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1 + THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK
2 +
3 +
4 + by William Shakespeare
5 +
6 +
7 +
8 + Dramatis Personae
9 +
10 + Claudius, King of Denmark.
11 + Marcellus, Officer.
12 + Hamlet, son to the former, and nephew to the present king.
13 + Polonius, Lord Chamberlain.
14 + Horatio, friend to Hamlet.
15 + Laertes, son to Polonius.
16 + Voltemand, courtier.
17 + Cornelius, courtier.
18 + Rosencrantz, courtier.
19 + Guildenstern, courtier.
20 + Osric, courtier.
21 + A Gentleman, courtier.
22 + A Priest.
23 + Marcellus, officer.
24 + Bernardo, officer.
25 + Francisco, a soldier
26 + Reynaldo, servant to Polonius.
27 + Players.
28 + Two Clowns, gravediggers.
29 + Fortinbras, Prince of Norway.
30 + A Norwegian Captain.
31 + English Ambassadors.
32 +
33 + Getrude, Queen of Denmark, mother to Hamlet.
34 + Ophelia, daughter to Polonius.
35 +
36 + Ghost of Hamlet's Father.
37 +
38 + Lords, ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, Attendants.
39 +
40 +
41 +
42 +
43 +
44 + SCENE.- Elsinore.
45 +
46 +
47 + ACT I. Scene I.
48 + Elsinore. A platform before the Castle.
49 +
50 + Enter two Sentinels-[first,] Francisco, [who paces up and down
51 + at his post; then] Bernardo, [who approaches him].
52 +
53 + Ber. Who's there.?
54 + Fran. Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.
55 + Ber. Long live the King!
56 + Fran. Bernardo?
57 + Ber. He.
58 + Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.
59 + Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.
60 + Fran. For this relief much thanks. 'Tis bitter cold,
61 + And I am sick at heart.
62 + Ber. Have you had quiet guard?
63 + Fran. Not a mouse stirring.
64 + Ber. Well, good night.
65 + If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
66 + The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
67 +
68 + Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
69 +
70 + Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there?
71 + Hor. Friends to this ground.
72 + Mar. And liegemen to the Dane.
73 + Fran. Give you good night.
74 + Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier.
75 + Who hath reliev'd you?
76 + Fran. Bernardo hath my place.
77 + Give you good night. Exit.
78 + Mar. Holla, Bernardo!
79 + Ber. Say-
80 + What, is Horatio there ?
81 + Hor. A piece of him.
82 + Ber. Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus.
83 + Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
84 + Ber. I have seen nothing.
85 + Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
86 + And will not let belief take hold of him
87 + Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us.
88 + Therefore I have entreated him along,
89 + With us to watch the minutes of this night,
90 + That, if again this apparition come,
91 + He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
92 + Hor. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
93 + Ber. Sit down awhile,
94 + And let us once again assail your ears,
95 + That are so fortified against our story,
96 + What we two nights have seen.
97 + Hor. Well, sit we down,
98 + And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
99 + Ber. Last night of all,
100 + When yond same star that's westward from the pole
101 + Had made his course t' illume that part of heaven
102 + Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
103 + The bell then beating one-
104 +
105 + Enter Ghost.
106 +
107 + Mar. Peace! break thee off! Look where it comes again!
108 + Ber. In the same figure, like the King that's dead.
109 + Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
110 + Ber. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.
111 + Hor. Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.
112 + Ber. It would be spoke to.
113 + Mar. Question it, Horatio.
114 + Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night
115 + Together with that fair and warlike form
116 + In which the majesty of buried Denmark
117 + Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee speak!
118 + Mar. It is offended.
119 + Ber. See, it stalks away!
120 + Hor. Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee speak!
121 + Exit Ghost.
122 + Mar. 'Tis gone and will not answer.
123 + Ber. How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale.
124 + Is not this something more than fantasy?
125 + What think you on't?
126 + Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe
127 + Without the sensible and true avouch
128 + Of mine own eyes.
129 + Mar. Is it not like the King?
130 + Hor. As thou art to thyself.
131 + Such was the very armour he had on
132 + When he th' ambitious Norway combated.
133 + So frown'd he once when, in an angry parle,
134 + He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
135 + 'Tis strange.
136 + Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
137 + With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
138 + Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not;
139 + But, in the gross and scope of my opinion,
140 + This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
141 + Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows,
142 + Why this same strict and most observant watch
143 + So nightly toils the subject of the land,
144 + And why such daily cast of brazen cannon
145 + And foreign mart for implements of war;
146 + Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
147 + Does not divide the Sunday from the week.
148 + What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
149 + Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day?
150 + Who is't that can inform me?
151 + Hor. That can I.
152 + At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
153 + Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
154 + Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
155 + Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
156 + Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet
157 + (For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)
158 + Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
159 + Well ratified by law and heraldry,
160 + Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
161 + Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror;
162 + Against the which a moiety competent
163 + Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
164 + To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
165 + Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same comart
166 + And carriage of the article design'd,
167 + His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
168 + Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
169 + Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
170 + Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
171 + For food and diet, to some enterprise
172 + That hath a stomach in't; which is no other,
173 + As it doth well appear unto our state,
174 + But to recover of us, by strong hand
175 + And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
176 + So by his father lost; and this, I take it,
177 + Is the main motive of our preparations,
178 + The source of this our watch, and the chief head
179 + Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
180 + Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so.
181 + Well may it sort that this portentous figure
182 + Comes armed through our watch, so like the King
183 + That was and is the question of these wars.
184 + Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
185 + In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
186 + A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
187 + The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
188 + Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;
189 + As stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood,
190 + Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
191 + Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
192 + Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse.
193 + And even the like precurse of fierce events,
194 + As harbingers preceding still the fates
195 + And prologue to the omen coming on,
196 + Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
197 + Unto our climature and countrymen.
198 +
199 + Enter Ghost again.
200 +
201 + But soft! behold! Lo, where it comes again!
202 + I'll cross it, though it blast me.- Stay illusion!
203 + Spreads his arms.
204 + If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
205 + Speak to me.
206 + If there be any good thing to be done,
207 + That may to thee do ease, and, race to me,
208 + Speak to me.
209 + If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
210 + Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
211 + O, speak!
212 + Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
213 + Extorted treasure in the womb of earth
214 + (For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death),
215 + The cock crows.
216 + Speak of it! Stay, and speak!- Stop it, Marcellus!
217 + Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
218 + Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
219 + Ber. 'Tis here!
220 + Hor. 'Tis here!
221 + Mar. 'Tis gone!
222 + Exit Ghost.
223 + We do it wrong, being so majestical,
224 + To offer it the show of violence;
225 + For it is as the air, invulnerable,
226 + And our vain blows malicious mockery.
227 + Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
228 + Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing
229 + Upon a fearful summons. I have heard
230 + The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
231 + Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
232 + Awake the god of day; and at his warning,
233 + Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
234 + Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
235 + To his confine; and of the truth herein
236 + This present object made probation.
237 + Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.
238 + Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes
239 + Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
240 + The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
241 + And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
242 + The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
243 + No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
244 + So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
245 + Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it.
246 + But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
247 + Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill.
248 + Break we our watch up; and by my advice
249 + Let us impart what we have seen to-night
250 + Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
251 + This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
252 + Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
253 + As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
254 + Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
255 + Where we shall find him most conveniently. Exeunt.
256 +
257 +
258 +
259 +
260 + Scene II.
261 + Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle.
262 +
263 + Flourish. [Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet,
264 + Polonius, Laertes and his sister Ophelia, [Voltemand, Cornelius,]
265 + Lords Attendant.
266 +
267 + King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
268 + The memory be green, and that it us befitted
269 + To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
270 + To be contracted in one brow of woe,
271 + Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
272 + That we with wisest sorrow think on him
273 + Together with remembrance of ourselves.
274 + Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
275 + Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,
276 + Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,
277 + With an auspicious, and a dropping eye,
278 + With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
279 + In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
280 + Taken to wife; nor have we herein barr'd
281 + Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
282 + With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
283 + Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
284 + Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
285 + Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
286 + Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
287 + Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,
288 + He hath not fail'd to pester us with message
289 + Importing the surrender of those lands
290 + Lost by his father, with all bands of law,
291 + To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
292 + Now for ourself and for this time of meeting.
293 + Thus much the business is: we have here writ
294 + To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
295 + Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears
296 + Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress
297 + His further gait herein, in that the levies,
298 + The lists, and full proportions are all made
299 + Out of his subject; and we here dispatch
300 + You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,
301 + For bearers of this greeting to old Norway,
302 + Giving to you no further personal power
303 + To business with the King, more than the scope
304 + Of these dilated articles allow. [Gives a paper.]
305 + Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
306 + Cor., Volt. In that, and all things, will we show our duty.
307 + King. We doubt it nothing. Heartily farewell.
308 + Exeunt Voltemand and Cornelius.
309 + And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
310 + You told us of some suit. What is't, Laertes?
311 + You cannot speak of reason to the Dane
312 + And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
313 + That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
314 + The head is not more native to the heart,
315 + The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
316 + Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
317 + What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
318 + Laer. My dread lord,
319 + Your leave and favour to return to France;
320 + From whence though willingly I came to Denmark
321 + To show my duty in your coronation,
322 + Yet now I must confess, that duty done,
323 + My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
324 + And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
325 + King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
326 + Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
327 + By laboursome petition, and at last
328 + Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent.
329 + I do beseech you give him leave to go.
330 + King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,
331 + And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
332 + But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son-
333 + Ham. [aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind!
334 + King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
335 + Ham. Not so, my lord. I am too much i' th' sun.
336 + Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
337 + And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
338 + Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
339 + Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
340 + Thou know'st 'tis common. All that lives must die,
341 + Passing through nature to eternity.
342 + Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.
343 + Queen. If it be,
344 + Why seems it so particular with thee?
345 + Ham. Seems, madam, Nay, it is. I know not 'seems.'
346 + 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
347 + Nor customary suits of solemn black,
348 + Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,
349 + No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
350 + Nor the dejected havior of the visage,
351 + Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
352 + 'That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,
353 + For they are actions that a man might play;
354 + But I have that within which passeth show-
355 + These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
356 + King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
357 + To give these mourning duties to your father;
358 + But you must know, your father lost a father;
359 + That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
360 + In filial obligation for some term
361 + To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever
362 + In obstinate condolement is a course
363 + Of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief;
364 + It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
365 + A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
366 + An understanding simple and unschool'd;
367 + For what we know must be, and is as common
368 + As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
369 + Why should we in our peevish opposition
370 + Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
371 + A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
372 + To reason most absurd, whose common theme
373 + Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
374 + From the first corse till he that died to-day,
375 + 'This must be so.' We pray you throw to earth
376 + This unprevailing woe, and think of us
377 + As of a father; for let the world take note
378 + You are the most immediate to our throne,
379 + And with no less nobility of love
380 + Than that which dearest father bears his son
381 + Do I impart toward you. For your intent
382 + In going back to school in Wittenberg,
383 + It is most retrograde to our desire;
384 + And we beseech you, bend you to remain
385 + Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
386 + Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
387 + Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet.
388 + I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
389 + Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
390 + King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply.
391 + Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come.
392 + This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet
393 + Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof,
394 + No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day
395 + But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
396 + And the King's rouse the heaven shall bruit again,
397 + Respeaking earthly thunder. Come away.
398 + Flourish. Exeunt all but Hamlet.
399 + Ham. O that this too too solid flesh would melt,
400 + Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
401 + Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
402 + His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
403 + How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
404 + Seem to me all the uses of this world!
405 + Fie on't! ah, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
406 + That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
407 + Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
408 + But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two.
409 + So excellent a king, that was to this
410 + Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
411 + That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
412 + Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
413 + Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
414 + As if increase of appetite had grown
415 + By what it fed on; and yet, within a month-
416 + Let me not think on't! Frailty, thy name is woman!-
417 + A little month, or ere those shoes were old
418 + With which she followed my poor father's body
419 + Like Niobe, all tears- why she, even she
420 + (O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason
421 + Would have mourn'd longer) married with my uncle;
422 + My father's brother, but no more like my father
423 + Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
424 + Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
425 + Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
426 + She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
427 + With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
428 + It is not, nor it cannot come to good.
429 + But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue!
430 +
431 + Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo.
432 +
433 + Hor. Hail to your lordship!
434 + Ham. I am glad to see you well.
435 + Horatio!- or I do forget myself.
436 + Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
437 + Ham. Sir, my good friend- I'll change that name with you.
438 + And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?
439 + Marcellus?
440 + Mar. My good lord!
441 + Ham. I am very glad to see you.- [To Bernardo] Good even, sir.-
442 + But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
443 + Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
444 + Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so,
445 + Nor shall you do my ear that violence
446 + To make it truster of your own report
447 + Against yourself. I know you are no truant.
448 + But what is your affair in Elsinore?
449 + We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
450 + Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
451 + Ham. I prithee do not mock me, fellow student.
452 + I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
453 + Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.
454 + Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral bak'd meats
455 + Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
456 + Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
457 + Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
458 + My father- methinks I see my father.
459 + Hor. O, where, my lord?
460 + Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.
461 + Hor. I saw him once. He was a goodly king.
462 + Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all.
463 + I shall not look upon his like again.
464 + Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
465 + Ham. Saw? who?
466 + Hor. My lord, the King your father.
467 + Ham. The King my father?
468 + Hor. Season your admiration for a while
469 + With an attent ear, till I may deliver
470 + Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
471 + This marvel to you.
472 + Ham. For God's love let me hear!
473 + Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen
474 + (Marcellus and Bernardo) on their watch
475 + In the dead vast and middle of the night
476 + Been thus encount'red. A figure like your father,
477 + Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
478 + Appears before them and with solemn march
479 + Goes slow and stately by them. Thrice he walk'd
480 + By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
481 + Within his truncheon's length; whilst they distill'd
482 + Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
483 + Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
484 + In dreadful secrecy impart they did,
485 + And I with them the third night kept the watch;
486 + Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
487 + Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
488 + The apparition comes. I knew your father.
489 + These hands are not more like.
490 + Ham. But where was this?
491 + Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
492 + Ham. Did you not speak to it?
493 + Hor. My lord, I did;
494 + But answer made it none. Yet once methought
495 + It lifted up it head and did address
496 + Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
497 + But even then the morning cock crew loud,
498 + And at the sound it shrunk in haste away
499 + And vanish'd from our sight.
500 + Ham. 'Tis very strange.
501 + Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
502 + And we did think it writ down in our duty
503 + To let you know of it.
504 + Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs. But this troubles me.
505 + Hold you the watch to-night?
506 + Both [Mar. and Ber.] We do, my lord.
507 + Ham. Arm'd, say you?
508 + Both. Arm'd, my lord.
509 + Ham. From top to toe?
510 + Both. My lord, from head to foot.
511 + Ham. Then saw you not his face?
512 + Hor. O, yes, my lord! He wore his beaver up.
513 + Ham. What, look'd he frowningly.
514 + Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
515 + Ham. Pale or red?
516 + Hor. Nay, very pale.
517 + Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you?
518 + Hor. Most constantly.
519 + Ham. I would I had been there.
520 + Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.
521 + Ham. Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
522 + Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
523 + Both. Longer, longer.
524 + Hor. Not when I saw't.
525 + Ham. His beard was grizzled- no?
526 + Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
527 + A sable silver'd.
528 + Ham. I will watch to-night.
529 + Perchance 'twill walk again.
530 + Hor. I warr'nt it will.
531 + Ham. If it assume my noble father's person,
532 + I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
533 + And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
534 + If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
535 + Let it be tenable in your silence still;
536 + And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
537 + Give it an understanding but no tongue.
538 + I will requite your loves. So, fare you well.
539 + Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
540 + I'll visit you.
541 + All. Our duty to your honour.
542 + Ham. Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell.
543 + Exeunt [all but Hamlet].
544 + My father's spirit- in arms? All is not well.
545 + I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!
546 + Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise,
547 + Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
548 + Exit.
549 +
550 +
551 +
552 +
553 + Scene III.
554 + Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius.
555 +
556 + Enter Laertes and Ophelia.
557 +
558 + Laer. My necessaries are embark'd. Farewell.
559 + And, sister, as the winds give benefit
560 + And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
561 + But let me hear from you.
562 + Oph. Do you doubt that?
563 + Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
564 + Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
565 + A violet in the youth of primy nature,
566 + Forward, not permanent- sweet, not lasting;
567 + The perfume and suppliance of a minute;
568 + No more.
569 + Oph. No more but so?
570 + Laer. Think it no more.
571 + For nature crescent does not grow alone
572 + In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,
573 + The inward service of the mind and soul
574 + Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
575 + And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
576 + The virtue of his will; but you must fear,
577 + His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
578 + For he himself is subject to his birth.
579 + He may not, as unvalued persons do,
580 + Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
581 + The safety and health of this whole state,
582 + And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
583 + Unto the voice and yielding of that body
584 + Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
585 + It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
586 + As he in his particular act and place
587 + May give his saying deed; which is no further
588 + Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
589 + Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain
590 + If with too credent ear you list his songs,
591 + Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
592 + To his unmast'red importunity.
593 + Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
594 + And keep you in the rear of your affection,
595 + Out of the shot and danger of desire.
596 + The chariest maid is prodigal enough
597 + If she unmask her beauty to the moon.
598 + Virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes.
599 + The canker galls the infants of the spring
600 + Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd,
601 + And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
602 + Contagious blastments are most imminent.
603 + Be wary then; best safety lies in fear.
604 + Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
605 + Oph. I shall th' effect of this good lesson keep
606 + As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
607 + Do not as some ungracious pastors do,
608 + Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
609 + Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
610 + Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
611 + And recks not his own rede.
612 + Laer. O, fear me not!
613 +
614 + Enter Polonius.
615 +
616 + I stay too long. But here my father comes.
