• This do That you know aught of me :-This do you swear, So grace and mercy at your most need help you!

sweare.

4tos.

swear!

GHOST. [Beneath] Swear.

HAM. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit !(114) So, gentle

men,

With all my love I do commend me to you:
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is

May do, to express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.

The time is out of joint;-O cursed spite!
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let's go together.

a

[Exeunt.

friending to you-shall not lack] i. e. disposition to serve you shall not be wanting.

ACT II. SCENE I.

A Room in Polonius's House.

Enter POLONIUS and REYNOLDO.

Poz. Give him this* money, and these notes, So 4tos.

Reynoldo.

REY. I will, my lord.

his. 1623, 32.

POL. You shall do marvellous+ wisely, good+ So 4tos.

Reynoldo,

Before you visit him, you make inquiry‡

Of his behaviour.

REY.

My lord, I did intend it.

Poz. Marry, well said: very well said.(1) Look

you, sir,

Inquire me first what Danskers (2) are in Paris;
And how, and who, what means, and where they

keep,

What company, at what expence; and finding,
By this encompassment and drift of question,

marvels. 1623, 32.

to make inquire. 4tos.

1632.

That they do know my son, come you more nearer §§ neere.
Than your particular demands will touch it :"
Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
As thus,||-I know his father, and his friends,
And, in part, him;-Do you mark this, Reynoldo? And. 1623,
REY. Ay, very well, my lord.

a

POL. And, in part, him ;—but, you may say, not

well:

encompassment and drift] i. e. winding and circuitous

course.

Than your particular demands will touch it] i. e. than such inquiry into particulars is likely to reach. Then, taken in its now sole accepted sense, would give a clear meaning: but than at that time was almost ever, as in the Old Copies it is here, spelt then; and by that spelling was meant to be so used here.

|| So 4tos.

32.

very wild;

But, if't be he I mean, he's

Addicted so and so ;—and there put on hima
What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips,
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.

REY.

As gaming, my lord.

POL. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,b

Drabbing :-You may go so far.

REY. My lord, that would dishonour him.

POL. 'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge.c

You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency;

That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly,

That they may seem the taints of liberty:
The flash and out-break of a fiery mind;

A savageness in unreclaimed blood,

Of general assault."

a put on him-rank] i. e. impute to him-gross.

b fencing, quarrelling] "Their cunning is now applied to quarrelling: they thinke themselves no men, if, for stirring of a straw, they prove not their valure upon some bodies fleshe." Gosson's Schoole of Abuse, 1579. MALONE.

'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge] i. e. manage it, by throwing in some qualifying ingredient.

d another scandal, That he is open to, &c.] i. e. a different and a further charge; that he is a professed libertine.

e Breathe his faults so quaintly-Of general assault] i. e. glance with an easy gaiety at his faults, as the mischiefs of too large a range, and the wildness of untamed blood, by which all youth is assailed. “Quaint Ariel," Tempest, I. 2. Prosp. is "delicate."

POL.

Marry, sir, here's my drift;

And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant:"
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'the working,"
Mark you,

Your party in converse, him you would sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes,
The youth you breathe of, guilty, be assur'd,
He closes with you in this consequence; d
Good sir, or so; or friend, or gentleman,-
According to the phrase, and the addition,
Of man, and country.(3)

REY.

Very good, my lord.

POL. And then, sir, does he this,-He doesWhat was I about to say?-[By the mass,] I was about to say something: -Where did I leave? REY. At, closes in the consequence.

At friend, or so, and gentleman.

POL. At, closes in the consequence,-Ay, marry; He closes with you thus:-I know the gentleman;

I saw him yesterday, or t other day,

or. 4tos.

+ nothing. 1632.

Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say, So 4tos.

There was he gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;

There falling out at tennis: or, perchance,

I saw him enter such a house of sale,$

(Videlicet, a brothel,) or so forth.

See you now;

Your bait of falsehood takes this carp|| of truth:

a

fetch of warrant] i. e. device approved.

b As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'the working] i. e. as having in his commerce with the world unavoidably contracted some small blemishes.

e Your party in converse] Puttenham uses much the same phrase: The common conversant." Arte of Poesie, 4to. 1589,

p. 251.

d closes in this consequence] i. e. something to this effect, falls in with you into this conclusion.

e

carp of truth] This alone is sufficient to establish the value of the 4tos.; as no conjecture could have reached it; or, if it had, could have made it satisfactory.

and. 1623, 22.

§ So 4tos. lightness. 1603. saile. 1623, 32.

|| So 4tos. cape. 1623, 32.

• buy. O. C.

through

out,

And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlaces, and with assays of bias,(4)
By indirections find directions out;
So, by my former lecture and advice,

Shall you my son: You have me," have you not?

REY. My lord, I have.

POL.

God be wi' you; fare

REY. Good my lord,————

you well,

POL. Observe his inclination in yourself.(5)

+ O, my lord, my lord. 4tos.

closet.

4tos,

POL. Farewell!-How now, Ophelia? What's the matter?

ОPH. Alas, my lord,† my lord, I have been so affrighted!

POL. With what, in the name of heaven?

ОPH. My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,‡
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd;
No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; (6)
Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
And with a look so piteous in purport,

As if he had been loosed out of hell,

To speak of horrors, he comes before me.
POL. Mad for thy love?

OPH.

But, truly, I do fear it.

POL.

My lord, I do not know;

What said he?

OPH. He took me by the wrist, and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,

You have me] i. e. take, conceive, me; have my meaning.