And my imaginations are as foul (37) Hor. Well, my Lord, SINCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and other Lorits attendant, with a Guard carrying Torches. Da. nish March. Sound a Flourish. Ham. They're coming to the play; I must be Get you a place. [idle King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent, i'faith, of the camelion's dish : I eat the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons fo. King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine.---Now, my Lord; you played once i' th’university, you say? [T. Polon. Pol. That I did, my Lord, and was accounted a good actor. Ham. And what did you enae ? Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar, I was killed i' th' Capitol : Brutus killed me. Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill fo capital a calf there. Be the players ready? Rof. Ay, my Lord, they stay upon your patience. (37) And my imaginations are as foul, As Vulcan's stithy.] I have ventured, against the authority of all the copies, to substitute smithy here. I have given my reasons in the fortieth note on Troilus, to which, for brevity's fake, I beg leave to refer the readers. Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more attractive. Pol. Oh, ho, do you mark that? [Lying down at Ophelia's feet. Ham. That's a fair thought, to ly between a maid's legs? Oph. What is, my Lord ! Ham. Oh God! your only jig-maker; what fhould a man do but be merry? For, look you how chearfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my Lord. Ham. So long? nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of fables. Oh heavens ! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet! then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on with the hobby-horse; whose epitaph is, “ For " oh, for oh, the hobby-horse is forgot.” Hautboys play. The Dumb-show enters. (38) Enter a Duke and Duchess, with regal Coro nets, very lovingly; the Duchefs embracing him, (38) Enter a King and Queen very lavingly; ] Thus has the and he her. She kneels; he takes her up, and dee clines his head upon her neck; he lays him down zipon a bank of fiuwers; she seeing him asleep, leaves bim. Anon comes in a Fellow; takes off his crown, killes it, and pour's poison in the Duke's ears, and exit. The Duchess returns, finds the Duke dead, and makes passionate action. The poisoner, with fome two or three-mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poifoner wooes the Duchess with gifis; She seems loth and unwilling a while, but inThe end accepts his love. [Exeunt. Opb. What means this, my Lord ? Ham. Marry, this is miching Malicho; it means. mifchief. Oph. Belike this how imports the argument of the play? Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players çannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll shew him. Be not you amamed to shew, he'll not shame to tell, you what it means. blondering and inadvertent editors all along given us this: ftige direction, though we are expressly told by Hamlet anon, that the story of this introduced interlude is the mure der of Gonzago Duke of Vienna. The source of this mife take is catily to be accounted for, from the stage's dresling the characters. Regal coronets being at first ordered by the Poet for the duke and duchess, the succeeding players, who did not strictly observe the quality of the persons or circumStances of the story, miftook 'em for a king and quecu; and fo the error was deduced down from thence to the present times. Methinks Mr Pope might have induiged his private sense in so obvious a mistake, without any fear of ralaneis being impured to him for the arbitrary correction. Oph. You are naught, you are naught, I'll mark the play. Prol. For us, and for our tragedy, Here ftooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. Enter Duke and Duchess, Players, round Dach. So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o'er, ere love be done. But woe is me, you are fo fick of late, So far from cheer and from your former state, That I díftrust you; yet though I distrust, Discomfort you, my Lord, it nothing must: For women fear too much, even as they love. And womens' fear and love hold quantity; 'Tis either none, or in extremity. Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know; And as my love is sized, my fear is fo. (39) (39) And as my love is fixed, mv fear is fo.] Mr Pope says, I read sized, and, indeed, I do so; because I observe the Quarto of 1605 reads cized; that of 1611 cizt; the Folio in 1632 fiz; and that in 1623 sized; and because, besides the whole tenour of the context demands this reading. For the lady evidently is talking here of the quantity and proportion of ber love and fear, not of their continuance, duration, or sta. Where love is great, the smallest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows. ly too : Duch. Oh confound the rest! Ham. Wormwood, worinwood !--- Duch. The instances that fecond marriage move; Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. A fecond time I kill my husband dead, When second husband kisses me in bed. Duke. I do believe you think what now you speak; But what we do determine oft we break; Purpose is but the slave tó memory, Of violent birth, but poor validity : Which now, like unripe fruits, sticks on the tree, But fall unsbaken, when they mellow be.. Most necessary 'tis that we forget To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt: What to ourselves in paflion we propose, The passion ending, doth the purpose lose; The violence of either grief or joy, Their own enactors with themselves destroy. Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. bility. Cleopatra expresses herself much in the fame maoner, with regard to her grief for the loss of Antony; our size of sorrow, Proportioned to our cause, must be as great As that which akes it. |