THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK - 1600 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 2. ACT II, SCENE 2
◈ The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (햄릿) ◈
2. Act II, Scene 2
0 Elsinore. A room in the Castle.
1 Flourish. [Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, cum aliis.
2 Claudius.
3 Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
4 Moreover that we much did long to see you,
5 The need we have to use you did provoke
6 Our hasty sending. Something have you heard
7 Of Hamlet's transformation. So I call it,
8 Sith nor th' exterior nor the inward man
9 Resembles that it was. What it should be,
10 More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
11 So much from th' understanding of himself,
12 I cannot dream of. I entreat you both
13 That, being of so young days brought up with him,
14 And since so neighbour'd to his youth and haviour,
15 That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
16 Some little time; so by your companies
17 To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather
18 So much as from occasion you may glean,
19 Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus
20 That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
21 Gertrude.
22 Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you,
23 And sure I am two men there are not living
24 To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
25 To show us so much gentry and good will
26 As to expend your time with us awhile
27 For the supply and profit of our hope,
28 Your visitation shall receive such thanks
29 As fits a king's remembrance.
30 Rosencrantz.
31 Both your Majesties
32 Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
33 Put your dread pleasures more into command
34 Than to entreaty.
35 Guildenstern.
36 But we both obey,
37 And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
38 To lay our service freely at your feet,
39 To be commanded.
40 Claudius.
41 Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
42 Gertrude.
43 Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
44 And I beseech you instantly to visit
45 My too much changed son.- Go, some of you,
46 And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.
47 Guildenstern.
48 Heavens make our presence and our practices
49 Pleasant and helpful to him!
50 Gertrude.
51 Ay, amen!
52 Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, [with some Attendants].
53 Enter Polonius.
54 Polonius.
55 Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
56 Are joyfully return'd.
57 Claudius.
58 Thou still hast been the father of good news.
59 Polonius.
60 Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,
61 I hold my duty as I hold my soul,
62 Both to my God and to my gracious king;
63 And I do think- or else this brain of mine
64 Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
65 As it hath us'd to do- that I have found
66 The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.
67 Claudius.
68 O, speak of that! That do I long to hear.
69 Polonius.
70 Give first admittance to th' ambassadors.
71 My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.
72 Claudius.
73 Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in.
74 [Exit Polonius.]
75 He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
76 The head and source of all your son's distemper.
77 Gertrude.
78 I doubt it is no other but the main,
79 His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage.
80 Claudius.
81 Well, we shall sift him.
82 [Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius.]
83 Welcome, my good friends.
84 Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
85 Voltemand.
86 Most fair return of greetings and desires.
87 Upon our first, he sent out to suppress
88 His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
89 To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack,
90 But better look'd into, he truly found
91 It was against your Highness; whereat griev'd,
92 That so his sickness, age, and impotence
93 Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests
94 On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys,
95 Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine,
96 Makes vow before his uncle never more
97 To give th' assay of arms against your Majesty.
98 Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy,
99 Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee
100 And his commission to employ those soldiers,
101 So levied as before, against the Polack;
102 With an entreaty, herein further shown,
103 [Gives a paper.]
104 That it might please you to give quiet pass
105 Through your dominions for this enterprise,
106 On such regards of safety and allowance
107 As therein are set down.
108 Claudius.
109 It likes us well;
110 And at our more consider'd time we'll read,
111 Answer, and think upon this business.
112 Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour.
113 Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together.
114 Most welcome home![Exeunt Ambassadors.]
115 Polonius.
116 This business is well ended.
117 My liege, and madam, to expostulate
118 What majesty should be, what duty is,
119 Why day is day, night is night, and time is time.
120 Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
121 Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
122 And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
123 I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
124 Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,
125 What is't but to be nothing else but mad?
126 But let that go.
127 Gertrude.
128 More matter, with less art.
129 Polonius.
130 Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
131 That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity;
132 And pity 'tis 'tis true. A foolish figure!
133 But farewell it, for I will use no art.
134 Mad let us grant him then. And now remains
135 That we find out the cause of this effect-
136 Or rather say, the cause of this defect,
137 For this effect defective comes by cause.
138 Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
139 Perpend.
140 I have a daughter(have while she is mine),
141 Who in her duty and obedience, mark,
142 Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise.
