ACT III. SCENE I. A Room in the Castle. Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSEN- KING. And can you, by no drift of *circumstance** conferGet 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; GUIL. Nor do we find him forward' to be sounded; 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? Did you assay him d Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players * drift of circumstance] i. e. " introduction and shaping of topics and facts." forward] i. e. disposed, inclinable. e niggard of question,] i. e. " rarely started any topic, but to our questions most frank and open in answering." d assay him to] i. e. " try his disposition towards." See II. 1. Polon. and 2 Volt. ence. 4tos. * two. 4tos. We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him; POL. "Tis most true: And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties, KING. With all my heart; and it doth much To hear him so inclin'd. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, KING. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too: For we have closely (1) sent for Hamlet hither; + So 4tos. That he, as 'twere by accident, may here+ Affront Ophelia : (2) there, 1623, 32. Her father, and myself (lawful espials,)" Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen, 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 honours. ОРН. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen. o'er-raught on the way] i. e. reached or overtook. "Was not the samyn misfortoun me over-raucht ?" Gaw. Dougl. En. STEEVENS. b lawful espials] i. e. " spies justifiably inquisitive." See I. H. VI. I. 4. Master Gunner. 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, And pious action, we do sugar* o'er The devil himself. KING. с [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: a colour] i. e. seem to account for. b too much prov'd] i. e. found by too frequent experience. JOHNSON. More ugly to the thing that helps it, Than is my deed to my most painted word.] To is, in comparison, with. See All's well &c. III. 5. Hel. Painted is falsely coloured. ◄ when we have shuffled off this mortal coil] Coil is here used * So 4tos. surge. 1623, 32. proude. 4tos. Must give us pause. There's the respect, For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 4tos. would fardels. 4tos. That patient merit of the unworthy takes, bear, To grunt (7) and sweat under a weary life; in each of its senses, that of turmoil or bustle, and that which entwines or wraps round. "This muddy vesture of decay," M. of V. V. 1. Lor. Those folds of mortality that encircle and entangle us. Snakes generally lie in folds like the coils of ropes : and, it is conceived, that an allusion is here had to the struggle which that animal is obliged to make in casting his slough, or extricating himself from the skin, that forms the exterior of this coil. And this he throws off annually. a must give us pause] i. e. stop our career, occasion reflection. There's the respect, b That makes calamity of so long life] i. e. the reflection or consideration that makes the evils of life so long submitted to, lived under. The whips and scorns of time] i. e. those sufferings of body and mind, those stripes and mortifications to which, in its course, the life of man is subjected. Of the "whips of heaven," he speaks in Timon, V. 1. Poet. Boswell points out an enumeration of the evils inseparable from human life as well as a similar phraseology in Bedingfield's Cardanus Comfort, 1576: "Hunger, thurste, sleape not so plentiful or quiet as deade me have, heate in sommer, colde in winter, disorder of tyme, terrour of warres, controlement of parentes, cares of wedlocke, studye for children, slouthe of servauntes, contention of sutes, and that (whiche is the moste of all) the condicion of tyme wherein honestye is disdaynd, as folye and crafte is honoured as wisdome." d The poor man's contumely] i. e. the slight, the spurnings, to which that condition subjects him. "Ridiculos homines facit," says Juvenal, III. 153. The reading of the 4tos. is proud: and certainly that which the one, the proud man, offers, is more in the course of the idea, and a more natural form of speaking, than that which the other, the poor man, suffers. And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; Good my lord, OPH. I pray you, now receive them. HAM. No, no. I never gave you aught. yours, * awry. 4tos. OPH. My honour'd lord, I know right well, you + you. 4tos. did; And, with them, words of so sweet breath compos'd As made the things more rich: their perfume lost, So 4tos. Take these again; for to the noble mind, Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind. There, my lord. HAM. Ha, ha! are you honest? OPH. My lord? HAM. Are you fair? OPH. What means your lordship? HAM. That if you be honest, and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.(12) aThus conscience does make cowards of us all] i. e. a state of doubt and uncertainty, a conscious feeling or apprehension, a misgiving "How our audit stands." III. 3. Haml. b With this regard their currents turn away, And lose the name of action] i. e. from this sole consideration have their drifts diverted, and lose the character and name of enterprise. eSoft you, now] i. e. a gentler pace! have done with this lofty march! then. left. 1623, 32. |