{"id":225,"date":"2017-06-24T20:36:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T20:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/chapter\/hamlet-act-iii\/"},"modified":"2017-07-10T20:12:56","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T20:12:56","slug":"hamlet-act-iii","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-humanities1-1\/chapter\/hamlet-act-iii\/","title":{"raw":"Hamlet, Act III","rendered":"Hamlet, Act III"},"content":{"raw":"

Act 3<\/h2>\r\n

Scene 1. A room in the castle.<\/span><\/h3>\r\nEnter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
And can you, by no drift of circumstance,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet<\/dd>\r\n \t
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
He does confess he feels himself distracted;<\/dd>\r\n \t
But from what cause he will by no means speak.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,<\/dd>\r\n \t
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When we would bring him on to some confession<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of his true state.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Did he receive you well?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
Most like a gentleman.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
But with much forcing of his disposition.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
Niggard of question; but, of our demands,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Most free in his reply.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Did you assay him<\/dd>\r\n \t
To any pastime?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
Madam, it so fell out, that certain players<\/dd>\r\n \t
We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And there did seem in him a kind of joy<\/dd>\r\n \t
To hear of it: they are about the court,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And, as I think, they have already order<\/dd>\r\n \t
This night to play before him.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
'Tis most true:<\/dd>\r\n \t
And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties<\/dd>\r\n \t
To hear and see the matter.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
With all my heart; and it doth much content me<\/dd>\r\n \t
To hear him so inclined.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And drive his purpose on to these delights.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
We shall, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here<\/dd>\r\n \t
Affront Ophelia:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Her father and myself, lawful espials,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,<\/dd>\r\n \t
We may of their encounter frankly judge,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And gather by him, as he is behaved,<\/dd>\r\n \t
If 't be the affliction of his love or no<\/dd>\r\n \t
That thus he suffers for.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
I shall obey you.<\/dd>\r\n \t
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish<\/dd>\r\n \t
That your good beauties be the happy cause<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues<\/dd>\r\n \t
Will bring him to his wonted way again,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To both your honours.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Madam, I wish it may.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit QUEEN GERTRUDE<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,<\/dd>\r\n \t
We will bestow ourselves.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nTo OPHELIA<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Read on this book;<\/dd>\r\n \t
That show of such an exercise may colour<\/dd>\r\n \t
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,--<\/dd>\r\n \t
'Tis too much proved--that with devotion's visage<\/dd>\r\n \t
And pious action we do sugar o'er<\/dd>\r\n \t
The devil himself.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Aside<\/i>\u00a0O, 'tis too true!<\/dd>\r\n \t
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!<\/dd>\r\n \t
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it<\/dd>\r\n \t
Than is my deed to my most painted word:<\/dd>\r\n \t
O heavy burthen!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS<\/i>\u00a0Enter HAMLET<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
To be, or not to be: that is the question:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer<\/dd>\r\n \t
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;<\/dd>\r\n \t
No more; and by a sleep to say we end<\/dd>\r\n \t
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks<\/dd>\r\n \t
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation<\/dd>\r\n \t
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;<\/dd>\r\n \t
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come<\/dd>\r\n \t
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Must give us pause: there's the respect<\/dd>\r\n \t
That makes calamity of so long life;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The insolence of office and the spurns<\/dd>\r\n \t
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When he himself might his quietus make<\/dd>\r\n \t
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,<\/dd>\r\n \t
But that the dread of something after death,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn<\/dd>\r\n \t
No traveller returns, puzzles the will<\/dd>\r\n \t
And makes us rather bear those ills we have<\/dd>\r\n \t
Than fly to others that we know not of?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And thus the native hue of resolution<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And enterprises of great pitch and moment<\/dd>\r\n \t
With this regard their currents turn awry,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!<\/dd>\r\n \t
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons<\/dd>\r\n \t
Be all my sins remember'd.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Good my lord,<\/dd>\r\n \t
How does your honour for this many a day?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I humbly thank you; well, well, well.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
My lord, I have remembrances of yours,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That I have longed long to re-deliver;<\/dd>\r\n \t
I pray you, now receive them.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, not I;<\/dd>\r\n \t
I never gave you aught.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed<\/dd>\r\n \t
As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Take these again; for to the noble mind<\/dd>\r\n \t
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.<\/dd>\r\n \t
There, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ha, ha! are you honest?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
My lord?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Are you fair?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
What means your lordship?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should<\/dd>\r\n \t
admit no discourse to your beauty.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than<\/dd>\r\n \t
with honesty?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner<\/dd>\r\n \t
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the<\/dd>\r\n \t
force of honesty can translate beauty into his<\/dd>\r\n \t
likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the<\/dd>\r\n \t
time gives it proof. I did love you once.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot<\/dd>\r\n \t
so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of<\/dd>\r\n \t
it: I loved you not.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
I was the more deceived.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a<\/dd>\r\n \t
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;<\/dd>\r\n \t
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it<\/dd>\r\n \t
were better my mother had not borne me: I am very<\/dd>\r\n \t
proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at<\/dd>\r\n \t
my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,<\/dd>\r\n \t
imagination to give them shape, or time to act them<\/dd>\r\n \t
in. What should such fellows as I do crawling<\/dd>\r\n \t
between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,<\/dd>\r\n \t
all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where's your father?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
At home, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the<\/dd>\r\n \t
fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, help him, you sweet heavens!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for<\/dd>\r\n \t
thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as<\/dd>\r\n \t
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a<\/dd>\r\n \t
nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs<\/dd>\r\n \t
marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough<\/dd>\r\n \t
what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,<\/dd>\r\n \t
and quickly too. Farewell.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
O heavenly powers, restore him!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God<\/dd>\r\n \t
has given you one face, and you make yourselves<\/dd>\r\n \t
another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and<\/dd>\r\n \t
nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness<\/dd>\r\n \t
your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath<\/dd>\r\n \t
made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:<\/dd>\r\n \t
those that are married already, all but one, shall<\/dd>\r\n \t
live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a<\/dd>\r\n \t
nunnery, go.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!<\/dd>\r\n \t
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;<\/dd>\r\n \t
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!<\/dd>\r\n \t
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;<\/dd>\r\n \t
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth<\/dd>\r\n \t
Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nRe-enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Love! his affections do not that way tend;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul,<\/dd>\r\n \t
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose<\/dd>\r\n \t
Will be some danger: which for to prevent,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I have in quick determination<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,<\/dd>\r\n \t
For the demand of our neglected tribute<\/dd>\r\n \t
Haply the seas and countries different<\/dd>\r\n \t
With variable objects shall expel<\/dd>\r\n \t
This something-settled matter in his heart,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus<\/dd>\r\n \t
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
It shall do well: but yet do I believe<\/dd>\r\n \t
The origin and commencement of his grief<\/dd>\r\n \t
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!<\/dd>\r\n \t
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;<\/dd>\r\n \t
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please;<\/dd>\r\n \t
But, if you hold it fit, after the play<\/dd>\r\n \t
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him<\/dd>\r\n \t
To show his grief: let her be round with him;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of all their conference. If she find him not,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To England send him, or confine him where<\/dd>\r\n \t
Your wisdom best shall think.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
It shall be so:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt<\/i>\r\n

