80

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the
eye,
Nor the dejected haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
For they are actions that a man might play:
But I have that within which passeth show;
These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
King. Tis sweet and commendable in your
nature, Hamlet,

To give these mourning duties to your father:
But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost, lost his; and the survivor
bound

In filial obligation for some term

To do obsequious1 sorrow: but to perséver
In obstinate condolement, is a course

90

Of impious stubbornness; 't is unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd:
[For what we know must be, and is as common
As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we in our peevish opposition 100
Take it to heart? Fie! 't is a fault to heaven,
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd; whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse till he that died to-day,
"This must be so."] We pray you, throw to

I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
King. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply:
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit
again,
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away,
[Exeunt all except Hamlet.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! 130
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on 't! O, fie! 't is an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in

A little month, or e'er those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:-why she, even she-
O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer-married with
my uncle,

151

My father's brother, but no more like my father

172

Nor shall you do mine ear that violence
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's
funeral.

Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellowstudent;

I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd meats

180

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead vast and middle of the night, Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,

Arméd at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,

200

Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes, Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd

Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them the third night kept the
watch:

Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good

The apparition comes: I knew your father; These hands are not more like.

210

Ham. Pale or red?

Hor. Nay, very pale. Ham.

And fix'd his eyes upon you?

Hor. Most constantly.
Ham.
I would I had been there.
Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.
Ham. Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
Hor. While one with moderate haste might
tell a hundred.

Mar. Ber. Longer, longer.
Hor. Not when I saw 't.
Ham.

His beard was grizzled,-no?
Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A sable silver'd.

Ham.
I will watch to-night;
Perchance 't will walk again.

242

Hor. I warrant it will. Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still; And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, Give it an understanding, but no tongue: 250 I will requite your loves. So, fare you well: Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, I'll visit you.

Oph. No more but so? Laer. Think it no more: For nature, crescent, does not grow alone In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now; And now no soil nor cautel2 doth besmirch The virtue of his will: but you must fear, His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own; For he himself is subject to his birth:] He may not, as unvalu'd persons do, Carve for himself; for on his choice depends The safety and the health of the whole state; [And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he

loves you,

19

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
[Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd; 40
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear:
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.]
Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
As watchman to my heart. But, good my
brother,

A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!

And these few precepts in thy memory

See thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no

tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. €0
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption
tried,

Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd,unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear 't, that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy
judgment.

4 Buttons, buds (Fr. boutons).