Thus it remains, and the remainder thus perpend. 20 When it prov'd otherwise?

I have a daughter;---have, whilst she is mine;
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this: Now gather, and surmise.

To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia

That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; beautify'd
Is a vile phrase; but you shall hear:

These in her excellent white bosom, these, &c.
Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her?

Pol. Good madam, stay a while; I will be 30 Here in the lobby.

1401

Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might 50 You are a fishmonger.

To expostulate, for to enquire or discuss. veyed intelligence between them, and been the confident of their amours, [play'd the desk or tablebook] or had connived at it, only observed them in secret, without acquainting my daughter with my discovery [given my heart a mute and dumb working]; or, lastly, had been negligent in observing the intrigue, and overlooked it [looked upon this love with idle sight; what would you have thought of me? 3T 2 Being

Being a god, kissing carrion',-Have you a daugh

ter?

Pol. I have, my lord.

Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter may con- 5 ceive friend, look to 't.

Pol. How say you by that? [Aside.] still harp-
ing on my daughter:-yet he knew me not at
first; he said, I was a fishmonger: He is far gone,
far gone: and, truly, in my youth I suffer'd much
extremity for love; very near this.-I'll speak to
him again. What do you read, my lord?
Ham. Words, words, words!

Pol. What is the matter, my lord?
Ham. Between who?

Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good 10lads, how do ye both?

15

20

Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue' says here, that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, shall be as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go back-25

ward.

30

35

Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal; except my 40 life, except my life, except my life. Pol. Fare you well, my lord.

Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we are not over-happy; On fortune's cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the soals of her shoe?

Ros. Neither, my lord.

Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?

Guil. 'Faith, her privates we.

Ham. In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she is a strumpet. What news?

Ros. None, my lord; but that the world's grown honest.

Ham. Then is doom's-day near: But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?

Guil. Prison, my lord!

Ham. Denmark's a prison.

Ros. Then is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst.

is

Ros. We think not so, my lord.

Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so; to me it is a prison.

Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind.

Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space; were it not that I have bad dreams.

'Dr. Warburton's comment (which Dr. Johnson says almost sets the critic on a level with the author) on this passage is as follows: "The illative particle [for] shews the speaker to be reasoning from something he had said before: what that was we learn in these words, To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one picked out of ten thousand. Having said this, the chain of ideas led him to reflect upon the argument which libertines bring against Providence from the circumstance of abounding evil. `In the next speech therefore he endeavours to answer that objection, and vindicate Providence, even on a supposition of the fact, that almost all men were wicked. His argument in the two lines in question is to this purpose, But why need we wonder at this abounding of ecil? For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, which though a god, yet shedding its heat and influence upon carrion-Here he stops short, lest talking too consequentially, the hearer should suspect his madness to be feigned; and so turns him off from the subject, by enquiring of his daughter. But the inference which he intended to make, was a very noble one, and to this purpose: If this (says he) be the case, that the effect follows the thing operated upon [carrion] and not the thing operating [a god], why need we wonder, that, the supreme cause of all things diffusing its blessings on mankind, who is, as it were, a dead carrion, dead in original sin, man, instead of a proper return of duty, should breed only corruption and vices? This is the argument at length; and is as noble a one in behalf of Providence as could come from the schools of divinity. But this wonderful man had an art not only of acquainting the audience with what his actors say, but with what they think. The sentiment too is altogether in character; for Hamlet is perpetually moralizing, and his circuinstances make this reflection very natural." The meaning, says Mr. Steevens, seems to be, Conception (i. e. understanding) is a blessing; but as your daughter may conceive, (i. e. be pregnant,) friend, look to't, i. e. have a care of that. By the satirical rogue he ineans Juvenal, in his tenth satire. Pregnant is ready, dexterous, apt.

4

3

Guil. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow.

Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow. Ham. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our monarchs, and out-stretch'd heroes, the beggars' shadows:-Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.

Both. We'll wait upon you.

5

10

Ham. No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make 15 you at Elsinour?

Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. Ham. Beggar that I am; I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear at a half-penny. Were 20 you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come; deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.

Guil. What should we say, my lord? Ham. Any thing-but to the purpose. You 25 were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know the good king and queen have sent for you.

Ros. To what end, my lord?

and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me,-nor woman neither; though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.

Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said, Man delights not me?

Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you: we coted' them on the way; and hither are they coming to offer you service.

