fool; for wife men know vl enough, what monsters you make of them-To a nunnery, go-and quickly too farewel.

Oph. Heav'nly powers, restore him!

Ham. I have heard of your painting too, well enough: God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lifp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonnefs your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't, it hath made me mad. I fay, we will have no more marriages. Those that are married already, all but one, fhall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.

[Exit Hamlet. Oph. Oh what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, foldier's, fcholar's, eye, tongue, fword! Th' expectancy and rofe of the fair ftate,

The glafs of fashion, and the mold of form,
Th' obferv'd of all obfervers, quite, quite down!
I am of ladies most deject and wretched,
That fuck'd the honey of his mufick vows:
Now fee that noble and most fov'reign reason,
Like fweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh;
That unmatch'd form, and feature of blown youth,
Blafted with ecftacy. Oh, woe is me!

T' have seen what I have feen: fee what I fee.

Enter King and Polonius.

King. Love his affections do not that way tend,
Nor what he fpake, tho it lack'd form a little,
Was not like madness. Something's in his foul,
O'er which his melancholy fits on brood;
And, I do doubt, the hatch and the difclofe
Will be fome danger, which, how to prevent,
I have in quick determination

Thus fet it down. He fhall with speed to England,
For the demand of our neglected tribute:
Haply, the feas and countries different,
With variable objects, fhall expel

This fomething-fettled matter in his heart;

Whereon

Whereon his brains ftill beating, puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
Pol. It fhall do well. But yet do I believe,
The origin and commencement of this grief
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia ?-
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet faid,
We heard it all.. My Lord, do as you please;
[Exit Ophelia.

But if you hold it fit, after the play

Let his Queen-mother all alone intreat him
To fhew his griefs; let her be round with him:
And I'll be plac'd, fo please you, in the ear
Of all their conf'rence. If the find him not,
To England fend him; or confine him, where
Your wifdom beft fhall think.

King. It fhall be fo:

Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. [Exeunt.

Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players.

Ham. Speak the fpeech, I pray you; as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lieve, the towncrier had spoke my lines. And do not faw the air too much with your hand thus; but ufe all gently; for in the very torrent, tempeft, and, as I may fay, whirl-wind of your paffion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it fmoothnefs. Oh, it offends me to the foul, to hear a robuftious periwig-pated fellow tear a paffion to tatters, to very rags, to fplit the ears of the groundlings: who (for the moft part) are capable of nothing, but inexplicable dumb-thews, and noise: I could have fuch a fellow whipt for o er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.

Play. I warrant your honour.

Ham. Be not too tame neither; but let your own difcretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this fpecial obfervance, that you over ftep not the modelty of nature; for any thing fo overdone is from the purpofe of playing; whofe end, both at the firit and now, was and is, to hold as 'twere VOL. VIII.

Η

the

the mirror up to nature; to fhew virtue her own feature, fcorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and preffure. Now this over-done, or come tardy of, tho' it make the unfkilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve: the cenfure of which one must in your allowance o'er-weigh a whole theatre of others. Oh, there be players that I have feen play, and heard others praife, and that highly, (not to speak it prophanely) that neither having the accent of chriftian, nor the gait of chriftian, pagan, nor man, have so strut'ted and bellow'd, that I have thought fome of nature's journey-men had made men, and not made them well; they imitated humanity fo abominably.

Play. I hope, we have reform'd that indifferently with us.

Ham. Oh, reform it altogether. And let thofe, that play your clowns, speak no more than is fet down for them: For there be of them that will themselves laugh, to fet on fome quantity of barren fpectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, fome neceffary queftion of the Play be then to be confidered: That's villainous; and fhews a moft pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready. [Exeunt Players.

Enter Polonius, Rofincrantz, and Guildenftern.

How now, my Lord; will the King hear this piece of work?

Pol. And the Queen too, and that presently.

Ham. Bid the Players make hafte..

Will you two help to haften them?

Both. We will, my Lord.

Ham. What, he, Horatio!

Enter Horatio to Hamlet.

[Exit Polonies.

[Exeunt.

Hor. Here, fweet Lord, at your fervice.
Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man,

As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.
Hor. Oh my dear Lord,

Ham. Nay, do not think, I flatter:

For what advancement may I hope from thee,

That

That no revenue haft, but thy good fpirits.

To feed and cloath thee? Should the poor be flatter'd ?
No, let the candied tongue lick abfurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,
Where thrift may follow fawning. Doft thou hear?
Since my dear foul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men diftinguish, her election
Hath feal'd thee for herfelf. For thou hast been
As one, in fuffering all, that fuffers nothing:
A man, that fortune's buffets and rewards

Haft ta'en with equal thanks. And bleft are thofe,
Whofe blood and judgment are fo well comingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger,
To found what ftop the pleafe. Give me that man,
That is not paffion's flave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core: ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee. Something too much of this.
There is a play to-night before the King,
One Scene of it comes near the circumstance,
Which I have told thee, of my father's death.
I pry'thee, when thou feest that act a-foot,
Ev'n with the very comment of thy foul
Obferve mine uncle: if his occult guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghoft that we have feen:
And my imaginations are as foul (37)
As Vulcan's fmithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face;

And, after, we will both our judgments join,
In cenfure of his feeming.

Hor. Well, my Lord.

If he fteal aught, the whilft this Play is playing,
And 'feape detecting, I will pay the theft.

(37) And my imaginations are as foul,

As Vulcan's ftithy.] I have ventur'd, against the authority of all the copies, to fubftitute Smithy here. I have given my reasons in the 40th note on Troilus, to which, for brevity's fake, I beg leave to refer the readers,

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rofincrantz, Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant, with a guard carrying torches. Danish March. Sound a ficurifp. Ham. They're coming to the Play; I must be idle. Get you a place.

King. How fares our coufin Hamlet?

Ham. Excellent i'faith, of the camelion's dish: I eat the air, promife-cramm'd: you cannot feed capons fo. King. I have nothing with this anfwer, Hamlet; thefe words are not mine.

Ham. No, nor mine.-Now, my Lord; you play'd once i'th' univerfity, you say? [To Polonius. Pol. That I did, my Lord, and was accounted a good actor.

Ham. And what did you enact?

Pol. I did eract Julius Cæfar, I was kill'd i' th' Capitol: Brutus kill'd me.

Ham. It was a brute part of him, to kill fo capital a calf there. Be the players ready?

Rof. Ay, my Lord, they ftay upon your patience. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, fit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more attractive. Fol. Oh, ho, do you mark that ?

Ham. Lady, fhall I lie in your lap?

Oph. No, my Lord.

[Lying down at Ophelia's feet.

Ham. I mean, my Head upon your lap?

Oph. Ay, my Lord.

Ham. Do you think, I meant country matters ?

Oph. I think nothing, my Lord.

[legs.

Lam. That's a fair thought, to lie between a maid's

Oph. What is my Lord?

Ham. Nothing.

Oph. You are merry, my Lord.

Ham. Who, I?

Oph. Ah, my Lord.

Ham. Oh God! your only jig maker; what fhould a man do, but be merry? For, look you, how chearfully

my