progress of corruption:" from these instances, we will extract two, as among the most striking: "In the original copy of "HENRY IV.," Part I., printed in 1598 (act iv., scene 4), we find : 'And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence, "In the fourth quarto, printed in 1608, the article being omitted by the negligence of the compositor, and the line printed thus: Who with them was rated sinew too;' the editor of the next quarto (which was copied by the folio), instead of examining the first edition, amended the error (leaving the metre still imperfect), by reading :Who with them was rated firmly too." The instance of gradual perversion just cited, is simply curious that which follows has the additional value of drollery: Malone proceeds: "Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!' says Romeo, when provoked by the appearance of his rival. Instead of this, which is the reading of the quarto (1597), the line in the quarto (1599) is thus corruptly exhibited :— 'And fire end fury be my conduct now!' In the subsequent quarto copy, and was substituted for end; and accordingly, in the folio, the poet's fine imagery is entirely lost, and Romeo exclaims: 'And fire and fury be my conduct now!'" From these examples, it will appear that the patient plodding of Shakspere's editors has not been the useless and ridiculous thing it is often represented. In further justice to Malone (who has, it seems to us, been somewhat harshly censured), we subjoin his statement of the praiseworthy efforts he made to secure correctness in his own edition: "Having often experienced the fallaciousness of collation by the eye, I determined, after I had adjusted the text in the best manner in my power, to have every proof-sheet of my work read aloud to me, while I perused the first folio for those plays which first appeared in that edition; and for all those which had been previously printed, the first quarto copy, excepting only in the instances of 'THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,' and 'HENRY V.,' which, being either sketches or imperfect copies, could not be wholly relied on. I had, at the same time, before me a table which I had formed of the variations between the quarto and the folio. By this laborious process, not a single innovation, made either by the editor of the second folio, or any of the modern editors, could escape me." "The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. * As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood," &c. Act I., Scene 1. After the word "streets," in the above quotation, a line is, with great probability, supposed to be lost, and a blank space, or a line of dashes, is usually left for it: we have, however, thought a minor mark of omission [***] sufficient for the purpose.-Something is evidently wanting to connect the passage commencing "As stars with trains of fire," &c., with that which immediately precedes it. "I'll cross it, though it blast me."-Act I., Scene 1. It was an ancient superstition that the person who crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen, became thus subject to its malignant influence. Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, died young, in 1594; and among the reasons for supposing him to have been killed by witchcraft, was the following::-"On Friday, there appeared a tall man, who twice crossed swiftly; and when the Earl of Derby came to the place where he saw this man, he fell sick." "The glowworm shews the matin to be near, And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire."-Act L, Scene 4. In the paper by Mrs. Radcliffe, to which we have before alluded, there are some further fine observations on the Ghost scenes of Hamlet, which we subjoin, as infinitely superior in interest to mere verbal criticism: "I should never be weary of dwelling on the perfection of Shakspere, in his management of every scene connected with that most solemn and mysterious being, which takes such entire possession of the imagination that we hardly seem conscious we are beings of this world while we contemplate the extravagant and erring spirit.' The spectre departs, accompanied by natural circumstances as touching as those by which he had approached. It is by the strange light of the glowworm, which "gins to pale his uneffectual fire; it is at the first scent of the morning air-the living breath-that the apparition retires. "I have sometimes thought, as I walked in the deep shade of the North Terrace of Windsor Castle, when the moon shone on all beyond, that the scene must have been present in Shakspere's mind when he drew the night scenes in Hamlet and as I have stood on the platform, which there projects over the precipice, and have heard only the measured step of a sentinel, or the clink of his arms, and have seen his shadow passing by moonlight, at the foot of the high eastern tower, I have almost expected to see the royal shade, armed cap-à-pé, standing still on the lonely platform before me. The very star-'yon same star, that's westward from the pole'-seemed to watch over the western towers of the Terrace, whose high dark lines marked themselves upon the heavens. All has been so still and shadowy, so great and solemn, that the scene appeared fit for no mortal business, nor no sound that the earth owes.' Did you ever observe the fine effect of the eastern tower, when you stand near the western end of the North Terrace, and its tall profile rears itself upon the sky, from nearly the base to the battled top; the lowness of the parapet permitting this? It is most striking at night, when the stars appear at different heights, upon the tall dark line, and when the sentinel on watch moves a shadowy figure at its foot." It is in this congenial spirit that Shakspere should be read. Such poetic associations give additional interest even to the time-honoured towers and terraces of royal Windsor. "My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is," &c. Johnson has discussed the conflicting qualities in the character of Polonius, in one of his best notes. "Polonius," he remarks, "is a man bred in courts; exercised in business; stored with observation; confident in his knowledge; proud of his eloquence; and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in particular application; he is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his depositories of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel; but as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to the dereliction of his faculties; he loses the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle and falls into his former train. The idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the phenomena of the character of Polonius." "And he, repulséd (a short tale to make), Fell into a sadness; then into a fast;" &c. Act II., Scene 2. It is observed by Warburton, that "the ridicule of the character of Polonius is here admirably sustained. He would not only be thought to have discovered this intrigue by his own sagacity, but to have remarked all the stages of Hamlet's disorder, from his sadness to his raving, as regularly as his physician could have done; when all the while the madness was only feigned. The humour of this is exquisite from a man who tells us, with a confidence peculiar to small politicians, that he could find 'Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed "For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrion- Have you a daughter ?"—Act II., Scene 2. Hamlet, by breaking off abruptly in this sentence, has been the cause of an infinite deal of ink-shedding. The old copies read, "Being a good kissing carrion." The present reading was suggested by Warburton, and has been generally adopted, as the most plausible that has yet been proposed. His laboured comment on the passage, in which he endeavours to prove that Shakspere intended it as a vindication of the ways of Providence in permitting evil to abound in the world, has not been so well received. Malone has traced in a less exalted, though more probable strain, the train of thought in Hamlet's mind: "Hamlet has just remarked, 'that honesty is very rare in the world.' To this, Polonius assents. The prince then adds, 'that, since there is so little virtue in the world; since corruption abounds everywhere, and maggots are bred by the sun, even in a dead dog, Polonius ought to prevent his daughter from walking in the sun, lest she should prove a breeder of sinners.' "Ros. Truly; and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow. HAM. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows."-Act II., Scene 2. Meaning, according to Johnson, "If ambition is such an unsubstantial thing, then are our beggars (who at least can dream of greatness) the only things of substance; and monarchs and heroes, though appearing to fill such mighty space with their ambition, but the shadows of the beggars' dreams." "We coted them on the way."-Act II., Scene 2. The term "coted" is derived from the french coté, the side. "In the laws of coursing," says Mr. Tollet, "a cote is when a greyhound goes endways by the side of his fellow, and gives the hare a turn." Instances are given of the use of the word in the sense of overtaking or passing by. "The clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the serc."-Act II., Scene 2. That is, those who are troubled with a huskiness, or dry cough. "HAM. How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation."-Act II., Scene 2. The "innovation" here alluded to appears to have been the public performance of the "Children of the Revels," the "Children of St. Paul's," &c., which for a time attracted the town, and thereby in effect "inhibited" or prevented the performance of the regular players at their old stations, and compelled them to "travel." In "JACK DRUM'S ENTERTAINMENT" (1601), we find : "I sawe the children of Powle's [Paul's] last night, In the first quarto edition of the play (1603), the passage stands thus: "Ham. How comes it that they travel? do they grow restie? Gil. No, my lord; their reputation holds as it was wont. Ham. How then? Gil. I' faith, my lord, novelly carries it away; for the principal public audience that came to them, are turned to private plays, and to the humour of children." There is still, however, some obscurity connected with this matter, since we cannot be certain that the passage in the present text refers to the same period of time as the corresponding one in the earliest quarto. In June, 1600, an order of council passed "for the restraint of the immoderate use of playhouses." It prescribes that "there shall be about the city two houses, and no more, allowed for the use of the common stage plays." This order may, with some probability, be deemed the origin of the "inhibition" and "innovation" referred to in the text. "O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!" Act II., Scene 2. In Percy's "RELIQUES," there is an imperfect copy of the old ballad to which Hamlet here refers. It has been since entirely recovered, and is printed entire in Mr. Evans's "COLLECTION OF OLD BALLADS" (1810). The first stanza comprises the various quotations in the text : "I have heard that many years agoe, As by lot, God wot, It came to passe most like as it was, And who should be the chiefe, but he, but he." "When he himself might his quietus make The word "quietus" signifies discharge or acquittance. Every sheriff receives his "quietus" on settling his accounts at the Exchequer. "Bodkin" was the term in use to signify a small dagger. To grunt and sweat under a weary life."-Act III., Scene 1. This is the true reading, according to all the old copies; "although," as Johnson observes, "it can scarcely be borne by modern ears." On this point, Malone remarks, "I apprehend that it is the duty of an editor to exhibit what his author wrote; and not to substitute what may appear to the present age preferable. I have, therefore, though with some reluctance, adhered to the old copies, however unpleasing this word may be to the car. On the stage, without doubt, an actor is at liberty to substitute a less offensive word. To the ears of our ancestors, it probably conveyed no unpleas ing sound; for we find it used by Chaucer and others." "To split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise."-Act III., Scene 2. The pit, in the early theatres, had neither floor nor benches, and was frequented by the poorer classes. Ben Jonson speaks with equal contempt of the "understanding gentlemen of the ground." Of the "dumb shows," we have a specimen in the play scene of this tragedy. "The meaner people," says Dr. Johnson, "then seem to have sat [stood] below, as they now sit in the upper gallery; who, not well 21 understanding poetical language, were sometimes gratified by a mimical and mute representation of the drama, previous to the dialogue." "I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod."-Act III., Scene 2. Termagant, according to Percy, was a Saracen deity, very clamorous and violent in the Old Moralities. Herod, also, was a constant character in these entertainments, and his outrageous boasting is sometimes highly amusing. Subjoined are two short specimens. The first is from the "CHESTER WHITSUN PLAYS: " "For I am kinge of all mankinde, I byd, I beate, I lose, I bynde; I master the moone;-take this in mynde, I am the greatest above degree, That is, that was, or ever shall be; The sonne it dare not shine on me, It appears that this amiable personage had no less conceit of his "bewte" than of his "boldness." In one of his "COVENTRY PLAYS," he exclaims : "Of bewte and of boldness I ber evermor the belle, Of mayn and of myght I master every man ; I dynge with my dowtiness the devil down to helle, " My lord, you played once in the university, you say.' Act III., Scene 2. The practice of acting Latin plays in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is very ancient, and continued to near the middle of the seventeenth century. They were performed occasionally for the entertainment of princes, and other great personages; and regularly at Christmas, at which time a "Lord of Misrule" was appointed at Oxford, to regulate the exhibitions, and a similar officer, with the title of "Imperator," at Cambridge. A Latin play, on the subject of Cæsar's death, was performed at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1582. "HAM. Lady, shall I lie in your lap? OPH. No, my lord."