1

Mar. Is it not like the King?
Hor. As thou art to thyself.
Such was the very armour he had on,
When he the ambitious Norway combated:
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sleaded Polack on the ice..
'Tis strange

[hour,

Mar. Thus twice before, and just at this dead With martial stalk, he has gone by our watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know But, in the gross and scope of my opinion, (not: This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subjects of the land?
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war ?
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week?
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint labourer with the day :
Who is't that can inform me ?

Hor. That can I;

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last King,
Whose image but even now appeared to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
(Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride)

Dar'd to the fight: in which our valiant Hamlet,
(For so this side of our known world esteemed him)
Did slay this Fortinbras; who by sealed compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit (with his life) all those his lands,
Which he stood seised of, to the conqueror :
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had returned
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher: as by that covenant,
And carriage of the articles designed,
His fell to Hamlet. Now young Fortinbras, (9)

Fig. 52.

(9) Figure 52, exhibits young Fortinbras, crowned,

:

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in't; which is no other,
As it doth well appear unto our state,
But to recover of us by strong hand, (10)
And terms compulsative, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
The source of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this post haste and romage in the land.

Ber. I think it be no other but even so;
Well may it sort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch so like the King,
That was, and is, the question of these wars.

situate with his head towards the north side of the moon and his face bending down towards the south, being composed of Horatio's face turned upside down. The etymology of his name may be like that of Hudibras above assigned, forte in brass; and he is particularly marked by the epithet young, as having in fact the youngest-looking and best formed human countenance of any which the moon exhibits. His being situate towards the north side of the moon is implied by his connection with Norway; and his being opposed to the late King of Denmark, (whose ghost is situate on the south side,) has regard to the librations of the moon in those opposite directions.

(10) To recover, i. e. to overcome, or get the upper hand of, by the moon's libration.

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless: the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell; Disasters veiled the sun; and the moist star, Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, Was almost sick to doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of fierce events, As harbingers preceding still the Fates, And prologued to the omened coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climatures and countrymen.

Enter Ghost again.

But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again !
I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Speak to me.

If there be any good thing to be done,

• That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me.

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
Oh speak!-

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

[Cock crows. For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death. Speak of it. Stay, and speak--Stop it, Marcellus.-Mar. Shall I strike it with my partizan ?

Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber. 'Tis here

Hor. 'Tis here.

Mar. 'Tis gone,

[Exit Ghost.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it shew of violence;

For it is as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew. (11)

Fig. 53.

(11) The crowing of the cock seems to be referable te