Feedbooks Book 2846
Feedbooks Book 2846
Feedbooks Book 2846
Shakespeare, William
Published: 1599
Categorie(s): Fiction, Drama
Source: Feedbooks
1
About Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – died 23 April
1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as
the greatest writer in the English language and the world's
pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national
poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviv-
ing works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative
poems, and several other poems. His plays have been trans-
lated into every major living language, and are performed
more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare
was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18
he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children:
Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and
1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor,
writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord
Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He ap-
pears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died
three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life
survive, and there has been considerable speculation about
such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the
works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare
produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His
early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he
raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of
the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until
about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, con-
sidered some of the finest examples in the English language. In
his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as ro-
mances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his
plays were published in editions of varying quality and accur-
acy during his lifetime, and in 1623 two of his former theatrical
colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his
dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now re-
cognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet
and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise
to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Ro-
mantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and
the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence
that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth
century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by
2
new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays re-
main highly popular today and are consistently performed and
reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts
throughout the world. Source: Wikipedia
3
Act I
BERNARDO
Who's there?
FRANCISCO
BERNARDO
FRANCISCO
Bernardo?
BERNARDO
He.
FRANCISCO
BERNARDO
FRANCISCO
BERNARDO
4
Have you had quiet guard?
FRANCISCO
BERNARDO
FRANCISCO
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
FRANCISCO
MARCELLUS
FRANCISCO
MARCELLUS
5
Holla! Bernardo!
BERNARDO
Say,
What, is Horatio there?
HORATIO
A piece of him.
BERNARDO
MARCELLUS
BERNARDO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
BERNARDO
6
That are so fortified against our story
What we have two nights seen.
HORATIO
BERNARDO
MARCELLUS
BERNARDO
MARCELLUS
BERNARDO
HORATIO
BERNARDO
7
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
It is offended.
BERNARDO
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
BERNARDO
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
8
Is it not like the king?
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
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,
9
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,
Dared 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 seized 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 covenant,
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 romage in the land.
BERNARDO
HORATIO
10
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.—
But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
Re-enter Ghost
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:
Cock crows
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! Stop it, Marcellus.
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
BERNARDO
'Tis here!
HORATIO
'Tis here!
MARCELLUS
11
'Tis gone!
Exit Ghost
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.
BERNARDO
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
12
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?
MARCELLUS
13
SCENE II. A room of state in the castle.
KING CLAUDIUS
14
Out of his subject: and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
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 delated articles allow.
Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.
CORNELIUS VOLTIMAND
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
My dread 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.
KING CLAUDIUS
LORD POLONIUS
15
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.
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
If it be,
Why seems it so particular with thee?
16
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
17
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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
18
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 follow'd 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 my 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 BERNARDO
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
19
MARCELLUS
My good lord—
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
20
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!
My father!—methinks I see my father.
HORATIO
Where, my lord?
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
Saw? who?
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
21
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
MARCELLUS
HAMLET
HORATIO
22
My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up its 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.
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
MARCELLUS BERNARDO
We do, my lord.
HAMLET
MARCELLUS BERNARDO
Arm'd, my lord.
HAMLET
MARCELLUS BERNARDO
23
My lord, from head to foot.
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
Pale or red?
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
Most constantly.
HAMLET
HORATIO
24
HAMLET
HORATIO
MARCELLUS BERNARDO
Longer, longer.
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
I warrant it will.
HAMLET
25
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue:
I will requite your loves. So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.
All
HAMLET
26
SCENE III. A room in Polonius' house.
LAERTES
OPHELIA
LAERTES
OPHELIA
LAERTES
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 unvalued persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and health of this whole state;
27
And therefore must his choice be circumscribed
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 'scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,
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.
OPHELIA
LAERTES
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.
28
LORD POLONIUS
LAERTES
LORD POLONIUS
LAERTES
29
Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well
What I have said to you.
OPHELIA
LAERTES
Farewell.
Exit
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
30
Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
31
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.
OPHELIA
32
SCENE IV. The platform.
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
No, it is struck.
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
33
Is it a custom?
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
34
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest 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 canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd,
Hath oped 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
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
No, by no means.
HAMLET
HORATIO
Do not, my lord.
35
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
It waves me still.
Go on; I'll follow thee.
MARCELLUS
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
36
My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve.
Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen.
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
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
37
SCENE V. Another part of the platform.
HAMLET
Ghost
Mark me.
HAMLET
I will.
Ghost
HAMLET
Ghost
HAMLET
Ghost
HAMLET
38
What?
