The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Hamlet Prince of Denmark The Tragedy of EMOTHE0010

Texto utilizado para esta edición digital:
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 1604/05. Edited by Jesús Tronch for the Early Modern European Theatre collection (EMOTHE). Text edited by Jesús Tronch, and checked by Donald L. Bailey.

Adaptación digital para EMOTHE:

Tronch Pérez, Jesus (Artelope)

Note on the Digital Edition

Commentary notes and critical apparatus are in process.

[ List of Characters

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, son of the late King Hamlet of Denmark

King Claudius, brother of the late King Hamlet

Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, now wife of King Claudius

Ghost of the late King Hamlet

Ophelia, daughter of Polonius

Polonius, counsellor to the King

Laertes, son of Polonius

Horatio, friend of Hamlet

Fortinbras, Prince of Norway

Rosencrantz, former schoolfellow of Hamlet

Guildenstern, former schoolfellow of Hamlet

Francisco, sentinel (in 1.1)

Barnardo, sentinel

Marcellus, sentinel

Voltemand, ambassador to Norway

Cornelius, ambassador to Norway

Reynaldo, servant of Polonius (in 2.1)

Player

Prologue, in 3.2

Player King, in 3.2

Player Queen, in 3.2

Lucianus, in 3.2

Captain, of the Norwegian army (in 4.4)

Gentleman, in 4.5

Followers, of Laertes (in 4.5)

Messenger, in 4.5

Sailor, in 4.6

1 Clown, a gravedigger (in 5.1)

2 Clown, in 5.1

Doctor, of divinity (in 5.1)

Osric, a courtier (in 5.2)

Lord, in 5.2

Ambasador, from England (in 5.2)

Lords

Gentleman, in 4.6

Messenger, in 4.7 ]

Attendants,
Trumpets,
Kettledrums and Drums,
Guard,
Sailors,
Officers,
another English Ambassador,
Norwegian army

[1.1V

X
- F1 1.1 (orig. “Actus Primus. Scoena Prima”)

]

Enter Barnardo and Francisco, two sentinels.

barnardo

Who’s there?

francisco

Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself.

barnardo

Long live the King —

francisco

Barnardo.V

- Q2 Barnardo.
- F1 Barnardo?

barnardo

He.

francisco

You come most carefully upon your hour —

barnardo

’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco —

francisco

For this relief much thanks. ’Tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart.

Have you had quiet guard?

francisco

Not a mouse stirring.

barnardo

Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

francco

I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who isV

- Q2 ho! Who is
- F1 who’s
- Q1 who goes

there?

horatio

Friends to this ground.

marcellus

And liegemen to the Dane.

francisco

Give you good night.

marcellus

Oh, farewell, honest soldierV

- F1 soldier
- Q2 souldiers (mod. “soldiers”)
- Q1 souldier

. Who hath relieved you?

francisco

Barnardo hathV

- Q1 Q2 hath
- F1 ha’s

my place. Give you good night.

Exit Francisco.

marcellus

Holla, Barnardo!

barnardo

Say, what, is Horatio there?

horatio

A piece of him.

barnardo

Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus —

horatioV

- Q2 HORATIO (orig. “Hora.”)
- F1 Q1 Mar. (mod. “MARCELLUS”)

What, has this thing appeared again tonight?

barnardo

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.

barnardo

Sit down awhile,

And let us once again assail your ears,

That are so fortified against our story,

What we have two nightsV

- Q2 Q1 have two nights
- F1 two Nights haue

seen.

horatio

Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Barnardo speak of this.

barnardo

Last night of all,

When yond same star that’s westward from the pole

Had made his course t’illume that part of heaven

Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one —

Enter Ghost.V

- Q2 Q1 Ghost.
- the Ghost. (after “thee of:” line 51)

marcellus

Peace, break thee off.

Look where it comes again.

barnardo

In the same figure like the King that’s dead.

marcellus

Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.

barnardo

Looks ’aV

- Q2 ’a
- F1 Q1 it

not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.

horatio

Most like. It harrowsV

- F1 harrows (orig. “harrowes”)
- Q2 horrowes (DENT modernizes as “horrows”)

me with fear and wonder.

barnardo

It would be spoke to.

marcellus

Speak toV

- Q2 Speak to
- F1 Q1 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.

barnardo

See, it stalks away.

horatio

Stay! Speak, speak! I charge theeV

- Q2 Q1 thee
- F1 thee,

speak!

Exit

marcellus

’Tis gone and will not answer.

barnardo

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

When he theV

- Q2 Q1 he the
- F1 th’

ambitious Norway combated.

So frowned he once when in an angry parle

He smote the sleddedV

- F1 sledded
- Q2 Q1 sleaded

poleaxeV

- Q2 Q1 poleaxe (orig. “pollax”)
- F1 Pollax
- Polacks

poleaxe on the ice.

’Tis strange.

marcellus

Thus twice before, and jumpV

- Q2 Q1 jump
- F1 iust

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 mineV

- Q2 mine
- F1 Q1 my

opinion

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

marcellus

Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this same strict and most observant watch

So nightly toils the subject of the land,

And withV

- Q2 with
- F1 Q1 why

castV

- F1 cast
- Q2 Q1 cost

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,

Whose image even but now appeared to us,

Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,N

Nota del editor

100

Thereto pricked on by a most emulate pride,

Dared to the combat, in which our valiant Hamlet

(For so this side of our known world esteemed him)

Did slay this Fortinbras, who by a sealed compact

Well ratified by law and heraldryV

- F1 Q1 heraldry
- heraldy

105

Did forfeit, with his life, all theseV

- Q2 these
- F1 Q1 those

his lands

Which he stood seized ofV

- Q2 Q1 of
- F1 on

to the conqueror;

Against the which a moiety competent

Was gagèd by our King, which had returnedV

- F1 returned
- Q2 returne

To the inheritance of Fortinbras

110

Had he been vanquisher, as by the same co-martV

- Q2 co-mart
- F1 Cou'nant (mod. “covenant”)
- Q6 compact

And carriage of the article designed

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimprovèd mettle, hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there

115

Sharked up a list of lawlessV

- Q2 Q1 lawless
- F1 Landlesse

resolutes

For food and diet to some enterprise

That hath a stomach in’t, which is no other,

AsV

- Q2 As
- F1 And

it doth well appear unto our state,

But to recover of us by strong hand

120

And terms compulsatoryV

- Q2 compulsatory
- F1 Compulsatiue

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 rummageV

- Q2 rummage (orig. “Romadge”)
- F1 Romage

in the land.

barnardoV

- Q2 BARNARDO ... countrymen.

I think it be no other but e’en so.

Well may it sort that this portentous figure

Comes armèd through our watch so like the King

That was and is the question of these wars.

horatio

A moteV

- Q4 mote
- Q2 moth

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 tennantless 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.

And even the like precurse of fear 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.

Enter Ghost.

But soft — behold, lo, where it comes again!

I’ll cross it though it blast me. — Stay, illusion!

It spreads his arms.

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,

130

Speak to me.

If thou art privy to thy country’s fate

Which happily foreknowing may avoid,

Oh, speak;

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth

135

(For which they say yourV

- Q2 your
- F1 Q1 you

spirits oft walk in death)

The cock crows.

Speak of it, stay and speak. — Stop it, Marcellus.

marcellus

Shall I strikeV

- Q2 strike
- F1 strike at

^Fat^F it with my partisan?

horatio

Do if it will not stand.

barnardo

’Tis here.

horatio

140

’Tis here.

[Exit Ghost.]

marcellus

’Tis gone.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence,

For it is as the air, invulnerable,

145

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

barnardo

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 mornV

- Q2 morn
- F1 day
- Q1 morning

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,

Th’extravagant and erring spirit hies

To his confine; and of the truth herein

155

This present object made probation.

marcellus

It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some sayV

- Q2 Q1 say
- F1 sayes

that ever ’gainst that season comes

Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,

ThisV

- Q2 This
- F1 Q1 The

bird of dawning singeth all night long;

160

And then, they say, no spirit dare stirV

- Q2 dare stir
- F1 can walke
- Q1 dare walke

abroad,

The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,

No fairy takesV

- Q2 Q1 takes
- F1 talkes

, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallowed and so gracious is thatV

- Q2 Q1 that
- F1 the

time.

horatio

So have I heard and do in part believe it.

165

But look, the morn in russet mantle clad

Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastwardV

- Q2 eastward
- F1 Easterne

hill.

Break we our watch up, and by my advice

Let us impart what we have seen tonight

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?V

- F1 duty?
- Q2 duty.

marcellus

Let’sV

- Q2 Q1 Let’s
- F1 Let

do’t, I pray, and I this morning know

Where we shall find him most convenientV

- Q2 convenient
- F1 Q1 conueniently

Exeunt.

[1.2]V

X
- F1 [1.2] (orig. “Scena Secunda”)
- Q2 (om.)

FlourishV

- Q2 Flourish
- F1 Q1 (om.)

Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, GertrudeV

- F1 Gertrude
- Q2 Gertrad (elswhere “Gertrard”)

QueenV

- Q2 F1 Claudius ... Queen (Q2 prints ”Gertrad”)
- Q1 King, Queene

the Queen,
Council: as Polonius, and his son Laertes, Hamlet,
with othersV

- Q2 with others (orig. “Cum Alijs”)
- F1 Lords Attendant
- Q1 with Attendants

Voltemand].V

- ARD2 [including ... Voltemand]. (subst.)
- Q2 (om.)

[including Cornelius and Voltemand].

kingV

- F1 Q1 KING
- Q2 Claud.

Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death

180

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

That we with wisest sorrow think on him

185

Together with remembrance of ourselves.

Therefore our sometimeV

- Q2 sometime
- F1 sometimes

sister, now our Queen,

Th’imperial jointress toV

- Q2 to
- F1 of

this warlike state,

Have we, as ’twere with a defeated joy,

With aV

- Q2 an ... a
- F1 one ... one

n aV

- Q2 an ... a
- F1 one ... one

uspicious aV

- Q2 an ... a
- F1 one ... one

nd aV

- Q2 an ... a
- F1 one ... one

dropping eye,

190

With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,

In equal scale weighing delight and dole,

Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barred

Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone

With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

195

Now follows that you knowV

- Q2 follows that you know
- F1 followes, 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,

Co-leaguèd with thisV

- Q2 this
- F1 the

dream of his advantage,

200

He hath not failed to pester us with message

Importing the surrender of those lands

Lost by his father, with all bondsV

- F1 bonds
- Q2 bands (a phonetic variant (OED))

of law,

To our most valiant brother. So much for him.V

- Q2 him.

205

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 bedrid, scarcely hears

Of this his nephew’s purpose) to suppress

210

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, VoltemandV

- F1 Q1 Voltemand
- Q2 Valtemand

For bearersV

- Q2 bearers
- F1 bearing

of this greeting to old Norway,

215

Giving to you no further personal power

To business with the King, more than the scope

Of these delatedV

- Q2 delated
- F1 dilated
- Q1 related

articles allow.

Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.

cornelius, voltemandV

- Q2 CORNELIUS, VOLTEMAND (orig. “Cor. Vo.”)
- F1 Volt.
- Q1 Gent.

In that and all things will we show our duty.

king

220

We doubt it nothing. Heartily, farewell.

[Exeunt Voltemand 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

225

And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes,V

- F1 Laertes, ... asking?
- Q2 Laertes,? ... asking,

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.

230

What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

laertes

My dread lord,V

- Q2 My dread
- F1 Dread my
- Q1 My gratious

Your leave and favour to return to France,

From whence though willingly I came to Denmark

To show my duty in your coronation,

235

Yet now I must confess, that duty done,

My thoughts and wishes bend again towardV

- Q2 toward
- F1 towards

France

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.

king

Have you your father’s leave? – What says Polonius?

polonius

240

H’ath, my lord,V

- Q2 lord, wrung ... consent.
- F1 Lord|:
- Q1 lord, wrung from me a forced graunt,

lord,V

wrung from me my slow leave

By laboursome petition, and at last

Upon his will I sealed my hard consent.

I do beseech you give him leave to go.

king

Take thy fair hour, Laertes, time be thine

And thy best graces spend it at thy will. —

But now, my cousin Hamlet,V

- Q2 F1 Hamlet,
- Q1 Hamlet, Exit. ((Exit direction for Leartes))

and my son —

hamlet

245

A little more than kin, and less than kind.V

- Q2 F1 A ... kind.
- Q1 (om.)

king

How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

hamlet

Not so much,V

- Q2 so much,
- F1 so

"son."V

- CAM3C in the "son."
- Q2 in the sonne.
- F1 i'th'Sun.

my lord; I am too much in the “son.”

queen

Good Hamlet, cast thy nightedV

- Q2 nighted
- F1 nightly

colour off

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.

250

Do not forever with thy vailèdV

- Q2 vailèd
- F1 veyled (mod. veiled)

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, it is common.

queen

255

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, cold mother,V

- Q2 cold mother (orig. “coold mother”)
- F1 good Mother
- Q3 could smother

Nor customary suits of solemn black,

260

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, moods, shapesV

- Q3 shapes
- Q2 chapes
- F1 shewes

of grief

That can denoteV

- F1 denote
- Q2 deuote (mod. “devote””)

me truly. These indeed “seem,”

265

For they are actions that a man might play,

But I have that within which passesV

- Q2 passes
- F1 passeth

show,

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

king

’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,

270

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

In filial obligation for some term

To do obsequious sorrow; but to persever

275

In obstinate condolement is a course

Of impious stubbornness, ’tis unmanly grief,

It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,

A heart unfortified or mindV

- F1 a Minde

impatient,

An understanding simple and unschooled.

