dignity: The lefs they deserve, the more merit is Take them in.

in your bounty.

Pol. Come, firs.

[Exit POLONIUS. Ham. Follow him, friends: we'll have a play tomorrow.-Doft thou hear me, old friend; can you play the murder of Gonzago?

i Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of fome dozen or fixteen lines, which I would fet down, and infert in't? could you not?

Play. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him not.-My good friends, [To Ros. and GUILD.] I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elfineur.

Rof. Good, my lord. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. Ham. Ay,fo, God be wi' you:-Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant flave am I! Is it not monftrous, that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of paffion, Could force his foul fo to his own conceit, That, from her working, all his vifage warm'd; Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole function fuiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for paffion,
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid fpeech;
Make mad the guilty, and appal the free,

Confound the ignorant and amaze,

indeed

The

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can fay nothing; no, not for a king, Upon whofe property and moft dear life, A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward! Who calls me villain breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nofe? gives me the lye i'the throat, As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha! Why I should take it: for it cannot be, But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall, To make oppreffion bitter; or, ere this, I should have fatted all the region kites With this flave's offal? Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorfelefs,treacherous,leacherous,kindless,villain! Why, what an afs am I? This is most brave; That I, the fon of a dear father murder'd, Prompted to my revenge by heaven, and hell, Muft, like a whore unpack my heart with words, And fall a curfing, like a very drab,

A fcullion!

Fie upon't! foh!

About, my brains! Hum! I have heard,
That guilty creatures, fitting at a play,
Have by the very cunning of the fcene
Been ftruck fo to the foul, that presently
They have proclaim'd their malefactions:
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With moft miraculous organ. I'll have these players
Play fomething like the murder of my father,
Before mine uncle: I'll obferve his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick; if he do blench,

I know my course. The spirit, that I have seen,
May be a devil: and the devil hath power
To affume a pleafing fhape; yea, and, perhaps,
Out of my weakness, and my melancholy
(As he is very potent with such spirits),
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this; the play's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the confcience of the king. [Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. The Palace.

Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

King.

AND can you by no drift of conference
Get from him, why he puts on this confufion
Grating fo harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Rof. He does confefs, he feels himself distracted, But from what cause he will by no means speak. Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be founded; But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,

When we would bring him on to fome confeffion Of his true state.

Queen. Did he receive you well?

Rof. Moft like a gentleman.

Guil. But with much forcing of his difpofition. Rof. Niggard of question; but of our demands Moft freely in his reply.

Queen

Queen. Did you affay him

Το any pastime?

Rof. Madam, it fo fell out, that certain players We o'er-raught on the way: of thefe we told him : And there did feem in him a kind of joy

To hear of it: They are here about the court;
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him.

Pol. 'Tis moft true :

And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties, To hear and fee the matter.

King. With all my heart; and it doth much conTo hear him fo inclin'd.

[tent me
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Rof. We fhall, my lord. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too :

For we have closely fent for Hamlet hither
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia.

;

Her father, and myself (lawful efpials)
Will fo bestow ourselves, that, feeing, unfeen,
We
may of their encounter frankly judge;
And gather by him, as he is behav'd,

If't be the affliction of his love, or no,
That thus he suffers for.

Queen. I fhall obey you:

And, for my part, Ophelia, I do wish,

That your good beauties be the happy cause

Of Hamlet's wildness: fo fhall I hope, your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again,

To both your honours.

Oph. Madam, I wish it may.

70. Onicia ak you here-Gracious, fo pl

vi xew nurses-Read on this book [To O The how of ich evercle may colour You meïnes.—We are ce to blame in this,— The much twd-ch, with devotion's vifa And TRS ACU, we do ingar o'er

The dev

Kay. O, is too true! how fmart

A lan that feech doth give my confcience! [A
The nation's cheek, beauty'd with plaft'ring art,
Is not more agir to the thing that helps it,

This my deed to my mot painted word:
O heavy burden!

Pol. Í hear him coming; let's withdraw, my lor
[Exeunt King, and POLONIŲ

Enter HAMLET.

Hem. To be, or not to be, that is the question :Whether tis nobler in the mind, to fuffer The wings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by oppofing, end them?-To die;-to fleep; No more?—and, by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ach, and the thousand natural fhocks That flesh is heir to ;-'tis a confummation Devoutly to be wifh'd. To die ;—to fleep ;To fleep! perchance, to dream-Ay,there's the rub For in that fleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Muft give us paufe: there's the respect That makes calamity of fo long life:

For who would bear the whips and fcorns of time,

The