Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &c. Commands them, sir? 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. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrisoned. 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; Ros. [Exit Captain. 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, 1 The remainder of this scene is omitted in the folio. 2 i. e. profit. 3 See note on Act i. Sc. 2. It is evident that discursive powers of mind are meant. Bishop Wilkins makes ratiocination and discourse convertible terms. Looking before, and after, gave us not To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought, which, quartered, hath but one part wisdom, Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me. To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare, When honor's at the stake. How stand I, then, 3 1 Craven is recreant, cowardly. It may be traced from crant, creant, the old French word for an act of submission. 2 Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to ven geance. 3 A plot of ground. 4 Continent means that which comprehends or incloses. SCENE V. Elsinore. A Room in the Castle. Queen. 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 enviously1 at straws; speaks things in doubt, The hearers to collection; they aim3 at it, Queen. 'Twere good she were spoken with; 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 HORATIO. Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss;7 It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. 1 "Enviously, and spitefully," are treated as synonymous by our old writers. 2 To collection, that is, to gather or deduce consequences from such premises. 3 The quartos read yawn. To aim is to guess. 4 Folio-would. 5 Unhappily, that is, mischievously. 6 The three first lines of this speech are given to Horatio in the quarto. 7 Shakspeare is not singular in his use of amiss as a substantive. Several instances are adduced by Steevens, and more by Mr. Nares, in his Glossary. "Each toy" is each trifle. |