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Ham. Thou dost lie in't, to be in't, and say it is thine: 'tis för the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.

1 Clo. "Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again, from me to you.

Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?

1 Clo. For no man,

sir.

Ham. What woman, then?

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.

1 Clo. One that was a woman, sir; but rest her ul, she's dead.

Ham. How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card,1 or equivocation will undo us. By the lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it; the age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.-How long hast thou been a grave maker?

1 Clo. Of all the days i' the year, I came to 't that day that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.4

Ham. How long's that since?

1 Clo. Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: It was that very day that young Hamlet was born: he that is mad, and sent into England.

Ham. Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? 1 Clo. Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits there; or, if he do not, 'tis no great

matter there.

Ham. Why?

Ham. This ?

[Takes the Scull

1 Clo. E'en that. Ham. Alas, poor Yorick!-I knew him, Horatio ; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips, that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her langh at that.-'Prythee, Horatio, tell me one thing. Hor. What's that, my lord?

Ham. Dost thou think, Alexander look'd o' this fashion i' the earth?

Hor. E'en so.

Ham. And smelt so? pah!

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[Throws down the Scull.

Hor. E'en so, my lord.
Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio!
Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of
Alexander, till he find it stopping a bunghole?

Hor. "Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

Ham. No, 'faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: As thus ; Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is

1 Clo. "Twill not be seen in him there; there the earth; of earth we make loam : And why of that men are as mad as he.6

Ham. How came he mad?

1 Clo. Very strangely, they say.

Ham. How strangely?

1 Clo. 'Faith, e'en with losing his wits. Ham. Upon what ground?

1 Clo. Why, here in Denmark; I have been | sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. Ham. How long will a man lie i'the earth ere he rot? 1 Clo. 'Faith, if he be not rotten before he die, (as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that scarce will hold the laving in,) he will last you some eight year, or nine year: a tanner will last

you nine year.

Ham. Why he more than another?

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1 Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that he will keep out water a great while and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here's a scull now hath lain you i' the earth three-and-twenty years. Ham. Whose was it?

1 Clo. A whoreson mad fellow's it was; Whose do you think it was?

Ham. Nay, I know not.

1 Clo. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue, he poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once, This same scull, sir, was Yorick's scull, the king's jester.

1 'To speak by the card,' is to speak precisely, by rule, or according to a prescribed course. It is a metaphor from the seaman's card or chart by which he guides his course.

2 Seven, quarto, 1603.

3 Picked is curious, over nice. Thus in the Camoridge Dict. 1594:-Conquisitus, exquisite, and picked, perfite, fine, dainty, curious.' See King John, Acti. Sc. 1. 4 Look you, here's a scull hath been here this dozen year, let me see, ay, ever since our last King Hamlet slew Fortenbrasse in combat: young Hamlet's father, he that's mad.' Quarto of 1603. It will be seen that the poet places this event thirty years ago in the present copy copy. See the next note by Sir William Blackstone. 5By this scene, it appears that Hamlet was then thirty years old, and knew Yorick well, who had been dead twenty-three years. And yet in the beginning of the play he is spoken of as a very young man, one that designed to go back to school, i. e. to the university of Wittenburgh. The poet in the fifth act had forgot what ne wrote in the first. Blackstone.

6 Nimirum insanus paucis videatur; eo quod Maxima pars hominum morbo jactatur eodem.' Horat. Sat. 3, Lib. ii.

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loam, whersto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel ?

Imperious Cæsar, dead, and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that the earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!1! But soft! but soft! aside:-Here comes the king, Enter Priests, &c. in Procession; the Corpse of OPHELIA, LAERTES, and Mourners, following; King, Queen, their Trains, &c.

The queen, the courtiers: Who is this they follow? And with such maimed rites! This doth betoken, The corse, they follow, did with desperate hand Fordo12 its own life. "Twas of some estate " Couch we awhile, and mark.

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9 Quarto-table. 9 Favour is countenance, complexion. 10 Imperial is substituted in the folio. Vide Troilus and Cressida, Act iv. Sc. 5.

11 A flaw is a violent gust of wind. See Coriolanus Act v. Sc. 3.

12 To fordo is to undo, to destroy. Thus in Othello : This is the night

That either makes me or fordoes me quite.' Would to God it might be leful for me to fordoo my self, or to make an end of me.'-Acolastus, 1529. 13 Estate for rank. Estates was a common term for persons of rank.