143 [Reads]the letter.]
144 'To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia,'-
145 That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is a vile phrase.
146 But you shall hear. Thus:
147 [Reads.]
148 'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.'
149 Gertrude.
150 Came this from Hamlet to her?
151 Polonius.
152 Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful.[Reads.]
153 'Doubt thou the stars are fire;
154 Doubt that the sun doth move;
155 Doubt truth to be a liar;
156 But never doubt I love.
157 'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to
158 reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best, believe
159 it. Adieu.
160 'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to
161 him, HAMLET.'
162 This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me;
163 And more above, hath his solicitings,
164 As they fell out by time, by means, and place,
165 All given to mine ear.
166 Claudius.
167 But how hath she
168 Receiv'd his love?
169 Polonius.
170 What do you think of me?
171 Claudius.
172 As of a man faithful and honourable.
173 Polonius.
174 I would fain prove so. But what might you think,
175 When I had seen this hot love on the wing
176 (As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that,
177 Before my daughter told me), what might you,
178 Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think,
179 If I had play'd the desk or table book,
180 Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb,
181 Or look'd upon this love with idle sight?
182 What might you think? No, I went round to work
183 And my young mistress thus I did bespeak:
184 'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star.
185 This must not be.' And then I prescripts gave her,
186 That she should lock herself from his resort,
187 Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
188 Which done, she took the fruits of my advice,
189 And he, repulsed, a short tale to make,
190 Fell into a sadness, then into a fast,
191 Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness,
192 Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension,
193 Into the madness wherein now he raves,
194 And all we mourn for.
195 Claudius.
196 Do you think 'tis this?
197 Gertrude.
198 it may be, very like.
199 Polonius.
200 Hath there been such a time- I would fain know that-
201 That I have Positively said 'Tis so,'
202 When it prov'd otherwise.?
203 Claudius.
204 Not that I know.
205 Polonius.
206 [points to his head and shoulder]Take this from this, if this be otherwise.
207 If circumstances lead me, I will find
208 Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
209 Within the centre.
210 Claudius.
211 How may we try it further?
212 Polonius.
213 You know sometimes he walks for hours together
214 Here in the lobby.
215 Gertrude.
216 So he does indeed.
217 Polonius.
218 At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him.
219 Be you and I behind an arras then.
220 Mark the encounter. If he love her not,
221 And he not from his reason fall'n thereon
222 Let me be no assistant for a state,
223 But keep a farm and carters.
224 Claudius.
225 We will try it.
226 Enter Hamlet, reading on a book.
227 Gertrude.
228 But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.
229 Polonius.
230 Away, I do beseech you, both away
231 I'll board him presently. O, give me leave.
232 [Exeunt King and Queen, [with Attendants].]
233 How does my good Lord Hamlet?
234 Hamlet.
235 Well, God-a-mercy.
236 Polonius.
237 Do you know me, my lord?
238 Hamlet.
239 Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.
240 Polonius.
241 Not I, my lord.
242 Hamlet.
243 Then I would you were so honest a man.
244 Polonius.
245 Honest, my lord?
246 Hamlet.
247 Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man
248 pick'd out of ten thousand.
249 Polonius.
250 That's very true, my lord.
251 Hamlet.
252 For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god
253 kissing carrion- Have you a daughter?
254 Polonius.
255 I have, my lord.
256 Hamlet.
257 Let her not walk i' th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but not
258 as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't.
259 Polonius.
260 [aside]How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet
261 he knew me not at first. He said I was a fishmonger. He is far
262 gone, far gone! And truly in my youth I suff'red much extremity
263 for love- very near this. I'll speak to him again.- What do you
264 read, my lord?
265 Hamlet.
266 Words, words, words.
267 Polonius.
268 What is the matter, my lord?
269 Hamlet.
270 Between who?
271 Polonius.
272 I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
273 Hamlet.
274 Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men
275 have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes
276 purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a
277 plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which,
278 sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it
279 not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir,
280 should be old as I am if, like a crab, you could go backward.
281 Polonius.
282 [aside]Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.-
283 Will You walk out of the air, my lord?
284 Hamlet.
285 Into my grave?
286 Polonius.
287 Indeed, that is out o' th' air.[Aside]How pregnant sometimes
288 his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which
289 reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I
290 will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between
291 him and my daughter.- My honourable lord, I will most humbly take
292 my leave of you.
