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Hamlet

Act III, Scene 1.

Elsinore. The platform before the Castle.

Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern,

and Lords.

Claudius. And can you by no drift of circumstance

Get from him why he puts on this confusion,

Grating so harshly all his days of quiet 1685

With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Rosencrantz. He does confess he feels himself distracted,

But from what cause he will by no means speak.

Guildenstern. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,

But with a crafty madness keeps aloof 1690

When we would bring him on to some confession

Of his true state.

Gertrude. Did he receive you well?

Rosencrantz. Most like a gentleman.

Guildenstern. But with much forcing of his disposition. 1695

Rosencrantz. Niggard of question, but of our demands

Most free in his reply.

Gertrude. Did you assay him

To any pastime?

Rosencrantz. Madam, it so fell out that certain players 1700

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. 1705

Polonius. 'Tis most true;

And he beseech'd me to entreat your Majesties

To hear and see the matter.

Claudius. With all my heart, and it doth much content me

To hear him so inclin'd. 1710

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge

And drive his purpose on to these delights.

Rosencrantz. We shall, my lord.

Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Claudius. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; 1715

For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither,

That he, as 'twere by accident, may here

Affront Ophelia.

Her father and myself (lawful espials)

Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, 1720

We may of their encounter frankly judge

And gather by him, as he is behav'd,

If't be th' affliction of his love, or no,

That thus he suffers for.

Gertrude. I shall obey you; 1725

And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish

That your good beauties be the happy cause

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

Will bring him to his wonted way again,

To both your honours. 1730

Ophelia. Madam, I wish it may.

[Exit Queen.]

Polonius. Ophelia, walk you here. – Gracious, so please you,

We will bestow ourselves. – [To Ophelia] Read on this book,

That show of such an exercise may colour 1735

Your loneliness. – We are oft to blame in this,

'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage

And pious action we do sugar o'er

The Devil himself.

Claudius. [aside] O, 'tis too true! 1740

How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!

The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it

Than is my deed to my most painted word.

O heavy burthen! 1745

Polonius. I hear him coming. Let's withdraw, my lord.

Exeunt King and Polonius].

Enter Hamlet.

Hamlet. To be, or not to be- that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 1750

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-

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks 1755

That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep.

To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 1760

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,

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

The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, 1765

The insolence of office, and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life, 1770

But that the dread of something after death-

The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns- puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of? 1775

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,

And thus the native hue of resolution

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

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry 1780

And lose the name of action. – Soft you now!

The fair Ophelia! – Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins rememb'red.

Ophelia. Good my lord,

How does your honour for this many a day? 1785

Hamlet. I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

Ophelia. My lord, I have remembrances of yours

That I have longed long to re-deliver.

I pray you, now receive them.

Hamlet. No, not I! 1790

I never gave you aught.

Ophelia. My honour'd lord, you know right well you did,

And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd

As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost,

Take these again; for to the noble mind 1795

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

There, my lord.

Hamlet. Ha, ha! Are you honest?

Ophelia. My lord?

Hamlet. Are you fair? 1800

Ophelia. What means your lordship?

Hamlet. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty 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 1805

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 believ'd me; for virtue cannot so 1810

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 nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of

sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse 1815

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 all; 1820

believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. 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. 1825

Ophelia. O, 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 nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt

needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what 1830

monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.

Farewell.

Ophelia. O heavenly powers, restore him!

Hamlet. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath

given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you 1835

amble, and you lisp; you nickname God's creatures and make your

wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't! it hath made

me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages. Those that are

married already- all but one- shall live; the rest shall keep as

they are. To a nunnery, go. Exit. 1840

Ophelia. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

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

Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down! 1845

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That suck'd the honey of his music vows,

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth 1850

Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me

T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Enter King and Polonius.

Claudius. Love? his affections do not that way tend;

Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, 1855

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,

I have in quick determination 1860

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

This something-settled matter in his heart, 1865

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

Sprung from neglected love. – How now, Ophelia? 1870

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

To show his grief. Let her be round with him; 1875

And I'll be plac'd 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.

Claudius. It shall be so. 1880

Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. Exeunt.

Act III, Scene 2.

Elsinore. hall in the Castle.

Enter Hamlet and three of the Players.

Hamlet. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you,

trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our

players do, I had as live the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do 1885

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. O, it offends me to the

soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to 1890

tatters, to very rags, to split the cars of the groundlings, who

(for the most part) are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb

shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipp'd for o'erdoing

Termagant. It out-herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.

First Player. I warrant your honour. 1895

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 overdone is from the purpose of playing,

whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 1900

'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show Virtue her own 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 make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious

grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance 1905

o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I

have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to

speak it profanely), that, neither having the accent of

Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so

strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's 1910

journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated

humanity so abominably.

First Player. I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with us, sir.

Hamlet. O, reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns

speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them 1915

that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren

spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary

question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous

and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go

make you ready. 1920

[Exeunt Players.]

[Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.]

How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work?

Polonius. And the Queen too, and that presently.

Hamlet. Bid the players make haste, [Exit Polonius.] Will you two 1925

help to hasten them?

Rosencrantz. [with Guildenstern] We will, 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

As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.

Horatio. O, my dear lord!

Hamlet. Nay, do not think I flatter; 1935

For what advancement may I hope from thee,

That no revenue hast but thy good spirits

To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?

No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee 1940

Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice

And could of men distinguish, her election

Hath seal'd thee for herself. For thou hast been

As one, in suff'ring all, that suffers nothing; 1945

A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards

Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those

Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled

That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man 1950

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

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

As I do thee. Something too much of this I

There is a play to-night before the King.

One scene of it comes near the circumstance, 1955

Which I have told thee, of my father's death.

I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,

Even with the very comment of thy soul

Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt

Do not itself unkennel in one speech, 1960

It is a damned ghost that we have seen,

And my imaginations are as foul

As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;

For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,

And after we will both our judgments join 1965

In censure of his seeming.

Horatio. Well, my lord.

If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,

And scape detecting, I will pay the theft.

Sound a flourish. [Enter Trumpets and Kettledrums. Danish 1970

march. [Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern,

and other Lords attendant, with the Guard carrying torches.]

Hamlet. They are coming to the play. I must be idle.

Get you a place.

Claudius. How fares our cousin Hamlet? 1975

Hamlet. Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air,

promise-cramm'd. You cannot feed capons so.

Claudius. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not

mine.

Hamlet. No, nor mine now. [To Polonius] My lord, you play'd once 1980

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 kill'd i' th' Capitol; Brutus

kill'd me. 1985

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.

Gertrude. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

Hamlet. No, good mother. Here's metal more attractive. 1990

Polonius. [to the King] O, ho! do you mark that?

Hamlet. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[Sits down at Ophelia's feet.]

Ophelia. No, my lord.

Hamlet. I mean, my head upon your lap? 1995

Ophelia. Ay, my lord.

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? 2000

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? 2005

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 devil wear black, for I'll have a

suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten 2010

yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life

half a year. But, by'r Lady, he must build churches then; or else

shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose

epitaph is 'For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot!'

[Hautboys play. The dumb show enters.] 2015

Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing

him and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation

unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her

neck. He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing

him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his 2020

crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and

leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes

passionate action. The Poisoner with some three or four Mutes,

comes in again, seem to condole with her. The dead body is

carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she 2025

seems harsh and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts

his love.

Exeunt.

Ophelia. What means this, my lord?

Hamlet. Marry, this is miching malhecho; it means mischief. 2030

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 he tell us what this show meant? 2035

Hamlet. Ay, or any show that you'll show him. Be not you asham'd to

show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.

Ophelia. You are naught, you are naught! I'll mark the play.

Pro. For us, and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency, 2040

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

Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed 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, 2050

Unite comutual in most sacred bands.

Gertrude. 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 your former state. 2055

That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,

Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must;

For women's fear and love holds quantity,

In neither aught, or in extremity.

Now what my love is, proof hath made you know; 2060

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 there.

Player King. Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;

My operant powers their functions leave to do. 2065

And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,

Honour'd, belov'd, and haply one as kind

For husband shalt thou-

Player Queen. O, confound the rest!

