ith forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! r Hecuba!

hat's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

hat he should weep for her? What would he do,
ad he the motive and the cue for passion

at I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
nd cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
ake mad the guilty, and appal the free,
-nfound the ignorant; and amaze, indeed,
e very faculties of eyes and ears.
et I,

dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak
ke John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,1
nd can say nothing; no, not for a king,
pon whose property,2 and most dear life,
damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
ho calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
ucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
weaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat, 3

3

Peak like John-a-dreams, &c.] Creep about languidly like a epy-headed dreamy fellow, unready in my cause. John-a-dreams

Sa cant name for such a fellow.

Property.] Prerogative, rank, state.

Gives me the lie.] The word of the lie,' as Bacon calls it, was old times a thing of serious moment. To give one the lie was to pute to him a cowardice that is afraid to speak truth, and llenged him to stake his personal safety in defence of his utation. There were, however, two principal degrees of disour imputed in this way:-simply to give one the lie, was to pute an untruth that might have been somewhat hastily or onsiderately uttered; but the lie in the throat implied deliberate 1 deeply-intended falsehood, and this charge was often aggravated some such addition as that in the text-'as deep as to the gs.'

Did I say you were an honest man? I had lied in my throat if ad said so,' 2 K. Henry IV. i. 2. 'As low as to thy heart,

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? ha!
Why, I should take it: for it cannot be,
But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall
To make oppression bitter; or, ere this,

I should have fatted all the region 1 kites
With this slave's offal:—Bloody, bawdy villain !
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain !
O vengeance !-

Why what an ass am I! This is most brave,
That I, the son of the dear murdered,

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
And fall a cursing, like a very drab,

A scullion!

upon

't! foh! About, my

brains!

Fie
That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,

Have by the very cunning of the scene

Been struck so to the soul, that presently

I have heard,

through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest,' K. Richard II i. 1. 'I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, where it was forged with my rapier's point,' Ibid., iv. 1.

Fuller, in his Profane State, ch. 12, says, 'He that is called a lia to his face is also called a coward in the same breath, if he swallow it; and the party charged doth conceive that if he vindicates hi valour, his truth will be given him into the bargain.' The idea o the cowardice involved in falsehood may be traced to Plutarch' Lysander, where, according to North's translation, it is said, 'H that deceiveth his enemy, and breaketh his oath to him, showet plainly that he feareth him, but that he careth not for God. Montaigne borrowed this sentiment from his favourite Plutarch though Bacon (Essay on Lying) seems to give Montaigne the credit o having originated it.

1 Region.] Shakspeare sometimes uses this word to denote th airy region, or the element. It has this sense in the Player's speech about Pyrrhus, p. 67. In the Merry Wives, iii. 2, 'He is of too hig a region,' means his clement is too high.

hey have proclaimed their malefactions;

or murder, though it hath no tongue, will speak
ith most miraculous organ.
I'll have these players

ay something like the murder of my father,
efore mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
Il tent him to the quick; if he but blench,
Know my course. The spirit that I have seen
ay be the devil: and the devil hath power
assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps,
at of my weakness and my melancholy,
_s he is very potent with such spirits)
ouses me1 to damn me: I'll have grounds
ore relative than this:-the play 's the thing,2
herein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

[Exit.

Abuses me.] Practises on my credulity with a forged story. In · old Historie of Hamblet,' it is said that the prince had learned t science with which the evil spirit abuses men, and that perhaps, -ough the power of his melancholy, he received such impressions enabled him to divine past occurrences with which no man had uainted him.

The play 's the thing.] Compare what Massinger (Roman tor, ii.) makes Paris say, 'Now could you but persuade the peror to see a comedy we have,' &c.

ACT III.

SCENE I.-A Room in the Castle.

Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

King. And can you, by no drift of circumstance,1
Get from him why he puts on this confusion;
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded;
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,

When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.

Queen.

Did he receive you well?

Ros. Most like a gentleman.

Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition.

Ros. Niggard of question ; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply.

Queen.

To any pastime?

Did you assay him 3

' Drift of circumstance.]

Design of circumvention.

2 Niggard of question, &c.] Niggard of what we tried to draw out of him, but yet kindly and courteous in his manner of answerin our inquiries.

3

Assay him.] Try to induce him; or, perhaps, try his inclination

E

Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players

e o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him; nd there did seem in him a kind of joy

hear of it. They are about the court; nd, as I think, they have already order his night to play before him.

Pol.

"T is most true:

nd he beseeched me to entreat your majesties,

o hear and see the matter.

King. With all my heart; and it doth much content me

o hear him so inclined.

Dod gentlemen, give him a further edge, nd drive his purpose on to these delights. Ros. We shall, my lord.

King.

[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too:

or we have closely sent for Hamlet hither;
hat he, as 't were by accident, may here
ffront1 Ophelia.

er father, and myself,-lawful espials,-
ill so bestow ourselves, that seeing, unseen,
e may of their encounter frankly judge;
nd gather by him, as he is behaved,
"t be the affliction of his love or no,
hat thus he suffers for.

Queen.

I shall obey you:

nd for your part, Ophelia, I do wish

כ

at your good beauties be the happy cause

? Hamlet's wildness; so shall I hope your virtues ill bring him to his wonted way again,

both your honours.

Affront.] Meet, encounter. So in Cook's Green's Tu Quoque,

his I must caution you of, in your affront or salute, never to move ur hat.' And in Spenser's F. Queen, ‘Who him affronting soon to ht was ready prest.'