293 Hamlet.
294 You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more
295 willingly part withal- except my life, except my life, except my
296 life,
297 Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
298 Polonius.
299 Fare you well, my lord.
300 Hamlet.
301 These tedious old fools!
302 Polonius.
303 You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is.
304 Rosencrantz.
305 [to Polonius]God save you, sir!
306 Exit [Polonius].
307 Guildenstern.
308 My honour'd lord!
309 Rosencrantz.
310 My most dear lord!
311 Hamlet.
312 My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah,
313 Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both?
314 Rosencrantz.
315 As the indifferent children of the earth.
316 Guildenstern.
317 Happy in that we are not over-happy.
318 On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
319 Hamlet.
320 Nor the soles of her shoe?
321 Rosencrantz.
322 Neither, my lord.
323 Hamlet.
324 Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her
325 favours?
326 Guildenstern.
327 Faith, her privates we.
328 Hamlet.
329 In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true! she is a
330 strumpet. What news ?
331 Rosencrantz.
332 None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest.
333 Hamlet.
334 Then is doomsday near! But your news is not true. Let me
335 question more in particular. What have you, my good friends,
336 deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison
337 hither?
338 Guildenstern.
339 Prison, my lord?
340 Hamlet.
341 Denmark's a prison.
342 Rosencrantz.
343 Then is the world one.
344 Hamlet.
345 A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and
346 dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst.
347 Rosencrantz.
348 We think not so, my lord.
349 Hamlet.
350 Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good
351 or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.
352 Rosencrantz.
353 Why, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your
354 mind.
355 Hamlet.
356 O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a
357 king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.
358 Guildenstern.
359 Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of
360 the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
361 Hamlet.
362 A dream itself is but a shadow.
363 Rosencrantz.
364 Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that
365 it is but a shadow's shadow.
366 Hamlet.
367 Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch'd
368 heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to th' court? for, by my
369 fay, I cannot reason.
370 Rosencrantz.
371 [with Guildenstern]We'll wait upon you.
372 Hamlet.
373 No such matter! I will not sort you with the rest of my
374 servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most
375 dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what
376 make you at Elsinore?
377 Rosencrantz.
378 To visit you, my lord; no other occasion.
379 Hamlet.
380 Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you;
381 and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were
382 you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free
383 visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come! Nay, speak.
384 Guildenstern.
385 What should we say, my lord?
386 Hamlet.
387 Why, anything- but to th' purpose. You were sent for; and
388 there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties
389 have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen
390 have sent for you.
391 Rosencrantz.
392 To what end, my lord?
393 Hamlet.
394 That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights
395 of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the
396 obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a
397 better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with
398 me, whether you were sent for or no.
399 Rosencrantz.
400 [aside to Guildenstern]What say you?
401 Hamlet.
402 [aside]Nay then, I have an eye of you.- If you love me, hold
403 not off.
404 Guildenstern.
405 My lord, we were sent for.
406 Hamlet.
407 I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your
408 discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no
409 feather. I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my
410 mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so
411 heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth,
412 seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the
413 air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical
414 roof fretted with golden fire- why, it appeareth no other thing
415 to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a
416 piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in
417 faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in
418 action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the
419 beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what
420 is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me- no, nor woman
421 neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.
422 Rosencrantz.
423 My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts.
424 Hamlet.
425 Why did you laugh then, when I said 'Man delights not me'?
426 Rosencrantz.
427 To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten
428 entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them
429 on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service.
430 Hamlet.
431 He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall
432 have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and
433 target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall
434 end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose
435 lungs are tickle o' th' sere; and the lady shall say her mind
436 freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players are
437 they?
438 Rosencrantz.
439 Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the
440 tragedians of the city.
441 Hamlet.
442 How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in
443 reputation and profit, was better both ways.
444 Rosencrantz.
445 I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late
446 innovation.
447 Hamlet.
448 Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the
449 city? Are they so follow'd?
450 Rosencrantz.
451 No indeed are they not.
452 Hamlet.
453 How comes it? Do they grow rusty?
454 Rosencrantz.
455 Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is,
456 sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top
457 of question and are most tyrannically clapp'd for't. These are now
458 the fashion, and so berattle the common stages(so they call
459 them)that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and
460 dare scarce come thither.