280

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

Take it to heart? Fie, ’tis a fault to heaven,

A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,

285

To reason most absurd, whose common theme

Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried

From the first corpse till he that died today

“This must be so.” We pray you throw to earth

This unprevailing woe, and think of us

290

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

Than that which dearest father bears his son

Do I impart toward you. For your intent

295

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

300

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.

king

Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply.

305

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 today

But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell

310

And the King’s rouse the heaven shall bruit again,

Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away.

Flourish.

Exeunt all but Hamlet.

hamlet

Oh, that this too too sulliedV

meltV

flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,

315

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon ’gainst self-slaughter. O God, ^FO^F God,

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on’t, ah, fie, ^Ffie,^F ’tis an unweeded garden

320

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come thus:

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

325

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,

Must I remember? Why, she should hang on him

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on. And yet within a month

330

(Let me not think on’t — Frailty, thy name is Woman),

A little month, or ere those shoes were old

With which she followed my poor father’s body

Like Niobe, all tears, why, she — ^Feven she^F

(O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason

335

Would have mourned 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 gallèd eyes,

340

She married. Oh, 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 Barnardo.

horatio

345

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.

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

355

I am very glad to see you. —

[To Barnardo]

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,

Nor shall you do my ear that violence

360

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 for to drink ere you depart.

horatio

My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral.

hamlet

365

I prithee do not mock me, fellow student,

I think it was to see my mother’s wedding.

horatio

Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon.

hamlet

Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

370

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

^FOh, ^FWhere, my lord?

hamlet

In my mind’s eye, Horatio.

horatio

375

I saw him once; ’a was a goodly king.

hamlet

’A 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?

horatio

380

My lord, the King your father.

hamlet

The King my father?

horatio

Season your admiration for a while

With an attent ear till I may deliver

Upon the witness of these gentlemen

385

This marvel to you.

hamlet

For God’s love, let me hear!

horatio

Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Barnardo, on their watch

In the dead waste and middle of the night

390

Been thus encountered: a figure like your father

Armed at point, exactly cap-à-pie,

Appears before them and with solemn march

Goes slow and stately by them; thrice he walked

By their oppressed and fear-surprisèd eyes

395

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,

400

Where (as they had delivered, both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good)

The apparition comes. I knew your father;

These hands are not more like.

hamlet

But where was this?

marcellus

405

My lord, upon the platform where we watched.

hamlet

Did you not speak to it?

horatio

My lord, I did,

But answer made it none. Yet once methought

It lifted up it head and did address

410

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 vanished from our sight.

hamlet

’Tis very strange.

horatio

415

As I do live, my honoured lord, ’tis true,

And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

hamlet

Indeed, ^Findeed,^F sirs. But this troubles me.

Hold you the watch tonight?

marcellus, barnardo

420

We do, my lord.

hamlet

Armed, say you?

marcellus, barnardo

Armed, my lord.

hamlet

From top to toe?

marcellus, barnardo

My lord, from head to foot.

hamlet

425

Then saw you not his face.

horatio

Oh, yes, my lord, he wore his beaver up.

hamlet

What looked he, frowningly?

horatio

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

hamlet

Pale, or red?

horatio

430

Nay, very pale.

hamlet

And fixed his eyes upon you?

horatio

Most constantly.

hamlet

I would I had been there.

horatio

It would have much amazed you.

hamlet

435

Very like^F, very like^F. Stayed it long?

horatio

While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred.

marcellus, barnardo

Longer, longer.

horatio

Not when I saw’t.

hamlet

His beard was grizzled, no?

horatio

440

It was as I have seen it in his life:

A sable silvered.

hamlet

I will watch tonight.

Perchance ’twill walk again.

horatio

I warr’nt ^Fyou^F it will.

hamlet

If it assume my noble father’s person,

445

I’ll speak to it though hell itself should gape

And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,

If you have hitherto concealed this sight,

Let it be tenable in your silence still,

And whatsomever else shall hap tonight

450

Give it an understanding but no tongue.

I will requite your loves. So fare you well.

Upon the platform ’twixt eleven and twelve

I’ll visit you.

horatio, marcellus, barnardo

Our duty to your honour.

hamlet

455

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.

[1.3]

Enter Laertes and Ophelia, his sister.

laertes

My necessaries are embarked. Farewell.

And sister, as the winds give benefit

And convey is assistant, do not sleep

465

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,

470

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.

For nature crescent does not grow alone

475

In thews and bulks, 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:

480

His greatness weighed, his will is not his own;

^FFor he himself is subject to his birth:^F

He may not, as unvalued persons do,

Carve for himself, for on his choice depends

The safety and health of this whole state,

485

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

490

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,

Or looseV

- Q2 loose
- F1 lose

your heart, or your chaste treasure open

495

To his unmastered 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

500

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,

And in the morn and liquid dew of youth

505

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,

510

Do not as some ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven

Whiles like a puffed and reckless libertine

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads

And recks not his own rede.

Enter Polonius.

laertes

515

Oh, fear me not.

I stay too long. But here my father comes.

A double blessing is a double grace;

Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

polonius

520

Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail

And you are stayed for. There, my blessing with thee,

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue

525

Nor any unproportioned thought his act.

Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,

Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

530

Of each new-hatched, unfledged courage. Beware

Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,

Bear’t that th’opposèd may beware of thee.

Give every man thy ear but few thy voice;

Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgement.

535

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy

But not expressed 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.

540

Neither a borrower nor a lender, boy,

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulleth edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day

545

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Farewell, my blessing season this in thee.

laertes

Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

polonius

The time invests you. Go, your servants tend.

laertes

Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well

550

What I have said to you.

ophelia

’Tis in my memory locked

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

laertes

Farewell.

Exit Laertes.

polonius

What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you?

ophelia

555

So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet.

polonius

Marry, well bethought:

’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.

560

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

565

He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders

Of his affection to me.

polonius

Affection? Pooh, you speak like a green girl

Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.

Do you believe his “tenders” as you call them?

ophelia

570

I do not know, my lord, what I should think.

polonius

Marry, I will 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,

575

Running it thus) you’ll tender me a fool.

ophelia

My lord, he hath importuned me with love

In honourable fashion —

polonius

Ay, “fashion” you may call it. Go to, go to.

ophelia

And hath given countenance to his speech,

580

My lord, with almost all the holy vows of heaven.

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

585

Even in their promise as it is a-making,

You must not take for fire. From this time, ^Fdaughter,^F

Be something scanter of your maiden presence,

Set your entreatments at a higher rate

Than a command to parle. For Lord Hamlet,

590

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

595

But mere implorators of unholy suits

Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds

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

600

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.

[1.4]

Exeunt.

Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus.

hamlet

The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold.

horatio

605

It is a nipping and an eager air.

hamlet

What hour now?

horatio

I think it lacks of twelve.

marcellus

No, it is struck.

horatio

Indeed, I heard it not. It then draws near the season

610

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.

A flourish of trumpets and two pieces goes off.

What does this mean, my lord?

hamlet

The King doth wake tonight and takes his rouse,

Keeps wassail and the swagg’ring upspring reels,

And as he drains his draughts of Rennish down

615

The kettledrum 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

620

And to the manner born, it is a custom

More honoured in the breach than the observance.

This heavy-headed revel east and west

Makes us traduced and taxed of other nations:

They clepe us drunkards and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition, and indeed it takes

From our achievements, though performed 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 their o’ergrowth of some complexion

Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,

Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens

The form of plausive manners — that these men

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect

(Being Nature’s livery or Fortune’s star),

His 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 ev’l

Doth all the noble substance often dout

To his own scandal.

Enter Ghost.

horatio

Look, my lord, it comes.

hamlet

Angels and ministers of grace defend us! —

625

Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,

Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,

Be thy intents wicked or charitable,

Thou com’st in such a questionable shape

That I will speak to thee: I’ll call thee Hamlet,

630

King, father, royal Dane. Oh, ^Foh,^F answer me,

Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell

Why thy canonized bones, hearsèd in death,

Have burst their cerements, why the sepulchre

Wherein we saw thee quietly interred

635

Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws

To cast thee up again. What may this mean

That thou, dead corpse, again in complete steel

Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon,

Making night hideous, and we fools of nature

640

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.

horatio

It beckons you to go away with it

645

As if it some impartment did desire

To you alone.

marcellus

Look with what courteous action

It waves you to a more removèd ground,

But do not go with it.

horatio

650

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 at a pin’s fee,

655

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

660

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

665

You shall not go, my lord.

hamlet

Hold off your hands.

horatio

Be ruled, you shall not go.

hamlet

My fate cries out

And makes each petty artery in this body

670

As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.

Still am I called. 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

675

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.

horatio

Heaven will direct it.

marcellus

680

Nay, let’s follow him.

Exeunt.

[1.5]

Enter Ghost and Hamlet.

hamlet

Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I’ll go no further.

ghost

Mark me.

hamlet

I will.

ghost

685

My hour is almost come

When I to sulph’rous and tormenting flames

Must render up myself.

hamlet

Alas, poor ghost.

ghost

Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing

690

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,

695

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night

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,

700

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 combinèd locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end

705

Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.

But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, oh, list:

If thou didst ever thy dear father love —

hamlet

O God!

ghost

710

— 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^F, haste^F me to know’t, that I with wings as swift

As meditation or the thoughts of love

May sweep to my revenge.

ghost

I find thee apt.

And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed

720

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 forgèd process of my death

725

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!

ghost

Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,

730

With witchcraft of his wits, 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 ^Fa^F falling off was there,

735

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

Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor

To those of mine.

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

740

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,

So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,

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,

745

My custom always of the afternoon,

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole

With juice of cursèd hebona in a vial,

And in the porches of my ears did pour

The leperous distilment, whose effect

750

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 it doth posset

And curd like eager droppings into milk

755

The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine,

And a most instant tetter barked about

Most Lazar-like with vile and loathsome crust

All my smooth body.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand

760

Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,

Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled,

No reck’ning made, but sent to my account

With all my imperfections on my head.

765

Oh, horrible! Oh, horrible, most horrible!

If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not,

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couch for luxury and damnèd incest.

But howsomever thou pursues this act,

770

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

775

And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

Adieu, adieu, adieu. Remember me.

[Exit.]

hamlet

O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?

And shall I couple hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold, my heart,

And you, my sinews, grow not instant old

780

But bear me swiftly up. Remember thee?

Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles 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,

785

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past

That youth and observation copied there,

And thy commandment all alone shall live

Within the book and volume of my brain

Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, ^Fyes,^F by heaven.

790

O most pernicious woman!

O villain, villain, smiling damnèd villain!

My tables, ^Fmy tables,^F meet it is I set it down

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;

At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark.

795

So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word:

It is “Adieu, adieu. Remember me.”

I have sworn’t.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

horatio

My lord, my lord!

marcellus

Lord Hamlet!

horatio

800

Heavens secure him.

hamlet

So be it.

marcellus

Illo, ho, ho, my lord!

hamlet

Hillo, ho, ho, boy, come, bird, come!

marcellus

How is’t, my noble lord?

horatio

805

What news, my lord?

hamlet

Oh, wonderful.

horatio

Good my lord, tell it.

hamlet

No, you will reveal it.

horatio

Not I, my lord, by heaven.

marcellus

810

Nor I, my lord.

hamlet

How say you then, would heart of man once think it —

But you’ll be secret?

horatio, marcellus

Ay, by heaven^F, my lord^F.

hamlet

There’s never a villain dwelling in all Denmark

815

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 in the right,

And so without more circumstance at all

820

I hold it fit that we shake hands and part.

You, as your business and desire shall point you

(For every man hath business and desire

Such as it is), and for my own poor part

^FLook you,^F I will go pray.

horatio

825

These are but wild and whirling words, my lord.

hamlet

I am sorry they offend you — heartily,

Yes, faith, heartily.

horatio

There’s no offence, my lord.

hamlet

Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio,

830

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,

As you are friends, scholars and soldiers,

835

Give me one poor request.

horatio

What is’t, my lord? We will.

hamlet

Never make known what you have seen tonight.

horatio, marcellus

My lord, we will not.

hamlet

Nay, but swear’t.

horatio

840

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 cries under the stage.

ghost

845

Swear.

hamlet

Ha, ha, boy, say’st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny?

Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage,

Consent to swear.

horatio

Propose the oath, my lord.

hamlet

850

Never to speak of this that you have seen,

Swear by my sword.

ghost

[under the stage]

Swear.

hamlet

Hic et ubique?Hic et ubique? Then we’ll shift our ground.

Come hither, gentlemen,

855

And lay your hands again upon my sword.

Swear by my sword

Never to speak of this that you have heard.

ghost

[under the stage]

Swear by his sword.

hamlet

Well said, old mole. Canst work i’th’earth so fast?

860

A worthy pioneer! Once more remove, good friends.

horatio

Oh, 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,

865

Here as before: never, so help you mercy

(How strange or odd some’er I bear myself,

As I perchance hereafter shall think meet

To put an antic disposition on),

That you at such times seeing me, never shall

870

(With arms encumbered 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

875

That you know aught of me. This do swear,

So grace and mercy at your most need help you.

ghost

[under the stage]

Swear.

[They swear.]

hamlet

Rest, rest, perturbèd spirit. — So, gentlemen,

880

With all my love I do commend me to you,

And what so poor a man as Hamlet is

May do t’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.

885

The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite,

That ever I was born to set it right! —

Nay, come, let’s go together.

Exeunt.

[2.1]V

X
- Q6 [2.1] (subst.)
- Q2 (om.)
- F1 Actus Secundus

Enter old Polonius with his man [Reynaldo] or two.

polonius

890

Give him this money, and these notes, Reynaldo.

reynaldo

I will, my lord.

polonius

You shall do marv’llous wisely, good Reynaldo,

Before you visit him, to make enquire

Of his behaviour.

reynaldo

895

My lord, I did intend it.

