Hamlet by Shakespeare
The most powerful and influential tragedy in English literature
Dramatis Personae
- King Claudius, Brother to the late King Hamlet
- Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Son of the late King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude
- Polonius, father of Ophelia and Laertes, councillor to King Claudius
- Horatio, friend to Hamlet
- Laertes, son to Polonius
- Courtiers
- Voltimand
- Cornelius
- Rosencrantz
- Guildenstern
- Osric
- A Gentleman
- A Priest
- Officers
- Marcellus, a soldier
- Bernardo, a soldier
- Francisco, a soldier
- Reynaldo, servant to Polonius
- Players
- Two Clowns, grave-diggers
- Fortinbras, prince of Norway
- A Captain in Fortinbras's army
- English Ambassadors to Denmark
- Queen Gertrude, widow of King Hamlet, now married to Claudius
- Ophelia, daughter to Polonius
- Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other Attendants
- Ghost of Hamlet's Father
Act 1
Scene 1. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.
FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO
- Bernardo
- Who's there?!
- Francisco
- Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
- Bernardo
- Long live the king!
- Francisco
- Bernardo?
- Bernardo
- He.
- Francisco
- You come most carefully upon your hour.
- Bernardo
- 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.
- Francisco
- For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,
- And I am sick at heart.
- Bernardo
- Have you had quiet guard?
- Francisco
- Not a mouse stirring.
- Bernardo
- Well, good night.
- If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,
- The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
- Francisco
- I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who's there?
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS
- Horatio
- Friends to this ground.
- Marcellus
- And liegemen to the Dane.
- Francisco
- Give you good night.
- Marcellus
- O, farewell, honest soldier:
- Who hath relieved you?
- Francisco
- Bernardo has my place.
- Give you good night.
Exit
- Marcellus
- Holla! Bernardo!
- Bernardo
- Say,
- What, is Horatio there?
- Horatio
- A piece of him.
- Bernardo
- Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
- Marcellus
- What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
- Bernardo
- I have seen nothing.
- Marcellus
- Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,
- And will not let belief take hold of him
- Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
- Therefore I have entreated him along
- With us to watch the minutes of this night;
- That if again this apparition come,
- He may approve our eyes and speak to it.
- Horatio
- Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
- Bernardo
- Sit down awhile;
- And let us once again assail your ears,
- That are so fortified against our story
- What we have two nights seen.
- Horatio
- Well, sit we down,
- And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
- Bernardo
- Last night of all,
- When yond same star that's westward from the pole
- Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
- Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
- The bell then beating one,--
Enter Ghost
- Marcellus
- Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
- Bernardo
- In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
- Marcellus
- Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
- Bernardo
- Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
- Horatio
- Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.
- Bernardo
- It would be spoke to.
- Marcellus
- Question it, Horatio.
- Horatio
- What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,
- Together with that fair and warlike form
- In which the majesty of buried Denmark
- Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!
- Marcellus
- It is offended.
- Bernardo
- See, it stalks away!
- Horatio
- Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!
Exit Ghost
- Marcellus
- 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
- Bernardo
- How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:
- Is not this something more than fantasy?
- What think you on't?
- Horatio
- Before my God, I might not this believe
- Without the sensible and true avouch
- Of mine own eyes.
- Marcellus
- Is it not like the king?!
- Horatio
- As thou art to thyself:
- Such was the very armour he had on
- When he the ambitious Norway combated;
- So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
- He smote the steeled pole-axe on the ice.
- 'Tis strange.
- Marcellus
- Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour,
- With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
- Horatio
- In what particular thought to work I know not;
- But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
- This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
- Marcellus
- Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
- Why this same strict and most observant watch
- So nightly toils the subject of the land,
- And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
- And foreign mart for implements of war;
- Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
- Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
- What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
- Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day:
- Who is't that can inform me?
- Horatio
- That can I;
- At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king,
- Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
- Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
- Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
- Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet--
- For so this side of our known world esteem'd him--
- Did slay this Fortinbras; who by a seal'd compact,
- Well ratified by law and heraldry,
- Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
- Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:
- Against the which, a moiety competent
- Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
- To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
- Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant,
- And carriage of the article design'd,
- His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
- Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
- Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there
- Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
- For food and diet, to some enterprise
- That hath a stomach in't; which is no other--
- As it doth well appear unto our state--
- But to recover of us, by strong hand
- And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands
- So by his father lost: and this, I take it,
- Is the main motive of our preparations,
- The source of this our watch and the chief head
- Of this post-haste and romage in the land.
- Bernardo
- I think it be no other but e'en so:
- Well may it sort that this portentous figure
- Comes armed through our watch; so like the king
- That was and is the question of these wars.
- Horatio
- A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
- In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
- A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
- The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead
- Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets:
- As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
- Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
- Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
- Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
- And even the like precurse of fierce events,
- As harbingers preceding still the fates
- And prologue to the omen coming on,
- Have heaven and earth together demonstrated
- Unto our climatures and countrymen.--
- But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
Re-enter Ghost
- I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion!
- If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
- Speak to me:
- If there be any good thing to be done,
- That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
- Speak to me:
Cock crows
- If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
- Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid, O, speak!
- Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
- Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
- For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
- Speak of it: stay, and speak! Stop it, Marcellus.
- Marcellus
- Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
- Horatio
- Do, if it will not stand.
- Bernardo
- 'Tis here!
- Horatio
- 'Tis here!
- Marcellus
- 'Tis gone!
Exit Ghost
- We do it wrong, being so majestical,
- To offer it the show of violence;
- For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
- And our vain blows malicious mockery.
- Bernardo
- It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
- Horatio
- And then it started like a guilty thing
- Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
- The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
- Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
- Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
- Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
- The extravagant and erring spirit hies
- To his confine: and of the truth herein
- This present object made probation.
- Marcellus
- It faded on the crowing of the cock.
- Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
- Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
- The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
- And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
- The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
- No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
- So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
- Horatio
- So have I heard and do in part believe it.
- But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
- Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill:
- Break we our watch up; and by my advice,
- Let us impart what we have seen to-night
- Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
- This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him.
- Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
- As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?
- Marcellus
- Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
- Where we shall find him most conveniently.
Exeunt
Scene 2. A room of state in the castle.
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants
- King Claudius
- Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
- The memory be green, and that it us befitted
- To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
- To be contracted in one brow of woe,
- Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
- That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
- Together with remembrance of ourselves.
- Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
- The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
- Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
- With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
- With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
- In equal scale weighing delight and dole,--
- Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
- Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
- With this affair along. For all, our thanks.
- Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
- Holding a weak supposal of our worth,
- Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
- Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
- Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
- He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
- Importing the surrender of those lands
- Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
- To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
- Now for ourself and for this time of meeting:
- Thus much the business is: we have here writ
- To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--
- Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
- Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress
- His further gait herein; in that the levies,
- The lists and full proportions, are all made
- Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
- You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
- For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
- Giving to you no further personal power
- To business with the king, more than the scope
- Of these delated articles allow.
- Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
- Cornelius
- Voltimand
- In that and all things will we show our duty.
- King Claudius
- We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell.
Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
- And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
- You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes?
- You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
- And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes,
- That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
- The head is not more native to the heart,
- The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
- Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
- What wouldst thou have, Laertes?
- Laertes
- My dread lord,
- Your leave and favour to return to France;
- From whence though willingly I came to Denmark,
- To show my duty in your coronation,
- Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
- My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France
- And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.
- King Claudius
- Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?
- Lord Polonius
- He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave
- By laboursome petition, and at last
- Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:
- I do beseech you, give him leave to go.
- King Claudius
- Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine,
- And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
- But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--
- Hamlet
- Aside A little more than kin, and less than kind.
- King Claudius
- How is it that the clouds still hang on you?
- Hamlet
- Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.
- Queen Gertrude
- Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off,
- And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
- Do not for ever with thy vailed lids
- Seek for thy noble father in the dust:
- Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
- Passing through nature to eternity.
- Hamlet
- Ay, madam, it is common.
- Queen Gertrude
- If it be,
- Why seems it so particular with thee?
- Hamlet
- Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'
- 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
- Nor customary suits of solemn black,
- Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
- No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
- Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
- Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
- That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,
- For they are actions that a man might play:
- But I have that within which passeth show;
- These but the trappings and the suits of woe.
- King Claudius
- 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
- To give these mourning duties to your father:
- But, you must know, your father lost a father;
- That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound
- In filial obligation for some term
- To do obsequious sorrow: but to persever
- In obstinate condolement is a course
- Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
- It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
- A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
- An understanding simple and unschool'd:
- For what we know must be and is as common
- As any the most vulgar thing to sense,
- Why should we in our peevish opposition
- Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,
- A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,
- To reason most absurd: whose common theme
- Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried,
- From the first corse till he that died to-day,
- 'This must be so.' We pray you, throw to earth
- This unprevailing woe, and think of us
- As of a father: for let the world take note,
- You are the most immediate to our throne;
- And with no less nobility of love
- Than that which dearest father bears his son,
- Do I impart toward you. For your intent
- In going back to school in Wittenberg,
- It is most retrograde to our desire:
- And we beseech you, bend you to remain
- Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
- Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.
- Queen Gertrude
- Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet:
- I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg.
- Hamlet
- I shall in all my best obey you, madam.
- King Claudius
- Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply:
- Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
- This gentle and unforced accord of Hamlet
- Sits smiling to my heart: in grace whereof,
- No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
- But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,
- And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,
- Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.
Exeunt all but HAMLET
- Hamlet
- O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt
- Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
- Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
- His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
- How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
- Seem to me all the uses of this world!
- Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
- That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
- Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
- But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
- So excellent a king; that was, to this,
- Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
- That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
- Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
- Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
- As if increase of appetite had grown
- By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
- Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
- A little month, or ere those shoes were old
- With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
- Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
- Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,
- My father's brother, but no more like my father
- Than I to Hercules: within a month:
- Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
- Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
- She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
- With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
- It is not nor it cannot come to good:
- But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.
Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO
- Horatio
- Hail to your lordship!
- Hamlet
- I am glad to see you well:
- Horatio,--or I do forget myself.
- Horatio
- The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.
- Hamlet
- Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:
- And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus?
- Marcellus
- My good lord--
- Hamlet
- I am very glad to see you. Good even, sir.
- But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
- Horatio
- A truant disposition, good my lord.
- Hamlet
- I would not hear your enemy say so,
- Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
- To make it truster of your own report
- Against yourself: I know you are no truant.
- But what is your affair in Elsinore?
- We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.
- Horatio
- My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
- Hamlet
- I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow-student;
- I think it was to see my mother's wedding.
- Horatio
- Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
- Hamlet
- Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
- Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
- Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
- Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
- My father!--methinks I see my father.
- Horatio
- Where, my lord?
- Hamlet
- In my mind's eye, Horatio.
- Horatio
- I saw him once; he was a goodly king.
- Hamlet
- He was a man, take him for all in all,
- I shall not look upon his like again.
- Horatio
- My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
- Hamlet
- Saw? who?
- Horatio
- My lord, the king your father.
- Hamlet
- The king my father!
- Horatio
- Season your admiration for awhile
- With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
- Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
- This marvel to you.
- Hamlet
- For God's love, let me hear.
- Horatio
- Two nights together had these gentlemen,
- Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
- In the dead vast and middle of the night,
- Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
- Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe,
- Appears before them, and with solemn march
- Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
- By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
- Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, distilled
- Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
- Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
- In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
- And I with them the third night kept the watch;
- Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
- Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
- The apparition comes: I knew your father;
- These hands are not more like.
- Hamlet
- But where was this?
- Marcellus
- My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
- Hamlet
- Did you not speak to it?
- Horatio
- My lord, I did;
- But answer made it none: yet once methought
- It lifted up its head and did address
- Itself to motion, like as it would speak;
- But even then the morning cock crew loud,
- And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
- And vanish'd from our sight.
- Hamlet
- 'Tis very strange.
- Horatio
- As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true;
- And we did think it writ down in our duty
- To let you know of it.
