Category: The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Act 3, page 0

Table of Contents

ACT III SCENE I� Setting: A room in the castle.

[Enter�KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN ]

KING CLAUDIUS And can you, by no drift of circumstance, Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? ROSENCRANTZ He does confess he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak. GUILDENSTERN Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state. QUEEN GERTRUDE Did he receive you well? 10 ROSENCRANTZ Most like a gentleman. GUILDENSTERN But with much forcing of his disposition. ROSENCRANTZ Niggard of question; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply. QUEEN GERTRUDE Did you assay him? To any pastime? ROSENCRANTZ Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We o'er–raught on the way: of these we told him; And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it: they are about the court, And, as I think, they have already order 20 This night to play before him. LORD POLONIUS Tis most true: And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties To hear and see the matter. KING CLAUDIUS With all my heart; and it doth much content me To hear him so inclined. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, And drive his purpose on to these delights. ROSENCRANTZ We shall, my lord.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]

KING CLAUDIUS Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here 30
Affront Ophelia:
Her father and myself, lawful espials,
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing, unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If 't be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.
QUEEN GERTRUDE I shall obey you.
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet's wildness: so shall I hope your virtues 40
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.
OPHELIA Madam, I wish it may.
[Exit QUEEN GERTRUDE]
LORD POLONIUS Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves.
[To OPHELIA]
Read on this book;
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,––
Tis too much proved––that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
KING CLAUDIUS [Aside]�O, 'tis too true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! 50
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word:
O heavy burthen!
LORD POLONIUS I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.

[Exeunt KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS][Enter HAMLET]

HAMLET To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; 60
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart–ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, 70
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will 80
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.––Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
OPHELIA Good my lord, 90
How does your honour for this many a day?
HAMLET I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
OPHELIA My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re–deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.
HAMLET No, not I;
I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,
Take these again; for to the noble mind 100
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.
HAMLET Ha, ha! are you honest?
OPHELIA My lord?
HAMLET Are you fair?
OPHELIA What means your lordship?
HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should
admit no discourse to your beauty.
OPHELIA Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than
with honesty? 110
HAMLET Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner
transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the
force of honesty can translate beauty into his
likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the
time gives it proof. I did love you once.
OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot
so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of
it: I loved you not.
OPHELIA I was the more deceived. 120
HAMLET Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;
but yet I could accuse me of such things that it
were better my mother had not borne me: I am very
proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at
my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
imagination to give them shape, or time to act them
in. What should such fellows as I do crawling
between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,
all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.
Where's your father? 130
OPHELIA At home, my lord.
HAMLET Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the
fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.
OPHELIA O, help him, you sweet heavens!
HAMLET If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for
thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs
marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough
what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,
and quickly too. Farewell. 140
OPHELIA O heavenly powers, restore him!
HAMLET I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God
has given you one face, and you make yourselves
another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and
nick–name God's creatures, and make your wantonness
your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath
made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:
those that are married already, all but one, shall
live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a
nunnery, go.
[Exit]
OPHELIA O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! 150
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh;
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me, 160
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

[Re–enter KING CLAUDIUS and POLONIUS]

KING CLAUDIUS Love! his affections do not that way tend;
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul,
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger: which for to prevent,
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,
For the demand of our neglected tribute 170
Haply the seas and countries different
With variable objects shall expel
This something–settled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
LORD POLONIUS It shall do well: but yet do I believe
The origin and commencement of his grief
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please; 180
But, if you hold it fit, after the play
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his grief: let her be round with him;
And I'll be placed, so please you, in the ear
Of all their conference. If she find him not,
To England send him, or confine him where
Your wisdom best shall think.
KING CLAUDIUS It shall be so:
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.
[Exeunt]

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Question #13

What does Hamlet mean in the quote below?

"To be, or not to be– that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them."





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Act 4, page 5

Table of Contents

ACT IV SCENE VI� Setting: Another room in the castle.

