HAMLET  1.1
  
   Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
   
   [FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO]
   
   BERNARDO Who's there?
   
   FRANCISCO Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
   
   BERNARDO Long live the king!
   
   FRANCISCO Bernardo?
   
   BERNARDO He. 5
   
   FRANCISCO You come most carefully upon your hour.
   
   BERNARDO 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
   
   FRANCISCO For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
   And I am sick at heart.
   
   BERNARDO Have you had quiet guard? 10
   
   FRANCISCO Not a mouse stirring.
   
   BERNARDO Well, good night.
   If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
   The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
   
   FRANCISCO I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there? 15
   [Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS]
   
   HORATIO Friends to this ground.
   
   MARCELLUS And liegemen to the Dane.
   
   FRANCISCO Give you good night.
   
   MARCELLUS O, farewell, honest soldier:
   Who hath relieved you? 20
   
   FRANCISCO Bernardo has my place.
   Give you good night.
   [Exit]
   
   MARCELLUS Holla! Bernardo!
   
   BERNARDO Say,
   What, is Horatio there? 25
   
   HORATIO A piece of him.
   
   BERNARDO Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
   
   MARCELLUS What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
   
   BERNARDO I have seen nothing.
   
   MARCELLUS Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, 30
   And will not let belief take hold of him
   Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
   Therefore I have entreated him along
   With us to watch the minutes of this night;
   That if again this apparition come, 35
   He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
   
   HORATIO Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
   
   BERNARDO Sit down awhile;
   And let us once again assail your ears,
   That are so fortified against our story 40
   What we have two nights seen.
   
   HORATIO Well, sit we down,
   And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
   
   BERNARDO Last night of all,
   When yond same star that's westward from the pole 45
   Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
   Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
   The bell then beating one,--
   [Enter Ghost]
   
   MARCELLUS Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
   
   BERNARDO In the same figure, like the king that's dead. 50
   
   MARCELLUS Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
   
   BERNARDO Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
   
   HORATIO Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.
   
   BERNARDO It would be spoke to.
   
   MARCELLUS Question it, Horatio. 55
   
   HORATIO What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
   Together with that fair and warlike form
   In which the majesty of buried Denmark
   Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!
   
   MARCELLUS It is offended. 60
   
   BERNARDO           See, it stalks away!
   
   HORATIO Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!
   [Exit Ghost]
   
   MARCELLUS 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
   
   BERNARDO How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:
   Is not this something more than fantasy?
   What think you on't? 65
   
   HORATIO Before my God, I might not this believe
   Without the sensible and true avouch
   Of mine own eyes.
   
   MARCELLUS            Is it not like the king?
   
   HORATIO As thou art to thyself:
   Such was the very armour he had on 70
   When he the ambitious Norway combated;
   So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
   He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.
   'Tis strange.
   
   MARCELLUS Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, 75
   With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
   
   HORATIO In what particular thought to work I know not;
   But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
   This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
   
   MARCELLUS Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, 80
   Why this same strict and most observant watch
   So nightly toils the subject of the land,
   And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
   And foreign mart for implements of war;
   Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 85
   Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
   What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
   Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:
   Who is't that can inform me?
   
   HORATIO That can I; 90
   At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
   Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
   Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
   Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
   Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet-- 95
   For so this side of our known world esteem'd him--
   Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,
   Well ratified by law and heraldry,
   Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
   Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror: 100
   Against the which, a moiety competent
   Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
   To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
   Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,
   And carriage of the article design'd, 105
   His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
   Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
   Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
   Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
   For food and diet, to some enterprise 110
   That hath a stomach in't; which is no other--
   As it doth well appear unto our state--
   But to recover of us, by strong hand
   And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
   So by his father lost: and this, I take it, 115
   Is the main motive of our preparations,
   The source of this our watch and the chief head
   Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
   
   BERNARDO I think it be no other but e'en so:
   Well may it sort that this portentous figure 120
   Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
   That was and is the question of these wars.
   
   HORATIO A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
   In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
   A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, 125
   The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
   Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
   As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
   Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
   Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands 130
   Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
   And even the like precurse of fierce events,
   As harbingers preceding still the fates
   And prologue to the omen coming on,
   Have heaven and earth together demonstrated 135
   Unto our climatures and countrymen.--
   But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
   [Re-enter Ghost]
   I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
   If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
   Speak to me: 140
   If there be any good thing to be done,
   That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
   Speak to me:
   [Cock crows]
   If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
   Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak! 145
   Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
   Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
   For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
   Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
   
   MARCELLUS Shall I strike at it with my partisan? 150
   
   HORATIO Do, if it will not stand.
   
   BERNARDO 'Tis here!
   
   HORATIO 'Tis here!
   
   MARCELLUS 'Tis gone!
   [Exit Ghost]
   We do it wrong, being so majestical, 155
   To offer it the show of violence;
   For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
   And our vain blows malicious mockery.
   
   BERNARDO It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
   
   HORATIO And then it started like a guilty thing 160
   Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
   The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
   Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
   Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
   Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 165
   The extravagant and erring spirit hies
   To his confine: and of the truth herein
   This present object made probation.
   
   MARCELLUS It faded on the crowing of the cock.
   Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 170
   Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
   The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
   And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
   The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
   No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 175
   So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
   
   HORATIO So have I heard and do in part believe it.
   But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
   Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:
   Break we our watch up; and by my advice, 180
   Let us impart what we have seen to-night
   Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
   This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
   Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
   As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? 185
   
   MARCELLUS Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
   Where we shall find him most conveniently.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  1.2
  
   A room of state in the castle.
   
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, HAMLET,
   POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords,
   and Attendants]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
   The memory be green, and that it us befitted
   To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
   To be contracted in one brow of woe,
   Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature 5
   That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
   Together with remembrance of ourselves.
   Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
   The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
   Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,-- 10
   With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
   With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
   In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
   Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
   Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone 15
   With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
   Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
   Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
   Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
   Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, 20
   Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
   He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
   Importing the surrender of those lands
   Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
   To our most valiant brother. So much for him. 25
   Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
   Thus much the business is: we have here writ
   To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
   Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
   Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress 30
   His further gait herein; in that the levies,
   The lists and full proportions, are all made
   Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
   You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
   For bearers of this greeting to old Norway; 35
   Giving to you no further personal power
   To business with the king, more than the scope
   Of these delated articles allow.
   Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
   
   CORNELIUS, VOLTIMAND |In that and all things will we show our duty. 40
   
   KING CLAUDIUS We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.
   [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]
   And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
   You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
   You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
   And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, 45
   That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
   The head is not more native to the heart,
   The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
   Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
   What wouldst thou have, Laertes? 50
   
   LAERTES My dread lord,
   Your leave and favour to return to France;
   From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
   To show my duty in your coronation,
   Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, 55
   My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
   And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
   
   LORD POLONIUS He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
   By laboursome petition, and at last 60
   Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
   I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
   And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
   But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,-- 65
   
   HAMLET [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
   
   HAMLET Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
   And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. 70
   Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
   Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
   Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
   Passing through nature to eternity.
   
   HAMLET Ay, madam, it is common. 75
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE If it be,
   Why seems it so particular with thee?
   
   HAMLET Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
   'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
   Nor customary suits of solemn black, 80
   Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
   No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
   Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
   Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
   That can denote me truly: these indeed seem, 85
   For they are actions that a man might play:
   But I have that within which passeth show;
   These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
   To give these mourning duties to your father: 90
   But, you must know, your father lost a father;
   That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
   In filial obligation for some term
   To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
   In obstinate condolement is a course 95
   Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
   It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
   A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
   An understanding simple and unschool'd:
   For what we know must be and is as common 100
   As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
   Why should we in our peevish opposition
   Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
   A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
   To reason most absurd: whose common theme 105
   Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
   From the first corse till he that died to-day,
   'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
   This unprevailing woe, and think of us
   As of a father: for let the world take note, 110
   You are the most immediate to our throne;
   And with no less nobility of love
   Than that which dearest father bears his son,
   Do I impart toward you. For your intent
   In going back to school in Wittenberg, 115
   It is most retrograde to our desire:
   And we beseech you, bend you to remain
   Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
   Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet: 120
   I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
   
   HAMLET I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
   Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
   This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet 125
   Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
   No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
   But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
   And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
   Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. 130
   [Exeunt all but HAMLET]
   
   HAMLET O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
   Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
   Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
   His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
   How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, 135
   Seem to me all the uses of this world!
   Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
   That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
   Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
   But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: 140
   So excellent a king; that was, to this,
   Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
   That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
   Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
   Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, 145
   As if increase of appetite had grown
   By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
   Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
   A little month, or ere those shoes were old
   With which she follow'd my poor father's body, 150
   Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
   O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
   Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
   My father's brother, but no more like my father
   Than I to Hercules: within a month: 155
   Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
   Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
   She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
   With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
   It is not nor it cannot come to good: 160
   But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
   [Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO]
   
   HORATIO Hail to your lordship!
   
   HAMLET I am glad to see you well:
   Horatio,--or I do forget myself.
   
   HORATIO The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. 165
   
   HAMLET Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
   And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?
   
   MARCELLUS My good lord--
   
   HAMLET I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
   But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? 170
   
   HORATIO A truant disposition, good my lord.
   
   HAMLET I would not hear your enemy say so,
   Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
   To make it truster of your own report
   Against yourself: I know you are no truant. 175
   But what is your affair in Elsinore?
   We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
   
   HORATIO My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
   
   HAMLET I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
   I think it was to see my mother's wedding. 180
   
   HORATIO Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
   
   HAMLET Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
   Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
   Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
   Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio! 185
   My father!--methinks I see my father.
   
   HORATIO Where, my lord?
   
   HAMLET         In my mind's eye, Horatio.
   
   HORATIO I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
   
   HAMLET He was a man, take him for all in all,
   I shall not look upon his like again. 190
   
   HORATIO My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
   
   HAMLET Saw? who?
   
   HORATIO My lord, the king your father.
   
   HAMLET The king my father!
   
   HORATIO Season your admiration for awhile 195
   With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
   Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
   This marvel to you.
   
   HAMLET For God's love, let me hear.
   
   HORATIO Two nights together had these gentlemen, 200
   Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
   In the dead vast and middle of the night,
   Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
   Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
   Appears before them, and with solemn march 205
   Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
   By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
   Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
   Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
   Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me 210
   In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
   And I with them the third night kept the watch;
   Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
   Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
   The apparition comes: I knew your father; 215
   These hands are not more like.
   
   HAMLET But where was this?
   
   MARCELLUS My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
   
   HAMLET Did you not speak to it?
   
   HORATIO My lord, I did; 220
   But answer made it none: yet once methought
   It lifted up its head and did address
   Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
   But even then the morning cock crew loud,
   And at the sound it shrunk in haste away, 225
   And vanish'd from our sight.
   
   HAMLET 'Tis very strange.
   
   HORATIO As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
   And we did think it writ down in our duty
   To let you know of it. 230
   
   HAMLET Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
   Hold you the watch to-night?
   
   MARCELLUS, |We do, my lord.
   BERNARDO|
   
   HAMLET Arm'd, say you? 235
   
   MARCELLUS, BERNARDO |Arm'd, my lord.
   
   HAMLET From top to toe?
   
   MARCELLUS, BERNARDO |My lord, from head to foot.
   
   HAMLET Then saw you not his face?
   
   HORATIO O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. 240
   
   HAMLET What, look'd he frowningly?
   
   HORATIO A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
   
   HAMLET Pale or red?
   
   HORATIO Nay, very pale.
   
   HAMLET         And fix'd his eyes upon you?
   
   HORATIO Most constantly. 245
   
   HAMLET         I would I had been there.
   
   HORATIO It would have much amazed you.
   
   HAMLET Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
   
   HORATIO While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
   
   MARCELLUS, BERNARDO |Longer, longer.
   
   HORATIO Not when I saw't. 250
   
   HAMLET         His beard was grizzled--no?
   
   HORATIO It was, as I have seen it in his life,
   A sable silver'd.
   
   HAMLET         I will watch to-night;
   Perchance 'twill walk again.
   
   HORATIO I warrant it will.
   
   HAMLET If it assume my noble father's person, 255
   I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
   And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
   If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
   Let it be tenable in your silence still;
   And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, 260
   Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
   I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
   Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
   I'll visit you.
   
   All      Our duty to your honour.
   
   HAMLET Your loves, as mine to you: farewell. 265
   [Exeunt all but HAMLET]
   My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
   I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!
   Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
   Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
   [Exit]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  1.3
  
   A room in Polonius' house.
   
   [Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA]
   
   LAERTES My necessaries are embark'd: farewell:
   And, sister, as the winds give benefit
   And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
   But let me hear from you.
   
   OPHELIA Do you doubt that? 5
   
   LAERTES For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,
   Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
   A violet in the youth of primy nature,
   Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
   The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more. 10
   
   OPHELIA          No more but so?
   
   LAERTES Think it no more;
   For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
   In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
   The inward service of the mind and soul
   Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, 15
   And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
   The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
   His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
   For he himself is subject to his birth:
   He may not, as unvalued persons do, 20
   Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
   The safety and health of this whole state;
   And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
   Unto the voice and yielding of that body
   Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, 25
   It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
   As he in his particular act and place
   May give his saying deed; which is no further
   Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
   Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain, 30
   If with too credent ear you list his songs,
   Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
   To his unmaster'd importunity.
   Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
   And keep you in the rear of your affection, 35
   Out of the shot and danger of desire.
   The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
   If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
   Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:
   The canker galls the infants of the spring, 40
   Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
   And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
   Contagious blastments are most imminent.
   Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:
   Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. 45
   
   OPHELIA I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
   As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
   Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
   Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
   Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, 50
   Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
   And recks not his own rede.
   
   LAERTES O, fear me not.
   I stay too long: but here my father comes.
   [Enter POLONIUS]
   A double blessing is a double grace, 55
   Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
   The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
   And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!
   And these few precepts in thy memory 60
   See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
   Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
   Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
   Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
   Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; 65
   But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
   Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
   Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
   Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
   Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; 70
   Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
   Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
   But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
   For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
   And they in France of the best rank and station 75
   Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
   Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
   For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
   And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
   This above all: to thine ownself be true, 80
   And it must follow, as the night the day,
   Thou canst not then be false to any man.
   Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!
   
