42

will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

Enter POLONIUS.

God bless you, sir!

Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.

Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a camel?

Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel.

Pol. It is back'd like a weasel.

Ham. Or, like a whale ?

Pol. Very like a whale.

Ham. Then, will I come to my mother by and by. They fool me to the top of my bent.- I will

come by and by.

Pol. I will say so.

Ham. By and by is easily said.

friends.

[Exeunt all but HAMLET.

'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When church-yards yawn, and hell itself breathes

out

Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot

blood,

And do such bitter business as the day'
Would quake to look on. Soft!

mother.

43

now to my

O, heart! lose not thy nature; let not ever

The

42 Hamlet keeps up the allusion to a musical instrument. frets of a lute or guitar are the ridges crossing the finger-board, upon which the strings are pressed or stopped. Of course a quibble is intended on fret.

H.

43 Thus the folio; the quartos read, "such business as the bit ter day." In the second line before, the quartos have breaks in

stead of breathes.

H.

The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom :
Let me be cruel, not unnatural.
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites:
How in my words soever she be shent,"
To give them seals never, my soul, consent! [Exit.

44

SCENE III. A Room in the Same.

Enter the King, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN

STERN.

King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with us,
To let his madness range. Therefore, prepare you:
I your commission will forthwith despatch,
And he to England shall along with you.

The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so dangerous, as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.1

Guil.

We will ourselves provide.

Most holy and religious fear it is,

To keep those many many bodies safe,
That live, and feed, upon your majesty.

Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more
That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone; but like a gulf doth draw

44 To shend is to injure, whether by reproof, blows, or otherwise. Shakespeare generally uses shent for reproved, threatened with angry words. "To give his words seals" is therefore to earry his punishment beyond reproof. The allusion is the sealing a deed to render it effective.

So the folio; the quartos read "so near us" instead of " sơ dangerous," and brows instead of lunacies.

H

What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voy

age;

For we will fetters put upon this fear,

Which now goes too free-footed.

Ros. Guil.

We will haste us.

[Exeunt.

Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet. Behind the arras I'll convey myself,

To hear the process: I'll warrant, she'll tax him

home;

And, as you said, and wisely was it said,

"Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
The speech of vantage.
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,

2

And tell you what I know.

King.

Fare you well, my liege:

O! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder! - Pray can I not :
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;

3

"Speech of vantage" probably means "speech having the advantage of a mother's partiality."

H.

That is, "though I were not only willing, but strongly inclined

to pray, my guilt would prevent me."

And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens,
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?

And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force,--
To be forestalled, ere we come to fall,

Or pardon'd, being down? Then, I'll look up;
My fault is past. But, O! what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder?-
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd, and retain th' offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can? What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one can not repent?
O, wretched state! O bosom, black as death!
O, limed soul! that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd. Help, angels! make assay:
Bow stubborn knees; and, heart, with strings of
steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe :
All may be well ! 5

[Retires and kneels.

That is, caught as with birdlime. See 2 Henry VI., Act i sc. 3, note 6.

This speech well marks the difference between crime and

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying

And now I'll do't:-
And so am I reveng'd?

That would be scann'd:'

A villain kills my father; and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.

Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.7
He took my father grossly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven?
But, in our circumstance and course of thought,
"Tis heavy with him and am I, then, reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent :

guilt of habit. The conscience here is still admitted to audience. Nay, even as an audible soliloquy, it is far less improbable than is supposed by such as have watched men only in the beaten road of their feelings. But the final "All may be well!" is remarkable; - the degree of merit attributed by the self-flattering soul to its own struggles, though baffled, and to the indefinite half promise, half command, to persevere in religious duties. COLE

RIDGE.

H.

6 That requires consideration. In the first line of this speech, the quartos read but now 'a is a praying," instead of "pat, now he is praying." And in the fifth line, the folio has foul instead of sole.

H.

7 Thus the folio; the quartos have “base and silly” instead of "hire and salary."

H.

That is, more horrid seizure, grasp, or hold. Hent was often used as a verb in the same sense. See The Winter's Tale, Act iv. sc. 2, note 19. Dr. Johnson and others have exclaimed against what Hamlet here says, as showing a thorough-paced and unmitigable fiendishness of spirit. Coleridge much more justly regards the motives assigned for sparing the king, as "the marks of reluctance and procrastination." At all events, that they are not Hamlet's real motives, is evident from their very extravagance.