Hamlet (1917) Yale/Text/Act III
ACT THIRD
Scene One
[A Room in the Castle]
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords.
King. 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
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? 4
Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted;
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded,
But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof, 8
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.
Queen. Did he receive you well?
Ros. Most like a gentleman.
Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. 12
Ros. Niggard of question, but of our demands
Most free in his reply.
Queen. Did you assay him
To any pastime?
Ros. Madam, it so fell out that certain players 16
We o'er-raught on the way; of these we told him,
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: they are about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order 20
This night to play before him.
Pol. 'Tis most true;
And he beseech'd me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter.
King. With all my heart; and it doth much content me 24
To hear him so inclin'd.
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Ros. We shall, my lord.
King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too;
For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, 29
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront Ophelia.
Her father and myself, lawful espials, 32
Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behav'd,
If 't be the affliction of his love or no 36
That thus he suffers for.
Queen. I shall obey you.
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 40
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honours.
Oph. Madam, I wish it may.
Pol. Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves. [To Ophelia.] Read on this book; 44
That show of such an exercise may colour
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 48
The devil himself.
King. [Aside.] O! 'tis too true;
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it 52
Than is my deed to my most painted word:
O heavy burden!
Pol. I hear him coming; let's withdraw, my lord.
Enter Hamlet.
Ham. To be, or not to be: that is the question: 56
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
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 61
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; 64
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,
Must give us pause. There's the respect 68
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay, 72
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, 76
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will, 80
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution 84
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. Soft you now! 88
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
Oph. Good my lord,
How does your honour for this many a day?
Ham. I humbly thank you; well, well, well.
Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;
I pray you, now receive them.
Ham. No, not I;
I never gave you aught. 96
Oph. 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 100
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.
Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest?
Oph. My lord! 104
Ham. Are you fair?
Oph. What means your lordship?
Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your
honesty should admit no discourse to your
beauty. 109
Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better com-
merce than with honesty?
Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will
sooner transform 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. 117
Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe
so.
Ham. You should not have believed me; for
virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we
shall relish of it: I loved you not.
Oph. I was the more deceived. 123
Ham. Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst
thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself
indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse 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 heaven and earth? We are arrant
knaves, all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to
a nunnery. Where's your father? 135
Oph. At home, my lord.
Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that
he may play the fool nowhere but in 's own
house. Farewell.
Oph. O! help him, you sweet heavens! 140
Ham. 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 monsters you make of
them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.
Farewell. 148
Oph. O heavenly powers, restore him!
Ham. I have heard of your paintings too,
well enough; God hath given you one face, and
you make yourselves another: you jig, you
amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's crea-
tures, 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 more marriages; those
that are married already, all but one, shall live;
the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.
Oph. O! what a noble mind is here o'erthrown:
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword; 160
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, 164
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 168
Blasted with ecstasy: O! woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!
Enter King and Polonius.
King. Love! his affections do not that way tend;
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, 172
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, 176
I have in quick determination
Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,
For the demand of our neglected tribute:
Haply the seas and countries different 180
With variable objects shall expel
This something-settled matter in his heart,
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on 't?
Pol. It shall do well: but yet do I believe 185
The origin and commencement of his grief
Sprung from neglected love. How now, Ophelia!
You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said;
We heard it all. My lord, do as you please; 189
But, if you hold it fit, after the play,
Let his queen mother all alone entreat him
To show his griefs: let her be round with him; 192
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.
King. It shall be so: 196
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.
Scene Two
[A Hall in the Castle]
Enter Hamlet and two or three of the Players.
Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pro-
nounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but
if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I
had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor
do 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
passion, you must acquire and beget a temper-
ance, that may give it smoothness. O! it offends
me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-
pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very
rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who
for the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumb-shows and noise: I would
have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing
Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you,
avoid it. 17
First Play. I warrant your honour.
