Did the king figh, but with a general groan.

King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; For we will fetters put upon this fear,

Which now goes too free-footed.

Rof. Guil. We will hafte us. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's clofet ; Behind the arras I'll convey myself,

To hear the procefs; I'll warrant, fhe'll tax him home;
And, as you faid, and wifely was it faid,

'Tis meet, that fome more audience, than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial', fhould o'er-hear
The fpeech of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,

And tell you what I know.

King. Thanks, dear my lord.

[Exit POLONIUS. O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldeft curfe upon't,

9 Bebind the arras I'll convey myself,] The arras-hangings, in Shakspeare's time, were hung at fuch a diftance from the walls, that a perfon might eafily ftand behind them unperceived. The principal witness against the Countefs of Exeter, who was unjustly charged in the year 1616, with a defign to poifon lady Lake and lady Roffe, was Sarah Wharton, a chambermaid, who fwore that the ftood bebind the bangings at the entrance of the great chamber at Wimbleton, and heard the countess confefs her guilt. The plot against this innocent lady was difcovered by king James, who went to Wimbleton, and found that the hangings, which had not been changed for thirty years, were two feet from the ground, fo that the chambermaid muit have been discovered, had he been there. His majesty obferving a great diftance between the window, near which the countefs was fuppofed to have ftood, and the lower end of the room, where the maid was faid to have stood, placed himself hehind the hangings, and finding that he could not hear the lords at the window, though they purposely spoke loud, obtained evidence of the falfhood of this charge. MALONE. 1 Since nature makes them partial, &c.] "Matres omnes filiis

"In peccato adjutrices, auxilii in paterna injuria
"Solent efle."

Ter. Heaut. A&t. 5. Sc. 2.

2 of vantage.] By fome opportunity of fecret obfervation.

1Y3

STEEVENT.

JOHNSON,

A bro

A brother's murder!-Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as fharp as will3;
My ftronger guilt defeats my itrong intent;
And, like a man to double bufinefs bound,
I ftand in paufe where I fhall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this curied hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood?
Is there not rain enough in the fweet heavens,
To wash it white as fnow? Whereto ferves mercy,
But to confront the vifage of offence?

And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force,-
To be fore-ftalled, ere we come to fall,

Or pardon'd, being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is paft. But O, what form of prayer
Can ferve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder!-
That cannot be; fince I am ftill poffefs'd
Of thofe effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence +?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may fhove by justice;
And oft 'tis feen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: But 'tis not fo above:
There is no fhuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what refts?
Try what repentance can: What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one can not repent?

3 Though inclination be as sharp as will;] Willis command, direßion. Thus, Ecclefiafticus, xliii. 16. "—and at his will the fouth wind bloweth." The king fays, his mind is in too great confufion to pray, even though his inclination were as ftrong as the command which requires that duty. STEEVENS.

4 May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?] He that does not amend what can be amended, retains his offence. The king kept the crown from the right heir. JoHNSON.

5 Yet what can it, when one can not repent?] What can repentance do for a man that cannot be penitent? for a man who has only a part of penitence, diftrefs of confcience, without the other part, refolution of amendment? JOHNSON.

O wretched

O wretched state! O bofom, black as death!
O limed foul; that, ftruggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels, make affay!
Bow, ftubborn knees! and, heart, with strings of fteel,
Be foft as finews of the new-born babe ;

All may be well!

Enter HAMLET.

[retires, and kneels.

Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying7;
And now I'll do't ;-And fo he goes to heaven:
And fo am I reveng'd? That would be fcann'd:
A villain kills my father; and, for that,

I, his fole fon, do this fame villain send

To heaven.

Why, this is hire and falary, not revenge.
He took my father grofsly, full of bread;

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And, how his audit stands, who knows, fave heaven?
But, in our circumftance and courfe of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: And am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his foul,
When he is fit and feafon'd for his paffage?

No.

60, limed foul;-] This alludes to bird-lime. Shakspeare ufes the fame word again, K. Henry VI. P. II.

"Madam, myself have lim'd a bush for her." STEEVENS. 7- pat, now be is praying;] Thus the folio. The quartos read but now, &c. STEEVENS.

8

- That would be fcann'd:] i. e. That should be confidered, eftimated. STEEVENS.