617 + A double blessing is a double grace;
618 + Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
619 + Pol. Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!
620 + The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
621 + And you are stay'd for. There- my blessing with thee!
622 + And these few precepts in thy memory
623 + Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
624 + Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
625 + Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar:
626 + Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
627 + Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;
628 + But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
629 + Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
630 + Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
631 + Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee.
632 + Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
633 + Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
634 + Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
635 + But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
636 + For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
637 + And they in France of the best rank and station
638 + Are most select and generous, chief in that.
639 + Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
640 + For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
641 + And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
642 + This above all- to thine own self be true,
643 + And it must follow, as the night the day,
644 + Thou canst not then be false to any man.
645 + Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!
646 + Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
647 + Pol. The time invites you. Go, your servants tend.
648 + Laer. Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well
649 + What I have said to you.
650 + Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
651 + And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
652 + Laer. Farewell. Exit.
653 + Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
654 + Oph. So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
655 + Pol. Marry, well bethought!
656 + 'Tis told me he hath very oft of late
657 + Given private time to you, and you yourself
658 + Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.
659 + If it be so- as so 'tis put on me,
660 + And that in way of caution- I must tell you
661 + You do not understand yourself so clearly
662 + As it behooves my daughter and your honour.
663 + What is between you? Give me up the truth.
664 + Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
665 + Of his affection to me.
666 + Pol. Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl,
667 + Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
668 + Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
669 + Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think,
670 + Pol. Marry, I will teach you! Think yourself a baby
671 + That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
672 + Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly,
673 + Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
674 + Running it thus) you'll tender me a fool.
675 + Oph. My lord, he hath importun'd me with love
676 + In honourable fashion.
677 + Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to!
678 + Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
679 + With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
680 + Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks! I do know,
681 + When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
682 + Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter,
683 + Giving more light than heat, extinct in both
684 + Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
685 + You must not take for fire. From this time
686 + Be something scanter of your maiden presence.
687 + Set your entreatments at a higher rate
688 + Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
689 + Believe so much in him, that he is young,
690 + And with a larger tether may he walk
691 + Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia,
692 + Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
693 + Not of that dye which their investments show,
694 + But mere implorators of unholy suits,
695 + Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
696 + The better to beguile. This is for all:
697 + I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth
698 + Have you so slander any moment leisure
699 + As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
700 + Look to't, I charge you. Come your ways.
701 + Oph. I shall obey, my lord.
702 + Exeunt.
703 +
704 +
705 +
706 +
707 + Scene IV.
708 + Elsinore. The platform before the Castle.
709 +
710 + Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.
711 +
712 + Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
713 + Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.
714 + Ham. What hour now?
715 + Hor. I think it lacks of twelve.
716 + Mar. No, it is struck.
717 + Hor. Indeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season
718 + Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
719 + A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces go off.
720 + What does this mean, my lord?
721 + Ham. The King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
722 + Keeps wassail, and the swagg'ring upspring reels,
723 + And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
724 + The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out
725 + The triumph of his pledge.
726 + Hor. Is it a custom?
727 + Ham. Ay, marry, is't;
728 + But to my mind, though I am native here
729 + And to the manner born, it is a custom
730 + More honour'd in the breach than the observance.
731 + This heavy-headed revel east and west
732 + Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations;
733 + They clip us drunkards and with swinish phrase
734 + Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
735 + From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
736 + The pith and marrow of our attribute.
737 + So oft it chances in particular men
738 + That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
739 + As in their birth,- wherein they are not guilty,
740 + Since nature cannot choose his origin,-
741 + By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
742 + Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
743 + Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens
744 + The form of plausive manners, that these men
745 + Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
746 + Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,
747 + Their virtues else- be they as pure as grace,
748 + As infinite as man may undergo-
749 + Shall in the general censure take corruption
750 + From that particular fault. The dram of e'il
751 + Doth all the noble substance often dout To his own scandal.
752 +
753 + Enter Ghost.
754 +
755 + Hor. Look, my lord, it comes!
756 + Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
757 + Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
758 + Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
759 + Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
760 + Thou com'st in such a questionable shape
761 + That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet,
762 + King, father, royal Dane. O, answer me?
763 + Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell
764 + Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,
765 + Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre
766 + Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
767 + Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws
768 + To cast thee up again. What may this mean
769 + That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
770 + Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,
771 + Making night hideous, and we fools of nature
772 + So horridly to shake our disposition
773 + With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
774 + Say, why is this? wherefore? What should we do?
775 + Ghost beckons Hamlet.
776 + Hor. It beckons you to go away with it,
777 + As if it some impartment did desire
778 + To you alone.
779 + Mar. Look with what courteous action
780 + It waves you to a more removed ground.
781 + But do not go with it!
782 + Hor. No, by no means!
783 + Ham. It will not speak. Then will I follow it.
784 + Hor. Do not, my lord!
785 + Ham. Why, what should be the fear?
786 + I do not set my life at a pin's fee;
787 + And for my soul, what can it do to that,
788 + Being a thing immortal as itself?
789 + It waves me forth again. I'll follow it.
790 + Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
791 + Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
792 + That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
793 + And there assume some other, horrible form
794 + Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
795 + And draw you into madness? Think of it.
796 + The very place puts toys of desperation,
797 + Without more motive, into every brain
798 + That looks so many fadoms to the sea
799 + And hears it roar beneath.
800 + Ham. It waves me still.
801 + Go on. I'll follow thee.
802 + Mar. You shall not go, my lord.
803 + Ham. Hold off your hands!
804 + Hor. Be rul'd. You shall not go.
805 + Ham. My fate cries out
806 + And makes each petty artire in this body
807 + As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
808 + [Ghost beckons.]
809 + Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen.
810 + By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!-
811 + I say, away!- Go on. I'll follow thee.
812 + Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet.
813 + Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination.
814 + Mar. Let's follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him.
815 + Hor. Have after. To what issue wail this come?
816 + Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
817 + Hor. Heaven will direct it.
818 + Mar. Nay, let's follow him.
819 + Exeunt.
820 +
821 +
822 +
823 +
824 + Scene V.
825 + Elsinore. The Castle. Another part of the fortifications.
826 +
827 + Enter Ghost and Hamlet.
828 +
829 + Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak! I'll go no further.
830 + Ghost. Mark me.
831 + Ham. I will.
832 + Ghost. My hour is almost come,
833 + When I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames
834 + Must render up myself.
835 + Ham. Alas, poor ghost!
836 + Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
837 + To what I shall unfold.
838 + Ham. Speak. I am bound to hear.
839 + Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
840 + Ham. What?
841 + Ghost. I am thy father's spirit,
842 + Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
843 + And for the day confin'd to fast in fires,
844 + Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
845 + Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
846 + To tell the secrets of my prison house,
847 + I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
848 + Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
849 + Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
850 + Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
851 + And each particular hair to stand an end
852 + Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
853 + But this eternal blazon must not be
854 + To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
855 + If thou didst ever thy dear father love-
856 + Ham. O God!
857 + Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther.
858 + Ham. Murther?
859 + Ghost. Murther most foul, as in the best it is;
860 + But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
861 + Ham. Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
862 + As meditation or the thoughts of love,
863 + May sweep to my revenge.
864 + Ghost. I find thee apt;
865 + And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
866 + That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
867 + Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
868 + 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
869 + A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
870 + Is by a forged process of my death
871 + Rankly abus'd. But know, thou noble youth,
872 + The serpent that did sting thy father's life
873 + Now wears his crown.
874 + Ham. O my prophetic soul!
875 + My uncle?
876 + Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
877 + With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts-
878 + O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
879 + So to seduce!- won to his shameful lust
880 + The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
881 + O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there,
882 + From me, whose love was of that dignity
883 + That it went hand in hand even with the vow
884 + I made to her in marriage, and to decline
885 + Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
886 + To those of mine!
887 + But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,
888 + Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
889 + So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
890 + Will sate itself in a celestial bed
891 + And prey on garbage.
892 + But soft! methinks I scent the morning air.
893 + Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
894 + My custom always of the afternoon,
895 + Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
896 + With juice of cursed hebona in a vial,
897 + And in the porches of my ears did pour
898 + The leperous distilment; whose effect
899 + Holds such an enmity with blood of man
900 + That swift as quicksilverr it courses through
901 + The natural gates and alleys of the body,
902 + And with a sudden vigour it doth posset
903 + And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
904 + The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;
905 + And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
906 + Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
907 + All my smooth body.
908 + Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
909 + Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd;
910 + Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
911 + Unhous'led, disappointed, unanel'd,
912 + No reckoning made, but sent to my account
913 + With all my imperfections on my head.
914 + Ham. O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
915 + Ghost. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not.
916 + Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
917 + A couch for luxury and damned incest.
918 + But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
919 + Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
920 + Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven,
921 + And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge
922 + To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once.
923 + The glowworm shows the matin to be near
924 + And gins to pale his uneffectual fire.
925 + Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me. Exit.
926 + Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
927 + And shall I couple hell? Hold, hold, my heart!
928 + And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
929 + But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee?
930 + Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
931 + In this distracted globe. Remember thee?
932 + Yea, from the table of my memory
933 + I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
934 + All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
935 + That youth and observation copied there,
936 + And thy commandment all alone shall live
937 + Within the book and volume of my brain,
938 + Unmix'd with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
939 + O most pernicious woman!
940 + O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
941 + My tables! Meet it is I set it down
942 + That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
943 + At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark. [Writes.]
944 + So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word:
945 + It is 'Adieu, adieu! Remember me.'
946 + I have sworn't.
947 + Hor. (within) My lord, my lord!
948 +
949 + Enter Horatio and Marcellus.
950 +
951 + Mar. Lord Hamlet!
952 + Hor. Heaven secure him!
953 + Ham. So be it!
954 + Mar. Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
955 + Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come.
956 + Mar. How is't, my noble lord?
957 + Hor. What news, my lord?
958 + Mar. O, wonderful!
959 + Hor. Good my lord, tell it.
960 + Ham. No, you will reveal it.
961 + Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven!
962 + Mar. Nor I, my lord.
963 + Ham. How say you then? Would heart of man once think it?
964 + But you'll be secret?
965 + Both. Ay, by heaven, my lord.
966 + Ham. There's neer a villain dwelling in all Denmark
967 + But he's an arrant knave.
968 + Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
969 + To tell us this.
970 + Ham. Why, right! You are in the right!
971 + And so, without more circumstance at all,
972 + I hold it fit that we shake hands and part;
973 + You, as your business and desires shall point you,
974 + For every man hath business and desire,
975 + Such as it is; and for my own poor part,
976 + Look you, I'll go pray.
977 + Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
978 + Ham. I am sorry they offend you, heartily;
979 + Yes, faith, heartily.
980 + Hor. There's no offence, my lord.
981 + Ham. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
982 + And much offence too. Touching this vision here,
983 + It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you.
984 + For your desire to know what is between us,
985 + O'ermaster't as you may. And now, good friends,
986 + As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers,
987 + Give me one poor request.
988 + Hor. What is't, my lord? We will.
989 + Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night.
990 + Both. My lord, we will not.
991 + Ham. Nay, but swear't.
992 + Hor. In faith,
993 + My lord, not I.
994 + Mar. Nor I, my lord- in faith.
995 + Ham. Upon my sword.
996 + Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already.
997 + Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
998 +
999 + Ghost cries under the stage.
1000 +
1001 + Ghost. Swear.
1002 + Ham. Aha boy, say'st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?
1003 + Come on! You hear this fellow in the cellarage.
1004 + Consent to swear.
1005 + Hor. Propose the oath, my lord.
1006 + Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen.
1007 + Swear by my sword.
1008 + Ghost. [beneath] Swear.
1009 + Ham. Hic et ubique? Then we'll shift our ground.
1010 + Come hither, gentlemen,
1011 + And lay your hands again upon my sword.
1012 + Never to speak of this that you have heard:
1013 + Swear by my sword.
1014 + Ghost. [beneath] Swear by his sword.
1015 + Ham. Well said, old mole! Canst work i' th' earth so fast?
1016 + A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends."
1017 + Hor. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
1018 + Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
1019 + There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
1020 + Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
1021 + But come!
1022 + Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
1023 + How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself
1024 + (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
1025 + To put an antic disposition on),
1026 + That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
1027 + With arms encumb'red thus, or this head-shake,
1028 + Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
1029 + As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
1030 + Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
1031 + Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
1032 + That you know aught of me- this is not to do,
1033 + So grace and mercy at your most need help you,
1034 + Swear.
1035 + Ghost. [beneath] Swear.
1036 + [They swear.]
1037 + Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So, gentlemen,
1038 + With all my love I do commend me to you;
1039 + And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
1040 + May do t' express his love and friending to you,
1041 + God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
1042 + And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
1043 + The time is out of joint. O cursed spite
1044 + That ever I was born to set it right!
1045 + Nay, come, let's go together.
1046 + Exeunt.
1047 +
1048 +
1049 +
1050 +
1051 + Act II. Scene I.
1052 + Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius.
1053 +
1054 + Enter Polonius and Reynaldo.
1055 +
1056 + Pol. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
1057 + Rey. I will, my lord.
1058 + Pol. You shall do marvell's wisely, good Reynaldo,
1059 + Before You visit him, to make inquire
1060 + Of his behaviour.
1061 + Rey. My lord, I did intend it.
1062 + Pol. Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir,
1063 + Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
1064 + And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
1065 + What company, at what expense; and finding
1066 + By this encompassment and drift of question
1067 + That they do know my son, come you more nearer
1068 + Than your particular demands will touch it.
1069 + Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
1070 + As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
1071 + And in part him.' Do you mark this, Reynaldo?
1072 + Rey. Ay, very well, my lord.
1073 + Pol. 'And in part him, but,' you may say, 'not well.
1074 + But if't be he I mean, he's very wild
1075 + Addicted so and so'; and there put on him
1076 + What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
1077 + As may dishonour him- take heed of that;
1078 + But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
1079 + As are companions noted and most known
1080 + To youth and liberty.
1081 + Rey. As gaming, my lord.
1082 + Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
1083 + Drabbing. You may go so far.
1084 + Rey. My lord, that would dishonour him.
1085 + Pol. Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge.
1086 + You must not put another scandal on him,
1087 + That he is open to incontinency.
1088 + That's not my meaning. But breathe his faults so quaintly
1089 + That they may seem the taints of liberty,
1090 + The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
1091 + A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
1092 + Of general assault.
1093 + Rey. But, my good lord-
1094 + Pol. Wherefore should you do this?
1095 + Rey. Ay, my lord,
1096 + I would know that.
1097 + Pol. Marry, sir, here's my drift,
1098 + And I believe it is a fetch of warrant.
1099 + You laying these slight sullies on my son
1100 + As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' th' working,
1101 + Mark you,
1102 + Your party in converse, him you would sound,
1103 + Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
1104 + The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur'd
1105 + He closes with you in this consequence:
1106 + 'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman'-
1107 + According to the phrase or the addition
1108 + Of man and country-
1109 + Rey. Very good, my lord.
1110 + Pol. And then, sir, does 'a this- 'a does- What was I about to say?
1111 + By the mass, I was about to say something! Where did I leave?
1112 + Rey. At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,' and
1113 + gentleman.'
1114 + Pol. At 'closes in the consequence'- Ay, marry!
1115 + He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman.
1116 + I saw him yesterday, or t'other day,
1117 + Or then, or then, with such or such; and, as you say,
1118 + There was 'a gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
1119 + There falling out at tennis'; or perchance,
1120 + 'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'
1121 + Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.
1122 + See you now-
1123 + Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
1124 + And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
1125 + With windlasses and with assays of bias,
1126 + By indirections find directions out.
1127 + So, by my former lecture and advice,
1128 + Shall you my son. You have me, have you not
1129 + Rey. My lord, I have.
1130 + Pol. God b' wi' ye, fare ye well!
1131 + Rey. Good my lord! [Going.]
1132 + Pol. Observe his inclination in yourself.
1133 + Rey. I shall, my lord.
1134 + Pol. And let him ply his music.
1135 + Rey. Well, my lord.
1136 + Pol. Farewell!
1137 + Exit Reynaldo.
1138 +
1139 + Enter Ophelia.
1140 +
1141 + How now, Ophelia? What's the matter?
1142 + Oph. O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
1143 + Pol. With what, i' th' name of God I
1144 + Oph. My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
1145 + Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd,
1146 + No hat upon his head, his stockings foul'd,
1147 + Ungart'red, and down-gyved to his ankle;
1148 + Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
1149 + And with a look so piteous in purport
1150 + As if he had been loosed out of hell
1151 + To speak of horrors- he comes before me.
1152 + Pol. Mad for thy love?
1153 + Oph. My lord, I do not know,
1154 + But truly I do fear it.
1155 + Pol. What said he?
1156 + Oph. He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
1157 + Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
1158 + And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
1159 + He falls to such perusal of my face
1160 + As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so.
1161 + At last, a little shaking of mine arm,
1162 + And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
1163 + He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound
1164 + As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
1165 + And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
1166 + And with his head over his shoulder turn'd
1167 + He seem'd to find his way without his eyes,
1168 + For out o' doors he went without their help
1169 + And to the last bended their light on me.
1170 + Pol. Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.
1171 + This is the very ecstasy of love,
1172 + Whose violent property fordoes itself
1173 + And leads the will to desperate undertakings
1174 + As oft as any passion under heaven
1175 + That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
1176 + What, have you given him any hard words of late?
1177 + Oph. No, my good lord; but, as you did command,
1178 + I did repel his letters and denied
1179 + His access to me.
1180 + Pol. That hath made him mad.
1181 + I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
1182 + I had not quoted him. I fear'd he did but trifle
1183 + And meant to wrack thee; but beshrew my jealousy!
1184 + By heaven, it is as proper to our age
1185 + To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
1186 + As it is common for the younger sort
1187 + To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King.