Ghost
HAMLET
O God!
Ghost
HAMLET
Murder!
Ghost
HAMLET
39
Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift
As meditation or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.
Ghost
HAMLET
Ghost
40
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 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,
Unhousel'd, 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 pursuest 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! Hamlet, remember me.
Exit
HAMLET
41
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'm 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.
MARCELLUS HORATIO
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
HAMLET
So be it!
HORATIO
HAMLET
42
Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.
Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS
MARCELLUS
HORATIO
HAMLET
O, wonderful!
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
MARCELLUS
Nor I, my lord.
HAMLET
How say you, then; would heart of man once think it?
But you'll be secret?
HORATIO MARCELLUS
HAMLET
43
There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark
But he's an arrant knave.
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
44
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO MARCELLUS
HAMLET
HORATIO
In faith,
My lord, not I.
MARCELLUS
HAMLET
Upon my sword.
MARCELLUS
HAMLET
Ghost
[Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET
45
Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there,
truepenny?
Come on—you hear this fellow in the cellarage—
Consent to swear.
HORATIO
HAMLET
Ghost
[Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET
Ghost
[Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET
Well said, old mole! canst work i' the earth so fast?
A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends.
HORATIO
HAMLET
46
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 headshake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an 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.
Ghost
[Beneath] Swear.
HAMLET
47
Act II
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
I will, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
48
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
As gaming, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
LORD POLONIUS
49
Wherefore should you do this?
REYNALDO
Ay, my lord,
I would know that.
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
LORD POLONIUS
50
Or then, or then; with such, or such; and, as you say,
There was a' 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?
REYNALDO
My lord, I have.
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
Good my lord!
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
I shall, my lord.
LORD POLONIUS
REYNALDO
Well, my lord.
51
LORD POLONIUS
Farewell!
Exit REYNALDO
Enter OPHELIA
How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
52
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 raised 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 helps,
And, to the last, bended their light on me.
LORD POLONIUS
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
53
This must be known; which, being kept close, might
move
More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
Exeunt
54
SCENE II. A room in the castle
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
ROSENCRANTZ
55
Put your dread pleasures more into command
Than to entreaty.
GUILDENSTERN
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
GUILDENSTERN
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Ay, amen!
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and some
Attendants
Enter POLONIUS
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
56
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
VOLTIMAND
57
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 grieved,
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 the 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,
Giving 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.
KING CLAUDIUS
It likes us well;
And at our more consider'd time well 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 VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS
LORD POLONIUS
58
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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LORD POLONIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LORD POLONIUS
59
'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 shown me,
And more above, hath his solicitings,
As they fell out by time, by means and place,
All given to mine ear.
KING CLAUDIUS
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
LORD POLONIUS
60
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 mourn for.
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
LORD POLONIUS
61
You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
So he does indeed.
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
Well, God-a-mercy.
LORD POLONIUS
62
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
Not I, my lord.
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
Honest, my lord!
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
I have, my lord.
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
63
[Aside] How say you by that? 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?
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
Between who?
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
64
Into my grave.
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
ROSENCRANTZ
GUILDENSTERN
My honoured lord!
65
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
Neither, my lord.
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
66
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
Prison, my lord!
HAMLET
Denmark's a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
67
Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too
narrow for your mind.
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
68
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
69
[Aside] Nay, then, I have an eye of you.—If you
love me, hold not off.
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not
me'?
ROSENCRANTZ
70
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.
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
71
How comes it? do they grow rusty?
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
Is't possible?
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
72
ROSENCRANTZ
Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
73
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
Buz, buz!
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
74
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
Why,
'One fair daughter and no more,
The which he loved passing well.'
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
75
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
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 valenced since I saw thee last:
comest 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
apiece 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 any thing we see:
we'll have a speech straight: come, give us a taste
of your quality; come, a passionate speech.
First Player
HAMLET
76
savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might
indict 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 the 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,
Baked and impasted with the parching streets,
That lend a tyrannous and damned light
To their lord's murder: roasted in wrath and fire,
And thus o'er-sized with coagulate gore,
With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks.'
So, proceed you.
LORD POLONIUS
First Player
77
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the 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 forged 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!'
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
First Player
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
78
That's good; 'mobled queen' is good.
First Player
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon.
Good my lord, will you see the players well
bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for
they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the
time: after your death you were better have a bad
epitaph than their ill report while you live.
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
79
God's bodykins, man, much 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.
LORD POLONIUS
Come, sirs.
HAMLET
First Player
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
First Player
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
Very well. Follow that lord; and look you mock him
not.