Scene 2. A hall in the castle.<\/span><\/h3>\r\nEnter HAMLET and Players<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to<\/dd>\r\n \t
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,<\/dd>\r\n \t
as many of your players do, I had as lief the<\/dd>\r\n \t
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air<\/dd>\r\n \t
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;<\/dd>\r\n \t
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,<\/dd>\r\n \t
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget<\/dd>\r\n \t
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it<\/dd>\r\n \t
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious<\/dd>\r\n \t
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to<\/dd>\r\n \t
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who<\/dd>\r\n \t
for the most part are capable of nothing but<\/dd>\r\n \t
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such<\/dd>\r\n \t
a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it<\/dd>\r\n \t
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
First Player<\/dt>\r\n \t
I warrant your honour.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion<\/dd>\r\n \t
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the<\/dd>\r\n \t
word to the action; with this special o'erstep not<\/dd>\r\n \t
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is<\/dd>\r\n \t
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the<\/dd>\r\n \t
first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the<\/dd>\r\n \t
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,<\/dd>\r\n \t
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of<\/dd>\r\n \t
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,<\/dd>\r\n \t
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful<\/dd>\r\n \t
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the<\/dd>\r\n \t
censure of the which one must in your allowance<\/dd>\r\n \t
o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be<\/dd>\r\n \t
players that I have seen play, and heard others<\/dd>\r\n \t
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,<\/dd>\r\n \t
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor<\/dd>\r\n \t
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so<\/dd>\r\n \t
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of<\/dd>\r\n \t
nature's journeymen had made men and not made them<\/dd>\r\n \t
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
First Player<\/dt>\r\n \t
I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us,<\/dd>\r\n \t
sir.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, reform it altogether. And let those that play<\/dd>\r\n \t
your clowns speak no more than is set down for them;<\/dd>\r\n \t
for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to<\/dd>\r\n \t
set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh<\/dd>\r\n \t
too; though, in the mean time, some necessary<\/dd>\r\n \t
question of the play be then to be considered:<\/dd>\r\n \t
that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition<\/dd>\r\n \t
in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt Players<\/i>\u00a0Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
How now, my lord! I will the king hear this piece of work?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
And the queen too, and that presently.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Bid the players make haste.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Will you two help to hasten them?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
We will, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
What ho! Horatio!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEnter HORATIO<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Horatio<\/dt>\r\n \t
Here, sweet lord, at your service.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man<\/dd>\r\n \t
As e'er my conversation coped withal.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Horatio<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, my dear lord,--<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nay, do not think I flatter;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For what advancement may I hope from thee<\/dd>\r\n \t
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?<\/dd>\r\n \t
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice<\/dd>\r\n \t
And could of men distinguish, her election<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been<\/dd>\r\n \t
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,<\/dd>\r\n \t
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those<\/dd>\r\n \t
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger<\/dd>\r\n \t
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man<\/dd>\r\n \t
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him<\/dd>\r\n \t
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,<\/dd>\r\n \t
As I do thee.--Something too much of this.--<\/dd>\r\n \t
There is a play to-night before the king;<\/dd>\r\n \t
One scene of it comes near the circumstance<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which I have told thee of my father's death:<\/dd>\r\n \t
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Even with the very comment of thy soul<\/dd>\r\n \t
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt<\/dd>\r\n \t
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,<\/dd>\r\n \t
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And my imaginations are as foul<\/dd>\r\n \t
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And after we will both our judgments join<\/dd>\r\n \t
In censure of his seeming.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Horatio<\/dt>\r\n \t
Well, my lord:<\/dd>\r\n \t
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Get you a place.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nDanish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS,<\/i>\u00a0QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ,<\/i>\u00a0GUILDENSTERN, and others<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
How fares our cousin Hamlet?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat<\/dd>\r\n \t
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words<\/dd>\r\n \t
are not mine.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, nor mine now.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nTo POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
What did you enact?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the<\/dd>\r\n \t
Capitol; Brutus killed me.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf<\/dd>\r\n \t
there. Be the players ready?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
To KING CLAUDIUS<\/i>\u00a0O, ho! do you mark that?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLying down at OPHELIA's feet<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I mean, my head upon your lap?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Do you think I meant country matters?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
I think nothing, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
What is, my lord?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nothing.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
You are merry, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Who, I?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do<\/dd>\r\n \t
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my<\/dd>\r\n \t
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for<\/dd>\r\n \t
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two<\/dd>\r\n \t
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's<\/dd>\r\n \t
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half<\/dd>\r\n \t
a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches,<\/dd>\r\n \t
then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with<\/dd>\r\n \t
the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,<\/dd>\r\n \t
the hobby-horse is forgot.'<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nHautboys play. The dumb-show enters<\/i>\r\n\r\nEnter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen<\/i>\u00a0embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes<\/i>\u00a0show of protestation unto him. He takes her up,<\/i>\u00a0and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down<\/i>\u00a0upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep,<\/i>\u00a0leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his<\/i>\u00a0crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's<\/i>\u00a0ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King<\/i>\u00a0dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner,<\/i>\u00a0with some two or three Mutes, comes in again,<\/i>\u00a0seeming to lament with her. The dead body is<\/i>\u00a0carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with<\/i>\u00a0gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but<\/i>\u00a0in the end accepts his love<\/i>\r\n\r\nExeunt<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
What means this, my lord?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Belike this show imports the argument of the play.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEnter Prologue<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot<\/dd>\r\n \t
keep counsel; they'll tell all.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Will he tell us what this show meant?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you<\/dd>\r\n \t
ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Prologue<\/dt>\r\n \t
For us, and for our tragedy,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Here stooping to your clemency,<\/dd>\r\n \t
We beg your hearing patiently.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
'Tis brief, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
As woman's love.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEnter two Players, King and Queen<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player King<\/dt>\r\n \t
Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round<\/dd>\r\n \t
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen<\/dd>\r\n \t
About the world have times twelve thirties been,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands<\/dd>\r\n \t
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player Queen<\/dt>\r\n \t
So many journeys may the sun and moon<\/dd>\r\n \t
Make us again count o'er ere love be done!<\/dd>\r\n \t
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,<\/dd>\r\n \t
So far from cheer and from your former state,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:<\/dd>\r\n \t
For women's fear and love holds quantity;<\/dd>\r\n \t
In neither aught, or in extremity.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And as my love is sized, my fear is so:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player King<\/dt>\r\n \t
'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;<\/dd>\r\n \t
My operant powers their functions leave to do:<\/dd>\r\n \t
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Honour'd, beloved; and haply one as kind<\/dd>\r\n \t
For husband shalt thou--<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player Queen<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, confound the rest!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:<\/dd>\r\n \t
In second husband let me be accurst!<\/dd>\r\n \t
None wed the second but who kill'd the first.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Aside<\/i>\u00a0Wormwood, wormwood.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player Queen<\/dt>\r\n \t
The instances that second marriage move<\/dd>\r\n \t
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:<\/dd>\r\n \t
A second time I kill my husband dead,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When second husband kisses me in bed.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player King<\/dt>\r\n \t
I do believe you think what now you speak;<\/dd>\r\n \t
But what we do determine oft we break.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Purpose is but the slave to memory,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of violent birth, but poor validity;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;<\/dd>\r\n \t
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Most necessary 'tis that we forget<\/dd>\r\n \t
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:<\/dd>\r\n \t
What to ourselves in passion we propose,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.<\/dd>\r\n \t
The violence of either grief or joy<\/dd>\r\n \t
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.<\/dd>\r\n \t
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange<\/dd>\r\n \t
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.<\/dd>\r\n \t
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;<\/dd>\r\n \t
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.<\/dd>\r\n \t
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Directly seasons him his enemy.<\/dd>\r\n \t
But, orderly to end where I begun,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Our wills and fates do so contrary run<\/dd>\r\n \t
That our devices still are overthrown;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:<\/dd>\r\n \t
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;<\/dd>\r\n \t
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player Queen<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!<\/dd>\r\n \t
To desperation turn my trust and hope!<\/dd>\r\n \t
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy<\/dd>\r\n \t
Meet what I would have well and it destroy!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,<\/dd>\r\n \t
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
If she should break it now!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player King<\/dt>\r\n \t
'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;<\/dd>\r\n \t
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile<\/dd>\r\n \t
The tedious day with sleep.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nSleeps<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Player Queen<\/dt>\r\n \t
Sleep rock thy brain,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And never come mischance between us twain!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Madam, how like you this play?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
The lady protests too much, methinks.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, but she'll keep her word.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence<\/dd>\r\n \t
i' the world.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
What do you call the play?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play<\/dd>\r\n \t
is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is<\/dd>\r\n \t
the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see<\/dd>\r\n \t
anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o'<\/dd>\r\n \t
that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it<\/dd>\r\n \t
touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our<\/dd>\r\n \t
withers are unwrung.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEnter LUCIANUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
You are as good as a chorus, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I could interpret between you and your love, if I<\/dd>\r\n \t
could see the puppets dallying.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
You are keen, my lord, you are keen.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
Still better, and worse.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer;<\/dd>\r\n \t
pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:<\/dd>\r\n \t
'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.'<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lucianus<\/dt>\r\n \t
Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,<\/dd>\r\n \t
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thy natural magic and dire property,<\/dd>\r\n \t
On wholesome life usurp immediately.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nPours the poison into the sleeper's ears<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His<\/dd>\r\n \t
name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in<\/dd>\r\n \t
choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer<\/dd>\r\n \t
gets the love of Gonzago's wife.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ophelia<\/dt>\r\n \t
The king rises.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
What, frighted with false fire!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
How fares my lord?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Give o'er the play.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Give me some light: away!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
All<\/dt>\r\n \t
Lights, lights, lights!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The hart ungalled play;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For some must watch, while some must sleep:<\/dd>\r\n \t
So runs the world away.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers-- if<\/dd>\r\n \t
the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me--with two<\/dd>\r\n \t
Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a<\/dd>\r\n \t
fellowship in a cry of players, sir?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Horatio<\/dt>\r\n \t
Half a share.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
A whole one, I.<\/dd>\r\n \t
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,<\/dd>\r\n \t
This realm dismantled was<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here<\/dd>\r\n \t
A very, very--pajock.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Horatio<\/dt>\r\n \t
You might have rhymed.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a<\/dd>\r\n \t
thousand pound. Didst perceive?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Horatio<\/dt>\r\n \t
Very well, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Upon the talk of the poisoning?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Horatio<\/dt>\r\n \t
I did very well note him.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!<\/dd>\r\n \t
For if the king like not the comedy,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Come, some music!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nRe-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Sir, a whole history.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
The king, sir,--<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, sir, what of him?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
With drink, sir?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, my lord, rather with choler.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Your wisdom should show itself more richer to<\/dd>\r\n \t
signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him<\/dd>\r\n \t
to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far<\/dd>\r\n \t
more choler.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and<\/dd>\r\n \t
start not so wildly from my affair.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I am tame, sir: pronounce.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of<\/dd>\r\n \t
spirit, hath sent me to you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
You are welcome.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right<\/dd>\r\n \t
breed. If it shall please you to make me a<\/dd>\r\n \t
wholesome answer, I will do your mother's<\/dd>\r\n \t
commandment: if not, your pardon and my return<\/dd>\r\n \t
shall be the end of my business.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Sir, I cannot.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
What, my lord?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but,<\/dd>\r\n \t
sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command;<\/dd>\r\n \t
or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no<\/dd>\r\n \t
more, but to the matter: my mother, you say,--<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her<\/dd>\r\n \t
into amazement and admiration.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But<\/dd>\r\n \t
is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's<\/dd>\r\n \t
admiration? Impart.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you<\/dd>\r\n \t
go to bed.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have<\/dd>\r\n \t
you any further trade with us?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
My lord, you once did love me.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you<\/dd>\r\n \t
do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if<\/dd>\r\n \t
you deny your griefs to your friend.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Sir, I lack advancement.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
How can that be, when you have the voice of the king<\/dd>\r\n \t
himself for your succession in Denmark?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'--the proverb<\/dd>\r\n \t
is something musty.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nRe-enter Players with recorders<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw with<\/dd>\r\n \t
you:--why do you go about to recover the wind of me,<\/dd>\r\n \t
as if you would drive me into a toil?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too<\/dd>\r\n \t
unmannerly.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I do not well understand that. Will you play upon<\/dd>\r\n \t
this pipe?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
My lord, I cannot.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I pray you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
Believe me, I cannot.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I do beseech you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
I know no touch of it, my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with<\/dd>\r\n \t
your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your<\/dd>\r\n \t
mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Look you, these are the stops.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
But these cannot I command to any utterance of<\/dd>\r\n \t
harmony; I have not the skill.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of<\/dd>\r\n \t
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know<\/dd>\r\n \t
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my<\/dd>\r\n \t
mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to<\/dd>\r\n \t
the top of my compass: and there is much music,<\/dd>\r\n \t
excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot<\/dd>\r\n \t
you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am<\/dd>\r\n \t
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what<\/dd>\r\n \t
instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you<\/dd>\r\n \t
cannot play upon me.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEnter POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
God bless you, sir!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
My lord, the queen would speak with you, and<\/dd>\r\n \t
presently.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Methinks it is like a weasel.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
It is backed like a weasel.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Or like a whale?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Very like a whale.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool<\/dd>\r\n \t
me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
I will say so.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
By and by is easily said.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Leave me, friends.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt all but HAMLET<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
'Tis now the very witching time of night,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out<\/dd>\r\n \t
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And do such bitter business as the day<\/dd>\r\n \t
Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.<\/dd>\r\n \t
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever<\/dd>\r\n \t
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Let me be cruel, not unnatural:<\/dd>\r\n \t
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;<\/dd>\r\n \t
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;<\/dd>\r\n \t
How in my words soever she be shent,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit<\/i>\r\n

