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To you in fatisfaction. But if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us;
And we fhall jointly labour with your foul,
To give it due content.

Laer. Let this be fo.

His means of death, his obfcure funeral,

No trophy, fword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal oftentation,

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

King. So you fhall:

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

[Exeunt.

Enter HORATIO, with an Attendant.

Hor. What are they that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, Sir: they fay they have letters

for you.

Hor. Let them come in.

I do not know from what part of the world
Ifhould be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.
Enter Sailors.

Sail. God bless you, Sir.

Hor. Let him blefs thee too.

Sail. He fhall, Sir, an't please him.-There's a letter for you, Sir: it comes from th' ambassador that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

60

Horatio reads the Letter.

"Horatio, when thou fhalt have overlooked this, give thefe fellows fome means to the King: they "have letters for him. Ere we were two days old "at fea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave chace. Finding ourselves too flow of fail,

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"we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple "I boarded them: on the inftant they got clear of "our fhip, foi alone became their prifoner. They "have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but

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they knew what they did: I am to do a good. "turn for them. Let the King have the letters I "have fent, and repair thou to me with as much "haste as thou wouldest fly death. I have words

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to fpeak in thy ear, will make thee dumb; yet "are they much too light for the matter. Thefe "good fellows will bring thee where I am. Ro"fincrantz and Guildenftern hold their courfe for England. Of them I have much to tell thee.. "Farewel.

66

"He that thou knowest thine,

"Hamlet.""

Come, I will make you way for thefe your letters;
And do't the fpeedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.

Enter King, and LAERTES.

King. Now muft your confcience my acquittance feal,

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 flain,
Purfued my life.

Laer. It well appears. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and fo capital in nature,
As by your fafety, wisdom, all things elfe,
You mainly were stirred up?

King. Two fpecial reafons,

Which may to you perhaps feem much unfinewed, And yet to me are ftrong. The Queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue or my plague, be't either which),.
She's fo conjunctive to my life and foul,
That as the ftar 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;
Who dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
Convert his gyves to graces. So that my arrows
Too flightly timbered for fo loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aimed them.

Laer. And fo have I a noble father loft,
A fifter driven into defperate terms,
Whofe worth, if praifes may go back again,.
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections.---But my revenge will come.
King. Break not your fleeps for that; you must
not think

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull,
That we can let our beard be thook with danger,
And think it pastime. You fhall foon 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 Meffenger.

Mef. Letters, my Lord, from Hamlet. Thefe to your Majefty: this to the Queen. King. From Hamlet? who brought them? Mef. Sailors, my Lord, they fay; I faw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he received them King. Laertes, you fhall hear them: leave us [Exit Mellenger.

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High and mighty, you fhall know, I am fet "naked on your kingdom. To-morrow fhall [ beg leave to fee your kingly eyes. When I fhall (first alking your pardon thereunto), recount the "occafion of my fudden return.

66

"Hamlet."

What should this mean? are all the reft come back?
Or is it fome abufe--and no such thing?

Laer. Know you the hand?
King. 'Tis Hamlet's character.

Naked; and in a poftfcript here, he fays
Alone: can you advise me?

Laer. I'm loft in it, my Lord; but let him come;
It warms the very ficknets in my heart,--
That I shall live, and tell him to his teeth,
Thus diddeft thou.

King. If it be fo, Laertes,

As how fhould it be fo?-----how otherwife?----Will you be ruled by me?

Laer. Ay, fo you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace. King. To thine own peace. If he be now returned, As liking not his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it; I will work himTo an exploit now ripe in my device,

Under the which he thall not chufe but fall:

And for his death no wind of blame fhall breathe; But even his mother fhall uncharge the practice, And call it accident.

Laer. I will be ruled,

The rather if you could devise it so, (63)

(63) The rather if you could devise it fa,

That I might be the inftrument.

King. It falls right :] The latter verfe is slightly maimed in the measure, and, I apprehend, without icafon. This paffage is in neither of the impreflions fet cut by the

That I might be the organ.
King. I tails right:

You have been talked of fince your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing,, for a quality
Wherein they fay you fhine; your fum of parts
Did not together pluck fuch envy from him.
As did that one, and that in my regard
Of the unworthieft fiege.

Laer. What part is that, my Lord?

King. A very feather in the cap of youth,. Yet needful too; for youth no lefs becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than fettled age his fables, and his weeds Importing health and gravenefs.----Two months Here was a gentleman of Normandy; [fince, I've feen myfelf, and ferved against the French, And they can well on horfeback; but this gallant. Had witchcraft in't, he grew unto his feat; And to fuch wondrous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorpfed and demy-natured With the brave beaft; fo far he topped my thought That I in forgery of fhapes and tricks Come fhort of what he did.

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players; and the two elder Quartos read, as I have reform ed the text;

That I might be the organ.

And it is a word which our Author chufes to ufe in other places. So before, in this play:

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.

So, in Meafure for Mcafure;

And given his deputation all the organs.

Of our own power..

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