And we fhall jointly labour with your foul,
To give it due content.

Laer. Let this be fo.

His means of death, his obfcure funeral,

No trophy, fword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal oftentation,

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heav'n to earth,
That I must call❜t in question.

King. So you fhall:

And where th' offence is, let the great ax fall. pray you, go with me.

I

Enter Horatio, with an attendant.

[Exeunt.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with me?
Serv. Sailors, Sir; they say they have letters 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 blefs thee too.

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

Horatio reads the letter.

Oratio, when thou shalt have overlook'd this, give thefe fellows fome means to the King: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at fea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace. Finding ourjelves too flow of jail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the inftant they got clear of our ship, so 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 fent, and repair thowto me with as much hafte as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thy ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light

for

am.

for the matter. Thefe good fellows will bring thee where I
Rofincrantz and Guildenftern hold their course for
England. Of them I have much to tell thee, farewel.
He that thou knoweft thine, Hamlet.
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.

Enter King, and Laertes.

[Exeunt.

King. Now muft your confcience my acquittance feal, 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 flain,

Pursued my life.

Laer. It well appears.

But tell me,

Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and fo capital in nature,

As by your fafety, wisdom, all things elfe,
You mainly were stirr'd up?

King. Two fpecial reasons,

Which may to you, perhaps, feem much unfinew'd,
And yet to me are ftrong. The Queen, his mother,
Lives almoft by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue or my plague, be't either which,)
She's fo conjunctive to my life and foul,
That, as the far moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,

Is the great love the general gender bear him ;
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces. So that my arrows
Too flightly timbred for fo loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And fo have I a noble father loft,
A fifter driven into defperate terms,

Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections-But my revenge will come.

6

King.

King. Break not your fleeps for that! you must not That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, [think, That we can let our beard be fhook with danger, And think it paftime. You fhall foon hear more. I lov'd your father, and we love ourself, And that I hope, will teach you to imagineHow now? what news?

Enter à Meflenger.

Mef. Letters, my Lord, from Hamlet. These to your Majefty: this to the Queen. King. From Hamlet? who brought them? Mef. Sailors, my Lord, they fay; I faw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them. King. Laertes, you shall hear them: leave us, all,[Exit Mef.

all I

IGH and Mighty, you shall know, I am fet naked on your Kingdom. To-morrow fhall I beg leave to fee your kingly eyes. When I fball, (firft afking your par don thereunto) recount th' occafion of my fudden return.

Hamlet.

What should this mean? are all the reft come back? Or is it fome abuse and no fuch thing?

Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character;

Naked; and (in a poftfcript here, he fays)

Alone can you advise me?

Laer. I'm loft in it, my Lord: but let him come; It warms the very fickness in my heart,

That I fhall live and tell him to his teeth,

Thus diddeft thou.

King. If it be fo, Laertes,

As how should it be fo?.

Will you be rul'd by me?

-how, otherwife?

Laer. Ay, fo you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace. King. To thine own peace; if he be now return'd, As liking not his voyage, and that he means

No more to undertake it: I will work him

To an exploit now ripe in my device,

Under

Under the which he fhall not chufe but fall:

And for his death no wind of blame fhall breathe; But ev'n his mother shall uncharge the practice, And call it accident.

Laer. I will be rul'd,

The rather, if you could devife it fo, (63)
That I might be the organ.

King. It falls right:

You have been talkt of fince your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein they fay you fhine; your fum of parts
Did not together pluck fuch envy from him,
A's did that one, and that in my regard
Of the unworthieft fiege.

Laer. What part is that, my Lord?

King. A very feather in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and carelefs livery that it wears, Than fettled age his fables, and his weeds Importing health and gravenefs.-Two months fince, Here was a gentleman of Normandy:

I've seen myself, and ferv'd against the French,

And they can well on horfeback; but this Gallant
Had witchcraft in't, he grew unto his feat;
And to fuch wondrous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorps'd and demy-natur'd
With the brave beaft; fo far he topp'd my thought,

(63) The rather if you could devife it fo,

That I might be the inftrument.

King. It falls right.] The latter verfe is flightly maim'd in the measure, and, I apprehend, without reafon. This paffage is in nei. ther of the impreffions fet out by the players; and the two elder quarto's read as I have reform'd the text;

That I might be the organ.

And it is a word, which our Author chufes to use in other places, So, before, in this play.

For murder, tho' it hath no tongue, will speak

With moft miraculous organ.

So, in Meafure for Measure:

And given his deputation all the organs

Of our own pow'r.

That I in forgery of shapes and tricks

Come fhort of what he did.

Laer. A Norman, was't?
King, A Norman.

Laer. Upon my life, Lamond.

King. The very fame.

Laer. I know him well; he is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation.

King. He made confeffion of you, And gave you fuch a masterly report, For art and exercise in your defence; And for your rapier moft especial,

That he cry'd out, 'twould be a fight indeed,

If one could match you. The fcrimers oftheir nation, (64)
He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you oppos'd 'em.-Sir, this report of his
Did Hamlet fo envenom with his envy,

That he could nothing do, but wish and beg
Your fudden coming o'er to play with him.
Now out of this-

Laer. What out of this, my Lord?

King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a forrow,

A face without a heart?

Laer. Why ask you this?

King. Not that I think, you did not love your father, But that I know, love is begun by time;

And that I fee in paffages of proof,

(64)

-The scrimers of their nation,

He fwore, bad neither motion, guard, nor eye,

If you oppos'd them.] This likewife is a paffage omitted in the folios: the reducing the play to a reasonable length was the motive of fo many caftrations. Some of the modern quartos have in the room of ferimers fubftituted fencers: which is but a glofs of the more obfolete word. Scrimer is properly a gladiator, fencer; from which we have derived our word, skirmish. The fcience of defence was by the Dutch call'd feberm; by the Italians, fcherima and ferima; and by the French, efcrime; as the Anglo-Saxons of old used to call a fencer or fwordfman, fcrimbre: which (the b being left out, and a metathefis made in the letters of the last fyllable) is the very term us'd by our Author,

VOL. VIII.

K

Time