The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare

ont

When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes | To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, [blood, Or pardon'd, being down? Then I'll look up; Contagion to this world: Now could I driuk hot My fault is past. But oh! what form of prayer And do such business as the bitter day Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul muWould quake to look on. Soft; now to my der!mother:-

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

us,

STERN.

King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with
[you;
To let his madness range. Therefore, prepare
I your commission will forthwith despatch,
And he to England shall along with you:
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near us, as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunes. I

Guil. We will ourselves provide:
Most holy and religious fear it is,
To keep those 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
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
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,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
King. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy
voyage;

For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.
Ros. Guil. We will haste us.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Enter POLONIUS.

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 ?
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:
There is no shuffing; 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?
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,
Art more engag'd. Help, angels, make assay !
Bow, stubborn knees! and heart, with strings of
steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born habe;
All may be well!

[Retires and kneels.

A villain kills my father; and, for that,
I, his his sole ‡ son, do this same villain send
To heaven.

May;

Why, this his hire and salary, ý not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as a
[heaven?
And how his audit stands, who knows, save
But, in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: And am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent :
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;
At gaming, swearing, or about some act
That has no relish of salvation in't:
Then trip him, that his heels may kick at hea
And that his soul may be as damm'd and black
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.

Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: closet:

Behind the arras I'll convey myself,

To hear the process; I'll warrant, she'll tax

him home:

Oh! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't:
A brother's murder!-Pray can 1 not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will;
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And, like a man to double business bound,
1 stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What, if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens,
To wash it white as snow ? Whereto serves

[ven,

[Exit.

The KING rises and advances. King. My words fly up, ny thoughts remain below: Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. [Exit. SCENE IV.-Another Room in the same.

Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS. Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:

Tell him his pranks have been too bread to bear with;

And that your grace hath screen'd and stood
between

Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here.
Pray you, be round with him.

Queen. I'll warrant you;

Fear me not :-withdraw, I hear him coming.
[POLONIUS hides himself.
Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter?

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much | This was your husband.-Look you now, what

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.

not so:

Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet? Ham. What's the matter now? Queen. Have you forgot me ? Ham. No, by the rood, You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And,-'would it were not so!-you are my mother.

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.
Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not
murder me?

POLONIUS.

Queen. O what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Ham. A bloody deed;-almost as bad, good mother,

As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Queen. As kill a king!

Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! [To POLONIUS. I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune: Thou find'st, to be too busy is some danger.Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; sit you down,

And let me wring your heart; for so I shall, f it be made of penetrable stuff;

'f damned custom have not braz'd it so, That it be 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,

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: Oh! such a deed
As from the body of contraction + plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful -visage as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen. Ah! me, what act,

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? § Ham. Look here, upon this picture; and on

this;

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow,
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury,
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man:

follows:

was't,

What devil

That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? §
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, sinelling sans all,
Or but a sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope. T

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellions hell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth burn,
And reason panders will.

Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more:

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct. **
Ham. Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed ++ bed;
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 tythe
Of your precedent lord :-a vice ‡‡ of kings :
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

Queen. No more.

ous figure?

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
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look, amazement on thy mother sits:
O step between her and her fighting soul;
Conceit 55 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,
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,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

+ Sensation.

I Without.

Greasy.

The hair of animals is excrementitious, that

without life or sensation.

Ham. On him! on him!- Look you, how pale he glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,

Woul made them capable. *-Do not look upon

me;

Lest with this piteous action, you convert My stern effects: then what I have to do Will want true colour; tears, perchance, blood.

But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him

know:

For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, †
Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape,
for To try conclusions, in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

Queen. To whom do you speak this?
Ham. Do you see nothing there?
Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see.
Haum. Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen. No, nothing, but ourselves.

Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!

My father, in his habit as he liv'd! Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! [Exit GHOST. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: 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,

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,
That not your trespass but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my vir-

in twain.

Ham. O throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night but go not to my uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night;
And that shall lend a kind of easiness

To the next abstinence: the next more easy:
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either curb the devil, or throw him out
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,
[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

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.

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;
For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go
hard,

But I will delve one yard below their mines, And blow them at the moon: Oh! 'tis mos sweet,

When in one line two crafts directly meet.-
This man shall set me packing.

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room :--
Mother, good night.-Indeed, this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, Sir, to draw toward an end with you :----
Good night, mother.

[Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging i

POLONIUS.

