To lay our fervice freely at your feet,

To be commanded.

King. Thanks, Rofencrantz, and gentle Guildenftern.

Queen. Thanks, Guildenftern, and gentle Rofen

crantz.

And, I beseech you, instantly to visit

My too much changed fon.-Go, fome of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guil. Heavens make our prefence and our practices Pleafant and helpful to him? [Exeunt Rof. and Guil Queen. Ay, Amen.

Enter Polonius.

Pol. The ambaffadors from Norway, my good lord,

Are joyfully return'd.

King. Thou still haft been the father of good news. Pol. Have I, my lord? affure you, my good liege,

I hold my duty, as I hold my foul,

Both to my God, and to my gracious king:
And I do think (or elfe this brain of mine
Hunts not the 4 trail of policy fo fure

As I have us'd to do) that I have found

The

very caufe of Hamlet's lunacy.

King. Oh, fpeak of that, that I do long to hear. Pol. Give firft admittance to the ambaffadors: My news fhall be 5 the fruit of that

great feast. King. Thyfelf do grace to them, and bring them

in.

[Exit Pol. He tells me, my dear Gertrude, that he hath found The head and fource of all your fon's distemper. Queen. I doubt, it is no other but the main; His father's death, and our o'er-hafty marriage.

-the trail of policy] The trail is the courfe of an animal purfued by the fcent. JOHNSON.

the fruit-] The defert after the meat. JOHNSON.

Re-enter

Re-enter Polonius, with Voltimand and Cornelius.

King. Well, we shall fift him.-Welcome, my good friends!

Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
Volt. Moft fair return of greetings and defires.
Upon our first, he fent out to fupprefs
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack,
But, better look'd into, he truly found
It was against your highnefs: whereat griev'd-
That fo his ficknefs, age, and impotence
Was falfely borne in hand-fends out arrests
On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
Receives rebuke from Norway; and, in fine,
Makes vow before his uncle, never more
To give the affay of arms against your majefty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,

6 Gives him threefcore thousand crowns in annual fee;
And his commiffion to employ thofe foldiers,
So levied as before, against the Polack :
With an entreaty, herein further shewn,
That it might please you to give quiet pafs
Through your dominions for this enterprize,
On fuch regards of fafety, and allowance,
As therein are fet down.

King. It likes us well;

And, at our more confider'd time, we'll read,
Answer, and think upon this bufinefs.

Mean time, we thank you for your well-took labour.
Go to your reft; 7 at night we'll feast together.
Moft welcome home!
[Exeunt Volt. and Cor.

Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee ;] This reading first obtained in the edition put out by the players. But all the old quartos (from 1605, downwards) read, as I have reformed the text. THEOBALD.

7

at night we'll feaft-] The king's intemperance is never fuffered to be forgotten. JOHNSON.

Pol. This business is well ended.

My liege, and Madam, 9 to expoftulate What majefty should be, what duty is,

8

Why

My liege, and Madam, to expoftulate] The ftrokes of humour in this fpeech are admirable. Polonius's character is that of a weak, pedant, minister of state. His declamation is a fine fatire on the impertinent oratory then in vogue, which placed reafon in the formality of method, and wit in the gingle and play of words. With what art is he made to pride himfelf in his wit:

That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true, 'tis pity;

And pity 'tis, 'tis true: A foolish figure,

But farewell it

And how exquifitely does the poet ridicule the reasoning in fashion, where he makes Polonius remark on Hamlet's madness; Though this be madness, yet there's method in't :

