loves you, Ham. I would I had been there. His greatness wcigh'd, his will is not his own; He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for hiinself; for on his choice depends And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd Unto the voice and yielding of that body, Whereof he is the head: Then if he says, he your wisdon so far to believe it, A sable silver'd. 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. Hor. I warrant, it will. Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, Ham, If it assume my noble father's person, 15 If with too credent ear you list his songs ; I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, To his unmaster'd' importunity. If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister; Let it be tenable in your silence still ; And keep you in the rear of your affection, The chariest 6 maid is prodigal enough, The canker galls the infants of the spring 25 Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd; Ham. Your loves, as mine to yon: Farewell. And in the morn and liquid dew of youth [Ereunt. Contagious blastments are most imminent. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well ; Be wary then : best safety lies in fear; I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. come! 30. Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, STill then sit still, my soul: Foul deeds will rise As watchman to my heart: but, good my brother, (Though all the earth o’erwhelm them) to men's Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, eyes. [Exit. Shew me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whilst, like a pufi and reckless libertine, 35 Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own read '. Laer. O, fear me not. I stay too long;—But here my father comes. Enter Polonius. And, sister, as the winds give benefit, 40 A double blessing is a double grace; And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, Occasion siniles upon a second leave. But let me hear from you. Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for Oph. Do you doubt that? [vour, shame; you ; [Laying his hand on Laertes' head. Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 50 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption try'd, For nature, crescent, does not grow alone Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; In thews?, and bulk: but, as this temple waxes, But do not dull thy palm with entertainment The inward service of the mind and soul Of each new-hatch'd untledg'd comradle". BeGrows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now; 55 Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, (ware And now no soil, nor cautel', doth besmirch Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee. The virtue * of his will : but, you must fear, Give every man thine car, but few țhy voice: 'i.e. what is supplied to us for a minute. The idea seems to be taken from the short duration of vegetable perfumes. ? i. e. in sinews, muscular strength. Yi. e. no fraud, deceit. 4 Virtue seems here to comprise both excellence and power, and may be explained ihe pure etfect. bi. e, licentious, Chary is cautious. ? That is, heeds not his own lessons. & The literal sense is, Do not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the hand. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind insensible to the difference of characters, Take 6 1 my lord, Take each man's censure', but reserve thy Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it : go to, go to. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, 5 Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks'. I do know, Lends the tongue vows: These blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, --extinct in both, [tend? And with a larger tether" may he walk, Laer. Farewell, Ophelia ; and remember well Do not believe his vows: for they are brokers; Not of that dye which their investments shew, 20 But mere implorators of unholy suits, (Exit Laertes, The better to beguile?? This is for all,— 25 As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet. Look to't, I charge you; come your ways. Oph. I shall obey, my lord. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. [teous : 30 The Platform. Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. Ham. What hour now? [tenders Hor. I think, it lacks of twelve. Mar. No, it is struck. Hor. Indeed? I heard it not: it then draws near the season, [Noise of music within. [baby : What does this mean, my lord ? his rouse'', [reels : Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more 45 Keeps wassel”, and the swaggering up-spring ** And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, Oph. My lord, he hath importuu'd me with love, Hor. Is it a custom? 150 Hum. Ay, marry, is't: · Chief is an adjective used adverbially; a practice common to our author: Chiefly generous * That is, infix it in such a manner as that it never may wear out. 4i.e. your servants are waiting for you. The meaning is, that your counsels are as sure of remaining locked up in my memory, as if you yourself carried the key of it. Unsified, for untried.--Untried signifies either not tempted, or not refined ; unsifted, signifies the latter only, though the sense requires the former. .? That is, if you continue to go on thus wrong. She uses fashion for manner, and he for a transient practice. 9 A proverbial saying. 10 Entreatments here means company, conversation; from the French entrétien. " Tether is that string by which an animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined within the proper limits. 12 Do not believe (says Polonius to his daughter) Hamlet's amorous vows made to you ; which pretend religion in them (the better to beguile) like those sanctified and pious vows (or bonds I made to Heaven. 13 A rouse is a large dose of liquor, a debauch. 14 See Macbeth, Act I. 15 That is, the blustering upstart, according to Dr. Johnson: but Mr. Steevens says, that up-spring was a German dance; and that the spring was also anciently the name of a tune. But, 6 my lord? me: But, to my mind,-though I am native here, And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? Hor. What, if it tempt you toward the flood, That beetles o'er his base into the sea? Which might deprive' your sovereignty of reason, 10 And draw you into madness? think of it: That looks so many fathoms to the sea, lord. Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect; Ham. Hold off your hands. Hor. Be rul'd, you shall not go. And inakes each petty artery in this body [Breaking from them. To his own scandal. 25 By heaven, I 'll make a ghost of him that lets to Enter Ghost. I say, away:-Go on ; I'll follow thee. Hor. Look, my lord, it comes ! (Exeunt Ghost, and Hamlet. Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. Be thou a spirit of health,or goblin damn'd; [hell; Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from 30 Hor. Have after:-To what issue will this come? Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, Mar. Something is rotten in the state of DenThou com'st in such a questionable shape ), Hor. Heaven will direct it. mark That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet, Mar. Nay, let's follow him. [Exeunt. SCENE V. A more remote Part of the Platform. Re-enter Ghost, and Hamlet. Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws, Hum. Whither wilt thou lead me! speak, I'! To cast thee up again? What may this mean, 40 go no further. That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel", Ghost. Mark me. Ham. I will. When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold. To you alone. Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear. shear. Mar. Look, with what courteous action 50 Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt It waves you to a more removed ground: Ham. What? go Ghost. I am thy father's spirit; Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night; Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it. And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires, Hor. Do not, my lord. 155/'Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, Hain. Why, what should be the fear? Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid I do not set my life at a pin's fee’; To tell the secrets of my prison-louse, 'i.e. humour; as sanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic, &c. 2 The dram of base means the least alloy of baseness or vice: To do a thing out, is to extinguish it, or to efface or obliterate any thing painted or written. i.e. in a shape or form capable of being conversed with.–To question, certainly, in our author's time signified to converse. * It was the custom of the Danish kings to be buried in that manner $ The expression is fine, as intimating we were only kept (as formerly, too!s in a great family) to make sport for nature, who lay hid only to mock and laugh at us, for our vain searches into her mysteries. Disposition, for frame. 'i.e the value of a pin. & i.e. take away ?Toys for whims. ! i. e. kinders or prevents me. I could as swift ! I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word (That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through And curd, like eager droppings into milk, And a most instant tetter bark'd about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. 10 Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd": (murder. Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, No reckoning made, but sent to my account Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury & and damned incest. But, howsoever thou pursu'st this act, 20 Paint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, else? [heart : And shall I couple hell?-O fie!-Hold, bold, my Yea, from the table of my memory. 35 I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, 40 Cnmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven. O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! 45 At least, I am sure, it may be so in Denmark: Writing I have sworn it. 50 Hor. My lord, my lord, [Within. With juice of cursed hebenon ' in a vial, Mar. Lord Hamlet, Î Within. Hor. Heavens secure him! [Within. Ham. So be it! Mur. Ilo, ho, ho, my lord ! [Within. 2 Orchard * That is, henbane. * Dispaich'd for bereft. i.e. without the sacrament taken; from the old Saxon word for the sacrament, housel. Disappointed is the same as unappointed ; and may be properly explained unprepared. ?j. e. unanointed, not having the extreme unction.si.e. for leudness. ' i. e. fire that is no longer seen when the light of morning approaches. i.e. in this head confused with thought. 11 Hamlet alludes to the watch-word given every day in the military service, which at this time he says is, Adien, adieu, remember me. Ham. for garden. 6 Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, coine!. Ham. Ha, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou Euer Horatio, and Murcellus. there, true-penny? Mar. How is't, my noble lord? Come on,--you hear this fellow in the celleridge,Hor. What news, my lord ? Consent to swear. Ham. O wonderful! 5 Hor. Propose the oath, my lord. Hor. Good my lord, tell it. Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen, Ham. No; you will reveal it. Swear by my sword 2. Tlor. Not I, my lord, by heaven. Ghost. (beneath.] Swear. [ground:Mar. Nor , my lord. Hum. Hic & ubique ? then we'll shift our Ham. How say you then; would heart of man 10 Come bither, gentlemen, once think it : And lay your hands again upon my sword: Swear by my sword, Ham.There's ne'era viilain,dwelling in all Den Ghost. (beneath.] Swear by his sword. (15) Ham. Well said, old mole! can'st work i' the Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from earth so fast? [friends. the grave, A worthy pioneer !—Once more remove, good To tell us this. Hor. O'day and night, but this is wondrous Mum. Why, right; you are in the right; strange! [come. And so, without more circumstance at all, 20 Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welI hold it fit, that we shake hands, and part : (There are more things in heaven and earth, HoraYou,as your business and desire,shall point you; Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. [tio, For every man hath business and desire, But come; Such as it is,-and, for my own poor part, Here, as before, never, so help you mercy! Look you, I will go pray: 125 How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, As I, perchance, hereafter shall think meet To put an antick disposition on,Ham. I am sorry they offend you, heartily; That you, at such times seeing me, never shall Yes 'faith, heartily. |(With arms encumber'd thus; orthis head-shake; Hor. There's no offence, my lord. |30|0r by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, Ham. Yes,by Saint Patrick,but there is, Horatio, As, Well, ruell, we know;-or, We could, an if we And much oitencetoo. Touching this vision here - would ;or, if we list to speak ;-or, There be, It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you : an if they might; For your desire to know what is between us, Or such ambiguous giving out;) denote O'er-masterit as you may. And now, good friends, 35 That you know aught of me: This do ye swear, As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, and mercy at your most need help you! Give me one poor request. Swear. Hlor. What is’t, my lord ? we will. Ghost. (beneath.] Swear. [men, Ham. Never make known what you have seen Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit !-So, gentleto-night. 40 With all my love 1 do commend me to you: Both. My lord, we will not. And what so poor a man as Hamlet is Ham. Nay, but swear it. May do, to express his love and friending to you, Hor. faith, my lord, not I. God willing, shall not tack. Let us go in together; Mar. Nor I, my lord, in faith. And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. Ham. Upon my sword. 45 The time is out of joint;-0 cursed spight! Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already. That ever I was born to set it right! Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. Nay, come, let's go together, [Ereunt. Glöst. [beneath. ] Swear. my lord. So grace SCENE J. Pol. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Rey. Of his behaviour. (sir, Reynaldo. Pol. Marry, well said ; very well said. Look you, Rey. I will, my lord. Enquire me first what Danskers * are in Paris ; · This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air when they would have him come down to them. * It was common to swear upon the sword, that is, upon the cross which the old swords always had upon the hilt. 3 i.e. receive it to yourself; take it under your own roof; as much as to say, Keep it secret in alluding to the laws of hospitality, * Danske is the ancient name of Denmark, And |