14 Quarto-Doctor.

15 Shards, does not only mean fragments of pots and tiles, but rubbish of any kind. Baret has shardes of stones, fragmentum lapidis ;' and 'shardes, or pieces of stones broken and shattred, rubbel or rubbish of old houses. Our version of the Bible has preserved to us potsherds; and I have heard bricklayers, in Surrey and Sussex, use the compounds tile-sherds, slate. sherds, &c.

16 i. e. garlands. Stil. used in most guages, but no other example of its use i

rthern lanong us has

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Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial.

Laer. Must there no more be done? 1 Priest.

We should profane the service of the dead,
To sing a requiem,' and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.

Laer.

Lay her i' the earth ;

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh,
May violets spring!2-I tell thee, churlish priest,
A minist'ring angel shall my sister be,
When thou liest howling.

Ham.

What, the fair Ophelia Queen. Sweets to the sweet: Farewell! [Scattering Flowers I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought, thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave.

Laer. O, treble wo Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Depriv'd thee of!--Hold off the earth a while, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms: [Leaps into the Grave. Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead; Till of this flat a mountain you have made To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.

Ham. [Advancing.] What is he, whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I, Hamlet the Dane. [Leaps into the Grave. Laer. The devil take thy soul! [Grappling with him.

Ham. Thou pray'st not well. I pry'thee, take thy fingers from thy 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.

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.

yet offered itself. It is thought that Shakspeare may have met with the word in some old history of Hamlet, which furnished him with his fable. The editor of the first folio changed this unusual word for rites, a less appropriate word. Warburton boldly substituted chunts, and Mr. Alexander Chalmers affirms that this is the true word. 1 A requiem is a mass sung for the rest of the soul of the dead. So called from the words

'Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,' &c. part of the service.

2

————————— e tumulo fortunataque favilla Nascentur violæ ? Persius, Sat. i. 3 The quarto of 1603 reads:-'Wilt drink up vessels ? and instead of Ossa, Oosell. Some of the commentators have supposed that by esill Hamlet means vinegar. But surely the strain of exaggeration and rant of the rest of the speech requires some more impossible feat than that of drinking up vinegar. What river, lake, or firth Shakspeare meant to designate is uncertain, perhaps the Issel, but the firth of Iyse is nearest to his scene of action, and near enough in name. What the late editors meant by their strange contraction of woul't I know not. Mr. Gifford observes that they appear none of then to have understood the grammatical construction of the passage. Woo't or woot'o, in the northern counties, is the common contraction of wouldst thou, and this is the reading of the old copies.-This sort of hyperbole Ma. lone has shown was common with our ancient poets :'Come, drink up Rhine, Thames, and Meander dry.' Eastward Hoe, 1609.

'Else would I set my mouth to Tygris streams. And drink up overflowing Euphrates.' Greene's Orlando Furioso 1599

Queen. For love of God, forbear him. Ham. Zounds, show me what the 'lt do: Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tɛa thyself,

3

Woo't drink up esile, 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,
Singing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou❜lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.
Queen.

This is mere madness:

;

|
And thus awhile the fit will work on him
Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,4
His silence will sit drooping.
Hear you, sir,

Ham.

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, the dog will have his day. [Exu
King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upor
him.-
[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 sea.- ·
This grave shall have a living monument :
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.
SCENE II. A Hall in the Castle. Enter HAM
LET and HORATIO.
Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see
the other ;-

You do remember all the circumstance?
Hor. Remember it, my lori!

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,
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,-

4 See note on Act iii. Sc. 1. The golden couplets al ludes to the dove only laying two eggs. The young nestlings when first disclosed are only covered with a yellow down, and the mother rarely leaves the nest, in consequence of the tenderness of her young.

5 i. e. mutineers. See King John, Act ii. Sc. 2.

6 The bilboes were bars of iron with fetters annexed to them, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from. Bilboa, in Spain, where implements of iron and steel were fabricated. To understand Shakspeare's allusion, it should be known that as these fetters connected the legs of the offenders very closely together. their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not lel him sleep. Every motion of one must disturb his part ner in confinement. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower, among the other spoils of the Spanish Armada. 7 To pall was to fade or fall away; to become, as it were, dead, or without spirit: from the old French pasler. Thus in Antony and Cleopatra :—

'I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.' 8 Malone has told us that the sea-gown appears to have been the usual dress of seamen in Shakspeare's time; but not a word of what it was like. Esclavine, (says Cotgrave,) a sea-gowne, a coarse high-collar'd and short-sleeved gowne, reaching to the mid-leg, and Lused mostly by seamen and sailors.'

