1
Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
2
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords.
4
And can you by no drift of circumstance
5
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
6
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
7
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
9
He does confess he feels himself distracted,
10
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
12
Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
13
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
14
When we would bring him on to some confession
17
Did he receive you well?
19
Most like a gentleman.
21
But with much forcing of his disposition.
23
Niggard of question, but of our demands
24
Most free in his reply.
29
Madam, it so fell out that certain players
30
We o'erraught on the way. Of these we told him,
31
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
32
To hear of it. They are here about the court,
33
And, as I think, they have already order
34
This night to play before him.
37
And he beseech'd me to entreat your Majesties
38
To hear and see the matter.
40
With all my heart, and it doth much content me
41
To hear him so inclin'd.
42
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge
43
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
46
Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
48
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
49
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
50
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
52
Her father and myself(lawful espials)
53
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
54
We may of their encounter frankly judge
55
And gather by him, as he is behav'd,
56
If't be th' affliction of his love, or no,
57
That thus he suffers for.
60
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
61
That your good beauties be the happy cause
62
Of Hamlet's wildness. So shall I hope your virtues
63
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
69
Ophelia, walk you here.- Gracious, so please you,
70
We will bestow ourselves.-[To Ophelia]Read on this book,
71
That show of such an exercise may colour
72
Your loneliness.- We are oft to blame in this,
73
'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage
74
And pious action we do sugar o'er
77
[aside]O, 'tis too true!
78
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
79
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,
80
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
81
Than is my deed to my most painted word.
84
I hear him coming. Let's withdraw, my lord.
85
Exeunt King and Polonius].
88
To be, or not to be- that is the question:
89
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
90
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
91
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
92
And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-
93
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
94
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
95
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
96
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep.
97
To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!
98
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
99
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
100
Must give us pause. There's the respect
101
That makes calamity of so long life.
102
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
103
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
104
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
105
The insolence of office, and the spurns
106
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
107
When he himself might his quietus make
108
With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
109
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
110
But that the dread of something after death-
111
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
112
No traveller returns- puzzles the will,
113
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
114
Than fly to others that we know not of?
115
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
116
And thus the native hue of resolution
117
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
118
And enterprises of great pith and moment
119
With this regard their currents turn awry
120
And lose the name of action.- Soft you now!
121
The fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons
122
Be all my sins rememb'red.
125
How does your honour for this many a day?
127
I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
129
My lord, I have remembrances of yours
130
That I have longed long to re-deliver.
131
I pray you, now receive them.
134
I never gave you aught.
136
My honour'd lord, you know right well you did,
137
And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd
138
As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,
139
Take these again; for to the noble mind
140
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
143
Ha, ha! Are you honest?
149
What means your lordship?
151
That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no
152
discourse to your beauty.
154
Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
156
Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform
157
honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can
158
translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox,
159
but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.
161
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
163
You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so
164
inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you
167
I was the more deceived.
169
Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of
170
sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse
171
me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me.
172
I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my
173
beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give
174
them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I
175
do, crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all;
176
believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your
181
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool
182
nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.
184
O, help him, you sweet heavens!
186
If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry:
187
be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
188
calumny. Get thee to a nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt
189
needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what
190
monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.
193
O heavenly powers, restore him!
195
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath
196
given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you
197
amble, and you lisp; you nickname God's creatures and make your
198
wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't! it hath made
199
me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages. Those that are
200
married already- all but one- shall live; the rest shall keep as
201
they are. To a nunnery, go.[Exit.]
203
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
204
The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
205
Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,
206
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
207
Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down!
208
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
209
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
210
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
211
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
212
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
213
Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me
214
T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
215
Enter King and Polonius.
217
Love? his affections do not that way tend;
218
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
219
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul
220
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
221
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
222
Will be some danger; which for to prevent,
223
I have in quick determination
224
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England
225
For the demand of our neglected tribute.
226
Haply the seas, and countries different,
227
With variable objects, shall expel
228
This something-settled matter in his heart,
229
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
230
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
232
It shall do well. But yet do I believe
233
The origin and commencement of his grief
234
Sprung from neglected love.- How now, Ophelia?
235
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said.
236
We heard it all.- My lord, do as you please;
237
But if you hold it fit, after the play
238
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
239
To show his grief. Let her be round with him;
240
And I'll be plac'd so please you, in the ear
241
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
242
To England send him; or confine him where
243
Your wisdom best shall think.
