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.