Imatges de pàgina
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may call it herb of grace o' Sundays. You may wear your rue with a difference; there's a daify. I would give you fome violets, but they withered all when father dy'd. They fay, he made a good end;

For bonny fweet Robin is all my joy.

my

Laer. Thought, and affliction, paffion, hell itself, She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

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And on all chriftian fouls! God b'wi'ye. [Exit Oph, Laer. Do you fee this, you Gods!

King. Laertes, I muft commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but a-part.

Make choice of whom your wifeft friends you will, And they fhall hear and judge 'twixt you and me. If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our Kingdom give,
Our Crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in fatisfaction. But if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us;
And we fhall jointly labour with your

To give it due content.

Laer. Let this be fo..

foul,

His means of death, his obfcure funeral,

*No

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. I pray you go with me.

SCENE VIII.

Enter Horatio, with an Attendant.

[Exeunt.

Hor. What are they, that would fpeak with me? Serv. Sailors, Sir. They fay, 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 ble's thee too.

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

9 No trophy, Sword, nor hatch

men! It was the custom, in the times of our authour, to hang a fword over the grave of a Knight.

And where th' offence is, let

the great Ax fall.] We fhould read,

-let the great TAX fall. i. e. penalty, punishment.

WARBURTON. Fall correfponds better to ax. Horatio

Horatio reads the letter.

ORATIO, when thou shalt have overlook'd this, H give thefe fellows Jome means to the King: they have letters for him. Ere we were too days old at fea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace. Finding ourselves too flow of fail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the inftant they got clear of our ship, fo 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 bave the letters I have fent, and repair thou to me with as much hafte as thou wouldeft fly death. I have words to speak in thy ear, will make thee dumb, yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. Thefe good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rofincrantz and Guildenstern bold their courfe for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewel.

2

He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.

Come. I will make you way for thefe your letters;
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.

[Exeunt.

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King. Now muft your confcience my acquittance
feal,

2. for the bore of the matter.] The matter, fays Hamlet, would The bore is the caliber of a gun, carry heavier words.

or the capacity of the barrel.

And

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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, wifdom, all things elfe,
You mainly were stirr'd up?

King. O, for two special reasons,

זי

Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unfinew'd,
And yet to me are ftrong. The Queen, his mother,
Lives almost 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 ftar moves not but in his fphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a publick count I might not go,
Is the great love the general gender bear him;
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
4 Would, like the fpring that turneth wood to ftone,
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,
Who has, if praifes may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections. But my revenge will come.

3. -the general gender--] The common race of the people;

4 Would, like the Spring--] This fimile is neither very feafonable in the deep intereft of ths conversation, nor very accurately applied. If the firing had

changed bafe metals to gold, the
thought had been more proper.
5 if praises may go back

again.] If I may praife what has been, but is now to be found

no more.

King. Break not your fleeps for that. You must not

think,

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,

That we can let our beard be shook 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 imagine
How now? what news?

·Enter a Meffenger,

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 fhall hear them. Leave us

all

[Exit Messenger.

HIGH and Mighty, you sball know, I am fet naked on your Kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to fee your kingly eyes. When I fhall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount th' occafion of my fudden re

turn.

Hamlet.

What should this mean? Are all the reft come back? Or is it some 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 sickness in my heart,

That Ifhall live and tell him to his teeth,

Thus diddeft thou.

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King. If it be fo, Laertes,

As how fhould it be fo?- -how, otherwife?

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