Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart, with strings of

steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe;

All may be well!

[Retires, and kneels.

Enter HAMLET.

• but now, 4tos.

* foule,

HAM. Now might I do it, pat,* now he is pray

ing;

And now I'll do't; and so he goes to heaven:
And so am I revenged? That would be scann'd:*
A villain kills my father; and, for that,

*

b

1623, 32. I, his sole son, do this same villain send

To heaven.

Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, (78) full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And, how his audit stands, who knows, save

heaven?

But, in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: And am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his soul,

When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:"
When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;

That would be scann'd] Requires to be fully weighed and considered.

bI, his sole son] Such is the reading of the quartos: but foule may be offending, degenerate; though most probably a misprint.

hire and salary] A thing, for which from him I might claim a recompense. The quartos read " base, and silly."

our circumstance] Measure or estimate of what may have reached us.

ehent] Task, undertaking. In the sense of "seise or occupy," the verb occurs in M. for M. "Have hent the gates." IV. 6. Friar Pet. Drunk asleep, is in a drunken sleep.

At gaming, swearing; or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't:"

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;
And that his soul may be as damn'd, and black,
As hell, whereto it goes.(79) My mother stays:
This physick but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit.

The King rises, and advances.

KING. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:

Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go,

SCENE IV.

[Exit.

Another Room in the same.

Enter Queen and POLONIUS.

POL. He will come straight. Look, you lay home to him:b

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with;

And that your grace hath screen'd and stood be

tween

Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here.d Pray you, be round with him.

HAM. [Within.] Mother, mother, mother!

⚫ relish of salvation in't] Smack or savour.

b lay home to him]

pranks too broad]

a silence me e'en here] stow myself.

Pointedly and closely charge.

Open and bold.

Without a word more said, here snugly

QUEEN.

I'll warrant you;

Fear me not-withdraw, I hear him coming.

[POLONIUS hides himself. (80)

Enter HAMLet.

HAM. Now, mother; what's the matter?

QUEEN. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much of fended.

HAM. Mother, you have my father much of

fended.

..QUEEN. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

HAM. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

QUEEN. Why, how now, Hamlet?

HAM.

QUEEN. Have you forgot me?

What's the matter now?

No, by the rood,a not so:

HAM.
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
But would you were not so. You are my mother.
QUEEN. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can

speak.

HAM. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;

You go not, till I set you up a glass

Where you may see the inmost part of you.

QUEEN. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?

Help, help, ho!

a

POL. [Behind.] What, ho! help!

by the rood] From the A. S. rode. crux. a cross. Skinn. See II. H. IV. Shal. III. 2.

The quartos and modern editors read

"And,-'would it were not so!-you are my mother."

1

Nay, I know not:

QUEEN. O me, what hast thou done?

HAM:

Is it the king?

[Lifts up the Arras, and draws forth POLO

NIUS.

QUEEN. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

HAM. A bloody deed;-almost as bad, good mother,

As kill a king, (8) and marry with his brother.

QUEEN. As kill a king!

НАМ.
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!

[TO POLONIUS. I took thee for thy betters;* take thy fortune: Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger. Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you down,

And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff; (82)

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,
That it be proof and bulwark against sense."

QUEEN. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag

Such an act,

HAM.
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose

Proof and bulwark against sense] Against all feeling.

H

• better,

4to.

From the fair forehead of an innocent love, sets, 4tos. And makes a blister there; (83) makes marriage

VOWS

As false as dicer's oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes

A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,

With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act."

QUEEN.

Ah me, what act,

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? (84)
HAM. Look here, upon this picture, and on
this; (85)

The counterfeit presentment (86) of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,(7)
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband.-Look you now, what
follows:

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Sotos, Blasting his wholesome brother*.

breath, 1623, 32.

tracts.

b

eyes?

As from the body of contraction plucks

Have you

The very soul] Annihilates the very principle of con

Heaven's face-Yea this solidity

With tristful visage,

Is thought-sick at the act.] The face of heaven looks heated, as if abashed; and this massive compound, the earth, with heavy looks, as on the approach of the day of doom, is disquieted and disordered at the thought of what is done.

The quartos read,

"O'er this solidity, &c.
"With heated visage."