Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

To outface me with leaping in her grave?
Be buried quick with her; and so will I;
And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us, 'till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart! nay, an thou❜lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

Queen. This is mere madness;

And thus a while the fit will work on him:
Anon, as patient as the female dove,

When that her golden couplets are disclosed, (81)
His silence will set drooping.

[blocks in formation]

What is the reason that you use me thus?

I loved you ever; but it is no matter—
Let Hercules himself do what he may,

The cat will mew, the dog will have his day. [Ex.

ness of a crocodile, which may be seen before Hamlet's mouth, and is drawn in

Fig. 75.

کرکے

(81) If the south side of the moon be placed on the right hand, Hamlet's prototype there exhibits the resemblance of a dove, with her tail towards his head, and with

King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon

him.

[Exit. Hor. Strengthen your patience in our last night's

speech.

[To Laertes. We'll put the matter to the present push.

Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son:
This grave shall have a living monument.
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see ;

'Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.

two young dove-chickens, barely fledged, at her side; as represented in

Fig. 76.

ি

This likeness to a bird may serve to explain the frequent allusions that are made to doves, gulls, or pigeons, and sometimes to sweet-robins, crows, and sparrows.

SCENE changes to a Hall in a Palace.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.

Ham. So much for this; you now shall see the You do remember all the circumstance? [other. Hor. Remember it, my Lord?

[ing, Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fightThat would not let me sleep; methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes; rashness (And praised be rashness for it) lets us know, Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do fail; and that should teach us,

There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

Hor. That is most certain.

Ham. Up from my cabin,

My sea-gown scarf'd 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,
A 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 supervize, no leisure bated,

No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.

Hor. Is it possible?

Ham. Here's the commission, read it at more leisure;

But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed!

Hor. I beseech you.

Ham. Being thus benetted round with villainy, (Ere I could make a prologue, to my bane They had begun the play :) I sate 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
Th' effect of what I wrote ?

Hor. Ay, good my Lord.

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the King, As England was his faithful tributary,

As love between them, like the palm, might flourish,
As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,

That on the view and knowing 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?

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:
I folded the writ up in form of th' other,

Subscribed it, gave the impression, placed it safely,
The changeling never known. Now, the next day
Was our sea-fight, and what to this was sequent
Thou knowest already.

Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment.

They are not near my conscience; their defeat
Doth, by their own insinuation, grow :
'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensed points

Of mighty opposites.

Hor. Why, what a King is this!

Ham. Does it not, thinkest thou, stand me now

upon?

[mother, He that hath killed my King, and whored my Popp'd in between th' election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with such cozenage; is it not perfect con

science

[damned, To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be

To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil?

[England,

Hor. It must be shortly known to him from What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short.

« AnteriorContinua »