Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/154

Directly seasons^{[b 1]} him his enemy,
But, orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown,
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own; 225
So think thou wilt no second husband wed,
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

P. Queen. Nor earth to me give^{[a 1]} food nor heaven light!
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
To desperation turn my trust and hope! 230
An anchor's^{[a 2]} cheer^{[b 2]} in prison be my scope!^{[a 3]}
Each opposite, that blanks^{[b 3]} the face of joy,
Meet what I would have well and it destroy!
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
If once a widow, ever I be wife!^{[a 4]}235

Ham. If she should break it now!^{[a 5]}

P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweety leave me here awhile;
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep. [Sleeps.^{[a 6]}

P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain;
And never come mischance between us twain! 240

[Exit.

1. 228. to me give] Q, to give me F.
2. 231. An anchor's] Theobald, And anchors Q.
3. 230, 231. To desperation . . . scope] Q, omitted F.
4. 235. once . . . wife] Q 1, F; once I be a widdow, ever I be a wife Q.
5. 236. now!] Dyce; now. Q, F; now— Pope.
6. 239. Sleeps] F (after brain), omitted Q.

1. 221. seasons] Schmidt and Clar. Press: "matures, ripens," see i. iii. 81; but perhaps it means qualifies, tempers.
2. 231. anchor's cheer] anchoret's chair. So Bishop Hall, Satires, iv. ii. 103: "Sit seaven yeares pining in an anchores cheyre. Cheer is explained—perhaps rightly—by Clar. Press and others "fare," but "scope" supports the meaning illustrated by Hall.
3. 232. opposite, that blanks] contrary thing that makes pale. So Sylvester's Du Bartas, 1605: "His brow was never blankt with pallid fear."