Hamlet

	Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - ACT I Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - ACT II Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - ACT III Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - ACT IV Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - ACT V
	ACT I. TOP OF PAGE Scene I. Elsinore. A platform before the Castle. [FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO.] BERNARDO: Who's there? FRANCISCO: Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself¹. BERNARDO: Long live the king! FRANCISCO: Bernardo?	¹reveal who you are
(5)	BERNARDO: He. FRANCISCO: You come most carefully upon your hour. BERNARDO: 'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco. FRANCISCO: For this relief much thanks. 'Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart.
(10)	BERNARDO: Have you had quiet guard? FRANCISCO: Not a mouse stirring. BERNARDO: Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals² of my watch, bid them make haste. [Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.]	²replacements
(15)	FRANCISCO: I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there? HORATIO: Friends to this ground. MARCELLUS: And liegemen to the Dane³. FRANCISCO: Give you good-night. MARCELLUS: O, farewell, honest soldier.	³ men loyal to the king
(20)	Who hath reliev'd you? FRANCISCO: Bernardo has my place. Give you good-night. [Exit FRANCISCO.] MARCELLUS: Holla, Bernardo! BERNARDO: Say.
(25)	What, is Horatio there? HORATIO: A piece of him. BERNARDO: Welcome, Horatio, welcome, good Marcellus. MARCELLUS: What, has this thing appear'd again to-night? BERNARDO: I have seen nothing.
(30)	MARCELLUS: Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us; Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night;
(35)	That, if again this apparition come He may approve our eyes and speak to it. HORATIO: Tush, tush, 'twill not appear. BERNARDO: Sit down a while, And let us once again assail your ears,
(40)	That are so fortified against our story, What we have two nights seen. HORATIO: Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. BERNARDO: Last night of all,
(45)	When yond same star that's westward from the pole Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one-- [Enter GHOST, armed.] MARCELLUS: Peace, break thee off; look where it comes again!
(50)	BERNARDO: In the same figure like the king that's dead. MARCELLUS: Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. BERNARDO: Looks it⁴ not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. HORATIO: Most like, it harrows me with fear and wonder. BERNARDO: It would be spoke to.	⁴he (the ghost)
(55)	MARCELLUS: Speak to it, Horatio. HORATIO: What art thou that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee speak!
(60)	MARCELLUS: It is offended. BERNARDO: See, it stalks away! HORATIO: Stay! Speak, speak, I charge thee speak! [Exit GHOST.] MARCELLUS: 'Tis gone, and will not answer. BERNARDO: How now, Horatio! You tremble and look pale.
(65)	Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on't? HORATIO: Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch⁵ Of mine own eyes.	⁵ assurance
(70)	MARCELLUS: Is it not like the King? HORATIO: As thou art to thyself. Such was the very armor he had on When he the ambitious Norway⁶ combated. So frown'd he once when, in an angry parle,	⁶ King of Norway
(75)	He smote the sledded Polacks⁷ on the ice. 'Tis strange. MARCELLUS: Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. HORATIO: In what particular thought to work I know not,	⁷ soldiers of Poland
(80)	But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state. MARCELLUS: Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils⁸ the subject of the land,	⁸ labors
(85)	And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart for implements of war⁹, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week, What might be toward, that this sweaty haste	⁹ seeking weapons to buy from other nations
(90)	Doth make the night joint-laborer with the day: Who is't that can inform me? HORATIO: That can I, At least the whisper goes so: our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
(95)	Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Dar'd 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
(100)	Well ratified by law and heraldry, Did forfeit (with his life) all those his lands, Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror; Against the which, a moiety¹⁰ competent Was gaged¹¹ by our king, which had return'd	¹⁰ share ¹¹ offered
(105)	To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher; as by the same comart¹², And carriage¹³ of the article design'd, His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full,	¹² bargain, deal ¹³ intent
(110)	Hath in the skirts¹⁴ 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,	¹⁴ areas circling Norway
(115)	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
(120)	Of this post-haste and romage in the land. BERNARDO: I think it be no other but e'en so: Well may it sort, that this portentous figure¹⁵ Comes armed through our watch so like the king That was and is the question of these wars.	¹⁵an alarming vision that brings a warning
(125)	HORATIO: A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.
(130)	As stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star¹⁶ Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands¹⁷, Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse: And even the like precurse of fear'd events,	¹⁶ moon ¹⁷ the seas are influenced by the moon
(135)	As harbingers¹⁸ preceding still the fates, And prologue to the omen coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climatures¹⁹ and countrymen. [Re-enter GHOST.] But, soft, behold! lo where it comes again! [The GHOST spreads its arms.]	¹⁸messengers, early signs ¹⁹territories
(140)	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,
(145)	Speak to me. If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Which happily foreknowing may avoid, O speak! Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
(150)	Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, your spirits oft walk in death, Speak of it:--stay, and speak! [The cock crows.] Stop it, Marcellus! MARCELLUS: Shall I strike at it with my partisan²⁰? HORATIO: Do, if it will not stand.	²⁰ spear
(155)	BERNARDO: 'Tis here! HORATIO: 'Tis here! MARCELLUS: 'Tis gone! [Exit GHOST.] We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence,
(160)	For it is as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. BERNARDO: It was about to speak, when the cock crew. HORATIO: And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard
(165)	The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Th'extravagant²¹ and erring²² spirit hies²³	²¹ restless ghost ²² wandering around the castle grounds ²³ hurries
(170)	To his confine; and of the truth herein This present object made probation²⁴. MARCELLUS: It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say that ever 'gainst²⁵ that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,	²⁴proof ²⁵prior to
(175)	The bird of dawning singeth all night long, And then they say no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm. So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
(180)	HORATIO: So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But look, the morn, in russet mantle²⁶ clad Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill. Break we our watch up, and by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night	²⁶ reddish cloak
(185)	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: Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know
(190)	Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt.] The opening scene establishes both the place and mood of the play. We learn of actions and situations that occurred before the play begins--the recent death of King Hamlet, the potential for war, and the appearance of the King's ghost. Superstition held that restless spirits were an omen of wrong-doing. Together these conditions foreshadow trouble in the Danish kingdom. Scene II. Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle. [Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTEMAND, CORNELIUS, LORDS, and ATTENDANT.] KING: Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe,
(195)	Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, Th' imperial jointress²⁷ to this warlike state,	²⁷co-ruler
(200)	Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy, With an auspicious and a dropping²⁸ eye, With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole, Taken to wife; nor have we herein barr'd	²⁸ with eyes shining from happiness and sorrow at once
(205)	Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone With this affair along. For all, our thanks. Now follows that you know, young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking by our late dear brother's death
(210)	Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Co-leagued with this dream of his advantage, He hath not fail'd to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bands²⁹ of law,	²⁹obligations
(215)	To our most valiant brother. So much for him. Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting, Thus much the business is: we have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras-- Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
(220)	Of this his nephew's purpose-- to suppress His further gait³⁰ herein, in that the levies, The lists, and full proportions are all made Out of his subject³¹; and we here dispatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand,	³⁰movement³¹Fortinbras has recruited troops from the old King of Norway's men
(225)	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 dilated³² articles allow. Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty.	³² specific
(230)	CORNELIUS and VOLTEMAND: In that and all things will we show our duty. KING: We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell. [Exeunt VOLTEMAND and CORNELIUS.] And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? You told us of some suit; what is't, Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane
(235)	And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
(240)	What wouldst thou have, Laertes? LAERTES: My dread lord, Your leave and favor to return to France, From whence though willingly I came to Denmark To show my duty in your coronation;
(245)	Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France, And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon³³. KING: Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius? POLONIUS: H'ath³⁴, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave	³³ permission to leave ³⁴contraction for "he hath" (he has)
(250)	By laborsome petition, and at last Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent. I do beseech you, give him leave to go. KING: Take thy fair hour, Laertes, time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will!
(255)	But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son-- HAMLET: [Aside.] A little more than kin, and less than kind³⁵! KING: How is it that the clouds still hang on you? HAMLET: Not so, my lord, I am too much in the sun. QUEEN: Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,	³⁵ More than just a nephew now that you are also my stepfather, but you are not a father in my opinion.
(260)	And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know'st 'tis common, all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity.
(265)	HAMLET: Ay, madam, it is common. QUEEN: If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee? HAMLET: Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not "seems." 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
(270)	Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected havior of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
(275)	That can denote me truly. These indeed seem; For they are actions that a man might play. But I have that within which passeth show. These but the trappings and the suits of woe. KING: 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
(280)	To give these mourning duties to your father. But you must know your father lost a father. That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound In filial obligation for some term To do obsequious sorrow. But to persevere
(285)	In obstinate condolement³⁶ is a course Of impious stubbornness, 'tis unmanly grief, It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschool'd:	³⁶ sorrow
(290)	For what we know must be, and is as common As any the most vulgar thing to sense³⁷, Why should we in our peevish opposition Take it to heart? Fie, 'tis a fault to³⁸ heaven, A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,	³⁷ the most ordinary thing ³⁸ a sin against
(295)	To reason most absurd, whose common theme Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried, From the first corse till he that died to-day, "This must be so." We pray you throw to earth This unprevailing woe, and think of us
(300)	As of a father, for let the world take note You are the most immediate to our throne, And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son Do I impart toward you. For your intent
(305)	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.
(310)	QUEEN: Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet, I pray thee stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. HAMLET: I shall in all my best obey you, madam. KING: Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply. Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come.
(315)	This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart, in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell; And the king's rouse the heaven shall bruit³⁹ again,	³⁹announce forcefully
(320)	Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. [Exeunt all but HAMLET.] HAMLET: O that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon⁴⁰ 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, O God,	⁴⁰religious law
(325)	How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses⁴¹ of this world! Fie on't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this!	⁴¹practices, reasons for existing
(330)	But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two. So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion⁴² to a satyr; so loving to my mother That he might not beteem⁴³ the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth,	⁴²the sun-god ⁴³permit
(335)	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 ere⁴⁴ those shoes were old	⁴⁴ contraction for before
(340)	With which she followed my poor father's body, Like Niobe⁴⁵, all tears-- why she, even she-- O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason⁴⁶, Would have mourn'd longer-- married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father	⁴⁵ From the Greek myths, Niobe symbolizes eternal weeping. She is said to have cried endlessly after Apollo and Artemis killed her fourteen children. ⁴⁶ even the lowest animal (who cannot reason, as man does) would have cared more
(345)	Than I to Hercules. Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled⁴⁷ eyes, She married-- O most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets,	⁴⁷bloodshot
(350)	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: Hail to your lordship! HAMLET: I am glad to see you well. Horatio-- or I do forget myself.
(355)	HORATIO: The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. HAMLET: Sir, my good friend-- I'll change that name with you. And what make you from⁴⁸ Wittenberg, Horatio? Marcellus. MARCELLUS: My good lord.	⁴⁸what brings you here from Wittenberg
(360)	HAMLET: I am very glad to see you. [To BERNARDO] Good even, sir.-- But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? HORATIO: A truant disposition, good my lord. HAMLET: I would not hear your enemy say so. Nor shall you do my ear that violence
(365)	To make it truster of your own report Against yourself. I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore? We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart. HORATIO: My lord, I came to see your father's funeral.
(370)	HAMLET: I prithee do not mock me, fellow student, I think it was to see my mother's wedding. HORATIO: Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. HAMLET: Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral bak'd-meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
(375)	Would I had met my dearest⁴⁹ foe in heaven Or⁵⁰ ever I had seen that day, Horatio! My father-- methinks I see my father. HORATIO: Where, my lord? HAMLET: In my mind's eye, Horatio.	⁴⁹most detested⁵⁰ before
(380)	HORATIO: I saw him once; he was a goodly king. HAMLET: He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again. HORATIO: My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. HAMLET: Saw who?
(385)	HORATIO: My lord, the king your father. HAMLET: The king my father! HORATIO: Season your admiration for awhile With an attent ear, till I may deliver, Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
(390)	This marvel to you. HAMLET: For God's love let me hear! HORATIO: Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, In the dead waste and middle of the night,
(395)	Been thus encount'red: a figure like your father, Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe⁵¹, Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them; thrice he walk'd By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,	⁵¹head to toe
(400)	Within his truncheon's⁵² length, whilst they, distill'd Almost to jelly with the act of fear, Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me In dreadful secrecy impart they did, And I with them the third night kept the watch,	⁵²short club or stick carried as a symbol of authority
(405)	Where, as they had delivered, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes. I knew your father, These hands are not more like. HAMLET: But where was this?
(410)	MARCELLUS: My lord, upon the platform where we watch. HAMLET: Did you not speak to it? HORATIO: My lord, I did, But answer made it none. Yet once methought It lifted up it head, and did address
(415)	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: 'Tis very strange.
(420)	HORATIO: As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true. And we did think it writ down in our duty To let you know of it. HAMLET: Indeed, indeed, sirs. But this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night?
(425)	MARCELLUS and BERNARDO: We do, my lord. HAMLET: Arm'd, say you? MARCELLUS and BERNARDO: Arm'd, my lord. HAMLET: From top to toe? MARCELLUS and BERNARDO: My lord, from head to foot.
(430)	HAMLET: Then saw you not his face. HORATIO: O yes, my lord, he wore his beaver⁵³ up. HAMLET: What, look'd he frowningly? HORATIO: A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. HAMLET: Pale, or red?	⁵³face cover on a helmet
(435)	HORATIO: Nay, very pale. HAMLET: And fix'd his eyes upon you? HORATIO: Most constantly. HAMLET: I would I had been there. HORATIO: It would have much amaz'd you.
(440)	HAMLET: Very like, very like. Stay'd it long? HORATIO: While one with moderate haste might tell a hundreth⁵⁴. MARCELLUS and BERNARDO: Longer, longer. HORATIO: Not when I saw't. HAMLET: His beard was grizzled⁵⁵,no?	⁵⁴ long enough to count to a hundred⁵⁵partly grey
(445)	HORATIO: It was, as I have seen it in his life, A sable silver'd. HAMLET: I will watch to-night; Perchance 'twill walk again. HORATIO: I warr'nt it will.
(450)	HAMLET: If it assume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it though hell itself should gape And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Let it be tenable⁵⁶ in your silence still,	⁵⁶ kept
(455)	And whatsomever 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.
(460)	All: Our duty to your honour. HAMLET: Your loves, as mine to you; farewell. [Exeunt all but HAMLET.] My father's spirit in arms! All is not well, I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. [Exit.] The tension between Hamlet and his uncle/stepfather, Claudius, mounts in this scene and provides a glimpse of the thoughtful but uncertain nature that will plague Hamlet throughout the play. He questions the truth of all that he had previously believed in--his mother's deep love for his father, his rightful place on the throne, and the value of life. This tendency toward introspection or prolonged thinking becomes a recurring motif and theme of the play: can thinking too much delay necessary action and thereby cause greater harm? Partnering with this issue is a second theme: things are not always as they seem. Could Queen Gertrude have so quickly married her former brother in law if her professed devotion to her husband were true? Is Claudius's avowed concern for Hamlet's sorrow over his father's death real or just a front for others to see?
(465)	Scene III. A room in Polonius's house. [Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.] LAERTES: My necessaries are embark'd. Farewell. And, sister, as the winds give benefit And convey is assistant⁵⁷, do not sleep, But let me hear from you. OPHELIA: Do you doubt that?	⁵⁷ ship is waiting
(470)	LAERTES: For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor, Hold it a fashion⁵⁸, and a toy in blood⁵⁹, A violet in the youth of primy⁶⁰ nature, Forward⁶¹, not permanent, sweet, not lasting, The perfume and suppliance⁶²of a minute--	⁵⁸ consider it just typical behavior for youth⁵⁹a play thing ⁶⁰youthful ⁶¹impulsive ⁶²momentary interest
(475)	No more. OPHELIA: No more but so? LAERTES: Think it no more: For nature crescent⁶³ does not grow alone In thews⁶⁴ and bulk, but as this temple waxes,	⁶³building ⁶⁴contraction for sinews
(480)	The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal⁶⁵. Perhaps he loves you now. And now no soil nor cautel⁶⁶ doth besmirch The virtue of his will, but you must fear, His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own,	⁶⁵as one grows, so will the mind and spirit. ⁶⁶base intention
(485)	For he himself is subject to his birth: He may not, as unvalu'd persons do, Carve for himself⁶⁷; for on his choice depends The safety and health of this whole state, And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd	⁶⁷give in to his own desires
(490)	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 place⁶⁸ May give his saying deed, which is no further	⁶⁸conduct himself according to his status
(495)	Than the main⁶⁹ voice of Denmark goes withal⁷⁰. Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs, Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmast'red importunity.	⁶⁹voice of the people ⁷⁰agrees
(500)	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.
(505)	Virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes. The canker⁷¹galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons⁷² be disclos'd⁷³, And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments⁷⁴ are most imminent.	⁷¹worm that infests early blooming flowers ⁷² blossoms ⁷³unfold ⁷⁴destruction from such actions is frequent
(510)	Be wary then; best safety lies in fear: Youth to⁷⁵ itself rebels, though none else near. OPHELIA: I shall the effect of this good lesson keep As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,	⁷⁵ will rebel against itself
(515)	Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whilst, like a puff'd⁷⁶and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede. LAERTES: O, fear me not. [Enter POLONIUS.]	⁷⁶swollen with pride
(520)	I stay too long-- but here my father comes. A double blessing is a double grace; Occasion smiles upon a second leave. POLONIUS: Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
(525)	And you are stay'd for. There [Laying his hand on LAERTES'S head.]--my blessing with thee! And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
(530)	Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel, But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
(535)	Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice, Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy, rich, not gaudy,
(540)	For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
(545)	And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry⁷⁷. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell, my blessing season⁷⁸ this in thee!	⁷⁷thrift⁷⁸let this advice prove beneficial
(550)	LAERTES: Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. POLONIUS: The time invests you; go, your servants tend. LAERTES: Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said to you. OPHELIA: 'Tis in my memory lock'd,
(555)	And you yourself shall keep the key of it. LAERTES: Farewell. [Exit LAERTES.] POLONIUS: What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? OPHELIA: So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet. POLONIUS: Marry⁷⁹, well bethought.	⁷⁹indeed
(560)	'Tis told me he hath very oft of late Given private time to you, and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and bounteous. If it be so-- as so 'tis put on me, And that in way of caution-- I must tell you
(565)	You do not understand yourself so clearly As it behooves my daughter and your honor. What is between you? Give me up the truth. OPHELIA: He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders⁸⁰ Of his affection to me.	⁸⁰ propositions
(570)	POLONIUS: Affection, puh! You speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? OPHELIA: I do not know, my lord, what I should think. POLONIUS: Marry, I will teach you: think yourself a baby
(575)	That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Wringing it thus) you'll tender me a fool. OPHELIA: My lord, he hath importun'd me with love
(580)	In honorable fashion. POLONIUS: Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to. OPHELIA: And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, With almost all the holy vows of heaven. POLONIUS: Ay, springes⁸¹ to catch woodcocks⁸². I do know,	⁸¹traps ⁸² easily snared birds
(585)	When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both Even in their promise, as it is a-making, You must not take for fire. From this time
(590)	Be something scanter of your maiden presence, Set your entreatments at a higher rate Than a command to parley⁸³. For Lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him, that he is young, And with a larger tether may he walk	⁸³ Hold yourself apart; do not make yourself available at every request
(595)	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,
(600)	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.
(605)	OPHELIA: I shall obey, my lord. [Exeunt.] Polonius and his children, Laertes and Ophelia, are pivotal characters in the ensuing action of the play. The differences in advice given to Ophelia by her brother and her father, and her response to them, reveal the family dynamic and lay the foundation for the characters' reactions in later Acts. Both men caution Ophelia to be careful in her relationship with Hamlet, who has indicated affection for her. Laertes loves his sister and does not want to see her hurt. He warns that it is typical of young men to pledge love just to win a girl over, but he also believes that it is possible that Hamlet may be sincere in his attentions. However, Laertes reminds Ophelia that Hamlet's responsibilities as a royal could keep him from following his heart. Polonius is concerned with his own reputation and worries that Ophelia, being beneath Hamlet's rank, will embarrass him by falling for what are dishonorable intentions on Hamlet's part. Ophelia says she will obey both her father and brother; but in the case of Laertes, she teases her brother about leading on young ladies himself. To Polonius, she sets aside her personal feelings and agrees to turn away Hamlet's gestures and gifts. As a result of his rambling, Polonius's lecture to Laertes in this scene at first appears foolish, but the old man does impart serious advice and the various elements of his speech have come down through the ages to be oft-quoted truths. Scene IV. The castle guard platform. [Enter HAMLET, HORATIO, and MARCELLUS.] HAMLET: The air bites shrowdly⁸⁴, it is very cold. HORATIO: It is a nipping and an eager air. HAMLET: What hour now? HORATIO: I think it lacks of twelve.	⁸⁴bitterly
(610)	MARCELLUS: No, it is struck. HORATIO: Indeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. [A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance⁸⁵ shot off within.] What does this mean, my lord? HAMLET: The King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse,	⁸⁵guns or cannons
(615)	Keeps wassail,⁸⁶ and the swaggering up-spring⁸⁷ reels; And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish⁸⁸ down, The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge. HORATIO: Is it a custom?	⁸⁶drinking ⁸⁷dancing (drunken partying) ⁸⁸wine from the Rhine region
(620)	HAMLET: Ay, marry, is't, But to my mind, though I am native here And to the manner born, it is a custom More honour'd in the breach than the observance⁸⁹. This heavy-headed revel east and west	⁸⁹ a less than honorable tradition, better not to follow it
(625)	Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations: They call us drunkards, and with swinish phrase Soil our addition⁹⁰; and indeed it takes From our achievements, though perform'd at height⁹¹, The pith and marrow of our attribute.	⁹⁰tarnish our position ⁹¹nobly
(630)	So, oft it chances in particular men That, for some vicious mole of nature in them, As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty (Since nature cannot choose his origin) By their o'ergrowth of some complexion⁹²,	⁹²During this period, it was believed that the four body fluids (the humors) controlled one's disposition. When one humor was out of balance, the behavior would change.
(635)	Oft breaking down the pales⁹³and forts of reason, Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens The form of plausive⁹⁴ manners-- that these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature's livery, or fortune's star⁹⁵,	⁹³stakes of a fence⁹⁴ agreeable⁹⁵whether they came by it from birth or developed it as a result of situations in life
(640)	His virtues else, be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault: the dram⁹⁶ of ev'l Doth all the noble substance often doubt	⁹⁶smallest bit
(645)	To his own scandal. [Enter GHOST.] HORATIO: Look, my lord, it comes! HAMLET: Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
(650)	Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'st 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
(655)	Why thy canoniz'd⁹⁷bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements⁹⁸; why the sepulchre, Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd, Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws To cast thee up again. What may this mean,	⁹⁷properly buried with the blessings of the Church ⁹⁸burial clothing
(660)	That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel⁹⁹, Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous, and we fools of nature So horridly to shake our disposition¹⁰⁰ With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?	⁹⁹wearing battle armor ¹⁰⁰minds
(665)	Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do? [GHOST beckons HAMLET.] HORATIO: It beckons you to go away with it, As if it some impartment¹⁰¹ did desire To you alone. MARCELLUS: Look with what courteous action	¹⁰¹message to pass on
(670)	It waves you to a more removed ground, But do not go with it. HORATIO: No, by no means. HAMLET: It will not speak, then I will follow it. HORATIO: Do not, my lord.
(675)	HAMLET: Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin's fee; And for my soul, what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again, I'll follow it.
(680)	HORATIO: What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,
(685)	And draw you into madness? Think of it. The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain That looks so many fadoms¹⁰² to the sea And hears it roar beneath.	¹⁰² great depths
(690)	HAMLET: It waves me still.-- Go on; I'll follow thee. MARCELLUS: You shall not go, my lord. HAMLET: Hold off your hands. HORATIO: Be rul'd, you shall not go.
(695)	HAMLET: My fate cries out, And makes each petty artere¹⁰³ in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion's¹⁰⁴nerve¹⁰⁵. [GHOST beckons.] Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen. By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets¹⁰⁶ me!	¹⁰³artery ¹⁰⁴one of his twelve tasks given to Hercules; to slay the lion ¹⁰⁵muscle (also bravery) ¹⁰⁶hinders
(700)	I say, away!--Go on; I'll follow thee. [Exeunt GHOST and HAMLET.] HORATIO: He waxes desperate with imagination. MARCELLUS: Let's follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him. HORATIO: Have after. To what issue will this come? MARCELLUS: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
(705)	HORATIO: Heaven will direct it. MARCELLUS: Nay, let's follow him. [Exeunt ALL.] Hamlet's encounter with the ghost brings about a chance for him to speak once more with his father, but consistent with his nature, Hamlet worries that perhaps the ghost too is not what it seems and may be the embodiment of evil. Scene V. A more remote part of the Castle. [Enter GHOST and HAMLET.] HAMLET: Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go no further. GHOST: Mark me. HAMLET: I will.
(710)	GHOST: My hour is almost come When I to sulph'uous and tormenting flames Must render up myself. HAMLET: Alas, poor ghost! GHOST: Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
(715)	To what I shall unfold. HAMLET: Speak, I am bound to hear. GHOST: So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. HAMLET: What? GHOST: I am thy father's spirit,
(720)	Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin'd to fast in fires, Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
(725)	I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood; Make thy two eyes like stars start from their spheres¹⁰⁷; Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end,	¹⁰⁷ sockets
(730)	Like quills upon the fretful porpentine¹⁰⁸: But this eternal blazon¹⁰⁹must not be To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love-- HAMLET: O God!	¹⁰⁸porcupine ¹⁰⁹The ghost is forbidden to tell what he has seen in the afterlife.
(735)	GHOST: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. HAMLET: Murder! GHOST: Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. HAMLET: Haste me to know't, that I with wings as swift
(740)	As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge. GHOST: I find thee apt, And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That rots itself in ease on Lethe¹¹⁰ wharf,	¹¹⁰ river of forgetfulness in mythology; even this would not distract Hamlet from being stunned by the tale the ghost is telling him
(745)	Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me, so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process¹¹¹ of my death Rankly abus'd¹¹²; but know, thou noble youth,	¹¹¹ contrived story ¹¹²deceived
(750)	The serpent that did sting thy father's life Now wears his crown. HAMLET: O my prophetic soul! My uncle? GHOST: Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
(755)	With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts-- O wicked wit and gifts that have the power So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming virtuous queen. O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there
(760)	From me, whose love was of that dignity That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage; and to decline Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine!
(765)	But virtue, as it never will be moved, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven; So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd, Will sate itself in a celestial bed And prey on garbage.
(770)	But soft, methinks I scent the morning air, Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard, My custom always of the afternoon, Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebona¹¹³ in a vial,	¹¹³a reference probably to henbane, a poisonous Eurasian plant.
(775)	And in the porches of my ears did pour The leprous distillment, 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;	¹¹⁴become tainted
(780)	And with a sudden vigor it doth posset¹¹⁴ And curd, like eager¹¹⁵droppings into milk, The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine, And a most instant tetter¹¹⁶bark'd¹¹⁷ about, Most lazar-like¹¹⁸, with vile and loathsome crust	¹¹⁵spoiled ¹¹⁶festering sore ¹¹⁷ formed a hard covering, like bark on a tree ¹¹⁸ like the sores of a leper
(785)	All my smooth body. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand, Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd¹¹⁹, Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, Unhous'led¹²⁰,disappointed, unanel'd¹²¹;	¹¹⁹robbed ¹²⁰before the last rites of the Church could be Eucharist ¹²¹ unanointed, without extreme unction
(790)	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
(795)	A couch for luxury and damned incest. But, howsomever thou pursues 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
(800)	To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once! The glowworm shows the matin¹²² to be near, And 'gins¹²³to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me. [Exit GHOST.] HAMLET: O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?	¹²² morning ¹²³begins
(805)	And shall I couple hell? O, fie, hold, hold my heart, And you, my sinows¹²⁴, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee! Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat In this distracted globe¹²⁵. Remember thee!	¹²⁴sinews ¹²⁵ head
(810)	Yea, from the table¹²⁶ of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond¹²⁷ records, All saws¹²⁸of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there; And thy commandment all alone shall live	¹²⁶ writing tablet ¹²⁷ foolish ¹²⁸wise sayings
(815)	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
(820)	That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain! At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark. [He writes.] So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word: It is "Adieu, adieu! Remember me." I have sworn't.
(825)	HORATIO: [Within.] My lord, my lord! MARCELLUS: [Within.] Lord Hamlet! [Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS.] HORATIO: Heavens secure him! HAMLET: So be it! MARCELLUS: Illo, ho, ho, my lord!
(830)	HAMLET: Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come. MARCELLUS: How is't, my noble lord? HORATIO: What news, my lord? HAMLET: O, wonderful! HORATIO: Good my lord, tell it.
(835)	HAMLET: No, you will reveal it. HORATIO: Not I, my lord, by heaven. MARCELLUS: Nor I, my lord. HAMLET: How say you then, would heart of man once think it?-- But you'll be secret?
(840)	HORATIO and MARCELLUS: Ay, by heaven, my lord. HAMLET: There's never a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave. HORATIO: There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave To tell us this.
(845)	HAMLET: Why, right, you are in the right, And so, without more circumstance¹²⁹ at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands and part, You, as your business and desire shall point you, For every man hath business and desire,	¹²⁹formality
(850)	Such as it is; and for my own poor part, I will go pray. HORATIO: These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. HAMLET: I'm sorry they offend you, heartily; Yes, faith, heartily.
(855)	HORATIO: There's no offence, my lord. HAMLET: Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, And much offence too. Touching this vision here, It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you. For your desire to know what is between us,
(860)	O'ermaster't as you may. And now, good friends, As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, Give me one poor request. HORATIO: What is't¹³⁰, my lord, we will. HAMLET: Never make known what you have seen to-night.	¹³⁰whatever it is
(865)	HORATIO and MARCELLUS: My lord, we will not. HAMLET: Nay, but swear't. HORATIO: In faith, My lord, not I. MARCELLUS: Nor I, my lord, in faith.
(870)	HAMLET: Upon my sword. MARCELLUS: We have sworn, my lord, already. HAMLET: Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. GHOST: [Beneath.] Swear. HAMLET: Ha, ha boy, say'st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny¹³¹?	¹³¹one to be trusted
(875)	Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage, Consent to swear. HORATIO: Propose the oath, my lord. HAMLET: Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword.
(880)	GHOST: [Beneath.] Swear. HAMLET: Hic et ubique¹³²? Then we'll shift our ground. Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword. Swear by my sword.	¹³² Latin for here and everywhere
(885)	Never to speak of this that you have heard. GHOST: [Beneath.] Swear by his sword. HAMLET: Well said, old mole, canst work i' the earth so fast? A worthy pioner¹³³! Once more remove, good friends. HORATIO: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!	¹³³digger, one who explores new places
(890)	HAMLET: 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,
(895)	How strange or odd some'er I bear myself-- As I, perchance, hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on¹³⁴-- That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, With arms encumber'd thus, or this head-shake,	¹³⁴behave as though crazy
(900)	Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, As "Well, well, we know" or "We could, and if we would"; Or "If we list¹³⁵ to speak"; or "There be, and if they might"; Or such ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me-- this do swear,	¹³⁵wanted to , were inclined
(905)	So grace and mercy at your most need help you. Swear. GHOST: [Beneath.] Swear. [They swear.] HAMLET: Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So, gentlemen, With all my love I do commend me to you,
(910)	And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do to express his love and friending to you, God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together, And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. The time is out of joint-- O cursed spite,
(915)	That ever I was born to set it right!-- Nay, come, let's go together. [Exeunt.] Having heard the story related by the ghost, Hamlet swears to avenge his father's murder, and another theme of the play develops: what is the cost of revenge? Hamlet warns Horatio that he should not be surprised if Hamlet begins to behave strangely. It will be a disguise to throw off suspicion as he works to find the truth in what has taken place. The rising action of the following Acts will offer the reader opportunities to determine what the themes might be. Act II. TOP OF PAGE Scene I. A room in Polonius's house. [Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO.] POLONIUS: Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo. REYNALDO: I will, my lord. POLONIUS: You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
(920)	Before you visit him, to make inquiry Of his behavior. REYNALDO: My lord, I did intend it. POLONIUS: Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir, Inquire me first what Danskers¹³⁶ are in Paris,	¹³⁶Danes
(925)	And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, What company, at what expense; and finding By this encompassment and drift of question That they do know my son, come you more nearer Than your particular demands will touch it.
(930)	Take you as 'twere some distant knowledge of him, As thus, "I know his father and his friends, And in part him." Do you mark this, Reynaldo? REYNALDO: Ay, very well, my lord. POLONIUS: "And in part him-- but," you may say, "not well."
(935)	But if't be he I mean, he's very wild, Addicted so and so," and there put on him What forgeries you please: marry, none so rank As may dishonor him, take heed of that, But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
(940)	As are companions noted and most known To youth and liberty. REYNALDO: As gaming, my lord. POLONIUS: Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling, Drabbing¹³⁷-- you may go so far.	¹³⁷carrying on with prostitutes; also corrupting
(945)	REYNALDO: My lord, that would dishonour him. POLONIUS: Faith, no, as you may season¹³⁸ it in the charge. You must not put another scandal on him, That he is open to incontinency-- That's not my meaning. But breathe his faults so quaintly	¹³⁸make moderate
(950)	That they may seem the taints of liberty, The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, A savageness in unreclaimed¹³⁹ blood, Of general assault¹⁴⁰. REYNALDO: But, my good lord--	¹³⁹passionate, wild ¹⁴⁰found often in young men
(955)	POLONIUS: Wherefore should you do this? REYNALDO: Ay, my lord, I would know that. POLONIUS: Marry, sir, here's my drift, And I believe it is a fetch of wit:
(960)	You laying these slight sullies¹⁴¹ on my so, As 'twere a thing soil'd i' the working, Mark you, Your party in converse, him you would sound, Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes	¹⁴¹stains, criticisms
(965)	The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur'd He closes with you in this consequence; "Good sir," or so, or "friend," or "gentleman," According to the phrase or the addition Of man and country.
(970)	REYNALDO: Very good, my lord. POLONIUS: And then, sir, does he this-- he does-- What was I about to say? By the mass, I was about to say something. Where did I leave? REYNALDO: At "closes in the consequence."
(975)	POLONIUS: At "closes in the consequence," ay, marry. He closes thus: "I know the gentleman. I saw him yesterday, or t'other day, Or then, or then; with such or such; and as you say, There was he gaming, there o'ertook 's rouse¹⁴²,	¹⁴²became drunk
(980)	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 take this carp of truth,
(985)	And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses¹⁴³, and with assays of bias¹⁴⁴, By indirections find directions out; So by my former lecture and advice Shall you my son. You have me¹⁴⁵,have you not?	¹⁴³circling the topic ¹⁴⁴indirect attempts ¹⁴⁵Do you get my point?
(990)	REYNALDO: My lord, I have. POLONIUS: God buy ye¹⁴⁶, fare ye well. REYNALDO: Good my lord. POLONIUS: Observe his inclination in yourself. REYNALDO: I shall, my lord.	¹⁴⁶good-bye, a contraction of God be with you
(995)	POLONIUS: And let him ply¹⁴⁷ his music. REYNALDO: Well, my lord. POLONIUS: Farewell! [Exit REYNALDO.] [Enter OPHELIA.] How now, Ophelia, what's the matter? OPHELIA: O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!	¹⁴⁷ see that he goes on with
(1000)	POLONIUS: With what, i' the name of God? OPHELIA: My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber¹⁴⁸, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd¹⁴⁹; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd¹⁵⁰, Ungart'red, and down-gyved¹⁵¹ to his ankle,	¹⁴⁸personal quarters ¹⁴⁹vest unbuttoned or untied ¹⁵⁰soiled, dirty ¹⁵¹drooping, sagging
(1005)	Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, And with a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell To speak of horrors-- he comes before me. POLONIUS: Mad for thy love?
(1010)	OPHELIA: My lord, I do not know; But truly I do fear it. POLONIUS: What said he? OPHELIA: He took me by the wrist, and held me hard, Then goes he to the length of all his arm,
(1015)	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,
(1020)	He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound As it did seem to shatter all his bulk¹⁵² 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,	¹⁵²form
(1025)	For out a' doors he went without their helps, And to the last bended their light on me. POLONIUS: Come, go with me. I will go seek the King. This is the very ecstasy¹⁵³ of love, Whose violent property fordoes¹⁵⁴ itself,	¹⁵³lunacy ¹⁵⁴destroys
(1030)	And leads the will to desperate undertakings As oft as any passions under heaven That does afflict our natures. I am sorry-- What, have you given him any hard words of late? OPHELIA: No, my good lord, but, as you did command,
(1035)	I did repel his letters and denied His access to me. POLONIUS: That hath made him mad. I am sorry that with better heed and judgment I had not coted¹⁵⁵ him: I fear'd he did but trifle,	¹⁵⁵watched
(1040)	And meant to wrack thee; but beshrew my jealousy! By heaven it is as proper to our age¹⁵⁶ To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions As it is common for the younger sort To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King,	¹⁵⁶typical of men of my age
(1045)	This must be known, which, being kept close¹⁵⁷, might move More grief to hide, than hate to utter love. Come. [Exeunt.] The opening scene of Act II reveals Polonius's plan to check up on his son. Despite having given Laertes strong and wise counsel, Polonius is not willing to trust that his advice will be followed. He sends Reynaldo to spy on Laertes by going to those who know him in France and pretending that he has heard of misconduct by Laertes. The goal will be to see if others deny or agree that these stories are true. Hamlet's pretense at being mad begins with an encounter with Ophelia. When she reports this strange behavior to her father, Polonius plans another meeting between his daughter and the prince to reveal Hamlet's seeming madness to the king and queen. He flatters himself that it is Ophelia's rejection that has driven Hamlet insane. Scene II. A room in the Castle. [Flourish. Enter KING and QUEEN, ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, and ATTENDANTS.] KING: Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern! Moreover that we much did long to see you, The need we have to use you did provoke	¹⁵⁷to ourselves
(1050)	Our hasty sending. Something have you heard Of Hamlet's transformation; so I call it, Since nor the exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be, More than his father's death, that thus hath put him
(1055)	So much from the understanding of himself, I cannot dream of. I entreat you both That, being of so young days brought up with him, And since so neighbored to his youth and havior, That you vouchsafe your rest¹⁵⁸ here in our court	¹⁵⁸agree to remain
(1060)	Some little time, so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather, So much as from occasion you may glean, Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus, That, open'd, lies within our remedy.
