Imatges de pàgina
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A little month! or ere thofe fhoes were old, With which the followed my poor father's body, Like Niobe, all tears---Why the, ev'n the,--

(O heav'n! a beaft, that wants difcourfe of reason, Would have mourned longer---) married with mine uncle,

My father's brother; but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules. Within a month!---
Ere yet the falt of most unrighteous tears'
Had left the flufhing in her gauled eyes,
She married ---Oh, most wicked speed, to poft
With fuch dexterity to incestuous fheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good.

But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.
Hor. Hail to your Lordship!

Ham. I am glad to fee you well; Horatio,---or I do forget myself?

Hor. The fame, my Lord, and your poor fer

vant ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus!

Mar. My good Lord----

Ham. I am very glad to fee you; good even, Sir. But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?

Hor. A truant disposition, good my Lord.

Mr Dryden has remarked, that this is the sharpest satire in the feweft words, that ever was made on womankind; for both the adjectives are neuter, and animal must be underftood to make them grammar. "Tis certain the defigned contempt is heightened by this change of the gender; but, I prefume, Mr Dryden had forgot this paffage of Shakespeare, when he declared on the fide of Virgil's hemiftich, as the fharpeft fatire he had met with.

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so;
Nor fhall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it trufter of your own report
Against yourself. I know you are no truant;
But what is your affair in Elfinoor?

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
Hor. My Lord, I came to fee your father's funeral.
Ham. I pr'ythee, do not mock me, fellow-ftudent;
I think it was to fee my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my Lord, it followed hard upon.
Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio; the funeral baked

meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father-methinks, I fee my father.
Hor. Oh where, my Lord?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I faw him once, he was a goodly King.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,
I fhall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My Lord, I think I faw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw! who?------

Hor. My Lord, the King your father.
Ham. The King my father!

Hor. Seafon your admiration but a while,
With an attentive ear; 'till I deliver

Upon the witness of these gentlemen,

This marvel to you.

Ham. For heaven's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead waste and middle of the night,

Been thus encountered: A figure like your father, Armed at all points exactly, cap-a-pe,

Appears before them, and with folemn march

ΣΤ

Goes flow and stately by them; thrice he walked,
By their oppreffed and fear-furprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they (diftilled
Almoft to jelly with the act of fear)

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful fecrecy impart they did,

And I with them the third night kept the watch; Where, as they had delivered both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes. I knew your father:

Thefe hands are not more like.

Ham. But where was this?

Mar. My Lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor. My Lord. I did;

But answer made it none; yet once methought, It lifted up its head, and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak:

But even then the morning cock crew loud;
And at the found it fhrunk in hafte away,
And vanished from our fight.

Ham. 'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honoured Lord, 'tis true; And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, Sirs, but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch to-night?

Both. We do, my Lord.

Ham. Armed, say you?

Both. Armed, my Lord.

Ham. From top to toe?

Both. My Lord, from head to foot.

Ham. Then faw you not his face?

Hor. Oh yes, my Lord, he wore his beaver up.
Ham. What, looked he frowningly?

I

Hor. A countenance more in forrow than in anger.
Ham. Pale or red?

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham. And fixed his eyes upon you?
Hor. Moft conftantly.

Ham. I would I had been there!

· Hor. It would have much amazed you.” Ham. Very like; ftaid it long?

Hor. While one with moderate hafte might tell

a hundred.

Both. Longer, longer.

Hor. Not when I faw't.

Ham. His beard was grilly?

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A fable filvered..

Ham. I'll watch to-night; perchance 'twill walk again.

Hor. I warrant you it will.

Ham. If it affume my noble father's perfon,
I'll fpeak to it, tho' hell itself fhould gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto concealed this fight,
Let it be treble in your filence ftill:
And whatfoever fhall befal to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
I will requite your loves: fo, fare ye well.
Upon the platform 'twixt eleven and twelve
I'll vifit you.

All. Our duty to your honour.

[Exeunt. Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: farewel. My father's fpirit in arms! all is not well:

I doubt fome foul play; 'would the night were

come!

'Till then fit ftill, my foul: foul deeds will rife

(Tho' all the earth o'erwhelm them) to men's eyes.

[Exit.

SCENE changes to an Apartment in Polonius's

Houfe.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

Laer. My neceffaries are embarked, farewel;
And, fifter, as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is affiftant, do not fleep,
But let me hear from you.

Oph. Do you doubt that?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of prime nature,

Forward, not permanent, though fweet, not lafting; The perfume and fuppliance of a minute:

No more.------

Oph. No more but so?

Laer. Think it no more:

For nature, crefcent, does not go alone
In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,
The inward fervice of the mind and foul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmerch (10)
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatnefs weighed, his will is not his own:

(10) And now no foil, nor cautel.] Cautel from cautela, in its first derived fignification, means a prudent forefight or cantic; but when we naturalize a Latin word into our tongue, we do not think ourselves obliged to use it in its precife, native fignification. So here, traductively, 'tis employed to mean deceit, craft, infincerity And in thefe acceptations we find our Author using the adjective from it, in his Julius Cafar;

Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous.

In the like manner the French use their cauteleux; by which they understand rufe, trompeur; and Minfhew has explained the word cautel thus, a crafty way to deceive. Mr Warburton.

VOL. XII.

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