246
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.[Exeunt.]
1
Elsinore. hall in the Castle.
2
Enter Hamlet and three of the Players.
4
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you,
5
trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our
6
players do, I had as live the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do
7
not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all
8
gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and(as I may say)
9
whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a
10
temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the
11
soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to
12
tatters, to very rags, to split the cars of the groundlings, who
13
(for the most part)are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb
14
shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipp'd for o'erdoing
15
Termagant. It out-herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.
17
I warrant your honour.
19
Be not too tame neither; but let your own discretion be your
20
tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with
21
this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of
22
nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing,
23
whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as
24
'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show Virtue her own feature,
25
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his
26
form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though
27
it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious
28
grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance
29
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I
30
have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly(not to
31
speak it profanely), that, neither having the accent of
32
Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
33
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's
34
journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated
35
humanity so abominably.
37
I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with us, sir.
39
O, reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns
40
speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them
41
that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren
42
spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary
43
question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous
44
and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go
47
[Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.]
48
How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?
50
And the Queen too, and that presently.
52
Bid the players make haste,[Exit Polonius.]Will you two
55
[with Guildenstern]We will, my lord.
61
Here, sweet lord, at your service.
63
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
64
As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.
68
Nay, do not think I flatter;
69
For what advancement may I hope from thee,
70
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits
71
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
72
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
73
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
74
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
75
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
76
And could of men distinguish, her election
77
Hath seal'd thee for herself. For thou hast been
78
As one, in suff'ring all, that suffers nothing;
79
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
80
Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
81
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled
82
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
83
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
84
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
85
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
86
As I do thee. Something too much of this I
87
There is a play to-night before the King.
88
One scene of it comes near the circumstance,
89
Which I have told thee, of my father's death.
90
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
91
Even with the very comment of thy soul
92
Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt
93
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
94
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
95
And my imaginations are as foul
96
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
97
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
98
And after we will both our judgments join
99
In censure of his seeming.
102
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
103
And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
104
Sound a flourish.[Enter Trumpets and Kettledrums. Danish
105
march. [Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern,
106
and other Lords attendant, with the Guard carrying torches.]
108
They are coming to the play. I must be idle.
111
How fares our cousin Hamlet?
113
Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air,
114
promise-cramm'd. You cannot feed capons so.
116
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not
119
No, nor mine now.[To Polonius]My lord, you play'd once
120
i' th' university, you say?
122
That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor.
126
I did enact Julius Caesar; I was kill'd i' th' Capitol; Brutus
129
It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be
132
Ay, my lord. They stay upon your patience.
134
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
136
No, good mother. Here's metal more attractive.
138
[to the King]O, ho! do you mark that?
140
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
141
[Sits down at Ophelia's feet.]
145
I mean, my head upon your lap?
149
Do you think I meant country matters?
151
I think nothing, my lord.
153
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
159
You are merry, my lord.
165
O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry?
166
For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died
169
Nay 'tis twice two months, my lord.
171
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a
172
suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten
173
yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life
174
half a year. But, by'r Lady, he must build churches then; or else
175
shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose
176
epitaph is 'For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot!'
177
[Hautboys play. The dumb show enters.]
178
Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing
179
him and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation
180
unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her
181
neck. He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing
182
him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his
183
crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and
184
leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes
185
passionate action. The Poisoner with some three or four Mutes,
186
comes in again, seem to condole with her. The dead body is
187
carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she
188
seems harsh and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts
192
What means this, my lord?
194
Marry, this is miching malhecho; it means mischief.
196
Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
199
We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel;
202
Will he tell us what this show meant?
204
Ay, or any show that you'll show him. Be not you asham'd to
205
show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
207
You are naught, you are naught! I'll mark the play.
208
Pro. For us, and for our tragedy,
209
Here stooping to your clemency,
210
We beg your hearing patiently.[Exit.]
212
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
217
Enter [two Players as] King and Queen.
219
Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round
220
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
221
And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen
222
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
223
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,
224
Unite comutual in most sacred bands.
226
So many journeys may the sun and moon
227
Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
228
But woe is me! you are so sick of late,
229
So far from cheer and from your former state.
230
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
231
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must;
232
For women's fear and love holds quantity,
233
In neither aught, or in extremity.
