To you

That thou, dead coarse, again, in compleat steel,
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous, and us fools of nature
So horribly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our fouls ?
Say, why is this? wherefore ? what should we do?

[Ghost beckons Hamlet. Hor. It beckons you to go away with it, As if it some impartment did desire

alone.
Mar. Look, with what courteous action
It waves you to a removed ground:
But do not go with it.
Hor. No, by no means.

(Holding Hamlet, Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it. Hor. Do not, my Lord.

Ham. Why, what should be the fear?
I do not set my life at a pin's fee ;
And, for my soul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?
It waves me forth again.I'll follow it
Hor. What if it tempt you tow'rd the flood, my

Lord
Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff,
That beetles o'er his base into the sea ;
And there afsume some other horrible form,
Which might deprive your fov'reignty of reason,
And draw you into madness ? think of it.
The very place puts toys of defperation,
Without more motive, into ev'ry brain,
That looks so many fathoms to the sea;
And hears it roar beneath.

Ham. It waves me ftill: go on, I'll follow thee
Mar. You shall not go, my Lord.
Ham. Hold off

your

hands.
Mar. Be rul’d, you shall not go.

Ham. My fạte cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve :
Still am I call'd ; unhand me, gentlemen

[Breaking from them.

By heav'n, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me
Ilay, away-

go on

I'll follow thee

[Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. Hor. He waxes desp'rate with imagination. Mar. Let's follow ! 'tis not fit thus to obey him. Hor. Have after.. To what issue will this come ? Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Hor. Heav'n will direct it. Mar. Nay, let's follow him.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to a more remote Part of the

Platform.

Re-enter Ghost and Hamlet. Ham. 7 Here wilt thou lead me I speak, I'll go

no further.
Gboft. Mark me.
Ham. I will.

Ghost. My hour is almost come,
When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
Muft render up myself.

Ham. Alas, poor Ghost !

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I Thall unfold.

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear.
Ghoft. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
Ham. What?

Ghost. I am thy father's Spirit ;
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires ;
”Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purg'd away:

But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like ftars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:

But

But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood; lift, lift, oh list!
If thou didít ever thy dear father love-

Ham. Oh heav'n !
Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder
Ham. Murder ?

Ghoft. Murder most foul, as in the best it is ;
But this most foul, frange, and unnatural.

Ham. Hafte me to know it, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge.

Ghoft. I find thee apt ; And duller shouldst thou be, than the fat weed That roots itself in case on Lethe's wharf, Wouldft thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear; 'Tis given out, that, sleeping in my orchard, A ferpent ftung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent, that did fting thy father's life, Now wears his crown.

Ham. Oh, my prophetick soul! my uncle ?

Ghoft. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with trait'rous gifts, (0 wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power So to seduce !) won to his shameful lust The will of my most feeming-virtuous Queen. Oh lamlet, what a falling off was there ! From me, whose love was of that dignity, That it went hand in hand ev’n with the vow I made to her in marriage ; and to decline Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine ! But virtue, as it never will be mov’d, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heav'r; So luft, though to a radiant angel link'd, Will fate itself in a celestial bed, And prey on garbage----But, fost ! methinks, I scent the morning air * Brief let me be ; Sleeping within mine orchard,

My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle ftole
With juice of cursed hebenon in a phial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
'The leperous diftilment; whose effect
Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That swift as quick-silver it courses through.
The nat'ral gates and allies of the body;
And, with a sudden vigour, it doth poffet
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholsome blood: fo did it mine,
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
Moft lazar-like, with vile and loathsome cruft
All my smooth body.-
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,
Of life, of crown, of Queen, at once dispatcht;
Cut off ev'n in the bloffoms of my fin,
Unhuuseld, unappointed, unaneal'd: (11)

No (11) Unbouzzled, unanointed, unaneald;] The Ghoft, having recounted the Process of his, Murder, proceeds to exaggerate the Inhumanity and Unnaturalness of the Fact, from the Circumstances in which he was surprized. But there, I find, have been stumbling Blocks to our Editors; and therefore I must amend and explain these three compound Adjectives in their Order. Instead of unbouzzel'd, we must restore, unboufeld, i. e, without the Sacrament taken; from the old Saxon Word for the Sacrament, bousel. In the next place, unanointed, is a Sophistication of the Text: the old Copies concur in reading, disappointed. I correct,

Unboufell, unappointed, i. e, no Confeffion of Sins made, no Reconciliation to Heaven, no Appointment of Penance by the Church. Unaneal'd I agree to be the Poet's genuine Word; but I must take the Liberty to dispute Mr. Pope's Explication of it, viz. No Knell rung. The Adjective formed from Knell, must have been Unknell'd, or unknolld. There is no Rule in Orthography for finking the k in the Deflection of any Verb or Compound formed from Ķnell, and melting it into a Vowel. What Sense does unaneal'd then bear? SKIN N E-R, in his Lexicon of old and obsolete English Terms, tells us, that Aneal'd is unktus; from the Teutonick Preposition an, and Ole, i. e. Oil: so that unaneal'd must consequently signify, unanointed, not having the extream UnElion. The Poet's Reading and Explication being afa

certained,

No reck’ning made, bat sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.
Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! moft horrible!
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But howsoever thou pursu'st this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy foul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to heav'n,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm News the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
Adieu, adieu, adieu ; remember me.

[Exit. Ham. Oh, all you host of heav'n! oh earth! what else i And shall I couple hell? oh, hold

my

heart-
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old;
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee-
Ay, thou poor ghoft, while memory holds a feat
In this distracted globe; remember thee
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter. Yes, by heav’n :
Oh most pernicious woman!
Oh villain, villain, smiling damned villain!
My tables, meet it is, I set it down,

certained, he very finely makes his Ghost complain of these four dreadful Hardships; that he had been dispatched out of Life without receiving the Hoft, or Sacrament; without being reconciled to Heaven and absolu'd; without the Benefit of extream Unction; or without so much as a Confesion made of his fins. T'he having no Knell rung, I think, is not a Point of equal Consequence to any of these; especially, if we consider, that the Romish Church adınits the Efficacy of praying for the Dead.