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Act 3, page 1

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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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Act 5

Text of Book

Act 5, page 1

Act 5, page 2

Questions

1) What is this act mainly about?

2) Why does the First Clown believe Ophelia shouldn't have a Christian burial?

3) According to the First Clown, which biblical figure was the first gentleman who ever bore arms?

4) What was Yorick's occupation?

5) Why does Laertes leap into Ophelia's grave?

6) What did Hamlet do to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's letter after reading it?

7) What does Hamlet call Osric upon meeting him?

8) What has Claudius wagered against Laertes?

9) What valuable object does Claudius put into the goblet?

10) Why does Laertes say Claudius's death is just?

11) Who does Hamlet name as the next ruler of Denmark?

12) Where does Fortinbras have the soldiers bring Hamlet's body?

13) What does Hamlet mean in the quote below?

"How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us."

14) What does Hamlet mean in the quote below?

"I lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not (with all their quantity of love)
Make up my sum."

15) What does Hamlet mean in the quote below?

"'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and fell incensed points
Of mighty opposites."

16) What does Hamlet mean in the quote below?

"Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow."

17) What does Fortinbras mean in the quote below?

"O proud Death,
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck."

18) Look where the priest says "We should profane the service of the dead / To sing a requiem and such rest to her / As to peace–parted souls."

What does "profane" mean in this context?

19) Look where Horatio worries about Claudius discovering Hamlet's trick: "It must be shortly known to him from England / What is the issue of the business there."

What does "issue" mean in this context?

20) Look where Laertes says to Hamlet, "I am satisfied in nature, / Whose motive in this case should stir me most / To my revenge." What does "motive" mean in this context?

21) Were there any events that weren't clear to you?

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Act 3, page 2

Table of Contents

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

[Enter KING CLAUDIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN]

KING CLAUDIUS I like him not, nor stands it safe with us To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you; I your commission will forthwith dispatch, And he to England shall along with you: The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies. GUILDENSTERN We will ourselves provide: Most holy and religious fear it is To keep those many many bodies safe That live and feed upon your majesty. 10 ROSENCRANTZ The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from noyance; but much more That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw What's near it with it: it is a massy wheel, Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it falls, 20 Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. KING CLAUDIUS Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; For we will fetters put upon this fear, Which now goes too free–footed. GUILDENSTERN We will haste us.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN][Enter POLONIUS]

LORD POLONIUS My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:
Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
To hear the process; and warrant she'll tax him home:
And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 30
Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear
The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege:
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.
KING CLAUDIUS Thanks, dear my lord.
[Exit POLONIUS]
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will:
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent; 40
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what's in prayer but this two–fold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,
Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up; 50
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murder'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but 'tis not so above; 60
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel, 70
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well.
[Retires and kneels]
[Enter HAMLET]
HAMLET Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread; 80
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No!
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed; 90
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't;
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.
[Exit]
KING CLAUDIUS [Rising]�My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: 100
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
[Exit]