Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed 
 The very faculties of eyes and ears. 
 
56 HAMLET. 
 
 Yet I, 
 
 A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, 
 
 Like John-a-dreams, unpregnaut of my cause, 595 
 
 And can say nothing ; no, not for a king. 
 
 Upon whose property and most dear life 
 
 A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward ? 
 
 Who calls me villain ? breaks my pate across ? 
 
 Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face ? 600 
 
 Tweaks me by the nose ? gives me the lie i' the throat, 
 
 As deep as to the lungs ? who does me this ? 
 
 Ha! 
 
 'S wounds, I should take it : for it cannot be 
 
 But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall 605 
 
 To make oppression bitter, or ere this 
 
 I should have fatted all the region kites 
 
 With this slave's offal : bloody, bawdy villain ! 
 
 Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain ! 
 
 0, vengeance! 610 
 
 Why, what an ass am I ! This is most brave, 
 
 That I, the son of a dear father murdered. 
 
 Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell. 
 
 Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, 
 
 And fall arcursing, like a very drab, 615 
 
 A scullion ! 
 
 Fie upon 't ! f oh ! About, my brain ! I have heard 
 
 That guilty creatures sitting at a play 
 
 Have by the very cunning of the scene 
 
 Been struck so to the soul that presently 620 
 
 They have proclaimed their malefactions ; 
 
 For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak . 
 
 With most miraculous organ. I '11 have these players 
 
 Play something like the murder of my father 
 
 ..isM 
 
ACT III. SCENE I. 67 
 
 Before my uncle : I '11 observe his looks ; 625 
 
 I '11 tent liim to the quick : if he but blench, 
 
 I know my course. The spirit that I have seen 
 
 May be the devil : and the devil hath power 
 
 To assume a pleasing shape ; yea, and perhaps 
 
 Out of my weakness and my melancholy, 630 
 
 As he is very potent with such spirits. 
 
 Abuses me to damn me : I '11 have grounds 
 
 More relative than this : the play 's the thing 
 
 Wherein I '11 catch the conscience of the king. 
 
 [Exit. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene I. A room in the castle. 
 Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Kosencrantz, 
 
 and GUILDENSTERN. 
 
 King. And can you, by no drift of circumstance, 
 Get from him why he puts on this confusion, 
 Grating so harshly all his days of quiet 
 With turbulent and dangerous lunacy ? 
 
 Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted ; 5 
 But from what cause he will by no means speak. 
 
 Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, 
 But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof. 
 When we would bring him on to some confession 
 Of his true state. 
 
 Qiieen. Did he receive you well ? lo 
 
 Ros. Most like a gentleman. 
 
 Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. 
 
 Ros. Niggard of question ; but, of our demands, 
 Most free in his reply. 
 
58 HAMLET. 
 
 Queen. Did you assay him 
 
 To any pastime ? 15 
 
 Mos. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players 
 We o'er-raught on the way : of these we told him ; 
 And there did seem in him a kind of joy 
 To hear of it : they are about the court. 
 And, as I think, they have already order 20 
 
 This night to play before him. 
 
 Pol. 'T is most true : 
 
 And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties 
 To hear and see the matter. 
 
 King. With all my heart ; and it doth much content 
 me 
 To hear him so inclined. 25 
 
 Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, 
 And drive his purpose on to these delights. 
 
 Hos. We shall, my lord. 
 
 [^Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 
 King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too ; 
 
 For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, 
 That he, as 't were by accident, may here 30 
 
 Affront Ophelia : 
 
 Her father and myself, lawful espials, 
 Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen, 
 We may of their encounter frankly judge, 
 And gather by him, as he is behaved, 35 
 
 If 't be the affliction of his love or no 
 That thus he suffers for. 
 
 Queen. I shall obey you. 
 
 And for your x^art, Ophelia, I do wish 
 That your good beauties be the happy cause 
 Of Hamlet's wildness : so shall I hope your virtues 40 
 
ACT in. SCENE I. 59 
 
 Will bring hi in to liis wonted way again, 
 To both yonr honors. 
 
 Ojih. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen. 
 
 Pol. Ophelia, Avalk you here. Gracious, so please you, 
 We will bestow ourselves. [To Ophelia'] Read on this 
 
 book ; 
 That show of such an exercise may color 45 
 
 Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this, — 
 'T is too much proved — that with devotion's visage 
 And pious action we do sugar o'er 
 The devil himself. 
 
 King. \^Asicle] 0, 't is too true ! 
 How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience ! 
 The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, 51 
 
 Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it 
 Than is my deed to my most painted word : 
 heavy burthen ! 
 
 Pol. I hear him coming : let 's withdraw, my lord. 55 
 
 [^Exeunt King and Polonius. 
 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. To be, or not to be : that is the question: 
 Whether 't is nobler in the mind to suffer 
 The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. 
 Or to take arms against a sea of troubles. 
 And by opposing end them. To die : to sleep ; 60 
 
 No more ; and by a sleep to say we end 
 The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks 
 That flesh is heir to, 't is a consummation 
 Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep ; 
 To sleep : perchance to dream : ay, there 's the rub ; 65 
 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come 
 
60 HAMLET. 
 
 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 
 
 Must give us pause : there 's the respect 
 
 That makes calamity of so long life ; 
 
 For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 70 
 
 The oppressor's Avrong, the proud man's contumely. 
 
 The pangs of despised love, the law's delay. 
 
 The insolence of office and the spurns 
 
 That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 
 
 When he himself might his quietus make 75 
 
 With a bare bodkin ? Who would fardels bear. 
 
 To grunt and sweat under a weary life. 
 
 But that the dread of something after death. 
 
 The undiscovered country from whose bourn 
 
 No traveller returns, puzzles the will 80 
 
 And makes us rather bear those ills we have 
 
 Than fly to others that we know not of ? 
 
 Thus conscience does make cowards of us all ; 
 
 And thus the native hue of resolution 
 
 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, 85 
 
 And enterprises of great pith and moment 
 
 With this regard their currents turn awry, 
 
 And lose the name of action. — Soft you now ! 
 
 The fair Ophelia ! Nymph, in thy orisons 
 
 Be all my sins remembered. 
 
 Opli. Good my lord, 90 
 
 How does your honor for this many a day ? 
 
 Ham. I humbly thank you ; well, well, well. 
 
 Opli. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, 
 That I have longed long to re-deliver ; 
 I pray you, now receive them. 95 
 
 Ham. No, not I ; 
 
 I never gave you aught. 
 
ACT III. SCENE I. 61 
 
 Oj^h. My honored lord, you know right well you 
 did ; 
 And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed 
 As made the things more rich : their perfume lost. 
 Take these again ; for to the noble mind lOO 
 
 Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. 
 There, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Ha, ha ! are you lionest ? 
 
 Ojjh. My lord ? 
 
 Ham. Are you fair ? 105 
 
 Oph. What means your lordship ? 
 
 Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty 
 should admit no discourse to your beauty. 
 
 Ojyh. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce 
 than with honesty ? 110 
 
 Ham. Ay, truly ; for the power of beauty will sooner 
 transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the 
 force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness : 
 this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it 
 proof. I did love you once. iiG 
 
 Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. 
 
 Ham. You should not have believed me ; for virtue 
 cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it : 
 I loved you not. 120 
 
 Ojyh. I was the more deceived. 
 
 Ha7n. Get thee to a nunnery : why wouldst thou be 
 a breeder of sinners ? I am myself indifferent honest ; 
 but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were 
 better my mother had not borne me : I am very proud, 
 revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck 
 than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to 
 give them shape, or time to act them in. What should 
 
62 HAMLET. 
 
 such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven ? 
 We are arrant knaves, all ; believe none of us. Go thy 
 ways to a nunnery. Where 's your father ? 133 
 
 Ojj/i. At home, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may 
 play the fool no where but in 's own house. Farewell. 
 
 Op/i. 0, help him, you sweet heavens ! 138 
 
 Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague 
 for thy dowry : be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, 
 thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, 
 go : farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool ; 
 for wise men know well enough what monsters you make 
 of them. To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell. 
 . Oph. heavenly powers, restore him ! 147 
 
 Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough ; 
 God has given you one face, and you make yourselves an- 
 other : you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name 
 God's creatures, and make your wantonness your igno- 
 rance. Go to, I '11 no more on 't ; it hath made me mad. I 
 say, we will have no more marriages : those that are mar- 
 ried already, all but one, shall live ; the rest shall keep as 
 they are. To a nunnery, go. \^JExit. 156 
 
 Oph. 0, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! 
 The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword ; 
 The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 160 
 
 The glass of fashion and the mould of form, 
 The observed of all the observers, quite, quite down ! 
 And I, of ladies most deject and wretched. 
 That sucked the honey of his music vows, 
 Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 165 
 
 Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; 
 That unmatched form and feature of blown youth 
 
ACT III. SCENE I. 63 
 
 Blasted with ecstasy : 0, woe is me, 
 
 To have seen what I have seen, see what I see ! 
 
 lie-enter King and Polonius. 
 
 King. Love ! his affections do not that way tend ; 170 
 Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, 
 Was not like madness. There 's something in his soul. 
 O'er which his melancholy sits on brood ; 
 And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose 
 Will be some danger : which for to prevent, 175 
 
 I have in quick determination 
 Thus set it down : he shall with speed to England, 
 For the demand of our neglected tribute : 
 Haply the seas and countries different 
 With variable objects shall expel 180 
 
 This something-settled matter in his heart, 
 Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus 
 From fashion of himself. What think you on 't ? 
 
 Pol. It shall do well : but yet do I believe 
 The origin and commencement of his grief 185 
 
 Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia ! 
 You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said ; 
 We heard it all. My lord, do as you please ; 
 But, if you hold it fit, after the play 
 
 Let his queen mother all alone entreat him 190 
 
 To show his grief : let her be round with him ; 
 And I '11 be placed, so please you, in the ear 
 Of all their conference. If she find him not, 
 To England send him, or confine him where 
 Your wisdom best shall think. 195 
 
 King. It shall be so; 
 
 Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. {^Exeunt. 
 
64 HAMLET. 
 
 Scene II. A hall in the castle. 
 Enter Hamlet and Players. 
 
 Hayn. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced 
 it to you, trippingly on the tongue : but if you mouth it, 
 as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier 
 spoke my lines. jSTor do not saw the air too much with 
 your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very tor- 
 rent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of pas- 
 sion, yoTi must acquire and beget a temperance that may 
 give it smoothness. 0, it offends me to the soul to hear 
 a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tat- 
 ters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, 
 who for the most part are capable of nothing but inex- 
 plicable dumb-shows and noise : I would have such a fel- 
 low whipped for o'erdoing Termagant ; it out-herods 
 Herod : pray you, avoid it. 16 
 
 First Play. I warrant your honor. 
 
 Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own dis- 
 cretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the 
 word to the action; with this special observance, that 
 you o'erstep not the modesty of nature : for any thing so 
 overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both 
 at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 't were, the 
 mirror up to nature ; to show virtue her own feature, 
 scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the 
 time his form a];id pressure. Now this overdone, or come 
 tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but 
 make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one 
 must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of 
 others. 0, there be players that I have seen play, and 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 65 
 
 heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it pro- 
 fanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor 
 the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted 
 and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's jour- 
 neymen had made men and not made them well, they 
 imitated humanity so abominably. 39 
 
 First Play. I hope we have reformed that indifferently 
 with us, sir. 
 
 Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let those that 
 play your clowns speak no more than is set doAvn for them ; 
 for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on 
 some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too ; though, 
 in the mean time, some necessary question of the play be 
 then to be considered : that's villanous, and shoAvs a most 
 pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you 
 ready. [Exeunt Players. 51 
 
 Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. 
 
 How noAV, my lord ! will the king hear this piece of work ? 
 
 Pol. And the queen too, and that presently. 
 
 Ham. Bid the players make haste. [Exit Polonius. 
 Will you two help to hasten them ? 55 
 
 ■ y We will, my lord. 
 
 [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 Ham. What ho ! Horatio ! 
 
 Enter Horatio. 
 
 Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. 
 Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man 
 As e'er my conversation coped withal. 60 
 
 Hot. 0, my dear lord, — 
 
66 HAMLET. 
 
 Ham. N'ay, do not think I flatter ; 
 
 For what advancement may I hope from thee 
 That no revenue hast but thy good spirits, 
 To feed and clothe thee ? Why should the poor be 
 
 flattered ? 
 ISTo, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, 65 
 
 And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee 
 Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear ? 
 Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice 
 And could of men distinguish, her election 
 Hath sealed thee for herself ; for thou hast been 70 
 
 As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing, 
 A man that fortune's buffets and rewards 
 Hast ta'en with equal thanks : and blest are those 
 Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled. 
 That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger 75 
 
 To sound what stop she please. Give me that man 
 That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him 
 In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, 
 As I do thee. — Something too much of this. — 
 There is a play to-night before the king ; 80 
 
 One scene of it comes near the circumstance 
 Which I have told thee of my father's death : 
 I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot. 
 Even with the very comment of thy soul 
 Observe mine uncle : if his occulted guilt 85 
 
 Do not itself unkennel in one speech. 
 It is a damned ghost that we have seen. 
 And my imaginations are as foul 
 As Vulcan's stithy. G-ive him heedful note ; 
 For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, 90 
 
 And after we will both our judgements join 
 In censure of his seeming. 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 67 
 
 Hor. Well, my lord : 
 
 If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, 
 And 'scape detecting, I Avill pay the theft. 
 
 Ham. They are coming to the play ; 1 must be idle : 
 Get you a place. 96 
 
 Danish march. A flourish. Enter King, Queen, Polonius, 
 Ophelia, Eosenckantz, Guildenstern, and others. 
 
 King. How fares our cousin Hamlet ? 
 
 Ham. Excellent, i' faith ; of the chameleon's dish ; I 
 eat the air, promise-crammed : you cannot feed capons so. 
 
 King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet ; these 
 words are not mine. 102 
 
 Ham. ISTo, nor mine now. [To Polonius'] My lord, 
 you played once i' the university, you say ? 
 
 Pol. That did I, my lord ; and was accounted a good 
 actor. 106 
 
 Ham. What did you enact ? 
 
 Pol. I did enact Julius Csesar : I was killed i' the 
 Capitol ; Brutus killed me. 
 
 Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a 
 calf there. Be the players ready ? ill 
 
 Ros. Ay, my lord ; they stay upon your patience. 
 
 Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. 114 
 
 Ham. No, good mother, here 's metal more attractive. 
 
 Pol. [^To the King'] 0, ho ! do you mark that ? 
 
 Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap ? 
 
 \_Lying down at Ophelia'' s feet. 
 
 Oph. You are merry, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Who, I ? 130 
 
 Oph. Ay, my lord. 
 
 Ham. God, your only jig-maker. What should a 
 
68 HAMLET. 
 
 man do but be merry ? for, look you, how cheerfully my 
 mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. 
 Oph. Nay, 't is twice two months, my lord. 136 
 
 Ham. So long ? Nay then, let the devil wear black, 
 for I '11 have a suit of sables. heavens ! die two months 
 ago, and not forgotten yet ? Then there 's hope a great 
 man's memory may outlive his life half a year : but, by'r 
 lady, he must build churches, then ; or else shall he suffer 
 not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 
 ' For, 0, for, 0, the hobby-horse is forgot.' 145 
 
 Hautboys play. The dumh-sliow enters. 
 
 Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly ; the Queen em- 
 bracing him, and he her. She kneels, arid makes show 
 of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines 
 his head upon her neck : lays him down upon a bank of 
 flowers : she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes 
 in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pows poison 
 in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds 
 the King dead, and makes passioiiate action. The Pois- 
 oner, ivith some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seem- 
 ing to' lament with her. The dead body is carried away. 
 TJie Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts : she seems loath 
 and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. 
 
 \_Exeunt. 
 Oph. What means this, my lord ? 
 Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means 
 
 mischief. 
 
 Oph. Belike this show imports the argument of the 
 
 play. 150 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 69 
 
 Enter Prologue. 
 
 Ham. We sliall knoAv by this fellow: the players 
 cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. 
 
 Opli. Will he tell us what this show meant ? 
 
 Ham. Ay, or any show that you '11 show him. 
 
 Oph. I '11 mark the play. 
 
 Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, 
 
 Here stooping to your clemency, 160 
 
 We beg your hearing patiently. \_ExU. 
 
 Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring ? 
 
 Ojih. 'T is brief, m}^ lord. 
 
 Ham. As woman's love. 
 
 Enter two Players, King and Queen. 
 
 P. lung. Pull thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone 
 round 165 
 
 Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground, 
 And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen 
 About the world have times twelve thirties been 
 Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands 
 Unite commutual in most sacred bands. 170 
 
 P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon 
 Make us again count o'er ere love be done ! 
 But, woe is me, you are so sick of late, 
 So far from cheer and from j^our former state, 
 That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, 175 
 
 Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must : 
 Por women's fear and love holds quantity ; 
 In neither aught, or in extremity. 
 Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know ; 
 And as my love is sized, my fear is so : 180 
 
70 HAMLET. 
 
 Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear ; 
 Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. 
 
 P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly 
 too; 
 My operant powers their functions leave to do : 
 And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, 185 
 
 Honored, beloved ; and haply one as kind 
 For husband shalt thou — 
 
 P. Queen. 0, confound the rest ! 
 
 Such love must needs be treason in my breast : 
 In second husband let me be accurst ! 
 None wed the second but who killed the first. 
 
 Ham. l^Aside'] Wormwood, wormwood. 
 
 P. Queen. The instances that second marriage move 
 Are base respects of thrift, but none of love : 
 A second time I kill my husband dead. 
 When second husband kisses me in bed. 195 
 
 P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak ; 
 Bub what we do determine oft we break. 
 Purpose is but the slave to memory, 
 Of violent birth, but poor validity : 
 Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree ; 200 
 But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. 
 Most necessary 't is that we forget 
 To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt : 
 What to ourselves in passion we propose, 
 The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. 205 
 
 The violence of either grief or joy 
 Their own enactures with themselves destroy : 
 Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament ; 
 Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. 
 This world is not for aye, nor 't is not strange 210 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 71 
 
 That even our loves should with our fortunes change ; 
 
 For 't is a question left us yet to prove, 
 
 Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. 
 
 The great man down, you mark his favorite flies ; 
 
 The poor advanced makes friends of eneinies. 215 
 
 And hitherto doth love on fortune tend ; 
 
 For who not needs shall never lack a friend, 
 
 And Avho in want a hollow friend doth try, 
 
 Directly seasons him his enemy. 
 
 But, orderly to end where I begun, 220 
 
 Our wills and fates do so contrary run 
 
 That our devices still are overthrown; 
 
 Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own : 
 
 So think thou wilt no second husband wed ; 
 
 But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. 225 
 
 P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven 
 light ! 
 Sport and repose lock from me day and night ! 
 To desperation turn my trust and hope ! 
 An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope ! 
 Each opposite that blanks the face of joy 230 
 
 Meet what I would have well and it destroy ! 
 Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife. 
 If, once a widow, ever I be wife ! 
 
 Ham. If she should break it now ! 
 
 P. King. 'T is deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here 
 awhile ; 235 
 
 My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile 
 The tedious day with sleep. [/S/eeps. 
 
 P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain ; 
 
 And never come mischance between us twain ! \_Exit. 
 
 Ham. Madam, how like you this play ? 
 
72 HAMLET. 
 
 Queen. The lady protests too mucli, metliinks. 240 
 
 Ham. 0, but she '11 keep her word. 
 
 King. Have you heard the argument ? Is there no 
 offence in 't ? 
 
 Ham. Xo, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no 
 offence i' the world. 245 
 
 Kmg. What do you call the play ? 
 
 Ham. The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. 
 This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna : 
 Gonzago is the duke's name ; his wife, Baptista : you 
 shall see anon ; 't is a knavish piece of work : but what 
 o' that? Your majesty and we that have free souls, 
 it touches us not : let the galled jade wince, our withers 
 are unwrung. 
 
 Enter Lucianus. 
 
 This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. 
 
 Op/i. You are as good as a chorus, my lord. 255 
 
 Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if 
 
 I could see the puppets dallying. — Begin, murderer ; 
 
 pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come : ' the 
 
 croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.' 265 
 
 Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time 
 
 agreeing ; 
 Confederate season, else no creature seeing ; 
 Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, 
 With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, 
 Thy natural magic and dire property, 270 
 
 On wholesome life usurp immediately. 
 
 [^Potirs the poison into the sleeper'' s ears. 
 Ham. He poisons him i' the garden for 's estate. 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 73 
 
 His name's Gonzago: tlie story is extant, and writ in 
 choice Italian : you shall see anon how the murderer gets 
 the love of Gonzago's wife. 275 
 
 Opli. The king rises. 
 Ham. What, frighted with false fire ! 
 Queen. How fares my lord ? 
 Pol. Give o'er the play. 
 
 King. Give me some light : away ! 280 
 
 xill. Lights, lights, lights ! 
 
 [^E.veunt all but Hamlet and Horatio. 
 Ham. Why, let the stricken deer go weep. 
 The hart ungalled play ; 
 For some must watch, while some must sleep : 
 So runs the world away. 285 
 
 "Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers — if the rest 
 of my fortunes turn Turk with me — with two Provin- 
 cial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a 
 cry of players, sir ? 
 
 Hor. Half a share. 290 
 
 Ham. A whole one, I. 
 
 For thou dost know, Damon dear, 
 
 This realm dismantled was 
 Of Jove himself; and now reigns here 
 
 A very, very — pajock. 295 
 
 Hoi: You might have rimed. 
 
 Ham. good Horatio, I '11 take the ghost's word for 
 a thousand pound. Didst perceive ? 
 Hor. Very well, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning ? 300 
 
 Hor. I did very well note him. 
 
 Ham. Ah, ha ! Come, some music ! come, the 
 recorders ! 
 
74 HAMLET. 
 
 For if the king like not the comedy, 
 Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. 305 
 
 Come, some music ! 
 
 Re-enter Rosencrantz and Guildensteen. 
 
 Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. 
 
 Ham. Sir, a whole history. 
 
 Ouil. The king, sir, — 3io 
 
 Ham. Ay, sir, what of him ? 
 
 Guil. Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. 
 
 Ham. With drink, sir ? 
 
 Guil. No, my lord, rather with choler. 315 
 
 Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to 
 signify this to his doctor ; for, for me to put him to his 
 purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler. 
 
 Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some 
 frame and start not so wildly from my affair. 321 
 
 Ham. I am tame, sir : pronounce. 
 
 Gruil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction 
 of spirit, hath sent me to you. 
 
 Ham. You are welcome. 325 
 
 Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the 
 right breed. If it shall please you to make me a whole- 
 some answer, I will do your mother's commandment : if 
 not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my 
 business. 330 
 
 Ham. Sir, I cannot. 
 
 Guil. What, my lord ? 
 
 Ham. Make you a wholesome answer ; my wit 's dis- 
 eased : but, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall 
 command ; or, rather, as you say, my mother : therefore 
 no more, but to the matter : my mother, you say, — 337 
 
ACT in. SCENE II. 75 
 
 Ros. Then thus she says ; your behavior hath struck 
 her into amazement and admiration. 
 
 Ham. wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! 
 But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admi- 
 ration ? 342 
 
 Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere 
 you go to bed. 
 
 Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. 
 Have you any further trade with us ? 346 
 
 Ros. My lord, you once did love me. 
 
 Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers. 
 
 Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper ? 
 you do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you 
 deny your griefs to your friend. 353 
 
 Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. 
 
 Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the 
 king himself for your succession in Denmark ? 357 
 
 Ham. Ay, but sir, ' While the grass grows,' — the 
 proverb is something musty. 
 
 Re-enter Players ivith recorders. 
 
 0, the recorders ! let me see one. To withdraw with you : 
 — why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if 
 you would drive me into a toil ? ' 362 
 
 Guil. 0, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is 
 too unmannerly. 
 
 Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play 
 upon this pipe ? 366 
 
 Guil. My lord, I cannot. 
 
 Ham. I pray you. 
 
 Guil. Believe me, I cannot. 
 
 Ham. I do beseech you. 370 
 
76 BAMLET. 
 
 Guil. I know no toiicli of it, my lord. 
 
 Ham. 'T is as easy as lying : govern these ventages 
 with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your 
 mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look 
 you, these are the stops. 376 
 
 Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance 
 of harmony ; I have not the skill. 
 
 Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing 
 you make of me ! You would play upon me ; you would 
 seem to know my stops ; you would pluck out the heart 
 of my mystery ; you would sound me from my lowest 
 note to the top of my compass : and there is much music, 
 excellent voice, in this little organ ; yet cannot you make 
 it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played 
 on than a pipe ? Call me what instrument you will, 
 though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me. 
 
 Enter Polonius. 
 God bless you, sir ! 390 
 
 Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and 
 presently. 
 
 Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that 's almost in shape 
 of a camel ? 
 
 Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. 395 
 
 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 I will come to my mother by and by. 
 They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and 
 by. 402 
 
 Pol. I will say so. 
 
ACT III. SCENE III. 77 
 
 Ham. By and by is easily said. [^Exit Polonius. 
 
 Leave me, friends. \_Exetint all but Hamlet. 405 
 
 'T is now the very witching time of night, 
 When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out 
 Contagion to this world : now could I drink hot blood. 
 And do such bitter business as the day 
 Would quake to look on. Soft ! now to my mother. 4io 
 
 heart, lose not thy nature ; let not ever 
 The soul of iSTero enter this firm bosom : 
 Let me be cruel, not unnatural : 
 
 1 will speak daggers to her, but use none ; 
 
 My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites ; 415 
 
 How in my words soever she be shent, 
 
 To give them seals never, my soul, consent ! [^Exit. 
 
 Scene III. A room in the castle. 
 Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. 
 
 King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with ns 
 To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you ; 
 I your commission will forthwith dispatch, 
 And he to England shall along with you : 
 The terms of our estate may not endure 5 
 
 Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow 
 Oiit of his lunacies. 
 
 GuU. We will ourselves provide: 
 
 Most holy and religious fear it is 
 To keep those many many bodies safe 
 That live and feed upon your majesty. lo 
 
 Hos. The single and peculiar life is bound, 
 With all the strength and armor of the mind. 
 To keep itself from noyance ; but much more 
 
78 HAMLET. 
 
 That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest 
 
 The lives of many. The cease of majesty 15 
 
 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 falls, 20 
 
 Each small annexment, petty consequence. 
 
 Attends the boisterous ruin. ISTever 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, 25 
 
 Which now goes too free-footed. 
 
 Bos. 
 
 We will haste us. 
 Guil. 
 
 \_Exeunt Rosencrantz and Ouildenstern. 
 
 Enter Polonius. 
 
 Pol. My lord, he 's going to his mother's closet : 
 Behind the arras I '11 convey myself. 
 To hear the process ; I '11 warrant she '11 tax him home : 
 And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 30 
 
 'T is meet that some more audience than a mother, 
 Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear 
 The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege : 
 I '11 call upon you ere you go to bed, 
 And tell you what I know. 35 
 
 King. Thanks, dear my lord. 
 
 \_Exit Polonius. 
 0, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; 
 It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't, 
 A brother's murder. Pray can I not. 
 
ACT III. SCENE III. 79 
 
 Though inclination be as sharp as will : 
 
 My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent ; 40 
 
 And, like a man to double business bound, 
 
 I stand in pai^se where I shall first begin. 
 
 And both neglect. What if this cursed hand 
 
 Were thicker than itself Avith brother's blood, 
 
 Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 45 
 
 To wash it white as snow ? Whereto serves mercy 
 
 But to confront the visage of offence ? 
 
 And what 's in prayer but this two-fold force, 
 
 To be forestalled ere we come to fall, 
 
 Or pardoned being doAvn ? Then I '11 look up ; 50 
 
 My fault is past. But, 0, 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 ambitioii and my queen. 55 
 
 May one be pardoned and retain the offence ? 
 
 In 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 ; 60 
 
 There is no shuffling, there the action lies 
 
 In his true nature ; and we ourselves compelled. 
 
 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
 
 To give in evidence. What then ? what rests ? 
 
 Try what repentance can : what can it not ? 65 
 
 Yet what can it when one cannot repent ? 
 
 wretched state ! bosom black as death ! 
 
 limed soul, that, struggling to be free. 
 
 Art more engaged ! Help, angels ! Make assay ! 
 
 Bow, stubborn knees ; and, heart with sti^ings of steel, 70 
 
80 HAMLET. 
 
 Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe ! 
 
 All may be well. [^Betires and kneels. 
 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying ; 
 And now I '11 do 't. And so he goes to heaven ; 
 And so am I revenged. That would be scanned : 75 
 
 A villain kills my father ; and for that, 
 I, his sole son, do this same villain send 
 To heaven. 
 
 0, this is hire and salary, not revenge. 
 He took my father grossly, full of bread ; 80 
 
 With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May ; 
 And how his audit stands who knows save heaven ? 
 But in our circumstance and course of thought, 
 'T is heavy with him : and am I then revenged, 
 To take him in the purging of his soul, 85 
 
 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. 
 Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; 90 
 
 At gaming, swearing, or about some act 
 That has no relish of salvation in 't ; 
 Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, 
 And that his soul may be as damned and black 
 As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays : 95 
 
 This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. \_ExU. 
 
 King. \_Rising'\ My words fly up, my thoughts remain 
 below : 
 Words without thoughts never to heaven go. \_Exit. 
 
ACT III. SCENE IV. 81 
 
 Scene IV. The Queen's closet. 
 Enter Queen and Polonius. 
 
 Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to 
 him : 
 Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, 
 And that your grace hath screened and stood between 
 IMuch heat and him. I '11 sconce me even here. 
 Pray you, be round with him. 5 
 
 Ham. [ Within^ Mother, mother, mother ! 
 
 Queen. I '11 warrant you, 
 
 Pear me not : withdraw, I hear him coming. 
 
 [Polonius hides behind the arras. 
 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter? 
 
 Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 
 
 Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended, lo 
 
 Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. 
 
 Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. 
 
 Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet ! 
 
 Ham. What 's the matter now ? 
 
 Queen. Have you forgot me ? 
 
 Ham. No, by the rood, not so : 
 
 You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife ; 15 
 
 And — would it were not so ! — you are my mother. 
 
 Queen. Nay, then, I '11 set those to you that can speak. 
 
 Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not 
 budge ; 
 You go not till I set you up a glass 
 Where you may see the inmost part of you. 20 
 
 G 
 
82 HAMLET. 
 
 Queen. What wilt thou do ? thou wilt not murder me ? 
 Help, help, ho ! 
 
 Pol. [Behind'] What, ho ! help, help, help ! 
 
 Ham. [Drawing] How now ! a rat ? Dead, for a 
 ducat, dead ! 
 
 [Makes a pass through the arras. 
 
 Pol. [Behind^ 0, I am slain ! [Falls and dies. 
 
 Queen. me, what hast thou done ? 25 
 
 Ham. Nay, I know not : 
 
 Is it the king ? 
 
 Queen. 0, what a rash and bloody deed is this ! 
 
 Ham. A bloody deed ! almost as bad, good mother. 
 As kill a king, and marry with his brother. 
 
 Queen. As kill a king ! 30 
 
 Ham. Ay, lady, 't was my word. 
 
 [Lifts up the arras and discovers Polonius. 
 Thou wretched, rash, ilitruding fool, farewell ! 
 I took thee for thy better : take thy fortune ; 
 Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger. 
 Leave wringing of your hands : peace ! sit you down. 
 And let me wring your heart ; for so I shall, 35 
 
 If it be made of penetrable stuff. 
 If damned custom have not brassed it so 
 That it is proof and bulwark against sense. 
 
 Queen. What have I done, that thou darest wag thy 
 tongue 
 In noise so rude against me ? 40 
 
 Ham. Such an act 
 
 That blurs the grace and blush of modesty, 
 Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose 
 From the fair forehead of an innocent love 
 And sets a blister there ; makes marriage-vows 
 
ACT III. SCENE IV. 83 
 
 As false as dicers' oaths : 0, such a deed 45 
 
 As from the body of contraction plucks 
 
 The ver}' soul, and sweet religion makes 
 
 A rhapsody of words : heaven's face doth glow ; 
 
 Yea, this solidity and compound mass, 
 
 With tristful visage, as against the doom, 50 
 
 Is thought-sick at the act. 
 
 Queen. ' Ay me, what act, 
 
 That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? 
 
 Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this, 
 The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. 
 See, what a grace was seated on this brow ; 55 
 
 Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself ; 
 An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; 
 A station like the herald Mercury 
 New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ; 
 A combination and a form indeed, 60 
 
 Where every god did seem to set his seal. 
 To give the world assurance of a man : 
 This was your husband. Look you now, what follows : 
 Here is your husband ; like a mildewed ear. 
 Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes ? 65 
 Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed. 
 And batten on this moor ? Ha ! have you eyes ? 
 You cannot call it love ; for at your age 
 The hey-day in the blood is tame, it 's humble. 
 And waits upon the judgement : and what judgement 70 
 Would step from this to this ? Sense, sure, you have. 
 Else could you not have motion ; but sure, that sense 
 Is apoplexed ; for madness would not err. 
 Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled 
 But it reserved some quantity of choice, 75 
 
84 HAMLET. 
 
 To serve in such a difference. Wliat devil was 't 
 
 That tlius hath cozened you at hoodman-blind ? ■ 
 
 Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, 
 
 Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, 
 
 Or but a sickly part of one true sense 80 
 
 Could not so mope. 
 
 shame ! where is thy blush ? Rebellious hell, 
 
 If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones. 
 
 To flaming youth let virtue be as wax. 
 
 And melt in her own fire : proclaim no shame 85 
 
 When the compulsive ardor gives the charge. 
 
 Since frost itself as actively doth burn 
 
 And reason panders will. 
 
 Queen. Hamlet, spea.k no more : 
 
 Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul ; 
 And there I see such black and grained spots 90 
 
 As will not leave their tinct. 
 
 Ham. Nay, but to live 
 
 Stewed in corruption, — 
 
 Queen. 0, speak to me no more ; 
 
 These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears ; 95 
 
 No more, sweet Hamlet ! 
 
 Ham. A murderer and a villain ; 
 
 A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 
 Of your precedent lord ; a vice of kings ; 
 A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, 
 That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, lOO 
 
 And put it in his pocket ! 
 
 Queen. No more ! 
 
 Ham. A king of shreds and patches, — 
 
ACT III. SCENE IV. 85 
 
 Enter Ghost. 
 
 Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, 
 
 You heavenly guards ! What woukl your gracious figure ? 
 
 Queen. Alas, he 's mad ! 105 
 
 Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, 
 That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by 
 The important acting of your dread command ? 0, say ! 
 
 Ghost. Do not forget : this visitation 110 
 
 Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. 
 But, look, amazement on thy mother sits : 
 0, step between her and her fighting soul : 
 Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works : 
 Speak to her, Hamlet. 115 
 
 Ham. How is it with you, lady ? 
 
 Queen. Alas, how is 't with you, 
 That you do bend your eye on vacancy 
 And with the incorporal air do hold discourse ? 
 Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep ; 
 And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, 120 
 
 Your bedded hair, like life in excrements. 
 Starts up, and stands an end. gentle son, 
 Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper 
 Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look ? 
 
 Ham. On him, on him ! Look you, how pale he 
 glares ! 125 
 
 His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, 
 Would make them capable. Do not look upon me ; 
 Lest with this piteous action you convert 
 My stern effects : then what I have to do 
 Will want true color ; tears perchance for blood. 1.30 
 
 Queen. To whom do you speak this ? 
 
86 HAMLET. 
 
 Ham. Do you see nothing there ? 
 
 Queen. Nothing at all ; yet all that is I see. 
 
 Ham. Nor did you nothing hear ? 
 
 Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. 
 
 Ham. Why, look you there ! look, how it steals away ! 
 My father, in his habit as he lived ! 135 
 
 Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal ! 
 
 \^Exit Ghost. 
 
 Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain : 
 This bodiless creation ecstasy 
 Is very cunning in. 
 
 Ham. Ecstasy ! 
 
 My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, 140 
 
 And makes as healthful music : it is not madness 
 That I have uttered : bring me to the test. 
 And I the matter will re-word ; which madness 
 Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace. 
 Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, 145 
 
 That not your trespass, but my madness speaks : 
 It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, 
 Whilst rank corruption, mining all within. 
 Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven ; 
 Repent what 's past ; avoid what is to come ; 150 
 
 And do not spread the compost on the weeds. 
 To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue; 
 For in the fatness of these pursy times 
 Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg. 
 Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. 155 
 
 Queen. Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. 
 
 Ham. 0,. throw away the worser part of it, 
 And live the purer Avith the other half. 
 Good night : but go not to mine uncle's bed ; 
 
ACT HI. SCENE IV. 87 
 
 Assume a virtue, if you have it not. 160 
 
 That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, 
 
 Of habits devil, is angel yet in this. 
 
 That to the use of actions fair and good 
 
 He likewise gives a frock or livery, 
 
 That aptly is put on. — 165 
 
 Once more, good night : 
 
 And when you are desirous to be blessed, 
 
 I '11 blessing beg of you. For this same lord, 
 
 \_Pointing to Polonius. 
 I do repent : but heaven hath pleased it so. 
 To punish me with this and this with me. 
 That I must be their scourge and minister. 175 
 
 I Avill bestow him, and will answer well 
 The death I gave him. So, again, good night. 
 I must be cruel, only to be kind : 
 Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. 
 One word more, good lady. 180 
 
 Queen. What shall I do ? 
 
 Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do : 
 Let the bloat king, for a pair of reechy kisses. 
 Make you to ravel all this matter out, 
 That I essentially am not in madness. 
 But mad in craft. 'T were good you let him know ; 
 For who, that 's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, 
 "Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, 190 
 
 Such dear concernings hide ? who would do so ? 
 No, in despite of sense and secrecy. 
 Unpeg the basket on the house's top. 
 Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, 
 To' try conclusions, in the basket creep, 195 
 
 And break your own neck down. 
 
88 HAMLET. 
 
 Queen. Be tliou assured, if words be made of breath, 
 And breath of life, I have no life to breathe 
 What thou hast said to nie. 
 
 Ham. I must to England ; you know that ? 200 
 
 Qrieen. Alack, 
 
 I had forgot : 't is so concluded on. 
 
 Ham. There 's letters sealed : and my two school- 
 fellows. 
 Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged, 
 They bear the mandate ; they must sweep my way, 
 And marshal me to knavery. Let it work ; 205 
 
 For 't is the sport to have the enginer 
 Hoist with his own petar : and 't shall go hard 
 But I will delve one yard below their mines, 
 And blow them at the moon : 0, 't is most sweet, 
 When in one line two crafts directly meet. 210 
 
 This man shall set me packing : 
 I '11 lug the guts into the neighbor room. 
 Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor 
 Is now most still, most secret and most grave, 
 Who was in life a foolish prating knave. 215 
 
 Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. 
 Good night, mother. 
 
 \_Exeunt severally ; Hamlet dragging in Polonius. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 Scene I. A room in the castle. 
 
 Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and G-uildenstern. 
 
 King. There 's matter in these sighs ; these profound 
 heaves 
 
ACT IV. SCENE I. 89 
 
 You must translate : 't is fit we iinderstaiul them. 
 Where is your son ? 
 
 Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. 
 
 \_E.veinit RoHencnintz and Guildenstern. 
 Ah, my good lord, Avhat have I seen to-night ! 5 
 
 Kiyig. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? 
 
 Queen. Mad as the sea and wind, when both con- 
 tend 
 Which is the mightier : in his lawless fit, 
 Behind the arras hearing something stir, 
 Whips out his rapier, cries, ' A rat, a rat ! ' 10 
 
 And, in this brainish apprehension, kills 
 The unseen good old man. 
 
 King. heavy deed ! 
 
 It had been so with us, had we been there : 
 His liberty is full of threats to all ; 
 
 To you yourself, to us, to every one. 15 
 
 Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered ? 
 It will be laid to us, whose providence 
 Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunf, 
 This mad young man : but so much was our love. 
 We would not understand what was most fit ; 20 
 
 But, like the oAvner of a foul disease. 
 To keep it from divulging, let it feed 
 Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone ? 
 
 Queen. To draw apart the body he hath killed : 
 O'er whom his very madness, like some ore 25 
 
 Among a mineral of metals base, 
 ShoAvs itself pure ; he weeps for what is done. 
 
 King. Gertrude, come away ! 
 The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch. 
 But we will ship him hence : and this vile deed 30 
 
90 HAMLET. 
 
 We must, with all our majesty and skill, 
 
 Both countenance and excuse. Ho, G-uildenstern ! 
 
 Re-enter Eosencrantz a)id Guildenstern. 
 
 Friends both, go join you with some further aid : 
 Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain. 
 And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him : 35 
 Go seek him out ; speak fair, and bring the body 
 Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. 
 
 [Exeunt Bosencrantz and Guildenstem. 
 Come, Gertrude, we '11 call up our wisest friends ; 
 And let them know, both what we mean to do. 
 And what 's untimely done. So, haply, slander, — 40 
 Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter. 
 As level as the cannon to his blank. 
 Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name. 
 And hit the woundless air. 0, come away ! 
 My soul is full of discord and dismay. 45 
 
 [^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. Another room in the castle. 
 
 Enter Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Safely stowed. 
 
 [ Within'] Hamlet ! Lord Hamlet ! 
 
 Guil. 
 
 Ham. What noise ? who calls on Hamlet ? 0, here 
 they come. 
 
 Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 
 Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead 
 body ? 6 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 91 
 
 Ham. Compounded it Avith dust, whereto 't is kin. 
 
 llos. Tell us where 't is, that we may take it thence 
 And bear it to the chapel. 
 
 Ham. Do not believe it. 
 
 Ros. Believe what ? 10 
 
 Ham. That I can keep your counsel and not mine 
 own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what repli- 
 cation should be made by the son of a king ? 
 
 Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord ? 15 
 
 Ham. Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, 
 his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the 
 king best service in the end : he keeps them, like an ape 
 doth nuts, in the corner of his jaw ; first mouthed, to be 
 last swallowed : when he needs what j^ou have gleaned, 
 it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry 
 again. 23 
 
 Ros. I understand you not, my lord. 
 
 Ham. I am glad of it : a knavish speech sleeps in a 
 foolish ear. 26 
 
 Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, 
 and go with us to the king. 
 
 Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not 
 with the body. The king is a thing — 30 
 
 Guil. A thing, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Of nothing : bring me to him. Hide fox, and 
 all after. lExeunt. 
 
 Scene III. Another room in the castle. 
 
 Enter King, attended. 
 
 King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. 
 How dangerous is it that this man goes loose ! 
 
92 HAMLET. 
 
 Yet must not we put the strong law on him : 
 
 He 's loved of the distracted multitude, 
 
 Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes : 5 
 
 And where 't is so, the offender's scourge is weighed, 
 
 But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, 
 
 This sudden sending him away must seem 
 
 Deliberate pause : diseases desperate grown 
 
 By desperate appliance are relieved, 10 
 
 Or not at all. 
 
 Enter Rosencrantz. 
 
 How now ! what hath befallen ? 
 Bos. Wliere the dead body is bestowed, my lord, 
 We cannot get from him. 
 
 King. But where is he ? 
 
 Hos. Without, my lord ; guarded, to know your 
 
 pleasure. 
 King. Bring him before us. 15 
 
 Mos. Ho, Guildenstern ! bring in my lord. 
 
 Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern. 
 
 King. Now, Hamlet, where 's Polonius ? 
 
 Ham. At supper. 
 
 King. At supper ! where ? 19 
 
 Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a 
 certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. 
 Your worm is your only emperor for diet : we fat all 
 creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots : 
 your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable ser- 
 vice, two dishes, but to one table : that 's the end. 26 
 
 King. Alas, alas ! 
 
 Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat 
 of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 93 
 
 King. "What dost thou mean by this ? 31 
 
 Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a 
 progress through the guts of a beggar. 
 
 King. Where is Polonius ? 34 
 
 Ham. In heaven ; send thither to see : if yonr messen- 
 ger find him not there, seek him i' the other place your- 
 self. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, 
 you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the 
 lobby. 
 
 King. Go seek him there. 40 
 
 [Tb some Attendants. 
 
 Ham. He will stay till ye come. 
 
 l^Exeunt Attendants. 
 
 King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, — 
 Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve 
 For tliat which thou hast done, — must send thee hence 
 With fiery quickness : therefore prepare thyself ; 45 
 
 The bark is ready, and the wind at help. 
 The associates tend, and everything is bent 
 For England. 
 
 Ham. For England ! 
 
 King. Ay, Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. Good. 
 
 King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. 
 
 Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. But, come ; for 
 England ! Farewell, dear mother. 51 
 
 King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. 
 
 Ham. My mother : father and mother is man and wife ; 
 man and wife is one flesh ; and so, my mother. Come, 
 for England ! [Exit. 
 
 King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed 
 aboard ; 56 
 
94 HAMLET. 
 
 Delay it not ; I '11 have him hence to-night 
 Away ! for every thing is sealed and done 
 That else leans on the affair : pray you, make haste. 
 
 \^Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. 
 And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught — 60 
 
 As my great power thereof may give thee sense, 
 Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red 
 After the Danish sword, and thy free awe 
 Pays homage to us — thou may st not coldly set 
 Our sovereign process ; which imports at full, 65 
 
 By letters conjuring to that effect. 
 The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England ; 
 For like the hectic in my blood he rages. 
 And thou must cure me : till I know 't is done, 
 Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. 70 
 
 [Exit. 
 Scene IV. A plain in DenmarJc. 
 
 Enter Eortinbras, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching. 
 
 For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king ; 
 Tell him that, by his license, Fortinbras 
 Craves the conveyance of a promised march 
 Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. 
 If that his majesty would aught with us. 
 We shall express our duty in his eye ; 
 And let him know so. 
 
 Cap. I will do 't, my lord. 
 
 For. Go softly on. [_Exeunt Fortinbras and Soldiers. 
 
 Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, a7id others. 
 
 Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these ? 
 
 Cap. They are of Norway, sir. lo 
 
 Ham. How purposed, sir, I pray you ? 
 
ACT IV. SCENE IV. 95 
 
 Cap. Against some part of Poland. 
 
 Ham. Who commands them, sir ? 
 
 Caj). The nephew to okl Norway, Fortinbras. 
 
 Ham. Goes it against the main of Pohmd, sir, 15 
 
 Or for some frontier ? 
 
 Ca}). Truly to speak, and with no addition. 
 We go to gain a little patch of ground 
 That hath in it no profit but the name. 
 To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it ; 20 
 
 Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole 
 A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. 
 
 Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. 
 
 Cap. Yes, it is already garrisoned. 
 
 Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats 
 Will not debate the question of this straw : 26 
 
 This .is the imposthume of much wealth and peace, 
 That inward breaks, and shows no cause without 
 Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir. 
 
 CajJ. God be wi' you, sir. \^Exit. 
 
 Ros. Will 't please you go, my lord ? 31 
 
 Ham. I '11 be with you straight. Go a little before. 
 
 [^Exeunt all except Hamlet. 
 How all occasions do inform against me. 
 And spur my dull revenge ! What is a man, 
 If his chief good and market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more. 35 
 
 Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 
 Looking before and after, gave ns not 
 That capability and god-like reason 
 To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be 
 Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple 40 
 
 Of thinking too precisely on the event, 
 
96 HAMLET. 
 
 A thouglit wMch, quartered, hath but one part wisdom 
 
 And ever three parts coward, I do not know 
 
 Why yet I live to say ' This thing 's to do ; ' 
 
 Sith I have cause and will and strength and means 45 
 
 To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me : 
 
 Witness this army of such mass and charge 
 
 Led by a delicate and tender prince, 
 
 Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed 
 
 Makes mouths at the invisible event, 50 
 
 Exposing what is mortal and unsure 
 
 To all that fortune, death and danger dare, 
 
 Even for an egg-shell. E-ightly to be great 
 
 Is not to stir without great argument, 
 
 But greatly to find quarrel in a straw 55 
 
 When honor 's at the stake. How stand I then, 
 
 That have a father killed, a mother stained, 
 
 Excitements of my reason and my blood. 
 
 And let all sleep, while, to my shame, I see 
 
 The imminent death of twenty thousand men, 60 
 
 That, for a fantasy and trick of fame, 
 
 Go to their graves like beds, tight for a plot 
 
 Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause. 
 
 Which is not tomb enough and continent 
 
 To hide the slain ? 0, from this time forth, 65 
 
 My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth ! 
 
 [Exit 
 
 Scene V. Elsinore. A room in the castle. 
 
 Enter Queen, Horatio, and a Gentleman. 
 
