Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial.

LAER. Must there no more be done?

1 PRIEST.

No more be done!

We should profane the service of the dead,

串

To sing a requiem, and such rest to her,

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 minist'ring angel shall my sister be,
When thou liest howling.

HAM.
What, the fair Ophelia !
QUEEN. Sweets to the sweet: farewell!
[Scattering flowers.

I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,

And not t' have strew'd thy grave.

LAER. O, treble woe t Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Depriv'd thee of !-Hold off the earth a while, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms: [Leaps into the grave.

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane! [Leaps into the grave. LAER. The devil take thy soul! [Grappling with him.

HAM. Thou pray'st not well.

I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat;
For though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I something in me dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear: away thy hand!
KING. Pluck them asunder!
QUEEN.

Hamlet, Hamlet! HOR. Good my lord, be quiet. [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave.

HAM. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme,

Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

QUEEN. O, my son! what theme? HAM. I lov'd Ophelia ; forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.—What wilt thou do for her? KING. O, he is mad, Laertes.

QUEEN. For love of God, forbear him.
HAM. Come, show me what thou 'lt do:
Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast ?§ woo't tear
thyself?

Woo't drink up eisel ? eat a crocodile ?
I'll do 't.-Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
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,

a drink up eisel?] The question whether Hamlet speaks here of a river (the Yssell, Issell, or Isel, has been suggested), or proposes the more practical exploit of drinking some nauseous potion, eisel of old being used for wormwood and for vinegar, has been fiercely disputed. Those who believe that isel means a river, lay much stress on the addition, up; but Gifford, in a note on the phrase," Kills them all up," ("Every Man in his Humour," Act IV. Sc. 5,) has satisfactorily disposed of this plea:-"-off, out, and up, are continually used by the purest and most excellent of our old writers after verbs of destroying, consuming, eating, drinking, &c. to us, who are less conversant with the power of language, they appear, indeed, somewhat like expletives; but they undoubtedly contributed something to the force, and something to the roundness of the sentence. There is much wretched criticism on a similar expression in Shakespeare, Woo't drink up eisel?' Theobald gives the sense of the passage in a clumsy note; Hanmer, who had more taste than judgment, and more judgment than knowledge, corrupts the language as usual [he reads, Wilt drink up Nile?']; Steevens gaily perverts the sense;

HAM. So much for this, sir: now let me see the other ;

You do remember all the circumstance?
HOR. Remember it, my lord?

HAM. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,

That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes." Rashly,
And prais'd be rashness for it, let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our dear plots do pall; and that should
teach us,

(*) First folio, praise.

and Malone, with great effort, brings the reader back to the meaning which poor Theobaid had long before excogitated."

b His silence will sit drooping.] In the folio this speech is assigned to the King!

c bilboes.] An instrument of torture, consisting of a bar of iron with fetters attached, used formerly for the punishment of sailors, and supposed to have been named from Bilboa, in Spain. d And prais'd be rashness for it,-] We think, with Tyrwhitt, that Rashly should be joined in construction with-in the dark grop'd I to find out them, and the passage therefore distributed and read as follows:

HAM. Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarf 'd about me, in the dark Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire; Finger'd their packet; and, in fine, withdrew To mine own room again: making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,O, royal knavery!-an exact command, Larded with many several sorts of reason, Importing Denmark's health, and England's too, With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,—b That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off.

HOR.

Is 't possible?

HAM. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure.

But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?

HOR. Ay, beseech you.

HAM. Being thus be-netted round with villainies,-*

:

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play,-I sat me down;
Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair :-
I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service-wilt thou know
The effects of what I wrote ?

HOR.
Ay, good my lord.
HAM. An earnest conjuration from the king,-
As England was his faithful tributary;

As love between them as the palm should flourish;
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,
And stand a comma 'tween their amities;
And many such like as's of great charge,—
That on the view and know of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd.

HOR.

How was this seal'd?

a Rough-hew-] Farmer's assertion that these words were merely technical, and referred to the making skewers, has never, we believe, been contradicted; a striking proof, if so, how much the commentators on Shakespeare have yet to learn from our early literature. To rough-hew meant to plan or scheme, or do anything in the rough. Thus Florio interprets "Abbozzare," to rough-hew or cast any first draught, to bungle up ill-favouredly: and Baret, in his Alvearie, says, "To cut out grossely: to hew rough." "It is rough hewed, or squared out, or it is begun."

b such bugs and goblins in my life,-] With such causes of error, rising from my character and designs."-JOHNSON.

c And stand a comma 'tween their amilies;] Johnson thinks this not incapable of explanation,-" The comma is the note of con

Folded the writ up in form of the other; Subscrib'd it; gave 't the impression; plac'd it safely,

The changeling never known. Now, the next day Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent Thou know'st already.

