Shakspeare's Dramatic Works

Ham. On him! on him!-Look you, how pale he glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to ftones,
Would make them capable.-Do not look upon me;
Left, 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. Do you fee nothing there?

Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I fee.
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 Ghoft.
Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain:
This bodilefs creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in.

Ham. Ecftafy!

My pulfe, as yours, doth temperately keep time,|
And makes as healthful mufic: It is not madness,
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madnefs
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your foul,
That not your trefpafs, but my madness, speaks :|
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unfeen. Confefs 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 purfy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg;
Yea, curb2, and woo, for leave to do him good.
Queen. O, Hamlet! thou haft cleft my heart in

twain.

Ham. O, throw away the worfer part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night but go not to mine uncle's bed;
Affume a virtue, if you have it not.

That monster, cuftom, who all fense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this;

That to the ufe of actions fair and good
He likewife gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on : Refrain to-night;
And that shall lend a kind of eafinefs

To the next abftinence: the next, more eafy :
For use can almost change the stamp of nature,
And either mafter the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good night!

And when you are defirous to be bleft,
I'll bleffing beg of you.-For this fame lord,
[Pointing to Polonius.

I do repent; But heaven hath pleas'd it fo,-
To punish him with me, and me with this,—
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 :

10 Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.-
One word more, good lady.

Queen. What fhall 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 moufe 3;
And let him, for a pair of reechy + kiffes,

Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I effentially am not in madness,

20 But mad in craft. "Twere good, you let him know.
For who, that's but a queen, fair, fober, wife,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib 5,
Such dear concernings hide? who would do fo?
No, in defpight of fenfe, and secrecy,

25 Unpeg the basket on the house's top,
Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape,
To try conclufions, in the basket creep,
And break your neck down.

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

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou haft faid to me.

Ham. I must to England; you know that?
Queen. Alack, I had forgot; 'tis fo concluded on.
Ham. There's letters feal'd: and my two school-
fellows,

Whom I will truft, as I will adders fang'd 7,-
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery: Let it work;
40 For 'tis the fport, to have the engineer

Hoift with his own petar: and it shall go hard,
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis moft sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet !—
This man fhall fet me packing.

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

[Exit the Queen, and Hamlet dragging in Polonius.

Ecftaly in this place, and many others, means a temporary alienation of mind, a fit. bend and truckle. Fr. courber. Moufe was once a term of endearment.

5 Gib was a common name for a cat.

fangs, or poisonous teeth, undrawn.

6 i.e. experiments.

8 Hoift for boifed; as paft for passed.

2 That is, 4 Reechy is fmoky,

7 That is, adders with their

You must tranflate; 'tis fit we understand them:
Where is your fon?

Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.-
[To Rof. and Guil. who go out. 10
Ah, my good lord, what have I feen to-night?
King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?
Queen. Mad as the fea, and wind, when both
contend

Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit,
Behind the arras hearing fomething stir,

He whips his rapier out, and cries, A rat! a rat!
And, in his brainish apprehenfion, kills
The unfeen good old man.

King. O heavy deed!

It had been fo 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; whofe providence
Should have kept short, reftrain'd, and out of haunt',
This mad young man: but fo 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 madnefs, like fome ore 2,
Among a mineral of metals base,

Shews itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O, Gertrude, come away!
The fun no fooner fhall the mountains touch,
But we will ship him hence: and this vile deed
We muft, with all our majefty and skill,

As level as the cannon to his blank,

Tranfports his poison'd shot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air.-O, come away!
My foul is full of difcord, and dismay. [Exeunt.

Ham.

SCENE

Another Room.

Enter Hamlet.

II.

Safely ftow'd. But foft,

Rof. c. within. Hamlet! Lord Hamlet! Hamlet. What noife? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come.

Enter Rofencrantz and Guildenftern.

Rof. What have you done, my lord, with the

dead body?

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

And bear it to the chapel.

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

Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Befides, to be demanded of a spunge! -what replication should be made by the fon of a 25king?

Rof. Take you me for a fpunge, my lord?

Ham. Ay, fir; that foaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But fuch officers do the king best service in the end: He 30 keeps them, like an ape 3, in the corner of his jaw; firft mouth'd, to be laft fwallow'd: When he needs what you have glean'd, it is but squeezing you, and, fpunge, you shall be dry again. Rof. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it: A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

351

Rof. 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

Both countenance and excufe.-Ho! Guildenstern! 40 is not with the body. The king is a thing

Enter Rofencrantz and Guildenstern.

