may

call it herb of grace oʻSundays. You may wear your rue with a difference; there's a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father dy'd. They say, he made a good end

; For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

Laer. Thought, and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour, and to pretciness.

Oph. And will be not come again?

And will be not come again ?
No, no, be is dead,
Go to tby deatb-bed,
He never will come again.
His beard was white as snow,
All flaxen was bis poll :
He is gone, be is gone,
And we cast away mone,
Gramercy on bis Soul !

And on all christian fouls! God b'wi'ye. (Exit Oph.

Laer. "Do you see this, you Gods !

King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
Or you deny mé right. Go but a-part.
Make choice of whom your wifest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge ’rwixt you and me.
If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touch'd, we will our Kingdom give,
Our Crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction. But if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us;
And we shall jointly labour with your soul,
To give it due content.

Laer. Let this be so.
His means of death, his obscure funeral,

No

9 No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentacion,
Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heav'n to earth,
That I must call’t in question.

King. So you shall :
· And where th' offence is, let the great ax fa'l.
I pray you go with me.

[Exeunt.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with me?

Serv. Sailors, Sir. They fay, they have ittters for you.

Hor. Let them come in.
I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

Sail. God bless you, Sir.
Hor. Let him bless thee too.

Sail. He shall, Sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, Sir. It comes from th' ambassador that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

9 No tropby, sword, nor batch the great Ax fall.] We

men:-) It was the custom, should read, in the times of our authoor, to

let the great tax fall. hang a sword over the grave of a i, e. penalty, punishment. Knight.

WARBURTON. And where tl' offence is, let Fall corresponds better to ax.

Horatig

Horatio reads the letter.

H

ORATIO, when thou shalt bave overlook'd this,

give these fellows fome means to the King : they bave letters for him. Ere we were too days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace. Finding ourselves too how of fail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant they got clear of our ship, fo I alone became their prifoner. They have dealt with me, like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did ; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou to me with as much baste as thou wouldest fly death. I have words to speak in thy ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light ? for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosincrantz and Guildenstern bold their course for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewel.

He that tbou knowest thine, Hamler.

Come. I will make you way for these your letters ;
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance

seal,

; for the bore of the matter.] The matter, fays Hamlet, world The bore is the caliber of a gun, carry beavier words. or the capacity of the barrel.

And

Τ

,
And you must put me in your heart for friend
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father Nain,
Pursued my life.

Laer. It well appears. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and so capital in nature,
As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
You mainly were stirr'd up?

King. O, for two special reasons,
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinewd,
And yet to me are strong. The Queen, his mother,
Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
My virtue or my plague, be't either which,
She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a publick count I might not go,
Is the great love ' the general gender bear him;
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
4 Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces. So that my arrows,
Too Nightly timbred for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father loft,
A fifter driven into desperate terms,
Who has, sif praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the

age
For her perfections. But my revenge will come.

3

the general gender-) changed base metals to gold, the The common race of the people: thought had been more proper.

'+ Would, like the spring--) s - if praises may go back This fimile is neither very fea again. J If I may praise what fonable in the deep interest of has been, but is now to be found th s conversation, nor very accu, sarely applied. If the Spring had

no more.

King. Break not your neeps for that. You must not

think,
That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,
That we can let our beard be shook with danger,
And think it pastime. You shall soon hear more.
I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine
How now? what news ?

Enter a Mellenger.
Mej. Letters, my Lord, from Hamlet.
These to your Majesty. This to the Queen.

King. From Hamlet ? Who brought them?

Mes. Sailors, my Lord, they say; I saw them nor. They were given me by Claudio ; he receiv'd them. King. Laertes, you shall hear them. all

[Exit Messenger. HIGH and Mighty

, you shall know, I am fet naked on your Kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes. When I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount th occasion of my sudden re

Hamlet.

Leave us,

turn.

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

Laer. Know you the hand ?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character;
Naked, and in a postscript here, he fays)
Alone. Can you advise me?

Laer. I'm lost in it, my Lord. But let him come ;
It warms the very sickness in my heart,
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
Thus diddeft thou.

King. If it be so, Laertes, As how should it be fo? -how, otherwise?imi

Will