1. this etext was prepared by dianne bean the tragedy of hamlet prince of denmark by william shakespeare contents act i scene elsinore a platform before the castle scene ii elsinore a room of state in the castle scene a room in polonius s house scene the platform scene a more remote part of the castle act ii scene a room in polonius s house scene a room in the castle act iii scene a room in the castle scene a hall in the castle scene a room in the castle scene another room in the castle act iv scene a room in the castle scene another room in the castle scene another room in the castle scene a plain in denmark scene elsinore a room in the castle scene another room in the castle scene another room in the castle act v scene a churchyard scene a hall in the castle dramatis personæ hamlet prince of denmark claudius king of denmark hamlet s uncle the ghost of the late king hamlet s father gertrude the queen hamlet s mother now wife of claudius polonius lord chamberlain laertes son to polonius ophelia daughter to polonius horatio friend to hamlet fortinbras prince of norway voltemand courtier cornelius courtier rosencrantz courtier guildenstern courtier marcellus officer barnardo officer francisco a soldier osric courtier reynaldo servant to polonius players a gentleman courtier a priest two clowns grave diggers a captain english ambassadors lords ladies officers soldiers sailors messengers and attendants elsinore act i scene elsinore a platform before the castle enter francisco and barnardo two sentinels who s there nay answer me stand and unfold yourself long live the king barnardo he you come most carefully upon your hour tis now struck twelve get thee to bed francisco for this relief much thanks tis bitter cold and i am sick at heart have you had quiet guard not a mouse stirring well good night if you do meet horatio and marcellus the rivals of my watch bid them make haste enter horatio and marcellus i think i hear them stand ho who is there friends to this ground and liegemen to the dane give you good night o farewell honest soldier who hath reliev d you barnardo has my place give you good night _exit _ holla barnardo say what is horatio there a piece of him welcome horatio welcome good marcellus what has this thing appear d again tonight i have seen nothing horatio says tis but our fantasy and will not let belief take hold of him touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us therefore i have entreated him along with us to watch the minutes of this night that if again this apparition come he may approve our eyes and speak to it tush tush twill not appear sit down awhile and let us once again assail your ears that are so fortified against our story what we two nights have seen well sit we down and let us hear barnardo speak of this last night of all when yond same star that s westward from the pole had made his course t illume that part of heaven where now it burns marcellus and myself the bell then beating one peace break thee off look where it comes again enter ghost in the same figure like the king that s dead thou art a scholar speak to it horatio looks it not like the king mark it horatio most like it harrows me with fear and wonder barnardo it would be spoke to question it horatio what art thou that usurp st this time of night together with that fair and warlike form in which the majesty of buried denmark did sometimes march by heaven i charge thee speak it is offended see it stalks away stay speak speak i charge thee speak _exit ghost _ tis gone and will not answer how now horatio you tremble and look pale is not this something more than fantasy what think you on t before my god i might not this believe without the sensible and true avouch of mine own eyes is it not like the king as thou art to thyself such was the very armour he had on when he th ambitious norway combated so frown d he once when in an angry parle he smote the sledded polacks on the ice tis strange thus twice before and jump at this dead hour with martial stalk hath he gone by our watch in what particular thought to work i know not but in the gross and scope of my opinion this bodes some strange eruption to our state good now sit down and tell me he that knows why this same strict and most observant watch so nightly toils the subject of the land and why such daily cast of brazen cannon and foreign mart for implements of war why such impress of shipwrights whose sore task does not divide the sunday from the week what might be toward that this sweaty haste doth make the night joint labourer with the day who is t that can inform me that can i at least the whisper goes so our last king whose image even but now appear d to us was as you know by fortinbras of norway thereto prick d on by a most emulate pride dar d to the combat in which our valiant hamlet for so this side of our known world esteem d him did slay this fortinbras who by a seal d compact well ratified by law and heraldry did forfeit with his life all those his lands which he stood seiz d of to the conqueror against the which a moiety competent was gaged by our king which had return d to the inheritance of fortinbras had he been vanquisher as by the same cov nant and carriage of the article design d his fell to hamlet now sir young fortinbras of unimproved mettle hot and full hath in the skirts of norway here and there shark d up a list of lawless resolutes for food and diet to some enterprise that hath a stomach in t which is no other as it doth well appear unto our state but to recover of us by strong hand and terms compulsatory those foresaid lands so by his father lost and this i take it is the main motive of our preparations the source of this our watch and the chief head of this post haste and rummage in the land i think it be no other but e en so well may it sort that this portentous figure comes armed through our watch so like the king that was and is the question of these wars a mote it is to trouble the mind s eye in the most high and palmy state of rome a little ere the mightiest julius fell the graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the roman streets as stars with trains of fire and dews of blood disasters in the sun and the moist star upon whose influence neptune s empire stands was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse and even the like precurse of fierce events as harbingers preceding still the fates and prologue to the omen coming on have heaven and earth together demonstrated unto our climatures and countrymen re enter ghost but soft behold lo where it comes again i ll cross it though it blast me stay illusion if thou hast any sound or use of voice speak to me if there be any good thing to be done that may to thee do ease and grace to me speak to me if thou art privy to thy country s fate which happily foreknowing may avoid o speak or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life extorted treasure in the womb of earth for which they say you spirits oft walk in death speak of it stay and speak _the cock crows _ stop it marcellus shall i strike at it with my partisan do if it will not stand tis here tis here _exit ghost _ tis gone we do it wrong being so majestical to offer it the show of violence for it is as the air invulnerable and our vain blows malicious mockery it was about to speak when the cock crew and then it started like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons i have heard the cock that is the trumpet to the morn doth with his lofty and shrill sounding throat awake the god of day and at his warning whether in sea or fire in earth or air th extravagant and erring spirit hies to his confine and of the truth herein this present object made probation it faded on the crowing of the cock some say that ever gainst that season comes wherein our saviour s birth is celebrated the bird of dawning singeth all night long and then they say no spirit dare stir abroad the nights are wholesome then no planets strike no fairy takes nor witch hath power to charm so hallow d and so gracious is the time so have i heard and do in part believe it but look the morn in russet mantle clad walks o er the dew of yon high eastward hill break we our watch up and by my advice let us impart what we have seen tonight unto young hamlet for upon my life this spirit dumb to us will speak to him do you consent we shall acquaint him with it as needful in our loves fitting our duty let s do t i pray and i this morning know where we shall find him most conveniently _exeunt _ scene elsinore a room of state in the castle enter claudius king of denmark gertrude the queen hamlet polonius laertes voltemand cornelius lords and attendant though yet of hamlet our dear brother s death the memory be green and that it us befitted to bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe yet so far hath discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on him together with remembrance of ourselves therefore our sometime sister now our queen th imperial jointress to this warlike state have we as twere with a defeated joy with one auspicious and one dropping eye with mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage in equal scale weighing delight and dole taken to wife nor have we herein barr d your better wisdoms which have freely gone with this affair along for all our thanks now follows that you know young fortinbras holding a weak supposal of our worth or thinking by our late dear brother s death our state to be disjoint and out of frame colleagued with this dream of his advantage he hath not fail d to pester us with message importing the surrender of those lands lost by his father with all bonds of law to our most valiant brother so much for him now for ourself and for this time of meeting thus much the business is we have here writ to norway uncle of young fortinbras who impotent and bed rid scarcely hears of this his nephew s purpose to suppress his further gait herein in that the levies the lists and full proportions are all made out of his subject and we here dispatch you good cornelius and you voltemand for bearers of this greeting to old norway giving to you no further personal power to business with the king more than the scope of these dilated articles allow farewell and let your haste commend your duty cornelius and in that and all things will we show our duty we doubt it nothing heartily farewell _exeunt voltemand and cornelius _ and now laertes what s the news with you you told us of some suit what is t laertes you cannot speak of reason to the dane and lose your voice what wouldst thou beg laertes that shall not be my offer not thy asking the head is not more native to the heart the hand more instrumental to the mouth than is the throne of denmark to thy father what wouldst thou have laertes dread my lord your leave and favour to return to france from whence though willingly i came to denmark to show my duty in your coronation yet now i must confess that duty done my thoughts and wishes bend again toward france and bow them to your gracious leave and pardon have you your father s leave what says polonius he hath my lord wrung from me my slow leave by laboursome petition and at last upon his will i seal d my hard consent i do beseech you give him leave to go take thy fair hour laertes time be thine and thy best graces spend it at thy will but now my cousin hamlet and my son _aside _ a little more than kin and less than kind how is it that the clouds still hang on you not so my lord i am too much i the sun good hamlet cast thy nighted colour off and let thine eye look like a friend on denmark do not for ever with thy vailed lids seek for thy noble father in the dust thou know st tis common all that lives must die passing through nature to eternity ay madam it is common if it be why seems it so particular with thee seems madam nay it is i know not seems tis not alone my inky cloak good mother nor customary suits of solemn black nor windy suspiration of forc d breath no nor the fruitful river in the eye nor the dejected haviour of the visage together with all forms moods shows of grief that can denote me truly these indeed seem for they are actions that a man might play but i have that within which passeth show these but the trappings and the suits of woe tis sweet and commendable in your nature hamlet to give these mourning duties to your father but you must know your father lost a father that father lost lost his and the survivor bound in filial obligation for some term to do obsequious sorrow but to persevere in obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubbornness tis unmanly grief it shows a will most incorrect to heaven a heart unfortified a mind impatient an understanding simple and unschool d for what we know must be and is as common as any the most vulgar thing to sense why should we in our peevish opposition take it to heart fie tis a fault to heaven a fault against the dead a fault to nature to reason most absurd whose common theme is death of fathers and who still hath cried from the first corse till he that died today this must be so we pray you throw to earth this unprevailing woe and think of us as of a father for let the world take note you are the most immediate to our throne and with no less nobility of love than that which dearest father bears his son do i impart toward you for your intent in going back to school in wittenberg it is most retrograde to our desire and we beseech you bend you to remain here in the cheer and comfort of our eye our chiefest courtier cousin and our son let not thy mother lose her prayers hamlet i pray thee stay with us go not to wittenberg i shall in all my best obey you madam why tis a loving and a fair reply be as ourself in denmark madam come this gentle and unforc d accord of hamlet sits smiling to my heart in grace whereof no jocund health that denmark drinks today but the great cannon to the clouds shall tell and the king s rouse the heaven shall bruit again re speaking earthly thunder come away _exeunt all but hamlet _ o that this too too solid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itself into a dew or that the everlasting had not fix d his canon gainst self slaughter o god o god how weary stale flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world fie on t oh fie tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed things rank and gross in nature possess it merely that it should come to this but two months dead nay not so much not two so excellent a king that was to this hyperion to a satyr so loving to my mother that he might not beteem the winds of heaven visit her face too roughly heaven and earth must i remember why she would hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on and yet within a month let me not think on t frailty thy name is woman a little month or ere those shoes were old with which she followed my poor father s body like niobe all tears why she even she o god a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourn d longer married with mine uncle my father s brother but no more like my father than i to hercules within a month ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her galled eyes she married o most wicked speed to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets it is not nor it cannot come to good but break my heart for i must hold my tongue enter horatio marcellus and barnardo hail to your lordship i am glad to see you well horatio or i do forget myself the same my lord and your poor servant ever sir my good friend i ll change that name with you and what make you from wittenberg horatio marcellus my good lord i am very glad to see you good even sir but what in faith make you from wittenberg a truant disposition good my lord i would not hear your enemy say so nor shall you do my ear that violence to make it truster of your own report against yourself i know you are no truant but what is your affair in elsinore we ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart my lord i came to see your father s funeral i prithee do not mock me fellow student i think it was to see my mother s wedding indeed my lord it follow d hard upon thrift thrift horatio the funeral bak d meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables would i had met my dearest foe in heaven or ever i had seen that day horatio my father methinks i see my father where my lord in my mind s eye horatio i saw him once he was a goodly king he was a man take him for all in all i shall not look upon his like again my lord i think i saw him yesternight saw who my lord the king your father the king my father season your admiration for a while with an attent ear till i may deliver upon the witness of these gentlemen this marvel to you for god s love let me hear two nights together had these gentlemen marcellus and barnardo on their watch in the dead waste and middle of the night been thus encounter d a figure like your father armed at point exactly cap à pie appears before them and with solemn march goes slow and stately by them thrice he walk d by their oppress d and fear surprised eyes within his truncheon s length whilst they distill d almost to jelly with the act of fear stand dumb and speak not to him this to me in