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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 villaries, Or3 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 statists4 do, 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 should still her wheaten garland wear, peace And stand a comma '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'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 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 employment;

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 ?8

He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother; Popp'd in between the election and my hopes;

1 'With, ho! such hugs 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.

2 on the supervise, no leisure bated.' The supervise is the looking over; no leisure bated means without any abatement or intermission of time.

3 Or,' for ere, before. See Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. 4 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.

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

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stand a comma 'tween their amities." This is câû¡y 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.'

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land,

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim 13 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 his favours:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion.
Hor.

Peace: who comes here!
Enter OSRIC.10

Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.

Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.-Dost know this water-fly ?11

Hor. No, my good lord.

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

12—

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,' 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.13 Sir, here is newly come to court, Laertes: believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, 14 of very soft society, and great showing: Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card15 or, calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent16 of what part a gentleman would see.

That is, without

7 Not shriving-time allow'd.' allowing time for the confession of their sins. S Bethink thee, does it not become incumbent upon me to requite him,' &c. Vide note upon King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 3. This passage and the three following speeches are not in the quartos.

9' 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.

10 The quarto of 1603-Enter a braggart Gentle

man.'

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

12 Exceedingly, my lord; 'tis very sultry.'

igniculum brumæ si tempore poscas Accipit endromidem; si dexeris æstuo, sudat.' Juvenal

13 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.'

14 i. e. distinguishing excellencies.

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

16 You shall find in him the continent of what part a

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Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you ;-though, I know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetic 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 and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror; and, who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more. 2

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.3

Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman ?

Osr. Of Laertes ?

Ham. What call you the carriages? Hor. I knew, you must be edified by the ma gent ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german1o to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides; I would, it might be hangers till then. But, on: Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish: Why is this impawned, as you call it?

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits ;11 he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer. Ham. How, if I answer no?

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your per

Hor. His purse is empty already; all his golden son in trial. words are spent.

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know, you are not ignorant

Ham. I would, you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me.4-Well, sir. Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself.5

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Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.

Ham. What's his weapon?
Osr. Rapier and dagger.

7

Ham. That's two of his weapons: but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has impawned, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

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.'

1 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.

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

3 '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.'

4 'If you did, it would not tend much toward proving me or confirming me.'-What Hamlet would have added we know not; but surely Shakspeare's use of the word approve, upon all occasions, is against Johnson's explanation of it- to recommend to approbation.' | There is no consistency in the commentators; they rarely look at the prevalent sense of a word in the poet, but explain it many ways, to suit their own views of the meaning of a passage.

5 I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him, &c.' I dare not pretend to know him, lest I should pretend to an equality: no man can completely know another, but by knowing himself, which is the utmost extent of human wisdom.

6 Meed 8 merit. Vide King Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me: let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I deliver you so?

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship.

[Exit.

Ham. Yours, yours.-He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. Hor. This lapwing12 runs away with the shell on his head.

Ham. He did comply13 with his dug, before he sucked it. Thus has he, (and many more of the same bevy, 14 that, I know, the drossy age dotes on,) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter;15 a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions; 16 and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

9 The margent. The gloss or commentary in old books was usually on the margin of the leaf. 10 i. e. more a kin. Those that are german to him, though fifty times removed, shall come under the hang man.'-Winter's Tale.

11 The conditions of the wager are thus given in the quarto of 1603 :

'Marry, sir, that young Laertes in twelve venies
At rapier and dagger, do not get three odds of you.'
12 This lapwing runs away with the shell on his
head. Horatio means to call Osric a raw, unfledged,
foolish fellow. It was a common comparison for a
forward fool. Thus in Meres's Wits Treasury, 1598 :-
As the lapwing runneth away with the shell on her
head, as soon as she is hatched,' &c.
'Forward lapwing,

He flies with the shell on his head.'
Vittoria Corombona.
13 'He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it.'
See Act ii. Sc. 2.

14 The folio reads, mine more of the same bevy.'Mine is evidently a misprint, and more likely for manie (i. e. many than mine. The quarto of 1604 reads, many more of the same breed.'

15 Outward habit of encounter' is exterior politeness of address.

16A kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions,' &c. The folio reads, fond and winnowed.The corruption of the quarto, prophaned and trennowed,' is not worth attention; and I have no doubt that fond in the folio should be fanned, formerly spelt fan'd, and sometimes even without the apostrophe. Fanned and winnowed are almost always coupled by old writers, for reasons that may be seen under those words in Baret's Alvearie. So Shakspeare himself, in Troilus and Cressida :

"Distinction with a broad and powerful fan, Puffing at all, winnows the light away.' The meaning is, 'These men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory con.

