Opb. There's fennel for you, and columbines; there's rue for you, and here's fome for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays: you may wear your rue with a difference. There's a dafie; I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father dy'd: they fay, he made a good end;

For bonny fweet Robin is all my joy.

Laer. Thought, and affliction, paffion, hell it felf, She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

I

Oph. And will be not come again?

And will be not come again?

No, no, he is dead, go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

4

His beard was as white as fnote,

All flaxen was his pole:

He is gone, be is gone, and we caft away mone,
Gramercy on his foul !

And of all chriftian fouls! God b'w'ye.
Laer. Do you fee this, you Gods!

[Exit Ophelia.

King. Laertes, I muft commune with your grief,
Or you deny me right: go but a-part,

Make choice of whom your wifeft friends you will,
And they fhall hear and judge 'twixt you and me;
If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our Kingdom give,
Our Crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in fatisfaction. But if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us;
And we fhall jointly labour with your foul,
To give it due content.

Laer. Let this be fo.

His means of death, his obfcure funeral,

No trophy, fword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal oftentation,

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heav'n to earth,
That I muft call❜t in queftion.

King. So you fhall:

And where th' offence is, let the great ax fall.
I pray you, go with me...

Enter Horatio, with an attendant.

[Exeunt.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with me?"
Ser. 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 fhould be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

Sail. God bless you, Sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

Sail. He fhall, Sir, a'nt please him.

There's a let

ter for you, Sir: It comes from th' ambaffador that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

HOR

Hor. reads the letter.

TORATIO, when thou shalt have overlook'd this, give thefe fellow's fome means to the King: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at fea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace. Finding our felves too flow of fail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them on the inftant they got clear of our ship, fo I alone became their prifoner. 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 fent, and repair thou to me with as much bafte as thou wouldeft fly death. I have words to speak in thy ear, will make thee dumb, yet are they much too light for the matter. Thefe good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rofincrantz and Guildenftern bold their courfe for England. Of them I have much to tell thee, farewel.

He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.

Come

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.

Enter King, and Laertes.

[Exeunt.

King. Now muft your confcience my acquittance feal,

And you muft put me in your heart for friend;
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father flain,
Purfued my

life.

Laer. It well appears. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and fo capital in nature,

As by your fafety, wisdom, all things elfe,
You mainly were stirr'd up?

King. Two fpecial reasons,

Which may to you, perhaps, feem much unfinew'd,
And yet to me are ftrong. The Queen, his mother,
Lives almoft by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue or my plague, be't either which,)
She's fo conjunctive to my life and foul,
That, as the ftar moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a publick count I might not go,
Is the great love the general gender bear him ;
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to ftone,
Convert his gyves to graces. So that my arrows,
Too flightly timbred for fo loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And fo have I a noble father lost,

A fifter driven into defperate terms,
Whofe worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections-But my revenge will come.

King. Break not your fleeps for that; you must not

think,

That we are made of ftuff fo flat and dull,

VOL. VII.

Y

That

That we can let our beard be fhook with danger,
And think it paftime. You fhall foon hear more.
I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine
How now? what news?

Enter Messenger.

་་་་

Mef. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet.
These to your Majefty: this to the Queen.
King. From Hamlet? who brought them?
Mef. Sailors, my lord, they fay, I faw them not:
They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them."
King. Laertes, you fhall hear them: leave us, all-

[Exit Mef.

High and Mighty, you shall know, I am fet naked on your Kingdom. To morrow shall I beg leave to fee your kingly eyes. When I fhall, (first asking your pardon thereunto,) recount th' occafion of my fudden return. Hamlet.

What should this mean? are all the reft come back?
Or is it fome abufe-and no fuch thing?

Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character;

Naked, and (in a poftfcript here, he fays)

Alone can you advise me?

Laer. I'm loft in it, my lord: but let him come;

It warms the very fickness in my heart,

That I fhall live and tell him to his teeth,
Thus diddeft thou.

King. If it be fo, Laertes,

As how fhould it be fo?-how, otherwife?
Will you be rul'd by me?

Laer. I, fo you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace.
King. To thine own peace: if he be now return'd,
As liking not his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it; I will work him
To an exploit now ripe in my device,

Under the which he fhall not chufe but fall:

And for his death no wind of Blame fhall breathe;"

But ev❜n his mother fhall uncharge the practice,

And call it accident.

Laer. I will be rul'd,

The rather if you could devife it fo, (63)
That I might be the organ.

King. It falls right:

You have been talkt of fince your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's Hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they fay, you fhine; your fum of parts
Did not together pluck fuch envy from him,
As did that one, and that in my regard
Of the unworthieft fiege.

Laer. What part is that, my lord?

King. A very feather in the cap of youth,
Yet needful too; for youth no lefs becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears,
Than fettled age his fables, and his weeds
Importing health and graveness.-Two months fince,
Here was a gentleman of Normandy;

I've seen myself, and ferv'd against the French,
And they can well on horse-back; but this Gallant
Had witchcraft in't, he grew unto his feat;

And to fuch wondrous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorps'd and demy-natur'd

With the brave beaft; fo far he top'd my thought,
That I in forgery of fhapes and tricks
Come fhort of what he did.

Laer. A Norman, was't?

(63) The rather if you could devife it fo,

That I might be the Inftrument.

King. It falls right.] The latter Verfe is flightly maim'd in the Meafure, and, I apprehend, without Reafon. This Paffage is in neither of the Impreffions fet out by the Players; and the two elder Quarto's read as I have reform'd the Text;

That I might be the Organ.

And it is a Word, which our Author chufes to use in other Places. So, before, in this Play.

For Murther, tho' it have no Tongue, will speak

With moft miraculous Organ.

So, in Meafure for Measure:

And giv'n bis Deputation all the Organs

Of our own Pow'r.

Y 2

King.