dreadful secrecy impart they did and i with them the third night kept the watch where as they had deliver d both in time form of the thing each word made true and good the apparition comes i knew your father these hands are not more like but where was this my lord upon the platform where we watch did you not speak to it my lord i did but answer made it none yet once methought it lifted up it head and did address itself to motion like as it would speak but even then the morning cock crew loud and at the sound it shrunk in haste away and vanish d from our sight tis very strange as i do live my honour d lord tis true and we did think it writ down in our duty to let you know of it indeed indeed sirs but this troubles me hold you the watch tonight mar and we do my lord arm d say you both arm d my lord from top to toe my lord from head to foot then saw you not his face o yes my lord he wore his beaver up what look d he frowningly a countenance more in sorrow than in anger pale or red nay very pale and fix d his eyes upon you most constantly i would i had been there it would have much amaz d you very like very like stay d it long while one with moderate haste might tell a hundred marcellus and longer longer not when i saw t his beard was grizzled no it was as i have seen it in his life a sable silver d i will watch tonight perchance twill walk again i warrant you it will if it assume my noble father s person i ll speak to it though hell itself should gape and bid me hold my peace i pray you all if you have hitherto conceal d this sight let it be tenable in your silence still and whatsoever else shall hap tonight give it an understanding but no tongue i will requite your loves so fare ye well upon the platform twixt eleven and twelve i ll visit you our duty to your honour your loves as mine to you farewell _exeunt horatio marcellus and barnardo _ 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 s house enter laertes and ophelia 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 do you doubt that for hamlet and the trifling of his favour 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 no more no more but so think it no more for nature crescent does not grow alone in thews and bulk but as this temple waxes the inward service of the mind and soul grows wide withal perhaps he loves you now and now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch the virtue of his will but you must fear his greatness weigh d his will is not his own for he himself is subject to his birth he may not as unvalu d persons do carve for himself for on his choice depends the sanctity and health of this whole state and therefore must his choice be circumscrib d unto the voice and yielding of that body whereof he is the head then if he says he loves you it fits your wisdom so far to believe it as he in his particular act and place may give his saying deed which is no further than the main voice of denmark goes withal then weigh what loss your honour may sustain if with too credent ear you list his songs or lose your heart or your chaste treasure open to his unmaster d importunity fear it ophelia fear it my dear sister and keep you in the rear of your affection out of the shot and danger of desire the chariest maid is prodigal enough if she unmask her beauty to the moon virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes the canker galls the infants of the spring too oft before their buttons be disclos d and in the morn and liquid dew of youth contagious blastments are most imminent be wary then best safety lies in fear youth to itself rebels though none else near i shall th effect of this good lesson keep as watchman to my heart but good my brother do not as some ungracious pastors do show me the steep and thorny way to heaven whilst like a puff d and reckless libertine himself the primrose path of dalliance treads and recks not his own rede o fear me not i stay too long but here my father comes enter polonius a double blessing is a double grace occasion smiles upon a second leave yet here laertes aboard aboard for shame the wind sits in the shoulder of your sail and you are stay d for there my blessing with you _laying his hand on laertes s head _ and these few precepts in thy memory look thou character give thy thoughts no tongue nor any unproportion d thought his act be thou familiar but by no means vulgar those friends thou hast and their adoption tried grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel but do not dull thy palm with entertainment of each new hatch d unfledg d comrade beware of entrance to a quarrel but being in bear t that th opposed may beware of thee give every man thine ear but few thy voice take each man s censure but reserve thy judgment costly thy habit as thy purse can buy but not express d in fancy rich not gaudy for the apparel oft proclaims the man and they in france of the best rank and station are of a most select and generous chief in that neither a borrower nor a lender be for loan oft loses both itself and friend and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry this above all to thine own self be true and it must follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man farewell my blessing season this in thee most humbly do i take my leave my lord the time invites you go your servants tend farewell ophelia and remember well what i have said to you tis in my memory lock d and you yourself shall keep the key of it farewell _exit _ what is t ophelia he hath said to you so please you something touching the lord hamlet marry well bethought tis told me he hath very oft of late given private time to you and you yourself have of your audience been most free and bounteous if it be so as so tis put on me and that in way of caution i must tell you you do not understand yourself so clearly as it behoves my daughter and your honour what is between you give me up the truth he hath my lord of late made many tenders of his affection to me affection pooh you speak like a green girl unsifted in such perilous circumstance do you believe his tenders as you call them i do not know my lord what i should think marry i ll teach you think yourself a baby that you have ta en these tenders for true pay which are not sterling tender yourself more dearly or not to crack the wind of the poor phrase roaming it thus you ll tender me a fool my lord he hath importun d me with love in honourable fashion ay fashion you may call it go to go to and hath given countenance to his speech my lord with almost all the holy vows of heaven ay springes to catch woodcocks i do know when the blood burns how prodigal the soul lends the tongue vows these blazes daughter giving more light than heat extinct in both even in their promise as it is a making you must not take for fire from this time be something scanter of your maiden presence set your entreatments at a higher rate than a command to parley for lord hamlet believe so much in him that he is young and with a larger tether may he walk than may be given you in few ophelia do not believe his vows for they are brokers not of that dye which their investments show but mere implorators of unholy suits breathing like sanctified and pious bawds the better to beguile this is for all i would not in plain terms from this time forth have you so slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with the lord hamlet look to t i charge you come your ways i shall obey my lord _exeunt _ scene the platform enter hamlet horatio and marcellus the air bites shrewdly it is very cold it is a nipping and an eager air what hour now i think it lacks of twelve no it is struck indeed i heard it not it then draws near the season wherein the spirit held his wont to walk _a flourish of trumpets and ordnance shot off within _ what does this mean my lord the king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse keeps wassail and the swaggering upspring reels and as he drains his draughts of rhenish down the kettle drum and trumpet thus bray out the triumph of his pledge is it a custom ay marry is t and to my mind though i am native here and to the manner born it is a custom more honour d in the breach than the observance this heavy headed revel east and west makes us traduc d and tax d of other nations they clepe us drunkards and with swinish phrase soil our addition and indeed it takes from our achievements though perform d at height the pith and marrow of our attribute so oft it chances in particular men that for some vicious mole of nature in them as in their birth wherein they are not guilty since nature cannot choose his origin by their o ergrowth of some complexion oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason or by some habit that too much o erleavens the form of plausive manners that these men carrying i say the stamp of one defect being nature s livery or fortune s star his virtues else be they as pure as grace as infinite as man may undergo shall in the general censure take corruption from that particular fault the dram of evil doth all the noble substance often doubt to his own scandal look my lord it comes enter ghost angels and ministers of grace defend us be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn d bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell be thy intents wicked or charitable thou com st in such a questionable shape that i will speak to thee i ll call thee hamlet king father royal dane o answer me let me not burst in ignorance but tell why thy canoniz d bones hearsed in death have burst their cerements why the sepulchre wherein we saw thee quietly inurn d hath op d his ponderous and marble jaws to cast thee up again what may this mean that thou dead corse again in complete steel revisit st thus the glimpses of the moon making night hideous and we fools of nature so horridly to shake our disposition with thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls say why is this wherefore what should we do _ghost beckons hamlet _ it beckons you to go away with it as if it some impartment did desire to you alone look with what courteous action it waves you to a more removed ground but do not go with it no by no means it will not speak then will i follow it do not my lord why what should be the fear i do not set my life at a pin s fee and for my soul what can it do to that being a thing immortal as itself it waves me forth again i ll follow it what if it tempt you toward the flood my lord or to the dreadful summit of the cliff that beetles o er his base into the sea and there assume some other horrible form which might deprive your sovereignty of reason and draw you into madness think of it the very place puts toys of desperation without more motive into every brain that looks so many fadoms to the sea and hears it roar beneath it waves me still go on i ll follow thee you shall not go my lord hold off your hands be rul d you shall not go my fate cries out and makes each petty artery in this body as hardy as the nemean lion s nerve _ghost beckons _ still am i call d unhand me gentlemen _breaking free from them _ by heaven i ll make a ghost of him that lets me i say away go on i ll follow thee _exeunt ghost and hamlet _ he waxes desperate with imagination let s follow tis not fit thus to obey him have after to what issue will this come something is rotten in the state of denmark heaven will direct it nay let s follow him _exeunt _ scene a more remote part of the castle enter ghost and hamlet whither wilt thou lead me speak i ll go no further mark me i will my hour is almost come when i to sulph rous and tormenting flames must render up myself alas poor ghost pity me not but lend thy serious hearing to what i shall unfold speak i am bound to hear so art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear what i am thy father s spirit doom d for a certain term to walk the night and for the day confin d to fast in fires till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purg d away but that i am forbid to tell the secrets of my prison house i could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul freeze thy young blood make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres thy knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine but this eternal blazon must not be to ears of flesh and blood list list o list if thou didst ever thy dear father love o god revenge his foul and most unnatural murder murder murder most foul as in the best it is but this most foul strange and unnatural haste me to know t that i with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my revenge i find thee apt and duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed that rots itself in ease on lethe wharf wouldst thou not stir in this now hamlet hear tis given out that sleeping in my orchard a serpent stung me so the whole ear of denmark is by a forged process of my death rankly abus d but know thou noble youth the serpent that did sting thy father s life now wears his crown o my prophetic soul mine uncle ay that incestuous that adulterate beast with witchcraft of his wit with traitorous gifts o wicked wit and gifts that have the power so to seduce won to his shameful lust the will of my most seeming virtuous queen o hamlet what a falling off was there from me whose love was of that dignity that it went hand in hand even with the vow i made to her in marriage and to decline upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine but virtue as it never will be mov d though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven so lust though to a radiant angel link d will sate itself in a celestial bed and prey on garbage but soft methinks i scent the morning air brief let me be sleeping within my orchard my custom always of the afternoon upon my secure hour thy uncle stole with juice of cursed hebenon in a vial and in the porches of my ears did pour the leperous distilment whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of man that swift as quicksilver it courses through the natural gates and alleys of the body and with a sudden vigour it doth posset and curd like eager droppings into milk the thin and wholesome blood so did it mine and a most instant tetter bark d about most lazar like with vile and loathsome crust all my smooth body thus was i sleeping by a brother s hand of life of crown of queen at once dispatch d cut off even in the blossoms of my sin unhous led disappointed unanel d no reckoning made but sent to my account with all my imperfections on my head o horrible o horrible most horrible if thou hast nature in thee bear it not let not the royal bed of denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest but howsoever thou pursu st this act taint not thy mind nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught leave her to heaven and to those thorns that in her bosom lodge to prick and sting her fare thee well at once the glow worm shows the matin to be near and gins to pale his uneffectual fire adieu adieu adieu hamlet remember me _exit _ o all you host of heaven o earth what else and shall i couple hell o fie hold my heart and you my sinews grow not instant old but bear me stiffly up remember thee ay thou poor ghost while memory holds a seat in this distracted globe remember thee yea from the table of my memory i ll wipe away all trivial fond records all saws of books all forms all pressures past that youth and observation copied there and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain unmix d with baser matter yes by heaven o most pernicious woman o villain villain smiling damned villain my tables meet it is i set it down that one may smile and smile and be a villain at least i am sure it may be so in denmark _writing _ so uncle there you are now to my word it is adieu adieu remember me i have sworn t horatio and _within _ my lord my lord _within _ lord hamlet _within _ heaven secure him so be it _within _ illo ho ho my lord hillo ho ho boy come bird come enter horatio and marcellus how is t my noble lord what news my lord o wonderful good my lord tell it no you ll reveal it not i my lord by heaven nor i my lord how say you then would heart of man once think it but you ll be secret horatio and ay by heaven my lord there s ne er a villain dwelling in all denmark but he s an arrant knave there needs no ghost my lord come from the grave to tell us this why right you are i the right and so without more circumstance at all i hold it fit that we shake hands and part you as your business and desires shall point you for every man hath business and desire such as it is and for my own poor part look you i ll go pray these are but wild and whirling words my lord i m sorry they offend you heartily yes faith heartily there s no offence my lord yes by saint patrick but there is horatio and much offence too touching this vision here it is an honest ghost that let me tell you for your desire to know what is between us o ermaster t as you may and now good friends as you are friends scholars and soldiers give me one poor request what is t my lord we will never make known what you have seen tonight horatio and my lord we will not nay but swear t in faith my lord not i nor i my lord in faith upon my sword we have sworn my lord