her;

Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.

Luer. Must there no more be done?
Priest.
No more be done:
We should profane the service of the dead, 260
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 ministering angel shall my sister be, When thou liest howling.

Ham. What! the fair Ophelia ? Queen. Sweets to the sweet: farewell! Scattering flowers. I hop'd thou should'st 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 270 Fall ten times treble on that cursed head Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Depriv'd thee of. Hold off the earth awhile, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms. Leaps into the grave. Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead, Till of this flat a mountain you have made, To o'er-top old Pelion or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.

Ham. Advancing. What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of

Ham. So much for this, sir: now let me 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 sometimes serves us well
When our deep plots do pall; and that should
teach us

With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
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. I beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies,

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 ?

30

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine; And a man's life no more than to say 'One.' But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself; For, by the image of my cause, I see The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours: But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me Into a towering passion. Hor.

Peace! who comes here! Enter OSRIC.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly?

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty.

Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.

Osr. I thank your lordship, 'tis very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.

Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, as 'twere, I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter,

Ham. I beseech you, remember

HAMLET moves him to put on his hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman, ful of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing; indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror;

SCENE II.]

and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath? Osr. Sir?

131

Hor. Is 't not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do 't, sir, really. Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman?

Osr. Of Laertes ?

Hor. His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know you are not ignorantHam. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me. sir?

Well,

answer.

140

Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself.

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.

152

Ham. What's his weapon?
Osr. Rapier and dagger.

Ham. That's two of his weapons; but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses; against the which he has imponed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

163

Ham. What call you the carriages? Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german to the matter if we could carry cannon by our sides; I would it might be hangers till then. But, on six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish. Why is this 'imponed,' as you call it? Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, sir, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath laid on twelve for nine, and it would come to immediate trial if your lordship would vouchsafe the

Ham. How if I answer no?

180

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

Enter KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, etc. King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

240

The KING puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET. Ham. Give me your pardon, sir; I've done you wrong; But pardon 't, as you are a gentleman. This presence knows,

And you must needs have heard, how Iam punish'-
With sore distraction. What I have done,
That might your nature, honour and exception
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamle
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
Then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it.
And when he's not himself does wrong Laerte
Who does it then? His madness. If't be se
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Sir, in this audience,

Ham.

As thou 'rt a man, Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have 't. O God! Horatio, what a wounded name, 360 Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me.

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.

March afar off, and shout within. What war-like noise is this? Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives
This war-like volley.

Ham.

O! I die, Horatio;

389

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Where should we have our thanks?
Hor.
Not from his mouth,
Had it the ability of life to thank you :
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from
England,

Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about: so shall you
hear

Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads; all this can I
Truly deliver.

For.

400

Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune; I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on