go to bed.

Rof. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you

Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?

Rof My Lord, you once did love me,
Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.

Rof. Good my Lord, what is your cause of distemper you do surely bar the door of your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.

Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.

Rof. 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 one with a Recorder. Oh, the recorders ; let me see one. To withdraw with you

- why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guil. Oh my Lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.

Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

Guil. My Lord, I cannot.
Ham. I pray you.
Guil. Believe me, I cannot.

Ham, I do beseech you.
* Guil. I know no touch of it, my Lord.

Ham. 'Tis as easie as lying; govern these ventiges with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent musick. Look you, these are the flops.

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 myıtery, you would sound me from my lowest note, to.

the

the top of my compass; and there is much musick, ex. cellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. Why do you think that I am easier to be plaid on than a pipe ? call me what inftrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. God bless

you, Sir!

Enter Polonius.
Pol. My Lord, the Queen would speak with you,

and presently.

Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a Camel ?

Pol. By the mass, and it's like a Gamel indeed.
Ham. Methinks it is like an Ouzle.
Pol. It is black like an Ouzle.
Ham. Or like a Whale ?
Pol. Very like a Wbale.

Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by they fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.

Pol. I will say so.
Ham. By and by is easily said. Leave me, friends.

[Exeunt.
'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When church-yards yawn, and hell it self breathes out
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother-
Oh heart, lose not thy nature ; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom ;
Let me be cruel, not unnatural ;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites ! [Exit.

S CE N E IX.
Enter King, Rosincrosse, and Guildenstern.
King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you ;

I your commission will forth with dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you.
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near us, as doth hourly grow
Out of his slunes.

Guil. We will provide ourselves;
Most holy and religious fear it is,
To keep those many bodies safe, that live
And feed upon your Majesty.

Rof. The single and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep it self from ’noyance ; but much more,
That spirit, on whose weal 6 /depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of Majesty
Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
What's near it with it. It's a massy wheel
Fixt on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand Jeffer things
Are mortiz'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boist'rous ruin. Ne'er alone
Did the King sigh, but with a general groan.

King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage ;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.
Both. We will halte us. [Exeunt Ros. and Guil.

Enter Polonius.
Pol. My Lord, he's going to his mother's closet;
Behind the arras I'll convey my self
To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home.
And as you said, and wisely was it said,
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
(Since nature makes them parcial,) should o'er-hear
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my Liege ;
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.

(Exit.
King. Thanks, dear my Lord.
Vol. VI.
ВЬ

Oh s lunacies. .. , old edit. Theob. emenda 6 depends and ress

Oh my offence is rank, it smells to heav'n,
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't ;
A brother's murther. Pray alas! I cannot:
Though inclination be as sharp 8 'as ’twill,'
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than it self with brother's blood ?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heav'ns
To wash it white as snow? whereto ferves mercy,
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force,
To be fore-stalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon'd being down then I'll look up.
My fault is past. But oh what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murther !
That cannot be, since I am still posseft
Of those effects for which I did the murther,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my Queen.
May one be pardon'd, and retain th' offence ?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice ;
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize it self
Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above :
There is no shuming, there the action lyes
In his true nature, we our selves compella
Ev'n to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can.

What can it not?
Yet what can 9'aught,' when one cannot repent?
Oh wretched state ! oh bosom, black as death!
Oh limed soul, that struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! help, angels, make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees ; and heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
All may be well.

[The King kneels.

SCENE 7 Pray I cannot: 8 as will, ... old edit. Theob. emend. gity

S C E N E X.

Enter Hamlet. Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, And now I'll do'(and so he goes to heav'n, And so am I reveng'd? that would be scann'd, A villain kills my father, and for that. 1, his sole fon, do this fame villain send To heav'n this is hire and falary, not revenge. He took my father grofly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as Aush as May; And how his audit stands, who knows, fave heav'n? But in our circumstance and course of thought, 'Tis heavy with him. Am I then reveng'd, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season'd for his passage ? Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid bent: When he is drunk, alleep, or in his rage, Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed, At gaming, swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't, Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heav'n, And that his soul may be as damn’d and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays ; This physick but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below ; Words, withour thoughts, never to heaven go. (Exit.

The Queen's Apartment.

Enter Queen and Polonius. Pol. НЕ E will come straight ; look you lay home to

him, Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, Bb 2

And