Enter Prologue.

For us, and for our Tragedy,

Here ftooping to your Clemency;
We beg your hearing patiently.

Ham. Is this a Prologue, or the Pofie of a Ring?
Oph. 'Tis brief, my Lord.

Ham. As Woman's love.

Enter King and Queen.

King. Full thirty times bath Phoebus Car gon round
Neptune's falt Wash, and Tellus Orbed Ground:
And thirty dozen Moons with borrowed sheen,
About the World have time, twelve thirties been,
Since Love our Hearts, and Hymen did our Hands
Unite commutual, in moft facred Bands.

Queen. So many Journeys may the Sun and Moon
Make us again count o'er, e'er love be done.
But woe is me, you are fo fick of late,

So far from Cheer, and from your former State,
That I difturft you; yet though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my Lord, it nothing muft.
For Womens 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 fix'd, my Fear is fo.

King. Faith I must leave thee, Love, and shortly too;
My operant Powers my Functions leave to do,
And thou fhalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd, and haply, one as kind
For Husband fhalt thou

Queen. Oh confound the reft!

Such Love muft needs be Treason in my Breast:
In fecond Husband let me be accurst,

None wed the fecond, but who kill'd the first.
Ham. Wormwood, Wormwood.

Queen. The inftances that fecond Marriage move,
Are base refpects of Thrift, but none of Love.
A fecond time, I kill my Husband dead,
When fecond Husband kiffes me in Bed.

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

Of violent Birth, but poor validity:

Which now like Fruit unripe fticks on the Tree,
But fall unshaken, when they mellow be.
Most neceffary 'tis that we forget

To pay our felves, what to our felves is Debt:
What to our felves in Paffion we propose,
The Paffion ending, doth the purpose lofe
The Violence of either Grief or Joy,

Their own enactors with themselves destroy :
Where Joy moft revels, Grief doth moft lament;
Gref joys, Joy grieves on flender accident.
This World is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our Loves fhould with our Fortunes change.
For 'tis a Queftion left us yet to prove,

Whether Love lead Fortune, or elfe 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, fhall 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 fo contrary run,
That our Devices ftill are overthrown,

Our Thoughts are ours, their Ends none of our own.
So think thou wilt no fecond Husband wed,

But die thy Thoughts, when thy firft Lord is dead.

Queen. Nor Earth to give me Food, nor Heav'n Light, Sport and repofe lock from me Day and Night;

Each oppofite that blanks the Face of Joy,
Meet what I would have well, and it deftroy,
But here, and hence, purfue me lafting Strife,
If once a Widow, ever I be Wife.

Ham. If the should break it now.

King. 'Tis deeply fworn; fweet, leave me here a while,

The tedious Day with fleep.

My Spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile

Queen. Sleep rock thy Brain,

[Sleeps.

And never come mifchance between us twain.
Ham. Madam, how like you the Play?

Exit.

Queen.

Queen. The Lady protefts too much, methinks.
Ham. Oh but he'll keep her word.

King. Have you heard the Argument, is there no Offence in't?

Ham. No, no, they do but jeft, poifon in jeft, no Of fence i'th' World.

King. What do you call the Play?

Ham. The Moufe-trap; Marry how? Tropically. This Play is the Image of a Murther done in Vienna; Gonzago is the Duke's Name, his Wife Baptifta; you fhall fee anon, 'tis a Knavish piece of Work; but what o' that? Your Majefty, and we that have free Souls, it touches us not; let the gall'd Jade winch, our withers are unwrung.

Enter Lucianus.

This is one Lucianus, Nephew to the King.
Oph. You are a good Chorus, my Lord.
Ham. I could interpret between you and

If I could fee the Puppets dallying.

your Love;

Oph. You are keen, my Lord, you are keen.

Ham. It would coft you a groaning, to take off my Edge.

Oph. Still worfe and worse.

Ham. So you mistake Husbands.

