A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c., Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in Possess it merely. That it should come to this! A little month; or ere those shoes were old, My father's brother; but no more like my father, But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue. Enter HORATIO, BERNARDO, and MARCELLUS. I am glad to see you well; ever. *Canon means law. sir, But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ? Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Hor. My lord, the king, your father. Ham. For heaven's love, let me hear. Ham. Ham. Did you not speak to it? My lord, I did Ham. 'Tis very strange. Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true, | No more. And we did think it writ down in our duty, To let you know of it. Oph. Laer. No more but so? Think it no more. Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. And keep within the rear of your affection, Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. Mar., Ber. Longer, longer. Out of the shot and danger of desire. Oph. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, Laer. O, fear me not. A double blessing is a double grace; Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame; The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, His beard was grisly? no. And you are staid for. There, my blessing with Hor. It was as I have seen it in his life, A sable silver'd. Ham. Hor. All. Our duty to your honour." Ham. Your love, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HOR., MAR., and BER. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: would the night were come! Till then sit still my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. [Exit. SCENE. A Room in Polonius' House. Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. Laer. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell; And, sister, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you. Oph. Do you doubt that? Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favours, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance of a minute; you; [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head. But not express'd in fancy; rich, but not gaudy: Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. The time invites you; go, your servants tend. Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Laer. Farewell. [Exit LAERTES. Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? Oph. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet. Chariest means most cautious. † Reeks not his own read, means reads not his own lessons. HAMLET, waiting.-Enter Ghost. Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, Ghost. Mark me. Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres ; Thy knotted and combined locks to part, Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther. Ham. Murther? Ghost. Murther most foul, as in the best it is; As meditation, or the thoughts of love, Ham. O my prophetic soul! mine uncle! With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, Of my most seeming virtuous queen; But soft! methinks I scent the morning's air. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand, [Exit. Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? And shall I couple hell?-O fye !-Hold, my heart, * Blazon means display. Without sacraments, unprepared, without unction. D And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, And thy commandment all alone shall live O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! Room in Polonius' House. ACT II. Enter POLONIUS and OPHELIA. Pol. How now, Ophelia? what's the matter? Oph. Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted! Pol. With what, in the name of heaven? Oph. My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber, To speak of horrors, he comes before me. My lord, I do not know; What said he? Oph. He took me by the wrist, and held me hard; Then goes he to the length of all his arm; As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so ; Pol. Go with me; I will go seek the king. mand, SCENE. A Room in the Castle. How does my good lord Hamlet? Pol. Do you know me, my lord? Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. Pol. Not I, my lord. Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. Pol. Honest, my lord? is to be one man picked out of a thousand. Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, Have you a daughter? [Aside.] Still Pol. I have, my lord. harping on my daughter; yet he knew me not at first; he said I was a fishmonger: He is far gone, far gone and truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to him again.-What do you read, my lord? Ham. Words, words, words! Pol. What is the matter, my lord? Ham. Between who? Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my lord. Ham. Slanders, sir; for the satirical slave says here, that old men have greybeards; that their faces are wrinkled. All of which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward. Pol. Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. [Aside.] Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave? Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. How pregoften madness hits on, which reason and sanity nant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.--My honourable lord, I will humbly take my leave of you. Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal; except my life, my life. Pol. Fare you well, my lord. Ham. These tedious old fools! Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Pol. You go to seek my lord Hamlet; there he *Hanging down like fetters. is. Ros. God save you, sir. [TO POLONIUS. [Exit POLONIUS. Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we are not over happy. Ham. What's the news? Ros. None, my lord; but that the world's grown honest. Ham. Then is doom's-day near: But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither? Guil. Prison, my lord! Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one of the worst. Ros. We think not so, my lord. Hum. Why, then 'tis none to you for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so; to me it is a prison. Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one; 'tis too narrow for your mind. Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space: were it not that I have bad dreams. I have of late (but wherefore, I know not) lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises: and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging-this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me, no, nor woman neither; though, by your smiling, you seem to say so. Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh, then, when I said, "Man delights not me ?" Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they coming, to offer you service. Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target: the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part in peace: the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't.-What players are they? Ros. Even those you were wont to take delight in, the tragedians of the city. Enter POLONIUS. Ham. 'Tis well; rest soon.-Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for they are the abstracts, and brief chronicles, of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you lived. Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. Odd's bodikin man, better: Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping! Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. [Exit POLONIUS with ROSENCRANTZ and GUIL DENSTERN. Pol. Come, sirs, I have heard, Play something like the murther of my father, [Exit, ACT III. SCENE.-A Room in the Castle. Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. 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 ? 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, |