To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, King. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither; Her father and myself (lawful espials2) Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen, Queen. I shall obey you; And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish, That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness. So shall I hope, your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honors. Oph. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen. Pol. Ophelia, walk you here.-Gracious, so please you, We will bestow 3 ourselves.-Read on this book ; [TO OPHELIA. That show of such an exercise may color Your loneliness.-We are oft to blame in this,— 'Tis too much proved,—that with devotion's visage, And pious action, we do sugar o'er The devil himself. King. O'tis too true! how smart A lash that speech doth give my conscience! 1 i. e. meet, encounter her. 2 "Lawful espials;" that is, lawful spies. 3"Bestow ourselves" is here used for hide or place ourselves. 4 Quarto lowliness. Than is my deed to my most painted word. O heavy burden! Pol. I hear him coming; let's withdraw, my lord. [Aside. [Exeunt King and POLONIUS. Enter HAMLet. Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the question And, by opposing, end them?-To die,-to sleep,-— For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,3 8 But that the dread of something after death,- 1 "This mortal coil;" that is, "The tumult and bustle of this life." 2 i. e. the consideration. This is Shakspeare's most usual sense of the word. 3 Tine, for the time, is a very usual expression with our old writers. 4 Folio-" the poor man's contumely." 5 The allusion is to the term quietus est, used in settling accounts at exchequer audits. 6 "Bodkin was the ancient term for a small dagger." 7 Packs, burdens. 8 To grunt appears to have conveyed no vulgar or low image to the ear of our ancestors, as many quotations from the old translations of the classics would show. No traveller returns,-puzzles the will; 2 Good my lord, Oph. I Ham. I never gave you aught. No, not I; yours, Oph. My honored lord, you know right well, you did; And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind. Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest? Oph. My lord? Ham. Are you fair? Oph. What means your lordship? Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty. Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner 1 Quartos-pitch. 2 Folio-away. 3 i. e. "your honesty should not admit your beauty to any discourse with her." The first quarto reads, "Your beauty should admit no discourse to your honesty;" that of 1604, "You should admit no discourse to your beauty." transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the ' force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness; this was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. Ham. You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it. I loved you not. Oph. I was the more deceived. Ham. Get thee to a nunnery; why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in,' imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven! We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father? Oph. At home, my lord. Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him; that he may play the fool no where but in's own house. Farewell. Oph. O, help him, you sweet Heavens! Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewell.3 Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough, what monsters you make of them. make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell. 4 Oph. Heavenly powers, restore him! Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another; you jig, you amble, and you lisp, "Than I have thoughts to put them in." To put "a thing into thought," is "to think on it." 2 Folio-way. 3 Folio-Go, farewell. 4 The folio, for paintings, has prattlings; and for face has pace. and nickname God's creatures, and make your wan- The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! Re-enter King and POLONIUS. King. Love! his affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, Was not like madness. There's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits cn brood; And, I do doubt, the hatch, and the disclose,* I have, in quick determination, Thus set it down. He shall with speed to England, For the demand of our neglected tribute. Haply, the seas, and countries different, With variable objects, shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart; 1 "You mistake by wanton affectation, and pretend to mistake by ignorance." 2 Quarto time. 3 Ecstasy is alienation of the mind. Vide Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 3. 4 To disclose was the ancient term for hatching birds of any kind; from the Fr. esclos. |