Oph. They bore him barefaced on the bier;
Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny:

And in his grave rain'd many a tear

Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade

Oph. You must sing, Down-a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel

becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember; and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

1

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines : -there's rue for you; and here's some for me :we may call it, herb of grace o' Sundays:--you may wear your rue with a difference t.-There's a daisy-I would give you some violets; but they wither'd all, when my father died :-They say, he made a good end,-

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,

[Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

Oph. And will he not come again?

And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll:

He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan;
God 'a mercy on his soul!

[Sings.

And of all Christian souls! I pray God. God be

wi' you!

Luer. Do you see this, O God?

[Exit Ophelia.

King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

The burthen.

te. By its Sunday name 'herb of grace; mine is merely rue, i. e. sorrow.

Melancholy.

VOL. V.

Nn

Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall 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 satisfaction; but, if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.

Luer. Let this be so;

His means of death, his obscure funeral,

No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones, No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, That I must call❜t in question.

King. So you shall;

And where the offence is, let the great axe fall: I pray you, go with me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI.-Another Room in the same.

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.

[Exit Servant.

I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.

Enter SAILORS.

1 Sail. God bless you, Sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

1 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.

Hor. [Reuds.] 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 chace: 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 me with as much haste as thou wouldst jy death. I have words to speak in thine ear, will make thee dumb;

yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.
These good fellow's will bring thee where I am. Ro-
sencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for
England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.
He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.
Come, I will give you way for these your letters;
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-Another Room in the same.

Enter KING and LAERTES.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend; Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he, which hath your noble father slain, Pursued my life.

Laer. It well appears:-But tell me,

Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and so capital in nature,

As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else,

You mainly were stirr❜d up.

King. O, for two special reasons;

Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd t, But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother,

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue, or my plague, be it either which),
She is so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in its sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,

Is, the great love the general gender bear him:
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Work like the springs that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms;

Whose worth, if praises may go back again,

• Since.

Common people.

+ Deprived of strength.

Petrifying springs are common in many parts

of England.

Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections:-But my revenge will come. King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think,

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,

That we can let our beard be shook with danger, And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear

more:

I loved your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,-
How now? What news?

Enter a MESSENGER.

Mess. Letters, by lord, from Hamlet:
This to your majesty; this to the queen.
King. From Hamlet! Who brought them?

Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not; They were given me by Claudio; he received them Of him that brought them."

King. Laertes, you shall hear them: Leave us.

[Exit Messenger.

[Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet.

What should this mean! Are all the rest come back?

Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
Laer. Know you the hand?
King. 'Tis Hamlet's character.

Naked,

And, in a postscript here, he says, alone:

Can you advise me?

Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; It warms the very sickness in my heart,

That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,

Thus diddest thou.

King. If it be so, Laertes,

As how should it be so? How otherwise?-
Will you be ruled by me?

Laer. Ay, my lord;

So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace.

King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,

As checking at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it,-I will work him

To exploit, now ripe in my device,

• Objecting to.

Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe;
But even his mother shall uncharge the practice,
And call it, accident.

Laer. My lord, I will be ruled;

The rather, if you could devise it so,
That I might be the organ.

King. It falls right.

You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality,
Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
Did not together pluck such envy from him,"
As did that one; and that, in my regard,
Of the unworthiest siege *.

Laer. What part is that, my lord?

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

I have seen myself, and served against, the French,
And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat;
And to such wond'rous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured
With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought,
That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,

Come short of what he did.

Laer. A Norman, was't?

King. A Norman.

Laer. Upon my life, Lamord.

King. The very same.

Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch, indeed,

And gem of all the nation.

King. He made confession of you;

And gave you such a masterly report,

For art and exercise in your defence t,

And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed,

If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation,

He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you opposed them: Sir, this report of his
Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy,

• Place.

+ Science of defence, i. e. fencing. + Fencers.