1188 + This must be known; which, being kept close, might move
1189 + More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
1190 + Come.
1191 + Exeunt.
1192 +
1193 + Scene II.
1194 + Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
1195 +
1196 + Flourish. [Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, cum aliis.
1197 +
1198 + King. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
1199 + Moreover that we much did long to see you,
1200 + The need we have to use you did provoke
1201 + Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
1202 + Of Hamlet's transformation. So I call it,
1203 + Sith nor th' exterior nor the inward man
1204 + Resembles that it was. What it should be,
1205 + More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
1206 + So much from th' understanding of himself,
1207 + I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
1208 + That, being of so young clays brought up with him,
1209 + And since so neighbour'd to his youth and haviour,
1210 + That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
1211 + Some little time; so by your companies
1212 + To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
1213 + So much as from occasion you may glean,
1214 + Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus
1215 + That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
1216 + Queen. Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you,
1217 + And sure I am two men there are not living
1218 + To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
1219 + To show us so much gentry and good will
1220 + As to expend your time with us awhile
1221 + For the supply and profit of our hope,
1222 + Your visitation shall receive such thanks
1223 + As fits a king's remembrance.
1224 + Ros. Both your Majesties
1225 + Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
1226 + Put your dread pleasures more into command
1227 + Than to entreaty.
1228 + Guil. But we both obey,
1229 + And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
1230 + To lay our service freely at your feet,
1231 + To be commanded.
1232 + King. Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
1233 + Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
1234 + And I beseech you instantly to visit
1235 + My too much changed son.- Go, some of you,
1236 + And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
1237 + Guil. Heavens make our presence and our practices
1238 + Pleasant and helpful to him!
1239 + Queen. Ay, amen!
1240 + Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, [with some
1241 + Attendants].
1242 +
1243 + Enter Polonius.
1244 +
1245 + Pol. Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
1246 + Are joyfully return'd.
1247 + King. Thou still hast been the father of good news.
1248 + Pol. Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
1249 + I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
1250 + Both to my God and to my gracious king;
1251 + And I do think- or else this brain of mine
1252 + Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
1253 + As it hath us'd to do- that I have found
1254 + The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
1255 + King. O, speak of that! That do I long to hear.
1256 + Pol. Give first admittance to th' ambassadors.
1257 + My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
1258 + King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
1259 + [Exit Polonius.]
1260 + He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
1261 + The head and source of all your son's distemper.
1262 + Queen. I doubt it is no other but the main,
1263 + His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage.
1264 + King. Well, we shall sift him.
1265 +
1266 + Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.
1267 +
1268 + Welcome, my good friends.
1269 + Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
1270 + Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires.
1271 + Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
1272 + His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
1273 + To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack,
1274 + But better look'd into, he truly found
1275 + It was against your Highness; whereat griev'd,
1276 + That so his sickness, age, and impotence
1277 + Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
1278 + On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys,
1279 + Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,
1280 + Makes vow before his uncle never more
1281 + To give th' assay of arms against your Majesty.
1282 + Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
1283 + Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee
1284 + And his commission to employ those soldiers,
1285 + So levied as before, against the Polack;
1286 + With an entreaty, herein further shown,
1287 + [Gives a paper.]
1288 + That it might please you to give quiet pass
1289 + Through your dominions for this enterprise,
1290 + On such regards of safety and allowance
1291 + As therein are set down.
1292 + King. It likes us well;
1293 + And at our more consider'd time we'll read,
1294 + Answer, and think upon this business.
1295 + Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour.
1296 + Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together.
1297 + Most welcome home! Exeunt Ambassadors.
1298 + Pol. This business is well ended.
1299 + My liege, and madam, to expostulate
1300 + What majesty should be, what duty is,
1301 + Why day is day, night is night, and time is time.
1302 + Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
1303 + Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
1304 + And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
1305 + I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
1306 + Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
1307 + What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
1308 + But let that go.
1309 + Queen. More matter, with less art.
1310 + Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
1311 + That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
1312 + And pity 'tis 'tis true. A foolish figure!
1313 + But farewell it, for I will use no art.
1314 + Mad let us grant him then. And now remains
1315 + That we find out the cause of this effect-
1316 + Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
1317 + For this effect defective comes by cause.
1318 + Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
1319 + Perpend.
1320 + I have a daughter (have while she is mine),
1321 + Who in her duty and obedience, mark,
1322 + Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise.
1323 + [Reads] the letter.
1324 + 'To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified
1325 + Ophelia,'-
1326 +
1327 + That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is a vile
1328 + phrase.
1329 + But you shall hear. Thus:
1330 + [Reads.]
1331 + 'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
1332 + Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her?
1333 + Pol. Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful. [Reads.]
1334 +
1335 + 'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
1336 + Doubt that the sun doth move;
1337 + Doubt truth to be a liar;
1338 + But never doubt I love.
1339 + 'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to
1340 + reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best, believe
1341 + it. Adieu.
1342 + 'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him,
1343 + HAMLET.'
1344 +
1345 + This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me;
1346 + And more above, hath his solicitings,
1347 + As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
1348 + All given to mine ear.
1349 + King. But how hath she
1350 + Receiv'd his love?
1351 + Pol. What do you think of me?
1352 + King. As of a man faithful and honourable.
1353 + Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
1354 + When I had seen this hot love on the wing
1355 + (As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,
1356 + Before my daughter told me), what might you,
1357 + Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think,
1358 + If I had play'd the desk or table book,
1359 + Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
1360 + Or look'd upon this love with idle sight?
1361 + What might you think? No, I went round to work
1362 + And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
1363 + 'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star.
1364 + This must not be.' And then I prescripts gave her,
1365 + That she should lock herself from his resort,
1366 + Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
1367 + Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,
1368 + And he, repulsed, a short tale to make,
1369 + Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
1370 + Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
1371 + Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
1372 + Into the madness wherein now he raves,
1373 + And all we mourn for.
1374 + King. Do you think 'tis this?
1375 + Queen. it may be, very like.
1376 + Pol. Hath there been such a time- I would fain know that-
1377 + That I have Positively said ''Tis so,'
1378 + When it prov'd otherwise.?
1379 + King. Not that I know.
1380 + Pol. [points to his head and shoulder] Take this from this, if this
1381 + be otherwise.
1382 + If circumstances lead me, I will find
1383 + Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
1384 + Within the centre.
1385 + King. How may we try it further?
1386 + Pol. You know sometimes he walks four hours together
1387 + Here in the lobby.
1388 + Queen. So he does indeed.
1389 + Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him.
1390 + Be you and I behind an arras then.
1391 + Mark the encounter. If he love her not,
1392 + And he not from his reason fall'n thereon
1393 + Let me be no assistant for a state,
1394 + But keep a farm and carters.
1395 + King. We will try it.
1396 +
1397 + Enter Hamlet, reading on a book.
1398 +
1399 + Queen. But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
1400 + Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away
1401 + I'll board him presently. O, give me leave.
1402 + Exeunt King and Queen, [with Attendants].
1403 + How does my good Lord Hamlet?
1404 + Ham. Well, God-a-mercy.
1405 + Pol. Do you know me, my lord?
1406 + Ham. Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
1407 + Pol. Not I, my lord.
1408 + Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man.
1409 + Pol. Honest, my lord?
1410 + Ham. Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man
1411 + pick'd out of ten thousand.
1412 + Pol. That's very true, my lord.
1413 + Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god
1414 + kissing carrion- Have you a daughter?
1415 + Pol. I have, my lord.
1416 + Ham. Let her not walk i' th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but not
1417 + as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't.
1418 + Pol. [aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet
1419 + he knew me not at first. He said I was a fishmonger. He is far
1420 + gone, far gone! And truly in my youth I suff'red much extremity
1421 + for love- very near this. I'll speak to him again.- What do you
1422 + read, my lord?
1423 + Ham. Words, words, words.
1424 + Pol. What is the matter, my lord?
1425 + Ham. Between who?
1426 + Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
1427 + Ham. Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men
1428 + have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes
1429 + purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a
1430 + plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which,
1431 + sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it
1432 + not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir,
1433 + should be old as I am if, like a crab, you could go backward.
1434 + Pol. [aside] Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.-
1435 + Will You walk out of the air, my lord?
1436 + Ham. Into my grave?
1437 + Pol. Indeed, that is out o' th' air. [Aside] How pregnant sometimes
1438 + his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which
1439 + reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I
1440 + will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between
1441 + him and my daughter.- My honourable lord, I will most humbly take
1442 + my leave of you.
1443 + Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more
1444 + willingly part withal- except my life, except my life, except my
1445 + life,
1446 +
1447 + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
1448 +
1449 + Pol. Fare you well, my lord.
1450 + Ham. These tedious old fools!
1451 + Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
1452 + Ros. [to Polonius] God save you, sir!
1453 + Exit [Polonius].
1454 + Guil. My honour'd lord!
1455 + Ros. My most dear lord!
1456 + Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah,
1457 + Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
1458 + Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth.
1459 + Guil. Happy in that we are not over-happy.
1460 + On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
1461 + Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe?
1462 + Ros. Neither, my lord.
1463 + Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her
1464 + favours?
1465 + Guil. Faith, her privates we.
1466 + Ham. In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true! she is a
1467 + strumpet. What news ?
1468 + Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
1469 + Ham. Then is doomsday near! But your news is not true. Let me
1470 + question more in particular. What have you, my good friends,
1471 + deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison
1472 + hither?
1473 + Guil. Prison, my lord?
1474 + Ham. Denmark's a prison.
1475 + Ros. Then is the world one.
1476 + Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and
1477 + dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
1478 + Ros. We think not so, my lord.
1479 + Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good
1480 + or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
1481 + Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your
1482 + mind.
1483 + Ham. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a
1484 + king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
1485 + Guil. Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of
1486 + the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
1487 + Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow.
1488 + Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that
1489 + it is but a shadow's shadow.
1490 + Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch'd
1491 + heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to th' court? for, by my
1492 + fay, I cannot reason.
1493 + Both. We'll wait upon you.
1494 + Ham. No such matter! I will not sort you with the rest of my
1495 + servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most
1496 + dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what
1497 + make you at Elsinore?
1498 + Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
1499 + Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you;
1500 + and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were
1501 + you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free
1502 + visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come! Nay, speak.
1503 + Guil. What should we say, my lord?
1504 + Ham. Why, anything- but to th' purpose. You were sent for; and
1505 + there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties
1506 + have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen
1507 + have sent for you.
1508 + Ros. To what end, my lord?
1509 + Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights
1510 + of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the
1511 + obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a
1512 + better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with
1513 + me, whether you were sent for or no.
1514 + Ros. [aside to Guildenstern] What say you?
1515 + Ham. [aside] Nay then, I have an eye of you.- If you love me, hold
1516 + not off.
1517 + Guil. My lord, we were sent for.
1518 + Ham. I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your
1519 + discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no
1520 + feather. I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my
1521 + mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so
1522 + heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth,
1523 + seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the
1524 + air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical
1525 + roof fretted with golden fire- why, it appeareth no other thing
1526 + to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a
1527 + piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in
1528 + faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in
1529 + action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the
1530 + beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what
1531 + is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me- no, nor woman
1532 + neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
1533 + Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
1534 + Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said 'Man delights not me'?
1535 + Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten
1536 + entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them
1537 + on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.
1538 + Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall
1539 + have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and
1540 + target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall
1541 + end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
1542 + lungs are tickle o' th' sere; and the lady shall say her mind
1543 + freely, or the blank verse shall halt fort. What players are
1544 + they?
1545 + Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the
1546 + tragedians of the city.
1547 + Ham. How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in
1548 + reputation and profit, was better both ways.
1549 + Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late
1550 + innovation.
1551 + Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the
1552 + city? Are they so follow'd?
1553 + Ros. No indeed are they not.
1554 + Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
1555 + Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is,
1556 + sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top
1557 + of question and are most tyrannically clapp'd fort. These are now
1558 + the fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call
1559 + them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and
1560 + dare scarce come thither.
1561 + Ham. What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they
1562 + escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can
1563 + sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow
1564 + themselves to common players (as it is most like, if their means
1565 + are no better), their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim
1566 + against their own succession.
1567 + Ros. Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation
1568 + holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was, for a
1569 + while, no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player
1570 + went to cuffs in the question.
1571 + Ham. Is't possible?
1572 + Guil. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
1573 + Ham. Do the boys carry it away?
1574 + Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord- Hercules and his load too.
1575 + Ham. It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and
1576 + those that would make mows at him while my father lived give
1577 + twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in
1578 + little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if
1579 + philosophy could find it out.
1580 +
1581 + Flourish for the Players.
1582 +
1583 + Guil. There are the players.
1584 + Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come! Th'
1585 + appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply
1586 + with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players (which I
1587 + tell you must show fairly outwards) should more appear like
1588 + entertainment than yours. You are welcome. But my uncle-father
1589 + and aunt-mother are deceiv'd.
1590 + Guil. In what, my dear lord?
1591 + Ham. I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I
1592 + know a hawk from a handsaw.
1593 +
1594 + Enter Polonius.
1595 +
1596 + Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen!
1597 + Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern- and you too- at each ear a hearer!
1598 + That great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling
1599 + clouts.
1600 + Ros. Happily he's the second time come to them; for they say an old
1601 + man is twice a child.
1602 + Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.-
1603 + You say right, sir; a Monday morning; twas so indeed.
1604 + Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you.
1605 + Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in
1606 + Rome-
1607 + Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord.
1608 + Ham. Buzz, buzz!
1609 + Pol. Upon my honour-
1610 + Ham. Then came each actor on his ass-
1611 + Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy,
1612 + history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral,
1613 + tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene
1614 + individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
1615 + Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are
1616 + the only men.
1617 + Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
1618 + Pol. What treasure had he, my lord?
1619 + Ham. Why,
1620 +
1621 + 'One fair daughter, and no more,
1622 + The which he loved passing well.'
1623 +
1624 + Pol. [aside] Still on my daughter.
1625 + Ham. Am I not i' th' right, old Jephthah?
1626 + Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I
1627 + love passing well.
1628 + Ham. Nay, that follows not.
1629 + Pol. What follows then, my lord?
1630 + Ham. Why,
1631 +
1632 + 'As by lot, God wot,'
1633 +
1634 + and then, you know,
1635 +
1636 + 'It came to pass, as most like it was.'
1637 +
1638 + The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look
1639 + where my abridgment comes.
1640 +
1641 + Enter four or five Players.
1642 +
1643 + You are welcome, masters; welcome, all.- I am glad to see thee
1644 + well.- Welcome, good friends.- O, my old friend? Why, thy face is
1645 + valanc'd since I saw thee last. Com'st' thou to' beard me in
1646 + Denmark?- What, my young lady and mistress? By'r Lady, your
1647 + ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the
1648 + altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of
1649 + uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.- Masters, you are
1650 + all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at
1651 + anything we see. We'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a
1652 + taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
1653 + 1. Play. What speech, my good lord?
1654 + Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted;
1655 + or if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleas'd
1656 + not the million, 'twas caviary to the general; but it was (as I
1657 + receiv'd it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in
1658 + the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes,
1659 + set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said
1660 + there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury,
1661 + nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of
1662 + affectation; but call'd it an honest method, as wholesome as
1663 + sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in't
1664 + I chiefly lov'd. 'Twas AEneas' tale to Dido, and thereabout of it
1665 + especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in
1666 + your memory, begin at this line- let me see, let me see:
1667 +
1668 + 'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast-'
1669 +
1670 + 'Tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus:
1671 +
1672 + 'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
1673 + Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
1674 + When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
1675 + Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
1676 + With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot
1677 + Now is be total gules, horridly trick'd
1678 + With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
1679 + Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets,
1680 + That lend a tyrannous and a damned light
1681 + To their lord's murther. Roasted in wrath and fire,
1682 + And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore,
1683 + With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
1684 + Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
1685 +
1686 + So, proceed you.
1687 + Pol. Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good
1688 + discretion.
1689 +
1690 + 1. Play. 'Anon he finds him,
1691 + Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
1692 + Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
1693 + Repugnant to command. Unequal match'd,
1694 + Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
1695 + But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
1696 + Th' unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
1697 + Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
1698 + Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
1699 + Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear. For lo! his sword,
1700 + Which was declining on the milky head
1701 + Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' th' air to stick.
1702 + So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
1703 + And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
1704 + Did nothing.
1705 + But, as we often see, against some storm,
1706 + A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
1707 + The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
1708 + As hush as death- anon the dreadful thunder
1709 + Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
1710 + Aroused vengeance sets him new awork;
1711 + And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
1712 + On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne,
1713 + With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
1714 + Now falls on Priam.
1715 + Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods,
1716 + In general synod take away her power;
1717 + Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
1718 + And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
1719 + As low as to the fiends!
1720 +
1721 + Pol. This is too long.
1722 + Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard.- Prithee say on.
1723 + He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on; come to
1724 + Hecuba.
1725 +
1726 + 1. Play. 'But who, O who, had seen the mobled queen-'
1727 +
1728 + Ham. 'The mobled queen'?
1729 + Pol. That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good.
1730 +
1731 + 1. Play. 'Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames
1732 + With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
1733 + Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
1734 + About her lank and all o'erteemed loins,
1735 + A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up-
1736 + Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd
1737 + 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd.
1738 + But if the gods themselves did see her then,
1739 + When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
1740 + In Mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
1741 + The instant burst of clamour that she made
1742 + (Unless things mortal move them not at all)
1743 + Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven
1744 + And passion in the gods.'
1745 +
1746 + Pol. Look, whe'r he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's
1747 + eyes. Prithee no more!
