If this should blast in proof. Soft! let me see;
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings:
I ha't: 156
When in your motion you are hot and dry,—
As make your bouts more violent to that end,—
And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him
A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, 161
Our purpose may hold there. [But stay! what noise?]
Enter Queen.
How now, sweet queen!
Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, 164
So fast they follow: your sister's drown'd, Laertes.
Laer. Drown'd! O, where?
Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come, 169
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: 172
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, 176
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
154 blast in proof: burst when tested
155 cunnings: skill; cf. n.
157 motion: bodily exertion
160 for the nonce: for the purpose
161 stuck: thrust
168 hoar: greyish-white
170 crow-flowers: buttercups; cf. n.
long purples: early purple orchids
171 liberal: licentious
173 coronet: garlanded
175 weedy: of plants
179 incapable: having no understanding
