HAM. Thy state is the more gracious; for 't is a vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile; let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib 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 lordshipt were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. HAM. I will receive it with all diligence of spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 't is for the head.

OSR. I thank your lordship, 't is very hot. HAM. No, believe me, 't is very cold; the wind is northerly.

OSR. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. HAM. Methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.

OSR. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,as 't were,-I cannot tell how.-But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter. HAM. I beseech you, remember

[HAMLET moves him to put on his hat. OSR. Nay, in good faith; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.

HAM. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;-though, I know, to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory; and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

OSR. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

HAM. The concernancy, sir?-why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?

OSR. Sir?

- and yet but yaw neither, in respect of his quick sail.] This is not in the folio nor in the quarto of 1603. In the other quartos, except that of 1604, we have "raw" for "yaw," though the latter is shown by the context to be unquestionably the poet's word. To yaw is to stagger and vacillate, as a ship sometimes does, instead of going due on. Mr. Dyce, of course, adopts "yaw," but conceiving "yet," often written "yt," to be a misprint for it, he reads "and it, but yaw neither," &c. which we must admit our inability to understand. "Yet" certainly is suspicious, but the word displaced we have always thought was wit, not it, and the drift of Hamlet's jargon to be this:-his qualifications are so numerous, and so far surpass all ordinary reckoning, that memory would grow giddy in cataloguing, and wit be distanced in attempting to

OSR. Of Laertes ?

HOR. His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.

HAM. Of him, sir.

OSR. I know you are not ignorant—

HAM. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me.-Well, sir. OSR. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is

HAM. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but to know a man well were to know himself.

OSR. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed" he 's unfellowed.

HAM. What's his weapon
?
OSR. Rapier and dagger.

HAM. That's two of his weapons: but, well. OSR. The king, sir, hath waged with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has* imponed, 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 carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

HAM. What call you the carriages?

HOR. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.

f

OSR. The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

HAM. The phrase would be more german" to the matter, if we could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages: that's the French bet against the Danish. Why is this imponed, as you call it?

OSR. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between you and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath laid on‡ twelve for nine; and its would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

HAM. How if I answer No?

OSR. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.

HAM. Sir, I will walk here in the hall; if it please his majesty,-'tis the breathing time of day with me,-let the foils be brought; the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win

aan union-] By an union was meant a pearl of faultless beauty; an "orient pearl:" ("Antony and Cleopatra," Act I. Sc. 5) i.e. a pearl clear, white, and spotless.

b He's fat, and scant of breath.-] Does the Queen refer to Hamlet or Laertes?

c Here, Hamlet, &c.] In the folio, "Heere's a Napkin, rub thy browes."

d Look to the queen there.-Ho!] The exclamation "Ho!" meaning stop! should perhaps be addressed to the combatants, and not, as it is always printed, to those who are to raise the Queen.

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 Polack 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 came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;

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 I
Truly deliver.

FORT.

Let us haste to hear it,

(1) First folio, cracke.

ashall live behind me!] Compare ("Much Ado About Nothing," Act III. Sc. 1), "No lory lives behind the back of such.'

b The rest is silence.] The folio adds, "O, 0, 0, 0."

(1) SCENE I.

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to dooms-day with eclipse:]

Some depravation is manifest in the first two lines, and
Rowe, to connect them with what precedes, printed,-

"Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fall,
Disasters veil'd the sun-"

Malone, with more plausibility and less violence, proposed to change "As stars" to Astres, observing, "The disagreeable recurrence of the word stars in the second line induces me to believe that As stars, in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakespeare wrote:

"Preco diei jam sonat,
Noctis profundæ pervigil;
Nocturna lux viantibus,
A nocte noctem segregans.
Hoc excitatus Lucifer,
Solvit polum caligine;
Hoc omnis errorum chorus
Viam nocendi deserit.

Gallo canente spes redit," &c.

The superstition of a phantom disappearing on the crowing of a cock, Steevens has shown to be very ancient by a passage (Vit. Apol. iv. 16) where "Philostratus giving an account of the apparition of Achilles' shade to Apollonius Tyaneus, says that it vanished with a glimmer as soon as the cock crowed."

(3) SCENE II.-And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.] As an instance of the minute attention with which the finished play was elaborated from the early sketch, it may be noteworthy, that in the quarto of 1603, the motive of Laertes' visit to the court is said to be desire to attend the late king's funeral,

"King. And now Laertes what's the newes with you? You said you had a sute what is't Laertes?

Lea. My gratious Lord, your favorable licence,

Now that the funerall rites are all performed,

I may have leave to go againe to France,

For though the favour of your grace might stay mee,
Yet something is there whispers in my hart,

Which makes my minde and spirits bend all for France." But it evidently occurred to Shakespeare that the acknowledgment of such an object was as little consistent with the character of Laertes as it would be palatable to the living monarch, and, accordingly, in the augmented piece the reason given by Laertes for his coming is mere courtier-like,

"To show my duty in your coronation."

(4) SCENE II.-Come away.] The dialogue between the King, the Queen, and Hamlet, in this scene was much expanded and improved after the first draft: in the newfound quarto it runs thus meagrely,

"King. And now princely Sonne Hamlet,
What meanes these sad and melancholy moodes?
For your intent going to Wittenberg,
Wee hold it most unmeet and unconvenient,
Being the Joy and halfe heart of your Mother.
Therefore let mee intreat you stay in Court,
All Denmarkes hope our coosin and dearest Sonne.
Ham. My lord, ti's not the sable sute I weare:
No nor the teares that still stand in my eyes,
Nor the distracted haviour in the visage,
Nor all together mixt with outward semblance,

Is equall to the sorrow of my heart,

Him have I lost I must of force forgoe,

These but the ornaments and sutes of woe.

King. This shewes a loving care in you, Sonne Hamlet,

But you must thinke your father lost a father,

That father dead, lost his, and so shall be until the

Generall ending. Therefore cease laments,

It is a fault gainst heaven, fault gainst the dead,

A fault gainst nature, and in reasons

Common course most certaine,

None lives on earth, but hee is borne to die.