 Queen. I will not speak with her. 
 Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract : 
 Her mood will needs be pitied. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE V. 97 
 
 Queen. What wuukl she have ? 
 
 Gent. She speaks much of her father ; says she hears 
 There 's tricks i' the world ; and hems, and beats her 
 heart ; 5 
 
 Spurns enviously at straws ; speaks things in doubt, 
 That carry but half sense : her speech is nothing. 
 Yet the unshaped use of it doth move 
 The hearers to collection ; they aim at it, 
 And botch the words u.p fit to their own thoughts ; 10 
 Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them, 
 Indeed would make one think there might be thought. 
 Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. 
 
 Hor. 'T were good she were spoken with ; for she may 
 strew 
 Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. 15 
 
 Queen. Let her come in. \^Exit Horatio. 
 
 To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is. 
 Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss : 
 So full of artless jealousy is guilt, 
 It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. 20 
 
 Re-enter Hokatio, loith Ophelia. 
 
 Opli. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark ? 
 
 Queen. How now, Ophelia ! 
 
 Opii. [^Sings'] How should I your true love know 
 
 From another one ? 
 By his cockle hat and staff, 25 
 
 And his sandal shoon. 
 Queen. Alas, sweet lady, w^hat imports this song ? 
 Oph. Say you ? nay, pray you, mark. 
 [/Smgrs] He is dead and gone, lady, 
 
 He is dead and gone ; 30 
 
 H 
 
98 HAMLET. 
 
 At his head a grass-green turf, 
 At his heels a stone. 
 Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia, — 
 Oph. Pray you, mark. 
 [/Sm^s] White his shroud as the mountain snow, — 35 
 
 Enter King, 
 
 Queen. Alas, look here, my lord. 
 Oph. losings'] Larded with sweet flowers ; 
 Which bewept to the grave did go 
 With true-love showers. 
 King. How do you, pretty lady ? 40 
 
 Oph. Well, God "ild you ! They say the owl was a 
 baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but 
 know not what we may be. God be at your table ! 
 
 King. Conceit upon her father. 45 
 
 Oph. Pray you, let 's have no words of this ; but when 
 they ask you what it means, say you this : 
 [^jSirigs'] To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, 
 All in the morning betime. 
 And I a maid at your window, 50 
 
 To be your Valentine. 
 King. How long hath she been thus ? 67 
 
 Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient : 
 but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay 
 him i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it : 
 and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my 
 coach ! Good night, ladies ; good night, sweet ladies ; 
 good night, good night. \^Exit. 74 
 
 King. Pollow her close ; give her good watch, I pray 
 you. [_Exit Horatio. 
 
 0, this is the poison of deep grief ; it springs 
 
ACT IV. SCENE V. 99 
 
 All from her father's death. O Gertnxde, Gertrude, 
 
 When sorrows come, they come not single spies. 
 
 But in battalions. First, her father slain : 
 
 Next, your son gone ; and he most violent author 80 
 
 Of his own just remove : the people muddied. 
 
 Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and Avhispers, 
 
 For good Polonius' death ; and we have done but greenly. 
 
 In hugger-mugger to inter him : poor Ophelia 
 
 Divided from herself and her fair judgement, 85 
 
 Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts : 
 
 Last, and as much containing as all these. 
 
 Her brother is in secret come from France ; 
 
 Feeds on his Avonder, keeps himself in clouds, 
 
 And wants not buzzers to infect his ear 90 
 
 With pestilent speeches of his father's death ; 
 
 "NATierein necessity, of matter beggared, 
 
 Will nothing stick our person to arraign 
 
 In ear and ear. my dear Gertrude, this. 
 
 Like to a murdering-piece, in many places 95 
 
 Gives me superfluous death. \_A noise within. 
 
 Queen. Alack, what noise is this ? 
 
 King. Where are my Switzers ? Let them guard the 
 door. 
 
 Enter another Gentleman. 
 
 What is the matter ? 
 
 Gent. Save yourself, my lord : 
 
 The ocean, overpeering of his list, 
 
 Eats not the fiats with more impetuous haste 100 
 
 Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, 
 O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord ; 
 And, as the world were now but to begin. 
 
100 HAMLET, 
 
 Antiquity forgot, custom not known, 
 
 The ratifiers and props of every word, 105 
 
 They cry •' Choose we : Laertes shall be king : ' 
 
 Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds : 
 
 'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king ! ' 
 
 Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry ! 
 0, this is counter, you false Danish dogs ! no 
 
 King. The doors are broke. [JVbtse tvithin. 
 
 Enter IjAeb,tes, armed; Danes following. 
 
 Laer. Where is this king ? Sirs, stand you all with- 
 out. 
 
 Varies. No, let 's come in. 
 
 Laer. I pray you, give me leave. 
 
 Danes. We will, we will. [ They retire without the door. 
 
 Laer. I thank you : keep the door. thou vile king, 
 Give me my father ! 116 
 
 Queen. • Calmly, good Laertes. 
 
 Jjaer. That drop of blood that 's calm proclaims me 
 bastard. 
 Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot 
 Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow 
 Of my true mother. 120 
 
 King. What is the cause, Laertes, 
 
 That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ? 
 Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person : 
 There 's such divinity doth hedge a king. 
 That treason can but peep to what it would, 
 Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes, 125 
 
 Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude. 
 Speak, man. 
 
 Laer. Where is my father ? 
 
ACT IV. SCENE V. 101 
 
 King. Dead. 
 
 Queen. But not by him. 
 
 King. Let liim demand Lis iill. 
 
 Laer. How came he dead ? I '11 not be juggled with : 
 To hell, allegiance ! vows, to the blackest devil ! 131 
 
 Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit ! 
 I dare damnation. To this point I stand, 
 That both the worlds I give to negligence, 
 Let come what comes ; only I '11 be revenged 135 
 
 Most throughly for my father. 
 
 King. Who shall stay you ? 
 
 Laer. My Avill, not all the world : 
 And for my means, I '11 husband them so well, 
 They shall go far Avith little. 
 
 King. Good Laertes, 
 
 If you desire to know the certainty 140 
 
 Of your dear father's death, is 't writ in your revenge, 
 That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe, 
 Winner and loser ? 
 
 Laer. None but his enemies. 
 
 King. Will you know them then ? 
 
 Laer. To his good friends thus wide I '11 ope my arms ; 
 And like the kind life-rendering pelican, 146 
 
 Repast them with my blood. 
 
 King. ^^^by? now you speak 
 
 Like a good child and a true gentleman. 
 That I am guiltless of your father's death. 
 And am most sensibly in grief for it, 150 
 
 It shall as level to your judgement pierce 
 As day does to your eye. 
 
 Danes. [ Within'] Let her come in. 
 
 Laer. How now ! what noise is that ? 
 
102 HAMLET. 
 
 Re-enter Ophelia. 
 
 heat, dry up my brains ! tears seven times salt, 
 
 Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye ! 155 
 
 By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight, 
 
 Till our scale turn the beam. rose of May ! 
 
 Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia ! 
 
 heavens ! is 't possible, a young maid's wits 
 
 Should be as mortal as an old man's life ? 160 
 
 Nature is fine in love, and where 't is fine, 
 
 It sends some precious instance of itself 
 
 After the thing it loves. 
 
 Opli. \_Sings] 
 
 They bore him barefaced on the bier ; 
 Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny ; 165 
 
 And in his grave rained many a tear : — 
 Fare you well, my dove ! 
 
 Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, 
 It could not move thus. 
 
 Opli. \_Sings\ You must sing a-down a-down, 170 
 
 An you call him a-down-a. 
 0, how the wheel becomes it ! It is the false steward, 
 that stole his master's daughter. 
 
 Laer. This nothing 's more than matter. 
 
 Oph. There 's rosemary, that 's for remembrance ; pray, 
 love, remember : and there is pansies, that 's for thoughts. 
 
 Laer. A document in madness, thoughts and remem- 
 brance fitted. 179 
 
 Oph. There 's fennel for you, and columbines : there 's 
 rue for you ; and here 's some for me : we may call it 
 herb of grace o' Sundays : 0, you must wear your rue 
 with a difference. There 's a daisy : I would give you 
 
ACT IV. SCENE V. 103 
 
 some violets, but they withered all when my father died : 
 they say he made a good end, — 18G 
 
 [>S'('?(f)'s.] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy. 
 Laer. Thoiight and affliction, passion, hell itself, 
 She turns to favor and to prettiness. 
 
 Oj^h. [Sings'] And will he not come again ? 190 
 
 And will he not come again ? 
 No, no, he is dead : 
 Go to thy death-bed : 
 He never will come again. 
 
 His beard was as white as snow, 195 
 
 All flaxen was his poll : 
 He is gone, he is gone, 
 And we cast away moan : 
 God ha' mercy on his soul ! 
 And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye. 
 
 [Exit. 200 
 Laer. Do you see this, God ? 
 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 : 205 
 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, 2io 
 
 And we shall jointly labor with your soul 
 To give it due content. 
 
 Laer. Let this be so ; 
 
 His means of death, his obscure funeral — 
 
104 HAMLET. 
 
 No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, 
 No noble rite nor formal ostentation — 215 
 
 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. \^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VI. Another room in the castle. 
 
 Enter Horatio and a Servant. 
 
 Ilor. What are they that would speak with me ? 
 Sej-v. Sailors, sir : they say they have letters for you, 
 Hor. Let them come in. \^Exit Servant. 
 
 I do not know from what part of the world 
 I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. 5 
 
 Enter Sailors. 
 
 First Sail. God bless you, sir. 
 
 Hor. Let him bless thee too. 
 
 First Sail. He shall, sir, an 't please him. There 's 
 a letter for you, sir : it comes from the ambassador that 
 was bound for England ; if your name be Horatio, as I 
 am let to know it is. il 
 
 Hor. \_Reacls'] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have over- 
 looked this, give these fellows some means to the king : 
 they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old 
 at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us 
 chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a 
 compelled valor, and in the grapple I boarded them : on 
 the instant they got clear of our ship ; so I alone became 
 their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of 
 
ACT IV. SCENE VII. 105 
 
 mercy: but they knew what they did ; I am to do a good 
 turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have 
 sent ; and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou 
 wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear 
 will make thee dumb ; yet are they much too light for 
 the bore of the matter. These good fellows Avill bring 
 thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Cxuildenstern hold 
 their course for England: of them I have much to tell 
 thee. Farewell. so 
 
 ' He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.' 
 Come, I will make you way for these your letters ; 
 And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me 
 To him from whom you brought them. \^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene VII. Another room in the castle. 
 Enter King and Laertes. 
 
 King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal. 
 And you must put me in your heart for friend, 
 Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear. 
 That he which hath your noble father slain 
 Pursued my life. 5 
 
 Laer. It well appears : but tell me 
 
 Why you proceeded not against these feats, 
 So crimeful and so capital in nature, 
 As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, 
 You mainly were stirred up. 
 
 King. 0, for two special reasons ; 
 
 Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinewed, 10 
 But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother 
 Lives almost by his looks ; and for myself — 
 My virtue or my plague, be it either which — 
 
106 HAMLET. 
 
 She 's so conjunctive to my life and soul, 
 
 That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, 15 
 
 I could not but by her. The other motive, 
 
 Why to a public count I might not go, 
 
 Is the great love the general gender bear him ; 
 
 Who, dipping all his faults in their affection. 
 
 Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, 20 
 
 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 ; 25 
 
 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 must not 
 think 30 
 
 That we are made of stuff so fiat 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 — 35 
 
 Enter a Messenger. 
 
 How now ! what news ? 
 
 Mess. 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 me by Claudio ; he received them 40 
 Of him that brought them. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE VII. 107 
 
 King. Laertes, you shall hear them. 
 
 Leave us. \_ExU Messenger. 
 
 [^Reads'] ' High and mighty, You shall know I am set 
 naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to 
 see your kingly eyes : Avhen I shall, first asking your 
 pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and 
 more strange return. 
 
 ' Hamlet.' 
 What should this mean ? Are all the rest come back ? 50 
 Or is it some abuse, and no such thing ? 
 
 Laer. Know you the hand ? 
 
 King. 'T is Hamlet's character. 'Naked!' 
 
 And in a postscript here, he says ' alone.' 
 Can you advise me ? 
 
 Laer. I 'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come ; 55 
 It warms the very sickness in my heart. 
 That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, 
 'Thus didest thou.' 
 
 King. If it be so, Laertes — 
 
 As how should it be so ? how otherwise ? — 
 Will you be ruled by me ? 60 
 
 Laer. Ay, my lord ; 
 
 So you will not o'errule me to a peace. 
 
 King. To thine own peace. If he be noAv returned, 
 As checking at his voyage, and that he means 
 No more to undertake it, I will work him 
 To an exploit, now ripe in my device, ' 65 
 
 Under the which he shall not choose but fall : 
 And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe. 
 But even his mother shall uncharge the practice 
 And call it accident. , . 
 
 Laer. My lord, I will be ruled; 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^**$^ 
 
 -^ 
 
108 HAMLET. 
 
 The rather, if you coukl devise it so 70 
 
 That I might be the organ. 
 
 King. It falls right. 
 
 You have been talked of since your travel much, 
 And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality 
 Wherein, they say, you shine : your sum of parts 
 Did not together pluck such envy from him 75 
 
 As did that one, and that, in my regard. 
 Of the unworthiest siege. 
 
 Laer. What part is that, my lord ? 
 
 King. A very riband in the cap of youth. 
 Yet needful too ; for youth no less becomes 
 The light and careless livery that it wears 80 
 
 Than settled age his sables and his weeds, 
 Importing health and graveness. Two months since, 
 Here was a gentleman of ISTormandy : — 
 I 've seen myself, and served against, the French, 
 And they can well on horseback : but this gallant 85 
 
 Had witchcraft in 't ; he grew unto his seat ; 
 And to such wondrous doing brought his horse. 
 As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured 
 With the brave beast : so far he topped my thought. 
 That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, 90 
 
 Come short of what he did. 
 
 Lae7: A Norman was 't ? 
 
 King. A Norman. 
 
 Lae7: Upon ]ny life^ Lamond. 
 
 King. The very same. 
 
 Laer. I know him well : he is the brooch indeed 
 And gem of all the nation. 95 
 
 King. He made confession of you. 
 And gave you such a masterly report 
 
ACT IV. SCENE VII. 109 
 
 For art aud exercise in your defence 
 
 And for your rapier most especially, 
 
 That he cried out, 't would be a sight indeed, 100 
 
 If one could match you : the scrimers of their nation, 
 
 He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, 
 
 If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his 
 
 Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy 
 
 That he could nothing do but wish and beg 105 
 
 Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him. 
 
 Now, out of this, — 
 
 Laer. What out of this, my lord ? 
 
 Khig. Laertes, was your father dear to you ? 
 Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, 
 A face without a heart ? iio 
 
 Laer. ^^^ij f^sk you this ? 
 
 King. Not that I think you did not love your father ; 
 But that I know love is begun by time ; 
 And that I see, in passages of proof, 
 Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. 
 There lives within the very flame of love 115 
 
 A kind of Avick or snuff that will abate it ; 
 And nothing is at a like goodness still ; 
 For goodness, growing to a plurisy, 
 Dies in his own too much : that we would do, 
 T\"e should do when we would ; for this ' would ' changes 
 And hath abatements and delays as many 121 
 
 As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; 
 And then this ' should ' is like a spendthrift sigh, 
 That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer : — 
 Hamlet comes back : what would you undertake, 125 
 
 To show yourself your father's son in deed 
 More than in words ? 
 
110 HAMLET. 
 
 Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. 
 
 King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize ; 
 Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, 
 Will you do this, keep close within your chamber. 130 
 Hamlet returned shall know you are come home : 
 We '11 put on those shall praise your excellence 
 And set a double varnish on the fame 
 The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together 
 And wager on your heads : he, being remiss, 135 
 
 Most generous and free from all contriving. 
 Will not peruse the foils ; so that, with ease, 
 Or with a little shuffling, you may choose 
 A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice 
 Eequite him for your father. 140 
 
 Laer. I will do 't : 
 
 And, for that purpose, I '11 anoint my sword. 
 I bought an unction of a mountebank, 
 So mortal that, but dip a knife in it. 
 Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare. 
 Collected from all simples that have virtue 145 
 
 Under the moon, can save the thing from death 
 That is but scratched withal : I '11 touch my point 
 With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly. 
 It may be death. 
 
 King. Let 's further think of this ; 
 
 Weigh what convenience both of time and means 150 
 
 May fit us to our shape : if this should fail. 
 And that our drift look through our bad performance, 
 'T were better not assayed : therefore this project 
 Should have a back or second, that might hold, 
 If this should blast in proof. Soft ! let me see : 155 
 
 We '11 make a solemn wager on your cunnings : 
 
ACT IV. SCENE VII. Ill 
 
 I ha't : 
 
 When in your motion you are hot and dry — 
 
 As make your bouts more violent to that end — 
 
 And that he calls for drink, I '11 have prepared him IGO 
 
 A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, 
 
 If he by chance escape your venom ed stuck, 
 
 Our purpose may hold there. 
 
 Enter Queen. 
 
 How now, sweet queen ! 
 
 Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel. 
 So fast they follow : your sister 's drowned, Laertes. 165 
 
 Laer. Drowned ! 0, where ? 
 
 Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook. 
 That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ; 
 There with fantastic garlands did she come 
 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples 170 
 
 That liberal shepherds give a grosser name. 
 But our cold maids do dead men's lingers call them : 
 There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 
 Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke ; 
 When down her weedy trophies and herself 175 
 
 Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide ; 
 And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up : 
 Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes ; 
 As one incapable of her own distress, 
 Or like a creature native and indued 180 
 
 Unto that element : but long it could not be 
 Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, 
 Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay 
 To muddy death. 
 
 Laer. Alas, then, she is drowned ? 
 
112 HAMLET. 
 
 Queen. Drowned, drowned. 185 
 
 Laej: Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, 
 And therefore I forbid my tears : but yet 
 It is our trick ; nature her custom hokls. 
 Let shame say what it will : when these are gone, 
 The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord : 190 
 
 I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, 
 But that this folly douts it. [Exit. 
 
 King. Let 's follow, Gertrude : 
 
 How much I had to do to calm his rage ! 
 Now fear I this will give it start again ; 
 Therefore let 's follow. [Exeunt. 195 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Scene I. A churchyard. 
 Enter two Clowns, loith spades, &c. 
 
 First Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial that 
 wilfully seeks her own salvation ? 
 
 Sec. Clo. I tell thee she is : and therefore make her 
 grave straight : the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it 
 Christian burial. 5 
 
 First Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned her- 
 self in her own defence ? 
 
 Sec. Clo. Why, 't is found so. 
 
 First Clo. It must be ' se offendendo ; ' it cannot be 
 else. ¥or here lies the point : if I drown myself wit- 
 tingly, it argues an act : and an act hath three branches ; 
 it is, to act, to do, to perform : argal, she drowned her- 
 self wittingly. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver, — 15 
 
 First Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; 
 
ACT r. SCENE I. 113 
 
 good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to tliis 
 water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, 
 — mark you that; but if the Avater eome to him and 
 drown him, he drowns not himself: ai'gal, he that is not 
 guilty of liis own death shortens not his own life. 22 
 
 Sec. Clo. But is this laAv ? 
 
 First Clo. Ay, marry, is 't ; erowner's quest law. 25 
 
 Sec. Clo. Will you ha' the truth on 't ? If this had 
 not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried 
 out o' Christian burial. 
 
 First Clo. Vf[\j, there thou say'st : and the more pity 
 that great folk should have countenance in this world 
 to drown or hang themselves, more than their even 
 Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentle- 
 men but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers : they 
 hold up Adam's profession. 35 
 
 Sec. Clo. Was he a gentleman ? 
 
 First Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Why, he had none. 39 
 
 First Clo. What, art a heathen ? How dost thou 
 understand the Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam 
 digged : ' could he dig without arms ? I '11 put another 
 question to thee : if thou answerest me not to the pur- 
 pose, confess thyself — 
 
 Sec. Clo. Go to. 45 
 
 First Clo. What is he that builds stronger than either 
 the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter ? 
 
 Sec. Clo. The gallows-maker ; for that frame outlives 
 a thousand tenants. 50 
 
 First Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith : the gal- 
 lows does well ; but how does it well ? it does well to 
 those that do ill : now thou dost ill to say the gallows is 
 
114 HAMLET. 
 
 built stronger than the church : argal, the gallows may 
 do well to thee. To 't again, come. 56 
 
 Sec. Clo. ' Who builds stronger than a mason, a ship- 
 wright, or a carpenter ? ' 
 
 First Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Marry, now I can tell. 60 
 
 First Clo. To 't. 
 
 Sec. Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. 
 
 Enter Hamlet and Horatio, at a distance. 
 
 First Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for 
 your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating ; and, 
 when you are asked this question next, say 'a grave- 
 maker : ' the houses that he makes last till doomsday. 
 Go, get thee to Yaughan : fetch me a stoup of liquor. 68 
 [i/e ddgs, and sings.^ \^Exit Sec. Clown. 
 
 In youth, when I did love, did love, 
 
 Methought it was very sweet, 70 
 
 To contract, 0, the time, for, ah, my behove, 
 0, methought, there was nothing meet. 
 Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that 
 he sings at grave-making ? 
 
 Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of 
 easiness. 76 
 
 Ham. 'T is e'en so : the hand of little employment 
 hath the daintier sense. 
 First Clo. losings'] 
 
 But age, with his stealing steps, 
 
 Hath clawed me in his clutch, 80 
 
 And hath shipped me intil the land. 
 As if I had never been such. 
 
 [ Throius up a skull. 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 115 
 
 Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing 
 once : how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were 
 Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder ! It might 
 be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er- 
 reaches ; one that would circumvent God, might it not ? 88 
 
 Hor. It might, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Or of a courtier ; which could say * Good mor- 
 row, sweet lord ! How dost thou, good lord ? ' This 
 might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such- 
 a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it ; might it not ? 94 
 
 Hor. Ay, my lord. 95 
 
 Ham. Why, e'en so : and now my Lady Worm's ; 
 chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's 
 spade : here 's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see 't. 
 Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play 
 at loggats with 'em ? Mine ache to think on 't. loi 
 
 First Clo. \_Sings] 
 
 A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, 
 
 For and a shrouding sheet : 
 0, a pit of clay for to be made 
 
 For such a guest is meet. 105 
 
 \_Throws ujJ another sJcuU. 
 
 Ham. There 's another : why may not that be the 
 skull of a lawyer ? Where be his quiddities now, his 
 quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks ? why does 
 he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the 
 sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his 
 action of battery ? Hum ! This fellow might be in 's 
 time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recog- 
 nizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries : 
 is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his 
 recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt ? Will 
 
116 HAMLET. 
 
 his voiicliers vouch him no more of his purchases, and 
 double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of 
 indentures ? The very conveyances of his lands will 
 hardly lie in this box ; and must the inheritor himself 
 have no more, ha ? 121 
 
 Hor. ISTot a jot more, my lord. 
 
 Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins ? 
 
 Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. 
 
 Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out as- 
 surance in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose 
 grave 's this, sirrah ? 127 
 
 First Clo. Mine, sir. 
 
 [xStwry.s] 0, a pit of clay for to be made 
 
 For such a guest is meet. 130 
 
 Ham. I think it be thine, indeed ; for thou liest 
 in't. 
 
 First Clo. You lie out on 't, sir, and therefore it is 
 not yours : for my part, I do not lie in 't, and yet it is 
 mine. 135 
 
 Ham. Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is 
 thine : 't is for the dead, not for the quick ; therefore 
 thou liest. 
 
 First Clo. 'T is a quick lie, sir ; 't will away again, from 
 me to you. 140 
 
 Ham. What man dost thou dig it for ? 
 
 First Clo. For no man, sir. 
 
 Ham. What woman, then ? 
 
 First Clo. For none, neither. 
 
 Ham. Who is to be buried in 't ? 145 
 
 First Clo. One that was a woman, sir ; but, rest her 
 soul, she 's dead. 
 
 Ham. How absolute the knave is ! We must speak 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 117 
 
 by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, 
 Horatio, these three years I liave taken a note of it; 
 the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant 
 comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe. 
 How long hast thou been a grave-maker ? 154 
 
 First CIo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to 't that 
 day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. 157 
 
 Ham. How long is that since ? 
 
