Within the book and volume of my brain, IV. 160. SCENES FROM HAMLET.' PART THIRD. POLONIUS interrupts HAMLET who is reading a book. OLONIUS. Do you know me, my lord? POLONIUS Hamlet. 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? Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. Pol. That's very true, my lord. Ham. Have you a daughter? Pol. I have, my lord. Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun : friend, look to't. Pol. How say you by that? [Aside.] 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. [To HAMLET.] What do you read, my lord? Ham. Words, words, words. Pol. What is the matter, my lord? Ham. Between whom? Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue says here, that old men have gray beards; 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 yourself, sir, should be as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward. Hamlet, after the interview with the ghost of his father, in order that he may verify his belief of the murder and successfully avenge it, affects insanity. The king and queen are so disturbed by this that they send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of his former companions, to draw out, if possible, the secret which oppresses him. Polonius, lord chamberlain of the palace, an aged man, also tries to fathom him, and confidently declares him crazy through lovesickness. Pol. [Aside.] Though this be mădness, yet there's method in it. [To HAMLET.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave? Pol. 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. [To HAMLET.] My honorable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you. Ham. You can not, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal; except my life, except my life, except my life. Pol. Fare you well, my lord. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Guil. My honored lord!— Ros. My most dear lord! [Exit. Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? What news? Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest. Ham. Then is dooms-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! Ham. Denmark's a prison. Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many con'fines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst. Ros. We think not so, my lord. Ham. Why, then, 't is none (nŭn) to you; for there is nothing (nuth'ing) either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison. Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one: 't is too narrow for your mind. Ham. O, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, come; deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak. Guil. What should we say, my lord? Ham. 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 color; I know the good king and queen have sent for you. But let me conjure' you, by Ros. To what end, my lord? Ham. That you must teach me. the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what mōre dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether ye were sent for, or no? If Ros. [To GUILDENSTERN.] What say you? Ham. [Aside.] Nay, then I have an eye of you. [To them.] you love me, hold not off. Guil. My lord, we were sent for. Ham. 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, foregone all custom of exercises: and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promʼontory; 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 vapors. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! 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 ?-Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. You are welcome; but my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived. Guil. In what, my dear lord? Ham. I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-saw. Reënter POLONIUS. Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a camel? Pol. By the mass, and 't is like a camel, indeed. Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel. Pol. It is backed like a weasel. Ham. Or, like a whale. Pol. Věry like a whale. Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by.-They fool me to the top of my bent.-I will come by and by. [Exit POLONIUS. Pol. I will say so. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. "Tis now the very witching time of night; Would quake to look on. Soft; now to my mother!- I will speak daggers to her, but use none. 1 V. 161. SCENES FROM HAMLET. PART FOURTH.' Enter QUEEN and HAMLET. AMLET. Now, mother, what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. Queen. Have you forgot me? Hamlet, doubtful of the relation of the ghost, and fearful that it might be only the tale of a wicked spirit, laid a plot to convince himself of his uncle's participation in the murder; and the scene here given occurs after the successful issue of What's the matter now? No, by the rood, not so: the plot, and he becomes fully convinced that his uncle was the murderer of his father. 2 Rood, (råd), the cross, or an image of Christ on the cross, with the Virgin Mary and a saint, or St. John, on each side of it. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. Where you may see the inmost part of you. Queen. What wilt thou do?-thou wilt not murder me? Ham. Leave wringing of your hands: peace; sit you down, And let me wring your heart: for so I shall, If it be made of penetrable stuff; If damned custom have not brazed it so, That it is proof and bulwark against sense. Queen. What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? Ham. A rhapsody of words. Heaven's face doth glow; With tristful visage, as against the doom, Queen. Ah me! what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this; See what a grace was seated on this brow: New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill; 1 Mars, an ancient Roman god, who, at an early period, was identified with the Greek Ares, or the god delighting in bloody war. Next to Jupiter, Mars enjoyed the high est honors at Rome; also, a planet. 'Mercury, in mythology, the messenger and interpreter of the gods, and the god of eloquence and of commerce, called Hermes by the Greeks. |