And never come mischance betwixt us twain!

[Exit.

Ham. Madam, how like you this play? [thinks.
Queen. The lady doth protest too much, me-
Ham. O, but she'll keep her word.

5

King. Have you heard the argument? Is there

no offence in't?

Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the world.

King. What do you call the play? Ham. The mouse-trap1. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder dond in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptista: you shall see anon; 'tis a knavish piece

10

Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if
the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me) with
two Provencial roses on my rayed shoes', get me
a fellowship in a cry of players, sir?
Hor. Half a share.

Ham. A whole one, I.

For thou dost know, O Damon' dear,
This realm dismantled was

Of Jove himself; and now reigns here
A very, very-peacock 8.

Hor. You might have rhym'd.
Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word
for a thousand pound. Didst perceive?
Hor. Very well, my lord.

of work: But what of that? your majesty, and we 15 Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning, -
that have free souls, it touches us not: Let the
gall'd jade wince, our withers are unwrung.-

Enter Lucianus.

Hor. I did very well note him.

Ham. Ah, ha! Come, some music; come,

the recorders.

Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with
Ham. Sir, a whole history.

25 Guil. The king, sir,

[venge. Come-The croaking raven doth bellow for re-30 Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and

time agreeing;

Confederate season, else no creature seeing;

Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,

[per'd.

Ham. Ay, sir, what of him?
Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distem-

Ham. With drink, sir?

Guil. No, my lord, with choler.

Ham. Your wisdom should shew itself more richer, to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler.

Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into

With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, 35 some frame, and start not so wildly from my af

His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and 40 Ham. You are welcome.

[Exeunt All but Hamlet and Horatio. 50 you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep, The hart ungalled play: [sleep; For some must watch, whilst some must Thus runs the world away.

Ros. Then thus she says: Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration.

• He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is the thing, In which he'll catch the conscience of the king. * This refers to the interpreter, who formerly sat on the stage at all motions or puppetshows, and interpreted to the audience. 3i.e. according to Mr. Steevens, better in regard to the wit of your double entendre, but worse in respect to the grossness of your meaning. 4 Means, probably, no more than to change condition fantastically. When shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband gathered into the form of a rose.-Rayed shoes, are shoes braided in lines. • The allusion is to a pack of hounds. -A pack of hounds was once called a cry of hounds. Hamlet calls Horatio by this name, in allusion to the celebrated friendship between Damon and Pythias. • A peacock seems proverbial for a fool. Mr. Steevens, however, believes paddock (or toad) to be the true reading. Perdy is a corruption of par Dieu, and is not uncommon in the old plays.

Ham

Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish al mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? impart.

Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed.

5

Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade 1 with us? Ros. My lord, you once did love me. Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers2. Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of dis-10 temper? you do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend. Ham. Sir, I lack advancement.

Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Den-15

mark?

Ham. Ay, sir, but While the grass grows, the proverb is something musty.

Enter the Players, with Recorders 3. O, the recorders: let me see one. To with-20 draw with you:- Why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil?

Guil. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly 4.

Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you

play upon this pipe?

Guil. My lord, I cannot.

Ham. I pray you.
Guil. Believe me, I cannot.

Ham. I do beseech you.

Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord.

25

Ham. Methinks it is like a weazel 6.

Pol. It is back'd like a weazel.

Ham. Or, like a whale?

Pol. Very like a whale.

Ham. Then will I come to my mother by-andby. They fool me to the top of my bent '.-I will come by-and-by.

Pol. I will say so.

Ham. By-and-by is easily said. Leave me, friends. [Exeunt Ros. Guil. Hor. &c.

out

'Tis now the very witching time of night;
When church-yards yawn, and hell itself breathes
[blood,
Contagion to this world: Now could I drink hot
And do such business as the bitter 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 soever she be shent,
To give them seals 1o never, my soul, consent!

SCENE III.

A Room in the Palace.

Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most elo-35 quent music. Look you, these are the stops.

Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildensters.
30 King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with us,
To let his madnessrange. 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 lunes ".

Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony; I have not the skill.

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a

Guil. We will ourselves provide:
Most holy and religious fear it is
To keep those many many bodies safe,

thing you make of me! You would play upon 40 That live, and feed, upon your majesty.

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, excel

Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more, That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest,

lent voice, in this little organ; yet cannot you 45 The lives of many. The cease of majesty

1i. e. further business, further dealing. i.e. a kind of flute. * ie. If my duty to the king makes me press you a little, my love to you makes me still more importunate. If that makes me bold, this makes me even unmannerly. 'The holes of a flute. • The weasel is remarkable for the length of its back. i. e. They compel me to play the fool, till I can endure to do it no longer. * The bitter day is the day rendered hateful or bitter by the commission of some act of mischief. • To shend, is to reprove harshly, to treat with injurious language. i. e. put them in execution.

Both. We will haste us.

[Exeunt Ros. and Guil.

Enter Polonius.

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,

Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet;
Behind the arras I'll convey myself,
[home: 5 To take him in the purging of his soul,
To hear the process; I'll warrant, she'll tax him
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
And, as you said, and wisely was it said,
No.
'Tis meet, that some more audience than a mother,
Since nature makes them partial, should o'er-hear
The speech of vantage 1. Fare you well, my liege: 10 Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed;

I'll call upon you cre you go to bed,
And tell you what I know.

