kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and The dead body is carried away. Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho;1 it means mischief. Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him : Be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means. Oph. You are naught, you are naught; I'll mark the play. Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? Ham. As woman's love. VOL. X. 1 Secret wickedness. 2 Short. P Enter a King and a Queen. P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart3 gone round Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground; And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen,s About the world have times twelve thirties been; Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands, Unite commutual in most sacred bands. P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o'er, ere love be done! So far from cheer, and from your former state, Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know; And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so. Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; My operant powers their functions leave to do: 3 Car, chariot. 4 The earth. 5 Shining, lustre. 7 Active. 6 Magnitude, proportion. O, confound the rest! P.Queen. None wed the second, but who kill'd the first. 8 P. Queen. The instances, that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love; When second husband kisses me in bed. P. King. I do believe, you think what now you speak; But, what we do determine, oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory; Of violent birth, but poor validity : Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree; Το pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt: Their own enactures with themselves destroy: For 'tis a question left us yet to prove, Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. • Motives. 9 Determinations. ■ Ever., The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; advanc'd makes friends of enemies. The poor And hitherto doth love on fortune tend: For who not needs, shall never lack a friend; But, orderly to end where I begun,— Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: Sport and repose lock from me, day, and night! Ham. If she should break it now, [To OPHELIA. P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while; My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep. P. Queen. [Sleeps. Sleep rock thy brain; And never come mischance between us twain ! Ham, Madam, how like you this play? 2 Anchoret. [Exit. Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Ham. O, but she'll keep her word. King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't? Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest ; no offence i'the world. King. What do you call the play? Ham. The mouse-trap.3 Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: But what of that? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not: Let the galled jade wince,4 our withers are unwrung. Enter LUCIANUS. This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. Ham. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge. Oph. Still better, and worse. Ham. So you mistake your husbands.-Begin, murderer;-leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come ; -The croaking raven Doth bellow for revenge. 3 -the thing In which he'll catch the conscience of the king. 4 This is a proverbial saying, |