Oh wretched state! oh bosom, black as death!
Oh limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels! make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart, with strings of

Be foft as finews of the new-born babe!

[The King retires and kneels.

SCENE

Enter Hamlet.

Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, And now I'll do't. And fo he goes to heav'n. And fo am I reveng'd? that would be scann'd. A villain kills my father, and for that

5 I, his fole fon, do this fame villain send

To heav'n.

O, this is hire and falary, not revenge.

He took my father grofly, full of bread,
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands, who knows, save heav'n?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him. Am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his foul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage ?
Up, fword, and know thou a more horrid Hent;
When he is drunk-asleep, or in his rage,
Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed,
At gaming, swearing, or about fome act
That has no relish of falvation in't;
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heav'n;
And that his foul may be as damn'd and black
7 As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays;
This physick but prolongs thy fickly days.

is, fal'n fon, i. e. disinherited. This was an aggravation of the injury; that he had not only murder'd the father, but ruin'd the fon. WARBURTON.

The folio 'gives a reading apparently corrupted from the quarto. The meaning is plain. I, his only fon, who am bound to punish his murder.

6 In the common editions, Up, Sword, and know thou a more horrid time.] This is a sophifticated reading, warranted by none of the copies of any authority. Mr. Pope says, I read conjecturally;

-a more horrid Bent.

I do so; and why? the two old est quarto's, as well as the two elder folio's, read; a more borrid Hent. But as there is no fuch English substantive, it seems

[Exit.

very natural to conclude, that with the change of a fingle letter, our author's genuine word was, Bent; i. e. drift, Scope, inclination, purpose, &C. THEOBALD. This reading is followed by Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton; but Hent is probably the right word. To hent is used by Shakespeare for, to feize, to catch, to lay hold on. Hent is therefore, hold, or Seizure. Lay hold on him, sword, at a more horrid time.

7 As hell, whereto it goes.-] This speech, in which Hamlet, represented as a virtuous character, is not content with taking blood for blood, but contrives damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read or to be uttered.

The

The King rises, and comes forward.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. [Exit.

Pol.

SCENE X.

Changes to the Queen's Apartment.

Enter Queen and Polonius.

E will come straight; look, you lay home

HE

to him; Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with;

And that your Grace hath screen'd, and stood between Much heat and him. * I'll filence me e'en here;

Pray you, be round with him.

Ham. [within.] Mother, Mother, Mother.

Queen. I'll warrant you, fear me not.

Withdraw, I hear him coming.

[Polonius bides himself behind the Arras.

Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter?

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

1

Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended.
Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet ?
Ham. What's the matter now?

Queen. Have you forgot me ?
Ham. No, by the rood, not so:

You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,
But, 'would you were not fo!-You are my mother.
Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can

fpeak.

Ham. Come, come, and fit you down; you shall

not budge.

You go not, 'till I set you up a glass

Where you may fee the inmost part of you,

Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder

me ?

Help, ho.

Pol. What ho, help.

[Behind the Arras.

Ham. How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead.

Pol. Oh, I am flain.

[Hamlet kills Polonius.

Queen. Oh me, what hast thou done?

Ham. Nay, I know not: is it the King?

Queen. Oh, what a rash and blood deed is this!

Ham. A bloody deed; almost as bad, good mo

ther,

As kill a King, and marry with his brother.
Queen.. As kill a King?

Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewel,

[To Polonius.

I took thee for thy Betters; take thy fortune;
Thou find'ft, to be too busy, is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands; peace; fit you down,

And let me wring your heart, for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff:

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy

tongue

In noise so rude against me ?
Ham. Such an act,

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And fets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths. Oh, such a deed,
As from the body of Contraction plucks
The very foul, and sweet Religion makes
A rhapsody of words. Heav'n's face doth glow;
Yea, this folidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-fick at the act.

Queen.

Heav'n's face does glow;O'ER this folidity and compound moss,

With heated visage, as against
the doom

Is thought fick at the act.
From whence it appears that.
Shakespear wrote,

Heav'n's face doth glow
O'ER this folidity and compound
mass

With tristful visage; AND, as
'gainst the doom.

Is thought-fick at the act. This makes a fine sense, and to this effect, The fun looks upon our globe, the scene of this mur der, with an angry and mournful countenance, half hid in eclipse, as at the day of doom. WARB, The word heated, though it agrees well enough with glow