What is the matter?

Gen. Save yourself, my lord;

The ocean over-peering of his lift,

Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste,
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,
O'er-bears your officers! The rabble call him, lord;
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, cuftom not known,

The ratifiers and props of every ward,
They cry, Choofe we; Laertes fhall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Laertes fhall be king, Laertes king!

Queen. How cheerfully onthe falfe trail they cry! O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs.

King. The doors are broke.

[Noife within.

Enter LAERTES, with others.

Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, ftand you all

All. No, let's come in.

Laer. I pray you give me leave.

All. We will, we will.

[without.

[Exeunt.

[vile king,

Laer. I thank you :-Keep the door.-O thou

Give me my

father.

Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.

Laer. That drop of blood, that's calm, proclaims me bastard;

Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chafte unfmirched brow Of my true mother.

King. What is the caufe, Laertes,

That thy rebellion looks fo giant like ?

Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our perfon; There's fuch divinity doth hedge a king,

That treafon can but peep to what it would,

I 2

A&s

Acts little of his will.-Tell me Laertes,
Why thou art thus incens'd?-Let him

Speak, man.

Laer. Where is my father?

King. Dead.

Queen. But not by him.

King. Let him demand his fill.

go, Ger[trude ;

Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackeft devil!
Confcience, and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation: To this point I stand,-
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
Moft thoroughly for my father.

King. Who fhall stay you?

Laer. My will, not all the world's :
And, for my means, I'll husband them fo well,
They fhall go far with little.

King. Good Laertes,

If you defire to know the certainty

Of your dear father's death,is't writ in your revenge, That sweep-stake, you will draw both friend and foc; Winner and lofer?

Laer. None but his enemies.

King. Will you

know them then ›

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican, [arms; Repast them with my blood.

King. Why, now you speak

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltlefs of your father's death,
And am moft fenfible in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment 'pear,

As

As day does to your eye.

Crowd within. Let her come in.

Laer. How now! what noise is that?

Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dreffed with ftraws and flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears, feven times falt,
Burn out the fenfe and virtue of mine eye !
By heaven, thy madness shall be pay'd with weight,
Till our scale turn the beam. O rofe of May!
Dear maid, kind fifter, fweet Ophelia !

O heavens! is't poffible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is fine in love; and where 'tis fine,
It fends fome precious inftance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him bare-fac'd on the bier;
Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny :

And on bis grave rain'd many a tear ;

Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadft thou thy wits, and didft perfuade re

It could not move thus.

[venge, Oph. You must fing, Downa-down,an you call him a-down-a.

O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the falfe fteward, that ftole his master's daughter.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember: and there is panfies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madnefs; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines : There's rue for you;-and here's fome for me ;—

we 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 wither'd all when my father died:-They fay, 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 he not come again?
And will be not come again?
No, no, he's dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as fnow,

All flaxen was his poll :

He is gone, be is gone,
And we caft away moan,

God a' mercy on his foul!

And of all christian fouls! I pray God. God be

wi' you.

[Exit. OPHELIA. Laer. Do you fee this, O God?

King. Laertes, I must common with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

Make choice of whom your wifeft friends you will, And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me: If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in fatisfaction; but, if not,

Be
you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your foul
To give it due content.

Laer. Let this be so,

'His means of death, his obfcure funeral,-
No trophy, fword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble right, nor formal oftentation,-

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call't in question.

King. So you fhall;

And where the offence is, let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.

SCENE VI. Another Room."

Enter HORATIO, with a Servant.

[Exeunt.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, fir;

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 blefs you, fir.

Hor. Let him blefs thee too.

Sail. He fhall, fir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, fir: it comes from the embaffador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

HORATIO reads the letter.

HORATIO, when thou shalt have overlook'd this, give thefe fellows fome means to the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two 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