Exit First Player
My good friends, I'll leave you till night: you are
welcome to Elsinore.
ROSENCRANTZ
80
Good my lord!
HAMLET
81
O, 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
To 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
82
Act III
KING CLAUDIUS
ROSENCRANTZ
GUILDENSTERN
QUEEN GERTRUDE
ROSENCRANTZ
GUILDENSTERN
ROSENCRANTZ
83
Niggard of question; but, of our demands,
Most free in his reply.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
ROSENCRANTZ
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
ROSENCRANTZ
We shall, my lord.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
KING CLAUDIUS
84
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 behaved,
If 't be the affliction of his love or no
That thus he suffers for.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
OPHELIA
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
85
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
86
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
OPHELIA
Good my lord,
How does your honour for this many a day?
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
No, not I;
I never gave you aught.
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
My lord?
HAMLET
87
Are you fair?
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
88
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?
OPHELIA
At home, my lord.
HAMLET
Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the
fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
89
I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God
has given you one face, and you make yourselves
another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and
nick-name 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
OPHELIA
KING CLAUDIUS
90
Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus
From fashion of himself. What think you on't?
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
It shall be so:
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.
Exeunt
91
SCENE II. A hall in the castle.
HAMLET
First Player
HAMLET
92
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 Player
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN
93
We will, my lord.
Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
O, my dear lord,—
HAMLET
94
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,
As I do thee.—Something too much of this.—
There is a play to-night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
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.
HORATIO
Well, my lord:
If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing,
And 'scape detecting, I will pay the theft.
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
95
I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
96
[To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?
HAMLET
OPHELIA
No, my lord.
HAMLET
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
Nothing.
OPHELIA
97
HAMLET
Who, I?
OPHELIA
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
98
loath and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his
love
Exeunt
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play.
Prologue
99
Exit
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
As woman's love.
Enter two Players, King and Queen
Player King
Player Queen
Player King
100
'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, beloved; and haply one as kind
For husband shalt thou—
Player Queen
HAMLET
Player Queen
Player King
101
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 advanced 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 Queen
HAMLET
Player King
Player Queen
102
Sleep rock thy brain,
And never come mischance between us twain!
Exit
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
103
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
OPHELIA
HAMLET
LUCIANUS
HAMLET
104
choice Italian: you shall see anon how the murderer
gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
OPHELIA
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
All
HAMLET
HORATIO
105
Half a share.
HAMLET
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—pajock.
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
106
Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you.
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
107
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
Sir, I cannot.
GUILDENSTERN
What, my lord?
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
108
O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! But
is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's
admiration? Impart.
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
How can that be, when you have the voice of the king
himself for your succession in Denmark?
HAMLET
109
Re-enter 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?
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
GUILDENSTERN
My lord, I cannot.
HAMLET
I pray you.
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
I do beseech you.
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
110
GUILDENSTERN
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
111
HAMLET
Or like a whale?
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
112
SCENE III. A room in the castle.
KING CLAUDIUS
GUILDENSTERN
ROSENCRANTZ
KING CLAUDIUS
113
Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.
ROSENCRANTZ GUILDENSTERN
LORD POLONIUS
KING CLAUDIUS
114
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 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
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can: what can it not?
Yet what can it when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,
Art more engaged! Help, angels! Make assay!
Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel,
Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe!
All may be well.
Retires and kneels
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
115
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No!
Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent:
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous 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
KING CLAUDIUS
116
SCENE IV. The Queen's closet.
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
117
Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge;
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LORD POLONIUS
HAMLET
118
[Drawing] How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Makes a pass through the arras
LORD POLONIUS
[Behind] O, I am slain!
Falls and dies
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
As kill a king!
HAMLET
119
If damned custom have not brass'd it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
120
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 ecstasy was ne'er so thrall'd
But it reserved 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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
121
O, speak to me no more;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears;
No more, sweet Hamlet!
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
No more!
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
Ghost
122
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
123
Nor did you nothing hear?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
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 mattering 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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
124
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
125
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.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Alack,
I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on.
HAMLET
126
Is now most still, most secret and most grave,
Who was in life a foolish prating knave.
Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you.
Good night, mother.
Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS
127
Act IV
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
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 every one.
Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd?
It will be laid to us, whose providence
Should have kept short, restrain'd and out of haunt,
128
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?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
129
SCENE II. Another room in the castle.
Enter HAMLET
HAMLET
Safely stowed.
ROSENCRANTZ: GUILDENSTERN:
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
Believe what?