   LAERTES Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
   
   LORD POLONIUS The time invites you; go; your servants tend. 85
   
   LAERTES Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well
   What I have said to you.
   
   OPHELIA 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
   And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
   
   LAERTES Farewell. 90
   [Exit]
   
   LORD POLONIUS What is't, Ophelia, be hath said to you?
   
   OPHELIA So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Marry, well bethought:
   'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late
   Given private time to you; and you yourself 95
   Have of your audience been most free and bounteous:
   If it be so, as so 'tis put on me,
   And that in way of caution, I must tell you,
   You do not understand yourself so clearly
   As it behoves my daughter and your honour. 100
   What is between you? give me up the truth.
   
   OPHELIA He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
   Of his affection to me.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl,
   Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. 105
   Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
   
   OPHELIA I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;
   That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
   Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly; 110
   Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
   Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool.
   
   OPHELIA My lord, he hath importuned me with love
   In honourable fashion.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. 115
   
   OPHELIA And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
   With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
   When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
   Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter, 120
   Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
   Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
   You must not take for fire. From this time
   Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
   Set your entreatments at a higher rate 125
   Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
   Believe so much in him, that he is young
   And with a larger tether may he walk
   Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,
   Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, 130
   Not of that dye which their investments show,
   But mere implorators of unholy suits,
   Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
   The better to beguile. This is for all:
   I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, 135
   Have you so slander any moment leisure,
   As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
   Look to't, I charge you: come your ways.
   
   OPHELIA I shall obey, my lord.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  1.4
  
   The platform.
   
   [Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS]
   
   HAMLET The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
   
   HORATIO It is a nipping and an eager air.
   
   HAMLET What hour now?
   
   HORATIO          I think it lacks of twelve.
   
   HAMLET No, it is struck.
   
   HORATIO Indeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the season 5
   Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
   [A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within]
   What does this mean, my lord?
   
   HAMLET The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
   Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
   And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, 10
   The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
   The triumph of his pledge.
   
   HORATIO Is it a custom?
   
   HAMLET Ay, marry, is't:
   But to my mind, though I am native here 15
   And to the manner born, it is a custom
   More honour'd in the breach than the observance.
   This heavy-headed revel east and west
   Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations:
   They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase 20
   Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
   From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
   The pith and marrow of our attribute.
   So, oft it chances in particular men,
   That for some vicious mole of nature in them, 25
   As, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty,
   Since nature cannot choose his origin--
   By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
   Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
   Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens 30
   The form of plausive manners, that these men,
   Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
   Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,--
   Their virtues else--be they as pure as grace,
   As infinite as man may undergo-- 35
   Shall in the general censure take corruption
   From that particular fault: the dram of eale
   Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
   To his own scandal.
   
   HORATIO Look, my lord, it comes! 40
   [Enter Ghost]
   
   HAMLET Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
   Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
   Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
   Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
   Thou comest in such a questionable shape 45
   That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
   King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
   Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
   Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
   Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre, 50
   Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
   Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
   To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
   That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
   Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon, 55
   Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
   So horridly to shake our disposition
   With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
   Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
   [Ghost beckons HAMLET]
   
   HORATIO It beckons you to go away with it, 60
   As if it some impartment did desire
   To you alone.
   
   MARCELLUS            Look, with what courteous action
   It waves you to a more removed ground:
   But do not go with it.
   
   HORATIO No, by no means. 65
   
   HAMLET It will not speak; then I will follow it.
   
   HORATIO Do not, my lord.
   
   HAMLET         Why, what should be the fear?
   I do not set my life in a pin's fee;
   And for my soul, what can it do to that,
   Being a thing immortal as itself? 70
   It waves me forth again: I'll follow it.
   
   HORATIO What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
   Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
   That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
   And there assume some other horrible form, 75
   Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
   And draw you into madness? think of it:
   The very place puts toys of desperation,
   Without more motive, into every brain
   That looks so many fathoms to the sea 80
   And hears it roar beneath.
   
   HAMLET It waves me still.
   Go on; I'll follow thee.
   
   MARCELLUS You shall not go, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Hold off your hands. 85
   
   HORATIO Be ruled; you shall not go.
   
   HAMLET My fate cries out,
   And makes each petty artery in this body
   As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
   Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen. 90
   By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!
   I say, away! Go on; I'll follow thee.
   [Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET]
   
   HORATIO He waxes desperate with imagination.
   
   MARCELLUS Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
   
   HORATIO Have after. To what issue will this come? 95
   
   MARCELLUS Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
   
   HORATIO Heaven will direct it.
   
   MARCELLUS Nay, let's follow him.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  1.5
  
   Another part of the platform.
   
   [Enter GHOST and HAMLET]
   
   HAMLET Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I'll go no further.
   
   Ghost Mark me.
   
   HAMLET         I will.
   
   Ghost        My hour is almost come,
   When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
   Must render up myself.
   
   HAMLET Alas, poor ghost! 5
   
   Ghost Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
   To what I shall unfold.
   
   HAMLET Speak; I am bound to hear.
   
   Ghost       So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
   
   HAMLET What?
   
   Ghost I am thy father's spirit, 10
   Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
   And for the day confined to fast in fires,
   Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
   Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
   To tell the secrets of my prison-house, 15
   I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
   Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
   Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
   Thy knotted and combined locks to part
   And each particular hair to stand on end, 20
   Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:
   But this eternal blazon must not be
   To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
   If thou didst ever thy dear father love--
   
   HAMLET O God! 25
   
   Ghost Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
   
   HAMLET Murder!
   
   Ghost Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
   But this most foul, strange and unnatural.
   
   HAMLET Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift 30
   As meditation or the thoughts of love,
   May sweep to my revenge.
   
   Ghost I find thee apt;
   And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
   That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, 35
   Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
   'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
   A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
   Is by a forged process of my death
   Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, 40
   The serpent that did sting thy father's life
   Now wears his crown.
   
   HAMLET O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
   
   Ghost Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
   With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,-- 45
   O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
   So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust
   The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
   O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
   From me, whose love was of that dignity 50
   That it went hand in hand even with the vow
   I made to her in marriage, and to decline
   Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
   To those of mine!
   But virtue, as it never will be moved, 55
   Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
   So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
   Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
   And prey on garbage.
   But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air; 60
   Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
   My custom always of the afternoon,
   Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
   With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
   And in the porches of my ears did pour 65
   The leperous distilment; whose effect
   Holds such an enmity with blood of man
   That swift as quicksilver it courses through
   The natural gates and alleys of the body,
   And with a sudden vigour doth posset 70
   And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
   The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
   And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
   Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
   All my smooth body. 75
   Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
   Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
   Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
   Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,
   No reckoning made, but sent to my account 80
   With all my imperfections on my head:
   O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
   If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
   Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
   A couch for luxury and damned incest. 85
   But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
   Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
   Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven
   And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
   To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once! 90
   The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
   And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:
   Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.
   [Exit]
   
   HAMLET O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
   And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart; 95
   And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
   But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
   Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
   In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
   Yea, from the table of my memory 100
   I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
   All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
   That youth and observation copied there;
   And thy commandment all alone shall live
   Within the book and volume of my brain, 105
   Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
   O most pernicious woman!
   O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
   My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
   That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; 110
   At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark:
   [Writing]
   So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
   It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'
   I have sworn 't.
   
   MARCELLUS, HORATIO |[Within] My lord, my lord,-- 115
   
   MARCELLUS [Within]Lord Hamlet,--
   
   HORATIO [Within]Heaven secure him!
   
   HAMLET So be it!
   
   HORATIO [Within] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!
   
   HAMLET Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come. 120
   [Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS]
   
   MARCELLUS How is't, my noble lord?
   
   HORATIO What news, my lord?
   
   HAMLET O, wonderful!
   
   HORATIO          Good my lord, tell it.
   
   HAMLET No; you'll reveal it.
   
   HORATIO Not I, my lord, by heaven. 125
   
   MARCELLUS Nor I, my lord.
   
   HAMLET How say you, then; would heart of man once think it?
   But you'll be secret?
   
   HORATIO, MARCELLUS |Ay, by heaven, my lord.
   
   HAMLET There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark 130
   But he's an arrant knave.
   
   HORATIO There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
   To tell us this.
   
   HAMLET         Why, right; you are i' the right;
   And so, without more circumstance at all,
   I hold it fit that we shake hands and part: 135
   You, as your business and desire shall point you;
   For every man has business and desire,
   Such as it is; and for mine own poor part,
   Look you, I'll go pray.
   
   HORATIO These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. 140
   
   HAMLET I'm sorry they offend you, heartily;
   Yes, 'faith heartily.
   
   HORATIO There's no offence, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
   And much offence too. Touching this vision here, 145
   It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you:
   For your desire to know what is between us,
   O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends,
   As you are friends, scholars and soldiers,
   Give me one poor request. 150
   
   HORATIO What is't, my lord? we will.
   
   HAMLET Never make known what you have seen to-night.
   
   HORATIO, MARCELLUS |My lord, we will not.
   
   HAMLET Nay, but swear't.
   
   HORATIO In faith, 155
   My lord, not I.
   
   MARCELLUS            Nor I, my lord, in faith.
   
   HAMLET Upon my sword.
   
   MARCELLUS            We have sworn, my lord, already.
   
   HAMLET Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
   
   Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
   
   HAMLET Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, 160
   truepenny?
   Come on--you hear this fellow in the cellarage--
   Consent to swear.
   
   HORATIO          Propose the oath, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Never to speak of this that you have seen,
   Swear by my sword. 165
   
   Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
   
   HAMLET Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground.
   Come hither, gentlemen,
   And lay your hands again upon my sword:
   Never to speak of this that you have heard, 170
   Swear by my sword.
   
   Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
   
   HAMLET Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?
   A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
   
   HORATIO O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! 175
   
   HAMLET And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
   There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
   Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come;
   Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
   How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself, 180
   As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
   To put an antic disposition on,
   That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
   With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,
   Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, 185
   As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
   Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
   Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
   That you know aught of me: this not to do,
   So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear. 190
   
   Ghost [Beneath] Swear.
   
   HAMLET Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!
   [They swear]
                        So, gentlemen,
   With all my love I do commend me to you:
   And what so poor a man as Hamlet is 195
   May do, to express his love and friending to you,
   God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
   And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
   The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
   That ever I was born to set it right! 200
   Nay, come, let's go together.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  2.1
  
   A room in POLONIUS' house.
   
   [Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO]
   
   LORD POLONIUS Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
   
   REYNALDO I will, my lord.
   
   LORD POLONIUS You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
   Before you visit him, to make inquire
   Of his behavior. 5
   
   REYNALDO           My lord, I did intend it.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
   Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
   And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
   What company, at what expense; and finding
   By this encompassment and drift of question 10
   That they do know my son, come you more nearer
   Than your particular demands will touch it:
   Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
   As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
   And in part him: ' do you mark this, Reynaldo? 15
   
   REYNALDO Ay, very well, my lord.
   
   LORD POLONIUS 'And in part him; but' you may say 'not well:
   But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
   Addicted so and so:' and there put on him
   What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank 20
   As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
   But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips
   As are companions noted and most known
   To youth and liberty.
   
   REYNALDO As gaming, my lord. 25
   
   LORD POLONIUS Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
   Drabbing: you may go so far.
   
   REYNALDO My lord, that would dishonour him.
   
   LORD POLONIUS 'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge
   You must not put another scandal on him, 30
   That he is open to incontinency;
   That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
   That they may seem the taints of liberty,
   The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
   A savageness in unreclaimed blood, 35
   Of general assault.
   
   REYNALDO But, my good lord,--
   
   LORD POLONIUS Wherefore should you do this?
   
   REYNALDO Ay, my lord,
   I would know that. 40
   
   LORD POLONIUS                Marry, sir, here's my drift;
   And I believe, it is a fetch of wit:
   You laying these slight sullies on my son,
   As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working, Mark you,
   Your party in converse, him you would sound,
   Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes 45
   The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
   He closes with you in this consequence;
   'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman,'
   According to the phrase or the addition
   Of man and country. 50
   
   REYNALDO Very good, my lord.
   
   LORD POLONIUS And then, sir, does he this--he does--what was I
   about to say? By the mass, I was about to say
   something: where did I leave?
   
   REYNALDO At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,' 55
   and 'gentleman.'
   
   LORD POLONIUS At 'closes in the consequence,' ay, marry;
   He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman;
   I saw him yesterday, or t' other day,
   Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say, 60
   There was a' gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
   There falling out at tennis:' or perchance,
   'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'
   Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.
   See you now; 65
   Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
   And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
   With windlasses and with assays of bias,
   By indirections find directions out:
   So by my former lecture and advice, 70
   Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
   
   REYNALDO My lord, I have.
   
   LORD POLONIUS                God be wi' you; fare you well.
   
   REYNALDO Good my lord!
   
   LORD POLONIUS Observe his inclination in yourself.
   
   REYNALDO I shall, my lord. 75
   
   LORD POLONIUS And let him ply his music.
   
   REYNALDO Well, my lord.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Farewell!
   [Exit REYNALDO]
   [Enter OPHELIA]
   How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
   
   OPHELIA O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted! 80
   
   LORD POLONIUS With what, i' the name of God?
   
   OPHELIA My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
   Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
   No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
   Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle; 85
   Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
   And with a look so piteous in purport
   As if he had been loosed out of hell
   To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Mad for thy love? 90
   
   OPHELIA          My lord, I do not know;
   But truly, I do fear it.
   
   LORD POLONIUS What said he?
   
   OPHELIA He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
   Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
   And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, 95
   He falls to such perusal of my face
   As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
   At last, a little shaking of mine arm
   And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
   He raised a sigh so piteous and profound 100
   As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
   And end his being: that done, he lets me go:
   And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
   He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
   For out o' doors he went without their helps, 105
   And, to the last, bended their light on me.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Come, go with me: I will go seek the king.
   This is the very ecstasy of love,
   Whose violent property fordoes itself
   And leads the will to desperate undertakings 110
   As oft as any passion under heaven
   That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
   What, have you given him any hard words of late?
   