already indeed upon my sword indeed _cries under the stage _ swear ha ha boy say st thou so art thou there truepenny come on you hear this fellow in the cellarage consent to swear propose the oath my lord never to speak of this that you have seen swear by my sword _beneath _ swear _hic et ubique _ then we ll shift our ground come hither gentlemen and lay your hands again upon my sword never to speak of this that you have heard swear by my sword _beneath _ swear well said old mole canst work i th earth so fast a worthy pioner once more remove good friends o day and night but this is wondrous strange and therefore as a stranger give it welcome there are more things in heaven and earth horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy but come here as before never so help you mercy how strange or odd soe er i bear myself as i perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on that you at such times seeing me never shall with arms encumber d thus or this head shake or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase as well we know or we could and if we would or if we list to speak or there be and if they might or such ambiguous giving out to note that you know aught of me this not to do so grace and mercy at your most need help you swear _beneath _ swear rest rest perturbed spirit so gentlemen with all my love i do commend me to you and what so poor a man as hamlet is may do t express his love and friending to you god willing shall not lack let us go in together and still your fingers on your lips i pray the time is out of joint o cursed spite that ever i was born to set it right nay come let s go together _exeunt _ act ii scene a room in polonius s house enter polonius and reynaldo give him this money and these notes reynaldo i will my lord you shall do marvellous wisely good reynaldo before you visit him to make inquiry of his behaviour my lord i did intend it marry well said very well said look you sir enquire me first what danskers are in paris and how and who what means and where they keep what company at what expense and finding by this encompassment and drift of question that they do know my son come you more nearer than your particular demands will touch it take you as twere some distant knowledge of him as thus i know his father and his friends and in part him do you mark this reynaldo ay very well my lord and in part him but you may say not well but if t be he i mean he s very wild addicted so and so and there put on him what forgeries you please marry none so rank as may dishonour him take heed of that but sir such wanton wild and usual slips as are companions noted and most known to youth and liberty as gaming my lord ay or drinking fencing swearing quarrelling drabbing you may go so far my lord that would dishonour him faith no as you may season it in the charge you must not put another scandal on him that he is open to incontinency that s not my meaning but breathe his faults so quaintly that they may seem the taints of liberty the flash and outbreak of a fiery mind a savageness in unreclaimed blood of general assault but my good lord wherefore should you do this ay my lord i would know that marry sir here s my drift and i believe it is a fetch of warrant you laying these slight sullies on my son as twere a thing a little soil d i th working mark you your party in converse him you would sound having ever seen in the prenominate crimes the youth you breathe of guilty be assur d he closes with you in this consequence good sir or so or friend or gentleman according to the phrase or the addition of man and country very good my lord and then sir does he this he does what was i about to say by the mass i was about to say something where did i leave at closes in the consequence at friend or so and gentleman at closes in the consequence ay marry he closes with you thus i know the gentleman i saw him yesterday or t other day or then or then with such and such and as you say there was he gaming there o ertook in s rouse there falling out at tennis or perchance i saw him enter such a house of sale _videlicet_ a brothel or so forth see you now your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth and thus do we of wisdom and of reach with windlasses and with assays of bias by indirections find directions out so by my former lecture and advice shall you my son you have me have you not my lord i have god b wi you fare you well good my lord observe his inclination in yourself i shall my lord and let him ply his music well my lord farewell _exit reynaldo _ enter ophelia how now ophelia what s the matter alas my lord i have been so affrighted with what in the name of god my lord as i was sewing in my chamber lord hamlet with his doublet all unbrac d no hat upon his head his stockings foul d ungart red and down gyved to his ankle pale as his shirt his knees knocking each other and with a look so piteous in purport as if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors he comes before me mad for thy love my lord i do not know but truly i do fear it what said he he took me by the wrist and held me hard then goes he to the length of all his arm and with his other hand thus o er his brow he falls to such perusal of my face as he would draw it long stay d he so at last a little shaking of mine arm and thrice his head thus waving up and down he rais d a sigh so piteous and profound as it did seem to shatter all his bulk and end his being that done he lets me go and with his head over his shoulder turn d he seem d to find his way without his eyes for out o doors he went without their help and to the last bended their light on me come go with me i will go seek the king this is the very ecstasy of love whose violent property fordoes itself and leads the will to desperate undertakings as oft as any passion under heaven that does afflict our natures i am sorry what have you given him any hard words of late no my good lord but as you did command i did repel his letters and denied his access to me that hath made him mad i am sorry that with better heed and judgment i had not quoted him i fear d he did but trifle and meant to wreck thee but beshrew my jealousy it seems it is as proper to our age to cast beyond ourselves in our opinions as it is common for the younger sort to lack discretion come go we to the king this must be known which being kept close might move more grief to hide than hate to utter love _exeunt _ scene a room in the castle enter king queen rosencrantz guildenstern and attendants welcome dear rosencrantz and guildenstern moreover that we much did long to see you the need we have to use you did provoke our hasty sending something have you heard of hamlet s transformation so i call it since nor th exterior nor the inward man resembles that it was what it should be more than his father s death that thus hath put him so much from th understanding of himself i cannot dream of i entreat you both that being of so young days brought up with him and since so neighbour d to his youth and humour that you vouchsafe your rest here in our court some little time so by your companies to draw him on to pleasures and to gather so much as from occasion you may glean whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus that open d lies within our remedy good gentlemen he hath much talk d of you and sure i am two men there are not living to whom he more adheres if it will please you to show us so much gentry and good will as to expend your time with us awhile for the supply and profit of our hope your visitation shall receive such thanks as fits a king s remembrance both your majesties might by the sovereign power you have of us put your dread pleasures more into command than to entreaty we both obey and here give up ourselves in the full bent to lay our service freely at your feet to be commanded thanks rosencrantz and gentle guildenstern thanks guildenstern and gentle rosencrantz and i beseech you instantly to visit my too much changed son go some of you and bring these gentlemen where hamlet is heavens make our presence and our practices pleasant and helpful to him ay amen _exeunt rosencrantz guildenstern and some attendants _ enter polonius th ambassadors from norway my good lord are joyfully return d thou still hast been the father of good news have i my lord assure you my good liege i hold my duty as i hold my soul both to my god and to my gracious king and i do think or else this brain of mine hunts not the trail of policy so sure as it hath us d to do that i have found the very cause of hamlet s lunacy o speak of that that do i long to hear give first admittance to th ambassadors my news shall be the fruit to that great feast thyself do grace to them and bring them in _exit polonius _ he tells me my sweet queen that he hath found the head and source of all your son s distemper i doubt it is no other but the main his father s death and our o erhasty marriage well we shall sift him enter polonius with voltemand and cornelius welcome my good friends say voltemand what from our brother norway most fair return of greetings and desires upon our first he sent out to suppress his nephew s levies which to him appear d to be a preparation gainst the polack but better look d into he truly found it was against your highness whereat griev d that so his sickness age and impotence was falsely borne in hand sends out arrests on fortinbras which he in brief obeys receives rebuke from norway and in fine makes vow before his uncle never more to give th assay of arms against your majesty whereon old norway overcome with joy gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee and his commission to employ those soldiers so levied as before against the polack with an entreaty herein further shown _gives a paper _ that it might please you to give quiet pass through your dominions for this enterprise on such regards of safety and allowance as therein are set down it likes us well and at our more consider d time we ll read answer and think upon this business meantime we thank you for your well took labour go to your rest at night we ll feast together most welcome home _exeunt voltemand and cornelius _ this business is well ended my liege and madam to expostulate what majesty should be what duty is why day is day night night and time is time were nothing but to waste night day and time therefore since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes i will be brief your noble son is mad mad call i it for to define true madness what is t but to be nothing else but mad but let that go more matter with less art madam i swear i use no art at all that he is mad tis true tis true tis pity and pity tis tis true a foolish figure but farewell it for i will use no art mad let us grant him then and now remains that we find out the cause of this effect or rather say the cause of this defect for this effect defective comes by cause thus it remains and the remainder thus perpend i have a daughter have whilst she is mine who in her duty and obedience mark hath given me this now gather and surmise _reads _ _to the celestial and my soul s idol the most beautified ophelia_ that s an ill phrase a vile phrase beautified is a vile phrase but you shall hear _reads _ _these in her excellent white bosom these c _ came this from hamlet to her good madam stay awhile i will be faithful _reads _ _doubt thou the stars are fire doubt that the sun doth move doubt truth to be a liar but never doubt i love o dear ophelia i am ill at these numbers i have not art to reckon my groans but that i love thee best o most best believe it adieu thine evermore most dear lady whilst this machine is to him hamlet _ this in obedience hath my daughter show d me and more above hath his solicitings as they fell out by time by means and place all given to mine ear but how hath she receiv d his love what do you think of me as of a man faithful and honourable i would fain prove so but what might you think when i had seen this hot love on the wing as i perceiv d it i must tell you that before my daughter told me what might you or my dear majesty your queen here think if i had play d the desk or table book or given my heart a winking mute and dumb or look d upon this love with idle sight what might you think no i went round to work and my young mistress thus i did bespeak lord hamlet is a prince out of thy star this must not be and then i precepts gave her that she should lock herself from his resort admit no messengers receive no tokens which done she took the fruits of my advice and he repulsed a short tale to make fell into a sadness then into a fast thence to a watch thence into a weakness thence to a lightness and by this declension into the madness wherein now he raves and all we wail for do you think tis this it may be very likely hath there been such a time i d fain know that that i have positively said tis so when it prov d otherwise not that i know take this from this if this be otherwise _points to his head and shoulder _ if circumstances lead me i will find where truth is hid though it were hid indeed within the centre how may we try it further you know sometimes he walks four hours together here in the lobby so he does indeed at such a time i ll loose my daughter to him be you and i behind an arras then mark the encounter if he love her not and be not from his reason fall n thereon let me be no assistant for a state but keep a farm and carters we will try it enter hamlet reading but look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading away i do beseech you both away i ll board him presently o give me leave _exeunt king queen and attendants _ how does my good lord hamlet well god a mercy do you know me my lord excellent well you re a fishmonger not i my lord then i would you were so honest a man honest my lord ay sir to be honest as this world goes is to be one man picked out of ten thousand that s very true my lord for if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog being a good kissing carrion have you a daughter i have my lord let her not walk i th sun conception is a blessing but not as your daughter may conceive friend look to t how say you by that _aside _ still 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 words words words what is the matter my lord between who i mean the matter that you read my lord slanders sir for the satirical slave says here that old men have grey beards that their faces are wrinkled their eyes purging thick amber and plum tree gum and that they have a plentiful lack of wit together with most weak hams all 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 _aside _ though this be madness yet there is a method in t will you walk out of the air my lord into my grave indeed that is out o the air _aside _ how pregnant sometimes his replies are a happiness that often madness hits on which reason and sanity 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 most humbly take my leave of you you cannot sir take from me anything that i will more willingly part withal except my life except my life except my life fare you well my lord these tedious old fools enter rosencrantz and guildenstern you go to seek the lord hamlet there he is _to polonius _ god save you sir _exit polonius _ my honoured lord my most dear lord my excellent good friends how dost thou guildenstern ah rosencrantz good lads how do ye both as the indifferent children of the earth happy in that we are not over happy on fortune s cap we are not the very button nor the soles of her shoe neither my lord then you live about her waist or in the middle of her favours faith her privates we in the secret parts of fortune o most true she is a strumpet what s the news none my lord but that the world s grown honest then is doomsday 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 prison my lord denmark s a prison then is the world one a goodly one in which there are many confines wards and dungeons denmark being one o th worst we think not so my lord 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 why then your ambition makes it one tis too narrow for your mind 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 which dreams indeed are ambition for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream a dream itself is but a shadow truly and i hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow s shadow then are our beggars bodies and our monarchs and outstretch d heroes the beggars shadows shall we to th court for by my fay i cannot reason rosencrantz and we ll wait upon you no such matter i will not sort you with the rest of my servants for to speak to you like an honest man i am most dreadfully attended but in the beaten way of friendship what make you at elsinore to visit you my lord no other occasion beggar that i am i am even poor in thanks but i thank you and sure dear friends my thanks are too dear a halfpenny were you not sent for is it your own inclining is it a free visitation come deal justly with me come come nay speak what should we say my lord why anything but to the purpose you were sent for and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesties have not craft enough to colour i know the good king and queen have