- Hamlet
- Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me.
- Hold you the watch to-night?
- Marcellus
- Bernardo
- We do, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Arm'd, say you?
- Marcellus
- Bernardo
- Arm'd, my lord.
- Hamlet
- From top to toe?
- Marcellus
- Bernardo
- My lord, from head to foot.
- Hamlet
- Then saw you not his face?
- Horatio
- O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.
- Hamlet
- What, look'd he frowningly?
- Horatio
- A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.
- Hamlet
- Pale or red?
- Horatio
- Nay, very pale.
- Hamlet
- And fix'd his eyes upon you?
- Horatio
- Most constantly.
- Hamlet
- I would I had been there.
- Horatio
- It would have much amazed you.
- Hamlet
- Very like, very like. Stay'd it long?
- Horatio
- While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.
- Marcellus
- Bernardo
- Longer, longer.
- Horatio
- Not when I saw't.
- Hamlet
- His beard was grizzled--no?
- Horatio
- It was, as I have seen it in his life,
- A sable silver'd.
- Hamlet
- I will watch to-night;
- Perchance 'twill walk again.
- Horatio
- I warrant it will.
- Hamlet
- If it assume my noble father's person,
- I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape
- And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
- If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
- Let it be tenable in your silence still;
- And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
- Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
- I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
- Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
- I'll visit you.
- All
- Our duty to your honour.
- Hamlet
- Your loves, as mine to you: farewell.
Exeunt all but HAMLET
- My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
- I doubt some foul play: would the night were come!
- Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise,
- Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.
Exit
Scene 3. A room in Polonius' house.
Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA
- Laertes
- My necessaries are embark'd: farewell:
- And, sister, as the winds give benefit
- And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
- But let me hear from you.
- Ophelia
- Do you doubt that?
- Laertes
- For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,
- Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,
- A violet in the youth of primy nature,
- Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
- The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.
- Ophelia
- No more but so?
- Laertes
- Think it no more;
- For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
- In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,
- The inward service of the mind and soul
- Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
- And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
- The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
- His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
- For he himself is subject to his birth:
- He may not, as unvalued persons do,
- Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
- The safety and health of this whole state;
- And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
- Unto the voice and yielding of that body
- Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you,
- It fits your wisdom so far to believe it
- As he in his particular act and place
- May give his saying deed; which is no further
- Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
- Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
- If with too credent ear you list his songs,
- Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
- To his unmaster'd importunity.
- Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,
- And keep you in the rear of your affection,
- Out of the shot and danger of desire.
- The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
- If she unmask her beauty to the moon:
- Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:
- The canker galls the infants of the spring,
- Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
- And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
- Contagious blastments are most imminent.
- Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:
- Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
- Ophelia
- I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,
- As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,
- Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
- Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
- Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
- Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
- And recks not his own rede.
- Laertes
- O, fear me not.
- I stay too long: but here my father comes.
Enter POLONIUS
- A double blessing is a double grace,
- Occasion smiles upon a second leave.
- Lord Polonius
- Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame!
- The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
- And you are stay'd for. There; my blessing with thee!
- And these few precepts in thy memory
- See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
- Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
- Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
- Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
- Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
- But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
- Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade. Beware
- Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
- Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
- Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
- Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
- Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
- But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
- For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
- And they in France of the best rank and station
- Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
- Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
- For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
- And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
- This above all: to thine ownself be true,
- And it must follow, as the night the day,
- Thou canst not then be false to any man.
- Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!
- Laertes
- Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.
- Lord Polonius
- The time invites you; go; your servants tend.
- Laertes
- Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well
- What I have said to you.
- Ophelia
- 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
- And you yourself shall keep the key of it.
- Laertes
- Farewell.
Exit
- Lord Polonius
- What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you?
- Ophelia
- So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
- Lord Polonius
- Marry, well bethought:
- 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late
- Given private time to you; and you yourself
- Have of your audience been most free and bounteous:
- If it be so, as so 'tis put on me,
- And that in way of caution, I must tell you,
- You do not understand yourself so clearly
- As it behoves my daughter and your honour.
- What is between you? give me up the truth.
- Ophelia
- He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders
- Of his affection to me.
- Lord Polonius
- Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl,
- Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
- Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
- Ophelia
- I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
- Lord Polonius
- Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby;
- That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,
- Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;
- Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
- Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool.
- Ophelia
- My lord, he hath importuned me with love
- In honourable fashion.
- Lord Polonius
- Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
- Ophelia
- And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,
- With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
- Lord Polonius
- Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,
- When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
- Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
- Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
- Even in their promise, as it is a-making,
- You must not take for fire. From this time
- Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
- Set your entreatments at a higher rate
- Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,
- Believe so much in him, that he is young
- And with a larger tether may he walk
- Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,
- Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,
- Not of that dye which their investments show,
- But mere implorators of unholy suits,
- Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
- The better to beguile. This is for all:
- I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
- Have you so slander any moment leisure,
- As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
- Look to't, I charge you: come your ways.
- Ophelia
- I shall obey, my lord.
Exeunt
Scene 4. The platform.
Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS
- Hamlet
- The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.
- Horatio
- It is a nipping and an eager air.
- Hamlet
- What hour now?
- Horatio
- I think it lacks of twelve.
- Marcellus
- No, it is struck.
- Horatio
- Indeed? I heard it not: then it draws near the season
- Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off, within
- What does this mean, my lord?
- Hamlet
- The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,
- Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
- And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down,
- The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
- The triumph of his pledge.
- Horatio
- Is it a custom?
- Hamlet
- Ay, marry, is't:
- But to my mind, though I am native here
- And to the manner born, it is a custom
- More honour'd in the breach than the observance.
- This heavy-headed revel east and west
- Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations:
- They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
- Soil our addition; and indeed it takes
- From our achievements, though perform'd at height,
- The pith and marrow of our attribute.
- So, oft it chances in particular men,
- That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
- As, in their birth--wherein they are not guilty,
- Since nature cannot choose his origin--
- By the o'ergrowth of some complexion,
- Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
- Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens
- The form of plausive manners, that these men,
- Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
- Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,--
- Their virtues else--be they as pure as grace,
- As infinite as man may undergo--
- Shall in the general censure take corruption
- From that particular fault: the dram of eale
- Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
- To his own scandal.
