[Page 54]
With iuyce of cursed Hebenon[1] in a Violl, [Sidenote: Hebona]
And in the Porches of mine eares did poure [Sidenote: my]
The leaperous Distilment;[2] whose effect
Holds such an enmity with bloud of Man,
That swift as Quick-siluer, it courses[3] through
The naturall Gates and Allies of the Body;
And with a sodaine vigour it doth posset [Sidenote: doth possesse]
And curd, like Aygre droppings into Milke, [Sidenote: eager[4]
The thin and wholsome blood: so did it mine;
And a most instant Tetter bak'd about, [Sidenote: barckt about[5]
Most Lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
All my smooth Body.
Thus was I, sleeping, by a Brothers hand,
Of Life, of Crowne, and Queene at once dispatcht; [Sidenote: of Queene]
[Sidenote: 164] Cut off euen in the Blossomes of my Sinne,
Vnhouzzled, disappointed, vnnaneld,[6] [Sidenote: Vnhuzled, | vnanueld,]
[Sidenote: 262] No reckoning made, but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head;
Oh horrible, Oh horrible, most horrible:
If thou hast nature in thee beare it not;
Let not the Royall Bed of Denmarke be
A Couch for Luxury and damned Incest.[7]
But howsoeuer thou pursuest this Act,
[Sidenote: howsomeuer thou pursues]
[Sidenote: 30,174] Taint not thy mind; nor let thy Soule contriue
[Sidenote: 140] Against thy Mother ought; leaue her to heauen,
And to those Thornes that in her bosome lodge,
To pricke and sting her. Fare thee well at once;
The Glow-worme showes the Matine to be neere,
And gins to pale his vneffectuall Fire:
Adue, adue, Hamlet: remember me. Exit.
[Sidenote: Adiew, adiew, adiew, remember me.[8]
Ham. Oh all you host of Heauen! Oh Earth: what els?
And shall I couple Hell?[9] Oh fie[10]: hold my heart;
[Sidenote: hold, hold my]
And you my sinnewes, grow not instant Old;
[Footnote 1: Ebony.]
[Footnote 2: producing leprosy—as described in result below.]
[Footnote 3: 1st Q. 'posteth'.]
[Footnote 4: So also 1st Q.]
[Footnote 5: This barckt—meaning cased as a bark cases its tree—is used in 1st Q. also: 'And all my smoothe body, barked, and tetterd ouer.' The word is so used in Scotland still.]
[Footnote 6: Husel (Anglo-Saxon) is an offering, the sacrament. Disappointed, not appointed: Dr. Johnson. Unaneled, unoiled, without the extreme unction.]
[Footnote 7: It is on public grounds, as a king and a Dane, rather than as a husband and a murdered man, that he urges on his son the execution of justice. Note the tenderness towards his wife that follows—more marked, 174; here it is mingled with predominating regard to his son to whose filial nature he dreads injury.]