sent for you to what end my lord that you must teach me but let me conjure you by the rights of our fellowship by the consonancy of our youth by the obligation of our ever preserved love and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no _to guildenstern _ what say you _aside _ nay then i have an eye of you if you love me hold not off my lord we were sent for i will tell you why so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather 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 firmament 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 faculties 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 my lord there was no such stuff in my thoughts why did you laugh then when i said man delights not me 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 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 humorous man shall end his part in peace the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle a th sere and the lady shall say her mind freely or the blank verse shall halt for t what players are they even those you were wont to take such delight in the tragedians of the city how chances it they travel their residence both in reputation and profit was better both ways i think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation do they hold the same estimation they did when i was in the city are they so followed no indeed they are not how comes it do they grow rusty nay their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace but there is sir an ayry of children little eyases that cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped for t these are now the fashion and so berattle the common stages so they call them that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose quills and dare scarce come thither what are they children who maintains em how are they escoted will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing will they not say afterwards if they should grow themselves to common players as it is most like if their means are no better their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim against their own succession faith there has been much to do on both sides and the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy there was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question is t possible o there has been much throwing about of brains do the boys carry it away ay that they do my lord hercules and his load too it is not very strange for my uncle is king of denmark and those that would make mouths at him while my father lived give twenty forty fifty a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little sblood there is something in this more than natural if philosophy could find it out _flourish of trumpets within _ there are the players gentlemen you are welcome to elsinore your hands come the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony let me comply with you in this garb lest my extent to the players which i tell you must show fairly outward should more appear like entertainment than yours you are welcome but my uncle father and aunt mother are deceived in what my dear lord i am but mad north north west when the wind is southerly i know a hawk from a handsaw enter polonius well be with you gentlemen hark you guildenstern and you too at each ear a hearer that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts happily he s the second time come to them for they say an old man is twice a child i will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players mark it you say right sir for a monday morning twas so indeed my lord i have news to tell you my lord i have news to tell you when roscius was an actor in rome the actors are come hither my lord buzz buzz upon my honour then came each actor on his ass the best actors in the world either for tragedy comedy history pastoral pastoral comical historical pastoral tragical historical tragical comical historical pastoral scene individable or poem unlimited seneca cannot be too heavy nor plautus too light for the law of writ and the liberty these are the only men o jephthah judge of israel what a treasure hadst thou what treasure had he my lord why one fair daughter and no more the which he loved passing well _aside _ still on my daughter am i not i th right old jephthah if you call me jephthah my lord i have a daughter that i love passing well nay that follows not what follows then my lord why as by lot god wot and then you know it came to pass as most like it was the first row of the pious chanson will show you more for look where my abridgement comes enter four or five players you are welcome masters welcome all i am glad to see thee well welcome good friends o my old friend thy face is valanc d since i saw thee last com st thou to beard me in denmark what my young lady and mistress by r lady your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when i saw you last by the altitude of a chopine pray god your voice like a piece of uncurrent gold be not cracked within the ring masters you are all welcome we ll e en to t like french falconers fly at anything we see we ll have a speech straight come give us a taste of your quality come a passionate speech first what speech my lord i heard thee speak me a speech once but it was never acted or if it was not above once for the play i remember pleased not the million twas caviare to the general but it was as i received it and others whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine an excellent play well digested in the scenes set down with as much modesty as cunning i remember one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury nor no matter in the phrase that might indite the author of affectation but called it an honest method as wholesome as sweet and by very much more handsome than fine one speech in it i chiefly loved twas aeneas tale to dido and thereabout of it especially where he speaks of priam s slaughter if it live in your memory begin at this line let me see let me see _the rugged pyrrhus like th hyrcanian beast _ it is not so it begins with pyrrhus _the rugged pyrrhus he whose sable arms black as his purpose did the night resemble when he lay couched in the ominous horse hath now this dread and black complexion smear d with heraldry more dismal head to foot now is he total gules horridly trick d with blood of fathers mothers daughters sons bak d and impasted with the parching streets that lend a tyrannous and a damned light to their vile murders roasted in wrath and fire and thus o ersized with coagulate gore with eyes like carbuncles the hellish pyrrhus old grandsire priam seeks _ so proceed you fore god my lord well spoken with good accent and good discretion first _anon he finds him striking too short at greeks his antique sword rebellious to his arm lies where it falls repugnant to command unequal match d pyrrhus at priam drives in rage strikes wide but with the whiff and wind of his fell sword th unnerved father falls then senseless ilium seeming to feel this blow with flaming top stoops to his base and with a hideous crash takes prisoner pyrrhus ear for lo his sword which was declining on the milky head of reverend priam seem d i th air to stick so as a painted tyrant pyrrhus stood and like a neutral to his will and matter did nothing but as we often see against some storm a silence in the heavens the rack stand still the bold winds speechless and the orb below as hush as death anon the dreadful thunder doth rend the region so after pyrrhus pause aroused vengeance sets him new a work and never did the cyclops hammers fall on mars s armour forg d for proof eterne with less remorse than pyrrhus bleeding sword now falls on priam out out thou strumpet fortune all you gods in general synod take away her power break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel and bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven as low as to the fiends _ this is too long it shall to the barber s with your beard prythee say on he s for a jig or a tale of bawdry or he sleeps say on come to hecuba first _but who o who had seen the mobled queen _ the mobled queen that s good mobled queen is good first _run barefoot up and down threat ning the flames with bisson rheum a clout upon that head where late the diadem stood and for a robe about her lank and all o erteemed loins a blanket in th alarm of fear caught up who this had seen with tongue in venom steep d gainst fortune s state would treason have pronounc d but if the gods themselves did see her then when she saw pyrrhus make malicious sport in mincing with his sword her husband s limbs the instant burst of clamour that she made unless things mortal move them not at all would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven and passion in the gods _ look where he has not turn d his colour and has tears in s eyes pray you no more tis well i ll have thee speak out the rest of this 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 live my lord i will use them according to their desert god 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 take them in come sirs follow him friends we ll hear a play tomorrow _exeunt polonius with all the players but the first _ dost thou hear me old friend can you play _the murder of gonzago_ first ay my lord we ll ha t tomorrow night you could for a need study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which i would set down and insert in t could you not first ay my lord very well follow that lord and look you mock him not _exit first player _ _to rosencrantz and guildenstern_ my good friends i ll leave you till night you are welcome to elsinore good my lord _exeunt rosencrantz and guildenstern _ ay so god b wi ye now i am alone o what a rogue and peasant slave am i 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 wan 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 cue 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 appal the free confound the ignorant and amaze indeed the very faculties of eyes and ears yet i a dull and muddy mettled rascal peak like john a dreams unpregnant of my cause and can say nothing no not for a king upon whose property and most dear life a damn d defeat was made am i a coward who calls me villain breaks my pate across plucks off my beard and blows it in my face tweaks me by the nose gives me the lie i th throat as deep as to the lungs who does me this ha swounds i should take it for it cannot be but i am pigeon liver d and lack gall to make oppression bitter or ere this i should have fatted all the region kites with this slave s offal bloody bawdy villain remorseless treacherous lecherous kindless villain oh vengeance why what an ass am i this is most brave that i the son of a dear father murder d prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell must like a whore unpack my heart with words and fall a cursing like a very drab a scullion fie upon t foh about my brain i have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have by the very cunning of the scene been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaim d their malefactions for murder though it have no tongue will speak with most miraculous organ i ll have these players play something like the murder of my father before mine uncle i ll observe his looks i ll tent him to the quick if he but blench i know my course the spirit that i have seen may be the devil and the devil hath power t assume a pleasing shape yea and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy 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 _exit _ act iii scene a room in the castle enter king queen polonius ophelia rosencrantz and guildenstern 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 he does confess he feels himself distracted but from what cause he will by no means speak nor do we find him forward to be sounded but with a crafty madness keeps aloof when we would bring him on to some confession of his true state did he receive you well most like a gentleman but with much forcing of his disposition niggard of question but of our demands most free in his reply did you assay him to any pastime madam it so fell out that certain players 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 this night to play before him tis most true and he beseech d me to entreat your majesties to hear and see the matter with all my heart and it doth much content me to hear him so inclin d good gentlemen give him a further edge and drive his purpose on to these delights we shall my lord _exeunt rosencrantz and guildenstern _ sweet gertrude leave us too for we have closely sent for hamlet hither that he as twere by accident may here affront ophelia her father and myself lawful espials 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 th affliction of his love or no that thus he suffers for 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 will bring him to his wonted way again to both your honours madam i wish it may _exit queen _ ophelia walk you here gracious so please you we will bestow ourselves _to ophelia _ read on this book 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 the devil himself _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 than is my deed to my most painted word o heavy burden i hear him coming let s withdraw my lord _exeunt king and polonius _ enter hamlet 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 devoutly to be wish d to die to sleep 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 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 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 these fardels bear 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 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 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 the fair ophelia nymph in thy orisons be all my sins remember d good my lord how does your honour for this many a day i humbly thank you well well well my lord i have remembrances of yours that i have longed long to re deliver i pray you now receive them no not i never gave you aught 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 rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind there my lord ha ha are you honest my lord are you fair what means your lordship that if you be honest and fair your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty could beauty my lord have better commerce than with honesty 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 indeed my lord you made me believe so you should not have believed me for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it i loved you not i was the more deceived 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 earth and heaven we are arrant knaves all believe none of us go thy ways to a nunnery where s your father at home my lord let the doors be shut upon him that he may play the fool nowhere but in s own house farewell o help him you sweet heavens 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 o heavenly powers restore him 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 creatures 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 _exit _ o what a noble mind is here o erthrown the courtier s soldier s scholar s eye tongue sword th expectancy and rose of the fair state the glass of fashion and the mould of form th observ d of all observers quite quite down and i of ladies most deject and wretched 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 blasted with ecstasy o woe is me t have seen what i have seen see what i see enter king and polonius 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 with speed 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 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 hamlet said we heard it all my lord do as you please but if you hold it fit after the play let his queen mother all alone entreat him to show his grief let her be round with him 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 it shall be so madness in great ones must not unwatch d go _exeunt _ scene a hall in the castle enter hamlet and certain players speak the speech i pray you as i pronounced 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 temperance 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 erdoing termagant it out herods herod pray you avoid it first i warrant your honour 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 the 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 journeymen had made men and not made them well they imitated humanity so abominably first i hope we have reform d that indifferently with us sir 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 meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered that s villanous 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 and the queen too and that presently bid the players make haste _exit polonius _ will you two help to hasten them rosencrantz and we will my lord _exeunt rosencrantz and guildenstern _ what ho horatio enter horatio here sweet lord at your service horatio thou art e en as just a man as e er my conversation cop d withal o my dear lord 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 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 