To grosser issues, nor to larger reach,
Than to suspicion.
IAGO. Should you do so, my Lord,
My speech would fall into such vile success,
Which my thoughts aim not at.
My Lord I see you're mov'd
Oгн. No, not much mov'd
Cassio's my worthy friend.
I do not think but Desdemona's honest.
IAGO. Long live she so! and long live you to think so! Oтн. And yet, how Nature's erring from itselfIAGO. Aye, there's the point!-as (to be bold with you) Not to affect many proposed matches
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree,
Whereto we see in all things nature tends:
Foh! one may smell, in such, a will most rank,
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural.
But, pardon me, I do not in position
Distinctly speak of her; though I may fear
Her will, recoiling to her better judgment,
May fall to match you with her country forms,
And, haply, so repent.
OTH. Farewell, farewell;:
If more thou dost perceive, let me know more;
Set on thy wife t'observe, Leave me, lago.
IAGO. My Lord, I take
OTH. Why did I marry?
This honest creature, doubtless,
Sees, and knows more, much more, than he unfolds.
JAGO. My Lord, I would I might emreat your Honour
To scan this thing uo farther; leave it to time:
Although 'tis fit that Cassio have his place,.
For, sure, he fills it up with great ability;
Yet if you please to hold him off awhile,
You shall by that perceive him and his means;
Note, if your lady strain his entertainment
With any strong or vehement importunity;
Much will be seen in that. In the mean time,
Let me be thought too busy in my fears,
(As worthy cause 1 have to fear I am,)
And hold her free, Ldo beseech your Honour.
OTH. Fear not my government.
IAGO. I once more take my leave.
HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY ON HIS MOTHER'S MARRIAGE.
On that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! oh fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature,:
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
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,
That he permitted not the winds of Heav'n
Visit her face too roughly. Heav'n and earth
Must I remember!--why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on, and yet, within a month,
Let me not think- -Frailty, thy name is woman!:
A little month! or ere those shoes were old,
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, ev'n' she
(O Heav'n! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer-) married with mine uncle,
My father's brother; 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 galled' eyes,
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.
HAMLET AND GHOST.
HAM. Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health, or gobiin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from Heav'n, 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,
King, Father, Royal Dane! oh! answer me!
Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell,
Why thy canonized bones, hears'd in earth,
Have burst their cearnients? why the sepulchre,.
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again? what may this mean?
That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel,
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous, and us fools of nature,
So horribly to shake our disposition.
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do
GHOST. Mark me..
GHOST. My hour is almost come,
When I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.
HAM. Alas, poor ghost
GHOST. Pity nie not, but lend thy serious hearing
To what I shall unfold.
HAM. Speak, I am bound to hear.
GEOST. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear
GHOST. I am thy father's spirit,
Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day, confin'd to fast in fire,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burat and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
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 knotty and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:
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-
GHOST. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. HAM. Murder!
GHOST Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
HAM. Haste me to know it, that I, with wings as swiftAs meditation, or the thoughts of love,
May fly to my revenge.
GHOST. 1 find thee apt;
And duller shouldst thou be, than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear;
"Tis given out, that, sleeping in mine orchard,
A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth,
The serpent that did sting thy father's life
Now wears his crown.
HAM. Oh, my prophetic soul! my uncle?
GHOST. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with trait'rous 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.
Oh, Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
But soft! methinks I scent the morning air.-
Brief let me be: Sleeping within mine orchard,
My custom always in the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole
With juice of cursed ebony in a phial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distilment.-
Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,
Of life, of crown, of Queen, at once bereft;
Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin:
No reck'ning made! but sent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head!
HAM. Oh horrible! oh horrible! most horrible!
GHOST. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
But howsoever thou pursu'st this act,
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to Heav'n,
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,
And 'gins to pale his ineffectual fire.
Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me.
HAM. Oh, all you host of Heav'n! oh earth! what else?
And shall I couple hell? oh fie! hold my heart!
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old;
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe; remember thee!
Yea, from the tablet of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
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,
Unmix'd with baser matter.
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