'ACT IV. SCENE I

A royal apartment.

Enter King, Queen, Rofencrantz, and Guildenftern.

T

KING.

HERE's matter in these fighs, these profound
heaves;

You must tranflate; 'tis fit we understand them :
Where is your fon?

go

out.

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. [To Rof. and Guild. who Ah, my good lord, what have I feen to-night? King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? Queen. Mad as the feas and wind, when both contend

Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing fomething ftir,

He whips his rapier out, and cries, a rat! a rat!
And, in this brainifh apprehenfion, kills
The unfeen good old man.

King. O heavy deed!

It had been fo with us, had we been there.

His liberty is full of threats to all;

To you yourself, to us, to every one.

Alas! how fhall this bloody deed be anfwer'd?
It will be laid to us, whofe providence

Should have kept fhort, reftrain'd, and out of

haunt,

This

This play is printed in the old editions without any feparation of the acts. The divifion is modern and arbitrary; and is here not very happy, for the paufe is made at a time when there is more continuity of action than in almost any other of the fcenes. JOHNSON.

out of haunt,] I would rather read, out of harm. JOHNSON.

Out

This mad young man. But, fo much was our love,
We would not understand what was moft fit
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd,
O'er whom his very madness, 3 like fome ore
Among a mineral of metals base,

Shews itself pure:-he weeps for what is done.
King. O Gertrude, come away!

The fun no fooner fhall the mountains touch,
But we will fhip him hence: and this vile deed
We muft, with all our majefty and skill,
Both countenance and excufe.-Ho! Guildenstern!

Enter Rofencrantz and Guildenstern.

Friends both, go join you with fome further aid :
Hamlet in madnefs hath Polonius flain,

And from his mother's clofet hath he dragg'd him.
Go feek him out; fpeak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. Pray you, hafte in this.

[Exeunt Rof. and Guild. Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wifeft friends, And let them know both what we mean to do, And what's untimely done. [For haply, flander, + Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,

As

So in

Out of haunt, means out of company; the place where men affemble, is often poetically called the haunt of men. Romeo and Juliet :

"We talk here in the public haunt of men." STEEVENS. 3 —like fome ore] Shakespeare feems to think are to be cr, that is, gold. Bafe metals have ore no less than precious. JOHNSON.

4 Whofe whisper o'er the world's diameter,

As level as the cannon to his blank,

Transports its poifon'd foot, may miss our name,

And hit the woundless air. -O, come arvay !] Mr. Pore takes notice, that I replace fome verfes that were imperfect, (and, though of a modern date, feem to be genuine) by infert

$ 4

ing

As level as the cannon to his blank,

Tranfports its poifon'd fhot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air.]-O, come away!
My foul is full of discord, and dismay.

[Exeunt.

Ham. Safely flowed.But, foft-
Ref. &c. within. Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
Ham. What noife? who calls on Hamlet?
Oh, here they come.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Ref. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with duft, whereto 'tis kin.

ing two words. But to fee what an accurate and faithful collator he is, I produced thefe verfes in my Shakespeare Reftored, from a quarto edition of Hamlet, printed in 1637, and happened to fay, that they had not the authority of any earlier date in print, that I knew of, than that quarto. Upon the ftrength of this Mr. POPE comes and calls the lines modern, though they are in the quartos of 1605 and 1611, which I had not then feen, but both of which Mr. POPE pretends to have collated. The verfes carry the very ftamp of Shakespeare upon them. The coin, indeed, has been clipt from our first receiving it; but it is not fo diminished, but that with a small affiftance we may hope to make it pafs current. I am far from affirming, that, by inferting the words, For haply, flander, I have given the poet's very words; but the fupplement is fuch as the fentiment naturally feems to demand. The poet has the fame thought, concerning the diffufive powers of flander, in another of his plays:

66

-No, 'tis funder;

"Whofe edge is fharper than the fword, whofe tongue
"Out-venoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
"Rides on the pofling winds, and doth bely

All corners of the world." Cymbeline. THEOBALD.

Ref.

Rof. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it

thence,

And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.
Rof. Believe what?

Ham. That I can keep your counfel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a fpunge! what replication should be made by the fon of a king?

Rof. Take you me for a fpunge, my lord?

Ham. Ay, Sir, that foaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But fuch officers do the king beft fervice in the end: he keeps them, 5 like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; firft mouth'd, to be laft fwallow'd. When he needs what you have glean'd, it is but fqueezing you, and, fpunge, you fhall be dry again.

Rof. I understand you not, my lord.

Ham. I am glad of it: a knavih speech flceps in a foolish ear.

Rof. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thingGuil. A thing, my lord?

5-like an apple,-] The quarto has apple, which is generally followed. The folio has ape, which HANMER has received, and illuftrated with the following note.

"It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of "their food, which they take up firit, i to a pouch they are "provided with on the fide of their jaw, and then they keep "it, till they have done with the rest." JOHNSON.

The body is with the king,-] This anfwer I do not comprehend. Perhaps it fhould be, The body is not with the king, for the king is not awith the body. JOHNSON.

Perhaps it may mean this. The body is in the king's houfe (i. e. the prefent king's) yet the king (i. e. he who fhould have been king) is not with the body. Intimating that the ufurper is here, the true king in a better place. STEEVENS.

Haw.

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother.-Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh, and, so, my mother. Come. For England.

[Exit. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed

aboard;

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night :
Away; for every thing is feal'd and done

That elfe leans on the affair. Pray you, make hafte.
[Exeunt Rof. and Guild.
And, England! if my love thou hold'ft at aught,
(As my great power thereof may give the fenfe;
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish fword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us) thou may'ft not coldly 'fet
Our fovereign procefs, which imports at full,

2

By letters conjuring to that effect,

The prefent death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,

And thou muft cure me: 'till I know 'tis done,

3 Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin. [Exit.

I

fet by

Our jou reign process,-] So HAN MER. The others have only fet. JOHNSON.

-fet

Our fovereign process,-] I adhere to the reading of the quarto and folio. To fet, is an expreffion taken from the gaming-table. STEEVENS.

By letters conjuring-] Thus the folio. The quarto reads, "By letters congruing.". STEEVENS.

our author's

3 Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin.] This being the termination of a fcene, fhould, according to custom, be rhymed. Perhaps he wrote,

Howe'er my hopes, my joys are not begun.

If haps be retained, the meaning will be, 'till I know 'tis done, I fhall be miferable, whatever befall me. JOHNSON.

SCENE