HAMLET
130
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?
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
The body is with the king, but the king is not with
the body. The king is a thing—
GUILDENSTERN
A thing, my lord!
131
HAMLET
132
SCENE III. Another room in the castle.
KING CLAUDIUS
ROSENCRANTZ
KING CLAUDIUS
ROSENCRANTZ
KING CLAUDIUS
ROSENCRANTZ
133
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS
At supper! where?
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
Alas, alas!
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
134
Where is Polonius?
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
For England!
KING CLAUDIUS
Ay, Hamlet.
HAMLET
Good.
135
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
136
SCENE IV. A plain in Denmark.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
Captain
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
Go softly on.
Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Soldiers
Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and
others
HAMLET
Captain
HAMLET
Captain
137
HAMLET
Captain
HAMLET
Captain
HAMLET
Captain
HAMLET
Captain
138
Exit
ROSENCRANTZ
HAMLET
139
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
140
SCENE V. Elsinore. A room in the castle.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Gentleman
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Gentleman
HORATIO
'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
141
To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss:
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA
OPHELIA
QUEEN GERTRUDE
OPHELIA
[Sings]
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
OPHELIA
QUEEN GERTRUDE
OPHELIA
142
Pray you, mark.
Sings
White his shroud as the mountain snow,—
Enter KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
OPHELIA
[Sings]
Larded with sweet flowers
Which bewept to the grave did go
With true-love showers.
KING CLAUDIUS
OPHELIA
Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's
daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not
what we may be. God be at your table!
KING CLAUDIUS
OPHELIA
143
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
KING CLAUDIUS
Pretty Ophelia!
OPHELIA
KING CLAUDIUS
OPHELIA
KING CLAUDIUS
144
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 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
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
Gentleman
145
They cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be king:'
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds:
'Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!'
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
Danes
LAERTES
Danes
We will, we will.
They retire without the door
LAERTES
QUEEN GERTRUDE
146
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
Where is my father?
KING CLAUDIUS
Dead.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
147
Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged
Most thoroughly for my father.
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
Good Laertes,
If you desire to know the certainty
Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge,
That, swoopstake, you will draw both friend and foe,
Winner and loser?
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
148
It shall as level to your judgment pierce
As day does to your eye.
Danes
LAERTES
OPHELIA
[Sings]
They bore him barefaced on the bier;
Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny;
And in his grave rain'd many a tear:—
Fare you well, my dove!
LAERTES
OPHELIA
[Sings]
You must sing a-down a-down,
An you call him a-down-a.
149
O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false
steward, that stole his master's daughter.
LAERTES
OPHELIA
LAERTES
OPHELIA
LAERTES
OPHELIA
[Sings]
And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead:
Go to thy death-bed:
150
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 be wi' ye.
Exit
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
So you shall;
And where the offence is let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.
151
Exeunt
152
SCENE VI. Another room in the castle.
HORATIO
Servant
HORATIO
First Sailor
HORATIO
First Sailor
HORATIO
153
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 speed 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 make you way for these your letters;
And do't the speedier, that you may direct me
To him from whom you brought them.
Exeunt
154
SCENE VII. Another room in the castle.
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
155
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.
KING CLAUDIUS
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 loved your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine—
Enter a Messenger
How now! what news?
Messenger
KING CLAUDIUS
Messenger
KING CLAUDIUS
156
and more strange return. 'HAMLET.'
What should this mean? Are all the rest come back?
Or is it some abuse, and no such thing?
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
If it be so, Laertes—
As how should it be so? how otherwise?—
Will you be ruled by me?
LAERTES
Ay, my lord;
So you will not o'errule me to a peace.
KING CLAUDIUS
157
But even his mother shall uncharge the practise
And call it accident.
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
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.
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
158
A Norman was't?
KING CLAUDIUS
A Norman.
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
159
Laertes, was your father dear to you?
Or are you like the painting of a sorrow,
A face without a heart?
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
160
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 practise
Requite him for your father.
LAERTES
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
That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
161
One woe doth tread upon another's heel,
So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes.
LAERTES
Drown'd! O, where?
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LAERTES
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Drown'd, drown'd.
LAERTES
162
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
KING CLAUDIUS
163
Act V
SCENE I. A churchyard.
First Clown
Second Clown
First Clown
Second Clown
First Clown
Second Clown
First Clown
164
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 Clown
First Clown
Second Clown
Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been
a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o'
Christian burial.
First Clown
Second Clown
Was he a gentleman?
First Clown
Second Clown
165
Why, he had none.
