With an intreaty, herein further shown,

[Giving a Paper. That it might please you to give quiet pass Through your dominions for this enterprise; On such regards of safety and allowance, As therein are set down.

King.

It likes us well;

And, at our more consider'd time, we'll read,

Answer, and think upon this business:

Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labour. Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:

Most welcome home!

Pol.

[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNelius.

This business is well ended.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate

What majesty should be, what duty is,

Why day is day, night, night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad:
Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
What is't, but to be nothing else but mad:
But let that go.

Queen.

More matter, with less art.

Pol. Madam, I swear I use 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 use no art.

Mad let us grant him, then; and now remains,
That we find out the cause of this effect;
Or rather say, the cause of this defect;
For this effect defective comes by cause:

8 That is, to inquire; another Latinism.

Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Perpend:

I have a daughter; have, while she is mine;
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,

Hath given me this: Now gather and surmise.
"To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most
beautified Ophelia,"❞—

That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase ; "beautified" is a vile phrase; but you shall hear. -Thus: "In her excellent white bosom, these," &c."

10

Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her? Pol. Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.

[Reads.] Doubt thou the stars are fire,

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.

O, dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers: I have not art to reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best! believe it. Adieu.

Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst

this machine is to him, HAMLET. This in obedience hath my daughter shown me; And, more above, hath his solicitings,

As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
All given to mine ear.

King.

Receiv'd his love?

Pol.

But how hath she

What do you think of me?

King. As of a man faithful and honourable.

9 Beautified is not uncommon in dedications and encomiastic verses of the Poet's age.

10 The word these was usually added at the end of the superscription of letters. See The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii. sc. 1, note 10.

Pol. I would fain prove so.

you think,

But what might

When I had seen this hot love on the wing,
(As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,
Before my daughter told me,) what might you,
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play'd the desk, or table-book ;

12

13

11

Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb;
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
What might you think? no, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus did I bespeak :
"Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;
This must not be:" and then I precepts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
And he, repulsed, (a short tale to make,)
Fell into a sadness; then into a fast;
Thence to a watch; thence into a weakness;
Thence to a lightness; and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,

And all we wail for.14

King.

Do you think 'tis this?

Queen. It may be, very likely.

Pol. Hath there been such a time (I'd fain

know that)

That I have positively said, ""Tis so,"

When it prov'd otherwise?

King.

Not that I know.

11 That is, if I had given my heart a hint to be mute about their passion. "Conniventia, a winking at ; a sufferance; a feigning not to see or know." The quartos have working instead of winking.

12 Plainly, roundly, without reserve.

13 That is, not within thy destiny; alluding to the supposed influence of the stars on the fortune of life.

H.

14 So the folio; the quartos have mourn instead of wail.

H.

Pol. Take this from this, if this be otherwise :

[Pointing to his Head and Shoulder.

If circumstances lead me, I will find

Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed

Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:

Be you and I behind an arras then:

Mark the encounter; if he love her not,

And be not from his reason fallen thereon,

Let me be no assistant for a state,

But keep a farm, and carters.

King.

We will try it.

Enter HAMLET, reading.

Queen. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Pol. Away! I do beseech you, both away.

15

I'll board him presently:-O! give me leave.—

[Exeunt King, Queen, and Attendants.

How does my good lord Hamlet?

Ham. Well, god-'a-mercy.

Pol. Do you know me, my lord?

Ham. Excellent well; you're a fishmonger.16

Pol. Not I, my lord.

Ham. Then, I would you were so honest a man. Pol. Honest, my lord?

15 That is, accost, address him. So in Twelfth Night, Act i. sc. 3: Accost is, front her, board her, woo her, assail her."

H.

16 That is," says Coleridge, "you are sent to fish out this This is Hamlet's own meaning."

secret.

H.

Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thousand. Pol. That's very true, my lord.

Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion,"-Have you a daughter?

Pol. I have, my lord.

Ham. Let her not walk i'the sun conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter may conceive : friend, look to't.

18

17 Such is the reading of all the old copies. Warburton changed it to, "being a god, kissing carrion," and supported the change with a long comment which, in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, "almost sets the critic on a level with the author!" The critic remarks that Shakespeare "had an art not only of acquainting the audience with what his actors say, but what they think;" and he regards the passage as intended to "vindicate the ways of Providence in permitting evil to abound in the world." He sums up his argument thus: "If the effect follows the thing operated upon, carrion, and not the thing operating, a God, why need we wonder that, the supreme Cause of all things diffusing blessings on man, who is a dead carrion, he, instead of a proper return, should breed corruption and vices?" The comment is certainly most ingenious; too much so indeed, as it looks as if the critic were attributing his own thoughts to the Poet. Shakespeare, it is true, elsewhere calls the sun "common-kissing Titan ;" but if, in this case, good had been a misprint for god, it would most likely have begun with a capital, Good. Either way, the passage is very obscure; Coleridge thinks it is purposely so. We are unable to decide whether good kissing should mean good to kiss, or good at kissing, that is, at returning a kiss. Mr. Verplanck explains it thus: "If even a dead dog can be kissed by the sun, how much more is youthful beauty in danger of corruption, unless it seek the shade." the whole, the best we have seen, but we must add Coleridge's explanation: "Why, fool as he is, he is some degrees in rank above a dead dog's carcass; and if the sun can raise life out of a dead dog, why may not good fortune, that favours fools, have raised a lovely girl out of this dead-alive old fool?" In elucidation of the passage, Malone aptly quotes the following from the play of King Edward III., 1596:

"The freshest summer's day doth soonest taint
The loathed carrion that it seems to kiss."

This is, on

H.

18 So the folio; not is wanting in the quartos. The sense of