-Act III., Scene 2. On the publication of the original edition of this play, which had been previously unknown to the commentators or the public, some remarks upon it appeared in a morning journal, from which we select the following, as well worthy of attention, in reference to this scene, and to some other parts of Shakspere's text which the reader, without being affectedly delicate, may be pardoned for wishing away: "Many striking peculiarities in this edition of Hamlet tend strongly to confirm our opinion, that no small portion of the ribaldry to be found in the plays of our great poet, is to be assigned to the actors of his time, who flattered the vulgar taste with the constant repetition of many indecent, and not a few stupid jokes, till they came to be considered, and then printed, as part of the genuine text. Of these, the two or three brief but offensive speeches of Hamlet to Ophelia, in the play scene (act iii.), are not to be found in the copy of 1603; and so far are we borne out in our opinion; for it is not to be supposed that Shakspere would insert them upon cool reflection, three years after the success of his piece had been determined. Still less likely is it that a piratical printer would reject anything actually belonging to the play, which would prove pleasing to the vulgar bulk of those who were to be the purchasers of his publication." We have no desire to be numbered among those who are in the habit of visiting the sins of Shakspere, real or imaginary, on the heads of the actors; but there is certainly something in the fact here stated that deserves consideration. In justice both to poet and players, we subjoin Mr. Campbell's judicious comment on the remarks just cited : "I am inclined, upon the whole, to agree with these remarks, although the subject leaves us beset with uncertainties. This copy of the play was apparently pirated; but the pirate's omission of the improper passages alluded to, is not a perfect proof that they were absent in the first representation of the piece; yet it leads to such a presumption; for, looking at the morality of Shakspere's theatre in the main, he is none of your poetical artists who resort to an impure influence over the fancy. Little sallies of indecorum he may have now and then committed; but they are few, and are eccentricities from his general character, partially pardonable on account of the bad taste of his age. What a frightful contrast to his purity is displayed among his nearest dramatic successors-love in relations of life where Nature forbids passion! Shakspere scorns to interest us in any love that is not purely natural." "Your only jig-maker."-Act III., Scene 2. A "jig" signified not only a dance, but also a ludicrous prose or metrical composition. Many of these jigs are entered in the books of the Stationers' Company. "Let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables" Act III., Scene 2. Meaning, probably, a suit that shall be expressive of the reverse feeling to sorrow or humiliation. "A suit of sables (says Malone) was, in Shakspere's time, the richest dress worn by men in England. Wherever his scene might happen to be, the customs of his own country were still in his thoughts." By the statute of apparel (24 HEN. VIII.), it is ordained that none under the degree of an earl may use sables. "For 0, for 0, the hobby-horse is forgot!”—Act III. Scene 2. The banishment of the hobby-horse from the May games is frequently lamented in the old dramas. The line quoted by Hamlet appears to have been part of a ballad on the subject of poor Hobby. He was driven from his station by the Puritans, as an impious and pagan superstition; but restored on the promulgation of the "BOOK OF SPORTS." The hobby-horse was formed of a pasteboard horse's head, and probably a light frame made of wicker-work, to form the hinder parts; this was fastened round the body of a man, and covered with a footcloth which nearly reached the ground, and concealed the legs of the performer. Similar contrivances, in burlesque pieces, are not unusual at this day, in the London minor theatres. "HOR. Half a share. HAM. A whole one, I."-Act III., Scene 2. Actors, in Shakspere's time, had not annual salaries, as at present. The whole receipts of each theatre were divided into shares, of which the proprietors of the theatre, or "house-keepers," as they were called, had some; and each actor had one or more shares, or parts of a share, according to his merit. "Hide fox, and all after.""-Act IV., Scene 2. This, no doubt, was the name of a juvenile sport of the poet's age; it is supposed to be the same as is now called "hide and seek." "Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?" It is remarked by Sir Joshua Reynolds, that there is no part of this play, in its representation on the stage, more pathetic than this scene; which he supposes to arise from the utter insensibility of Ophelia to her own misfortunes. "A great sensibility (says he), or none at all, seems to produce the same effect. In the latter case, the audience supply what is wanting; and with the former they sympathise." In reference to "the sweet Ophelia," Hazlitt eloquently exclaims:-" Ophelia is a character almost too exquisitely touching to be dwelt upon. 