And he befeech'd me to intreat your Majesties King. With all my heart, and it doth much content me To hear him fo inclin'd. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, And drive his purpose 9'on to these delights. King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; Queen. I fhall obey you: And for my part, Ophelia, I do wish Oph. Madam, I wish it may. [Exeunt. [Exit Queen. Pol. Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, fo please ye, We will bestow our felves:read on this book; That fhew of fuch an exercise may colour Your loneliness. We're oft to blame in this, 'Tis too much prov'd that with devotion's visage, And pious action, we do fugar o'er The devil himself. King. Oh it is but too true. How Imart a lafh that speech doth give my confcience! The harlot's cheek beautied with plaist'ring art [Afide. Pol Pol. I hear him coming; let's withdraw, my Lord. [Exeunt all but Ophelia Ham. To be, or not to be: that is the queftion For who would bear the whips and fcorns of time, And thus the native hue of refolution VOL. VI. A a Is (a) Inflead of a fea of troubles perhaps Shakespear wrote affailing troubles, which would preferve a propriety in the metaphor. Is ficklied o'er with the pale caft of thought; The fair Ophelia! nymph, in thy orifons Oph. Good my Lord, [Seeing Ophelia. How does your Honour for this many a day? Oph. My Lord, I have remembrances of yours, Ham. No, I never gave you aught. Oph. My honour'd Lord, I know right well you did Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind. Ham, Ha, ha! are you honeft? Ham. Are you fair? Oph. What means your Lordship? Ham That if you be honest and fair, you should admit no difcourfe to your beauty. Oph. Could beauty, my Lord, have better commerce than with honesty? Ham. Ay truly; for the power of beauty will fooner transform honefty from what it is, to a bawd; than the force of honefty can tranflate beauty into its likenefs. This was fometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. Oph. Indeed, my Lord, you made me believe fo. Ham. You fhould not have believed me. For virtue cannot fo inoculate our old stock, but we fhall relish of it. I lov'd you not. Oph. I was the more deceived. Ham. Ham. Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of finners? I am my felf indifferent honeft, but yet I could accuse me of fuch things, that it were better my mother had not born me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What fhould fuch fellows as I do crawling between heav'n and earth? we are arrant knaves, believe none of us-Go thy ways to a nunnery- Where's your father? Oph. At home, my Lord. Ham. Let the doors be fhut upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in's own houfe. Oph. Oh help him, you fweet heav'ns! Farewel. Ham. If thou doft marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chafte as ice, as pure as fnow, thou shalt not escape calumny--Get thee to a nunnery-farewel-Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wife men know well enough, what monfters you make of them-To a nunnery, go-and quickly too, farewel. Oph. Heav'nly powers! reftore him. Ham. I have heard of your painting too, well enough: God has given you one face, and you make your felf another. You jig, you amble, and you lifp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonnefs your ignorance. Go, I'll no more on't, it hath made me mad. I fay, we will have no more marriages. Thofe that are married already, all but one, fhall live, the reft fhall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. [Exit Hamlet. Oph. Oh what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, fcholar's, foldier's, eye, tongue, fword, Th' expectancy and rofe of the fair ftate, The glafs of fashion, and the mould of form, 3 foldier's, fcholar's, Like Like fweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh; T' have feen what I have feen, fee what I fee! King. Love! his affections do not that way tend, Thus fet it down. He fhall with fpeed to England, This fomething fettled matter in his heart; King. It fhall be fo: Madness in great ones muft not unwatch'd go. [Exeunt. SCENE |