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P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly

too;

My operant powers their functions2 leave to do:

And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd; and, haply, one as kind
For husband shalt thou--

P. Queen.

O, confound the rest!

Such love must needs be treason in my breast:

In second husband let me be accurst;

None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.

Ham. [Aside.] Wormwood, wormwood3.

P. Queen. The instances, that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love: A second time I kill my husband dead,

When second husband kisses me in bed.

P. King. I do believe you think what now you speak,

But what we do determine oft we break.

Purpose is but the slave to memory,

Of violent birth, but poor validity;

Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,

But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.

Most necessary 'tis, that we forget

To

pay

ourselves what to ourselves is debt:

What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy

Their own enactures1 with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.

This world is not for aye; nor 'tis not strange,

2

their functions-] The folio substitutes my for "their."

1 Wormwood, wormwood.] We follow the folio here: the earliest quarto reads, "O! wormwood." The other quartos, "That's wormwood ;" and it is placed in the margin, as if at first it had been accidentally omitted. The object might be to save room in the printing.

Their own ENACTURES-] So the quartos: the folio, enactors, which may be right: other, for "either," in the preceding line, must be wrong.

VOL. VII.

T

That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies:
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,

For who not needs shall never lack a friend;
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.

But, orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run,

That our devices still are overthrown;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed,

But die thy thoughts, when thy first lord is dead.

P. Queen. Nor earth to me give foods, nor heaven light!

Sport and repose lock from me, day and night!

To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!
Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy,
Meet what I would have well, and it destroy!
Both here, and hence, pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!

Ham. If she should break it now,

P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn.

a while :

Sweet, leave me here

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile

The tedious day with sleep.

P. Queen.

[Sleeps.

Sleep rock thy brain;

And never come mischance between us twain! [Exit. Ham. Madam, how like

you

this play?

5 Nor earth to me give food,] This is the correct reading of the quartos 1604, &c.: the folios, "Nor earth to give me food," &c.

AN ANCHOR'S cheer in prison be my scope!] This and the preceding line are in all the quartos but the first, but not in the folio. "An anchor's cheer 39 is an Anchoret's sustenance; and in the old copies it stands, "And anchor's cheer," &c.

Queen. The lady doth protest' too much, methinks. Ham. O! but she'll keep her word.

King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?

Ham. No, no; they do but jest, poison in jest: no offence i'the world.

King. What do you call the play?

Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's names; his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon: 'tis a knavish piece of work; but what of that? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.

Enter LUCIANUS.

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord'. Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying.

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 must take your husbands'.-Begin, murderer : leave thy damnable faces, and begin.

The lady DOTH PROTEST] The folio, "The lady protests.”

This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name.] In the quarto, 1603, the scene of the play within a play is laid in Guiana, (the short-hand writer having, perhaps, mis-heard the name) and the two principal characters are called Duke and Duchess in one place, and King and Queen in another in the prefixes they are Duke and Duchess. The same confusion of rank prevails in the other quarto editions, excepting that Gonzago and Baptista are styled in the prefixes King and Queen.

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You are as good as a chorus, my lord.] So the quartos, including that of 1603 the folio reads, "You are a good chorus, my lord." The answer of Hamlet refers, of course, to the dialogue invented for puppets in puppet-shows, which was called interpreting between them.

1 So you MUST take your husbands.] i. e. For better for worse. The quartos, 1604, &c. and the folios, have mistake for "must take," which last is a reading suggested by Theobald. It is authorised by the quarto, 1603, where it stands, "So you must take your husband."

Come: The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge2.

Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time

agreeing;

Confederate season3, else no creature seeing;

Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property,

On wholesome life usurp immediately.

[Pours the Poison into the Sleeper's Ears. Ham. He poisons him i'the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian*. You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

Oph. The king rises.

Ham. What! frighted with false fire"?

Queen. How fares my lord?

Pol. Give o'er the play.

King. Give me some light!-away!

All. Lights, lights, lights"!

[Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO.

Ham. Why, let the stricken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play;

For some must watch, while some must sleep:
Thus runs the world away.-

Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me') with two Pro

2 The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.] This perhaps was a quotation from some other play in Hamlet's memory: it does not seem to belong to that under representation, for Lucianus does not begin with it.

3 CONFEDERATE season,] The quartos, the first excepted, misread, “considerate season." "" The first quarto and first folio agree.

4

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written in very choice Italian :] The folio," and writ in choice Italian." 5 What! frighted with false fire ?] This speech is only in the quarto, 1603, and in the folio.

All. Lights, lights, lights !] That is, there was a general call for lights. In the quartos, 1604, &c. the speech is given to Polonius orly.

7 - (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me)] This phrase seems to have been equivalent of old to a total change, and it is found in several writers of the time.

vincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in

a cry of players, sir?

Hor. Half a share.

Ham. A whole one, I'.

For thou dost know, O Damon dear1o!

This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here

A very, very-peacock'.

Hor. You might have rhymed.

Ham. O good Horatio! I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?

Hor. Very well, my lord.

Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning,

Hor. I did very well note him.

Ham. Ah, ha!-Come; some music! come; the recorders!

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For if the king like not the comedy,

Why then, belike,—he likes it not, perdy2.—

- on my razed shoes,] The folio has rac'd, and the quartos raz'd: possibly all ought to read raised, as several writers show that shoes with thick cork soles were used to give people additional height. On the stage, as one of "a cry," or company, of players, this might be important, especially to R. Burbage, the original actor of Hamlet, who was of short stature. "Razed shoes" may, however, possibly mean slashed shoes.

A whole one, I.] Alluding to the shares or proportions into which the receipts at a theatre were divided, and given to the performers, according to their several rates of interest or rank in the company.

19 For thou dost know, O Damon dear!] Probably a quotation from some ballad or play on the story of Damon and Pythias. Richard Edwards was the author of such a drama, first printed in 1571, (not in 1582, as Steevens tells us, when, in fact, the second impression came out) and included in Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. i. p. 180, last edit.

A very, very-peacock.] The word "peacock" presents a difficulty. It is printed in the old quartos paiock and paiocke, and paiocke also in the folio, 1623, which the folio, 1632, alters to pajock. Pope introduced peacock, but if that were the word intended, it is somewhat singular that, being of such common occurrence, it should have been misprinted at first, and afterwards reiterated in the later impressions of the play. "Peacock" seems to answer the sense better than any other word, the allusion being, perhaps, not, as Pope says, to the birds choosing a peacock instead of an eagle for king, but to the fable of the crow which adorned itself with peacock's feathers. The king has usurped the throne and royal habiliments of his murdered brother, and is yet to be stripped of his borrowed plumes.

2

- he likes it not, PERDY.] "Perdy" is a common corruption of par Dieu. See Vol. iv. p. 484. This couplet is probably a quotation.

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