or sixteen lines, which I would set down, and insert in't? could you not?

1 PLAY. Ay, my lord.

HAM. Very well.-Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit Player.] My good friends, [To Ros. and GUIL.] I'll leave you till night you are welcome to Elsinore.

Ros. Good my lord!

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and Guildenstern.

HAM. Ay, so, God be wi' you:*-Now I am alone. buy've, O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!

Is it not monstrous, (59) that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage warm'd; (60)
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting, (61)
With forms to his conceit ? (62) And all for nothing!
For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue (63) for passion,
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
Make mad the guilty, and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant; and amaze, indeed,
The very faculties of eyes and ears.

Yet I,

(64)

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,"
And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property, and most dear life,

A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i'the
throat,

defeat was made] Overthrow. See M. ado, &c. IV. 1. Leon.

1623, 32.

buy to, 4tos.

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Ha!

Why, I should take it for it cannot be,
But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall
To make oppression bitter; or, ere this,
I should have fatted all the region kites
bloudy, a. With this slave's offal: Bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless vil- .

1623, 32,

lain!

O vengeance!

*

a

Who? What an ass am I? ay sure, this is most brave;
That I, the son of a Dear murdered,*
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion!

Fye upon't! foh! About my brains? I have heard,

C

That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,(65)
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul, that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play something like the murder of my father,
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick; if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit, that I have seen,
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps,
Out of my weakness, and my melancholy,
(As he is very potent with such spirits,)
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: The play's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

a

[Exit.

kindless] Unnatural. See "kin and kind," I. 2. Haml. babout my brains] Wits to work. Mr. Steevens points out the phrase in Heywood's Iron age, 1632.

c

blench] Shrink, start aside. See M. for M. V. 5. Duke, and Wint. T. I. 2. Camil.

more relative than this] Directly applicable.

ACT III. SCENE I.

A Room in the Castle.

Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

KING. And can you, by no drift of circumstance Get from him, why he puts on this confusion; Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Ros. He does confess, he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak.

GUIL. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded; But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,

When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state.

QUEEN.

Did he receive you well?

Ros. Most like a gentleman.

GUIL. But with much forcing of his disposition.

Ros. Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply.

QUEEN.

To any pastime ?

a

Did you assay him "

Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players

drift of circumstance] Introduction and shaping of topics and facts. The quartos read conference.

b

forward] Disposed, inclinable.

e niggard of question, &c.] Rarely started any topic, but to our questions most frank and open in answering.

d

assay him to] Try his disposition towards. See II. 1. Polon, and 2 Volt.

We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him;
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: They are about the court;
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.

'Tis most true:

POL.
And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties,
To hear and see the matter.

KING. With all my heart; and it doth much

content me

To hear him so inclin'd.

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Ros. We shall, my lord.

KING.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and Guildenstern. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too: For we have closely (sent for Hamlet hither; That he, as 'twere by accident, may here* heere 4tos. Affront Ophelia : (2)

there,

1623, 32.

Her father, and myself (lawful espials,")
Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge;
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If't be the affliction of his love, or no,
That thus he suffers for.

QUEEN.

I shall obey you:

And, for your part, Ophelia, I do wish,

That your good beauties be the happy cause

Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope, your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,

To both your honors.

OPH.

Madam, I wish it may.

[Exit Queen.

"Was not

o'er-raught on the way] Reached or overtook.

the samyn misfortoun me over-raucht ?" Gaw. Dougl. Æn.

STEEVENS.

lawful espials] Spies justifiably inquisitive. See 1 H. VI.

Master Gunner, I. 4.

POL. Ophelia, walk you here: Gracious, so

please you,

We will bestow ourselves: Read on this book;
[TO OPHELIA.

That show of such an exercise may colour

Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,-
'Tis too much prov'd, that, with devotion's

visage,

a

And pious action, we do sugar* o'er
The devil himself.

KING.
O, 'tis too true! how smart
A lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it,
Than is my deed to my most painted word: "
O heavy burden!

[Aside. POL. I hear him coming; let's withdraw, my lord.. [Exeunt King and POLONIUS.

Enter HAMLET.

HAM. To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer (3)
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, (4)
And, by opposing, end them?-To die,—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ach, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die ;-to sleep ;-
To sleep! perchance to dream;-ay, there's the
rub;

⚫ too much proved] Found by too frequent experience.

More ugly to the thing that helps it,

Than is my deed to my most painted word.]

JOHNSON.

To is, in comparison, with. See All's W. III. 5, Hel. Painted is falsely coloured.

• So 4tos. Surge. 1623, 32.