Scene 3. A room in the castle.<\/span><\/h3>\r\nEnter King Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
I like him not, nor stands it safe with us<\/dd>\r\n \t
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;<\/dd>\r\n \t
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And he to England shall along with you:<\/dd>\r\n \t
The terms of our estate may not endure<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow<\/dd>\r\n \t
Out of his lunacies.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
We will ourselves provide:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Most holy and religious fear it is<\/dd>\r\n \t
To keep those many many bodies safe<\/dd>\r\n \t
That live and feed upon your majesty.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n \t
The single and peculiar life is bound,<\/dd>\r\n \t
With all the strength and armour of the mind,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To keep itself from noyance; but much more<\/dd>\r\n \t
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest<\/dd>\r\n \t
The lives of many. The cease of majesty<\/dd>\r\n \t
Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw<\/dd>\r\n \t
What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things<\/dd>\r\n \t
Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Each small annexment, petty consequence,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone<\/dd>\r\n \t
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For we will fetters put upon this fear,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Which now goes too free-footed.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Guildenstern<\/dt>\r\n \t
We will haste us.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i>\u00a0Enter POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Behind the arras I'll convey myself,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To hear the process; and warrant she'll tax him home:<\/dd>\r\n \t
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,<\/dd>\r\n \t
'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear<\/dd>\r\n \t
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:<\/dd>\r\n \t
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And tell you what I know.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Thanks, dear my lord.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;<\/dd>\r\n \t
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,<\/dd>\r\n \t
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Though inclination be as sharp as will:<\/dd>\r\n \t
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And, like a man to double business bound,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand<\/dd>\r\n \t
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens<\/dd>\r\n \t
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy<\/dd>\r\n \t
But to confront the visage of offence?<\/dd>\r\n \t
And what's in prayer but this two-fold force,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;<\/dd>\r\n \t
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer<\/dd>\r\n \t
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?<\/dd>\r\n \t
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of those effects for which I did the murder,<\/dd>\r\n \t
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.<\/dd>\r\n \t
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?<\/dd>\r\n \t
In the corrupted currents of this world<\/dd>\r\n \t
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself<\/dd>\r\n \t
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above;<\/dd>\r\n \t
There is no shuffling, there the action lies<\/dd>\r\n \t
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Try what repentance can: what can it not?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Yet what can it when one can not repent?<\/dd>\r\n \t
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!<\/dd>\r\n \t
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!<\/dd>\r\n \t
All may be well.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nRetires and kneels<\/i>\u00a0Enter HAMLET<\/i>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:<\/dd>\r\n \t
A villain kills my father; and for that,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I, his sole son, do this same villain send<\/dd>\r\n \t
To heaven.<\/dd>\r\n \t
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.<\/dd>\r\n \t
He took my father grossly, full of bread;<\/dd>\r\n \t
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?<\/dd>\r\n \t
But in our circumstance and course of thought,<\/dd>\r\n \t
'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To take him in the purging of his soul,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?<\/dd>\r\n \t
No!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:<\/dd>\r\n \t
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;<\/dd>\r\n \t
At gaming, swearing, or about some act<\/dd>\r\n \t
That has no relish of salvation in't;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black<\/dd>\r\n \t
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:<\/dd>\r\n \t
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
King Claudius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Rising<\/i>\u00a0My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit<\/i>\r\n