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 hast ta en with equal thanks and bles 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 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 tonight before the king one scene of it comes near the circumstance which i have told thee of my father s death i prythee when thou see st that act a foot even with the very comment of thy soul 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 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 well my lord if he steal aught the whilst this play is playing and scape detecting i will pay the theft they are coming to the play i must be idle get you a place danish march a flourish enter king queen polonius ophelia rosencrantz guildenstern and others how fares our cousin hamlet excellent i faith of the chameleon s dish i eat the air promise crammed you cannot feed capons so i have nothing with this answer hamlet these words are not mine no nor mine now _to polonius _ my lord you play d once i th university you say that did i my lord and was accounted a good actor what did you enact i did enact julius caesar i was kill d i th capitol brutus killed me it was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there be the players ready ay my lord they stay upon your patience come hither my dear hamlet sit by me no good mother here s metal more attractive _to the king _ o ho do you mark that lady shall i lie in your lap _lying down at ophelia s feet _ no my lord i mean my head upon your lap ay my lord do you think i meant country matters i think nothing my lord that s a fair thought to lie between maids legs what is my lord nothing you are merry my lord who i ay my lord 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 nay tis twice two months my lord 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 trumpets sound 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 pours poison in the king s ears and exits the queen returns finds the king dead and makes passionate action the poisoner with some three or four mutes comes in again seeming to lament with her the dead body is carried away the poisoner woos the queen with gifts she seems loth and unwilling awhile but in the end accepts his love _ _exeunt _ what means this my lord marry this is miching mallicho it means mischief belike this show imports the argument of the play enter prologue we shall know by this fellow the players cannot keep counsel they ll tell all will they tell us what this show meant 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 you are naught you are naught i ll mark the play _for us and for our tragedy here stooping to your clemency we beg your hearing patiently _ is this a prologue or the posy of a ring tis brief my lord as woman s love enter a king and a queen player full thirty times hath phoebus cart gone round 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 player 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 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 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 player faith i must leave thee love and shortly too 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 player 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 kill d the first _aside _ wormwood wormwood player the instances that second marriage 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 player i do believe you think what now you speak 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 but fall unshaken when they mellow be 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 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 that even our loves should with our fortunes change 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 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 but orderly to end where i begun 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 but die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead player 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 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 me lasting strife if once a widow ever i be wife _to ophelia _ if she should break it now player tis deeply sworn sweet leave me here awhile my spirits grow dull and fain i would beguile the tedious day with sleep _sleeps _ player sleep rock thy brain and never come mischance between us twain _exit _ madam how like you this play the lady protests too much methinks o but she ll keep her word have you heard the argument is there no offence in t no no they do but jest poison in jest no offence i th world what do you call the play _the mousetrap _ marry how tropically 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 o that your majesty and we that have free souls it touches us not let the gall d jade wince our withers are unwrung enter lucianus this is one lucianus nephew to the king you are a good chorus my lord i could interpret between you and your love if i could see the puppets dallying you are keen my lord you are keen it would cost you a groaning to take off my edge still better and worse so you mistake your husbands begin murderer pox leave thy damnable faces and begin come the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge 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 on wholesome life usurp immediately _pours the poison into the sleeper s ears _ he poisons him i th garden for s estate his name s gonzago the story is extant and written in very choice italian you shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of gonzago s wife the king rises what frighted with false fire how fares my lord give o er the play give me some light away all lights lights lights _exeunt all but hamlet and horatio _ why let the strucken deer go weep the hart ungalled play 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 half a share a whole one for thou dost know o damon dear this realm dismantled was of jove himself and now reigns here a very very pajock you might have rhymed o good horatio i ll take the ghost s word for a thousand pound didst perceive very well my lord upon the talk of the poisoning i did very well note him ah ha come some music come the recorders for if the king like not the comedy why then belike he likes it not perdie come some music enter rosencrantz and guildenstern good my lord vouchsafe me a word with you sir a whole history the king sir ay sir what of him is in his retirement marvellous distempered with drink sir no my lord rather with choler your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to the doctor for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps plunge him into far more choler good my lord put your discourse into some frame and start not so wildly from my affair i am tame sir pronounce the queen your mother in most great affliction of spirit hath sent me to you you are welcome 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 sir i cannot what my lord 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 then thus she says your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration o wonderful son that can so stonish a mother but is there no sequel at the heels of this mother s admiration she desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed we shall obey were she ten times our mother have you any further trade with us my lord you once did love me and so i do still by these pickers and stealers 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 sir i lack advancement how can that be when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in denmark ay sir but while the grass grows the proverb is something musty re 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 o my lord if my duty be too bold my love is too unmannerly i do not well understand that will you play upon this pipe my lord i cannot i pray you believe me i cannot i do beseech you i know no touch of it my lord tis as easy as lying govern these ventages with your finger and thumb give it breath with your mouth and it will discourse most eloquent music look you these are the stops but these cannot i command to any utterance of harmony i have not the skill 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 excellent 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 enter polonius god bless you sir my lord the queen would speak with you and presently do you see yonder cloud that s almost in shape of a camel by the mass and tis like a camel indeed methinks it is like a weasel it is backed like a weasel or like a whale very like a whale then will i come to my mother by and by they fool me to the top of my bent i will come by and by i will say so _exit _ by and by is easily said leave me friends _exeunt all but hamlet _ tis now the very witching time of night 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 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 i will speak daggers to her but use none my tongue and soul in this be hypocrites how in my words somever she be shent to give them seals never my soul consent _exit _ scene a room in the castle enter king rosencrantz and guildenstern 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 the terms of our estate may not endure hazard so near us as doth hourly grow out of his lunacies we will ourselves provide most holy and religious fear it is to keep those many many bodies safe that live and feed upon your majesty 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 arm you i pray you to this speedy voyage for we will fetters put upon this fear which now goes too free footed rosencrantz and we will haste us _exeunt rosencrantz and guildenstern _ enter polonius my lord he s going to his mother s closet behind the arras i ll convey myself 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 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 thanks dear my lord _exit polonius _ o my offence is rank it smells to heaven 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 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 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 twofold force 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 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 th 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 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 yet what can it when one cannot 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 babe all may be well _retires and kneels _ enter hamlet now might i do it pat now he is praying 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 i his sole son do this same villain send to heaven o this is hire and salary not revenge he took my father grossly full of bread 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 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 th incestuous pleasure 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 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 my words fly up my thoughts remain below words without thoughts never to heaven go _exit _ scene another room in the castle enter queen and polonius 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 pray you be round with him _within _ mother mother mother i ll warrant you fear me not withdraw i hear him coming _polonius goes behind the arras _ enter hamlet now mother what s the matter hamlet thou hast thy father much offended mother you have my father much offended come come you answer with an idle tongue go go you question with a wicked tongue why how now hamlet what s the matter now have you forgot me 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 nay then i ll set those to you that can speak 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 what wilt thou do thou wilt not murder me help help ho _behind _ what ho help help help how now a rat _draws _ dead for a ducat dead _makes a pass through the arras _ _behind _ o i am slain _falls and dies _ o me what hast thou done nay i know not is it the king _draws forth polonius _ o what a rash and bloody deed is this a bloody deed almost as bad good mother as kill a king and marry with his brother as kill a king ay lady twas my word _to polonius _ thou wretched rash intruding fool farewell 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 if it be made of penetrable stuff if damned custom have not braz d it so that it is proof and bulwark against sense what have i done that thou dar st wag thy tongue in noise so rude against me 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 o 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 ay me what act that roars so loud and thunders in the index 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 this was your husband look you now what follows here is your husband like a mildew d ear 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 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 is apoplex d for madness would not err nor sense to ecstacy was ne er so thrall d but it reserv d some quantity of choice 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 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 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 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 nay but to live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed stew d in corruption honeying and making love over the nasty sty o speak to me no more these words like daggers enter in mine ears no more sweet hamlet a murderer and a villain a slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 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 no more 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 alas he s mad 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 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 in weakest bodies strongest works speak to her hamlet how is it with you lady 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 hairs like life in excrements start up and stand an end o gentle son upon the heat and flame of thy distemper sprinkle cool patience whereon do you look on him on him look you how pale he glares 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 will want true colour tears perchance for blood to whom do you speak this do you see nothing there nothing at all yet all that is i see nor did you nothing hear no nothing but ourselves 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 _ this is the very coinage of your brain this bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning in 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 whilst 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 virtue 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 o hamlet thou hast cleft my heart in twain 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 that monster custom who all sense doth eat of habits evil 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 tonight 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 bles 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 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 what shall i do 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 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 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 to try conclusions in the basket creep and break your own neck down 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 i must to england you know that alack i had forgot tis so concluded on there s letters seal d and my two schoolfellows 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 enginer hoist with his own petard and t shall go hard but i will delve one yard below their mines 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 mother good night indeed this counsellor is now most still most secret and most grave who was in life a foolish peating knave come sir to draw toward an end with you good night mother _exit hamlet dragging out polonius _ act iv scene a room in the castle enter king queen rosencrantz and guildenstern there s matter in these sighs these profound heaves you must translate tis fit we understand them where is your son bestow this place on us a little while _to rosencrantz and guildenstern who go out _ ah my good lord what have i seen tonight what gertrude how does hamlet mad as the sea and wind when both contend which is the mightier in his lawless fit behind the arras hearing something stir whips out his rapier cries a rat a rat and in this brainish apprehension kills the unseen good old man o heavy deed it had been so with us had we been there his liberty is full of threats to all to you yourself to us to everyone 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 haunt this mad young man but so much was our love 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 to draw apart the body he hath kill d o er whom his very madness like some ore among a mineral of metals base shows itself pure he weeps for what is done 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 guildenstern re 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 rosencrantz and guildenstern _ 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 slander whose whisper o er the world s diameter as level as the cannon to his blank transports his poison d shot may miss our name and hit the woundless air o come away my soul is full of discord and dismay _exeunt _ scene another room in the castle enter hamlet safely stowed rosencrantz and _within _ hamlet lord hamlet what noise who calls on hamlet o here they come enter rosencrantz and guildenstern what have you done my lord with the dead body compounded it with dust whereto tis kin tell us where tis that we may take it thence and bear it to the chapel do not believe it believe what 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 take you me for a sponge my lord 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 i understand you not my lord i am glad of it a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear my lord you must tell us where the body is and go with us to the king the body is with the king but the king is not with the body the king is a thing a thing my lord of nothing bring me to him hide fox and all after _exeunt _ scene another room in the castle enter king attended 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 th 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 or not at all enter rosencrantz how now what hath befall n where the dead body is bestow d my lord we cannot get from him but where is he without my lord guarded to know your pleasure bring him before us ho guildenstern bring in my lord enter hamlet and guildenstern now hamlet where s polonius at supper at supper where 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 diet we fat all creatures else to fat us and we fat ourselves for maggots your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service two dishes but to one table that s the end alas alas a man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm what dost thou mean by this nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar where is polonius in heaven send thither to see if your messenger find him not there seek him i th 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 _to some attendants _ go seek him there he will stay till you come _exeunt attendants _ hamlet this deed for thine especial safety which we do tender as we dearly grieve for that which thou hast done must send thee hence with fiery quickness therefore prepare thyself the bark is ready and the wind at help th associates tend and everything is bent for england for england ay hamlet good so is it if thou knew st our purposes i see a cherub that sees them but come for england farewell dear mother thy loving father hamlet my mother father and mother is man and wife man and wife is one flesh and so my mother come for england _exit _ follow him at foot tempt him with speed aboard delay it not i ll have him hence tonight away for everything is seal d and done that else leans on th affair pray you make haste _exeunt rosencrantz and guildenstern _ and england if my love thou hold st at aught as my great power thereof may give thee sense since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red after the danish sword and thy free awe pays homage to us thou mayst not coldly set our sovereign process which imports at full by letters conjuring to that effect the present death of hamlet do it england for like the hectic in my blood he rages and thou must cure me till i know tis done howe er my haps my joys were ne er begun _exit _ scene a plain in denmark enter fortinbras and forces marching go captain from me greet the danish king tell him that by his license fortinbras craves the conveyance of a promis d march over his kingdom you know the rendezvous if that his majesty would aught with us we shall express our duty in his eye and let him know so i will do t my lord go softly on _exeunt all but the captain _ enter hamlet rosencrantz guildenstern c good sir whose powers are these they are of norway sir how purpos d sir i pray you against some part of poland who commands them sir the nephew to old norway fortinbras goes it against the main of poland sir or for some frontier truly to speak and with no addition 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 why then the polack never will defend it yes it is already garrison d two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats will not debate the question of this straw this is th imposthume of much wealth and peace that inward breaks and shows no cause without why the man dies i humbly thank you sir god b wi you sir _exit _ will t please you go my lord i ll be with you straight go a little before _exeunt all but hamlet _ 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 discourse 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 th 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 means to do t examples gross as earth exhort me witness this army of such mass and charge led by a delicate and tender prince whose spirit with divine ambition puff d makes mouths at the invisible event exposing what is mortal and unsure to all that fortune death and danger dare even for an eggshell rightly to be great is not to stir without great argument but greatly to find quarrel in a straw 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 o from this time forth my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth _exit _ scene elsinore a room in the castle enter queen horatio and a gentleman i will not speak with her she is importunate indeed distract her mood will needs be pitied what would she have she speaks much of her father says she hears there s tricks i th world and hems and beats her heart spurns enviously at straws speaks things in doubt that carry but half sense her speech is nothing 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 twere good she were spoken with for she may strew dangerous conjectures in ill breeding minds let her come in _exit gentleman _ 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 enter ophelia where is the beauteous majesty of denmark how now ophelia _sings _ how should i your true love know from another one by his cockle bat and staff and his sandal shoon alas sweet lady what imports this song say you nay pray you mark _sings _ he is dead and gone lady he is dead and gone at his head a grass green turf at his heels a stone nay but ophelia pray you mark _sings _ white his shroud as the mountain snow enter king alas look here my lord _sings _ larded all with sweet flowers which bewept to the grave did go with true love showers how do you pretty lady well god dild 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 conceit upon her father pray you let s have no words of this but when they ask you what it means say you this _sings _ tomorrow is saint valentine s day all in the morning betime and i a maid at your window to be your valentine then up he rose and donn d his clothes and dupp d the chamber door let in the maid that out a maid never departed more pretty ophelia indeed la without an oath i ll make an end on t _sings _ by gis and by saint charity alack and fie for shame young men will do t if they come to t by cock they are to blame quoth she before you tumbled me you promis d me to wed so would i ha done by yonder sun an thou hadst not come to my bed how long hath she been thus i hope all will be well we must be patient but i cannot choose but weep to think they would lay him i th cold ground my brother shall know of it and so i thank you for your good counsel come my coach good night ladies good night sweet ladies good night good night _exit _ follow her close give her good watch i pray you _exit horatio _ o this is the poison of deep grief it springs all from her father s death o gertrude gertrude when sorrows come they come not single spies but in battalions first her father slain next your son gone and he most violent author of his own just remove the people muddied thick and and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers for good polonius death and we have done but greenly in hugger mugger to inter him poor ophelia divided from herself and her fair judgment without the which we are pictures or mere beasts last and as much containing as all these her brother is in secret come from france feeds on his wonder keeps himself in clouds and wants not buzzers to infect his ear with pestilent speeches of his father s death wherein necessity of matter beggar d will nothing stick our person to arraign in ear and ear o my dear gertrude this like to a murdering piece in many places gives me superfluous death _a noise within _ alack what noise is this where are my switzers let them guard the door enter a gentleman what is the matter save yourself my lord the ocean overpeering of his list eats not the flats with more impetuous haste than young laertes in a riotous head o erbears your offices the rabble call him lord and as the world were now but to begin antiquity forgot custom not known the ratifiers and props of every word they cry choose we laertes shall be king caps hands and tongues applaud it to the clouds laertes shall be king laertes king how cheerfully on the false trail they cry o this is counter you false danish dogs _a noise within _ the doors are broke enter laertes armed danes following where is this king sirs stand you all without danes no let s come in i pray you give me leave we will we will _they retire without the door _ i thank you keep the door o thou vile king give me my father calmly good laertes that drop of blood that s calm proclaims me bastard cries cuckold to my father brands the harlot even here between the chaste unsmirched brow of my true mother what is the cause laertes that thy rebellion looks so giant like let him go gertrude do not fear our person there s such divinity doth hedge a king that treason can but peep to what it would acts little of his will tell me laertes why thou art thus incens d let him go gertrude speak man where is my father dead but not by him let him demand his fill how came he dead i ll not be juggled with to hell allegiance vows to the blackest devil conscience and grace to the profoundest pit i dare damnation to this point i stand that both the worlds i give to negligence let come what comes only i ll be reveng d most throughly for my father who shall stay you my will not all the world and for my means i ll husband them so well they shall go far with little good laertes if you desire to know the certainty of your dear father s death is t writ in your revenge that sweepstake you will draw both friend and foe winner and loser none but his enemies will you know them then to his good friends thus wide i ll ope my arms and like the kind life rendering pelican repast them with my blood why now you speak like a good child and a true gentleman that i am guiltless of your father s death and am most sensibly in grief for it it shall as level to your judgment pear as day does to your eye _within _ let her come in how now what noise is that re enter ophelia fantastically dressed with straws and flowers o heat dry up my brains tears seven times salt burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye by heaven thy madness shall be paid by weight till our scale turn the beam o rose of may dear maid kind sister sweet ophelia o heavens is t possible a young maid s wits should be as mortal as an old man s life nature is fine in love and where tis fine it sends some precious instance of itself after the thing it loves _sings _ they bore him barefac d on the bier hey no nonny nonny hey nonny and on his grave rain d many a tear fare you well my dove hadst thou thy wits and didst persuade revenge it could not move thus you must sing down a down and you call him a down a o how the wheel becomes it it is the false steward that stole his master s daughter this nothing s more than matter there s rosemary that s for remembrance pray love remember and there is pansies that s for thoughts a document in madness thoughts and remembrance fitted there s fennel for you and columbines there s rue for you and here s some for me we may call it herb of grace o sundays o you must wear your rue with a difference there s a daisy i would give you some violets but they wither d all when my father died they say he made a good end _sings _ for bonny sweet robin is all my joy thought and affliction passion hell itself she turns to favour and to prettiness _sings _ and will he not come again and will he not come again no no he is dead go to thy death bed he never will come again his beard was as white as snow all flaxen was his poll he is gone he is gone and we cast away moan god ha mercy on his soul and of all christian souls i pray god god b wi ye _exit _ do you see this o god laertes i must commune with your grief or you deny me right go but apart make choice of whom your wisest friends you will and they shall hear and judge twixt you and me if by direct or by collateral hand they find us touch d we will our kingdom give our crown our life and all that we call ours to you in satisfaction but if not be you content to lend your patience to us and we shall jointly labour with your soul to give it due content let this be so his means of death his obscure burial no trophy sword nor hatchment o er his bones no noble rite nor formal ostentation cry to be heard as twere from heaven to earth that i must call t in question so you shall and where th offence is let the great axe fall i pray you go with me _exeunt _ scene another room in the castle enter horatio and a servant what are they that would speak with me sailors sir they say they have letters for you let them come in _exit servant _ i do not know from what part of the world i should be greeted if not from lord hamlet enter sailors first god bless you sir let him bless thee too first he shall sir and t please him there s a letter for you sir it comes from th ambassador that was bound for england if your name be horatio as i am let to know it is _reads _ horatio when thou shalt have overlooked this give these fellows some means to the king they have letters for him ere we were two days old at sea a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase finding ourselves too slow of sail we put on a compelled valour and in the grapple i boarded them on the instant they got clear of our ship so i alone became their prisoner they have dealt with me like thieves of mercy but they knew what they did i am to do a good turn for them let the king have the letters i have sent and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou wouldst fly death i have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter these good fellows will bring thee where i am rosencrantz and guildenstern hold their course for england of them i have much to tell thee farewell he that thou knowest thine hamlet come i will give you way for these your letters and do t the speedier that you may direct me to him from whom you brought them _exeunt _ scene another room in the castle enter king and laertes now must your conscience my acquittance seal and you must put me in your heart for friend sith you have heard and with a knowing ear that he which hath your noble father slain pursu d my life it well appears but tell me why you proceeded not against these feats so crimeful and so capital in nature as by your safety wisdom all things else you mainly were stirr d up o for two special reasons which may to you perhaps seem much unsinew d but yet to me they are strong the queen his mother lives almost by his looks and for myself my virtue or my plague be it either which she s so conjunctive to my life and soul that as the star moves not but in his sphere i could not but by her the other motive why to a public count i might not go is the great love the general gender bear him who dipping all his faults in their affection would like the spring that turneth wood to stone convert his gyves to graces so that my arrows too slightly timber d for so loud a wind would have reverted to my bow again and not where i had aim d them and so have i a noble father lost a sister driven into desperate terms whose worth if praises may go back again stood challenger on mount of all the age for her perfections but my revenge will come break not your sleeps for that you must not think that we are made of stuff so flat and dull that we can let our beard be shook with danger and think it pastime you shortly shall hear more i lov d your father and we love ourself and that i hope will teach you to imagine enter a messenger how now what news letters my lord from hamlet this to your majesty this to the queen from hamlet who brought them sailors my lord they say i saw them not they were given me by claudio he receiv d them of him that brought them laertes you shall hear them leave us _exit messenger _ _reads _ high and mighty you shall know i am set naked on your kingdom tomorrow shall i beg leave to see your kingly eyes when i shall first asking your pardon thereunto recount the occasions of my sudden and more strange return hamlet what should this mean are all the rest come back or is it some abuse and no such thing know you the hand tis hamlet s character naked and in a postscript here he says alone can you advise me i am lost in it my lord but let him come it warms the very sickness in my heart that i shall live and tell him to his teeth thus diest thou if it be so laertes as how should it be so how otherwise will you be rul d by me ay my lord so you will not o errule me