Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead vast and middle of the night,38

Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Arm'd at all points, exactly, cap-à-pé,

Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,

Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,34

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;

And I with them the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes. I knew your father;

These hands are not more like.

But where was this?

Ham.
Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor.
My lord, I did,
But answer made it none; yet once methought
It lifted up its head,35 and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak:
But even then the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.

Ham.

'Tis very strange. Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night?

Mar. Ber.

We do, my

Arm'd, my lord.

lord.

83 S the quarto of 1603; the other old copies have wast and waste instead of vast. Modern editions have differed whether it should be waste or waist, the latter meaning middle. I have no doubt that vast is the right word. It means void or vacancy.

34 So all the quartos: the folio has bestill'd instead of distill'd. To distili is to fall in drops, to melt; so that distill'd is a very natural and fit expression for the cold sweat caused by intense fear. "The act of fear" is the action or the effect of fear.

35 The old copies have "it head." So, again, in v. 1, of this play: "Fordo it own life." The point is rather curious as showing the Poet's reluctance to use its, which was then a candidate for admission into the language. He has it used possessively in some fourteen other places. See page 488, note 3.

Ham.

Mar. Ber. My lord, from head to foot.

Ham. Then, saw you not his face?

From top to toe?

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up."
Ham. What, look'd he frowningly?

Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
Ham. Pale, or red?

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham.

Hor. Most constantly.
Ham.

And fix'd his eyes upon you!

I would I had been there.

Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.

Ham. Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a huu

Ham. I'll watch to-night; perchance 'twill walk again.
Hor. I warrant it will.

Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though Hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue :
I will requite your loves. So, fare ye well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All. Our duties to your Honour.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell.

[Exeunt all but HAMLET

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
I doubt some foul play: 7 would the night were come!
Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the Earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

[Exit.

36 The beaver was a moveable part of the helmet, which could be drawn

down over the face, or pushed up over the forehead.

87 The Poet has doubt repeatedly in the sense of fear, or of suspect.

SCENE III. The Same. A Room in POLONIUS House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell:

And, sister, as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is assistant,1 do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

Oph.

Do you doubt that?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.2

Oph.
Laer.

No more but so?

Think it no more:

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone

8

In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul

6

Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch 5
The virtue of his will: but you must fear;
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own,
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalu'd persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of the whole State;"
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body
Whereof he is the head. Then, if he says
It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place 3

he loves you,

1 Convoy is used for conveyance. Communication with France being by sea, of course there needed both a ship to carry letters, and a wind to drive the ship.

2 This scene must be regarded as one of Shakespeare's lyric movements in the play, and the skill with which it is interwoven with the dramatic parts is peculiarly an excellence with our Poet. You experience the sensation of a pause, without the sense of a stop. - COLERIDGE.

8 Thews is an old word for sinews or muscles. See page 447, note 13. 4 The idea is, that Hamlet's love is but a youthful fancy which, as his mind comes to maturity, he will outgrow. The passage would seem to infer that the Prince is not so old as he is elsewhere represented to be.

5 Cautel is a debauched relation of caution, and means fraud or deceit. See page 453, note 21.

Subject to the conditions which his birth entails upon him. 7 The folio has sanctity instead of safety. The quartos have safety, but lack the article the before health. It is supplied by Dyce, to fill the line. 8 The folio has "peculiar sect and force "

instead of " particular act and

place."

May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark
goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs,

9

Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the Moon.
Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the Spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd; 10
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear:
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

Oph. I shall th' effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,11

11

Show me the steep and thorny way to Heaven,
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.12

Laer.

I stay too long;— but here

O, fear me not. my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS.

A double blessing is a double grace;

Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertés? aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,

And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with thee!

[Laying his Hand on LAERTES' Head

And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou charácter. 18
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

9 If with too credulous ear you listen to his songs.

14

10 In Shakespeare's time, canker was often used of the worm that kills the early buds before they open out into flowers. Perhaps it here means a disease that sometimes infests plants, and eats out their life. - Buttons is buds

and disclose is used in the sense of open or unfold.

11 Pastors that have not the grace to practise what they preach.

12 Regards not his own lesson.

18 To character is to engrave or imprint.

14 Vulgar is here used in its old sense of common.

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 15
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear't, that th' opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure,16 but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:

For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous, chief in that."
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all, to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell: my blessing season this in thee! 18

Laer. Most humbly, do I take my leave, my lord.
Pol. The time invites you: go; your servants tend.
Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well
What I have said to you.

Oph.

'Tis in my memory lock d,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Laer. Farewell.

[Exit LAERTES.

Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

Oph. So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet Pol. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

Given private time to you; and you yourself

Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.

If it be so,- as so 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution,

I must tell you,

You do not understand yourself so clearly

As it behooves my daughter and your honour.

What is between you? give me up the truth.

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tendera

Of his affection to me.

15 Do not blunt thy feeling by taking every new acquaintance by the hand, or by admitting him to the intimacy of a friend.

16 Censure was continually used for opinion.

17 The old copies give this line, "Are of a most select and generous cheff in that." Both sense and verse concur in favor of the present reading, as Mr. Dyce also does.

18 Season is here used, apparently, in the sense of ingrain; the idea being that of so steeping the counsel into his mind that it will not fade out.