King. Thanks, my dear lord.

[Exit.

Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage;

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, black 15 As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. [Exit. The King rises. King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:

20 Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go.

25

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 2;
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 two-fold force,-
To be fore-stalled, 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!-30
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice;
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: But 'tis not so above:
There is no shuffling, there the action lies

35

SCENE IV.
The Queen's Closet.
Enter Queen, and Polonius.

[Exity

Pol. He will come straight. Look, you lay
home to him:
[with;
Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear
Andthatyourgracehathscreen'd and stood between

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

Ham. [within.] Mother, mother, mother!-
Queen. I'll warrant you; fear me not.

Withdraw, I hear him coming.

[Polonius hides himself. Enter Hamlet. Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much of[ed.

fended.

In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd, 40 Ham. Mother, you have my father much offend

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!

Enter Hamlet.

[The King kneels.

Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle

tongue. Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet? 45 Ham. What's the matter now?

50

Queen. Have you forgot me?
Ham. 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.
Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can
speak.
[not budge;
Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall
You go not, 'till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.

Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not mur

der me?

Help, help, ho!

Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! help!
Ham. How now! a rat?

Dead, for a ducat, dead.

* Will is command, direction.

This

Hent is hold, or seizure.

1 i, e. by some opportunity of secret observation. alludes to bird-lime. * i. e. that should be considered, estimated. Lay hold on him, sword, at a more horrid time, i. e. I'll use no more words.

[Hamlet [Hamlet strikes at Polonius through the arras. Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd, Pol. [Behind.] O, I am slain.

Queen. O me, what hast thou done?

Ham. Nay, I know not:

Is it the king?

Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! Ham. A bloody deed; -almost as bad, good mother,

As kill a king, and marry with his brother.

Queen. As kill a king?

Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!

[To Polonius.

I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune:

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?

5 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,

10 If thou canst mutiny 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,

Thou find'st, to be too busy, is some danger.- 15 And reason panders will.

Leavewringingof 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 be proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st wag

thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Ham. Such an act,

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose1
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 this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought-sick at the act.

Queen. Ay me, what act,

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

Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more:

Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots,

As will not leave their tinct.

20 Ham. Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an incestuous bed;
Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love
Over the nasty stye;-

Queen. O, speak to me no more;

25 These words like daggers enter in mine ears; No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain:

A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord:-a vice of kings:

30 A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!
Queen. No more.

45 Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits:

This was your husband. Look you now, what O, step betweer her and her fighting soul;

follows:

You cannot call it, love: for, at your age,

Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works; 50 Speak to her, Ilamlet.

Ham. How is it with you, lady?
Queen. Alas, how is 't with you?
That you do bend your eye on vacancy,
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse!

The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble, 55 Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;

Andwaitseponthejudgement; Andwhatjudgement
Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you
have,
[sense
Else, could you not have motion: But, sure, that
Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err;

It was once the custom of those who were spicuous mark of their mutual engagement. contract.

And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm,
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son,
Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper
60 Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?

Ham. On him! on him! - Look you, how | And when you are desirous to be blest,

pale he glares!

I'll blessing beg of you. -For this same lord,

[Pointing to Polonius.

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
Would make them capable. -Do not look upon
I do repent; But heaven hath pleas'd it so,-
Lest, with this piteous action, you convert [me; 5 To punish him with me, and me with this,-

Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood.

My stern effects: then, what I have to do

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:

Queen. To whom do you speak this?

Ham. Do you see nothing there?

Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see.

Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?

Queen. No, nothing, but ourselves.

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

away!

My father, in his habit as he liv'd!

Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! [Exit Ghost.

Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstacy

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,

10 Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.
One word more, good lady.
Queen. What shall I do?

Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
15 Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you, his mouse';
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,

Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstacy!!

And makes as healthful musick: It is not inadness,

That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,

20 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,

And I the matter will re-word; which madness 25 Unpeg the basket on the house's top,

Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness, speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid.what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my vir-
For, in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg;
Yea, curb2, and woo, for leave to do him good.
Queen. O, Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart
in twain.

Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions', in the basket creep,
And break your own neck down.

Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of

breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me.

Ham. I must to England; you know that? Queen. Alack, I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on. [tue: 35 Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two

Ham. 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.

school-fellows,

Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd',-
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my
And marshal me to knavery: Let it work; [way,

40 For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer

Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go hard,
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow then at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet!

30

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,

Of habits devil, is angel yet in this;

45 This man shall set me packing.

That to the use of actions fair and good

He likewise gives a frock or livery,

That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night;

And that shall lend a kind of easiness

I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room:-
Mother, good night. -Indeed, this counsellor
Is now most still, most secret, and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.

To the next abstinence: the next, more easy: 50 Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you :

1

[Exit the Queen, and Hamlet dragging in

4

Ecstacy in this place, and many others, means a temporary alienation of mind, a fit. * That is, bend and truckle. Fr. courber. Mouse was once a term of endearment. Reechy is smoky. Gib was a common name for a cat. * i. e. experiments. 'That is, adders with their fangs, or poisonous teeth, undrawn. Hoist for hoised; as past for passed.

Good night, mother.

Polonius.