Lest, with this piteous action, you convert HAM. Do you see nothing there? QUEEN. Nothing at all; yet all that is, I see. QUEEN. No, nothing, but ourselves. HAM. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he lived!" Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! QUEEN. This is the very coinage of This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.(103) HAM. Ecstasy! [Exit Ghost. My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, b And I the matter will re-word; which madness Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, *So 4tos. Lay not that* flattering unction to your soul, a. 1623, 32. That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: It will but skin and film the ulcerous place; (104) Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; + on. 4tos. And do not spread the compost o'er the weeds, ranker. To make them rank. Forgive me this my virtue :" 4tos. My father in his habit as he lived] i. e. in the habit he was accustomed to wear when living. In Jonson's Masque of the Fortunate Isles, 1626, we find "Enter Skogan and Skelton, in like habits as they lived." b gambol from] i. e. start away from. Forgive me this my virtue] i. e. forgive this interference of mine, this proffer of advice, which, whatever its sterling or intrinsic worth, might otherwise seem to have the appearance or character of being forward or obtrusive. In this enigmatical For in the fatness of these pursy times, Yea, curb (105) and woo, for leave to do him good. QUEEN. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. HAM. O, throw away the worser part of it, [That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, a To the next abstinence: [the next more easy: I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord, [Pointing to POLONIUS. I do repent: But heaven hath pleas'd it so, condensation of thought, of which our author was so fond, and in which he was so dexterous an artist, we find a sentiment not dissimilar to that of Guildenstern to Hamlet, "O my Lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is not unmannerly." III. 2. a the next more easy] i. e. will become more, &c. b And when you are desirous to be bless'd, I'll blessing beg of you] i. e. when you are desirous to receive a blessing from heaven (which you cannot, seriously, till you reform) I will beg to receive a blessing from you. This passage can receive no better comment than from Tr. & Cr. "Serv. I hope, I shall know your honour better. Pand. I do desire it. Serv. You are in the state of grace." II. 3. e heaven hath pleas'd it so] i. e. ordained, hath been pleased that it should be so. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. QUEEN. What shall I do? HAM. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: * So 4tos. Let the bloat* king (109) tempt you again to bed; on your cheek; call blunt. Pinch wanton on your 1623, 32. mouse; (110) you, And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, (111) That I essentially am not in madness, his But mad in craft.(112) "Twere good, you let him know: a For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly ;(113) and, like the famous ape, And break your own neck down. QUEEN. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of And breath of life, I have no life to breathe" HAM. I must to England; you know that? I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on. Alack, HAM. [There's letters seal'd: and my two school fellows, Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,(115) For who, that's but a queen] Strictly speaking, " no more than:" but, in the familiar language of banter, importing," who being as much as, having some pretence at least, or title, to the rank and state of," &c. b a paddock] i. e. toad. See Macb. I. 1. Witches. с ca gib] i. e. gilbert, a he cat. I. H. IV. I. 2. Falst. d to breathe] i. e. most distantly glance at. "Him you breathe of." II. 1. Polon. They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, (116) hard, And marshal me to knavery: Let it work; I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room :(118) you : [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS. to have the engineer Hoist with his own petar] i. e. mount. Hoist is used as a verb neuter. Petard, Fr. is an engine to blow up gates, &c. "Vehiculum Spiritûs Sancti, that was the Petard, that broke open thy iron gate." Dr. Donne's Sermon before the Company of the Virginian Plantation. 4to. 1622. p. 24. mine own. 4tos. + Whips out his rapier, cries, 4tos. 32. ACT IV. SCENE I. The same. Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUIL DENSTERN. a KING. There's matter in these sighs; these profound heaves; b You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them: [QUEEN. Bestow this place on us a little while.-] To ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, who go out. Ah, my good* lord, what have I seen to night! KING. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit, He whips his rapier out,† and cries, A rat! a rat! his. 1623, The unseen good old man. KING. с O heavy deed! It had been so with us, had we been there : His liberty is full of threats to all; To you yourself, to us, to every one. Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? It will be laid to us, whose providence a there's matter in these sighs] i. e. they import something of moment. See Othel. III. 4. Iago. b translate] i. e. interpret. "With private soul did thus translate," i. e. characterise him. Tr. & Cr. IV. 5. Ulyss. in this brainish apprehension] i. e. distempered, brain-sick mood, or conceit. |