Deliberate pause: diseases, desp'rate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,
Or not at all.

Enter Rosincrantzia
How now? what hath befall'n?

Ref. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my Lord,
We cannot get from him.
King. But where is he?

[[ure.
R. Without, my Lord, guarded to know your plea.
King. Bring him before us,
Ro. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my Lord,

Enter Hamlet, and Guildensterna
King. Now, Hamlet, where's Poonius?
Hom. At fupper.
King. At supper? where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten ; & certain convocation of politique worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only Emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat King and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes but to one table; that's the end.

King. Alas, alas !

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a King, eat of the fish that hath fed or that worm,

Kin. What doth thou mean by this?

Ham. Nothing, but to thew you how a King may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. King. Where is Polonius?

Ham. In heav'n, send thither to fee. If your mefsenger find him not there, seek him i'th' other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this mon:h, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby:

King. Go seek him there.
Ham. He will stay till ye come.

King, Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, (Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou haft done) must send thee hence

With

15

With fiery quickness; therefore prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
Th' associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Han, For England ?
King. Ay, Ilanlet.
Ham. Good.
Kin. So is it, if thou knew'it our purposes.

Bam. I see a Cherub, that sees them ; but come, for Enlard! farewel, dear mother.

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother : father and mother is man and wife ; man and wife is one flesh, and, so, my mother. Come, for Enylan'.

[Ex:t, King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed Delay it not, i'll have him hence to-night. (aboard ; Away, for every thing is feal'd and done 1 hat else leans on th' affair ; pray you, make haste.

(Exeunt Rof. anu Guild. And, England! if my love thou holdst at aught, (57) As my great power thereof may give thee sense, Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red After the Danijis sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us; thou may'st not coldly set

Cur (57) And, England, if my love thou hold'8 at aught,

As my great pow'r thereof may give ebee ferje,
Since yet try cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and iby free awe

Pays homage to us;] This is the only passage in the play, from which one might expect to trace lhe date of the action of it: best, I'm afraid, our Author, according to his usual licence, plays fast and loose with time. England is here suppos'd to have been conquer'd by the Danes, and to be a homager to that state. The chronology of the Darish affairs is wholly uncertain, till we come to the reign of Ivarus about the year 870: And 'uis plain from Saxo Grammaticus, that the time, in which Amlethus liv'd, was some generations earlier than the period of Cbrifianity. And ihe letters, which the Darifh King's messengers carred over to England, were wooden tableis. Literas ligno infculptas (ràm id celebre quondàın genus cbartarum erat) fecum gestantes, quitus. Britannorum regi transmilli fibi juvenis ocrisia mandabutur. Such a sort of mandate implies, that the English King was ei her link'd in the dearest amity to the Dune, or in Turjection

Our fovereign process, which imports at full,
By letters congruing to that effect,
The present death of Ham'et. Do it, England:
For like the hectick in my blood he rages,
And thou must care me; 'rill I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin. [Exit.

Go

SCENE A Camp, on the Frontiers of Denmark,

Enter Fortinbras, with an Army.
For. 10, Captain, from me, greet the Danish King,

I Tell him, that, by his licence, Fortinbras
Claims the conveyance of a promis'd march
Over his realm. You know the rendezvous,
If that his Majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye,
And let him know fo.

Cap. I will do't, my Lord.
For. Go softly on. [Exie Fortinbras, with the Ar.ny.

Enter Hamlet, Rosincrantz, Guildenstern, &cs,
Ham. Good Sir, whose powers are these?
Capt. They are of Noruay, Sir.
Ham. How purpos’d, Sir, I pray you?
Capr. Again it fome part of Polani,
Ham. Who commands them, Sir ?
Capt. The nephew of old Norway, Fortinbras.

Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, Sir,
Or for some frontier ?

Caps. Truly to speak it, and with no addition,

to him. But what then fall we do, with our own home chronicles ? They are express, that the Danes never fet fvoting on our coatt till the 8th century. They infested us for some time in a piratical way, tben made a descent and conquer'd part of the country; and, about the year 8co, King Egbert is said to have submi:ted to a tribute, call'a Dane-gelt: a tax of 12 d. on every hide of land through the wbole nation. But our authors differ about this Dane-gelt: whether it was a tax paid, to obtain good terms of the Danis; or levied by our Kings towards the charge of defences, to repel the invafions of the Danese

We go to gain a little patch of ground,
Thai hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducatsfive, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,
A ranker rate, should it be fold in fee.

H... Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Capt. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

[cats,
Hum. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand du-
Will not debate the question of this straw;
This is th' imr.posthume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks, and hewş no cause without
Why the man dies. 1 humbly thank you, Sir.

Capt. God b'w'ye, Sir.
Ris. Will’t please you go, my Lord ?
Ham. I'll be with you strait, go a little before.

[Excunt.
Manet Hamlet.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur iny dull revenge? what is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, (58)
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason
lo rast in us unus'd. Now whether it be
Peilial oblivion, or fome craven scruple
Cf thinking too precisely on th' event,
(A thought, which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom,

(58) Sure, he that made us wish fuch large discourse, Looking before ard afier.) This is an expression purely Homeric ;

Ος δ' ογές των μετ' η τιν, άμα IPO ΣΣΩ και 'οΙ'ΣΣΩ
Aslios,

Iliad. 7. ver. 109. And again ; có; hiçõ. cu fiecare TIPOʻSE 12 PONI'SIR.

Iliad.o. ver.250. The fhort fcholiant on the last paflave gives us a comment, that very aptly explains our Author's phrafe. IUVET8 yaş ciegós ési, ta prin davla 90 4 7:q: Vrpeevoos aqués so far, rj @ Tws opçu tas népeva. “ For it is the

part of an understanding man to connect the reflection of events to

come with such as have pass'd, and so to foresee what shall follow." This is, as our Author phrases it, looking BEFORE and AFTER.

And ever three parts coward :) I do not know
Why yet I live to say this thing's to do;
Sith l have cause, and will, and

strength, and means
To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me ;
Witness this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender Prince,
Whofe, spirit, with divine ambition puft,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal and unfure
To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Ev'n for an egg-shell. 'Tis not to be great,
Never to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain's,
(Excitements of my reason and my blood)
And let all sleep? while to my name, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men;
That for a fantasy and trick of fame
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot,
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the sain ? O, then, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth. [Exila

SCENE changes to a Palace,

I"

Enter Quer, Horatio, and a Gentleman. Vein.

Will not speak with her.

Gent. She is importunate,
Indeed, distract; her mood will needs be pitied.

Queen. What would she have ?

Gent. She speaks much of her father; says, she hears, There's tricksi’th’world; and hems, and beats her heart; Spurns envioully at straws; speaks things in doubt, That carry but half fenfe; her speech is nothing, Yet the unshaped use of it doth move The hearers to collection; they aim at it, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts ; 7

Which