'Oh, rose of May!' oh, flower too soon faded! Her love, her madness, her death are described with the truest touches of tenderness and pathos. It is a character which nobody but Shakspere could have drawn in the way he has done; and to the conception of which there is not the smallest approach, except in some of the old romantic ballads." Mrs. Jameson also, in her "CHARACTERISTICS OF WoMEN," has a beautiful passage on the same pathetic theme:"Once at Marano, I saw a dove caught in a tempest: perhaps it was young, and either lacked strength of wing to reach its home, or the instinct which teaches to shun the brooding storm: but so it was-and I watched it, pitying as it flitted, poor bird! hither and thither, with its silver pinions shining against the black thunder-cloud, till after a few giddy whirls it fell blinded, affrighted, and bewildered, into the turbid wave beneath, and was swallowed up for ever. It reminded me of the fate of Ophelia; and now, when I think of her, I see again that poor dove, beating with weary wing, bewildered amid the storm." "How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle-hat and staff, And his sandal-shoon."-Act IV., Scene 5. The habiliments mentioned in the last two lines were appropriated to pilgrims. Warburton remarks, "that while this kind of devotion was in favour, love intrigues were carried on under that mask. Hence the old ballads and novels made pilgrimages the subjects of their plots. The cockleshell was an emblem of an intention to go beyond sea." "They say, the owl was a baker's daughter." Act IV., Scene 5. This transformation is said to be a common tradition in Gloucestershire. It is thus related by Mr. Douce:-"Our Saviour went into a baker's shop where they were baking, and asked for some bread to eat: the mistress of the shop immediately put a piece of dough in the oven to bake for him; but was reprimanded by her daughter, who insisting that the piece of dough was too large, reduced it to a very small size: the dough, however, immediately began to swell, and presently became of a most enormous size, whereupon the baker's daughter cried out, Heugh, heugh, heugh,' which owl-like noise probably induced our Saviour to transform her into that bird, for her wickedness." The story is related to deter children from illiberal behaviour to the poor. "There's such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would." For "hedge" the first quarto reads "wall."-As a genuine instance of royal confidence, an anecdote of Queen Elizabeth is quoted from Chettle's "ENGLAND'S MOURNING GARMENT: "—"While her Majesty was on the Thames, near Greenwich, a shot was fired by accident, which struck the royal barge, and hurt a waterman near her. The French ambassador being amazed, and all crying 'Treason, treason!' yet she, with an undaunted spirit, came to the open "It was that very day that young Hamlet was born." This is possibly a slip of memory in the poet. It appears, from what the Gravedigger subsequently says, that Hamlet must have been at this period thirty years old; and yet, in the early part of the play, we are told of his intention to return to school at Wittenberg. In the first quarto, Yorick's skull is said to have lain in the earth twelve years, instead of three-and-twenty, as at present:-"Look you, here's a skull hath been here this dozen year; let me see, ay, ever since our last King Hamlet slew Fortinbrasse in combat:-young Hamlet's father: he that's mad." It is probable that, in the reconstruction of the play, Shakspere perceived that the general depth of Hamlet's philosophy indicated a mind too mature for the possession of a very young man.-In reference to Hamlet's demeanour in this transcendant scene, Boswell the younger says (in his edition of Malone), "The scene with the Gravedigger shews, in a striking point of view, his good-natured affability. The reflections which follow afford new proofs of his amiable character. The place where he stands, the frame of his own thoughts, and the objects which surround him, suggest the vanity of all human pursuits; but there is nothing harsh or caustic in his satire; his observations are dictated rather by feelings of sorrow than of anger; and the sprightliness of his wit, which misfortune has repressed, but cannot altogether extinguish, has thrown over the whole a truly pathetic cast of humorous sadness. Those gleams of sunshine, which serve only to shew us the scattered fragments of a brilliant imagination, crushed and broken by calamity, are much more affecting than a long uninterrupted train of monotonous woe." "Let four captains Bear Hamlet, like a soldier to the stage, To have proved most royally."