Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/17

Prince of Denmark, I. i

Against the which, a moiety competent

Was gaged by our king; which had return'd

To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,

And carriage of the article design'd,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there

Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,

For food and diet, to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in 't; which is no other—

As it doth well appear unto our state—

But to recover of us, by strong hand

And terms compulsative, those foresaid lands

So by his father lost. And this, I take it,

Is the main motive of our preparations,

The source of this our watch and the chief head

Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

[Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so;

Well may it sort that this portentous figure

Comes armed through our watch, so like the king

That was and is the question of these wars.

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.

In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead

Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;

 90 moiety competent: equal amount

91 gaged: staked

94 carriage: import

design'd: drawn up

96 unimproved: unproved (?); cf. n.

hot and full: exceedingly ardent

97 skirts: outskirts

98 Shark'd up: picked up at haphazard

list; cf. n.

resolutes: desperadoes

99 For diet; cf. n.

100 stomach; cf. n.

103 compulsative: involving compulsion

106 head: origin

107 romage: commotion, bustle

109 sort: fit

112 mote: minute particle of dust

113 palmy state: flourishing sovereignty