- Horatio
- Look, my lord, it comes!
Enter Ghost
- Hamlet
- Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
- Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
- Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
- Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
- Thou comest in such a questionable shape
- That I will speak to thee: I'll call thee Hamlet,
- King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me!
- Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell
- Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
- Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
- Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
- Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
- To cast thee up again. What may this mean,
- That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel
- Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
- Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
- So horridly to shake our disposition
- With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
- Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
[Ghost beckons HAMLET]
- Horatio
- It beckons you to go away with it,
- As if it some impartment did desire
- To you alone.
- Marcellus
- Look, with what courteous action
- It waves you to a more removed ground:
- But do not go with it.
- Horatio
- No, by no means.
- Hamlet
- It will not speak; then I will follow it.
- Horatio
- Do not, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Why, what should be the fear?
- I do not set my life in a pin's fee;
- And for my soul, what can it do to that,
- Being a thing immortal as itself?
- It waves me forth again: I'll follow it.
- Horatio
- What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
- Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff
- That beetles o'er his base into the sea,
- And there assume some other horrible form,
- Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason
- And draw you into madness? think of it:
- The very place puts toys of desperation,
- Without more motive, into every brain
- That looks so many fathoms to the sea
- And hears it roar beneath.
- Hamlet
- It waves me still.
- Go on; I'll follow thee.
- Marcellus
- You shall not go, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Hold off your hands.
- Horatio
- Be ruled; you shall not go.
- Hamlet
- My fate cries out,
- And makes each petty artery in this body
- As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
- Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen.
- By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!
- I say, away! Go on; I'll follow thee.
[Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET]
- Horatio
- He waxes desperate with imagination.
- Marcellus
- Let's follow; 'tis not fit thus to obey him.
- Horatio
- Have after. To what issue will this come?
- Marcellus
- Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
- Horatio
- Heaven will direct it.
- Marcellus
- Nay, let's follow him.
[Exeunt]
Scene 5. Another part of the platform.
Enter Ghost and Hamlet
- Hamlet
- Where wilt thou lead me? speak; I'll go no further.
- Ghost
- Mark me.
- Hamlet
- I will.
- Ghost
- My hour is almost come,
- When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
- Must render up myself.
- Hamlet
- Alas, poor ghost!
- Ghost
- Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
- To what I shall unfold.
- Hamlet
- Speak; I am bound to hear.
- Ghost
- So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear.
- Hamlet
- What?
- Ghost
- I am thy father's spirit,
- Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
- And for the day confined to fast in fires,
- Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
- Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
- To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
- I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
- Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
- Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
- Thy knotted and combined locks to part
- And each particular hair to stand on end,
- Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:
- But this eternal blazon must not be
- To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!
- If thou didst ever thy dear father love--
- Hamlet
- O God!
- Ghost
- Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.
- Hamlet
- Murder!
- Ghost
- Murder most foul, as in the best it is;
- But this most foul, strange and unnatural.
- Hamlet
- Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
- As meditation or the thoughts of love,
- May sweep to my revenge.
- Ghost
- I find thee apt;
- And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
- That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
- Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear:
- 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard,
- A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
- Is by a forged process of my death
- Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth,
- The serpent that did sting thy father's life
- Now wears his crown.
- Hamlet
- O my prophetic soul! My uncle!
- Ghost
- Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
- With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--
- O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
- So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust
- The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:
- O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!
- From me, whose love was of that dignity
- That it went hand in hand even with the vow
- I made to her in marriage, and to decline
- Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor
- To those of mine!
- But virtue, as it never will be moved,
- Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,
- So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,
- Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
- And prey on garbage.
- But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air;
- Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard,
- My custom always of the afternoon,
- Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
- With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
- And in the porches of my ears did pour
- The leperous distilment; whose effect
- Holds such an enmity with blood of man
- That swift as quicksilver it courses through
- The natural gates and alleys of the body,
- And with a sudden vigour doth posset
- And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
- The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;
- And a most instant tetter bark'd about,
- Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,
- All my smooth body.
- Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand
- Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:
- Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
- Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,
- No reckoning made, but sent to my account
- With all my imperfections on my head:
- O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!
- If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
- Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
- A couch for luxury and damned incest.
- But, howsoever thou pursuest this act,
- Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
- Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven
- And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,
- To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!
- The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
- And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:
- Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me.
Exit
- Hamlet
- O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?
- And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;
- And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
- But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
- Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
- In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
- Yea, from the table of my memory
- I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
- All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
- That youth and observation copied there;
- And thy commandment all alone shall live
- Within the book and volume of my brain,
- Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven!
- O most pernicious woman!
- O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
- My tables,--meet it is I set it down,
- That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;
- At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark:
Writing
- So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;
- It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'
- I have sworn 't.
- Marcellus
- Horatio
- [Within] My lord, my lord,--
- Marcellus
- [Within] Lord Hamlet,--
- Horatio
- [Within] Heaven secure him!
- Hamlet
- So be it!
- Horatio
- [Within] Hillo, ho, ho, my lord!
- Hamlet
- Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.
Enter Horatio and Marcellus
- Marcellus
- How is't, my noble lord?
- Horatio
- What news, my lord?
- Hamlet
- O, wonderful!
- Horatio
- Good my lord, tell it.
- Hamlet
- No; you'll reveal it.
- Horatio
- Not I, my lord, by heaven.
- Marcellus
- Nor I, my lord.
- Hamlet
- How say you, then; would heart of man once think it?
- But you'll be secret?
- Horatio
- Marcellus
- Ay, by heaven, my lord.
- Hamlet
- There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark
- But he's an arrant knave.
- Horatio
- There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
- To tell us this.
- Hamlet
- Why, right; you are i' the right;
- And so, without more circumstance at all,
- I hold it fit that we shake hands and part:
- You, as your business and desire shall point you;
- For every man has business and desire,
- Such as it is; and for mine own poor part,
- Look you, I'll go pray.
