With peaceful men and women, that send onwards
Kisses and welcomings upon the air,

Which they make breezy with affectionate gestures.
From all the towers rings out the

merry peal,
The joyous vespers of a bloody day.

O happy man, O fortunate! for whom

The well-known door, the faithful arms are open,
The faithful tender arms with mute embracing!

Something of the story of Hamlet has been learnt from the previous scene (page 390). The king and queen of Denmark, disturbed by Hamlet's real or affected insanity, send two of his former companions, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to visit him and draw out, if possible, the secret by which he seems to be oppressed. Polonius, an old man, and lord chamberlain of the palace, also tries to fathom him, and arrives at the conclusion that he is crazy through lovesickness. Hamlet baffles his inquisitors by such replies as may give them no light as to the true cause of his state of mind, namely, his discovery that his father was murdered by the present wearer of the crown. To verify his belief of this, Hamlet causes a play to be performed before the king and queen, in which a murder is represented; and the agitation of the false king at the show is such that no doubt as to his guilt is left on Hamlet's mind. The second scene of the following extract begins just after this play has been represented, and Hamlet has become confirmed in his suspicions in regard to the king.

POLONIUS, HAMLET, GUILDENSTERN, ROSENCRANTZ.

HAMLET is discovered reading a book; POLONIUS interrupts him.

Pol. Do you know me, my lord?

Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
Pol. Not I, my lord.

Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man.
Pol. Honest, my lord?

Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

Pol. That's very true, my lord.

Ham. Have you a daughter?

Pol. I have, my lord.

Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun: friend, look to't. Pol. How say you by that?* [Aside.] Still harping on my daughter:-yet he knew me not at first; he said, I was a fishmonger. He is far gone, far gone: and, truly, in my youth I suffered much extremity for love very near this. I'll speak to him again. [To HAMLET.] What do you read, my lord? Ham. Words, words, words.

Pol. What is the matter, my lord?

Ham. Between whom?

Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have gray beards: that their faces are wrinkled; all of which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, sir, should be as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward.

Pol. [Aside.] Though this be madness, yet there's method in it. [To HAMLET.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord?

Ham. Into my grave?

Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. [Aside.] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. [To HAMLET.] My honorable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.

Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal; except my life, except my life, except my life.

* That is, What do you mean by that.

Pol. Fare you well, my lord.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Guil. My honored lord!

Ros. My most dear lord!

[Exit.

Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? What news?

Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown

honest.

Ham. Then is dooms-day near. But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular. What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither? Guil. Prison, my lord!

Ham. Denmark's a prison.

Ros. Then is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many con'fines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst.

Ros. We think not so, my lord.

Ham. Why, then 't is none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.

Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one; 't is too narrow for your mind.

Ham. O, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. But, in the beaten way of

friendship, what make you at Elsinore?

Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear, a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation?

Come, come; deal justly with me; come, come; nay, speak.

Guil. What should we say, my lord?

Ham. Anything; but to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to color; I know the good king and queen have sent for

you.

Ros. To what end, my lord?

Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure' you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether ye were sent for, or no?

Ros. [To GUILDENSTERN.] What say you?

Ham. [Aside.] Nay, then I have an eye of you. [To them.] If you love me, hold not off.

Guil. My lord, we were sent for.

*

Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late (but wherefore I know not) lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises: and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?... Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore.

* That is, not change a feather; moult being an old word for change.

Your hands. You are welcome; but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.

Guil. In what, my dear lord?

Ham. I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-saw.

ANOTHER SCENE WITH THE SAME.

Guil. Good, my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. Ham. Sir, a whole history.

Guil. The king, sir,

Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?

Guil.is, in his retirement, marvelous distempered. Ham. With drink, sir?

Guil. No, my lord, with choler.

Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more* richer, to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler.

Guil. Good, my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and not start so wildly from my affair. Ham. I am tame, sir; pronounce.

Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.

Ham. You are welcome.

Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business.

Ham. Sir, I cannot.

Ros. What, my lord?

The double comparative, though now considered ungrammatical in Figlish, is often used by Shakespeare and his contemporaries.