Oph. What means this, my Lord ? Ham. Marry, this is miching Malicho; it means mifchief. Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play? Enter Prologue. Ham. We fhall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counfel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us, what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll fhew him. Be not you ashamed to fhew, he'll not shame to tell you what it means. Oph. You are naught, you are naught, I'll mark the play. Prol. For us, and for our tragedy, Here ftooping to your clemency, We beg your bearing patiently. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the poefy of a ring? Ham. As woman's love. Enter Duke, and Dutchefs, Players. Duke. Full thirty times hath Phabus' carr gone round Dutch. So many journeys may the fun and moon And And womens' fear and love hold quantity ; 'Tis either none, or in extremity. know; Now, what my love is, proof hath made you there. Dutch. Oh, confound the reft! Such love muft needs be treafon in my In fecond husband let me be accurft! breaft : None wed the fecond, but who kill the first. Ham. Wormwood, wormwood! Dutch. The inftances, that fecond marriage move, Are base refpects of thrift, but none of love. A fecond time I kill my husband dead, When fecond husband kiffes me in bed. Duke. I do believe, you think what now you speak; But what we do determine, oft we break ; Purpofe is but the flave to memory, Of violent birth, but poor validity: Which now, like fruits unripe, sticks on the tree, To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt: (19) And as my Love is fix'd, my Fear is fo.] Mr. Pope fays, I read fix'd and, indeed, I do fo: becaufe, I obferve, the Quarto of 1605 reads, ciz'd; that of 1611 cizft; the Folio in 1632, fix; and that in 1623, fix'd: and because, befides, the whole Tenour of the Context demands this Reading: For the Lady evidently is talking here of the Quantity and Proportion of her Love and Fear; not of their Continuance, Duration, or Stability. Cleopatra expreffes herfelf much in the fame manner, with regard to her Grief for the Lofs of Antony. --our Size of Sorrow, Proportion'd to our Cause, must be as great As that which makes it. What What to ourselves in paffion we propose, Their own enactors with themselves destroy. Whether love leads fortune, or else fortune love. Our wills and fates do fo contrary run, Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. Ham. If the fhould break it now. Duke. 'Tis deeply fworn; fweet, leave me here a while; My fpirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with fleep. Dutch. Sleep rock thy brain, [Sleeps. And never come mifchance between us twain! [Exit. Ham. Madam, how like you this play? Queen. The lady protefts too much, methinks. Ham. Oh, but he'll keep ler wɔrd. King. Have you heard the argument, is there no offence in't? Ham. No, no, they do but jeft, poison in jeft, no offence i'th' world. King. What do you call the play? Ham. The Moufe-Trap; Marry, how? tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna; Gonzago is the Duke's name, his wife's Baptifta; you fhall fee anon, 'tis a knavish piece of work but what o' that? your Majefty, and we that have free fouls, it touches us not; let the gall'd jade winch, our withers are unrung. Enter Lucianus. ; This is one Lucianus, nephew to the Duke. Oph. You are keen, my Lord, you are keen. Ham. It would cost you a groaning to take off my · edge. Oph. Still better and worse. Ham. So you miftake your hufbands. Begin, murderer.-Leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing: Confederate feason, and no creature seeing: Thou mixture rank, of mid-night weeds collected, On wholfome life ufurp immediately. [Pours the poifon into his ears. Ham. He poifons him i'th' garden for's eftate; his name's Gonzago; the story is extant, and writ in choice Italian. You shall fee anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. Oph. The King rifes. Ham. What, frighted with falfe fire! Queen. Queen. How fares my Lord? Pol. Give o'er the Play. King. Give me fome light. Away! [Exeunt All. Lights, lights, lights! Manent Hamlet and Horatio. Ham. Why, let the ftrucken deer go weep, The hart ungalled play; For fome must watch, whilft fome must sleep; Would not this, Sir, and a forest of Feathers, (if the reft of my fortunes turn Turk with me) with two provincial roses on my rayed fhoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of Players, Sir? Hor. Half a share. Ham. A whole one, I. "For thou dost know, oh Damon dear, "This realm difmantled was "Of Jove himself, and now reigns here "A very, very, (20) Paddock. (20) A very very Peacock.] The old Copies have it Paicock, Paicocke, and Pajocke. I fubstitute Paddock, as nearest to the Traces of the corrupted Reading. I have, as Mr. Pope fays, been willing to fubftitute any Thing in the place of his Peacock. He thinks a Fable alluded to, of the Birds chufing a King; inftead of the Eagle, a Peacock. I fuppofe, he muft mean the Fable of Barlandus, in which it is faid, the Birds being weary of their State of Anarchy, mov'd for the fetting up of a King: and the Peacock was elected on account of his gay Feathers, But, with Submiffion, in this Paffage of our Shakespeare, there is not the leaft mention made of the Eagle in Antithefis to the Peacock; and it must be by a very uncommon Figure, that Jove himself ftands in the place of his Bird. I think, Hamlet is fetting his Father's and Uncle's Characters in Contraft to each other: and means to fay, that by his Father's Death the State was ftripp'd of a godlike Monarch, and that now in his Stead reign'd the most despicable poisonous Animal that could be: a meer Paddock, or Toad. PAD, bufo, rubeta major; a toad. This Word, I take to be of Hamlet's own fubftituting. The Verfes, repeated, seem to be from fome old Ballad; in which, Rhyme being neceffary, I doubt not but the last Verse ran thus; A very, very, Afs. VOL. VIII. H Hor |