(1065)	QUEEN: Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you, And sure I am two men there is not living To whom he more adheres. If it will please you To show us so much gentry and good will As to expend your time with us a while
(1070)	For the supply and profit of our hope, Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king's remembrance. ROSENCRANTZ: Both your Majesties Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,
(1075)	Put your dread pleasures more into command Than to entreaty. GUILDENSTERN: But we both obey, And here give up ourselves, in the full bent¹⁵⁹, To lay our service freely at your feet,	¹⁵⁹completely
(1080)	To be commanded. KING: Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. QUEEN: Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz: And I beseech you instantly to visit My too much changed son. Go some of you
(1085)	And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. GUILDENSTERN: Heavens make our presence and our practices Pleasant and helpful to him! QUEEN: Ay, amen! [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, with some ATTENDANTS.]. [Enter POLONIUS.] POLONIUS: Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord,
(1090)	Are joyfully return'd. KING: Thou still hast been the father of good news. POLONIUS: Have I, my lord? I assure you, my good liege¹⁶⁰, I hold my duty as I hold my soul, Both to my God and to my gracious king;	¹⁶⁰my lord
(1095)	And I do think, or else this brain of mine Hunts not the trail of policy so sure As it hath us'd to do, that I have found The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. KING: O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
(1100)	POLONIUS: Give first admittance to the ambassadors; My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. KING: Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. [Exit POLONIUS.] He tells me, my sweet queen, he hath found The head¹⁶¹ and source of all your son's distemper.	¹⁶¹ origin
(1105)	QUEEN: I doubt it is no other but the main,-- His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage. KING: Well, we shall sift him. [Enter POLONIUS, with VOLTEMAND and CORNELIUS, the ambassadors] Welcome, my good friends! Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway?
(1110)	VOLTEMAND: 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
(1115)	It was against your Highness. Whereat griev'd, That so his sickness, age, and impotence Was falsely borne in hand¹⁶², sends out arrests On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys, Receives rebuke from Norway; and in fine¹⁶³,	¹⁶²taken advantage of ¹⁶³as a result
(1120)	Makes vow before his uncle never more To give th' assay¹⁶⁴ of arms against your Majesty. Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, Gives him threescore thousand crowns in annual fee, And his commission to employ those soldiers,	¹⁶⁴attempt
(1125)	So levied, as before, against the Polack, With an entreaty, herein further shown, [Gives a paper.] That it might please you to give quiet pass Through your dominions for this enterprise, On such regards of safety and allowance
(1130)	As therein are set down. KING: It likes us well; And at our more consider'd time we'll read, Answer, and think upon this business. Mean time we thank you for your well-took labor.
(1135)	Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together: Most welcome home! [Exeunt VOLTEMAND and CORNELIUS.] POLONIUS: This business is well ended. My liege, and madam, to expostulate¹⁶⁵ What majesty should be, what duty is,	¹⁶⁵explain
(1140)	Why day is day, night is night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time; Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Your noble son is mad:
(1145)	Mad call I it, for to define true madness, What is't but to be nothing else but mad? But let that go. QUEEN: More matter, with less art. POLONIUS: Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
(1150)	That he is mad, 'tis true, 'tis true 'tis pity, And pity 'tis 'tis true-- a foolish figure¹⁶⁶, But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him then; and now remains That we find out the cause of this effect,	¹⁶⁶ phrase
(1155)	Or rather say, the cause of this defect, For this effect defective comes by cause: Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend¹⁶⁷. I have a daughter-- have while she is mine--	¹⁶⁷think on it
(1160)	Who in her duty and obedience, mark, Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise. [Reads a letter.] "To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia,"-- That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is a vile
(1165)	phrase. But you shall hear. Thus: [Reads.] 'In her excellent white bosom, these, etc.' QUEEN: Came this from Hamlet to her? POLONIUS: Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful. [Reads.] "Doubt thou the stars are fire;
(1170)	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 reckon¹⁶⁸ my groans, but that I love thee best, O most best, believe	¹⁶⁸add up
(1075)	it. Adieu. 'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine¹⁶⁹ is to him, Hamlet." This, in obedience, hath my daughter showed me; And more above, hath his solicitings,	¹⁶⁹body
(1180)	As they fell out by time, by means, and place, All given to mine ear. KING: But how hath she Receiv'd his love? POLONIUS: What do you think of me?
(1185)	KING: As of a man faithful and honorable. POLONIUS: I would fain¹⁷⁰ prove so. But what might you think, When I had seen this hot love on the wing-- As I perceiv'd it (I must tell you that), Before my daughter told me-- what might you,	¹⁷⁰eagerly
(1190)	Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think, If I had play'd the desk or table-book¹⁷¹, Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb; Or look'd upon this love with idle sight, What might you think? No, I went round to work,	¹⁷¹kept it to myself
(1195)	And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: "Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy sphere¹⁷²; This must not be," and then I prescripts gave her, That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.	¹⁷²above you
(1200)	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 watch¹⁷³; thence into a weakness; Thence to a lightness¹⁷⁴; and, by this declension,	¹⁷³wakefullness ¹⁷⁴giddiness
(1205)	Into the madness wherein now he raves, And all we mourn for. KING: Do you think 'tis this? QUEEN: It may be, very like. POLONIUS: Hath there been such a time-- I would fain know that--
(1210)	That I have positively said ''Tis so,' When it prov'd otherwise? KING: Not that I know. POLONIUS: Take this from this, if this be otherwise: [Points to his head and shoulder.] If circumstances lead me, I will find
(1215)	Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre. KING: How may we try it further? POLONIUS: You know sometimes he walks for hours together Here in the lobby.
(1220)	QUEEN: So he does indeed. POLONIUS: At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him. Be you and I behind an arras¹⁷⁵ then; Mark the encounter: if he love her not, And he not from his reason fall'n thereon,	¹⁷⁵drapery
(1225)	Let me be no assistant for a state, But keep a farm and carters. KING: We will try it. [Enter HAMLET, reading.] QUEEN: But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. POLONIUS: Away, I do beseech you, both away.
(1230)	I'll board him presently. [Exeunt KING, QUEEN, and ATTENDANTS.] O, give me leave. How does my good Lord Hamlet? HAMLET: Well, God-a-mercy. POLONIUS: Do you know me, my lord? HAMLET: Excellent well; you're a fishmonger¹⁷⁶.	¹⁷⁶ fish seller, but also whore
(1235)	POLONIUS: Not I, my lord. HAMLET: Then I would you were so honest a man. POLONIUS: Honest, my lord? HAMLET: Ay, sir, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
(1240)	POLONIUS: That's very true, my lord. HAMLET: For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good-kissing carrion¹⁷⁷--Have you a daughter? POLONIUS: I have, my lord. HAMLET: Let her not walk i' the sun: conception¹⁷⁸ is a blessing, but not	¹⁷⁷ flesh good enough for the sun to kiss ¹⁷⁸understanding (with a play on the following line about conceiving a child)
(1245)	as your daughter may conceive:--friend, look to't. POLONIUS: [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. And truly in my youth I suffered much extremity for love, very near this. I'll speak to him again.-- What do you
(1250)	read, my lord? HAMLET: Words, words, words. POLONIUS: What is the matter, my lord? HAMLET: Between who? POLONIUS: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
(1255)	HAMLET: Slanders, sir, for the satirical rogue says here that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams, all which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it
(1260)	not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if, like a crab you could go backward. POLONIUS: [Aside.] Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.-- Will you walk out of the air¹⁷⁹, my lord? HAMLET: Into my grave.	¹⁷⁹ come in from the damp air
(1265)	POLONIUS: Indeed, that is out of the air. [Aside.] How pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter.--My honorable lord, I will take
(1270)	my leave of you. HAMLET: You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will not more willingly part withal-- except my life, except my life, except my life. POLONIUS: Fare you well, my lord.
(1275)	HAMLET: These tedious old fools! [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] POLONIUS: You go to seek the Lord Hamlet, there he is. ROSENCRANTZ: [To POLONIUS.] God save you, sir! [Exit POLONIUS.] GUILDENSTERN: My honored lord! ROSENCRANTZ: My most dear lord!
(1280)	HAMLET: My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do you both? ROSENCRANTZ: As the indifferent children of the earth. GUILDENSTERN: Happy in that we are not over-happy; On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
(1285)	HAMLET: Nor the soles of her shoe? ROSENCRANTZ: Neither, my lord. HAMLET: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favors? GUILDENSTERN: Faith, her privates we.
(1290)	HAMLET: In the secret parts of Fortune? O, most true; she is a strumpet. What's news? ROSENCRANTZ: None, my lord, but the world's grown honest. HAMLET: Then is doomsday near. But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular. What have you, my good friends,
(1295)	deserved at the hands of Fortune, that she sends you to prison hither? GUILDENSTERN: Prison, my lord? HAMLET: Denmark's a prison. ROSENCRANTZ: Then is the world one.
(1300)	HAMLET: A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards¹⁸⁰, and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst. ROSENCRANTZ: We think not so, my lord. HAMLET: Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison.	¹⁸⁰ jail cells
(1305)	ROSENCRANTZ: Why then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your mind. HAMLET: O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. GUILDENSTERN: Which dreams, indeed, are ambition, for the very substance of
(1310)	the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. HAMLET: A dream itself is but a shadow. ROSENCRANTZ: Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that it is but a shadow's shadow. HAMLET: Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch'd
(1315)	heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to the court? for, by my fay¹⁸¹, I cannot reason. ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN: We'll wait upon you. HAMLET: No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most	¹⁸¹faith
(1320)	dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? ROSENCRANTZ: To visit you, my lord, no other occasion. HAMLET: Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks-- but I thank you, and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were
(1325)	you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come-- nay, speak. GUILDENSTERN: What should we say, my lord? HAMLET: Any thing--but to th' purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties¹⁸²	¹⁸²decency
(1330)	have not craft enough to color: I know the good King and Queen have sent for you. ROSENCRANTZ: To what end, my lord? HAMLET: That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the
(1335)	obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were sent for or no. ROSENCRANTZ: [Aside to GUILDENSTERN.] What say you? HAMLET: [Aside.] Nay, then, I have an eye of¹⁸³ you!-- If you love me, hold	¹⁸³ on
(1340)	not off. GUILDENSTERN: My lord, we were sent for. HAMLET: I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no feather. I have of late --but wherefore I know not-- lost all my
(1345)	mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave¹⁸⁴ o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,--why, it appears no thing	¹⁸⁴grand
(1350)	to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors. What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what
(1355)	is this quintessence¹⁸⁵ of dust? Man delights not me-- nor women neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. ROSENCRANTZ: My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. HAMLET: Why did ye laugh then, when I said "Man delights not me"? ROSENCRANTZ: To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten	¹⁸⁵perfect example
(1360)	entertainment¹⁸⁶ the players shall receive from you. We coted¹⁸⁷ them on the way; and hither are they coming to offer you service. HAMLET: He that plays the king shall be welcome-- his Majesty shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and target¹⁸⁸, the lover shall not sigh gratis¹⁸⁹, the humorous man shall	¹⁸⁶ slight response ¹⁸⁷passed ¹⁸⁸ a rapier or sword used by fencers and a shield ¹⁸⁹ for free, without being paid
(1365)	end his part in peace, the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle o' the sere¹⁹⁰; and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt¹⁹¹ for't. What players are they? ROSENCRANTZ: Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the	¹⁹⁰throats are dried ¹⁹¹ falter or be at fault
(1370)	tragedians of the city. HAMLET: How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. ROSENCRANTZ: I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.
(1375)	HAMLET: Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed? ROSENCRANTZ: No, indeed are they not. HAMLET: How comes it? do they grow rusty? ROSENCRANTZ: Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but there is,
(1380)	sir, an aery¹⁹² of children, little eyases¹⁹³, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically¹⁹⁴ clapped for't. These are now the fashion; and so berattle¹⁹⁵ the common stages-- so they call them-- that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-quills and dare scarce come thither.	¹⁹²nest ¹⁹³unfledged hawks ¹⁹⁴ severely ¹⁹⁵satirize
(1385)	HAMLET: What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they escoted¹⁹⁶?Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players (as it is most like, if their means are no better), their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim	¹⁹⁶sponsored, cared for
(1390)	against their own succession¹⁹⁷? ROSENCRANTZ: Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin to tarre¹⁹⁸ them to controversy. There was for a while no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.	¹⁹⁷ future ¹⁹⁸ urge
(1395)	HAMLET: Is't possible? GUILDENSTERN: O, there has been much throwing about of brains. HAMLET: Do the boys carry it away? ROSENCRANTZ: Ay, that they do, my lord-- Hercules and his load too. HAMLET: It is not very strange, for my uncle is King of Denmark, and
(1400)	those that would make mouths at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little. 'Sblood¹⁹⁹, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Flourish of trumpets within.] GUILDENSTERN: There are the players.	¹⁹⁹by God's blood
(1405)	HAMLET: Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply with you in this garb; lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outwards, should more appear like entertainment than yours²⁰⁰. You are welcome, but my uncle-father	²⁰⁰seem to be a friendlier welcome than you were given
(1410)	and aunt-mother are deceived. GUILDENSTERN: In what, my dear lord? HAMLET: I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. [Enter POLONIUS.] POLONIUS: Well be with you, gentlemen!