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,

900

What company, at what expense, and finding

By this encompassment and drift of question

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,

905

As thus: “I know his father, and his friends,

And in part him” — do you mark this, Reynaldo?

reynaldo

Ay, very well, my lord.

polonius

“And in part him, but,” you may say, “not well;

But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild,

910

Addicted so and so,” and there put on him

What forgeries you please — marry, none so rank

As may dishonour him; take heed of that —

But, sir, such wanton, wild and usual slips

As are companions noted and most known

915

To youth and liberty.

reynaldo

As gaming, my lord?

polonius

Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing,

Quarrelling, drabbing — you may go so far.

reynaldo

My lord, that would dishonour him.

polonius

920

Faith, ^Fno,^F as you may season it in the charge.

You must not put another scandal on him,

That he is open to incontinency,

That’s not my meaning, but breathe his faults so quaintly

That they may seem the taints of liberty,

925

The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,

A savageness in unreclaimèd blood

Of general assault.

reynaldo

But my good lord —

polonius

Wherefore should you do this?

reynaldo

Ay, my lord, I would know that.

polonius

930

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 soiled wi’th’ working,

Mark you, your party in converse, him you would sound

935

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

940

Of man and country.

reynaldo

Very good, my lord.

polonius

And then, sir, does ’a this — ’a does — what was I about to say? By the mass, I was about to say something. Where did I leave?

reynaldo

945

At “closes in the consequence” —

^FAt “friend, or so”, and “gentleman.”^F

polonius

At “closes in the consequence,” ay, marry.

He closes ^Fwith you^F thus: “I know the gentleman,

I saw him yesterday, or th’other day,

950

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

955

Your bait of falsehood take 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

960

Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?

reynaldo

My lord, I have.

polonius

God b’wi’ye, fare ye well.

reynaldo

Good my lord.

polonius

Observe his inclination in yourself.

reynaldo

965

I shall, my lord.

polonius

And let him ply his music.

reynaldo

Well, my lord.

Exit Reynaldo.

Enter Ophelia.

polonius

Farewell. — How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?

ophelia

Oh, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted —

polonius

With what, i’th’name of God?

ophelia

My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,

Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,

975

No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,

Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,

Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,

And with a look so piteous in purport

As if he had been loosèd out of hell

980

To speak of horrors, he comes before me.

polonius

Mad for thy love?

ophelia

My lord, I do not know,

But truly I do fear it.

polonius

What said he?

ophelia

He took me by the wrist and held me hard,

985

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 ’a would draw it. Long stayed he so.

At last, a little shaking of mine arm,

990

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 turned,

995

He seemed 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.

polonius

Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.

This is the very ecstasy of love,

1000

Whose violent property fordoes itself

And leads the will to desperate undertakings

As oft as any passions under heaven

That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.

What, have you given him any hard words of late?

ophelia

1005

No, my good lord, but as you did command

I did repel his letters and denied

His access to me.

polonius

That hath made him mad.

I am sorry that with better heed and judgement

1010

I had not quoted him. I feared he did but trifle

And meant to wrack 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

1015

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.

Come.

Exeunt.

[2.2]

Flourish.

Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
[with Attendants].

king

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

1025

Of Hamlet’s transformation, so ^FI^F call it,

Sith nor th’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 th’understanding of himself

1030

I cannot dream of. I entreat you both

That, being of so young days brought up with him

And sith so neighboured to his youth and haviour,

That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court

Some little time, so by your companies

1035

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 opened lies within our remedy.

queen

Good gentlemen, he hath much talked of you,

And sure I am two men there is not living

1040

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 a while

For the supply and profit of our hope,

Your visitation shall receive such thanks

1045

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

1050

But we both obey

And here give up ourselves in the full bent

To lay our service freely at your feet

To be commanded.

king

Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.

queen

1055

Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.

And I beseech you instantly to visit

My too much changèd son. — Go some of you

And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

guildenstern

1060

Heavens make our presence and our practices

Pleasant and helpful to him.

queen

Ay, amen.

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern [and one or more Attendants].

Enter Polonius.

polonius

Th’ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,

1065

Are joyfully returned.

king

Thou still hast been the father of good news.

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;

1070

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

Oh, speak of that, that do I long to hear.

polonius

1075

Give first admittance to th’ambassadors.

My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.

king

Thyself do grace to them and bring them in.

[Polonius goes to the door.]

He tells me, my dear Gertrude, ^Fthat^F he hath found

The head and source of all your son’s distemper.

queen

1080

I doubt it is no other but the main:

His father’s death and our hasty marriage.

Enter Ambassadors [Voltemand and Cornelius].

king

Well, we shall sift him. — Welcome, my good friends.

Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?

voltemand

1085

Most fair return of greetings and desires.

Upon our first, he sent out to suppress

His nephew’s levies, which to him appeared

To be a preparation ’gainst the Polack;

But, better looked into, he truly found

1090

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,

1095

Makes vow before his uncle never more

To give th’assay of arms against your majesty.

Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,

Gives him threescore thousand crowns in anual fee

And his commission to employ those soldiers

1100

So levied (as before) against the Polack,

With an entreaty, herein further shown,

That it might please you to give quiet pass

Through your dominions for this enterprise

On such regards of safety and allowance

1105

As therein are set down.

king

It likes us well,

And at our more considered time we’ll read,

Answer and think upon this business.

Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labour.

1110

Go to your rest, at night we’ll feast together.

Most welcome home.

Exeunt Ambassadors [Voltemand and Cornelius].

polonius

This business is ^Fvery^F well ended.

My liege and madam, to expostulate

What majesty should be, what duty is,

1115

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.

1120

Mad call I it, for to define true madness,

What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?

But let that go.

queen

More matter with less art.

polonius

Madam, I swear I use no art at all.

1125

That he’s 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

That we find out the cause of this effect,

1130

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,

1135

Hath given me this. Now gather and surmise.

[Reads the letter.]

“To the celestial and my soul’s idol, the most beautified Ophelia” —
That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase, “beautified” is a vile phrase, but you shall hear: “thus in her excellent white bosom, these —” etc.

queen

Came this from Hamlet to her?

polonius

Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful.

[Reads the] letter.

“Doubt thou the stars are fire,

1145

Doubt that the sun doth move,

Doubt truth to be a liar,

But never doubt I love.

O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans, but that I love thee best — oh, most best — believe it. Adieu.
Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.”

ErrorMetrica

This in obedience hath my daughter shown me;

And more above hath his solicitings,

1155

As they fell out, by time, by means, and place,

All given to mine ear.

king

But how hath she received his love?

polonius

What do you think of me?

king

As of a man faithful and honourable.

polonius

1160

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

1165

If I had played the desk or table-book,

Or given my heart a working mute and dumb,

Or looked upon this love with idle sight,

What might you think? No, I went round to work

And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:

1170

“Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star.

This must not be.” And then I prescripts 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,

1175

And he, repellèd, 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

1180

And all we mourn for.

king

Do you think ^F’tis^F this?

queen

It may be, very like.

polonius

Hath there been such a time — I would fain know that —

That I have positively said ’tis so

1185

When it proved otherwise?

king

Not that I know.

polonius

Take this from this if this be otherwise.

If circumstances lead me, I will find

Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed

1190

Within the centre.

king

How may we try it further?

polonius

You know sometimes he walks four hours together

Here in the lobby.

queen

1195

So he does, indeed.

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,

1200

Let me be no assistant for a state

But keep a farm and carters.

king

We will try it.

Enter Hamlet [reading on a book].

queen

But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

polonius

Away, I do beseech you both, away.

I’ll board him presently. Oh, give me leave.

Exeunt King and Queen [and Attendants].

How does my good lord Hamlet?

hamlet

Well, God’a’mercy.

polonius

Do you know me, my lord?

hamlet

Excellent^F, excellent^F well, you are a fishmonger.

polonius

Not I, my lord.

hamlet

Then I would you were so honest a man.

polonius

Honest, my lord?

hamlet

Ay, sir, to be honest as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.

polonius

That’s very true, my lord.

hamlet

For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion — Have you a daughter?

polonius

I have, my lord.

hamlet

Let her not walk i’th’sun: conception is a blessing, but ^Fnot^F as your daughter may conceive, friend, look to’t.

polonius

[Aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first, ’a said I was a fishmonger. ’A is far gone, ^Ffar gone,^F 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?

hamlet

Words, words, words.

polonius

What is the matter, my lord?

hamlet

Between who?

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 plumtree 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 ^Fyou^F yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am: if like a crab you could go backward.

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.

polonius

Indeed, that’s out of 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 ^Fhonourable^F lord, I will ^Fmost humbly^F take my leave of you.

hamlet

You cannot^F, sir,^F take from me anything that I will not more willingly part withal, except my life, except my life, except my life.

polonius

Fare you well, my lord.

hamlet

These tedious old fools.

Enter Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

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 you 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 — Oh, most true, she is a strumpet. WhatV

- Q2 What
- F1 What’s the

news?

rosencrantz

None, my lord, butV

- Q2 but
- F1 but that

^Fthat^F the world’s grown honest.

hamlet

Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true.V

- Q2 true.
- F1 true. Let me question more in particular: what haue / you my good friends, deserued at the hands of Fortune, / that she sends you to Prison hither? / Guil. Prison, my Lord? / Ham. Denmark's a Prison. / Rosin. Then is the World one. / Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many Con- / fines, Wards, and Dungeons; Denmarke being one o'th' / worst. / Rosin. We thinke not so my Lord. / Ham. 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. / Rosin. Why then your Ambition makes it one: 'tis / too narrow for your minde. / Ham. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and / count my selfe a King of infinite space; were it not that / I haue bad dreames. / Guil. Which dreames indeed are Ambition: for the / very substance of the Ambitious, is meerely the shadow / of a Dreame. / Ham. A dreame it selfe is but a shadow. / Rosin. Truely, and I hold Ambition of so ayry and / light a quality, that it is but a shadowes shadow. / Ham. Then are our Beggers bodies; and our Mo- / narchs and out-stretcht Heroes the Beggers Shadowes: / shall wee to th'Court: for, by my fey I cannot rea- / son? / Both. Wee'l wait vpon you. / Ham. No such matter. I will not sort you with the / rest of my seruants: for to speake to you like an honest / man: I am most dreadfully attended;

^FLet 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’th’ worst.

rosencrantz

We think not so, my lord.

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 nutshell 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.

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 th’court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.

rosencrantz, 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.^F But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore?

rosencrantz

To visit you, my lord, no other occasion.

hamlet

Beggar that I am, I am everV

- Q2 ever
- F1 euen (mod. “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, come, deal justly with me. Come, come, nay, speak.

guildenstern

What should we say, my lord?

hamlet

^FWhy!^F Anything but to th’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.

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 can charge you withal, be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.

rosencrantz

What say you?

hamlet

Nay then, I have an eye of you! If you love me, hold not off.

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 appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What ^Fa^F 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? Man delights not me, ^Fno,^F nor women neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

rosencrantz

My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.

hamlet

Why did ye 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 on me), the Adventurous Knight shall use his foil and target, the Lover shall not sigh gratis, the Humorous Man shall end his part in peace, ^Fthe Clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o’th’sear,^F and the Lady shall say her mind freely — or the blank verse shall halt for’t. What players are they?

rosencrantz

Even those you were wont to take such 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?

rosencrantz

No, indeed are they not.

^Fhamlet

How comes it? Do they grow rusty?

rosencrantz

Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace. But there is, sir, an eyrie 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.

hamlet

What, are they children? Who maintains ’em? How are they escotted? 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 tar 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

Oh, there has been much throwing about of brains.

hamlet

Do the boys carry it away?

rosencrantz

Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load too.^F

hamlet

It is not very strange, for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those that would make mouths at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little. ’Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

A flourish.

guildenstern

There are the players.

hamlet

Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come then: th’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 outwards, 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.

polonius

Well be with you, gentlemen.

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 is 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, ^Ffor^F o’Monday morning, ’twas then indeed.

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 —

polonius

The actors are come hither, my lord.

hamlet

Buzz, buzz.

polonius

Upon my honour.

hamlet

Then came each actor on his ass.

polonius

The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, ^Ftragical-historical, tragical- comical-historical-pastoral,^F 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.

hamlet

O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou?

polonius

What a treasure had he, my lord?

hamlet

Why,

ErrorMetrica

“One fair daughter and no more,

1455

The which he loved passing well.”

polonius

[Aside] Still on my daughter.

hamlet

Am I not i’th’right, old Jephthah?

polonius

If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well.

hamlet

Nay, that follows not.

polonius

What follows then, my lord?

hamlet

Why,

ErrorMetrica

“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 abridgment comes. Enter the Players.
You are welcome, masters, welcome all. — I am glad to see thee well. — Welcome, good friends. — Oh, ^Fmy^F old friend, why, thy face is valanced since I saw thee last. Com’st thou to beard me in Denmark? What, my young lady and mistress! By’ Lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring. — Masters, you are all welcome. We’ll e’en to’t like French falc’ners, fly at anything we see. We’ll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality, come, a passionate speech.

1 player

What speech, my good lord?

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 caviary to the general. But it was (as I received it, and others whose judgements 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 savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affection, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much, more handsome than fine. One
speech in’t I chiefly loved: ’twas Aeneas’ talk
to Dido, and there about of it especially when he speaks
of Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at
this line — let me see, let me see:

ErrorMetrica

“The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast —”

’Tis not so, it begins with Pyrrhus:

ErrorMetrica

“The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,

1495

Black as his purpose, did the night resemble

When he lay couchèd in th’ominous horse,

Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared

With heraldry more dismal, head to foot.

Now is he total gules, horridly tricked

1500

With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,

Baked and impasted with the parching streets

That lend a tyrannous and a damnèd light

To their lord’s murder; roasted in wrath and fire,

And thus o’ersizèd with coagulate gore,

1505

With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus

Old grandsire Priam seeks.” —

So proceed you.

polonius

’Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.

1 player

“Anon he finds him,

1510

Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,

Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,

Repugnant to command. Unequal matched,

Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,

But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword

1515

Th’unnervèd father falls. Then senseless Ilium,

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

1520

Of reverend Priam, seemed i’th’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,

1525

The bold winds speechless and the orb below

As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder

Doth rend the region, so after Pyrrhus’ pause

A rousèd vengeance sets him new a-work,

And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall

1530

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,

1535

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.”

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.

1 Player

“But who — ah, woe — had seen the mobled queen” —

hamlet

“The mobled queen.”

polonius

That’s good. ^F“Mobled queen” is good.^F

1 player

— “Run barefoot up and down, threat’ning 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’erteemèd loins,

1550

A blanket in the alarm of fear caught up.

Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steeped,

’Gainst Fortune’s state would treason have pronounced.

But if the gods themselves did see her then,

When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport

1555

In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs,

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.”

polonius

Look whe’er he has not turned his colour and has tears in’s eyes. — Prithee, no more.

hamlet

’Tis well. I’ll have thee speak out the rest of this 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.

polonius

My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

hamlet

God’s bodkin, man, much better. Use every man after his desert, and who shall scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

polonius

Come, sirs.

hamlet

Follow him, friends. We’ll hear a play tomorrow. — Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play The Murder of Gonzago?

1 player

Ay, my lord.

hamlet

We’ll ha’t tomorrow night. You could for need study a speech of some dozen lines, or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in’t, could you not?

1 player

Ay, my lord.

hamlet

Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not. — My good friends, I’ll leave you till night. You are welcome to Elsinore.

Exeunt Polonius and Players.

rosencrantz

Good my lord.

Exeunt [all but Hamlet].

hamlet

Ay, so, God-bye to you. Now I am alone.

1590

Oh, 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 the visage wanned,

1595

Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,

A broken voice, an’ his whole function suiting

With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing.

For Hecuba.

What’s Hecuba to him, or he to her,

1600

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,

1605

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,

And can say nothing — no, not for a king,

1610

Upon whose property and most dear life

A damned 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’th’throat

1615

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?

Ha! ’Swounds, I should take it; for it cannot be

But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall

To make oppression bitter, or ere this

I should ’a’ fatted all the region kites

1620

With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain —

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!

^FOh, vengeance!^F

Why, what an ass am I: ^Fay, sure,^F this is most brave,

That I, the son of a dear murderèd,

1625

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,

Must like a whore unpack my heart with words

And fall a-cursing like a very drab,

A stallion. Fie upon’t, foh!

About, my brains! Hum, I have heard,

That guilty creatures sitting at a play

1630

Have by the very cunning of the scene

Been struck so to the soul that presently

They have proclaimed their malefactions.

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak

With most miraculous organ. I’ll have these players

1635

Play something like the murder of my father

Before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks.

I’ll tent him to the quick. If ’a do blench,

I know my course. The spirit that I have seen

May be a de’il, and the de’il hath power

1640

T’assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps

Out of my weakness and my melancholy,

As he is very potent with such spirits,

Abuses me to damn me. I’ll have grounds

More relative than this. The play’s the thing

1645

Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.

Exit.

[3.1]

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz,
Guildenstern, [and] Lords.

king

And can you by no drift of conference

Get from him why he puts on this confusion,

1650

Grating so harshly all his days of quiet

With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

rosencrantz

He does confess he feels himself distracted,

But from what cause ’a will by no means speak.

guildenstern

Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,

1655

But with a crafty madness keeps aloof

When we would bring him on to some confession

Of his true state.

queen

Did he receive you well?

rosencrantz

Most like a gentleman.

guildenstern

1660

But with much forcing of his disposition.

rosencrantz

Niggard of question, but of our demands

Most free in his reply.

queen

Did you assay him to any pastime?

rosencrantz

Madam, it so fell out that certain players

1665

We o’erraught on the way. Of these we told him

And there did seem in him a kind of joy

To hear of it. They are here about the court

And, as I think, they have already order

This night to play before him.

polonius

1670

’Tis most true,

And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties

To hear and see the matter.

king

With all my heart, and it doth much content me

To hear him so inclined.

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,

And drive his purpose into these delights.

rosencrantz

We shall, my lord.

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern [and Lords].

king

Sweet Gertrude, leave us two,

For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,

1680

That he, as ’twere by accident, may here

Affront Ophelia. Her father and myself ^F(lawful espials)^F

We’ll so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,

We may of their encounter frankly judge

And gather by him as he is behaved,

1685

If’t be th’affliction of his love or no

That thus he suffers for.

queen

I shall obey you.

And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish

That your good beauties be the happy cause

1690

Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues

Will bring him to his wonted way again

To both your honours.

ophelia

Madam, I wish it may.

[Exit Queen.]

polonius

Ophelia, walk you here. — Gracious, so please you,

1695

We will bestow ourselves. — Read on this book,

That show of such an exercise may colour

Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this,

(’Tis too much proved) that with devotion’s visage

And pious action we do sugar o’er

1700

The devil himself.

king

Oh, ’tis too true.

[Aside]

How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!

The harlot’s cheek beautied with plastering art

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it

1705

Than is my deed to my most painted word.

Oh, heavy burden!

Enter Hamlet.

polonius

I hear him coming: ^Flet's^F withdraw, my lord.

[Exeunt King and Polonius.]

hamlet

1710

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing, end them. To die — to sleep,

1715

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. ’Tis a consumation

Devoutly to be wished: to die to sleep;

To sleep, perchance to dream — ay, there’s the rub,

1720

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

Must give us pause. There’s the respect

That makes calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

1725

Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

1730

With a bare bodkin? Who would ^Fthese^F fardels bear

To grunt and sweat under a weary life

But that the dread of something after death

(The undiscovered country from whose bourn

No traveller returns) puzzles the will

1735

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards ^Fof us all^F,

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,

1740

And enterprises of great pitch and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry

And lose the name of action. Soft you now,

The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remembered.

ophelia

1745

Good my lord,

How does your honour for this many a day?

hamlet

I humbly thank you, ^Fwell, well,^F well.

ophelia

My lord, I have remembrances of yours

That I have longèd long to redeliver.

1750

I pray you now receive them.

hamlet

No, not I, I never gave you aught.

ophelia

My honoured lord, you know right well you did,

And with them words of so sweet breath composed

As made these things more rich. Their perfume lost,

1755

Take these again, for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

There, my lord.

hamlet

Ha, ha, are you honest?

ophelia

My lord?

hamlet

1760

Are you fair?

ophelia

What means your lordship?

hamlet

That if you be honest and fair, you should admit no discourse to your beauty.

ophelia

Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

hamlet

Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.

ophelia

Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

hamlet

You should not have believed me. For virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.

ophelia

I was the more deceived.

hamlet

Get thee to a nunn’ry. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves ^Fall^F , believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunn’ry. Where’s your father?

ophelia

At home, my lord.

hamlet

Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house. Farewell.

ophelia

Oh, help him, you sweet heavens!

hamlet

If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunn’ry. ^FGo.^F Farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunn’ry, go, and quickly too. Farewell.

ophelia

Heavenly powers, restore him.

hamlet

I have heard of your paintings ^Ftoo^F well enough. God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another. You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God’s creatures, and make your wantoness ignorance. Go to, I’ll no more on’t, it hath made me mad. I say we will have no mo marriage. Those that are married already, all but one, shall live. The rest shall keep as they are. To a nunn’ry, go.

Exit.

ophelia

Oh, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!

The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword,

Th’expectation and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

1810

Th’observed of all observers, quite quite down.

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That sucked the honey of his musiced vows,

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason

Like sweet bells jangled out of time and harsh;

1815

That unmatched form and stature of blown youth

Blasted with ecstasy. Oh, woe is me

T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see.

Enter King and Polonius.

king

Love — his affections do not that way tend,

1820

Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little,

Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul

O’er which his melancholy sits on brood,

And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose

Will be some danger; which for to prevent,

1825

I have in quick determination

Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England

For the demand of our neglected tribute.

Haply the seas and countries different,

With variable objects, shall expel

1830

This something-settled matter in his heart

Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus

From fashion of himself. What think you on’t?

polonius

It shall do well. But yet do I believe

The origin and commencement of his grief

1835

Sprung from neglected love. — How now, Ophelia?

You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said,

We heard it all. — My lord, do as you please,

But if you hold it fit, after the play,

Let his Queen-mother all alone entreat him

1840

To show his grief, let her be round with him,

And I’ll be placed (so please you) in the ear

Of all their conference. If she find him not,

To England send him, or confine him where

Your wisdom best shall think.

king

1845

It shall be so.

Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.

Exeunt.

[3.2]

Enter Hamlet and three of the Players.

hamlet

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently; for, in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant: it out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.

player

I warrant your honour.

hamlet

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance: that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature. For anything so o’erdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her ^Fown^F feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it makes the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of which one must in your allowance o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. Oh, there be players that I have seen play and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having th’accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature’s journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so “abhominably.”

player

I hope we have reformed that indifferently with us.

hamlet

Oh, reform it altogether, and let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them, for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go make you ready. [Exeunt Players.]
How now, my lord,
will the King hear this piece of work?

Enter Polonius, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.

polonius

And the Queen too, and that presently.

hamlet

Bid the players make haste.

[Exit Polonius.]

ErrorMetrica

Will you two help to hasten them?

rosencrantz

1900

Ay, my lord.

Exeunt they two.

hamlet

What ho, Horatio!

Enter Horatio.

horatio

Here, sweet lord, at your service.

hamlet

Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man

1905

As e’er my conversation coped withal.

horatio

Oh, my dear lord —

hamlet

Nay, do not think I flatter,

For what advancement may I hope from thee

That no revenue hast but thy good spirits

1910

To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flattered?

No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee

Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice

1915

And could of men distinguish her election,

Sh’hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been

As one in suff’ring all that suffers nothing,

A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards

Hast ta’en with equal thanks. And blest are those

1920

Whose blood and judgement are so well co-meddled

That they are not a pipe for Fortune’s finger

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man

That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him

In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart,

1925

As I do thee. Something too much of this.

There is a play tonight before the King.

One scene of it comes near the circumstance

Which I have told thee of my father’s death.

I prithee, when thou see’st that act afoot,

1930

Even with the very comment of thy soul,

Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt

Do not itself unkennel in one speech,

It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen,

And my imaginations are as foul

1935

As Vulcan’s stithy. Give him heedful note,

For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,

And after, we will both our judgements join

In censure of his seeming.

horatio

Well, my lord.

1940

If ’a steal aught the whilst this play is playing

And scape detected, I will pay the theft.

Enter Trumpets and Kettledrums, King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, [Rosencrantz,
Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant.] ^Fwith
his Guard carrying torches. Danish
march. Sound a Flourish.^F

hamlet

They are coming to the play. I must be idle.
Get you a place.

king

How fares our cousin Hamlet?

hamlet

Excellent, i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.

king

I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet, these words are not mine.

hamlet

No, nor mine now, my lord. [To Polonius] You played once i’th’university, you say?

polonius

That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor —

hamlet

What did you enact?

polonius

I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i’th’Capitol. Brutus killed me.

hamlet

It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. — Be the players ready?

rosencrantz

Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience.

queen

Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

hamlet

No, good mother, here’s metal more attractive.

polonius

[To the King] Oh ho, do you mark that?

hamlet

Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

ophelia

No, my lord.

^Fhamlet

I mean, my head upon your lap?

ophelia

Ay, my lord.^F

hamlet

Do you think I meant country matters?

ophelia

I think nothing, my lord.

hamlet

That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.

ophelia

What is, my lord?

hamlet

Nothing.

ophelia

You are merry, my lord.

hamlet

Who, I?

ophelia

Ay, my lord.

hamlet

O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry? For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within’s two hours.

ophelia

Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord.

hamlet

So long? Nay then, let the dev’l wear black, for I’ll have a suit of sables. O heavens, die two months ago and not forgotten yet! Then there’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year. But, by’r Lady, ’a must build churches then, or else shall ’a suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is “For oh, for oh, the hobby-horse is forgot!”

The Trumpets sounds. Dumb-show follows.

Enter a king and a queen, ^Fvery lovingly,^F the queen embracing
him and he her. ^FShe kneels and makes show of protestation unto
him.^F He takes her up and declines his head upon her neck; he
lies him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him
asleep, leaves him. Anon come in another man, takes off his
crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper’s ears, and
leaves him. The queen returns, finds the king dead,
makes passionate action. The poisoner with some three or
four come in again, seem to condole with her.
The dead body is carried away. The poisoner woos the
queen with gifts. She seems harsh awhile, [Exeunt Players].
but in the end accepts love.

ophelia

What means this, my lord?

hamlet

Marry, this’ munching Malicho — it means mischief.

ophelia

Belike this show imports the argument of the play.

Enter Prologue.

hamlet

We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel, they’ll tell all.

ophelia

Will ’a tell us what this show meant?

hamlet

Ay, or any show that you will show him. Be not you ashamed to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means.

ophelia

You are naught, you are naught. I’ll mark the
play.

prologue

For us and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency

We beg your hearing patiently.

