find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King. Go seek him there.

Ham. He will stay till ye come.

[To some Attendants. [Exeunt Attendants.

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,—
Which we do tender,* as we dearly grieve

For that which thou hast done,-must send thee hence
With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,

The associates tend, and everything is bent

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.

600

Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for England!Farewell, dear mother.

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

611

Ham. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh and so, my mother. Come, for England! [Exit. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard; Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:

Away! for everything is sealed and done

That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.

[Exeunt.

PART III.

SCENE-ELSINORE: A ROOM IN THE CASTLE.

Enter QUEEN, HORATIO, and a Gentleman.

Queen. I will not speak with her.

Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract:
Her mood will needs* be pitied.

Queen.

What would she have?

Gent. She speaks much of her father; says she hears

There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing;

Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection: they aim at it,

And botch* the words up fit to their own thoughts;

Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,
Indeed would make one think there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

Hor. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

10

Queen. Let her come in.

To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,

Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:*

So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA.

[Exit Horatio.

Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark ?
Queen. How now, Ophelia !

Oph. [Sings] How should I your true love know,
From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.*

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
Oph. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

[Sings] He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia,—

Oph. Pray you, mark.

[Sings] White his shroud as the mountain snow,

King. How do you, pretty lady? Oph. Well, God 'ild you!* They say the owl was a baker's daughter. We know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

King. How long hath she been thus?

Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it: and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies; good night, good night.

[Exit. 50
King. Follow her close: give her good watch, I pray you.
[Exit Horatio.

Oh, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.

[Exeunt.

SCENE-ANOTHER ROOM IN THE CASTLE.

Enter HORATIO and a Servant.

Hor. What are they that would speak with me?

Serv. Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you.

Hor. Let them come in.

I do not know from what part of the world

I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

First Sail. God bless you, sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

[Exit Servant.

60

First Sail. He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, sir: it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

66

65

Hor. [Reads] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; and in the grapple I boarded them on the instant they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet they are much too light for the bore* of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.

am.

"He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.”
Come, I will make you way for these your letters;
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.

81

[Exeunt.

SCENE ANOTHER ROOM IN THE CASTLE.

Present-KING and LAERTES.

[Laertes, at the instigation of the King, resolves to fence with Hamlet with a poisoned foil. The King also promises to have a cup of poisoned wine ready to give Hamlet to drink.]

Enter QUEEN.
?

King. How now, sweet queen

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow;-your sister's drowned, Laertes.
Laer. Drowned! Oh, where ?

Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver* broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Laer.

Alas, then, she is drowned?

Queen. Drowned, drowned.

Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,

Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out.-Adieu, my lord:
I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly douts* it.

90

100

110

[Exit.

Let's follow, Gertrude:

[Exeunt.

King.
How much I had to do to calm his rage!
Now fear I this will give it start again;
Therefore let's follow.

SCENE A HALL IN THE CASTLE.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.

Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other ;— You do remember all the circumstance?

Hor. Remember it, my lord!

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,

That would not let me sleep: methought I lay

Worse than the mutines* in the bilboes.* Rashly,

(And praised be rashness for it; let us know,

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do pall:* and that should teach us,
There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will,—

Hor.

120

That is most certain)- 130

Ham. Up from my cabin,

My sea-gown scarfed about me, in the dark
Groped I to find out them; had my desire,
Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew
To mine own room again; making so bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unseal

Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,—
O royal knavery!-an exact command,
Larded with many several sorts of reasons

Importing Denmark's health and England's too,
With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
That, on the supervise,* no leisure bated,*
No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.

Hor.

Is't possible?

Ham. Here's the commission: read it at more leisure.
But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
Hor. I beseech you.

Ham. Being thus be-netted round with villanies,
Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play :-I sat me down;
Devised a new commission; wrote it fair:
I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair, and laboured much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service. Wilt thou know
The effect of what I wrote ?

Ay, good my lord.

Hor.
Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,--

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150

As England was his faithful tributary;

160

As love between them like the palm might flourish;

As peace should still her wheaten garland wear
And stand a comma 'tween their amities;

And many such-like “as”es of great charge,—
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allowed.

Hor.

How was this sealed?

170

Ham. Why, even in that was Heaven ordinant.

I had my father's signet in my purse,

Which was the model of that Danish seal;

Folded the writ up in form of the other,

Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,

The changeling never known. Now, the next day
Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent

Thou know'st already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.

Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment;