King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.

[Exit HORATIO. [To LAERTES.] Strengthen your patience in our last night's

speech;

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 thereby shall we see ';
Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Hall in the Castle.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.

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

Hor. Remember it, my lord!

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 10,
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.

Hor.

Ham. Up from my cabin,

That is most certain.

7 An hour of quiet THEREBY shall we see ;] So all the 4tos, after that of 1604, (that of 1603 has no corresponding line) which has thirty,-no doubt a misprint for "thereby," and not for shortly, as it stands in the folios.

8 Worse than the MUTINES in the BILBOES.] Here again we have "mutines" for mutineers, as in " King John," Vol. iii. p. 146. The bilboes seem to have been so called from the place where they were made, Bilboa, and they consisted of an iron bar with rings for confining the hands or legs of offenders. It is said that the punishment was made known to this country by the Armada.

let us KNOW,] "Let us own," in the corr. fo. 1632; but "let us know" is nearly as intelligible.

10 When our DEEP plots do PALL; and that should TEACH us,] The folio has "dear plots" for deep plots of the 4tos: "pall" is the reading of the 4to, 1604, and of the folio: other 4tos. have fall; and very possibly the true word was fail, as it stands in the corr. fo. 1632. We adopt "teach" from the folio, 1623, instead of "learn" from the older copies.

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,
Oh 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,
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 me how I did proceed?

Hor. I beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villains,

Ere 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 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 know of these contents,

1 My fears forgetting manners, to UNSEAL] The word "unseal" of the folio, 1623, is unfold in the 4tos, 1604, &c. In our former edition we preferred unfold, but we think we were wrong.

2 And stand a COMMA 'tween their amities,] "The comma (says Johnson) is the note of connection and continuity of sentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction."

46

3 And many such like As's of great charge,] The 4tos. unintelligibly read as, sir, of great charge," which the folio altered to assis; Hamlet refers to the word as, which begins three previous lines. In the next line, the folio uses "know" for knowledge, which in the 4tos. is knowing,

Without debatement farther, 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 th' 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.

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―
He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother;
Popp'd in between th' 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 farther 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,

4

was heaven ORDINANT.] Ordinate is the word in the folio.

5 Why, man, they did make love to this employment:] This is a line not in any of the 4tos. In the next line the folio reads debate for "defeat," which last seems the right word. Above it has sement for "sequent ;" and both errors

are remedied in the corr. fo. 1632.

for my proper life,] The corr. fo. 1632, without any apparent necessity, transposes the line, thus, "His angle for my proper life thrown out." Two lines lower it reads his own (meaning his own stratagem) for "this arm."

7 TO QUIT him with this arm?] i. e. To quite or requite him. From this line until the entrance of Osrick is only in the folio impressions.

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 young OSRICK'.

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

Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,-as 'twere, -I cannot tell how.--But 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, in good faith; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court 2, Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very

8- - I'll COURT his favours:] Rowe reads "court," for count of the 4tos. and folios, and most likely he was right, though in our former edition we were too unwilling to abandon the old copies here.

Enter young Osrick.] So the folio, 1623. "Enter a courtier," in the 4tos, 1604, &c. "Enter a braggart gentleman," in the 4to, 1603.

1 - as I say,] The folio, only, reads "as I saw." In the next speech it absurdly has friendship for "lordship."

2 Sir, here is newly come to court,] From these words, inclusive, down to Hamlet's question, "What's his weapon?" is only in the 4tos, 1604, &c., with the exception of the words "you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is," -to which the folio, 1623, adds "at his weapon." There is no trace of this part of the play in the 4to, 1603.

soft society, and great showing: indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would

see.

Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I know, to divide him inventorily would dizzy the arithmetic of memory; and yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sale. 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.

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.

Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman ? Osr. Of Laertes ?

Hor. His purse is empty already; all his golden 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.-Well, sir.

Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes isHam. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him. in excellence; but to know a man well were to know himself. Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed'.

3

Ham. What's his weapon?

Osr. Rapier and dagger3.

to speak FEELINGLY of him,] So all the 4tos. but that of 1604, which has sellingly; and sellingly may very possibly be right, in connexion not only with "inventorily," but with "sale," as we venture to print it, not sail as always hitherto given the reference is to the value, and speedy "sale" of the qualifications of Laertes. Lower down "really " may have been put for rarely.

- in his MEED he's unfellowed.] i. e. In his merit, or excellence. See "meed" used in a similar sense in Vol. iv. pp. 136. 194, and this Vol. p. 220.

5 Rapier and DAGGER.] The weapons of the time. See a passage in R. Greene's "James the Fourth," (Edit. Dyce, ii. 128) where the learned editor has been sorely puzzled by the repetition of "rapier and dagger "in the speeches of Slipper and the Cutler, from not understanding that what the first asked for was "a reaper