Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde to our desire:
And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
QUEEN. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
Hamlet;

pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. HAM. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.

KING. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply: Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; And the king's rouse the heavens shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.(4) [Exeunt all except HAMLET.

-the king's rouse-] See note on the drinking terms at the end of this play.

Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two;

So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem" the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: and yet, within a month,--
Let me not think on't-Frailty, thy name is

woman!

A little month; or ere those shoes were old,
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears ;-why she, even she,—
O, God!* a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer,—married with mine
uncle,

My father's brother; but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules: within a month;
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing of her galled eyes,
She married :-O, most wicked speed to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets,
It is not, nor it cannot come to, good;

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue!

Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.

HOR. Hail to your lordship!

(*) First folio, heaven.

a O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,—] Mr. Halliwell has proved by numberless examples, culled from our early writers, that where too too occurred, in the generality of cases it formed a compound word, too-too, and when thus connected bore the meaning of exceeding. The present instance, however, must be regarded as an exception to the rule. Here the repetition of too is not only strikingly beautiful, rhetorically, but it admirably expresses that morbid condition of the mind which makes the unhappy prince deem all the uses of the world but "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable."

was

b- beteem-] That is, vouchsafe, allow, suffer, and the like. cdiscourse of reason,-] By "discourse of reason" meant the comprehensive range, or discursiveness of reason, the retrospective and foreseeing faculties; thus in Act IV. Sc. 4, Hamlet remarks,

"Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unus'd."

Had left the flushing-] The quarto, 1603, reads, "their flushing."

But what, in faith, make

you from Wittenberg? HOR. A truant disposition, good my lord. HAM. I would not hear* your enemy say so; Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, To make it truster of your own report Against yourself: I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore ? We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart. HOR. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.

HAM. I pr'ythee, do not mock me, fellow-
student;

I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
HOR. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
HAM. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd
meats (5)

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Would I had met my dearest (6) foe in heaven
Ere ever I had seen that day, Horatio!-
My father, methinks, I see my father.
HOR. O, where, my lord?

HAM.
In my mind's eye, Horatio.
HOR. I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
HAM. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again,

HOR. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAM. Saw who?

HOR. My lord, the king your father.
HAM.

The king my father! HOR. Season your admiration for a while With an attentive" ear; till I may deliver,

e And what make you-] We should now ask,-"What de you?" but the above was a household form of speech in Shakespeare's day; in the same manner, Hamlet subsequently demands of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,-"What make you at Elsinore!" in "Othello," Act I. Sc. 2, Cassio inquires of lago,"ancient, what makes he here? " and in "Love's Labour's Lost," Act IV. Sc. 3, the king questions Costard,

"what makes treason here?"

f We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.] The reading of the 1603 quarto and of the folio 1623: the other old copies have,"We'll teach you for to drink ere you depart."

gIn my mind's eye, Horatio.] The expression was not unusual: "Ah why were the Eyes of my Mynde so dymned wyth the myste of fonde zeal, that I could not consyder the common Malyce of men now a dayes."-FENTON's Tragicall Discourses, 4to. 1567. Again," Let us consider and behold with the eyes of our soal his long suffering will."-1 Epistle of St. Clement, cap. 19.

han attentive ear;] The folio and one of the quartos have, -"an attent ear."

Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

HAM.
For God's love, let me hear.
HOR. Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, dis-
till'd

Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;

And I with them the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes. I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

MAR. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

HAM. Did you not speak to it?
HOR.

My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up his head, and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak:
But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.

HAM. 'Tis very strange. HOR. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true And we did think it writ down in our duty To let you know of it.

HAM. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles

I would I had been there.
HOR. It would have much amaz'd you.
HAM. Very like, very like.- Stay'd it long?
HOR. While one with moderate haste might
tell a hundred.

MAR., BER. Longer, longer.
HOR. Not when I saw it.

НАМ.

His beard was grizzled,*. -no? HOR. It was, as I have seen it in his life, A sable silvered.

HAM.
I'll watch to-night;
Perchance, 't will walk + again.
HOR.
I warrant you it will.
HAM. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,"
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
you
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue ;
I will requite your loves. So, fare ye well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
'il visit you.

ALL.
HAM. Your love, as mine to you:* farewell.
[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and
BERNARDO.

Our duty to your honour.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt some foul play: would the night were

*

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and† suppliance of a minute;
No more.

ОРН. No more but so?
LAER.

Think it no more:
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no soil nor cauteld doth besmirch
The virtue of his will:§ but you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalu'd persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of the whole state;f
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he
loves you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place||
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear
list his songs;
Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

you

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;

(*) First folio, grisly.

(1) First folio, wake.

(1) First folio, treble.

(*) First folio, Frou ard. (1) First folio, his. () First folio,

(+) First folio omits, perfume and. (§) First folio, feare.

peculiar Sect and force.

"All. Our duties to your honor.

Ham. O your loves, your loves, as mine to you."

And the hurried repetition, "your loves, your loves," well expresses the perturbation of Hamlet at the moment, and that feverish impatience to be alone and commune with himself wh.ch he evinces whenever he is particularly moved. dcautel-] Crafty circumspection.

e The virtue of his will:] Virtue here seems to import essential goodness; as we speak of the virtues of herbs, &c.

f The safety and the health of the whole state;] In the quarts of 1604, we get," The safety and health," &e.; "safety "being pronounced as a trisyllable. In the folio the line stands,

"The sanctity and health of the weole State."

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with you!

[Laying his hand on LAERTES' head. And these few precepts in thy memory

See thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd,§ unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear't, that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:

"Are of a most select and generous cheff in that."

Rowe, the first modern editor, endeavoured to render the sense intelligible by altering the old text to,—

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judg

ment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man ;

And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous sheafd in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all,-to thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!
LAER. Most humbly do I take my leave, my

lord.

"Are most select and generous, chief in that;"

and his emendation has been generally adopted: Steevens proposed,"Select and generous, are most choice in that;" while Mr. Collier's annotator has,

"Are of a most select and generous choice in that."

The slight change of "sheaf" for chiefe or cheff, a change for which we alone are answerable, seems to impart a better and more poetic meaning to the passage than any variation yet suggested; and it is supported, if not established, by the following extracts from Ben Jonson,-

"Ay, and with assurance, That it is found in noblemen and gentlemen Of the best sheaf."

The Magnetic Lady, Act III. Sc. 4.

"I am so haunted at the court and at my lodging with your refined choice spirits, that it makes me clean of another garb, another sheaf."-Every Man out of his Humour, Act II. Sc. 1.