With all my love I do commend me to you:
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do, to express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint;-O cursed spite!
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let's go together.

[Exeunt.

ACT II.

.

SCENE I. A Room in Polonius's House.

Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO.

Pol. Give him this money, and these notes, Rey

naldo. Rey. I will, my lord. Pol. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Rey

naldo, Before

you visit him, to make inquiry Of his behaviour. Rey.

My lord, I did intend it.

has the royal semblance appeared, but till now has been withheld from speaking. For this event we have waited with impatient curiosity, unaccompanied by lassitude, or remitted attention.

The Ghost in this tragedy, is allowed to be the genuine product of Shakspeare's strong imagination. When he afterwards avails himself of traditional phantoms, as in Julius Cæsar, and King Richard III. they are but inefficacious pageants; nay, the apparition of Banquo is a mute exhibitor. Perhaps our poet despaired to equal the vigour of his early conceptions on the subject of preternatural beings, and therefore allotted them no further eminence in his dramas; or was unwilling to diminish the power of his principal shade, by an injudicious repetition of congenial images.

STEEVENS.

Pol. Marry, well said: very well said.

Look

you, sir,

Inquire me first what Danskers' are in Paris;
And how, and who, what means, and where they

keep,
What company, at what expence; and finding,
By this encompassment and drift of question,
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it:
Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
As thus,—I know his father, and his friends,
And, in part, him ;-Do you mark this, Reynaldo?

Rey. Ay, very well, my lord.
Pol. And, in part, him ;—but, you may say, not

well:
But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
Addicted so and so ;—and there put on him
What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips,
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty.
Rey.

As gaming, my lord.
Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quar-

relling,
Drabbing :-You may go so far

Rey. My lord, that would dishonour him.
Pol. 'Faith, no; as you may season it in the

charge.
You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency ;
That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so

quaintly, Danskers-] Danske is the ancient name of Denmark.

another scandal —] i. e. a very different and more scandalous failing, namely habitual incontinency.

3 That's not my meaning:] That is not what I mean when I permit you to accuse him of drabbing.

2

2

That they may seem the taints of liberty:
The flash and out-break of a fiery mind;
A savageness* in unreclaimed blood,
Of general assault.
Rey.

But, my good lord,-
Pol. Wherefore should you do this?
Rey.

Ay, my lord, I would know that. Pol. Marry, sir, here's

my drift;
And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant:
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i'the working,
Mark

you,
Your party in converse, him you would sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes,
The youth you breathe of, guilty, be assur’d,
He closes with

you

in this consequence;
Good sir, or so; or friend, or gentleman, —
According to the phrase, or the addition,
Of man, and country.
Rey.

Very good, my lord.
Pol. And then, sir, does he this,- He does-
What was I about to say?-—By the mass, I was about
to say some something:- Where did I leave?

Rey. At, closes in the consequence.

Pot. At, closes in the consequence, -Ay, marry;
He closes with you thus:-1 know the gentleman;
I saw him yesterday, or t'other day,
Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you

say,
There was he gaming; there o’ertook in his rouse;
There falling out at tennis; or, perchance,
I saw him enter such a house of sale,

• A savageness-) Savageness, for wildness. Of general assault.] i. e. such as youth in general is liable to. prenominate crimes,] i. e. crimes already named.

O

VOL. X.

(Videlicet, a brothel,) or so forth.-
See you now;
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlaces, and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out;
So, by former lecture and advice,
Shall
you my son: You have me, have

you

not?
Rey. My lord, I have.
Pol.
God be wi'

you

well. Rey. Good my lord,Pol. Observe his inclination in yourself.? Rey. I shall, my lord. Pol. And let him ply his musick. Rey.

Well, my lord.

[Exit.

you; fare

Enter Ophelia. Pol. Farewell!-How now, Ophelia ? what's the

matter? Oph. O, my lord, my lord, I have been so af

frighted! Pol. With what, in the name of heaven?

Oph. My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul’d, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;8 Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other ; And with a look so piteous in purport, As if he had been loosed out of hell, To speak of horrors,—he comes before me.

Pol. Mad for thy love?

7

in yourself.] In your own person, not by spies. • Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;] Down-gyved means, hanging down like the loose cincture which confines the fetters round the ancles.

Oph.

My lord, I do not know; But, truly, I do fear it. Pol.

What said he?
Oph. He took me by the wrist, and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face,
As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
At last,—a little shaking of mine arm,
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,-
He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound,
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk,
And end his being: That done, he lets me go:
And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
He seem'd to find his

way
without his

eyes; For out o'doors he went without their helps, And, to the last, bended their light on me.

Pol. Come, go with me; I will go seek the king.
This is the very ecstasy of love;
Whose violent property foredoes itself,
And leads the will to desperate undertakings,
As oft as any passion under heaven,
That does affict our natures. I am sorry, -
What, have you given him any hard words of late?
Oph. No, my good lord; but, as you did com-

mand,
I did repel his letters, and denied
His access to me.
Pol.

That hath made him mad.
I am sorry, that with better heed and judgment,
I had not quoted him: I fear’d, he did but trifle,
And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealousy!
It seems, it is as proper to our age

1

all his bulk,] i. e. all his body.

foredoes itself,] To foredo is to destroy. • I had not quoted him:] i. e. observed him.