A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c., Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon * 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seems to me all the uses of this world! Fye on't! O fye! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature, Possess it merely. That it should come to this! woman! A little month; or ere those shoes were old, My father's brother; but no more like my father, But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue. Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS. I am glad to see you well; ever. sir, But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow student; I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Hor. My lord, the king, your father. Ham. Ham. Ham. Did you not speak to it? Hor. My lord, I did But, even then, the morning cock crew loud; Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true, | No more. And we did think it writ down in our duty, To let you know of it. Oph. Laer. No more but so? Think it no more. Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. And keep within the rear of your affection, Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. Mar., Ber. Longer, longer. Out of the shot and danger of desire. Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, Laer. A double blessing is a double grace; Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame; The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, His beard was grisly? no. And you are staid for. There, my blessing with Hor. It was as I have seen it in his life, A sable silver'd. Ham. I will watch to-night; Perchance 'twill walk again. Hor. I warrant it will. Ham. 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 treble 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 ye well: Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, I'll visit you. All. Our duty to your honour." Ham. Your love, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HOR., MAR., and BER. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: would the night were come! you ; [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head. And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The 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, unfledg'd comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel: but, being in, Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, but not gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man. 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. Farewell; my blessing season this in thee! Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend. Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Laer. Farewell. [Exit LAERTES. Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? Oph. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet. Chariest means most cautious. † Reeks not his own read, means reads not his own lessons. HAMLET, waiting.-Enter Ghost. Ham.Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, Ghost. Mark me. Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres ; Thy knotted and combined locks to part, To ears of flesh and blood:-List, Hamlet, O list!- Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther. Ham. Murther? Ghost. Murther most foul, as in the best it is; As meditation, or the thoughts of love, I find thee apt; Ghost. And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear; 'Tis given out, that sleeping in mine orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark by a forged process of my death Rankly abus'd; but know, thou noble youth, Ham. O my prophetic soul! mine uncle! With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, Of my most seeming virtuous queen; But soft! methinks I scent the morning's air. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand, [Exit. Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? And shall I couple hell ?-O fye !—Hold, my heart, *Blazon means display. Without sacraments, unprepared, without unction. D And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, yes, by heaven. O most pernicious woman! villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables, 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. [Exit. Room in Polonius' House. ACT II. Enter POLONIUS and OPHELIA. To speak of horrors, he comes before me. My lord, I do not know; What said he? But, truly, I do fear it. Then goes he to the length of all his arm; As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so ; Pol. Go with me; I will go seek the king. Whose violent property foredoes itself, I did repel his letters, and denied 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. SCENE. A Room in the Castle. How does my good lord Hamlet ? Pol. Do you know me, my lord? Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. Pol. Not I, my lord. Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. Pol. Honest, my lord? is to be one man picked out of a thousand. Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, Have you a daughter? [Aside.] Still Pol. I have, my lord. 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? Ham. Words, words, words! Pol. What is the matter, my lord? Ham. Between who? Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir; for the satirical slave says here, that old men have greybeards; that their faces are wrinkled. All of which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward. Pol. Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. [Aside.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ros. God save you, sir. Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my [TO POLONIUS. Ham. My excellent good friends! Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Ham. Then is doom's-day 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? Guil. Prison, my lord! Iam. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst. Ros. We think not so, my lord. Hum. 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. Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind. Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space: were it not that I have bad dreams. 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-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 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, you seem to say so. Ham. Why did you laugh, then, when I said, Ros. 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. Ham. 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? Ros. Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city. Enter POLONIUS. Ham. 'Tis well; rest soon.-Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstracts, and brief chronicles, of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you lived. Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. Odd's bodikin man, 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. [Exit POLONIUS with ROSENCRANTZ and GUIL DENSTERN. Pol. Come, sirs, I have heard, Play something like the murther of my father, ACT III. SCENE.-A Room in the Castle. Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted; |