 First Clo. Cannot you tell that ? Every fool can tell 
 that : it was the very day that young Hamlet was born ; 
 he that is mad, and sent into England. 162 
 
 Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England ? 
 
 First Clo. Why, because he was mad : he shall recover 
 his wits there ; or, if he do not, it 's no great matter 
 there. 167 
 
 Ham. ^YhJ ? 
 
 First Clo. 'T will not be seen in him there ; there the 
 men are as mad as he. 170 
 
 Ham. How came he mad ? 
 
 First Clo. Very strangely, they say. 
 
 Ham. How strangely ? 
 
 First Clo. Eaith, e'en with losing his wits. 
 
 Ham. Upon what ground ? 175 
 
 First Clo. Why, here in Denmark : I have been sex- 
 ton here, man and boy, thirty years. 
 
 Ham. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he 
 rot ? 179 
 
 First Clo. V faith, if he be not rotten before he die 
 — as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will 
 scarce hold the laying in — he will last you some eight 
 year or nine year : a tanner will last you nine year. 
 
 Ham. Why he more than another ? 185 
 
118 HAMLET. 
 
 First Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his 
 trade, that he will keep out water a great while ; and 
 your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. 
 Here 's a skull now ; this skull has lain in the earth three 
 and twenty years. 191 
 
 Ham. Whose was it ? 
 
 First Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was : whose do 
 you think it was ? 
 
 Ham. Nay, I know not. 195 
 
 First Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue : a' 
 poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same 
 skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester. 
 
 Ham. This ? 200 
 
 First Clo. E'en that. 
 
 Ham. Let me see. \^Takes the sJcull.^ Alas, poor 
 Yorick ! I knew him, Horatio : a fellow of infinite jest, 
 of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back 
 a thousand times ; and now, how abhorred in my imagina- 
 tion it is ! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that 
 I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes 
 now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merri- 
 ment, that were wont to set the table on a roar ? Not 
 one now, to mock your own grinning, — quite chap-fallen ? 
 Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her 
 paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come ; make her 
 laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell me one thing. 216 
 
 Hor. What 's that, my lord ? 
 
 Ha7n. Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fash- 
 ion i' the earth ? 
 
 Ho7\ E'en so. 220 
 
 Ham. And smelt so ? pah ! [Pwfe down the skull. 
 
 Hor. E'en so, my lord. 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 119 
 
 Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! 
 Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alex- 
 ander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole ? 226 
 Hor. 'T were to consider too curiously, to consider so. 
 Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither 
 with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it : as thus : 
 Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander return- 
 eth into dust ; the dust is earth ; of earth we make loam ; 
 and why of that loam, whereto he Avas converted, might 
 they not stop a beer-barrel ? 235 
 Imperious CtBsar, dead and turned to clay, 
 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away : 
 0, that that earth, which kept the world in awe. 
 Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! 
 But soft ; but soft ; aside : here comes the king. 240 
 
 Enter Priests, &c. in procession ; the Corpse of Ophelia, 
 Laeetes and Mourners following ; King, Queen, their 
 trains, &c. 
 
 The queen, the courtiers : who is this they follow ? 
 And with such maimed rites ? This doth betoken 
 The corse they follow did with desperate hand 
 Fordo, its own life: 'twas of some estate. 
 Couch we awhile, and mark. 245 
 
 \_Retiring with Horatio. 
 
 Laer. What ceremony else ? 
 
 Ham. That is Laertes, 
 
 A very noble youth : mark. 
 
 Laer. What ceremony else ? 
 
 First Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarged 
 As we have warrantise : her death was doubtful ; 250 
 
 And, but that great command o'ersways the order, 
 
120 HAMLET. 
 
 She should in ground unsanctified have lodged 
 Till the last trumpet ; for charitable prayers, 
 Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her : 
 Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, 255 
 
 Her maiden strewments and the bringing home 
 Of bell and burial. 
 
 Laer. Must there no more be done ? 
 
 Fi7'st Priest. No more be done : 
 
 We should profane the service of the dead 
 To sing a requiem and such rest to her 260 
 
 As to peace-parted souls. 
 
 Laer. Lay her i' the earth : 
 
 And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
 May violets spring ! I tell thee, churlish priest, 
 A ministering angel shall my sister be. 
 When thou liest howling. 265 
 
 Ham. What, the fair Ophelia ! 
 
 Queen. Sweets to the sweet : farewell ! 
 
 [^Scattering flowers. 
 I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife ; 
 I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, 
 And not have strewed thy grave. 
 
 Laer. 0, treble woe 
 
 Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, 270 
 
 Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense 
 Deprived thee of ! Hold off the earth awhile. 
 Till I have caught her once more in mine arms : 
 
 \_Lea.23s into the grave. 
 Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead, 
 Till of this flat a mountain you have made, 275 
 
 To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head 
 Of blue Olympus. 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 121 
 
 Ham. \^A(lva)iri)i(/'\ Wliat is he wliose g'rief 
 Bears such an emphasis, — whose phrase of sorrow 
 Conjures tlie wandering stars, and makes them stand 
 Like Avonder-wounded hearers ? This is I, 280 
 
 Hamlet the Dane. l^Lecqjs into the grave. 
 
 Laer. The devil take thy soul ! 
 
 \_Graiypling ivitli him. 
 
 Ham. Thou pray'st not well. 
 I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat ; 
 For, though I am not splenitive and rash, 
 Yet have I something in me dangerous, 285 
 
 Which let thy Aviseness fear ; hold off thy hand. 
 
 King. Pluck them asunder. 
 
 Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet! 
 
 All. Gentlemen, — 
 
 Hor. Good my lord, be quiet. 
 
 [The Attendants part them, and they come oiU of 
 the grave. 
 
 Ham. AVhy, I Avill fight with him upon this theme 
 Until my eyelids will no longer wag. 290 
 
 Queen. my son, what theme ? 
 
 Ham. I loved Ophelia : forty thousand brothers 
 Could not, with all their quantity of love, 
 Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her ? 
 
 King. 0, he is mad, Laertes. 
 
 Queen. For love of God, forbear him. 
 
 Ham. 'Swounds, show me what thou 'It do : 
 Woo't weep, woo't tight, woo't fast, woo't tear thy- 
 self? 
 Woo't drink up eisel, — eat a crocodile ? 
 I '11 do 't. Dost thou come here to whine, — 300 
 
 To outface me with leaping in her grave ? 
 
12^ HAMLET. 
 
 Be buried quick with her, and so will I : 
 
 And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw 
 
 Millions of acres on us, till our ground, 
 
 Singeing his pate against the burning zone, 305 
 
 Make Ossa like a wart ! Nay, an thou 'It mouth, 
 
 I '11 rant as well as thou. 
 
 Queen. This is mere madness : 
 
 And thus awhile the fit will work on him ; 
 Anon, as patient as the female dove. 
 When that her golden couplets are disclosed, 310 
 
 His silence will sit drooping. 
 
 Ham. Hear you, sir ; 
 
 What is the reason that you use me thus ? 
 I loved you ever : but it is no matter ; 
 Let Hercules himself do what he may. 
 The cat will mew and dog will have his day. [_Exit. 315 
 
 King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. 
 
 \^Exit Horatio. 
 [ To Laertes'] Strengthen your patience in our last night's 
 
 speech ; 
 We '11 pat the matter to the present push. 
 Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. 
 This grave shall have a living monument : 320 
 
 An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ; 
 Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. A hall in the castle. 
 
 Enter Hamlet and Horatio. 
 
 Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the 
 other ; 
 You do remember all the circumstance ? 
 
ACT V. SCENE II. 123 
 
 Ilor. Remember it, my lord ! 
 
 Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting. 
 That would not let me sleep : methought I lay 5 
 
 Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Kashly, 
 And praised be rashness for it, let ns know. 
 Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 
 When our deep plots do pall : and that should teach us 
 There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 10 
 
 Eough-hew them how we will, — 
 
 Hor. That is most certain. 
 
 Ham. Up from my cabin. 
 My sea-gown scarfed about me, in the dark 
 Groped I to find out them ; had my desire, 
 Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew 15 
 
 To mine oavu room again ; making so bold, 
 My fears forgetting manners, to unseal 
 Their grand commission ; where I found, Horatio, — 
 royal knavery ! — an exact command, 
 Larded with many several sorts of reasons 20 
 
 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. 25 
 
 Hor. Is 't possible ? 
 
 Ham. Here's the commission: read it at more lei- 
 sure. 
 But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed ? 
 
 Hor. I beseech you. 
 
 Ham. Being thus be-netted round with villanies, — 
 Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, 30 
 
 They had begun the play — I sat me down, 
 
124 HAMLET. 
 
 Devised a new commission, wrote it fair : 
 
 I once did hold it, as our statists do, 
 
 A baseness to write fair and labored mucli 
 
 How to forget that learning, but, sir, now 35 
 
 It did me yeoman's service : wilt tliou know 
 
 The effect of what I wrote ? 
 
 Hot. Ay, good my lord. 
 
 Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, 
 As England was his faithful tributary, 
 As love between them like the palm might flourish, 40 
 As peace should still her wheaten garland wear 
 And stand a comma 'tween their amities. 
 And many such-like * As 'es of great charge, 
 That, on the view and knowing of these contents. 
 Without debatement further, more or less, 45 
 
 He should the bearers put to sudden death, 
 Not shriving time allowed. 
 
 Hot. How was this sealed ? 
 
 Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. 
 I had my father's signet in my purse, 
 Which was the model of that Danish seal ; 50 
 
 Folded the writ up in form of the other. 
 Subscribed it, gave 't the impression, placed it safely. 
 The changeling never known. Now, the next day 
 Was our sea-fight ; and what to this was sequent 
 Thou know'st already. 55 
 
 Hor. So Guilden stern and Eosencrantz go to 't. 
 
 Ha^n. Why, man, they did make love to this employ- 
 ment; 
 They are not near my conscience ; their defeat 
 Does by their own insinuation grow : 
 'T is dangerous when the baser nature comes 60 
 
ACT V. SCENE II. 125 
 
 Between the pass and fell incensed points 
 Of mighty opposites. 
 
 Hor. Why, what a king is this ! 
 
 Ham. Does it not, thiuks't thee, stand me now upon — 
 He that hath killed my king and stained my mother. 
 Popped in between the election and my hopes, 65 
 
 Thrown out his angle for my proper life. 
 And with such cozenage — is't not perfect conscience, 
 To quit him with this arm ; and is 't not to be damned, 
 To let this canker of our nature come 
 In further evil ? 70 
 
 Hor. It must be shortly known to him from Eng- 
 land 
 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, 75 
 
 That to Laertes I forgot myself ; 
 For, by the image of my cause, I see 
 The portraiture of his : I '11 court his favors : 
 But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me 
 Into a towering passion. so 
 
 Hor. Peace ! who comes here ? 
 
 Enter Osrtc. 
 
 Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Den- 
 mark. 
 
 Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this 
 water-fly ? 
 
 Hor. ISTo, my good lord. 85 
 
 Ham. Thy state is the more gracious ; for 't is a vice 
 to know him. He hath much land, and fertile : let a 
 
126 HAMLET. 
 
 beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the 
 king's mess : 't is a chough ; but, as I say, spacious in 
 the possession of dirt. 90 
 
 Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordshijp were at leisure, I 
 should impart a thing to you from his majesty. 
 
 Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. 
 Put your bonnet to his right use ; 't is for the head. 96 
 
 Osr. I thank your lordship, it is very hot. 
 
 Ham. No, believe me, 't is very cold ; the wind is 
 northerly. 
 
 Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. 100 
 
 Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for 
 my complexion. 
 
 Osr. Exceedingly, my lord ; it is very sultry, — as 
 'twere, — I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty 
 bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager 
 on your head : sir, this is the matter, — 106 
 
 Ham. I beseech you, remember — 
 
 \_Hamlet moves Mm to put on his hat. 
 
 Osr. Nay, good my lord ; for mine 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 showing: indeed, to speak 
 feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for 
 you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentle- 
 man would see. 116 
 
 Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you ; 
 though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy 
 the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw 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 
 
ACT V. SCENE 11. 127 
 
 him, his semblable is liis mirror; and who else wouhl 
 trace him, his umbrage, nothing more. 125 
 
 Osi: Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. 
 
 Havi. The concernancy, sir ? Why do we wrap the 
 gentleman in our more rawer breath ? 
 
 Os7\ Sir ? 130 
 
 Hor. Is 't not possible to understand in another 
 tongue ? You will do 't, sir, really. 
 
 Hain. What imports the nomination of this gentle- 
 man? 
 
 Osr. Of Laertes ? 135 
 
 Hor. His purse is empty already ; all 's golden words 
 are spent. 
 
 IIa7n. 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 ? 141 
 
 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 well, were 
 to know himself. 147 
 
 Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon ; but in the imputa- 
 tion laid on him by them, in his meed he 's unfel- 
 lowed. 150 
 
 Ham. What 's his weapon ? 
 
 Osr. Rapier and dagger. 
 
 Ham. That 's two of his weapons : but, well. 
 
 Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Bar- 
 bary horses : against the which he has imponed, as I 
 take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, 
 as girdle, hangers, and so : three of the carriages, in faith, 
 
128 HAMLET. 
 
 are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most 
 delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit. 160 
 
 Ham. What call you the carriages ? 
 
 Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere 
 you had done. 
 
 Os7\ The carriages, sir, are the hangers. 
 
 Ham. The phrase would be more german to the mat- 
 ter, if we could carry 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 bet against the 
 Danish. Why is this ' imponed,' as you call it ? 171 
 
 Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes 
 between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three 
 hits : he hath laid on twelve for nine ; and it would come 
 to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the 
 answer. 176 
 
 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 please 
 his majesty, 't 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 an I can; if not, I 
 will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. 185 
 
 Osr. Shall I re-deliver you e'en so ? 
 
 Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your 
 nature will. 
 
 Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. 
 
 Ham. Yours, yours. \_Exit Osric.'\ He does well to 
 commend it himself ; there are no tongues else for 's 
 turn. 192 
 
ACT V. SCENE 11. 129 
 
 Ilor. This lapwing runs away witli tlie shell on his 
 head. 
 
 Ham. He did comply with his dug, before he sucked 
 it. Thus has he — and many more of the same breed 
 that I know the drossy age dotes on — only got the tune 
 of the time and the outward habit of encounter ; a kind 
 of yesty collection, which carries them through and 
 through the most fond and winnoAved opinions ; and do 
 but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. 202 
 
 Enter a Lord. 
 
 Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you 
 by young Osric, 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. 
 
 Ham. 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. 
 
 Loixl. The king and queen and all are coming down. 
 
 Hain. In happy time. 214 
 
 Lord. The Queen desires you to use some gentle 
 entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play. 217 
 
 Ham. She well instructs me. \_Exit Lord. 
 
 Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. 
 
 Ham. I do not think so : since he went into France, 
 I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the 
 odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all 's here 
 about my heart : but it is no matter. 223 
 
 Hor. Nay, good my lord, — 
 
 Ham. It is but foolery ; but it is such a kind of gain- 
 giving as would perhaps trouble a woman. 226 
 
130 HAMLET. 
 
 Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it : I will 
 forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit. 229 
 
 Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury : there 's a special 
 providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is 
 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 has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave 
 betimes ? 235 
 
 Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Lords, Osric and Attend- 
 ants with foils, &c. 
 
 King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. 
 \_Tlie King puts Laertes' hand into Hamlet' s. 
 
 Ham. Give me your pardon, sir : I've done you 
 wrong ; 
 But pardon 't, as you are a gentleman. 
 This presence knows. 
 
 And you must needs have heard, how I am punished 240 
 With sore distraction. What I have done. 
 That might your nature, honor antj^exception 
 Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. 
 Was 't Hamlet wronged Laertes ? Never Hamlet : 
 If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, 245 
 
 And when he 's not himself does wrong Laertes, 
 Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. 
 Who does it, then ? His madness : if 't be so, 
 Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged ; 
 His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy. 2S0 
 
 Sir, in this audience. 
 Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil 
 Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, 
 That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house, 
 And hurt my brother. 255 
 
ACT V. SCENE II. 131 
 
 Laer. I am satisfied in nature, 
 
 "Wliose motive, in this case, should stir me most 
 To my revenge : but in my terms of honor 
 I stand aloof ; and will no reconcilement, 
 Till by some elder masters, of known honor, 
 I have a voice and precedent of peace, 260 
 
 To keep my name uugored. But till that time, 
 I do receive your offered love like love. 
 And will not wrong it. 
 
 Ham. I embrace it freely ; 
 
 And will this brother's wager frankly play. 
 Give us the foils. Come on. 265 
 
 Laer. Come, one for me. 
 
 Ham. I '11 be your foil, Laertes : in mine ignorance 
 Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night. 
 Stick fiery off indeed. 
 
 Laer. You mock me, sir. 
 
 Ham. No, by this hand. 
 
 King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin 
 Hamlet, , 270 
 
 You know the wager ? 
 
 Ham. Very well, my lord ; 
 
 Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. 
 
 King. I do not fear it; I have seen you both: 
 But since he is bettered, we have therefore odds. 
 
 Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. 275 
 
 Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a 
 length ? [ Tliey prepare to play. 
 
 Osr. Ay, my good lord. 
 
 Kijig. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. 
 If Hamlet give the first or second hit. 
 Or quit in answer of the third exchange, 280 
 
132 HAMLET. 
 
 Let all the battlements their ordnance fire ; 
 
 The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath ; 
 
 And in the cup an union shall he throw, 
 
 Richer than that which four successive kings 
 
 In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups ; 285 
 
 And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, 
 
 The trumpet to the cannoneer without, 
 
 The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, 
 
 'Now the king drinks to Hamlet.' Come, begin : 
 
 And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. 290 
 
 Ham. Come on, sir. 
 
 Laer. Come, my lord. [ They play. 
 
 Ham. One. 
 
 Laer. No. 
 
 Ham. Judgement. 
 
 Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. 
 
 Laer. Well; again. 
 
 King. Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is 
 thine ; 
 Here 's to thy health. 
 
 \_Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within. 
 Give him the cup. 
 
 Ham. I '11 play this bout first ; set it by awhile. 295 
 Come. \_Tliey play.^ Another hit; what say you? 
 
 Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. 
 
 King. Our son shall win. 
 
 Queen. He 's fat, and scant of breath. 
 
 Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows : 
 The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. 300 
 
 Ham. Good madam ! 
 
 King. Gertrude, do not drink. 
 
 Queen. I will, my lord ; I pray you, pardon me. 
 
ACT V. SCENE II. 133 
 
 King. \^Asi(le'] It is tlie poisoned cup : it is too late. 
 
 Ham. 1 (lave not drink yet, madam ; by and by. 
 
 Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. 305 
 
 Laer. My lord, I '11 hit him now. 
 
 King. I do not think 't. 
 
 Laer. \^Asicle'] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my con- 
 science. 
 
 Ha7n. Come, for the third, Laertes : you but dally ; 
 I pray you, pass with your best violence ; 
 I am afeard you make a wanton of me. 310 
 
 Laer. Say you so ? Come on. [^Tliey play. 
 
 Osr. Nothing, neither way. 
 
 Laer. Have at you now ! 
 [^Laertes ivoimcls Hamlet ; then, in scuffling, they change 
 rapiers, and Hamlet ivounds Laertes. 
 
 King. Part them ; they are incensed. 
 
 Ham. Nay, come, again. [The Queen falls. 
 
 Osr. Look to the queen there, ho ! 
 
 Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my 
 lord ? 315 
 
 Osr. How is 't, Laertes ? 
 
 Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, 
 Osric ; 
 I am justly killed with mine own treachery. 
 
 Hain. How does the queen ? 
 
 King. She swounds to see them bleed. 
 
 Queen. No, no, the diink, the drink, — my dear 
 
 Hamlet, — 320 
 
 The drink, the drink ! I am poisoned. [Dies. 
 
 Ham. villany ! Ho ! let the door be locked : 
 Treachery ! Seek it out. 
 
 Laer. It is here, Hamlet : Hamlet, thou art slain ; 
 
134 HAMLET. 
 
 No medicine in the world can do tliee good ; 325 
 
 In thee there is not half an honr of life ; 
 
 The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, 
 
 Unbated and envenomed : the foul practice 
 
 Hath turned itself on me ; lo, here I lie, 
 
 Never to rise again : thy mother 's poisoned : 330 
 
 I can no more : the king, the king 's to blame. 
 
 Ham. The point ! — envenomed too ! 
 Then, venom, to thy work. [_Stabs the King. 
 
 All. Treason ! treason ! 
 
 Ki7ig. 0, yet defend me, friends ; I am but hurt. 335 
 
 Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned 
 Dane, 
 Drink off this potion. Is thy union here ? 
 Eollow my mother. [King dies. 
 
 Laer. He is justly served ; 
 
 It is a poison tempered by himself. 
 
 Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet : 340 
 
 Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, 
 Nor thine on me ! \_Dies. 
 
 Ham. Heaven make thee free of it ! I follow thee. 
 I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu ! 
 You that look pale and tremble at this chance, 345 
 
 That are but mutes or audience to this act. 
 Had I but time — as this fell sergeant, death, 
 Is strict in his arrest — 0, I could tell you — 
 But let it be. Horatio, I am dead ; 
 
 Thou livest ; report me and my cause aright 350 
 
 To the unsatisfied. 
 
 Hor. Never believe it : 
 
 I am more an antique Roman than a Dane : 
 Here 's yet some liquor left. 
 
ACT V. SCENE II. 135 
 
 Ham. As tlion 'rt a man, 
 
 Give me the cup : let go ; by heaven, I '11 have 't. 
 
 good Horatio, what a wounded name, 355 
 Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! 
 
 If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, 
 Absent thee from felicity awhile. 
 And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, 
 To tell my story. 360 
 
 \^3farch afar off, and shot within. 
 What warlike noise is this ? 
 Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from 
 Poland, 
 To the ambassadors of England gives 
 This warlike volley. 
 
 Ham. 0, I die, Horatio; 
 
 The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit : 
 
 1 cannot live to hear the news from England ; 365 
 But I do prophesy the election lights 
 
 On Fortinbras : he has my dying voice ; 
 So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, 
 Which have solicited. The rest is silence. [Dies. 
 
 Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet 
 prince ; 370 
 
 And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest ! 
 Why does the drum come hither ? \^March within. 
 
 Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and others. 
 
 Fort. Wliere is this sight ? 
 
 Hor. What is it ye would see ? 
 
 If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. 
 
 Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. proud death, 375 
 
136 HAMLET. 
 
 What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, 
 That thou so many princes at a shot 
 So bloodily hast struck ? 
 
 First Amb. The sight is dismal ; 
 
 And our affairs from England come too late : 
 The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, 380 
 To tell him his commandment is fulfilled, 
 That Eosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead : 
 Where should we have our thanks ? 
 
 Hor. Not from his mouth, 
 
 Had it the ability of life to thank you : 
 He never gave commandment for their death. 385 
 
 But since, so jump upon this bloody question, 
 You from the Polack wars, and you from England, 
 Are here arrived, give order that these bodies 
 High on a stage be placed to the view ; 
 And let me speak to the yet unknowing world 390 
 
 How these things came about : so shall you hear 
 Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts. 
 Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters. 
 Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause. 
 And, in this upshot, purposes mistook 395 
 
 Fallen on the inventors' heads : all this can I 
 Truly deliver. 
 
 Fort. Let us haste to hear it. 
 
 And call the noblest to the audience. 
 For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune : 
 I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, 400 
 
 Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. 
 
 Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, 
 And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more : 
 But let this same be presently performed. 
 
ACT V. SCENE II. 137 
 
 Eveu while men's luiiuls are wild ; lest more mischance, 
 On plots and errors, happen. 40G 
 
 Fort. Let four captains 
 
 Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage ; 
 For he was likely, had he been put on. 
 To have proved most royally : and, for his passage, 
 The soldiers' music and the rites of war 410 
 
 Speak loudly for him. 
 Take up the bodies : such a sight as this 
 Becomes the field, bnt here shows much amiss. 
 Go, bid the soldiers shoot. 
 
 \^A dead march. Exeunt, hearing off the dead bodies; 
 after ivliicli a peal of ordnance is shot off. 
 
A LIST OF THE PERSONS OF THE DRAMA, WITH THE SCENES IN 
 WHICH THEY APPEAR. 
 
 Claudius I 2, II 2, III 1 2 3, IV 1 3 5 7, V 1 2. 
 
 Hamlet I 2 4 5, II 2, III 1 2 3 4, IV 2 3 4, V 1 2. 
 