   OPHELIA No, my good lord, but, as you did command,
   I did repel his fetters and denied 115
   His access to me.
   
   LORD POLONIUS                That hath made him mad.
   I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
   I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle,
   And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealousy!
   By heaven, it is as proper to our age 120
   To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
   As it is common for the younger sort
   To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:
   This must be known; which, being kept close, might
   move 125
   More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  2.2
  
   A room in the castle.
   
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ,
   GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
   Moreover that we much did long to see you,
   The need we have to use you did provoke
   Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
   Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it, 5
   Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
   Resembles that it was. What it should be,
   More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
   So much from the understanding of himself,
   I cannot dream of: I entreat you both, 10
   That, being of so young days brought up with him,
   And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
   That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
   Some little time: so by your companies
   To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, 15
   So much as from occasion you may glean,
   Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
   That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
   And sure I am two men there are not living 20
   To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
   To show us so much gentry and good will
   As to expend your time with us awhile,
   For the supply and profit of our hope,
   Your visitation shall receive such thanks 25
   As fits a king's remembrance.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Both your majesties
   Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
   Put your dread pleasures more into command
   Than to entreaty. 30
   
   GUILDENSTERN               But we both obey,
   And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
   To lay our service freely at your feet,
   To be commanded.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz: 35
   And I beseech you instantly to visit
   My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
   And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
   
   GUILDENSTERN Heavens make our presence and our practises
   Pleasant and helpful to him! 40
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay, amen!
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some
   Attendants]
   [Enter POLONIUS]
   
   LORD POLONIUS The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
   Are joyfully return'd.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Thou still hast been the father of good news.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege, 45
   I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
   Both to my God and to my gracious king:
   And I do think, or else this brain of mine
   Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
   As it hath used to do, that I have found 50
   The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
   My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. 55
   [Exit POLONIUS]
   He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
   The head and source of all your son's distemper.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE I doubt it is no other but the main;
   His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Well, we shall sift him. 60
   [Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]
                        Welcome, my good friends!
   Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
   
   VOLTIMAND Most fair return of greetings and desires.
   Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
   His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd 65
   To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
   But, better look'd into, he truly found
   It was against your highness: whereat grieved,
   That so his sickness, age and impotence
   Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests 70
   On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
   Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine
   Makes vow before his uncle never more
   To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
   Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, 75
   Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
   And his commission to employ those soldiers,
   So levied as before, against the Polack:
   With an entreaty, herein further shown,
   [Giving a paper]
   That it might please you to give quiet pass 80
   Through your dominions for this enterprise,
   On such regards of safety and allowance
   As therein are set down.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS It likes us well;
   And at our more consider'd time well read, 85
   Answer, and think upon this business.
   Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour:
   Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:
   Most welcome home!
   [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS]
   
   LORD POLONIUS                This business is well ended.
   My liege, and madam, to expostulate 90
   What majesty should be, what duty is,
   Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
   Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
   Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
   And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, 95
   I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
   Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
   What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
   But let that go.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE                 More matter, with less art.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Madam, I swear I use no art at all. 100
   That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
   And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
   But farewell it, for I will use no art.
   Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains
   That we find out the cause of this effect, 105
   Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
   For this effect defective comes by cause:
   Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend.
   I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
   Who, in her duty and obedience, mark, 110
   Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
   [Reads]
   'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
   beautified Ophelia,'--
   That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is
   a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus: 115
   [Reads]
   'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Came this from Hamlet to her?
   
   LORD POLONIUS Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
   [Reads]
   'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
   Doubt that the sun doth move; 120
   Doubt truth to be a liar;
   But never doubt I love.
   'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
   I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
   I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. 125
   'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
   this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
   This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
   And more above, hath his solicitings,
   As they fell out by time, by means and place, 130
   All given to mine ear.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS But how hath she
   Received his love?
   
   LORD POLONIUS                What do you think of me?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS As of a man faithful and honourable.
   
   LORD POLONIUS I would fain prove so. But what might you think, 135
   When I had seen this hot love on the wing--
   As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
   Before my daughter told me--what might you,
   Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
   If I had play'd the desk or table-book, 140
   Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
   Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
   What might you think? No, I went round to work,
   And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
   'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star; 145
   This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her,
   That she should lock herself from his resort,
   Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
   Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
   And he, repulsed--a short tale to make-- 150
   Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
   Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
   Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
   Into the madness wherein now he raves,
   And all we mourn for. 155
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Do you think 'tis this?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE It may be, very likely.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
   That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
   When it proved otherwise? 160
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Not that I know.
   
   LORD POLONIUS [Pointing to his head and shoulder]
   Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
   If circumstances lead me, I will find
   Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed 165
   Within the centre.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS                How may we try it further?
   
   LORD POLONIUS You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
   Here in the lobby.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE                 So he does indeed.
   
   LORD POLONIUS At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:
   Be you and I behind an arras then; 170
   Mark the encounter: if he love her not
   And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
   Let me be no assistant for a state,
   But keep a farm and carters.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS We will try it. 175
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Away, I do beseech you, both away:
   I'll board him presently.
   [Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and
   Attendants]
   [Enter HAMLET, reading]
                        O, give me leave:
   How does my good Lord Hamlet? 180
   
   HAMLET Well, God-a-mercy.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Do you know me, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Not I, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Then I would you were so honest a man. 185
   
   LORD POLONIUS Honest, my lord!
   
   HAMLET Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
   one man picked out of ten thousand.
   
   LORD POLONIUS That's very true, my lord.
   
   HAMLET For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a 190
   god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
   
   LORD POLONIUS I have, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
   blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
   Friend, look to 't. 195
   
   LORD POLONIUS [Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my
   daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
   was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
   truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
   love; very near this. I'll speak to him again. 200
   What do you read, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Words, words, words.
   
   LORD POLONIUS What is the matter, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Between who?
   
   LORD POLONIUS I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. 205
   
   HAMLET Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
   that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
   wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
   plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
   wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir, 210
   though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet
   I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for
   yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab
   you could go backward.
   
   LORD POLONIUS [Aside] Though this be madness, yet there is method 215
   in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Into my grave.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Indeed, that is out o' the air.
   [Aside]
   How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
   that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity 220
   could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
   leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
   meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
   lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
   
   HAMLET You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will 225
   more willingly part withal: except my life, except
   my life, except my life.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Fare you well, my lord.
   
   HAMLET These tedious old fools!
   [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   LORD POLONIUS You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is. 230
   
   ROSENCRANTZ [To POLONIUS] God save you, sir!
   [Exit POLONIUS]
   
   GUILDENSTERN My honoured lord!
   
   ROSENCRANTZ My most dear lord!
   
   HAMLET My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
   Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? 235
   
   ROSENCRANTZ As the indifferent children of the earth.
   
   GUILDENSTERN Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
   On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
   
   HAMLET Nor the soles of her shoe?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Neither, my lord. 240
   
   HAMLET Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of
   her favours?
   
   GUILDENSTERN 'Faith, her privates we.
   
   HAMLET In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she
   is a strumpet. What's the news? 245
   
   ROSENCRANTZ None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
   
   HAMLET Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
   Let me question more in particular: what have you,
   my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
   that she sends you to prison hither? 250
   
   GUILDENSTERN Prison, my lord!
   
   HAMLET Denmark's a prison.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Then is the world one.
   
   HAMLET A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
   wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst. 255
   
   ROSENCRANTZ We think not so, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
   either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
   it is a prison.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too 260
   narrow for your mind.
   
   HAMLET O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
   myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
   have bad dreams.
   
   GUILDENSTERN Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very 265
   substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
   
   HAMLET A dream itself is but a shadow.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a
   quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
   
   HAMLET Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and 270
   outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we
   to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN |We'll wait upon you.
   
   HAMLET No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest
   of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest 275
   man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the
   beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
   
   HAMLET Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I
   thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are 280
   too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it
   your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
   deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
   
   GUILDENSTERN What should we say, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent 285
   for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
   which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
   I know the good king and queen have sent for you.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ To what end, my lord?
   
   HAMLET That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by 290
   the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of
   our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
   love, and by what more dear a better proposer could
   charge you withal, be even and direct with me,
   whether you were sent for, or no? 295
   
   ROSENCRANTZ [Aside to GUILDENSTERN] What say you?
   
   HAMLET [Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you
   love me, hold not off.
   
   GUILDENSTERN My lord, we were sent for.
   
   HAMLET I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation 300
   prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
   and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
   wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
   custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
   with my disposition that this goodly frame, the 305
   earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
   excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
   o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
   with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
   me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. 310
   What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
   how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
   express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
   in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
   world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, 315
   what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
   me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
   you seem to say so.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
   
   HAMLET Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'? 320
   
   ROSENCRANTZ To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
   lenten entertainment the players shall receive from
   you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they
   coming, to offer you service.
   
   HAMLET He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty 325
   shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight
   shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not
   sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part
   in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
   lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall 330
   say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
   for't. What players are they?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Even those you were wont to take delight in, the
   tragedians of the city.
   
   HAMLET How chances it they travel? their residence, both 335
   in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
   late innovation.
   
   HAMLET Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was
   in the city? are they so followed? 340
   
   ROSENCRANTZ No, indeed, are they not.
   
   HAMLET How comes it? do they grow rusty?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
   there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,
   that cry out on the top of question, and are most 345
   tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the
   fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they
   call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
   goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.
   
   HAMLET What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are 350
   they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no
   longer than they can sing? will they not say
   afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
   players--as it is most like, if their means are no
   better--their writers do them wrong, to make them 355
   exclaim against their own succession?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and
   the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to
   controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid
   for argument, unless the poet and the player went to 360
   cuffs in the question.
   
   HAMLET Is't possible?
   
   GUILDENSTERN O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
   
   HAMLET Do the boys carry it away?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too. 365
   
   HAMLET It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of
   Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
   my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
   hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.
   'Sblood, there is something in this more than 370
   natural, if philosophy could find it out.
   [Flourish of trumpets within]
   
   GUILDENSTERN There are the players.
   
   HAMLET Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,
   come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion
   and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb, 375
   lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you,
   must show fairly outward, should more appear like
   entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my
   uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
   
   GUILDENSTERN In what, my dear lord? 380
   
   HAMLET I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
   southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
   [Enter POLONIUS]
   
   LORD POLONIUS Well be with you, gentlemen!
   
   HAMLET Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear a
   hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet 385
   out of his swaddling-clouts.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Happily he's the second time come to them; for they
   say an old man is twice a child.
   
   HAMLET I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players;
   mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning; 390
   'twas so indeed.
   
   LORD POLONIUS My lord, I have news to tell you.
   
   HAMLET My lord, I have news to tell you.
   When Roscius was an actor in Rome,--
   
   LORD POLONIUS The actors are come hither, my lord. 395
   
   HAMLET Buz, buz!
   
   LORD POLONIUS Upon mine honour,--
   
   HAMLET Then came each actor on his ass,--
   
   LORD POLONIUS The best actors in the world, either for tragedy,
   comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, 400
   historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-
   comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or
   poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
   Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the
   liberty, these are the only men. 405
   
   HAMLET O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
   
   LORD POLONIUS What a treasure had he, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Why,
   'One fair daughter and no more,
   The which he loved passing well.' 410
   
   LORD POLONIUS [Aside] Still on my daughter.
   
   HAMLET Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
   
   LORD POLONIUS If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
   that I love passing well.
   
   HAMLET Nay, that follows not. 415
   
   LORD POLONIUS What follows, then, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Why,
   'As by lot, God wot,'
   and then, you know,
   'It came to pass, as most like it was,'-- 420
   the first row of the pious chanson will show you
   more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
   [Enter four or five Players]
   You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad
   to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old
   friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last: 425
   comest thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young
   lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is
   nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the
   altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like
   apiece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the 430
   ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en
   to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see:
   we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste
   of your quality; come, a passionate speech.
   
   First Player What speech, my lord? 435
   
   HAMLET I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was
   never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the
   play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas
   caviare to the general: but it was--as I received
   it, and others, whose judgments in such matters 440
   cried in the top of mine--an excellent play, well
   digested in the scenes, set down with as much
   modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there
   were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
   savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might 445
   indict the author of affectation; but called it an
   honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very
   much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I
   chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido; and
   thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of 450
   Priam's slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin
   at this line: let me see, let me see--
   'The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,'--
   it is not so:--it begins with Pyrrhus:--
   'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, 455
   Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
   When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
   Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
   With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
   Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd 460
   With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
   Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
   That lend a tyrannous and damned light
   To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
   And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore, 465
   With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
   Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
   So, proceed you.
   
   LORD POLONIUS 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and
   good discretion. 470
   
   First Player 'Anon he finds him
   Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
   Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
   Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,
   Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide; 475
   But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
   The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
   Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
   Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
   Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword, 480
   Which was declining on the milky head
   Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
   So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
   And like a neutral to his will and matter,
   Did nothing. 485
   But, as we often see, against some storm,
   A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
   The bold winds speechless and the orb below
   As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
   Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause, 490
   Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
   And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
   On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne
   With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
   Now falls on Priam. 495
   Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
   In general synod 'take away her power;
   Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
   And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
   As low as to the fiends!' 500
   
   LORD POLONIUS This is too long.
   
   HAMLET It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee,
   say on: he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he
   sleeps: say on: come to Hecuba.
   
   First Player 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--' 505
   
   HAMLET 'The mobled queen?'
   
   LORD POLONIUS That's good; 'mobled queen' is good.
   
   First Player 'Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
   With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
   Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, 510
   About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
   A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
   Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
   'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have
   pronounced: 515
   But if the gods themselves did see her then
   When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
   In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
   The instant burst of clamour that she made,
   Unless things mortal move them not at all, 520
   Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
   And passion in the gods.'
   
