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HAM. I could interpret (57) between you and your

So 4tos. love, if I could see the puppets dallying."

& 1623, 32. the love

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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.(58) Begin, murderer; Pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come ;

Doth bellow for revenge.

The croaking raven

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

Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecat's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magick 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 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!

scope or moral tendency of the drama." The quartos read "as good as a." Henley observes, the use to which Shakespeare converted a chorus, may be seen in H. V.

• the puppets dallying] The agitations of your bosom.

take off my edge]

"When thou shalt be disedged by her

SEYMOUR.

"That now thou tir'st on." Cymb. III. 4. Imogen.

• Still better, and worse] i. e. more keen and less decorous. a midnight weeds]

"Root of hemlock, digg'd i'the dark."

Macb.

STEEVENS.

e

usurp] i. e. encroach upon. See I. 1. Horat.

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 strucken deer go weep,*
The hart ungalled play :

For some must watch, while some must
sleep;

So runs the world away.

Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the

raced. 1623,32.

rest of my fortunes turn Turk (59) with me) with two So 4tos. Provincial roses (60) on my razed shoes,(61) get me a fellowship in a cry+ of players,(62) sir?

HOR. Half a share,(63)

HAM. A whole one, I.

For thou dost know, O Damon dear,(64)
This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very-Paiocke.(65)

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 musick; come, the recorders.

For if the king like not the comedy,

Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdie."

⚫ let the strucken deer go weep] See As You &c. I. 1. 1 Lord.

b Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdie] Perdie, or perdy, is par Dieu and thus he balks the conclusion, or consequence; as just before he had balked the rhyme.

+ city. 4tos.

⚫ rich. 1633.

+ into more. 4tos.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Come, some musick.

GUIL. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with

you.

HAM. Sir, a whole history.

GUIL. The king, sir,

HAM. Ay, sir, what of him?

GUIL. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distempered.(66)

HAM. With drink, sir?

GUIL. No, my lord, rather with choler.

HAM. Your wisdom should show itself more richer,* to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into fart more choler.

GUIL. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair. HAM. I am tame, sir :-pronounce.

GUIL. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

HAM. You are welcome.

GUIL. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon, and my return, shall be the end of my business.

HAM. Sir, I cannot.

GUIL. What, my lord?

HAM. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no more, but to the matter: My mother, you say,

Ros. Then thus she says; Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.

HAM. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? impart.

Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed.

HAM. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?" Ros. My lord, you once did love me.

HAM. So I do* still, by these pickers and. And do. stealers.(67)

Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you do freely bar the door of your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.b

HAM. Sir, I lack advancement.

с

Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark?

HAM. Ay, but While the grass grows,—the proverb is something musty.

Enter the Players, with a Recorder.

O, the recorder :+-let me see!+-To withdraw with you:-(68) Why do you go about to recover

a trade with us] i. e. occasion of intercourse.

b you do freely bar the door of your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend] i. e. by your own act you close the way against your own ease, and the free discharge of your griefs, if you open not the source of them to your friends. The quartos read," you do surely bar the door upon."

с

e you have the voice of the king himself for your succession] "The most immediate to our throne." 1. 2. King.

d" While the grass grows,"—the proverb is something musty] i. e. partakes of the staleness it is descriptive of. He was, as he had just told the king, "promise-cramm'd: you can't feed capons so.'

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Recorder] i. e. flagelet. See M. N. Dr. V. 1. Hippol.

4tos.

+ recorders -one.4tos.

the wind of me,(69) as if you would drive me into a toil?

GUIL. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly."

Will you

HAM. I do not well understand that. Will

play upon this pipe?

GUIL. My lord, I cannot.

Нам. І pray you.

GUIL. Believe me, I cannot.

HAM. I do beseech you.

GUIL. I know no touch of it, my lord.

HAM. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most excellent music. Look you, these are the stops.

GUIL. But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony; I have not the skill.

HAM. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me? You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass and there is much musick, excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you make it So 4tos. [speak.] 'Sblood, do you think, I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.(70)

Why. 1623, 32.

*

if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly] i. e. if my sense of duty have led me too far, it is affection and regard for you that makes the carriage of that duty border on disrespect. See " Forgive me this my virtue." III. 4. Haml.

b govern these ventages-and it will discourse most excellent music] i. e. justly order these vents, or air-holes, and it will breathe or utter, &c. For excellent, the quartos read eloquent. And one would almost suppose the word, govern, to be here technical from the use made of it on this subject again in M. N. Dr. V. 1. Hip: like a child on a recorder; a sound, but not in government."

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