This in obedience, hath my daughter shown me :
And more above', hath his solicitings,

As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
All given to mine ear.

King.

Receiv'd his love?

Pol.

But how hath she

What do you think of me?

King. As of a man faithful and honourable.

Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you

think,

When I had seen this hot love on the wing,

(As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,

Before my daughter told me,) what might you,
Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,

If I had play'd the desk, or table-book ;

Or given my heart a working, mute and dumb;

Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;

What might you think? no, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus did I bespeak;
Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy sphere;
This must not be: And then I precepts gave her †,
That she should lock herself from his resort,

Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice";

4

more above,] is moreover, besides.

5 If I had play'd the desk, or table-book ;

Or given my heart a working, mute and dumb ;

Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;

What might you think?] i. e. If either I had conveyed intelligence between them, and been the confidant of their amours [play'd the desk or table-book]; or had connived at it, only observed them in secret, without acquainting my daughter with my discovery [giving my heart a mute and dumb working]; or lastly, been negligent in observing the intrigue, and overlooked it [look'd upon this love with idle sight]; or concealed it, what would you have thought of me?

+ "prescripts gave her,"-MALOne.

6 Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;] She took the fruits of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then made fruitful.

And he, repulsed, (a short tale to make,)
Fell into a sadness; then into a fast;
Thence to a watch; thence into a weakness;
Thence to a lightness; and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,

And all we mourn for.

King.

Do you think, 'tis this?

Queen. It may be, very likely.

Pol. Hath there been such a time, (I'd fain know

that,)

That I have positively said, 'Tis so,

When it prov'd otherwise?

King.

Pol. Take this from this, if this be otherwise:

Not that I know.

[Pointing to his head and shoulder.

If circumstances lead me, I will find

Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the centre.

King.

How may we try it further?

Pol. You know, sometimes he walks four hours to

gether,

Here in the lobby.

Be

Queen.

So he does, indeed.

Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:

you

and I behind an arras then ;

Mark the encounter: if he love her not,

And be not from his reason fallen thereon,

Let me be no assistant for a state,

But keep a farm, and carters.

King.

We will try it.

Enter HAMLET, reading.

Queen. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes

reading.

Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away;

I'll board him' presently :-0, give me leave.—

[Exeunt King, Queen, and Attendants.

How does my good lord Hamlet?

Ham. Well, God-'a-mercy.

Pol. Do you know me, my lord?

Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

Pol. Not I, my lord.

Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man.

Pol. Honest, my lord?

Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

Pol. That's very true, my lord.

Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrion,-Have you a daughter? Pol. I have, my lord.

Ham. Let her not walk i'the sun: conception is a blessing; but as your daughter may conceive,-friend, look to't.

Pol. How say you by that? [Aside.] Still harping on my daughter:-yet he knew me not at first; he said, I was a fishmonger: He is far gone, far gone: and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.-What do you read, my lord?

Ham. Words, words, words!

Pol. What is the matter, my lord?
Ham. Between who?

Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plumtree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: All of which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not

7

I'll board him -] i. e. accost, address him.

honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, shall be as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward.

Pol. Though this be madness, yet there's method in it. [Aside.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave?

Pol. Indeed, that is out o'the air.-How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter. My honourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal; except my life, except my life, except my life.

Pol. Fare you well, my lord.

Ham. These tedious old fools!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ' and GUILDENSTERN.

Pol. You go to seek the lord Hamlet; there he is.

Ros. God save you, sir!

Guil. My honour'd lord !—

Ros. My most dear lord!

Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ve both?

Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth.
Guil. Happy, in that we are not overhappy;
On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe?
Ros. Neither, my lord.

+"should be"-MALONE.

› How pregnant, &c.] Pregnant is ready, dexterous, apt.

9 Rosencrantz —] There was an embassador of that name in

England about the time when this play was written.

VOL. VIII.

X

Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the midIdle of her favours?

Guil. 'Faith, her privates we.

Ham. In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she is a strumpet. What news?

Ros. None, my lord; but that the world's grown honest.

Ham. Then is doomsday near: But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?

Guil. Prison, my lord!

Ham. Denmark's a prison.

Ros. Then is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the

worst.

Ros. We think not so, my lord.

Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you: for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.

Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind.

Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nut-shell, and count myself a king of infinite space; were it not that I have bad dreams.

Guil. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow.

Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow.

Ham. Then are our beggars, bodies'; and our monarchs, and outstretch'd heroes, the beggars' shadows;

Then are our beggars, bodies;] Shakspeare seems here to design a ridicule of those declamations against wealth and greatness, that seem to make happiness consist in poverty.