- Horatio
- These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.
- Hamlet
- I'm sorry they offend you, heartily;
- Yes, 'faith heartily.
- Horatio
- There's no offence, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,
- And much offence too. Touching this vision here,
- It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you:
- For your desire to know what is between us,
- O'ermaster 't as you may. And now, good friends,
- As you are friends, scholars and soldiers,
- Give me one poor request.
- Horatio
- What is't, my lord? we will.
- Hamlet
- Never make known what you have seen to-night.
- Horatio
- Marcellus
- My lord, we will not.
- Hamlet
- Nay, but swear't.
- Horatio
- In faith,
- My lord, not I.
- Marcellus
- Nor I, my lord, in faith.
- Hamlet
- Upon my sword.
- Marcellus
- We have sworn, my lord, already.
- Hamlet
- Indeed, upon my sword, indeed.
- Ghost
- [Beneath] Swear.
- Hamlet
- Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there,
- truepenny?
- Come on--you hear this fellow in the cellarage--
- Consent to swear.
- Horatio
- Propose the oath, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Never to speak of this that you have seen,
- Swear by my sword.
- Ghost
- [Beneath] Swear.
- Hamlet
- Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground.
- Come hither, gentlemen,
- And lay your hands again upon my sword:
- Never to speak of this that you have heard,
- Swear by my sword.
- Ghost
- [Beneath] Swear.
- Hamlet
- Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?
- A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
- Horatio
- O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
- Hamlet
- And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
- There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
- Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come;
- Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
- How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,
- As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
- To put an antic disposition on,
- That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
- With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,
- Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
- As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
- Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
- Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
- That you know aught of me: this not to do,
- So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear.
- Ghost
- [Beneath] Swear.
- Hamlet
- Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!
They swear
- So, gentlemen,
- With all my love I do commend me to you:
- And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
- May do, to express his love and friending to you,
- God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
- And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
- The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
- That ever I was born to set it right!
- Nay, come, let's go together.
Exeunt
Act 2
Scene 1. A room in Polonius' house.
Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO
- Lord Polonius
- Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.
- Reynaldo
- I will, my lord.
- Lord Polonius
- You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
- Before you visit him, to make inquire
- Of his behavior.
- Reynaldo
- My lord, I did intend it.
- Lord Polonius
- Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
- Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris;
- And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
- What company, at what expense; and finding
- By this encompassment and drift of question
- That they do know my son, come you more nearer
- Than your particular demands will touch it:
- Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him;
- As thus, 'I know his father and his friends,
- And in part him: ' do you mark this, Reynaldo?
- Reynaldo
- Ay, very well, my lord.
- Lord Polonius
- 'And in part him; but' you may say 'not well:
- But, if't be he I mean, he's very wild;
- Addicted so and so:' and there put on him
- What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
- As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
- But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips
- As are companions noted and most known
- To youth and liberty.
- Reynaldo
- As gaming, my lord.
- Lord Polonius
- Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling,
- Drabbing: you may go so far.
- Reynaldo
- My lord, that would dishonour him.
- Lord Polonius
- 'Faith, no; as you may season it in the charge
- You must not put another scandal on him,
- That he is open to incontinency;
- That's not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
- That they may seem the taints of liberty,
- The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
- A savageness in unreclaimed blood,
- Of general assault.
- Reynaldo
- But, my good lord,--
- Lord Polonius
- Wherefore should you do this?
- Reynaldo
- Ay, my lord,
- I would know that.
- Lord Polonius
- Marry, sir, here's my drift;
- And I believe, it is a fetch of wit:
- You laying these slight sullies on my son,
- As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' the working, Mark you,
- Your party in converse, him you would sound,
- Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
- The youth you breathe of guilty, be assured
- He closes with you in this consequence;
- 'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman,'
- According to the phrase or the addition
- Of man and country.
- Reynaldo
- Very good, my lord.
- Lord Polonius
- And then, sir, does he this--he does--what was I
- about to say? By the mass, I was about to say
- something: where did I leave?
- Reynaldo
- At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,'
- and 'gentleman.'
- Lord Polonius
- At 'closes in the consequence,' ay, marry;
- He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman;
- I saw him yesterday, or t' other day,
- Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say,
- There was a' gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse;
- There falling out at tennis:' or perchance,
- 'I saw him enter such a house of sale,'
- Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.
- See you now;
- Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth:
- And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
- With windlasses and with assays of bias,
- By indirections find directions out:
- So by my former lecture and advice,
- Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
- Reynaldo
- My lord, I have.
- Lord Polonius
- God be wi' you; fare you well.
- Reynaldo
- Good my lord!
- Lord Polonius
- Observe his inclination in yourself.
- Reynaldo
- I shall, my lord.
- Lord Polonius
- And let him ply his music.
- Reynaldo
- Well, my lord.
- Lord Polonius
- Farewell!
Exit REYNALDO Enter OPHELIA
- How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
- Ophelia
- O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!
- Lord Polonius
- With what, i' the name of God?
- Ophelia
- My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,
- Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;
- No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,
- Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle;
- Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;
- And with a look so piteous in purport
- As if he had been loosed out of hell
- To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.
- Lord Polonius
- Mad for thy love?
- Ophelia
- My lord, I do not know;
- But truly, I do fear it.
- Lord Polonius
- What said he?
- Ophelia
- He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
- Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
- And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,
- He falls to such perusal of my face
- As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;
- At last, a little shaking of mine arm
- And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
- He raised a sigh so piteous and profound
- As it did seem to shatter all his bulk
- And end his being: that done, he lets me go:
- And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,
- He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;
- For out o' doors he went without their helps,
- And, to the last, bended their light on me.
- Lord Polonius
- Come, go with me: I will go seek the king.
- This is the very ecstasy of love,
- Whose violent property fordoes itself
- And leads the will to desperate undertakings
- As oft as any passion under heaven
- That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.
- What, have you given him any hard words of late?
- Ophelia
- No, my good lord, but, as you did command,
- I did repel his letters and denied
- His access to me.
