The dramatic works of Shakspeare, from the text of Johnson and Stevens [sic. Wanting pp

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done,-must send

thee hence

[self;

Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, Or for some frontier?

[sir,

Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no ad-
dition,

We go to gain a little patch of ground,
With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thy-That hath in it no profit but the naine.
The bark is ready, and the wind at help *,
The associates tend †, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham. King. Ham.

For England?

Ay, Hamlet.

Good. King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them.-But, come; for England!-Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet,

Hum. My mother: Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England.

[Exit. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night: Away; for every thing is seal'd and done That else leans on the affair: Pray you, make haste. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught, (As my great power thereof may give thee

sense;

Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us,) thou may'st not coldly
set +

Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,
The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thon must cure me: Till I know'tis done,
Howe'er my haps ý, my joys will ne'er begin.
[Exit.

SCENE IV. A Plain in Denmark.
Enter FORTINBRAS, and Forces, marching.
For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish
Tell him, that, by his license, Fortinbras [king;
Craves the conveyance of a promised march
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye
And let him know so.
Cap.
For. Go softly on.
[Exeunt FORTIN BRAS and Forces.
Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDEN-
STERN, &C.

I will do't, my lord.

Ham. Good sir, whose powers ¶ are these? Cap. They are of Norway, sir.

Ham.

How purposed, sir,

Cup. Against some part of Poland. Ham.

Commands them, sir?

Who [bras.

Cup. The nephew to old Norway, Fortin

Right, ready. + Atteud. Presence. ¶ Forces. ** Polander. 5 Grow mouldy.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
Ham. Why, then the Polack ** never will
defend it.

Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw: This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace:

font That inward breaks, and shows no cause withWhy the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir. Cap. God be wi'you, sir. [Exit Captain. Ros. Will't please you go, my lord? Ham. I will be with you straight.

Go a

little before. [Exeunt Ros, and GUIL. How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good, and market+t of his time, Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more. Sure, he, that made us with such large dis

course,

Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason
To fust 5 in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,-
A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part
wisdom,

And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know

Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do; Sith¶ I have cause, and will, and strength, and

means,

To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:
Witness, this army of such mass, and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, [then,
When honour's at the stake. How stand I
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,
To hide the slain ?-O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
[Exit.

SCENE V. Elsinore. A Room in the Castle.

Enter Queen and HORATIO.

Queen. I will not speak with her. Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distraet; Her mood will needs be pitied. Queen. What would she have! Hor. She speaks much of her father; says, she hears, [beats her heart; There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in [thing,

doubt,

That carry but half sense: her speech is no-
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection; they aim* at it,
And botch the words up fit to their own
thoughts;

Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures
yield them,

Indeed would make one think, there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
Queen. 'Twere good, she were spoken with;
for she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds :
Let her come in.
[Exit HORATIO.
To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toyt seems prologue to some great amiss:
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA.

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,

An thou hadst not come to my bed. King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they should lay him i'the cold ground: My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach: Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies!

Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of good night, good night.

Denmark?

Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

Oph. How should I your true love know
From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoont. [Singing.
Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this
song?

Oph. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

He is dead and gone, lady, [Sings.
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.
O, hol
Queen. Nay, but Ophelia,
Oph.

Pray you, mark.
White his shroud as the mountain
snow,
[Sings.
Enter King.
Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.

ph.

Larded all with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?
Oph. Well, God'ield || you! They say, the
owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know
what we are, but know not what we may be.
God be at your table!

King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this;

1 pray you.

[Exit.

King Follow her close; give her good watch, [Exit HORATIO. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death: And now behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude, [spies, When sorrows come, they come not single But in battalions! First, her father slain; Next, your son gone; and he most violent author

Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France:
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death! [A noise within.
Queen.
Alack! what noise is this?
Enter a Gentleman.

King. Attend.

+ Saints in the Roman Catholic calenda:.

Privately.

Where are my Switzers! Let them guard the
What is the matter?
[door

Gent.

Save yourself, my lord;
The ocean, overpeering of his list t,
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste,
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, (lord;
O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him,
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king.
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the
Laertes shall be king! Laertes king! [clouds,
Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail
they cry!

O, this is counter §, you false Danish dogs.
King. The doors are broke. [Noise within.
Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following.
Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you
Dan. No, let's come in. [all without.
Laer.
I pray you, give me leave.

Dan. We will, we will.

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
Repast them with my blood.
King.

Why, now you speak

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment 'pear ¶,
As day does to your eye.
Danes. [Within.] Let her come in.

Laer. How now! what noise is that?
Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dress'd with
Straws and Flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times
salt,

Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!-
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with

weight,

Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May !
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia !
O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is fine ** in love: and, where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him barefaced on the bier :
Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny:
And in his grave rain'd many a tear;
Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst perIt could not move thus. [suade revenge,

[They retire without the door.
Laer. I thank you:-keep the door.-0
Give me my father.
[thon vile king,
Queen.
Calmly, good Laertes.
Laer. That drop of blood, that's calm, pro-
claims me bastard;
[harlot
Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the
Even here, between the chaste unsmirched
Of my true mother.
[brow
King.
What is the cause, Laertes,
That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?—
Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person;
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incensed ;-Let him go,is
Speak, man.
[Gertrude;-

Laer. Where is my father?
King.
Queen.

Oph. You must sing, Down-a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel ++ becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter. Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember: and there pansies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Dead. Oph. There's fennel for you, and colum But not by him. bines :-there's rue for you; and here's some King. Let him demand his fill. [gled with: for me:-we may call it, herb of grace o'SunLaer. How came he dead? I'll not be jug-days:-you may wear your rue with a differTo hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience, and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation: To this point I stand,That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged, Most thoroughly for my father.

