Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended. Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?
Hum.

What's the matter now?
Queen. Have you forgot me?
Ham.
No, by the rood 5, not so:
You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And, would it were not so!-you are my mother.
Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can
speak,

Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;

You go not, till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?

As kill a king, and marry to his brother.
Queen. As kill a king!
Ham.
Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
[TO POLONIUS.
I took thee for thy better: take thy fortune:
Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands; Peace; sit you down,
And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;
Jf horrid custom have not braz'd it so,
That it be proof and bulwark against sense.

• Cross.

Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Ham.

Such an act,

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction 6 plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful7 visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
Queen.
Ah me, what act,
That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? 8
Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this;
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion's 9 curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband. Look you now, what

follows:

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?
You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense3, sure, you have,
Else, could you not have motion: But, sure, that

sense

Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err;
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd,
But it reserv'd some quantity of choice,

To serve in such a difference. What devil was't,
That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? 5
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans 6 all
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope.7

O shame! where is thy blush?
Queen.
O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct. 8
Ham.

In an incestuous bed,

Queen.

Nay, but to live

O, speak to me no more; These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears: No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command;
O, say!

Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits:
O step between her and her fighting soul:
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works;
Speak to her Hamlet.

Ham.

How is it with you, lady? Queen. Alas, how is't with you? That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, Your bedded hair starts up. O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? Ham. On him! on him!- Look you, how pale he glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. - Do not look upon

Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstacy!

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful musick: It is not madness,
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass but my madness speaks :
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past: avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost 5 on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue:
For in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg:
Yea, curb and woo, for leave to do him good.
Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in
twain.

Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half. Good night: but go not to my uncle's bed; Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this; That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock, or livery, That aptly is put on : Refrain to-night; And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence: the next more easy: For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either curb the devil, or throw him out

-

With wondrous potency. Once more good night!
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
[Pointing to POLONIES
I do repent: But heaven hath pleas'd it so,—
To punish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well
The death I gave him. So again good night!
I must be cruel, only to be kind :

Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
But one word more, good lady.

Queen.
What shall I do?
Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
And let him for a pair of wanton kisses,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know:
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock 7, from a bat, a gib ®,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense, and secrecy,

Unpeg the basket on the house's top,

Let the birds fly: and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions 9, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

Ham. I must to England; you know that?
Queen.

I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on.

Alack,

Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two school

fellows,

Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd ', —
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery: Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar 2: and it shall go hard,
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: 0, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet. —
This man shall set me packing.

I'll lug the body to the neighbour room : -
Mother, good night. - Indeed, this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you:
Mother, good night.

SCENE I. - A Room in the Castle.

Enter KING, QUEEN, ROSENCRANTZ, and
GUILDENSTERN.

King. There's matter in these sighs; these profound heaves;

You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them : Where is your son?

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. [TO ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, who go out.

Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both

haunts,

This mad young man: but, so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?

Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd; O'er whom his very madness, like some ore, Among a mineral of metals base,

Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O, Gertrude, come away!

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guildenstern!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Friends both, go join you with some further aid: Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,

And from his mother's closet hath he dragged him:
Go seek him out: speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.
[Ereunt Ros. and GUIL
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends:
And let them know both what we mean to do,

And what's untimely done: so, haply, slander,
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank3,
Transports his poison'd shot,—may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air. - O come away!
My soul is full of discord, and dismay.

[Exeunt.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. Ros. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it thence,

And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.
Ros. Believe what?

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge what replication should be made by the son of a king?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

Ros. I understand you not, my lord.

Ham. I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing Guil. A thing, my lord?

Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.6 [Exeunt.

King. Bring him before us.
Ros. Ho, Guildenstern? bring in my lord.

Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN.

King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Ham. At supper.
King. At supper? Where?

A sport among children.

Cap.
For. Go softly on.

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain convocation of politick worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else, to fat us: and we fat our

I will do't, my lord.

[Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Forces.

that worm.

King. What dost thou mean by this?

Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress through the body of a beggar. King. Where is Polonius?

Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants. Ham. He will stay till you come. [Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done, -must send thee

hence

With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help.
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham.

King.

For England?

Ay, Hamlet.

Good. Ham. King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them. - But, come, for England! - Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother: Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England! [Exil. King. Follow him at foot: tempt him with speed aboard;

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night :
Away; for every thing is seal'd and done
That else leans on the affair: Pray you make haste.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL
And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,
(As my great power thereof may give thee sense;
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us,) thou may'st not coldly set 7
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,
The present death of Hamlet.

Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin. [Exit.

|

Ham.

Good sir, whose powers are these? Cap. They are of Norway, sir. Ham. How purpos'd, sir,

I pray you?

Cap. Ham.

Against some part of Poland.

Commands them, sir?

Who

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

Το
pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.
Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.
Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand
ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace;
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies. I humbly thank
Cap. God be wi' you, sir.

[Exit Captain Will't please you go, my lord? Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little

before. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, If his chief good, and market of his time, Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more. Sure, He, that made us with such large discourse?, Looking before, and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven2 scruple Of thinking too precisely on the event, A thought, which quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom,

And, ever, three parts coward, — I do not know
Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do;
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means,
To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:
Witness, this army of such mass, and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince:
Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent