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Hamlet
Act III, Scene 3.
A room in the Castle.
Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
Claudius. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you;
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you. 2280
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.
Guildenstern. We will ourselves provide.
Most holy and religious fear it is 2285
To keep those many many bodies safe
That live and feed upon your Majesty.
Rosencrantz. The single and peculiar life is bound
With all the strength and armour of the mind
To keep itself from noyance; but much more 2290
That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests
The lives of many. The cesse 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, 2295
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. 2300
Claudius. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.
Rosencrantz. [with Guildenstern] We will haste us.
Exeunt Gentlemen.
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;
And, as you said, and wisely was it said, 2310
'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. 2315
Claudius. 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 murther! Pray can I not, 2320
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 2325
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, 2330
To be forestalled 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 murther'?
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd 2335
Of those effects for which I did the murther-
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, 2340
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, 2345
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, 2350
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. He kneels.
Enter Hamlet.
Hamlet. 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 2360
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? 2365
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 seasoned for his passage?
No. 2370
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.
When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage;
Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed;
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't- 2375
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his soul may be as damn'd and black
As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays.
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. Exit.
Claudius. [rises] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. 2380
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Exit.
Act III, Scene 4.
The Queen’s closet.
Enter Queen and Polonius.
Polonius. 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 2385
Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here.
Pray you be round with him.
Hamlet. [within] Mother, mother, mother!
Gertrude. I'll warrant you; fear me not. Withdraw; I hear him coming.
[Polonius hides behind the arras.]
Enter Hamlet.
Hamlet. Now, mother, what's the matter?
Gertrude. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Hamlet. Mother, you have my father much offended.
Gertrude. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. 2395
Hamlet. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Gertrude. Why, how now, Hamlet?
Hamlet. What's the matter now?
Gertrude. Have you forgot me?
Hamlet. No, by the rood, not so! 2400
You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife,
And (would it were not so!) you are my mother.
Gertrude. 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 2405
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
Gertrude. What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me?
Help, help, ho!
Polonius. [behind] What, ho! help, help, help!
Hamlet. [draws] How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead! 2410
[Makes a pass through the arras and] kills Polonius.
Polonius. [behind] O, I am slain!
Gertrude. O me, what hast thou done?
Hamlet. Nay, I know not. Is it the King?
Gertrude. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! 2415
Hamlet. A bloody deed- almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Gertrude. As kill a king?
Hamlet. Ay, lady, it was my word.
[Lifts up the arras and sees Polonius.] 2420
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
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 2425
If it be made of penetrable stuff;
If damned custom have not braz'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
Gertrude. What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me? 2430
Hamlet. 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 2435
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 solidity and compound mass, 2440
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
Gertrude. Ah me, what act,
That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
Hamlet. Look here upon th's picture, and on this, 2445
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 2450
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 what follows. 2455
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 2460
The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment
Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have,
Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err, 2465
Nor sense to ecstacy 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, 2470
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, 2475
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,
And reason panders will. 2480
Gertrude. 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.
Hamlet. Nay, but to live 2485
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty!
Gertrude. O, speak to me no more!
These words like daggers enter in mine ears. 2490
No more, sweet Hamlet!
Hamlet. A murtherer 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, 2495
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole
And put it in his pocket!
Gertrude. No more!
Enter the Ghost in his nightgown.
Hamlet. A king of shreds and patches! – 2500
Save me and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure?
Gertrude. Alas, he's mad!
Hamlet. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by 2505
Th' important acting of your dread command?
O, say!
Father's Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But look, amazement on thy mother sits. 2510
O, step between her and her fighting soul
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.
Speak to her, Hamlet.
Hamlet. How is it with you, lady?
Gertrude. Alas, how is't with you, 2515
That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
And with th' encorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in th' alarm,
Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements, 2520
Start up and stand an end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look?
Hamlet. On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares!
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, 2525
Would make them capable. – Do not look upon me,
Lest with this piteous action you convert
My stern effects. Then what I have to do
Will want true colour- tears perchance for blood.
Gertrude. To whom do you speak this? 2530
Hamlet. Do you see nothing there?
Gertrude. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
Hamlet. Nor did you nothing hear?
Gertrude. No, nothing but ourselves.
Hamlet. Why, look you there! Look how it steals away! 2535
My father, in his habit as he liv'd!
