POLONIUS If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter
that I love passing well.
HAMLET Nay, that follows not405.
POLONIUS What follows, then, my lord?
HAMLET Why,
'As by lot, God wot408',
and then, you know,
'It came to pass, as most like410 it was' --
the first row of the pious chanson411 will show you more,
for look where my abridgements412 come.--
Enter four or five Players
You're welcome, masters, welcome all.-- I am glad to see
thee well.-- Welcome, good friends.-- O, my old friend! Thy
face is valanced since I saw thee last: com'st thou to beard415
me in Denmark?-- What, my young lady and mistress! By'r416
lady, your ladyship417 is nearer heaven than when I saw you
last, by the altitude of a chopine418. Pray God your voice, like a
piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring419.
Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't420 like French
falconers, fly at anything we see. We'll have a speech
straight: come, give us a taste of your quality422: come, a
passionate speech.
FIRST PLAYER What speech, my lord?
HAMLET 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 caviar to the427
general. But it was -- as I received it, and others, whose
judgement in such matters cried in the top of429 mine -- an
excellent play, well digested430 in the scenes, set down with as
much modesty as cunning431. I remember one said there was
no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury432, nor no
matter in the phrase that might indict433 the author of
affectation, but called it an honest method, as wholesome as434
sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine435. One
speech in it I chiefly loved: 'twas Aeneas' tale to Dido436, and
thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam's437
slaughter: if it live in your memory, begin at this line -- let
me see, let me see --
'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th'Hyrcanian beast440'--
It is not so: it begins with Pyrrhus:
'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable442 arms,
Black as his purpose, did the night resemble
When he lay couched in the ominous horse444,
Hath now this dread and black complexion smeared
With heraldry more dismal446: head to foot
Now is he total gules, horridly tricked447
With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons,
Baked and impasted with the parching449 streets
That lend a tyrannous450 and damned light
To their vile murders: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate452 gore,
With eyes like carbuncles453, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire454 Priam seeks.'
So, proceed you.
POLONIUS Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent
and good discretion457.
FIRST PLAYER 'Anon458 he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks: his antique459 sword,
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant461 to command. Unequal matched,
Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide,
But with the whiff and wind of his fell463 sword
Th'unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium464,
Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear467, for, lo, his sword,
Which was declining on the milky468 head
Of reverend Priam, seemed i'th'air to stick:
So as a painted470 tyrant Pyrrhus stood,
And, like a neutral to his will and matter471,
Did nothing.
But as we often see against473 some storm
A silence in the heavens, the rack474 stand still,
The bold winds speechless and the orb475 below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder
Doth rend the region477, so, after Pyrrhus' pause,
Aroused vengeance sets him new a-work,
And never did the Cyclops'479 hammers fall
On Mars his armours forged for proof eterne480
With less remorse481 than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword
Now falls on Priam.
Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods
In general synod484 take away her power,
Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel485,
And bowl the round nave486 down the hill of heaven,
As low as to the fiends!'
POLONIUS This is too long.
HAMLET It shall to th'barber's, with your beard.-- Prithee,
say on: he's for a jig490 or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps: say on;
come to Hecuba491.
FIRST PLAYER 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled492 queen--'
HAMLET 'The mobled queen.'
POLONIUS That's good: 'mobled queen' is good.
FIRST PLAYER 'Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flame
With bisson rheum, a clout496 about that head
Where late the diadem497 stood, and for a robe,
About her lank and all o'er-teemed498 loins
A blanket, in th'alarm of fear caught up.
Who this had seen500, with tongue in venom steeped,
Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounced501:
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 milch507 the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion508 in the gods.'
POLONIUS Look, whe'er509 he has not turned his colour and has
tears in's eyes. Pray you no more.
HAMLET 'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon.--
Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed512? Do ye
hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstracts513 and
brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were better
have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you lived.
POLONIUS My lord, I will use them according to their desert516.
HAMLET God's bodikins, man, better: use every man after517 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 bounty520. Take them in.
POLONIUS Come, sirs.
Exit Polonius
HAMLET Follow him, friends: we'll hear a play tomorrow.--
To a Player
Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play
The Murder of Gonzago?
A PLAYER Ay, my lord.
HAMLET We'll ha't tomorrow night. You could, for a need525,
study526 a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would
set down and insert in't, could ye not?
A PLAYER Ay, my lord.
HAMLET Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him
not.--
[Exeunt Players]
My good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome to
Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ Good my lord.
Exeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]. Hamlet remains
HAMLET Ay, so, God buy ye.-- Now I am alone.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not
monstrous that this player here,
But537 in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his whole conceit538
That from her working all his visage wanned539,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect540,
A broken voice, and his whole function suiting541
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 motive546 and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid548 speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free549,
Confound the ignorant and amaze550 indeed
The very faculty of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak552
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of553 my cause,
And can say nothing: no, not for a king
Upon whose property555 and most dear life
A damned defeat556 was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? Breaks my pate557 across?
Plucks off558 my beard and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by th'nose? Gives me the lie i'th'throat559,
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this560?
Ha!
Why, I should take it, for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-livered563 and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites565
With this slave's offal566: bloody, bawdy villain!
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless567 villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! Ay, sure, this is most brave569,
That I, the son of the dear murdered,
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 scullion573!
Fie upon't, foh! About574, my brain! I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning576 of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently577
They have proclaimed their malefactions578:
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 blench583,
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 spirits588,
Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds
More relative590 than this: the play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Exit
[Act 3 Scene 1]
running scene 7
Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Lords
KING And can you by no drift of circumstance1
Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
Grating3 so harshly all his days of quiet
With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
ROSENCRANTZ He does confess he feels himself distracted,
But from what cause he will by no means speak.
GUILDENSTERN Nor do we find him forward to be sounded7,
But with a crafty madness keeps aloof
When we would bring him on to some confession
Of his true state.
GERTRUDE Did he receive you well?
ROSENCRANTZ Most like a gentleman.
GUILDENSTERN But with much forcing of his disposition13.
ROSENCRANTZ Niggard of question, but of our demands14
Most free in his reply.
GERTRUDE Did you assay16 him to any pastime?
ROSENCRANTZ Madam, it so fell out that certain players
We o'erraught18 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.
POLONIUS 'Tis most true:
And he beseeched me to entreat your majesties
To hear and see the matter.
KING With all my heart, and it doth much content me
To hear him so inclined.
Good gentlemen, give him a further edge28
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
ROSENCRANTZ We shall, my lord.
Exeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]
KING Sweet Gertrude, leave us too.
Exit Lords
For we have closely32 sent for Hamlet hither,
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here
Affront34 Ophelia:
Her father and myself, lawful espials35,
Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge,
And gather by him, as he is behaved,
If't be th'affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.
GERTRUDE 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.
OPHELIA Madam, I wish it may.
[Exit Gertrude]
To Ophelia
POLONIUS Ophelia, walk you here.-- Gracious48, so please you,
We will bestow ourselves.-- Read on this book,
Gives a book
That show of such an exercise may colour50
Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this --
'Tis too much proved -- that with devotion's visage52
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.
Aside
KING O, 'tis true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art57,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it58
Than is my deed to my most painted word.
O, heavy burden!
POLONIUS I hear him coming: let's withdraw, my lord.
Exeunt [King and Polonius]
To a place from where they eavesdrop, while Ophelia pretends to read
Enter Hamlet
HAMLET To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous64 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 heartache and the thousand natural shocks68
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation69
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep:
To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub71,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil73,
Must give us pause: there's the respect74
That makes calamity of so long life75,
For who would bear the whips and scorns76 of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely77,
The pangs of disprized78 love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns79
That patient merit of the unworthy takes80,
When he himself might his quietus81 make
With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels82 bea
r,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn85
No traveller returns, puzzles86 the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience89 does make cowards of us all:
And thus the native hue90 of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast91 of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment92
With this regard their currents turn away,
And lose the name of action. Soft you94 now,
The fair Ophelia.-- Nymph, in thy orisons95
Be all my sins remembered.
OPHELIA Good my lord,
How does your honour for this many a day?
HAMLET I humbly thank you: well, well, well.
OPHELIA My lord, I have remembrances100 of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver:
Offers love tokens
I pray you now receive them.
HAMLET No, no: I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA My honoured lord, I know right well you did,
And with them words of so sweet breath composed
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.
Tries to hand over tokens
There, my lord.
HAMLET Ha, ha! Are you honest110?
OPHELIA My lord?
HAMLET Are you fair112?
OPHELIA What means your lordship?
HAMLET That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should114
admit no discourse to your beauty.
OPHELIA Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce116 than
with honesty?
HAMLET 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 his120 likeness: this was
sometime a paradox121, but now the time gives it proof. I did
love you once.
OPHELIA Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
HAMLET You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so124
inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.
OPHELIA I was the more deceived.
HAMLET Get thee to a nunnery127. Why wouldst thou be a
breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest128, 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 beck131 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
heaven and earth? We are arrant knaves all: believe none of
us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?
OPHELIA At home, my lord.
HAMLET Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play
the fool nowhere but in's own house. Farewell.
OPHELIA O, help him, you sweet heavens!
HAMLET 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
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