brance: pray you, love, remember: and there

is pansies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and 180
remembrance fitted.

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: O,
you must wear your rue with a difference.
There's a daisy: I would give you some
violets, but they withered all when father
died: they say a' made a good end,-
[Sings] For bonnie sweet Robin is all my
joy.
Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
She turns to favor and to prettiness.

190

memory, and was therefore used as a token of remembrance and affection between lovers. Why pansies (pensées) are emblems of thoughts is obvious. Fennel was emblematic of flattery. Browne, in his Britannia's Pastorals, says,—

"The columbine, in tawny often taken,

Is then ascrib'd to such as are forsaken."

Rue was for ruth or repentance. It was also commonly called herb grace, probably fror being accounted "a present remedy against all poison, and a potent auxiliary in exorcisms, all evil things fleeing from it." Wearing it with a difference was an heraldic term for a mark of distinction. The daisy was emblematic of a dissembler. The violet is for faithfulness, and is thus characterized in The Lover's Nosegaie.-H. N. H.

190. Poor Ophelia in her madness remembers the ends of many old popular ballads. "Bonny Robin" appears to have been a favorite, for there were many others written to that tune. This last stanza is quoted with some variation in Eastward Ho! 1605, by Jonson, Marston, and Chapman.-H. N. H.

191. “Thought" was used for grief, care, pensiveness. “Curarum volvere in pectore. He will die for sorrow and thought" (Baret). -H. N. H.

Oph. [Sings] And will a' not come again?

And will a' 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,

200

And we cast away moan:

God ha' mercy on his soul!

And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God

be wi' you.

Laer. Do you see this, O God?

[Exit.

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

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

209

They find us touched, 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 labor with your soul
To give it due content.

Laer.

Let this be so;
His means of death, his obscure funeral,

No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,

198. cp. "Eastward Hoe" (1604), by Jonson, Marston, and Chapm'n, for a travesty of the scene and this song (Act III. Sc. i.).— G.

E

No noble rite nor formal ostentation,

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

King.

220

So you shall;

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

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI

Another room in the castle.

Enter Horatio and a servant.

Hor. What are they that would speak with me?
Serv. Sea-faring men, sir: they say they have let-

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.

First Sail. God bless you, sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.
First Sail. He shall, sir, an 't please him.

There's a letter for you, sir; it comes from
the ambassador that was bound for Eng- 10
220. "call it in question"; the funerals of knights and persons of
rank were made with great ceremony and ostentation formerly. Sir
John Hawkins observes that "the sword, the helmet, the gauntlet,
spurs, and tabard are still hung over the grave of every knight.”-
H. N. H.

2. "Sea-faring men”; so Qq.; Ff. read "Sailors.”—I. G.

land; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. Hor. [Reads] '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 chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valor, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant they got clear 20 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 to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly 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 fellows will bring thee where I am. 30 Rosencrantz 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 make you way for these your let-
ters;

And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII

Another room in the castle.

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, 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,

10

But yet to me they're strong. The queen his
mother

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself-
My virtue or my plague, be it either which-
She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his 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;

9. "mainly were stirr'd up"; had the strongest motive to do.C. H. H.

14. "She's so conjunctive"; so Ff.; Qq. read “She is so concline”; Q., 1676, “She is so precious.”—I. G.