Ham.

I am glad to see you well ; Horatio,—or I do forget myself.

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant

ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name

with you.

And what make you 28 from Wittenberg, Horatio ?—
Marcellus?

Mar. My good lord,
Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even,

sir. But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ?

Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so: Nor shall

you

do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach

you

to drink deep ere you depart. Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow student; I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd

meats 29 Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. 'Would, I had met my dearest 30 foe in heaven Or I had seen that day, Horatio ! My father,-Methinks, I see my father.

31

ever

28 i. e. what do you. Vide note on Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv, Sc. 3.

29 It was anciently the custom to give an entertainment at a funeral. The usage was derived from the Roman cæna funeralis ; and is not yet disused in the North, where it is called an arvel supper.

30 See note on Twelfth Night, Act v. Sc. 1, p. 335.

31 Tbis is the reading of the quarto of 1604. The first quarto and the folio read, ' Ere I had ever.'

Hor.

Where,

My lord ?

Ham. In my mind's eye 32, Horatio.
Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king.

Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw! who?
Hor. My lord, the king your father.
Ham.

The king my father ?
Hor. Season your admiration for a while
With an attent ear; till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.
Ham.

For God's love let me hear. Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, In the dead waste and middle of the night 33,

32

himself behind
Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind.'

Rape of Lucrece.
Chaucer has the expression in his Man of Lawe's Tale:-

* But it were with thilke eyen of his mind,

Which men mowen see whan they ben blinde.' And Ben Jonson, in his Masque of Love's Triumphs :• As only by the mind's eye may

be seen.' And Richard Rolle, in his Speculum Vitæ, MS. speaking of Jacob's Dream :

• That Jacob sawe with gostly eye.' i. e. the eye of the mind or spirit. 33 The first quarto, 1603, has :

• In the dead vast and middle of the night.' I suffer the following note to stand as I had written it previous to the discovery of that copy.

We have that vast of night in The Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. Shakspeare has been unjustly accused of intending a quibble here between waist and waste. There appears to me nothing incongruous in the expression; on the contrary, by the dead waste and middle of the night,' I think, we have a forcible image of the void stillness of midnight.

Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your

father,
Armed to point, exactly, cap-à-pé,
Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk’d,
By their oppress’d and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill’d 34
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them, the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes; I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.
Ham.

But where was this?
Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
Ham. Did you not speak to it?
Hor.

My lord, I did:
But answer made it none : yet once, methought,
It lifted

up

its head, and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
But, even then, the morning cock crew loud 35 ;
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.
Ham.

'Tis

very strange. Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;

34 The folio reads, bestilld.

35 • It is a most inimitable circumstance in Shakspeare so to have managed this popular idea, as to make the Ghost, which has been so long obstinately silent, and of course must be dismissed by the morning, begin or rather prepare to speak, and to be interrupted at the very critical time of the crowing of a cock. Another poet, according to custom, would have suffered his ghost tamely to vanish, without contriving this start, which is like a start of guilt: to say nothing of the aggravation of the future suspense occasioned by this preparation to speak, and to impart some mysterious secret. Less would have been expected if nothing had been promised.'-T. Warton.

And we did think it writ down in our duty,
To let

you

know of it. Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night? All.

We do, my lord. Ham. Armid, say you? All.

Arm'd, my lord. Ham.

From top to toe? All. My lord, from head to foot. Ham.

Then saw you not His face. Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver 36

up. Ham. What, look’d he frowningly? Hor.

A countenance more
In sorrow than in anger.
Ham.

Pale, or red?
Hor. Nay, very pale.
Ham.

And fix'd his eyes upon you ?
Hor. Most constantly.
Ham.

I would, I had been there. Hor. It would have much amaz'd

you. Ham.

Very like,
Very like: Stay'd it long?
Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell

a hundred.
Mar. Ber. Longer, longer.
Hor. Not when I saw it.
Ham.

His beard was grizzld ? no?
Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A sable silver'd 37.

36 That part of the helmet which may be lifted up. Mr. Douce has given representations of the beaver, and other parts of a helmet, and fully explained them in his Illustrations, vol. i.

p. 443.

37

• And suble curls all silvered o'er with white.'

Shakspeare's Twelfth Sonnet.

Ham.

I will watch to-night ;
Perchance, 'twill walk again.
Hor.

I warrant you, it will. Ham. If it assume my

noble father's person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace.

I

pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable 38 in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,

I'll visit you.

Our duty to your honour. Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and

BERNARDO. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul: Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

[Exit.

SCENE III. A Room in Polonius' House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. Laer. My necessaries are embark’d; farewell : And, sister, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you. Oph.

Do you

doubt that? Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; A violet in the youth of primy nature,

38 The quarto of 1603 reads tenible. The other quartos tenable. The folio of 1623 treble.