First Clown
Second Clown
Go to.
First Clown
Second Clown
First Clown
Second Clown
First Clown
166
Second Clown
First Clown
To't.
Second Clown
First Clown
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
167
First Clown
[Sings]
But age, with his stealing steps,
Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
And hath shipped me intil the land,
As if I had never been such.
Throws up a skull
HAMLET
HORATIO
It might, my lord.
HAMLET
HORATIO
Ay, my lord.
HAMLET
168
First Clown
[Sings]
A pick-axe, 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
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
169
They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance
in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose
grave's this, sirrah?
First Clown
Mine, sir.
Sings
O, a pit of clay for to be made
For such a guest is meet.
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
170
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's
dead.
HAMLET
First Clown
Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day
that our last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras.
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
171
First Clown
HAMLET
Why?
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
How strangely?
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot?
172
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
First Clown
HAMLET
This?
173
First Clown
E'en that.
HAMLET
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 rims at
it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed 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 chap-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. Prithee, Horatio, tell
me one thing.
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
E'en so.
HAMLET
HORATIO
174
E'en so, my lord.
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
LAERTES
HAMLET
175
That is Laertes,
A very noble youth: mark.
LAERTES
First Priest
LAERTES
First Priest
No more be done:
We should profane the service of the dead
To sing a requiem and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls.
LAERTES
HAMLET
176
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LAERTES
O, treble woe
Fall ten times treble on that cursed head,
Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense
Deprived thee of! Hold off the earth awhile,
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.
HAMLET
LAERTES
HAMLET
177
Yet have I something in me dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
Hamlet, Hamlet!
All
Gentlemen,—
HORATIO
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
O, he is mad, Laertes.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
178
For love of God, forbear him.
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
179
This grave shall have a living monument:
An hour of quiet shortly shall we see;
Till then, in patience our proceeding be.
Exeunt
180
SCENE II. A hall in the castle.
HAMLET
So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other;
You do remember all the circumstance?
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
Up from my cabin,
My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Groped 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,—
O 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,
181
That, on the supervise, no leisure bated,
No, not to stay the grinding of the axe,
My head should be struck off.
HORATIO
Is't possible?
HAMLET
HORATIO
I beseech you.
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
182
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd.
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
183
Popp'd in between the 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?
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
OSRIC
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
184
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.
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
185
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
Sir?
HORATIO
186
Is't not possible to understand in another tongue?
You will do't, sir, really.
HAMLET
OSRIC
Of Laertes?
HORATIO
HAMLET
Of him, sir.
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
187
I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation
laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
HORATIO
OSRIC
HAMLET
188
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 'imponed,' as you call it?
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
HAMLET
OSRIC
189
I commend my duty to your lordship.
HAMLET
Yours, yours.
Exit OSRIC
He does well to commend it himself; there are no
tongues else for's turn.
HORATIO
HAMLET
Lord
HAMLET
Lord
190
HAMLET
In happy time.
Lord
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
HORATIO
HAMLET
191
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 CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, LAERTES,
Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants with foils, & c
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
LAERTES
I am satisfied in nature,
Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour
192
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 ungored. But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.
HAMLET
I embrace it freely;
And will this brother's wager frankly play.
Give us the foils. Come on.
LAERTES
HAMLET
LAERTES
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
193
KING CLAUDIUS
LAERTES
HAMLET
OSRIC
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
LAERTES
Come, my lord.
194
They play
HAMLET
One.
LAERTES
No.
HAMLET
Judgment.
OSRIC
LAERTES
Well; again.
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
195
Our son shall win.
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
Good madam!
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
QUEEN GERTRUDE
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
I do not think't.
LAERTES
196
[Aside] And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience.
HAMLET
LAERTES
OSRIC
LAERTES
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
OSRIC
HORATIO
OSRIC
197
How is't, Laertes?
LAERTES
HAMLET
KING CLAUDIUS
QUEEN GERTRUDE
HAMLET
LAERTES
HAMLET
198
Stabs KING CLAUDIUS
All
Treason! treason!
KING CLAUDIUS
HAMLET
LAERTES
He is justly served;
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
HAMLET
HORATIO
199
Never believe it:
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane:
Here's yet some liquor left.
HAMLET
As thou'rt 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?
OSRIC
HAMLET
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 the 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
HORATIO
200
Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Ambassadors, and
others
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
HORATIO
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
First Ambassador
HORATIO
201
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' reads: all this can I
Truly deliver.
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
HORATIO
PRINCE FORTINBRAS
202
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203