King.

Who shall stay you?
Laer. My will, not all the world's:
And, for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.

King.

Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty [revenge,
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in
That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend
Winner and loser?

your

[and foe,

Laer. None but his enemies.

King.

Will you know them then?

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope

my arms;

* Guards.

** Artful.

ence.-There's a daisy :-I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died-They say, he made a good end,

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.—

[Sings. Laer. Thought §§ and affliction, passion, hell She turns to favour, and to prettiness. [itself, Oph. And will he not come again? [Sings. And will he not come again?

+ Bounds.

No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:

He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan;
God'a mercy on his soul!

§ Hounds run counter when they trace the scent backwards. Appear.

+ The burthen.

of grace" mine is merely rue, i. e., sorrow.

And of all Christian souls! I be wi' you!

pray God. God Come, I will give you way for these your
Exit OPHELIA.'
letters;

[grief, And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.

Laer. Do you see this, O God?
King. Laertes, I must commune with your
Or you deny me right. Go but apart, [will,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and
If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction; but if not,

[me:

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.

Let this be so;

Laer.
His means of death, his obscure funeral,-
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his
bones,

No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,-
Cry to be heard as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call't in question.

King.
So you shall;
And where the offence is, let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.
[Exeunt.
SCENE VI. Another Room in the same.
Enter HORATIO, and a Servant.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with
me?

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII. Another Room in the same.
Enter King and LAERTES.

King. Now must your conscience my ac

quittance seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend;
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father slain,
Pursued my life.

Laer. It well appears :-But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and so capital in nature,

As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things
You mainly were stirr'd up.
[else,
King.
O, for two special reasons,
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much un-
sinewed +,
[mother,
But yet to me they are strong. The queen his
Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,)
She is so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,
Is, the great love the general gender ‡ bear him:
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Work like the springs that turneth wood to
stone,
[rows,
Convert his gyves to graces; so that my ar-
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms;
Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections:-But my revenge will
[must not think,

come.

King. Break not your sleeps for that: you
That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,
That we can let our beard be shook with
danger,
[more:

And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear
I loved your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,-
How now? what news?

1 Sail. He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, sir: it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant, they got clear of our ship, so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with Enter a Messenger. me, like thieves of mercy; but they knew Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: what they did; I am to do a good turn This to your majesty; this to the queen. for them. Let the king have the letters I King. From Hamlet! who brought them? have sent and repair thou to me with as Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say I saw much haste as thou wouldst fly death. 1 them not; have words to speak in thine ear, will make They were given me by Claudio, he received thee dumb; yet are they much too light for Of him that brought them. the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. He that thou knowest thine,

* Since.

HAMLET.

[them

King. Laertes, you shall hear them:Leave us. [Exit Messenger. [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-mor row shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon there

§ Petrifying springs are common in many parts of England.

Chains.

unto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet. What should this mean! Are all the rest come Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? [back? Laer. Know you the hand?

King. Tis Hamlet's character. Naked,And in a postscript here, he says, alone: Can you advise me?

[come;
Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him
It warms the very sickness in my heart,
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
Thus diddest thou.

King.
If it be so, Laertes,
As how should it be so? how otherwise?
Will you be ruled by me?
Laer.

Ay, my lord;
So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace.
King. To thine own peace. If he be now

return'd,

As checking at his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
And for his death no wind of blame shall
breathe;
[tice,
But even his mother shall uncharge the prac-
And call it, accident.
Laer.
My lord, I will be ruled;
The rather, if you could devise it so,
That I might be the organ.

King.
It falls right.
You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
Aud that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of
parts

Did not together pluck such envy from him,
As did that one; and that, in my regard,
Of the unworthiest siege t.

Laer.
What part is that, my lord?
King. A very riband in the cap of youth,
Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than settled age his sables, and his weeds,
Importing health and graveness.-Two months
since,

Here was a gentleman of Normandy, French,
I have seen myself, and served against, the
And they can well on horseback; but this
gallant

Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat;
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured
With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my
That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, [thought,
Come short of what he did.
Laer.

A Norman, was't?

King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. King. The very same. Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch 1, And gem of all the nation. [indeed,

King. He made confession of you; And gave you such a masterly report, For art and exercise in your defences,

* Objecting to.

And for your rapier most especial.
That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed,
If one could match you: the scrimers || of their
nation,

He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you opposed them: Sir, this report of his
Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy,
That he could nothing do, but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you.
Now, out of this,--

Laer.
What ont of this, my lord?
King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?

your father;

But that I know, love is begun by time;
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick, or snuff, that will abate it;
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,
Dies in his own too-much: That we would do,
We should do when we would; for this would
changes,

And hath abatements and delays as many,
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing. But to the quick o'the
ulcer:
[take,
Hamlet comes back; What would you under-
To show yourself indeed your father's son
More than in words?

Laer.

To cut his throat i'the church.

King. No place, indeed, should murder sauctuarize; [Laertes, Revenge should have no bounds, But, good Will you do this, keep close within your chamber: [home:

Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come
We'll put on those shall praise your excellence,
And set a double varnish on the fame
The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine,
together,

I will do't:

And wager o'er your heads: he, being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated**, and, in a pass of practiceft,
Requite him for your father.
Laer.
And, for the purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death,
That is but scratched withal: I'll touch my
point
[ly,
With this contagion; that, if I gall him slight-
It may be death.
King.

Let's further think of this;

6 Science of defence, i. e., fencing. **Not Lluuted as foils are.

Daily experience.

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The dramatic works of Shakspeare, from the text of Johnson and Stevens [sic ...