Look where he goes even now out at the portal!
Exit Ghost.
Gertrude. This is the very coinage of your brain.
This bodiless creation ecstasy 2540
Is very cunning in.
Hamlet. Ecstasy?
My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have utt'red. Bring me to the test, 2545
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.
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, 2550
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
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue; 2555
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.
Gertrude. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
Hamlet. O, throw away the worser part of it, 2560
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 evil, is angel yet in this, 2565
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence; the next more easy; 2570
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either [master] the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night;
And when you are desirous to be blest,
I'll blessing beg of you. – For this same lord, 2575
I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so,
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. 2580
I must be cruel, only to be kind;
Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.
Gertrude. What shall I do?
Hamlet. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: 2585
Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out, 2590
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know;
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? 2595
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep
And break your own neck down. 2600
Gertrude. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.
Hamlet. I must to England; you know that?
Gertrude. Alack, 2605
I had forgot! 'Tis so concluded on.
Hamlet. There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; 2610
For 'tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar; and 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon. O, 'tis most sweet
When in one line two crafts directly meet. 2615
This man shall set me packing.
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room. —
Mother, good night. – Indeed, this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish peating knave. 2620
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.
[Exit the Queen. Then] Exit Hamlet, tugging in
Polonius.
Act IV, Scene 1.
Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
Enter King and Queen, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Claudius. There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves
You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them.
Where is your son?
Gertrude. Bestow this place on us a little while.
[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] 2630
Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen to-night!
Claudius. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
Gertrude. Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit
Behind the arras hearing something stir, 2635
Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!'
And in this brainish apprehension kills
The unseen good old man.
Claudius. O heavy deed!
It had been so with us, had we been there. 2640
His liberty is full of threats to all-
To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt 2645
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
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? 2650
Gertrude. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd;
O'er whom his very madness, like some ore
Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done.
Claudius. O Gertrude, come away! 2655
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.] 2660
Friends both, go join you with some further aid.
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him.
Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this. 2665
[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 haply slander-]
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, 2670
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports his poisoned shot- may miss our name
And hit the woundless air. – O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.
Exeunt.
Act IV, Scene 2.
Elsinore. A passage in the Castle.
Enter Hamlet.
Hamlet. Safely stow'd.
Gentlemen. [within] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!
Hamlet. But soft! What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they
come.
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Rosencrantz. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?
Hamlet. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
Rosencrantz. Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence
And bear it to the chapel. 2685
Hamlet. Do not believe it.
Rosencrantz. 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? 2690
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, in the corner of his jaw;
first mouth'd, to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have 2695
glean'd, 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 2700
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. Hide fox, and all after. 2705
Exeunt.
Act IV, Scene 3.
Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
Enter King.
Claudius. 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. 2710
He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And where 'tis so, th' offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This sudden sending him away must seem 2715
Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,
Or not at all.
[Enter Rosencrantz.]
How now O What hath befall'n? 2720
Rosencrantz. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
We cannot get from him.
Claudius. But where is he?
Rosencrantz. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure.
Claudius. Bring him before us. 2725
Rosencrantz. Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord.
Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern [with Attendants].
Claudius. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Hamlet. At supper.
Claudius. At supper? Where? 2730
Hamlet. Not where he eats, but where he 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 2735
end.
Claudius. 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.
Claudius. What dost thou mean by this? 2740
Hamlet. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through
the guts of a beggar.
Claudius. 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 indeed, if you 2745
find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up
the stair, into the lobby.
Claudius. Go seek him there. [To Attendants.]
Hamlet. He will stay till you come.
[Exeunt Attendants.]
Claudius. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, —
Which we do tender as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done, – must send thee hence
With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself.
The bark is ready and the wind at help, 2755
Th' associates tend, and everything is bent
For England.
Hamlet. For England?
Claudius. Ay, Hamlet.
Hamlet. Good. 2760
Claudius. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
Hamlet. I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England!
Farewell, dear mother.
Claudius. Thy loving father, Hamlet.
Hamlet. My mother! Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is 2765
one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England!
Exit.
Claudius. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard.
Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night.
Away! for everything is seal'd and done 2770
That else leans on th' affair. Pray you make haste.
[Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]
And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught, —
As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red 2775
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,
The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; 2780
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'er begun. Exit.
