Winner and lofer?

Laer, None but his enemies,

· King, Will you know them then?

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms, And like the kind life rend'ring pelican, Repast them with my blood.

King, Why, now you speak.

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,,
And am moft fenfible in grief for it,
It shall as level to your judgment pierce,.

As day, does to your eye. A noife within," Let her come in, "]

Laer. How now, what noife is that?

Enter Ophelia, fantaftically drefs'd with ftraws and flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears, feven times falt
Burn out the fense and virtue of mine eye!"

By heav'n, thy madness fhall be paid with weight,
Till our fcale turn the beam. O rofe of May!
Dear maid, kind fifter, fweet Ophelia !

O heav'ns, is't poffible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life!
Nature is fine in love; and where 'tis fine,
It fends fome precious inftance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him bare-fac'd' on the bier,
And on his grave rains many a tear;
Fare you well, my dove !

Laer. Hadft thou thy wits, and didst perfuade reIt could not move thus,

[venge, Oph. You must fing, down a down, and you call him a-down-a. O how the wheel becomes it! it is the falfe fteward that ftole his master's daughter..

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. There's rofemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there's pancies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness, thoughts and remem brance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines; there's rue for you, and here's fome for me. We may call iɛ herb of grace o' Sundays: you may wear your rue with a difference. There's a daily; I would give you fome violets, but they withered all when my father dy'd : they fay, he made a good end;

For bonny fweet Robin is all my joy.

Laer. Thought and affliction, paffion, hell itself,. She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

Oph. And will be not come again?

And will be not come again?

No, no, he is dead, go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as fnow,

All flaxen was his polè :

He is gone, he is

gone,

Gramercy on his jou!!

and we caft away moan..

And of all Chriftian fouls! God b' w' ye. [Exit Ophelia.. Laer. Do you fee this, you gods?

King, Laertes, I muit commune with your grief,
Or you deny me right: go but apart,

Make choice of whom your wifeit triends you will,
And they fhall bear and judge twixt you and me..
If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
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 obscure funeral,

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

1

No noble rite, nor formal oitentation,

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heav'n to earth,
That must call't in question,

King. So you fhall:

And where th' offence is, let the great tax fall.

I pray you go with me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VIII. Enter Horatio with an Attendant. Hor. What are they that would speak with me?

Ser. Sailors, Sir; they fay, they have letters for you. 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.

Sail. God bless you, Sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

Sail. He fhall, Sir, an't please him.

-There's a

letter for you, Sir: it comes from th' ambaffador that was bound for England, if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Horatio reads the letter.

Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook'd 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 us chace. Finding ourfelves 100 flow of fail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple Ibarded them: on the inftant they get clear of our Jhip, fo lalone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: 1 am to do a good turn for them. Let the King have the letters Ihave fent, and repair thou to me with as much hafte as thou wouldeft fly death. I have words to speak in thy ear will make thee dumb, yet are they much too light for the matter. Thefe good follows will bring thee where I am. Rofincrantz and Guildenstern bold their courfe for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewel.

He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET,

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

[Exeunt:

SCENE IX.. 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, wifdom, all things elfe,
You mainly were stir'd up?

King. Two fpecial reafons,

Which may to you perhaps feem much unfinew'd,

And yet to me are strong. The Queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue or my plague, belt either which),
She's fo conjunctive to my life and foul,

That, as the star moyes not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her.

The other motive,

Why to a public count I might not ga,

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 ftone,
Convert his gyves to graces. So that my arrows,
Too flightly timbred for foloud- a ‹wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And fo have a noble father lost,
A filter 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.

Kings Break not your fleeps for that; you must not

That we are made of stuff foflat and dull,

[think That we can let our beard be fhook with danger,. And think it paftime. You fhall foon hear more.. I lov'd your father, and we love ourself, And that I hope will teach you to imagineHow now? what news?

Enter Messenger.

Meff. Letters, my Lord, from Hamlet. Thefe to your Majelty: this to the Queen. King. From Hamlet? who brought them? Me. Sailors, my Lord, they fay; I faw them not: They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them. King. Laertes, you shall hear them: leave us, all— [Exit Mef.

High and mighty, You all know I am fet naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to fee your kingly eyes. When I fhall, (first asking your pardon thereunto), recount th' occafion of my fudden return.

HAMLET.

What fhould this mean? are all the rest come back? Or is it fome abuse- and no fuch 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 sickness in my heart,

That I fhall 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 rul'd by me?

Laer. I, fo you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace.

King. To thine own peace: if he be now return'd,

As liking not his voyage, and that he means

No more to undertake it; I will work him

To an exploit now ripe in my device,

Under the which he fhall not chufe but fall:

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

Laer. I will be rul'd.

The rather, if you could devise it so,

That I might be the organ.

King. It falls right :

You have been talk'd of fince your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality