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Trumpets sound. The dumb show follows. Enter a King and Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestations unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays 5 him down upon a bank of flowers; she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon, comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poisonin the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. 10 The poisoner, with some two or three mutes,comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but, in the end, accepts his love.

[Exeunt.

Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching malicho; it means mischief.

15

Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument 20 of the play.

Enter Prologue.

Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Ŏph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll shew him : Be not you asham'd to shew, he 'll not shame to tell you what it means.

Oph. You are naught, you are naught; I'll mark the play.

Pro. "For us, and for our tragedy,

"Here stooping to your clemency, "We beg your hearing patiently." Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring: Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.

Ham. As woman's love.

Enter a King, and a Queen.

P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart'

gone round

My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd; and, haply, one as kind
For husband shalt thou-

P. Queen. O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
in second husband let me be accusrt!

None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.
[move,
P. Queen. The instances' that second marriage
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
A second time I kill my husband dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.

Ham. That's wormwood.

P. King. I do believe, you think what now you
speak:

But what we do determine, oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory;
Of violent birth, but poor validity:
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;
But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be.
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.
25 The violence of either grief or joy,

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,
30That even our loves should with our fortunes
change;

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;
35 The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
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,
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.
P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor
heaven light!

Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground; 40
And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen'
About the world have times twelve thirties been;
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,
Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and 45

moon

Sport, and repose, lock from me, day, and night' To desperation turn my trust and hope! 50 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 my lasting strife, lf, once a widow, ever I be wife!

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 your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
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 aught, or in extremity.
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you 55
And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so.
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows
[shortly too;

there.

[know;

P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and[6of

[To Oph.

Ham. Ifshe should break it now,-
P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me
nere a while;

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.

P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain;

[Sleeps.

Hanmer tell us, that miching malicho signifies mischief lying hid, and that malicho is the Spanish

malheco. Lotices.

4

A chariot was anciently so called. Splendour, lustre. Operant is active.
• Anchor is for anchoret. This abbreviation of the word is very ancient.

The

And

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This is one Lucianus, nephew to the duke.
Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord.
Ham. I could interpret between you and your
love, if I could see the puppets dallying.

Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. Ham. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge.

Oph. Still better, and worse 3.

Ham. So you mistake your husbands. Begin, murderer.-Leave thy damnable faces, and begin. [venge.

20

25

Come The croaking raven doth bellow for re- 30
Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and
time agreeing;

Confederate season, else no creature sceing;
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, 35
Thy natural magic, and dire property,
On wholesome life usurp immediately.

[Pours the poison into his ears.

Ham. He poisons him i' the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and 40 written in very choice Italian: You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

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Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk* with me) with two Provencial roses on my rayed shoes', get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?

Hor. Half a share.

6

Ham. A whole one, I.

For thou dost know, O Damon' dear,
This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very-peacock'.

Hor. You might have rhym'd.

Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word
for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
Hor. Very well, my lord.

Han. Upon the talk of the poisoning,—
Hor. I did very well note him.

Ham. Ah, ha!- -Come, some music; come, the recorders.

For if the king like not the comedy,
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy'.
Enter Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.

Come, some music.

[you.

Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with
Ham. Sir, a whole history.

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Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distem-
Ham. With drink, sir?

Guil. No, my lord, with choler.

Ham. Your wisdom should shew itself more richer, to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler.

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

Ham. I am tame, sir:pronounce.
Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great
affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
Ham. You are welcome.

Guit. 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
commandment; if not, your pardon, and my re-
45 turn, shall be the end of my business.
Ham. Sir, I cannot.

Guil. What, my lord?

Ham. Make you awholesome answer; my wit's diseas'd: But, sir, such answer as I can make, 50 you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my inother: therefore no more, but to the matter: My mother, you say,

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

the thing, In which he'll catch the conscience of the

4

Means, When shoe-strings were worn, they

He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is king. 2 This refers to the interpreter, who formerly sat on the stage at all motions or puppetshows, and interpreted to the audience. 3i. e. according to Mr. Steevens, better in regard to the wit of your double entendre, but worse in respect to the grossness of your meaning. probably, no more than to change condition fantastically. were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband gathered into the form of a rose.-Rayed shoes, are shoes braided in lines. The allusion is to a pack of hounds.-A pack of hounds was 'Hamlet calls Horatio by this name, in allusion to the celebrated • A peacock seems proverbial for a fool. Mr. Steevens, however, believes paddock (or toad) to be the true reading. Perdy is a corruption of par Dieu,

once called a cry of hounds.
friendship between Damon and Pythias.

and is not uncommon in the old plays.

8

Ham

Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish mother!-But is there no sequel at the heels of this-mother's admiration? impart.

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

Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade 'with us? Ros. My lord, you once did love me.

5

Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers?. Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of dis-10 temper? you do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend. Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.

Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Den-15 mark?

Ham. Ay, sir, but While the grass grows,—the proverb is something musty.

Enter the Players, with Recorders 3.

O, the recorders :- let me see one.-To with-20
draw with you:-Why do you go about to reco-
ver the wind of me, as if you would drive me in-
to a toil?

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

Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you

play upon this pipe?

Guil. My lord, I cannot.

Ham. I pray you.

Guil. Believe me, I cannot.
Ham. I do beseech you.

Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord.

25

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Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern,
30 King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with us,
To let his madness range. Therefore, prepare you;
your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you:
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near us, as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunes ".

Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages' with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most elo-35 quent music. Look you, these are the stops.

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

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of nie! You would play upon 40 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 the top of my compass: and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you 45 make it speak. Why, do you think, that I am easier to be play'd on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, vou cannot play upon me. [Enter Polonius.]God bless you, sir!

Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently.

Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a camel?

Guil. We will ourselves provide:
Most holy and religious fear it is
To keep those many many bodies safe,
That live, and feed, upon your majesty.

Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more,
That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest,
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it, with it: It is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
50 Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
King. Arin you, I pray you, to this speedy
For we will fetters put upon this fear, [voyage;
Which now goes too free-footed.
i. e. by these hands.

Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, in-55 deed.

1i. e. further business, further dealing.

3 i. e. a kind of flute.

i.e. If my duty to the king makes me press you a little, my love to you makes me still more impor tunate. It that makes me bold, this makes me even unmannerly. The weasel is remarkable for the length of its back. till I can endure to do it no longer. commission of some act of mischief. guage. 10. e. put them in execution.

The holes of a flute. i. e. They compel me to play the fool, The bitter day is the day rendered hateful or bitter by the To shend, is to reprove harshly, to treat with injurious lani. e. his madness, frenzy."

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Act 3. Scene 4.1

Both. We will haste us.

HAMLET.

[Exeunt Ros. and Guil.
Enter Polonius.

Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet;
[home:
Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
To hear the process; I'll warrant, she'll tax him
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'er-hear
The speech of vantage'. Fare you well, my liege:
I'll call upon you ere you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.

King. Thanks, my dear lord.

[Exit.

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
A brother's murder!-Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will 2;
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
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 two-fold force,-
To be fore-stalled, ere we come to fall,
Or pardon'd, being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder!--
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
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 compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
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 limed 'soul; that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels, make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart, with strings of
steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe;
All may be well!

Enter Hamlet.

[The King kneels.

5

10

1023

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,
'Tis heavy with him: And am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent":
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;
At gaming, 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 damn'd, and black,
15 As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays:
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit.
The King rises.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:

20 Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. Exit

25

30

135

40

145

50

Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do3t;—And so he goes to heaven:
And so am I reveng'd? That would be scann'd *:55
A villain kills my father; and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.

Why this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;

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[Polonius hides himself.

Enter Hamlet.

Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter?

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much of

fended.

[ed.

Ham. Mother, you have my father much offend-
Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle

tongue.

Ham.Go,go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?

Ham. What's the matter now?
Queen. Have you forgot me?
Ham. No, by the rood, not so:

You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife;
And-'would it were not so!-you are my mother.
Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can
[not budge;
speak.
Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you
You go not, 'till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not mur-
der me?

Help, help, ho!

Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help!
Ham. How now! a rat?

60 Dead, for a ducat, dead,

i.e. by some opportunity of secret observation. alludes to bird-lime. i. e. that should be considered, estimated.

Lay hold on him, sword, at a more horrid time,

shall

3 This 2 Will is command, direction. "Hent is hold, or seizure. [Hamlet

i. e. I'll use no more words.

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[Hamlet strikes at Polonius through the arras.} Pol. [Behind.] O, I am slain.

Queen. O me, what hast thou done?
Ham. Nay, I know not:

Is it the king?

Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this!
Ham. A bloody deed;-almost as bad, good
mother,

As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Queen. As kill a king?

Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.-
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
[To Polonius.
I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune:
Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger.
Leavewringingof your hands: Peace; sit you down,
And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,
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?

Ham. Such an act,

2

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose1
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O, such a deed,
As from the body of contraction 3 plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes

A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen. Ay me, what act,

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?
Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this;
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow:
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,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:
This was your husband.Look you now,
follows:

what

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear,
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
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 hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
Andwaitsuponthejudgement; Andwhatjudgement
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you
have,
[sense
Else, could you not have motion: But, sure, that
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err;

It was once the custom of those who were spicuous mark of their mutual engagement.

contract.

5

Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd,
But it reserv'd some quantity of choice
To serve in such a difference. What devil was 't,
That thus hath cozen'd 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,
10 If thou canst mutiny in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
15 And reason panders will.

20

Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more:

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct.

Ham. Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an incestuous bed;
Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love
Over the nasty stye;-

Queen. O, speak to me no more;

25 These words like daggers enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain :
A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord :—a vice of kings:
30 A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

35

401

45

50

Queen. No more.

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Queen. Alas, he's mad.

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd'in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, say!

Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul;
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works;
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham. How is it with you, lady?

Queen. Alas, how is 't with you?

That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse!
55 Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarmn,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
60 Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

betrothed, to wear some flower as an external and con

See note, p. 389. : Contraction for marriage
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