Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? Oph. "Tis brief, my lord. Ham. As woman's love. Enter a King and a Queen. P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground; And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen,7 About the world have times twelve thirties been; Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands, Unite commutual in most sacred bands. P.Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon. So far from cheer, and from your former state, 8 you know; My operant powers their functions leave to do: cart-] A chariot was anciently so called. 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, P. Queen. The instances, that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love; P. King. I do believe, you think what now you speak; But, what we do determine, oft we break. Of violent birth, but poor validity: Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree; To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:' Their own enactures with themselves destroy: Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. 9 The instances,] The motives. 1 what to ourselves is debt :] The performance of a resolution, in which only the resolver is interested, is a debt only to himself which he may therefore remit at pleasure. Their own enactures with themselves destroy:] What grief or joy enact or determine in their violence, is revoked in their abateEnactures is the word in the quarto; all the modern editions have enactors. JoHNSON. ment. The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: So think thou wilt no second husband wed; Sport and repose lock from me, day, and night! Ham. If she should break it now, [To OPHELIA. P. King. "Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while: My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile P. Queen. [Sleeps. Sleep rock thy brain; And never come mischance between us twain! [Exit. Ham. Madam, how like you this play? 3 An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope !] May my whole liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prison. Anchor is for anchoret. JoHNSON. 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? 4 Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; 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 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 mistake your husbands.-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 season, else no creature seeing; The mouse-trap.] He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is 66 the thing "In which he'll catch the conscience of the king." Thy natural magick and dire property, [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! Pol. Lights, lights, lights! [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO. Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep, For some must watch, while some must sleep; 5 Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me,) with two Provencial roses on my razed' shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir? Hor. Half a share. 8 s Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, &c.] It appears from Decker's Gul's Hornbooke, that feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakspeare's time. 6 turn Turk with me,] This means to change condition fantastically. 7 Provencial roses on my razed shoes.] Provencial, or (with the French ç) Provençal. He means roses of Provence, a beautiful species of rose, much cultivated. Razed shoes may mean slashed shoes, i. e. with cuts or openings in them. The poet might have written raised shoes, i. e. shoes with high heels; such as by adding to the stature, are supposed to increase the dignity of a player. 8 a cry of players,] Allusion to a pack of hounds, which was once called a cry of hounds. 9 Ham. A whole one, I.] The actors in our author's time had not |