Ham. He that plays the king, shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me: the adventurous knight shall use his foil, and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh, whose lungs are tickled o' the sere*; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for 't.-What players are they?

Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city.

Ham. How chances it, they travel? their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better 30 both ways.

Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserv'd love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be 35 even and direct with me, whether you were sent for, or no? [To Guilden.

Ros. What say you? Ham. Nay, then I have an eye of you';-if you love me, hold not off.

Guil. My lord, we were sent for.

Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather.

I have

Ros. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of their late innovation'.

Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so follow'd? Ros. No, indeed they are not.

Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: But there is, sir, an aiery of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top of question', and 40 are most tyrannically clapp'd for't: these are now the fashion; and so berattle the common stages, (so they call them) that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither. Ham. What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? how are they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players, (as it is most like, if their means are no better) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession?

of late, (but, wherefore, I know not) lost all 45
my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises: and,
indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition,
that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a
sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy,
the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firma-50
ment, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,
why, it appears no other thing to me, than a foul

9

Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both

'An eye of you means, I have a glimpse of your meaning. 2 i. e, sparing, like the entertainments given in Lent. 3 To cote is to overtake. 4i. e. (says Mr. Steevens) those who are asthmatical, and to whom laughter is most uneasy, which is the case with those whose lungs are tickled by the sere or serum. 'i. e. (says Mr. Steevens) their permission to act any longer at an established house is taken away, in consequence of the new custom of introducing personal abuse into their comedies.-Several companies of actors in the time of our author were silenced on account of this licentious practice. The poet here steps out of his subject, to give a lash at home, and sneer at the prevailing tashion of following plays performed by the children of the chapel, and abandoning the established theatres.— Little Eyases mean young nestlings, creatures just out of the egg. Children that perpetually recite in the highest notes of voice that can be uttered. i. e. paid; from the French escot, a shot

or reckoning. ? Quality for profession.

tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragicalcomical-historical-pastoral,scene undividable,or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor 5 Plautus too light: For the law of writ', and the liberty, these are the only men.

10

Ham. It is not very strange: for my uncle is king of Denmark; and those, that would make mouths at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. There is something in this more 15 than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

[Flourish of trumpets.

Guil. There are the players.

Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinour. Your hands. Come then: the appurtenance of 20 welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb; lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must shew fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome; but my uncle-father, 25 and aunt-mother, are deceiv'd,

Guil. In what, my dear lord?

Ham. I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-saw 4.

Enter Polonius.

Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen! Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern;-and you too; -at each car a hearer; That great baby, you see there, is not yet out of his swadling-clouts.

Ros. Haply, he's the second time come to them; for, they say, an old man is twice a child.

Ham. I will prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You say right, sir: on Monday morning; 'twas then, indeed.

Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you.
Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you.-When
Roscius was an actor in Rome,-

Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord.
Ham. Buz, buz!

Pol. Upon mine honour,

Ham. Then came each actor on his ass",
Pol. The best actors in the world, either for

niature.

4

6

Ham. O Jephtha, judge of Israel,—what a treasure hadst thou!

Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord?
Ham. Why,-One fair daughter, and no more,
The which he loved passing well.

Pol. Still on my daughter.

[Aside. Ham. Am I not i' the right, old Jephtha? Pol. If you call me Jephtia, my lord, I have a daughter, that I love passing well. Ham. Nay, that follows not.

Pol. What follows then, my lord?

Ham. Why, as By lot, God wot,—and then, you know, It came to pass, As most like it was The first row of the pious chanson will shew you more; for look, where my abridgement

comes.

Enter four or five players.

10

You are welcome, masters; welcome, all:-I am glad to see thee well :-welcome, good friends.— O, old friend! Why, thy face is valanc'd since I saw thee last; Com'st thou to beard me in Denmark-What! my young lady and mistress! By-'r-lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than 30 when I saw you last, bythe altitude of a chioppine". Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring".- Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see: We'll have a speech straight: Come, give us a taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech.

