Mar.

Nor I, my

lord.

120

Ham. How say you, then; would heart of man

once think it?

But you'll be secret?

Hor.

Mar.

Aye, by heaven, my lord.

Ham. There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Den

mark

But he's an arrant knave.

Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the

grave

To tell us this.

Ham.

Why, right; you are i' the right;
And so, without more circumstance at all,
I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:
You, as your business and desire shall point you;
For every man hath business and desire,
Such as it is; and for my own poor part,
Look you, I'll go pray.

130

Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, my

lord.

Ham. I'm sorry they offend you, heartily;

Yes, faith, heartily.

Hor.

There's no offense, my lord.

Ham. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offense too. Touching this vision

here,

you:

It is an honest ghost, that let me tell
For your desire to know what is between us,
O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good
friends,

As

you are friends, scholars and soldiers,

140

Give me one poor request.

Hor. What is 't, my lord? we will.

Ham. Never make known what you have seen to

Ham. Upon my

sword.

Mar.

We have sworn, my lord, already.

Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.

Ghost. [Beneath] Swear.

Ham. Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there,

truepenny?

150

Come on: you hear this fellow in the cellarage:
Consent to swear.

Hor.

Propose the oath, my lord. Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword.

Ghost. [Beneath] Swear.

Ham. Hic et ubique? then we 'll shift our ground. Come hither, gentlemen,

148. "upon my sword"; the custom of swearing by the sword, or rather by the cross at the upper end of it, is very ancient. The name of Jesus was not unfrequently inscribed on the handle. The allusions to this custom are very numerous in our old writers.— H. N. H.

149. "swear"; here again we follow the folio, with which the first quarto agrees. In the other quartos, this speech reads, "Swear by his sword"; and the last two lines of the preceding speech are transposed. In the next line, the folio has ground instead of earth. -H. N. H.

And lay your hands again upon my sword:
Never to speak of this that you have heard,
Swear by my sword.

Ghost. [Beneath] Swear.

160

Ham. Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?

A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.

Hor. O day and night, but this is wondrous

strange!

Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.

There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

But come;

Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on,

170

That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumber'd thus, or this head-shake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if
we would,'

Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they
might,'

Or such ambiguous giving out, to note

167. "your philosophy"; so read all the quartos; the folio, “our philosophy." The passage has had so long a lease of familiarity, as it stands in the text, that it seems best not to change it. Besides, your gives a nice characteristic shade of meaning that is lost in our. Of course it is not Horatio's philosophy, but your philosophy, that Hamlet is speaking of.-H. N. H.

That

you know aught of me: this not to do, So grace and mercy at your most need help

you,

Swear.

Ghost. [Beneath] Swear.

Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!

So, gentlemen,

180

[They swear.]

With all my love I do commend me to you:
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is

May do, to express his love and friending to

you,

God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in to-
gether;

And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
Nay, come, let's go together.

190

[Exeunt.

187. "Let us go in together"; "This part of the scene after Hamlet's interview with the Ghost has been charged with an improbable eccentricity. But the truth is, that after the mind has been stretched beyond its usual pitch and tone, it must either sink into exhaustion and inanity, or seek relief by change. It is thus well known, that persons conversant in deeds of cruelty contrive to escape from conscience by connecting something of the ludicrous with them, and by inventing grotesque terms and a certain technical phraseology to disguise the horror of their practices. Indeed, paradoxical as it may appear, the terrible by a law of the human mind always touches on the verge of the ludicrous. Both arise from the perception of something out of the common order of things,—something, in fact, out of its place; and if from this we can abstract the danger, the uncommonness alone will remain, and the sense of the ridiculous be excited. The close alliance of these opposites-they are not contraries—appears from the circumstance, that laughter is equally the expression of extreme anguish and horror as of joy: as there are tears of sorrow and tears of joy, so there is a laugh of terror and a laugh of merriment. These complex causes will naturally have produced in Hamlet the disposition to escape from his own feelings of the overwhelming and supernatural by a wild transition to the ludicrous, a sort of cunning bravado, bordering on the flights of delirium" (Coleridge).-H. N. H.

ACT SECOND

SCENE I

A room in Polonius's house.

Enter Polonius and Reynaldo.

Pol. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.

Rey. I will, my lord.

Pol. You shall do marvelous wisely, good Rey

naldo,

Before you visit him, to make inquire

Of his behavior.

Rey.

My lord, I did intend it.

Pol. Marry, well said, very well said. Look you,

sir,

Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris,
And how, and who, what means, and where they
keep,

What company, at what expense, and finding
By this encompassment and drift of question 10
That they do know my son, come you more

nearer

Than your particular demands will touch it:

The stage direction in Qq.:-Enter old Polonius, with his man or two; Ff., Polonius and Reynaldo; in Q. 1, Reynaldo is called Montano, hence perhaps the reading of later Qq.—I. G.

4. "to make inquire"; so Qq.; Ff. read, "you make inquiry.”—I. G.