Begin Murther. Pox, 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, elfe no Creature feeing:

Thou Mixture rank, of Midnight-Weeds collected,
With Hecate's Bane, thrice blafted, thrice infected,
The natural Magick, and dire property,

On wholfome Life, ufurp immediately.

[Pours the Poifon in his Ears. Ham. He poyfons him i'th' Garden for's Eftate; his Name's Gonzago; the Story is extant, and writ in choice Italian. You fhall fee anon how the Murtherer gets the Love of Gonzaga's Wife.

Oph. The King rifes.

Ham. What, frighted with falfe Fire ?

Queen. How fares my Lord?

Pol.

Pol. Give o'er the Play.

King. Give me fome Light. Away.

All Lights, Lights, Lights.

Manent Hamlet and Horatio.

Ham. Why let the ftrucken Deer go weep,

The Heart ungalled play:

For fome must watch, whilft fome must fleep?
So runs the World away.

Exeunt.

Would not this, Sir, and a Foreft of Feathers, if the rest of my Fortunes turn Turk with me; with two Provincial Roses on my rac'd Shooes, get me a Fellowship in a cry of Players, Sir.

Hor. Half a Share.

Ham. A whole one I.

For thou dost know, oh Damen dear,

This Realm difmantled was

Of Jove himself, and now reigns here.
A very very Pajeck.

Hor. You might have Rim'd.

Ham. Oh good Horatio, I'll take the Ghoft's word for a thousand Pounds. Didft perceive?

Hor. Very well, my Lord.

Ham. Upon the Talk of the Poisoning?

Hor. I did very well note him.

Enter Rofeneraus and Guildenstern.

Ham. Ob, ha come fome Mufick. Come the Recorders,

For if the King like not the Comedy;

Why then belike he likes it not perdy.

Come, fome Mufick.

Guild. Good my Lord, vouchfafe me a word with you. Ham. Sir, a whole History.

Guild. The King, Sir

Ham. Ay Sir, what of him?

Guild. Is in his retirement, marvellous diftemper'd

Ham. With Drink, Sir?

Guild. No, my Lord, rather with Choler.

Ham. Your Wifdom should fhew it felf more rich to fignifie this to his Doctor; for me to put him to his Purgation, would perhaps plunge him into far more Choler.

Guild. Good my Lord, put your Difcourfe into fome Frame, and ftart not fo wildly from my Affair.

Ham.

Ham. I am tame, Sir, pronounce.

Guild. The Queen your Mother, in most great affliction of Spirit, hath fent me to you.

Ham. You are welcome.

Guild. Nay, good my Lord, this Courtefie is not of the right breed. If it fhall please you to make me a wholfom Anfwer, I will do your Mother's Commandment; if not, your Pardon, and my return fhall be the end of my Bufinefs.

Ham. Sir, I cannot.

Guild. What, my Lord?

Ham. Make you a wholfome Anfwer; my Wit's difeas'd. But, Sir, fuch Anfwers as I can make, you fhall command; or rather you fay, my Mother therefore no

more but to the matter

my Mother, you fay

Ref. Then thus fhe fays; your Behaviour hath ftruck her into amazement, and admiration.

Ham. Oh wonderful Son, that can so astonish a Mother. But is there no fequel at the Heels of this Mother-admiration?

Rof. She defires to speak with you in her Closet e'er you go to Bed.

Ham. We fhall obey, were fhe ten times our Mother. Have you any further Trade with us?

Rof. My Lord, you once did love me.

Ham. So I do ftill, by these pickers and stealers. Rof. Good my Lord, what is your Caufe of Diftemper? You do freely bar the Door of your own Liberty, if you deny your Griefs to your Friend.

Ham. Sir, I lack Advancement.

Rof. How can that be, when you have the Voice of the King himself, for your Succeffion in Denmark?

Ham. Ay, but while the Grafs grows, the Proverb is fomething mufty.

Enter one with a Recorder.

O the Recorders, let me fet one. To withdraw with you-why do you go about to recover the Wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guild. O my Lord, if my Duty be too bold, my Love is too unmannerly.

Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this Pipe ?

Guild.