Enter HORATIO and a Servant.�

HORATIO� What are they that would speak with me? � Servant� Sailors, sir: they say they have letters for you. � HORATIO� Let them come in. � � Exit Servant. � � I do not know from what part of the world � I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. � � Enter Sailors. � First Sailor� God bless you, sir. � HORATIO� Let him bless thee too. � First Sailor� He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for � � you, sir; it comes from the ambassador that was � bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am � � let to know it is. � 10 HORATIO� Reads � � Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, � give these fellows some means to the king: � � they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old � � at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us � chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on � � a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded � � them: on the instant they got clear of our ship; so � � I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with � � me like thieves of mercy, but they knew what they � 19 � did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king � � have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me � � with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I � � have words to speak in thine ear will make thee � � dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of � the matter. These good fellows will bring thee � � where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their � � course for England: of them I have much to tell � � thee. Farewell. � � He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.' � Come, I will make you way for these your letters; � 28 � And do't the speedier, that you may direct me � � To him from whom you brought them. � � Exeunt

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Act 3, page 1

Table of Contents

ACT III SCENE II� Setting: A hall in the castle.

[Enter HAMLET and Players]

HAMLET Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town–crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; 5 for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig–pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to 10 very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out–herods Herod: pray you, avoid it. 15 First Player I warrant your honour. HAMLET Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is 20 from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, 25 or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others 30 praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them 35 well, they imitated humanity so abominably. First Player I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us, sir. HAMLET O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; 40 for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition 45 in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

[Exeunt Players][Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]

How now, my lord! I will the king hear this piece of work?
LORD POLONIUS And the queen too, and that presently.
HAMLET Bid the players make haste.
[Exit POLONIUS]
Will you two help to hasten them? 50
GUILDENSTERN We will, my lord.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]

HAMLET What ho! Horatio!
[Enter HORATIO]
HORATIO Here, sweet lord, at your service.
HAMLET Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation coped withal. 55
HORATIO O, my dear lord,––
HAMLET Nay, do not think I flatter;
For what advancement may I hope from thee
That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,
To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd? 60
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election 65
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled, 70
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.––Something too much of this.–– 75
There is a play to–night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul 80
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note; 85
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming.
HORATIO Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, 90
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
HAMLET They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place.

[ Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others ]

KING CLAUDIUS How fares our cousin Hamlet?
HAMLET Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat 95
the air, promise–crammed: you cannot feed capons so.
KING CLAUDIUS I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.
HAMLET No, nor mine now.
[To POLONIUS]
My lord, you played once i' the university, you say? 100
LORD POLONIUS That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.
HAMLET What did you enact?
LORD POLONIUS I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.
HAMLET It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf 105
there. Be the players ready?
ROSENCRANTZ Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.
QUEEN GERTRUDE Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
HAMLET No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.
LORD POLONIUS [To KING CLAUDIUS]�O, ho! do you mark that? 110
HAMLET Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[Lying down at OPHELIA's feet]

OPHELIA No, my lord.
HAMLET I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
HAMLET Do you think I meant country matters? 115
OPHELIA I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
OPHELIA What is, my lord?
HAMLET Nothing.
OPHELIA You are merry, my lord. 120
HAMLET Who, I?
OPHELIA Ay, my lord.
HAMLET O God, your only jig–maker. What should a man do
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. 125
OPHELIA Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
HAMLET So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half 130
a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches,
then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with
the hobby–horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,
the hobby–horse is forgot.'

[Hautboys play. The dumb–show enters][ Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts: she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love. ]