Scene 4. The Queen's closet.<\/span><\/h3>\r\nEnter Queen Gertrude and Polonius<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between<\/dd>\r\n \t
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Pray you, be round with him.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Within<\/i>\u00a0Mother, mother, mother!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
I'll warrant you,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nPOLONIUS hides behind the arras<\/i>\u00a0Enter HAMLET<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Now, mother, what's the matter?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Mother, you have my father much offended.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Why, how now, Hamlet!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
What's the matter now?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Have you forgot me?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, by the rood, not so:<\/dd>\r\n \t
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And--would it were not so!--you are my mother.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nay, then, I'll set those to you that can speak.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;<\/dd>\r\n \t
You go not till I set you up a glass<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where you may see the inmost part of you.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Help, help, ho!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Behind<\/i>\u00a0What, ho! help, help, help!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Drawing<\/i>\u00a0How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nMakes a pass through the arras<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\r\n \t
Behind<\/i>\u00a0O, I am slain!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nFalls and dies<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
O me, what hast thou done?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nay, I know not:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is it the king?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,<\/dd>\r\n \t
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
As kill a king!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nLifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!<\/dd>\r\n \t
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,<\/dd>\r\n \t
If it be made of penetrable stuff,<\/dd>\r\n \t
If damned custom have not brass'd it so<\/dd>\r\n \t
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue<\/dd>\r\n \t
In noise so rude against me?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Such an act<\/dd>\r\n \t
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose<\/dd>\r\n \t
From the fair forehead of an innocent love<\/dd>\r\n \t
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows<\/dd>\r\n \t
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed<\/dd>\r\n \t
As from the body of contraction plucks<\/dd>\r\n \t
The very soul, and sweet religion makes<\/dd>\r\n \t
A rhapsody of words: heaven's face doth glow:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,<\/dd>\r\n \t
With tristful visage, as against the doom,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is thought-sick at the act.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ay me, what act,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,<\/dd>\r\n \t
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.<\/dd>\r\n \t
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;<\/dd>\r\n \t
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;<\/dd>\r\n \t
A station like the herald Mercury<\/dd>\r\n \t
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;<\/dd>\r\n \t
A combination and a form indeed,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Where every god did seem to set his seal,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To give the world assurance of a man:<\/dd>\r\n \t
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?<\/dd>\r\n \t
You cannot call it love; for at your age<\/dd>\r\n \t
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment<\/dd>\r\n \t
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd<\/dd>\r\n \t
But it reserved some quantity of choice,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To serve in such a difference. What devil was't<\/dd>\r\n \t
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or but a sickly part of one true sense<\/dd>\r\n \t
Could not so mope.<\/dd>\r\n \t
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,<\/dd>\r\n \t
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame<\/dd>\r\n \t
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Since frost itself as actively doth burn<\/dd>\r\n \t
And reason panders will.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
O Hamlet, speak no more:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And there I see such black and grained spots<\/dd>\r\n \t
As will not leave their tinct.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nay, but to live<\/dd>\r\n \t
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love<\/dd>\r\n \t
Over the nasty sty,--<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, speak to me no more;<\/dd>\r\n \t
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;<\/dd>\r\n \t
No more, sweet Hamlet!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
A murderer and a villain;<\/dd>\r\n \t
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;<\/dd>\r\n \t
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And put it in his pocket!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
No more!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
A king of shreds and patches,--<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nEnter Ghost<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,<\/dd>\r\n \t
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Alas, he's mad!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by<\/dd>\r\n \t
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Ghost<\/dt>\r\n \t
Do not forget: this visitation<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.<\/dd>\r\n \t
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:<\/dd>\r\n \t
O, step between her and her fighting soul:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Speak to her, Hamlet.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
How is it with you, lady?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Alas, how is't with you,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That you do bend your eye on vacancy<\/dd>\r\n \t
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?<\/dd>\r\n \t
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper<\/dd>\r\n \t
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!<\/dd>\r\n \t
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Lest with this piteous action you convert<\/dd>\r\n \t
My stern effects: then what I have to do<\/dd>\r\n \t
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
To whom do you speak this?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Do you see nothing there?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Nor did you nothing hear?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
No, nothing but ourselves.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!<\/dd>\r\n \t
My father, in his habit as he lived!<\/dd>\r\n \t
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExit Ghost<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
This the very coinage of your brain:<\/dd>\r\n \t
This bodiless creation ecstasy<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is very cunning in.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Ecstasy!<\/dd>\r\n \t
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness<\/dd>\r\n \t
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And I the matter will re-word; which madness<\/dd>\r\n \t
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:<\/dd>\r\n \t
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For in the fatness of these pursy times<\/dd>\r\n \t
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
O, throw away the worser part of it,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And live the purer with the other half.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Good night: but go not to mine uncle's bed;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.<\/dd>\r\n \t
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That to the use of actions fair and good<\/dd>\r\n \t
He likewise gives a frock or livery,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And that shall lend a kind of easiness<\/dd>\r\n \t
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And either ... the devil, or throw him out<\/dd>\r\n \t
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:<\/dd>\r\n \t
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nPointing to POLONIUS<\/i>\r\n
\r\n \t
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To punish me with this and this with me,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That I must be their scourge and minister.<\/dd>\r\n \t
I will bestow him, and will answer well<\/dd>\r\n \t
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.<\/dd>\r\n \t
I must be cruel, only to be kind:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.<\/dd>\r\n \t
One word more, good lady.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
What shall I do?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:<\/dd>\r\n \t
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;<\/dd>\r\n \t
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;<\/dd>\r\n \t
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Make you to ravel all this matter out,<\/dd>\r\n \t
That I essentially am not in madness,<\/dd>\r\n \t
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?<\/dd>\r\n \t
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Unpeg the basket on the house's top.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,<\/dd>\r\n \t
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And break your own neck down.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe<\/dd>\r\n \t
What thou hast said to me.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
I must to England; you know that?<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\r\n \t
Alack,<\/dd>\r\n \t
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\n
\r\n \t
Hamlet<\/dt>\r\n \t
There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,<\/dd>\r\n \t
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;<\/dd>\r\n \t
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer<\/dd>\r\n \t
Hoist with his own petard: and 't shall go hard<\/dd>\r\n \t
But I will delve one yard below their mines,<\/dd>\r\n \t
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,<\/dd>\r\n \t
When in one line two crafts directly meet.<\/dd>\r\n \t
This man shall set me packing:<\/dd>\r\n \t
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor<\/dd>\r\n \t
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,<\/dd>\r\n \t
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.<\/dd>\r\n \t
Good night, mother.<\/dd>\r\n<\/dl>\r\nExeunt severally; Hamlet dragging in Polonius<\/i>","rendered":"

Act 3<\/h2>\n

Scene 1. A room in the castle.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Enter King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
And can you, by no drift of circumstance,<\/dd>\n
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,<\/dd>\n
Grating so harshly all his days of quiet<\/dd>\n
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
He does confess he feels himself distracted;<\/dd>\n
But from what cause he will by no means speak.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,<\/dd>\n
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,<\/dd>\n
When we would bring him on to some confession<\/dd>\n
Of his true state.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Did he receive you well?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
Most like a gentleman.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
But with much forcing of his disposition.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
Niggard of question; but, of our demands,<\/dd>\n
Most free in his reply.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Did you assay him<\/dd>\n
To any pastime?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
Madam, it so fell out, that certain players<\/dd>\n
We o’er-raught on the way: of these we told him;<\/dd>\n
And there did seem in him a kind of joy<\/dd>\n
To hear of it: they are about the court,<\/dd>\n
And, as I think, they have already order<\/dd>\n
This night to play before him.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
‘Tis most true:<\/dd>\n
And he beseech’d me to entreat your majesties<\/dd>\n
To hear and see the matter.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
With all my heart; and it doth much content me<\/dd>\n
To hear him so inclined.<\/dd>\n
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,<\/dd>\n
And drive his purpose on to these delights.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
We shall, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;<\/dd>\n
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,<\/dd>\n
That he, as ’twere by accident, may here<\/dd>\n
Affront Ophelia:<\/dd>\n
Her father and myself, lawful espials,<\/dd>\n
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,<\/dd>\n
We may of their encounter frankly judge,<\/dd>\n
And gather by him, as he is behaved,<\/dd>\n
If ‘t be the affliction of his love or no<\/dd>\n
That thus he suffers for.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
I shall obey you.<\/dd>\n
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish<\/dd>\n
That your good beauties be the happy cause<\/dd>\n
Of Hamlet’s wildness: so shall I hope your virtues<\/dd>\n
Will bring him to his wonted way again,<\/dd>\n
To both your honours.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Madam, I wish it may.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit QUEEN GERTRUDE<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,<\/dd>\n
We will bestow ourselves.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

