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This bodiless creation ecstasyl
Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstasy!

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: It is not madness,
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness, speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost? on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue:
For in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg;
Yea, curb3 and woo, for leave to do him good.
Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in
twain.

Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to my uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night;
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy:
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either curb the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night!
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you.-For this same lord,
[Pointing to Polonius.
I do repent: But heaven hath pleas'd it so,-
To punish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well

The death I gave him. So, again, good night!
I must be cruel, only to be kind:

Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.-
But one word more, good lady.
Queen.
What shall I do?
Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you, his mouse ;4
And let him, for a pair of reechys kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. "Twere good, you let him know:
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock,6 from a bat, a gib,7
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense, and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions,8 in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on.
Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two school-
fellows,-

Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery: Let it work;
For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar:10 and it shall go hard,
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: 0, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.-
This man shall set me packing.

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

[Exeunt severally; Hamlet dragging in
Polonius.

ACT IV.

SCENE I-The same.

Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

King. There's matter in these sighs; these pro-
found heaves;

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

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.[To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who go out. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!

King. What, Gertrude? how does Hamlet?
Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both
contend

Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras bearing something stir,
Whips out his rapier, cries, A rat! a rat!
And, in this brainish apprehension, kills
The unseen good old man.

King.
O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there:
His liberty is full of threats to all;
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt,11
This mad young man: but, so much was our love,
We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?

Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd;
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore,
Among a mineralt of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O, Gertrude, come away!
The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,

Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guildenstern!

breath,

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Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

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

And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:
Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body

(9) Having their teeth.

(10) Blown up with his own bomb.
(11) Company. (12) Mine.

Scene II, III, IV.

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
[Exeunt Ros. and Guil.
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done: so, haply, slander,-
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,'
Transports his poison'd shot,-may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air.-O come away;
My soul is full of discord, and dismay. [Exeunt.

SCENE II-Another room in the same.
ter Hamlet.

En

Ham. Safely stowed,[Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet!] But soft!-what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

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

And bear it to the chapel.

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

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

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

Ros. I understand you not, my lord.
Ham. I am glad of it: A knavish speech sleeps
in a foolish ear.

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

Ham. The body is with the king, but the king
is not with the body. The king is a thing-
Guil. A thing, my lord?
Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him.

and all after.2

Hide fox,

[Exeunt.

En

SCENE III-Another room in the same.
ter King, attended.

King. I have sent to seek him, and to find
body.

How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose!
Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,

King. Bring him before us.

Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.

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

King. At supper? Where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten :
a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at
fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves
him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we
for maggots: Your fat king, and your lean beggar,
is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table;
that's the end.

King. Alas, alas!

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath
eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of
that worm.

King. What dost thou mean by this?
Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may
go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
King. Where is Polonius?

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

King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants.
Ham. He will stay till you come.

[Exeunt Attendants.
King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial
safety,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done,-must send thee
hence
With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,3
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

for

Ham.

King.
Ham.

For England?

Ay, Hamlet.

Good.

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

King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother: Father and mother is man mother. Come, for England. and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my

[Exit.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

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

Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And, where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: Diseases, desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,

Enter Rosencrantz.

Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen?
Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
We cannot get from him.

But where is he?
King.
Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your
pleasure.

The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,

And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps,6 my joys will ne'er begin. [Ex.

tinbras, and Forces, marching. SCENE IV-A plain in Denmark. Enter For

For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king; Tell him, that, by his license, Fortinbras

(1) Mark.

(2) A sport among children.

(3) Right, ready.
(5) Value, estimate.

(4) Attend.
(6) Successes.

Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,
We shall express our duty in his eye,!
And let him know so.
Cap.

For. Go softly on.

I will do't, my lord.
[Exe. For. and Forces.

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Commands them, sir?

Who

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

Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That hath in it no profit but the name.

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,
To hide the slain?-O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth. [Ex.
SCENE V-Elsinore. A room in the castle.
Enter Queen and Horatio.

Queen. -I will not speak with her.
Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distract;
Her mood will needs be pitied.
Queen
What would she have?
Hor. She speaks much of her father; says, she
hears,

There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and beats

her heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures, yield
them,

Indeed would make one think, there might be
thought,

Ham. Why, then the Polack3 never will defend it. Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand
ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace;
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir. [Exit Captain.
Ros.
Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little
before.
[Exeunt Ros. and Guil.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he, that made us with such large discourse,5
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason,

To fuste in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on the event,

A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part

wisdom,

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And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know
Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do;

Siths I have cause, and will, and strength, and

means,

To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:

Witness, this army of such mass, and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;

Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,

To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot

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Queen. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for
she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds:
Let her come in.
Each toy10 seems prologue to some great amiss:
[Exit Horatio.
To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter Horatio, with Ophelia.

Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

Oph. How should I your true-love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.11

[Singing.

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?
Oph. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and

gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone,

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[Sings.

Pray you, mark.

[Sings

White his shroud as the mountain snow.

Enter King.

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.

Oph.

Larded 12 all with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

Oph. Well, God 'ields you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when they ask you, what it means, say you this:

(9) Guess.
(12) Garnished,

(10) Trifle. (11) Shoe.
(13) Reward.

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So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to

my

bed.

Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!

Queen. How cheerfully on the false trails they cry!
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs.
King. The doors are broke. [Noise within.
Enter Laertes, armed; Danes following.
Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all

without.

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Dan. We will, we will.

[They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you :-keep the door.-O thou vile king,

Give me my father.
Queen.
Calmly, good Laertes.
Laer. That drop of blood, that's calm, proclaims
me bastard;

King.

Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched10 brow King. How long hath she been thus? Of my true mother. Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be paWhat is the cause, Laertes, tient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ?— should lay him i'the cold ground; My brother shall Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person; know of it, and so I thank you for your good coun-There's such divinity doth hedge a king, sel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies; good That treason can but peep to what it would, night, sweet ladies: good night, good night. (Ex. Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes, King. Follow her close; give her good watch, Why thou art thus incens'd;-Let him go, Gertrude ;pray you. [Exit Horatio. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs Speak, man. All from her father's death: And now behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude,

I

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions! First, her father slain;
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: The people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and
whispers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but
greenly,4

In hugger-muggers to inter him: Poor Ophelia
Divided from herself, and her fair judgment;
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts.
Last, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in secret come from France:
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With pestilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,
Will nothing stick our person to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death! [A noise within.
Queen.
Alack! what noise is this?
Enter a Gentleman.

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Laer. Where is my father?

King.
Queen.

Dead.

But not by him.

King. Let him demand his fill.
Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled

with:

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience, and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation: To this point I stand,-
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
Most thoroughly for my father.
King.
Who shall stay you?
Laer. My will, not all the world's :
And, for my means, I'll husband them so well,
They shall go far with little.
King

Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and

foe,
Winner and loser?

Laer. None but his enemies.
King.

Will you know them then?
Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my

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(9) Hounds run counter when they trace the scent backwards.

(10) Clean, undefiled. (11) Appear.

37

Enter Ophelia, fantastically dressed with straws | That I must call't in question.

and flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!-
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight,
Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia !

O heavens is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is finel in love: and, where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier;

Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny: And in his grave rain'd many a tear;— Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge,

It could not move thus.

Oph. You must sing, Down-a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel? becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter. Laer. This nothing's more than matter. Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember; and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

So you shall;

King. And where the offence is, let the great axe fall: pray you, go with me.

[Exeunt. SCENE VI.—Another room in the same. Enter Horatio, and a Servant.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with me?
Serv.
Sailors, sir;

They say, they have letters for you.
Hor.

Let them come in.-
[Exit Servant.
I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.
Enter Sailors.

1 Sail. God bless you, sir.

Hor. Let him bless thee too.

1 Sail. He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, sir: it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; and Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant they -there's rue for you; and here's some for me :-got clear of our ship; so I alone became their we may call it, herb of grace o'Sundays:-you may wear your rue with a difference. 3-There's a daisy-I would give you some violets; but they withered all, when my father died :-They say, he made a good end,—

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,- [Sings
Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself,
She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

Oph. And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:

He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan;
God'a mercy on his soul!

[Sings.

And of all Christian souls! I pray God. God be
wi' you!
[Exit Ophelia.
Laer. Do you see this, O God?
King Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction; but, if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul
To give it due content.

Laer.
Let this be so;
His means of death, his obscure funeral,-
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,-
Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,

(1) Artful. (2) The burthen.

(3) i. e. By its Sunday name 'herb of grace;' mine is merely rue, i. e. sorrow.

prisoner. They have dealt with me, like thieves
of mercy; but they knew what they did; I am to
do a good turn for them. Let the king have the
letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as
much haste as thou would'st fly death. I have
yet are they much too light for the bore of the
words to speak in thine ear, will make thee dumb;
matter. These good fellows will bring thee where
I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their
course for England: of them I have much to tell
thee. Farewell.

He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.
Come, I will give you way for these your letters;
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.
SCENE VII.—Another room in the same. En-
ter King and Laertes.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance
seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend;
Siths you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father slain,
Pursu'd my life.

Laer.
It well appears:-But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and so capital in nature,
As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else,
You mainly were stirr'd up?

King.
O, for two special reasons;
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,s
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 is 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,

(4) Melancholy. (5) Since.
(6) Deprived of strength.

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