If thou canft mutiny in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire.

Proclaim no fhame,

When the compulfive ardour gives the charge;
Since froft itself as actively doth burn,

6

And Reafon panders Will.

Queen. O Hamlet, fpeak no more,

Thou turn'ft mine eyes into my very foul,
And there I fee fuch black and

As will not leave their tinct...
Ham Nay, but to live

8

grained fpots,

In the rank fweat of an incestuous bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honying and making love
Over the nafty fty!

Queen. Oh, fpeak no more;

Thefe words like daggers enter in mine ears.
No more, fweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain!

9

A flave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent Lord. A Vice of Kings -
A cutpurfe of the Empire and the Rule,

That from a fhelf the precious Diadem ftole
And put it in his pocket.
Queen. No more.

4

Enter Ghoft.

Ham A King of fhreds and patches
Save me! and hover o'er me with your wings,

[Starting up.

You heav'nly guards! What would your gracious fi

gure?

Queen. Alas, he's mad

Ham. Do you not come your tardy fon to chide, That's, 3 laps'd in time and paffion, lets go by Th' important acting of your dread command? O fay!

Ghaft. Do not forget: This vifitation

Is but to whet thy almoft blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother fits;
O'ftep between her and her fighting foul: A
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.

Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham. How is it with you, Lady?
Queen. Alas, how is't with you?

That thus you bend your eye on vacancy,

And with th' incorporal air do hold difcourfe PYNT
Forth at your eyes your fpirits wildly peep,
And as the fleeping foldiers in th' alarm,
Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements,
Start up, and stand on end. O gentle fon,
Upon the heat and flame of thy diftemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

:

2 A King of fored and patches.] This is faid, pursuing the idea of the Vice of Kings. The Vice was dreffed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches.

laps'd in time and paf fion,- That having iuf

R

fered time to flip, and poffin to cool, lets go, &c.

4 like life in excrements,] The hairs are excrementitious, that is, without life or fenfation: yet thofe very hairs, as if they had life, start up, &c. POPE.

2

Ham.

Y

Ham. On him! on him!-Look you, how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to ftones, Would make them capable. Do not look on me, Don Left with this piteous action you convert My ftern effects; then what I have to do, Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood. Queen. To whom do you speak this ? dig a boo Ham. Do you fee nothing there?sumy paukk [Pointing to the Ghoft. Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I fee. Ham. Nor did you nothing hear? Queen. No, nothing but ourselves.

A

Ham. Why, look you there! Look, how it fteals away!

My father in his habit as he liv'd!

Look, where he goes ev'n now, out at the portal,

[Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain, This bodilefs creation Ecftafy Is very cunning in.

Ham. What Ecftafy?

My pulfe, as yours, doth temp'rately keep time,
And makes as healthful mufick.Tis not madness
That I have utter'd bring me to the teft, TREA
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your foul,
That not your trefpafs, but my madness, fpeaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whilft rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unfeen. Confefs yourself to heav'n;
Repent what's paft, avoid what is to come
And do not spread the compoft on the weeds
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;

s do not Spread the compoft, &c.] Do not, by any new in

W

dulgence, heighten your former offences.

For, in the fatness of these purfy times,
Virtue itself of vice muft pardon beg,

6

Yea, curb and wooe,
curb and wooe, for leave to do it good.

7

Queen. Oh Hamlet! thou haft cleft my heart in twain.

Ham, O, throw away the worfer part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night, but go not to mine uncle's bed,
Affume a virtue, if
you have it not.
• I bat monster custom, who all fenfe doth eat
Of habits, Devil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good.
He likewife gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night;
And that shall lend a kind of eafiness
To the next abstinence; the next, more eafy;
For ufe can almoft change the stamp of Nature,
And mafter ev'n the Devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night!
And when you are defirous to be bleft,
I'll Bleffing beg of you. For this fame Lord,

[Pointing to Polonius.
I do repent: but heav'ns have pleas'd it fo,
To punish this with me, and me with this
That I must be their fcourge and minifter.

6 curb-] That is, bend and truckle.

7 That monster cuftɩm, who all fense doth eat Of Habit's Devil, is angel yet in this:] This paffage is left out in the two elder folio's: It is certainly corrupt, and the play. ers did the difcreet part to ftifle what they did not understand. Habit's Devil certainly arofe from fome conceited tamperer with the text, who thought it was neceffary, in contrait to Angel. The emendation of the text I owe to

the fagacity of Dr. Thirl's. That morfter cuftem, who al fenfe doth eat,

Of habits evil, is angel, &c. THEOBALD. I think Thirlby's conjecture wrong, though the fucceeding editors have followed it; Angel and Devil are evidently oppofed,

8 To punish this with me, &c.] This is Hanmer's, reading; the other editions have it,

R 3

To punish me with this, and this with me.

I will

I will bestow him, and will anfwer well

use The death I gave him. So, again, good night !. I must be cruel, only to be kindhu

Thus bad begins, and worfe remains behind.
Queen. What fhall I do?

Ham. Not this by no means, that I bid you do. 9 Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed; Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his moufe; And let him, for a pair of reechy: kiffes,

Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,

That I effentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know.
For who that's but a Queen, fair, fober, wife,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gibbe,
Such dear concernings hide? Who would do fo?
No, in defpight of fenfe and fecrefy,"

Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,
To try conclufions, in the basket creep;

And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou affur'd, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

What thou haft faid to me..

Ham. I muft to England, you know that ?

Queen. Alack, I had forgot, 'tis fo concluded on. Ham. There's Letters fealed, and my two schoolfellows,

2

Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd;

9 Let the fond King-] The old quarto reads,

Let the bloat Kingi.e bloed, which is better, as more expreffive of the fpeaker's WARBURTON.

contempt.

There's Letter feal'd, &c.] The ten following verfes are added out of the old edition. РОРЕ,

2 adders fang'd;] That is, Adders with their fangs, or pai fonous teeth, undrawn. It has been the practice of mountebanks to boast the efficacy of their antidotes by playing with vipir, but they fiift disabled their fangs.

They