to a peace to thine own peace if he be now return d as checking at his voyage and that he means no more to undertake it i will work him to exploit now ripe in my device under the which he shall not choose but fall and for his death no wind shall breathe but even his mother shall uncharge the practice and call it accident my lord i will be rul d the rather if you could devise it so that i might be the organ it falls right you have been talk d of since your travel much and that in hamlet s hearing for a quality wherein they say you shine your sum of parts did not together pluck such envy from him as did that one and that in my regard of the unworthiest siege what part is that my lord a very riband in the cap of youth yet needful too for youth no less becomes the light and careless livery that it wears than settled age his sables and his weeds importing health and graveness two months since here was a gentleman of normandy i ve seen myself and serv d against the french and they can well on horseback but this gallant had witchcraft in t he grew unto his seat and to such wondrous doing brought his horse as had he been incorps d and demi natur d with the brave beast so far he topp d my thought that i in forgery of shapes and tricks come short of what he did a norman was t a norman upon my life lamond the very same i know him well he is the brooch indeed and gem of all the nation he made confession of you and gave you such a masterly report for art and exercise in your defence and for your rapier most especially that he cried out twould be a sight indeed if one could match you the scrimers of their nation he swore had neither motion guard nor eye if you oppos d them sir this report of his did hamlet so envenom with his envy that he could nothing do but wish and beg your sudden coming o er to play with him now out of this what out of this my lord laertes was your father dear to you or are you like the painting of a sorrow a face without a heart why ask you this not that i think you did not love your father but that i know love is begun by time and that i see in passages of proof time qualifies the spark and fire of it there lives within the very flame of love a kind of wick or snuff that will abate it and nothing is at a like goodness still for goodness growing to a pleurisy dies in his own too much that we would do we should do when we would for this would changes and hath abatements and delays as many as there are tongues are hands are accidents and then this should is like a spendthrift sigh that hurts by easing but to the quick o th ulcer hamlet comes back what would you undertake to show yourself your father s son in deed more than in words to cut his throat i th church no place indeed should murder sanctuarize revenge should have no bounds but good laertes will you do this keep close within your chamber hamlet return d shall know you are come home we ll put on those shall praise your excellence and set a double varnish on the fame the frenchman gave you bring you in fine together and wager on your heads he being remiss most generous and free from all contriving will not peruse the foils so that with ease or with a little shuffling you may choose a sword unbated and in a pass of practice requite him for your father i will do t and for that purpose i ll anoint my sword i bought an unction of a mountebank so mortal that but dip a knife in it where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare collected from all simples that have virtue under the moon can save the thing from death this is but scratch d withal i ll touch my point with this contagion that if i gall him slightly it may be death let s further think of this weigh what convenience both of time and means may fit us to our shape if this should fail and that our drift look through our bad performance twere better not assay d therefore this project should have a back or second that might hold if this did blast in proof soft let me see we ll make a solemn wager on your cunnings i ha t when in your motion you are hot and dry as make your bouts more violent to that end and that he calls for drink i ll have prepar d him a chalice for the nonce whereon but sipping if he by chance escape your venom d stuck our purpose may hold there enter queen how now sweet queen one woe doth tread upon another s heel so fast they follow your sister s drown d laertes drown d o where there is a willow grows aslant a brook that shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream there with fantastic garlands did she make of crow flowers nettles daisies and long purples that liberal shepherds give a grosser name but our cold maids do dead men s fingers call them there on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds clamb ring to hang an envious sliver broke when down her weedy trophies and herself fell in the weeping brook her clothes spread wide and mermaid like awhile they bore her up which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes as one incapable of her own distress or like a creature native and indued unto that element but long it could not be till that her garments heavy with their drink pull d the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death alas then she is drown d drown d drown d too much of water hast thou poor ophelia and therefore i forbid my tears but yet it is our trick nature her custom holds let shame say what it will when these are gone the woman will be out adieu my lord i have a speech of fire that fain would blaze but that this folly douts it _exit _ let s follow gertrude how much i had to do to calm his rage now fear i this will give it start again therefore let s follow _exeunt _ act v scene a churchyard enter two clowns with spades c first is she to be buried in christian burial when she wilfully seeks her own salvation second i tell thee she is and therefore make her grave straight the crowner hath sat on her and finds it christian burial first how can that be unless she drowned herself in her own defence second why tis found so first it must be _se offendendo_ it cannot be else for here lies the point if i drown myself wittingly it argues an act and an act hath three branches it is to act to do and to perform argal she drowned herself wittingly second nay but hear you goodman delver first give me leave here lies the water good here stands the man good if the man go to this water and drown himself it is will he nill he he goes mark you that but if the water come to him and drown him he drowns not himself argal he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life second but is this law first ay marry is t crowner s quest law second will you ha the truth on t if this had not been a gentlewoman she should have been buried out o christian burial first why there thou say st and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even christian come my spade there is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners ditchers and grave makers they hold up adam s profession second was he a gentleman first he was the first that ever bore arms second why he had none first what art a heathen how dost thou understand the scripture the scripture says adam digg d could he dig without arms i ll put another question to thee if thou answerest me not to the purpose confess thyself second go to first what is he that builds stronger than either the mason the shipwright or the carpenter second the gallows maker for that frame outlives a thousand tenants first i like thy wit well in good faith the gallows does well but how does it well it does well to those that do ill now thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church argal the gallows may do well to thee to t again come second who builds stronger than a mason a shipwright or a carpenter first ay tell me that and unyoke second marry now i can tell first to t second mass i cannot tell enter hamlet and horatio at a distance first cudgel thy brains no more about it for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating and when you are asked this question next say a grave maker the houses he makes last till doomsday go get thee to yaughan fetch me a stoup of liquor _exit second clown _ _digs and sings _ in youth when i did love did love methought it was very sweet to contract o the time for a my behove o methought there was nothing meet has this fellow no feeling of his business that he sings at grave making custom hath made it in him a property of easiness tis e en so the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense first _sings _ but age with his stealing steps hath claw d me in his clutch and hath shipp d me into the land as if i had never been such _throws up a skull _ that skull had a tongue in it and could sing once how the knave jowls it to th ground as if twere cain s jawbone that did the first murder this might be the pate of a politician which this ass now o er offices one that would circumvent god might it not it might my lord or of a courtier which could say good morrow sweet lord how dost thou good lord this might be my lord such a one that praised my lord such a one s horse when he meant to beg it might it not ay my lord why e en so and now my lady worm s chapless and knocked about the mazard with a sexton s spade here s fine revolution an we had the trick to see t did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggets with em mine ache to think on t first _sings _ a pickaxe and a spade a spade for and a shrouding sheet o a pit of clay for to be made for such a guest is meet _throws up another skull _ there s another why may not that be the skull of a lawyer where be his quiddits now his quillets his cases his tenures and his tricks why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell him of his action of battery hum this fellow might be in s time a great buyer of land with his statutes his recognizances his fines his double vouchers his recoveries is this the fine of his fines and the recovery of his recoveries to have his fine pate full of fine dirt will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases and double ones too than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures the very conveyances of his lands will scarcely lie in this box and must the inheritor himself have no more ha not a jot more my lord is not parchment made of sheep skins ay my lord and of calf skins too they are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that i will speak to this fellow whose grave s this sir first mine sir _sings _ o a pit of clay for to be made for such a guest is meet i think it be thine indeed for thou liest in t first you lie out on t sir and therefore tis not yours for my part i do not lie in t yet it is mine thou dost lie in t to be in t and say it is thine tis for the dead not for the quick therefore thou liest first tis a quick lie sir t will away again from me to you what man dost thou dig it for first for no man sir what woman then first for none neither who is to be buried in t first one that was a woman sir but rest her soul she s dead how absolute the knave is we must speak by the card or equivocation will undo us by the lord horatio these three years i have taken note of it the age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls his kibe how long hast thou been a grave maker first of all the days i th year i came to t that day that our last king hamlet o ercame fortinbras how long is that since first cannot you tell that every fool can tell that it was the very day that young hamlet was born he that is mad and sent into england ay marry why was he sent into england first why because he was mad he shall recover his wits there or if he do not it s no great matter there why first twill not be seen in him there there the men are as mad as he how came he mad first very strangely they say how strangely first faith e en with losing his wits upon what ground first why here in denmark i have been sexton here man and boy thirty years how long will a man lie i th earth ere he rot first faith if he be not rotten before he die as we have many pocky corses nowadays that will scarce hold the laying in he will last you some eight year or nine year a tanner will last you nine year why he more than another first why sir his hide is so tann d with his trade that he will keep out water a great while and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body here s a skull now this skull hath lain in the earth three and twenty years whose was it first a whoreson mad fellow s it was whose do you think it was nay i know not first a pestilence on him for a mad rogue a pour d a flagon of rhenish on my head once this same skull sir was yorick s skull the king s jester this first e en that let me see _takes the skull _ alas poor yorick i knew him horatio a fellow of infinite jest of most excellent fancy he hath borne me on his back a thousand times and now how abhorred in my imagination it is my gorge rises at it here hung those lips that i have kiss d i know not how oft where be your gibes now your gambols your songs your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar not one now to mock your own grinning quite chop fallen now get you to my lady s chamber and tell her let her paint an inch thick to this favour she must come make her laugh at that prythee horatio tell me one thing what s that my lord dost thou think alexander looked o this fashion i th earth e en so and smelt so pah _throws down the skull _ e en so my lord to what base uses we may return horatio why may not imagination trace the noble dust of alexander till he find it stopping a bung hole twere to consider too curiously to consider so no faith not a jot but to follow him thither with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it as thus alexander died alexander was buried alexander returneth into dust the dust is earth of earth we make loam and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop a beer barrel imperious caesar dead and turn d to clay might stop a hole to keep the wind away o that that earth which kept the world in awe should patch a wall t expel the winter s flaw but soft but soft aside here comes the king enter priests c in procession the corpse of ophelia laertes and mourners following king queen their trains c the queen the courtiers who is that they follow and with such maimed rites this doth betoken the corse they follow did with desperate hand fordo it own life twas of some estate couch we awhile and mark _retiring with horatio _ what ceremony else that is laertes a very noble youth mark what ceremony else her obsequies have been as far enlarg d as we have warranties her death was doubtful and but that great command o ersways the order she should in ground unsanctified have lodg d till the last trumpet for charitable prayers shards flints and pebbles should be thrown on her yet here she is allowed her virgin rites her maiden strewments and the bringing home of bell and burial must there no more be done no more be done we should profane the service of the dead to sing sage requiem and such rest to her as to peace parted souls lay her i th earth and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring i tell thee churlish priest a minist ring angel shall my sister be when thou liest howling what the fair ophelia _scattering flowers _ sweets to the sweet farewell i hop d thou shouldst have been my hamlet s wife i thought thy bride bed to have deck d sweet maid and not have strew d thy grave o treble woe fall ten times treble on that cursed head whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense depriv d thee of hold off the earth a while till i have caught her once more in mine arms _leaps into the grave _ now pile your dust upon the quick and dead till of this flat a mountain you have made to o ertop old pelion or the skyish head of blue olympus _advancing _ what is he whose grief bears such an emphasis whose phrase of sorrow conjures the wand ring stars and makes them stand like wonder wounded hearers this is i hamlet the dane _leaps into the grave _ _grappling with him _ the devil take thy soul thou pray st not well i prythee take thy fingers from my throat for though i am not splenative and rash yet have i in me something dangerous which let thy wiseness fear away thy hand pluck them asunder hamlet hamlet all gentlemen good my lord be quiet _the attendants part them and they come out of the grave _ why i will fight with him upon this theme until my eyelids will no longer wag o my son what theme i lov d ophelia forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum what wilt thou do for her o he is mad laertes for love of god forbear him swounds show me what thou lt do woul t weep woul t fight woul t fast woul t tear thyself woul t drink up eisel eat a crocodile i ll do t dost thou come here to whine to outface me with leaping in her grave be buried quick with her and so will and if thou prate of mountains let them throw millions of acres on us till our ground singeing his pate against the burning zone make ossa like a wart nay an thou lt mouth i ll rant as well as thou this is mere madness and thus awhile the fit will work on him anon as patient as the female dove when that her golden couplets