Ham. 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 '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 which one must
in your allowance 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 journey-
men had made men and not made them well,
they imitated humanity so abominably. 40
First Play. I hope we have reformed that
indifferently with us, sir.
Ham. 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 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 villainous, and
shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that
uses it. Go, make you ready. Exeunt Players.
Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
How now, my lord! will the king hear this piece of work? 52
Pol. And the queen too, and that presently.
Ham. Bid the players make haste. Exit Polonius.
Will you two help to hasten them?
| Ros. | We will, my lord. 56 | |
| Guil. |
Ham. What, ho! Horatio!
Enter Horatio.
Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service.
Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man
As e'er my conversation cop'd withal. 60
Hor. O! my dear lord,—
Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter;
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? 64
No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice
And could of men distinguish, her election 69
Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been
As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,
A man that fortune's buffets and rewards 72
Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and bless'd are those
Whose blood and judgment are so well co-mingled
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man 76
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.
There is a play to-night before the king; 80
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
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 84
Observe mine uncle; if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,
And my imaginations are as foul 88
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
In censure of his seeming.
Hor. Well, my lord: 92
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
Ham. They are coming to the play; I must be idle:
Get you a place. 96
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant, with his Guard carrying torches. Danish March. Sound a Flourish.
King. How fares our cousin Hamlet?
Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's
dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed; you can-
not feed capons so. 100
King. I have nothing with this answer, Ham-
let; these words are not mine.
Ham. No, nor mine now. [To Polonius.]
My lord, you played once i' the university, you
say? 105
Pol. That did I, my lord, and was accounted
a good actor.
Ham. And what did you enact? 108
Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was killed
i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me.
Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so
capital a calf there. Be the players ready? 112
Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your
patience.
Queen. Come hither, my good Hamlet, sit by
me. 116
Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more
attractive.
Pol. [To the King.] O ho! do you mark that?
Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap? 120
Oph. No, my lord.
Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap?
Oph. Ay, my lord.
Ham. Do you think I meant country matters?
Oph. I think nothing, my lord. 125
Ham. That's a fair thought to lie between
maids' legs.
Oph. What is, my lord? 128
Ham. Nothing.
Oph. You are merry, my lord.
Ham. Who, I?
Oph. Ay, my lord. 132
Ham. O God, your only jig-maker. What
should a man do but be merry? for, look you,
how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father
died within's two hours. 136
Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.
Ham. 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 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.' 146
Hautboys play. The dumb-show enters.
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; lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she seems loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love.
Oph. What means this, my lord?
Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it
means mischief. 149
Oph. Belike this show imports the argument
of the play.
Enter Prologue.
Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the
players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. 153
Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant?
Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show
him; be not you ashamed to show, he'll not
shame to tell you what it means. 157
Oph. You are naught, you are naught. I'll
mark the play.
Pro. For us and for our tragedy, 160
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a
ring? 164
Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.
Ham. As woman's love.
Enter [two Players as] King and his Queen.
[P.] King. Full thirty times hath Phœbus' cart gone round 167
Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground,
And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen
About the world have times twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts and Hymen did our hands
Unite commutual in most sacred bands. 172
[P.] Queen. 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, 175
So far from cheer and from your former state,
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. 180
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know;
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.] 184
[P.] King. Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too;
My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shall live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd; and haply one as kind 188
For husband shall thou—
[P.] Queen. O! confound the rest;
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst;
None wed the second but who killed the first. 192
Ham. [Aside.] Wormwood, wormwood.
[P.] Queen. The instances that second marriage move,
Are base respects of thrift, but none of love;
A second time I kill my husband dead, 196
When second husband kisses me in bed.
[P.] 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, 200
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 204
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt;
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
The violence of either grief or joy 208
Their own enactures with themselves destroy;
Where joy most revels grief doth most lament,
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; 213
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove
Whether love lead fortune or else fortune love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite flies; 216
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 220
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, 224
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;
But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead.
[P.] Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! 228
Sport and repose lock from me day and night!
