Most necessary 'tis, that we forget

To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:"
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy

Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye; nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark, his favourite flies;
The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend:
For who not needs, shall never lack a friend;
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.

But, orderly to end where I begun,—
Our wills, and fates, do so contráry run,
That our devices still are overthrown;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;

But die thy thoughts, when thy first lord is dead.

P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! Sport and repose lock from me, day, and night!

To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope !P
Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy,
Meet what I would have well, and it destroy!
Both here, and hence, pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!

Ham. If she should break it now,

[To OPHELIA.

P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a

while;

what to ourselves is debt :] The performance of a resolution, in which only the resolver is interested, is a debt only to himself which he may therefore remit at pleasure.-JOHNSON.

enactures-] i. e. Effects.-NARES.

P An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!] May my whole liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prison. Anchor is for anchoret.-JOHNSON. This abbreviation of the word is very ancient.-STEEVENS.

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.

P. Queen.

[Sleeps.

Sleep rock thy brain;

And never come mischance between us twain! [Exit.
Ham. Madam, how like you this play?

Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Ham. O, but she'll keep her word.

King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?

Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i'the world.

King. What do you call the play?

Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder, done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: But what of that? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not: Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.—

Enter LUCIANUS.

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.
Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
Ham. I could interpret between you and

could see the puppets dallying."

your love, if I

Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

Ham. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge. Oph. Still better, and worse.

Ham. So you mistake your husbands."-Begin, murderer;-leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come;-The croaking raven

Doth bellow for revenge.

Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;

Confederate season, else no creature seeing;

• The mouse-trap.] He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is—

the thing

In which he'll catch the conscience of the king."-STEEVENS.

▾ I could interpret, &c.] This refers to the interpreter, who formerly sat on the stage at all motions or puppet-shows, and interpreted to the audience.STEEVENS.

• So you mistake your husbands,] i. e. So you do amiss in taking your hus bands for worse; you should take them for better only.-TOLLET.

Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magick and dire property,

On wholesome life usurp immediately.

[Pours the Poison into the Sleeper's Ears. Ham. He poisons him i'the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago; the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

Oph. The king rises.

Ham. What! frighted with false fire!

Queen. How fares my lord?

Pol. Give o'er the play.

King. Give me some light :-away!

Pol. Lights, lights, lights!

[Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO.

Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play :

For some must watch, while some must sleep;
Thus runs the world away.-

Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers; (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk' with me,) with two Provencial roses on my razed shoes," get me a fellowship in a cry of players,* sir?

Hor. Half a share.

Ham. A whole one, I.x

For thou dost know, O Damon dear,"

This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very-peacock.

Hor. You might have rhymed.

— turn Turk with me,)] This means to change condition fantastically.— STEEVENS.

u

· razed shoes,] i. e. Slashed shoes.

a cry of players,] A pack of hounds was once called a cry of hounds. STEEVENS.

- Ham. A whole one, I.] The actors in our author's time had not annual salaries as at present. The whole receipts of each theatre were divided into shares, of which the proprietors of the theatre, or house-keepers, as they were called, had some; and each actor had one or more shares, or part of a share, according to his merit.-MALONE.

O Damon dear,] Hamlet calls Horatio by this name, in allusion to the celebrated friendship between Damon and Pythias.-STEEVENS.

Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?

Hor. Very well, my lord.

Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning,

Hor. I did very well note him.

Ham. Ah, ha!-Come, some musick; come, the recorders.

For if the king like not the comedy,

Why then, belike,—he likes it not, perdy."

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Come, some musick.

Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
Ham. Sir, a whole history.

Guil. The king, sir,

Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?

Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distempered.
Ham. With drink, sir?

Guil. No, my lord, with choler.

Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer, to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler.

Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.

Ham. I am tame, sir:-pronounce.

Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

Ham. You are welcome.

Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon, and my return, shall be the end of my business.

Ham. Sir, I cannot.

Guil. What, my lord?

Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's dis

Why then, belike,] Hamlet was going on to draw the consequence, when the courtiers entered.-JOHNSON.

- perdy.] The corruption of pur Dieu, and is not uncommon in the old plays.-STEEVENS.

eased: But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no more, but to the matter: My mother, you say,

Ros. Then thus she says; Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.

Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! -But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? impart.

Ros. She desires to speak with you in your closet, ere you go to bed.

Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?

Ros. My lord, you once did love me.

Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers.d Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you do, surely, but bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.

Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.

Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark?

Ham. Ay, sir, but, While the grass grows, the proverb is something musty.

Enter the Players, with Recorders.'

O, the recorders :-let me see one. To withdraw with you: [taking Guildenstern aside.]-Why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guil. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.

Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

d

further trade-] Further business; further dealing.-JOHNSON.
by these pickers, &c.] By these hands.-JOHNSON.

the proverb is something musty.] The remainder of this old proverb is-
"While grass doth growe, the silly horse he starves."

Hamlet means to intimate, that whilst he is waiting for the succession to the throne of Denmark, he may himself be taken off by death.-MALONE.

11

-- Recorders.] i. e. Å kind of large flute. To record, anciently signified to sing or modulate.-STEEVENS.

8· [taking Guildenstern aside.] This stage direction was inserted by Mr. Malone.