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And for my means, I'll husband them fo well,
They fhall go far with little.

Kiug. Good Laertes,

If you defire to know the certainty

Of your dear father, is't writ in your revenge, That fweep-ftake you will draw both friend and Winner and lofer?

Laer. None but his enemies.

King. Will you know them then?

[foe,

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my And, like the kind life-rendering pelican,

Repaft them with my blood.

King. Why, now you speak

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am moft fenfible in grief for it,

It fhall as level to your judgment pierce,
As day does to your eye.

[4 noife within.]

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Let her come in."

Laer. How now, what noife is that?

[arms,

Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dreffed with straws and flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears, feven times falt, Burn out the fenfe and virtue of mine eye!

By Heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight, 'Till our scale turn the beam. O rofe of May! Dear maid, kind fifter, fweet Ophelia !

O heavens, is't poffible a young maid's wits · Should be as mortal as an old man's life? Nature is fine in love; and, where 'tis fine, (62)

(62) Nature is fine in love;] Mr Pope seems puzzled at this paffage, and therefore in both his editions fubjoins this conjecture. Perhaps, fays he,

Nature is fire in love, and where 'tis fire,
It fends fome precious incenfe of itself

It fends fome precious inftance of itself
After the thing it loves.

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Oph. They bore him bare-faced on the bier, "And on his

grave rain'd many a tear;

"Fare ye well, my dove!"

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

him a-down-a.

[revenge, you call

Oph. You must fing, down a-down, and O how the wheel becomes it! it is the falfe fteward that stole his master's daughter.

After the thing it loves.

I own, this conjecture to me imparts no fatisfactory idea. Nature is fuppofed to be the fire, and to furnish the incenfe too; had love been supposed the fire, and nature fent out the incente, I fhould more readily have been reconciled to the fentiment. But no change, in my opinion, is neceflary to the text; I conceive that this might be the Poet's meaning: "In the pailion of love, nature becomes more exquifite of fenfation, is more delicate and refined; that is, natural affe&ion, raifed and fublimed into a love paffion, becomes more inflamed and intenfe than ufual: and where it is fo, as people in love generally fend what they have of most valuable after their lvers; fo poor Ophelia has fent her moft precious fenfes after the object of her inflamed affections." If I mistake not, our Poet has played with this thought, of the powers being refined by this paflion, in feveral other of his plays. His clown, in As You Like it, feems fenfible of this refinement; but, talking in his own way, interprets it a fort of franticnefs.

We, that are true lovers, run into strange capers; but as all is mortal in nature, fo is all nature in love mortal in folly.

Again, in Troilus and Creffida, the latter expreffes herself concerning grief exactly as Laertes does here of nature:

The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I tafte;
And in its fenfe is no less strong than that

Which caufeth it.

But lago, in Othello, delivers himself much more directly to the purpose of the fentiment here before us:

Come hither, if thou beeft valiant; as they say, base men, being in love, have then a nobility in their natures more than is native to them.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there's panfies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines; there's rue for you, and here's fome for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays: you may wear your rue with a difference. There's a daily; I would give you fome violets, but they withered all when my father died; they fay he made a good end;

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For bonny fweet Robin is all my joy."

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

Oph. "And will he not come again? "And will he not come again?

"No, no, he is dead, go to thy death-bed, will come again."

"He neve

"His beard was white as fnow,

"All flaxen was his pole:

He is gone, he is gone, and we caft away mone, "Gramercy on his foul!"

And of all Chriftian fouls! God b'w'ye.

Laer. Do you fee this, you Gods!

[Exit Ophelia.

King. Laertes, I mult commune with your grief, Or you deny me right: go but a-part,

Make choice of whom your wifett friends you will, And they fhall hear and judge 'twixt you and me; If by direct or by collateral hand

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

M

To you in fatisfaction. But if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us;
And we fhall jointly labour with your foul,
To give it due content.

Laer. Let this be fo.

His means of death, his obfcure funeral,

No trophy, fword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, No noble rite, nor formal oftentation,

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

King. So you shall:

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

I

pray you, go

with me.

[Exeunt.

Enter HORATIO, with an Attendant.

Hor. What are they that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, Sir; they fay they have letters

for you.

Hor. Let them come in.

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

Sail. God bless you, Sir.

Hor. Let him blefs thee too.

Sail. He fhall, Sir, an't please him.-There's a letter for you, Sir: it comes from th' ambaffador that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

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Horatio reads the Letter.

"Horatio, when thou fhalt have overlooked this, give these fellows fome means to the King: they "have letters for him. Ere we were two days old "at fea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave

us chace. Finding ourselves too flow of fail,

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"we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple "I boarded them: on the inftant they got clear of our fhip, foi alone became their prifoner. They. "have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good "turn for them. Let the King have the letters I "have fent, and repair thou to me with as much "hafte as thou wouldest fly death. I have words "to speak in thy ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the matter. These "good fellows will bring thee where I am. Ro"fincrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. "Farewel.

66

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"He that thou knowest thine,

"Hamlet."

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

Enter King, and LAERTES.

King. Now muft your confcience my acquittance feal,

And you muft put me in your heart for friend;
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father flain,
Purfued my life.

Laer. It well appears. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against thefe feats,
So crimeful and fo capital in nature,
As by your fafety, wisdom, all things elfe,
You mainly were stirred up?

King. Two fpecial reasons,

Which may to you perhaps feem much unfinewed, And yet to me are ftrong. The Queen his mother

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