[To desperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!]
Each opposite that blanks the face of joy 232
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!
Ham. If she should break it now! 236
[P.] King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile;
My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep. (Sleeps.)
[P.] Queen. Sleep rock thy brain;
And never come mischance between us twain! Exit.
Ham. Madam, how like you this play? 241
Queen. The lady doth protest too much, me-
thinks.
Ham. O! but she'll keep her word. 244
King. Have you heard the argument? Is
there no offence in 't?
Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest;
no offence i' the world. 248
King. What do you call the play?
Ham. The Mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tro-
pically. This play is the image of a murder
done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name;
his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon; 'tis a
knavish piece of work: but what of that? your
majesty and we that have free souls, it touches
us not: let the galled jade wince, our withers are
unwrung. 257
Enter [Player as] Lucianus.
This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king.
Oph. You are a good chorus, my lord.
Ham. I could interpret between you and
your love, if I could see the puppets dallying. 261
Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen.
Ham. It would cost you a groaning to take
off my edge. 264
Oph. Still better, and worse.
Ham. So you must take your husbands.
Begin, murderer; pox, leave thy damnable
faces, and begin. Come; the croaking raven
doth bellow for revenge. 269
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, 274
On wholesome life usurp immediately.
Ham. He poisons him i' the garden for 's
estate. His name's Gonzago; the story is extant,
and writ in very choice Italian. You shall see
anon how the murderer gets the love of Gon-
zago's wife. 280
Oph. The king rises.
Ham. What! frighted with false fire?
Queen. How fares my lord?
Pol. Give o'er the play. 284
King. Give me some light: away!
All. Lights, lights, lights!
Ham. "Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play; 288
For some must watch, while some must sleep:
So 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 razed shoes, get me
a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
Hor. Half a share.
Ham. A whole one, I. 296
"For thou dost know, O Damon dear,
This realm dismantled was
Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very—pajock." 300
Hor. You might have rimed.
Ham. O good Horatio! I'll take the ghost's
word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
Hor. Very well, my lord. 304
Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning?
Hor. I did very well note him.
Ham. Ah, ha! Come, some music! come,
the recorders! 308
"For if the king like not the comedy,
Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy."
Come, some music!
Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word
with you. 313
Ham. Sir, a whole history.
Guil. The king, sir,—
Ham. Ay, sir, what of him? 316
Guil. Is in his retirement marvellous dis-
tempered.
Ham. With drink, sir?
Guil. No, my lord, rather with choler. 320
Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more
richer to signify this to his doctor; for, for me
to put him to his purgation would perhaps
plunge him into far more choler. 3234
Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into
some frame, and start not so wildly from my
affair.
Ham. I am tame, sir; pronounce. 328
Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great
affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you.
Ham. You are welcome. 331
Guil. 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
your mother's commandment; if not, your
pardon and my return shall be the end of my
business. 337
Ham. Sir, I cannot.
Guil. What, my lord?
Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my
wit's diseased; but, sir, such 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,— 344
Ros. Then, thus she says: your behaviour hath
struck her into amazement and admiration.
Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish
a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels
of this mother's admiration? Impart. 349
Ros. She desires to speak with you in her
closet ere you go to bed.
Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our
mother. Have you any further trade with us?
Ros. My lord, you once did love me.
Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and
stealers. 356
Ros. 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. 360
Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.
Ros. How can that be when you have the
voice of the king himself for your succession in
Denmark? 364
Ham. Ay, sir, but 'While the grass grows,'—
the proverb is something musty.
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?
Guil. O! my lord, if my duty be too bold, my
love is too unmannerly.
Ham. I do not well understand that. Will
you play upon this pipe? 373
Guil. My lord, I cannot.
Ham. I pray you.
Guil. Believe me, I cannot. 376
Ham. I do beseech you.
Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord.
Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying; govern these
ventages with your finger and thumb, give it
breath with your mouth, and it will discourse
most excellent music. Look you, these are the
stops.
