Queen.

Thou turn'st mine eyes into

O Hamlet, speak no more : my very soul;

And there I see such black and grained spots,

As will not leave their tinct.

Ham.
Queen.

These words, like daggers,
No more, sweet Hamlet.
Ham.

Nay, but to live-
O, speak to me no more;
enter in mine ears;

A murderer, and a villain:

A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord:-a vice' of kings:
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

Queen.

No more.

Enter Ghost.

Ham.

A king

Of shreds and patches:

Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,

You heavenly guards!-What would your gracious Queen. Alas, he's mad.

[figure?

Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
Th' important acting of your dread command?
O, say!

Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother sits:
O, step between her and her fighting soul;
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works;
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham.

How is it with you, lady?
Queen. Alas, how is't with you?
you do bend your eye on vacancy,

That

A low mimic of kings. The vice is the fool of a farce, from whom the modern Punch is descended.

2

Imagination.

E

And with th' incorporal air do hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep;
And, as the sleeping soldiers in th' 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
Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look!
Ham. On him! on him!-Look you, how pale he

glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, Would make them capable.-Do not look upon me; Lest, with this piteous action, you convert

My stern effects: then what I have to do

Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood.
Queen. To whom do you speak this?

Ham.
Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see.
Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?

Do you see nothing there?

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 ecstasy 3

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;

As though life were in that excrementitious matter.
3 Alienation of mind.

2 Actions.

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, curb' 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. 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:

I must to England; you know that?

Queen.

I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on.

Alack, [fellows,

Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two school

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;

bend and truckle. Fh. courber.

hard,

For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer
Hoist' with his own petar: and it shall go
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.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.The same.

Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and
GUILDENSTERN.

King. There's matter in these sighs; these profound heaves;

You must translate: 3 'tis fit we understand them:
Where is your son?

out.

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.— [TO ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENstern, who go Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, Whips out his rapier, cries, A rat! a rat! And, in this brainish apprehension, kills The unseen good old man.

1

Mount.

2 A piece of ordnance.

3 interpret.

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,'
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 mineral 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,
Both countenance and excuse.-Ho! Guildenstern!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

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

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends; And let them know, both what we mean to do, And what's untimely donely, slander,eter,