Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to

20

stone, Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows, Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again And not where I had aim'd them. Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; A sister driven into desperate terms, Whose worth, if praises may go back again, Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections: but my revenge will come. King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull

30

That we can let our beard be shook with danger
And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear

more:

I loved your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—

Enter a Messenger, with letters.

How now! what news?

Mess.

Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:

This to your majesty; this to the queen.

King. From Hamlet! who brought them?

Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio; he received them

Of him that brought them.

40

22. "loud a wind," so Ff.; Qq. 2, 3, "loued Arm'd"; Qq. 4, 5, "loued armes.”—I. G.

King.

Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us. [Exit Messenger. [Reads] 'High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return.

'HAMLET.

What should this mean? Are all the rest come

back?

Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked'!

And in a postscript here, he
Can you advise me?

Laer. I'm lost in it, my lord.

says

'alone.'

50

But let him come;

It warms the very sickness in my heart,
That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
"Thus didest thou.'

King.

If it be so, Laertes,-
As how should it be so? how otherwise?—

Will you be ruled by me?

Laer.

Aye, my lord;

60

So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,

As checking at his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall:

59. "As how should it be so? how otherwise?" It is incompre hensible, and yet, on the evidence, beyond question.-C. H. H.

And for his death no wind of blame shall
breathe;

But even his mother shall uncharge the practice,
And call it accident.

Laer.

70

My lord, I will be ruled;
The rather, if you could devise it so
That I might be the organ.

King.

It falls right.

You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
Did not together pluck such envy from him,
As did that one, and that in my regard
Of the unworthiest siege.

80

Laer.
What part is that, my lord?
King. A very riband in the cap of youth,
Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears
Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
Importing health and graveness. Two months.
since,

Here was a gentleman of Normandy:-
I've seen myself, and served against, the
French,

And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in 't; he grew unto his seat,
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse
As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured

78. "A very riband"; we have elsewhere found very used in the ense of mere.--H. N. H.

With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my

thought

That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,

Come short of what he did.

Laer.

King. A Norman.

90

A Norman was 't?

Laer. Upon my life, Lamond.

King.

The

very same.

Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch indeed

And gem of all the nation.

King. He made confession of you,

And gave you such a masterly report,
For art and exercise in your defense,
And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed 100
If one could match you: the scrimers of their
nation,

He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his
Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy

That he could nothing do but wish and beg
Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him.
Now, out of this-

Laer.

What out of this, my lord?
King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?

King. Not that I think you did not love your

father,

97. "gave you such a masterly report"; i. e. reported him to be such a master.-C. H. H.

But that I know love is begun by time,
And that I see, in passages of proof,
Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
And nothing is at a like goodness still,
For goodness, growing to a plurisy,

Dies in his own too much: that we would do
We should do when we would; for this 'would'
changes

120

And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,
And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the
ulcer:

Hamlet comes back: what would
you undertake,
To show yourself your father's son indeed
More than in words?

Laer.

To cut his throat i' the church.

King. No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,

Will you do this, keep close within your chamber.

130

112. As "love is begun by time," and has its gradual increase, so time qualifies and abates it. "Passages of proof” are transactions of daily experience.-H. N. H.

123. “a spendthrift sigh"; Mr. Blakeway justly observes, that "Sorrow for neglected opportunities and time abused seems most aptly compared to the sigh of a spendthrift;—good resolutions not carried into effect are deeply injurious to the moral character. Like sighs, they hurt by easing; they unburden the mind and satisfy the conscience, without producing any effect upon the conduct.”H. N. H.