To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To show us so much gentry, and good will,
As to expend your time with us a while,
For the supply and profit of our hope,
Your visitation shall receive such thanks
As fits a king's remembrance.

Ros. Both your majesties

Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.

Guil. But we both obey;

And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
To lay our service freely at your feet,

To be commanded,

King. Thanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle Guildenstern. Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern, and gentle Rosencrantz: And I beseech you instantly to visit

My too much changed son.-Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

Guil. Heavens make our presence, and our practices, Pleasant and helpful to him!

Queen. Ay, amen.

[Exeunt Ros. GUIL. and some Attendants. Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. The embassadors from Norway, my good lord, Are joyfully return'd.

King. Thou still hast been the father of good news. Pol. Have I; my lord? Assure you, my good liege, I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,

Both to my God, and to my gracious king:

And I do think, (or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath us❜d to do) that I have found

The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

King, O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
Pol. Give first admittance to the embassadors;
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.6
King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
[Exit POLONIUS.

He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and source of all your son's distemper.
Queen. I doubt, it is no other but the main ;
His father's death, and our o'er-hasty marriage.

[5] The trail is the course of an animal pursued by the scent, JOHNSON. [6] The fruit, the desert after the meat. JOHNSON.

Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. King. Well, we shall sift him.-Welcome, my good friends!

Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
Vol. Most fair return of greetings, and desires.
Upon our first, he sent out to suppress

His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
But, better look'd into, he truly found

It was against your highness: Whereat griev'd,-
That so his sickness, age, and impotence
Was falsely borne in hand,-sends out arrests
On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys ;
Receives rebuke from Norway; and, in fine,
Makes vow before his uncle, never more
To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee ;
And his commission, to employ those soldiers,
So levied as before, against the Polack:
With an entreaty, herein further shown,

[Gives a paper.

That it might please you to give quiet pass
Through your dominions for this enterprize;
On such regards of safety, and allowance,
As therein are set down.

King. It likes us well;

And, at our more consider'd time, we'll read,

Answer, and think upon this business.

Mean time, we thank you for your well-took labour: Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together :7

Most welcome home!

[Exeunt VOLT. and COR.

Pol. This business is well ended.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate

What majesty should be, what duty is,

Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,

And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,-
I will be brief: Your noble son is mad:

Mad call I it: for, to define true madness,

What is't, but to be nothing else but mad :
But let that go.

The king's intemperance is never suffered to be forgotten. JOHNSON
To expostulate for to inquire or discuss. WARBURTON.

Queen. More matter, with less art.

Pol. Madam, I swear, I use no art at all.
That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true, 'tis pity;
And pity 'tis, 'tis true: a foolish figure,
But farewell it, for I will use no art.

Mad let us grant him then and now remains,
That we find out the cause of this effect;
Or, rather say, the cause of this defect;
For this effect, defective, comes by cause :
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Perpend.

I have a daughter; have, whilst she is mine;
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,

Hath given me this: Now gather, and surmise.

-To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia,

That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; beautified is a vile phrase; but you shall hear. Thus :

In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.—

Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her?

Pol. Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.

Doubt thou, the stars are fire;

Doubt, that the sun doth move:
Doubt truth to be a liar ;

But never doubt, I love.

[Reads.

O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to reckon my groans: but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.

Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst
this machine is to him, Hamlet

This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me :
And more above, hath his solicitings,

9

As they fell out by time, by means, and place,

All given to mine ear.

King. But how hath she

Receiv'd his love?

Pol. What do you think of me?

King. As of a man faithful and honourable.

Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you think, When I had seen this hot love on the wing,

(As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,

Before my daughter told me,) what might you,

Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
If I had play'd the desk, or table-book ;'
Or given my heart a working, mute and dumb;
Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;

What might you think? no, I went round to work,
And my young mistress thus did I bespeak ;
Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy sphere;
This must not be and then I precepts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort,
Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
Which done, she took the fruits of my advice ;3
And he, repulsed, (a short tale to make,)
Fell into a sadness; then into a fast ;

Thence to a watch; thence into a weakness;
Thence to a lightness; and, by this declension,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,

And all we mourn for.4

King. Do you think, 'tis this?

Queen. It may be, very likely.

2

Pol. Hath there been such a time, (I'd fain know that,) That I have positively said, 'Tis so,

When it prov'd otherwise?

King. Not that I know.

Pol. Take this from this, if this be otherwise :

[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 together,

Here in the lobby.

Queen. So he does, indeed.

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

Be 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,

But keep a farm, and carters.

King. We will try it.

[1] If I had locked up this secret in my own breast, as closely as it were

confined in a desk or table-book.

- MALONE.

[2] Roundly, without reserve. So Polonius, in the third act,

-be round with him."

STEEVENS.

[3] She took the fruits of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then made fruitful. JOHNSON.

[4] See Illustrations, Vol. IX.

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 :-Ö, give me leave.

[Exeunt King, Queen, and Attendants.

How does my good lord Hamlet?

Ham. Well, God-'a-mercy.

Pol. Do you know me, my lord?

Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

Pol. Not 1, 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 dog, being a god, kissing carrion,-Have you a daughter? Pol. I have, my lord.

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

Pol. How say you by that? [Aside.] Still harping on my daughter:-yet he knew me not at first; he said, I was a fishmonger: He is far gone, far gone : and, truly in my youth 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!

Pol. What is the matter, my lord?
Ham. Between who?

Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plumtree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams: All of 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 as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward. Pol. Though this be madness, yet there's method in it. [Aside.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave?

Pol. Indeed, that is out o'the air.-How pregnant sometimes his replies are a happiness that often mad