[Exit.]

hamlet

Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

ophelia

’Tis brief, my lord.

hamlet

As woman’s love.

Enter [two Players as] King and Queen.

player king

Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ cart gone round

2025

Neptune’s salt wash and Tellus’ orbèd ground,

And thirty dozen moons with borrowed sheen

About the world have times twelve thirties been

Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands

Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

player queen

2030

So many journeys may the sun and moon

Make us again count o’er ere love be done.

But woe is me, you are so sick of late,

So far from cheer and from our former state,

That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,

2035

Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must.

For women fear too much, even as they love,

And women’s fear and love hold quantity,

In neither ought, or in extremity.

Now what my love is proof hath made you know,

And, as my love is sized, my fear is so.

Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;

Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.

player king

2040

Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too:

My operant powers their functions leave to do;

And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,

Honoured, beloved, and haply one as kind

For husband shalt thou —

player queen

2045

Oh, confound the rest!

Such love must needs be treason in my breast.

In second husband let me be accursed.

None wed the second but who killed the first.

hamlet

That’s wormwood.

player queen

2050

The instances that second marriage move

Are base respects of thrift, but none of love.

A second time I kill my husband dead

When second husband kisses me in bed.

player king

I do believe you think what now you speak.

2055

But what we do determine oft we break.

Purpose is but the slave to memory,

Of violent birth but poor validity,

Which now, the fruit unripe, sticks on the tree,

But fall unshaken when they mellow be.

2060

Most necessary ’tis that we forget

To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt.

What to ourselves in passion we propose,

The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.

The violence of either grief or joy

2065

Their own enactures with themselves destroy.

Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;

Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.

This world is not for aye, nor ’tis not strange

That even our loves should with our fortunes change,

2070

For ’tis a question left us yet to prove

Whether Love lead Fortune, or else Fortune Love.

The great man down, you mark his favourite flies;

The poor advanced makes friends of enemies;

And hitherto doth Love on Fortune tend:

2075

For who not needs shall never lack a friend,

And who in want a hollow friend doth try

Directly seasons him his enemy.

But orderly to end where I begun,

Our wills and fates do so contrary run

2080

That our devices still are overthrown:

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.

So think thou wilt no second husband wed,

But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.

player queen

Nor earth to me give food nor heaven light,

2085

Sport and repose lock from me day and night,

To desperation turn my trust and hope,

An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope,

Each opposite that blanks the face of joy

Meet what I would have well and it destroy,

Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife,

If once I be a widow ever I be a wife.

hamlet

If she should break it now.

player king

’Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile.

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile

The tedious day with sleep.

player queen

2095

Sleep rock thy brain,

[He sleeps.]

And never come mischance between us twain.

Exit.

hamlet

Madam, how like you this play?

queen

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

hamlet

Oh, but she’ll keep her word.

king

Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in’t?

hamlet

No, no, they do but jest — poison in jest, no offence i’th’world.

king

What do you call the play?

hamlet

The Mousetrap. Marry, how tropically! This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna. Gonzago is the duke’s name; his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. ’Tis a knavish piece of work, but what of that? Your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung. Enter Lucianus.
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.

ophelia

You are as good as a chorus, my lord.

hamlet

I could interpret between you and your love if I could see the puppets dallying.

ophelia

You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

hamlet

It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge.

ophelia

Still better and worse.

hamlet

So you mis-take your husbands. — Begin, murderer. ^FPox!^F Leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come: “the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge.”

lucianus

Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing,

Confederate season, else no creature seeing,

Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,

With Hecate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,

Thy natural magic and dire property

2130

On wholesome life usurps immediately.

[Pours the poison in his ears.]

hamlet

’A poisons him i’th’garden for his estate. His name’s Gonzago. The story is extant and written in very choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife.

ophelia

The King rises.

^Fhamlet

What, frighted with false fire?^F

queen

How fares my lord?

polonius

Give o’er the play.

king

Give me some light. Away!

polonius

Lights, lights, lights!

Exeunt
all but Hamlet and Horatio.

hamlet

Why, let the stricken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play,

2145

For some must watch while some must sleep.

Thus runs the world away.

Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me, with ^Ftwo^F Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players?

horatio

Half a share.

hamlet

A whole one, I.

ErrorMetrica

For thou dost know, O Damon dear,

This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself, and now reigns here

A very, very — pajock.

horatio

You might have rhymed.

hamlet

O good Horatio, I’ll take the Ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?

horatio

Very well, my lord.

hamlet

Upon the talk of the poisoning?

horatio

I did very well note him.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

hamlet

Ah ha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!

ErrorMetrica

2165

For, if the King like not the comedy,

Why then belike he likes it not, perdie.

Come, some music!

guildenstern

Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

hamlet

Sir, a whole history.

guildenstern

The King, sir —

hamlet

Ay, sir, what of him?

guildenstern

— is in his retirement marvellous distempered.

hamlet

With drink, sir?

guildenstern

No, my lord, ^Frather^F with choler —

hamlet

Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to the doctor, for, for me to put him to his purgation, would perhaps plunge him into ^Ffar^F more choler.

guildenstern

Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair.

hamlet

I am tame, sir. Pronounce.

guildenstern

The Queen your mother in most great affliction of spirit hath sent me to you.

hamlet

You are welcome.

guildenstern

Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s commandement. If not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of ^Fmy^F business.

hamlet

Sir, I cannot.

rosencrantz

What, my lord?

hamlet

Make you a wholesome answer: my wit’s diseased. But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command, or rather, as you say, my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter. My mother, you say —

rosencrantz

Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.

hamlet

Oh, wonderful son that can so ’stonish a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration? Impart.

rosencrantz

She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed.

hamlet

We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us?

rosencrantz

My lord, you once did love me.

hamlet

And do still, by these pickers and stealers.

rosencrantz

Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend.

hamlet

Sir, I lack advancement.

rosencrantz

How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?

hamlet

Ay, sir, but while the grass grows — the proverb is something musty. — Enter the Players with recorders. Oh, the recorders! Let me see one. — To withdraw with you, why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

guildenstern

O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.

hamlet

I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe?

guildenstern

My lord, I cannot.

hamlet

I pray you.

guildenstern

Believe me, I cannot.

hamlet

I do beseech you.

guildenstern

I know no touch of it, my lord.

hamlet

It is as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.

guildenstern

But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill.

hamlet

Why, look you now how unworthy a thing you make of me: you would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to ^Fthe top of^F my compass, and there is much music, excellent voice in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. ’Sblood! Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will,
God though you fret me you cannot play upon me. bless you, sir.

Enter Polonius.

polonius

My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently.

hamlet

Do you see yonder cloud that’s almost in shape of a camel?

polonius

By th’mass, and ’tis, like a camel indeed.

hamlet

Methinks it is like a weasel.

polonius

It is backed like a weasel.

hamlet

Or like a whale.

polonius

Very like a whale.

hamlet

Then I will come to my mother by and by. [Aside] They fool me to the top of my bent. [To Polonius] — I will come by and by. [To Polonius] I will, say so. [To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern] — Leave me, friends. “By and by” is easily said.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]

ErrorMetrica

’Tis now the very witching time of night

2260

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breaks out

Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood

And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother.

O heart, lose not thy nature. Let not ever

2265

The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom;

Let me be cruel, not unnatural.

I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites.

How in my words somever she be shent

2270

To give them seals never my soul consent.

Exit

[3.3]

Enter King, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

king

I like him not, nor stands it safe with us

To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you:

I your commission will forthwith dispatch,

2275

And he to England shall along with you.

The terms of our estate may not endure

Hazard so near’s as doth hourly grow

Out of his brows.

guildenstern

We will ourselves provide.

2280

Most holy and religious fear it is

To keep those many many bodies safe

That live and feed upon your majesty.

rosencrantz

The single and peculiar life is bound

2285

With all the strength and armour of the mind

To keep itself from noyance, but much more

That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests

The lives of many. The cess of majesty

Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw

2290

What’s near it with it; or it is a massy wheel

Fixed on the summit of the highest mount

To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things

Are mortised and adjoined, which, when it falls,

Each small annexment, petty consequence,

2295

Attends the boist’rous ruin. Never alone

Did the King sigh but with a general groan.

king

Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage,

For we will fetters put about this fear

Which now goes too free-footed.

rosencrantz

2300

We will haste us.

Exeunt Gentlemen [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern].

Enter Polonius.

polonius

My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet.

Behind the arras I’ll convey myself

To hear the process. I’ll warrant she’ll tax him home,

2305

And, as you said (and wisely was it said),

’Tis meet that some more audience than a mother,

Since nature makes them partial, should o’erhear

The speech of vantage. Fare you well, my liege,

I’ll call upon you ere you go to bed

2310

And tell you what I know.

king

Thanks, dear my lord. —

Exit [Polonius].

Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven,

It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,

A brother’s murder. Pray can I not,

2315

Though inclination be as sharp as will,

My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,

And, like a man to double business bound,

I stand in pause where I shall first begin

And both neglect. What if this cursed hand

2320

Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood?

Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens

To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy

But to confront the visage of offence?

And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,

2325

To be forestallèd ere we come to fall

Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.

My fault is past, but oh, what form of prayer

Can serve my turn? “Forgive me my foul murder?”

That cannot be since I am still possessed

2330

Of those effects for which I did the murder:

My crown, mine own ambition and my Queen.

May one be pardoned and retain th’offence?

In the corrupted currents of this world

Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice,

2335

And oft ’tis seen the wicked prize itself

Buys out the law; but ’tis not so above,

There is no shuffling, there the action lies

In his true nature, and we ourselves compelled

Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults

2340

To give in evidence. What then? What rests?

Try what repentance can. What can it not?

Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?

O wretched state, O bosom black as death,

O limèd soul, that, struggling to be free,

2345

Art more engaged! Help, angels, make assay.

Bow, stubborn knees, and heart with strings of steel

[Kneels?]

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe.

All may be well.

Enter Hamlet.

hamlet

2350

Now might I do it — but now ’a is a-praying.

And now I’ll do’t

[Draws his sword.]

— and so ’a goes to heaven,

And so am I revenged. That would be scanned:

A villain kills my father, and for that

I, his sole son, do this same villain send

2355

To heaven.

2355

Why, this is base and silly, not revenge.

’A took my father grossly, full of bread,

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May,

And how his audit stands who knows save heaven,

But in our circumstance and course of thought

2360

’Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged

To take him in the purging of his soul

When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?

No.

Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent:

When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,

2365

Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed,

At game a-swearing, or about some act

That has no relish of salvation in’t,

Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven

And that his soul may be as damned and black

2370

As hell whereto it goes. My mother stays.

This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

Exit.

king

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Exit.

[3.4]

Enter [Queen] Gertrude and Polonius.

polonius

2375

’A will come straight.

Look you lay home to him.

Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,

And that your grace hath screened and stood between

Much heat and him. I’ll silence me even here.

2380

Pray you be round ^Fwith him^F.

^Fhamlet

Within

Mother, mother, mother.^F

queen

I’ll warrant you, fear me not.

Withdraw, I hear him coming.

[Polonius hides behind the arras.]

Enter Hamlet.

hamlet

2385

Now, mother, what’s the matter?

queen

Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.

hamlet

Mother, you have my father much offended.

queen

Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.

hamlet

Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.

queen

2390

Why, how now, Hamlet?

hamlet

What’s the matter now?

queen

Have you forgot me?

hamlet

No, by the rood, not so,

You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife,

2395

And, would it were not so, you are my mother.

queen

Nay, then I’ll set those to you that can speak.

hamlet

Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not budge.

You go not till I set you up a glass

2400

Where you may see the inmost part of you.

queen

What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?

Help, ^Fhelp,^F ho!

polonius

[Behind the arras.]

What ho! Help! ^FHelp, help!^F

hamlet

How now, a rat! Dead for a ducat, dead!

[Kills Polonius.]

polonius

2405

[Behind the arras.]

Oh, I am slain.

queen

O me, what hast thou done?

hamlet

Nay, I know not. Is it the King?

queen

Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!

hamlet

A bloody deed — almost as bad, good mother,

2410

As kill a king and marry with his brother.

queen

As kill a king?

hamlet

Ay, lady, it was my word. —

[Discovers Polonius.]

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.

I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.

2415

Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger. —

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 damnèd custom have not brazed it so

2420

That it be proof and bulwark against sense.

queen

What have I done that thou dar’st wag thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

hamlet

Such an act

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,

2425

Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose

From the fair forehead of an innocent love

And sets a blister there, makes marriage vows

As false as dicers’ oaths — oh, such a deed

As from the body of contraction plucks

2430

The very soul, and sweet religion makes

A rhapsody of words. Heaven’s face does glow

O’er this solidity and compound mass

With heated visage, as against the doom

Is thought-sick at the act.

queen

2435

Ay me, what act

That roars so loud and thunders in the index?

hamlet

Look here upon this picture, and on this,

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.

See what a grace was seated on his brow,

2440

Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself,

An eye like Mars to threaten and command,

A station like the herald Mercury,

New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill,

A combination and a form indeed

2445

Where every god did seem to set his seal

To give the world assurance of a man.

This was your husband. Look you now what follows:

Here is your husband like a mildewed ear

Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?

2450

Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed

And batten on this moor? Ha, have you eyes?

You cannot call it love, for at your age

The heyday in the blood is tame, it’s humble

And waits upon the judgement, and what judgement

2455

Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have,

Else could you not have motion, but sure that sense

Is apoplexed, for madness would not err

Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thralled

But it reserved some quantity of choice

To serve in such a difference. What devil was’t

That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind?

Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,

Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,

Or but a sickly part of one true sense

Could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush?

