L E T,
If thou canst mutiny in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge ;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And • Reason panders Will.

Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more,
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very foul,
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct.

Hom. Nay, but to live
In the rank Tweat of an 8 incestuous bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honying and making love
Over the nasty sty!

Queen. Oh, fpeak no more ;
These words like daggers enter in mine ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain !
A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent Lord. Ao Vice of Kings?
A cutpurse of the Empire and the Rule,
"That from a shelf the precious Diadem stole
And put it in his pocket.

Queen. No more.

6

mer's emendation produces non e-lice of Kings ;] A low fine. May not what is said of mimick of Kings. The Vice is heat, be said of bell, that it will the fool of a farce ; from whom mutiny wherever is is quartered ? the modern Punch is deicended.

-Re fons pande 's Vill.] So "That from a shelf, &c.] This the folio, i think righily ; but is said not unmeaningly, but to the reading of the quarto is de- mew, that the usurper came not fenfible;

to the crown by any glorious vil- Reafon pardons Will. lany that carried danger with it, -gruine :-) Died in grain. bu: by the low cowardly theft of

- incerteous beit, ] The folio a common pilferer. WARE. has enjeumed, that is, greasy bed.

7 8

Enter

E.'ter Ghost.

gure?

Ham. ' A King of shreds and patches
Save me! and hover o'er me with your wings,

[Starting up. You heav'nly guards ! What would your gracious fi

Queen. Alas, he's mad

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That's, 3 laps’d in time and passion, lets go by
Th' important acting of your dread command?
O fay!

Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits;
O step between her and her fighting foul :
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham. How is it with you, Lady ?

Queen. Alas, how is't with you?
That thus you bend your eye on vacancy,
And with th' incorporal air do hold discourse ?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,
And as the neeping foldiers in th' alarm,
Your bedded hairs, + like life in excrements,
Start up, and stand on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do

Whereon do you look ?

? A King of shred and patches.] fered time to flip, and poffin to This is faid, pursuing the idea cool, lets g', &c. of the Vice of Kings. The Vice 4like life in excrements,] was dressed as a fool, in a coat The hairs are excrementiticus, of party-coloured patches. that is, withouc life or sensation :

-laps'd in time and pas. yet those very hairs, as if they fion,-) That having fuf- had life, start up, &c. POPE.

R2

3

Ham,

Ham. On him! on him!—Look you, how pale

he glares !
His form and caufe conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. Do not look on me,
Left with this piteous action you convert
My ftern effects; then what I have to do,
Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood.

Queen. To whom do you speak this?
Ham. Do
you see nothing there?

[Pointing to the Gbeft. Queen. Nothing at all; yet all

, that is, I see. Ham. Nor did you nothing hear? Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. Ham. Why, look you there! Look, how it steals

away! My father in his habit as he liv'd! Look, where he goes ev'n now, out at the portal.

[Exit Gboji. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain, This bodiless creation Ecstasy Is very cunning in.

Hem. What Ecstasy? My pulse, as yours, doth temp’rately keep time, And makes as healthful musick. 'Tis not madness That I have utter'd; bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word; which madness Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, Lay not that Aattering unction to your soul, That not your trespass, but my madness, speaks : It will but skin and film the ulcerous place ; Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heav'n; Repent what's past, avoid what is to come; And do not spread the compost on the weeds To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue ;

s do not spread the comtof, dulgence, heighten your former &c.] Do not, by any new in

offences.

For, in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, • curb and wooe, for leave to do it good.
Queen. Oh Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in

twain.
Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night ; but go not to mine uncle's bed,
Affume a virtue, if you have it not.
7. That monster custom, who all sense doth eat
Of babits, Devil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night;
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence; the next, more easy;
For use can almost change the stamp of Nature,
And master eu'n the Devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night!
And when you are desirous to be blest,
I'll Blessing beg of you.-For this same Lord,

[Pointing to Polonius. I do repent: but heav'ns have pleas'd it so, * To punish this with me, and me with this That I must be their scourge and minister.

6-curbm ] That is, bend and the fagacity of Dr. Th'rlar. truckle.

That mo per cift n, ulo al 7 That monster cuft.m, who all fer se doth eai, sense doth eat

Of habits evil, is angel, &c. Of Habit's Devil, is angel get

THEOBALD. in this : ] This paliage is left I think Thirlby's conjecture out in the two elder folio's: It is wrong, though the succeeding certainly corrupt, and the play. editors have followed it; Argel ers did the discreet part to fifle and Dezil are eviden:ly oppoitd. what they did not understand. 8 To purish this with me, &c.] Habit's Devil certainly arose from This is Hanmer's riading; the some'conceited tamperer with the other editions have i:, text, wbo thought it was necef To punish me vith this, and sary, in contrait to Angel. The this with ne. emendation of the text I owe to

R 3

I will

I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So, again, good night!
I must be cruel, only to be kind ;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

Qrcen. What shall I do?

Ham. Not this by no means, that I bid you do. . Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed ; Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse ; And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, Or padling in your neck with his damn’d fingers, Make you to ravel all this matter out, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know, For who that's but a Queen, fair, sober, wife, Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gibbe, Such dear concernings hide ? Who would do fo ? No, in despight of sense and secresy, Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, To try conclusions, in the basket creep; And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou assur’d, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

Hlain. I must to England, you know that?
Queen. Alack, I had forgot ; ’tis so concluded on.
Tian. · There's Letters sealed, and my two school-

fellows,
W hom I will trust, as I will ? adders fang’d;

9 Let the ford King--] The -adilers farg'd ;] That is, old quarto read,

Adjers with their fangs, or pero Let the beat King

fonols likth, undrawn. It has ise bloiel, which is better, as been the pradlice of mourtebanks mere expressive of the speaker's to boat the eficacy of their ancontcmpi. WARBURTON. tidotes by playing with vi

' Yhire's Leter Jeall, &c.] p.ri, but thcy firit disabled their The ten following verses are fargs. added out of the old edition. POPE.