ACT IV.

The death I gave him. So, again, good night :-It
I must be cruel, only to be kind :

Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.-
But one word more, good lady.

Queen. What shall I do?

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, ** mouse;

had been so with us, had we been there: His liberty is full of threats to all;

haunt, ¶

To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd ?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of
[love,
This mad young man: but, so much was our
his We would not understand what was most fit;
But, like the owner of a foul disease,
To keep it from divulging, let it feed
Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?
Queen. To draw apart the body he hath
kill'd:

And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd
fingers,

Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,

O'er whom his very madness, like some ore,

Among a mineral of metals base,
Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O Gertrude, come away!

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,
Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guilden-
stern!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Friends both, go join you with some further aid:

Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,

And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him:

Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body
Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done: so, haply, slan-
der,-

Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank, +
Transports his poison'd shot,-may miss our

Ros. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it thence,

And bear it to the chapel.
Ham. Do not believe it.

Ros. Believe what?

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge !-what replication should be made by the son of a king?

Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Ay, Sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed : When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again.

Ros. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it: A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.

Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thingGuil. A thing, my lord?

Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-Another Room in the same. Enter KING, attended.

King. I have sent to seek him, and to find

the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose? Yet must not we put the strong law on him : He's lov'd of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; And where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,

But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,

This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: Diseases, desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,

Enter ROSENCRANTZ.

Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen? Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,

We cannot get from him.

King. But where is he?

Ros. Without, my lord; guarded to know your pleasure.

King. Bring him before us,

Ros. Ho, Guildenstern? bring in my lord

Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN. King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? Ham. At supper.

King. At supper? Where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for dict: we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots: fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end.

King. Alas, alas !

Your

Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.

King. What dost thou mean by this? Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. King. Where is Polonius?

Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i'the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. King. Go seek him there.

[To some Attendants. Ham. He will stay till you come.

[Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done,-nust send thee
hence
[self;
With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thy-
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham. For England? King. Ay, Hamlet. Ham. Good.

Ham. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them.-But, come; for England!-Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. My mother: Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England. [Exit.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night: Away; for every thing is seal'd and done That else leans on the affair: Pray you, make haste, [Exeunt Ros, and GUIL. And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught, (As my great power thereof may give thee

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

[Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Forces.

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDEN-
STERN, &C.

Ham. Good Sir, whose powers are these?
Cap. They are of Norway, Sir,
Ham. How purpos'd, Sir,

I pray you?

Cap. Against some part of Poland.
Ham. Who

Commands them, Sir?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, Sir, Or for some frontier ?

Cap. Truly to speak, Sir, and with no addi-
tion,

We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That hath in it no profit but the name.
To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,
A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee.

When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,
To hide the slain ?-Oh! from this time forth
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth.
[Exit.

SCENE V.-Elsinore.-A Room in the
Castle.

Enter QUEEN and HORATIO.

Queen. I will not speak with her.
Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distract;
Her mood will needs be pitied.

Queen. What would she have?

Hor. She speaks much of her father; says,

she hears,

There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and beats her heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in [thing,

doubt, That carry but half sense: her speech is no Yet the unshaped use of it doth move The hearers to collection; they aim at it, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,

Indeed would make one think, there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. Queen. 'Twere good, she were spoken with; for she may strew

Ham. Why, then the Polack 5 never will de- Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds :

fend it.

Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thou-
sand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and
peace;

That inward breaks, and shows no cause with

out

Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, Sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, Sir. [Exit CAPTAIN.
Ros. Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little
before. [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure he that made us with such large dis-

course, ¶

Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason

To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven ++ scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event,-

A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part

wisdom,

And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know
Why yet I live to say, This thing's to do;
Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and

Let her come in.

[Exit HORATIO.
To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toy+ seems prologue to some great amiss :
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,

It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA. Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark ?

Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

Oph. How should I your true love know
From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon?‡

[Singing.

Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this

song?

Oph. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

Oh! ho!

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Queen. Nay, but Ophelia,---

Oph. Pray you, mark.

[Sings.

White his shroud as the mountain snow,

[Sings

Enter KING.

Queen. Alas! look here, my lord.

Oph.

Larded all with sweet flowers; Which bewept to the grave did go, With Irue-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

Oph. Well, God'ield you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

King. Conceit upon her father.

1: Since.

§ Garnished.

t Shoes. Reward. 2 C

« Previous Continue »

Books

The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare, Volume 9