1

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

Nymph, in thy orisons

Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go.

Ibid.

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

Ibid.

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword.

Ibid.

The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers !

Ibid.

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.

O, woe is me,

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

1 "Who would these fardels" in White.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwigpated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod.

Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.

To hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature.

Ibid.

Ibid.

The very age and body of the time his form and

pressure.

Ibid.

Though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve.

Not to speak it profanely.

Ibid.

Ibid.

I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

Ibid.

No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee
Where thrift may follow fawning.

Ibia.

A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks.

Ibid

They are not a pipe for fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As I do thee. Something too much of this.

And my imaginations are as foul

As Vulcan's stithy.

Here's metal more attractive.

Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables.

Ibid.

There's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year.

Ibid.

For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot.

Ibid.

This is miching mallecho; it means mischief.

Ibid.

Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung.

Ibid.

The story is extant, and writ in choice Italian.

Ibid.

For some must watch, while some must sleep:

Pluck out the heart of my mystery.

Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?

Ibid.

Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?

Pol. By the mass, and 't is like a camel, indeed.
Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel.

Pol. It is backed like a weasel.

Ham. Or like a whale?

Pol. Very like a whale.

Ibid.

They fool me to the top of my bent.

Ibid.

By and by is easily said.

Ibid.

'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out

Contagion to this world.

Ibid

I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

Ibid

O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
A brother's murder.

Sc. 3.

Like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin, And both neglect.

"T is not so above;

There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature.

Ibid.

Ibid.

O limed soul, that, struggling to be free,

Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay!

Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!

Ibid.

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.

Ibid.

About some act

That has no relish of salvation in 't.

Ibid

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Dead, for a ducat, dead!

Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 3.

Sc. 4.

And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?

Ibid.

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

At your age

Ibid.

The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble.

Ibid.

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.

Ibid

A cutpurse of the empire and the rule,

That from a shelf the precious diadem stole,
And put it in his pocket!

Ibid