The ratifiers and props of every word,"

They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!

QUEEN. How cheerfully on the false trail they

cry!

O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs.(36)

KING. The doors are broke.

[Noise within.

Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following.

LAER. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all

LAER. I thank you:-keep the door.-O thou

Give me my father.

QUEEN.

vile king,

Calmly, good Laertes.

LAER. That drop of blood, that calms, pro- that's

claims me bastard:

Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot
Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow
Of my true mother."

Antiquity forgot, custom not known,

The ratifiers and props of every word] Word is term, and means appellation or title; as lord used before, and king afterwards and in its more extended sense, must import " every human establishment."

:

The sense of the passage is," As far as antiquity ratifies, and custom makes every term, denomination, or title known, they run counter to them, by talking, when they mention kings, of their right of chusing and of saying who shall be king or sovereign."

b the chaste unsmirched brow of my true mother] Unsmirched is unstained. See I. 3. Laert.

calm. 4tos.

* wall. 4to. 1603.

KING.
What is the cause, Laertes,
That thy rebellion looks so giant-like?—
Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person;
There's such divinity doth hedge* a king,
That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.(37)Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incensed;-Let him
trude ;-

Speak, man.

LAER. Where is my father?

go, Ger

KING.

QUEEN.

Dead.

But not by him.

+ world's. 4tos.

↑ So 4tos. if. 1623,32.

KING. Let him demand his fill.

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

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience, 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
Most throughly for my father.

KING.

b

Who shall stay you?

LAER. My will, not all the world:+

And, for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall

KING.

If

go far with little.

Good Laertes,

you desire to know the certainty

Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your re

venge,

soop- That, §sweepstake, you will draw both friend and

stake. O. C.

swoop

foe,

stake-like. Winner and loser?

4to. 1603.

a grace] i. e. a religious feeling, a disposition to yield obedience to the divine laws.

b Both the worlds I give to negligence] i. e. I am careless of my present and future prospects, my views in this life, as well as that which is to come.

e sweepstake] i. e. by wholesale, undistinguishingly.

LAER. None but his enemies.

KING.

Will you know them then?

LAER. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my

arms;

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,* (38)
Repast them with my blood.

* So 4tos. & 1632. Politician.

KING.
Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am most sensible in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce,+
As day does to your eye.

Why, now you speak 1623.

DANES [within.]

Let her come in.

LAER. How now! what noise is that?

Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dressed with Straws and Flowers.

+ peare. 4tos.

by. 1623, 32.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, So 4tos.
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!--
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight,
Till our scale turn § the beam. O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia !-

O heavens! is't possible, 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 sends some precious instance of itself,
After the thing it loves. (39)

ОPH. They bore him barefac'd on the bier;
Hey non nonny, nonny hey nonny :
⚫(40)

And on his grave rains many a tear ;-
|

Fare you well, my dove!

a sensible in grief] i. e. " poignantly affected with." Adjectives, having this termination, are, in our author, frèquently used adverbially. The quarto, 1604, reads sensibly.

b pierce] i. e. make its way.

§ So 4tos. turns. 1623, 32.

Il in. 4tos.

¶ rain'd. 4tos.

LAER. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,

It could not move thus.

OPH. You must sing, Down a-down,(41) an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it!(42) It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. LAER. This nothing's more than matter.a

OPH. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; (43) pray [you,] love, remember: and there * So 4tos. is pansies, that's for thoughts.(44)

paconcies. 1623.

+ the King.

grace. 4tos.

LAER. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

OPH. There's fennel for you, and columbines:(45)—there's rue for you; and here's some I herb of for me:—we may call it, herb-grace‡ o'Sundays :(46) -you must § wear your rue with a difference.(47) ———— § you may. There's a daisy ;(48)—I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died :-They say, he made a good end,

4tos.

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,—(49)

[Sings.

LAER. Thought' and affliction, passion, hell it

self,

She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

ОPH. And will he not come again?

And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

a This nothing's more than mutter] See "O matter," &c.

Lear, IV. 6. Edg.

b Thought]

Thought or hevynesse of herte. Molestia. Mostitia." Promptuar. parvulor. 4to. 1514. Ant. & Cl. III. 2. Enobarb." Think and die." See Tw. N. II. 4. Viola.

His beard as white as snow, (50)
All flaxen was his poll,
He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan;
Gramercy on his soul!

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

wi' you!

LAER. Do you see this, O God?‡

[Exit OPHELIA.

KING. Laertes, I must common § with your grief,(51)

Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

Make choice of whom your wisest 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 satisfaction; but, if not,

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

His means of death, his obscure burial,

* was as. 4tos.

+ God a. 4tos.

So 4tos.

you Gods. 1623, 32.

Scommune. 4tos. & Fo. 1632.

|| funeral.

No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones,(52) 4tos.
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,-

Cry to be heard,(53) as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call❜t ¶ in question.

KING.

So you shall;

And, where the offence is, let the great axe (54) fall. pray you go with me.

I

[Exeunt.

a And of all christian souls] This was the old and common benison of the Romish Church.

b of whom your wisest friends] i. e. of whom, or which of. Any amongst

¶ So 4tos. call. 1623,

32.