Rebellious hell,

If thou canst mutine in a matron’s bones,

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax

2460

And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardour gives the charge,

Since frost itself as actively doth burn

And reason panders will.

queen

O Hamlet, speak no more!

2465

Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul,

And there I see such black and grainèd spots

As will leave there their tinct.

hamlet

Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed

2470

Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love

Over the nasty sty —

queen

Oh, speak to me no more,

These words like daggers enter in my ears.

No more, sweet Hamlet.

hamlet

2475

A murderer and a villain,

A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe

Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings,

A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,

That from a shelf the precious diadem stole

2480

And put it in his pocket —

queen

No more.

Enter Ghost.

hamlet

A king of shreds and patches —

Save me and hover o’er me with your wings,

2485

You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?

queen

Alas, he’s mad.

hamlet

Do you not come your tardy son to chide,

That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by

Th’important acting of your dread command? Oh, say!

ghost

2490

Do not forget. This visitation

Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.

But look, amazement on thy mother sits.

Oh, step between her and her fighting soul.

Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.

2495

Speak to her, Hamlet.

hamlet

How is it with you, lady?

queen

Alas, how is’t with you,

That you do bend your eye on vacancy

And with th’incorporal air do hold discourse?

2500

Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep,

And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’alarm,

Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,

Start up and stand on end. O gentle son,

Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper

2505

Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

hamlet

On him, on him. Look you how pale he glares.

His form and cause conjoined preaching to stones

Would make them capable. — Do not look upon me,

Lest with this piteous action you convert

2510

My stern effects. Then what I have to do

Will want true colour, tears perchance for blood.

queen

To whom do you speak this?

hamlet

Do you see nothing there?

queen

Nothing at all, yet all that is I see.

hamlet

2515

Nor did you nothing hear?

queen

No, nothing but ourselves.

hamlet

Why, look you there, look how it steals away,

My father in his habit as he lived,

Look where he goes, even now out at the portal.

Exit Ghost.

queen

2520

This is the very coinage of your brain.

This bodiless creation ecstasy

Is very cunning in.

hamlet

^FEcstasy?^F

My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time

And makes as healthful music. It is not madness

2525

That I have uttered. Bring me to the test,

And I the matter will reword, 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.

2530

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

2535

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, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

queen

O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.

hamlet

Oh, 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 habits 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 tonight,

2545

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 shame the devil or throw him out

With wondrous potency. Once more, good night.

And when you are desirous to be blessed

I’ll blessing beg of you. For this same lord

I do repent, but heaven hath pleased it so

2550

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.

2555

This bad begins and worse remains behind.

One word more, good lady.

queen

What shall I do?

hamlet

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,

2560

And let him for a pair of reechy 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,

2565

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,

2570

Let the birds fly and, like the famous ape,

To try conclusions in the basket creep

And break your own neck down.

queen

Be thou assured, if words be made of breath

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

2575

What thou hast said to me.

hamlet

I must to England, you know that?

queen

Alack, I had forgot. ’Tis so concluded on.

hamlet

There’s letters sealed, and my two schoolfellows,

Whom I will trust as I will adders fanged,

They bear the mandate, they must sweep my way

And marshal me to knavery. Let it work,

For ’tis the sport to have the enginer

Hoist with his own petard, and’t shall go hard

But I will delve one yard below their mines

And blow them at the moon. Oh, ’tis most sweet

When in one line two crafts directly meet.

This man shall set me packing;

I’ll lug the guts into the neighbor room.

2580

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.

Exit [Hamlet tugging in Polonius].

[4.1]

Enter King, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

king

There’s matter in these sighs. These profound heaves

You must translate; ’tis fit we understand them.

2590

Where is your son?

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

queen

Bestow this place on us a little while.

Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen tonight!

king

What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

queen

Mad as the sea and wind when both contend

Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit,

2595

Behind the arras hearing something stir,

Whips out his rapier,^Fand^F cries “A rat, a rat!”

And in this brainish apprehension kills

The unseen good old man.

king

Oh, heavy deed!

2600

It had been so with us had we been there.

His liberty is full of threats to all,

To you yourself, to us, to everyone.

Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?

It will be laid to us, whose providence

2605

Should have kept short, restrained 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

2610

Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?

queen

To draw apart the body he hath killed,

O’er whom — his very madness like some ore

Among a mineral of metals base

Shows itself pure — ’a weeps for what is done.

king

2615

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 dragged him.

Go seek him out, speak fair and bring the body

2625

Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this.

[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.]

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 envious slander

Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter,

As level as the cannon to his blank,

Transports his poisoned shot, may miss our name

And hit the woundless air. Oh, come away,

My soul is full of discord and dismay.

Exeunt.

[4.2]

Enter Hamlet.

hamlet

Safely stowed. [Calling within^F “Hamlet, Lord Hamlet!”^F]
But soft. What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? Oh, here they come.

Enter Rosencrantz[, Guildenstern] and others.

rosencrantz

2635

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

hamlet

Compound it with dust whereto ’tis kin.

rosencrantz

Tell us where ’tis that we may take it thence

And bear it to the chapel.

hamlet

Do not believe it.

rosencrantz

2640

Believe what?

hamlet

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?

rosencrantz

Take you me for a sponge, my lord?

hamlet

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 keeps them like an ape an apple 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.

rosencrantz

I understand you not, my lord.

hamlet

I am glad of it, a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

rosencrantz

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

hamlet

The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. The King is a thing —

guildenstern

A thing, my lord?

hamlet

Of nothing. Bring me to him. ^FHide fox and all after.^F

Exeunt.

[4.3]

Enter King, and two or three.

king

I have sent to seek him and to find the body.

How dangerous is it that this man goes loose!

Yet must not we put the strong law on him:

2665

He’s loved of the distracted multitude,

Who like not in their judgement but their eyes,

And where ’tis so, th’offender’s scourge is weighed

But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,

This sudden sending him away must seem

2670

Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown

By desperate appliance are relieved,

Or not at all.

Enter Rosencrantz, [Guildenstern] and all the rest.

How now, what hath befall’n?

rosencrantz

Where the dead body is bestowed, my lord,

2675

We cannot get from him.

king

But where is he?

rosencrantz

Without, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.

king

Bring him before us.

rosencrantz

2680

Ho^F, Guildenstern^F! Bring in the lord.

They [Hamlet and Guards] enter.

king

Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?

hamlet

At supper.

king

At supper, where?

hamlet

Not where he eats but where ’a is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves 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.

hamlet

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?

hamlet

Nothing but to show you how a king may go
a progress through the guts of a beggar.

king

Where is Polonius?

hamlet

In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’th’other place yourself. But if indeed 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.

hamlet

’A will stay till you come.

[Exeunt Guards.]

king

Hamlet, this deed^F of thine^F, for thine especial safety

(Which we do tender as we dearly grieve

For that which thou hast done) must send thee hence.

^FWith fiery quickness.^F Therefore prepare thyself.

2705

The bark is ready and the wind at help,

Th’associates tend, and every thing is bent

For England.

hamlet

For England?

king

Ay, Hamlet.

hamlet

2710

Good.

king

So is it if thou knew’st our purposes.

hamlet

I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England.

Farewell, dear mother.

king

Thy loving father, Hamlet.

hamlet

My mother: father and mother is man and wife;

Man and wife is one flesh; ^Fand^F so, my mother.

Come, for England.

Exit.

king

Follow him at foot,

Tempt him with speed aboard,

2720

Delay it not, I’ll have him hence tonight.

Away, for everything is sealed and done

That else leans on th’affair. Pray you make haste.

[Exeunt all but the King.]

And England, if my love thou hold’st at aught

As my great power thereof may give thee sense,

2725

Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red

After the Danish sword, and thy free awe

Pays homage to us, thou mayst not coldly set

Our sovereign process, which imports at full

By letters congruing to that effect

2730

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, my joys were ne’re begun.

Exit.

[4.4]

Enter Fortinbras with his army [including a Captain] over the stage.

fortinbras

2735

Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish King.

Tell him that by his licence Fortinbras

Craves the conveyance of a promised march

Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.

If that his majesty would aught with us,

2740

We shall express our duty in his eye,

And let him know so.

captain

I will do’t, my lord.

fortinbras

Go softly on.

[Exeunt all but the Captain].

Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, [Guildenstern,] etc.

hamlet

Good sir, whose powers are these?

captain

They are of Norway, sir.

hamlet

How purposed, sir, I pray you?

captain

Against some part of Poland.

hamlet

Who commands them, sir?

captain

The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.

hamlet

Goes it against the main of Poland, sir,

Or for some frontier?

captain

Truly to speak, 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.

hamlet

Why, then the Polack never will defend it.

captain

Yes, it is already garrisoned.

hamlet

Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats

Will not debate the question of this straw.

This is th’impostume of much wealth and peace

That inward breaks and shows no cause without

Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.

captain

God b'wi' you, sir.

[Exit.]

Rosencrantz

Will’t please you go, my lord?

hamlet

I’ll be with you straight. Go a little before.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]

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

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and god-like reason

To fust in us unused. Now whether it be

Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on th’event

(A thought which quartered hath but one part wisdom

And ever three parts coward) I do not know

Why yet I live to say this thing’s to do,

Sith 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 puffed

Makes mouths at the invisible event,

Exposing what is mortal and unsure

To all that fortune, death and danger dare,

Even for an eggshell. 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 killed, a mother stained,

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

Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,

Which is not tomb enough and continent

To hide the slain. Oh, from this time forth

My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.

Exit.

[4.5]

Enter Horatio, [Queen] Gertrude, and a Gentleman.

queen

2745

I will not speak with her.

gentleman

She is importunate,

Indeed distract. Her mood will needs be pitied.

queen

What would she have?

gentleman

She speaks much of her father, says she hears

2750

There’s tricks i’th’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

The hearers to collection; they yawn at it

2755

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts,

Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them,

Indeed would make one think there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

horatio

’Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew

2760

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.

Let her come in.

[Exit Gentleman.]

queen

[Aside]

To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is,

Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss.

So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

2765

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Enter Ophelia [distracted].

ophelia

Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

queen

How now, Ophelia?

ophelia

She sings.

How should I your true love know

From another one,

2770

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.

queen

Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

ophelia

Say you? Nay, pray you, mark.

Song.

ErrorMetrica

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone.

At his head a grass-green turf,

Oh, ho!

ErrorMetrica

At his heels a stone.

queen

Nay, but Ophelia —

ophelia

Pray you, mark.

[She sings.]

ErrorMetrica

White his shroud as the mountain snow —

Enter King.

queen

Alas, look here, my lord.

ophelia

2780

Song.

Larded all with sweet flowers

Which bewept to the ground did not go

With true-love showers.

king

How do you, pretty lady?

ophelia

Well, good dild 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.

ophelia

Pray^F you^F, let’s have no words of this, but when Song. they ask you what it means, say you this:

ErrorMetrica

2790

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose, and donned his clo’es,

And dupped the chamber door,

Let in the maid that out a maid

Never departed more.

king

Pretty Ophelia.

ophelia

Indeed, ^Fla!,^F without an oath I’ll make an end on’t.

[Song.]

ErrorMetrica

By Gis and by Saint Charity,

Alack and fie for shame,

Young men will do’t if they come to’t,

By Cock they are to blame.

2800

Quoth she, “Before you tumbled me

You promised me to wed.”

He answers:

ErrorMetrica

“So would I ha’ done by yonder sun

An thou hadst not come to my bed.”

king

How long hath she been thus?

ophelia

I hope all will be well. We must be patient. But I cannot choose but weep to think they would lay him i’th’cold ground. My brother shall know of it. And so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach. Good night, ladies, good night. Sweet ladies, good night, good night.

[Exit.]

king

Follow her close. Give her good watch, I pray you.

[Exit Horatio.]

Oh, this is the poison of deep grief. It springs

All from her father’s death, and now behold.

O Gertrude, Gertrude,

2815

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

2820

For good Polonius’ death, and we have done but greenly

In hugger-mugger to inter him; poor Ophelia

Divided from herself and her fair judgement,

Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts;

Last, and as much containing as all these,

2825

Her brother is in secret come from France,

Feeds on this 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 beggared,

2830

Will nothing stick our person to arraign

In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this

Like to a murd’ring-piece in many places

Gives me superfluous death.

A noise within.

Enter a Messenger.

^Fqueen

2835

Alack, what noise is this?^F

king

Attend! Where is my Switzers? Let them guard the door.

What is the matter?

messenger

Save yourself, my lord.

The ocean overpeering of his list

2840

Eats not the flats with more impiteous haste

Than young Laertes in a riotous head

O’erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord,

And, as the world were now but to begin,

Antiquity forgot, custom not known,

2845

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 trail they cry!

[Exit Messenger.]

A noise within.

2850

Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs!

Enter Laertes with others[, his Followers, at the door].

king

The doors are broke.

laertes

Where is this King? — Sirs, stand you all without.

followers

No, let’s come in.

laertes

2855

I pray you give me leave.

followers

We will, we will.

laertes

I thank you. Keep the door. —

[Exeunt his Followers.]

O thou vile King,

Give me my father.

queen

Calmly, good Laertes.

laertes

That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,

Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot

Even here between the chaste unsmirchèd brow

Of my true mother.

king

2865

What is the cause, Laertes,

That thy rebellion looks so giant-like? —

Let him go, Gertrude, do not fear our person:

There’s such divinity doth hedge a king

That treason can but peep to what it would,

2870

Acts little of his will. — Tell me, Laertes,

Why thou art thus incensed. — Let him go, Gertrude. —

Speak, man.

laertes

Where is my father?

king

Dead.

queen

2875

But not by him.

king

Let him demand his fill.

laertes

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!

2880

I dare damnation. To this point I stand,

That both the worlds I give to negligence.