Such love must needs be treason in my breast. 2070

When second husband let me be accurst!

None wed the second but who killed the first.

Hamlet. [aside] Wormwood, wormwood!

Queen. The instances that second marriage move

Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. 2075

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;

But what we do determine oft we break.

Purpose is but the slave to memory, 2080

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. 2085

What to ourselves in passion we propose,

The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.

The violence of either grief or joy

Their own enactures with themselves destroy.

Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; 2090

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;

For 'tis a question left us yet to prove,

Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. 2095

The great man down, you mark his favourite flies,

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, 2100

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. 2105

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,

Sport and repose lock from me day and night,

To desperation turn my trust and hope, 2110

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 a widow, ever I be wife! 2115

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. Sleep rock thy brain, 2120

He sleeps.]

Player Queen. And never come mischance between us twain!

Exit.

Hamlet. Madam, how like you this play?

Gertrude. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. 2125

Hamlet. O, but she'll keep her word.

Claudius. 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.

Claudius. What do you call the play? 2130

Hamlet. 'The Mousetrap.' Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the

image of a murther done in Vienna. Gonzago is the duke's name;

his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. 'Tis a knavish piece of

work; but what o' that? Your Majesty, and we that have free

souls, it touches us not. Let the gall'd jade winch; our withers 2135

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. 2140

Ophelia. You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

Hamlet. It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge.

Ophelia. Still better, and worse.

Hamlet. So you must take your husbands. – Begin, murtherer. Pox, leave

thy damnable faces, and begin! Come, the croaking raven doth 2145

bellow for revenge.

Luc. 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 On wholesome life usurp immediately.

Pours the poison in his ears.

Hamlet. He poisons him i' th' garden for's estate. His name's Gonzago.

The story is extant, and written in very choice Italian. You 2150

shall see anon how the murtherer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

Ophelia. The King rises.

Hamlet. What, frighted with false fire?

Gertrude. How fares my lord?

Polonius. Give o'er the play. 2155

Claudius. Give me some light! Away!

All. Lights, lights, lights!

Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio.

Hamlet. Why, let the strucken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play; 2160

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 two Provincial roses on my raz'd

shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir? 2165

Horatio. Half a share.

Hamlet. A whole one I!

For thou dost know, O Damon dear,

This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here 2170

A very, very- pajock.

Horatio. You might have rhym'd.

Hamlet. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand

pound! Didst perceive?

Horatio. Very well, my lord. 2175

Hamlet. Upon the talk of the poisoning?

Horatio. I did very well note him.

Hamlet. Aha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders!

For if the King like not the comedy,

Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy. 2180

Come, some music!

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Guildenstern. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.

Hamlet. Sir, a whole history.

Guildenstern. The King, sir- 2185

Hamlet. Ay, sir, what of him?

Guildenstern. Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper'd.

Hamlet. With drink, sir?

Guildenstern. No, my lord; rather with choler.

Hamlet. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to 2190

the doctor; for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps

plunge him into far 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. 2195

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 2200

your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return

shall be the end of my business.

Hamlet. Sir, I cannot.

Guildenstern. What, my lord?

Hamlet. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseas'd. But, sir, such 2205

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. 2210

Hamlet. O 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? 2215

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. 2220

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. 2225

[Enter the Players with recorders. ]

O, 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. 2230

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. 2235

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

Hamlet. It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your

fingers and thumbs, 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 utt'rance of harmony. I 2240

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 the top of my compass; and there is much music, 2245

excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it

speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be play'd on than a

pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me,

you cannot play upon me.

[Enter Polonius.] 2250

God bless you, sir!

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. 2255

Polonius. It is back'd like a weasel.

Hamlet. Or like a whale.

Polonius. Very like a whale.

Hamlet. Then will I come to my mother by-and-by. – They fool me to the

top of my bent. – I will come by-and-by. 2260

Polonius. I will say so. Exit.

Hamlet. 'By-and-by' is easily said. – Leave me, friends.

[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]

'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out 2265

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

The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom. 2270

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,

To give them seals never, my soul, consent! Exit. 2275