

Specimen Page of the 



Stratford-on-Avon Shakespeare 

 Hamlet 



Ham. The king doth wake to-night and takes 



his rouse, 

 Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring 



reels ; 



And as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down. 

 The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out 

 The triumph of his pledge. 



Hor. Is it a custom ? 



co Ham, Ay, marry is 't ; 



But to my mind, though I am native here 

 ^ And to the manner born, it is a custom 

 * More honour'd in the breach than the observ- 2$ 

 ance. 



** This heavy-headed revel east and west [blamed 



Makes us traduc'd and tax'd* of other nations : Ja 

 They clepe* us drunkards, and with swinish [call 



phrase 

 fJ Soil our addition * ; and indeed it takes [tnie 



From our achievements, though perform'd at "^ 

 height, " 



^ The pith and marrow of our attribute. .R 



g So, oft it chances in particular men, 

 ^ That for some vicious mole of nature in them, 



^ As, in their birth wherein they are not guilty, 



Since nature cannot choose his origin 

 By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,* 



[natural disposition J 



Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, 

 Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens 

 The form of plausive manners, that these men, 

 Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, 

 Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, 

 Their virtues else be they as pure as grace, 

 As infinite as man may undergo* [experience 

 Shall in the general censure take corruption 

 From that particular fault : the dram of eale*p CTU 



LONDON : GEORGE NEWNES LIMITED, PUBLISHERS. 



