Into the madness wherein now he raves,

And all we wail for.

King. Do you think this?

Queen. It may be very likely.

Pol. Hath there been such a time, I'd fain know

That I have positively said, 'tis so,

When it proved otherwise?

King. Not that I know.

[that,

Pol. Take this from this, if this be otherwise. (45) [Pointing to his head and shoulder.

If circumstances lead me, I will find

Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the centre.

King. How may we try it further?

Pol. You know sometimes he walks four hours

Here in the lobby.

Be

Queen. So he does indeed.

[together

Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to

you and I behind an arras then,

Mark the encounter: if he love her not,
And be not from his reason fallen thereon,
Let me be no assistant for a state,

[him;

(45) Take this from this; meaning his head from his shoulders in fact Claudius does so, for an inspection of their prototypes will shew that his face and crown are made up of the head and face of Polonius.

But keep a farm and carters. (46)

King. We will try.

Enter HAMLET, reading.

Queen. But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away. I'll board him presently.[Exeunt King and Queen. Oh, give me leave.-How does my good Lord Ham. Well, God o' mercy.

Pol. Do you know me, my Lord?

[Hamlet?

Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
Pol. Not I, my Lord.

Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man.
Pol. Honest, my Lord?

Ham. Ay, Sir; to be honest, as this world goes,
is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
Pol. That's very true, my Lord.
Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead
Being a good kissing carrion-

Have you a daughter?

[dog,

(46) This seems to be referable, the farm to the houselike shape of the whole of the shadowed part of the moon as viewed with its north side uppermost, some of which shadows resemble the different beasts about a farm, as pigs, cows, calves, &c.; and the second to the likenesses of horses in the moon, viz. those of the knight and Ralph in the poem of Hudibras.

Pol. I have, my Lord.

Ham. Let her not walk i' th' sun; conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't.

Pol. How say you by that? still harping on my daughter!

Yet he knew me not at first; he said, I was a fish

monger.

He is far gone; and truly, in my youth, [Aside.
I suffered much extremity for love;

Very near this. I'll speak to him again.
What do you read, my Lord?

Ham. Words, words, words. (47)

Pol. What is the matter, my Lord?
Ham. Between whom?

Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my Lord. Ham. Slanders, Sir: for the satirical slave says here, that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit; together with most weak hams. All which, Sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for yourself, Sir, shall be

(47) There are evidently before the eyes and towards the hand of Hamlet's prototype, characters resembling the etters of the alphabet.

as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could

ward.

Pol. Though this be madness, yet there's method Will you walk out of the air, my Lord?

Ham. Into my grave.

Pol. Indeed, that's out o' th' air :——
How pregnant (sometimes) his replies are!
A happiness that often madness hits on,
Which sanity and reason could not be
So prosp❜rously delivered of. I'll leave him,
And suddenly contrive the means of meeting
Between him and my daughter.

My honourable Lord, I will most humbly
Take my leave of you.

[in't.

Ham. You cannot, Sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal, except my life. (48)

Pol. Fare you well, my Lord.

Ham. These tedious old fools!

Pol. You go to seek Lord Hamlet; there he is.

[Exit.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ros. God save you, Sir.

(48) Except my life: because, (heads in the place of feet,) the prototypes of Hamlet and Polonius, being inverted, would constitute one and the same; whence the destruction of one would follow that of the other.

Guil. Mine honoured Lord!

Ros. My most dear Lord!

Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost
thou Guildenstern?

Oh, Rosincrantz, good lads! how do you both?
Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth.
Guil. Happy, in that we are not over-happy; on
Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe?

Ros. Neither my Lord.

Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?

Guil. 'Faith, in her privates we.

Ham. In the secret parts of Fortune? oh, most true; she is a strumpet. What news? [honest. Ros. None, my Lord, but that the world's grown Ham. Then is doomsday near; but your news is not true. Let me question more in particular; what have you, my good friends deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither?

Guil. Prison, my Lord?

Ham. Denmark's a prison.

Ros. Then is the world one.

Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.

Ros. We think not so, my Lord.