_All._ Longer, longer. [Sidenote: _Both._]
_Hor._ Not when I saw"t.
_Ham._ His Beard was grisly?[1] no. [Sidenote: grissl"d]
_Hor._ It was, as I haue seene it in his life, [Sidenote: 138] A Sable[2] Siluer"d.
_Ham._ Ile watch to Night; perchance "twill wake againe.
[Sidenote: walke againe.]
_Hor._ I warrant you it will. [Sidenote: warn"t it]
[Sidenote: 44] _Ham._ If it a.s.sume my n.o.ble Fathers person,[3]
Ile speake to it, though h.e.l.l it selfe should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you haue hitherto conceald this sight; Let it bee treble[5] in your silence still: [Sidenote: be tenable in[4]]
And whatsoeuer els shall hap to night, [Sidenote: what someuer els]
Giue it an vnderstanding but no tongue; I will requite your loues; so, fare ye well: [Sidenote: farre you]
Vpon the Platforme twixt eleuen and twelue, [Sidenote: a leauen and twelfe]
Ile visit you.
_All._ Our duty to your Honour. _Exeunt._
_Ham._ Your loue, as mine to you: farewell. [Sidenote: loves,]
My Fathers Spirit in Armes?[6] All is not well: [Sidenote: 30,52] I doubt some foule play: would the Night were come; Till then sit still my soule; foule deeds will rise, [Sidenote: fonde deedes]
Though all the earth orewhelm them to mens eies.
_Exit._
[Footnote 1: _grisly_--gray; _grissl"d_--turned gray;--mixed with white.]
[Footnote 2: The colour of sable-fur, I think.]
[Footnote 3: Hamlet does not _accept_ the Appearance as his father; he thinks it may be he, but seems to take a usurpation of his form for very possible.]
[Footnote 4: _1st Q_. "tenible"]
[Footnote 5: If _treble_ be the right word, the actor in uttering it must point to each of the three, with distinct yet rapid motion. The phrase would be a strange one, but not unlike Shakspere. Compare _Cymbeline_, act v. sc. 5: "And your three motives to the battle,"
meaning "the motives of you three." Perhaps, however, it is only the adjective for the adverb: "_having concealed it hitherto, conceal it trebly now_." But _tenible_ may be the word: "let it be a thing to be kept in your silence still."]
[Footnote 6: Alone, he does not dispute _the idea_ of its being his father.]
[Page 34]
_SCENA TERTIA_[1]
_Enter Laertes and Ophelia_. [Sidenote: _Ophelia his Sister._]
_Laer_. My necessaries are imbark"t; Farewell: [Sidenote: inbarckt,]
And Sister, as the Winds giue Benefit, And Conuoy is a.s.sistant: doe not sleepe, [Sidenote: conuay, in a.s.sistant doe]
But let me heare from you.
_Ophel_. Doe you doubt that?
_Laer_. For _Hamlet_, and the trifling of his fauours, [Sidenote: favour,]
Hold it a fashion and a toy in Bloud; A Violet in the youth of Primy Nature; Froward,[2] not permanent; sweet not lasting The suppliance of a minute? No more.[3]
[Sidenote: The perfume and suppliance]
_Ophel_. No more but so.[4]
_Laer_. Thinke it no more.
For nature cressant does not grow alone, [Sidenote: 172] In thewes[5] and Bulke: but as his Temple waxes,[6]
[Sidenote: bulkes, but as this]
The inward seruice of the Minde and Soule Growes wide withall. Perhaps he loues you now,[7]
And now no soyle nor cautell[8] doth besmerch The vertue of his feare: but you must feare [Sidenote: of his will, but]
His greatnesse weigh"d, his will is not his owne;[9] [Sidenote: wayd]
For hee himselfe is subiect to his Birth:[10]
Hee may not, as vnuallued persons doe, Carue for himselfe; for, on his choyce depends The sanct.i.ty and health of the weole State.
[Sidenote: The safty andthis whole]
And therefore must his choyce be circ.u.mscrib"d[11]
Vnto the voyce and yeelding[12] of that Body, Whereof he is the Head. Then if he sayes he loues you, It fits your wisedome so farre to beleeue it; As he in his peculiar Sect and force[13]
[Sidenote: his particuler act and place]
May giue his saying deed: which is no further,
[Footnote 1: _Not in Quarto_.]
[Footnote 2: Same as _forward_.]
[Footnote 3: "No more" makes a new line in the _Quarto_.]
[Footnote 4: I think this speech should end with a point of interrogation.]
[Footnote 5: muscles.]
[Footnote 6: The body is the temple, in which the mind and soul are the worshippers: their service grows with the temple--wide, changing and increasing its objects. The degraded use of the grand image is after the character of him who makes it.]
[Footnote 7: The studied contrast between Laertes and Hamlet begins already to appear: the dishonest man, honestly judging after his own dishonesty, warns his sister against the honest man.]
[Footnote 8: deceit.]
[Footnote 9: "You have cause to fear when you consider his greatness: his will &c." "You must fear, his greatness being weighed; for because of that greatness, his will is not his own."]
[Footnote 10: _This line not in Quarto._]
[Footnote 11: limited.]
[Footnote 12: allowance.]
[Footnote 13: This change from the _Quarto_ seems to me to bear the mark of Shakspere"s hand. The meaning is the same, but the words are more individual and choice: the _sect_, the _head_ in relation to the body, is more pregnant than _place_; and _force_, that is _power_, is a fuller word than _act_, or even _action_, for which it plainly appears to stand.]