Each small annexment, petty consequence,
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 upon this fear,

Which now goes too free-footed.

Ros. Guil.

We will haste us.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. 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: 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,

And tell you what I know.
King.

Thanks, dear my lord.
[Exit POLONIUS.

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;"
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 forestalled, ere we come to f

Or pardon'd, being down?

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 th'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 can not 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
Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe;

All may be well!

[steel,

[Retires, and kneels.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't-and so he goes to heaven: And so am I reveng'd? That would be scann'd:' 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;

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,

1 considered, estimated.

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;

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 :

My mother stays:

This physick but prolongs thy sickly days.

The King rises, and advances.

[Exit.

King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. [Exit.

SCENE IV.-Another room in the same.

Enter Queen and POLONIUS.

Pol. He 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 screen'd and stood between
Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here.
Pray you, be round with him.

Queen.

I'll warrant you;

Fear me not-withdraw, I hear him coming.

[POLONIUS hides himself.

Enter HAMLET.

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

Queen. Hamlet, thou has thy father much offended.
Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended.
Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?
Ham.

time.

What's the matter now?

hold, or seizure. Lay hold on him, sword, at a more horrid

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 speak. Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not You go not, till I set you up a glass [budge; Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Queen. What wilt thou do; thou wilt not murder Help, help, ho!

Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help!

Ham.

Dead, for a ducat, dead.

[me?

How now! a rat?

[Draws.

[HAMLET makes a pass through the arras.

Pol. [Behind.]

Ó, I am slain.

[Falls, and dies.

Nay, I know not:

Queen. O me, what hast thou done?

Ham.

Is it the king?

[Lifts up the arras, and draws forth POLONIUS. 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.-
Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you down,
And let me wring your heart: for so I shall,

If it be made of penetrable stuff;

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,

That it be proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy

In noise so rude against me?

the cross.

[tongue

Ham.

Such an act,

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty ;
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: O, such a deed
As from the body of contraction' plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity3 and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen.
Ah 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 stations 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,
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 heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment
Would step from this to this?

O shame! where is thy blush?

1 the roseate hue.

s this earth.

what follows:

6

2 the marriage contract.

4 Hyperion, as before, for Hyperion. 5 an attitude.

6 Alluding to Pharoah's dream in the 41st chapter of Genesis.

7 grow fat.