Guil. But these cannot I command to any
utterance of harmony; I have not the skill. 385
Ham. 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, ex-
cellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you
make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am
easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me
what instrument you will, though you can fret
me, you cannot play upon me. 396
Enter Polonius.
God bless you, sir !
Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with
you, and presently.
Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost
in shape of a camel? 401
Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel.
Pol. It is backed like a weasel. 404
Ham. Or like a whale?
Pol. Very like a whale.
Ham. Then I will come to my mother by
and by. [Aside.] They fool me to the top of my
bent. [Aloud.] I will come by and by. 409
Pol. I will say so. Exit.
Ham. By and by is easily said. Leave me, friends
[Exeunt all but Hamlet.]
'Tis now the very witching time of night, 413
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day 416
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;
Let me be cruel, not unnatural; 420
I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent! 424
Scene Three
[A Room in the Castle]
Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
King. 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. 4
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so dangerous as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunacies.
Guil. We will ourselves provide.
Most holy and religious fear it is 8
To keep those many many bodies safe
That live and feed upon your majesty.
Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound
With all the strength and armour of the mind
To keep itself from noyance; but much more 13
That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone, but, like a gulf doth draw 16
What's near it with it; it is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which, when it falls, 20
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage; 24
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.
Gent. We will haste us.
Enter Polonius.
Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet:
Behind the arras I'll convey myself 28
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 32
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.
O! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; 36
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; 40
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, 44
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, 48
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 murder?' 52
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 the offence? 56
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; 60
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? 65
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 68
Art more engaged! 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. [Retires and kneels.]
Enter Hamlet.
Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; 73
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, 76
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, 80
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, 85
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No.
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent; 88
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed,
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in 't; 92
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.
[The King rises and advances.]
King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: 97
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Exit.
Scene Four
[The Queen's Closet]
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. 4
Pray you, be round with him.
Ham. (Within.) Mother, mother, mother!
Queen. I'll warrant you;
Fear me not. Withdraw, I hear him coming.
Enter Hamlet.
Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter? 8
Queen. Hamlet, thou hast 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. 12
Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet!
Ham. What's the matter now?
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. 16
Queen. Nay then, I'll set those to you that can speak.
Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not, till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you. 20
Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?
Help, help, ho!
Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help! help! help!
Ham. [Draws.] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Kills Polonius.
Pol. [Behind.] O! I am slain. 24
Queen. O me, what hast thou done?
Ham. Nay, I know not: is it the king?
Queen. O! what a rash and bloody deed is this!
Ham. A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, 28
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Queen. As kill a king!
Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.
[Lifts up the arras and discovers Polonius.]
[To Polonius.] Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune; 32
Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.
[To the Queen.] 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, 36
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
Queen. What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue
In noise so rude against me?
Ham. Such an act 40
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 45
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, 49
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.
Queen. Ay me! what act,
That roars so loud and thunders in the index?
Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this; 53
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself, 56
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command,
A station like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill,
A combination and a form indeed, 60
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.
Here is your husband; like a mildew'd ear, 64
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 68
The hey-day 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 72
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err,
Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserv'd some quantity of choice, 75
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,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense 80
Could not so mope.]
O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, 84
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.
Queen. O Hamlet! speak no more;
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; 89
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.
Ham. Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, 92
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty,—
Queen. O! speak to me no more;
These words like daggers enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!
Ham. A murderer, and a villain;
A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 97
Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings;
A cut-purse of the empire and the rule,
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, 100
And put it in his pocket!
Queen. No more!
Ham. A king of shreds and patches,—
Enter Ghost.
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? 104
Queen. Alas! he's mad!
Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O! say.
Ghost. Do not forget: this visitation 109
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits;
O! step between her and her fighting soul; 112
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.
Ham. How is it with you, lady?
Queen. Alas ! how is't with you,
That you do bend your eye on vacancy 116
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, 120
Starts up and stands an end. O gentle son!