To OPHELIA<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Read on this book;<\/dd>\n
That show of such an exercise may colour<\/dd>\n
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,–<\/dd>\n
‘Tis too much proved–that with devotion’s visage<\/dd>\n
And pious action we do sugar o’er<\/dd>\n
The devil himself.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Aside<\/i>\u00a0O, ’tis too true!<\/dd>\n
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!<\/dd>\n
The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plastering art,<\/dd>\n
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it<\/dd>\n
Than is my deed to my most painted word:<\/dd>\n
O heavy burthen!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
I hear him coming: let’s withdraw, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS<\/i>\u00a0Enter HAMLET<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
To be, or not to be: that is the question:<\/dd>\n
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer<\/dd>\n
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,<\/dd>\n
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,<\/dd>\n
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;<\/dd>\n
No more; and by a sleep to say we end<\/dd>\n
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks<\/dd>\n
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation<\/dd>\n
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;<\/dd>\n
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;<\/dd>\n
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come<\/dd>\n
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,<\/dd>\n
Must give us pause: there’s the respect<\/dd>\n
That makes calamity of so long life;<\/dd>\n
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,<\/dd>\n
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,<\/dd>\n
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,<\/dd>\n
The insolence of office and the spurns<\/dd>\n
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,<\/dd>\n
When he himself might his quietus make<\/dd>\n
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,<\/dd>\n
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,<\/dd>\n
But that the dread of something after death,<\/dd>\n
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn<\/dd>\n
No traveller returns, puzzles the will<\/dd>\n
And makes us rather bear those ills we have<\/dd>\n
Than fly to others that we know not of?<\/dd>\n
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;<\/dd>\n
And thus the native hue of resolution<\/dd>\n
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,<\/dd>\n
And enterprises of great pitch and moment<\/dd>\n
With this regard their currents turn awry,<\/dd>\n
And lose the name of action.–Soft you now!<\/dd>\n
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons<\/dd>\n
Be all my sins remember’d.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Good my lord,<\/dd>\n
How does your honour for this many a day?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I humbly thank you; well, well, well.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
My lord, I have remembrances of yours,<\/dd>\n
That I have longed long to re-deliver;<\/dd>\n
I pray you, now receive them.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
No, not I;<\/dd>\n
I never gave you aught.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
My honour’d lord, you know right well you did;<\/dd>\n
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed<\/dd>\n
As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,<\/dd>\n
Take these again; for to the noble mind<\/dd>\n
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.<\/dd>\n
There, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ha, ha! are you honest?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
My lord?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Are you fair?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
What means your lordship?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should<\/dd>\n
admit no discourse to your beauty.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than<\/dd>\n
with honesty?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner<\/dd>\n
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the<\/dd>\n
force of honesty can translate beauty into his<\/dd>\n
likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the<\/dd>\n
time gives it proof. I did love you once.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot<\/dd>\n
so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of<\/dd>\n
it: I loved you not.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
I was the more deceived.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a<\/dd>\n
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;<\/dd>\n
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it<\/dd>\n
were better my mother had not borne me: I am very<\/dd>\n
proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at<\/dd>\n
my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,<\/dd>\n
imagination to give them shape, or time to act them<\/dd>\n
in. What should such fellows as I do crawling<\/dd>\n
between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,<\/dd>\n
all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.<\/dd>\n
Where’s your father?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
At home, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the<\/dd>\n
fool no where but in’s own house. Farewell.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
O, help him, you sweet heavens!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for<\/dd>\n
thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as<\/dd>\n
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a<\/dd>\n
nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs<\/dd>\n
marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough<\/dd>\n
what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,<\/dd>\n
and quickly too. Farewell.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
O heavenly powers, restore him!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God<\/dd>\n
has given you one face, and you make yourselves<\/dd>\n
another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and<\/dd>\n
nick-name God’s creatures, and make your wantonness<\/dd>\n
your ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on’t; it hath<\/dd>\n
made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:<\/dd>\n
those that are married already, all but one, shall<\/dd>\n
live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a<\/dd>\n
nunnery, go.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!<\/dd>\n
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword;<\/dd>\n
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,<\/dd>\n
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,<\/dd>\n
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!<\/dd>\n
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,<\/dd>\n
That suck’d the honey of his music vows,<\/dd>\n
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,<\/dd>\n
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;<\/dd>\n
That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth<\/dd>\n
Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,<\/dd>\n
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Re-enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Love! his affections do not that way tend;<\/dd>\n
Nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little,<\/dd>\n
Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul,<\/dd>\n
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood;<\/dd>\n
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose<\/dd>\n
Will be some danger: which for to prevent,<\/dd>\n
I have in quick determination<\/dd>\n
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,<\/dd>\n
For the demand of our neglected tribute<\/dd>\n
Haply the seas and countries different<\/dd>\n
With variable objects shall expel<\/dd>\n
This something-settled matter in his heart,<\/dd>\n
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus<\/dd>\n
From fashion of himself. What think you on’t?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
It shall do well: but yet do I believe<\/dd>\n
The origin and commencement of his grief<\/dd>\n
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!<\/dd>\n
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;<\/dd>\n
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please;<\/dd>\n
But, if you hold it fit, after the play<\/dd>\n
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him<\/dd>\n
To show his grief: let her be round with him;<\/dd>\n
And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear<\/dd>\n
Of all their conference. If she find him not,<\/dd>\n
To England send him, or confine him where<\/dd>\n
Your wisdom best shall think.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
It shall be so:<\/dd>\n
Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt<\/i><\/p>\n

Scene 2. A hall in the castle.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Enter HAMLET and Players<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to<\/dd>\n
you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it,<\/dd>\n
as many of your players do, I had as lief the<\/dd>\n
town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air<\/dd>\n
too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently;<\/dd>\n
for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say,<\/dd>\n
the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget<\/dd>\n
a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it<\/dd>\n
offends me to the soul to hear a robustious<\/dd>\n
periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to<\/dd>\n
very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who<\/dd>\n
for the most part are capable of nothing but<\/dd>\n
inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such<\/dd>\n
a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant; it<\/dd>\n
out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
First Player<\/dt>\n
I warrant your honour.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion<\/dd>\n
be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the<\/dd>\n
word to the action; with this special o’erstep not<\/dd>\n
the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is<\/dd>\n
from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the<\/dd>\n
first and now, was and is, to hold, as ’twere, the<\/dd>\n
mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature,<\/dd>\n
scorn her own image, and the very age and body of<\/dd>\n
the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone,<\/dd>\n
or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful<\/dd>\n
laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the<\/dd>\n
censure of the which one must in your allowance<\/dd>\n
o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be<\/dd>\n
players that I have seen play, and heard others<\/dd>\n
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely,<\/dd>\n
that, neither having the accent of Christians nor<\/dd>\n
the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so<\/dd>\n
strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of<\/dd>\n
nature’s journeymen had made men and not made them<\/dd>\n
well, they imitated humanity so abominably.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
First Player<\/dt>\n
I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us,<\/dd>\n
sir.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
O, reform it altogether. And let those that play<\/dd>\n
your clowns speak no more than is set down for them;<\/dd>\n
for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to<\/dd>\n
set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh<\/dd>\n
too; though, in the mean time, some necessary<\/dd>\n
question of the play be then to be considered:<\/dd>\n
that’s villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition<\/dd>\n
in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt Players<\/i>\u00a0Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
How now, my lord! I will the king hear this piece of work?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
And the queen too, and that presently.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Bid the players make haste.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Will you two help to hasten them?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
We will, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
What ho! Horatio!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Enter HORATIO<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Horatio<\/dt>\n
Here, sweet lord, at your service.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man<\/dd>\n
As e’er my conversation coped withal.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Horatio<\/dt>\n
O, my dear lord,–<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Nay, do not think I flatter;<\/dd>\n
For what advancement may I hope from thee<\/dd>\n
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,<\/dd>\n
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter’d?<\/dd>\n
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,<\/dd>\n
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee<\/dd>\n
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?<\/dd>\n
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice<\/dd>\n
And could of men distinguish, her election<\/dd>\n
Hath seal’d thee for herself; for thou hast been<\/dd>\n
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,<\/dd>\n
A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards<\/dd>\n
Hast ta’en with equal thanks: and blest are those<\/dd>\n
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,<\/dd>\n
That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger<\/dd>\n
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man<\/dd>\n
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him<\/dd>\n
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,<\/dd>\n
As I do thee.–Something too much of this.–<\/dd>\n
There is a play to-night before the king;<\/dd>\n
One scene of it comes near the circumstance<\/dd>\n
Which I have told thee of my father’s death:<\/dd>\n
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,<\/dd>\n
Even with the very comment of thy soul<\/dd>\n
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt<\/dd>\n
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,<\/dd>\n
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,<\/dd>\n
And my imaginations are as foul<\/dd>\n
As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note;<\/dd>\n
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,<\/dd>\n
And after we will both our judgments join<\/dd>\n
In censure of his seeming.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Horatio<\/dt>\n
Well, my lord:<\/dd>\n
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,<\/dd>\n
And ‘scape detecting, I will pay the theft.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
They are coming to the play; I must be idle:<\/dd>\n
Get you a place.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS,<\/i>\u00a0QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ,<\/i>\u00a0GUILDENSTERN, and others<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
How fares our cousin Hamlet?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Excellent, i’ faith; of the chameleon’s dish: I eat<\/dd>\n
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words<\/dd>\n
are not mine.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
No, nor mine now.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

To POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
My lord, you played once i’ the university, you say?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
What did you enact?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i’ the<\/dd>\n
Capitol; Brutus killed me.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf<\/dd>\n
there. Be the players ready?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
No, good mother, here’s metal more attractive.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
To KING CLAUDIUS<\/i>\u00a0O, ho! do you mark that?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Lady, shall I lie in your lap?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lying down at OPHELIA’s feet<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
No, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I mean, my head upon your lap?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Ay, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Do you think I meant country matters?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
I think nothing, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
What is, my lord?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Nothing.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
You are merry, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Who, I?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Ay, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do<\/dd>\n
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my<\/dd>\n
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for<\/dd>\n
I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two<\/dd>\n
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there’s<\/dd>\n
hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half<\/dd>\n
a year: but, by’r lady, he must build churches,<\/dd>\n
then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with<\/dd>\n
the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is ‘For, O, for, O,<\/dd>\n
the hobby-horse is forgot.’<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters<\/i><\/p>\n

Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen<\/i>\u00a0embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes<\/i>\u00a0show of protestation unto him. He takes her up,<\/i>\u00a0and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down<\/i>\u00a0upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep,<\/i>\u00a0leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his<\/i>\u00a0crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King’s<\/i>\u00a0ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King<\/i>\u00a0dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner,<\/i>\u00a0with some two or three Mutes, comes in again,<\/i>\u00a0seeming to lament with her. The dead body is<\/i>\u00a0carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with<\/i>\u00a0gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but<\/i>\u00a0in the end accepts his love<\/i><\/p>\n

Exeunt<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
What means this, my lord?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Belike this show imports the argument of the play.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Enter Prologue<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot<\/dd>\n
keep counsel; they’ll tell all.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Will he tell us what this show meant?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ay, or any show that you’ll show him: be not you<\/dd>\n
ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
You are naught, you are naught: I’ll mark the play.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Prologue<\/dt>\n
For us, and for our tragedy,<\/dd>\n
Here stooping to your clemency,<\/dd>\n
We beg your hearing patiently.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
‘Tis brief, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
As woman’s love.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Enter two Players, King and Queen<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Player King<\/dt>\n
Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart gone round<\/dd>\n
Neptune’s salt wash and Tellus’ orbed ground,<\/dd>\n
And thirty dozen moons with borrow’d sheen<\/dd>\n
About the world have times twelve thirties been,<\/dd>\n
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands<\/dd>\n
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Player Queen<\/dt>\n
So many journeys may the sun and moon<\/dd>\n
Make us again count o’er ere love be done!<\/dd>\n
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,<\/dd>\n
So far from cheer and from your former state,<\/dd>\n
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,<\/dd>\n
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:<\/dd>\n
For women’s fear and love holds quantity;<\/dd>\n
In neither aught, or in extremity.<\/dd>\n
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;<\/dd>\n
And as my love is sized, my fear is so:<\/dd>\n
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;<\/dd>\n
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Player King<\/dt>\n
‘Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;<\/dd>\n
My operant powers their functions leave to do:<\/dd>\n
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,<\/dd>\n
Honour’d, beloved; and haply one as kind<\/dd>\n
For husband shalt thou–<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Player Queen<\/dt>\n
O, confound the rest!<\/dd>\n
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:<\/dd>\n
In second husband let me be accurst!<\/dd>\n
None wed the second but who kill’d the first.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Aside<\/i>\u00a0Wormwood, wormwood.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Player Queen<\/dt>\n
The instances that second marriage move<\/dd>\n
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:<\/dd>\n
A second time I kill my husband dead,<\/dd>\n
When second husband kisses me in bed.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Player King<\/dt>\n
I do believe you think what now you speak;<\/dd>\n
But what we do determine oft we break.<\/dd>\n
Purpose is but the slave to memory,<\/dd>\n
Of violent birth, but poor validity;<\/dd>\n
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;<\/dd>\n
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.<\/dd>\n
Most necessary ’tis that we forget<\/dd>\n
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:<\/dd>\n
What to ourselves in passion we propose,<\/dd>\n
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.<\/dd>\n
The violence of either grief or joy<\/dd>\n
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:<\/dd>\n
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;<\/dd>\n
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.<\/dd>\n
This world is not for aye, nor ’tis not strange<\/dd>\n
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;<\/dd>\n
For ’tis a question left us yet to prove,<\/dd>\n
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.<\/dd>\n
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;<\/dd>\n
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.<\/dd>\n
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;<\/dd>\n
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,<\/dd>\n
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,<\/dd>\n
Directly seasons him his enemy.<\/dd>\n
But, orderly to end where I begun,<\/dd>\n
Our wills and fates do so contrary run<\/dd>\n
That our devices still are overthrown;<\/dd>\n
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:<\/dd>\n
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;<\/dd>\n
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Player Queen<\/dt>\n
Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!<\/dd>\n
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!<\/dd>\n
To desperation turn my trust and hope!<\/dd>\n
An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope!<\/dd>\n
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy<\/dd>\n
Meet what I would have well and it destroy!<\/dd>\n
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,<\/dd>\n
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
If she should break it now!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Player King<\/dt>\n
‘Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;<\/dd>\n
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile<\/dd>\n
The tedious day with sleep.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Sleeps<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Player Queen<\/dt>\n
Sleep rock thy brain,<\/dd>\n
And never come mischance between us twain!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Madam, how like you this play?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
The lady protests too much, methinks.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
O, but she’ll keep her word.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in ‘t?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence<\/dd>\n
i’ the world.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
What do you call the play?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play<\/dd>\n
is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is<\/dd>\n
the duke’s name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see<\/dd>\n
anon; ’tis a knavish piece of work: but what o’<\/dd>\n
that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it<\/dd>\n
touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our<\/dd>\n
withers are unwrung.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Enter LUCIANUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
You are as good as a chorus, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I could interpret between you and your love, if I<\/dd>\n
could see the puppets dallying.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
You are keen, my lord, you are keen.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
Still better, and worse.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer;<\/dd>\n
pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:<\/dd>\n
‘the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.’<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lucianus<\/dt>\n
Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing;<\/dd>\n
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;<\/dd>\n
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,<\/dd>\n
With Hecate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,<\/dd>\n
Thy natural magic and dire property,<\/dd>\n
On wholesome life usurp immediately.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Pours the poison into the sleeper’s ears<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
He poisons him i’ the garden for’s estate. His<\/dd>\n
name’s Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in<\/dd>\n
choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer<\/dd>\n
gets the love of Gonzago’s wife.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Ophelia<\/dt>\n
The king rises.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
What, frighted with false fire!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
How fares my lord?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
Give o’er the play.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Give me some light: away!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
All<\/dt>\n
Lights, lights, lights!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,<\/dd>\n
The hart ungalled play;<\/dd>\n
For some must watch, while some must sleep:<\/dd>\n
So runs the world away.<\/dd>\n
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers– if<\/dd>\n
the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me–with two<\/dd>\n
Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a<\/dd>\n
fellowship in a cry of players, sir?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Horatio<\/dt>\n
Half a share.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
A whole one, I.<\/dd>\n
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,<\/dd>\n
This realm dismantled was<\/dd>\n
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here<\/dd>\n
A very, very–pajock.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Horatio<\/dt>\n
You might have rhymed.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a<\/dd>\n
thousand pound. Didst perceive?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Horatio<\/dt>\n
Very well, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Upon the talk of the poisoning?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Horatio<\/dt>\n
I did very well note him.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!<\/dd>\n
For if the king like not the comedy,<\/dd>\n
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.<\/dd>\n
Come, some music!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Sir, a whole history.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
The king, sir,–<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ay, sir, what of him?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
With drink, sir?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
No, my lord, rather with choler.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Your wisdom should show itself more richer to<\/dd>\n
signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him<\/dd>\n
to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far<\/dd>\n
more choler.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and<\/dd>\n
start not so wildly from my affair.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I am tame, sir: pronounce.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of<\/dd>\n
spirit, hath sent me to you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
You are welcome.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right<\/dd>\n
breed. If it shall please you to make me a<\/dd>\n
wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s<\/dd>\n
commandment: if not, your pardon and my return<\/dd>\n
shall be the end of my business.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Sir, I cannot.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
What, my lord?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Make you a wholesome answer; my wit’s diseased: but,<\/dd>\n
sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command;<\/dd>\n
or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no<\/dd>\n
more, but to the matter: my mother, you say,–<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her<\/dd>\n
into amazement and admiration.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But<\/dd>\n
is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s<\/dd>\n
admiration? Impart.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you<\/dd>\n
go to bed.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have<\/dd>\n
you any further trade with us?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
My lord, you once did love me.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you<\/dd>\n
do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if<\/dd>\n
you deny your griefs to your friend.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Sir, I lack advancement.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
How can that be, when you have the voice of the king<\/dd>\n
himself for your succession in Denmark?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ay, but sir, ‘While the grass grows,’–the proverb<\/dd>\n
is something musty.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Re-enter Players with recorders<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw with<\/dd>\n
you:–why do you go about to recover the wind of me,<\/dd>\n
as if you would drive me into a toil?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too<\/dd>\n
unmannerly.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I do not well understand that. Will you play upon<\/dd>\n
this pipe?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
My lord, I cannot.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I pray you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
Believe me, I cannot.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I do beseech you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
I know no touch of it, my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
‘Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with<\/dd>\n
your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your<\/dd>\n
mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.<\/dd>\n
Look you, these are the stops.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
But these cannot I command to any utterance of<\/dd>\n
harmony; I have not the skill.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of<\/dd>\n
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know<\/dd>\n
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my<\/dd>\n
mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to<\/dd>\n
the top of my compass: and there is much music,<\/dd>\n
excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot<\/dd>\n
you make it speak. ‘Sblood, do you think I am<\/dd>\n
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what<\/dd>\n
instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you<\/dd>\n
cannot play upon me.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Enter POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
God bless you, sir!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
My lord, the queen would speak with you, and<\/dd>\n
presently.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
By the mass, and ’tis like a camel, indeed.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Methinks it is like a weasel.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
It is backed like a weasel.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Or like a whale?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
Very like a whale.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool<\/dd>\n
me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
I will say so.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
By and by is easily said.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Leave me, friends.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt all but HAMLET<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
‘Tis now the very witching time of night,<\/dd>\n
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out<\/dd>\n
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,<\/dd>\n
And do such bitter business as the day<\/dd>\n
Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.<\/dd>\n
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever<\/dd>\n
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom:<\/dd>\n
Let me be cruel, not unnatural:<\/dd>\n
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;<\/dd>\n
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;<\/dd>\n
How in my words soever she be shent,<\/dd>\n
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit<\/i><\/p>\n

