you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass and there is much musick, excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think, I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. Enter POLONIUS. God bless you, sir! Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a camel? Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel. Pol. It is backed like a weasel. Ham. Or, like a whale? Pol. Very like a whale. Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by. They fool me to the top of my bent 49.-I will come by and by. Pol. I will say so. [Exit POLONIUS. Ham. By and by is easily said.—Leave me, friends. [Exeunt Ros. GUIL. HOR, &c. 'Tis now the very, witching time of night; When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day 50 Would quake to look on. Soft; now to my mother,— 49 See note on Act ii. Sc. 2. 50 The quarto reads: And do such business as the bitter day,' &c. O, heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever I will speak daggers to her 51, but use none; SCENE III. A Room in the same. Enter King, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. Guil. We will ourselves provide: Most holy and religious fear it is, To keep those many many bodies safe, That live, and feed, upon your majesty. Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more That spirit, upon whose weal1 depend and rest 51 " They are pestilent fellows, they speak nothing but bodkins.' -Return from Parnassus. In the Aulularia of Plautus a phrase not less singular occurs: 'Me. Quia mitri miseri cerebrum excutiunt, 52 To shend is to injure, whether by reproof, blows, or otherwise. Shakspeare generally uses shent for reproved, threatened with angry words. To give his words seals' is therefore to carry his punishment beyond reproof. The allusion is the sealing a deed to render it effective. The quarto of 1603 :— 'I will speak daggers; those sharp words being spent, 1 Folio reads 'spirits.' The lives of many. The cease of majesty 2 Which now goes too free-footed. Ros. Guil. We will haste us. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUIL. Enter POLONIUS. Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet. Behind the arras3 I'll convey myself, To hear the process; I'll warrant, she'll tax him home; And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 'Tis meet, that some more audience, than a mother, And tell you what I know. Thanks, dear my lord. [Exit POLONIUS. O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; 2 Quarto-' about.' 3 See King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4. 5 Warburton explains of vantage, by some opportunity of secret observation.' I incline to think that of vantage,' in Shakspeare's language, is for advantage, commodi causa. It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force,— Or pardon'd, being down? Then I'll look up; 6 i.e.' though I was not only willing, but strongly inclined to pray, my guilt prevented me.' 7 i. e. caught as with birdlime. 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. Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't; and so he goes to heaven: And so am I reveng'd? That would be scann'd 8: A villain kills my father; and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. Why, this is hire and salary 9, not revenge. With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent 10: Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven: 8 That would be scann'd'-that requires consideration, or ought to be estimated. 9 The quarto reads, base and silly. 10 Shakspeare has used the verb to hent, to take, to lay hold on, elsewhere; but the word is here used as a substantive, for hold or opportunity. 11 Johnson has justly exclaimed against the horrible nature |