   LORD POLONIUS Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has
   tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more.
   
   HAMLET 'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon. 525
   Good my lord, will you see the players well
   bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for
   they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the
   time: after your death you were better have a bad
   epitaph than their ill report while you live. 530
   
   LORD POLONIUS My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
   
   HAMLET God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man
   after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?
   Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less
   they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. 535
   Take them in.
   
   LORD POLONIUS Come, sirs.
   
   HAMLET Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.
   [Exit POLONIUS with all the Players but the First]
   Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the
   Murder of Gonzago? 540
   
   First Player Ay, my lord.
   
   HAMLET We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need,
   study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which
   I would set down and insert in't, could you not?
   
   First Player Ay, my lord. 545
   
   HAMLET Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him
   not.
   [Exit First Player]
   My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are
   welcome to Elsinore.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord! 550
   
   HAMLET Ay, so, God be wi' ye;
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
                        Now I am alone.
   O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
   Is it not monstrous that this player here,
   But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, 555
   Could force his soul so to his own conceit
   That from her working all his visage wann'd,
   Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
   A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
   With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing! 560
   For Hecuba!
   What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
   That he should weep for her? What would he do,
   Had he the motive and the cue for passion
   That I have? He would drown the stage with tears 565
   And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
   Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
   Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
   The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
   A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, 570
   Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
   And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
   Upon whose property and most dear life
   A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
   Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? 575
   Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
   Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
   As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
   Ha!
   'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be 580
   But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
   To make oppression bitter, or ere this
   I should have fatted all the region kites
   With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
   Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! 585
   O, vengeance!
   Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
   That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
   Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
   Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, 590
   And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
   A scullion!
   Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heard
   That guilty creatures sitting at a play
   Have by the very cunning of the scene 595
   Been struck so to the soul that presently
   They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
   For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
   With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
   Play something like the murder of my father 600
   Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
   I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
   I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
   May be the devil: and the devil hath power
   To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps 605
   Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
   As he is very potent with such spirits,
   Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
   More relative than this: the play 's the thing
   Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king. 610
   [Exit]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  3.1
  
   A room in the castle.
   
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS,
   OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
   Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
   Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
   With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ He does confess he feels himself distracted; 5
   But from what cause he will by no means speak.
   
   GUILDENSTERN Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
   But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,
   When we would bring him on to some confession
   Of his true state. 10
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE                 Did he receive you well?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Most like a gentleman.
   
   GUILDENSTERN But with much forcing of his disposition.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Niggard of question; but, of our demands,
   Most free in his reply.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Did you assay him? 15
   To any pastime?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Madam, it so fell out, that certain players
   We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him;
   And there did seem in him a kind of joy
   To hear of it: they are about the court, 20
   And, as I think, they have already order
   This night to play before him.
   
   LORD POLONIUS 'Tis most true:
   And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
   To hear and see the matter. 25
   
   KING CLAUDIUS With all my heart; and it doth much content me
   To hear him so inclined.
   Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
   And drive his purpose on to these delights.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ We shall, my lord. 30
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS                Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
   For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
   That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
   Affront Ophelia:
   Her father and myself, lawful espials,
   Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen, 35
   We may of their encounter frankly judge,
   And gather by him, as he is behaved,
   If 't be the affliction of his love or no
   That thus he suffers for.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE I shall obey you. 40
   And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
   That your good beauties be the happy cause
   Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues
   Will bring him to his wonted way again,
   To both your honours. 45
   
   OPHELIA Madam, I wish it may.
   [Exit QUEEN GERTRUDE]
   
   LORD POLONIUS Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,
   We will bestow ourselves.
   [To OPHELIA]
                        Read on this book;
   That show of such an exercise may colour 50
   Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,--
   'Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage
   And pious action we do sugar o'er
   The devil himself.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS [Aside] O, 'tis too true! 55
   How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
   The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
   Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
   Than is my deed to my most painted word:
   O heavy burthen! 60
   
   LORD POLONIUS I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.
   [Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS]
   [Enter HAMLET]
   
   HAMLET To be, or not to be: that is the question:
   Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
   The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
   Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, 65
   And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
   No more; and by a sleep to say we end
   The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
   That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
   Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; 70
   To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
   For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
   When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
   Must give us pause: there's the respect
   That makes calamity of so long life; 75
   For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
   The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
   The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
   The insolence of office and the spurns
   That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 80
   When he himself might his quietus make
   With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
   To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
   But that the dread of something after death,
   The undiscover'd country from whose bourn 85
   No traveller returns, puzzles the will
   And makes us rather bear those ills we have
   Than fly to others that we know not of?
   Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
   And thus the native hue of resolution 90
   Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
   And enterprises of great pith and moment
   With this regard their currents turn awry,
   And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
   The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons 95
   Be all my sins remember'd.
   
   OPHELIA Good my lord,
   How does your honour for this many a day?
   
   HAMLET I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
   
   OPHELIA My lord, I have remembrances of yours, 100
   That I have longed long to re-deliver;
   I pray you, now receive them.
   
   HAMLET No, not I;
   I never gave you aught.
   
   OPHELIA My honour'd lord, you know right well you did; 105
   And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
   As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,
   Take these again; for to the noble mind
   Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
   There, my lord. 110
   
   HAMLET Ha, ha! are you honest?
   
   OPHELIA My lord?
   
   HAMLET Are you fair?
   
   OPHELIA What means your lordship?
   
   HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should 115
   admit no discourse to your beauty.
   
   OPHELIA Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than
   with honesty?
   
   HAMLET Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
   transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the 120
   force of honesty can translate beauty into his
   likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the
   time gives it proof. I did love you once.
   
   OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
   
   HAMLET You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot 125
   so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of
   it: I loved you not.
   
   OPHELIA I was the more deceived.
   
   HAMLET Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a
   breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; 130
   but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
   were better my mother had not borne me: I am very
   proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at
   my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
   imagination to give them shape, or time to act them 135
   in. What should such fellows as I do crawling
   between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,
   all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.
   Where's your father?
   
   OPHELIA At home, my lord. 140
   
   HAMLET Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the
   fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.
   
   OPHELIA O, help him, you sweet heavens!
   
   HAMLET If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for
   thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as 145
   snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
   nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs
   marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough
   what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,
   and quickly too. Farewell. 150
   
   OPHELIA O heavenly powers, restore him!
   
   HAMLET I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God
   has given you one face, and you make yourselves
   another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and
   nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness 155
   your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath
   made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:
   those that are married already, all but one, shall
   live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a
   nunnery, go. 160
   [Exit]
   
   OPHELIA O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
   The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;
   The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
   The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
   The observed of all observers, quite, quite down! 165
   And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
   That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
   Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
   Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
   That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth 170
   Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,
   To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
   [Re-enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Love! his affections do not that way tend;
   Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
   Was not like madness. There's something in his soul, 175
   O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
   And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
   Will be some danger: which for to prevent,
   I have in quick determination
   Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England, 180
   For the demand of our neglected tribute
   Haply the seas and countries different
   With variable objects shall expel
   This something-settled matter in his heart,
   Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus 185
   From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
   
   LORD POLONIUS It shall do well: but yet do I believe
   The origin and commencement of his grief
   Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!
   You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said; 190
   We heard it all. My lord, do as you please;
   But, if you hold it fit, after the play
   Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
   To show his grief: let her be round with him;
   And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear 195
   Of all their conference. If she find him not,
   To England send him, or confine him where
   Your wisdom best shall think.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS It shall be so:
   Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. 200
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  3.2
  
   A hall in the castle.
   
   [Enter HAMLET and Players]
   
   HAMLET Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to
   you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,
   as many of your players do, I had as lief the
   town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air
   too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; 5
   for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,
   the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget
   a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it
   offends me to the soul to hear a robustious
   periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to 10
   very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
   for the most part are capable of nothing but
   inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such
   a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it
   out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. 15
   
   First Player I warrant your honour.
   
   HAMLET Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion
   be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the
   word to the action; with this special o'erstep not
   the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is 20
   from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the
   first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the
   mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,
   scorn her own image, and the very age and body of
   the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, 25
   or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful
   laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the
   censure of the which one must in your allowance
   o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be
   players that I have seen play, and heard others 30
   praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,
   that, neither having the accent of Christians nor
   the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so
   strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of
   nature's journeymen had made men and not made them 35
   well, they imitated humanity so abominably.
   
   First Player I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us,
   sir.
   
   HAMLET O, reform it altogether. And let those that play
   your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; 40
   for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to
   set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh
   too; though, in the mean time, some necessary
   question of the play be then to be considered:
   that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition 45
   in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.
   [Exeunt Players]
   [Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]
   How now, my lord! I will the king hear this piece of work?
   
   LORD POLONIUS And the queen too, and that presently.
   
   HAMLET Bid the players make haste.
   [Exit POLONIUS]
   Will you two help to hasten them? 50
   
   ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN |We will, my lord.
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   HAMLET What ho! Horatio!
   [Enter HORATIO]
   
   HORATIO Here, sweet lord, at your service.
   
   HAMLET Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
   As e'er my conversation coped withal. 55
   
   HORATIO O, my dear lord,--
   
   HAMLET         Nay, do not think I flatter;
   For what advancement may I hope from thee
   That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
   To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
   No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, 60
   And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
   Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
   Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
   And could of men distinguish, her election
   Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been 65
   As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
   A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
   Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
   Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,
   That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger 70
   To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
   That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
   In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
   As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--
   There is a play to-night before the king; 75
   One scene of it comes near the circumstance
   Which I have told thee of my father's death:
   I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
   Even with the very comment of thy soul
   Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt 80
   Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
   It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
   And my imaginations are as foul
   As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
   For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, 85
   And after we will both our judgments join
   In censure of his seeming.
   
   HORATIO Well, my lord:
   If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
   And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft. 90
   
   HAMLET They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
   Get you a place.
   [Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS,
   QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ,
   GUILDENSTERN, and others]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS How fares our cousin Hamlet?
   
   HAMLET Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat
   the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so. 95
   
   KING CLAUDIUS I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
   are not mine.
   
   HAMLET No, nor mine now.
   [To POLONIUS]
   My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?
   
   LORD POLONIUS That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor. 100
   
   HAMLET What did you enact?
   
   LORD POLONIUS I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
   Capitol; Brutus killed me.
   
   HAMLET It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf
   there. Be the players ready? 105
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
   
   HAMLET No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
   
   LORD POLONIUS [To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?
   
   HAMLET Lady, shall I lie in your lap? 110
   [Lying down at OPHELIA's feet]
   
   OPHELIA No, my lord.
   
   HAMLET I mean, my head upon your lap?
   
   OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Do you think I meant country matters?
   
   OPHELIA I think nothing, my lord. 115
   
   HAMLET That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
   
   OPHELIA What is, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Nothing.
   
   OPHELIA You are merry, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Who, I? 120
   
   OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
   
   HAMLET O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
   but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
   mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.
   
   OPHELIA Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. 125
   
   HAMLET So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
   I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
   months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
   hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
   a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches, 130
   then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with
   the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,
   the hobby-horse is forgot.'
   [Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters]
   [Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen
   embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes
   show of protestation unto him. He takes her up,
   and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down
   upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep,
   leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his
   crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's
   ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King
   dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner,
   with some two or three Mutes, comes in again,
   seeming to lament with her. The dead body is
   carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with
   gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but
   in the end accepts his love]
   [Exeunt]
   
   OPHELIA What means this, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief. 135
   
   OPHELIA Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
   [Enter Prologue]
   
   HAMLET We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot
   keep counsel; they'll tell all.
   
   OPHELIA Will he tell us what this show meant?
   
   HAMLET Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you 140
   ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
   
   OPHELIA You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.
   
   Prologue           For us, and for our tragedy,
   Here stooping to your clemency,
   We beg your hearing patiently.
   [Exit]
   
   HAMLET Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? 145
   
   OPHELIA 'Tis brief, my lord.
   
   HAMLET As woman's love.
   [Enter two Players, King and Queen]
   
   Player King              Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone
   round
   Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
   And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen
   About the world have times twelve thirties been, 150
   Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
   Unite commutual in most sacred bands.
   
   Player Queen               So many journeys may the sun and moon
   Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
   But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
   So far from cheer and from your former state, 155
   That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
   Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
   For women's fear and love holds quantity;
   In neither aught, or in extremity.
   Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know; 160
   And as my love is sized, my fear is so:
   Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
   Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
   
   Player King 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
   My operant powers their functions leave to do: 165
   And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
   Honour'd, beloved; and haply one as kind
   For husband shalt thou--
   
   Player Queen O, confound the rest!
   Such love must needs be treason in my breast: 170
   In second husband let me be accurst!
   None wed the second but who kill'd the first.
   
   HAMLET [Aside] Wormwood, wormwood.
   
   Player Queen               The instances that second marriage move
   Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
   A second time I kill my husband dead, 175
   When second husband kisses me in bed.
   
   Player King              I do believe you think what now you speak;
   But what we do determine oft we break.
   Purpose is but the slave to memory,
   Of violent birth, but poor validity;
   Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree; 180
   But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
   Most necessary 'tis that we forget
   To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
   What to ourselves in passion we propose,
   The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. 185
   The violence of either grief or joy
   Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
   Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
   Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
   This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange 190
   That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
   For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
   Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
   The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;
   The poor advanced makes friends of enemies. 195
   And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
   For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
   And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
   Directly seasons him his enemy.
   But, orderly to end where I begun, 200
   Our wills and fates do so contrary run
   That our devices still are overthrown;
   Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
   So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
   But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. 205
   
   Player Queen               Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven
   light!
   Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
   To desperation turn my trust and hope!
   An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!
   Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
   Meet what I would have well and it destroy! 210
   Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
   If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
   
   HAMLET If she should break it now!
   
   Player King 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
   My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile 215
   The tedious day with sleep.
   [Sleeps]
   
   Player Queen Sleep rock thy brain,
   And never come mischance between us twain!
   [Exit]
   
   HAMLET Madam, how like you this play?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE The lady protests too much, methinks. 220
   
   HAMLET O, but she'll keep her word.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?
   