Friends both, go join you with fome further aid:
Hamlet in madness hath Polonius flain,
And from his mother's clofet hath he dragg'd him:
Go, feek him out; fpeak fair, and bring the body 45
Into the chapel. I pray you, hatte in this.
[Exeunt Rof. and Guil.
Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wifeft friends;
And let them know, both what we mean to do,
And what's untimely done: for haply, flander,
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,

1 Out of haunt means out of company.

Bafe metals have ore no less than precious.

2 Shakspeare feems to think ore to be or, that is, gold. 3 Hanmer has illuftrated this paffage with the following note: "It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the fide of their jaw, and there they keep it till they have done with the reft." 4 This anfwer Dr. Johnson fays he does not comprehend. Perhaps it should be, The body is not with the king, for the king is not with the body. 5 There is a play among children

called, Hide fox, and all after.

He's

He's lov'd of the distracted multitude,
Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes;
And, where 'tis fo, the offender's fcourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,
This fudden fending him away must seem
Deliberate paufe: Diseases, defperate grown,
By defperate appliance are reliev'd,

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

Enter Rosencrantz.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night :

5 Away; for every thing is feal'd and done
That elfe leans on the affair: Pray you, make hafte.
[Exeunt Rof. and Guil.
And, England if my love thou hold'st at aught,
(As my great power thereof may give thee sense;

Rof. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, 10 Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red

We cannot get from him.

King. But where is he?

Ref. Without, my lord; guarded, to know you pleasure.

King. Bring him before us.

Rof. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.
Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern.

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

King. At fupper? Where?

After the Danish fword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us) thou may'ft not coldly fet
Our fovereign procefs; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,

15 The prefent death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou muft cure me: 'Till I know 'tis done,
Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain convocation of politick worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and wel fat ourselves for maggots: Your fat king, and your 25 lean beggar, is but variable fervice; two dishes, but to one table; 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 30 fed of that worm.

King. What doft thou mean by this?

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

Ham. In heaven; fend thither to fee: if your meffenger find him not there, feek 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 ftairs into the lobby.

King. Go feek him there.

Ham. He will stay 'till you come.

[Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine efpeceial fafety,

Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve
For that which thou haft done,-muft fend thee
hence

With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thyfelf;|
The bark is ready, and the wind at help ',
The affociates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham. For England?
King. Ay, Hamlet.
Ham. Good.

King. So is it, if thou knew'ft our purposes. Ham. I fee a cherub, that fees them.-But, come; for England!-Farewel, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet.

Ham. How purpos'd, fir, I pray you?

Capt. Against fome part of Poland.

Ham. Who commands them, fir?

Capt. The nephew of old Norway, Fortinbras.
Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, fir,
Or for fome frontier?

Capt. Truly to speak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground,
45 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, fhould it be fold in fee.
Ham. Why, then the Polack never will de-
fend it.

Capt. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand fouls, and twenty thou fand ducats,

Will not debate the queftion of this straw:

55 This is the impofthume of much wealth and peace;
That inward breaks, and fhews no caufe without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, fir.
Capt. God be wi'ye, fir. [Exit Captain.
Rof. Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little
before.
[Exeunt Rof. and the reft.

Ham. My mother:-Father and mother is man 60 and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and, fo,l

Dr. Johnson fuppofes it fhould be read, The bark is ready, and the wind at helm.

an expreffion taken from the gaming-table.

3 U 2

2 To fet, is

How

How all occafions do inform against me,
And fpur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to fleep, and feed? a beast, no more.

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield
them,
[thought,
Indeed would make one think, there might be

Sure, he, that made us with such large discourse 1, 5 Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily 5,
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reafon

To fuft in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or fome 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;

Queen. 'Twere good, the were spoken with;
for fhe may ftrew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds:
Let her come in.

[Exit Horatio.
10 To my fick foul, as fin's true nature is,
Each toy feems prologue to fome great amifs:
So full of artlefs jealousy is guilt,

Sith I have caufe, and will, and strength, and means 15
To do't. Examples, grofs as earth, exhort me:
Witness, this army, of fuch mafs, and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whofe fpirit, with divine ambition puft,
Makes mouths at the invisible event;
Expofing what is mortal, and unfure,

To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-fhell. Rightly, to be great
Is not to ftir without great argument;
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,

When honour's at the ftake. How ftand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all fleep? while, to my shame, I fee
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,
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent 2,
To hide the flain ?-O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

It fpills itself, in fearing to be fpilt.
Re-enter Horatio, with Ophelia.

Oph. Where is the beauteous majefty of Denmark!
Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

Oph. How should I your true love know

From another one?

By bis cuckle bat, and staff,

And by bis fandal fhoun6.

[Singing.

