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Act 4, page 6

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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, page 0

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ACT V SCENE I� Setting:A churchyard. Setting:� Setting:�Enter two Clowns, with spades, &c.�

First Clown� Is she to be buried in Christian burial that � � wilfully seeks her own salvation? � Second Clown� I tell thee she is: and therefore make her grave � � straight: the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it � Christian burial. � First Clown� How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her � � own defence? � Second Clown� Why, 'tis found so. � First Clown� It must be 'se offendendo;' it cannot be else. For � here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, � � it argues an act: and an act hath three branches: it � � is, to act, to do, to perform: argal, she drowned � � herself wittingly. � Second Clown� Nay, but hear you, goodman delver,–– First Clown� Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here � � stands the man; good; if the man go to this water, � � and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he � � goes,––mark you that; but if the water come to him � � and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he � that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life. � Second Clown� But is this law? �20 First Clown� Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law. � Second Clown� Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been � � a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' � Christian burial. � First Clown� Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity that � � great folk should have countenance in this world to � � drown or hang themselves, more than their even � � Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient � gentleman but gardeners, ditchers, and grave–makers: � � they hold up Adam's profession. � Second Clown� Was he a gentleman? �30 First Clown� He was the first that ever bore arms. � Second Clown� Why, he had none. First Clown� What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the � � Scripture? The Scripture says 'Adam digged:' � � could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the � purpose, confess thyself–– Second Clown� Go to. � First Clown� What is he that builds stronger than either the � � mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? � Second Clown� The gallows–maker; for that frame outlives a �40 � thousand tenants. First Clown� I like thy wit well, in good faith: the gallows � � does well; but how does it well? it does well to � � those that do in: now thou dost ill to say the � � gallows is built stronger than the church: argal, � � the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come. Second Clown� Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or � � a carpenter?' � First Clown� Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. � Second Clown� Marry, now I can tell. �50 First Clown� To't. Second Clown� Mass, I cannot tell. � � Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance. � First Clown� Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull � � ass will not mend his pace with beating; and, when � � you are asked this question next, say 'a � � grave–maker: 'the houses that he makes last till � doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan: fetch me a � � stoup of liquor. � � Exit Second Clown � � He�digs�and�sings � � In youth, when I did love, did love, � � Methought it was very sweet, � � To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove, � O, methought, there was nothing meet. �61 HAMLET� Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he � � sings at grave–making? � HORATIO� Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. � HAMLET� Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath � the daintier sense. � First Clown� Sings. � � But age, with his stealing steps, � � Hath claw'd me in his clutch, � � And hath shipped me intil the land, �69 � As if I had never been such. � Throws up a skull. � HAMLET� That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: � � how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were � � Cain's jaw–bone, that did the first murder! It � � might be the pate of a politician, which this ass � � now o'er–reaches; one that would circumvent God, � might it not? � HORATIO� It might, my lord. � HAMLET� Or of a courtier; which could say 'Good morrow, � � sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord?' This might � � be my lord such–a–one, that praised my lord � such–a–one's horse, when he meant to beg it; might it not? �80 HORATIO� Ay, my lord. � HAMLET� Why, e'en so: and now my Lady Worm's; chapless, and � � knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade: � � here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to � see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, � � but to play at loggats with 'em? mine ache to think on't. � First Clown: [Sings.]� A pick–axe, and a spade, a spade, � � For and a shrouding sheet: � � O, a pit of clay for to be made � For such a guest is meet. �90 � Throws up another skull. � HAMLET� There's another: why may not that be the skull of a � � lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, � � his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he � � suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the � sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of � � his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be � � in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, � � his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, � � his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and � the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine � � pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him � � no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than � � the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The � � very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in � this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha? � HORATIO� Not a jot more, my lord. � HAMLET� Is not parchment made of sheepskins? � HORATIO� Ay, my lord, and of calf–skins too. � HAMLET� They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance � in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose � � grave's this, sirrah? � First Clown� Mine, sir. �115 � Sings. � � O, a pit of clay for to be made � � For such a guest is meet. HAMLET� I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in't. � First Clown� You lie out on't, sir, and therefore it is not � � yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, and yet it is mine. � HAMLET� Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine: � � tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest. First Clown� Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away gain, from me to � � you. � HAMLET� What man dost thou dig it for? �120 First Clown� For no man, sir. � HAMLET� What woman, then? First Clown� For none, neither. � HAMLET� Who is to be buried in't? � First Clown� One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead. � HAMLET� How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the � � card, or equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, � Horatio, these three years I have taken a note of � � it; the age is grown so picked that the toe of the � � peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he � � gaffs his kibe. How long hast thou been a � � grave–maker? First Clown� Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day � � that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. � HAMLET� How long is that since? � First Clown� Cannot you tell that? every fool can tell that: it � � was the very day that young Hamlet was born; he that � is mad, and sent into England. � HAMLET� Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? � First Clown� Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits � � there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there. �141 HAMLET� Why? First Clown� Twill, a not be seen in him there; there the men � � are as mad as he. � HAMLET� How came he mad? � First Clown� Very strangely, they say. � HAMLET� How strangely? First Clown� Faith, e'en with losing his wits. � HAMLET� Upon what ground? � First Clown� Why, here in Denmark: I have been sexton here, man � � and boy, thirty years. �151 HAMLET� How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot? First Clown� I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die––as we � � have many pocky corses now–a–days, that will scarce � � hold the laying in––he will last you some eight year � � or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. � HAMLET� Why he more than another? First Clown� Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that � � he will keep out water a great while; and your water � � is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. � � Here's a skull now; this skull has lain in the earth � � three and twenty years. HAMLET� Whose was it? �162 First Clown� A whoreson mad fellow's it was: whose do you think it was? � HAMLET� Nay, I know not. � First Clown� A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! a' poured a � � flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, � sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester. � HAMLET� This? � First Clown� E'en that. �170 HAMLET� Let me see. � � Takes the skull. � � Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow � of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath � � borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how � � abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at � � it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know � � not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your � gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, � � that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one � � now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap–fallen. � � Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let � � her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must � come; make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, tell � � me one thing. � HORATIO� What's that, my lord? � HAMLET� Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i' � � the earth? HORATIO� E'en so. � HAMLET� And smelt so? pah! � � Puts down the skull. � HORATIO� E'en so, my lord. � HAMLET� To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may � � not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, � till he find it stopping a bung–hole? �191 HORATIO� Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. � HAMLET� No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with � � modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as � � thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, � Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of � � earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he � � was converted, might they not stop a beer–barrel? � � Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, � � Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. � O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, � � Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw! � � But soft! but soft! aside: here comes the king. � � Enter Priest, the Corpse of OPHELIA, LAERTES and Mourners following; KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, their trains, &c. � � The queen, the courtiers: who is this they follow? � � And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken � The corse they follow did with desperate hand � � Fordo its own life: 'twas of some estate. � � Couch we awhile, and mark. � � Retiring with HORATIO. � LAERTES� What ceremony else? � HAMLET� That is Laertes, � A very noble youth: mark. �210 LAERTES� What ceremony else? � First Priest� Her obsequies have been as far enlarged � � As we have warranty: her death was doubtful; � � And, but that great command o'ersways the order, � She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd � � Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers, � � Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her; � � Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants, � � Her maiden strewments and the bringing home � Of bell and burial. �220 LAERTES� Must there no more be done? � First Priest� No more be done! � � We should profane the service of the dead � � To sing a requiem and such rest to her � As to peace–parted souls. � LAERTES� Lay her i' the earth: � � And from her fair and unpolluted flesh � � May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, � � A ministering angel shall my sister be, � When thou liest howling. � HAMLET� What, the fair Ophelia! � QUEEN GERTRUDE� Sweets to the sweet: farewell! � � Scattering flowers. � � I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; �230 � I thought thy bride–bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, � And not have strew'd thy grave. � LAERTES� O, treble woe � � Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, � � Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense � � Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile, � Till I have caught her once more in mine arms: � � Leaps into the grave. � � Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead, � � Till of this flat a mountain you have made, � � To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head � � Of blue Olympus. HAMLET� Advancing.�What is he whose grief � � Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow � � Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand � � Like wonder–wounded hearers? This is I, � � Hamlet the Dane. � � Leaps into the grave. � LAERTES� The devil take thy soul! � Grappling with him. � HAMLET� Thou pray'st not well. � � I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat; � � For, though I am not splenitive and rash, � � Yet have I something in me dangerous, � � Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand. KING CLAUDIUS� Pluck them asunder. � QUEEN GERTRUDE� Hamlet, Hamlet! �250 All� Gentlemen,–– � HORATIO� Good my lord, be quiet. � � The Attendants part them, and they come out of the grave. � HAMLET� Why I will fight with him upon this theme � Until my eyelids will no longer wag. � QUEEN GERTRUDE� O my son, what theme? � HAMLET� I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers � � Could not, with all their quantity of love, � � Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her? KING CLAUDIUS� O, he is mad, Laertes. � QUEEN GERTRUDE� For love of God, forbear him. � HAMLET� Swounds, show me what thou'lt do: �260 � Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself? � � Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile? � I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine? � � To outface me with leaping in her grave? � � Be buried quick with her, and so will I: � � And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw � � Millions of acres on us, till our ground, � Singeing his pate against the burning zone, � � Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth, � � I'll rant as well as thou. � QUEEN GERTRUDE� This is mere madness: �270 � And thus awhile the fit will work on him; � Anon, as patient as the female dove, � � When that her golden couplets are disclosed, � � His silence will sit drooping. � HAMLET� Hear you, sir; � � What is the reason that you use me thus? � I loved you ever: but it is no matter; � � Let Hercules himself do what he may, � � The cat will mew and dog will have his day. � � Exit � KING CLAUDIUS� I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him. � � Exit HORATIO. � � To LAERTES. � � Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech; � We'll put the matter to the present push. � � Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. � � This grave shall have a living monument: � � An hour of quiet shortly shall we see; � � Till then, in patience our proceeding be. � Exeunt �

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Act 5, page 1

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ACT V SCENE II� Setting:A hall in the castle. Setting: Setting:Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.

HAMLET� So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other; You do remember all the circumstance? HORATIO� Remember it, my lord? HAMLET� Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me sleep: methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly, And praised be rashness for it, let us know, Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us There's a divinity that shapes our ends, �10 Rough–hew them how we will,–– HORATIO� That is most certain. HAMLET� Up from my cabin, My sea–gown scarf'd about me, in the dark Groped I to find out them; had my desire. Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew To mine own room again; making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,–– O royal knavery!––an exact command, Larded with many several sorts of reasons �20 Importing Denmark's health and England's too, With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life, That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off. HORATIO� Is't possible? HAMLET� Here's the commission: read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed? HORATIO� I beseech you. HAMLET� Being thus be–netted round with villanies,–– Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, �30 They had begun the play––I sat me down, Devised a new commission, wrote it fair: I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair and labour'd much How to forget that learning, but, sir, now � It did me yeoman's service: wilt thou know � � The effect of what I wrote? HORATIO� Ay, good my lord. � HAMLET� An earnest conjuration from the king, � � As England was his faithful tributary, � � As love between them like the palm might flourish, �40 � As peace should stiff her wheaten garland wear � And stand a comma 'tween their amities, � � And many such–like 'As'es of great charge, � � That, on the view and knowing of these contents, � � Without debatement further, more or less, � � He should the bearers put to sudden death, � Not shriving–time allow'd. � HORATIO� How was this seal'd? � HAMLET� Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. � � I had my father's signet in my purse, � � Which was the model of that Danish seal; �50 � Folded the writ up in form of the other, � � Subscribed it, gave't the impression, placed it safely, � � The changeling never known. Now, the next day � � Was our sea–fight; and what to this was sequent � � Thou know'st already. HORATIO� So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. � HAMLET� Why, man, they did make love to this employment; � � They are not near my conscience; their defeat � � Does by their own insinuation grow: � � Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes �60 � Between the pass and fell incensed points � � Of mighty opposites. � HORATIO� Why, what a king is this! � HAMLET� Does it not, think'st thee, stand me now upon–– � � He that hath kill'd my king and whored my mother, � Popp'd in between the election and my hopes, � � Thrown out his angle for my proper life, � � And with such cozenage––is't not perfect conscience, � � To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd, � � To let this canker of our nature come � In further evil? �70 HORATIO� It must be shortly known to him from England � � What is the issue of the business there. � HAMLET� It will be short: the interim is mine; � � And a man's life's no more than to say 'One.' � But I am very sorry, good Horatio, � � That to Laertes I forgot myself; � � For, by the image of my cause, I see � � The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours. � � But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me � Into a towering passion. � HORATIO� Peace! who comes here? �80 � Enter OSRIC � OSRIC� Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. � HAMLET� I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water–fly? � HORATIO� No, my good lord. HAMLET� Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a vice to � � know him. He hath much land, and fertile: let a � � beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at � � the king's mess: 'tis a chough; but, as I say, � � spacious in the possession of dirt. OSRIC� Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I � � should impart a thing to you from his majesty. � HAMLET� I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of � � spirit. Put your bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head. �91 OSRIC� I thank your lordship, it is very hot. HAMLET� No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is � � northerly. � OSRIC� It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. � HAMLET� But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my � � complexion. OSRIC� Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,––as � � twere,––I cannot tell how. But, my lord, his � � majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a � � great wager on your head: sir, this is the matter,–– �100 HAMLET� I beseech you, remember–– � HAMLET moves him to put on his hat. � OSRIC� Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. � � Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes; believe � � me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent � � differences, of very soft society and great showing: � � indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or � calendar of gentry, for you shall find in him the � � continent of what part a gentleman would see. � HAMLET� Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; � � though, I know, to divide him inventorially would � � dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw � neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the � � verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of � � great article; and his infusion of such dearth and � � rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his � � semblable is his mirror; and who else would trace � him, his umbrage, nothing more. � OSRIC� Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. � HAMLET� The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman � � in our more rawer breath? � OSRIC� Sir? �119 HORATIO� Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? � � You will do't, sir, really. � HAMLET� What imports the nomination of this gentleman? � OSRIC� Of Laertes? � HORATIO� His purse is empty already; all's golden words are spent. HAMLET� Of him, sir. � OSRIC� I know you are not ignorant–– � HAMLET� I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, � � it would not much approve me. Well, sir? �129 OSRIC� You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is–– HAMLET� I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with � � him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to � � know himself. � OSRIC� I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation � � laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed. HAMLET� What's his weapon? � OSRIC� Rapier and dagger. � HAMLET� That's two of his weapons: but, well. � OSRIC� The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary � � horses: against the which he has imponed, as I take � it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their � � assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: three of the � � carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very � � responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, � � and of very liberal conceit. HAMLET� What call you the carriages? � HORATIO� I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done. � OSRIC� The carriages, sir, are the hangers. �148 HAMLET� The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we � � could carry cannon by our sides: I would it might � be hangers till then. But, on: six Barbary horses � � against six French swords, their assigns, and three � � liberal–conceited carriages; that's the French bet � � against the Danish. Why is this 'imponed,' as you call it? � OSRIC� The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes � between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you � � three hits: he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it � � would come to immediate trial, if your lordship � � would vouchsafe the answer. � HAMLET� How if I answer 'no'? �159 OSRIC� I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. � HAMLET� Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his � � majesty, 'tis the breathing time of day with me; let � � the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the � � king hold his purpose, I will win for him an I can; � if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. � OSRIC� Shall I re–deliver you e'en so? � HAMLET� To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will. � OSRIC� I commend my duty to your lordship. �170 HAMLET� Yours, yours. � Exit OSRIC � � He does well to commend it himself; there are no � � tongues else for's turn. � HORATIO� This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head. � HAMLET� He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it. � � Thus has he––and many more of the same bevy that I � know the dressy age dotes on––only got the tune of � � the time and outward habit of encounter; a kind of � � yesty collection, which carries them through and � � through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do � � but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. � Enter a Lord. � Lord� My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young � � Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in � � the hall: he sends to know if your pleasure hold to � � play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time. � HAMLET� I am constant to my purpose; they follow the king's � pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now � � or whensoever, provided I be so able as now. � Lord� The king and queen and all are coming down. �190 HAMLET� In happy time. � Lord� The queen desires you to use some gentle � entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play. � HAMLET� She well instructs me. � � Exit Lord. � HORATIO� You will lose this wager, my lord. � HAMLET� I do not think so: since he went into France, I � � have been in continual practise: I shall win at the � odds. But thou wouldst not think how ill all's here � � about my heart: but it is no matter. � HORATIO� Nay, good my lord,–– �200 HAMLET� It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of � � gain–giving, as would perhaps trouble a woman. HORATIO� If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will � � forestall their repair hither, and say you are not � � fit. � HAMLET� Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special � � providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, � tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be � � now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the � � readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he � � leaves, what is't to leave betimes? � � A table prepared; trumpets, drums and Officers. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, &c. � KING CLAUDIUS� Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. � KING CLAUDIUS puts LAERTES' hand into HAMLET's. � HAMLET� Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong; � � But pardon't, as you are a gentleman. �212 � This presence knows, � � And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd � � With sore distraction. What I have done, � That might your nature, honour and exception � � Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. � � Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet: � � If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, � � And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes, �220 � Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. � � Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so, � � Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd; � � His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy. � � Sir, in this audience, � Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil � � Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, � � That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house, � � And hurt my brother. � LAERTES� I am satisfied in nature, �229 � Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most � � To my revenge: but in my terms of honour � � I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement, � � Till by some elder masters, of known honour, � � I have a voice and precedent of peace, � To keep my name ungored. But till that time, � � I do receive your offer'd love like love, � � And will not wrong it. � HAMLET� I embrace it freely; � � And will this brother's wager frankly play. � Give us the foils. Come on. � LAERTES� Come, one for me. � HAMLET� I'll be your foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance �240 � Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, � � Stick fiery off indeed. LAERTES� You mock me, sir. � HAMLET� No, by this hand. � KING CLAUDIUS� Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, � � You know the wager? � HAMLET� Very well, my lord � Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker side. � KING CLAUDIUS� I do not fear it; I have seen you both: � � But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds. � LAERTES� This is too heavy, let me see another. � HAMLET� This likes me well. These foils have all a length? � They prepare to play. � OSRIC� Ay, my good lord. �251 KING CLAUDIUS� Set me the stoops of wine upon that table. � � If Hamlet give the first or second hit, � � Or quit in answer of the third exchange, � � Let all the battlements their ordnance fire: � The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; � � And in the cup an union shall he throw, � � Richer than that which four successive kings � � In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups; � � And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, �260 � The trumpet to the cannoneer without, � � The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, � � Now the king dunks to Hamlet.' Come, begin: � � And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. � HAMLET� Come on, sir. LAERTES� Come, my lord. � � They play. � HAMLET� One. � LAERTES� No. � HAMLET� Judgment. � OSRIC� A hit, a very palpable hit. LAERTES� Well; again. � KING CLAUDIUS� Stay; give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; � � Here's to thy health. � � Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within. � � Give him the cup. � HAMLET� I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come. � They play. � � Another hit; what say you? �270 LAERTES� A touch, a touch, I do confess. � KING CLAUDIUS� Our son shall win. � QUEEN GERTRUDE� He's fat, and scant of breath. � � Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows; � The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. � HAMLET� Good madam! � KING CLAUDIUS� Gertrude, do not drink. � QUEEN GERTRUDE� I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me. � KING CLAUDIUS� Aside.�It is the poison'd cup; it is too late. � HAMLET� I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. QUEEN GERTRUDE� Come, let me wipe thy face. � LAERTES� My lord, I'll hit him now. � KING CLAUDIUS� I do not think't. �280 LAERTES� Aside.