Hear you, sir;

What is the reason that you use me thus ?
I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

[Exit.
King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon
him.-
(Exit Horatio.
Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;
To Laertes.

We'll put the matter to the present push.-
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.-
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.
SCENE II.-A hall in the castle. Enter Hamlet

and Horatio.

As England was his faithful tributary;
As love between them, like the palm, might flourish;
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,
And stand a comma 'tween their amities;
And many such like as's of great charge,--
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd.

Hor.

How was this seal'd
Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant
I had my father's signet in my purse,
Which was the mode!2 of that Danish seal:
Folded the writ up in form of the other:
Subscrib'd it; gave't the impression; plac'd it safely
The changeling never known: Now, the next day,
Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this em
ployment:

They are not near my conscience; their defeat

Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see Does by their own insinuation grow:

other ;

You do remember all the circumstance?

Hor. Remember it, my lord!

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fight-
ing,

That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
And prais'd be rashness for it,-Let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do pall: and that should
teach us,

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.
Hor.

That is most certain. In further evil?

Ham. Up from my cabin,
My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd to find out them: had my desire;
Finger'd their packet; and, in fine, withdrew
To mine own room again: making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,
A roval knavery; an exact command,-
Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.

Hor.

Is't possible?

Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure.

But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

Hor. Ay, 'beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies,
Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play :-I sat me down;
Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair:
I once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service: Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote?

Hor.

Ay, good my lord. Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from

England,

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine,
And a man's life no more than to say, one.
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For by the image of my cause, I
The portraiture of his: I'll count's his favours.
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.
Hor.

see

Peace; who comes here! Enter Osric.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly ?16

Hor. No, my good lord.

Ham Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to know him: He hath much land, and fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crio shall stand at the king's mess: 'Tis a chough;" but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit: Your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head. Osr. I thank your lordship, 'tis very hot. Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.

Ham. What imports the nomination of this gen-same breed, that, I know, the drossy age dotes on,) tleman ?

Hor. His purse is empty already; all his golden ries them through and through the most fond and words are spent.

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the im-the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is putation laid on him by them, in his meed he's un- ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able fellowed.

Ham. That's two of his weapons: but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has impawn-e ed, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate earriages, and of very liberal conceit.

The queen desires you, to use some gentle inment to Laertes, before you fall to play. 1. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord.

You will lose this wager, my lord.

. I do not think so; since he went int France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou would'st not think, how i all's here about my heart: but it is no mar-matter.

Let all the battlements their ordnance fire, The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; And in the cup an union' shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn; Give me the cups; And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, At-Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin;And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. Ham. Come on, sir.

Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again: Thy mother's poison'd;
I can no more; the king, the king's to blame.
Ham. The point
Envenom'd too!-Then, venom, to thy work.
[Stabs the King.
Osr.& Lords. Treason! treason!
King. O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.
Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned
Dane,

Drink off this potion:-is the union here?
Follow my mother.
Luer.

Where should we have our thanks ?
Hor.

Not from his mouth,
Had it the ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack19 wars, and you from England
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world,
How these things come about: So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;

[King dies. Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can !
Truly deliver.

He is justly serv'd;
It is a poison temper'd' by himself.-
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee;
Nor thine on me!

[Dies.
Ha. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
I am dead, Horatio:-Wretched queen, adieu !-
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest,) O, I could tell you,-
But let it be:-Horatio, I am dead;
Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

As thou'rt a man,

Fort.

Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.
For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune
I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mis
chance,

On plots and errors, happen.
Fort.

Let four captairs
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

Give me the cup; let go; by heaven I'll have it.-To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
O God!-Horatio, what a wounded name,
The soldier's music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.-

Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me?
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity a while,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.-

[March afar off, and shot within.
What warlike noise is this?
Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from
Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham.

O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England:
But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less,
Which have solicited,'-The rest is silence. [Dies.
Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;-Good night,
sweet prince;

Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
[A dead march.
[Exeunt, bearing off the bodies; after which, a
peal of ordnance is shot off.

If the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity: with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and solemnity not strained by poetical violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in coutinual succession, exhibiting various forms of life, and peculiar modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage pro see?duces the effect intended, from the apparition that, in the first act, chills the blood with horror, to the fop in the last, that exposes affectation to just con

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
Why does the drum come hither? [March within.
Enter Fortinbras, the English Ambassadors, and
others.

Fort. Where is this sight?
Hor.
What is it, you would
If aught of wo, or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc !-O proud
death!

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes, at a shot,
So bloodily hast struck?

1 Amb.

The sight is dismal;
And our affairs from England come too late:
The ears are senseless, that should give us hearing,
To tell him, his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:

(1) Mixed. (2) A sergeant is a sheriff's officer. (3) O'ercomes. (4) Incidents. (5) Incited. (6) Heap of dead game

tempt.

The conduct is, perhaps, not wholly secure against objections. The action is, indeed, for the most part, in continual progression; but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the

(7) A word of censure when more game was destroved than was reasonable.

(8) i. e. The king's. (9) By chance,
(10) Polish.

adman most, when he treats Ophelia with so much easily be formed, to kill Hamlet with the dagger deness, which seems to be useless and wanton and Laertes with the bowl. cruelty. The poet is accused of having shown little reHainlet is, through the whole piece, rather an in-gard poetical justice, and may be charged with strument than an agent. After he has, by the stratagem of the play, convicted the king, he makes no attempt to punish him; and his death is at last effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing.

The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of necessity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might

equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose: the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification, which would arise from the destruction of a usurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious. JOHNSON.