Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

LAER.

[Leaps into the Grave.

The devil take thy soul!
[Grappling with him.

HAM. Thou pray'st not well.

I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat;
Sir, though I am not splenetive and rash,
Yet have I in me something dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear: Away § thy hand.
KING. Pluck them asunder.

QUEEN.

GENTLEMEN.

* For. 4tos.

+ So 4tos. something in me. 1623, 32.

wisdom. 4tos.

Hamlet, Hamlet! § hold off.

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 eye-lids 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. 'Zounds, show me what thou'lt do: Wou'lt weep? wou'lt fight? [wou'lt fast?] wou❜lt tear thyself?¶¶

?

Wou'lt drink up Esil ?(31)** eat a crocodile
I'll do't.-Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me with leaping in her grave?a
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,

a

* outface me with leaping in her grave] i. e. brave me. As you &c. III. Rosal.

See

Be buried quick] i. e. alive. "Thou'rt quick; but yet I'll bury thee." Tim. IV. 3. Tim.

* our ground] i. e. the earth about us.

4tos.

|| So 4tos. come.1623, 32.

¶ wilt pray. 4to. 1603.

** vessels. Ib.

Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou❜lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

KING. (32)

This is mere madness:

And thus a while the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,

When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,(33)
His silence will sit drooping.

Hear you, sir;

Нам.
What is the reason that you use me thus ?
I lov'd you ever.(34) But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

[Exit. KING. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.— [Exit HORATIO. Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;d [TO LAERTES. We'll put the matter to the present push.Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.This grave shall have a living monument :(35) An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;

Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.

a The cat will mew, the dog &c.] "Things have their appointed course; nor have we power to divert it," may be the sense here conveyed; though the proverb is in general applied to those who for a time fill stations to which their merits give them no claim.

b Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech] i. e. let the consideration of the topics, then urged, confirm your resolution taken of quietly waiting events a little longer.

SCENE II.

A Hall in the Castle.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.

HAM. So much for this, sir: now let me see the shall you.

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; (36) methought, I lay

4tos.

32. prais'd. 4tos.

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes.(37) Rashly, + So 1623,
And praise+ be rashness for it,-Let us know,"
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our dear plots do pall:(38) and that should deep.4tos.

teach & us,

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will. (39)

HOR.

HAM. Up from my cabin,

That is most certain.

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,a

• And praise be rashness for it] i. e. praise be to rashness ! Let us know] i. e. be it understood.

sea-gown] "Like sea pitch upon a mariner's gown." The

Puritan.

"Lent upon a sea-gown of Captain Swanes xvs." Henslowe's MSS. MALONE.

an exact command] i. e. distinct, direct.

§ learn. 4tos.

|| A royal. 4tos.

reasons.

4tos.

+ now. 4tos.

Larded with many several sorts of reason,"
a*
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,"
That, on the supervise," no leisure bated, (40)
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 benetted round with villains,
or. 4tos. Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
I
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,(41) and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now

It did me yeoman's service.
The effect of what I wrote ?

HOR.

Wilt thou know

Ay, good my lord.

HAM. An earnest conjuration' from the king,As England was his faithful tributary;

• Larded with many several sorts of reason] i. e. garnished. IV. 5. Ophel.

b such bugs and goblins in my life] i. e. such multiplied causes of alarm, such bugbears, if I were suffered to live. See Tam. of Shrew, I. 2. Petr.

the supervise] i. e. at sight, on the mere inspection.

d Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,

They had begun the play] i. e. ere I could well conceive what they were about, what could be their object in this mission; before I had time to give my first thoughts to their process, they were carrying their projects into act.

• It did me yeoman's service] i. e. as good service as a yeoman performed for his feudal lord; in the sense in which we yet use knight's service.

conjuration] i. e. requisition. See "conjuring," IV. 3. King.

As love between them like the palm might* flou- So 4tos.

As

rish; a

b

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 allowed.(42)

HOR.

How was this seal'd?

as

should.

1623, 32.

† knowing. 4tos.

HAM. Why, even in that was heaven ordinate; ordinant. I had my father's signet in my purse,

Which was the model of that Danish seal:

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

like the palm might flourish] This comparison is scriptural: "The righteous shall flourish like a palm-tree."

Psalm xcii. 11. STEEVENS.

b stand a comma 'tween their amities] i. e. continue the passage or intercourse of amity between them, and prevent the interposition of a period to it: we have the idea, but used in a contrary sense, in an author of the next age. "As for the field, we will cast lots for the place, &c. but I feare the point of the sword will make a comma to your cunning." Nich. Breton's Packet of Letters, 4to. 1637, p. 23.

In the Scornful Lady we have something like this mode of expression:

"No denial-must stand between your person and the business." A. III.

cas's of great charge] i. e. items of high import and weight. The changeling never known] A changeling is a child which the fairies are supposed to leave in the room of that which they steal. JOHNSON.

"We are ayeriall phantoms; and are fram'd

As pictures of you, and are Fairyes nam'd.

And, as you mortals, we participate

Of all the like affections of the minde.

Wee joy, wee grieve, wee feare, wee love, wee hate;
And many times forsaken our owne kinde :

Wee are in league with mortals so combinde,
As that in dreams we ly with them by night,
Begetting children, which do Changelings hight."

Sir Fr. Kynaston's Leoline & Sydanis, 4to. 1642. p. 94.

4tos.