A worthy pioneer! Once more remove, good friends. Hor. Oh day and night but this is wondrous ftrange.

8

Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heav'n and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philofophy. But come,
Here, as before, never, (fo help you mercy!)
How ftrange or odd foe'er I bear myself,
As I, perchance, hereafter fhall think meet
To put an antick difpofition on,

That you, at fuch time feeing me, never fhall,
With arms encumbred thus, or this head-shake,
Or by pronouncing of fome doubtful phrase,
As, well-
we know—or, we could, and if

would

we

Or, if we lift to speak- -or, there be, and if there

might

Or fuch ambiguous giving out, denote

That you know aught of me; This do

This do ye fwear, So grace and mercy at your moft need help you! Swear.

Ghoft. 'Swear.

Ham. Reft, reft, perturbed Spirit. So, Gentle

men,

With all my love do I commend me to you;

And what fo poor a man as Hamlet is

May do t'exprefs his love and friending to you,
God willing fhall not lack. Let us go in together,
And ftill your fingers on your lips, I pray.

The Time is out of joint; oh, curfed fpight!
That ever I was born to fet it right.

Nay, come, let's go together.

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

An Apartment in Polonius's House.

Enter Polonius and Reynoldo.

POLONI v s.

IVE him this mony, and these notes, Reynoldo. I Rey. I will, my Lord.

G

Pol. You fhall do marvellous wifely, good Reynoldo, Before you visit him, to make inquiry

Of his behaviour.

Rey. My Lord, I did intend it.

Pol. Marry, well faid; very well faid. Look you, Sir,

Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;

And how; and who; what means; and where they

keep;

What company; at what expence; and finding,
By this encompassment and drift of question,
That they do know my fon, come you more near
Then your particular demands will touch it.
Take you, as 'twere fome diftant knowledge of him.
As thus. I know his father and his friends,
And in part him-Do you mark this, Reynoldo?
Rey. Ay, very well, my Lord.

Pol. And in part him-but you may fay-not well;
But if't be he, I mean, he's very wild,
Addicted fo and fo--and there put on him
What forgeries you pleafe; marry, none fo rank,
As may difhonour him; take heed of that;
But, Sir, fuch wanton, wild, and usual flips,
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.

Rey.

Rey. As gaming, my

Lord

Pol. Ay, or 9 drinking, fencing, fwearing, Quarrelling, drabbing- -You may go fo far. Rey. My Lord, that would dishonour him.

Pol. 'Faith no, as you may season it in the Charge; You must not put an utter fcandal on him,

1

That he is open to incontinency,

That's not my meaning; but breathe his faults fo quaintly,

That they may feem the taints of liberty;

2.

The flash and out-break of a fiery mind,

2 A favageness in unreclaimed blood

3 Of general affault.

Rey. But, my good Lord

Pol. Wherefore fhould you do this?
Rey. Ay, my Lord, I would know that.
Pol. Marry, Sir, here's my drift;
And I believe it is a fetch of wit.

You, laying these flight fullies on my fon,
As 'twere a thing a little foil'd i' th' working,

Mark you, your party in converfe, he you'ld found,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes,
The youth you breathe of, guilty, be affur'd,
He clofes with you in this confequence;
4 Good Sir, or fo, or Friend, or Gentleman,
According to the phrafe or the addition
Of man and country.

Rey. Very good, my Lord.

Pol. And then, Sir, does he this;
He does what was I about to say?

I was about to fay fomething-where did I leave
Rey. At, clofes in the confequence.

Pol. At, clofes in the confequence-Ay, marry.
He clofes thus ;-I know the gentleman,
Ifaw him yesterday, or t'other day,

Or then, with fuch and fuch; and, as you fay,
There was he gaming, there o'ertook in's rowfe;
There falling out at tennis; or, perchance,
1 faw him enter fuch a houfe of fale,

Videlicet, a brothel, or fo forth.See you now;
Your bait of falfhood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlaces, and with affays of Byas,
By indirections find directions out;
So by my former lecture and advice

Shall you my fon. You have me, have you not?
Rey. My Lord, I have.

Pol. God b'w'

you. Fare you well.

Rey. Good my Lord

Pol. Obferve his inclination in yourself..

Rey. I fhall, my Lord.

Pol. And let him ply his mufick.
Rey. Well, my Lord.

a general word of compliment
as diftin&t from fir; nor do I can
ceive why any alteration fhould
be made. It is a common mode
of colloquial language to use, or
fo, as a flight intimation of more
of the fame, or a like kind, that
might me mentioned. We might
read,

Good Sir, Forfooth, or Friend,
or Gentleman.

Exit.

Forfooth, a term of which [ do not well know the original meaning, was used to men as well as to women.

5n yourself.] ́Hanmer reads, e'en yourfelf, and is followed by Dr. Warburton; but perhaps in yourself means, in your savn perfon, not by spies.

SCENE

SCENE II.

Pol. Farewel.

matter?

Enter Ophelia.

How now, Ophelia, what's the

Oph. Alas, my Lord, I have been so affrighted!
Pol. With what, in the name of heav'n?

Oph. My Lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet, with his Doublet all unbrac'd,
No hat upon his head, his stockings loose,
Ungarter'd, and down-gyred to his ancle,
Pale as his fhirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a look fo piteous in purport,

As if he had been loofed out of hell,

To speak of horrors; thus he comes before me.
Pol. Mad for thy love?

Oph. My Lord, I do not know:

But, truly, I do fear it.

Pol. What faid he?

Oph. He took me by the wrift, and held me hard; Then goes he to the length of all his arm;

And with his other hand, thus o'er his brow,

He falls to fuch perufal of my face,

As he would draw it. Long time staid he fo;

6-bis flockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle.] I have reftored the reading of the elder quarto's -his flockings loose.- -The change, I fufpect, was firft from the players, who faw a contradiction in his flockings being loofe, and yet shackled down at ancle. But they, in their igno

rance, blunder'd away our author's word. because they did not understand it ;

Ungarter'd, and dorun-gyred, i. e. turn'd down. So, the oldeft copies; and, fo his ftockings were properly loofe, as they were ungarter'd and rowl'd down to the ancle. THEOBALD.

At