Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,

Her maiden ftrewments, and the bringing home

Of bell and burial.

Laer. Muft there no more be done?

Prieft. No more be done;

We should profane the service of the dead,
To fing a requiem, and such rest to her
As to peace-parted fouls.

Laer. Lay her i' the earth;—

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets fpring!-I tell thee, churlish priest, A miniftring angel fhall my fifter be,

When thou lieft howling.

Ham. What, the fair Ophelia ?

Queen. Sweets to the sweet: Farewell!

[Scattering flowers.

I hop'd, thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought, thy bride-bed to have deck'd, fweet maid, And not have ftrew'd thy grave.

Laer. O, treble woe

Fall ten times treble on that curfed head,
Whofe wicked deed thy most ingenious fenfe
Depriv'd thee of !-Hold off the earth a while,
Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
[LAERTES leaps into the grave.
Now pile your duft upon the quick and dead
'Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head
Of blue Ólympus.

d;

Ham. [advancing.] What is he, whofe grief Bears fuch an emphafis? whose phrase of forrow Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them ftand Like wonder-wounded hearers? this is I,

[HAMLET leaps into the grave.

Hamlet

Hamlet the Dane.

Laer. The devil take thy foul!

[Grappling with him

Ham. Thou pray'it not well.

I pr'ythee take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not fplenetive and rafh,
Yet have I in me fomething dangerous,

Which let thy wisdom fear: Hold off thy hand.
King. Pluck them asunder.

Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet!

All. Gentlemen

Hor. Good my lord, be quiet.

[The attendants part them.

Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

Queen. O my fon! what theme?

Ham. I lov'd Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my fum.-What wilt thou do for her? King. O, he is mad, Laertes.

Queen. For love e' God, forbear him.

Ham. Shew me what thou'lt do:

Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't faft? woo't tear thyfelf?

Woo't drink up Efil? eat a crocodile ?

I'll do't.-Doft thou come here to whine?
To out-face me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her, and fo will I :
And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us; till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Offa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

Queen. This is mere madness:

And

1

And thus a while the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are difclos'd,
His filence will fit drooping.

Ham. Hear you, fir ;

What is the reason that you use me thus ?
I lov'd you ever: But it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself do what he may,

The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. [Exit.
King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon
him.-
[Exit HOR.
Strengthen your patience in your last night's speech;
[To LAERTES.
We'll put the matter to the prefent push.-

Good Gertrude, fet fome watch over your fon.-
This grave shall have a living monument :
An hour of quiet fhortly fhall we see ;

'Till then in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. A Hall in the Palace.

Enter HAMLET, and HORATIO.

Ham. So much for this, fir: now fhall

the other ;

You do remember all the circumftance?

Hor. Remember it, my lord!

you fee

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me fleep: methought, I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rafhly, And prais'd be rashness for it-Let us know, Our indifcretion fometimes ferves us well, When our deep plots do fail! and that should There's a divinity that fhapes our ends, [teach us, Rough-hew them how we will.

L

Hor.

Hor. That is moft certain.
Ham. Up from my cabin,

My fea

gown fcarf'd about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them : had my defire;
Finger'd their packet; and, in fine, withdrew
To mine own room again: making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unfeal
Their grand commiffion; where I found, Horatio,
A royal knavery; an exact command-
Larded with many feveral forts of reafons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
With, ho! fuch bugs and goblins in my life-
That, on the fupervife, no leifure bated,

No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be ftruck off.

Hor. Is't poffible?

Ham. Here's the commiffion: read it at more leifure.

But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

Hor. Ay, befeech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies,
Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play;-I fat me down;
Devis'd a new commiffion; wrote it fair :
I once did hold it, as our ftatifts do,

A bafenefs to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, fir, now
It did me yeoman's fervice: Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote ?

Hor. Ay, good my lord.

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the kingAs England was his faithful tributary;

As love between them like the palm might flourish; As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,

And

And ftand a comma 'tween their amities;
And many fuch like as's of great charge-
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more, or lefs,

He fhould the bearers put to fudden death,
Not thriving time allow'd.

Hor. How was this feal'd?

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant; I had my father's fignet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish feal: Folded the writ up in form of the other; Subfcrib'd it; gav't the impreffion; plac'd it fafely. The changling never known: Now, the next day Was our fea-fight; and what to this was fequent Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rofencrantz go to't. Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment;

They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Doth by their own infinuation

grow:
'Tis dangerous, when the bafer nature comes
Between the pafs and fell incenfed points
Of mighty oppofites.

Hor. Why, what a king is this?

Ham. Does it not, think thee, ftand me now upon; He that hath killed my king, and whor'd my mother; Popt in between the election and my hopes; Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with fuch cozenage; is't not perfect confcience, To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil?

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from EngWhat is the iffue of the bufinefs there.

L 2

[land,

Ham,