Start up, and stand on end: O, gentle fon! His form and caufe conjoin'd, preaching to ftones Will want true colour, tears, perchance, for blood. Ham. Do you fee nothing there? [Pointing to the Ghoft. Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is, I fee. Ham. Nor did you nothing hear? Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. Ham. Why, look you there! look how it steals (33) away! My father in his habit as he liv'd ! Look where he goes, even now, out at the portal. [Exit Ghoft. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain, This bodilefs creation, ecftafy Is very cunning in. Ham. What ecftafy? My pulfe, as yours, doth temperately keep time: Queen (33) Steals-Some are for reading talks, and in fome later editions I find that word: he uses this word before, fpeaking of the Ghoft: however, fteals, is very justifiable. 241 Queen. O, Hamlet, thou haft cleft my heart in twain, And live the purer with the other half. That monster custom, who all fenfe doth eat To the next abftinence, the next more eafy; Once more, good-night, I'll bleffing beg of you. Queen. What fhall I do? Ham. Not this by no means that I bid Let the fond king tempt you to bed again, you do; Pinch wanton on your cheek: call you his mouse; Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I effentially am not in madness, But mad-in craft; 'twere good you let him know. Queen. Be thou affur'd, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou haft faid to me. Ham. I muit to England, you know that? "Tis fo concluded on. Ham. There's letters feal'd, and my two school◄ fellows, Whom I will truft as I will adders fang'd, They bear the mandate, they muft fweep my way, For 'tis the fport to have the engineer Hoift with his own petar, and't shall M go hard But But I will delve one yard below their mines, Hamlet's Reflection on his own Irrefolution. How all occafions do inform against me, That capability and god-like reafon To ruft in us unus'd: now whether it be Of thinking too precifely on th' event, (A thought which quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom, And ever three parts coward;) I do not know Why yet I live to fay this thing's to do, Sith (34) Sure hc, &c.] This, fays Mr. Theobald, is an expression purely Homeric; Λεύσσει Αμα προσσω και οπίσσω Turns on all hands its deep difcerning eyes, Concludes from both, and best provides for all. And again, Ο γαρ οιος ορα προσσω και οπίσσω. Skill to difcern the future by the past. Pope, B. 3. 150. Pope, B. 18. 294. The short scholiaft on the last paffage, gives us a comment, that very aptly explains our author's phrafe: For it is the part of an understanding man to connect the reflection of events to come with fuch as are paft, and fo to foresee what fhall follow. This is as our author phrases it, boking before and after. Sith I have caufe, and will, and strength, and means When honour's at the stake. How ftand I then, Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, Which is not tomb enough and continent To hide the flain? O then from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! SCENE V. Sorrows rarely fingle. (35) O, Gertrude, Gertrude! When forrows come, they come not fingle fpies, But in battalions. SCENE VI. The Divinity of Kings.. Let him go, Gertrude: do not fear our perfon: There's fuch divinity doth hedge a king (36) That (35) 0, Gertrude, &c.] Doctor Young, in his Night Thoughts (Night the 3d) has plainly borrowed this thought; Woes clufter, rare are folitary woes: They love a train, they tread each other's heels. ( (36) That treafon can but peep to what it wou'd, Acts little of its will. SCENE X. Defcription of Ophelia's Drowning (37) There is a willow grows aflant a brook, That fhews his hoar leaves in the glaffy stream, There (36) See Winter's Tale. So, in the Maid's Tragedy it is faid; As you are mere man, I dare as eafily kill you for this deed, My rifing paffions, as you are my king, &c. See Act 3. in the Two Noble Kinsmen. (37) There is, &c.] The character of the jailor's daughter is as beautiful and every way comparable to this of Ophelia: it may be no difagreeable entertainment to any reader to compare them together: I fhall only fubjoin the following account given of her by her woocr. As I late was angling In the great lake, that lies behind the palace, From the fair fhore, thick fet with reeds and fedges, I heard a voice, a fhrill one; and attentive I gave my ear, when I might well perceive 'Twas one that fung, and by the smallness of it, To his own skill, came near, but yet perceiv'd not Had fo encompafs'd it: I laid me down And liften'd to the words fhe fung, for then I faw it was your daughter. She fung much, but no fenfe; only I heard her Is gone to th' wood to gather mulberries, His fhackles will betray him, he'll be taken, With |