7

Shards, flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on her:
Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,

Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.:

Laer. Must there no more be done?

Priest. No more be done;

We should profane the service of the dead,

To sing a requiem, and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

Laer. Lay her i' the earth ;

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May, violets spring!-I tell thee, churlish priest,

A ministring angel shall my sister be,

When thou liest howling.

Ham. What, the fair Ophelia !

Queen. Sweets to the sweet : Farewel!

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250

[Scattering flowers.

I hop'd, thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought, thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave.

Laer. O, treble woe

Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Depriv'd thee of!-Hold off the earth a while, 'Till I have caught her once more in mine arms: [LAERTES leaps into the grave. Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead; "Till of this flat a mountain you have made, To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head

Of blue Olympus.

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Ham.

Ham. [advancing.] What is he, whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conaires the wandring stars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

[HAMLET leaps into the grave.

Laer. The devil take thy soul! [Grappling with him.
Ham. Thou pray'st not well.

I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not splenetive and rash, -
Yet have I in me something dangerous,

Which let thy wisdom fear: Hold off thy hand.
King. Pluck them asunder.

Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet !

All. Gentlemen,+

Hor. Good my lord, be quiet.

870

[The attendants part them.

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. Shew me what thou'lt do:

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Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear

thyself?

Woo't drink up Esil! eat a crocodile ?

I'll do't.--Dost thou come here to whine?

Το

To out-face me with leaping in her grave?

Be buried quick with her, and so will I :

290

And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us; 'till our ground,

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

Queen. 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,
His silence will sit drooping.

What is the reason that you use me thus ?
I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,

300

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. '[Exit,
King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.—
[Exit HOR.
Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech.;
[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:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ;
'Till then in patience our proceeding be.

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[Exeunt.

SCENE

SCENE II.

A Hall in the Palace. Enter HAMLET, and HORATIO.

Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the 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; methought, I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly, And prais'd be rashness for it-Let us know, Our indiscretion sometime serves us well,

320

When our deep plots do fail: and that should teach

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.

Hor. That is most certain.
Ham. Up from my cabin,

330

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,
A royal knavery; an exact command,—
Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,-
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,

No,

No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,

My head should be struck off.

Hor. Is't possible?

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Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more lei

sure.

But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

Hor. Ay 'beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villainies,
Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
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, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service: Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote ?

Hor. Ay, good my lord.

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

350

As love between them like the palm might flourish,
As
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 knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more, or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,

Not shriving time allow'd.

Hor. How was this seal'd?

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

N

361

Which