As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds

More relative than this: the play's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. [Exit.

ACT III. SCENE I.

A Room in the Castle.

Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

King. And can you, by no drift of conference, Get from him, why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet

With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Ros. He does confess, he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof,

When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.

Queen.

Did he receive you well?

Ros. Most like a gentleman.

Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. Ros. Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply.

Queen.

To any pastime?

Did you assay him.

Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We o'er-raught on the way': of these we told him; And there did seem in him a kind of joy

9 no drift of CONFERENCE,] So the quartos, 1604, &c. The folio substitutes circumstance, which, from what follows, was probably not the word.

1- O'ER-RAUGHT on the way :] i. e. orer-reached, or, over-took.

To hear of it. They are about the court2;
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.

Pol.

"Tis most true:

And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties,

To hear and see the matter.

King. With all my heart; and it doth much content

me

To hear him so inclin'd.

Good gentlemen, give him a farther edge,

And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Ros. We shall, my lord.

King.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;

For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,

That he, as 'twere by accident, may here

Affront Ophelia': her father, and myself (lawful espials)

Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen,

We may of their encounter frankly judge;

And gather by him, as he is behav'd,

If't be th' affliction of his love, or no,

That thus he suffers for.

Queen.

I shall obey you.—

And, for your part, Ophelia, I do wish,

That your good beauties be the happy cause

Of Hamlet's wildness; so shall I hope, your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,

To both your honours.

2

Oph.

Madam, I wish it may.

[Exit Queen.

Pol. Ophelia, walk you here.-Gracious, so please

you,

they are about the court;] So the folio: the quartos read merely "they are here," &c.

* AFFRONT Ophelia :] i. e. face, or confront Ophelia. This use of the word was not uncommon. In the preceding line, the folios have there for "here;" and in the following line," lawful espials" is only in the folios.

We will bestow ourselves.-Read on this book;

[To OPHELIA.

That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness'.-We are oft to blame in this,―
"Tis too much prov'd,—that, with devotion's visage,
And pious action, we do sugar o'er

The devil himself.

King. O! 'tis too true: [Aside.] how smart A lash that speech doth give my conscience! The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it, Than is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden!

Pol. I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord. [Exeunt King and POLONIUS.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. To be, or not to be; that is the question :Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?-To die,-to sleep,—
No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,-'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die;-to sleep:-
To sleep! perchance to dream:-ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

4 Your LONELINESS.] Thus the folio. The quartos, 1604, &c. with evident corruption read, lowliness.

5

we do SUGAR o'er] So the quartos. All the folios read ". In the next line, they omit " too," found in the quartos.

surge o'er."

The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin'? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,-
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns,-puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all8;
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment",
With this regard their currents turn awry',
And lose the name of action.-Soft you, now!
The fair Ophelia.-Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Good my lord,

Oph.
How does your honour for this many a day?
Ham. I humbly thank you; well, well, well2.
Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;

• The pangs of DESPIS'D love,] Thus every quarto, but that of 1603, which has not the line, and that of 1611, which corruptly reads "The pangs of office," the printer having caught the word from the line below. The folios, dispriz'd. In the preceding line, the folios misprint," the poor man's contumely."

With a bare BODKIN?] Many passages from dramatists and other writers of the time might be produced, if necessary, to show that a "bodkin" was the old term for a small dagger. The folios give the rest of the line," who would these fardels bear," which is clearly wrong on every account.

8

make cowards of us all ;] The words "of us all," which most likely had dropped out at the end of the line in the quarto, 1604, (they are in the quarto, 1603,) are from the folio, 1623.

9

of great PITH and moment,] The quartos, 1604, &c. read, "of great pitch and moment," which Ritson preferred. His opinion will probably not be generally adopted. The line is wanting in the quarto, 1603.

1 — their currents turn AWRY,]

So all the quartos, excepting that of 1603,

where the line is not found: the folios have away for "awry."

? I humbly thank you; well, WELL, WELL.] We adopt the repetition of "well, well" from the folios.

I

pray you, now receive them.

Ham.

I never gave you aught.

No, not I3;

Oph. My honour'd lord, I know right well you

did;

And with them, words of so sweet breath compos'd,

As made the things more rich: their perfume lost1,
Take these again; for to the noble mind,

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.

Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest?
Oph. My lord!

Ham. Are you fair?

Oph. What means your lordship?

Ham. That if you be honest, and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty.

Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.

Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

3 No, not I ;] The folio reads only, No, no." In the next line but one, it has, "I know," for "You know" of the quartos.

THEIR perfume lost,] So the quarto, 1604, and every edition in the same form after it the folios, "then perfume left;" but some modern editors constantly give a false notion of the value and accuracy of the folio, 1623, by adopting, without the slightest acknowledgment, the better readings of the quartos, as if they were really contained in the folio. The folio, 1623, is on the whole a well printed volume, but it has many errors.

5 YOUR HONESTY should admit.] That this is the true reading we have the evidence of the quarto, 1603, where, however, the words are transposed, viz. "That if you be fair and honest, your beauty should admit no discourse to your honesty." The quartos, 1604, &c., have merely you for "your honesty" of the folio. In the next line, however, the folio commits an error by substituting your for "with," found in every quarto. As Mr. Barron Field observes to me, "Hamlet throughout the scene is not speaking of Ophelia personally, but of woman generally e. g. 'I have heard of your paintings too,' &c., where he does not mean that he had heard that Ophelia painted, but that women were in the habit of painting themselves."