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Guild. We will provide ourselves:
Most holy and religious fear it is,
To keep those many, many bodies safe,
That live and feed upon your Majesty.

Ref. The fingle and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,,
To keep itself from noyance; but much more
That spirit on whofe weal depends and reits
The lives of many. The ceafe of Majesty
Dies not alone, but, like a gulf, doth draw,
What's near it with it. It's a mally wheel
Fix'd on the fummit of the highest mount,
To whofe huge spokes ten thousand leffer things
Are mortized and adjoined; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty confequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Ne'er alone
Did the King figh; but with a general groan.
King. Arm you, I pray you, to this fpeedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,

Which now goes too free-footed..

Both: We will hafte us.

[Exeunt Gentlemen.

Enter POLONIUS

Pol. My Lord, he's gone to his mother's closet ;; Behind the arras I'll convey myself

To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him And, as you faid, and wifely was it faid, [home.. 'Tis meet that fome more audience than a mother (Since nature makes them partial,) fhould o'er-hear The fpeech, of vantage. Fare you well, iny Liege ;.

on that play. Perhaps, too, in the Merry Wives of Windfor where all the editions read,

Why, woman, your husband is in his old is again; we ought to correct,

in his old lunes again;

i. c. in his old fits of madnefs, frenzy,

[Exit

I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.
King. Thanks, dear my Lord.
Oh! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven,
It hath the primal, eldest curfe upon't; (46)
That of a brother's murder. Pray I cannot,
Though inclination be as fharp as will; (47)

(40) It hath the primal, eldeft curfe upon't;

Afrother's murder- -Pray I cannot,] The laft verfe, 'tis evident, halts in the meafure; and, if I don't mistake, is as little lame in the fenfe too. Was a brother's murder the eldeft curfe? Surely it was rather the crime that was the caufe of this eldeft curfe. We have no aflistance, however, either to the fenfe or numbers from any of the copies. All the editions concur in the deficiency of a foot; but if we can both care the meafure, and help the meaning, without a prejudice to the Author, I think the concurrence of the printed copies fhould not be fufficient to forbid a conjecture. I have ventured at two fupplemental fyllables, as innocent in themfelves as neceffary to the purposes for which they are: introduced;

That of a brother's murder.

(47) Though inclination be] This line has lain under the fufpicion of many nice obfervers; and an ingenious gentle-man ftarted, at a heat, this very probable emendation:

Though inclination be as fharp as 'twill.

The variation from the traces of the letter is very minute, at with an apostrophe before it only being added, which might very eally have fipt out under the printer's hands; fo that the change will not be difputed, fuppofing there is a neceffity for it; which however is fubmitted to judgment. "lis certain the line, as it ftands in all the editions, has fo ftrongby the air of a flat tautology, that it may deserve a fhort comment, and to have the difference betwixt inclination and will afcertained. The word inclination, in its ufe with us as my friend Mr Warburton defines it to me) is taken in thefe three acceptations. First, in its exact philofophical fense, it fignifies the drawing or inclining the will to determine itfelf one certain way; according to this fignification the line is nonfenfe; and is the fame as to affirm, that the part is as big as the whole. In the next place, inch ation fignifies the wit, and then it is the most abfurd tautology. But, lafly,

My ftronger guilt defeats my ftrong intent:
And, like a man to double business bound,
I ftand in paufe where I fhall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this curied hand
Were thicker than itfelf with brother's blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as fnow? whereto ferves Mercy,
But to confront the vitage of offence?

And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force,
To be fore-ftalled ere we come to fall,

Or pardoned being down? then I'll look up;
My fault is past. -
But oh, what form of prayer
Can ferve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder !---
That cannot be, fince I am ftill poffefs'd

Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one-be pardoned, and retain th' offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may fhove by juftice;
And oft 'tis feen, the wicked prize ittelf
Buys out the law; but 'tis not fo above:
There, is no fhuffing; there, the action lyes
In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what refts?
Try what repentance can: What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
Oh wretched ftate! oh befom black as death!

it fignifies a difpofition to do a thing, already determined of, with complacency and pleasure. And if this is, as it feems to be, the feafe of the word here, then the fentiment will be very clear and proper. For wil fignifying barely the deter mination of the mind to do a thing, the fenfe will be this Though the pleasure I take in this act, be as ftrong as the determination of my mind to perform its yet my funger guilt defeats my strong intent, &c.”

Oh limed-foal, that, ftruggling to be free,
Art more engaged! help, angels! make affay!
Bow, ftubborn knees; and, heart, with ftrings of
Be foft as finews of the new-born babe! [iteel,
All may be well. [The King retires and kneels..

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, And now I'll do't-and fo he goes to heaven.And fo am I revenged? that would be fcanned;. A villain kills my father, and for that

1, his fole fon, do this fame villain fend

To heaven-0, this is hire and falary, not revenge..
He took my father grofly, full of bread,

With all his crimes broad blown, as Aufh as May;,
And how his audit ftands, who knows, fave Heaven?:
But in our circumftance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him. Am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging, of his foul,
When he is fit and feafoned for his paffage?
Up, fword, and know thou a more horrid bent; (48)
When he is drunk, afleep, or in his rage,

Or in th' incestuous pleature of his bed;

(48) Up, fword, and know thou a mre horrid time.] This. is a fophifticated reading, warranted by none of the copies of any authority. Mr Pope fays, I read conjectu-rally;

a more horrid bent..

I do fo, and why? The two oldest Quartos, as well as the two elder Folios, read, a: inore horrid hent. But as there is no fuch English fubftantive, it feems very naturalto conclude, that, with the change of a single detter, our Aus thor's genuine word was bent, i. e drift, fcope, inclination, purpote, &c. I have proved his frequent ufe of this word, in my shakespeare Reftored; fo fall fpare the trouble of making the quotations over again here. I took notice there, that throwing my eye cafually over the fourth Folio edition, printed in 1685, I found my correction there anticipated

At gaming, fwearing, or about some act
That has no relifh of falvation in't;

Then trip him, that his-hecls may kick at heaven;
And that his foul may be as damned and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays;
This phyfic but prolongs thy fickly days. [Exit.
The King rifes, and comes forward.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;

Words, without thoughts, never to Heaven go.

[Exit.

SCENE changes to the Queen's Apartment.

Enter Queen and POLONIUS.

Pol. He will come straight; look you lay home to him:

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with.;

And that your Grace hath fcreened, and food be-.

tween

Much heat and him. I'll filence me e'en here;
Pray you, be round with him.

Ham. [within.] Mother, mother, mother.-
Queen. I'll warrant you, fear me not.
Withdraw, I hear him coming.

[Polonius hideshimfelf behind the Arras..

Enter HAMLET.

[ed.

Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter?
Queen Hamlet, thou haft thy father much offend-

I think myself obliged to repeat this confeffion, that I may not be accused of plagiarifm, for an emendation: which I had made before ever I faw a single page of that book.

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