: Ham. Follow him, friends we'll hear a play to-morrow. Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the murder of Gonzago ? 1 Play. Ay, my lord. Ham. We'll have it to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which I would set down, and insert i'nt? could you not? 1 Play. Ay, my lord. Ham. Very well.-Follow that lord; and look you mock him not. [Exit Player.]-My good friends, [to Ros. and GUIL.] I'll leave you till night: You are welcome to Elsinore. Ros. Good my lord! A broken voice, and his whole function suiting What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do, That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, [1] The word aspect (as Mr. Farmer rightly observes) was in Shakespeare's [time accented on the second syllable. STEEVENS. [2] The ear of all mankind. So before,---Cuviure to the general, that is, to the multitude. JOHNSON. Why, I should take it for it cannot be, A scullion! Fye upon't! foh! About my brains! IIumph! I have heard, That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, Have by the very cunning of the scene They have proclaim'd their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak power [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I-A Room in the Castle. Enter King, Queen, Get from him, why he puts on this confusion; With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? Ros. He does confess, he feels himself distracted; [8] Kindless---unnatural. JOHNSON. [4] Wits, to your work. Brain, go about the present business. * [5] Tent him---search his wounds. [6] Blench, i. e. shrink. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. But from what cause he will by no means speak. Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded; When we would bring him on to some confession Queen. Did he receive you well? Ros. Most like a gentleman. Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. Ros. Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply. Queen. Did you assay him To ny pastime? Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We o'er-raught on the way of these we told him : And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it: They are about the court; And, as I think, they have already order Pol. 'Tis most true: And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties, To hear and see the matter. King. With all my heart; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclin'd. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, And drive his purpose on to these delights. [Exe. Ros. and GUIL. King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too: For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither; Her father, and myself (lawful espials,) Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen, If't be the great affliction of his love, or no, Queen. I shall obey you : And, for your part, Ophelia, I do wish, That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope, your virtues To both your honours. Oph. Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen JOHNSON. JOHNSON. [7] O'er-raught---is over-reached, that is, over-took. [8] To affront---is only to meet directly. Pol. Ophelia, walk you here :-Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves :-Read on this book; [To ОPH That show of such an exercise may colour Your loneliness.-We are oft to blame in this,- The devil himself. King. O, 'tis too true! how smart A lash that speech doth give my conscience! Pol. I hear him coming; lets withdraw, my lord. [Aside [Exeunt King and PoL. Enter HAMLET.' Ham. To be or not to be that is the question :----Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; And, by opposing, end them ?-To die,—to sleep,--- To sleep! perchance to dream ;-ay, there's the rub; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, [9] That is, compared with the thing that helps it. JOHNSON. (2) Mortal coil---turmoil, bustle. WARBURTON. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. [5] To grunt, is the true reading, but can scarcely be borne by modern ears. JOHNSON. The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; Oph. Good my lord, How does your honour for this many a day? Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, I pray you, now receive them. Ham. No, not I; I never gave you aught. Oph. My honour'd lord, you know right well, you did; Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind.. Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest? Oph. My lord? Ham. Are you fair? Oph. What means your lordship? Ham. That if you be honest, and fair, you should admit no discourse to your beauty.7 Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness; this was some time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. [6] This is a touch of nature. Hamlet, at the sight of Ophelia, does not immediately recollect, that he is to personate madness, but makes her an address grave and solemn, such as the foregoing meditation excited in his thoughts. JOHNSON.. [7] The true reading seems to be this, "If you be honest and fair, you should admit your honesty to no discourse with your beauty." This is the sense evidently required by the process of the conversation. JOHNSON. |