Scene 3. A room in the castle.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Enter King Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
I like him not, nor stands it safe with us<\/dd>\n
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;<\/dd>\n
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,<\/dd>\n
And he to England shall along with you:<\/dd>\n
The terms of our estate may not endure<\/dd>\n
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow<\/dd>\n
Out of his lunacies.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
We will ourselves provide:<\/dd>\n
Most holy and religious fear it is<\/dd>\n
To keep those many many bodies safe<\/dd>\n
That live and feed upon your majesty.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n
The single and peculiar life is bound,<\/dd>\n
With all the strength and armour of the mind,<\/dd>\n
To keep itself from noyance; but much more<\/dd>\n
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest<\/dd>\n
The lives of many. The cease of majesty<\/dd>\n
Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw<\/dd>\n
What’s near it with it: it is a massy wheel,<\/dd>\n
Fix’d on the summit of the highest mount,<\/dd>\n
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things<\/dd>\n
Are mortised and adjoin’d; which, when it falls,<\/dd>\n
Each small annexment, petty consequence,<\/dd>\n
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone<\/dd>\n
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;<\/dd>\n
For we will fetters put upon this fear,<\/dd>\n
Which now goes too free-footed.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Rosencrantz<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Guildenstern<\/dt>\n
We will haste us.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN<\/i>\u00a0Enter POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet:<\/dd>\n
Behind the arras I’ll convey myself,<\/dd>\n
To hear the process; and warrant she’ll tax him home:<\/dd>\n
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,<\/dd>\n
‘Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,<\/dd>\n
Since nature makes them partial, should o’erhear<\/dd>\n
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:<\/dd>\n
I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed,<\/dd>\n
And tell you what I know.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Thanks, dear my lord.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;<\/dd>\n
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,<\/dd>\n
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,<\/dd>\n
Though inclination be as sharp as will:<\/dd>\n
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;<\/dd>\n
And, like a man to double business bound,<\/dd>\n
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,<\/dd>\n
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand<\/dd>\n
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood,<\/dd>\n
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens<\/dd>\n
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy<\/dd>\n
But to confront the visage of offence?<\/dd>\n
And what’s in prayer but this two-fold force,<\/dd>\n
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,<\/dd>\n
Or pardon’d being down? Then I’ll look up;<\/dd>\n
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer<\/dd>\n
Can serve my turn? ‘Forgive me my foul murder’?<\/dd>\n
That cannot be; since I am still possess’d<\/dd>\n
Of those effects for which I did the murder,<\/dd>\n
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.<\/dd>\n
May one be pardon’d and retain the offence?<\/dd>\n
In the corrupted currents of this world<\/dd>\n
Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice,<\/dd>\n
And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself<\/dd>\n
Buys out the law: but ’tis not so above;<\/dd>\n
There is no shuffling, there the action lies<\/dd>\n
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell’d,<\/dd>\n
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,<\/dd>\n
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?<\/dd>\n
Try what repentance can: what can it not?<\/dd>\n
Yet what can it when one can not repent?<\/dd>\n
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!<\/dd>\n
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,<\/dd>\n
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!<\/dd>\n
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,<\/dd>\n
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!<\/dd>\n
All may be well.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Retires and kneels<\/i>\u00a0Enter HAMLET<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;<\/dd>\n
And now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven;<\/dd>\n
And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d:<\/dd>\n
A villain kills my father; and for that,<\/dd>\n
I, his sole son, do this same villain send<\/dd>\n
To heaven.<\/dd>\n
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.<\/dd>\n
He took my father grossly, full of bread;<\/dd>\n
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;<\/dd>\n
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?<\/dd>\n
But in our circumstance and course of thought,<\/dd>\n
‘Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,<\/dd>\n
To take him in the purging of his soul,<\/dd>\n
When he is fit and season’d for his passage?<\/dd>\n
No!<\/dd>\n
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:<\/dd>\n
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,<\/dd>\n
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed;<\/dd>\n
At gaming, swearing, or about some act<\/dd>\n
That has no relish of salvation in’t;<\/dd>\n
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,<\/dd>\n
And that his soul may be as damn’d and black<\/dd>\n
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:<\/dd>\n
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
King Claudius<\/dt>\n
Rising<\/i>\u00a0My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:<\/dd>\n
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit<\/i><\/p>\n

Scene 4. The Queen’s closet.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Enter Queen Gertrude and Polonius<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:<\/dd>\n
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,<\/dd>\n
And that your grace hath screen’d and stood between<\/dd>\n
Much heat and him. I’ll sconce me even here.<\/dd>\n
Pray you, be round with him.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Within<\/i>\u00a0Mother, mother, mother!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
I’ll warrant you,<\/dd>\n
Fear me not: withdraw, I hear him coming.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

