< Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu
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SC. V.]
45
PRINCE OF DENMARK

O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!—won to his[a 1] shameful lust ⁠45
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
O Hamlet, what a[a 2] falling-off was there!
From me, whose love was of that dignity
That it went hand in hand even with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline ⁠50
Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor
To those of mine!
But virtue, as it never will be moved,
Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd, ⁠55
Will sate[a 3] itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage.
But, soft! methinks I scent the morning[a 4]. air;
Brief let me be. Sleeping within mine[a 5] orchard,
My custom always in[a 6] the afternoon, ⁠60
Upon my secure[b 1] hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon[a 7][b 2] in a vial,
And in the porches of mine[a 8] ears did pour

  1. ↑ 45. to his] Q, Ff 3, 4; to to this F; to this F 2.
  2. ↑ 47. a] omitted in Qq except Q 6.
  3. ↑ 56. sate] F, sort Q, seat Ff 3, 4 (Q 1 fate, a misprint).
  4. ↑ 58. morning] Q, mornings F.
  5. ↑ 59. mine] F, my Q.
  6. ↑ 60. in] Q 1, F; of Q.
  7. ↑ 62. hebenon] F; Hebona Q 1, Q.
  8. ↑ 63. mine] F, my Q.
  1. ↑ 61. secure] careless, unsuspecting, accented as in Othello, IV. i. 72: "To lip a wanton in a secure couch." Merry Wives, II. i. 241: "a secure fool."
  2. ↑ 62. hebenon] Grey conjectured henebon, meaning henbane. Douce, having found an example of Ebeno, ebony, suggested that this was meant, Elze conjectured hemlock; Beisly, eneron, one of the names for deadly nightshade. Nicholson (N. Sh. Soc. Transactions, 1880-82) shows that the yew was considered a most deadly poison; that Ebenus was mediævally applied to different trees, including the yew; that Marlowe, Spenser, and Reynolds use Heben for the yew; and he maintains that in the words "cursed" and "at enmity with blood of man" Shakespeare was adopting the description of the yew found in Holland's Pliny, 1600.
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