may call it herb of grace o' Sundays. You may wear your rue with a difference; there's a daify. I would give you fome violets, but they withered all when my father dy'd. They say, he made a good end For bonny fweet Robin is all my joy. Laer. Thought, and affliction, paffion, hell itself, She turns to favour, and to prettiness. Oph. And will be not come again? Go to thy death-bed, He never will come again. And on all chriftian fouls! God b'wi'ye. [Exit Oph. Laer. Do you fee this, you Gods! King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but a-part. Make choice of whom your wifeft friends you will, And they fhall hear and judge 'twixt you and me. If by direct or by collateral hand They find us touch'd, we will our Kingdom give, Be you content to lend your patience to us; Laer. Let this be fo. His means of death, his obfcure funeral, No 9 No trophy, fword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heav'n to earth, King. So you fhall: ' And where th' offence is, let the great ax fall. pray you go with me. [Exeunt. Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, Sir. They fay, they have letters for you. Hor. Let them come in. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. Enter Sailors. Sail. God bless you, Sir. Hor. Let him blefs thee too. Sail. He fhall, Sir, an't please him There's a letter for you, Sir. It comes from th' ambaffador that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. 9 No trophy, Sword, nor hatch men: It was the custom, in the times of our authoor, to hang a fword over the grave of a Knight. And where th' offence is, let the great Ax fall.] We fhould read, -let the great TAX fall. i. e. penalty, punishment. WARBURTON. Fall correfponds better to ax. Horatio HR Horatio reads the letter. ORATIO, when thou shalt have overlook'd this, give thefe fellows fome means to the King: they bave letters for him. Ere we were too days old at fea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace. Finding ourselves too flow of fail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the inftant they got clear of our ship, fo I alone became their pri foner. They have dealt with me, like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the King have the letters I have fent, and repair thou to me with as much hafte as thou wouldeft fly death. I have words to speak in thy ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. Thefe good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rofincrantz and Guildenstern bold their courfe for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewel. 2 He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet. Come. I will make you way for these your letters; [Exeunt. King. Now muft your confcience my acquittance feal, for the bore of the matter.] The matter, fays Hamlet, would The bore is the caliber of a gun, carry heavier words. or the capacity of the barrel. And And you must put me in your heart for friend Laer. It well appears. But tell me, As by your fafety, wifdom, all things elfe, King. O, for two special reasons, Which may to you, perhaps, feem much unfinew'd, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Laer. And fo have I a noble father loft, 3 the general gender-] The common race of the people: + Would, like the Spring--] This fimile is neither very feafonable in the deep intereft of ths converfation, nor very accurately applied. If the Spring had changed bafe metals to gold, the thought had been more proper. 5f praifes may go back again. If I may praise what has been, but is now to be found no more. King. Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think, That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, That we can let our beard be shook with danger, Enter a Messenger. Mef. Letters, my Lord, from Hamlet. These to your Majefty. This to the Queen.' King. From Hamlet? Who brought them? Mef. Sailors, my Lord, they fay; I saw them not. They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them. King. Laertes, you fhall hear them. Leave us, all [Exit Meffenger. HIGH and Mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your Kingdom. To-morrow fhall I beg leave to fee your kingly eyes. When I fhall, firft afking your pardon thereunto, recount th' occafion of my fudden re turn. Hamlet. What should this mean? Are all the reft come back? Or is it fome abuse, and no fuch thing? Laer. Know you the hand? King. 'Tis Hamlet's character; Naked, and (in a poftfcript here, he fays) Alone. Can you advise me? Laer. I'm loft in it, my Lord. But let him come; It warms the very fick nefs in my heart, That I fhall live and tell him to his teeth, Thus diddeft thou. King. If it be fo, Laertes, As how fhould it be fo?-how, otherwife? Will |