As we have warrantry; her death was doubtful;
And but that great Command o'erfways the order,
She should in ground unfanctified have lodg'd
'Till the last Trump. For charitable prayers,
Shards, flints, and pebbles, fhould be thrown on her;
Yet here fhe is allow'd her virgin rites,

Her maiden-ftrewments, and the bringing home
2 Of bell and burial.

Laer. Muft no more be done?

Prieft. No more be done!

We should profane the service of the dead,
To fing a Requiem, and fuch Reft to her
As to peace-parted fouls.

Laer. Lay her i' th' earth;

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets fpring? I tell thee, churlish priest,
A miniftring angel fhall my fifter be,

When thou lieft howling.,

Ham. What, the fair Ophelia !

Queen. Sweets to the fweet, farewel!

[Scattering flowers. I hop'd, thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;

Crants therefore was the original word, which the authour, difcovering it to be provincial, and perhaps not understood, changed to a term more intelligible, but lefs proper. Maiden rites give no certain or definite image. He might have put ma den wreaths, or maiden garlands, but he perhaps bestowed no thought upon it, and neither genius nor practice will always fupply a hafty writer with the most proper diction.

2 Of bell and burial.] Burial, here fignifies interment in confecrated ground. WARBURTON.

I thought

I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, fweet maid And not have ftrew'd thy Grave.

Laer. O treble woe

Fall ten times treble on that curfed head,
Whofe wicked deed thy moft ingenious fenfe
Depriv'd thee of! Hold off the earth a while,
'Till I have caught her once more in my arms.

[Laertes leaps into the Grave. Now pile pour duft upon the quick and dead, "Till of this flat a mountain you have made, T'o'er-top old Pelion, or the flyish head! Of blue Olympus.

Ham. [difcovering himself.] What is he, whofe griefs Bear fuch an emphasis? whofe phrafe of forrow Conjures the wandring ftars, and makes them banda Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

[Hamlet leaps into the Graves

Laer. The devil take thy foul! [Grappling with him.
Ham. Thou pray'ft not well.:

I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat-
For though I am not fplenitive and rafh;
Yet have I in me fomething dangerous,

Which let thy wisdom, fear.
King Pluck them afunder
Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet.

Hold off thy hand.

Hor. Good my Lord, be quiet.

[The attendants part them.

Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme,

Until my eye-lids will no longer wag.

Queen. Oh my fon! what theme?

Ham. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thousand brothers

Could not with all their quantity of love

Make up my fum. What wilt thou do for her?
King. O, he is mad, Laertes:

Queen. For love of God, forbear him.
Ham. Come, fhew me what thou'lt do:

Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't faft? woo't tear

thyfelf?

3 Woo't drink up Eifel, eat a Crocodile ?

I'll do't. Do'st thou come hither but to whine?
To out-face me with leaping in her Grave;
Be buried quick with her; and fo 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 Offa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

Queen. This is meer madness;

And thus a while the Fit will work on him:
Anon, as patient as the female dove,

Ere that her golden couplets are difclos'd,

3 Woo't, drink up Efill, eat a crocodile ?] This word has thro' all the editions been diftinguished by Italick characters, as if it were the proper name of fome river; and fo, I dare fay, all the editors have from time to

time understood it to be. But then this must be some river in Denmark; and there is none there fo called; nor is there any near it in name, that I know of, but rel, from which the province of Overyffel derives its title in the German Flanders. Befides, Hamlet is not propofing any impoffibilities to Laertes, as the drinking up a river would be: but he rather feems to mean, Wilt thou refolve to do things the most shocking and distasteful to human nature? and, behold, I am as refolute. I am per

fuaded, the poet wrote;

Wilt drink up Eifel, eat a crocodile?

VOL. VIII.

i. e. Wilt thou fwallow down
large draughts of vinegar? The
propofition, indeed, is not very
grand; but the doing it might be
as diftafteful and unfavoury, as
eating the flesh of a crocodile.
And now there is neither an im-
poffibility, nor an Anticlimax :
and the lowness of the idea is in
fome measure remov'd by the un-
THEOBALD.

common term.
Hanmer has,
Wilt drink up Nile, or eat
crocodile ?

4 WHEN that her golden cou

plets-] We should read, E'ER that for it is the patience of birds, during the time of incubation, that is here spoken of. The Pigeon generally fits upon two eggs; and her young, when firft difclofed, are covered with a yellow down. WARBURTON. Perhaps it fhould be,

छ

Ere yet-
Yetand are easily confounded.

His

His filence will fit 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, the dog will have his day. [Exit.
King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.
[Exit Hor.
Strengthen your patience in our last night's fpeech.
[To Laertes.
We'll put the matter to the prefent push.
Good Gertrude, fet fome watch over your fon. eT
This Grave fhall have a living Monument.
An hour of quiet fhortly fhall we fee;

M

'Till then, in patience our proceding be. [Exeunt.

S CE NE III.

Changes to a HALL, in the Palace.

Ham. So

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

much for this, Sir. Now fhall you fee the other.

You do remember all the circumstance?

Hor. Remember it, my Lord?

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fight ing,

That would not let me fleep; methought, I lay Worfe than the mutines in the Bilboes. Rafhly,

5 mutines in the Bilboes.] Mutines, the French word for feditious.or difobedient fellows in the army or fleet. Bilboss, the Ship's prifon.

6

Rafbnefs

And

(And prais'd be rafhness for it) lets us know; [us well, Our indifcretion fometimes ferves When, &c.] The fenfe in this reading

And prais'd be rashness for it Let us know,
Our indifcretion fometimes ferves us well,

When our deep plots do fail; and that fhould teach

us,

There's a Divinity that fhapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

Hor. That is most certain. 70 1 Ham. Up from my cabin,

My fea-gown fearft about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them; had
my defire,
Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
To mine own room again; making fo bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unfeal
Their grand Commiffion, where I found, Horatio,
A royal knavery; an exact Command,
Larded with many feveral forts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
7 With, ho! fuch buggs and goblins in my life;

and then is

That he rafhly-
carried into a reflection upon the
weakness of human wisdom. I
rafhly-praised be rafhnefs for
it-Let us not think thefe events
cafual, but let us know, that is,
take notice and remember, that we
fometimes fucceed by indifcre-
tion, when we fail by deep plots,
and infer the perpetual fuperin-
tendence and agency of the Divi-
nity. The obfervation is juft,
and will be allowed by every
human being who fhall reflect on
the course of his own life.

7. With bo! fuch buggs and

goblins in my life;] With fuch caufes of terrour, arifing from my character and defigns.