1748 + Ham. 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-
1749 + Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you
1750 + hear? Let them be well us'd; for they are the abstract and brief
1751 + chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a
1752 + bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
1753 + Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
1754 + Ham. God's bodykins, man, much better! Use every man after his
1755 + desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own
1756 + honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in
1757 + your bounty. Take them in.
1758 + Pol. Come, sirs.
1759 + Ham. Follow him, friends. We'll hear a play to-morrow.
1760 + Exeunt Polonius and Players [except the First].
1761 + Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play 'The Murther of
1762 + Gonzago'?
1763 + 1. Play. Ay, my lord.
1764 + Ham. We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a
1765 + speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and
1766 + insert in't, could you not?
1767 + 1. Play. Ay, my lord.
1768 + Ham. Very well. Follow that lord- and look you mock him not.
1769 + [Exit First Player.]
1770 + My good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome to
1771 + Elsinore.
1772 + Ros. Good my lord!
1773 + Ham. Ay, so, God b' wi' ye!
1774 + [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
1775 + Now I am alone.
1776 + O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
1777 + Is it not monstrous that this player here,
1778 + But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
1779 + Could force his soul so to his own conceit
1780 + That, from her working, all his visage wann'd,
1781 + Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
1782 + A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
1783 + With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
1784 + For Hecuba!
1785 + What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
1786 + That he should weep for her? What would he do,
1787 + Had he the motive and the cue for passion
1788 + That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
1789 + And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
1790 + Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
1791 + Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
1792 + The very faculties of eyes and ears.
1793 + Yet I,
1794 + A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak
1795 + Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
1796 + And can say nothing! No, not for a king,
1797 + Upon whose property and most dear life
1798 + A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
1799 + Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
1800 + Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face?
1801 + Tweaks me by th' nose? gives me the lie i' th' throat
1802 + As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this, ha?
1803 + 'Swounds, I should take it! for it cannot be
1804 + But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
1805 + To make oppression bitter, or ere this
1806 + I should have fatted all the region kites
1807 + With this slave's offal. Bloody bawdy villain!
1808 + Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
1809 + O, vengeance!
1810 + Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
1811 + That I, the son of a dear father murther'd,
1812 + Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
1813 + Must (like a whore) unpack my heart with words
1814 + And fall a-cursing like a very drab,
1815 + A scullion!
1816 + Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! Hum, I have heard
1817 + That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
1818 + Have by the very cunning of the scene
1819 + Been struck so to the soul that presently
1820 + They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
1821 + For murther, though it have no tongue, will speak
1822 + With most miraculous organ, I'll have these Players
1823 + Play something like the murther of my father
1824 + Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
1825 + I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,
1826 + I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
1827 + May be a devil; and the devil hath power
1828 + T' assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
1829 + Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
1830 + As he is very potent with such spirits,
1831 + Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
1832 + More relative than this. The play's the thing
1833 + Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King. Exit.
1834 +
1835 +
1836 +
1837 +
1838 +
1839 + ACT III. Scene I.
1840 + Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
1841 +
1842 + Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords.
1843 +
1844 + King. And can you by no drift of circumstance
1845 + Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
1846 + Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
1847 + With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
1848 + Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted,
1849 + But from what cause he will by no means speak.
1850 + Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
1851 + But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
1852 + When we would bring him on to some confession
1853 + Of his true state.
1854 + Queen. Did he receive you well?
1855 + Ros. Most like a gentleman.
1856 + Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition.
1857 + Ros. Niggard of question, but of our demands
1858 + Most free in his reply.
1859 + Queen. Did you assay him
1860 + To any pastime?
1861 + Ros. Madam, it so fell out that certain players
1862 + We o'erraught on the way. Of these we told him,
1863 + And there did seem in him a kind of joy
1864 + To hear of it. They are here about the court,
1865 + And, as I think, they have already order
1866 + This night to play before him.
1867 + Pol. 'Tis most true;
1868 + And he beseech'd me to entreat your Majesties
1869 + To hear and see the matter.
1870 + King. With all my heart, and it doth much content me
1871 + To hear him so inclin'd.
1872 + Good gentlemen, give him a further edge
1873 + And drive his purpose on to these delights.
1874 + Ros. We shall, my lord.
1875 + Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
1876 + King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
1877 + For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
1878 + That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
1879 + Affront Ophelia.
1880 + Her father and myself (lawful espials)
1881 + Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
1882 + We may of their encounter frankly judge
1883 + And gather by him, as he is behav'd,
1884 + If't be th' affliction of his love, or no,
1885 + That thus he suffers for.
1886 + Queen. I shall obey you;
1887 + And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
1888 + That your good beauties be the happy cause
1889 + Of Hamlet's wildness. So shall I hope your virtues
1890 + Will bring him to his wonted way again,
1891 + To both your honours.
1892 + Oph. Madam, I wish it may.
1893 + [Exit Queen.]
1894 + Pol. Ophelia, walk you here.- Gracious, so please you,
1895 + We will bestow ourselves.- [To Ophelia] Read on this book,
1896 + That show of such an exercise may colour
1897 + Your loneliness.- We are oft to blame in this,
1898 + 'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage
1899 + And pious action we do sugar o'er
1900 + The Devil himself.
1901 + King. [aside] O, 'tis too true!
1902 + How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
1903 + The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,
1904 + Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
1905 + Than is my deed to my most painted word.
1906 + O heavy burthen!
1907 + Pol. I hear him coming. Let's withdraw, my lord.
1908 + Exeunt King and Polonius].
1909 +
1910 + Enter Hamlet.
1911 +
1912 + Ham. To be, or not to be- that is the question:
1913 + Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
1914 + The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
1915 + Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
1916 + And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-
1917 + No more; and by a sleep to say we end
1918 + The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
1919 + That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
1920 + Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep.
1921 + To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!
1922 + For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
1923 + When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
1924 + Must give us pause. There's the respect
1925 + That makes calamity of so long life.
1926 + For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
1927 + Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
1928 + The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
1929 + The insolence of office, and the spurns
1930 + That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
1931 + When he himself might his quietus make
1932 + With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
1933 + To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
1934 + But that the dread of something after death-
1935 + The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
1936 + No traveller returns- puzzles the will,
1937 + And makes us rather bear those ills we have
1938 + Than fly to others that we know not of?
1939 + Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
1940 + And thus the native hue of resolution
1941 + Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
1942 + And enterprises of great pith and moment
1943 + With this regard their currents turn awry
1944 + And lose the name of action.- Soft you now!
1945 + The fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons
1946 + Be all my sins rememb'red.
1947 + Oph. Good my lord,
1948 + How does your honour for this many a day?
1949 + Ham. I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
1950 + Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours
1951 + That I have longed long to re-deliver.
1952 + I pray you, now receive them.
1953 + Ham. No, not I!
1954 + I never gave you aught.
1955 + Oph. My honour'd lord, you know right well you did,
1956 + And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd
1957 + As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
1958 + Take these again; for to the noble mind
1959 + Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
1960 + There, my lord.
1961 + Ham. Ha, ha! Are you honest?
1962 + Oph. My lord?
1963 + Ham. Are you fair?
1964 + Oph. What means your lordship?
1965 + Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no
1966 + discourse to your beauty.
1967 + Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
1968 + Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform
1969 + honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can
1970 + translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox,
1971 + but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
1972 + Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
1973 + Ham. You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so
1974 + inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you
1975 + not.
1976 + Oph. I was the more deceived.
1977 + Ham. Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of
1978 + sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse
1979 + me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.
1980 + I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my
1981 + beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give
1982 + them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I
1983 + do, crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all;
1984 + believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your
1985 + father?
1986 + Oph. At home, my lord.
1987 + Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool
1988 + nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.
1989 + Oph. O, help him, you sweet heavens!
1990 + Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry:
1991 + be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
1992 + calumny. Get thee to a nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt
1993 + needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what
1994 + monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.
1995 + Farewell.
1996 + Oph. O heavenly powers, restore him!
1997 + Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath
1998 + given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you
1999 + amble, and you lisp; you nickname God's creatures and make your
2000 + wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't! it hath made
2001 + me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages. Those that are
2002 + married already- all but one- shall live; the rest shall keep as
2003 + they are. To a nunnery, go. Exit.
2004 + Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
2005 + The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
2006 + Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
2007 + The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
2008 + Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down!
2009 + And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
2010 + That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
2011 + Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
2012 + Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
2013 + That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
2014 + Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me
2015 + T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
2016 +
2017 + Enter King and Polonius.
2018 +
2019 + King. Love? his affections do not that way tend;
2020 + Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
2021 + Was not like madness. There's something in his soul
2022 + O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
2023 + And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
2024 + Will be some danger; which for to prevent,
2025 + I have in quick determination
2026 + Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England
2027 + For the demand of our neglected tribute.
2028 + Haply the seas, and countries different,
2029 + With variable objects, shall expel
2030 + This something-settled matter in his heart,
2031 + Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
2032 + From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
2033 + Pol. It shall do well. But yet do I believe
2034 + The origin and commencement of his grief
2035 + Sprung from neglected love.- How now, Ophelia?
2036 + You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said.
2037 + We heard it all.- My lord, do as you please;
2038 + But if you hold it fit, after the play
2039 + Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
2040 + To show his grief. Let her be round with him;
2041 + And I'll be plac'd so please you, in the ear
2042 + Of all their conference. If she find him not,
2043 + To England send him; or confine him where
2044 + Your wisdom best shall think.
2045 + King. It shall be so.
2046 + Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. Exeunt.
2047 +
2048 +
2049 +
2050 +
2051 + Scene II.
2052 + Elsinore. hall in the Castle.
2053 +
2054 + Enter Hamlet and three of the Players.
2055 +
2056 + Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you,
2057 + trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our
2058 + players do, I had as live the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do
2059 + not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all
2060 + gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say)
2061 + whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a
2062 + temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the
2063 + soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to
2064 + tatters, to very rags, to split the cars of the groundlings, who
2065 + (for the most part) are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb
2066 + shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipp'd for o'erdoing
2067 + Termagant. It out-herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.
2068 + Player. I warrant your honour.
2069 + Ham. Be not too tame neither; but let your own discretion be your
2070 + tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with
2071 + this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of
2072 + nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing,
2073 + whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as
2074 + 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show Virtue her own feature,
2075 + scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his
2076 + form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though
2077 + it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious
2078 + grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance
2079 + o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I
2080 + have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to
2081 + speak it profanely), that, neither having the accent of
2082 + Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
2083 + strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's
2084 + journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated
2085 + humanity so abominably.
2086 + Player. I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with us, sir.
2087 + Ham. O, reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns
2088 + speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them
2089 + that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren
2090 + spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary
2091 + question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous
2092 + and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go
2093 + make you ready.
2094 + Exeunt Players.
2095 +
2096 + Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
2097 +
2098 + How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?
2099 + Pol. And the Queen too, and that presently.
2100 + Ham. Bid the players make haste, [Exit Polonius.] Will you two
2101 + help to hasten them?
2102 + Both. We will, my lord. Exeunt they two.
2103 + Ham. What, ho, Horatio!
2104 +
2105 + Enter Horatio.
2106 +
2107 + Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service.
2108 + Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
2109 + As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.
2110 + Hor. O, my dear lord!
2111 + Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter;
2112 + For what advancement may I hope from thee,
2113 + That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
2114 + To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
2115 + No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
2116 + And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
2117 + Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
2118 + Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
2119 + And could of men distinguish, her election
2120 + Hath scald thee for herself. For thou hast been
2121 + As one, in suff'ring all, that suffers nothing;
2122 + A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
2123 + Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
2124 + Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled
2125 + That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
2126 + To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
2127 + That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
2128 + In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
2129 + As I do thee. Something too much of this I
2130 + There is a play to-night before the King.
2131 + One scene of it comes near the circumstance,
2132 + Which I have told thee, of my father's death.
2133 + I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
2134 + Even with the very comment of thy soul
2135 + Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt
2136 + Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
2137 + It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
2138 + And my imaginations are as foul
2139 + As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
2140 + For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
2141 + And after we will both our judgments join
2142 + In censure of his seeming.
2143 + Hor. Well, my lord.
2144 + If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
2145 + And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
2146 +
2147 + Sound a flourish. [Enter Trumpets and Kettledrums. Danish
2148 + march. [Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz,
2149 + Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant, with the Guard
2150 + carrying torches.
2151 +
2152 + Ham. They are coming to the play. I must be idle.
2153 + Get you a place.
2154 + King. How fares our cousin Hamlet?
2155 + Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air,
2156 + promise-cramm'd. You cannot feed capons so.
2157 + King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not
2158 + mine.
2159 + Ham. No, nor mine now. [To Polonius] My lord, you play'd once
2160 + i' th' university, you say?
2161 + Pol. That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
2162 + Ham. What did you enact?
2163 + Pol. I did enact Julius Caesar; I was kill'd i' th' Capitol; Brutus
2164 + kill'd me.
2165 + Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be
2166 + the players ready.
2167 + Ros. Ay, my lord. They stay upon your patience.
2168 + Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
2169 + Ham. No, good mother. Here's metal more attractive.
2170 + Pol. [to the King] O, ho! do you mark that?
2171 + Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
2172 + [Sits down at Ophelia's feet.]
2173 + Oph. No, my lord.
2174 + Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap?
2175 + Oph. Ay, my lord.
2176 + Ham. Do you think I meant country matters?
2177 + Oph. I think nothing, my lord.
2178 + Ham. That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
2179 + Oph. What is, my lord?
2180 + Ham. Nothing.
2181 + Oph. You are merry, my lord.
2182 + Ham. Who, I?
2183 + Oph. Ay, my lord.
2184 + Ham. O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry?
2185 + For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died
2186 + within 's two hours.
2187 + Oph. Nay 'tis twice two months, my lord.
2188 + Ham. So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a
2189 + suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten
2190 + yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life
2191 + half a year. But, by'r Lady, he must build churches then; or else
2192 + shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose
2193 + epitaph is 'For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot!'
2194 +
2195 + Hautboys play. The dumb show enters.
2196 +
2197 + Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing
2198 + him and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation
2199 + unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her
2200 + neck. He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing
2201 + him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his
2202 + crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and
2203 + leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes
2204 + passionate action. The Poisoner with some three or four Mutes,
2205 + comes in again, seem to condole with her. The dead body is
2206 + carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she
2207 + seems harsh and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts
2208 + his love.
2209 + Exeunt.
2210 +
2211 + Oph. What means this, my lord?
2212 + Ham. Marry, this is miching malhecho; it means mischief.
2213 + Oph. Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
2214 +
2215 + Enter Prologue.
2216 +
2217 + Ham. We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel;
2218 + they'll tell all.
2219 + Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant?
2220 + Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him. Be not you asham'd to
2221 + show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
2222 + Oph. You are naught, you are naught! I'll mark the play.
2223 +
2224 + Pro. For us, and for our tragedy,
2225 + Here stooping to your clemency,
2226 + We beg your hearing patiently. [Exit.]
2227 +
2228 + Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
2229 + Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.
2230 + Ham. As woman's love.
2231 +
2232 + Enter [two Players as] King and Queen.
2233 +
2234 + King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
2235 + Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
2236 + And thirty dozed moons with borrowed sheen
2237 + About the world have times twelve thirties been,
2238 + Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,
2239 + Unite comutual in most sacred bands.
2240 + Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon
2241 + Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
2242 + But woe is me! you are so sick of late,
2243 + So far from cheer and from your former state.
2244 + That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
2245 + Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must;
2246 + For women's fear and love holds quantity,
2247 + In neither aught, or in extremity.
2248 + Now what my love is, proof hath made you know;
2249 + And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so.
2250 + Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
2251 + Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
2252 + King. Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
2253 + My operant powers their functions leave to do.
2254 + And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
2255 + Honour'd, belov'd, and haply one as kind
2256 + For husband shalt thou-
2257 + Queen. O, confound the rest!
2258 + Such love must needs be treason in my breast.
2259 + When second husband let me be accurst!
2260 + None wed the second but who killed the first.
2261 +
2262 + Ham. [aside] Wormwood, wormwood!
2263 +
2264 + Queen. The instances that second marriage move
2265 + Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
2266 + A second time I kill my husband dead
2267 + When second husband kisses me in bed.
2268 + King. I do believe you think what now you speak;
2269 + But what we do determine oft we break.
2270 + Purpose is but the slave to memory,
2271 + Of violent birth, but poor validity;
2272 + Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
2273 + But fill unshaken when they mellow be.
2274 + Most necessary 'tis that we forget
2275 + To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.
2276 + What to ourselves in passion we propose,
2277 + The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
2278 + The violence of either grief or joy
2279 + Their own enactures with themselves destroy.
2280 + Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
2281 + Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
2282 + This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
2283 + That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
2284 + For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
2285 + Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
2286 + The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,
2287 + The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies;
2288 + And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,
2289 + For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
2290 + And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
2291 + Directly seasons him his enemy.
2292 + But, orderly to end where I begun,
2293 + Our wills and fates do so contrary run
2294 + That our devices still are overthrown;
2295 + Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
2296 + So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
2297 + But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
2298 + Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light,
2299 + Sport and repose lock from me day and night,
2300 + To desperation turn my trust and hope,
2301 + An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope,
2302 + Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
2303 + Meet what I would have well, and it destroy,
2304 + Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
2305 + If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
2306 +
2307 + Ham. If she should break it now!
2308 +
2309 + King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.
2310 + My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
2311 + The tedious day with sleep.
2312 + Queen. Sleep rock thy brain,
2313 + [He] sleeps.
2314 + And never come mischance between us twain!
2315 + Exit.
2316 +
2317 + Ham. Madam, how like you this play?
2318 + Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
2319 + Ham. O, but she'll keep her word.