HOR. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to 't. HAM. Why, man, they did make love to this employment:

They are not near my conscience; their defeat+
Does by their own insinuation grow:

'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell-incensed points
Of mighty opposites.
HOR.

HAM. Does it not,

upon-d

Why, what a king is this! think'st thee, stand me now

He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother; Popp'd in between the election and my hopes; Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with such cozenage-is't not perfect con

science,

To quit him with this arm? and is 't not to be damn'd,

To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil?

HOR. It must be shortly known to him from England,

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,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For by the image of my cause I see

The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.
HOR.

Peace! who comes here?

Enter OSRIC.

OSR. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

HAM. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly?

nection and continuity of sentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction." To us it is much easier to believe that "comma" is a typographical slip than that Shakespeare should have chosen that point as a mark of connection; at the same time, having no faith in the substitution, cement, by Hanmer, or commere, by Warburton, or co-mere (a boundary-stone), by Singer, we leave the text as it stands in the old copies, simply suggesting the possibility of "comma" being a misprint for co-mate.

d Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon-] Equipollent to, Is it not, think you, incumbent on me?

e I'll court his favours:] A correction due to Rowe; the folio, in which alone the speech is found, reading, "Ile count his favours," &c.

HAM. Thy state is the more gracious; for 't is a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile; let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess. 'Tis a chough; but, as I say,* spacious in the possession of dirt. OSR. Sweet lord, if your lordship† were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. HAM. I will receive it with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 't is for

the head.

OSR. I thank your lordship, 't is very hot. HAM. No, believe me, 't is very cold; the wind is northerly.

OSR. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. HAM. Methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.

OSR. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,— as 't were,-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. HAM. I beseech you, remember

[HAMLET moves him to put on his hat. OSR. Nay, in good faith; 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 gentleman would see.

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 him, his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

OSR. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

HAM. The concernancy, sir?-why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?

OSR. Sir?

a and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail.] This is not in the folio nor in the quarto of 1603. In the other quartos, except that of 1604, we have "raw" for "yaw," though the latter is shown by the context to be unquestionably the poet's word. To yaw is to stagger and vacillate, as a ship sometimes does, instead of going due on. Mr. Dyce, of course, adopts "yaw," but conceiving "yet," often written "yt," to be a misprint for it, he reads "and it, but yaw neither," &c. which we must admit our inability to understand. "Yet" certainly is suspicious, but the word displaced we have always thought was wit, not it, and the drift of Hamlet's jargon to be this:-his qualifications are so numerous, and so far surpass all ordinary reckoning, that memory would grow giddy in cataloguing, and wit be distanced in attempting to

OSR. Of Lacrtes?

HOR. His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.

HAM. 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. 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.

OSR. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he 's unfellowed.

HAM. What's his weapon?

OSR. Rapier and dagger.

HAM. That's two of his weapons: but, well. OSR. The king, sir, hath waged with him six Barbary 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, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

HAM. What call you the carriages?

HOR. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

OSR. The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

HAM. The phrase would be more german" to the matter, 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?

OSR. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between you 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.

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,-'tis 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 if I can; if not, I'll gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits.

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.*

HOR. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.

HAM. He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. Thus hast he (and many‡ more of the same bevy, that, I know, the drossy age dotes on) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions ;" and do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are out.

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.

LORD. The king, and queen, and all, are coming down.

HAM. In happy time.

LORD. The queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play. 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. 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.

HOR. If your mind dislike anything, obey it :|| I will forestal their repair hither, and say you are not fit.

HAM. Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it

be now, 'tis 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?

Enter KING, QUEEN, Laertes, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants, with foils, &c.

KING. [Taking LAERTES by the hand.] Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. HAM. [TO LAERTES.] 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 punish'd with a sore distraction.
What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was 't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
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 wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Sir, in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.+

LAER.
I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace,
To keep my name ungor'd. ‡
time,

But till that

I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.

HAM.
I do embrace it freely;
And will this brother's wager frankly play.—
Give us the foils.-Come on.

LAER.
Come, one for me.
HAM. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine igno-

rance

Your skill shall, like a star i'the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed.