Imatges de pàgina
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I loved your father, and we love ourself;

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,—
How now? what news?

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet : This to your majesty; this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! who brought them?

Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them

Of him that brought them.

King. Laertes, you shall hear them :Leave us.

[Exit Messenger. [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. HAMLET.

What should this mean! Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. Naked,And, in a postscript here, he says, alone :

Can you advise me?

Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come : It warms the very sickness in my heart,

That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,

Thus diddest thou.

King. If it be so, Laertes,

As how should it be so? how otherwise?-
Will you be rul'd by me?

Laer. Ay, my lord;

So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace.

King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,A checking at his voyage, and that he means

No more to undertake it,-I will work him

To an exploit, now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall:

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

Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd;

The rather, if you could devise is so,
That I might be the organ.

King. It falls right.

You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
Did not together pluck such envy from him,
As did that one; and that, in my regard,
Of the unworthiest siege."

Laer. What part is that, my lord?

King. A very ribband in the cap of youth,
Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than settled age his sables, and his weeds,
Importing health and graveness. Two months since,
Here was a gentleman of Normandy,-

I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French,
And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat;
And to such wond'rous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd
With the brave beast: So far he topp'd my thought;
That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,

Come short of what he did. 9

Laer. A Norman, was't?

King. A Norman.

Laer. Upon my life, Lamord.

King. The very same.

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

King. He made confession of you;

And gave you such a masterly report,
For art and exercise in your defence,

And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed,

If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation,
He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you oppos'd them: Sir, this report of his
Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy,
That he could nothing do, but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you.

"

[7] Of the lowest rank. Siege for seat, place. Othello, -I fetch my birth "From men of royal siege."

I 3

JOHNSON. So in

STEEVENS.

[8] Importing, here may be, not inferring by logical consequence, but producing by physical effect. A young man regards show in his dress, an old man health. JOHNSON.

[9] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as he could perform. JOHNSON [1] Scrimers-fencers. From escrimeur, Fr. a fencer, JOHNSON

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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 sorrow,

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 see, in passages of proof, 3 Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick, or snuff, that will abate it; And nothing is at a like goodness still ; For goodness, growing to a plurisy,4

Dies in his own too-much. That we would do,

We should do when we would; for this would changes, And hath abatements and delays as many,

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ;

And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh,

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That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o'the ulcer:
Hamlet comes back; What would you undertake,
To show yourself in deed your father's son

More than in words?

Laer. To cut his throat i'the church.

King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize;
Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
Will you do this, keep close within your chamber :
Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home :
We'll put on those shall praise your excellence,
And set a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together,
And wager o'er your heads: he, being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice,

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[2] This is obscure. The meaning may be, love is not innate in us, and coessential to our nature, but begins at a certain time from some external cause, and being always subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution. JOHNSON.

[3] In transactions of daily experience. JOHNSON.

[4] I would believe, for the honour of Shakspeare, that he wrote plethory. But I observe that the dramatic writers of that time frequently call a fulluess of blood a plurisy WARBURTON.

[5] A sigh that makes an unnecessary waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers. JOHNSON.

[6] Unbated, i. e. not blunted as foils are by a button fixed at the end.

MALONE.

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Queen. Her coronet weeds clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; when down her weedy trophies, and herself, fell in the weeping brook.

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