Let come what comes, only I’ll be revenged

Most throughly for my father.

king

Who shall stay you?

laertes

2885

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

2890

Of your dear father^F’s death^F, is’t writ in your revenge

That swoopstake you will draw both friend and foe,

Winner and loser?

laertes

None but his enemies —

king

Will you know them then?

laertes

2895

To his good friends thus wide I’ll ope my arms

And, like the kind life-rend’ring pelican,

Repast them with my blood.

king

Why, now you speak

Like a good child and a true gentleman.

2900

That I am guiltless of your father’s death,

And am most sensibly in grief for it,

It shall as level to your judgement ’pear

As day does to your eye.

A noise within.

voices

Within

Let her come in!

laertes

How now, what noise is that?

Enter Ophelia.

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

2910

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 a poor man’s life?

^FNature is fine in love, and where ’tis fine

2915

It sends some precious instance of itself

After the thing it loves.^F

ophelia

Song.

They bore him bare-faced on the bier,

^FHey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny,^F

And in his grave rained many a tear.

Fare you well, my dove.

laertes

Hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge,

It could not move thus.

ophelia

You must sing “a-down a-down”, an you call him “a-down-a.” Oh, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward that stole his master’s daughter.

laertes

This nothing’s more than matter.

ophelia

There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance. Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.

laertes

A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

ophelia

There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and here’s some for me. We may call it herb of grace o’Sundays. ^FOh! ^FYou may wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say ’a made a good end.

[Sings.]

ErrorMetrica

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy.

laertes

Thought and afflictions, passion, hell itself

2940

She turns to favour and to prettiness.

ophelia

Song.

And will ’a not come again?

No, no, he is dead —

Go to thy death-bed —

He never will come again.

2945

His beard was as white as snow,

^FAll^F Flaxen was his poll.

He is gone, he is gone,

And we cast away moan.

God ’a’ mercy on his soul.

And of all Christians’ souls. ^FI pray God.^F God b’wi’you.

[Exit.]

laertes

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,

2955

And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me.

If by direct, or by collateral hand,

They find us touched, we will our kingdom give,

Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,

To you in satisfaction; but, if not,

2960

Be you content to lend your patience to us,

And we shall jointly labour with your soul

To give it due content.

laertes

Let this be so.

His means of death, his obscure funeral

2965

(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

That I must call’t in question.

king

So you shall,

2970

And, where th’offence is, let the great axe fall.

I pray you go with me.

Exeunt.

[4.6]

Enter Horatio and others [including a Gentleman].

horatio

What are they that would speak with me?

gentleman

Sea-faring men, sir. They say they have letters for you.

horatio

Let them come in. [Gentleman goes to the door.]
I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

sailor

God bless you, sir.

horatio

Let Him bless thee too.

sailor

’A shall, sir, an please Him. There’s a letter for you, sir, (it came from th’ambassador that was bound for England) if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

horatio

[Reads the letter.] “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 chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship, so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy, but they knew what they did: I am to do a ^Fgood^F turn for them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou to me with as much speed as thou wouldest fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the 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.”

ErrorMetrica

Come, I will give you way for these your letters.

And do’t the speedier that you may direct me

3005

To him from whom you brought them.

Exeunt.

[4.7]

Enter King and Laertes.

king

Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend,

Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,

3010

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 criminal and so capital in nature,

3015

As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else,

You mainly were stirred up.

king

Oh, for two special reasons

Which may to you perhaps seem much unsinewed,

But yet to me they’re strong. The Queen his mother

3020

Lives almost by his looks, and for myself,

My virtue or my plague, be it either which,

She is so conjunct to my life and soul

That as the star moves not but in his sphere

I could not but by her. The other motive

3025

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,

Convert his gyves to graces, so that my arrows,

3030

Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind,

Would have reverted to my bow again,

But not where I have aimed them.

laertes

And so have I a noble father lost,

A sister driven into desp’rate terms,

3035

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

Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think

3040

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 with letters.

^FHow now? What news?^F

messenger

^FLetters, my lord, from Hamlet.^F

These to your majesty, this to the Queen.

king

From Hamlet? Who brought them?

messenger

3050

Sailors, my lord, they say. I saw them not.

They were given me by Claudio. He received them

Of him that brought them.

king

Laertes, you shall hear them. —

Leave us.

[Exit Messenger.]

[The King reads.]

“High and mighty, you shall know I am set naked on your kingdom. Tomorrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes, when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden ^Fand more strange^F return.
^FHamlet.^F”

ErrorMetrica

What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?

3060

Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?

laertes

Know you the hand?

king

’Tis Hamlet’s character. “Naked,”

And in a postscript here he says “alone.”

Can you devise me?

laertes

I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come:

3065

It warms the very sickness in my heart

That I shall live and tell him to his teeth

“Thus diest thou.”

king

If it be so, Laertes —

As how should it be so, how otherwise? —

Will you be ruled by me?

laertes

3070

Ay, my lord,

3070

So you will not o’errule me to a peace.

king

To thine own peace. If he be now returned

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,

3075

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 practice

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

It falls right.

You have been talked of since your travel much,

And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality

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

A very ribbon 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

Importing health and graveness. Two months since

Here was a gentleman of Normandy.

3080

I have 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 had he been incorpsed and demi-natured

3085

With the brave beast. So far he topped my thought

That I in forgery of shapes and tricks

Come short of what he did.

laertes

A Norman was’t?

king

A Norman.

laertes

3090

Upon my life, Lamord.

king

The very same.

laertes

I know him well, he is the brooch indeed

And gem of all the nation.

king

He made confession of you

3095

And gave you such a masterly report

For art and exercise in your defence,

And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out ’twould be a sight indeed

If one could match you. The ’scrimers of their nation

He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye,

If you opposed them. Sir, this report of his

3100

Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy

That he could nothing do but wish and beg

Your sudden coming o’er to play with you.

Now out of this —

laertes

What out of this, my lord?

king

3105

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

Not that I think you did not love your father,

3110

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 pleurisy

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

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,

And then this “should” is like a spendthrift’s sigh

That hurts by easing. But to the quick of th’ulcer:

Hamlet comes back; what would you undertake

To show yourself in deed your father’s son

3115

More than in words?

laertes

To cut his throat i’th’church.

king

No place indeed should murder sanctuarize;

Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes,

Will you do this, keep close within your chamber;

3120

Hamlet, returned, 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 o’er your heads. He, being remiss,

3125

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 practice,

Requite him for your father.

laertes

3130

I will do’t.

And for that purpose, I’ll anoint my sword.

I bought an unction of a mountebank

So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,

Where it draws blood, no cataplasm so rare,

3135

Collected from all simples that have virtue

Under the moon, can save the thing from death

That is but scratched withal. I’ll touch my point

With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly

It may be death.

king

3140

Let’s further think of this,

Weigh what convenience both of time and means

May fit us to our shape. If this should fail

And that our drift look through our bad performance,

’Twere better not essayed. Therefore this project

3145

Should have a back or second that might hold

If this did 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)

3150

And that he calls for drink, I’ll have preferred him

A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,

If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,

Our purpose may hold there. But stay, what noise?

Enter Queen.

^FHow now, sweet Queen?^F

queen

3155

One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,

So fast they follow. Your sister’s drowned, Laertes.

laertes

Drowned! Oh, where?

queen

There is a willow grows askant the brook

That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream.

3160

Therewith fantastic garlands did she make

Of crowflowers, 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 pendant boughs her crownet weeds

3165

Clamb’ring 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 lauds

3170

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and endued

Unto that element. But long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay

3175

To muddy death.

laertes

Alas, then is she drowned.

queen

Drowned, drowned.

laertes

Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,

And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet

3180

It is our trick, nature her custom holds.

Let shame say what it will;

[Weeps.]

when these are gone,

The woman will be out. — Adieu, my lord,

I have a speech o’ fire that fain would blaze

But that this folly drowns it.

Exit.

king

3185

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.

[5.1]

Enter two Clowns.

1 clown

Is she to be buried in Christian burial, when she wilfully seeks her own salvation?

2 clown

I tell thee she is, ^Fand^F therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial.

1 clown

How can that be unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

2 clown

Why, ’tis found so.

1 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.

2 clown

Nay, but hear you, goodman delver —

1 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.

2 clown

But is this law?

1 clown

Ay, marry is’t, crowner’s ’quest law.

2 clown

Will you ha’ the truth an’t? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o’Christian burial.

1 clown

Why, there thou say’st, and the more pity that great folk should have count’nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christen. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gard’ners, ditchers and grave-makers; they hold up Adam’s profession.

2 clown

Was he a gentleman?

1 clown

’A was the first that ever bore arms.

^F2 clown

Why, he had none.

1 clown

What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam digged. Could he dig without arms?^F I’ll put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself —

2 clown

Go to.

1 clown

What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter?

2 clown

The gallows-maker, for that ^Fframe^F outlives a thousand tenants.

1 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 ill. 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.

2 clown

Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?

1 clown

Ay, tell me that and unyoke.

2 clown

Marry, now I can tell.

1 clown

To’t.

2 clown

Mass, I cannot tell.

1 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 ^Fthat^F he makes lasts till doomsday. Go get thee in, and fetch me a sup of liquor.

[Exit 2 Clown.]

Song.

ErrorMetrica

In youth when I did love, did love,

Methought it was very sweet

To contract —oh— the time for —a— my behove,

3255

Oh, methought there —a— was nothing —a— meet.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

hamlet

Has this fellow no feeling of his business?V

- Q2 business?
- F1 business that (orig. businesse, that)

’AV

- Q2 ’A (orig. a)
- F1 he

inV

- Q2 in
- F1 at

sings in 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.

Song.

1 clown

But age with his stealing steps

Hath clawed me in his clutch

3265

And hath shipped me into the land,

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 ’twere Cain’s jawbone, that did the first murder. This might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o’erreaches, 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, sweet lord?” This might be my Lord Such-a-one, that praised my Lord Such-a-One’s horse when ’a went to beg it, might it not?

horatio

Ay, my lord.

hamlet

Why, e’en so. And now my Lady Worm’s: chapless and knocked about the mazard 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 loggets with them? Mine ache to think on’t.

Song.

1 clown

3285

A pickaxe and a spade, a spade,

For and a shrouding-sheet,

Oh, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

[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 mad 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 ^Fhis^F vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases and doubles ^Ftoo^F than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will scarcely lie in this box, and must th’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 calves’ 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?

1 clown

Mine, sir.

[Sings.]

ErrorMetrica

Oh, a pit of clay for to be made —

^FFor such a guest is meet.^F

hamlet

I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in’t.

1 clown

You lie out on’t, sir, and therefore ’tis not yours; for my part I do not lie in’t, ^FOh!^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.

1 clown

’Tis a quick lie, sir, ’twill away again from me to you.

hamlet

What man dost thou dig it for?

1 clown

For no man, sir.

hamlet

What woman then?

1 clown

For none neither.

hamlet

Who is to be buried in’t?

1 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, this three years I have took note of it, the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls his kibe. — How long hast thou been ^Fa^F grave-maker?

1 clown

Of ^Fall^F the days i’th’year, I came to’t that day that our last King Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.

hamlet

How long is that since?

1 clown

Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that:
it was that very day that young Hamlet was born, he
that is mad and sent into England.

hamlet

Ay, marry. Why was he sent into England?

1 clown

Why, because ’a was mad: ’a shall recover his wits there, or if ’a do not, ’tis no great matter there.

hamlet

Why?

1 clown

’Twill not be seen in him there, there the men are as mad as he.

hamlet

How came he mad?

1 clown

Very strangely, they say.

hamlet

How strangely?

1 clown

Faith, e’en with losing his wits.

hamlet

Upon what ground?

1 clown

Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years.

hamlet

How long will a man lie i’th’earth ere he rot?

1 clown

Faith, if ’a be not rotten before ’a die (as we have many pocky corpses ^Fnowadays^F that will scarce hold the laying in), ’a will last you some eight year, or nine year. A tanner will last you nine year.

hamlet

Why he more than another?

1 clown

Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade that ’a will keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here’s a skull now hath lien you i’th’earth three and twenty years.

hamlet

Whose was it?

1 clown

A whoreson mad fellow’s it was. Whose do you think it was?

hamlet

Nay, I know not.

1 clown

A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! ’A poured a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, ^Fthis same skull, sir,^F was, sir, Yorick’s skull, the King’s jester.

hamlet

This?

1 clown

E’en that.

hamlet

^FLet me see.^F Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore 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 jibes 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-fall’n? Now get you to my lady’s table 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’th’earth?

horatio

E’en so.

hamlet

And smelt so? Pah!

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 ’a find it stopping a bung-hole?

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 ^Fas thus^F: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to 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?

ErrorMetrica

3400

Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay,

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

Oh, that that earth which kept the world in awe

Should patch a wall t’expel the winter’s flaw.

But soft, but soft awhile, here comes the King.

Enter King, Queen, Laertes, and [a Doctor of Divinity, after] the corpse,
[with Lords Attendant].

The Queen, the courtiers — who is this they follow?

And with such maimèd rites? This doth betoken

The corpse they follow did with desp’rate hand

3410

Fordo it own life. ’Twas of some estate.

Couch we awhile and mark.

[Hamlet and Horatio stand aside.]

laertes

What ceremony else?

hamlet

That is Laertes, a very noble youth. Mark.

laertes

What ceremony else?

doctor

3415

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 been lodged

Till the last trumpet: for charitable prayers,

3420

^FShards,^F Flints and pebbles should be thrown on her;

Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants,

Her maiden strewments and the bringing home

Of bell and burial.

laertes

Must there no more be done?

doctor

3425

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’th’earth,

3430

And from her fair and unpolluted flesh

May violets spring. — I tell thee, churlish priest,

A minist’ring angel shall my sister be

When thou liest howling.

hamlet

What, the fair Ophelia?

queen

3435

Sweets to the sweet. Farewell.

