Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

HAM. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. Ros. Tell us where 't is; that we may take it thence,

And bear it to the chapel.

HAM. Do not believe it.
Ros. Believe what?

HAM. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what replication should be made by the son of a king?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? HAM. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end he keeps them, like an ape doth nuts," in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

Ros. I understand you not, my lord.

HAM. I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

HAM. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thingGUIL. A thing, my lord?

HAM. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after."

[Exeunt.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ.

How now! what hath befall'n?

Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, We cannot get from him. KING. But where is he? Ros. Without, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.

KING. Bring him before us.

Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN.

KING. NOW, Hamlet, where 's Polonius?
HAM. At supper.

KING. At supper ! Where?

HAM. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar, is but variable service,-two dishes, but to one table; that's the end.

KING. Alas, alas!

HAM. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm."

d

KING. What dost thou mean by this?

HAM. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. KING. Where is Polonius?

HAM. In heaven; send thither to see if your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. KING. Go seek him there.

[To some Attendants. HAM. He will stay till ye come.

[Exeunt Attendants.

HAM.

Good. KING. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. HAM. I see a cherub, that sees them.*-But, come; for England !-Farewell, dear mother.

KING. Thy loving father, Hamlet!

HAM. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother.-Come, for England! [Exit.

KING. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:
Away! for everything is seal'd and done

That else leans on the affair: pray you, make
haste.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,
As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us,-thou mayst not coldly set
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,

The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;

(*) First folio, him.

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDEN

HAM.

STERN, &c.

Good sir, whose powers are these?

CAP. They are of Norway, sir.
HAM. How purposed, sir, I pray you?
CAP. Against some part of Poland.
HAM. Who commands them, sir?

CAP. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. HAM. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

CAP. Truly to speak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
HAM. Why, then the Polack
defend it.

never will

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason

To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,-
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part
wisdom,

And ever three parts coward,-I do not know
Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do;
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and

means,

To do 't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:
Witness this army of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,

a Enter HAMLET, &c.] The remainder of this scene is entirely wanting in the folio.

band a Gentleman.] So the quartos: the folio omits this character, and Horatio is made to speak what the former copies assign to him. We adopt the older distribution of the dialogue as the better one.

cthere might be thought,-] "Thought" is possibly a mis

Makes mouths at the invisible event; Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is not to stir without great argument,

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,

When honour's at the stake. How stand I, then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent,
To hide the slain ?-O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
[Exit.

Re-enter HORATIO with OPHELIA."

OPH. Where is the beauteous majesty of Den

mark?

QUEEN. How now, Ophelia?

OPH. [Sings.]

How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.

QUEEN. Alas, sweet lady! what imports this song?

ŎPH. Say you? nay, pray you, mark !

[Sings.] He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a stone.

QUEEN. Nay, but Ophelia,-
OPн. Pray you, mark!

[Sings.] White his shroud as the mountain snow,

Enter KING.

QUEEN. Alas, look here, my lord.

OPH. [Sings.]

Larded all with sweet flowers; Which bewept to the grave did† go, With true-love showers.

KING. How do you, pretty lady?

OPH. Well, God 'ield you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter.(1) Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

KING. Conceit upon her father.

ОPH. Pray you, let 's have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this:

[Sings.] To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.

KING. How long hath she been thus ?*

OPн. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the cold ground.-My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good counsel.-Come, my coach!-Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies; good night, good night. [Exit. KING. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit HORATIO. O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death. O, Gertrude, Ger

trude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalias! First, her father slain;
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove; the people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and
whispers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,d

In hugger-mugger to inter him; poor Ophelia,
Divided from herself and her fair judgment,
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France;
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign

C- dupp'd-] A contraction of do up; to lift the latch. Johnson suggested, "And op'd;" but compare, "What devell! iche weene the porters are drunke, wil they not dup the gate to-day?" -Damon and Pythias, 1582.

d greenly,-] Immaturely, unwisely.

e hugger-mugger-] An old word signifying secretly, by stealth.

(*) First follo, impittious.

(+) First folio, the. (1) First folio, that calmes.

aa murdering-piece,-] A piece of artillery with several barrels, which discharged a hail of missiles composed of bullets, nails, old iron, and the like.

bthis is counter,-] To hunt counter is explained at p. 150, Vol. I." to follow on a false scent;" it should have been added, "or to retrace the scent." A hound which, instead of going forward, turns and pursues the backward trail, was in the old language of the chase said to hunt counter.

Winner and loser?

LAER. None but his enemies.
KING.

Will you know them, then? LAER. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms;

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,+
Repast them with my blood.

KING.
Why, now you speak
Like a good child and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensible in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce,
As day does to your eye.

DANES. [Without.]

Let her come in.