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
Ham. On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! 124
His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
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 128
Will want true colour; tears perchance for blood.
Queen. To whom do you speak this?
Ham. Do you see nothing there?
Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see.
Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?
Queen. No, nothing but ourselves.
Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away; 133
My father, in his habit as he liv'd;
Look! where he goes, even now, out at the portal.
Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: 136
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.
Ham. Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness 141
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word, which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, 145
That not your trespass but my madness speaks;
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, 148
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; 152
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.
Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. 156
Ham. O! throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night; but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not. 160
[That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock or livery, 164
That aptly is put on.] Refrain to-night;
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: [the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And master ev'n the devil or throw him out 169
With wondrous potency.] Once more, good-night:
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord, 172
[Pointing to Polonius.]
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 176
The death I gave him. So, again, good-night.
I must be cruel only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.
[One word more, good lady.]
Queen. What shall I do? 180
Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
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, 184
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know; 188
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?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy, 192
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. 196
Queen. 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.
Ham. I must to England; you know that?
Queen. Alack!
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on. 201
Ham. [There's letters seal'd; and my two school-fellows,
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; 205
For 'tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines, 208
And blow them at the moon. O! 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.]
This man shall set me packing;
I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room. 212
Mother, good-night. Indeed this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. 216
Good-night, mother.
Footnotes to Act III
Scene One
1 drift of circumstance: roundabout method
2 confusion: mental agitation
3 Grating: harassing
7 forward: ready, disposed
12 forcing of his disposition: with apparent unwillingness
13 niggard of question: sparing of conversation
14 assay: challenge
17 o'er-raught: overtook
26 edge: incitement
29 closely: privately
31 Affront: meet
32 espials: spies
34 frankly: freely
40 wildness: madness
43 Gracious: a courteous epithet, here used without a substantive
45 exercise: employment
47 too much proved: found by too frequent experience
48 pious action: i.e., implies that Ophelia's book was a book of devotions
52 to: in comparison with
59 take . . . troubles; cf. n.
65 rub: obstacle
67 shuffled off: sloughed off
mortal coil: turmoil of mortal life
68 give us pause: cause us to hesitate
respect: consideration
72 dispriz’d: held in contempt
73 office: people holding official position
spurns: insults
75 quietus: release from life
76 bare: unsheathed, or, small
bodkin: dagger
fardels: burdens
79 bourn: boundary
83 conscience: sense of right and wrong (?), or, thought of consequences
84 native hue: natural color, or, complexion
85 sicklied o'er: covered with a sickly tint
cast: tinge
86 pith and moment: gravity and importance; cf. I. iv. 22
87 regard: consideration
currents: courses
89 orisons: prayers
91 for this many a day: all this long time
103 honest: chaste
110 commerce: intercourse
116 time: present age
121 inoculate: engraft
122 relish: taste
126 indifferent: tolerably
129 beck: command
150 your paintings: i.e., that women paint their faces
153 nickname: travesty; cf. n.
154 make your wantonness your ignorance: i.e., affect ignorance as a mask for wantonness
155 on 't: of it
161 expectancy: source of hope
162 glass: mirror
mould: model
166 sovereign: supreme
168 feature: proportion of the whole body
blown: blossoming, in its bloom
169 Blasted: withered
175 disclose: hatching
181 variable: various
182 something-settled: somewhat settled
183 beating: pondering
184 fashion of himself: his ordinary manner
194 find: find out
Scene Two
2 trippingly: rapidly, but with neat articulation
3 mouth: speak loudly with false emphasis and indistinctness
8 beget: attain
temperance: moderation
10 robustious: boisterous
periwig-pated: wearing a wig
12 groundlings; cf. n.
13 capable of: able to receive impressions from
14 inexplicable dumb-shows; cf. n.
16 Termagant; cf. n.
out-herods Herod; cf. n.