(1415)	HAMLET: [Aside to them.] Hark you, Guildenstern-- and you too-- at each ear a hearer-- that great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts²⁰¹. ROSENCRANTZ: Happily he is the second time come to them; for they say an old man is twice a child. HAMLET: I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players, mark it. [Aloud.] You	²⁰¹apparel (clothing)
(1420)	say right, sir, a' Monday morning 'twas then indeed. POLONIUS: My lord, I have news to tell you. HAMLET: My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius²⁰²was an actor in Rome-- POLONIUS: The actors are come hither, my lord.	²⁰²famous actor of Roman Era. Hamlet suggests Polonius is bringing old news
(1425)	HAMLET: Buzz, buzz! POLONIUS: Upon my honor,-- HAMLET: "Then came each actor on his ass,"-- POLONIUS: The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral,
(1430)	tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited; Seneca²⁰³ cannot be too heavy nor Plautus²⁰⁴ too light, for the law of writ and the liberty: these are the only men. HAMLET: O Jephthah²⁰⁵, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!	²⁰³Roman writer of tragedies ²⁰⁴ Roman writer of comedies²⁰⁵ a ballad from which Hamlet recites some lines
(1435)	POLONIUS: What a treasure had he, my lord? HAMLET: Why-- "One fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well." POLONIUS: [Aside.] Still on my daughter.
(1440)	HAMLET: Am I not i' the right, old Jephthah? POLONIUS: If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well. HAMLET: Nay, that follows not. POLONIUS: What follows, then, my lord?
(1445)	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 chanson²⁰⁶ will show you more, for look	²⁰⁶French word for song
(1450)	where my abridgment comes. [Enter four or five PLAYERS.] You are welcome, masters, welcome, all. I am glad to see thee well. Welcome, good friends. O, old friend! Thy face is valanc'd²⁰⁷ since I saw thee last; comest thou to beard²⁰⁸ me in Denmark?--What, my young lady and mistress! By'r lady²⁰⁹, your	²⁰⁷ bearded ²⁰⁸ a pun on "beard" signifying getting up in one's face ²⁰⁹ By Our Lady, an expression of surprise
(1455)	ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine²¹⁰. Pray God your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not cracked within the ring²¹¹. Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers-- fly at anything we see; we'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a	²¹⁰ lady's shoe with thick sole, adding height ²¹¹reference to a male voice that could no longer reach a high pitch to mimic a woman; female roles were played by men in Elizabethan times.
(1460)	taste of your quality; come, a passionate speech. I PLAYER: What speech, my good lord? HAMLET: I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted; or if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleased not the million, 'twas caviary to the general²¹²; but it was,--as I	²¹²like caviar, too choice for the ordinary playgoers
(1465)	received it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine,--an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there were no sallets²¹³ in the lines to make the matter savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of	²¹³ off color or dirty jokes
(1470)	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 Æneas' tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter²¹⁴.If it live in your memory, begin at this line-- let me see, let me see:	²¹⁴from Virgil's The Aeneid referring to the fall of Troy
(1475)	"The rugged Pyrrhus²¹⁵, like th' Hyrcanian beast²¹⁶,"-- 'Tis 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,	²¹⁵ another name for Neoptolemus, Achilles' son ²¹⁶ Hyrcania , an ancient province in Persia, where tigers were found
(1480)	Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd With heraldry more dismal; head to foot Now is he total gules²¹⁷;horridly trick'd²¹⁸ With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, Bak'd²¹⁹ and impasted²²⁰with the parching streets²²¹,	²¹⁷crimson color used on coats of armor ²¹⁸ decked out ²¹⁹ dried ²²⁰crusted ²²¹by the heat from the burning streets
(1485)	That lend a tyrannous and a damned light To their lord's murder. Roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles²²², the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsire Priam seeks."	²²² old jewels, deep red in color
(1390)	So proceed you. POLONIUS: 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good discretion. I PLAYER: Anon he finds him, Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword,
(1495)	Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, Repugnant²²³ to command. Unequal match'd, Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide, But with the whiff and wind of his fell²²⁴ sword The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium²²⁵,	²²³rebellious ²²⁴fierce ²²⁵ancient name for City of Troy
(1500)	Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear; for lo his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverent Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick.
(1505)	So as a painted tyrant Pyrrhus stood; And, like a neutral to his will and matter, Did nothing. But as we often see, against²²⁶ some storm, A silence in the heavens, the rack²²⁷ stand still,	²²⁶ prior to ²²⁷ clouds
(1510)	The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death, anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause, A roused vengeance sets him new a-work; And never did the Cyclops'²²⁸ hammers fall	²²⁸ in Norse mythology, giants who made armor for the gods
(1515)	On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne²²⁹, 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!	²²⁹lasting forever
(1520)	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!" POLONIUS: This is too long. HAMLET: It shall to the barber's with your beard. Prithee say on,
(1525)	he's for a jig²³⁰or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on, come to Hecuba. I PLAYER: "But who, ah woe, had seen the mobled²³¹ queen,"-- HAMLET: "The mobled queen"? POLONIUS: That's good! "Mobled queen" is good.	²³⁰ needs light singing and dancing or low humor to stay awake ²³¹muffled
(1530)	I PLAYER: "Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames With bisson rheum²³²; a clout²³³ upon that head Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, About her lank and all o'erteemed²³⁴ loins, A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up--	²³² gushing tears ²³³ cloth ²³⁴ stretched out by childbearing
(1535)	Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd, 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd. But if the gods themselves did see her then, When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
(1540)	The instant burst of clamour that she made, Unless things mortal move them not at all, Would have made milch²³⁵ the burning eyes of heaven, And passion in the gods." POLONIUS: Look, whe'er he has not turn'd his color, and has tears in 's	²³⁵ tearful
(1545)	eyes.--Prithee, no more. HAMLET: 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon. Good my lord, will you see the players well bestowed? Do you hear? Let them be well used²³⁶, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a	²³⁶ handled, managed
(1550)	bad epitaph than their ill report while you live. POLONIUS: My lord, I will use them according to their desert. HAMLET: God's bodkin²³⁷, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honor and dignity-- the less they deserve, the more merit is in	²³⁷ by God's little body, an exclamation
(1555)	your bounty. Take them in. POLONIUS: Come, sirs. [Exit.] HAMLET: Follow him, friends. we'll hear a play to-morrow. [Exeunt all the PLAYERS but the First.] Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play The Murder of Gonzago'?
(1560)	I PLAYER: Ay, my lord. HAMLET: We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in't, could you not? I PLAYER: Ay, my lord.
(1565)	HAMLET: Very well. Follow that lord, and look you mock him not. [Exit I PLAYER.] My good friends [to ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN], I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinore. ROSENCRANTZ: Good my lord! HAMLET: Ay, so, God b' wi' ye! [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.]
(1570)	Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit²³⁸	²³⁸ fanciful idea
(1575)	That from her working all his visage wann'd; Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function²³⁹ suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing, For Hecuba!	²³⁹ every move
(1580)	What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her? What would he do Had he the motive and the cue for passion That I have? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech;
(1585)	Make mad the guilty, and appall the free; Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed, The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled²⁴⁰ rascal, peak²⁴¹	²⁴⁰cloudy disposition ²⁴¹be gloomy or dejected
(1590)	Like John-a-dreams²⁴², unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing; no, not for a king Upon whose property and most dear life A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? Who calls me villain, breaks my pate across,	²⁴²a daydreamer
(1595)	Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face, Tweaks me by the nose, gives me the lie i' the throat As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Hah, 'swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall
(1600)	To make oppression bitter; or ere this I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal²⁴³.Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless²⁴⁴villain!	²⁴³guts ²⁴⁴deviant
(1605)	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,
(1610)	A scullion²⁴⁵! Fie upon't! foh! About, my brains! 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	²⁴⁵lowly laborer
(1615)	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,
(1620)	I'll tent him to the quick. If he do blench, I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be a devil, and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape. Yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
(1625)	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.] The scene piles example upon example of situations being other than they seem. Hamlet's childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have been brought to the castle by the king to pretend to be worried about the prince, but Claudius is more interested in their getting to the bottom of what is going on, and the pair, who are flattered by the king's seeming interest in them, are quite willing to do his bidding. Events in this scene focus on two important aspects of the play. Hamlet's deception continues as he "proves" to Polonius that he is mad through his odd and apparently nonsensical conversation. Ironically, though he doesn't know what is going on, Polonius senses that something is not as it seems when he comments, "Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't, " and later Hamlet gives instructions to the traveling players to entertain the court with a very particular play. The chosen play is intended to draw out the truth about Claudius's guilt. However, the motif of Hamlet's indecision and inability to take quick action recurs when, at the close of the scene, Hamlet berates himself for not seeking his revenge and for looking for further reasons to justify taking action. ACT III. TOP OF PAGE Scene I. A room in the Castle. [Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and LORDS] KING: And can you, by no drift of conference,
(1630)	Get from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? ROSENCRANTZ: He does confess he feels himself distracted, But from what cause he will by no means speak.
(1635)	GUILDENSTERN: Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state. QUEEN: Did he receive you well?
(1640)	ROSENCRANTZ: Most like a gentleman. GUILDENSTERN: But with much forcing of his disposition. ROSENCRANTZ: Niggard²⁴⁶ of question, but of our demands Most free in his reply. QUEEN: Did you assay²⁴⁷ him	²⁴⁶not having ²⁴⁷try to draw in
(1645)	To any pastime? ROSENCRANTZ: Madam, it so fell out that certain players We o'er-raught²⁴⁸ on the way: of these we told him, And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it. They are about the court,	²⁴⁸passed
(1650)	And, as I think, they have already order This night to play before him. POLONIUS: 'Tis most true, And he beseech'd me to entreat your Majesties To hear and see the matter.
(1655)	KING: With all my heart, and it doth much content me To hear him so inclin'd. Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, And drive his purpose into these delights. ROSENCRANTZ: We shall, my lord. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.]
(1660)	KING: Sweet Gertrude, leave us two; For we have closely²⁴⁹ sent for Hamlet hither, That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia. Her father and myself,	²⁴⁹ separately
(1665)	We'll so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge, And gather by him, as he is behav'd, If't be the affliction of his love or no That thus he suffers for.
(1670)	QUEEN: I shall obey you. And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet's wildness. So shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again,
(1675)	To both your honors. OPHELIA: Madam, I wish it may. [Exit QUEEN.] POLONIUS: Ophelia, walk you here.--Gracious, so please you, We will bestow ourselves.--[To OPHELIA.] Read on this book; That show of such an exercise may color
(1680)	Your loneliness²⁵⁰. We are oft to blame in this,-- 'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself. KING: [Aside.] O, 'tis too true!	²⁵⁰give the impression your meeting is accidental
(1685)	How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it Than is my deed to my most painted word: O heavy burden!
(1690)	POLONIUS: I hear him coming. Withdraw, my lord. [Exeunt KING and POLONIUS.] [Enter HAMLET.] HAMLET: To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
(1695)	And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep-- No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep--
(1700)	To sleep, perchance to dream-- ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil²⁵¹, Must give us pause; there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life:	²⁵¹ when we have left this life
(1705)	For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
(1710)	When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin²⁵²? who would these fardels²⁵³ bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn	²⁵² pointed weapon ²⁵³ afflictions
(1715)	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 hue²⁵⁴ of resolution	²⁵⁴natural color
(1720)	Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pitch and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action. --Soft you now, The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons²⁵⁵	²⁵⁵ prayers
(1725)	Be all my sins remember'd. OPHELIA: Good my lord, How does your honor for this many a day? HAMLET: I humbly thank you; well, well, well. OPHELIA: My lord, I have remembrances of yours
(1730)	That I have longed long to re-deliver. I pray you now receive them. HAMLET: No, not I, I never gave you aught. OPHELIA: My honor'd lord, you know right well you did,
(1735)	And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost, Take these again, for to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord.
(1740)	HAMLET: Ha, ha! are you honest? OPHELIA: My lord? HAMLET: Are you fair? OPHELIA: What means your lordship? HAMLET: That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no
(1745)	discourse to your beauty. OPHELIA: Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? HAMLET: Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox,
(1750)	but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. OPHELIA: Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. HAMLET: You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you not.
(1755)	OPHELIA: I was the more deceived. HAMLET: 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
(1750)	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, believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunn'ry. Where's your father?
(1765)	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: O, help him, you sweet heavens! HAMLET: If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry:
(1770)	be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell.
(1775)	OPHELIA: O Heavenly powers, restore him! HAMLET: I have heard of your paintings, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, and amble, and you lisp, and nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't, it hath made
(1780)	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 nunn'ry, go. [Exit HAMLET.] OPHELIA: O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword,
(1785)	The expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form²⁵⁶, The observ'd of all observers, quite, quite down! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched That suck'd the honey of his music vows,	²⁵⁶usual behavior
(1790)	Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; That unmatch'd form and stature of blown²⁵⁷youth Blasted with ecstasy²⁵⁸: O, woe is me To have seen what I have seen, see what I see! [OPHELIA withdraws.] [Re-enter KING and POLONIUS.]	²⁵⁷at the peak of ²⁵⁸lunacy
(1795)	KING: Love? his affections do not that way tend, Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, Was not like madness. There's something in his soul O'er which his melancholy sits on brood, And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
(1800)	Will be some danger; which for to prevent, I have in quick determination Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England For the demand of our neglected tribute. Haply the seas, and countries different,
(1805)	With variable objects, shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart, Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus From fashion of himself. What think you on't? POLONIUS: It shall do well; but yet do I believe
(1810)	The origin and commencement of his grief Sprung from neglected love. [OPHELIA comes forward.] How now, Ophelia! You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said, We heard it all. My lord, do as you please, But if you hold it fit, after the play
(1815)	Let his queen mother all alone entreat him To show his grief: let her be round²⁵⁹ with him; And I'll be plac'd (so please you) in the ear Of all their conference. If she find him not, To England send him; or confine him where	²⁵⁹ frank
(1820)	Your wisdom best shall think. KING: It shall be so. Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. [Exeunt.] Hamlet's soliloquy at the beginning of this scene is among the most famous of all literary speeches. When he asks the question "To be or not to be...," he reveals the depth of his anguish and his intellect. Hamlet comes back again in this scene to questioning life's purpose and worth, but he cannot keep himself from thinking about and arguing all sides of the question of suicide that he first pondered in Act I, sc. 2. and thus takes no action. One of the critical and historical questions about the play is whether Hamlet is sane or truly insane. This scene provides a situation that is used as an argument for those who would say he is mad. Hamlet's anger at his mother in part brings about his rant against women when he comes upon Ophelia. His behavior terrorizes her and, as intended, keeps Claudius's suspicions off Hamlet, whom Claudius is inclined to believe is mad. Yet the new king senses that Hamlet is still dangerous. Scene II. A hall in the Castle. [Enter HAMLET and certain PLAYERS.] HAMLET: Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of our
(1825)	players do, I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. 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, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the
(1830)	soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated 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 Termagant²⁶⁰; it out-herods Herod: pray you avoid it.	²⁶⁰ a ranting stage villain
(1835)	I PLAYER: I warrant your honor. HAMLET: Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing,
(1840)	whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own image, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now, this overdone, or come tardy²⁶¹ off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious	²⁶¹badly timed
(1845)	grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be 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
(1850)	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. I PLAYER: I hope we have reform'd that indifferently²⁶² with us, sir. HAMLET: O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns	²⁶² reasonably
(1855)	speak no more than is set down for them, for there be of them that will themselves laugh to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too, though in the meantime some necessary question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go
(1860)	make you ready. [Exeunt PLAYERS.] [Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.] How now, my lord! will the King hear this piece of work? POLONIUS: And the Queen too, and that presently. HAMLET: Bid the players make haste. [Exit POLONIUS.] Will you two help to hasten them?
(1865)	ROSENCRANTZ: Ay, my lord. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] HAMLET: What, ho, Horatio! [Enter HORATIO.] HORATIO: Here, sweet lord, at your service. HAMLET: Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man²⁶³ As e'er my conversation cop'd withal.	²⁶³you are as good a man as I've known
(1870)	HORATIO: O, my dear lord-- HAMLET: Nay, do not think I flatter, For what advancement may I hope from thee That no revenue hast but thy good spirits To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
(1875)	No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp; And crook the pregnant²⁶⁴ hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, And could of men distinguish her election,	²⁶⁴ heavy, weighty
(1880)	She hath seal'd thee for herself, for thou hast been As one in suffering all that suffers nothing, A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and bles'd are those Whose blood and judgment are so well co-meddled²⁶⁵	²⁶⁵intermingled
(1885)	That 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.
(1890)	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 see'st that act a-foot, Even with the very comment of thy soul
(1895)	Observe mine uncle. If his occulted²⁶⁶guilt 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,	²⁶⁶secret
(1900)	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,
(1905)	And scape detecting, I will pay the theft. [Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING, QUEEN, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others.] HAMLET: They are coming to the play. I must be idle²⁶⁷; Get you a place. KING: How fares our cousin Hamlet? HAMLET: Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish:²⁶⁸ I eat the air,	²⁶⁷ pose as mad ²⁶⁸allusion to chameleons' only eating air points out Hamlets' belief that he too has nothing to sustain himself since the promise that he would be heir to the throne has been taken from him.
(1910)	promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so. KING: I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet, these words are not mine. HAMLET: No, nor mine now. [To POLONIUS.] My lord, you play'd once i' the university, you say?
(1915)	POLONIUS: That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor. HAMLET: What did you enact? POLONIUS: I did enact Julius Caesar. I was kill'd i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me. HAMLET: It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be
(1920)	the players ready? ROSENCRANTZ: Ay, my lord, they stay upon your patience. QUEEN: Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. HAMLET: No, good mother, here's metal more attractive. [Lying down at OPHELIA'S feet.] POLONIUS: [To the KING.] O, ho! do you mark that?
(1925)	HAMLET: Lady, shall I lie in your lap? OPHELIA: No, my lord. HAMLET: I mean, my head upon your lap? OPHELIA: Ay, my lord. HAMLET: Do you think I meant country matters²⁶⁹?	²⁶⁹crude suggestion
(1930)	OPHELIA: I think nothing, my lord. HAMLET: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. OPHELIA: What is, my lord? HAMLET: Nothing. OPHELIA: You are merry, my lord.
(1935)	HAMLET: Who, I? OPHELIA: Ay, my lord. HAMLET: O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry, for look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within 's²⁷⁰ two hours.	²⁷⁰contraction for this
(1940)	OPHELIA: Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. HAMLET: So long? Nay then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables²⁷¹. O heavens, die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches then; or else	²⁷¹ luxurious fur
(1945)	shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose epitaph is "For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot!" [Trumpets sound. The dumb show enters.] [Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing him and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck. He lies down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, pours poison in the King's ears, and exit. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. The Poisoner with some three or four Mutes, comes in again, seeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts; she seems loth and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts his love.] [Exeunt.] OPHELIA: What means this, my lord? HAMLET: Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief. OPHELIA: Belike this show imports the argument of the play. [Enter PROLOGUE.]
(1950)	HAMLET: We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel, they'll tell all. OPHELIA: Will he tell us what this show meant? HAMLET: Ay, or any show that you'll show him. Be not you ashamed to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.
(1955)	OPHELIA: You are naught, you are naught. I'll mark the play. PROLOGUE: For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. [Exit PROLOGUE] HAMLET: Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring²⁷²?	²⁷²an inscription that would fit inside a ring
(1960)	OPHELIA: 'Tis brief, my lord. HAMLET: As woman's love. [Enter two players, a PLAYER KING and a PLAYER QUEEN.] PLAYER KING: Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart²⁷³ gone round Neptune's salt wash and Tellus'²⁷⁴ orbed ground, And thirty dozen moons with borrow'd sheen	²⁷³carriage belonging to Roman sun god ²⁷⁴goddess of fertility
(1965)	About the world have times twelve thirties been, Since love our hearts, and Hymen²⁷⁵ did our hands, Unite comutual in most sacred bands. PLAYER QUEEN: So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o'er ere love be done!	²⁷⁵Greek god of the wedding feast
(1970)	But woe is me, you are so sick of late, So far from cheer and from your former state, That I distrust you. Yet though I distrust, Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must, For women's fear and love holds quantity,
(1975)	In neither aught, or in extremity. Now what my love is, proof hath made you know; And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so. Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
(1980)	PLAYER KING: 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, Honor'd, belov'd, and haply one as kind For husband shalt thou,--
(1985)	PLAYER QUEEN: O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast. In second husband let me be accurs'd! None wed the second but who kill'd the first. HAMLET: [Aside.] Wormwood, wormwood!
(1990)	PLAYER QUEEN: The instances that second marriage move Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. A second time I kill my husband dead, When second husband kisses me in bed. PLAYER KING: I do believe you think what now you speak,
(1995)	But what we do determine, oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory, Of violent birth, but poor validity: Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, But fall unshaken when they mellow be.
(2000)	Most necessary 'tis that we forget To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt. What to ourselves in passion we propose, The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. The violence of either grief or joy
(2005)	Their own enactures with themselves destroy. Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident²⁷⁶. This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange That even our loves should with our fortunes change:	²⁷⁶the slightest instance
(2010)	For 'tis a question left us yet to prove, Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. The great man down, you mark his favorite flies, The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies. And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,
(2015)	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
(2020)	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: Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light,
(2025)	Sport and repose lock from me day and night, To desperation turn my trust and hope, An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope! Each opposite that blanks the face of joy Meet what I would have well and it destroy!
(2030)	Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife, If once I be a widow, ever I be a wife! HAMLET: If she should break it now! PLAYER KING: 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here a while, My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
(2035)	The tedious day with sleep. [Sleeps.] PLAYER QUEEN: Sleep rock thy brain, And never come mischance between us twain! [Exit.] HAMLET: Madam, how like you this play? QUEEN: The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
(2040)	HAMLET: O but she'll keep her word. KING: Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't? HAMLET: No, no! They do but jest²⁷⁷, poison in jest, no offence i' the world. KING: What do you call the play?	²⁷⁷make believe
(2045)	HAMLET: "The Mouse-trap." Marry, how? Tropically, this play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name, his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. 'Tis a knavish piece of work, but what of that? Your Majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not. Let the gall'd jade²⁷⁸ wince;our withers²⁷⁹	²⁷⁸sore or vexed ²⁷⁹the base of a horse's neck
(2050)	are unwrung. [Enter LUCIANUS.] This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King. OPHELIA: You are as good as a chorus, my lord. HAMLET: I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying.²⁸⁰	²⁸⁰ serve as a puppeteer and speak the conversation
(2055)	OPHELIA: You are keen, my lord, you are keen. HAMLET: It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge. OPHELIA: Still better, and worse. HAMLET: So you mistake your husbands. Begin, murderer, leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come," The croaking raven doth
(2060)	bellow for revenge." LUCIANUS: Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing, Confederate season, else no creature seeing, Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, With Hecate's ban²⁸¹ thrice blasted, thrice infected,	²⁸¹The curse of Hecate, protector of witches in Greek mythology
(2065)	Thy natural magic and dire property On wholesome life usurps immediately. [Pours the poison into the sleeper's ears.] HAMLET: He poisons him i' the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago, the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian. You shall see anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.
(2070)	OPHELIA: The King arises. HAMLET: What, frighted with false fire? QUEEN: How fares my lord? POLONIUS: Give o'er the play. KING: Give me some light. Away!
(2075)	POLONIUS: Lights, lights, lights! [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO.] HAMLET: "Why, let the strucken²⁸² deer go weep, The hart ungalled²⁸³ play, For some must watch, while some must sleep, So runs the world away."	²⁸²injured ²⁸³unharmed
(2080)	Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers²⁸⁴--if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk²⁸⁵ with me--with two Provincial roses on my razed²⁸⁶ shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry²⁸⁷of players? HORATIO: Half a share. HAMLET: A whole one, I.	²⁸⁴plumes worn by tragic actors ²⁸⁵go badly ²⁸⁶with ornately stitched ²⁸⁷troupe
(2085)	"For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself, and now reigns here A very, very"--pajock.²⁸⁸ HORATIO: You might have rhymed.	²⁸⁸variant of peacock; many vicious qualities were attributed to the peacock and used here in place of ass to refer to Claudius
(2090)	HAMLET: O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? HORATIO: Very well, my lord. HAMLET: Upon the talk of the poisoning? HORATIO: I did very well note him.
(2095)	HAMLET: Ah, ha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders! For if the King like not the comedy, Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy²⁸⁹. Come, some music! [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] GUILDENSTERN: Good my lord, voutsafe me a word with you.	²⁸⁹certainly
(2100)	HAMLET: Sir, a whole history. GUILDENSTERN: The King, sir-- HAMLET: Ay, sir, what of him? GUILDENSTERN: Is in his retirement marvellous distempered. HAMLET: With drink, sir?
(2105)	GUILDENSTERN: No, my lord, rather with choler²⁹⁰. HAMLET: Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to the doctor, for me to put him to his purgation²⁹¹ would perhaps plunge him into far more choler. GUILDENSTERN: Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start	²⁹⁰irritability ²⁹¹give him what he deserves
(2110)	not so wildly from my affair. HAMLET: I am tame, sir. Pronounce. GUILDENSTERN: The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. HAMLET: You are welcome.
(2115)	GUILDENSTERN: Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return shall be the end of my business. HAMLET: Sir, I cannot.
(2120)	GUILDENSTERN: What, my lord? HAMLET: Make you a wholesome answer-my wit's diseased. But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; or rather, as you say, my mother: therefore no more, but to the matter: my mother. You say--
(2125)	ROSENCRANTZ: Then thus she says: your behavior hath struck her into amazement and admiration. HAMLET: O wonderful son, that can so stonish²⁹² a mother! But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? ROSENCRANTZ: She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed.	²⁹²amaze
(2130)	HAMLET: We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us? ROSENCRANTZ: My lord, you once did love me. HAMLET: And do still, by these pickers and stealers. ROSENCRANTZ: Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely
(2135)	bar the door upon your own liberty if you deny your griefs to your friend. HAMLET: Sir, I lack advancement. ROSENCRANTZ: How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself for your succession in Denmark?
(2140)	HAMLET: Ay, sir, but "While the grass grows"--the proverb²⁹³ is something musty. [Re-enter the 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?	²⁹³ familiar saying, Hamlet suggests that as long as the king is alive, he has nothing
(2145)	GUILDENSTERN: O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly. HAMLET: I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? GUILDENSTERN: My lord, I cannot. HAMLET: I pray you. GUILDENSTERN: Believe me, I cannot.
(2150)	HAMLET: I do beseech you. GUILDENSTERN: I know no touch of it, my lord. HAMLET: 'Tis as easy as lying. Govern these ventages²⁹⁴ with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops.	²⁹⁴holes or vents in the instrument
(2155)	GUILDENSTERN: But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony. I have not the skill. HAMLET: Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my
(2160)	lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. [Enter POLONIUS.]
(2175)	God bless you, sir. POLONIUS: My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently. HAMLET: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel? POLONIUS: By the mass and 'tis, like a camel indeed. HAMLET: Methinks it is like a weasel.
(2180)	POLONIUS: It is backed like a weasel. HAMLET: Or like a whale. POLONIUS: Very like a whale. HAMLET: Then will I come to my mother by and by. [Aside.] They fool me to the top of my bent²⁹⁵.I will come by and by.	²⁹⁵ I am forced to play the compete fool
(2185)	POLONIUS: I will say so. [Exit.] HAMLET: By-and-by is easily said. [Exit POLONIUS.] --Leave me, friends. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, HORATIO, and PLAYERS.] 'Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
(2190)	Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on. Soft, now to my mother. O heart, lose not thy nature! Let not ever The soul of Nero²⁹⁶ enter this firm bosom,	²⁹⁶allusion to Roman emperor who killed his mother
(2195)	Let me be cruel, not unnatural; I will speak daggers to her, but use none. My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites, How in my words somever she be shent²⁹⁷, To give them seals never my soul consent! [Exit.] Scene two offers Hamlet the evidence he needs that the ghost had spoken the truth. The play staged by the players, with Hamlet's direction, mimics the events described by the ghost regarding his murder and brings out the guilty reaction from Claudius that Hamlet sought. This scene has Hamlet confronting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to uncover their betrayal of him. It also shows Hamlet's decision to finally take action himself. Scene III. A room in the Castle. [Enter KING, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.]	²⁹⁷reprimanded
(2200)	KING: I like him not, nor stands it safe with us To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you. I your commission will forthwith dispatch, And he to England shall along with you. The terms of our estate may not endure
(2205)	Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow Out of his brows. GUILDENSTERN: We will ourselves provide. Most holy and religious fear it is To keep those many many bodies safe
(2210)	That live and feed upon your Majesty. ROSENCRANTZ: The single and peculiar life is bound With all the strength and armor of the mind To keep itself from 'noyance, but much more That spirit upon whose weal depend and rest
(2215)	The lives of many. The cease of majesty Dies not alone, but like a gulf²⁹⁸doth draw What's near it with it. Or it is a massive wheel Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things	²⁹⁸whirlpool
(2220)	Are mortis'd²⁹⁹ and adjoin'd; which when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin³⁰⁰. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. KING: Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage,	²⁹⁹attached ³⁰⁰noisy destruction
(2225)	For we will fetters about upon this fear, Which now goes too free-footed. ROSENCRANTZ: We will haste us. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN:] [Enter POLONIUS.] POLONIUS: My lord, he's going to his mother's closet. Behind the arras I'll convey myself
(2230)	To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home, And as you said, and wisely was it said, 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege,
(2235)	I'll call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know. KING: Thanks, dear my lord. [Exit POLONIUS.] O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven, It hath the primal eldest curse³⁰¹ upon't,--	³⁰¹ allusion to curse God placed on Cain, who killed his brother Abel
(2240)	A brother's murder. Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
(2245)	And both neglect. What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy But to confront the visage of offense?
(2250)	And what's in prayer but this twofold force, To be forestalled ere we come to fall, Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up. My fault is past, but, O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn? "Forgive me my foul murder"?
(2255)	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 offense, In the corrupted currents of this world
(2260)	Offense's gilded³⁰² 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,	³⁰²bribing
(2265)	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 cannot repent? O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
(2270)	O limed³⁰³ soul, that, struggling to be free, Art more engag'd!³⁰⁴ Help, angels! Make assay, Bow, stubborn knees, and heart, with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe! All may be well. [He kneels.] [Enter HAMLET.]	³⁰³stuck in lime ³⁰⁴tangled up
(2275)	HAMLET: Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't--and so he goes to heaven, And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd³⁰⁵: A villain kills my father; and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send	³⁰⁵will have to think about this
(2280)	To heaven. O, this is hire and salary, not revenge. He took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; And how his audit³⁰⁶ stands who knows save heaven?	³⁰⁶review of his sins
(2285)	But in our circumstance and course of thought 'Tis heavy with him. And am I then reveng'd, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season'd for his passage? No!
(2190)	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 game, a-swearing, or about some act That has no relish of salvation in't--
(2295)	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.] [The KING rises.] KING: My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
(2300)	Words without thoughts never to heaven go. [Exit.] In this scene, the audience hears Claudius's private confession of his guilt and could feel a momentary sympathy for him when he demonstrates regret for killing his brother and stealing his crown. The moment passes when Claudius concludes that god's forgiveness would only come from admitting what he had done and giving up the things he gained--the crown, the power, and the queen, which he could not bring himself to do. Hamlet arrives at the King's chamber intending to exact revenge. He can see but not hear Claudius. When it appears the King is praying, Hamlet's over-thinking once more causes him to hesitate. Even with the knowledge discovered during the players' performance, he talks himself out of acting because the moment is not perfect. In delaying, Hamlet opens the door for greater violence. Scene IV. The Queen's quarters. [Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS.] POLONIUS: He will come straight. Look you lay³⁰⁷home to him. Tell him his pranks have been too broad³⁰⁸ to bear with, And that your Grace hath screen'd and stood between Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here.	³⁰⁷be firm in your reprimand ³⁰⁸wild and uncontrolled
(2305)	Pray you, be round³⁰⁹ with him. QUEEN: I'll warrant you, fear me not. Withdraws, I hear him coming. [POLONIUS hides behind the arras.] [Enter HAMLET.] HAMLET: Now, mother, what's the matter? QUEEN: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.	³⁰⁹frank
(2310)	HAMLET: Mother, you have my father much offended. QUEEN: Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. HAMLET: Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. QUEEN: Why, how now, Hamlet? HAMLET: What's the matter now?
(2315)	QUEEN: Have you forgot me? HAMLET: No, by the rood³¹⁰, not so: You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife, And would it were not so, you are my mother. QUEEN: Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak.	³¹⁰altar
(2320)	HAMLET: Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not boudge³¹¹; You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. QUEEN: What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me? Help, ho!	³¹¹move
(2325)	POLONIUS: [Behind.] What ho, help! HAMLET: [Draws.] How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead! [Kills POLONIUS through the arras.] POLONIUS: [Behind.] O, I am slain! QUEEN: O me, what hast thou done?
(2330)	HAMLET: Nay, I know not, is it the king? [Draws forth POLONIUS.] QUEEN: O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! HAMLET: A bloody deed! Almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king and marry with his brother. QUEEN: As kill a king!
(2335)	HAMLET: Ay, lady, it was my word. [Parts the arras and see POLONIUS.] Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better.Take thy fortune; Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger.-- Leave wringing of your hands. Peace, sit you down,
(2340)	And let me wring your heart, for so I shall If it be made of penetrable stuff, If damned custom have not brass'd³¹² it so That it is proof³¹³ and bulwark against sense. QUEEN: What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue	³¹² turned it to steel ³¹³ sealed
(2345)	In noise so rude against me? 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
(2350)	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 rhapsody³¹⁴ of words. Heaven's face does glow³¹⁵	³¹⁴confused mass ³¹⁵burn
(2355)	Yea, this solidity and compound mass³¹⁶, With heated visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act. QUEEN: Ah me, what act, That roars so loud and thunders in the index?	³¹⁶globe, planet
(2360)	HAMLET: Look here upon this picture, and on this, The counterfeit presentment³¹⁷of two brothers. See what a grace was seated on this brow: Hyperion's³¹⁸ curls, the front of Jove himself, An eye like Mars, to threaten and command,	³¹⁷portraits ³¹⁸the sun-god's
(2365)	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.
(2370)	This was your husband. Look you now what follows: Here is your husband, like a milldew'd ear³¹⁹ 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?	³¹⁹ rotting grain (corn)
(2375)	You cannot call it love, for at your age The heyday 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
(2380)	Is apoplex'd³²⁰, for madness would not err; Nor sense to ecstacy was ne'er so thrall'd But it reserv'd some quantity of choice To serve in such a difference³²¹. What devil was't That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?	³²⁰powerless, unable to move ³²¹Even insanity would not be blinded by the great differences that exist between the two brothers
(2385)	Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans³²² all, Or but a sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope. O shame, where is thy blush? Rebellious hell,	³²²without
(2390)	If thou canst mutine³²³ 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 ardore gives the charge, Since frost itself as actively doth burn,	³²³break away
(2395)	And reason panders will. QUEEN: O Hamlet, speak no more! Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul, And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct³²⁴.	³²⁴cannot be made pure
(2400)	HAMLET: Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty! QUEEN: O, speak to me no more!
(2405)	These words like daggers enter in my ears; No more, sweet Hamlet! HAMLET: A murderer and a villain! A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings,
(2410)	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.] HAMLET: A king of shreds and patches--
(2415)	Save me and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? QUEEN: Alas, he's mad! HAMLET: Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, laps'd in time and passion,³²⁵lets go by	³²⁵allows time and fury to pass
(2420)	The important³²⁶ 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,	³²⁶pressing
(2425)	O, step between her and her fighting soul. Conceit³²⁷ in weakest bodies strongest works, Speak to her, Hamlet. HAMLET: How is it with you, lady? QUEEN: Alas, how is't with you,	³²⁷imagination
(2430)	That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements³²⁸,	³²⁸hair, standing on end, as if shocked
(2435)	Start up and stand an end. O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? HAMLET: On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,
(2440)	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 color--tears perchance for blood. QUEEN: To whom do you speak this?
(2445)	HAMLET: Do you see nothing there? QUEEN: Nothing at all, yet all that is I see. HAMLET: Nor did you nothing hear? QUEEN: No, nothing but ourselves. HAMLET: Why, look you there, look how it steals away!
(2450)	My father, in his habit³²⁹ as he lived! 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 Is very cunning in.	³²⁹attire, clothing
(2455)	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
(2460)	Would gambol³³⁰ from. Mother, for love of grace, Lay not that flattering unction³³¹ 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,	³³⁰leap away from ³³¹a salve or soothing lotion
(2465)	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 pursy³³² times	³³²breathless, swollen
(2470)	Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb and woo³³³ for leave to do him good. QUEEN: O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. HAMLET: O, throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half.	³³³bow and plead
(2475)	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 habits evil, is angel yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good
(2480)	He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on³³⁴. 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,	³³⁴ like a uniform, put on without having to consider its appearance
(2485)	And either curb the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. Once more, good-night; And when you are desirous to be blest, I'll blessing beg of you. For this same lord [Pointing to POLONIUS.] I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so
(2490)	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.
(2495)	This bad begins and worse remains behind. One word more, good lady. QUEEN: What shall I do? HAMLET: Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed,
(2500)	Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse, And let him, for a pair of reechy³³⁵kisses, Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, Make you to ravel all this matter out, That I essentially am not in madness,	³³⁵reeking
(2505)	But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know, For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, Would from a paddock,³³⁶ from a bat, a gib,³³⁷ Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so? No, in despite of sense and secrecy,	³³⁶frog ³³⁷woman chaser
(2510)	Unpeg the basket³³⁸ 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: Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,	³³⁸unlatch the cage
(2515)	And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. HAMLET: I must to England, you know that? QUEEN: Alack, I had forgot. 'Tis so concluded on
(2520)	HAMLET: There's letters seal'd, and my two schoolfellows, 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 enginer
(2525)	.Hoist with his own petard^339:and 't 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;	³³⁹ (petard, an explosive device) destroyed by his own doing
(2530)	I'll lug the guts into the neighbor room. Mother, goodnight 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.
