SCENE IV.

A Plain in Denmark.

Enter FORTINBRAS, and Forces, marching.

For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king,
Tell him, that, by his licence, Fontinbras
Craves? the conveyance of a promis'd march
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye,1

And let him know so.

Cap

For. Go softly on.

I will do 't, my lord.

[Exeunt FOR. and Forces.

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &c. Good sir, whose powers are these?2

Ham.

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground,

That hath in it no profit but the name.

that a certain act has been done, whatever may befal me, my joys never had a beginning, is surely nonsense.

Malone.

9 Craves-] Thus the quartos. The folio-Claims. Steevens. 1 We shall express our duty in his eye,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

tended her the eyes."

In his eye, means, in his presence. The phrase appears to have been formularly See The Establishment of the Household of Prince Henry, A. D. 1610: " Also the gentleman-usher shall be careful to see and informe all such as doe service in the Prince's eye, that they perform their dutyes" &c. Again, in The Regulations for the Government of the Queen's Household, 1627: 66 all such as doe service in the Queen's eye." Steevens.

2 Good sir, &c.] The remaining part of this scene is omitted in the folio. Steevens.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,

A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats, Will not debate the question of this straw:

This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace;
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir.

[Exit Cap. Ros. Will 't please you go, my lord? Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little before. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,3
Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he, that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruples

Of thinking too precisely on the event,

A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom, And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know

Why yet I live to say, This thing 's to do;

Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means,

To do 't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:

Witness, this army, of such mass, and charge,

Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;

3 chief good, and market of his time, &c.] If his highest good, and that for which he sells his time, be to sleep and feed. Johnson.

Market, I think, here means profit. Malone.

4

large discourse,] Such latitude of comprehension, such power of reveiwing the past and anticipating the future. Johnson. 5 some craven scruple -] Some cowardly scruple. See Vol. VI, p. 68, n. 7. Malone.

So, in King Henry VI, P. I:

"Or durst not, for his craven heart, say this." Steevens.

Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to stir without great argument;6
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,

When honour 's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,"
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,9
To hide the slain?--O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

6

Rightly to be great,

[Exit.

Is, not to stir without &c.] This passage I have printed according to the copy. Mr. Theobald had regulated it thus: 'Tis not to be great,

Never to stir without great argument;

But greatly &c.

The sentiment of Shakspeare is partly just, and partly romantick. Rightly to be great,

Is, not to stir without great argument;

is exactly philosophical.

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,

When honour 's at the stake.

is the idea of a modern hero. But then, says he, honour is an argument, or subject of debate, sufficiently great, and when honour is at stake, we must find cause of quarrel in a straw. Johnson.

7 Excitements of my reason, and my blood,] Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance. Johnson. 8 —a plot.] piece, or portion. See King Lear, Act III, st. ii, Vol. XIV. Reed.

So, in The Mirror for Magistrates:

9

"Of grounde to win a plot, a while to dwell,

"We venture lives, and send our souls to hell." Henderson.

continent,] Continent, in our author, means that which

comprehends or encloses. So, in King Lear:

"Rive your concealing continents."

Again, in Chapman's version of the third Iliad:

66

did take

"Thy fair form for a continent of parts as fair,

See King Lear, Act III, sc. ii.

Steevens.

Again, Lord Bacon, On the Advancement of Learning, 4to. 1633, p. 7: " if there be no fullnesse, then is the continent greater than the content." Reed.

Queen.

SCENE V.

Elsinore. A Room in the Castle.

Enter Queen and HORATIO.

I will not speak with her.

Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distract; Her mood will needs be pitied.

Queen.

What would she have?

Hor. She speaks much of her father; says, she hears, There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her

heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,3

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts; Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them, Indeed would make one think, there might be thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.4

1 Spurns enviously at straws;] Envy is much oftener put by our poet (and those of his time) for direct aversion, than for ma lignity conceived at the sight of another's excellence or happiness. So, in King Henry VIII:

"You turn the good we offer into envy."

Again, in God's Revenge against Murder, 1621, Hist. VI."She loves the memory of Sypontus, and envies and detests that of her two husbands." Steevens.

See Vol. X, p. 84, n. 1; and Vol. XI, p. 240, n. 7. Malone.

2 -to collection;] i. e. to deduce consequences from such premises; or, as Mr. M. Mason observes, "endeavour to collect some meaning from them." So, in Cymbeline, scene the last: whose containing

66

"Is so from sense to hardness, that I can

"Make no collection of it."

See the note on this passage. Steevens.

3

they aim at it,] The quartos read-they yawn at it. Te aim is to guess. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov'd." Steevens. 4 Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.] i. e. though her meaning cannot be certainly collected, yet there is enough to put a mischievous interpretation to it. Warburton.

That unhappy once signified mischievous, may be known from P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, Book XIX, ch. vii: " the shrewd and unhappie foules which lie upon

Queen. 'Twere good, she were spoken with;5 for she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds:

Let her come in.

To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,

[Exit HoR.

Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:6
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

It spills, itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA.

Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark? Queen. How now, Ophelia?

Oph. How should I your true love know?

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.8

[Singing.

the lands, and eat up the seed new sowne." We still use unlucky in the same sense. Steevens.

See Vol. V, p. 286, n. 7; and Vol. XI, p. 235, n. 2. Malone. 5 'Twere good she were spoken with;] These lines are given to the Queen in the folio, and to Horatio in the quarto. Johnson. I think the two first lines of Horatio's speech ['Twere good, &c.] belong to him; the rest to the Queen. Blackstone.

In the quarto, the Queen, Horatio, and a Gentleman, enter at the beginning of this scene. The two speeches, “She is importunate," &c. and "She speaks much of her father," &c. are there given to the Gentleman, and the line now before us, as well as the two following, to Horatio: the remainder of this speech to the Queen. I think it probable that the regulation proposed by Sir W. Blackstone was that intended by Shakspeare. Malone.

6

to some great amiss:] Shakspeare is not singular in his use of this word as a substantive. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584:

"Gracious forbearers of this world's amiss."

Again in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597:

"Pale be my looks, to witness my amiss."

Again, in Greene's Disputation between a He Coneycatcher, &c. 1592: "revive in them the memory of my great amiss." Steevens. Each toy is, each trifle. Malone.

7 How should I your true love &c.] There is no part of this play in its representation on the stage, more pathetick than this scene; which, I suppose, proceeds from the utter insensibility Ophelia has to her own misfortunes.

A great sensibility, or none at all, seems to produce the same effect. In the latter the audience supply what she wants, and with the former they sympathize. Sir J. Reynolds.