2320 + King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?
2321 + Ham. No, no! They do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' th'
2322 + world.
2323 + King. What do you call the play?
2324 + Ham. 'The Mousetrap.' Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the
2325 + image of a murther done in Vienna. Gonzago is the duke's name;
2326 + his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. 'Tis a knavish piece of
2327 + work; but what o' that? Your Majesty, and we that have free
2328 + souls, it touches us not. Let the gall'd jade winch; our withers
2329 + are unwrung.
2330 +
2331 + Enter Lucianus.
2332 +
2333 + This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.
2334 + Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
2335 + Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see
2336 + the puppets dallying.
2337 + Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
2338 + Ham. It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.
2339 + Oph. Still better, and worse.
2340 + Ham. So you must take your husbands.- Begin, murtherer. Pox, leave
2341 + thy damnable faces, and begin! Come, the croaking raven doth
2342 + bellow for revenge.
2343 +
2344 + Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;
2345 + Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
2346 + Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
2347 + With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
2348 + Thy natural magic and dire property
2349 + On wholesome life usurp immediately.
2350 + Pours the poison in his ears.
2351 +
2352 + Ham. He poisons him i' th' garden for's estate. His name's Gonzago.
2353 + The story is extant, and written in very choice Italian. You
2354 + shall see anon how the murtherer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
2355 + Oph. The King rises.
2356 + Ham. What, frighted with false fire?
2357 + Queen. How fares my lord?
2358 + Pol. Give o'er the play.
2359 + King. Give me some light! Away!
2360 + All. Lights, lights, lights!
2361 + Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.
2362 + Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
2363 + The hart ungalled play;
2364 + For some must watch, while some must sleep:
2365 + Thus runs the world away.
2366 + Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers- if the rest of my
2367 + fortunes turn Turk with me-with two Provincial roses on my raz'd
2368 + shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
2369 + Hor. Half a share.
2370 + Ham. A whole one I!
2371 + For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
2372 + This realm dismantled was
2373 + Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
2374 + A very, very- pajock.
2375 + Hor. You might have rhym'd.
2376 + Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand
2377 + pound! Didst perceive?
2378 + Hor. Very well, my lord.
2379 + Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning?
2380 + Hor. I did very well note him.
2381 + Ham. Aha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!
2382 + For if the King like not the comedy,
2383 + Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy.
2384 + Come, some music!
2385 +
2386 + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
2387 +
2388 + Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
2389 + Ham. Sir, a whole history.
2390 + Guil. The King, sir-
2391 + Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?
2392 + Guil. Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper'd.
2393 + Ham. With drink, sir?
2394 + Guil. No, my lord; rather with choler.
2395 + Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to
2396 + the doctor; for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps
2397 + plunge him into far more choler.
2398 + Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start
2399 + not so wildly from my affair.
2400 + Ham. I am tame, sir; pronounce.
2401 + Guil. The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit
2402 + hath sent me to you.
2403 + Ham. You are welcome.
2404 + Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed.
2405 + If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do
2406 + your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return
2407 + shall be the end of my business.
2408 + Ham. Sir, I cannot.
2409 + Guil. What, my lord?
2410 + Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseas'd. But, sir, such
2411 + answer is I can make, you shall command; or rather, as you say,
2412 + my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter! My mother, you
2413 + say-
2414 + Ros. Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into
2415 + amazement and admiration.
2416 + Ham. O wonderful son, that can so stonish a mother! But is there no
2417 + sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? Impart.
2418 + Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed.
2419 + Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any
2420 + further trade with us?
2421 + Ros. My lord, you once did love me.
2422 + Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers!
2423 + Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely
2424 + bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to
2425 + your friend.
2426 + Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.
2427 + Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself
2428 + for your succession in Denmark?
2429 + Ham. Ay, sir, but 'while the grass grows'- the proverb is something
2430 + musty.
2431 +
2432 + Enter the Players with recorders.
2433 +
2434 + O, the recorders! Let me see one. To withdraw with you- why do
2435 + you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me
2436 + into a toil?
2437 + Guil. O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.
2438 + Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?
2439 + Guil. My lord, I cannot.
2440 + Ham. I pray you.
2441 + Guil. Believe me, I cannot.
2442 + Ham. I do beseech you.
2443 + Guil. I know, no touch of it, my lord.
2444 + Ham. It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your
2445 + fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will
2446 + discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.
2447 + Guil. But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I
2448 + have not the skill.
2449 + Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You
2450 + would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would
2451 + pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my
2452 + lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music,
2453 + excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it
2454 + speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be play'd on than a
2455 + pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me,
2456 + you cannot play upon me.
2457 +
2458 + Enter Polonius.
2459 +
2460 + God bless you, sir!
2461 + Pol. My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.
2462 + Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
2463 + Pol. By th' mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
2464 + Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel.
2465 + Pol. It is back'd like a weasel.
2466 + Ham. Or like a whale.
2467 + Pol. Very like a whale.
2468 + Ham. Then will I come to my mother by-and-by.- They fool me to the
2469 + top of my bent.- I will come by-and-by.
2470 + Pol. I will say so. Exit.
2471 + Ham. 'By-and-by' is easily said.- Leave me, friends.
2472 + [Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
2473 + 'Tis now the very witching time of night,
2474 + When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
2475 + Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood
2476 + And do such bitter business as the day
2477 + Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother!
2478 + O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
2479 + The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
2480 + Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
2481 + I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
2482 + My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites-
2483 + How in my words somever she be shent,
2484 + To give them seals never, my soul, consent! Exit.
2485 +
2486 +
2487 +
2488 +
2489 + Scene III.
2490 + A room in the Castle.
2491 +
2492 + Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
2493 +
2494 + King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
2495 + To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
2496 + I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
2497 + And he to England shall along with you.
2498 + The terms of our estate may not endure
2499 + Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow
2500 + Out of his lunacies.
2501 + Guil. We will ourselves provide.
2502 + Most holy and religious fear it is
2503 + To keep those many many bodies safe
2504 + That live and feed upon your Majesty.
2505 + Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound
2506 + With all the strength and armour of the mind
2507 + To keep itself from noyance; but much more
2508 + That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
2509 + The lives of many. The cesse of majesty
2510 + Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
2511 + What's near it with it. It is a massy wheel,
2512 + Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
2513 + To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
2514 + Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls,
2515 + Each small annexment, petty consequence,
2516 + Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
2517 + Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
2518 + King. Arm you, I pray you, to th', speedy voyage;
2519 + For we will fetters put upon this fear,
2520 + Which now goes too free-footed.
2521 + Both. We will haste us.
2522 + Exeunt Gentlemen.
2523 +
2524 + Enter Polonius.
2525 +
2526 + Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet.
2527 + Behind the arras I'll convey myself
2528 + To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home;
2529 + And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
2530 + 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
2531 + Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
2532 + The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege.
2533 + I'll call upon you ere you go to bed
2534 + And tell you what I know.
2535 + King. Thanks, dear my lord.
2536 + Exit [Polonius].
2537 + O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
2538 + It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
2539 + A brother's murther! Pray can I not,
2540 + Though inclination be as sharp as will.
2541 + My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
2542 + And, like a man to double business bound,
2543 + I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
2544 + And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
2545 + Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
2546 + Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
2547 + To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
2548 + But to confront the visage of offence?
2549 + And what's in prayer but this twofold force,
2550 + To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
2551 + Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
2552 + My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
2553 + Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murther'?
2554 + That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
2555 + Of those effects for which I did the murther-
2556 + My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
2557 + May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence?
2558 + In the corrupted currents of this world
2559 + Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
2560 + And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
2561 + Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above.
2562 + There is no shuffling; there the action lies
2563 + In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd,
2564 + Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
2565 + To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
2566 + Try what repentance can. What can it not?
2567 + Yet what can it when one cannot repent?
2568 + O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
2569 + O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
2570 + Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay.
2571 + Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel,
2572 + Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
2573 + All may be well. He kneels.
2574 +
2575 + Enter Hamlet.
2576 +
2577 + Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
2578 + And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven,
2579 + And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd.
2580 + A villain kills my father; and for that,
2581 + I, his sole son, do this same villain send
2582 + To heaven.
2583 + Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge!
2584 + He took my father grossly, full of bread,
2585 + With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
2586 + And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven?
2587 + But in our circumstance and course of thought,
2588 + 'Tis heavy with him; and am I then reveng'd,
2589 + To take him in the purging of his soul,
2590 + When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
2591 + No.
2592 + Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
2593 + When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;
2594 + Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed;
2595 + At gaming, swearing, or about some act
2596 + That has no relish of salvation in't-
2597 + Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
2598 + And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
2599 + As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
2600 + This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. Exit.
2601 + King. [rises] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
2602 + Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Exit.
2603 +
2604 +
2605 +
2606 +
2607 + Scene IV.
2608 + The Queen's closet.
2609 +
2610 + Enter Queen and Polonius.
2611 +
2612 + Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to him.
2613 + Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
2614 + And that your Grace hath screen'd and stood between
2615 + Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here.
2616 + Pray you be round with him.
2617 + Ham. (within) Mother, mother, mother!
2618 + Queen. I'll warrant you; fear me not. Withdraw; I hear him coming.
2619 + [Polonius hides behind the arras.]
2620 +
2621 + Enter Hamlet.
2622 +
2623 + Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter?
2624 + Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
2625 + Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended.
2626 + Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
2627 + Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
2628 + Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?
2629 + Ham. What's the matter now?
2630 + Queen. Have you forgot me?
2631 + Ham. No, by the rood, not so!
2632 + You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,
2633 + And (would it were not so!) you are my mother.
2634 + Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak.
2635 + Ham. Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge I
2636 + You go not till I set you up a glass
2637 + Where you may see the inmost part of you.
2638 + Queen. What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me?
2639 + Help, help, ho!
2640 + Pol. [behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
2641 + Ham. [draws] How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!
2642 + [Makes a pass through the arras and] kills Polonius.
2643 + Pol. [behind] O, I am slain!
2644 + Queen. O me, what hast thou done?
2645 + Ham. Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
2646 + Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
2647 + Ham. A bloody deed- almost as bad, good mother,
2648 + As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
2649 + Queen. As kill a king?
2650 + Ham. Ay, lady, it was my word.
2651 + [Lifts up the arras and sees Polonius.]
2652 + Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
2653 + I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.
2654 + Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
2655 + Leave wringing of your hinds. Peace! sit you down
2656 + And let me wring your heart; for so I shall
2657 + If it be made of penetrable stuff;
2658 + If damned custom have not braz'd it so
2659 + That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
2660 + Queen. What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue
2661 + In noise so rude against me?
2662 + Ham. Such an act
2663 + That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
2664 + Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
2665 + From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
2666 + And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
2667 + As false as dicers' oaths. O, such a deed
2668 + As from the body of contraction plucks
2669 + The very soul, and sweet religion makes
2670 + A rhapsody of words! Heaven's face doth glow;
2671 + Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
2672 + With tristful visage, as against the doom,
2673 + Is thought-sick at the act.
2674 + Queen. Ay me, what act,
2675 + That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
2676 + Ham. Look here upon th's picture, and on this,
2677 + The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
2678 + See what a grace was seated on this brow;
2679 + Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
2680 + An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
2681 + A station like the herald Mercury
2682 + New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill:
2683 + A combination and a form indeed
2684 + Where every god did seem to set his seal
2685 + To give the world assurance of a man.
2686 + This was your husband. Look you now what follows.
2687 + Here is your husband, like a mildew'd ear
2688 + Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
2689 + Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
2690 + And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes
2691 + You cannot call it love; for at your age
2692 + The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
2693 + And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment
2694 + Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have,
2695 + Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense
2696 + Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
2697 + Nor sense to ecstacy was ne'er so thrall'd
2698 + But it reserv'd some quantity of choice
2699 + To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
2700 + That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
2701 + Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
2702 + Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
2703 + Or but a sickly part of one true sense
2704 + Could not so mope.
2705 + O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
2706 + If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
2707 + To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
2708 + And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame
2709 + When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
2710 + Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
2711 + And reason panders will.
2712 + Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more!
2713 + Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul,
2714 + And there I see such black and grained spots
2715 + As will not leave their tinct.
2716 + Ham. Nay, but to live
2717 + In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
2718 + Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
2719 + Over the nasty sty!
2720 + Queen. O, speak to me no more!
2721 + These words like daggers enter in mine ears.
2722 + No more, sweet Hamlet!
2723 + Ham. A murtherer and a villain!
2724 + A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
2725 + Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
2726 + A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
2727 + That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
2728 + And put it in his pocket!
2729 + Queen. No more!
2730 +
2731 + Enter the Ghost in his nightgown.
2732 +
2733 + Ham. A king of shreds and patches!-
2734 + Save me and hover o'er me with your wings,
2735 + You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
2736 + Queen. Alas, he's mad!
2737 + Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
2738 + That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
2739 + Th' important acting of your dread command?
2740 + O, say!
2741 + Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation
2742 + Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
2743 + But look, amazement on thy mother sits.
2744 + O, step between her and her fighting soul
2745 + Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
2746 + Speak to her, Hamlet.
2747 + Ham. How is it with you, lady?
2748 + Queen. Alas, how is't with you,
2749 + That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
2750 + And with th' encorporal air do hold discourse?
2751 + Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
2752 + And, as the sleeping soldiers in th' alarm,
2753 + Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements,
2754 + Start up and stand an end. O gentle son,
2755 + Upon the beat and flame of thy distemper
2756 + Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?
2757 + Ham. On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!
2758 + His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
2759 + Would make them capable.- Do not look upon me,
2760 + Lest with this piteous action you convert
2761 + My stern effects. Then what I have to do
2762 + Will want true colour- tears perchance for blood.
2763 + Queen. To whom do you speak this?
2764 + Ham. Do you see nothing there?
2765 + Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
2766 + Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?
2767 + Queen. No, nothing but ourselves.
2768 + Ham. Why, look you there! Look how it steals away!
2769 + My father, in his habit as he liv'd!
2770 + Look where he goes even now out at the portal!
2771 + Exit Ghost.
2772 + Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain.
2773 + This bodiless creation ecstasy
2774 + Is very cunning in.
2775 + Ham. Ecstasy?
2776 + My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
2777 + And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
2778 + That I have utt'red. Bring me to the test,
2779 + And I the matter will reword; which madness
2780 + Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
2781 + Lay not that flattering unction to your soul
2782 + That not your trespass but my madness speaks.
2783 + It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
2784 + Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
2785 + Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
2786 + Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
2787 + And do not spread the compost on the weeds
2788 + To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
2789 + For in the fatness of these pursy times
2790 + Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg-
2791 + Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
2792 + Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
2793 + Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it,
2794 + And live the purer with the other half,
2795 + Good night- but go not to my uncle's bed.
2796 + Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
2797 + That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
2798 + Of habits evil, is angel yet in this,
2799 + That to the use of actions fair and good
2800 + He likewise gives a frock or livery,
2801 + That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
2802 + And that shall lend a kind of easiness
2803 + To the next abstinence; the next more easy;
2804 + For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
2805 + And either [master] the devil, or throw him out
2806 + With wondrous potency. Once more, good night;
2807 + And when you are desirous to be blest,
2808 + I'll blessing beg of you.- For this same lord,
2809 + I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so,
2810 + To punish me with this, and this with me,
2811 + That I must be their scourge and minister.
2812 + I will bestow him, and will answer well
2813 + The death I gave him. So again, good night.
2814 + I must be cruel, only to be kind;
2815 + Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
2816 + One word more, good lady.
2817 + Queen. What shall I do?
2818 + Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
2819 + Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed;
2820 + Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
2821 + And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
2822 + Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
2823 + Make you to ravel all this matter out,
2824 + That I essentially am not in madness,
2825 + But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
2826 + For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
2827 + Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib
2828 + Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
2829 + No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
2830 + Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
2831 + Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
2832 + To try conclusions, in the basket creep
2833 + And break your own neck down.
2834 + Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,
2835 + And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
2836 + What thou hast said to me.
2837 + Ham. I must to England; you know that?
2838 + Queen. Alack,
2839 + I had forgot! 'Tis so concluded on.
2840 + Ham. There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows,
2841 + Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
2842 + They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
2843 + And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
2844 + For 'tis the sport to have the enginer
2845 + Hoist with his own petar; and 't shall go hard
2846 + But I will delve one yard below their mines
2847 + And blow them at the moon. O, 'tis most sweet
2848 + When in one line two crafts directly meet.
2849 + This man shall set me packing.
2850 + I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.-
2851 + Mother, good night.- Indeed, this counsellor
2852 + Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
2853 + Who was in life a foolish peating knave.
2854 + Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
2855 + Good night, mother.
2856 + [Exit the Queen. Then] Exit Hamlet, tugging in
2857 + Polonius.
2858 +
2859 +
2860 +
2861 +
2862 +
2863 + ACT IV. Scene I.
2864 + Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
2865 +
2866 + Enter King and Queen, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
2867 +
2868 + King. There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves
2869 + You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them.
2870 + Where is your son?
2871 + Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.
2872 + [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]
2873 + Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen to-night!
2874 + King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
2875 + Queen. Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
2876 + Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit
2877 + Behind the arras hearing something stir,
2878 + Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!'
2879 + And in this brainish apprehension kills
2880 + The unseen good old man.
2881 + King. O heavy deed!
2882 + It had been so with us, had we been there.
2883 + His liberty is full of threats to all-
2884 + To you yourself, to us, to every one.
2885 + Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
2886 + It will be laid to us, whose providence
2887 + Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt
2888 + This mad young man. But so much was our love
2889 + We would not understand what was most fit,
2890 + But, like the owner of a foul disease,
2891 + To keep it from divulging, let it feed
2892 + Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
2893 + Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd;
2894 + O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
2895 + Among a mineral of metals base,
2896 + Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
2897 + King. O Gertrude, come away!
