* seafaring SCENE VI. Another Room in the same. Enter HORATIO, and a Servant. HOR. What are they, that would speak with me? SERV. men. 4tos. They say, they have letters for you. HOR. Sailors,* sir; Let them come in. [Exit Servant. I do not know from what part of the world Enter Sailors. 1 SAIL. God bless you, sir. HOR. Let him bless thee too. 1 SAIL. He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, sir; it comes from the ambassadors that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. HOR. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked 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 chace: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; [and] in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. a They have means to the king] i. e. means of access, introduction. b Ere we were two days old at sea] i. e. at the end of a second day's voyage. See M. for M. IV. 2. Prov. 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 sent; and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou would'st fly death. I have words to speak in your* ear, will make thine. thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet. Come, I will give you way for these your letters; b [Exeunt. 4tos. SCENE VII. Another Room in the same. Enter King and LAERTES. KING. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, с And you must put me in your heart for friend; LAER. It well appears :-But tell me, Why you proceeded not against these feats, a for the bore of the matter] The bore is the caliber of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. The matter (says Hamlet) would carry heavier words. JOHNSON. b I will give you way for these your letters] Way is passage, means of conveyance. * But. 4tos. 4tos. So crimeful and so capital in nature, As by your safety, [greatness,] wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirr'd up. KING. O, for two special reasons; queen Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, mother, Lives almost by his looks; and for my self, Is, the great love the general gender bear him: his + Worke. Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, 1 So 4tos. And not where I had aim'd them. 1632. arm'd. 1623. who was. LAER. And so have I a noble father lost; So. 4tos. Whose worth,§ if praises may go back again, 1623,3 a be it either which] i. e. whichever of the two it be; be it either [of them, that] which [I speak of.] bcount] i. e. investigation, account. the general gender] i. e. the common people or race. "the general," II. 2. Haml. See d driven into desperate terms] i. e. into a state or condition of despair. e Whose worth, if praises may go back again, For her perfections] i. e. whose merits, if the report of them may, where she can never return, be here re-echoed, stood (on the highest ground, and in the fullest presence of the age) like a champion for their mistress, to give a general challenge in support of her excellence. KING. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think, That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, That we can let our beard be shook with danger,(57) And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,- MESS. Enter a Messenger. 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 receiv'd them. KING. Leave us. Laertes, you shall hear them :[Exit 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: when 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? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? LAER. Know you the hand? KING. 'Tis Hamlet's character. Naked, And, in a postscript here, he says, alone: Can you advise me? LAER. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; It warms the very sickness in my heart, a 'Tis Hamlet's character] i. e. peculiar mode of shaping letters. "Charactery," M. W. of W. V. 5. Mrs. Quickly. χαρακτηρ nota impressa, from χαρασσω, sculpo. * O. C. Thus he dies. 1603. * Two months since. 4tos. That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, KING. If it be so, Laertes, As how should it be so? how otherwise? Will LAER. If you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace. KING. To thine own peace. If he be now re- As checking at his voyage,(58) and that he means To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall: LAER. KING. It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much, As did that one; and that, in my regard, LAER. a uncharge the practice] i. e. acquit the expedient pursued, of blame. b sum of parts] i. e. total. See M. of V. III. 2. Portia. e siege] i. e. place or rank. See Othel. I. 2. Othel. d Importing health and graveness] i. e. carrying with them. those ideas; denoting as well that, from which this stage of life |