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HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THIS tragedy is supposed to have been written in 1596. The principal incidents were probably drawn from a dramatic piece by one Thomas Ryd, and from a Historie of Hamblet, in black letter, adopted by Belleforest in his collection of novels (published 1564) from the narrative of Saxo-Grammations, the old Danish historian, The play has long been accounted a first-rate dramatic production, for, with some egregious blunders, it con tains a variety of unparalleled beauties. As originally written, it consumed four hours in the representation ; persons, in Shakspeare's time, visiting the theatre so early as four o'clock, and regarding the quality less than the quantity obtained for their money: this will excuse some of those trifling interlocutions which yet remain. Perhaps uone of our poet's undertakings have been subjected to so much erudite and ingenious criticism as this; and none, certainly, after its most severe exercise, have been left with so much to approve. For although it has been observed, with some appearance of justice, that in the management of the piece, Shakspeare has been rather unfortunate, all its most striking circumstances arising so early in the formation, as "not to leave him room for a conclusion suitable to the importance of its beginning;" yet this defect is amply recompensed by the sublimity of conception, the didactic morality of sentiment, the pathetic intenseness of feeling, the power and comprehensiveness of diction, and the delightful diversity of character, which are displayed in almost every scene. Indeed, were each drama of Shakspeare to be characterized by the particular quality which distinguishes it from the rest, the praise of variety must especially be given to the tragedy of Hamlet; as it is interchangeably contrasted "with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and with solemnity not strained by peetical violence above the natural sentiments of man." To those, however, who are mentally capable of appreciating its excellences as a play, the charm of perusing it in the closet will probably be greater than the delight of witnessing its exhibition; since it is rich in the treasures of contemplative and philosophical speculation; divested of the glare and bustle which captivate or bewilder the senses; whilst the principal character, though furnished with abundant materials, is almost the only support of the piece, and seldom meets with a representative in whom the beauties of the original are effectively embodied. Of the plot it may be observed, that it teems with slanghter, and is justly obnoxious to criticism in many of its parts; but the catastrophe is certainly its most disgusting feature, and can only be tolerated by the known partiality of an English audience for a multiplicity of deaths and bloodshed. "The manner of l'amlet's death (says Dr. Johnson) is not very happily produced; for the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of necessity, than a stroke of art."

CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

FRANCISCO, a Soldier.

HAMLET, Son to the former, and Nephew to REYNALDO, Servant to Polonius.

the present King.

POLONIUS, Lord Chamberlain.

HORATIO, Friend to Hamlet.

LAERTES, Son to Polonius.

A CAPTAIN.-An AMBASSADOR.
GHOST of Hamlet's Father.

FORTINBRAS, Prince of Norway.

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GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Mother of Hamlet.

OPHELIA, Daughter of Polonius.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Grave-diggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, Elsinore.

ACT I.

SCENE 1.-Elsinore.-A Platform before the

Castle.

FRANCISCO on his Post.-Enter to him

BERNARDO.

Ber. Who's there?

Fran. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold Yourself.

Ber. Long live the king!

Fran. Bernardo ?

Ber. He.

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.

Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed,
Francisco.

Fran. For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bit-
ter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

Ber. Have you had quiet guard?
Fran. Not a mouse stirring.

Ber. Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.

Fran. I think, I hear them.-Stand, ho! Whe
is there?

Hor. Friends to this ground.

Mar. And liegemen to the Dane.
Fran. Give you good night.
Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier:
Who hath reliev'd you?

Fran. Bernardo hath my place.

Give you good night.

Mar. Holla! Bernardo!

Ber. Say.

What, is Horatio there?

Hor. A piece of him.

[Exit FRANCISCO.

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.

Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy;
And will not let belief take hold of him,
Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have entreated him, along
With us to watch the.minutes of this night,
That, if again this apparition come,
He may approve our eyes, aud speak to it.
Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber. Sit down awhile;

And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen.