[Exeunt]
OPHELIA What means this, my lord? 135
HAMLET Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.
OPHELIA Belike this show imports the argument of the play.
[Enter Prologue]
HAMLET We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot
keep counsel; they'll tell all.
OPHELIA Will he tell us what this show meant? 140
HAMLET Ay, or any show that you'll show him: be not you
ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
OPHELIA You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.
Prologue For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency, 145
We beg your hearing patiently.
[Exit]
HAMLET Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?
OPHELIA Tis brief, my lord.
HAMLET As woman's love.
[Enter two Players, King and Queen]
Player King Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round 150
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands. 155
Player Queen So many journeys may the sun and moon
Make us again count o'er ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, 160
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must:
For women's fear and love holds quantity;
In neither aught, or in extremity.
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
And as my love is sized, my fear is so: 165
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
Player King Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, 170
Honour'd, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou––
Player Queen O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst! 175
None wed the second but who kill'd the first.
HAMLET [Aside]�Wormwood, wormwood.
Player Queen The instances that second marriage move
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
A second time I kill my husband dead, 180
When second husband kisses me in bed.
Player King I do believe you think what now you speak;
But what we do determine oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity; 185
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
Most necessary 'tis that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in passion we propose, 190
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. 195
This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange
That even our loves should with our fortunes change;
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; 200
The poor advanced makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy. 205
But, orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed; 210
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
Player Queen Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light!
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope! 215
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy
Meet what I would have well and it destroy!
Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
HAMLET If she should break it now! 220
Player King Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.
[Sleeps]
Player Queen Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain! 225
[Exit]
HAMLET Madam, how like you this play?
QUEEN GERTRUDE The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
HAMLET O, but she'll keep her word.
KING CLAUDIUS Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in 't?
HAMLET No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence 230
i' the world.
KING CLAUDIUS What do you call the play?
HAMLET The Mouse–trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play
is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is
the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see 235
anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: but what o'
that? your majesty and we that have free souls, it
touches us not: let the galled jade wince, our
withers are unwrung.
[Enter LUCIANUS]
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. 240
OPHELIA You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
HAMLET I could interpret between you and your love, if I
could see the puppets dallying.
OPHELIA You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
HAMLET It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge. 245
OPHELIA Still better, and worse.
HAMLET So you must take your husbands. Begin, murderer;
pox, leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come:
the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.'
LUCIANUS Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; 250
Confederate season, else no creature seeing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,
Thy natural magic and dire property,
On wholesome life usurp immediately. 255

[Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears]

HAMLET He poisons him i' the garden for's estate. His
name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in
choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer
gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
OPHELIA The king rises. 260
HAMLET What, frighted with false fire!
QUEEN GERTRUDE How fares my lord?
LORD POLONIUS Give o'er the play.
KING CLAUDIUS Give me some light: away!
All Lights, lights, lights! 265
[Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO]
HAMLET Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So runs the world away.
Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers–– if 270
the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me––with two
Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a
fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
HORATIO Half a share.
HAMLET A whole one, I. 275
For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very––pajock.
HORATIO You might have rhymed. 280
HAMLET O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a
thousand pound. Didst perceive?
HORATIO Very well, my lord.
HAMLET Upon the talk of the poisoning?
HORATIO I did very well note him. 285
HAMLET Ah, ha! Come, some music! come, the recorders!
For if the king like not the comedy,
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.
Come, some music!

[Re–enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN]

GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. 290
HAMLET Sir, a whole history.
GUILDENSTERN The king, sir,––
HAMLET Ay, sir, what of him?
GUILDENSTERN Is in his retirement marvellous distempered.
HAMLET With drink, sir? 295
GUILDENSTERN No, my lord, rather with choler.
HAMLET Your wisdom should show itself more richer to
signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him
to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far
more choler. 300
GUILDENSTERN Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame and
start not so wildly from my affair.
HAMLET I am tame, sir: pronounce.
GUILDENSTERN The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of
spirit, hath sent me to you. 305
HAMLET You are welcome.
GUILDENSTERN Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right
breed. If it shall please you to make me a
wholesome answer, I will do your mother's
commandment: if not, your pardon and my return 310
shall be the end of my business.
HAMLET Sir, I cannot.
GUILDENSTERN What, my lord?
HAMLET Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseased: but,
sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; 315
or, rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no
more, but to the matter: my mother, you say,––
ROSENCRANTZ Then thus she says; your behavior hath struck her
into amazement and admiration.
HAMLET O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But 320
is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's
admiration? Impart.
ROSENCRANTZ She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you
go to bed.
HAMLET We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have 325
you any further trade with us?
ROSENCRANTZ My lord, you once did love me.
HAMLET So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.
ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you
do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if 330
you deny your griefs to your friend.
HAMLET Sir, I lack advancement.
ROSENCRANTZ How can that be, when you have the voice of the king
himself for your succession in Denmark?
HAMLET Ay, but sir, 'While the grass grows,'––the proverb 335
is something musty.

