Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

A little month! or ere those shoes were old,
With which the followed my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears---Why she, ev'n the,---
(O heav'n! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourned longer---) married with mine

uncle,

My father's brother; but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules. Within a month!---
Ere yet the falt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her gauled eyes,
She married ---Oh, most wicked speed, to poft
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not, nor it cannot come to good.

But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue.
Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS.

Hor. Hail to your Lordship!
Ham. I am glad to see you well;

Horatio,---or I do forget myself?

Hor. The fame, my Lord, and your poor fer

vant ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus!

Mar. My good Lord----

Ham. I am very glad to fee you; good even, Sir. But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? Hor. A truant disposition, good my Lord.

Mr Dryden has remarked, that this is the sharpest satire in the fewest words, that ever was made on womankind; for both the adjectives are neuter, and animal must be understood to make them grammar. 'Tis certain the designed contempt is heightened by this change of the gender; but, I prefume, Mr Dryden had forgot this passage of Shakespeare, when he declared on the fide of Virgil's hemiftich, as the sharpest fatire he had met with.

1

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say fo;

Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself. I know you are no truant;
But what is your affair in Elfinoor?
We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
Hor. My Lord, I came to fee your father's funeral.
Ham. I pr'ythee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
Hor. Indeed, my Lord, it followed hard upon.
Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio; the funeral baked

meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father---methinks, I see my father.
Hor. Oh where, my Lord?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I faw him once, he was a goodly King.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My Lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw! who?------

Hor. My Lord, the King your father.

Ham. The King my father!

Hor. Seafon your admiration but a while,

With an attentive ear; 'till I deliver
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

Ham. For heaven's love, let me hear.
Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encountered: A figure like your father,
Armed at all points exactly, cap-a-pe,
Appears before them, and with folemn march

This to me

Goes flow and stately by them; thrice he walked,
By their oppreffed and fear-furprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilft they (difstilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear)
Stand dumb, and speak not to him.
In dreadful secrecy impart they did,
And I with them the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had delivered both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes. I knew your father:
These hands are not more like.

Ham. But where was this?

Mar. My Lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor. My Lord. I did;

But answer made it none; yet once methought,

It lifted up its head, and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak:

But even then the morning cock crew loud;
And at the found it shrunk in haste away,

And vanished from our fight.

Ham. 'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honoured Lord, 'tis true;

And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, Sirs, but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch to-night?

Both. We do, my Lord.

Ham. Armed, say you?

Both. Armed, my Lord.

Ham. From top to toe?

Both. My Lord, from head to foot.

Ham. Then faw you not his face?

Hor. Oh yes, my Lord, he wore his beaver up.

Ham. What, looked he frowningly?

Hor. A countenance more in forrow than in anger. Ham. Pale or red?

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham. And fixed his eyes upon you?

Hor. Most constantly.

Ham. I would I had been there!

Hor. It would have much amazed you.

Ham. Very like; staid it long?

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell

a hundred.

Both. Longer, longer.

Hor. Not when I faw't.

Ham. His beard was grifly?

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A fable filvered.

Ham. I'll watch to-night; perchance 'twill walk

again.

Hor. I warrant you it will.

Ham. If it affume my noble father's perfon,
I'll speak to it, tho' hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto concealed this fight,
Let it be treble in your filence still:
And whatsoever shall befal to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue.
I will requite your loves: fo, fare ye well.
Upon the platform 'twixt eleven and twelve
I'll vifit you.

[Exeunt.

All. Our duty to your honour. Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: farewel. My father's fpirit in arms! all is not well: I doubt fome foul play; 'would the night were

come!

'Till then fit still, my foul: foul deeds will rise

(Tho' all the earth o'erwhelm them) to men's eyes.

[Exit.

35

SCENE changes to an Apartment in Polonius's

House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

Laer. My neceffaries are embarked, farewel;

And, fifter, as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is assistant, do not fleep,

But let me hear from you.

Oph. Do you doubt that?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,

Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood;
A violet in the youth of prime nature,

Forward, not permanent, though fsweet, not lafting;
The perfume and fuppliance of a minute:

No more.-

Oph. No more but fo?

Laer. Think it no more:

is temple

waxes,

For nature, crefcent, does not go alone
In thews and bulk; but as this te
The inward fervice of the mind and foul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmerch (10)
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatness weighed, his will is not his own :

(10) And now no foil, nor cautel.] Cautel from cautela, in its first derived fignification, means a prudent forefight or cantit but when we naturalize a Latin word into our tongue, we do not think ourselves obliged to use it in its precise, native lignification. So here, traductively, 'tis employed to mean deceit, craft, infincerity And in these acceptations we find our Author using the adjective from it, in his Julius Cafar;

Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous. In the like manner the French use their cauteleux; by which they understand rufe, trompeur; and Minthew has explained the word cautel thus; a crafty way to deceive.

VOL. XII.

C

Mr Warburton.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »