Guild. We will provide ourselves:
Moft holy and religious fear it is,
To keep thofe many, many bodies fafe,
That live and feed upon your Majesty.

Rof. The fingle and peculiar life is bound,
With all the ftrength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from noyance; but much more
That spirit on whose weal depends and refts
The lives of many. The ceafe of Majesty
Dies not alone, but, like a gulf, doth draw,
What's near it with it. It's a mafly wheel
Fix'd on the fummit of the highest mount,
To whofe huge fpokes ten thousand leffer things
Are mortized and adjoined; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty confequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Ne'er alone
Did the King figh; but with a general groan.
King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,

Which now goes too free-fopted.

Both. We will hafte us.

[Exeunt Gentlemen.

Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. My Lord, he's gone to his mother's clofet; Behind the arras I'll convey myself

To hear the procefs. I'll warrant fhe'll tax him And, as you faid, and wifely was it faid, [home. 'Tis meet that fome more audience than a mother (Since nature makes them partial,) fhould o'er-hear The fpeech, of vantage. Fare you well, my Liege;

on that play. Perhaps, too, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, where all the editions read,

Why, woman, your husband is in his old lines again; we ought to correct,

in his old lunes again;

i, e. in his old fits of maduefs, frenzy.

I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.

King. Thanks, dear my Lord.

Oh! my offence is rank, it fmells to heaven,
It hath the primal, eldeft enfe upon't; (46)
That of a brother's murder. Pray I cannot,
Though inclination be as fharp as will; (47)

(46) It hath the primal, eldest curse upon't;

[Exit.

Alrather's murder. -Pray I cannot,] The laft verfe, 'tis evident, halts in the meafare; and, if I don't mistake, is a little lame in the fenfe too. Was a brother's murder the eldeft curfe? Surely it was rather the crime that was the caufe of this eldeft curfe. We have no affiftance, however, either to the fenfe or numbers from any of the copies. All the editions concur in the deficiency of a foot; but if we can both cure the meafure, and help the meaning, without a prejudice to the Author, I think the concurrence of the printed copies fhould not be fufficient to forbid a conjecture. I have ventured at two fupplemental fyllables, as innocent in themselves as neceffary to the purposes for which they are introduced;

That of a brother's murder.

(47) Though inclination be] This line has lain under the fufpicion of many nice obfervers; and an ingenious gentleman started, at a heat, this very probable emendation:

Though, inclination be as fharp as 'twill.

The variation from the traces of the letter is very minute, a t with an apostrophe before it only being added, which might very easily have flipt out under the printer's hands; fo that the change will not be difputed, fuppofing there is a necef fity for it; which however is fubmitted to judgment. 'Tis certain the line, as it flands in all the editions, has fo ftrongly the air of a flat tautology, that it may deferve a fhort comment, and to have the difference betwixt inclination and will afcertained. The word inclination, in its ufe with us (as my friend Me Warburton defines it to me) is taken in these. three acceptations. Firft, in its exact philofophical fenfe, it fignifies the drawing or inclining the will to determine itfelf one certain way; according to this fignification the line is nonfenfe; and is the fame as to affirm, that the part is as big as the whole. In the next place, inclination fignifies the will, and then it is the most absurd tautology. But, lafily,

My ftronger guilt defeats my ftrong intent:
And, like a man to double bufine's bound,
I ftand in paufe where I fhall firft begin,
And both neglect. What if this curied hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood?
Is there not rain enough in the fweet heavens
To wash it white as fnow? whereto ferves Mercy,
But to confront the vifage of offence?

And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force,
To be fore-ftalled ere we come to fall,

Or pardoned being down? then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer
Can ferve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder !---
That cannot be, fince I am still poffefs'd

Of thofe effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardoned, and retain th' offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may fhove by justice;
And oft 'tis feen, the wicked prize itfelf
Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above:
There, is no fhuffling; there, the action lyes
In his true nature, and we ourfelves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what refts?
Try what repentance can: What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
Oh wretched state! oh bofom black as death!

it fignifies a difpofition to do a thing, already determined of, with complacency and pleafure. And if this is, as it feems to be, the fenfe of the word here, then the fentiment will be very clear and proper. For wi fignifying barely the determination of the mind to do a thing, the fenfe will be this: Though the pleasure I take in this act, be as itrong as the determination of my mind to perform it, yet my honger gu.lt defeats my strong intent, &c."

Oh limed foul, that, ftruggling to be free,
Art more engaged! help, angels! make affay!
Bow, ftubborn knees; and, heart, with itrings of
Be foft as finews of the new-born babe!

[iteel, All may be well. [The King retires and kneels.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, And now I'll do't-and fo he goes to heaven.And fo am I revenged? that would be scanned; A villain kills my father, and for that

1, his fole fon, do this fame villain fend

To heaven-0, this is hire and falary, not revenge.
He took my father grofly, full of bread,

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit ftands, who knows, fave Heaven?
But in our circumftance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him. Am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his foul,
When he is fit and feafoned for his paffage?
Up, fword, and know thou a more horrid bent; (48)
When he is drunk, afleep, or in his rage,

Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed;

(48) Up, fword, and know thou a more horid time.] This is a fophifticated reading, warranted by none of the copies of any authority. Mr Pope fays, I read conjecturally;

a more horrid bent.

I do fo, and why? The two oldest Quartos, as well as the two elder Folios, read,- a more horrid bent. But as there is no fuch English fubftantive, it seems very natural to conclude, that, with the change of a fingle letter, our Author's genuine word was bent, i. e drift, fcope, inclination, purpose, &c. I have proved his frequent ufe of this word, in my Shakespeare Reftored; fo fhall fpare the trouble of making the quotations over again here. I took notice there, that throwing my eye cafually over the fourth Folio edition, priated in 1685, I found my correction there anticipated

At gaming, fwearing, or about fome act
That has no relish of falvation in't;

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;
And that his foul may be as damned and black-
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays;
This phyfic but prolongs thy fickly days. [Exit.
The King rifes, and comes forward.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;

Words, without thoughts, never to Heaven go.

[Exit.

SCENE changes to the Queen's Apartment.

Enter Queen and POLONIUS.

Pol. He will come ftraight; lock you lay home to him:

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with;

And that your Grace hath fereened, and stood be

tween

Much heat and him. I'll filence me e'en here;-
Pray you, be round with him.

Ham. [within.] Mother, mother, mother.
Queen. I'll warrant you, fear me not,

Withdraw, I hear him coming.

[Polonius hides himself behind the Arras.

Enter HAMLET.

[ed.

Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter?
Queen. Hamlet, thou haft thy father much offend-

I think myfelf obliged to repeat this confeffion, that 1 may not be accufed of plagiarifm, for an emendation which I had made before ever I faw a fingle page of that book.