King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize;
Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
Will you do this, keep close within your chamber.
Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home:
We'll put on those shall praise your excellence,
And set a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together,
And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease,
Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
A sword unbated', and in a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.

Laer.
I will do't;
And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
I bought an unction of a mountebank,

So mortal, that but dip a knife in it1o,
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death,
That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.

King.
Let's farther think of this;
Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means,
May fit us to our shape. If this should fail,

And that our drift look through our bad performance,
"Twere better not assay'd: therefore, this project
Should have a back, or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proof. Soft!-let me see :-
We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings',-

9 A sword UNBATED,] i. e. not blunted in "Love's Labour's Lost," A. i. sc. 1, we meet with the word "bate " for blunt :—

"That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen edge."

10 THAT but DIP a knife in it,] So the quartos, 1604, &c., which modern editors properly follow, although the folio (the defect in which they do not point out) has, "I but dipt a knife in it."

1

— on your CUNNINGS,] So all the quartos, and no doubt rightly: the folio

I ha't:

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 preferr'd him
A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck2,
Our purpose may hold there. But stay! what noise?

How, sweet queen!

Enter Queen.

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow.-Your sister's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where?

Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook', That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; Therewith fantastic garlands did she make

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 :
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,
And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up;
Which time, she chanted snatches of old lauds1;
As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indu'd

prints it commings. Lower down it substitutes "prepar'd” for preferr'd of the quartos, which is probably the true word.

2 - your venom'd STUCK,] So all the copies, excepting the quarto, 1637, which has tuck, a word sometimes used for a sword; but "stuck" is warranted by its etymology, stoccata, a term in the art of fencing: "venom'd stuck" is equivalent to "venom'd thrust." The words, "But stay, what noise?" in the next line are only in the quartos, which omit " How, sweet queen !"

3

grows ASCAUNT the brook,] So every quarto but that of 1603, which merely says, Sitting upon a willow by a brook." The folio has aslant a brook.

In the next line but one it has come for "make" of the quartos.

4 - snatches of old LAUDS ;] i. e. old songs of praise. The folio substitutes tunes, and is incorrectly printed here, for it gives "their drink," "her drink," and "her melodious lay," "her melodious buy."

Unto that element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Laer.

Alas! then, is she drown'd?

Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.

Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears but yet

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,

Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out.-Adieu, my lord!

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it3.

[Exit.

Let's follow, Gertrude.

King.
How much I had to do to calm his rage!
Now fear I, this will give it start again;
Therefore, let's follow.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

A Church Yard.

Enter Two Clowns, with Spades, &c.

1 Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

6

2 Clo. I tell thee, she is; and therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath set on her, and finds it Christian burial.

1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so.

5 But that this folly DROWNS it.] So every quarto after that of 1603, which

has not the line: the folio "doubts it," meaning douts it, or does it out.

6

that wilfully seeks-] So the folio: the quartos, "when she wilfully seeks." In the next line the folio has "and therefore."

VOL. VII.

Y

1 Clo. It must be se offendendo'; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.

1 Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: if the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, mark you that; but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.

2 Clo. But is this law?

1 Clo. Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest-law.

2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial.

1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st; and the more pity, that great folk shall have countenance in this world. to drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession.

2 Clo.

Was he a gentleman?

1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms.

2 Clo. Why, he had none.

1 Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says, Adam digged: could he dig without arms? I'll put another question

7 se offendendo;] The quartos have only so offended, the compositor not understanding the humour: in the same way, instead of "argal" he printed or all. The folio, however, by mistake has "it is an act, for "it is to act." than their even Christian.] "Even Christian," as Thirlby remarked, means fellow Christian. The expression occurs in Chaucer, Gower, and our elder writers; but no other instance of its use in Shakespeare's time has been pointed out.

8

9- Could he dig without arms ] This allusion to Scripture, and the question producing it, are not in the quartos.

to thee if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself

2 Clo. Go to.

1 Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame' outlives a thousand tenants.

1 Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows does well; but how does it well? it does well to those that do ill now, thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church: argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again; come.

2 Clo. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?

1 Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

2 Clo. Marry, now I can tell.

1 Clo. To't.

2 Clo. Mass, I cannot tell.

Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance.

1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when you are asked this question next, say, a gravemaker: the houses that he makes, last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan2; fetch me a stoop of liquor. [Exit 2 Clown.

1

1 Clown digs, and sings.

In youth, when I did love, did love3,

Methought it was very sweet,

for that frame-] The quartos omit "frame.”

2 Go, get thee to Yaughan,] This is printed, in Italic type, as a proper name, in the folio in the quartos we have only, "Go, get thee in." It is just possible that "Yaughan" was a mis-spelt stage-direction to inform the player that he was to yawn at this point.

3 In youth, when I did love, did love,] Mr. Rimbault was good enough to point out to me the original words and music to this song in MS. Sloane, No. 4900, (of the time of Edward VI., or Mary) where nobody would have dreamed of looking for it, as the rest of the volume is of an entirely different