Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us-thou mayst not coldly set
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters congruing to that effect,

The present death of Hamlet.

land;

Do it, Eng

For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me; till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.

70

[Exit.

SCENE IV

A plain in Denmark.

Enter Fortinbras, a Captain and Soldiers,
marching.

For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
Tell him that by his license Fortinbras

Plane Craves the conveyance of a promised march

on to Denmark

England

Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye;

73. “my haps, my joys were ne'er begun”; so Ff.; Qq., “my haps, my joyes will nere begin"; Johnson conj. "my hopes, my joys are not begun"; Heath conj. "'t may hap, my joys will ne'er begin"; Collier MS., "my hopes, my joyes were ne're begun"; Tschischwitz, "my joys will ne'er begun."-I. G.

3. "Craves"; so Qq.; Ff. 1, 2, "Claimes."-I. G.

6. "express our duty in his eye"; in the Regulations for the Establishment of the Queen's Household, 1627: "All such as doe service in the queen's eye." And in The Establishment of Prince Henry's Household, 1610: “All such as doe service in the prince's eye.”— H. N. H.

And let him know so.

Cap.

For. Go softly on.

I will do 't, my lord.

[Exeunt Fortinbras and Soldiers.

Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern,
and others.

Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these?

Cap. They are of Norway, sir.

Ham. How purposed, sir, I pray you?
Cap. Against some part of Poland.
Ham. Who commands them, sir?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
Or for some frontier?

Cap. Truly to speak, and with no addition,

We go to gain a little patch of ground
That hath in it no profit but the name.

10

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; 20
Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole

A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Cap. Yes, it is already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats

Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and
peace,

That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

8. "Go softly on"; these words are probably spoken to the troops. The folio has safely instead of softly.-H. N. H.

9-66. the reading of the Qq.; omitted in Ff.—I. G.

Cap. God be wi' you, sir.

Ros.

[Exit.

Will 't please you go, my lord? Ham. I'll be with you straight. Go a little be

fore.

31

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.

How all occasions do inform against me,

And spur my dull revenge!

What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason

40

To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,-
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part
wisdom

And ever three parts coward,—I do not know
Why yet I live to say 'this thing's to do,'

Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and

means,

To do 't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
Witness this army, of such mass and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince,

50

Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
Makes mouths at the invisible event,
Exposing what is mortal and unsure
To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great
It not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw

50. "Makes mouths ať"; mocks at.-C. H. H.

to

>

60

When honor's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That for a fantasy and trick of frame
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

[Exit.

SCENE V

Elsinore. A room in the castle.

Enter Queen, Horatio, and a Gentleman.

Queen. I will not speak with her.

Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract:
Her mood will needs be pitied.

Queen.

What would she have?

Gent. She speaks much of her father, says she

hears

There's tricks i' the world, and hems and beats her heart,

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in
doubt,

That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,

And botch the words up fit to their own

thoughts;

10

Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield

them,

Indeed would make one think there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. Hor. 'Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. Queen. Let her come in.

[Exit Gentleman. [Aside] 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 spilt.

Re-enter Gentleman, with Ophelia.

Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

Queen. How now, Ophelia!

20

Oph. [Sings] How should I your true love know From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff

And his sandal shoon.

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

13. “Unhappily” is here used in the sense of mischievously.— H. N. H.

14–16; Qq. and Ff. assign these lines to Horatio; Blackstone rearranged the lines as in the text.-I. G.

22. "Ophelia"; in the quarto of 1603, this stage-direction is curious as showing that Ophelia was originally made to play an accompaniment to her singing. It reads thus: "Enter Ophelia, playing on a lute, and her hair down, singing.”—H. N. H.