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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. (108)
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.
[One word more, good lady.]

QUEEN.

What shall I do?

do:

HAM. Not this, by no means, that I bid you
Let the bloat✶ king(109) tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you, his

mouse;

(110)

And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,(1)

Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,

That I essentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft. (2) 'Twere good, you let him
know:

For who, that's but a queen,' fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,
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 ;(13) and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, (4) in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

QUEEN. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of
breath,

⚫ heaven hath pleas'd it so] Ordained, hath been pleased that it should be so.

For who, that's but a queen] Strictly speaking, "no more than :" but, in the familiar language of banter, importing," who being as much as, having some pretence at least, or title, to the rank and state of," &c.

c

a paddock] Toad. See Macb. I. 1. Witches.

d a gib] Gilbert, a he cat. See I. H. IV. Falst. I. 2.

* blunt,

1623, 32.

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe*
What thou hast said to me.

HAM. I must to England; you know that?
QUEEN.

I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on.

Alack,

HAM. [There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,(115) They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, (116)

go

hard,

And marshal me to knavery: Let it work;
For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar: and it shall
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, '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 :(118)
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.

to breathe] Most distantly glance at. "Him you breathe of." II. 1. Polon.

to have the engineer

Hoist with his own petar] i. e. mount. Hoist is used as a verb neuter. Petard, Fr. is an engine to blow up gates, &c.

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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 (2)

Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing something stir,
Whips his rapier out,* 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?

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in this brainish apprehension] Distempered, brainsick, mood.

• Whips out his rapier, 4tos.

It will be laid to us, whose providence

Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of
haunt,"

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 mineral 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,
Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guildenstern!

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
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends; And, 4tos. To 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,(5)

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.

•kept short-and out of haunt] Narrowed the range, and prohibited from places of public resort.

These words were supplied by Theobald.

SCENE II.

Another Room in the same.

Enter HAMLET.

HAM.-Safely stowed. [Gentlemen 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?

(6)

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?

HAM. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: He

* to be demanded of a sponge] Of, for by, was the common phraseology of the day; and more particularly in the use of this

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