 PoLONius . . I 2 3, II 1 2, III 1 2 3 4. 
 
 Horatio II 2 4 5, III 2, IV 5 6, V 1 2. 
 
 Laertes I 2 8, IV 5 T, V 1 2. 
 
 VOLTIMAND I 2, II 2. 
 
 Cornelius , 1 2, II 2. 
 
 RoSENCRANTZ II 2, III 1 2 3, IV 1 2 3 4. 
 
 GUILDENSTEKN II 2, III 1 2 3, IV 1 2 3 4. 
 
 OsKic V 2. 
 
 A Gentleman IV 5. 
 
 A Priest VL 
 
 Marcellus 112 4 5. 
 
 Bernardo 112. 
 
 Francisco II. 
 
 Reynaldo II 1. 
 
 Players II 2, III 2. 
 
 Two Clowns VI. 
 
 Fortinbras IV 4, V 2. 
 
 A Captain IV 4. , 
 
 English Ambassadors V 2. 
 
 Gbetrudb I 2, II 2, nil 2 4, IV 1 5 T, V 1 2. 
 
 Ophelia I 3, II 1, III 1 2, IV 5. 
 
 Ghost 1 1 4 5, III 4. 
 
 138 
 
NOTES. 
 
 "Hamlet," says Professor Dowden, "represents the mid period 
 of the growth of Shakespeare's genius, when comedy and history 
 ceased to be adequate for the expression of his deeper thoughts 
 and sadder feelings about life, and when he was entering upon his 
 great series of tragic writings." — With the exception of Romeo 
 and Juliet, — a distinctly early production, — all the great trage- 
 dies group themselves together in the first years of the seventeenth 
 century. In this gi'oup of tragedies, Hamlet stands, in the order 
 of time, the second. The first of the series is Julius Csesar (IGOl), 
 and the last is Coriolanus (1G08). 
 
 The inquisitive Hamlet student will find it interesting to exam- 
 ine the problem of the exact date of the play. The relation of the 
 first quarto, published in 1603, and now extant, so far as known, 
 in only two copies, to the next quarto, of 1604, whif'h givCo lae 
 tragedy in its final and accepted form, constitutes one of the many 
 riddles that tease the Shakespeare scholar. The first quarto is 
 reprinted entire in their notes by Wright, — Cambridge Shake- • 
 speare, Vol. IX, — and by Furness, — Variorum Hamlet, Vol. II. 
 These editors also explain the significance of this early quarto as 
 bearing on our knowledge of the poet's method of composition. 
 
 As to the source from which Shakespeare drew the plot, or 
 suggestions of the plot, of Hamlet, — for absolutely original in 
 all the elements of his fable he never is, — it is certain that there 
 existed already, before his day, a popular play on the same sub- 
 ject, — though no such play is now extant ; and it is probable that 
 he read the Hamlet story as told by the Frenchman, Belleforest, 
 in his Histoires Tragiques, a book that was much read in the poet's 
 youth, though the oldest known translation into English bears date 
 1608. It is not likely that he knew the story in its oldest form, as 
 it appears in the Latin of Saxo Grammaticus, — whose Historia 
 Danica was completed about the beginning of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. It is interesting thus to trace Hamlet to its birth in the age 
 
 139 
 
140 NOTES. 
 
 of mingled history and myth, whence all the greatest ancient as 
 well as modern poetry has sprung. 
 
 Some of the difficulties you encounter in the reading of Shake- 
 speare are petty obscurities of language that will vanish when you 
 consult your International Webster or your Century. Certain 
 other difficulties belong essentially to the Shakespearian idiom, 
 and are fully mastered only when they have occurred two or three 
 times, and have found lodgement in your memory. Just as soon 
 as you begin to recognize a word or an expression because you 
 have seen it before, you begin to know it. You will do well not 
 only to look up all the cross references to which these notes direct 
 you, but to find out others for yourself. He who can, all by him- 
 self, illustrate play with play, and poet with poet, comes at last 
 to feel diminished dependence on external help, and to find new 
 enjoyment in his reading. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 '"-'■■- Scene 1 . 
 
 2. Nay, answer me. Francisco's 7iay expresses reproof, and 
 his answer me must be read, not as an appeal, but as a correction, 
 with accent on the pronoun. Bernardo has violated the order of 
 military procedure, which requires that the sentinel on duty shall 
 challenge any one who approaches him. Bernardo, in his trepida- 
 tion challenging the sentinel, has first to be set right as to form : 
 then he receives Francisco's challenge, advances, and gives the 
 countersign. 
 
 13. The rivals of my watch. Note the lost meaning of rival. 
 See rivality, Ant. and Cle. iii 5 8. Bival has an interesting history. 
 
 14. Stand, ho ! who 's there ? Though now duly relieved by his 
 successor on the post, and therefore no longer sentinel, Francisco 
 challenges the approaching Horatio and Marcellus. Then he goes 
 off, to be no more heard of during the play. 
 
 18. Give you good night. The phrase has here lost only its 
 nominative. As we now use it, it no longer has nominative, verb, 
 or dative, and we have forgotten that it ever was a complete sen- 
 
ACT I. SCEiWE I. 141 
 
 teiice. Compare As You Like It v 1 lu ; Tit. And. iv 4 42 ; Rom, 
 ami Jul. i '2 57. 
 
 21-29. Tlie words by wliicli Marcellus refers to the ghost that 
 they have seen present an interesting climax of definiteness and 
 directness. Show how the scene gains in dramatic vigor by this 
 gradual approach to its main theme. 
 
 33, 34. sit we down and let us hear. These verb-forms are 
 usually called imperatives of the first person. They would be more 
 correctly described as expressions of wish or exhortation addressed 
 by one of a group to the entire group, in which the speaker includes 
 himself. The imperative proper is confined to the second person. 
 In sit loe, sit is subjunctive. In let tis hem; let is imperative plural, 
 and hear infinitive. The latter form is periphrastic, and in modern 
 English has prevailed entirely over the older and simpler subjunc- 
 tive phrase. 
 
 42. Thou art a scholar ; speak to it. The conjuring and exor- 
 cising of spirits was, in real life, traditionally performed in Latin. 
 See 2 Henry VI. i 4 i-io. On the stage of course this business had 
 usually to be managed in English : and yet it remained peculiarly 
 the scholar's function. See Much Ado ii 1 264. The power of 
 effective speech is in Shakespeare eminently the note of the 
 scholar. See L. L. Lost iv 2 9 ; Shrew i 2 159 ; Hamlet iii 1 159. 
 
 44. It harrows me. Compare Hamlet i 5 16. 
 
 65. jump at this dead hour. What part of speech is jump 
 here ? Compare Hamlet v 2 386 ; Othello ii 3 392. 
 
 70. Good now. With these words Marcellus seems to appeal 
 gently to the others to discuss more in detail the strange er^iption 
 to our state which Horatio has vaguely presaged. Read Good no, to 
 with upward inflection. 
 
 tell me he that knows. He is the subject of tell, which is in 
 the subjunctive, with the force of a command or exhortatio'-i. 
 
 72. toils the subject. Illustrate this use of the verb to-' ' by 
 reference to 2 Henry VI. i 1 83 ; Dream v 1 74. See suhjecu used 
 again in this sense, Hamlet i 2 as ; Meas. for Meas. iii 2 i45.' So the 
 Latin word miles, as in Virgil's late loca milite complent'- 
 
 11. What might be toward. A very common usfO of toioard, 
 as in Hamlet v 2 376 ; Lear ii 1 ii, 
 
 / 
 
142 NOTES. 
 
 87. heraldry. See, besides the dictionary, the other instances 
 of the use of the word in Shakespeare : Dream iii 2 213 ; All's Well 
 ii 3 280 ; Hamlet ii 2 478 ; Othello iii 4 47. 
 
 94. carriage must be understood as meaning import or tenor, 
 and as referring to the stipulations of the article designed or men- 
 tioned above, in line 86, as a sealed compact. 
 
 107. The word romage, or rummage, has an interesting 
 origin. 
 
 108. I think it be. The use of this particular subjunctive form, 
 be, with think, is very frequejit. See Hamlet v 1 131 ; Cymbeline 
 i 1 9 ; As You Like It ii 7 i. Hardly less frequent is the indicative 
 form is in the same connection. See As You Like It iii 4 23, 29 ; 
 Othello iv 2 196 ; iv 3 99. Any other verb than be in the subjunctive 
 after think is rare. To make any distinction in these cases as 
 regards meaning is difficult. Note, as of peculiar interest, Othello 
 iii 3 384. 
 
 109. Well may it sort. That is, it is quite in harmony with 
 your theory of the cause of the warlike preparations which we see 
 going on in the state. See 3 Henry VI. v 5 26 ; Henry V. iv 1 63. 
 Note the verb sort used transitively, Hamlet ii 2 274 ; Richard III. 
 ii 3 36. 
 
 117. As stars with trains of fire, etc. The language implies an 
 ellipsis of something preceding. Supply such a phrase as, — such 
 things were seen. 
 
 118. Disasters in the sun. The etymology of the word disaster 
 helps explain its use in this expression. See Lear i 2 131. 
 
 the moist star. See Wint. Tale i 2 l. 
 '; 154. The extravagant and erring spirit. Both these adjectives 
 have the simple meaning due them by their etymology ; and both 
 have- come to have quite other meanings in modern English. 
 
 156 . made probation : gave proof. 
 
 1.68. 'Gainst that season comes. So in Dream iii 2 99 ; Shrew 
 iv 4 i\04. 
 
 162. V no planets strike. So we say sun-struck, moon-struck. 
 
 163. ^o fairy takes. Just as we still say, a vaccination takes. 
 166. in russet mantle clad. Eecall Milton's use of the word 
 
 russet. Allegro 71. 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 143 
 
 Describe the situation as cleveloptHl in the first scene. IIow is 
 this situation reflected in the minds of men ? 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 2. The word that serves instead of a repeated though, as que 
 is often used in French. In modern English the though would 
 either be repeated or left to be understood. 
 
 13. delight and dole. Note the alliteration. 
 
 14. barred : that is, failed to consult. 
 
 17. Now follows that you know. The Jcnoio is probably sub- 
 junctive, and the sentence means, — / ivill now proceed to inform 
 you. 
 
 21. Colleagued with the dream of his advantage : fancying 
 he sees a chance to take advantage of us. 
 
 29. bedrid. This is the primitive form, and is more correct 
 than bedridden. Look up the history of the word. 
 
 31. his further gait. Gait is etymologically the same word as 
 gate, derived from the root of the verb get. Do not connect it 
 with go. 
 
 38. The scope of these dilated articles. The king warns his 
 envoys not to transcend the powers conferred upon them ; and in 
 the Words quoted directs them to examine their instructions in 
 detail, to make sure of the limits of their authority. Dilated 
 seems to mean, carefully analyzed. — Note the grammatical error 
 in allow. 
 
 63. And thy best graces spend it at thy will : spend it for 
 your improvement in those accomplishments which you most esteem. 
 
 65. A little more than kin and less than kind. Hamlet refers 
 to the king's words, my cousin and my son. It is as if he should 
 say, — yes, I am more to you now than mere cousin (we should 
 say, nephew) ; but less than child. Just what meaning was con- 
 veyed to an Elizabethan public by the word kind we cannot now 
 quite understand. The alliterative coupling of kin and kind had 
 perhaps brought into vogTie a proverb known to everybody, giving 
 to Hamlet's words point and relevancy. 
 
 Hamlet's first words in the play are therefore an aside. Describe 
 the first impression which we form of his character. 
 
144 NOTES. 
 
 67. I am too much in the sun. Perhaps, with punning refer- 
 ence to son, Hamlet expresses his irritation at being called son by 
 the king. 
 
 70. thy vailed lids. See the same expression, Venus and 
 Adonis 956. See also Merchant i 1 28 ; Pericles ii 3 42. 
 
 87. Comparing the verse passages in which the word commend- 
 able occurs, we find it accented sometimes on the first syllable, 
 and sometimes on the second. If in this instance we accent the 
 first syllable, we must read the verse as an alexandrine. Abbott, 
 (Shakespearian Grammar) , objecting to lines of six accents, reads 
 thus: 
 
 'Tis swedt and comm&idable in your nature, Hamlet. 
 
 The reader must take his choice. 
 
 95. a will most incorrect to heaven. Think out modern 
 phrases for the expression of this idea. 
 
 112. Do I impart toward you. Verses 110-112 are trouble- 
 some to construe. The best way to read them is, to forget, as soon 
 as you have read 110, that it contains a ivitJi. Then still remains 
 the unsatisfactory, but intelligible, toward. 
 
 119. The line reads naturally as an alexandrine, with pause in 
 the middle. It may be reduced to regular form by making the last 
 two syllables of Wittenberg a dissyllabic light ending. 
 
 124. Sits smiling to my heart. Similar uses of sit are common 
 in Chaucer. See Duchesse 1220 ; Hit nas no game, it sat me sore. 
 
 137. possess it merely. The adverb belongs, of course, gram- 
 matically, to the verb ; though logically it limits the subject. 
 
 140. Hyperion to a satyr. Shakespeare ascribes to Hyperion, 
 god of the sun, characteristics strictly proper to Apollo. See de- 
 scription of satyrs in classical dictionary. 
 
 159. break my heart. My heart is the subject of break, and is 
 not in the vocative. Eead without pause after break. 
 
 163. Be sure you accent the line properly. 
 
 164. What make you? How should we ask this question 
 to-day? 
 
 182. my dearest foe. Dr. Murray shows that dear in this 
 sense is a radic&lly different word from dear meaning beloved or 
 
ACT I. SCENE HI. 145 
 
 esteemed. See Eichard II. i 3 151 ; Timoii v 1 231 ; Sonnet 37 ; 
 Lycidas G. 
 
 18o. Or ever I had seen. Recall Ecclesiastes xii G. 
 
 190. Saw ? Who ? You cannot inflect these questions wrongly 
 if you apprehend the situation. Beginners often read them so as 
 to destroy their meaning. 
 
 102. Season your admiration. To learn the meaning of the 
 verb season in this play, study the cases where it occurs, viz. : 
 i 3 81 ; ii 1 28 ; iii 2 219 ; iii 3 86. 
 
 198. In the dead vast and middle of the night. See Tempest 
 i 2 327 ; rerioles iii 1 i. 
 
 200. Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe. See the phrase at 
 point., Macbeth iv 3 135 ; Lear i 4 347. The modern de pied en cap 
 you will lind in any French dictionary under cap. 
 
 204. with the act of fear. We should say, by the action, or by 
 the operation, or under the influence, of fear. 
 
 206. Find conventional modern phrase that shall express with 
 equal force the idea of the words, in dreadfxd secrecy. 
 
 230. his beaver. So 1 Henry IV. iv 1 104 ; 2 Henry IV. iv 1 120 
 and often elsewhere. Do not imagine that this word heaver has 
 any kinship with the name of the fur-bearing rodent. 
 
 231. With the verb looh the poet usually employs the adverb to 
 complete the predicate. What is the modern usage in this matter ? 
 
 238. tell a hundred. See Dream v 1 370 ; Sonnet 30 ; Eichard 
 III. i 4 122. This is the primitive meaning of tell. 
 
 242. I will watch to-night. What word bears the emphasis ? 
 
 245. should gape and bid me. As to the meaning of gape, 
 get a suggestion from Henry VIII. v 4 1-3. 
 
 248. Let it be tenable in your silence. To say that the secret 
 is tenable in your silence is to say that you are capable of holding, 
 or keeping, the secret. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 6. a fashion and a toy in blood. Fashion Polonius will help 
 you to interpret in line 112 below. Toy is defined in 1 Henry VI. 
 iv 1 145. See a good comment on hlood in Hamlet iii 2 74. 
 
 7. primy is perhaps a Shakespearian coinage. It occurs only 
 here. 
 
146 NOTES. 
 
 9. suppliance of a minute : what the passing minute supplies. 
 
 15. The words of tlie line are all explained by the dictionaries. 
 See Coriolanus iv 1 33 ; Csesar ii 1 129 ; L. L. Lost ii 1 47 ; Henry 
 V. iv 3 110. 
 
 30. The word credent, here used actively, and meaning C7-eclu- 
 lous, the poet, with his wonted confusion of voice, elsewhere some- 
 times uses to mean credible. See Meas. for Meas. iv 4 29. 
 
 34-35. Note the military figures. 
 
 36-37. The chariest maid, etc. The superlative seems strangely 
 out of place. We should expect, rather, the " un chariest. " As 
 it is, we must make chariest mean, — really chary. 
 
 39-42. From what source are drawn the figures of these lines ? 
 See th.e word disclose with zoological application, Hamlet iii 1 174 ; 
 V 1 310. See also 2 Henry VI. iii 1 89 ; Two Gent, i 1 48. 
 
 46-51. Note the anacoluthon in Ophelia's speech, and rectify 
 her language in accordance with modern standards. On puffed 
 compare Hamlet iv 4 49. 
 
 59. See thou character. Character is here in the subjunctive 
 to the eye as well as to the understanding. See the word similarly 
 used, but differently accented, As You like It iii 2 6. 
 
 60. unproportioned : unfitting, improper. 
 
 62, 63. The syntax can hardly be corrected without enfeebling 
 the sentence. 
 
 69. censure : opinion or judgement, whether approving or con- 
 demning. 
 
 58-80. The famous advice of Polonius to Laertes is too formal, 
 precise, and studied to seem spontaneous. It is quite possible that 
 the public of Shakespeare's day recognized the speech as being 
 commonplace and conventional, and therefore in keeping with the 
 character of the man who is to elicit from Hamlet the comment 
 (ii 2 223) these tedious old fools. 
 
 81. my blessing season this in thee. That is, cause thee to 
 take it to heart, as wholesome and serious advice earnestly meant, 
 even though familiar and trite as a piece of moralizing. 
 
 83. tend, a common abbreviation for attend. 
 
 94. as so 'tis put on me. See^wi with on in the same sense, 
 As You Like It i 2 99 ; Twelfth Night v 1 70. 
 
ACT I. SCENE IV. 147 
 
 102. unsifted. Tliat is, who has had no experience iji sifting ; 
 or, perhaps, wlio would not endure the test of a sifting in this 
 dangerous matter. For the meaning of sift in this figurative 
 sense, see Hamlet ii 2 58 ; All's Well v 3 124 ; Kichard II. i 1 12 ; 
 1 Henry VI. iii 1 24. 
 
 107. sterling. Look np the etymology of this word. 
 
 108. not to crack the wind of the poor phrase. Whence 
 comes the figure ? 
 
 109. you '11 tender me a fool. Read me as a dative : you '11 
 tender to me a fool, or show me that I have a fool for a daughter. 
 
 115. Be sure of the pronunciation of springe. 
 
 125. with a larger tether he may walk. Whence comes the 
 figure ? 
 
 12G. in few. Recall these words when, in a following scene, 
 you find Polonius again professing that he will be brief. 
 
 127. they are brokers. Shakespeare regularly uses brol'er in 
 the sense of go-between, with degrading implication. Look up the 
 etymology of broker. 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 1. The air bites shrewdly. See bite in this sense, As You Like 
 It ii 1 s ; and shrewd, applied again to the weather, same play, 
 
 V 4 179. 
 
 2. a nipping and an eager air. See eager in a very different 
 application, i 5 69. See also 2 Henry VI. ii 4 3. 
 
 8. takes his rouse.' Compare i 2 127 ; ii 1 58. 
 
 9. Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels. On 
 wassail compare Macbeth i 7 64. Look up the origin of this word. 
 The up-spring was a dance. Reels may here be a transitive verb. 
 Then the expression means, — reels, or staggers, through the bois- 
 terous dance. 
 
 11. The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out. All the 
 braying in Shakespeare is ascribed to drums and trumpets, or to 
 minstrelsy. Recall Keats' silver snarling trumpets in St. Agnes' 
 Eve. 
 
 15, 16. One of the most frequently quoted passages. 
 
 18. A very common usage of the preposition of. 
 
148 NOTES. 
 
 20. Soil our addition. Addition is constantly employed in this 
 sense. See Hamlet ii 1 47 ; Macbeth i 3 106 ; Lear i 1 138. 
 
 22. Johnson, as quoted by Furness, interprets, — " The best and 
 most valuable part of the praise that would otherwise be attributed 
 to us." 
 
 23. Hamlet goes on to extend his moralizing from national traits 
 to individual peculiarities. 
 
 24. mole is here blemish in the most general sense. 
 
 27. complexion, which ordinarily means temperament^ may 
 here be equivalent to idiosyncrasy. 
 
 28. Reason is here conceived as a restraining influence : whence 
 the figures, pales and forts. 
 
 30. plausive manners : pleasing, popular manners. 
 35. in the general censure : in the general estimate, or in the 
 final public verdict. 
 
 36-38. the dram of eale 
 
 Doth all the noble substance of a doubt 
 
 To his own scandal. 
 
 The passage can hardly be read with the familiar acceptations 
 and usages of words ; yet its purport is obvious. You may read 
 in Furness the multitude of attempts that have been made at 
 emendation of the text or at elucidation of it as it stands. Per- 
 haps the best way to deal with the passage is, provisionally, to 
 follow Professor Corson, who allows the text to stand, and manages 
 it thus : Eale is equivalent to evil or ill. The verb of the passage is 
 doth substance; all the noble — an adjective used as a noun — is 
 the object of doth substance-, and of has its common ancient mean- 
 ing with. In this view of the passage, sribstance is a verb meaning 
 to infect or taint; and the sentence means, — the dram of evil doth 
 taint all the noble (part of the character) with a doubt. Such an 
 interpretation cannot of course be finally accepted until an un- 
 doubted instance of a verb substance — meaning something like 
 infect — can be found in Elizabethan literature. In to his own 
 scandal consider his as neuter, and referring to all the noble. 
 
 39. Angels and ministers of grace perhaps means, — Angels, 
 and ye other heavenly powers. 
 
ACT I. SCENE IV. 149 
 
 40. A spirit of health is the antithesis to goblin damned, and 
 hence means a spirit of salvation, or a spirit that is saved. 
 
 41, 42. Note the conditional subjunctives briny and he. Do not 
 mistake these forms for imperatives. 
 
 43. questionable : affable, inviting question. 
 
 47. thy canonized bones. Canonize is always so accented in 
 Shakespeare. Strictly, it means, received into the number of the 
 saints. Here, however, it must mean, — buried with the due rites 
 of the church. 
 
 48. cerements, with the same meaning as cerecloth, Merchant 
 ii 7 51. 
 
 52. in complete steel. Complete is, in various passages, ac- 
 cented both ways. 
 
 54, 55. and we fools of nature 
 
 So horridly to shake our disposition. 
 
 You can easily improve the syntax: can you make the sentence 
 clearer or more forcible ? 
 
 71. That beetles o'er his base into the sea. The verb beetle 
 Dr. Murray thinks Shakespeare coined. Before the poet's time 
 there was only the adjective beetle, used to qualify the noun brow, 
 or as a part of the compound beetle-browed. Beetles into the sea 
 seems to us strange, but is quite clear. 
 
 73. which might deprive your sovereignty of reason. Clearly 
 intended to bear the meaning, — which might deprive you of your 
 sovereign power of reason. 
 
 83. The Nemean lion's nerve. Look up the story of Her- 
 cules. 
 
 85. I '11 make a ghost of him that lets me. The vocable let 
 belongs to two different verbs, distinct in origin, history, and 
 meaning. Unlike in form and sound in Old English, they still 
 remain unlike in the language of Chaucer, where they would not 
 be confounded either to the ear or to the eye. All Chaucer readers 
 know the two verbs and their dissimilar inflections. It is wholly 
 wrong to say that "the verb let" sometimes has the unusual mean- 
 ing to hinder. See Twelfth Night v 1 256 ; Gentlemen iii 1 11.3. 
 
 89. Have after. Compare the common phrase. Have loith you, 
 
150 NOTES. 
 
 as in As You Like It i 2 268. With his have after Horatio virtually 
 repeats Marcellus' Let ''s follow. 
 
 Scene 5. 
 
 6. I am bound to hear. There are two participles having the 
 same word-f orin , or vocable, bound. One of these was in middle 
 English spelled boun, the d of the modern form being an excres- 
 cence. This word means, primarily, prepared or ready. See it in 
 Chaucer's Frankeleyn's Tale, 1503, — 
 
 As she was boun to goon the wey forth-right. 
 