234
Now what my love is, proof hath made you know;
235
And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so.
236
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
237
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
239
Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
240
My operant powers their functions leave to do.
241
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
242
Honour'd, belov'd, and haply one as kind
243
For husband shalt thou-
245
O, confound the rest!
246
Such love must needs be treason in my breast.
247
When second husband let me be accurst!
248
None wed the second but who killed the first.
250
[aside]Wormwood, wormwood!
251
Queen. The instances that second marriage move
252
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.
253
A second time I kill my husband dead
254
When second husband kisses me in bed.
256
I do believe you think what now you speak;
257
But what we do determine oft we break.
258
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
259
Of violent birth, but poor validity;
260
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,
261
But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
262
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
263
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.
264
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
265
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
266
The violence of either grief or joy
267
Their own enactures with themselves destroy.
268
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
269
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
270
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
271
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
272
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
273
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
274
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,
275
The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies;
276
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,
277
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
278
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
279
Directly seasons him his enemy.
280
But, orderly to end where I begun,
281
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
282
That our devices still are overthrown;
283
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.
284
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
285
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
287
Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light,
288
Sport and repose lock from me day and night,
289
To desperation turn my trust and hope,
290
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope,
291
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
292
Meet what I would have well, and it destroy,
293
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
294
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
296
If she should break it now!
298
'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.
299
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
300
The tedious day with sleep.
302
Sleep rock thy brain,
305
And never come mischance between us twain!
308
Madam, how like you this play?
310
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
312
O, but she'll keep her word.
314
Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?
316
No, no! They do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' th'
319
What do you call the play?
321
'The Mousetrap.' Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the
322
image of a murther done in Vienna. Gonzago is the duke's name;
323
his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. 'Tis a knavish piece of
324
work; but what o' that? Your Majesty, and we that have free
325
souls, it touches us not. Let the gall'd jade winch; our withers
327
Enter Lucianus.This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King.
329
You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
331
I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see
332
the puppets dallying.
334
You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
336
It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.
338
Still better, and worse.
340
So you must take your husbands.- Begin, murtherer. Pox, leave
341
thy damnable faces, and begin! Come, the croaking raven doth
343
Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; Confederate season, else no creature seeing; Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, Thy natural magic and dire property On wholesome life usurp immediately.
344
Pours the poison in his ears.
346
He poisons him i' th' garden for's estate. His name's Gonzago.
347
The story is extant, and written in very choice Italian. You
348
shall see anon how the murtherer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
352
What, frighted with false fire?
358
Give me some light! Away!
360
Lights, lights, lights!
361
Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.
363
Why, let the strucken deer go weep,
364
The hart ungalled play;
365
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
366
Thus runs the world away.
367
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers- if the rest of my
368
fortunes turn Turk with me-with two Provincial roses on my raz'd
369
shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
374
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
375
This realm dismantled was
376
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
377
A very, very- pajock.
379
You might have rhym'd.
381
O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand
382
pound! Didst perceive?
386
Upon the talk of the poisoning?
388
I did very well note him.
390
Aha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!
391
For if the King like not the comedy,
392
Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy.
394
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
396
Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
398
Sir, a whole history.
402
Ay, sir, what of him?
404
Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper'd.
408
No, my lord; rather with choler.
410
Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to
411
the doctor; for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps
412
plunge him into far more choler.
414
Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start
415
not so wildly from my affair.
417
I am tame, sir; pronounce.
419
The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit
424
Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed.
425
If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do
426
your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return
427
shall be the end of my business.
433
Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseas'd. But, sir, such
434
answer as I can make, you shall command; or rather, as you say,
435
my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter! My mother, you
438
Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into
439
amazement and admiration.
441
O wonderful son, that can so stonish a mother! But is there no
442
sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? Impart.
444
She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed.
446
We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any
447
further trade with us?
449
My lord, you once did love me.
451
And do still, by these pickers and stealers!
453
Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely
454
bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to
457
Sir, I lack advancement.
459
How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself
460
for your succession in Denmark?
462
Ay, sir, but 'while the grass grows'- the proverb is something
464
[Enter the Players with recorders. ]
465
O, the recorders! Let me see one. To withdraw with you- why do
466
you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me
469
O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.
471
I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?
477
Believe me, I cannot.
481
I know, no touch of it, my lord.
483
It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your
484
fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will
485
discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.
