Ham. Nothing.

Oph. You are merry, my lord.

Ham. Who, I?

Oph. Ay, my lord.

Ham. O your only jig-maker. What should a man do, but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

Ham. So long? Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? then there's hope, a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year: but, by'rlady, he must build churches then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse; whose epitaph is. For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot."

Trumpets sound. The dumb Show follows.*

King and a Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers; she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes possionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but, in the end, accepts his love. [Exeunt,

Oph. What means this, my lord?

Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief..

Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play.

[2] A suit trimmed with sables was in Shakespeare's time the richest dress worn by men in England; and wherever his scene might happen to be, the customs of his own country were still in his thoughts. By the statute of apparel, 24 Henry VIII. it is ordained, that none under the degree of an earl may use subles. It is well known this fur is not black. MALONE.

[3] Among the country May-games there was an hobby-borse, which, when the puritanical humour of those times opposed and discredited these games, was brought by the poets and ballad-makers as an instance of the ridiculous zeal of

the sectaries: from these ballads Hamlet quotes a line or two. WARBURTON. [4] See Illustrations, Vol. X.

周

Miching---secret, sneaking, lying bid. Michers are lurking vagabonds. Our author himself says, of prince Henry, "Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a mieher? Shall the son of England prove a thief?" WARBURTON.

Enter PROLogue.

Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all.

Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant?

Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him: Be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means."

Oph. You are naught, you are naught; I'll mark the play.

Pro. For us, and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.

Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
Oph. "Tis brief, my lord.

Ham. As woman's love.

Enter a King, and a Queen.

P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground;
And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen,
About the world have times twelve thirties been;
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o'er, ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,

So far from cheer, and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
For women fear too much, even as they love;
And women's fear and love hold quantity;
In neither ought, or in extremity.

Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so.

Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;

Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd; and, haply, one as kind

[6] The conversation of Hamlet with Ophelia, which cannot fail to disgust every modern reader, is probably such as was peculiar to the young and fashionable of the age of Shakespeare, which was, by no means, an age of delicacy. The poet is, however, blameable; for extravagance of thought, not indecency of expression, is the characteristic of madness, at least, of such madness as should be represented on the STEEVENS.

scene.

For husband shalt thou

P. Queen. O, confound the rest . ·

Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst!

None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.
Ham. That's wormwood.

P. Queen. The instances, that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love;

A second time I kill my husband dead,

When second husband kisses me in bed.

P. King. I do believe, you think what now you speak But, what we do determine, oft we break.

Purpose is but the slave to memory;

Of violent birth, but poor validity :

Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.

Most necessary 'tis, that we forget

To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt :"
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy

Their own enactures with themselves destroy :"
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye; nor 'tis not strange,

That even our loves should with our fortunes change:
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend:
For who not needs, shall never lack a friend;
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.

But, orderly to end where I begun,-
Our wills, and fates, do so contráry run,
That our devices still are overthrown;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;

But die thy thoughts, when thy first lord is dead.

P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!

[7] The performance of a resolution, in which only the resolver is interested, is a debt only to himself, which he may therefore remit at pleasure.

JOHNSON.

[8] What grief or joy enact or determine in their violence, is revoked in their abatement. JOHNSON.

Sport and repose lock from me, day, and night!
To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope 16
Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy,
Meet what I would have well, and it destroy!
Both here, and hence, pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!

Ham. If she should break it now,

P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn.

awhile;

[TO OPHELIA. Sweet, leave me here

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile

The tedious day with sleep.

P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain;

[Sleeps.

And never come mischance between us twain ! [Exit. Ham. Madam, how like you this play?

Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Ham. O, but she'll keep her word.

King. Have you heard the argument? is there no of fence in't?

Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i'the world.

King. What do you call the play?

Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: But what of that? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not: Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.

Enter LUCIANUS.

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord.

Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying.

Oph. Your are keen, my lord, you are keen.

Ham. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge. Oph. Still better, and worse.

Ham. So you mistake your husbands.-Begin, murderer-leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come;

[9] May my whole liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prison. Anchor is for anchoret.

JOHNSON.

[1] He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is--

the thing

"In which he'll catch the conscience of the king."

STEEVENS.

[2] This refers to the interpreter who formerly sat on the stage at all motions or puppet shows, and interpreted to the audience. STEEVENS.

-The croaking raven

Doth bellow for revenge.

Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;

Confederate season, else no creature seeing;

Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecat's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,

Thy natural magic and dire property,

On wholesome life usurp immediately.

[Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears. Ham. He poisons him i'the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

Oph. The king rises.

Ham. What! frighted with false fire!

Queen. How fares my lord?

Pol. Give o'er the play.

King. Give me some light :-Away'

Pol. Lights, lights, lights!

[Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO

Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play:

For some must watch, while some must sleep;

Thus runs the world away.

Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers,* (if the rest fortunes turn Turk with me,) with two Provincial

of my

roses on my razed shoes,' get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir ?6

Hor. Half a share.”

Ham. A whole one, I.

For thou dost know, O Damon dear,

This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here

A very, very-peacock."

Feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakespeare's time.

MALONE,

When shoe strings were worn, they were covered where they met in the middle, by a ribband, gathered into the form of a rose. So in an old song,

"Gil-de-roy was a bonny boy,
Had roses tull his shoon."

JOHNSON.

Provincial roses---roses of Provence, a beautiful species, much cultivated.

[6] A troop or company of players.

MALONE.

WARTON.

The actors in our author's time had not salaries as at present. The whole receipts of each theatre were divided into shares, of which the proprietors or housekeepers, as they were called, had some; and each actor had one or more shares, or part of a share, according to his merit. MALONE.

[8] This word, I take to be of Hamlet's own substituting. The verses, repeated, seem to be from some old ballad; in which, rhyme being necessary, I doubt not but the last verse ran thus; ▲ very, very-------jackass. THEOBALD.

5

VOL. X