   HAMLET No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence
   i' the world.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS What do you call the play? 225
   
   HAMLET The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play
   is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is
   the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see
   anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o'
   that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it 230
   touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our
   withers are unwrung.
   [Enter LUCIANUS]
   This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.
   
   OPHELIA You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
   
   HAMLET I could interpret between you and your love, if I 235
   could see the puppets dallying.
   
   OPHELIA You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
   
   HAMLET It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.
   
   OPHELIA Still better, and worse.
   
   HAMLET So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer; 240
   pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:
   'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.'
   
   LUCIANUS           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, 245
   Thy natural magic and dire property,
   On wholesome life usurp immediately.
   [Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears]
   
   HAMLET He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His
   name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in
   choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer 250
   gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
   
   OPHELIA The king rises.
   
   HAMLET What, frighted with false fire!
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE How fares my lord?
   
   LORD POLONIUS Give o'er the play. 255
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Give me some light: away!
   
   All Lights, lights, lights!
   [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO]
   
   HAMLET         Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
   The hart ungalled play;
   For some must watch, while some must sleep:
   So runs the world away. 260
   Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers-- if
   the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two
   Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a
   fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
   
   HORATIO Half a share. 265
   
   HAMLET A whole one, I.
   For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
   This realm dismantled was
   Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
   A very, very--pajock. 270
   
   HORATIO You might have rhymed.
   
   HAMLET O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a
   thousand pound. Didst perceive?
   
   HORATIO Very well, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Upon the talk of the poisoning? 275
   
   HORATIO I did very well note him.
   
   HAMLET Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!
   For if the king like not the comedy,
   Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.
   Come, some music! 280
   [Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
   
   HAMLET Sir, a whole history.
   
   GUILDENSTERN The king, sir,--
   
   HAMLET Ay, sir, what of him?
   
   GUILDENSTERN Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. 285
   
   HAMLET With drink, sir?
   
   GUILDENSTERN No, my lord, rather with choler.
   
   HAMLET Your wisdom should show itself more richer to
   signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him
   to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far 290
   more choler.
   
   GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and
   start not so wildly from my affair.
   
   HAMLET I am tame, sir: pronounce.
   
   GUILDENSTERN The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of 295
   spirit, hath sent me to you.
   
   HAMLET You are welcome.
   
   GUILDENSTERN Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right
   breed. If it shall please you to make me a
   wholesome answer, I will do your mother's 300
   commandment: if not, your pardon and my return
   shall be the end of my business.
   
   HAMLET Sir, I cannot.
   
   GUILDENSTERN What, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but, 305
   sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command;
   or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no
   more, but to the matter: my mother, you say,--
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her
   into amazement and admiration. 310
   
   HAMLET O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But
   is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's
   admiration? Impart.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you
   go to bed. 315
   
   HAMLET We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have
   you any further trade with us?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you once did love me.
   
   HAMLET So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you 320
   do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if
   you deny your griefs to your friend.
   
   HAMLET Sir, I lack advancement.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ How can that be, when you have the voice of the king
   himself for your succession in Denmark? 325
   
   HAMLET Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'--the proverb
   is something musty.
   [Re-enter Players with recorders]
   O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw with
   you:--why do you go about to recover the wind of me,
   as if you would drive me into a toil? 330
   
   GUILDENSTERN O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too
   unmannerly.
   
   HAMLET I do not well understand that. Will you play upon
   this pipe?
   
   GUILDENSTERN My lord, I cannot. 335
   
   HAMLET I pray you.
   
   GUILDENSTERN Believe me, I cannot.
   
   HAMLET I do beseech you.
   
   GUILDENSTERN I know no touch of it, my lord.
   
   HAMLET 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with 340
   your lingers and thumb, give it breath with your
   mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.
   Look you, these are the stops.
   
   GUILDENSTERN But these cannot I command to any utterance of
   harmony; I have not the skill. 345
   
   HAMLET Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of
   me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know
   my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my
   mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to
   the top of my compass: and there is much music, 350
   excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot
   you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
   easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
   instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you
   cannot play upon me. 355
   [Enter POLONIUS]
   God bless you, sir!
   
   LORD POLONIUS My lord, the queen would speak with you, and
   presently.
   
   HAMLET Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
   
   LORD POLONIUS By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. 360
   
   HAMLET Methinks it is like a weasel.
   
   LORD POLONIUS It is backed like a weasel.
   
   HAMLET Or like a whale?
   
   LORD POLONIUS Very like a whale.
   
   HAMLET Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool 365
   me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.
   
   LORD POLONIUS I will say so.
   
   HAMLET By and by is easily said.
   [Exit POLONIUS]
   Leave me, friends.
   [Exeunt all but HAMLET]
   Tis now the very witching time of night, 370
   When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
   Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
   And do such bitter business as the day
   Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.
   O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever 375
   The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:
   Let me be cruel, not unnatural:
   I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
   My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
   How in my words soever she be shent, 380
   To give them seals never, my soul, consent!
   [Exit]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  3.3
  
   A room in the castle.
   
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
   To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
   I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
   And he to England shall along with you:
   The terms of our estate may not endure 5
   Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow
   Out of his lunacies.
   
   GUILDENSTERN We will ourselves provide:
   Most holy and religious fear it is
   To keep those many many bodies safe 10
   That live and feed upon your majesty.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ The single and peculiar life is bound,
   With all the strength and armour of the mind,
   To keep itself from noyance; but much more
   That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest 15
   The lives of many. The cease of majesty
   Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
   What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,
   Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
   To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things 20
   Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,
   Each small annexment, petty consequence,
   Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
   Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; 25
   For we will fetters put upon this fear,
   Which now goes too free-footed.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ, |We will haste us.
   GUILDENSTERN|
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   [Enter POLONIUS]
   
   LORD POLONIUS My lord, he's going to his mother's closet: 30
   Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
   To hear the process; and warrant she'll tax him home:
   And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
   'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
   Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear 35
   The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:
   I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
   And tell you what I know.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Thanks, dear my lord.
   [Exit POLONIUS]
   O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven; 40
   It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
   A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
   Though inclination be as sharp as will:
   My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
   And, like a man to double business bound, 45
   I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
   And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
   Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
   Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
   To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy 50
   But to confront the visage of offence?
   And what's in prayer but this two-fold force,
   To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
   Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
   My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer 55
   Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
   That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
   Of those effects for which I did the murder,
   My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
   May one be pardon'd and retain the offence? 60
   In the corrupted currents of this world
   Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
   And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
   Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;
   There is no shuffling, there the action lies 65
   In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
   Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
   To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
   Try what repentance can: what can it not?
   Yet what can it when one can not repent? 70
   O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
   O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
   Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
   Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
   Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe! 75
   All may be well.
   [Retires and kneels]
   [Enter HAMLET]
   
   HAMLET Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
   And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
   And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
   A villain kills my father; and for that, 80
   I, his sole son, do this same villain send
   To heaven.
   O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
   He took my father grossly, full of bread;
   With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; 85
   And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
   But in our circumstance and course of thought,
   'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,
   To take him in the purging of his soul,
   When he is fit and season'd for his passage? 90
   No!
   Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
   When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
   Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;
   At gaming, swearing, or about some act 95
   That has no relish of salvation in't;
   Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
   And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
   As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
   This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. 100
   [Exit]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS [Rising] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
   Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
   [Exit]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  3.4
  
   The Queen's closet.
   
   [Enter QUEEN MARGARET and POLONIUS]
   
   LORD POLONIUS He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:
   Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
   And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between
   Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.
   Pray you, be round with him. 5
   
   HAMLET [Within] Mother, mother, mother!
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE I'll warrant you,
   Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.
   [POLONIUS hides behind the arras]
   [Enter HAMLET]
   
   HAMLET Now, mother, what's the matter?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 10
   
   HAMLET Mother, you have my father much offended.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
   
   HAMLET Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Why, how now, Hamlet!
   
   HAMLET What's the matter now? 15
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Have you forgot me?
   
   HAMLET No, by the rood, not so:
   You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
   And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak. 20
   
   HAMLET Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
   You go not till I set you up a glass
   Where you may see the inmost part of you.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
   Help, help, ho! 25
   
   LORD POLONIUS [Behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
   
   HAMLET [Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
   [Makes a pass through the arras]
   
   LORD POLONIUS [Behind] O, I am slain!
   [Falls and dies]
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE O me, what hast thou done?
   
   HAMLET Nay, I know not: 30
   Is it the king?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
   
   HAMLET A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,
   As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE As kill a king! 35
   
   HAMLET         Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
   [Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS]
   Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
   I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;
   Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
   Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,
   And let me wring your heart; for so I shall, 40
   If it be made of penetrable stuff,
   If damned custom have not brass'd it so
   That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue
   In noise so rude against me? 45
   
   HAMLET Such an act
   That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,
   Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose
   From the fair forehead of an innocent love
   And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows 50
   As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
   As from the body of contraction plucks
   The very soul, and sweet religion makes
   A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:
   Yea, this solidity and compound mass, 55
   With tristful visage, as against the doom,
   Is thought-sick at the act.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay me, what act,
   That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
   
   HAMLET Look here, upon this picture, and on this, 60
   The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
   See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
   Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
   An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
   A station like the herald Mercury 65
   New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
   A combination and a form indeed,
   Where every god did seem to set his seal,
   To give the world assurance of a man:
   This was your husband. Look you now, what follows: 70
   Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
   Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
   Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
   And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
   You cannot call it love; for at your age 75
   The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
   And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment
   Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,
   Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense
   Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err, 80
   Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
   But it reserved some quantity of choice,
   To serve in such a difference. What devil was't
   That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?
   Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, 85
   Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
   Or but a sickly part of one true sense
   Could not so mope.
   O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
   If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, 90
   To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
   And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame
   When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,
   Since frost itself as actively doth burn
   And reason panders will. 95
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE O Hamlet, speak no more:
   Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
   And there I see such black and grained spots
   As will not leave their tinct.
   
   HAMLET Nay, but to live 100
   In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
   Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
   Over the nasty sty,--
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE O, speak to me no more;
   These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears; 105
   No more, sweet Hamlet!
   
   HAMLET A murderer and a villain;
   A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe
   Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
   A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, 110
   That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
   And put it in his pocket!
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE No more!
   
   HAMLET A king of shreds and patches,--
   [Enter Ghost]
   Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, 115
   You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, he's mad!
   
   HAMLET Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
   That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by
   The important acting of your dread command? O, say! 120
   
   Ghost Do not forget: this visitation
   Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
   But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
   O, step between her and her fighting soul:
   Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works: 125
   Speak to her, Hamlet.
   
   HAMLET How is it with you, lady?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, how is't with you,
   That you do bend your eye on vacancy
   And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? 130
   Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
   And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
   Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
   Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
   Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper 135
   Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
   
   HAMLET On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!
   His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
   Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;
   Lest with this piteous action you convert 140
   My stern effects: then what I have to do
   Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE To whom do you speak this?
   
   HAMLET Do you see nothing there?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. 145
   
   HAMLET Nor did you nothing hear?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE No, nothing but ourselves.
   
   HAMLET Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!
   My father, in his habit as he lived!
   Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! 150
   [Exit Ghost]
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE This the very coinage of your brain:
   This bodiless creation ecstasy
   Is very cunning in.
   
   HAMLET Ecstasy!
   My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, 155
   And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
   That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
   And I the matter will re-word; which madness
   Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
   Lay not that mattering unction to your soul, 160
   That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
   It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
   Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
   Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
   Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; 165
   And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
   To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
   For in the fatness of these pursy times
   Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
   Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. 170
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
   
   HAMLET O, throw away the worser part of it,
   And live the purer with the other half.
   Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;
   Assume a virtue, if you have it not. 175
   That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
   Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
   That to the use of actions fair and good
   He likewise gives a frock or livery,
   That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night, 180
   And that shall lend a kind of easiness
   To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
   For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
   And either [ ] the devil, or throw him out
   With wondrous potency. Once more, good night: 185
   And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
   I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
   [Pointing to POLONIUS]
   I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,
   To punish me with this and this with me,
   That I must be their scourge and minister. 190
   I will bestow him, and will answer well
   The death I gave him. So, again, good night.
   I must be cruel, only to be kind:
   Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
   One word more, good lady. 195
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE What shall I do?
   
   HAMLET Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
   Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
   Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
   And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, 200
   Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
   Make you to ravel all this matter out,
   That I essentially am not in madness,
   But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
   For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, 205
   Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
   Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
   No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
   Unpeg the basket on the house's top.
   Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, 210
   To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
   And break your own neck down.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,
   And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
   What thou hast said to me. 215
   
   HAMLET I must to England; you know that?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Alack,
   I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.
   
   HAMLET There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
   Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd, 220
   They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
   And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
   For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
   Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard
   But I will delve one yard below their mines, 225
   And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
   When in one line two crafts directly meet.
   This man shall set me packing:
   I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.
   Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor 230
   Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
   Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
   Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
   Good night, mother.
   [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  4.1
  
   A room in the castle.
   
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ,
   and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:
   You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them.
   Where is your son?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Bestow this place on us a little while.
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! 5
   
   KING CLAUDIUS What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend
   Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,
   Behind the arras hearing something stir,
   Whips out his rapier, cries, 'A rat, a rat!' 10
   And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
   The unseen good old man.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS O heavy deed!
   It had been so with us, had we been there:
   His liberty is full of threats to all; 15
   To you yourself, to us, to every one.
   Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
   It will be laid to us, whose providence
   Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,
   This mad young man: but so much was our love, 20
   We would not understand what was most fit;
   But, like the owner of a foul disease,
   To keep it from divulging, let it feed
   Even on the pith of Life. Where is he gone?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: 25
   O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
   Among a mineral of metals base,
   Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS O Gertrude, come away!
   The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, 30
   But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
   We must, with all our majesty and skill,
   Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern!
   [Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
   Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, 35
   And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
   Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
   Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
   And let them know, both what we mean to do, 40
   And what's untimely done [ ]
   Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
   As level as the cannon to his blank,
   Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name,
   And hit the woundless air. O, come away! 45
   My soul is full of discord and dismay.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  4.2
  
   Another room in the castle.
   
