in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: (56) you shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: But what of that? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not: Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung. * your, 4tos. Enter LUCIANUS. a This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. b OPH. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. HAM. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge.c OPH. Still better, and worse.d HAM. So you mistake [your*] husbands. (5) Begin, murderer; Pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come; Doth bellow for revenge. The croaking raven Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; Confederate season, else no creature seeing; a You are a good chorus, my lord] The quartos read “as good as a." Mr. Henley observes, the use to which Shakespeare converted a chorus, may be seen in H. V. the puppets dallying] The agitations of your bosom. take off my edge] SEYMOUR. "When thou shalt be disedged by her That now thou tir'st on." Cymb. III. 4. Imogen. Still better, and worse] More keen and less decorous. a Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, On wholesome life usurp immediately. [Pours the Poison into the Sleeper's Ears. HAM. He poisons him i'the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. OPH. The king rises. HAM. What! frighted with false fire! QUEEN. How fares my lord? POL. Give o'er the play. KING. Give me some light: away! ALL. Lights, lights, lights! [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO. HAM. Why, let the strucken deer go weep, For some must watch, while some must sleep; So runs the world away. Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk (59) with me) with two Provincial roses (60) on my razed shoes, (61) get So, 4tos. me a fellowship in a cry of players, (62) sir? HOR. Half a share. (63) HAM. A whole one, I. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, (64) midnight weeds] "Root of hemlock, digg'd i'the dark." Macb. busurp] Encroach upon. See I. 1. Horat. с L 1. STEEVENS. let the strucken deer go weep] See As You, &c. 1 Lord. raced, 1623, 32. • rich, 163?. Of Jove himself; and now reigns here HOR. You might have rhymed. HAM. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? HOR. Very well, my lord. HAM. Upon the talk of the poisoning, HOR. I did very well note him. HAM. Ah, ha! Come, some musick; come, the recorders. For if the king like not the comedy, Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdie.. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTErn. Come, some musick. GUIL. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. HAM. Sir, a whole history. GUIL. The king, sir, HAM. Ay, sir, what of him? GUIL. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distempered. (66) HAM. With drink, sir? GUIL. No, my lord, rather with choler. HAM. Your wisdom should show itself more richer,* to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler. Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdie] Perdie, or perdy, is Dicu: and thus he balks the conclusion, or consequence, par as just before he had balked the rhyme. GUIL. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair. HAM. I am tame, sir :-pronounce. GUIL. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. HAM. You are welcome. GUIL. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon, and my return, shall be the end of my business. HAM. Sir, I cannot. HAM. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no more, but to the matter: My mother, you say, Ros. Then thus she says; Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration. HAM. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? impart. Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed. HAM. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?a Ros. My lord, you once did love me. HAM. And do still, by these pickers and stealers. (67) Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of dis ⚫ trade with us] Occasion of intercourse. temper? you do freely bar the door of your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.* HAM. Sir, I lack advancement. Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? HAM. Ay, sir, but While the grass grows,—the proverb is something musty, C Enter the Players, with a Recorder." O, the recorder :-let me see one. To withdraw with you (6) Why do you go about to recover the wind of me," (69) as if would drive me into a toil? : you GUIL. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.* HAM. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? GUIL. My lord, I cannot, HAM. I pray you. you do freely bar the door of your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend] By your own act you close the way against your own ease, and the free discharge of your griefs, if you open not the source of them to your friends. The quartos read, "you do surely bar the door upon." b you have the voice of the king himself for your succession] "The most immediate to our throne." I. 2. King. "While the grass grows," the proverb is something musty] Partakes of the staleness it is descriptive of. He was, as he had just told the king, "promise-cramm'd: you can't feed capons so." d Recorder] Flagellet. See M. N. Dr. V. 1. Hippol. if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly] If my sense of duty have led me too far, it is affection and regard for you that makes the carriage of that duty border on disrespect. |