24 from: apart from
28 pressure: impressed character, stamp
29 come tardy off: inadequately done
31 which one: one of whom
32 allowance: acknowledgment
38 journeymen: laborers not yet masters of their trade
45 there be of them: there are some; cf. n.
47 barren: barren of wit
59 just: balanced
60 cop'd withal: came in contact with
65 candied: flattering
66 pregnant hinges: easily inclined joints
67 thrift: profit
69 election: choice
74 blood: passions
76 stop: a hole in wind instruments for controlling the sound
84 very comment: most intense observation
85 occulted: hidden
86 unkennel: reveal
89 Vulcan; cf. n.
stithy: smithy, or, anvil
92 censure: giving an opinion
seeming: appearance
95 be idle: act mad; cf. n.
98 chameleon's dish; cf. n.
101 have nothing with: can make nothing of
109 Julius Cæsar; cf. n.
110 Capitol; cf. n.
111 part: action
113 stay upon: wait for
114 patience: permission
117 metal: material
139 suit of sables: suit of rich fur
143 suffer not thinking on: be forgotten
144 hobby-horse: one of the participants in the morris dance; cf. n.
S. d. Hautboys: wooden double-reed instruments of high pitch
S. d. The dumb-show enters; cf. n.
S. d. Mutes: actors without speaking parts
148 miching mallecho: skulking mischief; cf. n.
150 imports: indicates
153 counsel: secret
158 naught: wanton
161 stooping: bowing
163 posy: motto, short verse
167 cart: chariot
168 wash: sea
Tellus'; cf. n.
169 borrow'd sheen: reflected light
172 commutual: an intensive form of 'mutual'
177 I distrust you: I have misgivings on your account
179 quantity: proportion
180 In . . . extremity: in either no feeling or the very deepest
186 operant: active
194 instances: motives, inducements
move: suggest
201 validity: strength
209 enactures: fulfilments
220 hollow: insincere
225 ends: results
229 Sport: pleasure; cf. n.
231 anchor's: anchorite's
232 opposite: contrary thing
blanks: blanches, makes pale
242 protest: vow
250 Tropically: figuratively
251 image: representation
252 duke's name; cf. n.
256 galled jade: horse sore from chafing
withers: shoulders
257 unwrung: not galled
259 chorus: in Elizabethan drama one who speaks a prologue summarising the action
260 interpret; cf. n.
267 pox: small-pox, used frequently as an imprecation
268 the croaking . . . revenge; cf. n.
271 Confederate: conspiring to assist
273 Hecate; cf. n.
282 false fire; cf. n.
284 Give o'er: stop
287 deer go weep; cf. n.
291 forest of feathers: an allusion to the plumes worn by tragic actors
292 turn Turk: change completely
293 Provincial roses: rosettes imitating the damask rose; cf. n.
razed: slashed, i.e., with cuts or openings
294 fellowship: partnership
cry: company; cf. n.
295 share: i.e., in the profits of the company; cf. n.
297 Damon; cf. n.
298 dismantled: deprived
300 pajock: peacock (?); cf. n.
308 recorders: wind instruments of the flute type
310 perdy: a corruption of par Dieu
317 distempered: disordered; cf. n.
320 choler: anger; cf. n.
323 purgation: purging; cf. n.
326 frame: definite form
328 pronounce: speak
334 wholesome: sensible
355 pickers and stealers: hands; cf. n.
363 voice: support
365 'While . . . grows'; cf. n.
367 withdraw with: speak privately with
368 recover the wind of: keep watch upon; cf. n.
369 toil: snare
378 know no touch: have no skill at all
380 ventages: holes, stops
391 compass: range of voice
392 organ: musical instrument, the recorder
395 fret; cf. n.
409 bent: degree of endurance; cf. n.