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7 Impawned.' The folio reads imponed. Pignare, in Italian, signifies both to impawn and to lay a wager.versation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable pratThe stakes are, indeed, a gage or pledge.

8 Hangers, that part of the heli by which the sword was suspended.

tle, which yet carries them through with the most light and inconsequential judgments; but if brought to the trial by the slightest breath of rational conversation, the

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Enter a Lord.' Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: He sends to know, if vour pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that ycu will take longer time.

Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able

as now.

Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down.

Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou would'st not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter. Hor. Nay, good my lord,

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Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are

not fit.

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readi ness is all: Since no inan, of aught he leaves,knows ;—what is't to leave betimes.3 Let be. Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants, with Foils, &c. King, Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand

from me.

[The King puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done

you wrong;

pardon it, as you are a gentleman.

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.
Laer.

I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour,
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace,
To keep my name ungorg'd: But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.
Ham.
I embrace it freely,
And will this brother's wager frankly play.—
Give us the foils; come on.

Come, one for me.
Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorane
Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night
Stick fiery off indeed.
You mock me, sir.
Ham. No, by this hand.
King. Give them the foils, young Osric.-Cousin
Hamlet,
You know the wager?
Ham.
Very well, my lord;
Your grace hath laid the odds' o'the weaker side.
King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both:
But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds.
Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another.
Ham. This likes me well: These foils have all a
[They prepare to play.

Osr. Ay, my good lord.
King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that
table :-
If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
Let all the battlements their ordnance fire:
Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And in the cup an union? shall he throw,
Richer than that which four success we kings

This presence knows, and you must needs have In Denmark's crown have worn ; G..e me the cups ;

heard,

How I am punish'd with a sore distraction.
What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was❜t Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: If't be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
bubbles burst; or, in other words, display their emp.
tiness.'

1 All that passes between Hamlet and this Lord is omitted in the folio.

2 i. e. misgiving, a giving against, or an internal feeling and prognostic of evil.

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin ;-
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer. Come, my lord.

[They play.

No.

Judgment. Well,-again.

ask advice of older men of the sword, whether artificial
honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's apology.
7 The king had wagered six Burbury horses to a few
rapiers, poniards, &c.; that is, about twenty to one.-
These are the odds here meant. The odds the King
means in the next speech were twelve to nine in favour
of Hamlet, by Laertes giving him three.

vessel in which water is fetched or kept is also called a water-stoup. A stoup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine.

3 Since no man, of aught he leaves,-knowsWhat is it to leave betimes! This is the reading of 8 Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, the folio; the quarto reads, 'Since no man has aught and denotes a pewter vessel resembling our wine meaof what he leaves. What is't to leave betimes.' Has sures; but of no determinate quantity; for there are is evidently here a blunder for knows. Johnson thus gallon-stoups, pint-stoups, mutchkin-stoups, &c. The interprets the passage:- Since` no man knows aught of the state which he leaves, since he cannot judge what other years may produce, why should we be afraid of leaving life betimes?' Warburton's explanation is very ingenious, but perhaps strains the poet's meaning farther than he intended. It is true that by death we lose all the goods of life; yet seeing this loss is no otherwise an evil than as we are sensible of it; and since death removes all sense of it, what matters it how soon we lose them.' This argument against the fear of death has been dilated and placed in a very striking light by the late Mr. Green.-See Diary of a Lover of Literature, Ipswich, 1810, 4to. p. 230.-Shakspeare himself has elsewhere said, the sense of death is most in apprehension.'

4 i. e. the king and queen.

5 This line is not in the quarto.

6 i. e. unwounded. This is a piece of satire on fanestical honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will

9 An union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size. And hereupon it is that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, &c. call them unions, as a man would say singular, and by themselves alone. To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been common to royal and mercantile prodigality. Thus in the second part of 'If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody :

'Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes,
Instead of sugar. Gresham drinks this pearl
Unto the queen his mistress.'

According to Rondeletus, pearls were supposed to have
an exhilarating quality. 'Uniones quæ a conchis, &c.
valde cordiale sunt. Under pretence of throwing a
pearl into the cup, the King may be supposed to drop
Hamlet sub.
some poisonous drug into the wine.
sequently asks him tauntingly, 'Is the union here :

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