- Lord Polonius
- That hath made him mad.
- I am sorry that with better heed and judgment
- I had not quoted him: I fear'd he did but trifle,
- And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealousy!
- By heaven, it is as proper to our age
- To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
- As it is common for the younger sort
- To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king:
- This must be known; which, being kept close, might move
- More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
Exeunt
Scene 2. A room in the castle.
Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants
- King Claudius
- Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!
- Moreover that we much did long to see you,
- The need we have to use you did provoke
- Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
- Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,
- Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man
- Resembles that it was. What it should be,
- More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
- So much from the understanding of himself,
- I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,
- That, being of so young days brought up with him,
- And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,
- That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
- Some little time: so by your companies
- To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,
- So much as from occasion you may glean,
- Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
- That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
- Queen Gertrude
- Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;
- And sure I am two men there are not living
- To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
- To show us so much gentry and good will
- As to expend your time with us awhile,
- For the supply and profit of our hope,
- Your visitation shall receive such thanks
- As fits a king's remembrance.
- Rosencrantz
- Both your majesties
- Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
- Put your dread pleasures more into command
- Than to entreaty.
- Guildenstern
- But we both obey,
- And here give up ourselves, in the full bent
- To lay our service freely at your feet,
- To be commanded.
- King Claudius
- Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
- Queen Gertrude
- Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:
- And I beseech you instantly to visit
- My too much changed son. Go, some of you,
- And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
- Guildenstern
- Heavens make our presence and our practises
- Pleasant and helpful to him!
- Queen Gertrude
- Ay, amen!
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some Attendants Enter POLONIUS
- Lord Polonius
- The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
- Are joyfully return'd.
- King Claudius
- Thou still hast been the father of good news.
- Lord Polonius
- Have I, my lord? I assure my good liege,
- I hold my duty, as I hold my soul,
- Both to my God and to my gracious king:
- And I do think, or else this brain of mine
- Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
- As it hath used to do, that I have found
- The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
- King Claudius
- O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
- Lord Polonius
- Give first admittance to the ambassadors;
- My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
- King Claudius
- Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
Exit POLONIUS
- He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
- The head and source of all your son's distemper.
- Queen Gertrude
- I doubt it is no other but the main;
- His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.
- King Claudius
- Well, we shall sift him.
Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
- Welcome, my good friends!
- Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
- Voltimand
- Most fair return of greetings and desires.
- Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
- His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
- To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
- But, better look'd into, he truly found
- It was against your highness: whereat grieved,
- That so his sickness, age and impotence
- Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
- On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;
- Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine
- Makes vow before his uncle never more
- To give the assay of arms against your majesty.
- Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
- Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee,
- And his commission to employ those soldiers,
- So levied as before, against the Polack:
- With an entreaty, herein further shown,
Giving a paper
- That it might please you to give quiet pass
- Through your dominions for this enterprise,
- On such regards of safety and allowance
- As therein are set down.
- King Claudius
- It likes us well;
- And at our more consider'd time we'll read,
- Answer, and think upon this business.
- Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour:
- Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together:
- Most welcome home!
Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
- Lord Polonius
- This business is well ended.
- My liege, and madam, to expostulate
- What majesty should be, what duty is,
- Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
- Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.
- Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
- And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
- I will be brief: your noble son is mad:
- Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
- What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
- But let that go.
- Queen Gertrude
- More matter, with less art.
- Lord Polonius
- Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
- That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
- And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
- But farewell it, for I will use no art.
- Mad let us grant him, then: and now remains
- That we find out the cause of this effect,
- Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
- For this effect defective comes by cause:
- Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend.
- I have a daughter--have while she is mine--
- Who, in her duty and obedience, mark,
- Hath given me this: now gather, and surmise.
Reads
- 'To the celestial and my soul's idol, the most
- beautified Ophelia,'--
- That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is
- a vile phrase: but you shall hear. Thus:
Reads
- 'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
- Queen Gertrude
- Came this from Hamlet to her?
- Lord Polonius
- Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful.
Reads
- 'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
- Doubt that the sun doth move;
- Doubt truth to be a liar;
- But never doubt I love.
- 'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers;
- I have not art to reckon my groans: but that
- I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
- 'Thine evermore most dear lady, whilst
- this machine is to him, HAMLET.'
- This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,
- And more above, hath his solicitings,
- As they fell out by time, by means and place,
- All given to mine ear.
- King Claudius
- But how hath she
- Received his love?
- Lord Polonius
- What do you think of me?
- King Claudius
- As of a man faithful and honourable.
- Lord Polonius
- I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
- When I had seen this hot love on the wing--
- As I perceived it, I must tell you that,
- Before my daughter told me--what might you,
- Or my dear majesty your queen here, think,
- If I had play'd the desk or table-book,
- Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
- Or look'd upon this love with idle sight;
- What might you think? No, I went round to work,
- And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
- 'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;
- This must not be:' and then I precepts gave her,
- That she should lock herself from his resort,
- Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
- Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;
- And he, repulsed--a short tale to make--
- Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
- Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
- Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
- Into the madness wherein now he raves,
- And all we mourn for.
- King Claudius
- Do you think 'tis this?
- Queen Gertrude
- It may be, very likely.
- Lord Polonius
- Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--
- That I have positively said 'Tis so,'
- When it proved otherwise?
- King Claudius
- Not that I know.
- Lord Polonius
- Pointing to his head and shoulder
- Take this from this, if this be otherwise:
- If circumstances lead me, I will find
- Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
- Within the centre.
- King Claudius
- How may we try it further?
- Lord Polonius
- You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
- Here in the lobby.
- Queen Gertrude
- So he does indeed.
- Lord Polonius
- At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:
- Be you and I behind an arras then;
- Mark the encounter: if he love her not
- And be not from his reason fall'n thereon,
- Let me be no assistant for a state,
- But keep a farm and carters.
- King Claudius
- We will try it.
- Queen Gertrude
- But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
- Lord Polonius
- Away, I do beseech you, both away:
- I'll board him presently.
Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, and Attendants Enter HAMLET, reading
- O, give me leave:
- How does my good Lord Hamlet?