 This is the word that appears, Hamlet iii 3 4i ; Tempest i 2, 235, and 
 often elsewhere. When Hamlet says to the ghost, I am bound to 
 hear, he seems to be using this word ; but the ghost, in his reply, 
 takes Hamlet's bound to mean under obligation. In this sense 
 bound is the participle of the verb bind. The latter is of course 
 the word used in the Merchant 13 5; i 3 lo, etc. 
 
 16. harrow up thy soul. An agricultural figure. Recall i 1 44, 
 and see Coriolanus v 3 34. 
 
 17. thy eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. To under- 
 stand the business of stars shooting from their spheres, you must 
 acquaint yourself somewhat with the Ptolemaic astronomy, which 
 was the astronomy of Shakespeare and all the Elizabethans. This 
 you can best do by means of Masson's introduction to his Globe 
 Milton. See Dream ii 1 153. The spheres long ago ceased to figure 
 in our poetry ; but the spheres and their music furnish one of the 
 commonest motives to the poets of Shakespeare's and Milton's 
 time. 
 
 19. to stand an end. The preposition anciently had the form 
 an in familiar phrases before a vowel. It is now regularly on or 
 in except when its prepositional force is forgotten : then it appears 
 like, and is usually mistaken for, the article, as in the phrases go a 
 hunting^ twice an hour., twice a year. 
 
 21. this eternal blazon : this revelation of the secrets of eter- 
 nity. 
 
 29. Haste ine to know 't. You must learn to entertain the 
 Shakespearian syntax without taking offence at its strangeness. 
 
ACT I. SCENE V. 151 
 
 32. the fat weed 
 
 That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf. 
 
 It is impossible to name any particular plant or weed that the poet 
 could have had in mind. But consider the case of a plant growing 
 on the bank of Lethe. One draught of tliis water caused the human 
 soul to forget its past and to step out of the unrest of thought into 
 the ease of oblivion. But here is a plant that drinks of Lethe all 
 the time, and is permanently fixed and rooted in ease : all its life 
 has been there : all its juices are Lethe water. It is the very 
 symbol and type of dull forgetfulness. — The ghost may be con- 
 ceived as having just come from the Lethe country, where he has 
 noted the gi-owth of the fat weed by the riverside. 
 
 37. a forged process of my death. See Merchant iv 1 274. 
 
 52. To those of mine : more lame syntax. 
 
 61. my secure hour. Secnre is used in its most frequent 
 Shakespearian sense. Was his hour, in our sense of the word, 
 secure? 
 
 62. juice of cursed hebenon. It is possible to trace hehenon 
 (perhaps henbane) through the literature of the period. See this 
 done in Furness. 
 
 69. like eager droppings. Recall the instance you have already 
 had of eager applied to the air, and see Sonnet 118 ; Eichard II. 
 V 3 75 ; 3 Henry VI. ii 6 68. 
 
 72. Look up the origin of lazar. 
 
 77. Three ecclesiastical terms, all referring to the same fact. 
 Look them up in the dictionary. 
 
 85. Taint not thy mind : keep your motives pure, unmixed 
 with thoughts of mere personal revenge. 
 
 92. In the intensity of his passion, Hamlet seeks the most 
 impressive and solemn sanctions for the oath he is taking. But 
 he rejects the thought of adding hell to heaven and earth as an 
 object of invocation. 
 
 93-94. My heart and my sinews are vocative, and the verbs 
 are proper imperatives. 
 
 97. In this distracted globe : meaning, probably, his head. 
 
 107. My tables, — meet it is I set it down. — The student's 
 
152 NOTES. 
 
 habit. The contents of such tables are hinted in the foregoing 
 lines, 98-101. Busy keepers of tables are apt to have weak memo- 
 ries, and a great resolution is not strengthened by being set down. 
 
 110-111. Now to my word : 
 
 It is 'Adieu, Adieu, remember me.' 
 
 Thus he repeats the ghost's injunction as the consummation and 
 completion of his oath. Now he can say, I have sworn 't. 
 
 124. arrant has an interesting origin. 
 
 147. Upon my sword. Among soldiers an oath taken with the 
 hands upon the cross of a sword-hilt was peculiarly sacred. 
 
 163. A worthy pioner : that is, good at mining. See Henry V. 
 iii 2 92. Look up the origin of pioner. 
 
 167. Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Do not put the 
 least shade of accent on yoiir. Hamlet is never discourteous to 
 Horatio. See Hamlet iv 3 22, 24 ; As You Like It v 4 63. 
 
 172. antic : odd, fantastic. 
 
 174. with arms encumbered thus : folded, — and he shows 
 how he means, — as a sign that one bears an important secret. 
 We can hardly understand what this posture of the arms could 
 have been. 
 
 178. What must be the meaning here of the verb note ? 
 
 Marcellus here drops out of the play, bearing an important part 
 of Hamlet's secret. Henceforth dramatically non-existent, we may 
 in thought couple him with Horatio as representing the great Danish 
 public, that remains loyal to its young prince through all vicissi- 
 tude, and could have been counted on in any honest attempt of 
 Hamlet to carry out his resolution. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Scene 1 . 
 
 7. Inquire me first. Kead me as a dative, without accent. 
 
 8-9. Supply the omitted verbs. 
 
 10. this encompassment. No one knows what this means 
 better than Polonius himself, and he defines it for us in line 65 
 below. 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 153 
 
 11. more nearer. A doubling of the comparative frequent in 
 the plays. See Merchant iv 1 251 ; Tempest 1 2 it). 
 
 24-20. These lines give specifications of wild and usual slips; 
 whereas line 30 names an habitual vice of character. 
 
 36. Wherefore should you do this .' Head this question as if 
 it were introduced with the words, — AVere you about to ask. 
 
 38. a fetch of warrant : a justifiable trick. Fetch as a noun is 
 rare in Shakespeare. See Lear ii 4 90. 
 
 45. He closes with you in this consequence : he pursues the 
 subject you have introduced, or follows out the cue you have given 
 him, in this manner. 
 
 47. addition, as in i 4 20. 
 
 58. o'ertook in 's rouse : overcome by intoxication. 
 
 64. We of wisdom and of reach. The conceit of the old diplo- 
 matist. — Recall the instance you have just had, i 4 56, of reach as 
 a noun. 
 
 68. you have me. So in All's Well iii 6 101. 
 
 71. observe his inclination in yourself: note Avhether he treats 
 you with frankness and cordiality. 
 
 73. Let him ply his music : let him talk as much as he will. 
 
 78. his doublet all unbraced. We should say, his coat un- 
 buttoned. 
 
 80. his stockings . . . down-gyved to his ancle. His stock- 
 ings are so down about his ankles that they remind Ophelia of the 
 fetters she has seen on the legs of criminals. 
 
 102. This is the very ecstasy of love. In considering whether 
 Polonius is right, take into account Hamlet's words v 1 292. 
 
 103. fordoes itself. Compare v 1 244 ; Othello v 1 129 ; Dream 
 V 1 381. Distinguish carefully between the /o?'-verbs, — like forgo, 
 fordo, forget, forbear, forbid, forgive, forsake ; and the /ore-verbs, 
 — \Wg forecast, foretell, foresee, forerun, forestall. 
 
 119. More grief to hide than hate to utter love. To hide and to 
 utter are true gerunds, and would be translated into Latin by gerunds 
 in the ablative case. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 2. Moreover, which by itself is an adverb, makes, in combina- 
 tion with that, a phrase which is a conjunction. 
 
154 NOTES. 
 
 6. Sith is here a conjunction, meaning since. In line 12 the 
 same word is an adverb, meaning since that time. We can use 
 since now in both these ways. Look up the origin of since. 
 
 17. whether counts as a monosyllable in the verse. 
 
 22. So much gentry and good will. See gentry in a similar 
 sense, v 2 114 ; so in Lucrece, 569. 
 
 67. falsely borne in hand : treacherously taken advantage of. 
 Compare Macbeth iii 1 81. — sends out arrests. Modern syntax 
 would require the repetition of the subject. The omission of a 
 pronoun not required for clearness is very frequent in Shakespeare. 
 
 77-78. Eemember this arrangement for a military passage of 
 Fortinbras through Denmark. 
 
 80. It likes us well. The verb like originally meant to please, 
 and was impersonal, as here. It is still always impersonal in the 
 English of Chaucer. In Shakespeare the two usages exist side by 
 side. To-day we can no longer say, — it likes us. 
 
 81. at our more considered time : when we shall have had 
 time to consider the matter more carefully. 
 
 86. to expostulate 
 
 What majesty should be. 
 
 By expostulate Polonius can only mean expound or explain. 
 
 111. beautified is a vile phrase. Do you not agree with 
 Polonius ? 
 
 123. whilst this machine is to him. * Only in this passage does 
 Shakespeare use the word machine. See Wordsworth's poem. She 
 was a Phantom of Delight. 
 
 126. And more above : still more than this. Ophelia has made 
 to her father a detailed confession of Hamlet's love-making. 
 
 136. If I had played the desk or table-book. . . . 
 No, I went round to work. 
 Hamlet mourns that he cannot act : Polonius boasts that he can 
 and does. No setting things down in tables for Polonius. May 
 we imagine that Polonius has observed, and formed an opinion 
 about, Hamlet's blank-books and his perpetual note-taking ? 
 
 160. He walks four hours together. The numeral /o?tr seems 
 to have been occasionally used with something of the same indefi- 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 155 
 
 niteness as our th7'ee or four, which, however, is itself very com- 
 mon in Shakespeare. 
 
 162. I '11 loose my daughter to him. llemeniber that Ophelia 
 is under strict injunction to lock herself from Hamlet's resort. 
 The word loose, therefore, is perfectly relevant. 
 
 170. O give me leave : pardon me for interrupting you. 
 
 19(5. Between who? Hamlet feigns to understand Polonius as 
 meaning a matter in dispute. 
 
 204. I hold it not honesty, etc., for yourself, sir, should be as 
 old as I am : I shall one day be as old as you are, and have the 
 same infirmities; and then I shall wish old age to be spoken of 
 with respect. 
 
 269-272. There is no need of searching for logical coherence 
 in a speech which ends with the speaker's assertion, — I cannot 
 reason. But perhaps, though this be madness, there may be in it 
 some such method as this : The condition of the beggar is no- 
 body's dream, or ambition ; therefore the beggar, not being a 
 dream, is a reality, or a body. But the monarchs and heroes are 
 the objects of dreams, and hence are unsubstantial. — In writing 
 outstretched heroes the poet may have had in mind the recumbent 
 figures of kings and nobles familiar to everybody in England. 
 
 274. No such matter : no indeed ; you shall not perform for 
 me the offices of servants. I will not sort you ; I will not class 
 you. 
 
 277. in the beaten way of friendship : to ask you the question 
 usual and expected among friends. 
 
 282. my thanks are too dear a halfpenny : my thanks can 
 avail you nothing. Do hot understand the a as the article. It 
 is the preposition an, meaning at. 
 
 293. That you must teach me. Put the accents on the pro- 
 nouns. 
 
 305. prevent, as so often in our older literature, means to 
 forestall, or anticipate, your secrecy to the king and queen 
 moult no feather : your secrecy shall not be in the least violated. 
 
 313. fretted with golden fire. See Ctesar ii 1 104 ; Cymbeline 
 11 4 88. 
 
 317. how express ! Dr. Murray defines express, as here used, 
 
156 NOTES. 
 
 well framed or modelled, and characterizes this meaning as a 
 "nonce-use." This passage is the only one he cites to illustrate 
 express in this sense. 
 
 330. We coted them. Dr. Murray cites many cases of cote 
 meaning to overtake and pass by. The word is obsolete. 
 
 335. the humorous man : the capricious, eccentric man. 
 
 337. whose lungs are tickled o' the sere : an expression which 
 it is no longer possible to explain in detail. Evidently, however, 
 it means, ■ — who laugh on very slight provocation. 
 
 346. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late 
 innovation. Their inhibition may mean, ■ — -their loss of patronage 
 resulting from their unsuccessful competition with the boys ; and 
 the late innovation may refer to the "license which had been given 
 on 30 Jan. 1603-4 to the Children of the Queen's Revels to play at 
 the Blackfriar's Theater and other convenient places." 
 
 354. an aery of children, little eyases. The dictionary will 
 give all needed help. The word eyas has a peculiarly interesting 
 origin and history. 
 
 362. how are they escoted ? Look up the expression scot and 
 lot. Note that scot is what Skeat calls a " doublet " of shot. 
 
 367. Exclaim against their own succession. That is, they 
 injure the business for adults, while they themselves are about to 
 become adults. 
 
 369. much to do. The phrase is simply another form of much 
 ado. The two prepositional infinitives have just the same con- 
 struction ; but one of them has fully developed into a noun. 
 
 370. to tarre them to controversy. Compare K. John iv 1 117 ; 
 Troilus i 3 392. 
 
 377. Do the boys carry it away? Eecall the French expres- 
 sion, Vemporter. 
 
 384. 'Sblood. You will find it interesting to make a collection 
 of the various swearing-phrases of the plays. 'Sblood is a short- 
 ened God''s blood, as ''swoimds, line 604, is from God's wounds. 
 
 388. Your hands, come then, etc. Hamlet bethinks himself 
 that he has not given to Eosencrantz and Guildenstern a proper 
 princely welcome, and that all the attendants must have noticed 
 his cold demeanor towards these old friends. As he does not wish 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 157 
 
 to be seen greeting a company of players with more effusive cor- 
 diality than he dot-s two gentlemen of the court, he takes pains, 
 before the players enter, to rectify the situation by adding to his 
 former welcome (line 228) certain details of ceremony to which all 
 are accustomed. 
 
 390. let me comply with you in this garb : let me join with 
 you in an interchange of those conventional forms of salutation 
 which befit a prince meeting his friends. 
 
 396. I am but mad north-north-west, etc. The obscurity of 
 the speech is probably due to our unfamiliarity with the practice 
 of hawking. To know a hawk from a handsaw was a proverb, in 
 which, possibly, handsaw is a corruption of heronshaio, or hern- 
 shaw, the name of a bird hunted by falconers. 
 
 406. o' Monday morning : 't was so indeed. The latter part 
 of his speech Hamlet speaks aloud, to be heard by Polonius, and 
 to mislead him as to the subject of his talk with Rosencrantz and 
 Guildenstern. 
 
 410. when Roscius was an actor in Rome. Hamlet teases 
 Polonius by being the first to mention actor. 
 
 412. Buz, buz! "said to have been a common exclamation of 
 impatience or contempt when any one was telling a well known 
 story." Dr. Murray. 
 
 414. Then came each actor on his ass : possibly quoted from 
 a ballad. 
 
 419-421. Polonius cites Seneca as the type of tragedy, and 
 Plautus as the type of comedy. — For the law of writ and the 
 liberty. Of the many explanations of this passage. Collier's, as 
 quoted by Furness, is the simplest: "the players were good 
 whether at written productions or at extemporal plays." 
 
 422. O Jephthah, judge of Israel. See the story, Judges 
 xi29. 
 
 432. Nay, that follows not. Hamlet plays on the ambiguity 
 of" the word follows. The verses quoted by Hamlet are from a 
 known ballad of the time. See Furness. 
 
 439. In what two senses may Hamlet call the players his 
 abridgements? 
 
 446. by the altitude of a chopine. See an account of the 
 
158 NOTES. 
 
 chopine, with illustrations, in Knight's note on this passage in his 
 Pictorial Shakespeare. Or see the International Dictionary. 
 
 447. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be 
 not cracked within the ring. Remember that the words, — " my 
 young lady and mistress," — are really addressed to a hoy, who 
 plays the part of the lady, and who will become disqualified for this 
 function when his voice begins to change. Hamlet finds that the 
 boy has grown. — Cracked loithin the ring is thus explained by 
 Knight : " In coins of the 16th century the head of the sovereign 
 is invariably contained within a circle, between which and the rim 
 the legend is given. The test of currency in a coin was that it 
 should not be cracked within the circle or ring. If the crack, to 
 which the thin coins of that age were particularly liable, extended 
 beyond the ring, the money was no longer considered good." See 
 numerous representations of such coins in Vol. 3 of Knight's Popu- 
 lar History of England. 
 
 457. 't was caviare to the general. The phrase has become so 
 thoroughly embedded in standard English speech that every dic- 
 tionary is sure to explain it. 
 
 459. cried in the top of mine : had more authority than mine. 
 
 462. no Ballets in the lines to make the matter savory : no 
 high seasoning to recommend the lines to a vitiated taste. 
 
 466. more handsome than fine : more abounding in natural 
 and simple beauties than in artificial ones. 
 
 472. Recall Merchant ii 7 41. 
 
 472-541. The verses which Hamlet and the player deliver are, 
 of course, not drama at all, but epic, and, in respect both to manner 
 and to matter, are in the strain of Virgil. There is much discus- 
 sion as to whether Shakespeare inserted this Pyrrhus episode in 
 mockery of a poetic style in vogue in his day, or really esteemed 
 it as highly as he makes Hamlet praise it, line 459. This is one of 
 the mysteries of the play. The taste of the present day does not 
 approve such verse. But did the Elizabethan taste also reject 
 poetry of this sort ? 
 
 502. as a painted tyrant. Do not imagine that this refers to 
 Pyrrhus being total gules. For the m'eaning of painted, see the 
 Ancient Mariner 117-118. 
 
ACT III. SCENE I. 159 
 
 505. against some storm. Recall i 1 158, where against., in 
 similar sense, is used as a conjunction. 
 
 622. he 's for a jig : he wants something comic. 
 
 595. John-a-dreams : a cant expression for an incapable, in- 
 etficient fellow, perhaps known to the comedy of the day. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene 1 . 
 
 1. drift of circumstance. The king seems to mean very much 
 what Polonius did, ii 1 10, by encompassment and drift of question. 
 
 2. In view of the meaning given by Shakespeare to the phrase, 
 put on, it is by no means to be concluded that the king means to 
 express the belief that Hamlet is assuming his confusion. Thougli 
 we understand that Hamlet is feigning madness, we must not con- 
 sider the king in possession of the secret. Why he jmts on this 
 confusion may mean simply, — what is the cause of the mental 
 aberration that has befallen him. 
 
 8. keeps aloof : subject lacking, as in ii 2 67. 
 
 12. with much forcing of his disposition : much against his 
 Inclination. 
 
 13. Niggard of question ; but of our demands most free in 
 his reply. Tliese words cannot be understood except on the 
 assumption that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are purposely mis- 
 representing Hamlet's behavior towards themselves. What motive 
 can you imagine them to have for such misrepresentation ? 
 
 31. may here affront Ophelia: the regular Shakespearian 
 meaning of affront. See Wint. Tale v 1 75 ; Cymbeline iv 3 29. 
 
 47. with devotion's visage, etc. Polonius naturally assumes 
 that in Ophelia the act of reading on a book is an act of devotion. 
 Note the mingling of figures, with devotion's visage we do sugar o'er. 
 
 58. slings and arrows seem curiously chosen to typify the 
 inflictions of adverse fortune. 
 
 59. to take arms against a sea of troubles must be generalized 
 thus : to make resistance to a multitude of calamities. 
 
 65. there 's the rub. See the noun rub in a similar sense, 
 Henry V. v 2 33 ; Coriolanus iii 1 60 ; Macbeth iii 1 134. 
 
160 NOTES. 
 
 67. When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. The figure 
 regards the soul as entangled and ensnared by its connection with 
 the body. 
 
 68. the respect : the consideration. 
 
 88. Soft you now! Evidently addressed to himself. 
 
 89. in thy orisons be all my sins remembered. In reading 
 be careful as to where you put the accent. 
 
 114. this was sometime a paradox. Hamlet's dictum was not 
 a paradox in the sense that it was self-contradictory, but in the 
 sense that it contradicted general opinion. 
 
 120. we shall relish of it : that is, of our old stock. 
 
 132. Where's your father? At home, my lord. Hamlet, as 
 we know, feigns his madness for a purpose : account for Ophelia's 
 lying. Is it possible that Hamlet knew Polonius was present and 
 overhearing his interview with Ophelia ? 
 
 151. make your wantonness your ignorance. You excuse 
 immodest words or deeds by pretending you knew no better. 
 
 159. The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword. 
 Do the elements of the two triplets of which the line consists corre- 
 spond, in order of collocation, with their obvious logical connection? 
 
 191. let her be round with him. As to meaning of round, 
 compare Twelfth Night ii 3 102. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 2. trippingly on the tongue : with clean and distinct articula- 
 tion, so as to be understood. We have no town-criers now, but 
 street venders and street-car conductors keep us constantly aware 
 what it means to mouth words. 
 
 We must not consider Hamlet as giving a general lesson in elo- 
 cution, wholesome and widely applicable as we find his teaching to 
 be. He is taking pains to secure that his dozen or sixteen lines be 
 effectively spoken. But he would not be Hamlet did he not gen- 
 eralize and moralize on every possible occasion. 
 
 10. a periwig-pated fellow. It is known from other sources 
 that the actors of Shakespeare's time wore wigs as a distinctive 
 part of their costume. Wigs did not come into general use till the 
 reign of Charles II. 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 161 
 
 16. whipped for o'erdoing Termagant ; it out-herods Herod. 
 TermntjaiU is the name given, in tlie meiliieval roinance.s, to tlie 
 god of the Saracens. The parts of Termagant and Herod, in tlie 
 ancient moralities and mysteries, called for the most unrestrained 
 ranting. The public of Shakespeare's time was still familiar with 
 these characters and with the traditional way of acting them. 
 
 30. the censure of the which one : the censure of one of 
 whom. 
 
 60. As e'er my conversation coped withal. See various 
 meanings of cupe, Merchant iv 1 412 ; As You Like It ii 1 G7; Lear 
 V 3 124. 
 
 63. That no revenue hast. Accent revenue as in Tempest i 2 98. 
 
 65. let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp. Compare, as 
 to accent, the absztrd of this passage with that in i 2 103. As to 
 pregnant, compare ii 2 212 ; ii 2 595 ; Meas. for Meas. iv 4 23. — Note 
 the curious mixture of metaphors, — let the tongue lick — and 
 crook the hinges of the knee. The poet forgets that he has said 
 tongue, and thinks only of the sweet-tongued flatterer. 
 
 78. my heart's core. Consider the etymology of core. 
 
 81. the circumstance which I have told thee. Did we know 
 already of this disclosure to Horatio ? Refer to Horatio's last 
 appearance. Have we heard of him since that time ? 
 
 83. when thou seest that act afoot. A frequent meaning of 
 afoot. See Csesar iii 2 265. 
 
 89. Vulcan's stithy. See Troi. and Cres. iv 5 255, where stithy 
 is a verb. 
 
 92. In censure of his seeming. Censure means here discus- 
 sion, or consideration. 
 
 98. of the chameleon's dish : I eat the air. See the interest- 
 ing article on the chameleon in the Encyclopeedia Britannica. 
 
 119. Shall I lie in your lap ? Steevens, quoted by Furness, 
 says, — "To lie at the feet of a mistress, during any dramatic 
 representation, seems to have been a common act of gallantry." 
 
 132. your only jig-maker. Evidently we must understand the 
 phrase to mean onlij your jig-maker. 
 
 137. then let the devil wear black, for I '11 have a suit of sables. 
 A difficult passage. The commentators try, by all sorts of devices. 
 
162 NOTES. 
 
 to make out that the black, which Hamlet lets the devil wear, is 
 true mourning, while a suit of sables is a festive garb. Then 
 Hamlet means, — let the devil continue in black, for I will go out 
 of mourning at once. 
 
 142. else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby- 
 horse, etc. See the hobby-horse described in Scott's Abbot, Chap, 
 xiv and note 9 ; and illustrated in Knight's History of England, 
 ii 255 ; iii 253. In Shakespeare's time the hobby-horse was going, 
 or had gone, out of fashion. Hamlet quotes from a ballad which 
 laments that the hobby-horse is forgotten. 
 
 Stage direction, Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters. 
 This dumb-show exhibits to us, in mute representation, precisely 
 the same action that we are about to see again with the accom- 
 paniment of language. That such procedure was not usual in the 
 English theatre is shown by Ophelia's question, — What means 
 this, my lord? It would seem to be Hamlet's purpose to -make 
 absolutely sure, by the double presentation, that the scene he is 
 about to have enacted shall be seen and felt by the king in its full 
 significance. 
 