   [Enter HAMLET]
   
   HAMLET Safely stowed.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ:, GUILDENSTERN: |[Within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
   
   HAMLET What noise? who calls on Hamlet?
   O, here they come.
   [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   ROSENCRANTZ What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? 5
   
   HAMLET Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
   And bear it to the chapel.
   
   HAMLET Do not believe it.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Believe what? 10
   
   HAMLET That I can keep your counsel and not mine own.
   Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! what
   replication should be made by the son of a king?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Take you me for a sponge, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Ay, sir, that soaks up the king's countenance, his 15
   rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the
   king best service in the end: he keeps them, like
   an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to
   be last swallowed: when he needs what you have
   gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you 20
   shall be dry again.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ I understand you not, my lord.
   
   HAMLET I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a
   foolish ear.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go 25
   with us to the king.
   
   HAMLET The body is with the king, but the king is not with
   the body. The king is a thing--
   
   GUILDENSTERN A thing, my lord!
   
   HAMLET Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. 30
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  4.3
  
   Another room in the castle.
   
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, attended]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS I have sent to seek him, and to find the body.
   How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!
   Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
   He's loved of the distracted multitude,
   Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; 5
   And where tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
   But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
   This sudden sending him away must seem
   Deliberate pause: diseases desperate grown
   By desperate appliance are relieved, 10
   Or not at all.
   [Enter ROSENCRANTZ]
   How now! what hath befall'n?
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
   We cannot get from him.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS But where is he? 15
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Bring him before us.
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
   [Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
   
   HAMLET At supper. 20
   
   KING CLAUDIUS At supper! where?
   
   HAMLET Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
   convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
   worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
   creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for 25
   maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
   variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
   that's the end.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Alas, alas!
   
   HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a 30
   king, and cat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS What dost you mean by this?
   
   HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a
   progress through the guts of a beggar.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Where is Polonius? 35
   
   HAMLET In heaven; send hither to see: if your messenger
   find him not there, seek him i' the other place
   yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within
   this month, you shall nose him as you go up the
   stairs into the lobby. 40
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Go seek him there.
   [To some Attendants]
   
   HAMLET He will stay till ye come.
   [Exeunt Attendants]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,--
   Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
   For that which thou hast done,--must send thee hence 45
   With fiery quickness: therefore prepare thyself;
   The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
   The associates tend, and every thing is bent
   For England.
   
   HAMLET         For England!
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Ay, Hamlet. 50
   
   HAMLET Good.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
   
   HAMLET I see a cherub that sees them. But, come; for
   England! Farewell, dear mother.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Thy loving father, Hamlet. 55
   
   HAMLET My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man
   and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!
   [Exit]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;
   Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night:
   Away! for every thing is seal'd and done 60
   That else leans on the affair: pray you, make haste.
   [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]
   And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught--
   As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
   Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
   After the Danish sword, and thy free awe 65
   Pays homage to us--thou mayst not coldly set
   Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
   By letters congruing to that effect,
   The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
   For like the hectic in my blood he rages, 70
   And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,
   Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.
   [Exit]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  4.4
  
   A plain in Denmark.
   
   [Enter FORTINBRAS, a Captain, and Soldiers, marching]
   
   PRINCE FORTINBRAS Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king;
   Tell him that, by his licence, Fortinbras
   Craves the conveyance of a promised march
   Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
   If that his majesty would aught with us, 5
   We shall express our duty in his eye;
   And let him know so.
   
   Captain I will do't, my lord.
   
   PRINCE FORTINBRAS Go softly on.
   [Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers]
   [Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others]
   
   HAMLET Good sir, whose powers are these? 10
   
   Captain They are of Norway, sir.
   
   HAMLET How purposed, sir, I pray you?
   
   Captain Against some part of Poland.
   
   HAMLET Who commands them, sir?
   
   Captain The nephews to old Norway, Fortinbras. 15
   
   HAMLET Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,
   Or for some frontier?
   
   Captain Truly to speak, and with no addition,
   We go to gain a little patch of ground
   That hath in it no profit but the name. 20
   To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
   Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole
   A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
   
   HAMLET Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
   
   Captain Yes, it is already garrison'd. 25
   
   HAMLET Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats
   Will not debate the question of this straw:
   This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace,
   That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
   Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir. 30
   
   Captain God be wi' you, sir.
   [Exit]
   
   ROSENCRANTZ Wilt please you go, my lord?
   
   HAMLET I'll be with you straight go a little before.
   [Exeunt all except HAMLET]
   How all occasions do inform against me,
   And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, 35
   If his chief good and market of his time
   Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
   Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,
   Looking before and after, gave us not
   That capability and god-like reason 40
   To fust in us unused. Now, whether it be
   Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
   Of thinking too precisely on the event,
   A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom
   And ever three parts coward, I do not know 45
   Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do;'
   Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
   To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me:
   Witness this army of such mass and charge
   Led by a delicate and tender prince, 50
   Whose spirit with divine ambition puff'd
   Makes mouths at the invisible event,
   Exposing what is mortal and unsure
   To all that fortune, death and danger dare,
   Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great 55
   Is not to stir without great argument,
   But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
   When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
   That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
   Excitements of my reason and my blood, 60
   And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
   The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
   That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
   Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
   Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, 65
   Which is not tomb enough and continent
   To hide the slain? O, from this time forth,
   My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
   [Exit]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  4.5
  
   Elsinore. A room in the castle.
   
   [Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE, HORATIO, and a Gentleman]
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE I will not speak with her.
   
   Gentleman She is importunate, indeed distract:
   Her mood will needs be pitied.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE What would she have?
   
   Gentleman She speaks much of her father; says she hears 5
   There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;
   Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
   That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
   Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
   The hearers to collection; they aim at it, 10
   And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
   Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures
   yield them,
   Indeed would make one think there might be thought,
   Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. 15
   
   HORATIO 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
   Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Let her come in.
   [Exit HORATIO]
   To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
   Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss: 20
   So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
   It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
   [Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA]
   
   OPHELIA Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE How now, Ophelia!
   
   OPHELIA [Sings] 25
   How should I your true love know
   From another one?
   By his cockle hat and staff,
   And his sandal shoon.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song? 30
   
   OPHELIA Say you? nay, pray you, mark.
   [Sings]
   He is dead and gone, lady,
   He is dead and gone;
   At his head a grass-green turf,
   At his heels a stone. 35
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Nay, but, Ophelia,--
   
   OPHELIA Pray you, mark.
   [Sings]
   White his shroud as the mountain snow,--
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS]
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Alas, look here, my lord.
   
   OPHELIA [Sings] 40
   Larded with sweet flowers
   Which bewept to the grave did go
   With true-love showers.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS How do you, pretty lady?
   
   OPHELIA Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's 45
   daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
   what we may be. God be at your table!
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Conceit upon her father.
   
   OPHELIA Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they
   ask you what it means, say you this: 50
   [Sings]
   To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
   All in the morning betime,
   And I a maid at your window,
   To be your Valentine.
   Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes, 55
   And dupp'd the chamber-door;
   Let in the maid, that out a maid
   Never departed more.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Pretty Ophelia!
   
   OPHELIA Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't: 60
   [Sings]
   By Gis and by Saint Charity,
   Alack, and fie for shame!
   Young men will do't, if they come to't;
   By cock, they are to blame.
   Quoth she, before you tumbled me, 65
   You promised me to wed.
   So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
   An thou hadst not come to my bed.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS How long hath she been thus?
   
   OPHELIA I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I 70
   cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him
   i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it:
   and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my
   coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies;
   good night, good night. 75
   [Exit]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Follow her close; give her good watch,
   I pray you.
   [Exit HORATIO]
   O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
   All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude,
   When sorrows come, they come not single spies 80
   But in battalions. First, her father slain:
   Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
   Of his own just remove: the people muddied,
   Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,
   For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly, 85
   In hugger-mugger to inter him: poor Ophelia
   Divided from herself and her fair judgment,
   Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts:
   Last, and as much containing as all these,
   Her brother is in secret come from France; 90
   Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
   And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
   With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
   Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
   Will nothing stick our person to arraign 95
   In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
   Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
   Gives me superfluous death.
   [A noise within]
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Alack, what noise is this?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. 100
   [Enter another Gentleman]
   What is the matter?
   
   Gentleman Save yourself, my lord:
   The ocean, overpeering of his list,
   Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
   Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, 105
   O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;
   And, as the world were now but to begin,
   Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
   The ratifiers and props of every word,
   They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king:' 110
   Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds:
   'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
   O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!
   
   KING CLAUDIUS The doors are broke. 115
   [Noise within]
   [Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following]
   
   LAERTES Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.
   
   Danes No, let's come in.
   
   LAERTES          I pray you, give me leave.
   
   Danes We will, we will.
   [They retire without the door]
   
   LAERTES I thank you: keep the door. O thou vile king,
   Give me my father! 120
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE                 Calmly, good Laertes.
   
   LAERTES That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard,
   Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
   Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow
   Of my true mother.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS                What is the cause, Laertes,
   That thy rebellion looks so giant-like? 125
   Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person:
   There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
   That treason can but peep to what it would,
   Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes,
   Why thou art thus incensed. Let him go, Gertrude. 130
   Speak, man.
   
   LAERTES Where is my father?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Dead.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE But not by him.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Let him demand his fill. 135
   
   LAERTES How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:
   To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
   Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
   I dare damnation. To this point I stand,
   That both the worlds I give to negligence, 140
   Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
   Most thoroughly for my father.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Who shall stay you?
   
   LAERTES My will, not all the world:
   And for my means, I'll husband them so well, 145
   They shall go far with little.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Good Laertes,
   If you desire to know the certainty
   Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
   That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe, 150
   Winner and loser?
   
   LAERTES None but his enemies.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Will you know them then?
   
   LAERTES To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms;
   And like the kind life-rendering pelican, 155
   Repast them with my blood.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Why, now you speak
   Like a good child and a true gentleman.
   That I am guiltless of your father's death,
   And am most sensible in grief for it, 160
   It shall as level to your judgment pierce
   As day does to your eye.
   
   Danes [Within] Let her come in.
   
   LAERTES How now! what noise is that?
   [Re-enter OPHELIA]
   O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, 165
   Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!
   By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight,
   Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
   Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
   O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits 170
   Should be as moral as an old man's life?
   Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine,
   It sends some precious instance of itself
   After the thing it loves.
   
   OPHELIA [Sings] 175
   They bore him barefaced on the bier;
   Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
   And in his grave rain'd many a tear:--
   Fare you well, my dove!
   
   LAERTES Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, 180
   It could not move thus.
   
   OPHELIA [Sings]
   You must sing a-down a-down,
   An you call him a-down-a.
   O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false 185
   steward, that stole his master's daughter.
   
   LAERTES This nothing's more than matter.
   
   OPHELIA There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,
   love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.
   
   LAERTES A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted. 190
   
   OPHELIA There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue
   for you; and here's some for me: we may call it
   herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with
   a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you
   some violets, but they withered all when my father 195
   died: they say he made a good end,--
   [Sings]
   For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.
   
   LAERTES Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
   She turns to favour and to prettiness.
   
   OPHELIA [Sings] 200
   And will he not come again?
   And will he not come again?
   No, no, he is dead:
   Go to thy death-bed:
   He never will come again. 205
   His beard was as white as snow,
   All flaxen was his poll:
   He is gone, he is gone,
   And we cast away moan:
   God ha' mercy on his soul! 210
   And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' ye.
   [Exit]
   
   LAERTES Do you see this, O God?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
   Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
   Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will. 215
   And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
   If by direct or by collateral hand
   They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
   Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,
   To you in satisfaction; but if not, 220
   Be you content to lend your patience to us,
   And we shall jointly labour with your soul
   To give it due content.
   
   LAERTES Let this be so;
   His means of death, his obscure funeral-- 225
   No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones,
   No noble rite nor formal ostentation--
   Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
   That I must call't in question.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS So you shall; 230
   And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
   I pray you, go with me.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  4.6
  
   Another room in the castle.
   
   [Enter HORATIO and a Servant]
   
   HORATIO What are they that would speak with me?
   
   Servant Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you.
   
   HORATIO Let them come in.
   [Exit Servant]
   I do not know from what part of the world
   I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. 5
   [Enter Sailors]
   
   First Sailor God bless you, sir.
   
   HORATIO Let him bless thee too.
   
   First Sailor He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for
   you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was
   bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am 10
   let to know it is.
   
   HORATIO [Reads] 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked
   this, give these fellows some means to the king:
   they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old
   at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us 15
   chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on
   a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded
   them: on the instant they got clear of our ship; so
   I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with
   me like thieves of mercy: but they knew what they 20
   did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king
   have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me
   with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I
   have words to speak in thine ear will make thee
   dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of 25
   the matter. These good fellows will bring thee
   where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their
   course for England: of them I have much to tell
   thee. Farewell.
   'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.' 30
   Come, I will make you way for these your letters;
   And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
   To him from whom you brought them.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  4.7
  
   Another room in the castle.
   
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS and LAERTES]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal,
   And you must put me in your heart for friend,
   Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
   That he which hath your noble father slain
   Pursued my life. 5
   
   LAERTES          It well appears: but tell me
   Why you proceeded not against these feats,
   So crimeful and so capital in nature,
   As by your safety, wisdom, all things else,
   You mainly were stirr'd up.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS O, for two special reasons; 10
   Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,
   But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother
   Lives almost by his looks; and for myself--
   My virtue or my plague, be it either which--
   She's so conjunctive to my life and soul, 15
   That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
   I could not but by her. The other motive,
   Why to a public count I might not go,
   Is the great love the general gender bear him;
   Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, 20
   Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone,
   Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,
   Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
   Would have reverted to my bow again,
   And not where I had aim'd them. 25
   
   LAERTES And so have I a noble father lost;
   A sister driven into desperate terms,
   Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
   Stood challenger on mount of all the age
   For her perfections: but my revenge will come. 30
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think
   That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
   That we can let our beard be shook with danger
   And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more:
   I loved your father, and we love ourself; 35
   And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine--
   [Enter a Messenger]
   How now! what news?
   