As if method, which the wits of that age thought the most effential quality of a good discourse, would make amends for the madness. It was madness indeed, yet Polonius could comfort himself with this reflection, that at leaft it was method. It is certain Shakespeare excels in nothing more than in the prefervation of his characters; To this life and variety of charafter (fays our great poet in his admirable preface to Shakefpeare) we must add the wonderful prefervation. We have faid what is the character of Polonius; and it is allowed on all hands to be drawn with wonderful life and spirit, yet the unity of it has been thought by fome to be grofly violated in the excellent precepts and inftructions which Shakespeare makes his ftatefmen give to his fon and fervant in the middle of the first, and beginning of the second act. But I will venture to fay, thefe critics have not entered into the poet's art and address in this particular. He had a mind to ornament his fcenes with those fine leffons of focial life; but his Polonius was too weak to be the author of them, though he was pedant enough to have met with them in his reading, and fop enough to get them by heart, and retail them for his own. And this the poet has finely fhewn us was the cafe, where, in the middle of Polonius's inftructions to his fervant, he makes him, though without having received any interruption, forget his lesson, and fay, And then, Sir, does he this;

He does- -What was I about to say?
I was about to fay fomething

The fervant replies,

where did I leave ?

At, clofes in the confequence. This fets Polon us right, and he goes on,

dt,

Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to wafte night, day, and time.
Therefore-fince brevity's the foul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes-
I will be brief: your noble fon is mad;
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,

At, clofes in the confequence.

Ay marry,

He clofes thus I know the gentleman, &c. which fhews they were words got by heart which he was repeating. Otherwife clofes in the confequence, which conveys no particular idea of the subject he was upon, could never have made him recollect where he broke off. This is an extraordinary inftance of the poet's art, and attention to the prefervation of character. WARBURTON.

This account of the character of Polonius, though it fufficiently reconciles the feeming inconfiftency of fo much wifdom with fo much folly, does not perhaps correfpond exactly to the ideas of our author. The commentator makes the character of Polonius, a character only of manners, difcriminated by properties fuperficial, accidental, and acquired. The poet intended a nobler delineation of a mixed character of manners and of nature. Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in bufinefs, ftored with obfervation, confident of his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly reprefented as defigned to ridicule the practice of thofe times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest is natural. Such a man is pofitive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once ftrong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the particular application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in forefight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repofitories of knowledge, he utters weighty fentences, and gives ufeful counfel; but as the mind in its enfeebled ftate cannot be kept long bufy and intent, the old man is fubject to fudden dereliction of his faculties, he lofes the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. This idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will folve all the phænomena of the character of Polonius.

9

JOHNSON.

to expoftulate] To expoftulate, for to enquire or dif cufs. WARBURTON.

What

What is't, but to be nothing else but mad :
But let that go.

Queen. More matter, with lefs art,

Pol. Madam, I fwear, I ufe no art at all.
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true, 'tis pity;
And pity 'tis, 'tis true: a foolish figure,
But farewell it, for I will ufe no art.

Mad let us grant him then: and now remains
That we find out the cause of this effect;
Or, rather fay, the cause of this defect;
For this effect, defective, comes by cause:
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.-Perpend.-
I have a daughter; have, whilst she is mine;
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
Hath given me this.-Now gather, and furmife.
'To the celestial, and my foul's idol, the most beautified
Ophelia That's an ill phrafe, a vile phrase:

As

To the celestial, and my foul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia-] I have ventur'd at an emendation here, against the authority of all the copies; but, I hope, upon examination it will appear probable and reafonable. The word beautified may carry two diftin&t ideas, either as applied to a woman made up of artificial beauties, or to one rich in native charms. Shakespeare has therefore chofe to use it in the latter acceptation, to exprefs natural comelinefs; I cannot imagine, that here, he would make Polonius except to the phrafe, and call it a vile one. But a ftronger objection ftill, in my mind, lies against it. As celeftial and foul's idol are the introductory characteristics of Ophelia, what a dreadful anticlimax is it to defcend to fuch an epithet as beautified? On the other hand, beatified, as I have conjectured, raises the image: but Polonius might very well, as a Roman Catholic, call it a vile phrafe, i. e. favouring of profanation; fince the epithet is peculiarly made an adjunct to the Virgin Mary's honour, and therefore ought not to be employed in the praise of a mere mortal.

THEOBALD.

Both Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. Warburton have followed Theobald, but I am in doubt whether beautified, though, as Polonius calls it, a vile phrafe, be not the proper word. Beautified seems to be a vile phrase, for the ambiguity of its meaning. JOHNSON.