His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
And never noted in him any study,

Any retirement, and sequestration,
From open haunts and popularity.

ELY The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,

And wholesome berries thrive, and ripen best,
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality :
And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which no doubt,
Grew like a summer-grass, fastest by night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.

CANT. It must be so for miracles are ceas'd,
And therefore we must needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.

SHAKSPEARE.

-0000

CHAP. XIII.

HAMLET AND HORATIO.

HOR. HAIL to your Lordship!

HAM I am glad to see you well; Horatio! 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 makes you from Wittenberg, Horatio?
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 Elsineur ?

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
Her. My Lord, I came to see your father's fu.

neral.

HAM.

HAM. I pray thee do not mock me, fellow stu

dent;

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

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my direst foe in heav'n,
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father methinks I see my father.
HOR. O where, my Lord!

HAM. In my mind's eye, 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?

Hon. My Lord, the King your father.
HAM The King my father!

HOR. Season your admiration but a while,

With an attentive ear; till I deliver

Upon the witness of these gentlemen,

The marvel to you.

HAM For Heav'n's love, let me hear !

Hoa. Two nights together had these gentle

men,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter: A figure like your father,
Arm'd at all points exactly, cap à pié.

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
Almost to jelly with th' effect of fear,)

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secresy 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

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 dia:

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 ;
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;

And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

HAM. Indeed, indeed, Sir, but this troubles me, Hold you the watch to night?

MAR. and BER. We do, my Lord,

HAM. Arm❜d, say you?

HOR. Arm'd, my Lord.

HAM From top to toe?

HOR. My Lord, from head to foot.

HAM. Then saw you not his face?

HOR. O yes, my Lord, he wore his beaver

up.

HAM What, look'd he frowningly?

HOR. A count'nance more in sorrow than in an

ger.

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. Staid it long!

HOR. While one with mod'rate haste might tell,

a hundred.

HAM. His beard was grisled ?-10

HOR.

HOR. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A sable silver'd.

HAM. I'll watch to night; perchance 'twill walk again.

HOR. 1 warrant you it will.

HAM If it assumes my noble father's person.
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace I pray you,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be ten'ble in your silence still:
And whatsoever shall befall to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your love; so fare you well,
Upon the platform 'twixt eleven and twelve
I'll visit you.

SHAKSPEARE.

00000

CHAP. XIV.

BRUTUS AND CASSIUS.

CAS. WILL you go see the order of the course ?

BRU Not I.

CASI pray you, do

BRU I am not gamesome; I do lack some part Of that quick-spirit that is in Antony;

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires

I'll leave you.

CAS. Brutas, I do observe you now of late
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have;
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

BRU. Cassius,

Be not deceiv'd: if I have vail'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance

Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself;

Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviour;

Eut

But let not therefore my good friends be griev❜d,
Among which number, Cassius, be you one;
Nor construe any farther my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the show of love to other men.

CAS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion ;

By means whereof, this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
BRU. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself,
But by reflection from some other thing.
CAS. "lis just.

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no such mirror as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into the eye,

That you might see your shadow. I have heard,
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
(Except immortal Cæsar) speaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble brutus had his eyes.
BRU. Into what dangers would you lead me,
Cassius,

That you would have me seek into myself
For that which is not in me?

CAS. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear,
And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which yet you know not of.
And be not jealous of me, gentle Brutus:
Were I a common laughter, or did use
lo stale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protestor; if you know,
That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,
And after scandal them; or if you know,
That I profess myself in banquetting,
To all the rout; then hold me dangerous.

BRU. What means this shouting? I do fear the
people

Choose Cæsar for their King.

U

CAS