   Messenger Letters, my lord, from Hamlet:
   This to your majesty; this to the queen.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS From Hamlet! who brought them? 40
   
   Messenger Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not:
   They were given me by Claudio; he received them
   Of him that brought them.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us.
   [Exit Messenger]
   [Reads]
   'High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on 45
   your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see
   your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your
   pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden
   and more strange return. 'HAMLET.'
   What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? 50
   Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
   
   LAERTES Know you the hand?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS 'Tis Hamlets character. 'Naked!
   And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.'
   Can you advise me? 55
   
   LAERTES I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come;
   It warms the very sickness in my heart,
   That I shall live and tell him to his teeth,
   'Thus didest thou.'
   
   KING CLAUDIUS If it be so, Laertes-- 60
   As how should it be so? how otherwise?--
   Will you be ruled by me?
   
   LAERTES Ay, my lord;
   So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, 65
   As checking at his voyage, and that he means
   No more to undertake it, I will work him
   To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
   Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
   And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe, 70
   But even his mother shall uncharge the practise
   And call it accident.
   
   LAERTES My lord, I will be ruled;
   The rather, if you could devise it so
   That I might be the organ. 75
   
   KING CLAUDIUS It falls right.
   You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
   And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
   Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts
   Did not together pluck such envy from him 80
   As did that one, and that, in my regard,
   Of the unworthiest siege.
   
   LAERTES What part is that, my lord?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS A very riband in the cap of youth,
   Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes 85
   The light and careless livery that it wears
   Than settled age his sables and his weeds,
   Importing health and graveness. Two months since,
   Here was a gentleman of Normandy:--
   I've seen myself, and served against, the French, 90
   And they can well on horseback: but this gallant
   Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat;
   And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
   As he had been incorpsed and demi-natured
   With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought, 95
   That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,
   Come short of what he did.
   
   LAERTES A Norman was't?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS A Norman.
   
   LAERTES Upon my life, Lamond. 100
   
   KING CLAUDIUS The very same.
   
   LAERTES I know him well: he is the brooch indeed
   And gem of all the nation.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS He made confession of you,
   And gave you such a masterly report 105
   For art and exercise in your defence
   And for your rapier most especially,
   That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed,
   If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation,
   He swore, had had neither motion, guard, nor eye, 110
   If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his
   Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy
   That he could nothing do but wish and beg
   Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him.
   Now, out of this,-- 115
   
   LAERTES What out of this, my lord?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Laertes, was your father dear to you?
   Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
   A face without a heart?
   
   LAERTES Why ask you this? 120
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Not that I think you did not love your father;
   But that I know love is begun by time;
   And that I see, in passages of proof,
   Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.
   There lives within the very flame of love 125
   A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it;
   And nothing is at a like goodness still;
   For goodness, growing to a plurisy,
   Dies in his own too much: that we would do
   We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes 130
   And hath abatements and delays as many
   As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
   And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh,
   That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer:--
   Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake, 135
   To show yourself your father's son in deed
   More than in words?
   
   LAERTES To cut his throat i' the church.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize;
   Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, 140
   Will you do this, keep close within your chamber.
   Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home:
   We'll put on those shall praise your excellence
   And set a double varnish on the fame
   The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together 145
   And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,
   Most generous and free from all contriving,
   Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease,
   Or with a little shuffling, you may choose
   A sword unbated, and in a pass of practise 150
   Requite him for your father.
   
   LAERTES I will do't:
   And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword.
   I bought an unction of a mountebank,
   So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, 155
   Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
   Collected from all simples that have virtue
   Under the moon, can save the thing from death
   That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
   With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, 160
   It may be death.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS                Let's further think of this;
   Weigh what convenience both of time and means
   May fit us to our shape: if this should fail,
   And that our drift look through our bad performance,
   'Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project 165
   Should have a back or second, that might hold,
   If this should blast in proof. Soft! let me see:
   We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings: I ha't.
   When in your motion you are hot and dry--
   As make your bouts more violent to that end-- 170
   And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him
   A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,
   If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,
   Our purpose may hold there.
   [Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE]
                        How now, sweet queen! 175
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
   So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes.
   
   LAERTES Drown'd! O, where?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
   That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; 180
   There with fantastic garlands did she come
   Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
   That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
   But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
   There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 185
   Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
   When down her weedy trophies and herself
   Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
   And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
   Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; 190
   As one incapable of her own distress,
   Or like a creature native and indued
   Unto that element: but long it could not be
   Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
   Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay 195
   To muddy death.
   
   LAERTES          Alas, then, she is drown'd?
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Drown'd, drown'd.
   
   LAERTES Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
   And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet
   It is our trick; nature her custom holds, 200
   Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
   The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord:
   I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
   But that this folly douts it.
   [Exit]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Let's follow, Gertrude: 205
   How much I had to do to calm his rage!
   Now fear I this will give it start again;
   Therefore let's follow.
   [Exeunt]
   
   
          ________________________________________________________
   
   
  HAMLET  5.1
  
   A churchyard.
   
   [Enter two Clowns, with spades, &c]
   
   First Clown Is she to be buried in Christian burial that
   wilfully seeks her own salvation?
   
   Second Clown I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave
   straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it
   Christian burial. 5
   
   First Clown How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her
   own defence?
   
   Second Clown Why, 'tis found so.
   
   First Clown It must be 'se offendendo;' it cannot be else. For
   here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, 10
   it argues an act: and an act hath three branches: it
   is, to act, to do, to perform: argal, she drowned
   herself wittingly.
   
   Second Clown Nay, but hear you, goodman delver,--
   
   First Clown Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here 15
   stands the man; good; if the man go to this water,
   and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he
   goes,--mark you that; but if the water come to him
   and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he
   that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life. 20
   
   Second Clown But is this law?
   
   First Clown Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law.
   
   Second Clown Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been
   a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o'
   Christian burial. 25
   
   First Clown Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity that
   great folk should have countenance in this world to
   drown or hang themselves, more than their even
   Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient
   gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers: 30
   they hold up Adam's profession.
   
   Second Clown Was he a gentleman?
   
   First Clown He was the first that ever bore arms.
   
   Second Clown Why, he had none.
   
   First Clown What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the 35
   Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam digged:'
   could he dig without arms? I'll put another
   question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the
   purpose, confess thyself--
   
   Second Clown Go to. 40
   
   First Clown What is he that builds stronger than either the
   mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?
   
   Second Clown The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a
   thousand tenants.
   
   First Clown I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows 45
   does well; but how does it well? it does well to
   those that do in: now thou dost ill to say the
   gallows is built stronger than the church: argal,
   the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come.
   
   Second Clown 'Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or 50
   a carpenter?'
   
   First Clown Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.
   
   Second Clown Marry, now I can tell.
   
   First Clown To't.
   
   Second Clown Mass, I cannot tell. 55
   [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance]
   
   First Clown Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull
   ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when
   you are asked this question next, say 'a
   grave-maker: 'the houses that he makes last till
   doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: fetch me a 60
   stoup of liquor.
   [Exit Second Clown]
   [He digs and sings]
   In youth, when I did love, did love,
   Methought it was very sweet,
   To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove,
   O, methought, there was nothing meet. 65
   
   HAMLET Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he
   sings at grave-making?
   
   HORATIO Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness.
   
   HAMLET 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath
   the daintier sense. 70
   
   First Clown [Sings]
   But age, with his stealing steps,
   Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
   And hath shipped me intil the land,
   As if I had never been such. 75
   [Throws up a skull]
   
   HAMLET That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once:
   how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were
   Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! It
   might be the pate of a politician, which this ass
   now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, 80
   might it not?
   
   HORATIO It might, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Or of a courtier; which could say 'Good morrow,
   sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?' This might
   be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord 85
   such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not?
   
   HORATIO Ay, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and
   knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade:
   here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to 90
   see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding,
   but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on't.
   
   First Clown [Sings]
   A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade,
   For and a shrouding sheet: 95
   O, a pit of clay for to be made
   For such a guest is meet.
   [Throws up another skull]
   
   HAMLET There's another: why may not that be the skull of a
   lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets,
   his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he 100
   suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the
   sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of
   his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be
   in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes,
   his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, 105
   his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and
   the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine
   pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him
   no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than
   the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The 110
   very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in
   this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?
   
   HORATIO Not a jot more, my lord.
   
   HAMLET Is not parchment made of sheepskins?
   
   HORATIO Ay, my lord, and of calf-skins too. 115
   
   HAMLET They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance
   in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose
   grave's this, sirrah?
   
   First Clown Mine, sir.
   [Sings]
   O, a pit of clay for to be made 120
   For such a guest is meet.
   
   HAMLET I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't.
   
   First Clown You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not
   yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine.
   
   HAMLET 'Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine: 125
   'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.
   
   First Clown 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away gain, from me to
   you.
   
   HAMLET What man dost thou dig it for?
   
   First Clown For no man, sir. 130
   
   HAMLET What woman, then?
   
   First Clown For none, neither.
   
   HAMLET Who is to be buried in't?
   
   First Clown One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.
   
   HAMLET How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the 135
   card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord,
   Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of
   it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the
   peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he
   gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a 140
   grave-maker?
   
   First Clown Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day
   that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
   
   HAMLET How long is that since?
   
   First Clown Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it 145
   was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that
   is mad, and sent into England.
   
   HAMLET Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?
   
   First Clown Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits
   there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there. 150
   
   HAMLET Why?
   
   First Clown 'Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men
   are as mad as he.
   
   HAMLET How came he mad?
   
   First Clown Very strangely, they say. 155
   
   HAMLET How strangely?
   
   First Clown Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
   
   HAMLET Upon what ground?
   
   First Clown Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man
   and boy, thirty years. 160
   
   HAMLET How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?
   
   First Clown I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we
   have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce
   hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year
   or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. 165
   
   HAMLET Why he more than another?
   
   First Clown Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that
   he will keep out water a great while; and your water
   is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body.
   Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth 170
   three and twenty years.
   
   HAMLET Whose was it?
   
   First Clown A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was?
   
   HAMLET Nay, I know not.
   
   First Clown A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a 175
   flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull,
   sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.
   
   HAMLET This?
   
   First Clown E'en that.
   
   HAMLET Let me see. 180
   [Takes the skull]
   Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
   of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
   borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
   abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
   it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know 185
   not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your
   gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
   that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
   now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
   Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let 190
   her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
   come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell
   me one thing.
   
   HORATIO What's that, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i' 195
   the earth?
   
   HORATIO E'en so.
   
   HAMLET And smelt so? pah!
   [Puts down the skull]
   
   HORATIO E'en so, my lord.
   
   HAMLET To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may 200
   not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
   till he find it stopping a bung-hole?
   
   HORATIO 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
   
   HAMLET No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
   modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as 205
   thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
   Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
   earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
   was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
   Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, 210
   Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
   O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
   Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
   But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king.
   [Enter Priest, &c. in procession; the Corpse of
   OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following; KING
   CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, their trains, &c]
   The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow? 215
   And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken
   The corse they follow did with desperate hand
   Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate.
   Couch we awhile, and mark.
   [Retiring with HORATIO]
   
   LAERTES What ceremony else? 220
   
   HAMLET That is Laertes,
   A very noble youth: mark.
   
   LAERTES What ceremony else?
   
   First Priest Her obsequies have been as far enlarged
   As we have warrantise: her death was doubtful; 225
   And, but that great command o'ersways the order,
   She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
   Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,
   Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;
   Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants, 230
   Her maiden strewments and the bringing home
   Of bell and burial.
   
   LAERTES Must there no more be done?
   
   First Priest No more be done:
   We should profane the service of the dead 235
   To sing a requiem and such rest to her
   As to peace-parted souls.
   
   LAERTES Lay her i' the earth:
   And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
   May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, 240
   A ministering angel shall my sister be,
   When thou liest howling.
   
   HAMLET What, the fair Ophelia!
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Sweets to the sweet: farewell!
   [Scattering flowers]
   I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; 245
   I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
   And not have strew'd thy grave.
   
   LAERTES O, treble woe
   Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
   Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense 250
   Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
   Till I have caught her once more in mine arms:
   [Leaps into the grave]
   Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
   Till of this flat a mountain you have made,
   To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head 255
   Of blue Olympus.
   
   HAMLET [Advancing] What is he whose grief
   Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow
   Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand
   Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, 260
   Hamlet the Dane.
   [Leaps into the grave]
   
   LAERTES          The devil take thy soul!
   [Grappling with him]
   
   HAMLET Thou pray'st not well.
   I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
   For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
   Yet have I something in me dangerous, 265
   Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Pluck them asunder.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Hamlet, Hamlet!
   
   All Gentlemen,--
   
   HORATIO          Good my lord, be quiet.
   [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave]
   
   HAMLET Why I will fight with him upon this theme 270
   Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE O my son, what theme?
   
   HAMLET I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
   Could not, with all their quantity of love,
   Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her? 275
   
   KING CLAUDIUS O, he is mad, Laertes.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE For love of God, forbear him.
   
   HAMLET 'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do:
   Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
   Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile? 280
   I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
   To outface me with leaping in her grave?
   Be buried quick with her, and so will I:
   And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
   Millions of acres on us, till our ground, 285
   Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
   Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth,
   I'll rant as well as thou.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE This is mere madness:
   And thus awhile the fit will work on him; 290
   Anon, as patient as the female dove,
   When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
   His silence will sit drooping.
   