461 Hamlet.
462 What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they
463 escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can
464 sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow
465 themselves to common players(as it is most like, if their means
466 are no better), their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim
467 against their own succession.
468 Rosencrantz.
469 Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation
470 holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was, for a
471 while, no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player
472 went to cuffs in the question.
473 Hamlet.
474 Is't possible?
475 Guildenstern.
476 O, there has been much throwing about of brains.
477 Hamlet.
478 Do the boys carry it away?
479 Rosencrantz.
480 Ay, that they do, my lord- Hercules and his load too.
481 Hamlet.
482 It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and
483 those that would make mows at him while my father lived give
484 twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in
485 little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if
486 philosophy could find it out.
487 Flourish for the Players.
488 Guildenstern.
489 There are the players.
490 Hamlet.
491 Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come! Th'
492 appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply
493 with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players(which I
494 tell you must show fairly outwards)should more appear like
495 entertainment than yours. You are welcome. But my uncle-father
496 and aunt-mother are deceiv'd.
497 Guildenstern.
498 In what, my dear lord?
499 Hamlet.
500 I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I
501 know a hawk from a handsaw.
502 Enter Polonius.
503 Polonius.
504 Well be with you, gentlemen!
505 Hamlet.
506 Hark you, Guildenstern- and you too- at each ear a hearer!
507 That great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling
508 clouts.
509 Rosencrantz.
510 Happily he's the second time come to them; for they say an old
511 man is twice a child.
512 Hamlet.
513 I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.-
514 You say right, sir; a Monday morning; twas so indeed.
515 Polonius.
516 My lord, I have news to tell you.
517 Hamlet.
518 My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in Rome-
519 Polonius.
520 The actors are come hither, my lord.
521 Hamlet.
522 Buzz, buzz!
523 Polonius.
524 Upon my honour-
525 Hamlet.
526 Then came each actor on his ass-
527 Polonius.
528 The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy,
529 history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral,
530 tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene
531 individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor
532 Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are
533 the only men.
534 Hamlet.
535 O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!
536 Polonius.
537 What treasure had he, my lord?
538 Hamlet.
539 Why,
540 'One fair daughter, and no more,
541 The which he loved passing well.'
542 Polonius.
543 [aside]Still on my daughter.
544 Hamlet.
545 Am I not i' th' right, old Jephthah?
546 Polonius.
547 If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I
548 love passing well.
549 Hamlet.
550 Nay, that follows not.
551 Polonius.
552 What follows then, my lord?
553 Hamlet.
554 Why,
555 'As by lot, God wot,'
556 and then, you know,
557 'It came to pass, as most like it was.'
558 The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look
559 where my abridgment comes.
560 [Enter four or five Players.]
561 You are welcome, masters; welcome, all.- I am glad to see thee
562 well.- Welcome, good friends.- O, my old friend? Why, thy face is
563 valanc'd since I saw thee last. Com'st' thou to' beard me in
564 Denmark?- What, my young lady and mistress? By'r Lady, your
565 ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the
566 altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of
567 uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.- Masters, you are
568 all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at
569 anything we see. We'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a
570 taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech.
571 First Player.
572 What speech, my good lord?
573 Hamlet.
574 I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted;
575 or if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleas'd
576 not the million, 'twas caviary to the general; but it was(as I
577 receiv'd it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in
578 the top of mine)an excellent play, well digested in the scenes,
579 set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said
580 there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury,
581 nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of
582 affectation; but call'd it an honest method, as wholesome as
583 sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in't
584 I chiefly lov'd. 'Twas AEneas' tale to Dido, and thereabout of it
585 especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in
586 your memory, begin at this line- let me see, let me see:
587 'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast-'
588 'Tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus:
589 'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms,
590 Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
591 When he lay couched in the ominous horse,
592 Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd
593 With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot
594 Now is be total gules, horridly trick'd
595 With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
596 Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets,
597 That lend a tyrannous and a damned light
598 To their lord's murther. Roasted in wrath and fire,
599 And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore,
600 With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
601 Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
602 So, proceed you.
603 Polonius.
604 Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion.
