Page:Shakespeare - First Folio Faithfully Reproduced, Methuen, 1910.djvu/795

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Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine;
To outface me with leaping in her Graue?
Be buried quicke with her, and so will I.
And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throw
Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground
Sindging his pate against the burning Zone,
Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth,
Ile rant as well as thou.

Kin.
This is meere Madnesse;
And thus awhile the fit will worke on him:
Anon as patient as the female Doue,
When that her golden Cuplet are disclos'd;
His silence will sit drooping.

Ham.
Heare you Sir:
What is the reason that you vse me thus?
I loud' you euer; but it is no matter:
Let Hercules himselfe doe what he may,
Exit.The Cat will Mew, and Dogge will haue his day.

Kin.
I pray you good Horatio wait vpon him,
Strengthen you patience in our last nights speech,
Wee'l put the matter to the present push:
Good Gertrude set some watch ouer your Sonne,
This Graue shall haue a liuing Monument:
An houre of quiet shortly shall we see;
Exeunt.Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

Ham.
So much for this Sir; now let me see the other,
You doe remember all the Circumstance.

Hor.
Remember it my Lord?

Ham.
Sir, in my heart there was a kinde of fighting,
That would not let me sleepe; me thought I lay
Worse then the mutines in the Bilboes, rashly,
(And praise be rashnesse for it) let vs know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serues vs well,
When our deare plots do paule, and that should teach vs,
There's a Diuinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

Hor.
That is most certaine.

Ham.
Vp from my Cabin
My sea-gowne scarft about me in the darke,
Grop'd I to finde out them; had my desire,
finger'd their Packet, and in fine, withdrew
To mine owne roome againe, making so bold,
(My feares forgetting manners) to vnseale
Their grand Commission, where I found Horatio,
Oh royall knauery: An exact command,
Larded with many seuerall sorts of reason;
Importing Denmarks health, and Englands too,
With hoo, such Bugges and Goblins in my life,
that on the superuize no leasure bated,
No not to stay the grinding of the Axe,
My head should be struck off.

Hor.
Ist possible?

Ham.
Here's the Commission, read it at more leysure:
But wilt thou heare me how I did proceed?

Hor.
I beseech you.

Ham.
Being thus benetted round with Villaines,
Ere I could make a Prologue to my braines,
They had begun the Play. I sate me downe,
Deuis'd a new Commission, wrote it faire,
I once did hold it as our Statists doe,
A basenesse to write faire; and laboured much
How to forget that learning: but Sir now,
It did me Yeomans seruice: wilt thou know
The effects of what I wrote?

Hor.
I, good my Lord.

Ham.
An earnest Coniuration from the King,
As England was his faithfull Tributary,
As loue betweene them, as the Palme should flourish,
As Peace should still her wheaten Garland weare,
And stand a Comma 'tweene their amities,
And many such like Assis of great charge,
That on the view and know of these Contents,
Without debatement further, more or lesse,
He should the bearers put to sodaine death,
Not shriuing time allowed.

Hor.
How was this seal'd?

Ham.
Why, euen in that was Heauen ordinate;
I had my fathers Signet in my Purse,
Which was the Model of that Danish Seale:
Folded the Writ vp in forme of the other,
Subscrib'd it, gau't th'impression, plac't it safely,
The changeling neuer knowne: Now, the next day
Was our Sea fight, and what to this was sement,
Thou know'st already.

Hor.
So Guildensterne and Rosincrance, go too't.

Ham.
Why man, they did make loue to this imployment
They are not neere my Conscience; their debate
Doth by their owne insinuation grow:
'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Betweene the passe, and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites.

Hor.
Why, what a King is this?

Ham.
Does it not, thinkst thee, stand me now vpon
He that hath kil'd my King, and whor'd my Mother,
Pop t in betweene th'election and my hopes,
Throwne out his Angle for my proper life,
And with such coozenage; is't not perfect conscience,
To quit him with this arme? And is't not to be damn'd
To let this Canker of our nature come
In further euill.

Hor.
It must be shortly knowne to him from England
What is the issue of the businesse there.

Ham.
It will be short,
The interim's mine, and a mans life's no more
Then to say one: but I am very sorry good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot my selfe;
For by the image of my Cause, I see
The Portraiture of his; Ile count his fauours:
But sure the brauery of his griefe did put me
Into a Towring passion.

Hor.
Peace, who comes heere?

Enter young Osricke.

Osr.
Your Lordship is right welcome back to Denmarke.

Ham.
I humbly thank you Sir, dost know this waterflie?

Hor.
No my good Lord.

Ham.
Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to
know him: he hath much Land, and fertile; let a Beast
be Lord of Beasts, and his Crib shall stand at the Kings
Messe; 'tis a Chowgh; but as I saw spacious in the
possession of dirt.

Osr.
Sweet Lord, if your friendship were at leysure,
I should impart a thing to you from his Maiesty.

Ham.
I will receiue it with all diligence of spirit; put
your Bonet to his right vse, 'tis for the head.

Osr.
I thanke your Lordship, 'tis very hot.

Ham.
No, beleeue mee 'tis very cold, the winde is Northerly.

Osr.
It is indifferent cold my Lord indeed.

Ham.
Mee thinkes it is very soultry, and hot for my Complexion.

Osricke.