By heaven, I'll make a Ghost of him that lets me-
I fay, away—go on. -I'll follow thee-
Exeunt Ghoft and Hamlet.

Hor. He waxes defp'rate with imagination.

Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him. Hor. Have after.To what iffue will this come? Mar. Something is rotten in the State of Denmark. Hor. Heav'n will direct it.

Mar. Nay, let's follow him.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to a more remote Part of the

Platform.

Re-enter Ghoft and Hamlet.

HERE wilt thou lead me? fpeak; I'll go no further.

Ghoft. Mark me.

Ham. I will.

Ghoft. My hour is almost come,

When I to fulphurous and tormenting flames

Muft render up my

felf.

Ham. Alas, poor Ghost!

Ghoft. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing To what I fhall unfold.

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear.

Ghoft. So art thou to revenge, when thou fhalt hear.
Ham. What?

Ghoft. I am thy father's Spirit;

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And, for the day, confin'd to faft in fires;
'Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
To tell the fecrets of my prifon-house,

I could a tale unfold, whofe lightest word
Would harrow up thy foul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like ftars, ftart from their spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to ftand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:

But

But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood; lift, lift, oh lift!

If thou didst ever thy dear father love

Ham. Oh heav'n!

Ghoft. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther. Ham. Murther?

Ghoft. Murther moft foul, as in the best it is ; But this moft foul, ftrange, and unnatural.

Ham. Hafte me to know it, that I, with wings as

fwift

As meditation or the thoughts of love,

May fweep to my revenge.

Ghoft. I find thee apt;

And duller fhouldst thou be, than the fat weed
That roots it felf in ease on Lethe's wharf,

Wouldst thou not ftir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:

'Tis given out, that, fleeping in my orchard,

A ferpent ftung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged procefs of my death

Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble Youth,
The ferpent, that did sting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown.

Ham. Oh, my prophetick foul! my uncle?
Ghoft. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with trait'rous gifts,
(O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
So to feduce!) won to his fhameful luft

The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen.
Oh Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whofe love was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand ev'n with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor
To thofe of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,

Though lewdness court it in a fhape of heav'n;
So luft, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will fate it felf in a celeftial bed,

And prey on garbage

But, foft! methinks, I fcent the morning air

F 4

Brief

Brief let me be; Sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my fecure hour thy uncle ftole
With juice of curfed hebenon in a viol,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous diftilment; whose effect
Holds fuch an enmity with blood of man,
That fwift as quick-filver it courses through
The natʼral gates and allies of the body;
And, with a fudden vigour, it doth poffet
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholfome blood: fo did it mine,
And a moft inftant tetter bark'd about,

Moft lazar-like, with vile and loathfome cruft
All my fmooth body.-

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

Of life, of Crown, of Queen, at once dispatcht;
Cut off even in the bloffoms of my fin,
Unhoufel'd, unappointed, unaneal'd: (11)

No

(11) Unhouzzled, unanointed, unaneal'd;] The Ghoft, having recounted the Procefs of his Murther, proceeds to exaggerate the Inhumanity and Unnaturalnefs of the Fact, from the Circumftances in which he was furpriz'd. But thefe, I find, have been ftumbling Blocks to our Editors; and therefore I muft amend and explain these 3 compound Adjectives in their Order. Instead of unhouzzel'd, we must restore, unhouseľd, i. c. without the Sacrament taken; from the old Saxon Word for the Sacrament, houfel. In the next place, unanointed, is a Sophiftication of the Text: the old Copies concur in reading, difappointed. I correct,

Unhoufeld, unappointed,

i. e. no Confeffion of Sins made, no Reconciliation to Heaven, no Appointment of Penance by the Church. Unaneal'd I agree to be the Poet's genuine Word; but I must take the Liberty to difpute Mr. Pope's Explication of it, viz. No Knell rung. The Adjective form'd from Knell, must have been unknell'd, or unknoll'd. There is no Rule in Orthography for finking the k in the Deflection of any Verb or Compound form'd from Knell, and melting it into a Vowel. What Sense does unaneal'd then bear? SKINNER, in his Lexicon of old and obfolete

English

No reck'ning made, but fent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.
Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! most horrible!
If thou haft nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But how foever thou purfu'ft this act,

Taint not thy mind, nor let thy foul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to heav'n,
And to thofe thorns that in her bofom lodge,
To prick and fting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm fhews the Matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

Adieu, adieu, adieu; remember me.

[Exit.

Ham. Oh, all you hoft of heav'n! oh earth!" what

elfe?

And fhall I couple hell? oh, hold my heart

And you, my finews, grow not inftant old;
But bear me ftiffly up. Remember thee

Ay, thou poor Ghost, while memory holds a feat
In this diftracted globe; remember thee-
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All faws of books, all forms, all preffures paft,
That youth and obfervation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with bafer matter. Yes, by heav'n:

English Terms, tells us, that Aneal'd is unctus; from the Tentonick Prepofition an, and Ole, i. e. Oil: fo that unaneal'd muft confequently fignify, unanointed, not having the extream Unction. The Poet's Reading and Explication being ascertain❜d, he very finely makes his Ghoft complain of these four dreadful Hardhips; That he had been dispatch'd out of Life without receiving the Hofte, or Sacrament; without being reconcil'd to Hea ven and abfolv'd; without the Benefit of extream Unition; or without fo much as a Confeffion made of his Sins. The having no Knell rung, I think, is not a Point of equal Confequence to any of thefe; especially, if we confider, that the Romish Church admits the Efficacy of praying for the Dead.

Oh moft pernicious woman!

Oh villain, villain, fmiling damned villain!

My tables,

meet it is, I fet it down,

That one may fmile, and fmile, and be a villain;
At least, I'm fure, it may be so in Denmark. [Writing.
So, uncle, there you are; now to my word;

It is; Adieu, adieu, remember me:

I've fworn it

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Hor. My lord, my lord,

Mar. Lord Hamlet,

Hor. Heav'n fecure him!

Mar. So be it.

Hor. Illo, ho, ho, my lord!

Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy; come, bird, come.

Mar. How is't, my noble lord?

Hor. What news, my lord?

Ham. Oh, wonderful!

Hor. Good my lord, tell it.

Ham. No, you'll reveal it.

Hor. Not I, my lord, by heav'n.`

Mar. Nor I, my lord.

Ham. How fay you then, would heart of man once think it?

But you'll be fecret

Both. Ay, by heav'n, my lord.

Ham. There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all Denmark,
But he's an arrant knave.

Hor. There needs no Ghoft, my lord, come from
the Grave

To tell us this.

Ham. Why, right, you are i'th' right;
And fo without more circumstance at all,
I hold it fit that we shake hands, and part;

You, as your bufinefs and defires fhall point you;
(For every man has business and defire,

Such as it is) and, for my own poor part,

I will go pray.

Hor. Thefe are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

Нам.