605 First Player.
606 'Anon he finds him,
607 Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
608 Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
609 Repugnant to command. Unequal match'd,
610 Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide;
611 But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
612 Th' unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,
613 Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
614 Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
615 Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear. For lo! his sword,
616 Which was declining on the milky head
617 Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' th' air to stick.
618 So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood,
619 And, like a neutral to his will and matter,
620 Did nothing.
621 But, as we often see, against some storm,
622 A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,
623 The bold winds speechless, and the orb below
624 As hush as death- anon the dreadful thunder
625 Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
626 Aroused vengeance sets him new awork;
627 And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall
628 On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne,
629 With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
630 Now falls on Priam.
631 Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods,
632 In general synod take away her power;
633 Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel,
634 And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,
635 As low as to the fiends!
636 Polonius.
637 This is too long.
638 Hamlet.
639 It shall to the barber's, with your beard.- Prithee say on.
640 He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on; come to
641 Hecuba.
642 First Player.
643 'But who, O who, had seen the mobled queen-'
644 Hamlet.
645 'The mobled queen'?
646 Polonius.
647 That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good.
648 First Player.
649 'Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames
650 With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head
651 Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,
652 About her lank and all o'erteemed loins,
653 A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up-
654 Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd
655 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd.
656 But if the gods themselves did see her then,
657 When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
658 In Mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
659 The instant burst of clamour that she made
660 (Unless things mortal move them not at all)
661 Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven
662 And passion in the gods.'
663 Polonius.
664 Look, whe'r he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's
665 eyes. Prithee no more!
666 Hamlet.
667 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-
668 Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you
669 hear? Let them be well us'd; for they are the abstract and brief
670 chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a
671 bad epitaph than their ill report while you live.
672 Polonius.
673 My lord, I will use them according to their desert.
674 Hamlet.
675 God's bodykins, man, much better! Use every man after his
676 desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own
677 honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in
678 your bounty. Take them in.
679 Polonius.
680 Come, sirs.
681 Hamlet.
682 Follow him, friends. We'll hear a play to-morrow.
683 [Exeunt Polonius and Players [except the First].]
684 Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play 'The Murther of
685 Gonzago'?
686 First Player.
687 Ay, my lord.
688 Hamlet.
689 We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a
690 speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and
691 insert in't, could you not?
692 First Player.
693 Ay, my lord.
694 Hamlet.
695 Very well. Follow that lord- and look you mock him not.
696 [Exit First Player.]
697 My good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome to
698 Elsinore.
699 Rosencrantz.
700 Good my lord!
701 Hamlet.
702 Ay, so, God b' wi' ye!
703 [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]
704 Now I am alone.
705 O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
706 Is it not monstrous that this player here,
707 But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
708 Could force his soul so to his own conceit
709 That, from her working, all his visage wann'd,
710 Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
711 A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
712 With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
713 For Hecuba!
714 What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
715 That he should weep for her? What would he do,
716 Had he the motive and the cue for passion
717 That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
718 And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
719 Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
720 Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
721 The very faculties of eyes and ears.
722 Yet I,
723 A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak
724 Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
725 And can say nothing! No, not for a king,
726 Upon whose property and most dear life
727 A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
728 Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
729 Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face?
730 Tweaks me by th' nose? gives me the lie i' th' throat
731 As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this, ha?
732 'Swounds, I should take it! for it cannot be
733 But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
734 To make oppression bitter, or ere this
735 I should have fatted all the region kites
736 With this slave's offal. Bloody bawdy villain!
737 Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
738 O, vengeance!
739 Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,
740 That I, the son of a dear father murther'd,
741 Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
742 Must(like a whore)unpack my heart with words
743 And fall a-cursing like a very drab,
744 A scullion!
745 Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! Hum, I have heard
746 That guilty creatures, sitting at a play,
747 Have by the very cunning of the scene
748 Been struck so to the soul that presently
749 They have proclaim'd their malefactions;
750 For murther, though it have no tongue, will speak
751 With most miraculous organ, I'll have these Players
752 Play something like the murther of my father
753 Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks;
754 I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench,
755 I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
756 May be a devil; and the devil hath power
757 T' assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
758 Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
759 As he is very potent with such spirits,
760 Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
761 More relative than this. The play's the thing
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