nd resemblance of circumstances
so affected, that on the spot he confessed the crime which he had
committed. And he determined that these players should play something
like the murder of his father before his uncle, and he would watch
narrowly what effect it might have upon him, and from his looks he
would be able to gather with more certainty if he were the murderer
or not. To this effect he ordered a play to be prepared, to the
representation of which he invited the king and queen.

The story of the play was of a murder done in Vienna upon a duke. The
duke's name was Gonzago, his wife Baptista. The play shewed how one
Lucianus, a near relation to the duke, poisoned him in his garden for
his estate, and how the murderer in a short time after got the love of
Gonzago's wife.

At the representation of this play the king, who did not know the trap
which was laid for him, was present, with his queen and the whole
court: Hamlet sitting attentively near him to observe his looks. The
play began with a conversation between Gonzago and his wife, in which
the lady made many protestations of love, and of never marrying a
second husband, if she should outlive Gonzago; wishing she might be
accursed if she ever took a second husband, and adding that no woman
ever did so but those wicked women who kill their first husbands.
Hamlet observed the king, his uncle, change colour at this expression,
and that it was as bad as wormwood both to him and to the queen. But
when Lucianus, according to the story, came to poison Gonzago sleeping
in the garden, the strong resemblance which it bore to his own wicked
act upon the late king, his brother, whom he had poisoned in his
garden, so struck upon the conscience of this usurper, that he was
unable to sit out the rest of the play, but on a sudden calling for
lights to his chamber, and affecting or partly feeling a sudden
sickness, he abruptly left the theatre. The king being departed the
play was given over. Now Hamlet had seen enough to be satisfied that
the words of the ghost were true, and no illusion; and in a fit of
gaiety, like that which comes over a man who suddenly has some great
doubt or scruple resolved, he swore to Horatio that he would take the
ghost's word for a thousand pounds. But before he could make up his
resolution as to what measures of revenge he should take, now he was
certainly informed that his uncle was his father's murderer, he was
sent for by the queen, his mother, to