SCENE Y.

Changes to a Palace.

Enter Queen, and Horatio.

Queen. Will not speak with her.
Hor. She is importunate,

Indeed, diftract. Her mood will needs be pitied.
Queen. What would fhe have?

Hor. She fpeaks much of her father; fays, fhe hears,

There's tricks i'th'world; and hems, and beats her

heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt, That carry but half fenfe. Her fpeech is nothing, Yet the unfhap'd ufe of it doth move,

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts; Which as her winks, and nods, a

them,

geftures yield

Indeed would make one think, there might be thought, Tho' nothing fure, yet much unhappily.

'Twere good fhe were fpoken with, for fhe may

strow

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
Queen. Let her come in.

[Exit. Hor

9 'Twere good she were Spoken

with,- These lines are given to the Queen in the folio, and to Horatio in the quarto. I have followed Hanmer's regula tion.

To

Το my fick foul, as fin's true nature is,

Each Toy feems prologue to fome great Amifs;
So full of artlefs jealoufy is guilt,

It fpills itself, in fearing to be fpilt.

Enter Horatio, with Ophelia, distracted.

Oph. Where is the beauteous Majefty of Denmark?
Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

Oph. How Should I your true Love know from another

one ?

▾ By his cockle bat and staff, and by his fandal fboon.

[Singing,

Queen. Alas, fweet lady; what imports this Song?
Oph. Say you? Nay, pray you, mark.

He's dead and gone, lady, he is dead and gone;
At his head a grafs-green turf, at his heels a ftone.
O ho!

Enter King.

Queen. Nay, but Ophelia-
Opb. Pray you, mark.

By his cockle hat and staff, and by his fandal hoon. ] This is the defcription of a pilgrim. While this kind of devotion was in favour, love-intrigues were carried on under that mafk. Hence the old ballads and novels made pilgrimages the subjects of their plots. The cockle-fhell

hat was one of the effential badges of this vocation: for the chief places of devotion being beyond fea, , or on the coafts, the pilgrims were accustomed to put cockle-fhells upon their hats, to denote the intention or performance of their devotion.

WARBURTON.

White his fhroud as the mountain fnow.

Queen. Alas, look here, my Lord.

Oph. Larded all with fweet flowers: Which bewept to the Grave did go With true love Showers.

King. How do ye, pretty lady?

2

Oph. Well, God 'ield you! They fay, the owl

was a baker's daughter.

what we

Lord, we know

God be at

are, but we know not what we may be.

your table!

King. Conceit upon your father.

Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, fay you this:

To-morrow is St. Valentine's day,

All in the morn betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.

Then up be rofe, and don'd his cloaths,
3 And dupt the chamber door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

King. Pretty Ophelia !

Oph. Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end

on't.

2 the owl was a baker's daugh ter.] This was a metamorphofis of the common people, arifing from the mealy appearance of the owl's feathers, and her guarding the bread from mice.

WARB.

3 And dupt the chamber door ;] To dup, is to do up; to lift the latch. It were easy to write,

And op'd

4 By Gis, and by St. Charity,
Alack, and fy for fhame!
Young men will do't,

if they come to't,

By cock, they are to blame.
Quoth fhe, before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to wed:

So would I ba' done, by yonder fun,
And thou hadst not come to my bed.

King. How long has the been thus ?

Oph. I hope, all will be well. We muft be patient; but I cannot chufe but weep, to think, they fhould lay him i' th' cold ground; my brother fhall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counfel. Come, my coach. Good night, ladies; good night, fweet ladies; good night, good night. [Exit. King. Follow her clofe, give her good watch, I pray (Exit Horatio. This is the poifon of deep grief; it fprings

you.

All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude!
When forrows come, they come not fingle spies,
But in battalions. Firft, her father flain;
Next your Son gone, and he moft violent author
Of his own juft Remove; the people muddied,
Thick and unwholefom in their thoughts and whifpers
For good Polonius' death; We've done 5 but greenly,
In hugger mugger to interr him; poor Ophelia,

4 Ey Gis.] Frather imagine it thould be read,

Ey Cis,That is, By St. Cecil. > but greenly,] But unfitful; with green efs, that is, without maturity of judgment.

In bugger mugger to inter bim All the modern editions that I have confulted give it,

In private to inter him ;
That the words now replaced

are better, I do not undertake to prove; it is fufficient that they are Shakespeare's: If phrafeology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by difafe, or grois by vulgarity, the history of every language will be loft; we fhall no longer have the words of any authour; and, as thefe alterations will be often unfkillfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning.

Divided

Divided from herfelf, and her fair judgment;
Without the which we're pictures, or mere beafts:
Laft, and as much containing as all thefe,
Her brother is in fecret come from France;
7 Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear

With peftilent fpeeches of his father's death;
Wherein neceffity, of matter beggar'd,

8

Will nothing stick our perfons to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering piece, in many places
Gives me fuperfluous death!

Queen. Alack! what Noife is this?

[A noife within.

SCENE VI.

Enter a Meffenger.

King. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

What is the matter?

Σ

Mef Save yourself, my Lord.

The ocean, over-peering of his lift,

7 Feeds on his wonder,-] The the connection. Wherein, that

is, in which peftilent Speeches, neceffity, or, the obligation of an accufer to Support his charge, will nothing flick, &c.

S 3

9 Like to a murdering piece,-] Such a piece as affaffins ufe, with many barrels. It is neceffary to apprehend this, to fee the juftnefs of the fimilitude. WARB. 1 The ocean, over-peering of his

lift,] The lifts are the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pafs.

Eats