NGardiner de?' èt sc.

Hamlet

Page 23.

PuMarch 1728 by Edu Harding N98 Pall Mall.

That looks fo many fathoms to the fea,
And hears it roar beneath.

Ham. It waves me ftill:

Go on, I'll follow thee.

Mar. You fhall not go, my lord.

Ham. Hold off your hands.

Hor. Be rul'd, you fhall not go.

Ham. My fate cries out,

And makes each petty artery in this body

As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.— [GHOST beckons. Still am I call'd:-unhand me, gentlemen;

[Breaking from them By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me :

I fay, away:-Go on,-I'll follow thee.

[Exeunt GHOST and HAMLET.

Hor. He waxes defperate with imagination.
Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
Hor. Have after:-To what iffue will this come?
Mar. Something is rotten in the ftate of Denmark.
Hor. Heaven will direct it.

Mar. Nay, let's follow him.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. A remote part of the Platform.
Re-enter GHOST and HAMLET.

Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me? fpeak, I'll go no further.
Ghoft. Mark me.

Ham. I will.

Ghoft. My hour is almost come,

When I to fulphurous and tormenting flames

Muft render up myself.

Ham. Alas, poor ghost!

Ghoft. Pity me not, but lend thy ferious hearing To what I shall unfold.

Ham

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear.

Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.

Ham. What?

Ghoft. I am thy father's fpirit;

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night;

And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
To tell the fecrets of my prifon-house,

I could a tale unfold, whofe lightest word

Would harrow up thy foul; 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 on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:
But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood:-List, list, O lift!

If thou didst ever thy dear father love,

Ham. O heaven!

Ghoft. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

Ham. Murder?

Ghoft. Murder most foul, as in the best it is;

But this most foul, ftrange, and unnatural.

Ham. Hafte me to know it; that I, with wings as swift As meditation, or the thoughts of love,

May sweep to my revenge.

Ghoft. I find thee apt;

And duller fhould'st thou be than the fat weed

That rots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf,

Would'ft thou not ftir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
'Tis given out, that, sleeping in my orchard,
A ferpent ftung me; fo the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death

Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth,

The

The ferpent that did fting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown.

Ham. O, my prophetick foul! my uncle?

Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,
(O wicked wit, and gifts that have the power
So to feduce!) won to his shameful luft
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen :
O, Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
From me, whofe love was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor
To thofe of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,

Though lewdnefs court it in a shape of heaven;
So luft, though to a radiant angel link'd,

Will fate itself in a celestial bed,

And prey on garbage.

But, foft! methinks I fcent the morning air;
Brief let me be :-Sleeping within mine orchard,
My cuftom always of the afternoon,
Upon my fecure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of curfed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ear did pour
The leperous diftilment; whose effect
Holds fuch an enmity with blood of man,
That, fwift as quickfilver, it courses through
The natural gates and alleys of the body,
And, with a fudden vigour it doth poffet
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholefome, blood: fo did it mine;
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Moft lazar-like, with vile and loathfome cruft,