No jocund health,5 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.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew !"

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature,
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem' the winds of heaven
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 wo-

man!

A little month; or ere those shoes were old,
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,

No jocund health,] The King's intemperance is very strongly impressed; every thing that happens to him gives him occasion to drink.

6 the king's rouse-] i. e. the King's draught of jollity. 7 resolve itself into a dew!] Resolve means the same as dissolve.

8

merely.] is entirely, absolutely.

9 Hyperion to a satyr:] Hyperion or Apollo is represented in all the ancient statues, &c. as exquisitely beautiful, the satyrs hideously ugly.

1 That he might not beteem-] i. e. permit, or suffer.

Like Niobe, all tears;-why she, even she,—

O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, 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 sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to, good;

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue!

Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS. Hor. Hail to your lordship!

Ham.

I am glad to see you well: Horatio,―or I do forget myself.

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant

ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name' with you.

And what make you3 from Wittenberg, Horatio?— Marcellus?

Mar. My good lord,

Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even, sir.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.

2

be my

3

doing.

I'll change that name-] I'll be your servant, you shall friend.

what make you-] A familiar phrase for what are you

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
meats1

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven"
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!-
My father, Methinks, I see my father.

Hor. My lord? Ham.

In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Where,

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 attent ear; till I may deliver,

Upon the witness of

This marvel to you.

Ham.

these gentlemen,

For God's love, let me hear. Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead waist and middle of the night,

8

4 the funeral bak'd meats-] It was anciently the general custom to give a cold entertainment to mourners at a funeral. In distant counties this practice is continued among the yeomanry. dearest foe in heaven-] Dearest is most immediate, consequential, important.

5

6 Season your

admiration-] That is, temper it.

7 With an attent ear;] Attent for attentive.

• In the dead waist and middle of the night,] This strange

Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-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,9

Stand dumb, and speak not to him.
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;

This to me

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
These hands are not more like.

Ham.

father;

But where was this?

Mar. 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

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, 'tis true; And we did think it writ down in our duty,

To let you know of it.

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

phraseology seems to have been common in the time of Shakspeare. By waist is meant nothing more than middle.

9

with the act of fear,] Fear was the cause, the active cause that distilled them by the force of operation which we strictly call act in voluntary, and power in involuntary agents, but popularly call act in both. JOHNSON.

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up."
Ham. What, look'd he frowningly?

Ham.

I would, I had been there.

Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.
Ham.

Very like: Stay'd it long?

Very like,

Hor. While one with moderate haste might 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;

I warrant, it will.

Perchance, 'twill walk again.

Hor.
Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,

9

wore his beaver up.] Though beaver properly signified that part of the helmet which was let down, to enable the wearer to drink, Shakspeare always uses the word as denoting that part of the helmet which, when raised up, exposed the face of the wearer and such was the popular signification of the word in his time.