> I, bis fole fon, do this fame villain send-] The folio reads, foule fon, a reading apparently corrupted from the quarto. The meaning is plain. I, bis only fon, who am bound to punish his murderer. JOHNSON. hire and falary,] Thus the folio. The quartos read-base and filly. STEEVENS.

2 He took my father grofsly, full of bread;

With all bis crimes broad blown,-] The uncommon expreffion, full of bread, our poet borrowed from the facred writings: "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy fifter Sodom; pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did the Arengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Ezekiel, xvi. 49.

MALONE.

Up, fword; and know thou a more horrid hent3:
When he is drunk, afleep, or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed +;
At gaming, fwearing; or about fome act
That has no relish of falvation in't:

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven3;
And that his foul may be as damn'd, and black,
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This phyfick but prolongs thy fickly days.

[Exit. The

3 Up, fwerd, and know thou a more borrid hent:] To bent is ufed by Shakspeare for, to feize, to catch, to lay bold on. Hent is, therefore, bold, or feizure. Lay bold on him, fword, at a more horrid time.

4 When be is drunk, afleep, or in bis rage;

JOHNSON.

Or in the incestuous pleasures of bis bed;] So, in Marfton's Infatiate Countefs, 1603:

"Did'st thou not kill him drunk?

"Thou should'ft, or in th' embraces of his luft." STEEVENS. At gaming, fwearing;-] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-At game, a fwearing, &c. MALONE.

5

that bis beels may kick at heaven;] So, in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613:

"Whofe beels tript up, kick'd 'gainst the firmament." STEEV. As bell, whereto it goes.-] This fpeech, in which Hamlet, reprefented as a virtuous character, is not content with taking blood for blood, but contrives damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read or to be uttered. JOHNSON.

The fame fiend-like difpofition is fhewn by Lodowick, in Webster's Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

to have poifon'd

"The handle of his racket. O, that, that!

"That while he had been bandying at tennis,

"He might have fworn himself to hell, and ftruck

"His foul into the hazard !"

Again, in The Honeft Lawyer, 1616:

"I then fhould ftrike his body with his foul,

And fink them both together."

Again, in the third of Beaumont and Fletcher's Four Plays in one: "No, take him dead drunk now without repentance." STEEV. This horrid thought has been adopted by Lewis Machin, in the Dumb Knight, 1633:

Nay, but be patient; fmooth your brow a little, "And you shall take them as they clip each other;

The King rifes, and advances.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.

SCENE IV.

Another Room in the fame.

Enter Queen, and POLONIUS.

[Exit.

Pol. He will come ftraight. Look, you lay home to him:

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear with ;
And that your grace hath screen'd and flood between
Much heat and him. I'll filence me e'en here.
Pray you, be round with him.

Queen. I'll warrant you; fear me not.

Withdraw, I hear him coming. [Polonius hides himself3.

"Even in the height of fin; then damn them both,
"And let them ftink before they afk God pardon,

Enter

"That your revenge may fretch unto their fouls." MALONE. I think it not improbable, that when Shakspeare put this horrid fentiment into the mouth of Hamlet, he might have recollected the following ftory: "One of thefe monsters meeting his enemie unarmed, threatened to kill him, if he denied not God, his power, and effential properties, viz. his mercy, fuffrance, &c. the which when the other, defiring life, pronounced with great horrour, kneeling upon his knees; the bravo cried out, nowe will I kill thy body and foule, and at that inftant thrust him through with his rapier." Brief Difcourfe of the Spanish State, with a Dialogue annexed, intitled Philebafi is, 4to, 1590, p. 21. REED.

A fimilar ftory is told in The Turkish Spy, Vol. III. p. 243.

MALONE.

- I'll filence me e'en bere:] I'll filence me e'en bere, is, I'll ufe

no more words. JOHNSON.

$ Polonius bides bimfeif.] The concealment of Polonius in the queen's chamber, during the converfation between Hamlet and his mother, and the manner of his death, were fuggefted by the following paflage in The Hyftory of Hamblet, bl. let. fig. D 1: "The counfellour entered fecretly into the queene's chamber, and there bid himselfe bebind the arras, and long before the queene and Hamlet came thither; who being craftie and pollitique, as foone as hee was within the chamber, doubting fome treafon, and fearing if he fhould fpeake feverely and wifely to his mother, touching his fecret practifes, hee fhould be

understood