Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

Laer.

[Leaps into the Grave

The devil take thy soul!

[Grappling with him.

Ham. Thou pray'st not well.

I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not splenetive and rash,
Yet have I in me something dangerous,

Which let thy wisdom fear: Hold off thy hand.
King. Pluck them asunder.

Queen.

All. Gentlemen,

Hor.

Hamlet, Hamlet!

Good my lord, be quiet.

[The Attendants part them, and they come out of the Grave.

Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

Queen. O my son! what theme!

Ham. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum.-What wilt thou do for her?

King. O, he is mad, Laertes.

Queen. For love of God, forbear him.

Ham. 'Zounds, show me what thou❜lt do:

[self?

Woul't weep? woul't fight? woul't fast? woul't tear thy-
Woul't drink up eisel ? eat a crocodile ?
I'll do't.-Dost thou come here to whine?
To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her, and so will I :
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us; till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

f Woul't drink up eisel?] i. e. Wilt thou swallow down large draughts of vinegar.-THEOBALD. "It may be observed that off, out, and up, are continually used by the purest and most excellent of our writers, after verbs of destroying, consuming, eating, drinking, &c.: to us, who are less conversant with the power of language, they appear somewhat like expletives; but they undoubtedly contributed something to the force, and something to the roundness of the sentence."-GIFFORD's Ben Jonson, vol. i. p. 122, where the interpretation that I have adopted is approved.

Queen.

This is mere madness :

And thus a while the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,

When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,
His silence will sit drooping.

Ham.

Hear you, sir;

What is the reason that you use me thus?

I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.
King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.-

[Exit.

[Exit HORATIO.

Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech;

[TO LAERTES.

We'll put the matter to the present push.-
Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.-
This grave shall have a living monument :
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

SCENE II.

A Hall in the Castle.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.

[Exeunt.

Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the You do remember all the circumstance?

Hor. Remember it, my lord!

[other;

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes." Rashly,

disclos'd,] i. e. Hatched. During three days after the pigeon has hatched her couplets (for she lays but two eggs) she never quits her nest, except for a few moments in quest of a little food for herself; as all that her young [which when first disclosed are covered only with a yellow down] require, is, to be kept warm, an office she never entrusts to the male.-STEEVENS and HEATH. hmutines in the bilboes.] Mutines, the French word for seditious or disobedient fellows in the army or fleet.

The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where instruments of steel were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand Shakspeare's allusion completely, it should be known, that as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very close to

And prais'd be rashness for it,-Let us know,

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do pall;" and that should teach us, There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.

Hor.

Ham. Up from my cabin,

That is most certain.

My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire;
Finger'd their packet; and, in fine, withdrew
To mine own room again: making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,
A royal knavery; an exact command,-
Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,"———
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,i

No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,

My head should be struck off.

Hor.

Is't possible?

Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

Hor. Ay, 'beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villainies, Or I could makek a prologue to my brains,

gether, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep. Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower of London, among the other spoils of the Spanish armada.-JOHNSON and STEEVENS.

And prais'd be rashness for it,-Let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When, &c.] Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with saying-That he rashly- --and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rashly-praised be rashness for it-Let us not think these events casual, but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we sometimes succeed by indiscretion when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual superintendance and agency of the Divinity. The observation is just, and will be allowed by every human being, who shall reflect on the course of his own life.-JOHNSON.

b With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,] With such causes of terror, rising from my character and designs.-JOHNSON.

1 — no leisure bated,] Without any abatement or intermission of time.MALONE.

* Or I could make-] Or in old English signified before.-MALONE.

They had begun the play;—I sat me down;
Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair:
I once did hold it, as our statists do,1
A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service: Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote ?

Hor.

Ay, good my lord.
Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,-
As England was his faithful tributary;

As love between them like the palm might flourish;
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,
And stand a comma 'tween their amities ;"
And many such like as's of great charge,-
That on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more, or less,

He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd."

Hor.

How was this seal'd?

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant;

I had my father's signet in my purse,

Which was the model" of that Danish seal :

Folded the writ up in form of the other;

Subscrib'd it; gave't the impression; plac'd it safely,
The changeling never known: Now, the next day
Was our sea-fight: and what to this was sequent
Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.

statists-] i. e. Statesmen. Most of the great men of Shakspeare's times, whose autographs have been preserved, wrote very bad hands; their secretaries very neat ones.-BLACKSTONE.

日

yeoman's service:] i. e. Eminent service: the ancient yeomen were

famous for their military valour.-STEEVENS.

As peaces should still her wheaten garland wear,

And stand a comma 'tween their amities;] The expression of our author is, like many of his phrases, sufficiently constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The comma is the note of connection and continuity of sentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction. Shakspeare had it perhaps in his mind to write,-That unless England complied with the mandate, war should put a period to their amity; he altered his mode of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, that peace should stand a comma between their amities. This is not an easy style; but is it not the style of Shakspeare?-JOHNSON.

• Not shriving-time allow'd.] i. e. Without time for confession of their sins: another proof of Hamlet's christian-like disposition.-STEEVENS. P-model-] In old language the copy.

[ment;

Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employ-
They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow:

'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites.

Hor.

Why, what a king is this! Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon? He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother; Popp'd in between the election and my hopes : Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with such cozenage; is't not perfect conscience, To quit him' with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil?

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England, What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine;

And a man's life's no more than to say, one.
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;

For by the image of my cause, I see

The portraiture of his : I'll court his favours ;"
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.

Hor.

Peace; who comes here?

Enter OSRIC.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly ?t

Hor. No, my good lord.

Ham. Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to

by their own insinuation—] By their having insinuated or thrust themselves into the employment.-MALONE.

To quit him-] To requite him.

I'll court his favours:] The old copy reads, I'll count his favours; but it must have been by a misprint, for, as M. Mason very justly asks, “What favours had Hamlet received from Laertes, that he was to make account of?" Dost know this water-fly?] A water-fly skips up and down upon the surface of the water, without any apparent purpose or reason, and is thence the proper emblem of a busy trifler.-JOHNSON.