[Re–enter Players with recorders]

O, the recorders! let me see one. To withdraw with
you:––why do you go about to recover the wind of me,
as if you would drive me into a toil?
GUILDENSTERN O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too 340
unmannerly.
HAMLET I do not well understand that. Will you play upon
this pipe?
GUILDENSTERN My lord, I cannot.
HAMLET I pray you. 345
GUILDENSTERN Believe me, I cannot.
HAMLET I do beseech you.
GUILDENSTERN I know no touch of it, my lord.
HAMLET Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with
your lingers and thumb, give it breath with your 350
mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.
Look you, these are the stops.
GUILDENSTERN But these cannot I command to any utterance of
harmony; I have not the skill.
HAMLET Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of 355
me! You would play upon me; you would seem to know
my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my
mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to
the top of my compass: and there is much music,
excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot 360
you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what
instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you
cannot play upon me.
[Enter POLONIUS]
God bless you, sir! 365
LORD POLONIUS My lord, the queen would speak with you, and
presently.
HAMLET Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
LORD POLONIUS By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
HAMLET Methinks it is like a weasel. 370
LORD POLONIUS It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET Or like a whale?
LORD POLONIUS Very like a whale.
HAMLET Then I will come to my mother by and by. They fool
me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by. 375
LORD POLONIUS I will say so.
HAMLET By and by is easily said.
[Exit POLONIUS]
Leave me, friends.
[Exeunt all but HAMLET]
Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out 380
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother.
O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever
The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom: 385
Let me be cruel, not unnatural:
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent! 390
[Exit]

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Act 4, page 6

Table of Contents

ACT IV SCENE VII� Setting: Another room in the castle.