POLONIUS hides behind the arras<\/i>\u00a0Enter HAMLET<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Now, mother, what’s the matter?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Mother, you have my father much offended.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Why, how now, Hamlet!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
What’s the matter now?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Have you forgot me?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
No, by the rood, not so:<\/dd>\n
You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife;<\/dd>\n
And–would it were not so!–you are my mother.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Nay, then, I’ll set those to you that can speak.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;<\/dd>\n
You go not till I set you up a glass<\/dd>\n
Where you may see the inmost part of you.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?<\/dd>\n
Help, help, ho!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
Behind<\/i>\u00a0What, ho! help, help, help!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Drawing<\/i>\u00a0How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Makes a pass through the arras<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Lord Polonius<\/dt>\n
Behind<\/i>\u00a0O, I am slain!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Falls and dies<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
O me, what hast thou done?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Nay, I know not:<\/dd>\n
Is it the king?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother,<\/dd>\n
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
As kill a king!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ay, lady, ’twas my word.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Lifts up the array and discovers POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!<\/dd>\n
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune;<\/dd>\n
Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger.<\/dd>\n
Leave wringing of your hands: peace! sit you down,<\/dd>\n
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,<\/dd>\n
If it be made of penetrable stuff,<\/dd>\n
If damned custom have not brass’d it so<\/dd>\n
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue<\/dd>\n
In noise so rude against me?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Such an act<\/dd>\n
That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,<\/dd>\n
Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose<\/dd>\n
From the fair forehead of an innocent love<\/dd>\n
And sets a blister there, makes marriage-vows<\/dd>\n
As false as dicers’ oaths: O, such a deed<\/dd>\n
As from the body of contraction plucks<\/dd>\n
The very soul, and sweet religion makes<\/dd>\n
A rhapsody of words: heaven’s face doth glow:<\/dd>\n
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,<\/dd>\n
With tristful visage, as against the doom,<\/dd>\n
Is thought-sick at the act.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Ay me, what act,<\/dd>\n
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Look here, upon this picture, and on this,<\/dd>\n
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.<\/dd>\n
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;<\/dd>\n
Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself;<\/dd>\n
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;<\/dd>\n
A station like the herald Mercury<\/dd>\n
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;<\/dd>\n
A combination and a form indeed,<\/dd>\n
Where every god did seem to set his seal,<\/dd>\n
To give the world assurance of a man:<\/dd>\n
This was your husband. Look you now, what follows:<\/dd>\n
Here is your husband; like a mildew’d ear,<\/dd>\n
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?<\/dd>\n
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,<\/dd>\n
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?<\/dd>\n
You cannot call it love; for at your age<\/dd>\n
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it’s humble,<\/dd>\n
And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment<\/dd>\n
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have,<\/dd>\n
Else could you not have motion; but sure, that sense<\/dd>\n
Is apoplex’d; for madness would not err,<\/dd>\n
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thrall’d<\/dd>\n
But it reserved some quantity of choice,<\/dd>\n
To serve in such a difference. What devil was’t<\/dd>\n
That thus hath cozen’d you at hoodman-blind?<\/dd>\n
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,<\/dd>\n
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,<\/dd>\n
Or but a sickly part of one true sense<\/dd>\n
Could not so mope.<\/dd>\n
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,<\/dd>\n
If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,<\/dd>\n
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,<\/dd>\n
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame<\/dd>\n
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,<\/dd>\n
Since frost itself as actively doth burn<\/dd>\n
And reason panders will.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
O Hamlet, speak no more:<\/dd>\n
Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul;<\/dd>\n
And there I see such black and grained spots<\/dd>\n
As will not leave their tinct.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Nay, but to live<\/dd>\n
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,<\/dd>\n
Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love<\/dd>\n
Over the nasty sty,–<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
O, speak to me no more;<\/dd>\n
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;<\/dd>\n
No more, sweet Hamlet!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
A murderer and a villain;<\/dd>\n
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe<\/dd>\n
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;<\/dd>\n
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,<\/dd>\n
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,<\/dd>\n
And put it in his pocket!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
No more!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
A king of shreds and patches,–<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Enter Ghost<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Save me, and hover o’er me with your wings,<\/dd>\n
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Alas, he’s mad!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,<\/dd>\n
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by<\/dd>\n
The important acting of your dread command? O, say!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Ghost<\/dt>\n
Do not forget: this visitation<\/dd>\n
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.<\/dd>\n
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:<\/dd>\n
O, step between her and her fighting soul:<\/dd>\n
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:<\/dd>\n
Speak to her, Hamlet.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
How is it with you, lady?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Alas, how is’t with you,<\/dd>\n
That you do bend your eye on vacancy<\/dd>\n
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?<\/dd>\n
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;<\/dd>\n
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,<\/dd>\n
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,<\/dd>\n
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,<\/dd>\n
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper<\/dd>\n
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!<\/dd>\n
His form and cause conjoin’d, preaching to stones,<\/dd>\n
Would make them capable. Do not look upon me;<\/dd>\n
Lest with this piteous action you convert<\/dd>\n
My stern effects: then what I have to do<\/dd>\n
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
To whom do you speak this?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Do you see nothing there?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Nor did you nothing hear?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
No, nothing but ourselves.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!<\/dd>\n
My father, in his habit as he lived!<\/dd>\n
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exit Ghost<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
This the very coinage of your brain:<\/dd>\n
This bodiless creation ecstasy<\/dd>\n
Is very cunning in.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Ecstasy!<\/dd>\n
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,<\/dd>\n
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness<\/dd>\n
That I have utter’d: bring me to the test,<\/dd>\n
And I the matter will re-word; which madness<\/dd>\n
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,<\/dd>\n
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,<\/dd>\n
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:<\/dd>\n
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,<\/dd>\n
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,<\/dd>\n
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;<\/dd>\n
Repent what’s past; avoid what is to come;<\/dd>\n
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,<\/dd>\n
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;<\/dd>\n
For in the fatness of these pursy times<\/dd>\n
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,<\/dd>\n
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
O, throw away the worser part of it,<\/dd>\n
And live the purer with the other half.<\/dd>\n
Good night: but go not to mine uncle’s bed;<\/dd>\n
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.<\/dd>\n
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,<\/dd>\n
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,<\/dd>\n
That to the use of actions fair and good<\/dd>\n
He likewise gives a frock or livery,<\/dd>\n
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,<\/dd>\n
And that shall lend a kind of easiness<\/dd>\n
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;<\/dd>\n
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,<\/dd>\n
And either … the devil, or throw him out<\/dd>\n
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night:<\/dd>\n
And when you are desirous to be bless’d,<\/dd>\n
I’ll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Pointing to POLONIUS<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so,<\/dd>\n
To punish me with this and this with me,<\/dd>\n
That I must be their scourge and minister.<\/dd>\n
I will bestow him, and will answer well<\/dd>\n
The death I gave him. So, again, good night.<\/dd>\n
I must be cruel, only to be kind:<\/dd>\n
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.<\/dd>\n
One word more, good lady.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
What shall I do?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:<\/dd>\n
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;<\/dd>\n
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;<\/dd>\n
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,<\/dd>\n
Or paddling in your neck with his damn’d fingers,<\/dd>\n
Make you to ravel all this matter out,<\/dd>\n
That I essentially am not in madness,<\/dd>\n
But mad in craft. ‘Twere good you let him know;<\/dd>\n
For who, that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise,<\/dd>\n
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,<\/dd>\n
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?<\/dd>\n
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,<\/dd>\n
Unpeg the basket on the house’s top.<\/dd>\n
Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape,<\/dd>\n
To try conclusions, in the basket creep,<\/dd>\n
And break your own neck down.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,<\/dd>\n
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe<\/dd>\n
What thou hast said to me.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
I must to England; you know that?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Queen Gertrude<\/dt>\n
Alack,<\/dd>\n
I had forgot: ’tis so concluded on.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
Hamlet<\/dt>\n
There’s letters seal’d: and my two schoolfellows,<\/dd>\n
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang’d,<\/dd>\n
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,<\/dd>\n
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;<\/dd>\n
For ’tis the sport to have the engineer<\/dd>\n
Hoist with his own petard: and ‘t shall go hard<\/dd>\n
But I will delve one yard below their mines,<\/dd>\n
And blow them at the moon: O, ’tis most sweet,<\/dd>\n
When in one line two crafts directly meet.<\/dd>\n
This man shall set me packing:<\/dd>\n
I’ll lug the guts into the neighbour room.<\/dd>\n
Mother, good night. Indeed this counsellor<\/dd>\n
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,<\/dd>\n
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.<\/dd>\n
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.<\/dd>\n
Good night, mother.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Exeunt severally; Hamlet dragging in Polonius<\/i><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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