Good morrow, 'tis St. Valentine's day, All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

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 HOR. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death: And now behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions! First, her father slain;
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: The people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and
whispers,
[greenly,
For good Polonius' death; and we have done but
In hugger-mugger to inter him: Poor Ophelia
Divided from herself and her fair judgment;
Without the which we are pictures, or mere
beasts.

Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France:
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death! [A noise within.
Queen.
Alack! what noise is this?
Enter a Gentleman.

lord;

[cry

And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry, "Choose we; Laertes shall be king!"
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
"Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!"
Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail+ they
O, this is counter,‡ you false Danish dogs.
King. The doors are broke. [Noise within.
Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following.
Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all
Dan. No, let's come in.
[without.
Laer.
Dan. We will, we will.

I pray you, give me leave.

[They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you :-keep the door.-O thou Give me my father. [vile king, Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. Laer. That drop of blood that's calm, proclaims me bastard.

King. Let him demand his fill. Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled To hell, allegiance! To this point I stand,That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd Most thoroughly for my father. 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,

King.

If you desire to know the certainty [venge,
Of your dear father's death, is 't writ in your re-
That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and
Winner and loser?
[foe,

Laer. None but his enemies.
King. Will you know them then? [arms;
Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my
And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
Repast them with my blood.

King.
Why, now you speak
Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
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.

Danes. [Within.] Let her come in.
Laer. How now! what noise is that?
Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dressed with
straws and flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!--
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight,
Till our scale turn the beam. 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 sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier;
Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny :
And in his grave rained many a tear ;—
Fare you well, my dove !
[revenge,
Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade
It could not move thus.

Oph. You must sing, "Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a." O, how the wheel || becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his 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' Sundays:--you may wear your rue with a difference. T-There's a

The burthen.

Ti. e. By its Sanday name, "herb of grace;" mine is merely rue, i e. sorrow.

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, hell itself, She turns to favour 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.

His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll:

[Sings.

[Exit OPH.

He is gone, he is gone, And we cast away moan; Gramercy on his soul! And of all Christian souls! Adieu. Laer. Do you see this, O God? King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, [will, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you 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 labour 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.

King. So you shall; And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Another Room in the same. Enter HORATIO and a Servant. Hor. What are they that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, sir; They say they have letters for you. Hor. Let them come in.- [Exit Serv. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. Enter Sailors.

1 Sail. God bless you, sir. Hor. Let him bless thee too.

1 Sail. He shall, sir, an 't please him. There's a letter for you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be

Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Hor. [Reads.] "Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou would'st fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.

"He that thou knowest thine-HAMLET."

Come, I will give you way for these your letters; And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt. SCENE VII.-Another Room in the same. Enter KING and LAERTES.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend; ; Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain, Pursu'd my life.

Laer. It well appears-But tell me Why you proceeded not against these feats,, So crimeful and so capital in nature, [else, As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things You mainly were stirr'd up. King. O, for two special reasons; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, [mother, But yet to me they are strong. The queen, his Lives almost by his looks; and for myself, (My virtue or my plague, be it either which,) She is so conjunctive to my life and soul, That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a public count I might not go, Is, the great love the general gender bear him: Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyvest to graces; so that my arrows, Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms;
Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections:-But my revenge will come.
King. Break not your sleeps for that: you
must not think

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,
That we can let our beard be shook with danger,
And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear

So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace. [turn'd,-
King. To thine own peace. If he be now re-
As checking at his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe;
But even his mother shall uncharge the practice,
And call it accident.

Laer.

My lord, I will be rul'd The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ.

King. It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much, And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality, Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts Did not together pluck such envy from him, As did that one; and that, in my regard, Of the unworthiest siege.+

Laer. What part is that, my lord? King. A very riband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables and his weeds, Importing health and graveness.-Two months Here was a gentleman of Normandy,-- [since, I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, And they can well on horseback: but this gallant Had witchcraft in 't; he grew unto his seat; And to such wond'rous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, [thought, Come short of what he did.

Laer. Upon my life, Lamord.
King.

The very same.
Laer. I know him well: he is the broocht in-
And gem of all the nation.
[deed,

King. He made confession of you;
And gave you such a masterly report
For art and exercise in your defence,
And for your rapier most especial,
That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed
If one could match you: the scrimers of their
nation,

He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you oppos'd them: Sir, this report of his
Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy,
That he could nothing do but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you.
Now, out of this,-

Laer.
What out of this, my lord?
King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?
Laer.

Why ask you this?

King. Not that I think you did not love your But that I know love is begun by time; [father; And that I see, in passages of proof,|| Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick, or snuff, that wili abate it, And nothing is at a like goodness still;

And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the
ulcer:

Hamlet comes back; What would you undertake,
To show yourself in deed your father's son
More than in words?

Laer.

To cut his throat i' the church. King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; [Laertes, Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Will you do this, keep close within your chamber: Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home: We'll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame [gether, The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, toAnd wager o'er your heads: he, being remiss, Most generous, and free from all contriving, Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice, Requite him for your father. Laer. I will do't: And, for the purpose, I'll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from deatn, That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point With this contagion; that, if I gall him slightly, It may be death. King. Let's further think of this; Weigh what convenience, both of time and means, May fit us to our shape: if this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance,

'Twere better not assay'd; therefore this project Should have a back, or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proof.** Soft;-let me see:We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings,++

I ha't:

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

Act Fifth.

SCENE I-A Churchyard.

Exeunt.

Enter Two Clowns, with spades, &c.

1 Clo. Is she to be buried in christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

2 Clo. I tell thee, she is; therefore make her grave straight:+ the crowner hath sat on her,

and finds it christian burial.

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

2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so.

1 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.

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

1 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.

2 Clo. But is this law?

1 Clo. Ay, marry is 't; crowner's-quest law. 2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial.

1 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 gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.

2 Clo. Was he a gentleman?

1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 2 Clo. Why, he had none.

1 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--

* Insensible.

+ Immediate. Fellow.

Give over.

The song, entire, is printed in Percy's Reliques

2 Clo. Go to.

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

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

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

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

1 Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. ? 2 Clo. Marry, now I can tell.

1 Clo. To't.

2 Clo. Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance.

1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating: and, when you are asked this question next, say, a grave-maker; the houses that he makes, last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan, and fetch me a stoup of liquor.

[Exit 2 Clo. 1 Clown digs and sings. In youth, when I did love, did love,|| Methought it was very sweet,

To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove,
O, methought, there was nothing meet.
Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business?

he sings at grave-making.

Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.

Ham. 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.

1 Clo. But age with his stealing steps,
Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
And hath shipped me into the land,
As if I had never been such.

[Throws up a skull. Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent any body, might it not?

Hor. It might, my lord.

Ham. Or of a courtier; which could say, "Good-morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?" This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?

Hor. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my lady Worm's; chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade: Here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see 't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats¶ with them? mine ache to think on 't.

1 Cio. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, [Sings.
For and a shrouding sheet:
O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.

[Throws up a skull. Ham. There's another: Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits** now, his quillets,++ his cases, his tenures, and his

of Ancient English Poetry, vol. i.; it was written by Lord Vaux.

An ancient game played as quoits are at present. **Subtleties.

++ Frivolous distinctions.