- Hamlet
- Well, God-a-mercy.
- Lord Polonius
- Do you know me, my lord?
- Hamlet
- Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
- Lord Polonius
- Not I, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Then I would you were so honest a man.
- Lord Polonius
- Honest, my lord!
- Hamlet
- Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
- one man picked out of ten thousand.
- Lord Polonius
- That's very true, my lord.
- Hamlet
- For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a
- god kissing carrion,--Have you a daughter?
- Lord Polonius
- I have, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a
- blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive.
- Friend, look to 't.
- Lord Polonius
- Aside How say you by that? Still harping on my
- daughter: yet he knew me not at first; he said I
- was a fishmonger: he is far gone, far gone: and
- truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for
- love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.
- What do you read, my lord?
- Hamlet
- Words, words, words.
- Lord Polonius
- What is the matter, my lord?
- Hamlet
- Between who?
- Lord Polonius
- I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here
- that old men have grey beards, that their faces are
- wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and
- plum-tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of
- wit, together with most weak hams: all which, sir,
- though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet
- I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down, for
- yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if like a crab
- you could go backward.
- Lord Polonius
- Aside Though this be madness, yet there is method
- in 't. Will you walk out of the air, my lord?
- Hamlet
- Into my grave.
- Lord Polonius
- Indeed, that is out o' the air.
Aside
- How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness
- that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity
- could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will
- leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of
- meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable
- lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
- Hamlet
- You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will
- more willingly part withal: except my life, except
- my life, except my life.
- Lord Polonius
- Fare you well, my lord.
- Hamlet
- These tedious old fools!
Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
- Lord Polonius
- You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.
- Rosencrantz
- To POLONIUS God save you, sir!
Exit POLONIUS
- Guildenstern
- My honoured lord!
- Rosencrantz
- My most dear lord!
- Hamlet
- My excellent good friends! How dost thou,
- Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
- Rosencrantz
- As the indifferent children of the earth.
- Guildenstern
- Happy, in that we are not over-happy;
- On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
- Hamlet
- Nor the soles of her shoe?
- Rosencrantz
- Neither, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of
- her favours?
- Guildenstern
- 'Faith, her privates we.
- Hamlet
- In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she
- is a strumpet. What's the news?
- Rosencrantz
- None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
- Hamlet
- Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
- Let me question more in particular: what have you,
- my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
- that she sends you to prison hither?
- Guildenstern
- Prison, my lord!
- Hamlet
- Denmark's a prison.
- Rosencrantz
- Then is the world one.
- Hamlet
- A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
- wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
- Rosencrantz
- We think not so, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing
- either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me
- it is a prison.
- Rosencrantz
- Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
- narrow for your mind.
- Hamlet
- O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count
- myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I
- have bad dreams.
- Guildenstern
- Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very
- substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
- Hamlet
- A dream itself is but a shadow.
- Rosencrantz
- Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a
- quality that it is but a shadow's shadow.
- Hamlet
- Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and
- outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we
- to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.
- Rosencrantz
- Guildenstern
- We'll wait upon you.
- Hamlet
- No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest
- of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest
- man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the
- beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?
- Rosencrantz
- To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
- Hamlet
- Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I
- thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are
- too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it
- your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,
- deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak.
- Guildenstern
- What should we say, my lord?
- Hamlet
- Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent
- for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks
- which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:
- I know the good king and queen have sent for you.
- Rosencrantz
- To what end, my lord?
- Hamlet
- That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by
- the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of
- our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved
- love, and by what more dear a better proposer could
- charge you withal, be even and direct with me,
- whether you were sent for, or no?
- Rosencrantz
- Aside to GUILDENSTERN What say you?
- Hamlet
- Aside Nay, then, I have an eye of you.--If you
- love me, hold not off.
- Guildenstern
- My lord, we were sent for.
- Hamlet
- I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation
- prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king
- and queen moult no feather. I have of late--but
- wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all
- custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily
- with my disposition that this goodly frame, the
- earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most
- excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave
- o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted
- with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to
- me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.
- What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
- how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
- express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
- in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
- world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
- what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not
- me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling
- you seem to say so.
- Rosencrantz
- My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
- Hamlet
- Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'?
- Rosencrantz
- To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what
- lenten entertainment the players shall receive from
- you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they
- coming, to offer you service.
- Hamlet
- He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty
- shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight
- shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not
- sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part
- in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
- lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall
- say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt
- for't. What players are they?
- Rosencrantz
- Even those you were wont to take delight in, the
- tragedians of the city.
- Hamlet
- How chances it they travel? their residence, both
- in reputation and profit, was better both ways.
- Rosencrantz
- I think their inhibition comes by the means of the
- late innovation.
- Hamlet
- Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was
- in the city? are they so followed?
- Rosencrantz
- No, indeed, are they not.
- Hamlet
- How comes it? do they grow rusty?
- Rosencrantz
- Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but
- there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,
- that cry out on the top of question, and are most
- tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the
- fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they
- call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of
- goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.
- Hamlet
- What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are
- they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no
- longer than they can sing? will they not say
- afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common
- players--as it is most like, if their means are no
- better--their writers do them wrong, to make them
- exclaim against their own succession?
- Rosencrantz
- 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and
- the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to
- controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid
- for argument, unless the poet and the player went to
- cuffs in the question.
- Hamlet
- Is't possible?
- Guildenstern
- O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
- Hamlet
- Do the boys carry it away?
- Rosencrantz
- Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
- Hamlet
- It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of
- Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while
- my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an
- hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.
- 'Sblood, there is something in this more than
- natural, if philosophy could find it out.
Flourish of trumpets within
- Guildenstern
- There are the players.
- Hamlet
- Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,
- come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion
- and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb,
- lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you,
- must show fairly outward, should more appear like
- entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my
- uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.
- Guildenstern
- In what, my dear lord?
- Hamlet
- I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is
- southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Enter POLONIUS
- Lord Polonius
- Well be with you, gentlemen!
