In obstinate condōlemènt, is a course

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief :
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven;
A heart unfortified, or mind impatient :
An understanding simple and unschooled :
For what, we know, must be ; and is as common
As any of the most vulgar thing to sense,
Why should we, in our peevish opposition,
Take it to heart? Fye! 'tis a fault to heaven.
We pray you, throw to earth

This unprevailing woe; and think of us
As of a father: for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
Our chiefèst courtier, cousin, and our son.

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,
I pray thee stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply;
Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come;
This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day
But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell;
Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

Hamlet:

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, LORDS, &c.

Ham. Oh, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fye on't! Oh fye! 'tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed: things rank, and gross in nature,
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two;
So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Hyperion' to a satyr: so loving to my mother,

1 Hỹ pẽ ri on, the father of Aurora, and the Sun and Moon; or, as Shakspeare represents, this is a name

of Apollo, the god of day, who was distinguished for his beauty.

'Sã ́tyr, a demigod or deity of

That he might not beteem'the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? And yet, within a month,—
Let me not think on't ;-Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month; or ere those shoes were old,
With which she followed my poor father's body,
Like Ni'obè, all tears;-why she, even she,-

O heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourned longer,-married with my uncle,
My father's brother; but no more like

Than I to Hercules:

It is not, nor it can not come to, good;

my father,

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 same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you And what make you from Wit'tenberg, Horatio ?—

Marcellus?

Mar. My good lord.

Ham. I am very glad to see you; good even, sir,But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?

. Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.

4

Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so;

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 Elsinore ?

We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart.
Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
I think, it was to see my mother's wedding.
Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

the wood, described as a monster,
part man and part goat, and charac-
terized by riotous merriment and in-
dulgence in sensual pleasure. Sa-
tyrs are represented with bristly hair,

the nose round and turned upward,
the ears pointed, with two small
horns growing out of the forehead,
and a tail like that of a goat.
1 Be teem', allow; suffer.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish fōrth 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.

My lord?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Where,

Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king.

Ham. He was (woz) 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! whom?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.

Ham.

The king, my father?

Hor. Season your admiration for a while
With an attent ear; till I may 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 waist and middle of the night,

Been thus encountered. A figure like your father,
Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,

Appears before them, and, with solemn march,
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walked,
By their oppressed and fear-surprisèd eyes,

Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me

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 watched. Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor.

My lord, I did;

But answer made it none (nŭn); 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 sound, it shrunk in haste away,
And vanished from our sight.

Ham.

"Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honored 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?

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up
Ham. What! looked he frowningly?

Ham.

I would, I had been there.

Hor. It would have much amazed you.

Ham.

Very like. Stay'd it long?

Věry like,

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

Ham. His beard was grizzled ?—no ?

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

A sable silvered.

Ham.

I will watch to-night;

Perchance, 'twill walk again.
Hor.

Ham. If it assume my

I warrant, 'twill. noble father's

person,

I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,'
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto concealed this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue :
I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

All.

Our duty to your honor.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell.

[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were come!
Till then, sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth ō'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

H

III.

159. SCENES FROM HAMLET.

PART SECOND.

Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS.

AMLET. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
Horatio. It is a nipping and an eager air.
Ham. What hour now?

Hor.

Mar. No, it is struck.

I think, it lacks of twelve.

Hor. Indeed? I heard it not; then it draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held his wont' to walk.

[4 flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within.

What does this mean, my lord?

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,' And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,

The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

Is it a custom?

'Rouse, (rouz), a carousal; a fes tival; a drinking frolic.