4tos.

jeering?* quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my grinning, lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that. Pr'ythee, Horatio, tell me one thing.

HOR. What's that, my lord?

HAM. Dost thou think, Alexander looked o'this fashion i'the earth?

HOR. E'en so.

HAM. And smelt so? pah!

HOR. E'en so, my lord.

[Throws down the Scull.

HAM. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bunghole?

HOR. "Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

HAM. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: As thus; Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam: And why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?

Imperial Cæsar, dead, and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that the earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw! (5)
But soft! but soft! aside; Here comes the king,

favour] Feature. See M. N. Dr. I. 1. Helena.

'Twere to consider too curiously] Be pressing the argument with too much critical nicety, to dwell upon mere possibilities. See Tam, of Shr. IV. 4. Pedant.

Enter Priests, &c. in Procession; the Corpse of
OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following;
King, Queen, their Trains, &c.

this, 4tos, The queen, the courtiers: Who is that they fol

is't, that.

1632.

low?

And with such maimed rites! This doth betoken,
The corse, they follow, did with desperate hand
Fordo its own life." "Twas some estate:

Couch we awhile, and mark.

A

[Retiring with HORATIO.

That is Laertes,

LAER. What ceremony else?

HAM

very noble youth: Mark.
LAER. What ceremony else?

1 PRIEST. Her obsequies have been as far en

larg'd

As we have warranty: Her death was doubtful;
And, but that great command o'ersways the or-

der,d

She should in ground unsanctified have lodged,
Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers,
Shards, (26) flints, and pebbles, should be thrown on
her,

Yet here she is allowed her virgin rites,(7)

maimed rites] Curtailed, imperfect.

b Fordo its own life] Destroy. "Wold to God it might be leful for me to fordoo myself, or to make an end of me." Acolastus, 1549. STEEVENS. See M. N. Dr. V. 2. Puck.

'Twas some estate] High personage, of rank or station. As, "your greatness, and this noble state." Tr. and Cr. I. 3. Patrocl. The quartos read " 'Twas of some estate."

command o'ersways the order] The course, which ecclesiastical rules prescribe.

Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
Of bell and burial.*

LAER. Must there no more be done?

1 PRIEST.

No more be done:

We should profane the service of the dead,
To sing sage requiem, and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls. (28)

LAER.

Lay her i'the earth

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh,

May violets spring! (29)I tell thee, churlish

priest, (30)

A minist'ring angel shall my sister be,

When thou liest howling.

I thought, thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet

**So 4tos.

LAER.
O, treble woe
Fall ten times trebleb* on that cursed head,
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Depriv'd thee of!-Hold off the earth a while,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
[Leaps into the grace.
Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead;
Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Olympus.

.

bringing home of bell and burial] Conveying to her last home with these accustomed forms of the church, and this sepulture in consecrated ground.

Fall ten times treble] See "treble in silence."

Haml.

• ingenious sense] Life and sense.

I. 2.

terrible
woer and

wooer,
1623, 32.
* double,
4tos.

L

* grief, 4tos.

HAM. [Advancing.] What is he, whose griefs* Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow conjure, Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them

1623.

stand

Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

[Leaps into the Grave.

The devil take thy soul!

[Grappling with him.

LAER.

HAM. Thou pray'st not well.

I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat; For, 4tos. Sir, though I am not splenetive and rash, Yet have I in me something dangerous,

* So 4tos.

Which let thy wisdom fear: Hold off thy hand.

HOR.

Hamlet, Hamlet!

Good my lord, be quiet.

[The Attendants part them, and they come out of the Grave.]

HAM. Why, I will fight with him upon this. theme,

Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

QUEEN. O my son! what theme?

HAM. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum..... What wilt thou do for her?
KING. O, he is mad, Laertes.

QUEEN. For love of God, forbear him.

HAM. 'Zounds,* show me what thou❜lt do: comic, 1632. Wou'lt weep? wou'lt fight? wou'lt fast? wou❜lt tear thyself?

Wou'lt drink up Esil ? eat a crocodile?
I'll do't.-Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me with leaping in her grave?"

outface me with leaping in her grave] As you, &c. III. Rosal.

Brave me. See

Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us; till our ground,"
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

KING.(32)

This is mere madness:

And thus a while the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,

When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,(39)
His silence will sit drooping.

HAM.
Hear you, sir;
What is the reason that you use me thus?
I lov'd you ever.(34) But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew," and dog will have his day.

[Exit. KING. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon

him.

[Exit HORATIO. Strengthen your patience in our last night's

speech;

[TO LAERTES.

We'll put the matter to the present push.-
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.-
This grave shall have a living monument: (35)
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;

Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

our ground] The earth about us.

[Exeunt.

The cat will mew, and dog, &c.] “ Things have their appointed course; nor have we power to divert it," may be the sense here conveyed; though the proverb is in general applied to those who for a time fill stations to which their merits give them no claim.

c

Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech] Let the consideration of the topics, then urged, confirm your resolution taken of quietly waiting events a little longer.