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 spilt3.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA.

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

Oph. How should I your true love know [Singing.

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.

3 It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.] It deserves notice that this and the three preceding lines are marked by inverted commas in all the quartos, not for the purpose of showing that the passage was a quotation, but apparently to enforce it as an axiom. Such was not a very unusual practice.

4

with Ophelia.] The stage-direction in the quarto, 1603, is curiously minute: "Enter Ophelia, playing on a lute, and her hair down, singing." She therefore accompanied herself in her fragments of ballads.

Which bewept to the grave did not go',
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

Oph. Well, God'ild you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord! we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table !

King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray you, let's have no words of this; but

when they ask you what it means, say you this :

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine :

Then, up he rose, and don'd his clothes,

And dupp'd the chamber door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

King. Pretty Ophelia !

Oph. Indeed, la! without an oath, I'll make an end

on't:

By Gis, and by Saint Charity,

Alack, and fie for shame !

Young men will do't, if they come to't ;

By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to wed:

He answerso.

7 Which bewept to the grave did NOT go,] The quarto, 1603, and the folio have "grave," the other quartos ground; but all authorities read "did not go," which Pope considered an error, and which may possibly be so.

• Well, God'ild you !] i. e. God yield or reward you. See Vol. iii. pp. 62 and 94.

9 He answers.] These words are in the quartos, 1604, &c. In the folio the king afterwards asks, "How long hath she been this?" instead of "thus" of the quartos.

VOL. VII.

X

So would I ha done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

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 would 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.

King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit HORATIO. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death. And now, behold2, O Gertrude, Gertrude!

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions. First, her father slain;
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: the people muddied,

Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whis

pers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,

In hugger-mugger to inter him3: poor Ophelia,
Divided from herself, and her fair judgment,

Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts :
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France,
Feeds on his wonder1, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,

Will nothing stick our persons to arraign
In ear and ear. O, my dear Gertrude! this,
Like to a murdering piece, in many places

Gives me superfluous death.
Queen.

[A noise within.

Alack! what noise is this?

Enter a Gentleman.

King. Attend!

Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

What is the matter?

Gent.

Save yourself, my lord;

The ocean, overpeering of his list,
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste",

Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,

O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him, lord;
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
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. King. The doors are broke.

[Noise within.

Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following.

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

without.

Dan. No, let's come in.
Laer.

I pray you, give me leave.

5 Alack! what noise is this ?] Only in the folios. "Attend," just afterwards, is only in the quartos, 1604, &c.

• Overpeering of his LIST,] i. e. swelling over his boundary.

7

IMPETUOUS haste,] So the quarto, 1611, the undated quarto, that of 1637, and the second folio. The reading of the quarto, 1604, and of the first folio, is impitious, probably a misprint.

Dan. We will, we will.

[They retire without the Door.

Laer. I thank you: keep the door. - O thou vile

king,

Give me my father.

Queen.

Calmly, good Laertes.

Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me

bastard;

Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot

Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow1

Of my true mother.

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. -Tell me, Laertes,

Why thou art thus incens'd. - Let him go, Gertrude.

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.

Who shall stay you?

Laer. My will, not all the world's:
And, for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.

9

1

that's calm,] So the quartos, 1604, &c.; the folio, that calms. unsmirched brow] To smirch is to make dirty or defile; and it is found