Puslapio vaizdai
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This bodiless creation ecstasyl
Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecstasy!

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: It is not madness,
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,

And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness, speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost? on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue:
For in the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg;
Yea, curb3 and woo, for leave to do him good.

Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in

twain.

Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night: but go not to my uncle's bed;
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on: Refrain to-night;
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy:
For use almost can change the stamp of nature,
And either curb the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night!
And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord,

[Pointing to Polonius.

I do repent: But heaven hath pleas'd it so,-
To punish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and minister.
I will bestow him, and will answer well

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

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

Queen.

What shall I do?

Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you, his mouse; 4
And let him, for a pair of reechys kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,

That I essentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know:
For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,

Such dear concernings hide? who would do so?
No, in despite of sense, and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house's top,

Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape,
To try conclusions,& in the basket creep,

And break your own neck down.

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fellows,

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

For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer

Hoist with his own petar: 10 and it shall go hard,
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.-
This man shall set me packing.

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

[Exeunt severally; Hamlet dragging in
Polonius.

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King.

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, 11
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. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd:

O'er whom his very madness, like some ore,
Among a mineral12 of metals base,

Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O, Gertrude, come away!

The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence and this vile deed
We must, with all our majesty and skill,

Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guildenstern!

breath,

What thou hast said to me.

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

Ham. I must to England; you know that?
Queen.

Alack,

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Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain,
And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him.
Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body

(9) Having their teeth.

(10) Blown up with his own bomb.

(11) Company. (12) Mine.

Scene II, III, IV.

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK.

Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this.

[Exeunt Ros. and Guil.
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done: so, haply, slander,-
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,1
Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air. O come away;

My soul is full of discord, and dismay. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Another room in the same. Enter Hamlet.

Ham. Safely stowed, [Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet! But soft!-what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the
dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin.
Ros. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it

thence,

And bear it to the chapel.

Ham. Do not believe it.
Ros. Believe what?

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

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

you shall be dry again.

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

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

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

Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.2

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Another room in the same. En-
ter King, attended.

King. Bring him before us.
Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.

King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Ham. At supper.

King. At supper? Where?

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

King. Alas, alas!

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

King. What dost thou mean by this?

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

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

King. Go seck him there. [To some Attendants.
Ham. He will stay till you come.

[Exeunt Attendants.

King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial
safety,

hence

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou hast done,-must send thee
With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thyself;
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,3
The associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham.

King.
Ham.

For England?

Ay, Hamlet.

Good.

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them.-But, come;

for England!-Farewell, dear mother.
King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

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

[Exit.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed

aboard;

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night:
Away; for every thing is seal'd and done

King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the That else leans on the affair: Pray you, make haste.

body.
How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose!
Yet must not we put the strong law on him:
He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,

Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And, where 'tis so, the offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: Diseases, desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,

Enter Rosencrantz.

Or not at all. -How now? what hath befallen?

[Exeunt Ros, and Guil.
And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,
(As my great power thereof may give thee sense;
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us,) thou may'st not coldly sets
By letters cónjuring to that effect,
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,

The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: Till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, 6 my joys will ne'er begin. [Ex.

tinbras, and Forces, marching.
Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, SCENE IV-A plain in Denmark. Enter For-
For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish king,
We cannot get from him.
But where is he?
King.
Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your Tell him, that, by his license, Fortinbras

pleasure.

(1) Mark.

(2) A sport among children.

(3) Right, ready.
(5) Value, estimate.

(4) Attend.
(6) Successes.

Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march
Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous.
If that his majesty would aught with us,

We shall express our duty in his eye,

And let him know so.

Cap.

I will do't, my lord.

For. Go softly on.

[Exe, For. and Forces.

Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, &c.
Ham.

Good sir, whose powers are these?

Cap. They are of Norway, sir.
Ham.

I pray you?

How purpos'd, sir,

Cap. Against some part of Poland.
Ham.

Commands them, sir?

Who

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

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

Ham. Why, then the Polack3 never will defend it.
Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand
ducats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and peace;
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir. [Exit Captain.
Ros.
Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little
before.
[Exeunt Ros. and Guil.

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep, and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he, that made us with such large discourse, 5
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason,

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

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

wisdom,

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

means,

To do't. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me:
Witness, this army of such mass, and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;

Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Exposing what is mortal, and unsure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to stir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,
When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,

Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot

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them,

Indeed would make one think, there might be
thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.
Queen. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for
she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds:
Let her come in.
[Exit Horatio.

To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toy 10 seems prologue to some great amiss:
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter Horatio, with Ophelia.

Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Den

mark?

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O, ho!

He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a stone.

Queen. Nay, but Ophelia,-
Oph.

[Sings.

Pray you, mark.

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Larded 12 all with sweet flowers ;
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

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

King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when they ask you, what it means, say you this:

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Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine:

Then up he rose, and don'd1 his clothes,
And dupp'd2 the chamber door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

King. Pretty Ophelia!

Oph. Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an end

on't:

By Gis, and by Saint Charity,

Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do't, if they come to't;

By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, Before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to wed:

[He answers.]

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they should lay him i'the cold ground; My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies: good night, good night. (Ex. King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit Horatio.

O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs
All from her father's death: And now behold,
O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions! First, her father slain;
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: The people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and
whispers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,4

In hugger-muggers 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.
Alack! what noise is this?

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What is the matter?

The ocean, overpeering of his list,7

Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste,

Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!

Queen. How cheerfully on the false trails they cry! O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs.

King. The doors are broke. [Noise within.

Enter Laertes, armed; Danes following.

Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all

without.

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Will you know them then?

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my

arms;

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican, Repast them with my blood.

King.

Why, now you speak

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,

Gent.

Save yourself, my lord;

And am most sensibly in grief for it,

It shall as level to your judgment 'pear,"

And, as the world were now but to begin,

Danes. [Within.]

Let her come in.

Laer. How now! what noise is that?

Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,

O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him, lord; As day does to your eye.

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O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!-
By heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight,
Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May!
Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia!
O heavens! is't possible, a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?
Nature is finel in love: and, where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier; Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny: And in his grave rain'd many a tear;Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade

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All flaxen was his poll:

He is gone, he is gone,
And we cast away moan;

God 'a mercy on his soul!

And of all Christian souls! I pray God. God be wi' you! [Exit Ophelia.

Laer. Do you see this, O God?

King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me : If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,

To you in satisfaction; but, if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labour with your soul

To give it due content.

Laer.

Let this be so;

His means of death, his obscure funeral,-
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,-

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,

(1) Artful. (2) The burthen. (3)

i. e.

By its By Sunday name 'herb of grace;' mine is merely rue, i. e. sorrow.

That I must call't in question.

King. So you shall; And where the offence is, let the great axe fall: I pray you, go with me. [Exeunt. SCENE VI-Another room in the same. En

Serv.

ter Horatio, and a Servant.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with me?
Sailors, sir;
Let them come in.-
[Exit Servant.

They say, they have letters for you.
Hor.

I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.
Enter Sailors.

1 Sail. God bless you, sir.
Hor. Let him bless thee too.

1 Sail. He shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, sir: it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked this, give these fellows some means to the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace: Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour; and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me, like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou would'st fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.

He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet. Come, I will give you way for these your letters; And do't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. (Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-Another room in the same. Enter King and Laertes.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend;
Siths you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father slain,
Pursu'd my life.
Laer.

It well appears:-But tell me,

Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So crimeful and so capital in nature,
As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else,
You mainly were stirr'd up?

King.
O, for two special reasons;
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew'd,6
But yet to me they are strong. The queen his

mother,

Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,

(My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,)
She is so conjunctive to my life and soul,
That, as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a public count I might not go,

(4) Melancholy. (5) Since.

(6) Deprived of strength.

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