2898 + The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch
2899 + But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed
2900 + We must with all our majesty and skill
2901 + Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!
2902 +
2903 + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
2904 +
2905 + Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
2906 + Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
2907 + And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him.
2908 + Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
2909 + Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
2910 + Exeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern].
2911 + Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends
2912 + And let them know both what we mean to do
2913 + And what's untimely done. [So haply slander-]
2914 + Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
2915 + As level as the cannon to his blank,
2916 + Transports his poisoned shot- may miss our name
2917 + And hit the woundless air.- O, come away!
2918 + My soul is full of discord and dismay.
2919 + Exeunt.
2920 +
2921 +
2922 +
2923 +
2924 + Scene II.
2925 + Elsinore. A passage in the Castle.
2926 +
2927 + Enter Hamlet.
2928 +
2929 + Ham. Safely stow'd.
2930 + Gentlemen. (within) Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
2931 + Ham. But soft! What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.
2932 +
2933 + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
2934 +
2935 + Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
2936 + Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
2937 + Ros. Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
2938 + And bear it to the chapel.
2939 + Ham. Do not believe it.
2940 + Ros. Believe what?
2941 + Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be
2942 + demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son
2943 + of a king?
2944 + Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
2945 + Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the King's countenance, his rewards,
2946 + his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in
2947 + the end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw;
2948 + first mouth'd, to be last Swallowed. When he needs what you have
2949 + glean'd, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry
2950 + again.
2951 + Ros. I understand you not, my lord.
2952 + Ham. I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
2953 + Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is and go with us to
2954 + the King.
2955 + Ham. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.
2956 + The King is a thing-
2957 + Guil. A thing, my lord?
2958 + Ham. Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.
2959 + Exeunt.
2960 +
2961 +
2962 +
2963 +
2964 + Scene III.
2965 + Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
2966 +
2967 + Enter King.
2968 +
2969 + King. I have sent to seek him and to find the body.
2970 + How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
2971 + Yet must not we put the strong law on him.
2972 + He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,
2973 + Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
2974 + And where 'tis so, th' offender's scourge is weigh'd,
2975 + But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
2976 + This sudden sending him away must seem
2977 + Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown
2978 + By desperate appliance are reliev'd,
2979 + Or not at all.
2980 +
2981 + Enter Rosencrantz.
2982 +
2983 + How now O What hath befall'n?
2984 + Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
2985 + We cannot get from him.
2986 + King. But where is he?
2987 + Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
2988 + King. Bring him before us.
2989 + Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.
2990 +
2991 + Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern [with Attendants].
2992 +
2993 + King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
2994 + Ham. At supper.
2995 + King. At supper? Where?
2996 + Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain
2997 + convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your
2998 + only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and
2999 + we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar
3000 + is but variable service- two dishes, but to one table. That's the
3001 + end.
3002 + King. Alas, alas!
3003 + Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat
3004 + of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
3005 + King. What dost thou mean by this?
3006 + Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through
3007 + the guts of a beggar.
3008 + King. Where is Polonius?
3009 + Ham. In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not
3010 + there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But indeed, if you
3011 + find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up
3012 + the stair, into the lobby.
3013 + King. Go seek him there. [To Attendants.]
3014 + Ham. He will stay till you come.
3015 + [Exeunt Attendants.]
3016 + King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,-
3017 + Which we do tender as we dearly grieve
3018 + For that which thou hast done,- must send thee hence
3019 + With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself.
3020 + The bark is ready and the wind at help,
3021 + Th' associates tend, and everything is bent
3022 + For England.
3023 + Ham. For England?
3024 + King. Ay, Hamlet.
3025 + Ham. Good.
3026 + King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
3027 + Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England!
3028 + Farewell, dear mother.
3029 + King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.
3030 + Ham. My mother! Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is
3031 + one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!
3032 + Exit.
3033 + King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard.
3034 + Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night.
3035 + Away! for everything is seal'd and done
3036 + That else leans on th' affair. Pray you make haste.
3037 + Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]
3038 + And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,-
3039 + As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
3040 + Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
3041 + After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
3042 + Pays homage to us,- thou mayst not coldly set
3043 + Our sovereign process, which imports at full,
3044 + By letters congruing to that effect,
3045 + The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
3046 + For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
3047 + And thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done,
3048 + Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. Exit.
3049 +
3050 +
3051 +
3052 +
3053 +
3054 + Scene IV.
3055 + Near Elsinore.
3056 +
3057 + Enter Fortinbras with his Army over the stage.
3058 +
3059 + For. Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king.
3060 + Tell him that by his license Fortinbras
3061 + Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march
3062 + Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
3063 + if that his Majesty would aught with us,
3064 + We shall express our duty in his eye;
3065 + And let him know so.
3066 + Capt. I will do't, my lord.
3067 + For. Go softly on.
3068 + Exeunt [all but the Captain].
3069 +
3070 + Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, [Guildenstern,] and others.
3071 +
3072 + Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these?
3073 + Capt. They are of Norway, sir.
3074 + Ham. How purpos'd, sir, I pray you?
3075 + Capt. Against some part of Poland.
3076 + Ham. Who commands them, sir?
3077 + Capt. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
3078 + Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
3079 + Or for some frontier?
3080 + Capt. Truly to speak, and with no addition,
3081 + We go to gain a little patch of ground
3082 + That hath in it no profit but the name.
3083 + To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
3084 + Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
3085 + A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
3086 + Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
3087 + Capt. Yes, it is already garrison'd.
3088 + Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
3089 + Will not debate the question of this straw.
3090 + This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace,
3091 + That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
3092 + Why the man dies.- I humbly thank you, sir.
3093 + Capt. God b' wi' you, sir. [Exit.]
3094 + Ros. Will't please you go, my lord?
3095 + Ham. I'll be with you straight. Go a little before.
3096 + [Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
3097 + How all occasions do inform against me
3098 + And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
3099 + If his chief good and market of his time
3100 + Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
3101 + Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
3102 + Looking before and after, gave us not
3103 + That capability and godlike reason
3104 + To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
3105 + Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
3106 + Of thinking too precisely on th' event,-
3107 + A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
3108 + And ever three parts coward,- I do not know
3109 + Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do,'
3110 + Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means
3111 + To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me.
3112 + Witness this army of such mass and charge,
3113 + Led by a delicate and tender prince,
3114 + Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
3115 + Makes mouths at the invisible event,
3116 + Exposing what is mortal and unsure
3117 + To all that fortune, death, and danger dare,
3118 + Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great
3119 + Is not to stir without great argument,
3120 + But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
3121 + When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
3122 + That have a father klll'd, a mother stain'd,
3123 + Excitements of my reason and my blood,
3124 + And let all sleep, while to my shame I see
3125 + The imminent death of twenty thousand men
3126 + That for a fantasy and trick of fame
3127 + Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
3128 + Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
3129 + Which is not tomb enough and continent
3130 + To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
3131 + My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! Exit.
3132 +
3133 +
3134 +
3135 +
3136 +
3137 + Scene V.
3138 + Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
3139 +
3140 + Enter Horatio, Queen, and a Gentleman.
3141 +
3142 + Queen. I will not speak with her.
3143 + Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract.
3144 + Her mood will needs be pitied.
3145 + Queen. What would she have?
3146 + Gent. She speaks much of her father; says she hears
3147 + There's tricks i' th' world, and hems, and beats her heart;
3148 + Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
3149 + That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing,
3150 + Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
3151 + The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
3152 + And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
3153 + Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them,
3154 + Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
3155 + Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
3156 + Hor. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
3157 + Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
3158 + Queen. Let her come in.
3159 + [Exit Gentleman.]
3160 + [Aside] To my sick soul (as sin's true nature is)
3161 + Each toy seems Prologue to some great amiss.
3162 + So full of artless jealousy is guilt
3163 + It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
3164 +
3165 + Enter Ophelia distracted.
3166 +
3167 + Oph. Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark?
3168 + Queen. How now, Ophelia?
3169 + Oph. (sings)
3170 + How should I your true-love know
3171 + From another one?
3172 + By his cockle bat and' staff
3173 + And his sandal shoon.
3174 +
3175 + Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
3176 + Oph. Say you? Nay, pray You mark.
3177 +
3178 + (Sings) He is dead and gone, lady,
3179 + He is dead and gone;
3180 + At his head a grass-green turf,
3181 + At his heels a stone.
3182 +
3183 + O, ho!
3184 + Queen. Nay, but Ophelia-
3185 + Oph. Pray you mark.
3186 +
3187 + (Sings) White his shroud as the mountain snow-
3188 +
3189 + Enter King.
3190 +
3191 + Queen. Alas, look here, my lord!
3192 + Oph. (Sings)
3193 + Larded all with sweet flowers;
3194 + Which bewept to the grave did not go
3195 + With true-love showers.
3196 +
3197 + King. How do you, pretty lady?
3198 + Oph. Well, God dild you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter.
3199 + Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at
3200 + your table!
3201 + King. Conceit upon her father.
3202 + Oph. Pray let's have no words of this; but when they ask, you what
3203 + it means, say you this:
3204 +
3205 + (Sings) To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
3206 + All in the morning bedtime,
3207 + And I a maid at your window,
3208 + To be your Valentine.
3209 +
3210 + Then up he rose and donn'd his clo'es
3211 + And dupp'd the chamber door,
3212 + Let in the maid, that out a maid
3213 + Never departed more.
3214 +
3215 + King. Pretty Ophelia!
3216 + Oph. Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't!
3217 +
3218 + [Sings] By Gis and by Saint Charity,
3219 + Alack, and fie for shame!
3220 + Young men will do't if they come to't
3221 + By Cock, they are to blame.
3222 +
3223 + Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me,
3224 + You promis'd me to wed.'
3225 +
3226 + He answers:
3227 +
3228 + 'So would I 'a' done, by yonder sun,
3229 + An thou hadst not come to my bed.'
3230 +
3231 + King. How long hath she been thus?
3232 + Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot
3233 + choose but weep to think they would lay him i' th' cold ground.
3234 + My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good
3235 + counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet
3236 + ladies. Good night, good night. Exit
3237 + King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.
3238 + [Exit Horatio.]
3239 + O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
3240 + All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,
3241 + When sorrows come, they come not single spies.
3242 + But in battalions! First, her father slain;
3243 + Next, Your son gone, and he most violent author
3244 + Of his own just remove; the people muddied,
3245 + Thick and and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers
3246 + For good Polonius' death, and we have done but greenly
3247 + In hugger-mugger to inter him; Poor Ophelia
3248 + Divided from herself and her fair-judgment,
3249 + Without the which we are Pictures or mere beasts;
3250 + Last, and as such containing as all these,
3251 + Her brother is in secret come from France;
3252 + And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
3253 + Feeds on his wonder, keep, himself in clouds,
3254 + With pestilent speeches of his father's death,
3255 + Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
3256 + Will nothing stick Our person to arraign
3257 + In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
3258 + Like to a murd'ring piece, in many places
3259 + Give, me superfluous death. A noise within.
3260 + Queen. Alack, what noise is this?
3261 + King. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door.
3262 +
3263 + Enter a Messenger.
3264 +
3265 + What is the matter?
3266 + Mess. Save Yourself, my lord:
3267 + The ocean, overpeering of his list,
3268 + Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
3269 + Than Young Laertes, in a riotous head,
3270 + O'erbears Your offices. The rabble call him lord;
3271 + And, as the world were now but to begin,
3272 + Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
3273 + The ratifiers and props of every word,
3274 + They cry 'Choose we! Laertes shall be king!'
3275 + Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds,
3276 + 'Laertes shall be king! Laertes king!'
3277 + A noise within.
3278 + Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
3279 + O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
3280 + King. The doors are broke.
3281 +
3282 + Enter Laertes with others.
3283 +
3284 + Laer. Where is this king?- Sirs, staid you all without.
3285 + All. No, let's come in!
3286 + Laer. I pray you give me leave.
3287 + All. We will, we will!
3288 + Laer. I thank you. Keep the door. [Exeunt his Followers.]
3289 + O thou vile king,
3290 + Give me my father!
3291 + Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.
3292 + Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard;
3293 + Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot
3294 + Even here between the chaste unsmirched brows
3295 + Of my true mother.
3296 + King. What is the cause, Laertes,
3297 + That thy rebellion looks so giantlike?
3298 + Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person.
3299 + There's such divinity doth hedge a king
3300 + That treason can but peep to what it would,
3301 + Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,
3302 + Why thou art thus incens'd. Let him go, Gertrude.
3303 + Speak, man.
3304 + Laer. Where is my father?
3305 + King. Dead.
3306 + Queen. But not by him!
3307 + King. Let him demand his fill.
3308 + Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
3309 + To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil
3310 + Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
3311 + I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
3312 + That both the world, I give to negligence,
3313 + Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
3314 + Most throughly for my father.
3315 + King. Who shall stay you?
3316 + Laer. My will, not all the world!
3317 + And for my means, I'll husband them so well
3318 + They shall go far with little.
3319 + King. Good Laertes,
3320 + If you desire to know the certainty
3321 + Of your dear father's death, is't writ in Your revenge
3322 + That swoopstake you will draw both friend and foe,
3323 + Winner and loser?
3324 + Laer. None but his enemies.
3325 + King. Will you know them then?
3326 + Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms
3327 + And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
3328 + Repast them with my blood.
3329 + King. Why, now You speak
3330 + Like a good child and a true gentleman.
3331 + That I am guiltless of your father's death,
3332 + And am most sensibly in grief for it,
3333 + It shall as level to your judgment pierce
3334 + As day does to your eye.
3335 + A noise within: 'Let her come in.'
3336 + Laer. How now? What noise is that?
3337 +
3338 + Enter Ophelia.
3339 +
3340 + O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt
3341 + Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
3342 + By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight
3343 + Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
3344 + Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
3345 + O heavens! is't possible a young maid's wits
3346 + Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
3347 + Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
3348 + It sends some precious instance of itself
3349 + After the thing it loves.
3350 +
3351 + Oph. (sings)
3352 + They bore him barefac'd on the bier
3353 + (Hey non nony, nony, hey nony)
3354 + And in his grave rain'd many a tear.
3355 +
3356 + Fare you well, my dove!
3357 + Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,
3358 + It could not move thus.
3359 + Oph. You must sing 'A-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a.' O,
3360 + how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his
3361 + master's daughter.
3362 + Laer. This nothing's more than matter.
3363 + Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love,
3364 + remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
3365 + Laer. A document in madness! Thoughts and remembrance fitted.
3366 + Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for you,
3367 + and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays.
3368 + O, you must wear your rue with a difference! There's a daisy. I
3369 + would give you some violets, but they wither'd all when my father
3370 + died. They say he made a good end.
3371 +
3372 + [Sings] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
3373 +
3374 + Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
3375 + She turns to favour and to prettiness.
3376 + Oph. (sings)
3377 + And will he not come again?
3378 + And will he not come again?
3379 + No, no, he is dead;
3380 + Go to thy deathbed;
3381 + He never will come again.
3382 +
3383 + His beard was as white as snow,
3384 + All flaxen was his poll.
3385 + He is gone, he is gone,
3386 + And we cast away moan.
3387 + God 'a'mercy on his soul!
3388 +
3389 + And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b' wi', you.
3390 + Exit.
3391 + Laer. Do you see this, O God?
3392 + King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
3393 + Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
3394 + Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
3395 + And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me.
3396 + If by direct or by collateral hand
3397 + They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
3398 + Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
3399 + To you in satisfaction; but if not,
3400 + Be you content to lend your patience to us,
3401 + And we shall jointly labour with your soul
3402 + To give it due content.
3403 + Laer. Let this be so.
3404 + His means of death, his obscure funeral-
3405 + No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
3406 + No noble rite nor formal ostentation,-
3407 + Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
3408 + That I must call't in question.
3409 + King. So you shall;
3410 + And where th' offence is let the great axe fall.
3411 + I pray you go with me.
3412 + Exeunt
3413 +
3414 +
3415 +
3416 +
3417 +
3418 + Scene VI.
3419 + Elsinore. Another room in the Castle.
3420 +
3421 + Enter Horatio with an Attendant.
3422 +
3423 + Hor. What are they that would speak with me?
3424 + Servant. Seafaring men, sir. They say they have letters for you.
3425 + Hor. Let them come in.
3426 + [Exit Attendant.]
3427 + I do not know from what part of the world
3428 + I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.
3429 +
3430 + Enter Sailors.
3431 +
3432 + Sailor. God bless you, sir.
3433 + Hor. Let him bless thee too.
3434 + Sailor. 'A shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you,
3435 + sir,- it comes from th' ambassador that was bound for England- if
3436 + your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.
3437 + Hor. (reads the letter) 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook'd
3438 + this, give these fellows some means to the King. They have
3439 + letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of
3440 + very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too
3441 + slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I
3442 + boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship; so I
3443 + alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves
3444 + of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for
3445 + them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou
3446 + to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I have words
3447 + to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too
3448 + light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring
3449 + thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course
3450 + for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.
3451 + 'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.'
3452 +
3453 + Come, I will give you way for these your letters,
3454 + And do't the speedier that you may direct me
3455 + To him from whom you brought them. Exeunt.
3456 +
3457 +
3458 +
3459 +
3460 +
3461 + Scene VII.
3462 + Elsinore. Another room in the Castle.
3463 +
3464 + Enter King and Laertes.
3465 +
3466 + King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,
3467 + And You must put me in your heart for friend,
3468 + Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
3469 + That he which hath your noble father slain
3470 + Pursued my life.
3471 + Laer. It well appears. But tell me
3472 + Why you proceeded not against these feats
3473 + So crimeful and so capital in nature,
3474 + As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
3475 + You mainly were stirr'd up.
