land; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. Hor. [Reads] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valor, and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant they got clear 20 of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. 30 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.

'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.'

Come, I will make you way for these your let-
ters;

And do 't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII

Another room in the castle.

Enter King and Laertes.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend,
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he which hath your noble father slain
Pursued my life.

Laer.

It well appears: but tell me
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and so capital in nature,
As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
You mainly were stirr'd up.

King.

O, for two special reasons, Which may to you perhaps seem much un

sinew'd,

10

But yet to me they 're strong. The queen his
mother

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself—
My virtue or my plague, be it either which-
She's so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,

Is the great love the general gender bear him;

9. "mainly were stirr'd up"; had the strongest motive to do.— C. H. H.

14. "She's so conjunctive"; so Ff.; Qq. read "She is so concline"; Q., 1676, "She is so precious."-I. G.

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Would, like the spring that turneth wood to

stone,

20

Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows, Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again And not where I had aim'd them. Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; A sister driven into desperate terms, Whose worth, if praises may go back again, Stood challenger on mount of all the age

For her perfections: but my revenge will come. King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think

30

That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
That we can let our beard be shook with danger
And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear

more:

I loved your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-
Enter a Messenger, with letters.

How now! what news?

Mess.

Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:

This to your majesty; this to the queen.

King. From Hamlet! who brought them?

Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio; he received

them

Of him that brought them.

40

22. "loud a wind," so Ff.; Qq. 2, 3, "loued Arm'd"; Qq. 4, 5, "loued armes."—I. G.

King.

Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us. [Exit Messenger. [Reads] 'High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return.

'HAMLET.

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?

Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked'!
And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
Can you advise me?

50

Laer. I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come;
It warms the very sickness in my heart,

That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
"Thus didest thou.'

King.

As how should it be so? how otherwise?

If it be so, Laertes,—

Aye, my lord;

60

Will you be ruled by me?

Laer.

So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,

As checking at his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall:

59. "As how should it be so? how otherwise?" It is incomprehensible, and yet, on the evidence, beyond question.-C. H. H.

And for his death no wind of blame shall

breathe;

But even his mother shall uncharge the practice,
And call it accident.

Laer.

70

My lord, I will be ruled;
The rather, if you could devise it so
That I might be the organ.

King.

It falls right.

You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
Did not together pluck such envy from him,
As did that one, and that in my regard
Of the unworthiest siege.

80

Laer.
What part is that, my lord?
King. A very riband in the cap of youth,
Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes
The light and careless livery that it wears
Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
Importing health and graveness. Two months
since,

Here was a gentleman of Normandy:-
I've seen myself, and served against, the
French,

And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in 't; he grew unto his seat,
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse
As had he been incorpsed and demi-natured

78. "A very riband"; we have elsewhere found very used in the sense of mere.--H. N. H.