Enter HAMLET.

HAM. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying;'

And now I'll do't;-And fo he goes to heaven:
And fo am I reveng'd? That would be fcann'd:"
A villain kills my father; and, for that,

I, his fole fon, do this fame villain fend'
To heaven.

Why, this is hire and falary, not revenge.
He took my father grofsly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown," as flufh as May;
And, how his audit ftands, who knows, fave hea-

ven? 2

But, in our circumstance and courfe of thought,

S -pat, now he is praying;] Thus the folio. The quartos read-but now, &c. STEEVENS.

6 That would be fcann'd:] i. e. that should be confidered, eftimated. STEEVENS.

7 I, his fole fon, do this fame villain fend-] The folio readsfoule fon, a reading apparently corrupted from the quarto. The meaning is plain. I, his only fon, who am bound to punish his murderer. JOHNSON.

8 hire and falary,] Thus the folio. The quartos readbafe and filly. STEEVENS.

He took my father grossly, full of bread;

"Be

With all his crimes broad blown,] The uncommon expreffion, full of bread, our poet borrowed from the facred writings: hold, this was the iniquity of thy fifter Sodom; pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idlenefs was in her and in her daughters, neither did fhe ftrengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Ezekiel, xvi. 49. MALONE.

2 And, how his audit ftands, who knows, fave heaven?] As it appears from the Ghoft's own relation that he was in purgatory. Hamlet's doubt could only be how long he had to continue there.

RITSON.

'Tis heavy with him: And am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his foul,

When he is fit and feafon'd for his paffage?
No.

Up, fword; and know thou a more horrid hent: '
When he is drunk, afleep, or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;
At gaming, fwearing; or about fome act
That has no relifh of falvation in't:

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;"
And that his foul may be as damn'd, and black,
As hell, whereto it goes." My mother stays:
This phyfick but prolongs thy fickly days. [Exit.

3 Up, fword; and know thou a more horrid hent:] To bent is ufed by Shakspeare for, to feize, to catch, to lay hold on. Hent is, therefore, hold, or feizure. Lay hold on him, fword, at a more horrid time. JOHNSON.

See Vol. IV. p. 354, n. 6. STEEVENS.

4 When he is drunk, afleep, or in his rage;

Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;] So, in Marston's Infatiate Countefs, 1603:

"Didft thou not kill him drunk?

"Thou shouldft, or in th` embraces of his luft."

STEEVENS.

3 At gaming, fwearing;] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-At game, a fwearing; &c. MALONE.

6 that his heels may kick at heaven;] So, in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613:

"Whole heels tript up, kick'd gainft the firmament."

STEEVENS.

"As hell, whereto it goes.] This fpeech, in which Hamlet, reprefented as a virtuous character, is not content with taking blood for blood, but contrives damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read or to be uttered. JOHNSON.

This fpeech of Hamlet's, as Johnfon obferves, is horrible indeed; yet fome moral may be extracted from it, as all his subsequent calamities were owing to this favage refinement of revenge. M. MASON. That a fentiment fo infernal should have met with imitators, may excite furprize; and yet the fame fiend-like difpofition is

The King rifes, and advances.

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

Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.

[Exit.

fhown by Lodowick, in Webster's White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

"The handle of his racket. O, that, that!-
"That while he had been bandying at tennis,
"He might have fworn himself to hell, and ftruck
"His foul into the hazard!"

Again, in The Honeft Lawyer, by S. S. 1616:

"I then should ftrike his body with his foul,
"And fink them both together."

Again, in the third of Beaumont and Fletcher's Four Plays in One:
No; take him dead drunk now, without repentance.”

66

STEEVENS.

The fame horrid thought has been adopted by Lewis Machin, in The Dumb Knight, 1633:

"Nay, but be patient, fmooth your brow a little,
"And you fhall take them as they clip each other;
"Even in the height of fin; then damn them both,
"And let them ftink before they afk God pardon,
"That your revenge may stretch unto their fouls,"

MALONE.

I think it not improbable, that when Shakspeare put this horrid fentiment into the mouth of Hamlet, he might have recollected the following ftory: "One of these monfters meeting his enemie unarmed, threatned to kill him, if he denied not God, his power, and effential properties, viz. his mercy, fuffrance, &c. the which, when the other, defiring life, pronounced with great horror, kneeling upon his knees; the bravo cried out, nowe will I kill thy body and foule, and at that inftant thrust him through with his rapier." Brief Difcourfe of the Spanish State, with a Dialogue annexed intitled Philobajlis, 4to. 1590, p. 24. REED.

A fimilar story is told in The Turkish Spy, Vol, III, p. 243.

MALONE.

Enter Queen and POLONIUS.

POL. He will come ftraight. Look, you lay

home to him:

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with;

And that your grace hath fcreen'd and ftood be

tween

Much heat and him. I'll filence me e'en here."

Pray you, be round with him."

QUEEN.

I'll warrant you;

Fear me not-withdraw, I hear him coming. [POLONIUS hides himself?

- I'll filence me e'en here.] I'll filence me even here, is, I'll

ufe no more words. JOHNSON.

be round with him.] Here the folio interpofes, improperly I think, the following fpeech:

"Ham. [Within.] Mother, mother, mother." STEEVENS.

9 Polonius hides himself.] The concealment of Polonius in the Queen's chamber, during the converfation between Hamlet and his mother, and the manner of his death, were suggested by the following paffage in The Hyftory of Hamblet, bl. let. fig. D 1: "The counfellour entered fecretly into the queene's chamber, and there hid himfelfe behinde the arras, and long before the queene and Hamlet came thither; who being craftie and pollitique, as foone as hee was within the chamber, doubting fome treafon, and fearing if he fhould fpeake feverely and wifely to his mother, touching his fecret practifes, hee fhould be understood, and by that means intercepted, ufed his ordinary manner of diffimulation, and began to come [r. crow] like a cocke, beating with his arms (in fuch manner as cockes ufe to ftrike with their wings) upon the hangings of the chamber; whereby feeling fomething ftirring under them, he cried, a rat, a rat, and prefently drawing his fworde, thrust it into the

Enter HAMLET.

HAM. Now, mother; what's the matter? QUEEN. Hamlet, thou haft thy father much offended.

HAM. Mother, you have my father much offended.

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

HAM. Go, go, you queftion with a wicked tongue. QUEEN. Why, how now, Hamlet?

HAM.

What's the matter now?

No, by the rood, not fo:

QUEEN. Have you forgot me?

HAM. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And,—'would it were not fo!-you are my mo

ther.

QUEEN. Nay, then I'll fet those to you that can speak.

HAM. Come, come, and fit you down; you fhall not budge;

You go not, till I fet you up a glass

Where you may fee the inmoft part of you. QUEEN. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?

Help, help, ho!

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

hangings; which done, pulled the counfellour (half-deade) out by the heeles, made an ende of killing him; and, being flaine, cut his body in pieces, which he caufed to be boyled, and then caft it into an open vault or privie." MALONE.

2 And would it were not fo!] The folio reads,

But would you were not fo. HENDERSON,