33

1 Play. What speech, my good lord?

Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once,— but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above 40 once: for the play, I remember, pleas'd not the million: 'twas caviare13 to the general: but it was (as I receiv'd it, and others, whose judgements, in such matters, cried in the top of mine *) an exjcellent play; well digested in the scenes, set down 45 with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said, there were no sallets in the lines, to make the matter savoury; nor no matter in the phrase, that might indite the author of affection":

15

7

To provoke any animal to rage, is to tarre him. 2 i. e. They not only carry away the world, but the world-bearer too: alluding to the story of Hercules' relieving Atlas; or the allusion may be to the Globe playhouse, on the Bankside, the sign of which was Hercules carrying the Globe. 3 í. e, in miThis was a common proverbial speech. 5 Buz, buz! are, probably, only interjections employed to interrupt Polonius. This seems to be a line of a ballad. Writ, for writing, composition. These were quotations from an old song, " Mr. Steevens explains this allusion thus: "The pious chansons were a kind of Christmas Carols, containing some scriptural history thrown into loose rhymes, and sung about the streets by the common people when they went at that season to solicit alms. Hamlet is here repeating some scraps from a song of this kind; and when Polonius enquires what follows them, he refers him to the first row (i. e. division) of one of these, to obtain the information he wanted." 10 i. e. as Dr. Johnson thinks, those who will shorten my talk.An abridgement is used for a dramatic piece in the Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V, Sc. I. chioppine is a high shoe worn by the Italians. 12 That is, crack'd too much for use. 13 The caviare is the spawn of the sterkett, a fish of the sturgeon kind, which seldom grows above thirty inches long. It is found in many of the rivers of Russia.—The general means the people, or multitude. 1i. c. were higher than mine. 15 Modesty, for simplicity. i, e. convict the author of being a fantastical affected writer.

16

11 A

but

but call'd it, an honest' method; as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly lov'd: 'twas Eneas' tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of Priam's slaughter;" If 5 it live in your memory, begin at this line; let me see, let me see ;

The rugged Pyrrhus-like the Hyrcanian beast,'tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus.

The rugged Pyrrhus,-he, whose sable arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble,
When he lay couched in the ominous horse,—
Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons;
Bak'd and impasted with the parchung streets,
That lend a tyrannous and a damned light
To their lord's murder: Roasted in wrath, and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks:-So, proceed you.
Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken; with
good accent, and good discretion.

1 Play. Anon he finds him,
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command: Unequal match'd,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage, strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base; and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood;
And, like a neutral to his will and mutter,
Did nothing.

But, as we often see, against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
As hush as death: anon, the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region: So, after Pyrrhus' pause,
A roused vengeance sets him new a-work;
And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne,
With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.-

Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods,
In general synod, take away her power;
Breuk all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!

Pol. This is too long.

Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard.Pr'ythee, say on:-) -He's for a jigg, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps:-say on; come to Hecuba. 1 Play. But who, ah woe! had seen the mobled3 queen

Ham. 'The mobled queen?

Pol. That's good; mobled queen is good.
1 Play. Run bare-foot up and down, threat'ning
the flames

10 With bisson rheum: a clout upon that head,
Where late the diadem stood; and, for a robe,
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
15'Gainst fortune's state would treason have pro-
But if the gods themselves did see her then,[nounc'd:
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs;
The instant burst of clamour that she made,
20 (Unless things mortal move them not at all)
Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods.

25

30

Pol. Look, whe'er he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's eyes.-Pr'ythee, no more.

Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstract, and brief chronicles of the time: After your death, you were better have a bad epitath, than their ill report while you live.

Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

Ham. Odds bodikins, man, much better: Use 35 every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity: The less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

Pol. Come, sirs.

[Exit Polonius. 401 Ham. Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.-Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the murder of Gonzago?

1 Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, 45 for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down, and insert in't? could you not?

1 Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Very well. Follow that lord; and look 50 you mock him not.-My good friends, [to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern] I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinour.

Ros. Good, my lord. [Exeunt Ros. and Guil. Ham. Ay, so, God be wi' you:-Now I am alone. 550, what a rogue and peasant slave am I !

Hamlet is telling how much his judgement differed from that of others. One said, there was no salt in the lines, &c., but called it an honest method. The author probably gave it, But I called it an honest method, &c. 2 Gules is a term in heraldry, and signifies red. According to Warburton, mobled, or mabled, signifies veiled; according to Dr. Johnson, it is huddled, grossly covered.-Mr. Steevens says, he was informed that mab-led in Warwickshire (where it is pronounced mob-led) signifies led astray by a will o' the whisp, or ignis fatuus.-Mr. Tollet adds, that in the latter end of the reign of king Charles II. the rabble that attended the earl of Shaftesbury's partisans was first called mobile vulgus, and afterwards, by contraction, the mob; and ever since, the word mob has become proper English. Bisson or beesen, i. e. blind; a word still in use in some parts of the North of England. 3 T 4

Is