 147. miching mallecho. The verb mich or meach, meaning to 
 skulk, sneak, or lie hid, you will find as an English word in the 
 International Dictionary. Mallecho is Spanish, meaning evil deed 
 or crime. The two words, coupled by the alliteration, may have 
 constituted a stock expression in the poet's time. 
 
 162. the posy of a ring. Arber, in his English Garner, gives 
 interesting collections of love-posies from Tudor times. 
 
 159-276. The play within the play runs on, interrupted with 
 comment by the audience, till the king rises. Shakespeare scholars 
 have tried to settle what lines of this inner play are the dozen or 
 sixteen that Hamlet was to set down and insert in 't. The inquiry 
 is of course futile : no such lines exist. The poet had no occasion 
 to write certain verses with a difference in order that critics in the 
 future might please themselves with saying, — these lines are 
 Hamlet's. It was for a dramatic purpose that he invented 
 Hamlet's request to be allowed to insert in the play his dozen 
 or sixteen lines. What this purpose was is perfectly obvious. 
 The play is to be made to appear as one that the actors have 
 
ACT in. SCENE 11. 163 
 
 already in their repertory and can present off-hand. But such 
 a play cannot be conceived as suiting Hamlet's purpose until it 
 has undergone alterations. Even an Elizabethan audience would 
 have been skeptical about the previous existence of a play having 
 just this plot. It is as absurd to look for Hamlet's lines as to 
 search for the Mouse-trap in Italian literature. — See Furness' 
 Variorum note, but especially that part of it which is Mr. Euruess' 
 own. 
 
 173. woe is me. Me, of course, is dative. 
 
 175. I distrust you : I am anxious about you. 
 
 177. holds quantity: are directly proportional. 
 
 184. My operant powers their functions leave to do : my 
 vital forces are decaying. 
 
 202. Most necessary 't is : most inevitable, most sure. 
 
 229. An anchor's cheer. The usual form, anchorite, does not 
 occur in the plays, and this word anchor only in this instance. 
 
 230. Each opposite that blanks the face of joy. Shakespeare's 
 only use of the verb blank. 
 
 247. Marry, how.' Be sure to give this question the due inflec- 
 tion. 
 
 251. Your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us 
 not. Just such an anomaly of syntax as we had i 4 54. 
 
 255. You are as good as a chorus, my lord. Remember how, 
 in certain of Shakespeare's plays, as in Henry V. and Pericles, a 
 chorus is employed to forward the movement of the plot by ac- 
 quainting us with events that cannot be brought within the action. 
 
 256. I could interpret ... if I could see the puppets dally- 
 ing. Says Steevens, — "An interpreter formerly sat on the stage 
 at all motions, or puppet-shows, and interpreted to the audience." 
 See Two Gentlemen ii 1 loi. 
 
 264. The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Evidently 
 a reminiscence of a passage in The True Tragedie of Richard III., 
 a play of uncertain authorship, the precursor of Shakespeare's 
 Richard III. This early play you will find in Hazlitt's Shake- 
 speare's Library, Part II, Vol. I, page 43. By all means look it up 
 if you possibly can, and read at least the king's speech, p. 117. 
 
 282-285. Probably a stanza of a ballad. 
 
164 NOTES. 
 
 288. Provincial, as apijlied to roses, can no longer be under- 
 stood. As to the meaning of razed, with shoes, commentators 
 dispute whether it means slashed, striped, or, by misspelling, raised. 
 
 289. a fellowship in a cry of players. From being used as a 
 term of hunting, to mean a pack of hounds, as in Dream iv 1 128 ; 
 Coriolanus iii 3 120 ; Othello ii 3 370, cry came to mean a company 
 in general, as here. 
 
 291. A whole one, I. I may here stand for ay, the interjec- 
 tion, or it may be the pronoun, with ellipsis of construction. 
 
 295. A very, very — pajock. The rime which Horatio says 
 Hamlet might have made is obvious enough. 
 
 305. Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy. It may be 
 Hamlet cuts short what he was going to say because Eosencrantz 
 and Guildenstern now enter. 
 
 348. by these pickers and stealers. The oath by this hand is 
 common enough, as in Tempest iii 2 56, 78 ; Meas. for Meas. ii 1 172 ; 
 Much Ado iv 1 327 ; Merchant v 1 161 ; and by these pickers and 
 stealers means the same thing. 
 
 358. ' While the grass grows.' The entire proverb has been pre- 
 served, — while grass doth growe, the silly horse he starves. 
 
 360. O, the recorders ! let me see one. The recorder was an 
 instrument of the flute family, but blown, not like the modern 
 flute, or fife, but like the flageolet. 
 
 361. go about to recover the wind of me. Hamlet is now 
 speaking privately with Guildenstern, whom he charges with hunt- 
 ing him, and trying, with the craft of a hunter, to drive him into 
 a net. 
 
 363. In Guildenstern' s speech consider what word is to bear the 
 main accent. 
 
 388. though you can fret me. Note the double meaning of /ret 
 
 401. They fool me to the top of my bent. On the word bent 
 in this sense Dr. Murray says, — " Extent to which a bow may be 
 bent or a spring wound up, degree of tension ; hence degree of 
 endurance, capacity for taking in or receiving ; limit of capacity, 
 etc. Now only in the Shakespearian phrase, To the top of one's 
 bent, or the like." 
 
 410. Soft! now to my mother. With the exclamation soft 
 
ACT III. SCENE III. 165 
 
 Hamlet checks the bitter passion of liis soul, and passes to a con- 
 sideration of the bearing he is to assume towards his mother. 
 
 410. The participle shent is the only part of the verb shcnd that 
 appears in the plays. See Troi. and Cres. ii 3 8G ; Coriolanus v 2 104. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 1. I like him not. Do not take the expression in the modern 
 sense. 
 
 2. prepare you. To2i is object, the verb being reflexive. 
 
 15. The cease of majesty dies not alone. The poet, after 
 writing the cease of majesty, continued his sentence as if he had 
 begun with, — deceasing majesty, or a dying king. 
 
 16. like a gulf, doth draw. The conception of a gulf as suck- 
 ing or englutting is frequent in the plays. See Henry V. ii 4 10 ; 
 iv 3 82. 
 
 20-22. which . . . ruin. Note the anacoluthon. The Latin 
 can say, — quae cum cadit. Why cannot the modern languages 
 do the same thing ? 
 
 24. Arm you, like prepare you in line 2. Both the noun and 
 the verb arm are often used without reference to weapons of war- 
 fare. Remember Antonio's / am armed to suffer, Merchant iv 1 ii. 
 
 29. To hear the process ; to hear what goes on. 
 
 she '11 tax him home : she will be peremptory and insistent in 
 her demand for explanations. 
 
 33. of vantage : from a secret and unsuspected post of obser- 
 vation. 
 
 48-51. Compare as to metric value the word prayer in line 48 
 with the same word in line 51. 
 
 61. the action lies in his true nature. See in the dictionary 
 the meaning of lie as a law term. 
 
 64. what rests : what remains. 
 
 68. O limed soul. See 2 Henry VI. i 3 91 ; iii 3 16 ; and Comus 
 646. 
 
 73. Now might I do it pat. See Lear i 2 146. 
 
 75. That would be scanned : that requires consideration. 
 
 81. with all his crimes broad blown. This is the same par- 
 ticiple blown that we had in iii 1 167, and which you will see in 
 
166 NOTES. 
 
 Much Ado iv 1 59 ; L. L. Lost v 2 297. It is a different word that 
 you find in the blown of Macbeth ii 3 60 ; Lear iv 1 8. 
 
 88. know thou a more horrid hent. From the verb he7it the 
 poet makes tlie noun hent for tliis one occasion. See Meas. for 
 Meas. iv 6 14 ; Wint. Tale iv 3 133. 
 
 Scene 4-. 
 
 4. I '11 sconce me. Elsewhere, in the modern form, ensconce. 
 See Wives iii 3 96. 
 
 14. No, by the rood. Bood is purely English in its source and 
 development, whereas cross is of Latin origin. 
 
 18. In sit yoxi down the you is the nominative, usually not 
 expressed with the imperative. In line 19, in I set you up., the 
 you is dative. 
 
 40. Such an act that blurs. So Caesar i 3 116 ; Wint. Tale, 
 i 2 263. Note that in line 45 below we find the usual construction. 
 
 46. the body of contraction : the formal observance of the 
 marriage contract. 
 
 49. this solidity and compound mass. Accent as if the words 
 were preceded by even : heaven's face doth glow of course ; but 
 even. . . . Show how the descriptive phrase in line 49 expresses 
 the thought more forcibly than the single word would have done. 
 
 50. as against the doom : as if looking forward to the speedy 
 coming of the last judgement. 
 
 51. what act 
 
 That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? 
 
 Hamlet has thus far given only the headings or outlines of what he 
 has to say. On index see Richard III. ii 2 149 ; iv 4 85 ; Troilus 
 i 3 343 ; Othello ii 1 263. 
 
 56. Hyperion's curls. See note on i 2 140. 
 
 74. ecstasy, as generally in Shakespeare, meaning a certain 
 degree of mental unsoundness. 
 
 77. at hoodman-blind : at blindman's-buff. 
 
 90. grained spots. Look up the etymology of grain as a color- 
 word. It is an interesting history, as given by Marsh in his Lectures 
 on the English language, reproduced by Furness. 
 
ACT III. SCENE IV. 167 
 
 98. a vice of kings. The Vice in the old plays was a buffoon 
 character who played low, villanous parts. A vice of kiiujs means 
 a king who is a rascal. 
 
 Enter Ghost. Look forward to line 135. Compare this appear- 
 ance of the ghost with that in Act I. 
 
 114. Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. The frailest 
 natures are most under the sway of mental impressions. 
 
 121. The word excrement in Shakespeare almost always means 
 hair. 
 
 126. preaching to stones, 
 
 Would make them capable. 
 
 See capable, similarly used, without complement, Eichard III. 
 iii 1 155. 
 
 128. you convert my stern effects : you break down my firm 
 resolution. 
 
 130. Will want true color. Compare All's Well ii 5 64 ; 
 2 Henry VI. iii 1 23G. Express the sense of these words in 
 modern phrase. 
 
 149. Infects, a transitive verb with regimen understood. 
 
 152-155. The last lines of Hamlet's speech, from Forgive me 
 this to the end, would be more fittingly spoken as an aside, 
 addressed to my virtue. It has been proposed, accordingly, to 
 insert the direction aside after ranker, and to put a comma after 
 this. Such a change makes the lines more intelligible. 
 
 155. curb and woo. Apparently the only instance in the plays 
 of curb used intransitively. 
 
 161-165. There is no difficulty in surmising with confidence the 
 drift of the passage, though it defies grammatical analysis. — While 
 custom dulls our souls to the turpitude of base actions often per- 
 formed, it also, on the other hand, establishes us in wholesome 
 courses, and makes easy the practice of virtue. In one aspect 
 custom is a monster and a devil : in another aspect custom is an 
 angel. 
 
 175. their scourge and minister. Heaven is evidently, on this 
 occasion, conceived as a plural noun. 
 
 180. The initial light syllable of the pentameter verse is rarely 
 
168 NOTES. 
 
 dropped. A better way of scanning this line is doubtless to make 
 two syllables of word. Abbott, Shakespearian Grammar, 485, shows 
 several instances where monosyllables whose vowel is followed by 
 r have to be thus dealt with. 
 
 190. On the strange words of the line consult the dictionary. 
 
 193. Unpeg the basket, etc. The allusions would be pointless 
 unless they referred to a well-known story. But the story is no 
 longer known at all. 
 
 200. I must to England : you know that ? How may we 
 ima,gine that Hamlet knew of the king's resolution to send him to 
 England. Compare iv 3 48. Note also how well informed he is 
 of the plot against his life, and how confident he is that he can 
 circumvent the plotters. Has the play prepared us to expect in 
 Hamlet such subtlety ? 
 
 202. There 's letters sealed. Abbott, Shak. Gram. 335, cites 
 many instances of verbs in the singular preceding plural subjects. 
 
 207. Hoist is a contraction of hoisted. Verbs ending in t or d 
 are liable to this contraction. So we find bloat, iii 4 182 ; deject, 
 iii 1 163 ; and in other plays the participles addict, graft, heat, in- 
 fect, quit, taint, wed, waft, wet, etc. 
 
 211. shall set me packing. A common meaning of j?ac7<;, in 
 some parts of America, still is to cari'y a load; whence the com- 
 pound, pack-animal. — Staunton, as quoted by Furness, adduces 
 from the plays of Shakespeare many instances in which actors 
 carry dead bodies from the stage, and accounts for the practice by 
 referring to the poverty of the theatres, which could not afford 
 assistants and supernumeraries for such purposes. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 Scene 1 . 
 
 10. whips out . . . cries . . . kills. The subject is omitted 
 in the animated discourse. 
 
 11. in this brainish apprehension: in the delusion caused by 
 the disease of his mind. 
 
 13. Do we find the subjunctive thus used in modern English? 
 26. a mineral of metals base. A mineral is a mine. Precious 
 metals are always found associated with base ones. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE IV. 169 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 11. That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Refer 
 to ii 2 303. 
 
 12. to be demanded of a sponge : to be questioned by a sponge. 
 19. like an ape doth nuts. Tliis use of like as a conjunction, 
 
 now so carefully avoided by good writers, is rare in Shakespeare. 
 See Pericles ii 4 3G. 
 
 29. The body is with the king, etc. If these words are to be 
 understood as making up a riddle, the riddle is too tough for 
 modern wit. 
 
 32. Hide fox and all after. Perhaps the name of a children's 
 game, — our hide-and-seek. All after, i.e. all in pursuit. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 21. a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. — 
 
 With obvious allusion to Polonius as a statesman and politician. 
 
 45. prepare thyself. Portia says to Shylock, jwepare thee to 
 cut off the flesh ; Shylock says to Antonio, Come, prepare. Discuss 
 the development of usage as regards the verb prepare. 
 
 61. As my great power thereof may give thee sense : as thou 
 hast learned by experience my power to enforce my demands. 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 6. in his eye : in his presence, before his face. 
 17. Make the pause count as a light syllable. 
 
 24. Read with omission of initial light syllable. 
 
 25. It will require armies of more than two thousand men, and 
 an expenditure of more than twenty thousand ducats, to settle this 
 question. 
 
 53. Rightly to be great 
 
 Is not to stir without great argument. 
 
 Consider well whether to read with pause after Is or after not. 
 The two ways of reading result in very different meanings. Only 
 one of these ways of pausing gives to the But in line 55 its true 
 value, and this consideration settles the place of the pause in 54. 
 64. continent, a containing, or enclosing, space. 
 
170 NOTES. 
 
 'Scene 5. 
 
 3. will needs be pitied. Compare will needs be with thoit wilt 
 needs marnj, iii 1 143. 
 
 6. spurns enviously at straws. Note the meaniug of envy in 
 Merchant iv 1 lO, 126 ; and of envious^ Hamlet iv 7 174. 
 
 19. Guilt is so preoccupied with suspicion that it forgets to be on 
 its guard against betraying itself. 
 
 Re-enter Horatio, with Ophelia. The stage direction of the first 
 quarto here is, — Enter Ophelia playing on a lute, and her hair 
 down, singing. 
 
 25. cockle hat and staff. Both were badges of pilgrims. See 
 illustration in Knight's Shakespeare. 
 
 26. his sandal shoon. Eecall the clouted shoon, Comus 635. 
 37. larded. Compare v 2 20. 
 
 41. God 'ild you. Usually in this contracted form, as in Mac- 
 beth i 6 13, but in full form. Ant. and Cle. iv 2 33. In these for- 
 mulas the verb yield means to requite. Chaucer uses the same 
 form, — god yelde yow. Cant. Tales D 1772. 
 
 They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Douce, quoted by 
 Eurness, relates, as a common story among the vulgar in Gloucester- 
 shire, the following : " Our Saviour went into a baker's shop, where 
 they were baking, and asked for some bread to eat. The mistress 
 immediately put a piece of dough into the oven to bake for him, 
 but was reprimanded by her daughter, who, insisting that the piece 
 of dough was too large, reduced it to a very small size. The dough, 
 however, began to swell, and presently became of a most enormous 
 size. Whereupon the baker's daughter cried out, ' Heugh, lieugh,' 
 which owl-like noise induced our Saviour to transform her into 
 that bird." 
 
 69. I cannot choose but weep. We have lost the phrase can- 
 not choose but, and now say, I cannot help (with gerund), or lean 
 but, or cannot but (with infinitive). See Tempest i 2 18G ; ii 2 24. 
 
 In the verses that Ophelia sings occurs the line, 
 Which bewept to the grave did go. 
 We are to remember that Ophelia sings snatches of old tunes that 
 dwell vaguely in her memory. Her bewept, literally incorrect as 
 
ACT IV. SCENE V. 171 
 
 it is, portrays her pitiful mental state, just as the words of Laertes, 
 213-210, exhibit to us his fierce anger. 
 
 81. the people muddied, Thick and unwholesome. See 
 Shrew v 2 143 ; Wint. Tale i 2 325. 
 
 84. in hugger-mugger. See dictionary. 
 
 90. wants not : has an abundance of. 
 
 93. Will nothing stick our person to arraign. See stick in 
 the same sense, 2 Henry IV. i 2 2G ; Henry VIII. ii 2 127. 
 
 97. Switzers had come to he a general term for mercenary 
 soldiers. 
 
 99. overpeering, as in Merchant i 1 12. 
 
 105. The ratifiers and props of every word. Word must be 
 used here in a very general sense, meaning, not merely ride, laiv, 
 decree, but also course of action. 
 
 110. this is counter. You are running in the direction contrary 
 to the right one. 
 
 146. Investigate, in encyclopsedia or text-book of zoology, the 
 correctness of the allusion to the pelican. 
 
 161. Nature is fine in love. The language is obscure. A sug- 
 gestion of the meaning of fine you may get from Troi. and Cres. 
 iii 2 24 ; iv 4 3 ; whence you may infer the sense of the word to 
 be, — acutely susceptible of emotion, — wholly subject to the des- 
 potism of the feelings. 
 
 162. It sends some precious instances of itself: it parts even 
 with its mental sanity. 
 
 170, 171. Ophelia's verses seem to constitute an assignment of 
 parts for the singing of the refrain of the ballad she has begun in 
 lines 164-166. Thus in 170, 171 we must accent the pronouns. 
 
 172, 173. The allusions to the wheel and to the false steioard that 
 stole his master''s daughter can no longer be understood. 
 
 175-180. The symbolical meanings which Ophelia assigns to the 
 flowers she distributes belonged to the poetry of the time, and can 
 in some instances be elsewhere exemplified. The rosemary and 
 the pansies she gives to Laertes ; the fennel and the columbines to 
 the king ; the rue, and perhaps the daisy, to the queen. Accord- 
 ing to a contemporary poem, the fennel was emblematic of flattery. 
 The columbine had an ill repute. Chapman speaks of it as " that 
 
172 NOTES. 
 
 thankless flower." Bue, the name of the flower, is not akin to 
 rue, meaning sorrow, or to ruth, meaning pity. But the poet con- 
 nects, in his tliouglit, the flower-name, rue, and the common noun, 
 ruth. What Ophelia means by giving some rue to the queen, to 
 whom she says she must wear hers with a difference, and keeping 
 some of it for herself, is thus explained by Skeat: "It is as if 
 Ophelia said, ' I offer you rue, which has two meanings ; it is some- 
 times called herb of grace, and in that sense I take some for myself ; 
 but with a slight difference of spelling it means ruth, and in that 
 respect it will do for you.'" " The explanation is not mine," says 
 Professor Skeat, "it is Shakespeare's own." See Richardll. iii4i05- 
 106. By Chaucer the daisy is glorified as empress of flowers, — as 
 the flower of all flowers. What Shakespeare would make it sym- 
 bolize in the hands of Ophelia is not clear. The violet stood for 
 faithfulness in love. May it be that Ophelia named the daisy 
 and the violets with Horatio in view ? 
 
 178. A document in madness : a lesson in wisdom by a witless 
 person. 
 
 188. Thought. The word is used sometimes thus, to mean sad 
 thought or melancholy. See Csesar ii 1 187 ; Antony iv 6 35. 
 
 204. Rectify the syntax. 
 
 216. What is the logical subject of cry ? 
 
 Scene 6. 
 
 26. too light for the bore of the matter. The figure is bor- 
 rowed from the te'chnic of firearms. 
 
 The adventure recounted in the letter to Horatio, considered in 
 connection with Hamlet's confidence that he should succeed in 
 thwarting the king's plot against his life, iii 4 202-210, suggests that 
 the pirate had been duly arranged for by Hamlet himself. Note 
 particularly the words of the letter concerning the pirates, "they 
 knew what they did." As an accident, the adventure at sea comes 
 too pat in fulfilment of prophecy. That the poet, however, con- 
 ceived it as an accident becomes clear from Hamlet's story to 
 Horatio v 2. Much as we might like to attribute so important an 
 event to the foresight and action of the persons of the drama, 
 nothing seems left for us but to ascribe it to chance. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE VIL 173 
 
 Scene 7. 
 
 13. be it either which. No other instance of this phrase form 
 is found in the plays. Understand it, whicliever of tlie two it be. 
 
 21. Would convert his gyves to graces : would regard him as 
 being ennobled and glorified by the very tokens that marked him 
 as a malefactor. The tangle of figures in 19-24 need occasion no 
 difificulty. The passage is quite Sliakespearian, and perfectly clear. 
 
 28. stood challenger on mount of all the age. Read as if the 
 words challenger on mount were hyphened together so as to form 
 a single idea. Ophelia's worth, standing on mount in the lists (see 
 Ivanhoe) challenged all the age. 
 
 59. As how should it be so? how otherwise? Spoken very 
 deliberately, with long pauses. The speaker is studying the 
 mystery. 
 
 63. as checking at his voyage. For the source and meaning 
 of the figure, see Twelfth Night ii 5 125 ; iii 1 71. 
 
 77. of the unworthiest siege. On the meaning of siege, see 
 Othello i 2 22. Unworthiest, having the least worth or value. 
 
 82. Importing health and graveness : the one (the careless 
 livery) importing health, and the other (the sables and weeds) 
 importing graveness. 
 
 85. they can well on horseback. Can was not always a mere 
 auxiliary. Chaucer says, — I can a noble tale ; and Coverdale, — 
 such as can but English. See Hamlet v 2 331 ; Lear iv 4 8. 
 
 86. had witchcraft in it : i.e. in his equestrian skill. . 
 90, 91. The contrasted words are forgery and did. 
 
 104. Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy. That is, not 
 with envy of him, but with the envy which his report excited in 
 young men. 
 
 109. The painting of a sorrow. Just as in ii 2 502. 
 
 112. love is begun by time. Love does not spring up till after 
 some term of association. 
 
 113. in passages of proof. In cases where love has been 
 brought to the test of time. 
 
 117. at a like goodness still. See ii. 2 42. 
 
 118. goodness, growing to a plurisy. Furness' note on 
 
174 NOTES. 
 
 plurisy is lucid and conclusive : " The early dramatists were mis- 
 led by the sound into supposing that pleurisy was the same as 
 plethory, and they accordingly spelled it 'plurisy,' to indicate the 
 symptoms implied in its supposed derivation from plusy 
 
 119-122. Compare the king's moralizing with Hamlet's, iv 3 39-45, 
 and with that of Polonius, ii 2 136-139. 
 
 123. a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing. The sigh is 
 called spendthrift because, according to old medical notions, it 
 wastes the vital powers and does no good. With the disease 
 properly named pleiirisy, the sigh that hurts by easing seems 
 peculiarly congruous. 
 
 128, 129. with these words compare Hamlet's scruples, iii 
 3 75-95. 
 
 139. a sword unbated : a sword not blunted by means of the 
 button on the point always used to render harmless the foils of 
 friendly scrimers. 
 
 in a pass of practice : in a thrust which you will have specially 
 practised. 
 
 152. And that our drift : and if our drift. 
 
 155. blast in proof: fail in the trial. 
 
 156. your cunnings. Gunning is the verbal substantive of can. 
 As we speak of a person's doings, meaning the things he does, so 
 we may speak of his cunnings, meaning the things he can. 
 
 160. and that he calls : and when he calls. 
 
 173-175. her coronet weeds . . . her weedy trophies. There 
 are two distinct words weed. Consider if the two words are 
 mingled in this passage for the sake of word-play. Does the poet 
 here, for a tricksy word, defy the matter ? 
 