are disclos d his silence will sit drooping hear you sir what is the reason that you use me thus i lov d you ever but it is no matter let hercules himself do what he may the cat will mew and dog will have his day _exit _ i pray thee good horatio wait upon him _exit horatio _ _to laertes_ strengthen your patience in our last night s speech we ll put the matter to the present push good gertrude set some watch over your son this grave shall have a living monument an hour of quiet shortly shall we see till then in patience our proceeding be _exeunt _ scene a hall in the castle enter hamlet and horatio so much for this sir now let me see the other you do remember all the circumstance remember it my lord sir in my heart there was a kind of fighting that would not let me sleep methought i lay worse than the mutinies in the bilboes rashly and prais d be rashness for it let us know our indiscretion sometime serves us well when our deep plots do pall and that should teach us there s a divinity that shapes our ends rough hew them how we will that is most certain up from my cabin my sea gown scarf d about me in the dark grop d i to find out them had my desire finger d their packet and in fine withdrew to mine own room again making so bold my fears forgetting manners to unseal their grand commission where i found horatio oh royal knavery an exact command larded with many several sorts of reasons importing denmark s health and england s too with ho such bugs and goblins in my life that on the supervise no leisure bated no not to stay the grinding of the axe my head should be struck off is t possible here s the commission read it at more leisure but wilt thou hear me how i did proceed i beseech you being thus benetted round with villanies or i could make a prologue to my brains they had begun the play i sat me down devis d a new commission wrote it fair i once did hold it as our statists do a baseness to write fair and labour d much how to forget that learning but sir now it did me yeoman s service wilt thou know the effect of what i wrote ay good my lord an earnest conjuration from the king as england was his faithful tributary as love between them like the palm might flourish as peace should still her wheaten garland wear and stand a comma tween their amities and many such like as es of great charge that on the view and know of these contents without debatement further more or less he should the bearers put to sudden death not shriving time allow d how was this seal d why even in that was heaven ordinant i had my father s signet in my purse which was the model of that danish seal folded the writ up in the form of the other subscrib d it gave t th impression plac d it safely the changeling never known now the next day was our sea fight and what to this was sequent thou know st already so guildenstern and rosencrantz go to t why man they did make love to this employment they are not near my conscience their defeat does by their own insinuation grow tis dangerous when the baser nature comes between the pass and fell incensed points of mighty opposites why what a king is this does it not thinks t thee stand me now upon he that hath kill d my king and whor d my mother popp d in between th election and my hopes thrown out his angle for my proper life and with such cozenage is t not perfect conscience to quit him with this arm and is t not to be damn d to let this canker of our nature come in further evil it must be shortly known to him from england what is the issue of the business there it will be short the interim is mine and a man s life s no more than to say one but i am very sorry good horatio that to laertes i forgot myself for by the image of my cause i see the portraiture of his i ll court his favours but sure the bravery of his grief did put me into a tow ring passion peace who comes here enter osric your lordship is right welcome back to denmark i humbly thank you sir dost know this waterfly no my good lord thy state is the more gracious for tis a vice to know him he hath much land and fertile let a beast be lord of beasts and his crib shall stand at the king s mess tis a chough but as i say spacious in the possession of dirt sweet lord if your lordship were at leisure i should impart a thing to you from his majesty i will receive it with all diligence of spirit put your bonnet to his right use tis for the head i thank your lordship tis very hot no believe me tis very cold the wind is northerly it is indifferent cold my lord indeed methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion exceedingly my lord it is very sultry as twere i cannot tell how but my lord his majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head sir this is the matter i beseech you remember _hamlet moves him to put on his hat _ nay in good faith for mine ease in good faith sir here is newly come to court laertes believe me an absolute gentleman full of most excellent differences of very soft society and great showing indeed to speak feelingly of him he is the card or calendar of gentry for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see sir his definement suffers no perdition in you though i know to divide him inventorially would dizzy th arithmetic of memory and yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail but in the verity of extolment i take him to be a soul of great article and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as to make true diction of him his semblable is his mirror and who else would trace him his umbrage nothing more your lordship speaks most infallibly of him the concernancy sir why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath sir is t not possible to understand in another tongue you will do t sir really what imports the nomination of this gentleman of laertes his purse is empty already all s golden words are spent of him sir i know you are not ignorant i would you did sir yet in faith if you did it would not much approve me well sir you are not ignorant of what excellence laertes is i dare not confess that lest i should compare with him in excellence but to know a man well were to know himself i mean sir for his weapon but in the imputation laid on him by them in his meed he s unfellowed what s his weapon rapier and dagger that s two of his weapons but well the king sir hath wager d with him six barbary horses against the which he has imponed as i take it six french rapiers and poniards with their assigns as girdle hangers and so three of the carriages in faith are very dear to fancy very responsive to the hilts most delicate carriages and of very liberal conceit what call you the carriages i knew you must be edified by the margin ere you had done the carriages sir are the hangers the phrase would be more german to the matter if we could carry cannon by our sides i would it might be hangers till then but on six barbary horses against six french swords their assigns and three liberal conceited carriages that s the french bet against the danish why is this all imponed as you call it the king sir hath laid that in a dozen passes between you and him he shall not exceed you three hits he hath laid on twelve for nine and it would come to immediate trial if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer how if i answer no i mean my lord the opposition of your person in trial sir i will walk here in the hall if it please his majesty it is the breathing time of day with me let the foils be brought the gentleman willing and the king hold his purpose i will win for him if i can if not i will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits shall i re deliver you e en so to this effect sir after what flourish your nature will i commend my duty to your lordship yours yours _exit osric _ he does well to commend it himself there are no tongues else for s turn this lapwing runs away with the shell on his head he did comply with his dug before he suck d it thus has he and many more of the same bevy that i know the drossy age dotes on only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter a kind of yeasty collection which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions and do but blow them to their trial the bubbles are out enter a lord my lord his majesty commended him to you by young osric who brings back to him that you attend him in the hall he sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with laertes or that you will take longer time i am constant to my purposes they follow the king s pleasure if his fitness speaks mine is ready now or whensoever provided i be so able as now the king and queen and all are coming down in happy time the queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to laertes before you fall to play she well instructs me _exit lord _ you will lose this wager my lord i do not think so since he went into france i have been in continual practice i shall win at the odds but thou wouldst not think how ill all s here about my heart but it is no matter nay good my lord it is but foolery but it is such a kind of gain giving as would perhaps trouble a woman if your mind dislike anything obey it i will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit not a whit we defy augury there s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow if it be now tis not to come if it be not to come it will be now if it be not now yet it will come the readiness is all since no man has aught of what he leaves what is t to leave betimes enter king queen laertes lords osric and attendants with foils c come hamlet come and take this hand from me _the king puts laertes s hand into hamlet s _ give me your pardon sir i have done you wrong but pardon t as you are a gentleman this presence knows and you must needs have heard how i am punish d with sore distraction what i have done that might your nature honour and exception roughly awake i here proclaim was madness was t hamlet wrong d laertes never hamlet if hamlet from himself be ta en away and when he s not himself does wrong laertes then hamlet does it not hamlet denies it who does it then his madness if t be so hamlet is of the faction that is wrong d his madness is poor hamlet s enemy sir in this audience let my disclaiming from a purpos d evil free me so far in your most generous thoughts that i have shot my arrow o er the house and hurt my brother i am satisfied in nature whose motive in this case should stir me most to my revenge but in my terms of honour i stand aloof and will no reconcilement till by some elder masters of known honour i have a voice and precedent of peace to keep my name ungor d but till that time i do receive your offer d love like love and will not wrong it i embrace it freely and will this brother s wager frankly play give us the foils come on come one for me i ll be your foil laertes in mine ignorance your skill shall like a star i th darkest night stick fiery off indeed you mock me sir no by this hand give them the foils young osric cousin hamlet you know the wager very well my lord your grace has laid the odds o the weaker side i do not fear it i have seen you both but since he is better d we have therefore odds this is too heavy let me see another this likes me well these foils have all a length _they prepare to play _ ay my good lord set me the stoups of wine upon that table if hamlet give the first or second hit or quit in answer of the third exchange let all the battlements their ordnance fire the king shall drink to hamlet s better breath and in the cup an union shall he throw richer than that which four successive kings in denmark s crown have worn give me the cups and let the kettle to the trumpet speak the trumpet to the cannoneer without the cannons to the heavens the heavens to earth now the king drinks to hamlet come begin and you the judges bear a wary eye come on sir come my lord _they play _ one no judgment a hit a very palpable hit well again stay give me drink hamlet this pearl is thine here s to thy health _trumpets sound and cannon shot off within _ give him the cup i ll play this bout first set it by awhile _they play _ come another hit what say you a touch a touch i do confess our son shall win he s fat and scant of breath here hamlet take my napkin rub thy brows the queen carouses to thy fortune hamlet good madam gertrude do not drink i will my lord i pray you pardon me _aside _ it is the poison d cup it is too late i dare not drink yet madam by and by come let me wipe thy face my lord i ll hit him now i do not think t _aside _ and yet tis almost gainst my conscience come for the third laertes you do but dally i pray you pass with your best violence i am afeard you make a wanton of me say you so come on _they play _ nothing neither way have at you now _laertes wounds hamlet then in scuffling they change rapiers and hamlet wounds laertes _ part them they are incens d nay come again _the queen falls _ look to the queen there ho they bleed on both sides how is it my lord how is t laertes why as a woodcock to my own springe osric i am justly kill d with mine own treachery how does the queen she swoons to see them bleed no no the drink the drink o my dear hamlet the drink the drink i am poison d _dies _ o villany ho let the door be lock d treachery seek it out _laertes falls _ it is here hamlet hamlet thou art slain no medicine in the world can do thee good in thee there is not half an hour of life the treacherous instrument is in thy hand unbated and envenom d the foul practice hath turn d itself on me lo here i lie never to rise again thy mother s poison d i can no more the king the king s to blame the point envenom d too then venom to thy work _stabs the king _ osric and treason treason o yet defend me friends i am but hurt here thou incestuous murderous damned dane drink off this potion is thy union here follow my mother _king dies _ he is justly serv d it is a poison temper d by himself exchange forgiveness with me noble hamlet mine and my father s death come not upon thee nor thine on me _dies _ heaven make thee free of it i follow thee i am dead horatio wretched queen adieu you that look pale and tremble at this chance that are but mutes or audience to this act had i but time as this fell sergeant death is strict in his arrest o i could tell you but let it be horatio i am dead thou liv st report me and my cause aright to the unsatisfied never believe it i am more an antique roman than a dane here s yet some liquor left as th art a man give me the cup let go by heaven i ll have t o good horatio what a wounded name things standing thus unknown shall live behind me if thou didst ever hold me in thy heart absent thee from felicity awhile and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain to tell my story _march afar off and shot within _ what warlike noise is this young fortinbras with conquest come from poland to the ambassadors of england gives this warlike volley o i die horatio the potent poison quite o er crows my spirit i cannot live to hear the news from england but i do prophesy th election lights on fortinbras he has my dying voice so tell him with the occurrents more and less which have solicited the rest is silence _dies _ now cracks a noble heart good night sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest why does the drum come hither _march within _ enter fortinbras the english ambassadors and others where is this sight what is it you would see if aught of woe or wonder cease your search this quarry cries on havoc o proud death what feast is toward in thine eternal cell that thou so many princes at a shot so bloodily hast struck first the sight is dismal and our affairs from england come too late the ears are senseless that should give us hearing to tell him his commandment is fulfill d that rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead where should we have our thanks not from his mouth had it th ability of life to thank you he never gave commandment for their death but since so jump upon this bloody question you from the polack wars and you from england are here arriv d give order that these bodies high on a stage be placed to the view and let me speak to th yet unknowing world how these things came about so shall you hear of carnal bloody and unnatural acts of accidental judgments casual slaughters of deaths put on by cunning and forc d cause and in this upshot purposes mistook fall n on the inventors heads all this can i truly deliver let us haste to hear it and call the noblest to the audience for me with sorrow i embrace my fortune i have some rights of memory in this kingdom which now to claim my vantage doth invite me of that i shall have also cause to speak and from his mouth whose voice will draw on more but let this same be presently perform d even while men s minds are wild lest more mischance on plots and errors happen let four captains bear hamlet like a soldier to the stage for he was likely had he been put on to have prov d most royally and for his passage the soldiers music and the rites of war speak loudly for him take up the bodies such a sight as this becomes the field but here shows much amiss go bid the soldiers shoot _a dead march _ _exeunt bearing off the bodies after which a peal of ordnance is shot off _