[Page 10]
Had he bin Vanquisher, as by the same Cou'nant
[Sidenote: the same comart]
And carriage of the Article designe,[1] [Sidenote: desseigne,]
His fell to Hamlet. Now sir, young Fortinbras,
Of vnimproued[2] Mettle, hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, heere and there,
Shark'd[3] vp a List of Landlesse Resolutes, [Sidenote: of lawlesse]
For Foode and Diet, to some Enterprize
That hath a stomacke in't[4]: which is no other
(And it doth well appeare vnto our State) [Sidenote: As it]
But to recouer of vs by strong hand
And termes Compulsatiue, those foresaid Lands [Sidenote: compulsatory,]
So by his Father lost: and this (I take it)
Is the maine Motiue of our Preparations,
The Sourse of this our Watch, and the cheefe head
Of this post-hast, and Romage[5] in the Land.
[A]Enter Ghost againe.
But soft, behold: Loe, where it comes againe:
[Footnote A: Here in the Quarto:—
Bar. I thinke it be no other, but enso;
Well may it sort[6] that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch so like the King
That was and is the question of these warres.
Hora. A moth it is to trouble the mindes eye:
In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Iulius fell
The graues stood tennatlesse, and the sheeted dead
Did squeake and gibber in the Roman streets[7]
As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of blood
Disasters in the sunne; and the moist starre,
Vpon whose influence Neptunes Empier stands
Was sicke almost to doomesday with eclipse.
And euen the like precurse of feare euents
As harbindgers preceading still the fates
And prologue to the Omen comming on
Haue heauen and earth together demonstrated
Vnto our Climatures and countrymen.[8]
Enter Ghost.]
[Footnote 1: French désigné.]
[Footnote 2: not proved or tried. Improvement, as we use the word, is the result of proof or trial: upon-proof-ment.]