�And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience. � HAMLET� Come, for the third, Laertes: you but dally; � � I pray you, pass with your best violence; � I am afeard you make a wanton of me. � LAERTES� Say you so? come on. � � They play. � OSRIC� Nothing, neither way. � LAERTES� Have at you now! � � LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then in scuffling, they change rapiers, and HAMLET wounds LAERTES. � KING CLAUDIUS� Part them; they are incensed. HAMLET� Nay, come, again. � � QUEEN GERTRUDE falls. � OSRIC� Look to the queen there, ho! � HORATIO� They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord? � OSRIC� How is't, Laertes? �290 LAERTES� Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric; � I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. � HAMLET� How does the queen? � KING CLAUDIUS� She swounds to see them bleed. � QUEEN GERTRUDE� No, no, the drink, the drink,––O my dear Hamlet,–– � � The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. � Dies � HAMLET� O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd: � � Treachery! Seek it out. � LAERTES� It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain; � � No medicine in the world can do thee good; � � In thee there is not half an hour of life; �300 � The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, � � Unbated and envenom'd: the foul practise � � Hath turn'd itself on me lo, here I lie, � � Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd: � � I can no more: the king, the king's to blame. HAMLET� The point!––envenom'd too! � � Then, venom, to thy work. � � Stabs KING CLAUDIUS. � All� Treason! treason! � KING CLAUDIUS� O, yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt. � HAMLET� Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, � Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? �311 � Follow my mother. � � KING CLAUDIUS dies. � LAERTES� He is justly served; � � It is a poison temper'd by himself. � � Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: � Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, � � Nor thine on me. � � Dies. � HAMLET� Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. � � I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu! � � You that look pale and tremble at this chance, �320 � That are but mutes or audience to this act, � � Had I but time––as this fell sergeant, death, � � Is strict in his arrest––O, I could tell you–– � � But let it be. Horatio, I am dead; � � Thou livest; report me and my cause aright � To the unsatisfied. � HORATIO� Never believe it: � � I am more an antique Roman than a Dane: � � Here's yet some liquor left. � HAMLET� As thou'rt a man, � Give me the cup: let go; by heaven, I'll have't. � � O good Horatio, what a wounded name, � � Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me! �330 � If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart � � Absent thee from felicity awhile, � And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, � � To tell my story. � � March afar off, and shot within � � What warlike noise is this? � OSRIC� Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, � � To the ambassadors of England gives � This warlike volley. � HAMLET� O, I die, Horatio; � � The potent poison quite o'er–crows my spirit: � � I cannot live to hear the news from England; � � But I do prophesy the election lights �340 � On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice; � � So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, � � Which have solicited. The rest is silence. � � Dies. � HORATIO� Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: � � And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! � Why does the drum come hither? � � March within. � � Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and others. � PRINCE FORTINBRAS� Where is this sight? � HORATIO� What is it ye would see? � � If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. � PRINCE FORTINBRAS� This quarry cries on havoc. O proud death, � What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, �350 � That thou so many princes at a shot � � So bloodily hast struck? � First Ambassador� The sight is dismal; � � And our affairs from England come too late: � The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, � � To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd, � � That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: � � Where should we have our thanks? � HORATIO� Not from his mouth, � Had it the ability of life to thank you: � � He never gave commandment for their death. � � But since, so jump upon this bloody question, �360 � You from the Polack wars, and you from England, � � Are here arrived give order that these bodies � High on a stage be placed to the view; � � And let me speak to the yet unknowing world � � How these things came about: so shall you hear � � Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, � � Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, � Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, � � And, in this upshot, purposes mistook � � Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I �370 � Truly deliver. � PRINCE FORTINBRAS� Let us haste to hear it, � And call the noblest to the audience. � � For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune: � � I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, � � Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. � HORATIO� Of that I shall have also cause to speak, � And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more; � � But let this same be presently perform'd, � � Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance � � On plots and errors, happen. � PRINCE FORTINBRAS� Let four captains �380 � Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage; � � For he was likely, had he been put on, � � To have proved most royally: and, for his passage, � � The soldiers' music and the rites of war � � Speak loudly for him. � Take up the bodies: such a sight as this � � Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. � � Go, bid the soldiers shoot. � � A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off. �

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ACT II SCENE I� Setting: 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 10 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 20 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; 30 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, 40 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? 51 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; 60 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. 70 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 80 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 90 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, 100 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 fetters 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, 110 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]

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Act 2, page 1

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ACT II SCENE II� Setting: 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, 10 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 20 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 30 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, 40
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. 50
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. 60
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 70
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; 80
And at our more consider'd time well 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? 90
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 100
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 110
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. 119
'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?
What do you think of me?
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS As of a man faithful and honourable. 130
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: 140
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, 150
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? 159
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? 170
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. 180
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? 190
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. 202
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. 214
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? 229
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. 240
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. 251
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.
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? 261
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. 272
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. 281
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 301
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? 312
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? 320
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. 328
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? 341
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! 359
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,–– 370
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. 380
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. 390
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. 398

[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
apiece 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? 410
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, 430
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.' 440
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,
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, 450
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, 460
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; 470
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. 480
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, 490
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. 511
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. 520
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, 530
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, 540
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 550
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
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. 10
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. 20
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; 30
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! 40
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! 50
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 60
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks 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, 70
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, 80
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 90
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–– 100
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 110
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: 120
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, 130
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? 140
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, 150
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: 160
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, 170
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]

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Act 1, page 1

Table of Contents

ACT I SCENE II� Setting: 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 5 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,–– 10 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 15 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, 20 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. 25 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 30 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; 35 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. VOLTIMAND and Cornelius In that and all things will we show our duty. 40 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 lose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, 45
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? 50
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, 55
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 60
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,–– 65
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. 70
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, 'tis common. 75
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, 80
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,
Nor the dejected 'haviour of the visage,
Together with all forms, modes, 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 90
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 100
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 110
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. 120
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 solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! 130
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 140
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, 150
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. 165
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, 170
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. 181
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? 190
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, 200
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, 210
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. 220
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?
BERNARDO We do, my lord.
HAMLET Arm'd, say you?
BERNARDO Arm'd, my lord.
HAMLET From top to toe?
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. 230
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.
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; 240
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, 250
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]
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; 10
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 20
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, 30
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, 40
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, 50
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. 60
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, 70
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. 80
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, be hath said to you?
OPHELIA So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.
LORD POLONIUS Marry, well bethought: 90
'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. 100
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. 110
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 120
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, 130
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]

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Act 1, page 3

Table of Contents

ACT I SCENE IV� Setting: 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. HAMLET 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, 10
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 20
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, 30
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, 40
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, 50
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 60
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 70
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. 80
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. 90
HORATIO Heaven will direct it.
MARCELLUS Nay, let's follow him.
[Exeunt]
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, 10
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: 20
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, 30
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! 40
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 50
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, 60
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; 70
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! 80
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: 90
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, 100
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; 110
It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'
I have sworn 't.
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. 120
HAMLET How say you, then; would heart of man once think it?
But you'll be secret?
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, 130
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, 140
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.
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? 150
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. 160
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, 170
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. 180
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! 190
Nay, come, let's go together.
[Exeunt]