3476 + King. O, for two special reasons,
3477 + Which may to you, perhaps, seein much unsinew'd,
3478 + But yet to me they are strong. The Queen his mother
3479 + Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,-
3480 + My virtue or my plague, be it either which,-
3481 + She's so conjunctive to my life and soul
3482 + That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
3483 + I could not but by her. The other motive
3484 + Why to a public count I might not go
3485 + Is the great love the general gender bear him,
3486 + Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
3487 + Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
3488 + Convert his gives to graces; so that my arrows,
3489 + Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
3490 + Would have reverted to my bow again,
3491 + And not where I had aim'd them.
3492 + Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
3493 + A sister driven into desp'rate terms,
3494 + Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
3495 + Stood challenger on mount of all the age
3496 + For her perfections. But my revenge will come.
3497 + King. Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think
3498 + That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
3499 + That we can let our beard be shook with danger,
3500 + And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more.
3501 + I lov'd your father, and we love ourself,
3502 + And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-
3503 +
3504 + Enter a Messenger with letters.
3505 +
3506 + How now? What news?
3507 + Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:
3508 + This to your Majesty; this to the Queen.
3509 + King. From Hamlet? Who brought them?
3510 + Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not.
3511 + They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them
3512 + Of him that brought them.
3513 + King. Laertes, you shall hear them.
3514 + Leave us.
3515 + Exit Messenger.
3516 + [Reads]'High and Mighty,-You shall know I am set naked on your
3517 + kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes;
3518 + when I shall (first asking your pardon thereunto) recount the
3519 + occasion of my sudden and more strange return.
3520 + 'HAMLET.'
3521 + What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
3522 + Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
3523 + Laer. Know you the hand?
3524 + King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked!'
3525 + And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
3526 + Can you advise me?
3527 + Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come!
3528 + It warms the very sickness in my heart
3529 + That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
3530 + 'Thus didest thou.'
3531 + King. If it be so, Laertes
3532 + (As how should it be so? how otherwise?),
3533 + Will you be rul'd by me?
3534 + Laer. Ay my lord,
3535 + So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
3536 + King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd
3537 + As checking at his voyage, and that he means
3538 + No more to undertake it, I will work him
3539 + To exploit now ripe in my device,
3540 + Under the which he shall not choose but fall;
3541 + And for his death no wind
3542 + But even his mother shall uncharge the practice
3543 + And call it accident.
3544 + Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd;
3545 + The rather, if you could devise it so
3546 + That I might be the organ.
3547 + King. It falls right.
3548 + You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
3549 + And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
3550 + Wherein they say you shine, Your sun of parts
3551 + Did not together pluck such envy from him
3552 + As did that one; and that, in my regard,
3553 + Of the unworthiest siege.
3554 + Laer. What part is that, my lord?
3555 + King. A very riband in the cap of youth-
3556 + Yet needfull too; for youth no less becomes
3557 + The light and careless livery that it wears
3558 + Thin settled age his sables and his weeds,
3559 + Importing health and graveness. Two months since
3560 + Here was a gentleman of Normandy.
3561 + I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French,
3562 + And they can well on horseback; but this gallant
3563 + Had witchcraft in't. He grew unto his seat,
3564 + And to such wondrous doing brought his horse
3565 + As had he been incorps'd and demi-natur'd
3566 + With the brave beast. So far he topp'd my thought
3567 + That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,
3568 + Come short of what he did.
3569 + Laer. A Norman was't?
3570 + King. A Norman.
3571 + Laer. Upon my life, Lamound.
3572 + King. The very same.
3573 + Laer. I know him well. He is the broach indeed
3574 + And gem of all the nation.
3575 + King. He made confession of you;
3576 + And gave you such a masterly report
3577 + For art and exercise in your defence,
3578 + And for your rapier most especially,
3579 + That he cried out 'twould be a sight indeed
3580 + If one could match you. The scrimers of their nation
3581 + He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye,
3582 + If you oppos'd them. Sir, this report of his
3583 + Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy
3584 + That he could nothing do but wish and beg
3585 + Your sudden coming o'er to play with you.
3586 + Now, out of this-
3587 + Laer. What out of this, my lord?
3588 + King. Laertes, was your father dear to you?
3589 + Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
3590 + A face without a heart,'
3591 + Laer. Why ask you this?
3592 + King. Not that I think you did not love your father;
3593 + But that I know love is begun by time,
3594 + And that I see, in passages of proof,
3595 + Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
3596 + There lives within the very flame of love
3597 + A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
3598 + And nothing is at a like goodness still;
3599 + For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
3600 + Dies in his own too-much. That we would do,
3601 + We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes,
3602 + And hath abatements and delays as many
3603 + As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
3604 + And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
3605 + That hurts by easing. But to the quick o' th' ulcer!
3606 + Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake
3607 + To show yourself your father's son in deed
3608 + More than in words?
3609 + Laer. To cut his throat i' th' church!
3610 + King. No place indeed should murther sanctuarize;
3611 + Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,
3612 + Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber.
3613 + Will return'd shall know you are come home.
3614 + We'll put on those shall praise your excellence
3615 + And set a double varnish on the fame
3616 + The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together
3617 + And wager on your heads. He, being remiss,
3618 + Most generous, and free from all contriving,
3619 + Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease,
3620 + Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
3621 + A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice,
3622 + Requite him for your father.
3623 + Laer. I will do't!
3624 + And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword.
3625 + I bought an unction of a mountebank,
3626 + So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,
3627 + Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
3628 + Collected from all simples that have virtue
3629 + Under the moon, can save the thing from death
3630 + This is but scratch'd withal. I'll touch my point
3631 + With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
3632 + It may be death.
3633 + King. Let's further think of this,
3634 + Weigh what convenience both of time and means
3635 + May fit us to our shape. If this should fall,
3636 + And that our drift look through our bad performance.
3637 + 'Twere better not assay'd. Therefore this project
3638 + Should have a back or second, that might hold
3639 + If this did blast in proof. Soft! let me see.
3640 + We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings-
3641 + I ha't!
3642 + When in your motion you are hot and dry-
3643 + As make your bouts more violent to that end-
3644 + And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him
3645 + A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
3646 + If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
3647 + Our purpose may hold there.- But stay, what noise,
3648 +
3649 + Enter Queen.
3650 +
3651 + How now, sweet queen?
3652 + Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
3653 + So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.
3654 + Laer. Drown'd! O, where?
3655 + Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
3656 + That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
3657 + There with fantastic garlands did she come
3658 + Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
3659 + That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
3660 + But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.
3661 + There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
3662 + Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
3663 + When down her weedy trophies and herself
3664 + Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide
3665 + And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
3666 + Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes,
3667 + As one incapable of her own distress,
3668 + Or like a creature native and indued
3669 + Unto that element; but long it could not be
3670 + Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
3671 + Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
3672 + To muddy death.
3673 + Laer. Alas, then she is drown'd?
3674 + Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.
3675 + Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
3676 + And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet
3677 + It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
3678 + Let shame say what it will. When these are gone,
3679 + The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord.
3680 + I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze
3681 + But that this folly douts it. Exit.
3682 + King. Let's follow, Gertrude.
3683 + How much I had to do to calm his rage I
3684 + Now fear I this will give it start again;
3685 + Therefore let's follow.
3686 + Exeunt.
3687 +
3688 +
3689 +
3690 +
3691 +
3692 + ACT V. Scene I.
3693 + Elsinore. A churchyard.
3694 +
3695 + Enter two Clowns, [with spades and pickaxes].
3696 +
3697 + Clown. Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully
3698 + seeks her own salvation?
3699 + Other. I tell thee she is; therefore make her grave straight.
3700 + The crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian burial.
3701 + Clown. How can that be, unless she drown'd herself in her own
3702 + defence?
3703 + Other. Why, 'tis found so.
3704 + Clown. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies
3705 + the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an
3706 + act hath three branches-it is to act, to do, and to perform;
3707 + argal, she drown'd herself wittingly.
3708 + Other. Nay, but hear you, Goodman Delver!
3709 + Clown. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good. Here stands the
3710 + man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is,
3711 + will he nill he, he goes- mark you that. But if the water come to
3712 + him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not
3713 + guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.
3714 + Other. But is this law?
3715 + Clown. Ay, marry, is't- crowner's quest law.
3716 + Other. Will you ha' the truth an't? If this had not been a
3717 + gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial.
3718 + Clown. Why, there thou say'st! And the more pity that great folk
3719 + should have count'nance in this world to drown or hang themselves
3720 + more than their even-Christen. Come, my spade! There is no
3721 + ancient gentlemen but gard'ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They
3722 + hold up Adam's profession.
3723 + Other. Was he a gentleman?
3724 + Clown. 'A was the first that ever bore arms.
3725 + Other. Why, he had none.
3726 + Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture?
3727 + The Scripture says Adam digg'd. Could he dig without arms? I'll
3728 + put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the
3729 + purpose, confess thyself-
3730 + Other. Go to!
3731 + Clown. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the
3732 + shipwright, or the carpenter?
3733 + Other. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand
3734 + tenants.
3735 + Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith. The gallows does well.
3736 + But how does it well? It does well to those that do ill. Now,
3737 + thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the
3738 + church. Argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come!
3739 + Other. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a
3740 + carpenter?
3741 + Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
3742 + Other. Marry, now I can tell!
3743 + Clown. To't.
3744 + Other. Mass, I cannot tell.
3745 +
3746 + Enter Hamlet and Horatio afar off.
3747 +
3748 + Clown. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will
3749 + not mend his pace with beating; and when you are ask'd this
3750 + question next, say 'a grave-maker.' The houses he makes lasts
3751 + till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan; fetch me a stoup of
3752 + liquor.
3753 + [Exit Second Clown.]
3754 +
3755 + [Clown digs and] sings.
3756 +
3757 + In youth when I did love, did love,
3758 + Methought it was very sweet;
3759 + To contract- O- the time for- a- my behove,
3760 + O, methought there- a- was nothing- a- meet.
3761 +
3762 + Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at
3763 + grave-making?
3764 + Hor. Custom hath made it in him a Property of easiness.
3765 + Ham. 'Tis e'en so. The hand of little employment hath the daintier
3766 + sense.
3767 + Clown. (sings)
3768 + But age with his stealing steps
3769 + Hath clawed me in his clutch,
3770 + And hath shipped me intil the land,
3771 + As if I had never been such.
3772 + [Throws up a skull.]
3773 +
3774 + Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the
3775 + knave jowls it to the ground,as if 'twere Cain's jawbone, that
3776 + did the first murther! This might be the pate of a Politician,
3777 + which this ass now o'erreaches; one that would circumvent God,
3778 + might it not?
3779 + Hor. It might, my lord.
3780 + Ham. Or of a courtier, which could say 'Good morrow, sweet lord!
3781 + How dost thou, good lord?' This might be my Lord Such-a-one, that
3782 + prais'd my Lord Such-a-one's horse when he meant to beg it- might
3783 + it not?
3784 + Hor. Ay, my lord.
3785 + Ham. Why, e'en so! and now my Lady Worm's, chapless, and knock'd
3786 + about the mazzard with a sexton's spade. Here's fine revolution,
3787 + and we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the
3788 + breeding but to play at loggets with 'em? Mine ache to think
3789 + on't.
3790 + Clown. (Sings)
3791 + A pickaxe and a spade, a spade,
3792 + For and a shrouding sheet;
3793 + O, a Pit of clay for to be made
3794 + For such a guest is meet.
3795 + Throws up [another skull].
3796 +
3797 + Ham. There's another. Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer?
3798 + Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures,
3799 + and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock
3800 + him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him
3801 + of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in's time a
3802 + great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his
3803 + fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of
3804 + his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
3805 + pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of
3806 + his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth
3807 + of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will
3808 + scarcely lie in this box; and must th' inheritor himself have no
3809 + more, ha?
3810 + Hor. Not a jot more, my lord.
3811 + Ham. Is not parchment made of sheepskins?
3812 + Hor. Ay, my lord, And of calveskins too.
3813 + Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. I
3814 + will speak to this fellow. Whose grave's this, sirrah?
3815 + Clown. Mine, sir.
3816 +
3817 + [Sings] O, a pit of clay for to be made
3818 + For such a guest is meet.
3819 +
3820 + Ham. I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in't.
3821 + Clown. You lie out on't, sir, and therefore 'tis not yours.
3822 + For my part, I do not lie in't, yet it is mine.
3823 + Ham. Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine. 'Tis for
3824 + the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.
3825 + Clown. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again from me to you.
3826 + Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?
3827 + Clown. For no man, sir.
3828 + Ham. What woman then?
3829 + Clown. For none neither.
3830 + Ham. Who is to be buried in't?
3831 + Clown. One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.
3832 + Ham. How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or
3833 + equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, this three years
3834 + I have taken note of it, the age is grown so picked that the toe
3835 + of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls
3836 + his kibe.- How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
3837 + Clown. Of all the days i' th' year, I came to't that day that our
3838 + last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
3839 + Ham. How long is that since?
3840 + Clown. Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the
3841 + very day that young Hamlet was born- he that is mad, and sent
3842 + into England.
3843 + Ham. Ay, marry, why was be sent into England?
3844 + Clown. Why, because 'a was mad. 'A shall recover his wits there;
3845 + or, if 'a do not, 'tis no great matter there.
3846 + Ham. Why?
3847 + Clown. 'Twill not he seen in him there. There the men are as mad as
3848 + he.
3849 + Ham. How came he mad?
3850 + Clown. Very strangely, they say.
3851 + Ham. How strangely?
3852 + Clown. Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
3853 + Ham. Upon what ground?
3854 + Clown. Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy
3855 + thirty years.
3856 + Ham. How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he rot?
3857 + Clown. Faith, if 'a be not rotten before 'a die (as we have many
3858 + pocky corses now-a-days that will scarce hold the laying in, I
3859 + will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner will last
3860 + you nine year.
3861 + Ham. Why he more than another?
3862 + Clown. Why, sir, his hide is so tann'd with his trade that 'a will
3863 + keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of
3864 + your whoreson dead body. Here's a skull now. This skull hath lien
3865 + you i' th' earth three-and-twenty years.
3866 + Ham. Whose was it?
3867 + Clown. A whoreson, mad fellow's it was. Whose do you think it was?
3868 + Ham. Nay, I know not.
3869 + Clown. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! 'A pour'd a flagon of
3870 + Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's
3871 + skull, the King's jester.
3872 + Ham. This?
3873 + Clown. E'en that.
3874 + Ham. Let me see. [Takes the skull.] Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him,
3875 + Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He
3876 + hath borne me on his back a thousand tunes. And now how abhorred
3877 + in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those
3878 + lips that I have kiss'd I know not how oft. Where be your gibes
3879 + now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment that
3880 + were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your
3881 + own grinning? Quite chap- fall'n? Now get you to my lady's
3882 + chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this
3883 + favour she must come. Make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio,
3884 + tell me one thing.
3885 + Hor. What's that, my lord?
3886 + Ham. Dost thou think Alexander look'd o' this fashion i' th' earth?
3887 + Hor. E'en so.
3888 + Ham. And smelt so? Pah!
3889 + [Puts down the skull.]
3890 + Hor. E'en so, my lord.
3891 + Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not
3892 + imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it
3893 + stopping a bunghole?
3894 + Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
3895 + Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty
3896 + enough, and likelihood to lead it; as thus: Alexander died,
3897 + Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is
3898 + earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam (whereto he
3899 + was converted) might they not stop a beer barrel?
3900 + Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
3901 + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.
3902 + O, that that earth which kept the world in awe
3903 + Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw!
3904 + But soft! but soft! aside! Here comes the King-
3905 +
3906 + Enter [priests with] a coffin [in funeral procession], King,
3907 + Queen, Laertes, with Lords attendant.]
3908 +
3909 + The Queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow?
3910 + And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
3911 + The corse they follow did with desp'rate hand
3912 + Fordo it own life. 'Twas of some estate.
3913 + Couch we awhile, and mark.
3914 + [Retires with Horatio.]
3915 + Laer. What ceremony else?
3916 + Ham. That is Laertes,
3917 + A very noble youth. Mark.
3918 + Laer. What ceremony else?
3919 + Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd
3920 + As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful;
3921 + And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
3922 + She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd
3923 + Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers,
3924 + Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her.
3925 + Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants,
3926 + Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home
3927 + Of bell and burial.
3928 + Laer. Must there no more be done?
3929 + Priest. No more be done.
3930 + We should profane the service of the dead
3931 + To sing a requiem and such rest to her
3932 + As to peace-parted souls.
3933 + Laer. Lay her i' th' earth;
3934 + And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
3935 + May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest,
3936 + A minist'ring angel shall my sister be
3937 + When thou liest howling.
3938 + Ham. What, the fair Ophelia?
3939 + Queen. Sweets to the sweet! Farewell.
3940 + [Scatters flowers.]
3941 + I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;
3942 + I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
3943 + And not have strew'd thy grave.
3944 + Laer. O, treble woe
3945 + Fall ten times treble on that cursed head
3946 + Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
3947 + Depriv'd thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
3948 + Till I have caught her once more in mine arms.
3949 + Leaps in the grave.
3950 + Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead
3951 + Till of this flat a mountain you have made
3952 + T' o'ertop old Pelion or the skyish head
3953 + Of blue Olympus.
3954 + Ham. [comes forward] What is he whose grief
3955 + Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
3956 + Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them stand
3957 + Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,
3958 + Hamlet the Dane. [Leaps in after Laertes.
3959 + Laer. The devil take thy soul!
3960 + [Grapples with him].