Hor. Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Ber. Last night of all,

When yon same star, that's westward from the
pole,

Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,
The bell then beating one,-

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Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land;
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore

task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week:
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the
day;

Who is't, that can inform me?
Hor. That can I;

At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant
Hamlet
[him,)
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd com-
Well ratified by law and heraldry,
[pact,
Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conquerer:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-
mart, ⚫

And carriage of the article design'd, †
His fell to Hamlet: Now, Sir, young Fortin-
Of unimproved mettle hot and full, [bras,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise
That hath a stomach in't: which is no other

Mar. Peace, break thee off-look, where it (As it doth well appear unto our state,)
comes again!

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Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See! it stalks away.

Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak.
[Exit GHOST.
Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and
look pale:

Is not this something more than fantasy?
What think you of it?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,
Without the sensible and true avouch
Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the king?
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on.
When he the ambitious Norway combated :
So frown'd he once, when, in angry parle, +
He smote the sledded † Polack on the ice.
'Tis strange.

Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this
dead hour,

With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
Hor. In what particular thought to work, I

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But to recover of us, by strong hand,
Aud terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands
So by his father lost: And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The source of this our watch; and the chief
head

Of this post-haste and romage ¶ in the land.
[Ber. I think it be no other, but even so:
Well may it sort, ** that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the
king

That was, and is, the question of these wars.
Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy ++ state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.

[dead

As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star, ‡‡
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce events,-
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen s coming on,
Have heaven and earth together démonstrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.-]

Re-enter GHOST.

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again !
I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illu-
sion!

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me :

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
O speak!

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
[Cock crows.

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+ Dispute. An inhabitant of Poland.

Just.

tt Victorious.

Search.

1: The moon.

Picked.

**Suit. Event.

Speak of it-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Mar-
cellus.

Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan ?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
Ber. 'Tis here!
Hor. 'Tis here!

Mar. 'Tis gone!

Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business is: We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose,-to suppress
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
[Exit GHOST. The lists, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject:-and we here despatch
You, good Corn lius, and you Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allow.
[duty.
Farewell; and let your haste commend your
Cor. Vol. In that and all things will we show
our duty.

We do it wrong, being so najestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock

crew.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet of the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shiill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his contine; and of the truth herein
This present object made probation. +

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
This bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets
strike,

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm ;
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So I have heard, and do in part believe
it.

But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hiil:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning
know

Where we shall find him most convenient.

[Exeunt. SCENE II.-The same.-A Room of State in the same.

Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, LORDS, and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe;

Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,-
With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in mar-
riage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along.-For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortin-
bras,-

Holding a weak supposal of our worth;
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing our surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother.-So much for
him.

•Wandering.

King. We doubt it nothing; heartily fare-
well.

[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS.
And now, Lacites, what's the news with you ?
You told us of some suit; What is't, Larites ?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And lose your voice: What would'st thou beg,
Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What wouldst thou have, Laertes ?

Laer. My dread lord,

Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence, though willingly, I came to Den-
mark,

To show my duty in your coronation;
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again toward
France,

And how them to your gracious leave and pardon.
King. Have you your father's leave? What
says Polonius ?

Pol. He hath, my lord, [wrung from me my
slow leave,

By laboursome petition; and, at last,
Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:]
I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be

thine,

And thy best graces; spend it at thy will.-
But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
Ham. A little more than kin, and less than

kind. +

[Aside.

King. How is it, that the clouds still hang on you?

Ham. Not so, my lord, I am too much 'the

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child.

+ Kin is the Teutonick word for * Dejected eyes.

But, you must know, your father lost a father;
That father lost his; and the survivor bound
In filial obligation, for some termi

To do obsequions sorrow: But to persever
In obstinate condolement, is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief:
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient;
An understanding simple and unschool'd;
For what we know must be, and is as com-

mon

As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
Take it to heart? Fie! 'Tis a fault to heaven.
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
To reason most absurd; whose common theme
Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
From the first corse, till he that died to-day,
This must be so. We pray you, throw to earth
This unprevailing woe; and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And, with no less nobility of love,

Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. For your intent
In going back to school in Wittenberg,
It is most retrograde * to our desire;
And, we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
Hamlet;

I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, na dam.

King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply; Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the king's rouse the heaven shall bruit again,

Re-speaking earthly thunder.

Come away.

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c. POLONIUS, and LAERTES.

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Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: And yet, within a month,-Let me not think on't;-Frailty, thy name is woman!-

A little month or ere those shoes were old,
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears;-why she, even she,-
O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of rea-
son,

Would have mourn'd longer,-married with my uncle,

My father's brother; but no more like my father,

Than I to Hercules: Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married:-O most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous shects!

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But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ?
Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so:
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
But what is your affair in Elsinore ?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart
Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's
funeral.

Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow student;

I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.
Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd

meats *

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Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king. Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.
Ham. The king my father?

Hor. Season your admiration for a while
With an atteut ear; till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

Ham. For God's love, let me hear.
Hor. Two nights together had these gentle-
men,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waist and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point, exactly, cap-a-pé,
Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he
walk'd

By their oppress'd and fear-surprized eyes, Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distill'd

Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them, the third night, kept the
watch;

Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good,

The apparition comes: I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

Ham. But where was this?

Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor. My lord, I did;

But answer made it none: yet once, methought, It lifted up its head, and did address

It was anciently the custom to give a cod entertain ment at a funeral.

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Itself to motion, like as it would speak;

But, even then, the morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.

Ham. 'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord,

true;

And we did think it writ down in our duty,
To let you know of it.

'tis

Ham. Indeed, indeed, Sirs, but this troubles Hold you the watch to-night?

All. We do, my lord.

Ham. Arm'd, say you?

All. Arm'd, my lord.

Ham. From top to toe?

All. My lord, from head to foot.

Ham. Then saw you not

His face.

[me.

Hor. O yes, my lord; he wore his beaver *

up.

Ham. What, look'd he frowningly?
Hor. A countenance more

In sorrow than in anger.

Ham. Pale, or red?
Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you?
Hor. Most constantly.

Ham. I would I had been there.

Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.
Ham. Very like,

Very like Stay'd it long?

And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch +
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of the whole state;
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head: Then if he says he
loves you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place

May give his saying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your houour may sus-
tain,

If with too credentear you list his songs;
Or lose your heart or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.
Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of desire.
The chariest¶ maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.
Be wary then: best safety lies in fear;

Hor. While one with moderate haste might Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

tell a hundred.

Mar. Ber. Longer, longer.

Hor. Not when I saw it.

Ham. His beard was grizzl'd? no?

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A sable silver'd.

Ham. I will watch to-night: Perchance, 'twill walk again.

Hor. I warrant it will.

Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue :
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All. Our duty to your honour.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell.
[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BER-

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Oph. Do you doubt that?

his fa

[vour,

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
No more.

Oph. No more but so?

Laer. Think it no more:

For nature, crescent, + does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;

• That rart of the helmet which may be lifted up.
ncreasing.
: Smews.

Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson

keep,

As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilst, like a puff'd and and reckless** libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read. ††

Laer. O fear me not.

I stay too long ;-But here my father comes.
Enter POLONIUS.

A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for

shame;

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are staid for: (n) There, my blessing
with you;

[Laying his Hand on LAERTES' Head.
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no
tongue,

Be

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy palm 65 with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.
Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in,
Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee,
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy

ware

judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gandy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France, of the best rank and sta-
tion,
[that.
Are most select and generous, ¶¶ chief ***
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. tit

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in

Licentious.

+ Regards not 65 Palm of the hand *** Chiefly.

Listen to.
** Careless.
tt Write.
14 Noble.
+it Economy.

(a) The lines following this are usually omitted; bat they contain a compact richuess of instruction deserv ing attention in public, and perusal in private.

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