Enter KING CLAUDIUS and LAERTES.�

KING CLAUDIUS� Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal, � � And you must put me in your heart for friend, � � Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, � � That he which hath your noble father slain � Pursued my life. � LAERTES� It well appears: but tell me � � Why you proceeded not against these feats, � � So crimeful and so capital in nature, � � As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, � You mainly were stirr'd up. � KING CLAUDIUS� O, for two special reasons; � � Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd, �10 � But yet to me they are strong. The queen his mother � � Lives almost by his looks; and for myself–– � My virtue or my plague, be it either which–– � � She's so conjunctive to my life and soul, � � That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, � � I could not but by her. The other motive, � � Why to a public count I might not go, � Is the great love the general gender bear him; � � Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, � � Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, �20 � Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows, � � Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, � Would have reverted to my bow again, � � And not where I had aim'd them. � LAERTES� And so have I a noble father lost; � � A sister driven into desperate terms, � � Whose worth, if praises may go back again, � Stood challenger on mount of all the age � � For her perfections: but my revenge will come. � KING CLAUDIUS� Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think �30 � That we are made of stuff so flat and dull � � That we can let our beard be shook with danger � And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more: � � I loved your father, and we love ourself; � � And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine–– � � Enter a Messenger. � � How now! what news? � Messenger� Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: � This to your majesty; this to the queen. � KING CLAUDIUS� From Hamlet! who brought them? � Messenger� Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: � � They were given me by Claudio; he received them �40 � Of him that brought them. KING CLAUDIUS� Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us. � � Exit Messenger. � � Reads. � � High and mighty, You shall know I am set naked on � � your kingdom. To–morrow shall I beg leave to see � � your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your � � pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden � and more strange return. 'HAMLET.' � � What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? � � Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? �50 LAERTES� Know you the hand? � KING CLAUDIUS� Tis Hamlets character. "Naked!" � And in a postscript here, he says "alone." � � Can you advise me? � LAERTES� I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come; � � It warms the very sickness in my heart, � � That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, � Thus didest thou.' � KING CLAUDIUS� If it be so, Laertes–– � � As how should it be so? how otherwise?–– � � Will you be ruled by me? � LAERTES� Ay, my lord; � So you will not o'errule me to a peace. �60 KING CLAUDIUS� To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, � � As checking at his voyage, and that he means � � No more to undertake it, I will work him � � To an exploit, now ripe in my device, � Under the which he shall not choose but fall: � � And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe, � � But even his mother shall uncharge the practise � � And call it accident. � LAERTES� My lord, I will be ruled; � The rather, if you could devise it so � � That I might be the organ. � KING CLAUDIUS� It falls right. � � You have been talk'd of since your travel much, � � And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality �70 � Wherein, they say, you shine: your sum of parts � � Did not together pluck such envy from him � � As did that one, and that, in my regard, � � Of the unworthiest siege. � LAERTES� What part is that, my lord? KING CLAUDIUS� A very riband in the cap of youth, � � Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes � � The light and careless livery that it wears � � Than settled age his sables and his weeds, �80 � Importing health and graveness. Two months since, � Here was a gentleman of Normandy:–– � � I've seen myself, and served against, the French, � � And they can well on horseback: but this gallant � � Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat; � � And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, � As he had been incorpsed and demi–natured � � With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought, � � That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, � � Come short of what he did. � LAERTES� A Norman was't? �90 KING CLAUDIUS� A Norman. � LAERTES� Upon my life, Lamond. � KING CLAUDIUS� The very same. � LAERTES� I know him well: he is the brooch indeed � � And gem of all the nation. KING CLAUDIUS� He made confession of you, � � And gave you such a masterly report � � For art and exercise in your defence � � And for your rapier most especially, � � That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed, � If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, �100 � He swore, had had neither motion, guard, nor eye, � � If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his � � Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy � � That he could nothing do but wish and beg � Your sudden coming o'er, to play with him. � � Now, out of this,–– � LAERTES� What out of this, my lord? � KING CLAUDIUS� Laertes, was your father dear to you? � � Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, � A face without a heart? � LAERTES� Why ask you this? � KING CLAUDIUS� Not that I think you did not love your father; �110 � But that I know love is begun by time; � � And that I see, in passages of proof, � Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. � � There lives within the very flame of love � � A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it; � � And nothing is at a like goodness still; � � For goodness, growing to a plurisy, � Dies in his own too much: that we would do � � We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes � � And hath abatements and delays as many �120 � As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; � � And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh, � That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer:–– � � Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake, � � To show yourself your father's son in deed � � More than in words? � LAERTES� To cut his throat i' the church. KING CLAUDIUS� No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; � � Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, � � Will you do this, keep close within your chamber. � � Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home: � � We'll put on those shall praise your excellence � And set a double varnish on the fame � � The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together � � And wager on your heads: he, being remiss, � � Most generous and free from all contriving, � � Will not peruse the foils; so that, with ease, � Or with a little shuffling, you may choose � � A sword unbated, and in a pass of practise � � Requite him for your father. � LAERTES� I will do't: � � And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword. �140 � I bought an unction of a mountebank, � � So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, � � Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, � � Collected from all simples that have virtue � � Under the moon, can save the thing from death � That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point � � With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, � � It may be death. � KING CLAUDIUS� Let's further think of this; � � Weigh what convenience both of time and means �149 � May fit us to our shape: if this should fail, � � And that our drift look through our bad performance, � � Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project � � Should have a back or second, that might hold, � � If this should blast in proof. Soft! let me see: � We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings: I ha't. � � When in your motion you are hot and dry–– � � As make your bouts more violent to that end–– � � And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepared him � � A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, �160 � If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, � � Our purpose may hold there. � � Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE. � � How now, sweet queen! � QUEEN GERTRUDE� One woe doth tread upon another's heel, � � So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes. LAERTES� Drown'd! O, where? � QUEEN GERTRUDE� There is a willow grows aslant a brook, � � That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; � � There with fantastic garlands did she come � � Of crow–flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples � That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, � � But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them: � � There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds �170 � Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke; � � When down her weedy trophies and herself � Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide; � � And, mermaid–like, awhile they bore her up: � � Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes; � � As one incapable of her own distress, � � Or like a creature native and indued � Unto that element: but long it could not be � � Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, � � Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay �180 � To muddy death. � LAERTES� Alas, then, she is drown'd? QUEEN GERTRUDE� Drown'd, drown'd. � LAERTES� Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, � � And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet � � It is our trick; nature her custom holds, � � Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, � The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord: � � I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, � � But that this folly douts it. � � Exit. � KING CLAUDIUS� Let's follow, Gertrude: � � How much I had to do to calm his rage! � Now fear I this will give it start again; � � Therefore let's follow. � � Exeunt

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