Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.(79)

[A Flourish of Trumpets, and Ordnance shot
off, within.

What does this mean, my lord?

HAM. The king doth wake (80) to-night, and takes

his rouse,(81)

4to.

Keeps wassels and the swaggering up-spring reels;⚫ Wassel.
And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.

HOR.

HAM. Ay, marry, is't:

Is it a custom?

Butt to my mind, though I am native here,
And to the manner born,-it is a custom

More honour'd in the breach, than the observance.
[This heavy-headed revel, east and west,"
Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations;
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition; and, indeed it takes

From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute."

So, oft it chances in particular men,

That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth,(82) (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin,)

By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,

• east and west] i. e. every where: from the rising to the setting sun.

clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition] i. e. disparage us by using as characteristic of us, terms that imply or impute swinish properties, that fix a swinish" addition" or title to our names. "Addition earned," &c. Tr. & Cr. IV. 5. Ajax. Clepe, clypian. Sax. to call.

at height] i. e. to the utmost, topping every thing.

d pith of our attribute] i. e. the best and utmost of all we can challenge or make pretension to. See "much attribute he hath." Tr. & Cr. I. 3. Agam.

*mole of nature] i. e. natural blemish.

"For marks descried in man's nativity

“Are nature's fault, not their own infamy."

+ So 4tos. And. 162", 32.

Rape of Lucrece. MALONE.

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners; that these men,"
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect;
Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,"
Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,)d

Shall in the general censure take corruption

⚫ease. 4to. From that particular fault: The dram of ill* Doth all the noble substance often dout,†

eale. 4to.

HAM. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,(84) Bring with thee airs from heaven, (85) or blasts from

a

hell,

plausive manners] This word seems to be used here in the sense of" what generally recommends, is admired or applauded;" and, as, under the loose usage of that day, was the case with plausible: "such carriage in his apparell, gesture and conversation, as in his owne country is most plausible and best approved." Dallington's Method of Travell from a view of France, as it stood 1598. 4to. sign. c. 2. In All's well &c. plausive has been twice used for admirable. I. 2. King. III. 1. Parolles.

b It chances that for some vicious mole of nature,—

Or by some habit—that these men] To connect the sentence, we must before" that these men' supply" it happens," or something to that effect. The sense of the latter part of the speech is, A little vice will often obliterate all a man's good qualities; and the effect is, that the vice becomes scandalous, i. e. offensive; being taken for his predominating" complexion," as above, or character.

c nature's livery, or fortune's star] i. e. the vesture or garb in which nature clothes us; the humour innate or complexion born with us or some casualty or fatality, the influence of the star of fortune or chance. So "the vesture of creation." Othel. II. 1. Cass.

d undergo] i. e. support, take upon you. So M. for M. I. 1. Esc. "To undergo such ample grace and honour."

e

censure take corruption] i. e. " estimate become tainted."

Be thy intents* wicked, or charitable,
Thou com'st in such a questionable shape,(86)
That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane: 0, 0, answer me;
Let me not burst in ignorance! (87) but tell,
Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,*
Have burst their cerements!" why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd,
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again, in cómplete steel,(88)
+Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,

* So 4tos. events.

1623, 32.

+ Revisitst.

Making night hideous; and we fools of nature,(89) 1632.
So horridly to shake our disposition,

With thoughts beyond thea reaches of our souls? So 4tos.
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
HOR. It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire

To you alone.

MAR.

Look, with what courteous action It wafts you to a more removed ground:

But do not go with it.

& 1603. thee: reaches. 1623, 32.

§ waves. 4tos. &

1603.

HOR.

No, by no means.

canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death] i. e. " that have received all the formal rites and ceremonies of sepulture, that the offices of the church prescribe." Mr. Blakeway observes that throughout our author canòniz'd has the accent thrown on the second syllable; and instances K. John twice in III. 1. and Tr. & Cr. II. 2. and Massinger's Virgin Martyr, III. 1:

"That have canòniz'd them you'll find them worse."

And the Fatal Dowry:

"What the canòniz'd Spartan ladies were."

b cerements] i. e. waxen envelope.

с

e disposition] i. e. frame of mind; or affection of body and mind. d beyond the reaches of] This is sufficiently obvious; and is not brought forward (as was "the virtue of his will," sc. 3. Laert.) to point out the value of the quartos, but the incompetency rather than the inattention of the editor of the folio of 1632 in which the grossest errors of this description in the first folio are generally copied; although alterations, the most arbitrary and every way unwarranted, are therein very frequently made.

* Somnet.

4tos. Sonnet.

1623, 32.

assumes.

1623, 32.

HAM. It will not speak; then I will follow it.
HOR. Do not, my lord.

HAM.
I do not set my life at a pin's fee; (90)
And, for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?

Why, what should be the fear?

It waves me forth again;-I'll follow it.

HOR. What, if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,

That beetles o'er his base into the sea ?(91)

+ So 4tos. And there assume† some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,(92) And draw you into madness? think of it: [The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain, That looks so many fathoms to the sea, And hears it roar beneath. (93)].

My fate cries out,

Нам.
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Némean lion's nerve.-(94)

[Ghost beckons.

Still am I call'd?-unhand me, gentlemen ;

[Breaking from them. By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me :I say, away :-Go on, I'll follow thee.

[Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET.

HOR. He waxes desperate with imagination.
MAR. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.

a wafts me] i. e. beckons; as in terms Horatio has just said, and in the sense in which it had been just used by Marcellus. The quartos give wave in every instance here: and in conveying this idea the motion of the hand has the undulation of a wave.

blets] i. e. obstructs.

HOR. Have after: To what issue will this

come?

MAR. Something is rotten in the state of Den

HAM. Where wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go. Whether.

4tos. & 1603.

no further.

My hour is almost come,

HAM.

Alas, poor ghost!

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

GHOST. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold.

HAM.

Speak, I am bound to hear.

GHOST. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt

hear.

HAM. What?

GHOST. I am thy father's spirit;

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night;

And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fire,(95)

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,

Are burnt and purg'd away.(96) But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

* Have after] i. e. take, or betake yourself, after! follow!

b Heaven will direct it] i. e. " the state of Denmark," to health and soundness.

D