487
But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I
490
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You
491
would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would
492
pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my
493
lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music,
494
excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it
495
speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be play'd on than a
496
pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me,
497
you cannot play upon me.
501
My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.
503
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
505
By th' mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.
507
Methinks it is like a weasel.
509
It is back'd like a weasel.
515
Then will I come to my mother by-and-by.- They fool me to the
516
top of my bent.- I will come by-and-by.
518
I will say so.[Exit.]
520
'By-and-by' is easily said.- Leave me, friends.
521
[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
522
'Tis now the very witching time of night,
523
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
524
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood
525
And do such bitter business as the day
526
Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother!
527
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
528
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom.
529
Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
530
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.
531
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites-
532
How in my words somever she be shent,
533
To give them seals never, my soul, consent![Exit.]
2
Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
4
I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
5
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
6
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
7
And he to England shall along with you.
8
The terms of our estate may not endure
9
Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow
12
We will ourselves provide.
13
Most holy and religious fear it is
14
To keep those many many bodies safe
15
That live and feed upon your Majesty.
17
The single and peculiar life is bound
18
With all the strength and armour of the mind
19
To keep itself from noyance; but much more
20
That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
21
The lives of many. The cesse of majesty
22
Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw
23
What's near it with it. It is a massy wheel,
24
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
25
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
26
Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls,
27
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
28
Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
29
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
31
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
32
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
33
Which now goes too free-footed.
35
[with Guildenstern]We will haste us.
39
My lord, he's going to his mother's closet.
40
Behind the arras I'll convey myself
41
To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home;
42
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
43
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
44
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
45
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege.
46
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed
47
And tell you what I know.
51
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
52
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
53
A brother's murther! Pray can I not,
54
Though inclination be as sharp as will.
55
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
56
And, like a man to double business bound,
57
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
58
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
59
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
60
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
61
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
62
But to confront the visage of offence?
63
And what's in prayer but this twofold force,
64
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
65
Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
66
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
67
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murther'?
68
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
69
Of those effects for which I did the murther-
70
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
71
May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence?
72
In the corrupted currents of this world
73
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
74
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
75
Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above.
76
There is no shuffling; there the action lies
77
In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd,
78
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
79
To give in evidence. What then? What rests?
80
Try what repentance can. What can it not?
81
Yet what can it when one cannot repent?
82
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
83
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
84
Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay.
85
Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel,
86
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!
87
All may be well. He kneels.
90
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
91
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven,
92
And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd.
93
A villain kills my father; and for that,
94
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
96
Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge!
97
He took my father grossly, full of bread,
98
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
99
And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven?
100
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
101
'Tis heavy with him; and am I then reveng'd,
102
To take him in the purging of his soul,
103
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?
105
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
106
When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;
107
Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed;
108
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
109
That has no relish of salvation in't-
110
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
111
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
112
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
113
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.[Exit.]
115
[rises]My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
116
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.[Exit.]
2
Enter Queen and Polonius.
4
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him.
5
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
6
And that your Grace hath screen'd and stood between
7
Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here.
8
Pray you be round with him.
10
[within]Mother, mother, mother!
12
I'll warrant you; fear me not. Withdraw; I hear him coming.
13
[Polonius hides behind the arras.]
16
Now, mother, what's the matter?
18
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
20
Mother, you have my father much offended.
22
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
24
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
28
What's the matter now?
32
No, by the rood, not so!
33
You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,
34
And(would it were not so!)you are my mother.
36
Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak.
38
Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge;
39
You go not till I set you up a glass
40
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
42
What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me?
45
[behind]What, ho! help, help, help!
47
[draws]How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!
48
[Makes a pass through the arras and] kills Polonius.
50
[behind]O, I am slain!
52
O me, what hast thou done?
54
Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
56
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
58
A bloody deed- almost as bad, good mother,
59
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
63
Ay, lady, it was my word.
64
[Lifts up the arras and sees Polonius.]
65
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
66
I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.
67
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
68
Leave wringing of your hands. Peace! sit you down
69
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall
70
If it be made of penetrable stuff;
71
If damned custom have not braz'd it so
72
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
74
What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue
75
In noise so rude against me?
78
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
79
Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose
80
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
81
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
82
As false as dicers' oaths. O, such a deed
83
As from the body of contraction plucks
84
The very soul, and sweet religion makes
85
A rhapsody of words! Heaven's face doth glow;
86
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
87
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
88
Is thought-sick at the act.
