Like to a murdering piece 2, in many places Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door : What is the matter? Gent. Save yourself, my lord; The ocean, overpeering of his list, 4 Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste, Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him, lord; Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king! Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds, Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! [Noise within. 2 Like to a murdering piece,] The small cannon, which are, or were used in the forecastle, half-deck, or steerage of a ship of war, were within the last century called murdering-pieces. 3 —— my Switzers?] In many of our old plays, the guards attendant on kings are called Switzers, and that without any regard to the country where the scene lies, because the Swiss in the time of our poet, as at present, were hired to fight the battles of other nations. 4 The ocean, overpeering of his list,] The lists are the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pass. In this place, it signifies boundary, i. e. the shore. 5 0, this is counter,-] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards. Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following. Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all with Laer. That drop of blood, that's calm, proclaims me bastard; Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot King. What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?— Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person; That treason can but peep to what it would, 6 I Why thou art thus incens'd;-Let him go, Gertrude;— Speak, man. Laer. Where is my father? Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience, and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation: To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd Most throughly for my father. 6 unsmirched brow,] i. e. clean, not defiled. King. Who shall stay you? Laer. My will, not all the world's: And, for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with little. King. Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge, That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser? Laer. None but his enemies. King. Will you know them then? Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms; And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican, Repast them with my blood. King. Why, now you speak Like a good child, and a true gentleman. That I am guiltless of your father's death, And am most sensibly in grief for it, It shall as level to your judgment 'pear, 7 As day does to your eye. Danes [within.] Let her come in. Laer. How now! what noise is that? Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dressed with Straws and O heat, dry up my brains! tears, seven times salt, 7 to your judgment 'pear,] For appear. VOL. VIII, BB It sends some precious instance of itself 8 Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier; Fare And in his grave rain'd many a tear; you well, my dove! Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus. Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it 9! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. Laer. This nothing's more than matter. Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance;1 pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted. we may Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines : there's rue for and here's some for me: you; call it, herb of grace o'Sundays:-you may wear your rue with a difference.2 There's a daisy: I would » Nature is fine in love: and, where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.] Love (says Laertes) is the passion by which nature is most exalted and refined; and as substances, refined and subtilised, casily obey any impulse, or follow any attraction, some part of nature, so purified and refined, flies off after the attracting object, after the thing it loves. 9 O, how the wheel becomes it! &c.] The wheel means the burthen of the song, which she had just repeated, and as such was formerly used. But Mr. Malone thinks that wheel is here used in its ordinary sense, and that these words allude to the occupation of the girl who is supposed to sing the song alluded to by Ophelia. 1 There's rosemary, that's for remembrance;] Rosemary was anciently supposed to strengthen the memory, and was not only carried at funerals, but worn at weddings. 2 · you may wear your rue with a difference.] This seems to give you some violets; but they withered all, when father died:- They say, he made a good end, my For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy, [Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction3, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour, and to prettiness. ·Oph. And will he not come again ? And will he not come again? No, no, he is dead, Go to thy death-bed, He never will come again. His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll: He is gone, he is gone, And we cast away moan; God 'a mercy on his soul! [Sings. And of all christian souls! I pray God. God be wi' [Exit OPHELIA. you! Laer. Do you see this, O God? King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart, Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, refer to the rules of heraldry, where the younger brothers of a family bear the same arms with a difference, or mark of distinction. There may, however, be somewhat more implied here than is expressed. You, madam, (says Ophelia to the queen,) may call your RUE by its Sunday name, HERB OF GRACE, and so wear it with a difference to distinguish it from mine, which can never be any thing but merely RUE, i, e. sorrow. STEEVENS. Thought and affliction,] Thought here, as in many other places, signifies melancholy. + God'a mercy on his soul! And of all christian souls!] This is the common conclusion to many of the ancient monumental inscriptions. |