   HAMLET Hear you, sir;
   What is the reason that you use me thus? 295
   I loved you ever: but it is no matter;
   Let Hercules himself do what he may,
   The cat will mew and dog will have his day.
   [Exit]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.
   [Exit HORATIO]
   [To LAERTES]
   Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech; 300
   We'll put the matter to the present push.
   Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.
   This grave shall have a living monument:
   An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
   Till then, in patience our proceeding be. 305
   [Exeunt]
   
   
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  HAMLET  5.2
  
   A hall in the castle.
   
   [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO]
   
   HAMLET So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other;
   You do remember all the circumstance?
   
   HORATIO Remember it, my lord?
   
   HAMLET Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
   That would not let me sleep: methought I lay 5
   Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,
   And praised be rashness for it, let us know,
   Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
   When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us
   There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 10
   Rough-hew them how we will,--
   
   HORATIO That is most certain.
   
   HAMLET Up from my cabin,
   My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
   Groped I to find out them; had my desire. 15
   Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
   To mine own room again; making so bold,
   My fears forgetting manners, to unseal
   Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,--
   O royal knavery!--an exact command, 20
   Larded with many several sorts of reasons
   Importing Denmark's health and England's too,
   With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,
   That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
   No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, 25
   My head should be struck off.
   
   HORATIO Is't possible?
   
   HAMLET Here's the commission: read it at more leisure.
   But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed?
   
   HORATIO I beseech you. 30
   
   HAMLET Being thus be-netted round with villanies,--
   Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
   They had begun the play--I sat me down,
   Devised a new commission, wrote it fair:
   I once did hold it, as our statists do, 35
   A baseness to write fair and labour'd much
   How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
   It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know
   The effect of what I wrote?
   
   HORATIO Ay, good my lord. 40
   
   HAMLET An earnest conjuration from the king,
   As England was his faithful tributary,
   As love between them like the palm might flourish,
   As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear
   And stand a comma 'tween their amities, 45
   And many such-like 'As'es of great charge,
   That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
   Without debatement further, more or less,
   He should the bearers put to sudden death,
   Not shriving-time allow'd. 50
   
   HORATIO How was this seal'd?
   
   HAMLET Why, even in that was heaven ordinant.
   I had my father's signet in my purse,
   Which was the model of that Danish seal;
   Folded the writ up in form of the other, 55
   Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely,
   The changeling never known. Now, the next day
   Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent
   Thou know'st already.
   
   HORATIO So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. 60
   
   HAMLET Why, man, they did make love to this employment;
   They are not near my conscience; their defeat
   Does by their own insinuation grow:
   'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
   Between the pass and fell incensed points 65
   Of mighty opposites.
   
   HORATIO Why, what a king is this!
   
   HAMLET Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon--
   He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother,
   Popp'd in between the election and my hopes, 70
   Thrown out his angle for my proper life,
   And with such cozenage--is't not perfect conscience,
   To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd,
   To let this canker of our nature come
   In further evil? 75
   
   HORATIO It must be shortly known to him from England
   What is the issue of the business there.
   
   HAMLET It will be short: the interim is mine;
   And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.'
   But I am very sorry, good Horatio, 80
   That to Laertes I forgot myself;
   For, by the image of my cause, I see
   The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours.
   But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
   Into a towering passion. 85
   
   HORATIO Peace! who comes here?
   [Enter OSRIC]
   
   OSRIC Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark.
   
   HAMLET I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly?
   
   HORATIO No, my good lord.
   
   HAMLET Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to 90
   know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a
   beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at
   the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say,
   spacious in the possession of dirt.
   
   OSRIC Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I 95
   should impart a thing to you from his majesty.
   
   HAMLET I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of
   spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head.
   
   OSRIC I thank your lordship, it is very hot.
   
   HAMLET No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is 100
   northerly.
   
   OSRIC It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
   
   HAMLET But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my
   complexion.
   
   OSRIC Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,--as 105
   'twere,--I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his
   majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a
   great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter,--
   
   HAMLET I beseech you, remember--
   [HAMLET moves him to put on his hat]
   
   OSRIC Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. 110
   Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe
   me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent
   differences, of very soft society and great showing:
   indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or
   calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the 115
   continent of what part a gentleman would see.
   
   HAMLET Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you;
   though, I know, to divide him inventorially would
   dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw
   neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the 120
   verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of
   great article; and his infusion of such dearth and
   rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his
   semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace
   him, his umbrage, nothing more. 125
   
   OSRIC Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.
   
   HAMLET The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman
   in our more rawer breath?
   
   OSRIC Sir?
   
   HORATIO Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? 130
   You will do't, sir, really.
   
   HAMLET What imports the nomination of this gentleman?
   
   OSRIC Of Laertes?
   
   HORATIO His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent.
   
   HAMLET Of him, sir. 135
   
   OSRIC I know you are not ignorant--
   
   HAMLET I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did,
   it would not much approve me. Well, sir?
   
   OSRIC You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is--
   
   HAMLET I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with 140
   him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to
   know himself.
   
   OSRIC I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation
   laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.
   
   HAMLET What's his weapon? 145
   
   OSRIC Rapier and dagger.
   
   HAMLET That's two of his weapons: but, well.
   
   OSRIC The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary
   horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take
   it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their 150
   assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the
   carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very
   responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages,
   and of very liberal conceit.
   
   HAMLET What call you the carriages? 155
   
   HORATIO I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.
   
   OSRIC The carriages, sir, are the hangers.
   
   HAMLET The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we
   could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might
   be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses 160
   against six French swords, their assigns, and three
   liberal-conceited carriages; that's the French bet
   against the Danish. Why is this 'imponed,' as you call it?
   
   OSRIC The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes
   between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you 165
   three hits: he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it
   would come to immediate trial, if your lordship
   would vouchsafe the answer.
   
   HAMLET How if I answer 'no'?
   
   OSRIC I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. 170
   
   HAMLET Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his
   majesty, 'tis the breathing time of day with me; let
   the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the
   king hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can;
   if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. 175
   
   OSRIC Shall I re-deliver you e'en so?
   
   HAMLET To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.
   
   OSRIC I commend my duty to your lordship.
   
   HAMLET Yours, yours.
   [Exit OSRIC]
   He does well to commend it himself; there are no 180
   tongues else for's turn.
   
   HORATIO This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.
   
   HAMLET He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it.
   Thus has he--and many more of the same bevy that I
   know the dressy age dotes on--only got the tune of 185
   the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of
   yesty collection, which carries them through and
   through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do
   but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.
   [Enter a Lord]
   
   Lord My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young 190
   Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in
   the hall: he sends to know if your pleasure hold to
   play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.
   
   HAMLET I am constant to my purpose; they follow the king's
   pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now 195
   or whensoever, provided I be so able as now.
   
   Lord The king and queen and all are coming down.
   
   HAMLET In happy time.
   
   Lord The queen desires you to use some gentle
   entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play. 200
   
   HAMLET She well instructs me.
   [Exit Lord]
   
   HORATIO You will lose this wager, my lord.
   
   HAMLET I do not think so: since he went into France, I
   have been in continual practise: I shall win at the
   odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here 205
   about my heart: but it is no matter.
   
   HORATIO Nay, good my lord,--
   
   HAMLET It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of
   gain-giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman.
   
   HORATIO If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will 210
   forestall their repair hither, and say you are not
   fit.
   
   HAMLET Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
   providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
   'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be 215
   now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
   readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
   leaves, what is't to leave betimes?
   [Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES,
   Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.
   [KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES' hand into HAMLET's]
   
   HAMLET Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong; 220
   But pardon't, as you are a gentleman.
   This presence knows,
   And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd
   With sore distraction. What I have done,
   That might your nature, honour and exception 225
   Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
   Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet:
   If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
   And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes,
   Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. 230
   Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so,
   Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
   His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
   Sir, in this audience,
   Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil 235
   Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
   That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,
   And hurt my brother.
   
   LAERTES I am satisfied in nature,
   Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most 240
   To my revenge: but in my terms of honour
   I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
   Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
   I have a voice and precedent of peace,
   To keep my name ungored. But till that time, 245
   I do receive your offer'd love like love,
   And will not wrong it.
   
   HAMLET I embrace it freely;
   And will this brother's wager frankly play.
   Give us the foils. Come on. 250
   
   LAERTES Come, one for me.
   
   HAMLET I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance
   Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night,
   Stick fiery off indeed.
   
   LAERTES You mock me, sir. 255
   
   HAMLET No, by this hand.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,
   You know the wager?
   
   HAMLET Very well, my lord
   Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. 260
   
   KING CLAUDIUS I do not fear it; I have seen you both:
   But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds.
   
   LAERTES This is too heavy, let me see another.
   
   HAMLET This likes me well. These foils have all a length?
   [They prepare to play]
   
   OSRIC Ay, my good lord. 265
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Set me the stoops of wine upon that table.
   If Hamlet give the first or second hit,
   Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
   Let all the battlements their ordnance fire:
   The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; 270
   And in the cup an union shall he throw,
   Richer than that which four successive kings
   In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups;
   And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
   The trumpet to the cannoneer without, 275
   The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth,
   'Now the king dunks to Hamlet.' Come, begin:
   And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
   
   HAMLET Come on, sir.
   
   LAERTES          Come, my lord.
   [They play]
   
   HAMLET One. 280
   
   LAERTES No.
   
   HAMLET Judgment.
   
   OSRIC A hit, a very palpable hit.
   
   LAERTES Well; again.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; 285
   Here's to thy health.
   [Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within]
                       Give him the cup.
   
   HAMLET I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come.
   [They play]
   Another hit; what say you?
   
   LAERTES A touch, a touch, I do confess. 290
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Our son shall win.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE                 He's fat, and scant of breath.
   Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows;
   The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.
   
   HAMLET Good madam!
   
   KING CLAUDIUS                Gertrude, do not drink.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me. 295
   
   KING CLAUDIUS [Aside] It is the poison'd cup: it is too late.
   
   HAMLET I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by.
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE Come, let me wipe thy face.
   
   LAERTES My lord, I'll hit him now.
   
   KING CLAUDIUS I do not think't. 300
   
   LAERTES [Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
   
   HAMLET Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally;
   I pray you, pass with your best violence;
   I am afeard you make a wanton of me.
   
   LAERTES Say you so? come on. 305
   [They play]
   
   OSRIC Nothing, neither way.
   
   LAERTES Have at you now!
   [LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then in scuffling, they
   change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES]
   
   KING CLAUDIUS Part them; they are incensed.
   
   HAMLET Nay, come, again.
   [QUEEN GERTRUDE falls]
   
   OSRIC        Look to the queen there, ho!
   
   HORATIO They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord? 310
   
   OSRIC How is't, Laertes?
   
   LAERTES Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric;
   I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery.
   
   HAMLET How does the queen?
   
   KING CLAUDIUS She swounds to see them bleed. 315
   
   QUEEN GERTRUDE No, no, the drink, the drink,--O my dear Hamlet,--
   The drink, the drink! I am poison'd.
   [Dies]
   
   HAMLET O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd:
   Treachery! Seek it out.
   
   LAERTES It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; 320
   No medicine in the world can do thee good;
   In thee there is not half an hour of life;
   The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
   Unbated and envenom'd: the foul practise
   Hath turn'd itself on me lo, here I lie, 325
   Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd:
   I can no more: the king, the king's to blame.
   
   HAMLET The point!--envenom'd too!
   Then, venom, to thy work.
   [Stabs KING CLAUDIUS]
   
   All Treason! treason! 330
   
   KING CLAUDIUS O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt.
   
   HAMLET Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
   Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?
   Follow my mother.
   [KING CLAUDIUS dies]
   
   LAERTES          He is justly served;
   It is a poison temper'd by himself. 335
   Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
   Mine and my father's death come not upon thee,
   Nor thine on me.
   [Dies]
   
   HAMLET Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
   I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu! 340
   You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
   That are but mutes or audience to this act,
   Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death,
   Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you--
   But let it be. Horatio, I am dead; 345
   Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
   To the unsatisfied.
   
   HORATIO Never believe it:
   I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
   Here's yet some liquor left. 350
   
   HAMLET As thou'rt a man,
   Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't.
   O good Horatio, what a wounded name,
   Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me!
   If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart 355
   Absent thee from felicity awhile,
   And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
   To tell my story.
   [March afar off, and shot within]
   What warlike noise is this?
   
   OSRIC Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, 360
   To the ambassadors of England gives
   This warlike volley.
   
   HAMLET O, I die, Horatio;
   The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit:
   I cannot live to hear the news from England; 365
   But I do prophesy the election lights
   On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
   So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
   Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
   [Dies]
   
   HORATIO Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: 370
   And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
   Why does the drum come hither?
   [March within]
   [Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors,
   and others]
   
   PRINCE FORTINBRAS Where is this sight?
   
   HORATIO What is it ye would see?
   If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. 375
   
   PRINCE FORTINBRAS This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death,
   What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,
   That thou so many princes at a shot
   So bloodily hast struck?
   
   First Ambassador The sight is dismal; 380
   And our affairs from England come too late:
   The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
   To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd,
   That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead:
   Where should we have our thanks? 385
   
   HORATIO Not from his mouth,
   Had it the ability of life to thank you:
   He never gave commandment for their death.
   But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
   You from the Polack wars, and you from England, 390
   Are here arrived give order that these bodies
   High on a stage be placed to the view;
   And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
   How these things came about: so shall you hear
   Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, 395
   Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
   Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
   And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
   Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I
   Truly deliver. 400
   
   PRINCE FORTINBRAS                    Let us haste to hear it,
   And call the noblest to the audience.
   For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune:
   I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
   Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.
   
   HORATIO Of that I shall have also cause to speak, 405
   And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more;
   But let this same be presently perform'd,
   Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance
   On plots and errors, happen.
   
   PRINCE FORTINBRAS Let four captains 410
   Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
   For he was likely, had he been put on,
   To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
   The soldiers' music and the rites of war
   Speak loudly for him. 415
   Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
   Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
   Go, bid the soldiers shoot.
   [A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead
   bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off]
   
   
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