413 witching: when spells are cast
419 Nero; cf. n.
423 shent: rebuked
424 give them seals: confirm them by making words into deeds
Scene Three
2 range: rove, roam
3 forthwith dispatch: prepare at once
5 terms: condition
8 fear: caution
11 single and peculiar: private individual
13 noyance: harm
14 weal: welfare
15 cease: cessation, euphemism for 'death'
16 gulf: whirlpool
21 annexment: appendage
22 Attends: accompanies
24 Arm: prepare
29 process: interview
tax . . . home: censure effectually
33 of vantage: from a favorable position, or, in addition
37 primal: primeval; cf. n.
44 thicker than itself: made over double its normal thickness
47 confront: oppose directly
49 forestalled: prevented in anticipation
54 effects: i.e., things acquired by an action
55 ambition: i.e., the realization of ambition (so also offence in 56)
58 gilded hand: hand using bribes of gold
59 wicked prize: reward of wickedness
60 Buys out: corrupts
61 shuffling: practice of trickery
lies: used in its legal sense; cf. n.
63 teeth and forehead: very face
64 rests: remains
68 limed: caught with bird-lime
69 engaged: entangled
75 would: requires to
scann'd: examined, considered
79 hire and salary: i.e., a reward
80 full of bread: without opportunity to fast; cf. n.
81 broad blown: in full bloom
flush: lusty
82 audit: account
83 in our circumstance and course: according to our vague ideas
86 passage: i.e., to the other world
88 hent: intention
92 relish: flavor
96 physic: medicine, i.e., the postponement
Scene Four
1 lay home: talk plainly
2 broad: free, unrestrained
4 heat: anger
14 rood: cross
37 brass'd: hardened
38 proof and bulwark: an impenetrable defence
sense: feeling
46 contraction: marriage contract
48 rhapsody of words: meaningless string of words
glow: blush
49 solidity and compound mass: the earth
50 tristful: sad
doom: doomsday
52 index: preface
54 counterfeit presentment: portrayed likeness
56 front: forehead
58 station: poise
64 ear: ear of wheat
67 batten: grow fat on
moor: a barren upland; cf. n.
69 hey-day: state of excitement, youthful high spirits
71 Sense: reasoning power
72 motion: emotion (?)
73 apoplex'd: atrophied
74 thrall'd: enslaved
75 quantity of choice: power to choose
76 difference: disagreement
77 cozen'd: cheated
hoodman-blind: blind man's buff
79 sans: without
81 mope: act aimlessly
83 mutine: rise in mutiny
86 charge: command
88 panders: ministers to the gratifications of
90 grained: ingrained
91 tinct: color
92 enseamed: greasy
97 tithe: tenth part
98 precedent: former
vice: buffoon; cf. n.
99 cut-purse: pickpocket
102 shreds and patches: rabble and fools (?); cf. n.
107 laps'd in time and passion: "having suffered time to go by and passion to cool" (?)
108 important: urgent
117 incorporal: incorporeal
120 bedded: smooth, flatly brushed
life in excrements: living outgrowth
125 conjoin'd: united
126 capable: capable of feeling
127 convert: turn aside
128 effects: purposes
129 want true colour: lack true cause
134 habit: dress
143 re-word: repeat word for word
144 gambol from: skip away from
grace: God
145 unction: salve
148 mining: undermining
153 fatness: grossness
pursy: corpulent
155 curb and woo: bow and beg
163 use: habitual practice
169 master; cf. n.
171 be bless'd: to become blessed
176 answer: account for
182 bloat: bloated
183 wanton: wantonly
184 reechy: greasy
185 paddling: playing fondly
187 essentially: in my essential nature
190 paddock: toad
gib: tom-cat
191 dear concernings: affairs dearly concerning one
194 famous ape: a reference not yet identified
195 conclusions: experiments
204 mandate: command
sweep my way: clear my path
205 marshal: conduct
206 enginer: maker of military engines, sapper
207 Hoist: blown up
petar: small bomb
go hard But; cf. n.
211 set me packing: send me off quickly