- Hamlet
- Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too: at each ear a
- hearer: that great baby you see there is not yet
- out of his swaddling-clouts.
- Rosencrantz
- Happily he's the second time come to them; for they
- say an old man is twice a child.
- Hamlet
- I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players;
- mark it. You say right, sir: o' Monday morning;
- 'twas so indeed.
- Lord Polonius
- My lord, I have news to tell you.
- Hamlet
- My lord, I have news to tell you.
- When Roscius was an actor in Rome,--
- Lord Polonius
- The actors are come hither, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Buz, buz!
- Lord Polonius
- Upon mine honour,--
- Hamlet
- Then came each actor on his ass,--
- Lord Polonius
- The best actors in the world, either for tragedy,
- comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical,
- historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-
- comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or
- poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
- Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the
- liberty, these are the only men.
- Hamlet
- O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
- Lord Polonius
- What a treasure had he, my lord?
- Hamlet
- Why,
- 'One fair daughter and no more,
- The which he loved passing well.'
- Lord Polonius
- Aside Still on my daughter.
- Hamlet
- Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah?
- Lord Polonius
- If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
- that I love passing well.
- Hamlet
- Nay, that follows not.
- Lord Polonius
- What follows, then, my lord?
- Hamlet
- Why,
- 'As by lot, God wot,'
- and then, you know,
- 'It came to pass, as most like it was,'--
- the first row of the pious chanson will show you
- more; for look, where my abridgement comes.
Enter four or five Players
- You are welcome, masters; welcome, all. I am glad
- to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, my old
- friend! thy face is valenced since I saw thee last:
- comest thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young
- lady and mistress! By'r lady, your ladyship is
- nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the
- altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like
- a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the
- ring. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en
- to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we see:
- we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste
- of your quality; come, a passionate speech.
- First Player
- What speech, my lord?
- Hamlet
- I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was
- never acted; or, if it was, not above once; for the
- play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas
- caviare to the general: but it was--as I received
- it, and others, whose judgments in such matters
- cried in the top of mine--an excellent play, well
- digested in the scenes, set down with as much
- modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there
- were no sallets in the lines to make the matter
- savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might
- indict the author of affectation; but called it an
- honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very
- much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I
- chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido; and
- thereabout of it especially, where he speaks of
- Priam's slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin
- at this line: let me see, let me see--
- 'The rugged Pyrrhus, like the Hyrcanian beast,'--
- it is not so:--it begins with Pyrrhus:--
- 'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
- Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
- When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
- Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
- With heraldry more dismal; head to foot
- Now is he total gules; horridly trick'd
- With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
- Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
- That lend a tyrannous and damned light
- To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
- And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
- With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
- Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
- So, proceed you.
- Lord Polonius
- 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and
- good discretion.
- First Player
- 'Anon he finds him
- Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,
- Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
- Repugnant to command: unequal match'd,
- Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
- But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
- The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
- Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
- Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
- Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,
- Which was declining on the milky head
- Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
- So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
- And like a neutral to his will and matter,
- Did nothing.
- But, as we often see, against some storm,
- A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
- The bold winds speechless and the orb below
- As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
- Doth rend the region, so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
- Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work;
- And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
- On Mars's armour forged for proof eterne
- With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
- Now falls on Priam.
- Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,
- In general synod 'take away her power;
- Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
- And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
- As low as to the fiends!'
- Lord Polonius
- This is too long.
- Hamlet
- It shall to the barber's, with your beard. Prithee,
- say on: he's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he
- sleeps: say on: come to Hecuba.
- First Player
- 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--'
- Hamlet
- 'The mobled queen?'
- Lord Polonius
- That's good; 'mobled queen' is good.
- First Player
- 'Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames
- With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
- Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
- About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
- A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
- Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
- 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have
- pronounced:
- But if the gods themselves did see her then
- When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
- In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
- The instant burst of clamour that she made,
- Unless things mortal move them not at all,
- Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
- And passion in the gods.'
- Lord Polonius
- Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has
- tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more.
- Hamlet
- 'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon.
- Good my lord, will you see the players well
- bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for
- they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the
- time: after your death you were better have a bad
- epitaph than their ill report while you live.
- Lord Polonius
- My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
- Hamlet
- God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man
- after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?
- Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less
- they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.
- Take them in.
- Lord Polonius
- Come, sirs.
- Hamlet
- Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play to-morrow.
Exit POLONIUS with all the Players but the First
- Dost thou hear me, old friend; can you play the
- Murder of Gonzago?
- First Player
- Ay, my lord.
- Hamlet
- We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need,
- study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines, which
- I would set down and insert in't, could you not?
- First Player
- Ay, my lord.
- Hamlet
- Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him
- not.
Exit First Player
- My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are
- welcome to Elsinore.
- Rosencrantz
- Good my lord!
- Hamlet
- Ay, so, God be wi' ye;
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
- Now I am alone.
- O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
- Is it not monstrous that this player here,
- But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
- Could force his soul so to his own conceit
- That from her working all his visage wann'd,
- Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
- A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
- With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
- For Hecuba!
- What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
- That he should weep for her? What would he do,
- Had he the motive and the cue for passion
- That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
- And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
- Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
- Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
- The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
- A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
- Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
- And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
- Upon whose property and most dear life
- A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
- Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
- Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
- Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
- As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?
- Ha!'swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be
- But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
- To make oppression bitter, or ere this
- I should have fatted all the region kites
- With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
- Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
- O, vengeance!
- Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
- That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,
- Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
- Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words,
- And fall a-cursing, like a very drab,
- A scullion! Fie upon't! foh! About, my brains!
- Hum, I have heard
- That guilty creatures sitting at a play
- Have by the very cunning of the scene
- Been struck so to the soul that presently
- They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
- For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
- With most miraculous organ. I'll have these players
- Play something like the murder of my father
- Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
- I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
- I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
- May be the devil: and the devil hath power
- To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
- Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
- As he is very potent with such spirits,
- Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
- More relative than this: the play 's the thing
- Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Exit