91
That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
93
Look here upon th's picture, and on this,
94
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
95
See what a grace was seated on this brow;
96
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
97
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
98
A station like the herald Mercury
99
New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill:
100
A combination and a form indeed
101
Where every god did seem to set his seal
102
To give the world assurance of a man.
103
This was your husband. Look you now what follows.
104
Here is your husband, like a mildew'd ear
105
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
106
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
107
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes
108
You cannot call it love; for at your age
109
The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
110
And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment
111
Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have,
112
Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense
113
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
114
Nor sense to ecstacy was ne'er so thrall'd
115
But it reserv'd some quantity of choice
116
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
117
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
118
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
119
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
120
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
122
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
123
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
124
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax
125
And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame
126
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
127
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
128
And reason panders will.
130
O Hamlet, speak no more!
131
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul,
132
And there I see such black and grained spots
133
As will not leave their tinct.
136
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
137
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
140
O, speak to me no more!
141
These words like daggers enter in mine ears.
142
No more, sweet Hamlet!
144
A murtherer and a villain!
145
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
146
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
147
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,
148
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
149
And put it in his pocket!
152
Enter the Ghost in his nightgown.
154
A king of shreds and patches!-
155
Save me and hover o'er me with your wings,
156
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
160
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
161
That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
162
Th' important acting of your dread command?
165
Do not forget. This visitation
166
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
167
But look, amazement on thy mother sits.
168
O, step between her and her fighting soul
169
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
170
Speak to her, Hamlet.
172
How is it with you, lady?
174
Alas, how is't with you,
175
That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
176
And with th' encorporal air do hold discourse?
177
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
178
And, as the sleeping soldiers in th' alarm,
179
Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements,
180
Start up and stand an end. O gentle son,
181
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
182
Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?
184
On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!
185
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
186
Would make them capable.- Do not look upon me,
187
Lest with this piteous action you convert
188
My stern effects. Then what I have to do
189
Will want true colour- tears perchance for blood.
191
To whom do you speak this?
193
Do you see nothing there?
195
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
197
Nor did you nothing hear?
199
No, nothing but ourselves.
201
Why, look you there! Look how it steals away!
202
My father, in his habit as he liv'd!
203
Look where he goes even now out at the portal!
206
This is the very coinage of your brain.
207
This bodiless creation ecstasy
211
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
212
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
213
That I have utt'red. Bring me to the test,
214
And I the matter will reword; which madness
215
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
216
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul
217
That not your trespass but my madness speaks.
218
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
219
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
220
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
221
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
222
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
223
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
224
For in the fatness of these pursy times
225
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg-
226
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.
228
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
230
O, throw away the worser part of it,
231
And live the purer with the other half,
232
Good night- but go not to my uncle's bed.
233
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
234
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
235
Of habits evil, is angel yet in this,
236
That to the use of actions fair and good
237
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
238
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
239
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
240
To the next abstinence; the next more easy;
241
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
242
And either[master]the devil, or throw him out
243
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night;
244
And when you are desirous to be blest,
245
I'll blessing beg of you.- For this same lord,
246
I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so,
247
To punish me with this, and this with me,
248
That I must be their scourge and minister.
249
I will bestow him, and will answer well
250
The death I gave him. So again, good night.
251
I must be cruel, only to be kind;
252
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
253
One word more, good lady.
257
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
258
Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed;
259
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
260
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
261
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
262
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
263
That I essentially am not in madness,
264
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
265
For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
266
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib
267
Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
268
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
269
Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
270
Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
271
To try conclusions, in the basket creep
272
And break your own neck down.
274
Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,
275
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
276
What thou hast said to me.
278
I must to England; you know that?
281
I had forgot! 'Tis so concluded on.
283
There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows,
284
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
285
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
286
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
287
For 'tis the sport to have the enginer
288
Hoist with his own petar; and 't shall go hard
289
But I will delve one yard below their mines
290
And blow them at the moon. O, 'tis most sweet
291
When in one line two crafts directly meet.
292
This man shall set me packing.
293
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.-
294
Mother, good night.- Indeed, this counsellor
295
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
296
Who was in life a foolish peating knave.
297
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
299
[Exit the Queen. Then] Exit Hamlet, tugging in Polonius.
|
