As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. (34)
Still am I called: unhand me, gentlemen-

[Breaking from them.

(34) If the outline of Hamlet's hand, which he is holding before his face, be conceived to be extended up to that which constitutes the third, or foremost, of the three outlines of Hudibras's face, it will exhibit, together with the adjoining parts, the likeness of a lion, as drawn in

Fig. 64.

This is often alluded to in Hudibras; and it occupies the same space in the moon as (Hudibras or) Hamlet himself: the streaks of light in this space, constitute the nerves of the animal, as mentioned by the poet.

By Heaven, I'll make a ghost

of him that lets me

I say, away-go on I'll follow thee

[Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.

Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination.

Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. Hor. Have after. To what issue will this

T

Ham. Where wilt thou lead me? speak, I'll go

no further

Ghost. Mark me.

Ham. I will.

Ghost. My hour is almost come,

When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

Ham. Alas, poor Ghost!

1

1

Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing. To what I shall unfold.

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear. [hear.

Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt i

Ham. What? Y

Ghost. I am thy father's spirit;...

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,
And, for the day, confined to fast in fires;
'Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Makethy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine :
But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood; list, list, oh list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love-

Ham. Oh Heaven!

Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural

murder.

Ham. Murder !

Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.

Ham. Haste me to know it, that I, with wings As meditation or the thoughts of love, (as swift May sweep to my revenge.

Ghost. I find thee apt;

And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf, Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear; 'Tis given out, that, sleeping in my orchard,

VOL. II.

A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death

Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown. (35)

J

Ham. Oh my prophetic soul! my uncle? Ghost, Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, (O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power So to seduce!) won to his shameful lust

:

The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen.

Oh Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me whose love was of that dignity,

٢٢٢٠

That it went hand'in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor

To those of mine !

AS

11

But virtue, as it never will be moved,
Though lewdness court it in the shape of heaven ;
So lust though to a rudiant angel linked,
Will sate itself in a celestial bed,

(35) The space in the moon occupied by Claudius the king, and by the king, Hamlet's father, are so nearly the same, that the crown (in light, formed of the face of Polonius), may appear to be set on the head of either: that likewise may have been the reason, perhaps, of the poet's conceiving them to be brothers.

1

し

B

And prey on garbage

But soft! methinks Iscent the morning dir

Brief let me be; Sleeping within mine orchard,

My custom always of the afternoon,

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed hebenon in a phial,
And in the porches of mine eurs did pour (36)

The leperous distilment; whose effect

Holds such an enmity with blood of man,
That swift as quick-silver it courses through

al

The natural gates and alleys of the body;

And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset

And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine,

And a most instant tetter barked about,

Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust

All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,

Of life, of

crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhouseled, unanointed, unaneled:

No reckoning made, but sent to my account-
With all my imperfections on my head. II (Ce)
Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! most horrible!
If thou hast nature in thee, beawit not;ulbsm

tion of the moon

"(36) Vide figure 54, ante; and thi portion with which it corresponds.