 179. incapable of her own distress: not comj)rehending — 
 perhaps not conscious of — her own distress. 
 
 190. The woman will be out : the womanish weakness in me 
 will be over. 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Scene 1 . 
 
 4. straight : straightway, as in ii 2 451. 
 crowner : coroner, in the clownish dialect. 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 175 
 
 9. Se offendendo, Clown's Latin for se defendendo, in self- 
 defence. 
 
 12. an act hath three branches, etc. Legal phraseology filtered 
 through the clown's wit. 
 
 1-3. argal, clownish for ergo. 
 
 14. goodman. Accent the first syllable. 
 
 24. quest, for inquest, — jury. See Sonnet xlvi. 
 
 27. a gentlewoman. Recollect that the epithet gentle always 
 signifies a distinction of social rank. 
 
 32. even Christian. Even is prefixed to nouns, with the sense 
 felloio, or Latin co-. Thus even knight translates Latin commilito : 
 and so we have even servant, even disciple. 
 
 33. There is no ancient gentlemen. See note on iii 4 202. 
 42. could he dig without arms ? The usual verbal quibbling. 
 57, 58. Be careful to read in the right tone. 
 
 50. tell me that and unyoke : tell me that and you may unyoke 
 the cattle of your wit and turn them out to pasture, as having done 
 a good day's work. 
 
 67. Go, get thee to Yaughan. All we can be sure of is that to 
 Yanghan, — person or place, — -the clown sent his man for liquor. 
 
 68. a stoup of liquor. See next scene, 278. 
 
 He digs and sings. The verses sung by the clown are taken, 
 with alteration, from a poem by Lord Vaux, entitled The aged 
 lover renounceth love, which you may read in Arber'e edition of 
 Tottel's Miscellany, or in Furness. By all means look up this 
 poem. It is worth the trouble of a little search, both for its own 
 sake and as accounting for some things in Shakespeare. 
 
 71. The oh and the ah that interrupt the clown's song mark 
 the effect upon his voice of his heavy strokes with the pick. 
 
 75. a property of easiness : a matter of indifference. 
 
 79-82. This stanza is made up out of two of the original, viz. — 
 
 For age with steyling steppes 
 
 Hath clawed me with his crowch, 
 
 And lusty life away she leapes 
 As there liad been none such. 
 
176 NOTES. 
 
 For beauty with her bande 
 These croked cares hath wrought, 
 
 And shipped me into tlie lande 
 From whence I first was brought. 
 
 84. jowls : throws down carelessly. 
 
 97. chapless. The noun drops its s before the suffix. 
 
 mazzard, or mazard, — contemptuous for head. 
 
 100. loggats a game in which small conical logs of wood were 
 rolled at a mark. 
 
 103. For and. The original has, — and eke, — with just the 
 same meaning. 
 
 106-121. Hamlet's speech over the skull of the lawyer is full of 
 technical law terms, to study which in minute detail would be to 
 begin the study of the law. The passage is one of many that prove 
 the poet to have possessed an astonishing facility in the use of legal 
 phraseology. 
 
 110. sconce, like mazzard, 97, and pate, 116, is a vulgar word 
 for head. 
 
 115, 116. the fine of his fines, ... to have his fine pate full 
 of fine dirt. Here is the word fine, forming two nouns of dis- 
 similar meanings, and two adjectives also wholly unlike in sense. 
 Yet the word is but one, and all its developments belong to the 
 same history. The ^rst fine of the passage means end; and the 
 second is the name of a legal process. The two adjectives have 
 obvious meanings. — So in the expression, — the recovery of his 
 recoveries, the first recovery is the common word, the second a 
 technical term. 
 
 120. this box must mean this grave, with reference to the boxes 
 in which lawyers kept their papers. 
 
 125. which seek out assurance in that : who strive by such 
 means to make the ownership of property sure and lasting. 
 
 131-133. thou liest . . . you lie. Note the varying form of 
 address. What principle can you perceive in the matter ? 
 
 149. we must speak by the card. The figure comes from the 
 mariner's compass. Dr. Murray quotes (1636), — Let us carefully 
 steere by the card of God's word. — Eecall Burns, — Unskilful he 
 to note the card of prudent lore. 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 177 
 
 151. the age is grown so picked: so affected, so precise, so 
 smartly critical. 
 
 153. he galls his kibe. See Tempest ii 1 27(5 ; Lear i 5 9. 
 
 176. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. 
 At this point we inevitably put two data of time together, and 
 infer that we know Hamlet's age. It is confusing, however, to 
 compare with this the other indications of Hamlet's age which the 
 play affords. Let us say that 'twere to consider too curiously to 
 assign to him any certain and conclusive age at all. It was not 
 the poet's purpose to be consistent after the manner of a biography 
 or a chronicle. Hamlet sometimes appears young, — but freshly 
 out of his teens. Sometimes he acts and speaks with more matu- 
 rity than such an age implies. In no scene does a reasonable con- 
 sistency require us to give him so many years as thirty. In our 
 thought we always make Hamlet young enough and old enough 
 for the need of the moment. His age is not a fixed datum, with 
 which his words and deeds must consist. — We must dispose of the 
 grave-digger as a witness by simply remarking that in the circum- 
 stances his reference to the birth of young Hamlet creates for an 
 audience a moment of intensest interest. It was to this end that 
 the poet let the grave-digger talk. 
 
 189-215. The Yorick passage also, chronologically consistent as 
 it is with the grave-digger's account of his term of service, must be 
 understood as having been inserted for quite other purposes than 
 chronological ones. An audience in the theatre, surrendering to 
 the pathos of the Yorick scene, does not stop to calculate. 
 
 255. crants : a garland. 
 
 256. her maiden strewments. See Cymbeline iv 2 285, and 
 line 269, this scene. 
 
 the bringing home of bell and burial. See illustration of these 
 words, Rom. and Jul. iv 5 84-90. 
 
 284. splenitive. Compare Csesar iv 3 47 ; 1 Hen. IV. v 2 19 ; 
 Hen. VIII. iii 2 99. 
 
 298. woo't does not stand for ivotildst thou, but is an unmistak- 
 able present, equivalent to icilt thou. 
 
 299. eisel is a good English word for vinegar. Shakespeare 
 scholars have been usually quite unwilling to let it remain vinegar. 
 
178 NOTES. 
 
 and have proposed all sorts of other meanings and readings. In 
 Matthew xxvii 48, Wycliffe's version has: — oon of hem fillide a 
 spounge with aycel. 
 
 314, 315. Let Hercules himself, etc. Into whatever new dan- 
 gers he finds that he has run, he will not fail to assert his cause. 
 
 320. This grave shall have a living monument. This is prob- 
 ably spoken to Laertes alone, and hints the impending sacrifice of 
 Hamlet's life. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 6. worse than the mutines in the bilboes : worse than muti- 
 neers fettered with the peculiarly painful irons named bilboes. 
 
 22. such bugs and goblins in my life : such awful conse- 
 quences to follow if I remained alive. See Shrew i 2 211 ; 
 3 Henry VI. v 2 2 ; Wint. Tale iii 2 93. 
 
 23. on the supervise : at sight. 
 
 33. our statists. See Wordsworth's A Poet's Epitaph. 
 
 36. it did me yeoman's service. Illustrate the meaning of 
 yeoman from 1 Henry IV". iv 2 16 ; Henry V. iii 1 25. 
 
 42. And stand a comma 'tween their amities. We now use 
 the comma to separate, according to the sense of its origin ; but to 
 Shakespeare the comma was evidently a symbol of connection. 
 
 61. The figure is taken from men confronting each other in 
 deadly encounter with swords. 
 
 63. Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon : is it not 
 now incumbent upon me. — In thinks'' t thee we have all the elements 
 of the impersonal verb-phrase. In the common methinks, the for- 
 mal subject is lacking. 
 
 79. the bravery of his grief : the loud and extravagant vaunting 
 of his grief, in Scene 1. 
 
 89. 'tis a chough. We naturally think of chough here in the 
 same sense as in Tempest ii 1 266, and find the pertinency of its 
 application to Osric to consist in the ability of the bird to chatter. 
 It may be, however, we are to spell the word chuff, and understand 
 it as having the same meaning as in 1 Henry IV. ii 2 94. 
 
 102. complexion : temperament, disposition. See Hamlet i 4 27; 
 Merchant iii 1 32, 
 
yiCT V. SCENE 11. 179 
 
 112. most excellent differences. I'erliaps this is the Osric- 
 Euphuistic Wiiy of sayiiit;', — all the different sorts of excellence. 
 
 Of very soft society and great showing : of perfect breeding 
 and most elegant manners. 
 
 113. to speak feelingly of him : to put my heart into the task 
 of setting him forth. 
 
 114. you shall find in him the continent of what part a 
 gentleman would see. You shall find him to be a perfect collec- 
 tion of models of gentlemanly accomplishments. 
 
 120. yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail. Laertes 
 plies his sails so deftly, and holds his course over the sea of deport- 
 ment with such absolute exactness, that any small craft of descrip- 
 tion that attempts to follow him can but yaw. 
 
 131. Is 't not possible to understand in another tongue ? 
 Horatio taunts Osric with not understanding his own sort of 
 language when another man speaks it. 
 
 148. in the imputation laid on him by them. The them must 
 refer to the people at the court, whom Osric has heard talking 
 about Laertes. 
 
 149. in his meed. In his meed of praise. He gets more praise 
 than anybody else. 
 
 155. he has imponed : he has "put up." 
 
 162. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had 
 done : I knew you would have to consult the notes. 
 
 170. the French bet against the Danish. In view of Osric's 
 further exposition of the business in his next speech, we have to 
 conclude that the king's Barbary horses are to go to Laertes if he 
 makes twelve hits before Hamlet makes nine ; but that Hamlet, to 
 get the French swords, has only to make nine hits before Laertes 
 makes twelve. 
 
 190. Yours, yours. Hamlet's curt recognition of Osric's I 
 commend, etc. 
 
 193. This lapwing runs away : a forward, conceited fellow. 
 
 195. He did comply with : he made compliments to. 
 
 198. got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter. 
 Have learned fine speech enough to be able to talk superficially in 
 the fashionable style. 
 
180 NOTES. 
 
 200. yesty: frothy. 
 
 203. commended him : commended himself. 
 
 214. In happy time. The phrase expresses courteous recogni- 
 tion of the message just hrouglit liim by the lord, and willing 
 acquiescence in the arrangements on foot. 
 
 226. gain-giving : misgiving. The word gain-giving is found 
 in Middle-English texts, apparently always in the simple meaning, 
 a giving back. 
 
 235. since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to 
 leave betimes? Unless we understand an object with the second 
 verb — to leave — this is the one instance in Shakespeare of the verb 
 leave used intransitively. Comment on present usage. 
 
 266. I '11 be your foil, Laertes. Hamlet plays on the other 
 meaning of foil. See Richard III. v. 3 250 ; Tempest iii 1 46. 
 
 267. your skill shall . . . stick fiery off indeed: shall stand 
 out by its peculiar brilliancy. 
 
 368. the occurrents . . . which have solicited : the events 
 which have prompted me to give him my dying voice. 
 
 375. This quarry cries on havoc : this scene of death announces 
 an indiscriminate slaughter. 
 
 376. in thine eternal cell. Eternal is used here "to express 
 extreme abhorrence." Compare Caesar i 2 160 ; Othello iv 2 130. 
 
 Hamlet is the most famous and the most interesting of plays 
 because it is the most perfect transcript of human experience. 
 The central idea of the tragedy, — that which makes the play 
 tragic throughout its entire structure, irrespective of the final 
 catastrophe, — is a defect or paralysis of will, existing in a nature 
 otherwise superbly gifted and adapted to win our admiration and 
 love. This keynote of the play we are by no means left to infer 
 solely from the development of the story. We find it formulated 
 for us in every possible shape and in the speeches of the most dis- 
 similar personages. Moreover, Hamlet knows and bewails his 
 weakness. He avows it again and again, names it distinctly, 
 resolves to overcome it, — always in vain. 
 
IfOTES. 181 
 
 But though in Hamlet the poet takes such pains to have us kept 
 constantly aware of the tragic motive of the drama, so that the 
 moral of the play is obvious and the purpose of the action intelli- 
 gible, it remains to be said that no other masterpiece of literature 
 presents so many problems that cannot be solved. The man 
 Hamlet is discussed by modern critics quite as if he vpere a his- 
 torical character, about whom investigation might bring to light 
 some new data. The mysteries of the play are caused by the 
 insistence of readers upon finding in it the exactness of a chronicle. 
 Just as the professor of rhetoric requires his pupils to draw up a 
 formal plan before beginning the essay, so we are apt to think 
 Shakespeare saw his characters distinct in every detail, as if he 
 had known them in life and recognized some sort of duty of 
 historical accuracy in drawing his portraits. 
 
 We must remember that a play is meant to be presented to the 
 public on the stage, to address the eye as well as the ear. The 
 poet avails himself of the possibilities of scenic illusion. Shake- 
 speare's audiences loved to see plays, and probably read them but 
 little. Books were few, and persons able to read were also few. 
 The modern custom of careful editing for readers, and of minute 
 criticism of details, was utterly unknown. The fate of a play was 
 its fate in the theatre. 
 
 The modern editor is superior to scenic illusion, and so sees the 
 play in a light never contemplated by the poet. Because the play 
 is great and admirable, he is apt to think it must be consistent in 
 minutest detail, could we only view it aright. Hence editors take 
 sides on Hamlet questions, array passage against passage, and show 
 a partisan zeal, such as we usually think of only in connection with 
 politics or religion. 
 
 But the Hamlet questions cannot be settled ; and the reason of 
 this impossibility is the fact that they were either never raised, or, 
 at any rate, were never settled, by the poet himself, whose creation 
 Hamlet is. 
 
 Chief among the unsettled problems of Hamlet criticism is the 
 question whether Hamlet is insane. It is a veritable question, and 
 has two sides. Does not Hamlet sometimes, as towards Ophelia, 
 carry to unnecessary and cruel lengths his counterfeiting of mental 
 
182 N-OTES. 
 
 disease ? The topic is an interesting one to discuss. A resume of 
 tlie literature of the subject may be found in Furness. A second 
 reading of the play may be profitably undertaken, with the view 
 of collecting data bearing on the question of Hamlet's responsi- 
 bility for his acts. But it must be remembered that the question, — 
 is Hamlet insane — resolves itself finally into the form, — did Shake- 
 speare mean to represent Hamlet as being insane ? The man 
 Hamlet is simply the figure that acts and speaks in this play. 
 Critics often speak of him, of his sayings and doings, in the past 
 tense, as if he at some time had a natural life on earth, and were 
 now dead. 
 
 Another question concerns Hamlet's age. At the beginning of 
 the play he intends to go back to school in Wittenberg. At the 
 end of the play he is thirty years old. Collect all the data afforded 
 by the play that suggest inferences as to his age at the time being. 
 Consider whether we are justified in assuming that Shakespeare 
 had in mind in his hero a man of definite age. See note on v 1 17G 
 as to the way in which the thirty years and the YoricJc passages 
 are to be accounted for. 
 
 Closely connected with the problem of Hamlet's age is that of 
 the time occupied by the play. Is it thinkable that the play is to 
 be conceived as having duration enough to allow the hero to grow 
 up from school age to thirty years ? Do we find the lapse of time 
 clearly marked ? Passages that imply rapid movement of events, 
 and passages that call for indefinite allowance of time, may be 
 brought together with the object of attaining some satisfactory 
 conclusion. This has been done with infinite pains, but with 
 shadowy results. Did the events of the drama take place in time, 
 any more than they took place at Elsinore ? The actual Elsinore 
 has no such scenery as does the Elsinore of the play. The poet is 
 quite as wanton with his times as with his places. 
 
 Again, the idea has been broached, by critics of some note, that 
 Hamlet is mistakenly conceived as a man of defective will, and 
 that he is much rather a hero, of intense energy and of great 
 executive force, who simply cannot carry out the ghost's injunc- 
 tion to kill the king, as he can devise no way of proving to the 
 Danish public the justice of his cause. This view of Hamlet's 
 
NOTES. 183 
 
 inaction ascribes it to objective causes, — he is ever ready to act, 
 but finds no opportunity. The common view ascribes his inaction 
 to subjective causes, — he has opportunities, but is never ready. 
 The fact is, Hamlet still has friends who resent, almost as a 
 p'ersonal affront, the imputation to their hero of any defect of 
 character. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 Composition-Rhetoric for Use in Secondary 
 Schools. 
 
 By Professors F. N. ScOTT, of the University of Michigan, and J. V. 
 Denney, of Ohio State University. i2mo, cloth, 370 pages. Price, 
 ;^i.oo. 
 
 IN the preparation of this work the authors have been guided 
 by three considerations. 
 
 First, it is desirable that a closer union than has hitlierto 
 prevailed be brought about between secondary composition and 
 secondary rhetoric. The rhetoric which is found in this book is 
 meant to be the theory of the pupil's practice. 
 
 Second, it is desirable in secondary composition that greater 
 use be made of the paragraph than has hitherto been done. In 
 this book the paragraph is made the basis of a systematic method 
 of instruction. 
 
 A third idea which underlies the work is the idea of growth. 
 A composition is regarded not as a dead form, to be analyzed 
 into its component parts, but as a living product of an active, 
 creative mind. 
 
 In working out these ideas, care has been taken to provide 
 illustrative material of a kind that should be thought-provoking, 
 interesting, and valuable in itself, but not too far above the 
 standard of literary practice. 
 
 Professor Sophie C. Hart, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. : As a whole 
 I consider it the best book on English Composition for the preparatory 
 school, and shall recommend it to all teachers who send students to 
 Wellesley. 
 
 Superintendent Mark S. W. Jefferson, Lexington, Mass. : The only rational 
 book on the subject that I know. Apart from the practical manner of 
 approaching the subject, I am delighted with the material chosen for the 
 illustration of principles ; pupils will find enjoyment in every paragraph. 
 
 Miss Harriet L. Mason, Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Pa. : I find it all 
 that I could wish. The book fills a unique place in English text-books, 
 and is in the very van of the best teaching of composition. I shall use it 
 during the coming year. 
 
 Professor Robert Herrick, University of Chicago, Chicago, III. : It is really 
 a long stride in the right direction. It throws overboard much use- 
 less rubbish contained in the secondary school rhetoric, and teaches 
 explicitly how to get material, how to arrange it, and how to present it. 
 
ENGLISH. 
 
 Studies in English Composition. 
 
 By Hakkikt C. Keei.kr, High School, Cleveland, Ohio, and Emma 
 C. Davis, Cleveland, Ohio. lamo, cloth, 210 pages. Price, 80 cents. 
 
 THIS book is the outgrowth of experience in teaching compo- 
 sition, and the lessons which it contains have all borne the 
 actual test of the class-room. Intended to meet the wants of 
 those schools which have composition as a weekly exercise in 
 their course of study, it contains an orderly succession of topics 
 adapted to the age and development of high school pupils, to- 
 gether with such lessons in language and rhetoric as are of con- 
 stant application in class exercises. 
 
 The authors believe that too much attention cannot be given 
 to supplying young writers with good models, which not only 
 indicate what is expected, and serve as an ideal toward which 
 to work, but stimulate and encourage the learner in his first 
 efforts. For this reason numerous examples of good writing 
 have been given, and many more have been suggested. 
 
 The primal idea of the book is that the pupil learns to write 
 by writing ; and therefore that it is of more importance to get 
 him to write than to prevent his making mistakes in writing. 
 Consequently, the pupil is set to writing at the very outset ; the 
 idea of producing something is kept constantly uppermost, and 
 the function of criticism is reserved until after something has 
 been done which may be criticised. 
 
 J. W. Steams, Professor of Pedagogy, University of Wisconsin : It strikes 
 me that the author of your " Studies in English Composition " touches 
 the gravest defect in school composition work when she writes in her pref- 
 ace : " One may as well expect a sea-anemone to show its beauty when 
 grasped in the hand, as look for originality in a child, hampered by the 
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 soul in our extreme formal criticisms of school compositions. She has 
 made a book which teaches children to write by getting them to write 
 often and freely, and if used with the spirit which has presided over the 
 making of it, it will prove a most effective instrument for the reform of 
 school composition work. 
 
 Albert G. Owen, Superintendent, Afton, Iowa : It is an excellent text. I 
 am highly pleased with it. The best of the kind I have yet seen. 
 
8 ENGLISH. 
 
 From Milton to Tennyson. 
 
 Masterpieces of English Poetry. Edited by L. Du PONT Syle, Uni- 
 versity of California. i2mo, cloth, 480 pages. Price, ^i.oo. 
 
 IN this work the editor has endeavored to bring together within 
 the compass of a moderate-sized volume as much narrative, 
 descriptive, and lyric verse as a student may reasonably be re- 
 quired to read critically for entrance to college. From the 
 nineteen poets represented, only such masterpieces have been 
 selected as are within the range of the understanding and the 
 sympathy of the high school student. Each masterpiece is 
 given complete, except for pedagogical reasons in the cases of 
 Thomson, Cowper, Byron, and Browning. Exigencies of space 
 have compelled the editor reluctantly to omit Scott from this 
 volume. The copyright laws, of course, exclude American poets 
 from the scope of this work. 
 
 The following poets are represented : — 
 
 MILTON, by the L'AIlegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas, and a Selection from the Sonnets. 
 
 DRYDEN . . Epistle to Congreve, Alexander's Feast, Character of a Good Parson. 
 
 POPE .... Epistles to Mr. Jervas, to Lord Burlington, and to Augustus. 
 
 THOMSON . . Winter. 
 
 JOHNSON . . Vanity of Human Wishes. 
 
 GRAY .... Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, and The Bard. 
 
 GOLDSMITH . Deserted Village. 
 
 COWPER . . Winter Morning's Walk. 
 
 BURNS . . . Cotter's Saturday Night, Tarn O'Shanter, and a Selection from the 
 
 Songs. 
 COLERIDGE . Ancient Mariner. 
 BYRON . . . Isles of Greece, and Selections from Childe Harold, Manfred, aid 
 
 the Hebrew Melodies. 
 KEATS . . . Eve of St. Agnes, Odfe to a Nightingale, Sonnet on Chapman's 
 
 Homer. 
 SHELLEY . . Euganean Hills, The Cloud, The Skylark, and the Two Sonnets 
 
 on the Nile. 
 WORDSWORTH Laodamia, The Highland Girl, Tintern Abbey, The Cuckoo, The 
 
 Ode to a Skylark, The JMilton Sonnet, The Ode to Duty, and 
 
 the Ode on the Intimations of Immortality. 
 MACAULAY . Horatius. 
 CLOUGH . . . Two Ships, the Prologue to the Mari Magno, and the Lawyer's 
 
 First Tale. 
 ARNOLD . . The Scholar-Gypsy and the Forsaken Merman. 
 BROWNING . Transcript from Euripides (Balaustion's Adventure). 
 TENNYSON . GEnone, Morte D'Arthur, The Miller's Daughter, and a Selection 
 
 from the Songs. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 BnGlisb Classics. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 MArrHEw Arnold. 
 Burke. 
 Carlyle. 
 
 Macaulay. 
 
 Milton. 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 L. D. Syle (Editor). 
 
 Webster. 
 
 Uniform with this Volume. 
 
 De Coverley Papers. 
 
 Essays in Criticism. 
 
 On Conciliation with the Colonies. 
 
 Essay on Burns. 
 
 Essay on Johnsoti. 
 
 Essay on Addison. 
 
 Essay on Chatham. 
 
 Essay on Clive. 
 
 Essay on Milton. 
 
 Essay on Johnson. 
 
 Essay on Warren Hastings. 
 
 Paradise Lost, Books I., II. 
 
 Julius Caesar. 
 
 Macbeth. 
 
 Merrhant of Venice. 
 
 As You Like It. 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 Four English Poems. The Rape of 
 the Lock, John Gilpin's Ride, The 
 Prisoner of Chillon, and Rugby 
 Chapel. 
 
 Reply to Hayne. 
 
 Other Toluines in preparation. 
 
 ^S. TlTIlRBER. 
 
 S. S. Sheridan. 
 C. B. Bradley. 
 
 H. W. BOYNTON. 
 
 S. Thurber. 
 
 H. W. Boynton. 
 S. Thurber. 
 
 C. B. Bradley. 
 
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