, which Hamlet seemed to have
forgot: and the ghost bade him speak to his mother, for the grief and
terror she was in would else kill her. It then vanished, and was seen
by none but Hamlet, neither could he by pointing to where it stood,
or by any description, make his mother perceive it; who was terribly
frighted all this while to hear him conversing, as it seemed to her,
with nothing: and she imputed it to the disorder of his mind. But
Hamlet begged her not to flatter her wicked soul in such a manner as
to think that it was his madness, and not her own offences, which had
brought his father's spirit again on the earth. And he bade her feel
his pulse, how temperately it beat, not like a madman's. And he begged
of her with tears, to confess herself to heaven for what was past,
and for the future to avoid the company of the king, and be no more
as a wife to him: and when she should shew herself a mother to him,
by respecting his father's memory, he would ask a blessing of her as
a son. And she promising to observe his directions, the conference
ended.

And now Hamlet was at leisure to consider who it was that in his
unfortunate rashness he had killed: and when he came to see that it
was Polonius, the father of the lady Ophelia, whom he so dearly loved,
he drew apart the dead body, and, his spirits being now a little
quieter, he wept for what he had done.

The unfortunate death of Polonius gave the king a pretence for sending
Hamlet out of the kingdom. He would willingly have put him to death,
fearing him as dangerous; but he dreaded the people, who loved Hamlet;
and the queen, who, with all her faults, doted upon the prince, her
son. So this subtle king, under pretence of providing for Hamlet's
safety, that he might not be called to account for Polonius' death,
caused him to be conveyed on board a ship bound for England, under the
care of two courtiers, by whom he dispatched letters to the English
court, which at that time was in subjection and paid tribute to
Denmark, requiring for special reasons there pretended, that Hamlet
should be put to death as soon as he landed on English ground. Hamlet,
suspecting some treachery, in the night-time secretly got at the
letters, and skilfully erasing his own name, he in the stead of it
put in the names of those two courtiers, who had the charge of him,
to be put to death: then sealing up the letters, he put them into
their place again. Soon after the ship was attacked by pirates