3961 + Ham. Thou pray'st not well.
3962 + I prithee take thy fingers from my throat;
3963 + For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
3964 + Yet have I in me something dangerous,
3965 + Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand!
3966 + King. Pluck thein asunder.
3967 + Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet!
3968 + All. Gentlemen!
3969 + Hor. Good my lord, be quiet.
3970 + [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the
3971 + grave.]
3972 + Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme
3973 + Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
3974 + Queen. O my son, what theme?
3975 + Ham. I lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
3976 + Could not (with all their quantity of love)
3977 + Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?
3978 + King. O, he is mad, Laertes.
3979 + Queen. For love of God, forbear him!
3980 + Ham. 'Swounds, show me what thou't do.
3981 + Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
3982 + Woo't drink up esill? eat a crocodile?
3983 + I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
3984 + To outface me with leaping in her grave?
3985 + Be buried quick with her, and so will I.
3986 + And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
3987 + Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
3988 + Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
3989 + Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
3990 + I'll rant as well as thou.
3991 + Queen. This is mere madness;
3992 + And thus a while the fit will work on him.
3993 + Anon, as patient as the female dove
3994 + When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,
3995 + His silence will sit drooping.
3996 + Ham. Hear you, sir!
3997 + What is the reason that you use me thus?
3998 + I lov'd you ever. But it is no matter.
3999 + Let Hercules himself do what he may,
4000 + The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.
4001 + Exit.
4002 + King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him.
4003 + Exit Horatio.
4004 + [To Laertes] Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech.
4005 + We'll put the matter to the present push.-
4006 + Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.-
4007 + This grave shall have a living monument.
4008 + An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
4009 + Till then in patience our proceeding be.
4010 + Exeunt.
4011 +
4012 +
4013 +
4014 +
4015 + Scene II.
4016 + Elsinore. A hall in the Castle.
4017 +
4018 + Enter Hamlet and Horatio.
4019 +
4020 + Ham. So much for this, sir; now shall you see the other.
4021 + You do remember all the circumstance?
4022 + Hor. Remember it, my lord!
4023 + Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting
4024 + That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay
4025 + Worse than the mutinies in the bilboes. Rashly-
4026 + And prais'd be rashness for it; let us know,
4027 + Our indiscretion sometime serves us well
4028 + When our deep plots do pall; and that should learn us
4029 + There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
4030 + Rough-hew them how we will-
4031 + Hor. That is most certain.
4032 + Ham. Up from my cabin,
4033 + My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
4034 + Grop'd I to find out them; had my desire,
4035 + Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
4036 + To mine own room again; making so bold
4037 + (My fears forgetting manners) to unseal
4038 + Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio
4039 + (O royal knavery!), an exact command,
4040 + Larded with many several sorts of reasons,
4041 + Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
4042 + With, hoo! such bugs and goblins in my life-
4043 + That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
4044 + No, not to stay the finding of the axe,
4045 + My head should be struck off.
4046 + Hor. Is't possible?
4047 + Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure.
4048 + But wilt thou bear me how I did proceed?
4049 + Hor. I beseech you.
4050 + Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies,
4051 + Or I could make a prologue to my brains,
4052 + They had begun the play. I sat me down;
4053 + Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair.
4054 + I once did hold it, as our statists do,
4055 + A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
4056 + How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
4057 + It did me yeoman's service. Wilt thou know
4058 + Th' effect of what I wrote?
4059 + Hor. Ay, good my lord.
4060 + Ham. An earnest conjuration from the King,
4061 + As England was his faithful tributary,
4062 + As love between them like the palm might flourish,
4063 + As peace should still her wheaten garland wear
4064 + And stand a comma 'tween their amities,
4065 + And many such-like as's of great charge,
4066 + That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
4067 + Without debatement further, more or less,
4068 + He should the bearers put to sudden death,
4069 + Not shriving time allow'd.
4070 + Hor. How was this seal'd?
4071 + Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
4072 + I had my father's signet in my purse,
4073 + which was the model of that Danish seal;
4074 + Folded the writ up in the form of th' other,
4075 + Subscrib'd it, gave't th' impression, plac'd it safely,
4076 + The changeling never known. Now, the next day
4077 + Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
4078 + Thou know'st already.
4079 + Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
4080 + Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment!
4081 + They are not near my conscience; their defeat
4082 + Does by their own insinuation grow.
4083 + 'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
4084 + Between the pass and fell incensed points
4085 + Of mighty opposites.
4086 + Hor. Why, what a king is this!
4087 + Ham. Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon-
4088 + He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother;
4089 + Popp'd in between th' election and my hopes;
4090 + Thrown out his angle for my Proper life,
4091 + And with such coz'nage- is't not perfect conscience
4092 + To quit him with this arm? And is't not to be damn'd
4093 + To let this canker of our nature come
4094 + In further evil?
4095 + Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England
4096 + What is the issue of the business there.
4097 + Ham. It will be short; the interim is mine,
4098 + And a man's life is no more than to say 'one.'
4099 + But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
4100 + That to Laertes I forgot myself,
4101 + For by the image of my cause I see
4102 + The portraiture of his. I'll court his favours.
4103 + But sure the bravery of his grief did put me
4104 + Into a tow'ring passion.
4105 + Hor. Peace! Who comes here?
4106 +
4107 + Enter young Osric, a courtier.
4108 +
4109 + Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
4110 + Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. [Aside to Horatio] Dost know this
4111 + waterfly?
4112 + Hor. [aside to Hamlet] No, my good lord.
4113 + Ham. [aside to Horatio] Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a
4114 + vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be
4115 + lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess. 'Tis
4116 + a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt.
4117 + Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart
4118 + a thing to you from his Majesty.
4119 + Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your
4120 + bonnet to his right use. 'Tis for the head.
4121 + Osr. I thank your lordship, it is very hot.
4122 + Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly.
4123 + Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
4124 + Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.
4125 + Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, as 'twere- I cannot
4126 + tell how. But, my lord, his Majesty bade me signify to you that
4127 + he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter-
4128 + Ham. I beseech you remember.
4129 + [Hamlet moves him to put on his hat.]
4130 + Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is
4131 + newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman,
4132 + full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and
4133 + great showing. Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card
4134 + or calendar of gentry; for you shall find in him the continent of
4135 + what part a gentleman would see.
4136 + Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I
4137 + know, to divide him inventorially would dozy th' arithmetic of
4138 + memory, and yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail.
4139 + But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great
4140 + article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make
4141 + true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else
4142 + would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.
4143 + Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
4144 + Ham. The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more
4145 + rawer breath
4146 + Osr. Sir?
4147 + Hor [aside to Hamlet] Is't not possible to understand in another
4148 + tongue? You will do't, sir, really.
4149 + Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman
4150 + Osr. Of Laertes?
4151 + Hor. [aside] His purse is empty already. All's golden words are
4152 + spent.
4153 + Ham. Of him, sir.
4154 + Osr. I know you are not ignorant-
4155 + Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not
4156 + much approve me. Well, sir?
4157 + Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is-
4158 + Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in
4159 + excellence; but to know a man well were to know himself.
4160 + Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him
4161 + by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.
4162 + Ham. What's his weapon?
4163 + Osr. Rapier and dagger.
4164 + Ham. That's two of his weapons- but well.
4165 + Osr. The King, sir, hath wager'd with him six Barbary horses;
4166 + against the which he has impon'd, as I take it, six French
4167 + rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and
4168 + so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy,
4169 + very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of
4170 + very liberal conceit.
4171 + Ham. What call you the carriages?
4172 + Hor. [aside to Hamlet] I knew you must be edified by the margent
4173 + ere you had done.
4174 + Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
4175 + Ham. The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we could
4176 + carry cannon by our sides. I would it might be hangers till then.
4177 + But on! Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their
4178 + assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages: that's the French
4179 + bet against the Danish. Why is this all impon'd, as you call it?
4180 + Osr. The King, sir, hath laid that, in a dozen passes between
4181 + yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath
4182 + laid on twelve for nine, and it would come to immediate trial
4183 + if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.
4184 + Ham. How if I answer no?
4185 + Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial.
4186 + Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his Majesty,
4187 + it is the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be
4188 + brought, the gentleman willing, and the King hold his purpose,
4189 + I will win for him if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my
4190 + shame and the odd hits.
4191 + Osr. Shall I redeliver you e'en so?
4192 + Ham. To this effect, sir, after what flourish your nature will.
4193 + Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship.
4194 + Ham. Yours, yours. [Exit Osric.] He does well to commend it
4195 + himself; there are no tongues else for's turn.
4196 + Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
4197 + Ham. He did comply with his dug before he suck'd it. Thus has he,
4198 + and many more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes
4199 + on, only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter-
4200 + a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and
4201 + through the most fann'd and winnowed opinions; and do but blow
4202 + them to their trial-the bubbles are out,
4203 +
4204 + Enter a Lord.
4205 +
4206 + Lord. My lord, his Majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who
4207 + brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall. He sends to
4208 + know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will
4209 + take longer time.
4210 + Ham. I am constant to my purposes; they follow the King's pleasure.
4211 + If his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or whensoever, provided
4212 + I be so able as now.
4213 + Lord. The King and Queen and all are coming down.
4214 + Ham. In happy time.
4215 + Lord. The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to
4216 + Laertes before you fall to play.
4217 + Ham. She well instructs me.
4218 + [Exit Lord.]
4219 + Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord.
4220 + Ham. I do not think so. Since he went into France I have been in
4221 + continual practice. I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not
4222 + think how ill all's here about my heart. But it is no matter.
4223 + Hor. Nay, good my lord -
4224 + Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gaingiving as
4225 + would perhaps trouble a woman.
4226 + Hor. If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their
4227 + repair hither and say you are not fit.
4228 + Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in
4229 + the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come', if it be
4230 + not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come:
4231 + the readiness is all. Since no man knows aught of what he leaves,
4232 + what is't to leave betimes? Let be.
4233 +
4234 + Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Osric, and Lords, with other
4235 + Attendants with foils and gauntlets.
4236 + A table and flagons of wine on it.
4237 +
4238 + King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
4239 + [The King puts Laertes' hand into Hamlet's.]
4240 + Ham. Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong;
4241 + But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
4242 + This presence knows,
4243 + And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
4244 + With sore distraction. What I have done
4245 + That might your nature, honour, and exception
4246 + Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
4247 + Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet.
4248 + If Hamlet from himself be taken away,
4249 + And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes,
4250 + Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
4251 + Who does it, then? His madness. If't be so,
4252 + Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
4253 + His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
4254 + Sir, in this audience,
4255 + Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
4256 + Free me so far in your most generous thoughts
4257 + That I have shot my arrow o'er the house
4258 + And hurt my brother.
4259 + Laer. I am satisfied in nature,
4260 + Whose motive in this case should stir me most
4261 + To my revenge. But in my terms of honour
4262 + I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement
4263 + Till by some elder masters of known honour
4264 + I have a voice and precedent of peace
4265 + To keep my name ungor'd. But till that time
4266 + I do receive your offer'd love like love,
4267 + And will not wrong it.
4268 + Ham. I embrace it freely,
4269 + And will this brother's wager frankly play.
4270 + Give us the foils. Come on.
4271 + Laer. Come, one for me.
4272 + Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance
4273 + Your skill shall, like a star i' th' darkest night,
4274 + Stick fiery off indeed.
4275 + Laer. You mock me, sir.
4276 + Ham. No, by this bad.
4277 + King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
4278 + You know the wager?
4279 + Ham. Very well, my lord.
4280 + Your Grace has laid the odds o' th' weaker side.
4281 + King. I do not fear it, I have seen you both;
4282 + But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds.
4283 + Laer. This is too heavy; let me see another.
4284 + Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
4285 + Prepare to play.
4286 + Osr. Ay, my good lord.
4287 + King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table.
4288 + If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
4289 + Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
4290 + Let all the battlements their ordnance fire;
4291 + The King shall drink to Hamlet's better breath,
4292 + And in the cup an union shall he throw
4293 + Richer than that which four successive kings
4294 + In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;
4295 + And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
4296 + The trumpet to the cannoneer without,
4297 + The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
4298 + 'Now the King drinks to Hamlet.' Come, begin.
4299 + And you the judges, bear a wary eye.
4300 + Ham. Come on, sir.
4301 + Laer. Come, my lord. They play.
4302 + Ham. One.
4303 + Laer. No.
4304 + Ham. Judgment!
4305 + Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit.
4306 + Laer. Well, again!
4307 + King. Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
4308 + Here's to thy health.
4309 + [Drum; trumpets sound; a piece goes off [within].
4310 + Give him the cup.
4311 + Ham. I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile.
4312 + Come. (They play.) Another hit. What say you?
4313 + Laer. A touch, a touch; I do confess't.
4314 + King. Our son shall win.
4315 + Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath.
4316 + Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
4317 + The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
4318 + Ham. Good madam!
4319 + King. Gertrude, do not drink.
4320 + Queen. I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me. Drinks.
4321 + King. [aside] It is the poison'd cup; it is too late.
4322 + Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by-and-by.
4323 + Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face.
4324 + Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now.
4325 + King. I do not think't.
4326 + Laer. [aside] And yet it is almost against my conscience.
4327 + Ham. Come for the third, Laertes! You but dally.
4328 + pray You Pass with your best violence;
4329 + I am afeard You make a wanton of me.
4330 + Laer. Say you so? Come on. Play.
4331 + Osr. Nothing neither way.
4332 + Laer. Have at you now!
4333 + [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then] in scuffling, they
4334 + change rapiers, [and Hamlet wounds Laertes].
4335 + King. Part them! They are incens'd.
4336 + Ham. Nay come! again! The Queen falls.
4337 + Osr. Look to the Queen there, ho!
4338 + Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?
4339 + Osr. How is't, Laertes?
4340 + Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric.
4341 + I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
4342 + Ham. How does the Queen?
4343 + King. She sounds to see them bleed.
4344 + Queen. No, no! the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet!
4345 + The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. [Dies.]
4346 + Ham. O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd.
4347 + Treachery! Seek it out.
4348 + [Laertes falls.]
4349 + Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain;
4350 + No medicine in the world can do thee good.
4351 + In thee there is not half an hour of life.
4352 + The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
4353 + Unbated and envenom'd. The foul practice
4354 + Hath turn'd itself on me. Lo, here I lie,
4355 + Never to rise again. Thy mother's poison'd.
4356 + I can no more. The King, the King's to blame.
4357 + Ham. The point envenom'd too?
4358 + Then, venom, to thy work. Hurts the King.
4359 + All. Treason! treason!
4360 + King. O, yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt.
4361 + Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Dane,
4362 + Drink off this potion! Is thy union here?
4363 + Follow my mother. King dies.
4364 + Laer. He is justly serv'd.
4365 + It is a poison temper'd by himself.
4366 + Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
4367 + Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
4368 + Nor thine on me! Dies.
4369 + Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
4370 + I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
4371 + You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
4372 + That are but mutes or audience to this act,
4373 + Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, Death,
4374 + Is strict in his arrest) O, I could tell you-
4375 + But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
4376 + Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright
4377 + To the unsatisfied.
4378 + Hor. Never believe it.
4379 + I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
4380 + Here's yet some liquor left.
4381 + Ham. As th'art a man,
4382 + Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I'll ha't.
4383 + O good Horatio, what a wounded name
4384 + (Things standing thus unknown) shall live behind me!
4385 + If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
4386 + Absent thee from felicity awhile,
4387 + And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
4388 + To tell my story. [March afar off, and shot within.]
4389 + What warlike noise is this?
4390 + Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,
4391 + To the ambassadors of England gives
4392 + This warlike volley.
4393 + Ham. O, I die, Horatio!
4394 + The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit.
4395 + I cannot live to hear the news from England,
4396 + But I do prophesy th' election lights
4397 + On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.
4398 + So tell him, with th' occurrents, more and less,
4399 + Which have solicited- the rest is silence. Dies.
4400 + Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
4401 + And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
4402 + [March within.]
4403 + Why does the drum come hither?
4404 +
4405 + Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassadors, with Drum,
4406 + Colours, and Attendants.
4407 +
4408 + Fort. Where is this sight?
4409 + Hor. What is it you will see?
4410 + If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
4411 + Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud Death,
4412 + What feast is toward in thine eternal cell
4413 + That thou so many princes at a shot
4414 + So bloodily hast struck.
4415 + Ambassador. The sight is dismal;
4416 + And our affairs from England come too late.
4417 + The ears are senseless that should give us bearing
4418 + To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd
4419 + That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
4420 + Where should We have our thanks?
4421 + Hor. Not from his mouth,
4422 + Had it th' ability of life to thank you.
4423 + He never gave commandment for their death.
4424 + But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
4425 + You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
4426 + Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies
4427 + High on a stage be placed to the view;
4428 + And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
4429 + How these things came about. So shall You hear
4430 + Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts;
4431 + Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
4432 + Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause;
4433 + And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
4434 + Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. All this can I
4435 + Truly deliver.
4436 + Fort. Let us haste to hear it,
4437 + And call the noblest to the audience.
4438 + For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.
4439 + I have some rights of memory in this kingdom
4440 + Which now, to claim my vantage doth invite me.
4441 + Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
4442 + And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more.
4443 + But let this same be presently perform'd,
4444 + Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance
4445 + On plots and errors happen.
4446 + Fort. Let four captains
4447 + Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage;
4448 + For he was likely, had he been put on,
4449 + To have prov'd most royally; and for his passage
4450 + The soldiers' music and the rites of war
4451 + Speak loudly for him.
4452 + Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this
4453 + Becomes the field but here shows much amiss.
4454 + Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
4455 + Exeunt marching; after the which a peal of ordnance
4456 + are shot off.
4457 +
4458 +
4459 + THE END
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