I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife.

I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid,

And not have strewed thy grave.

laertes

Oh, treble woe

3440

Fall ten times double on that cursèd 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 in the grave.]

3445

Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead

Till of this flat a mountain you have made

T’o’retop old Pelion or the skyish head

Of blue Olympus.

hamlet

[Coming forward]

What is he whose grief

3450

Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow

Conjures the wand’ring stars and makes them stand

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,

Hamlet the Dane.

laertes

The devil take thy soul!

[Grapples with Hamlet.]

hamlet

3455

Thou pray’st not well.

I prithee take thy fingers from my throat,

For, though I am not splenative and rash,

Yet have I in me something dangerous

Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand —

king

3460

Pluck them asunder.

queen

Hamlet! Hamlet!

lords

Gentlemen!

horatio

Good my lord, be quiet.

[Hamlet and Laertes are separated.]

hamlet

Why, I will fight with him upon this theme

Until my eyelids will no longer wag.

queen

3465

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

Oh, he is mad, Laertes.

queen

3470

For love of God, forbear him.

hamlet

’Swounds, show me what thou’t do:

Woul’t weep, woul’t fight, woul’t fast, woul’t tear thyself,

Woul’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile?

I’ll do’t. Dost ^Fthou^F come here to whine?

3475

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,

3480

Make Ossa like a wart. Nay, an thou’lt mouth,

I’ll rant as well as thou.

queen

This is mere madness,

And thus awhile the fit will work on him.

Anon, as patient as the female dove

3485

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.

3490

Let Hercules himself do what he may,

The cat will mew and dog will have his day.

Exit.

king

I pray thee, 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. —

3495

Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.

This grave shall have a living monument.

An hour of quiet thereby shall we see;

Till then in patience our proceeding be.

Exeunt.

[5.2]

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

hamlet

3500

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

3505

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly —

And praised be rashness for it (let us know

Our indiscretion sometime serves us well

When our deep plots do pall, and that should learn us

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

3510

Rough-hew them how we will) —

horatio

That is most certain.

hamlet

Up from my cabin,

My sea-gown scarfed about me, in the dark

Groped I to find out them, had my desire,

3515

Fingered their packet, and in fine withdrew

To mine own room again, making so bold,

My fears forgetting manners, to unfold

Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio,

A royal knavery, an exact command

3520

Larded with many several sorts of reasons

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),

3525

My head should be struck off.

horatio

Is’t possible?

hamlet

Here’s the commission; read it at more leisure.

But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

horatio

I beseech you.

hamlet

3530

Being thus benetted round with villains,

(Or I could make a prologue to my brains,

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,

3535

A baseness to write fair, and laboured much

How to forget that learning, but, sir, now

It did me yeoman’s service. Wilt thou know

Th’effect of what I wrote?

horatio

Ay, good my lord.

hamlet

3540

An earnest conjuration from the King,

As England was his faithful tributary,

As love between them like the palm might flourish,

As peace should still her wheaten garland wear

And stand a comma ’tween their amities,

3545

And many such-like “as,” sir, of great charge,

That on the view and knowing of these contents

Without debatement further more or less

He should those bearers put to sudden death,

Not shriving time allowed.

horatio

3550

How was this sealed?

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),

Folded the writ up in the form of th’other,

3555

Subscribed it, gave’t th’impression, placed it safely,

The changeling never known. Now the next day

Was our sea-fight, and what to this was sequent

Thou knowest already.

horatio

So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t.

hamlet

3560

^FWhy man, they did make love to this employment.^F

They are not near my conscience. Their defeat

Does by their own insinuation grow.

’Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes

Between the pass and fell incensèd points

3565

Of mighty opposites.

horatio

Why, what a king is this!

hamlet

Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon?

He that hath killed my King and whored my mother,

Popped in between th’election and my hopes,

3570

Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with such coz’nage — is’t not perfect conscience?

^FTo quit him with this arm? And is’t not to be damned

To let this canker of our nature come

In further evil?

horatio

3575

It must be shortly known to him from England

What is the issue of the business there.

hamlet

It will be short. The interim’s mine,

And a man’s life’s no more than to say one.

But I am very sorry, good Horatio,

3580

That to Laertes I forgot myself,

For by the image of my cause I see

The portraiture of his. I’ll count his favours;

But sure the bravery of his grief did put me

Into a tow’ring passion.

horatio

3585

Peace, who comes here?^F

Enter ^Fyoung^F [Osric,] a Courtier.

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 chuff 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 — ^Fput^F your bonnet to his right use: ’tis for the head.

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. ^FBut^F My lord, his majesty bade me signify to you that ’a has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter —

hamlet

I beseech you, remember.

osric

Nay, good my lord, for my ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly

osric

Sir?

osric

Of Laertes? 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 th’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?

horatio

Is’t not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do’t, sir, really.

hamlet

What imports the nomination of this gentleman?

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.

osric

^FSir,^F You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is — ^Fat his weapon.^F

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 impawned, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hanger 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 margin ere you had done.

osric

The carriages, sir, are the hangers.

hamlet

The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we could carry a 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 — all ^F”impawned”, as^F you call it?

osric

The King, sir, hath laid, sir, 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?

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, it is 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 deliver you ^Feven^F so?

hamlet

To this effect, sir, after what flourish your nature will.

osric

I commend my duty to your lordship.

[Exit.]

hamlet

Yours^F, yours^F. — ^FHe^F 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

’A did so, sir, with his dug before ’a sucked it. Thus has he, and many more of the same breed that I know the drossy age dotes on, only got the tune of the time and, out of an habit of encounter, a kind of yeasty collection, which carries them through and through the most profane 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 purposes. 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.

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 ^Fthis wager^F, my lord.

hamlet

I do not think so. Since he went into France, I have been in continual practice. I shall win at the odds. ^FBut^F Thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here about my heart — but it is no matter.

horatio

Nay, good my lord —

hamlet

It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gaingiving as would perhaps trouble a woman.

horatio

If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.

hamlet

Not a whit. We defy augury. There is ^Fa^F 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 of aught he leaves knows, what is’t to leave betimes? Let be.

[Enter] King, Queen, [Osric,] and all the state, [with other Attendants A table prepared^Fand flagons of wine on it^F. Trumpets, Drums and Officers with cushions, [flagons of wine and cups].
with] foils ^Fand gauntlets^F, daggers, and Laertes.

king

Come, Hamlet, come and take this hand from me.

[Puts Laertes’ hands into Hamlet’s.]

hamlet

Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong.

But pardon’t as you are a gentleman.

3680

This presence knows,

And you must needs have heard, how I am punished

With a sore distraction. What I have done

That might your nature, honour and exception

Roughly awake, I hear proclaim was madness.

3685

Was’t Hamlet wronged Laertes? Never Hamlet.

If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away

And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes,

Then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it.

Who does it then? His madness. If’t be so,

3690

Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged:

His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.

^FSir, in this audience,^F

Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil

Free me so far in your most generous thoughts

3695

That I have shot my arrow o’er the house

And hurt my brother.

laertes

I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive in this case should stir me most

To my revenge, but in my terms of honour

3700

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 offered love like love

3705

And will not wrong it.

hamlet

I ^Fdo^F embrace it freely

And will this brother’s wager frankly play. —

Give us the foils. ^FCome on.^F

laertes

Come, one for me.

hamlet

3710

I’ll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance

Your skill shall like a star i’th’darkest night

Stick fiery off indeed.

laertes

You mock me, sir.

hamlet

No, by this hand.

king

3715

Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet,

You know the wager.

hamlet

Very well, my lord.

Your grace has laid the odds o’th’weaker side.

king

I do not fear it. I have seen you both,

But since he is bettered, we have therefore odds.

laertes

This is too heavy. Let me see another.

hamlet

This likes me well. These foils have all a length?

^FPrepare to play.^F

osric

Ay, my good lord.

king

Set me the stoups of wine upon that table.

If Hamlet give the first or second hit,

Or quit in answer of the third exchange,

3730

Let all the battlements their ordnance fire.

The King shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath

And in the cup an onyx 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,

The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth.

Trumpets the while.

Now the King drinks to Hamlet. Come, begin,

3740

And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

hamlet

Come on, sir.

laertes

Come, my lord.

[They play.]

hamlet

One.

laertes

No.

hamlet

Judgement.

osric

A hit, a very palpable hit.

laertes

Well, again.

king

Stay, give me drink. — Hamlet this pearl is thine.

3750

Here’s to thy health. — Give him the cup.

Drum, trumpets and shot.

hamlet

I’ll play this bout first. Set it by awhile.

Come.

Another hit. — What say you?

[They play again.]

laertes

^FA touch, a touch,^F I do confess’t.

king

3755

Our son shall win.

queen

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

3760

Gertrude, do not drink.

queen

I will, my lord. I pray you pardon me.

king

[Aside]

It is the poisoned cup. It is too late.

hamlet

I dare not drink yet, madam. By and by.

queen

Come, let me wipe thy face.

laertes

My lord, I’ll hit him now.

king

I do not think’t.

laertes

And yet it is almost against my conscience.

hamlet

Come for the third, Laertes, you do but dally.

I pray you pass with your best violence.

I am sure you make a wanton of me.

laertes

Say you so? Come on.

[They play.]

osric

3775

Nothing neither way.

laertes

Have at you now.

[In scuffling they change rapiers.]

king

Part them, they are incensed.

hamlet

Nay, come again.

osric

3780

Look to the Queen there, ho!

horatio

They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord?

osric

How is’t, Laertes?

laertes

Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric:

3785

I am justly killed with mine own treachery.

hamlet

How does the Queen?

king

She swoons to see them bleed.

queen

No, no, the drink, the drink, O my dear Hamlet,

The drink, the drink. I am poisoned.

[Dies.]

hamlet

Oh, villainy! Ho! Let the door be locked.

Treachery! Seek it out!

[Exeunt Osric and some Lords.]

laertes

It is here, ^FHamlet.^F Hamlet, thou art slain.

3795

No med’cine in the world can do thee good;

In thee there is not half an hour’s life.

The treacherous instrument is in thy hand

Unbated and envenomed. The foul practice

Hath turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie

3800

Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poisoned.

I can no more — the King, the King’s to blame.

hamlet

The point envenomed too! Then, venom, to thy work!

[Hurts the King.]

lords

3805

Treason, treason!

king

Oh, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt.

hamlet

Here, thou incestuous, ^Fmurd’rous,^F

damnèd Dane,

Drink off this potion. Is the onyx here?

3810

Follow my mother.

[King dies.]

laertes

He is justly served,

It is a poison tempered by himself.

Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet,

Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee,

3815

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,

That are but mutes or audience to this act,

3820

Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, Death,

Is strict in his arrest), oh, I could tell you —

But let it be. — Horatio, I am dead.

Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright

To the unsatisfied.

horatio

3825

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 ha’t!

3830

O God, Horatio, what a wounded name,

Things standing thus unknown, shall I leave behind me?

If thou did’st ever hold me in thy heart,

Absent thee from felicity awhile,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain

3835

To tell my story.

A march afar off ^Fand shout within^F

What warlike noise is this?

Enter Osric.

osric

Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

3840

To th’ambassadors of England gives this warlike volley.

hamlet

Oh, I die, Horatio.

The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit.

I cannot live to hear the news from England,

But I do prophesy th’election lights

3845

On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.

So tell him, with th’occurrents more and less

Which have solicited. The rest is silence. ^FOh, oh, oh, oh.^F

[Dies.]

horatio

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet Prince,

3850

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

Why does the drum come hither?

Enter Fortinbras with the Ambassadors ^Fwith Drum,
Colors,^F [and Attendants].

fortinbras

Where is this sight?

horatio

3855

What is it you would see?

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

fortinbras

This quarry cries on havock. O proud Death,

What feast is toward in thine eternal cell

That thou so many princes at a shot

3860

So bloodily hast struck?

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 fulfilled:

3865

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.

Where should we have our thanks?

horatio

Not from his mouth,

Had it th’ability of life to thank you;

He never gave commandment for their death.

3870

But since so jump upon this bloody question

You from the Polack wars and you from England,

Are here arrived, give order that these bodies

High on a stage be placèd to the view,

And let me speak to th’yet unknowing world

3875

How these things came about. So shall you hear

Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts,

Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,

Of deaths put on by cunning and for no cause,

And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

3880

Fall’n on th’inventors’ heads. All this can I

Truly deliver.

fortinbras

Let us haste to hear it

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune.

3885

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 performed

Even while men’s minds are wild, lest more mischance

On plots and errors happen.

fortinbras

3895

Let four captains

Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage,

For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have proved most royal; and for his passage,

3900

The soldiers’ music and the rite 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.

Exeunt ^Fmarching, after the which a peal of
ordnance are shot off^F.

FINIS

William Shakespeare Shakespeare, William

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

[1.1V X - F1 1.1 (orig. “Actus Primus. Scoena Prima”) ]

[1.2]V X - F1 [1.2] (orig. “Scena Secunda”) - Q2 (om.)

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[2.1]V X - Q6 [2.1] (subst.) - Q2 (om.) - F1 Actus Secundus

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[1.1V

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- F1 1.1 (orig. “Actus Primus. Scoena Prima”)

]

[1.2]V

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- F1 [1.2] (orig. “Scena Secunda”)
- Q2 (om.)

[2.1]V

X
- Q6 [2.1] (subst.)
- Q2 (om.)
- F1 Actus Secundus