Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!

[TO POLONIUS.

I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune:
Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger.-
Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you down,
And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,
That it be proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Ham.
Such an act,
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,

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With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen.

Ah me, what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?9 Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this ;'

-from the body of contraction] Contraction for marriage contract.

9

and thunders in the index?] Bullokar in his Expositor, 8vo. 1616, defines an Index by "A table in a booke." The table was almost always prefixed to the books of our poet's age. Indexes, in the sense in which we now understand the word, were very

uncommon.

'Look here, upon this picture, and on this:] It is evident from the following words,

"A station, like the herald Mercury," &c.

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,2
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:

This was your husband.-Look you now, what follows:

3

?

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
Else, could you not have motion: But, sure, that sense
Is apoplex'd: for madness would not err;
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd,

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But it reserv'd some quantity of choice,

To serve in such a difference. What devil was't,
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?"

that these pictures which are introduced as miniatures on the stage, were meant for whole lengths, being part of the furniture of the Queen's closet.

* A station like the herald Mercury, &c.] Station, in this instance, does not mean the spot where any one is placed, but the act of standing.

·batten-] i. e. to grow fat. Bat is an ancient word for

Sense, sure, you have,

Else could you not have motion:] Sense is sometimes used by Shakspeare for sensation or sensual appetite: as motion is the ef fect produced by the impulse of nature.

at hoodman-blind?] Probably the same as blindman's

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense

Could not so mope.

6

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,"
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,

And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

And reason panders will.

Queen.

O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots, As will not leave their tinct.9

Ham.

8

Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed;1

Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love Over the nasty stye ;

Queen.

These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet.

O, speak to me no more;

A murderer, and a villain :

Ham.
A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord:-a vice of kings:2
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

6 Could not so mope.] i. e. could not exhibit such marks of stupidity.

If thou canst mutine, &c.] To mutine, was the ancient term, signifying to rise in mutiny.

8

grained-] Died in grain, or perhaps, indented.

9 As will not leave their tinct.] To leave is to part with, give up, resign.

2

enseamed bed ;] i. e. greasy bed.

-vice of kings:] A low mimick of kings. The vice is the fool of a farce; from whence the modern punch is descended.

Queen.

No more.

Enter Ghost.

A king

Ham.

Of shreds and patches:*

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards!-What would your gracious figure?.

Queen. Alas, he's mad..

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, say!

Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose,
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul;
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham.

5

How is it with you, lady?

Queen. Alas, how is't with you?

That you do bend your eye on vacancy,

And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,"
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,

3 A king

Of shreds and patches:] This is said, pursuing the idea of the vice of kings. The vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of partycoloured patches.

laps'd in time and passion,] That, having suffered time to slip, and passion to cool, lets go, &c.

6

Conceit in weakest bodies-] Conceit for imagination.

like life in excrements,] Not only the hair of animals having neither life nor sensation was called an excrement, but the feathers of birds had the same appellation.

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience.

Whereon do you look? Ham. On him! on him!-Look you, how pale he glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capable.'-Do not look upon me, Lest, with this piteous action, you convert

My stern effects: then what I have to do

Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood.
Queen. To whom do you speak this ?

Ham.
Do you see nothing there?
Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see.
Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen.

No, nothing, but ourselves. Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals

away!

My father, in his habit as he liv'd!

Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!

[Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy

Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstasy!

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful musick: It is not madness,
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen.

Confess yourself to heaven;

▾ Would make them capable.] Capable here signifies intelligent; endued with understanding.

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• My stern effects:] Effects for actions; deeds effected.