There ceason can but pee Tell me, Laertes, Ger

Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person;
There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.(37) — Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incensed ;-Let him go, Ger-

trude ;Speak, man.

LAER. Where is my father ?
King.

Dead.
QUEEN.

But not by him.
King. Let him demand his fill.
LAER. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled

with:
To hell, allegiance ! vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience, and grace, a to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation : To this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes ; only I'll be reveng'd
Most throughly for my father.
King.

Who shall stay you?
LAER. My will, not all the world's :
And, for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little. -
King.

Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father's death, is't* writ in your re- . So 4tos,

if, 1623, 32. venge, That, *sweepstake, you will draw both friend and soopstake, foe,

0. c. Winner and loser ?

LAER. None but his enemies.

grace] A religious feeling, a disposition to yield obedience to the divine laws.

• Both the worlds I give to negligence] I am careless of my present and future prospects, my views in this life, as well as that which is to come.

sweepstuke] By wholesale, undistinguishingly.

KING.

Will you know them then ?
LAER. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope

my arms;
And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,(38)
Repast them with my blood.
King.

Why, now you speak
Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensiblea in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce,
As day does to your eye.

DANES. [Within.] Let her come in.
LAER. How now! what noise is that?

Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dressed with Straws

and Flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains ! tears seven times salt,
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye !-
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight,
Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia !
O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is fine in love: and, where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself,
After the thing it loves.(39)
OPH. They bore him barefac'd on the bier ;

Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny : (40)

And on* his grave rains* many a tear ;Fare you well, my dove!

• in, 4tos. #rain'd, 4tos.

* sensible in grief] Poignantly affected with. Adjectives, having this termination, are, in our author, frequently used adverbially. The quarto, 1604, reads sensibly.

pierce] Make its way. The quartos read peare.

LAER. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade

revenge, It could not move thus.

Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, (41) an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it! (42) It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.

LAER. This nothing's more than matter.*

Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance ; (43) pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, * that's for thoughts.(4)

* paconcies,

1623. LAER. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you,* and colum- the King. bines : (45).there's rue for you; and here's some for me :-we may call it, herb of grace o'Sun. days: (46)—you may wear your rue with a difference.(47)— There's a daisy ; (48)—I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died :—They say, he made a good end,

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,(49)

[Sings. LAER. Thought and affliction, passion, hell it

self, She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

Oph. And will he not come again?

And will he not come again?

No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,
He never will come again.

• This nothing's more than matter] See “ O matter,” &c. Lear, IV. 6. Edg.

Thought] “ Thought or hevynesse of herte. Molestia. Mestitia.” Promptuar. parvulor. 4to. 1514. Ant. and Cl. III. 2. Enobarb. "Think and die.” See Tw. N. II. 4. Viola.

His beard was as white as snow,(50)
All flaxen was his poll,

He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan;
God'a mercy on his soul !

And of all christian souls! I pray God. God be * buy, O.C. wi' * you!

[Exit Ophelia.
LAER. Do you see this, O God?
King. Laertes, I must common with your

grief, (51)
Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction; but, if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.
LAER.

Let this be so;
His means of death, his obscure funeral, —
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his

bones, (52)
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,
Cry to be heard, (53) as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call’t in question.
KING.

So you shall ;
And, where the offence is, let the great axe (54) fall.
I pray you go with me.

[Ereunt.

* of whom your wisest friends] Of whom, or which of. Any amongst.

SCENE VI.

Another Room in the same.

LAT

Enter Horatio, and a Servant. Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? SERV.

Sailors, sir; They say, they have letters for you. Hor.

Let them come in.

[Exit Servant. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

1 Sail. God bless you, sir. Hor. Let him bless thee too.

1 SAIL. He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England ; if your name be Ho. ratio, as I am let to know it is.

Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some meansa to the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea," a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace : Finding ourselves too slow of sail,

a means to the king] Means of access, introduction.

• Ere we were two days old at sea] At the end of a second day's voyage. See M. for Ñ. IV. 2. Prov.

appointment] Equipment.