Enter OPHELIA.
Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark ?
Queen. How now, Ophelia ?
Oph. How should I your true love know

[Singing
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon?
Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
Oph. Say you ? nay, pray you, mark.
He is dead and gone, lady,

(Sings.
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.
O, ho!

Queen. Nay, but Ophelia, —
Oph.

Pray you, mark.
White his shrined as the mountain snow,

[Sings
Enter KING.
Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.
Oph.

Larded all with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go,

With true-love showers.
King. How do you, pretty lady ?

Oph. Well, Heaven ’ield you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter. We know what we are, but, know not what we

King. How long hath she been thus ?

Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they should lay him i’ the cold ground: My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies ; good night, sweet ladies ; good night, good night.

[Exit. King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.

[Exit HORATIO 0! This is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death :

Enter a Gentleman.
What's the matter ?
Gent.

Save yourself, my lord,
The young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O’erbears your officers : The rabble call him, lord
They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Luertes shall be king, Laertes king !

may be.

Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
King. The doors are broke.

[Noise within

Enter LAERTES.

Laer. Where is this king ?-Sirs, stand you all without.
O) thou vile king, give me my father.

Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.
King. What is the cause, Laertes,
That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ?-
Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person;
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would.
Why art thou thus incens'd ;-Let him go,

Gertrude ;
Speak, man.
Laer. Where is my father ?
King

Dead.
Queen.

But not by him.
King. Let him demand his fill.

Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with :
To this point I stand, -
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
Most throughly for my father.
King.

Who shall stay you ?
Laer. My will, not all the world's:
And, for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.
King.

Good Laertes,
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensibly in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment ’pear,
As day does to your eye.

Enter OPHELIA fantastically dressed with straws and flowers
Laer.

O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia !-
O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life ?
Nature is fine in love : and, where 'tis fine,
It ends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.
Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier ;

Hey no nonny, ronny hey nonni; :

And in his grave raind many a tear ;Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus.

Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, an you call him a-down-le O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole hix master's daughter.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember : and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines ,--there's rue for you; and here's some for me :-we may call it, herb of grace o'Sun. days :—you may wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy: -I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died :—They say, he made a good end,

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy, [Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction, passion. all, She turns to favor, and to prettiness. Oph. And will he not come again?

And will he not come again?

No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,
He never will come again.
jlis beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:

He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan;
And
peace

be with his soul!
And with all Christian souls! I pray heaven be wi' ycu!

[Exit OPHELIA Laer. Do you see this, O heaven.

King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me :
If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touch’d, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction ; but, if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labor with your soul
To give it due content.
Laer.

Let this be so;
His means of death, his obscure funeral,
No Trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,
Cry to be heard, as ’twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call’t in question.

shall;

King.

So

you And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me.

[ Exeunt. The ship in which Hamlet is embarked for England is attacked by pirates ; Hamlet boards the pirate's vessel, and is captured, but is treated with mercy, and landed on the Danish coast. He sends letters to the King and Horatio, announcing his return, and desires the latter to repair to him immediately.

In the interim, the King and Laertes become reconciled, and plan together the death of Hamlet.

Laertes is to engage the Prince at a match of fencing, and with a poisoned rapier hs engages to slay Hamlet, and thus revenge the death of Polonius. The conference is interrupted by the Queen, who rushes in to announce the fate of Ophelia.

Enter QUEEN. King. How now,

swcet queen

? Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow :-Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.

Laer. Drown'd! 0, where !

Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ;
Therewith fantastic garlands did she make
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies, and herself,
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide ;.
And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up:
Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indu'd
Unto that element : but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
Laer.

Alas then, she is drown'd?
Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.

Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears : But yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Lei shame say what it will ; when these are gone,
The woman will be out.—Adieu, my lord !
I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.
King

Let's follow, Gertrude;
How much I had to do to calm his rage !
Now fear I, this will give it start again ;
Therefore, let's follow.

[Exit.

[Exeund.

ACT V.
SCENE I.-A Church-Yard.

Enter Two Clowns, with spades, fc.' ist Clo. Is she to be buried in christian burial, that silfully seeka her own salvation ?

2nd Clo. I tell thee, she is; therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath set on her, and finds it christian burial.

1st Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence ?

2nd Clo. Why, 'tis found so.

1st Clo. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point : If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: Argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

2nd Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.

1st Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good : If the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life.

2nd Clo. But is this law ?
1st Clo. Ay, marry is't ; crowner's-quest law.

2nd Clo. Will you ha’ the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial.

1st Clo. Why, there thou say’st: And the more pity; that great folks shall have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and gravemakers; they hold up Adam's profession.

2nd Clo. Was he a gentleman ?
1st Clo, He was the first that ever bore arms.
2nd Clo. Why, he had none.

1st Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says, Adam digged; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself

2nd Clo. Go to.

1st Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter ?

2d Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.

1st Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith ; the gallows does well: But how does it weil ? it does well to those that do ill : now thou dost wl, to say, the gallows is built stronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again ; come.

2nd Clo. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a arpenter?