-Act V., Scene 2. Many efforts have been made to render the character of Hamlet perfectly consonant with that idea of moral perfection which we are anxious to attach to him; but none, it appears to us, with perfect success; nor are such attempts necessary, except for those who are anxious to worship an idol, rather than to discuss the merits of a human being. As regards the main incident of his life, his merits and deficiencies are delineated with great delicacy and discrimination by the hand of Goethe:-"It is clear to me that Shakspere's intention was to exhibit the effects of a great action, imposed as a duty, upon a mind too feeble for its accomplishment. In this sense, I find the character consistent throughout. Here is an oak planted in a china vase, proper to receive only the most delicate flowers: the roots strike out, and the vessel flies to pieces. A pure, noble, highly moral disposition, but without that energy of soul which constitutes the hero, sinks under a load which it can neither support nor resolve to abandon altogether. All his obligations are sacred to him; but this alone is above his powers. An impossibility is required at his hands; not an impossibility in itself, but that which is so to him. Observe how he shifts, turns, hesitates, advances and recedes; how he is continually reminded and reminding himself of his great commission, which he, nevertheless, in the end, seems almost entirely to lose sight of; and this without ever recovering his former tranquillity." In reference to the disputed question of Hamlet's sanity, Boswell makes some judicious remarks, in which he maintains that the prince's great intellect is essentially sound, though weakened and disturbed: "The sentiments which fall from Hamlet in his soliloquies, or in confidential communication with Horatio, evince not only a sound, but an acute and vigorous understanding. His misfortunes, indeed, and a sense of shame, from the hasty and incestuous marriage of his mother, have sunk him into a state of weakness and melancholy; but though his mind is enfeebled, it is by no means deranged. It would have been little in the manner of Shakspere to introduce two persons in the same play whose intellects were disordered; but he has rather, in this instance, as in 'KING LEAR,' a second time effected what, as far as I can recollect, no other writer has ever ventured to attempt-the exhibition on the same scene of real and fictitious madness in contrast with each other.-In carrying his design into execution, Hamlet feels no difficulty in imposing upon the King, whom he detests; or upon Polonius, and his school-fellows, whom he despises but the case is very different indeed in his interviews with Ophelia: aware of the submissive mildness of her character, which leads her to be subject to the influence of her father and her brother, he cannot venture to entrust her with his secret. In her presence, therefore, he has not only to assume a disguise, but to restrain himself from those expressions of affection which a lover must find it most difficult to repress in the presence of his mistress. In this tumult of conflicting feelings, he is led to overact his part, from a fear of falling below it; and thus gives an appearance of rudeness and harshness to that which is, in fact, a painful struggle to conceal his tenderness." Dr. Johnson's appreciation of Shakspere is, unfortunately, not in general such as to tempt us to transcribe his summary remarks on each play; but as the opening paragraph of his estimate of "HAMLET" is more lauditory than usual, we willingly give it currency: "If the dramas of Shakspere were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity: with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and solemnity not strained by poetical violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various forms of life and particular modes of conversation. The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from the Apparition that in the first Act chills the blood with horror, to the Fop in the last, that exposes affectation to just contempt." As a specimen of the great difference between the first edition of .. HAMLET" and the finished play, we subjoin a scene from the former, in which the prince's return is announced to his mother. It should be premised that, in the earlier edition, the Queen's innocence of the murder is distinctly asserted by herself; as it is also in the black-letter HISTORIE OF HAMBLETT:" Enter HORATIO and the QUEEN. Hor. Madam, your son is safe arrived in Denmarke, As at his next conversion with your grace Queen. Then I perceive there's treason in his looks, Hor. Yes, madam, and he hath appointed me To meet him on the east side of the city Queen. O fail not, good Horatio, and withal commend me Hor. Madam, never make doubt of that; I think by this the news be come to court Things fell not to his mind. Queen. But what became of Gilderstone and Rossencraft? Hor. He being set ashore, they went for England, And in the packet there writ down that doom To be performed on them 'pointed for him: And by great chance he had his father's seal, So all was done without discovery. Queen. Thanks be to heaven for blessing of the prince. Horatio, once again I take my leave, With thousand mother's blessings to my son. Hor. Madam, adieu! |