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

Το pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:1
What to our 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 instances,] The motives.

i what to ourselves is debt:] 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.

2 Their own enactures with themselves destroy:] What grief or joy enact or determine in their violence, is revoked in their abatement. Enactures is the word in the quarto; all the modern edi. tions have enactors. JOHNSON,

The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies. And hitherto doth love on fortune tend:

The

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!

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

13

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,

To OPHELIA, P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here

a while;

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.

P. Queen.

[Sleeps.

Sleep rock thy brain; 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.

3 An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!] May my whole liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prison, Anchor is for anchoret. JOHNSON.

King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?

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

King. What do you call the play?

4

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. You 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;

-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,

• The mouse-trap.] He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is

66

-the thing

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

Thy natural magick 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 of my fortunes turn Turk with me,) with two Provencial roses on my razed' shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

Hor. Half a share.
Ham. A whole one, I.

5 Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, &c.] It appears from Decker's Gul's Hornbooke, that feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakspeare's time.

6 turn Turk with me,] This means to change condition fantastically.

7- Provencial roses on my razed shoes.] Provencial, or (with the French ç) Provençal. He means roses of Provence, a beautiful species of rose, much cultivated. Razed shoes may mean slashed shoes, i. e. with cuts or openings in them. The poet might have written raised shoes, i. e. shoes with high heels; such as by adding to the stature, are supposed to increase the dignity of a player.

8 — a cry of players,] Allusion to a pack of hounds, which was once called a cry of hounds.

1 Ham. A whole one, I.] The actors in our author's time had not

For thou dost know, O Damon dear,'
This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very-peacock.

Hor. You might have rhymed.

Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?

Hor. Very well, my lord.

Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning,-
Hor. I did very well note him.

Ham. Ah, ha!-Come, some musick; come, the recorders.

For if the king like not the comedy,

Why then, belike,2-he likes it not, perdy.3

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Come, some musick.

Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. Ham. Sir, a whole history.

Guil. The king, sir,

Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?

Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distempered. Ham. With drink, sir ?4

Guil. No, my lord, with choler.

Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer, to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to

annual salaries as at present. The whole receipts of each theatre were divided into shares, of which the proprietors of the theatre, or house-keepers, as they were called, had some; and each actor had one or more shares, or part of a share, according to his merit, 1 O Damon dear,] Hamlet calls Horatio by this name, in allusion to the celebrated friendship between Damon and Pythias. Why then, belike.] Hamlet was going on to draw the consequence, when the courtiers entered. JOHNSON.

2

3 he likes it not, perdy.] Perdy is the corruption of par Dieu, and is not uncommon in the old plays.

4 With drink, sir?] Hamlet takes particular care that his uncle's love of drink shall not be forgotten.