King. Where is Polonius?

your

Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if messenger find him not there, seek him i'the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants.
Ham. He will stay till you come.

[Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safe

ty,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve

For that which thou hast done,—must send thee hence

With fiery quickness: Therefore prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help3,
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham.

King.

Ham.

For England?

Ay, Hamlet.

Good.

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them.-But, come;

for England!-Farewell, 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 England. [Exit.

noble subjects, but by no means exclusively. Sir William Drury, in a Letter to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, among the Conway papers, tells him he is going a little progresse to be merry with his neighbours.' And that popular book of John Bunyan's, The Pilgrim's Progress, is surely not the account of a regal' predatory excursion.'

3 i. e. in modern phrase the wind serves,' or is right to aid or help you on your way.

4

i. e. attend.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed

aboard;

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night;
Away; for every thing is seal'd and done

That else leans on the affair: 'Pray you, make haste.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,
(As my great power thereof may give thee sense;
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us,) thou may'st not coldly set5
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,

The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectick in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin7.

SCENE IV. A Plain in Denmark.

[Exit.

Enter FORTINBRAS, and Forces, marching.
For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
Tell him, that, by his licence, Fortinbras
Claims1 the conveyance of a promis'd march
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,

We shall express our duty in his eye 2.
And let him know so.

5 To set formerly meant to estimate. There is no ellipsis, as Malone supposed. To sette, or tell the pryce; æstimare. To set much or little by a thing, is to estimate it much or little.

I would forget her, but a fever she

Reigns in my blood.'

7 The folio reads:

Love's Labour's Lost.

Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.'

The quarto reads-craves.

2 Eye for presence. In the Regulations for the establishment

Cap.

For. Go softly on.

I will do't, my lord.

[Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Forces.

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDEN

[3 Ham.

STERN, &c.

Good sir, whose powers are these?

Cap. They are of Norway, sir.

Ham.

I pray you?

Cap.

Ham.

How purpos'd, sir,

Who

Against some part of Poland.

Commands them, sir?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground,

That hath in it no profit but the name.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

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

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:

This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace;
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir. [Exit Captain.

of the Queen's Household, 1627:- All such as doe service in the queen's eye.' And in The Establishment of Prince Henry's Household, 1610: All such as doe service in the prince's eye.' It was the formulary for the royal presence.

3 The remainder of this scene is omitted in the folio.

Ros.

Will't please you go, my lord?

Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little

before.

[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my 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 5, Looking before, and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

6

Of thinking too precisely on the event,

A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom,

And, ever, three parts coward, I do not know
Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do:

Sith I 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;
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;

4 i. e. profit.

5 See note on Act i. Sc. 2, p. 174. It is evident that discursive powers of mind are meant; or, as Johnson explains it, 'such latitude of comprehension, such power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future.' Since I wrote the former note, I find that Bishop Wilkins makes ratiocination and discourse convertible terms.

6 Craven is recreant, cowardly. It may be satisfactorily traced from crant, creant, the old French word for an act of submission. It is so written in the old metrical romance of Ywaine and Gawaine (Ritson, vol. i. p. 133) :—

'Or yelde the til us als creant.'

And in Richard Cœur de Lion (Weber, vol. ii. p. 208):— 'On knees he fel down, and cryde, “ Créaunt.”

It then became cravant, cravent, and at length craven. superfluous to add that recreant is from the same source.

It is

Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,

To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not 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'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood',
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, 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 9,
To hide the slain ?-O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

[Exit. SCENE V. Elsinore. A Room in the Castle.

Enter Queen and HORATIO.

Queen. I will not speak with her.
Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distract;
Her mood will needs be pitied.

7

Queen.

What would she have?

'Excitements of my reason and my blood.' Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to

vengeance.

8 A plot of ground. Thus in The Mirror for Magistrates:'Of ground to win a plot, a while to dwell,

We venture lives, and send our souls to hell.'

9 Continent means that which comprehends or encloses. Thus in Lear:

'Rive your concealing continents.'

And in Chapman's version of the third Iliad :

did take

Thy fair form for a continent of parts as fair.'

If there be no fulnesse, then is the continent greater than the content.'-Bacon's Advancement of Learning, 1633, p. 7.