But, in the gross and scope

of mine opinion,

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land;
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week:
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-laborer with the day :
Who is 't, that can inform me?

Ho.

At least, the whisper goes so.

That can I;

Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,

Dared to the combat; in which, our valiant IIamlet
(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seised of, to the conqueror;
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king, which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same comart,'

Joint bargain.

And carriage of the article design'd,1

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,

For food and diet, to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in 't; which is no other
(As it doth well appear unto our state)
But to recover of us, by strong hand
And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
So by his father lost: and this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations ;

3

The source of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage 3 in the land.
Ber. I think it be no other, but even so :
Well may it sort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
That was, and is the question 5 of these wars.
Ho. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy 6 state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted acad
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.7

As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

i. e. import of the articles drawn up between them.

2 Resolution.

3 Romage here signifies inquiry into the means of defence 4 Suit. The theme or subject. 6 Victorious. 7 An intermediate verse is here evidently lost.

Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,'
Upon whose intiuence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce events.-
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen coming on,--
Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
Into our climatures and countrymen.—

Re-enter GHOST.

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound or use of voice,

Speak to me:

to me,

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace
Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

[cock crows. Speak of it:-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus. Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan? Ho. Do, if it will not stand.

1 i. e. the moon.

A partisan is a kind of pike.

Portentous event.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence;

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew Ho. And then it started, like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring1 spirit hies To his confine; and of the truth herein This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Ho. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:

I Wandering.

? Strikes with diseases.

Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar. Let's do 't, I pray; and I this morning

know

Where we shall find him most convenient.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The same. A room of state in the same.

Enter KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet, our dear brother's death,

The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole king.

dom

To de contracted in one brow of woe ;-
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defcated joy,—
With one auspicious and one dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,

SUAK.

XIV.

R