Qu. Hamlet, Hamlet. [Sidenote: All. Gentlemen.]
Gen. Good my Lord be quiet. [Sidenote: Hora. Good]
Ham. Why I will fight with him vppon this Theme, Vntill my eielids will no longer wag.[4]
Qu. Oh my Sonne, what Theame?
Ham. I lou'd Ophelia[5]; fortie thousand Brothers Could not (with all there quantitie of Loue) Make vp my summe. What wilt thou do for her?[6]
King. Oh he is mad Laertes.[7]
Qu. For loue of God forbeare him.
Ham. Come show me what thou'lt doe.
[Sidenote: Ham S'wounds shew | th'owt fight,
woo't fast, woo't teare]
Woo't weepe? Woo't fight? Woo't teare thy selfe?
Woo't drinke vp Esile, eate a Crocodile?[6]
Ile doo't. Dost thou come heere to whine; [Sidenote: doost come]
To outface me with leaping in her Graue?
Be[8] buried quicke with her, and so will I.
And if thou prate of Mountaines; let them throw
Millions of Akers on vs; till our ground
Sindging his pate against the burning Zone,
[Sidenote: 262] Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, and thoul't mouth,
Ile rant as well as thou.[9]
[Footnote 1: This fine speech is yet spoken in the character of madman, which Hamlet puts on once more the moment he has to appear before the king. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; its extravagance to his assumed insanity. It must be remembered that death is a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the death of Ophelia may even be some consolation to him.
In the Folio, a few lines back, Laertes leaps into the grave. There is no such direction in the Q. In neither is Hamlet said to leap into the grave; only the 1st Q. so directs. It is a stage-business that must please the common actor of Hamlet; but there is nothing in the text any more than in the margin of Folio or Quarto to justify it, and it would but for the horror of it be ludicrous. The coffin is supposed to be in the grave: must Laertes jump down upon it, followed by Hamlet, and the two fight and trample over the body?