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And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,

That it be proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Ham.
Such an act,
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words; Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen.

Ah me, what act,

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? 9
Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this;'
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;

8

from the body of contraction] Contraction for marriage contract.

9 and thunders in the index?] Bullokar in his Expositor, 8vo. 1616, defines an Index by "A table in a booke." The table was almost always prefixed to the books of our poet's age. Indexes, in the sense in which we now understand the word, were very un

common.

1 Look here, upon this picture, and on this ;] It is evident from the following words,

"A station, like the herald Mercury," &c.

that these pictures which are introduced as miniatures on the stage, were meant for whole-lengths, being part of the furniture of the queen's closet.

[blocks in formation]

New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,

Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:

This was your husband. - Look you now, what follows:
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten 3 on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,
The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else, could you not have motion*: But, sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd: for madness would not err;

What devil was't,

Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd,
But it reserv'd some quantity of choice,
To serve in such a difference.
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? 5
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, 7

2 A station like the herald Mercury, &c.] Station, in this instance, does not mean the spot where any one is placed, but the act of standing. batten] i. e. to grow fat. Bat is an ancient word for

increase.

4 Sense, sure, you have,

Else could you not have motion:] Sense is sometimes used by Shakspeare for sensation or sensual appetite: as motion is the effect produced by the impulse of nature.

5

at hoodman-blind?] Probably the same as blindman's-buff. 6 Could not so mope.] i. e. could not exhibit such marks of stupidity.

7 If thou canst mutine, &c.] To mutine, was the ancient term, signifying to rise in mutiny.

To flaming youth lẹt virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will.

Queen.

O Hamlet, speak no more:

8

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct. 9

Нат.

Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed;

1

Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love
Over the nasty stye;

Queen.

O, speak to me no more;

These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham.

A murderer, and a villain;

A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord: — a vice of kings:
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

Queen.

2

No more.

Enter Ghost.

Ham.

A king

Of shreds and patches:

J

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,

8 grained-] Died in grain, or perhaps, indented.

9 As will not leave their tinct.] To leave is to part with, give up, resign.

2

enseamed bed;] i. e. greasy bed.

vice of kings:] A low mimick of kings. The vice is the fool of a farce; from whence the modern punch is descended.

3 A king

Of shreds and patches:] This is said, pursuing the idea of the vice of kings. The vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of partycoloured patches.

You heavenly guards!-- What would your gracious

figure?

Queen. Alas, he's mad.

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion, let's go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, say!

Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul;
Conceit in weakest bodies 5 strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham.

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

That you do bend your eye on vacancy,

6

And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
Ham. On him! on him! Look you, how pale he
glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. 7-Do not look upon me;
Lest, with this piteous action, you convert

My stern effects: then what I have to do
Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood.

laps'd in time and passion,] That, having suffer'd time to slip, and passion to cool, let's go, &c.

• Conceit in weakest bodies-] Conceit for imagination.

6—

like life in excrements,] Not only the hair of animals having neither life nor sensation was called an excrement, but the feathers of birds had the same appellation.

7 Would make them capable.] Capable here signifies intelligent; endued with understanding.

8 My stern effects:] Effects for actions; deeds effected.

Queen. To whom do you speak this?

Ham.
Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see.
Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?

Do you see nothing there?

Queen.

No, nothing, but ourselves.

Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he liv'd!

Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!

[Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy

Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstasy!

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful musick: It is not madness,
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of
grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness, speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past: avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost9 on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue :
For in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg;

Yea, curb' and woo, for leave to do him good.

Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Ham. O throw away the worser part of it,

And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to my uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

9 do not spread the compost, &c.] Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your former offences.

1

curb-] That is, bend and truckle; Fr. courber.

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