Ham. He will flay till ye come.

King. Hamiet, this deed, for thine especial safety, Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve

For that which thou haft done) mult fend thee hence
With fiery quickness; therefore prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,

Th' affociates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham. For England?
King. Ay, Hamlet.
Ham. Good.

King So is it, if thou knew'ft our purposes. Ham. I fee a Cherub that fees them; but come, for England! farewel, dear mother.

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one fleth, and fo, my mother. Come, for England.

[Exit. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

Delay it not: I'll have him hence to-night.
Away, for every thing is fealed and done

That elfe leans on th' affair; pray you, make haste.
[Exeunt Roi. and Guild,
And, England! if my love thou hold it at aught, (57)
As my great power thereof may give thee fente,

(57) And England, if my love thou boideft at aught, As my great power thereof may give thee fenfe, Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red

After the Danish fword, and thy free awe

Pays homage to us;] This is the only paffage in the play from which one might expect to trace the date of the action of it; but I am afraid our Author, according to his ufual licence, plays fast and loofe with time. England is here fuppofed to have been conquered by the Dane, and to be a homager to that state The chronology of the Danish affais is wholly uncertain, till we come to the reign of Ivarus VOL. XII.

L

Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish fword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us; thou may't not coldly fet
Our fovereign procefs, which imports at full,
By letters congruing to that effect,

The prefent death of Hamlet. Do it, England:
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,

And thou muft cure me; 'till I know 'tis done, Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin. [Exit.

SCENE, A Camp on the Frontiers of Denmark.

Enter FORTINBRAS, with an Army.

For. Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish
King;

Tell him, that, by his licence, Fortinbras
Claims the conveyance of a promifed march
Over his realm. You know the rendezvous:
If that his Majefty would aught with us,

about the year 870. And 'tis plain from Saxo Grammaticus, that the time in which Amlethus lived, was fome generations earlier than the period of Chriftianity. And the letters which the Danith King's meffengers carried over to England, were wooden tablets. Literas ligno infculptas (nàm ia celebre quondam genus chartarum erat) fecum geftante, quibus Britan norum regi tranfmiffi fibi juvenis occifio mandabatur. Such a fort of mandate implies, that the English King was either linked in the dearest amity to the Dane, or in fubjection to him. But what then fhall we do with our own home-chronicles! They are exprefs, that the Danes never fet footing on our coaft till the eighth century. They infefted us for fome time in a piratical way, then made a descent and conquered part of the country; and about the year 80c, King Egbert is faid to have fubmitted to a tribute, called Dane-gelt; a tax of 12 d. on every hide of land through the whole nation. But our authors differ about this Dane-gelt, whether it was a tax paid to obtain good terms of the Danes, or levied by our Kings towards the charge of defences, to repel the inva fons of the Danes.

We fhall express our duty in his eye,
And let him know fo.

Capt. I will do't, my Lord.

For. Go foftly on.

[Exit Fortinbras, with the Army.

Enter HAMLET, ROSINCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &C.

Ham. Good Sir, whose powers are these?

Capt. They are of Norway, Sir.

Ham. How purposed, Sir, I pray you?
Capt. Against fome part of Poland.
Ham. Who commands them, Sir?

Capt. The nephew of old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, Sir, Or for fome frontier?

Capt. Truly to speak it, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name. Το pay five ducats-five, I would not farm it; Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole, A ranker rate, fhould it be fold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Capt. Yea, 'tis already garrifoned.

Ham. Two thousand fouls, and twenty thousand Will not debate the queftion of this ftraw; [ducats, This is the impofthume of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and fhews no cause without Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, Sir. Capt. God b'w'ye, Sir.

Raf. Will't please you go, my Lord?

Ham. I'll be with you ftrait, go a little before.

Manet HAMLET.

[Exeunt.

How all occafions 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 fleep and feed? a beaft, no more.
(58) Sare, he that made us with fuch large difcourse,
Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and godlike reason

To ruft in us unufed. Now whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or fome craven fcruple

Of thinking too precifely on th' event, [wifdoni,
(A thought which, quartered, hath but one part
And ever three parts coward:) I do not know
Why yet I live to fay this thing's to do;

Sith I have caufe, and will, and strength, and means
To do't. Examples, grofs as earth, exhort me:
Witness this army of fuch mafs and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender Prince,
Whofe fpirit, with divine ambition puft,
Makes mouths at the invifible event;
Expofing what is mortal and unfure

To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,.
Ev'n for an egg-1
-fhell. 'Tis not to be great,

Never to ftir without great argument;

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,

When honour's at the ftake. How ftand I then,

(58) Sure he that made us with fuch large difcourfe,

Looking before and after.] This is an expreffion purely Homeric;

Οἷς δ' ὁ γέρων μέτεησιν, μα ΠΡΟΣΣΩ, ΟΠΙΣΣΩ
Iliad. y. ver. 109.

Λεύσσει.

And again;

ὁ γὰν διος δρα ΠΡΟ'ΣΣΩ & ΟΠΙΣΣΩ,

Iliad. a. ver, 250. The fhort fcholiaft on the laft paffage gives us a comment that very aptly explains our Author's phrafe. Zuvetä yàp ἀνδρός εσι, τα μελλονία τοῖς γεγενημένοις ἀρμός εσθαι, γ ὕτως ὁρῖν τα επόμενα. "For it is the part of an understanding man to connect the reflection of events to come with fuch have paffed, and fo to forefee what thall follow." This is, as our Author phrafes it, locking before and after.

That have a father killed, a mother stained,
(Excitements of my reason and my blood)
And let all fleep? while, to my fhame, I fee
The imminent death of twenty thousand men;
That for a fantasy and trick of fame

Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot,
Whereon the numbers cannot try the caule,
Which is not toinb enough and continent
To hide the flain? O, then, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth. [Exit.

SCENE changes to a Palace.

Enter Queen, HORAT10, and a Gentleman.

Queen. I will not fpeak with her.

Gent. She is importunate,

Indeed, distract; her mood will needs be piticd.

Queen. What would the have?

[hears Gent. She fpeaks much of her father; fays, the There's tricks i' th' world; and hems, and beats

her heart;

Spurns enviously at ftraws; fpeaks things in doubt That carry but half fenfe; her fpeech is nothing, Yet the unthaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts; Which as her winks, and nods, and geltures yicki

them,

Indeed, would make one think there might be
Tho' nothing fure, yet much unhappily. [thought;
Hor. 'Twere good the were fpcken with, for fhe
may ftrow

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

Queen. To my fick foul, as fin's true nature is, Each toy feems prologue to fome great amifs,