Ham. You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.

Oph. I was the more deceived.

Ham. Get thee to a nunnery: why would'st thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest: but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better, my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?

Oph. At home, my lord.

Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool no where' but in's own house. Farewell. Oph. O! help him, you sweet heavens!

Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell.

Oph. Heavenly powers, restore him!

Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough: God hath given you one face, and you make

6 — virtue cannot so INOCULATE,] The word seems to have puzzled the compositor of the quarto, 1604, who prints it euocutat, which in the quarto, 1637, became evacuate. The folio gives the true word.

7-play the fool no WHERE-] The folio reads, no doubt corruptly, "play the fool no way."

— farewell.] The folio, "go, farewell."

9 I have heard of your PAINTINGS too, well enough: God hath given you one FACE,] The folio misprints the passage thus :-" I have heard of your prattlings too, well enough: God has given you one pace," &c. That this is wrong is proved by the quarto, 1603, where we find," I have heard of your paintings too: God hath given you one face." "Too" is not in the quartos, 1604, &c., but in other respects they all concur.

yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp', and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to; I'll no more on't it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. [Exit HAMLET.

Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword: Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, Th' observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That suck'd the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ; That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth, Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me!

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Re-enter King and POLONIUS.

King. Love! his affections do not that way tend; Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, Was not like madness. There's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;

And, I do doubt, the hatch, and the disclose,

Will be some danger: which for to prevent,

I have, in quick determination,

Thus set it down. He shall with speed to England,

For the demand of our neglected tribute:

1

- you jig, you amble, and you lisp,] The quartos misprint "lisp,” list, and read "and amble" for "you amble."

2

your ignorance.] Here again the quarto, 1603, supports the folio in reading "your ignorance :" the quartos, 1604, &c. omit "your."

3 Th' EXPECTANCY-] The quartos, 1604, &c., "Th' expectation," which ill

suits the measure. The line is not in the quarto, 1603.

AND I,] So the quartos, 1604, &c., rightly: the folio, "Hare 1," &c.

5 Now see THAT noble-] The quartos, "what noble.”

form and FEATURE-] Stature in the quartos.

Haply, the seas, and countries different,
With variable objects, shall expel

This something settled matter in his heart;
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
Pol. It shall do well: but yet do I believe,
The origin and commencement of his grief'
Sprung from neglected love.-How now, Ophelia !
You need not tell us what lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all.-My lord, do as you please;
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him

To show his griefs: let her be round with him;
And I'll be plac'd, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him; or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.

Enter HAMLET, and certain Players.

Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the towncrier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too

- of HIS grief] So the quartos, 1604, &c. excepting that of 1611, which has merely it for "his grief." The folio reads, "this grief."

- let her be ROUND with him ;] . c. let her be plain with him. See Vol. ii. p. 125; Vol. iii. p. 356.

9

many of YOUR players do,] So the quarto, 1603, and the folio, 1623: later quartos, our. Just afterwards the folio reads, "had spoke my lines" for "spoke my lines" of the quartos, 1604, &c. The quarto, 1603, “I had rather hear a town bull bellow."

much with your hand, thus; but use all gently for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of passion', you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. O! it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows, and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod3: pray you avoid it.

1 Play. I warrant your honour.

Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature; for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure. Now, this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which one' must, in your allowance, o'er-weigh a whole theatre of others. O! there be players, that I have seen play,—and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man', have so strutted, and bel

1 whirlwind of passion,] The folio omits your before "passion," found in the quartos, 1604, &c. It seems quite unnecessary.

3

66

2 it offends me to the soul to HEAR-] The folio, "to sce." for o'er-doing TERMAGANT; it out-herods HEROD :] Termagant," the god of the Saracens, and "Herod," were characters in our old Miracle-plays, whose business it was, by their ranting and roaring, to split the ears of the "groundlings," (or those who stood on the ground in our old theatres) and to tear a passion to tatters, to very rags."

one;" but the is found in none of the quartos.

5 - nor man,] The folio absurdly reads, or Norman. Farmer suspected that we ought to read, “ nor Mussulman,” a suggestion that receives some coun

lowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

1 Play. I hope, we have reformed that indifferently with us.

Ham. O! reform it altogether. And let those, that play your clowns, speak no more than is set down for them for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.— [Exeunt Players.

Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

How now, my lord! will the king hear this piece of work?

Pol. And the queen too, and that presently.

Ham. Bid the players make haste.

Will you two help to hasten them?

Both. We will, my lord".

[Exit POLONIUS.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Ham. What, ho! Horatio!

Enter HORATIO.

Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service.
Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man

As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.

Hor. O! my dear lord,—

Ham.

Nay, do not think I flatter;

tenance from the quarto, 1603, where the passage runs, "the gait of Christian, Pagan, or Turk." In the next line but one, Malone would read, "had made them," for "had made men," but every old copy has " men," and in fact no alteration is required.

Both. We will, my lord.] The quartos make only Rosencrantz reply with "Ay, my lord."