Is it not monstrous, that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit,
That, from her working, all his visage warm'd;
Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!
For Hecuba!

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,
That he should weep for her? What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue1 for passion,
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
Make mad the guilty, and appall the free,
Confound the ignorant; and amaze, indeed,
The very faculty of eyes and ears.

Yet I,

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,

Play something like the murder of my father,

And can say nothing; no, not for a king,
Upon whose property, and most dear life,
A damn'd defeat was made. Amla coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?

20 Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;

I'll tent him to the quick; if he do blench",
I know my course. The spirit, that I have seen,
May be a devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps,

1

throat,

Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lye i' the 25 Out of my weakness, and my melancholy,

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?

Ha! Why, I should take it: for it cannot be,
But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall

To make oppression bitter; or, ere this,

(As he is very potent with such spirits)
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this; The play's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

130

[Exit.

III.

ACT

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 himselt distracted;

Queen. Did you assay him

Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told hint; And there did seem in him a kind of joy

To hear of it: They are here about the court;

45 And, as I think, they have already order

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.

But from what cause, he will by no means speak. 50 King. With all my heart; and it doth much

* i. e. not quickened with a new desire of vengeance; notteeming with vengeance. 3 Defeat, for dispossession. * i. e. unnatural. * The meaning is, Wits, to your work, Brain, go about the present business. i. e. search his wounds. ' i. e. if he shrink, or start. Relatove, for convictive, according to Warburton.-Relative is, nearly related, closely nected, according to Dr. Johnson. Over-raught is over-reached, that is, over-took. 10 To affront, is only to meet directly.

a

con

Her

The devil himself.

King. O, 'tis too true! how smart

[sage,

A lash that speech doth give myconscience![Aside.

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.

Oph. My honour'd lord, you know right well,

you did;

[pos'd, And, with them, words of so sweet breath comIs made the things more rich: their perfume lost,

The harlot's cheek, beauty'd with plast'ring art, 25 Take these again; for to the noble mind

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it,

Than is my deed to my most painted word:

O heavy burthen!

Pol. I

Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind.

There, my lord.

hear him coming; let's withdraw, my
lord, [Exeunt King, and Polonius. 30 Ham. Are you fair?

Enter Hamlet.

Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the question:-
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
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,'tis a consummation

Oph. What means your lordship?

Ham. That, if you be honest, and fair, you should admit no discourse to your beauty. Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better com

35 merce than with honesty?

Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transforın honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into its likeness: this was some time a

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die; to sleep; - 40 paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did

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,
That makes calamity of so long life:
[time,
For who would bear the whips and scorns of
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contume-
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, [ly,
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,
To groan and sweat under a weary life;
But that the dread of something after death,-
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

love you once.

Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. Ham. You should not have believ'd me: for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock, but we 45 shall relish of it: I lov'd you not. Oph. I was the more deceiv'd.

Ham. Get thee to a nunnery; Why would'st thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such 50 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 55 such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none

1 i. e. spies. 2 i. e. turmoil, bustle. Dr. Warburton remarks, that "the evils here complained of are not the product of time or duration simply, but of a corrupted age or manners. We may be sure, then, that Shakspeare wrote, 'the whips and scorns of th' time.' And the description of the evils of a corrupt age, which follows, confirms this emendation." alluded to the writ of discharge, which was formerly granted to those nally attended the king on any foreign expedition. This on. This discharge time the term for the acquittance which every sheriff receives on settling his accounts at the exchequer. A bodkin was the ancient term for a small dagger.

* This expression probably barons and knights who persowas called a Quietus. It is at this

of

Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him; that he

Pol. It shall do well: But yet do I believe The origin and commencement of his grief Sprung from neglected love.--How now, Ophelia? You need not tell us what lord Hanilet said;

may play the fool no where but in's own house. 5 We heard it all. -My lord, do as you please; Farewell.

Oph. O, help him, you sweet heavens! Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry; Be thou as chaste as ice,

But, if you hold it fit, after the play,
Let his queen-mother all alone entreat him
To shew his grief; let her be round with him ';
And I'll be plac'd, so please you, in the ear

as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. 10 Of all their conference: If she find him not,

Get thee to a nunnery; farewell: Or, if thou wilt
needs inarry, marry a fool; for wise men know
well enough, what monsters you make of them.
To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell.
Oph. 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 nick-name God's creatures, and

To England send him; or confine him, where
Your wisdom best shall think.

King. It shall be so:

15

Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. [Exeunt.

A Hall.

SCENE II.

Enter Hamlet, and two or three of the Players.

make your wantonness your ignorance: Go to: 20 Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pro

nounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus;

6

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;

[Exit Hamlet. 25 but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious perriwig-pated fellow tear a 30 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 whipp'd for o'er-doing Termagant'; it out-herods Herod*:

The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion, and the mould of form2,
The observ'd of all observers! quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies, most deject and wretched,
'I hat 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; 35 Pray you, avoid it.

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth,
Blasted with ecstasy 3: O, woe is me!

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Re-enter King, and Polonius.

