With, ho! such bugs 5 and goblins in my life,-
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
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 villanies,
Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
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,
A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service9: Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote?

sWith, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life.' • With such causes of terror arising from my character and designs.' Bugs were no less terrific than goblins. We now call them bugbears. 6 on the supervise, no leisure bated.' The supervise is the looking over; no leisure bated means without any abatement or intermission of time.

7 Or for ere, before. See Tempest, Act i, Sc. 2, p. 12,

8 Statists are statesmen, Blackstone says, that 'most of our great men of Shakspeare's time wrote very bad hands; their secretaries very neat ones.' This must be taken with some qualification; for Elizabeth's two most powerful ministers, Leicester and Burleigh, both wrote good hands. It is certain that there were some who did write most wretched scrawls, but probably not from affectation; though it was accounted a mechanical and vulgar accomplishment to write a fair hand. The worst and most unintelligible scrawls I have met with, are Sir Richard Sackville's, in Elizabeth's time; and the miserable scribbling of Secretary Conway, of whom James said they had given him a secretary that could neither write nor read.

9 Yeoman's service I take to be good substantial service. The ancient yeomen were famous for their staunch valour in the field; and Sir Thomas Smyth says, they were the stable troop of footmen that affraide all France.'

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 should still her wheaten garland wear,
peace
And stand a comma 10 'tween their amities;

And many such like ases 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'd11.

Hor.

How was this seal'd? Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant; my father's signet in my purse,

I had

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 seafight; and what to this was sequent
Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this em-
ployment;

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 1o?

10 [stand a comma 'tween their amities.] This is oddly expressed, as Johnson observes: but the meaning appears to be, 'Stand as a comma, i. e. as a note of connexion between their amities, to prevent them from being brought to a period.'

[Not shriving-time allow'd.] That is, without allowing time for the confession of their sins.

12

[Bethink thee, does it not become incumbent upon me to re

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 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 count 13 his favours:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.

Hor.

Peace: who comes here?

Enter OSRIC 14.

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly 15?

Hor. No, my good lord.

quite him, &c.] Vide note upon King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 3, vol. v. p. 55. This passage and the three following speeches are not in the quartos.

13 [I'll count his favours.] Rowe changed this to 'I'll court his favour;' but there is no necessity for change. Hamlet means, 'I'll make account of his favours,' i. e. of his good will; for this was the general meaning of favours in the poet's time. 14 The quarto of 1603- Enter a braggart Gentleman.'

15 In Troilus and Cressida, Thersites says, 'How the poor world is pestered with such water-flies; diminutives of nature.' The gnats and such like ephemeral insects are not inapt emblems of such busy triflers as Osrick.

Ham. Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to know him: He hath much land, and fertile; let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess: 'Tis a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.

Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit: Your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.

Osr. I thank your lordship, 'tis very hot.

Ham. No, believe me, sir, 'tis very cold: the wind is northerly.

Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.

Ham. But yet, methinks, it is very sultry and hot; or my complexion

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry 16,as 'twere,-I cannot tell how-My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head: Sir, this is the matter,Ham. I beseech you, remember

[HAMLET moves him to put on his Hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good faith 17. Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences 18, of very soft society, and great showing: Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card 19 or calendar of gentry, for you shall find

16 [Exceedingly, my lord; 'tis very sultry.]

igniculum brumæ si tempore poscas

Accipit endromidem; si dexeris æstuo, sudat.'

Juvenal.

17 The folio omits this and the following fourteen speeches; and in their place substitutes,

Sir, you are not ignorant of

what excellence Laertes is at his weapon.'

18 i. e. distinguishing excellencies.

19The card or calendar of gentry.' The general preceptor of elegance; the card (chart) by which a gentleman is to direct his course; the calendar by which he is to order his time.

in him the continent 20 of what part a gentleman would see.

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;-though, I know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetick of memory; and yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth 21 and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirrour; and, who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more 22.

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?

Osr. Sir?

Hor. Is't not possible to understand in another tongue! You will do't, sir, really 23.

Ham. What imports the nomination of this gen

tleman?

20 You shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.' You shall find him containing and comprising every quality which a gentleman would desire to contemplate for imitation. Perhaps we should read, 'You shall find him the continent.'

21 Dearth, according to Tooke, is the third person singular of the verb to dere; it means some cause which dereth, i. e. maketh dear; or hurteth, or doth mischief.' That dearth was, therefore, used for scarcity, as well as dearness, appears from the following passage in a MS. petition to the council, by the merchants of London, 6 Edw. VI.: speaking of the causes of the dearness of cloth they say, 'This detriment cometh through the dearth of wool, the procurers whereof being a few in number for the augmentation of the same.'-Conway Papers. See vol. i. p. 382, note 5.

22 This speech is a ridicule of the Euphuism, or court jargon of that time.

23 [Is it not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do't, sir, really.] This interrogatory remark is very obscure. The sense may be, Is it not possible for this fantastic fellow to understand in plainer language? You will, however, imitate his jargon admirably, really, sir.' It seems very probable that ' another tongue' is an error of the press for mother tongue.'