Queen. Alas, fweet lady, what imports this fong?

Opb. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

25]

O, ho!

[Exit.

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At bis bead a grafs-green turf,

At bis heels a ftone.

Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia,

Opb. Pray you, mark.

White bis fhroud as the mountain fww.
Enter King.

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.
Oph. Larded all with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love fhowers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

Oph. Well, God 'ield 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 40 at your table!

1451

There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her
Spurns enviously at ftraws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half fense: her speech is nothing, 50
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move
The hearers to collection 3; they aim at it,

4 To aim is to guess.

i.e. fuch latitude of comprehenfion, fuch power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future. 2 Continent, in our author, means that which comprehends or encloses. 3 i. e. to deduce confequences from fuch premifes. 5 i. e. Though her meaning cannot be certainly collected, yet there is enough to put a mischievous interpretation to it. 6 This is the defcription of a pilgrim. While this kind of devotion was in favour, love intrigues were carried on under that mask. Hence the old ballads and novels made pilgrimages the fubjects of their plots. The cockle-fhell hat was one of the effential badges of this vocation; for the chief places of devotion being beyond fea, or on the coafts, the pilgrims were accustomed to put cockle-fhells upon their hats, to denote the intention or performance of their devotion. 7 This alludes to a legendary ftory, where our Saviour being refused bread by the daughter of a baker, is described as punishing her by turning her into an owl. 8 To don, is to do on, to put on; as doff is to de off, put off. 9 To dup, is to do up :

to lift the latch.

Opb.

Opb. Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an end They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be king!

on't.

By Gis, and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for fhame!

Young men will do't, if they come to’t;
By cock, they are to blame.
Quoth fhe, before you tumbled me,

You promis'd me to wed: He anfwers,
So would I ba' done, by yonder fun,

An thou badft not come to my bed.
King. How long hath the been thus ?

Opb. 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 bro

Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Laertes fhall be king, Laertes king!

Queen. How cheerfully on the falfe trail they cry!
50, this is counter, you false Danish dogs 7.
King. The doors are broke.

Enter Laertes, with others.

[Noife within.

ther shall know of it, and so I thank you for your 15 Give me my father. good counfel. Come, my coach! Good night, la

C dies; good night, fweet ladies: good night, good

[Exit.

night. King. Follow her clofe; give her good watch,

I pray you.

[Exit Horatio. 20
O! this is the poifon of deep grief; it springs
All from her father's death: And now, behold,
O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When forrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions! Firft, her father flain;
Next, your fon gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: The people muddy'd,
Thick and unwhole fome in their thoughts and
whispers,

Queen. Calmly, good Laertes.

Laer. That drop of blood, that's calm, proclaims me baftard;

Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chafte unfmirched brow Of my true mother.

King. What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks fo giant-like ?—

Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our person;
There's fuch divinity doth hedge a king,

That treason can but peep to what it would,
Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes,

Why thou art thus incens'd;-Let him go, Ger

trude ;

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but 30 Speak, man.

greenly 2,

In hugger-mugger 3 to inter him: Poor Ophelia,
Divided from herself, and her fair judgment;
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts.
Laft, and as much containing as all these,
Her brother is in fecret come from France :
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With peftilent speeches of his father's death;
Wherein neceffity 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 4, in many places
Gives me fuperfluous death!

[A noife within.

Queen. Alack! what noife is this?

Enter a Gentleman.

King. Attend. Where are my Switzers? Let

them guard the door :

What is the matter?

Gen. Save yourself, my lord;

The ocean, over-peering of his lift 5,

Eats not the flats with more impetuous hafte,
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,

O'er-bears your officers! The rabble call him, lord;
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every ward",

Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackeft devill Confcience, and grace, to the profoundest pit!

I dare damnation: To this point I stand,-
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
Moft throughly for my father.

King. Who fhall stay you?

Laer. My will, not all the world's:

And, for my means, I'll husband them fo well, They fhall go far with little.

50 Winner and lofer?

Laer. None but his enemies.

King. Will you know them then?

[arms;

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,

55 Repaft them with my blood.

King. Why, now you speak

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.

2 That is, without maturity 4 Such a piece as affaffins ufe, with many fimilitude. 5 The lifts are

This is a corruption of the facred name. See note 4, page 48. of judgment. 3 i. e. in private to inter him. barrels. It is neceffary to apprehend this, to see the juftness of the the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pass. fecurities that nature and law place about the person of a king. trace the trail backwards. • i. e. clean, not defiled. 3 U 3

6 i. e. of every one of thofe 7 Hounds run counter when they

That

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Shakspeare's Dramatic Works: With Explanatory Notes, Volume 2