King. Love! his affections do not that way tend;

Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
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,
I have, in quick determination,
Thus set it down; He shall withspeed to England,
For the demand of our neglected tribute:
Haply, the seas, and countries different,
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

1 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 40 observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: For any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold as 'twere the mir ror up to nature; to shew virtue her own fea45 ture, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure". Now this, over-done, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which one, must, in your 50 allowance, o'er-weigh 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 155/man, have so strutted, and below'd, that I have

1i. e. you mistake by wanton affectation, and pretend to mistake by ignorance. * The model by whom all endeavoured to form themselves. The word ecstacy was anciently used to signify some degree of alienation of mind. * To be round with a person, is to reprimand him with freedom. This is a ridicule on the quantity of false hair worn in Shakspeare's time; for wigs were not in common use till the reign of Charles II. Players, however, seem to have worn them most generally. • The meaner people then seem to have sat below, as they now sit in the upper gallery, who, not well understanding poetical language, were sometimes gratified by a mimical and mute representation of the drama, previous to the dialogue. Termagant was a Saracen deity, very clamorous and violent, in the old moralities. * The character of Herod in the ancient mysteries was always a violent one. i. e. resemblance, as in a print. 1o Any gross or indelicate language was called profane. thought

1

thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

1 Play. I hope, we have reform'd that indifferently with us.

For I mine eyes will rivet to his face;
And, after, we will both our judgements join
In censure of his seeming.

Hor. Well, my lord:

5 If he steal aught, the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft. [idle:
Ham. They are coming to the play; I must be
Get you a place.

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 10 Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosen

time, some necessary question of the play be then
to be considered: that's villainous; and shews a
most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go,
make you ready.-
[Exeunt Players.

Danish march. A flourish.

cruntz, Guildenstern, and others. King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the camelion's dish: I eat the air, promise-cramm'd: You can

Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. 15 not feed capons so.

How now, my lord? will the king hear this piece

of work?

Pol. And the queen too, and that presently.

Ham. Bid the players make haste.

Will you two help to hasten them?

King. I have nothing with this answer, Ham

let; these words are not mine.

Ham. No, nor mine now. -My lord, you play'd once i' the university, you say?

[To Polonius,

[Exit Pol. 20 Pol. That did I, my lord: and was accounted

Both. Ay, my lord.

[Exeunt Ros. and Guil.

Ham. What ho; Horatio!

Enter Horatio.

25

a good actor.

Ham. And what did you enact?

Pol. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was kill'd i the Capitol; Brutus kill'd me.

Ham. It was a brute part of him, to kill so
capital a calf there. -Be the players ready?
Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.
Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
Ham. No, good mother, here's metal more

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.

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

Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? 35 Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap?

be flatter'd?

No, let the candy'd tongue lick absurd pomp;

[Lying down at Ophelia's feet.

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,

Oph. No, my lord.

That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him 45 Ham. O! your only jig-maker. What should

In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As 1 do thee. Something too much of this.-
There is a play to-night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance,
Which I have told thee, of my father's death.
I pr'ythee, when thou see'st that act a-foot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe my 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
As Vulcan's stithy3: Give him heedful note:

a man do, but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. 50 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 55 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.

The sense of pregnant in this place is, quick, ready, prompt. 2 According to the doctrine of the four humours, desire and confidence were seated in the blood, and judgement in the phlegm; and the due mixture of the humours made a perfect character. * Stithy is a smith's anvil. 4 Dr. Johnson thinks we must read, Do you think I meant country manners? Do you imagine that I meant to sit in your lap, with such rough gallantry as clowns use to their lasses? ' Amongst the country maygames there was an hobby-horse, which, when the puritanical humour of those times opposed and discredited these games, was brought by the poets and ballad-makers as an instance of the ridiculous zéal of the sectaries: from these ballads Hamlet quotes a line or two.

5

Trumpets

My operant powers their functions leave to do:
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd; and, haply, one as kind
For husband shalt thou

Trumpets sound. The dumb show folloros. Enter a King and Queen, very lovingly; the Queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestations unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays 5 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 poisonin the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns; finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. 10 P. Queen. The instances that second marriage

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.

[Exeunt.

Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching malicho'; it means mischief.

15

P. Queen. O, confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accusrt!
None wed the second, but who kill'd the first.
Ham. That's wormwood.
[move,

Are base respects of thrift, but none of love:
A second time I kill my husband dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.
speak:

P. King. I do believe, you think what now you

But what we do determine, oft we break.
Purpose is but the slave to memory;
Of violent birth, but poor validity:
Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree;

Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument 20 But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. of the play.

Enter Prologue.

Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you 'll shew him: Be not you asham'd to shew, he 'll not shame to tell you what it means.

Oph. You are naught, you are naught; I'll
mark the play.
Pro. "For us, and for our tragedy,

"Here stooping to your clemency,
"We beg your hearing patiently.

Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring:
Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.
Ham. As woman's love.

Enter a King, and a Queen.

P. King. Full thirty times hath Phœbus' cart2

gone round

Most necessary 'tis, that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt :
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
25 The violence of either grief or joy,

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,
30 That even our loves should with our fortunes

35 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,
Directly seasons him his enemy.

Our wills, and fates, do'so contrary run,
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own:
So think thou wilt no second husband wed;

Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground; 40 But, orderly to end where I begun,

And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen3
About the world have times twelve thirties been;
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,

Unite commutual in most sacred bands.

P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and 45 But die thy thoughts, when thy first lord is dead.

moon

P. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! Sport, and repose, lock from me, day, and night' To desperation turn my trust and hope! 50 An anchor's ' cheer in prison be my scope! Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy, Meet what I would have well, and it destroy! Both here, and hence, pursue my lasting strife, If, once a widow, ever I be wife! 55 Ham. Ifsheshould break it now,

[To Oph.

Make us again count o'er, ere love be done!
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
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 fear too much, even as they love.
And women's fear and love hold quantity;
In neither aught, or in extremity.
[know;
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you
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
[shortly too;
P. King. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and
Hanmer tell us, that miching malicho signifies mischief lying hid, and that malicho is the Spanish
2 A chariot was anciently so called. 3 Splendour, lustre. * Operant is active.
Anchor is for anchoret. This abbreviation of the word is very ancient.

there.

6c

P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me
here a while;

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.
[Sleeps.

P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain;

malheco. motites.

The

And