Page:Hamlet (1917) Yale.djvu/38

26

Hor. Do not, my lord.

Ham. Why, what should be the fear?

I do not set my life at a pin's fee;

And for my soul, what can it do to that,

Being a thing immortal as itself?

It waves me forth again; I'll follow it.

Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,

Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff

That beetles o'er his base into the sea,

And there assume some other horrible form,

Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason

And draw you into madness? think of it;

[The very place puts toys of desperation,

Without more motive, into every brain

That looks so many fathoms to the sea

And hears it roar beneath.]

Ham. It wafts me still. Go on, I'll follow thee.

Mar. You shall not go, my lord.

Ham. Hold off your hands!

Hor. Be rul'd; you shall not go.

Ham. My fate cries out,

And makes each petty artery in this body

As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.

Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen,

By heaven! I'll make a ghost of him that lets me:

I say, away! Go on, I'll follow thee.

Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.

Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination.

Mar. Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.

 65 at fee: at even a trifling value

69 flood: sea

71 beetles: overhangs threateningly

73 deprive reason: dethrone reason from its sovereignty

75 toys of desperation: whims involving thoughts of self-destruction

83 Nemean lion's; cf. n.

nerve: sinew, tendon

85 lets: hinders