(2535)	Good night, mother. [Exeunt severally, HAMLET dragging out POLONIUS.] When Hamlet visits his mother's chambers and attacks her for her infidelity to her first husband, he finally determines to take his revenge. Stabbing through the curtain at the person he believes is Claudius, Hamlet's intellect fails him. By not making certain this time, he accidentally kills Polonius. ACT IV. TOP OF PAGE Scene I. A room in the Castle. [Enter KING and QUEEN with ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] KING: There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves-- You must translate, 'tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? QUEEN: Bestow this place on us a little while. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.]
(2540)	Ah, mine own 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,
(2545)	Whips out his rapier, cries "A rat, a rat!" And in this brainish apprehension,³⁴⁰ kills The unseen good old man. KING: O heavy deed! It had been so with us had we been there.	³⁴⁰misguided idea
(2550)	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 haunt³⁴¹	³⁴¹ in seclusion from others
(2555)	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?
(2560)	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!
(2565)	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! [Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] Friends both, go join you with some further aid:
(2570)	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
(2575)	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, Transports his poison'd shot,may miss our name,
(2580)	And hit the woundless air. O, come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay. [Exeunt.] Events of the previous acts set in motion Claudius's plan to get rid of Hamlet. The prince will be sent to England under the pretense of keeping him safe and avoiding the anger of the people for having killed Polonius. Scene II. Another room in the Castle. [Enter HAMLET.] HAMLET: Safely stowed. ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN: [Within.] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet! HAMLET: But soft, what noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come. [Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.]
(2585)	ROSENCRANTZ: What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? HAMLET: Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. ROSENCRANTZ: Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel. HAMLET: Do not believe it.
(2590)	ROSENCRANTZ: Believe what? HAMLET: That I can keep your counsel and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge, what replication³⁴² should be made by the son of a king? ROSENCRANTZ: Take you me for a sponge, my lord?	³⁴²answer
(2595)	HAMLET: 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 an apple, 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
(2600)	again. ROSENCRANTZ: I understand you not, my lord. HAMLET: I am glad of it, a knavish speech sleeps³⁴³ in a foolish ear. ROSENCRANTZ: My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the King.	³⁴³makes no sense
(2605)	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? HAMLET: Of nothing, bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. [Exeunt.] Scene III. Another room in the Castle. [Enter KING, attended.] KING: I have sent to seek him and to find the body.
(2610)	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 scourge³⁴⁴is weigh'd,	³⁴⁴punishment
(2615)	But never the offense. To bear all smooth and even, This sudden sending him away must seem Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown By desperate appliance are reliev'd, Or not at all. [Enter ROSENCRANTZ.]
(2620)	How now, what hath befall'n? ROSENCRANTZ: Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, We cannot get from him. KING: But where is he? ROSENCRANTZ: Without, my lord, guarded, to know your pleasure.
(2625)	KING: Bring him before us. ROSENCRANTZ: Ho, bring in the lord. [Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN.] KING: Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? HAMLET: At supper. KING: At supper? where?
(2630)	HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten; a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en³⁴⁵ at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots; your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service³⁴⁶,two dishes, but to one table-- that's	³⁴⁵at this moment gnawing at him ³⁴⁶separate courses of a meal
(2635)	the end. KING: Alas, alas! HAMLET: 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?
(2640)	HAMLET: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. KING: Where is Polonius? HAMLET: In heaven, send thither to see; if your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, if indeed, you
(2645)	find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. KING: [To ATTENDANTS.] Go seek him there. HAMLET: He will stay till you come. [Exeunt ATTENDANTS.] KING: Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety--
(2650)	Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done--must send thee hence With fiery quickness; therefore prepare thyself, The bark is ready, and the wind at help, The associates tend, and every thing is bent³⁴⁷	³⁴⁷prepared
(2655)	For England. HAMLET: For England. KING: Ay, Hamlet. HAMLET: Good. KING: So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
(2660)	HAMLET: I see a cherub that sees them. But, come, for England! Farewell, dear mother. KING: Thy loving father, Hamlet. HAMLET: My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh so, my mother. Come, for England! [Exit.]
(2665)	KING: Follow him at foot, tempt him with speed aboard. Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night. Away, for everything is seal'd and done That else leans on the affair. Pray you make haste. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught--
(2670)	As my great power thereof may give thee sense, Since yet thy cicatrice³⁴⁸looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us--thou mayst not coldly set³⁴⁹ Our sovereign process, which imports at full,	³⁴⁸scar³⁴⁹hold in low esteem
(2675)	By letters conjuring to that effect, The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England, For like the hectic³⁵⁰ in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done, How e'er my haps³⁵¹, my joys were ne'er begun. [Exit.] Hamlet's contempt for King Claudius is clear in Hamlet's replies to the king's questions about where Polonius's body has been hidden. Through a sarcastic play on words, Hamlet demeans the king by pointing out that kings and beggars all become food for maggots. Scene IV. The Danish coast near the Castle. [Enter FORTINBRAS, and FORCES marching.]	³⁵⁰ fever³⁵¹fortunes
(2680)	FORTINBRAS: Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king. Tell him that, by his license, Fortinbras Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. If that his majesty would aught with us,
(2685)	We shall express our duty in his eye, And let him know so. CAPTAIN: I will do't, my lord. FORTINBRAS: Go softly on. [Exeunt FORTINBRAS and FORCES.] [Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.] HAMLET: Good sir, whose powers are these?
(2690)	CAPTAIN: They are of Norway, sir. HAMLET: How purpos'd, sir, I pray you? CAPTAIN: Against some part of Poland. HAMLET: Who commands them, sir? CAPTAIN: The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
(2695)	HAMLET: Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier? CAPTAIN: Truly to speak, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground That hath in it no profit but the name.
(2700)	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. HAMLET: Why, then the Polack never will defend it. CAPTAIN: Yes, it is already garrison'd.
(2705)	HAMLET: Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats Will not debate the question of this straw. This is the imposthume³⁵² of much wealth and peace, That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies. I humbly thank you, sir.	³⁵²corruption, abscess
(2710)	CAPTAIN: God b' wi' you, sir. [Exit.] ROSENCRANTZ: Will't please you go, my lord? HAMLET: I'll be with you straight-- go a little before. [Exeunt all but HAMLET.] How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
(2715)	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, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason
(2720)	To fust³⁵³ 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	³⁵³become musty, foul smelling
(2725)	Why yet I live to say "This thing's to do;" Sith 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,
(2730)	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
(2735)	Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honor'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,
(2740)	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 Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
(2745)	Which is not tomb enough and continent³⁵⁴ To hide the slain?--O, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! [Exit.] Hamlet is told he is being sent away for his own safety, but his former friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, will carry letters calling for Hamlet's death. When the ship carrying all three to England is met by pirates, Hamlet turns the tables on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and sends them to their deaths at the hands of the English. He returns to Denmark. Once back on shore, Hamlet encounters Fortinbras's soldiers and, learning of his intention to fight on principle for a worthless piece of land, he is again plagued by the reality that he has not been able to complete his own mission of revenge, which is a great and just cause. Scene V. Elsinore. A room in the Castle. [Enter QUEEN, HORATIO, and a GENTLEMAN.] QUEEN: I will not speak with her. GENTLEMAN: She is importunate, indeed distract.	³⁵⁴container
(2750)	Her mood will needs be pitied. QUEEN: What would she have? GENTLEMAN: She speaks much of her father; says she hears There's tricks i' the world, and hems, and beats her heart,` Spurns enviously at straws³⁵⁵, speaks things in doubt,	³⁵⁵is offended by the slightest action or remark
(2755)	That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, Yet the unshaped³⁵⁶ use of it doth move The hearers to collection; they yawn at it, And botch³⁵⁷ the words up fit to their own thoughts, Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield them,	³⁵⁶ disturbed way³⁵⁷piece together
(2760)	Indeed would make one think there might be thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. HORATIO: 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding³⁵⁸ minds. QUEEN: Let her come in. [Exit GENTLEMAN.]	³⁵⁸minds inclined to believe the worst
(2765)	[Aside.] 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. [Enter OPHELIA.] OPHELIA: Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?
(2770)	QUEEN: How now, Ophelia? OPHELIA: [Sings.] How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat³⁵⁹ and' staff And his sandal shoon.³⁶⁰	³⁵⁹emblem of a pilgrim to the shrine of St. James of Compostela in Spain ³⁶⁰footwear
(2775)	QUEEN: Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song? OPHELIA: Say you? Nay, pray you mark. [Sings.] He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone, At his head a grass green turf,
(2780)	At his heels a stone. QUEEN: Nay, but Ophelia-- OPHELIA: Pray you mark. [Sings.] White his shroud as the mountain snow, [Enter KING.] QUEEN: Alas, look here, my lord.
(2785)	OPHELIA: [Sings.] Larded³⁶¹ all with sweet flowers, Which bewept to the ground not go With true-love showers. KING: How do you, pretty lady? OPHELIA: Well, God 'ild³⁶² you! They say the owl³⁶³ was a baker's daughter.	³⁶¹bedecked ³⁶²bless³⁶³reference to a legend where Jesus is said to have turned a baker's daughter into an owl because she begrudged his request for bread
(2790)	Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table! KING: Conceit upon her father. OPHELIA: Pray, let's have no words of this, but when they ask you what it means, say you this: [Sings.]
(2795)	"To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day All in the morning bedtime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine. Then up he rose and donn'd his clothes,
(2800)	And dupp'd³⁶⁴ the chamber door, Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed more." KING: Pretty Ophelia! OPHELIA: Indeed without an oath I'll make an end on't: [Sings.]	³⁶⁴opened
(2805)	"By Gis³⁶⁵ and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame! Young men will do't if they come to't, By cock,³⁶⁶ they are to blame. Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me,	³⁶⁵contraction for Jesus ³⁶⁶slang variant for God
(2810)	You promis'd me to wed.' 'So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, And thou hadst not come to my bed.'" KING: How long hath she been thus? OPHELIA: I hope all will be well. We must be patient, but I cannot
(2815)	choose but weep to think they would 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. [Exit.] KING: Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. [Exit HORATIO.]
(2820)	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;
(2825)	Next, your son gone, and he most violent author Of his own just remove; the people muddied,³⁶⁷ Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly³⁶⁸ In hugger-mugger³⁶⁹ to inter him; poor Ophelia	³⁶⁷confused ³⁶⁸not wisely ³⁶⁹ rashly, hastily
(2830)	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 clouds³⁷⁰,	³⁷⁰holds on to suspicion rather than learning facts
(2835)	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,
(2840)	Like to a murdering piece³⁷¹, in many places Gives, me superfluous death. [A noise within.] QUEEN: Alack, what noise is this? KING: Where are my Swissers³⁷²? Let them guard the door. [Enter a MESSENGER.] What is the matter?	³⁷¹cannon shots that scatter pellets without careful aim ³⁷²Swiss soldiers
(2845)	MESSENGER: Save yourself, my lord! The ocean, overpeering of his list³⁷³, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O'erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord,	³⁷³ overflowing its beaches
(2850)	And as the world were now but to begin, 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,
(2855)	"Laertes shall be king! Laertes king!" [A noise within.] QUEEN: How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs! [Enter LAERTES, armed; OTHERS following.] KING: The doors are broke. LAERTES: Where is this king? Sirs, stand you all without.
(2860)	ALL: No, let's come in. LAERTES: I pray you give me leave. ALL: We will, we will. LAERTES: I thank you, keep the door. [Exeunt Leartes' followers.] O thou vile king, Give me my father!
(2865)	QUEEN: Calmly, good Laertes. LAERTES: That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard, Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother.
(2870)	KING: What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like? Let him go, Gertrude, do not fear our person: There's such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would,
(2875)	Acts little of his will.Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incens'd. Let him go, Gertrude. Speak, man. LAERTES: Where is my father? KING: Dead.
(2880)	QUEEN: But not by him. KING: Let him demand his fill. LAERTES: How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with. To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
(2885)	I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds. I give to negligence³⁷⁴, Let come what comes, only I'll be reveng'd Most throughly for my father. KING: Who shall stay you?	³⁷⁴I care not what may happen to me on earth or in the next world
(2890)	LAERTES: My will, not all the world's: And for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with little. KING: Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty
(2895)	Of your dear father, is't writ in your revenge That, sweepstake³⁷⁵, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser? LAERTES: None but his enemies. KING: Will you know them then?	³⁷⁵your revenge will wipe out your friends as well as your enemies
(2900)	LAERTES: To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms, And, like the kind life-rendering pelican³⁷⁶, Repast them with my blood. KING: Why, now you speak Like a good child and a true gentleman.	³⁷⁶The female pelican was believed to draw blood from her own breast to nourish her young.
(2905)	That I am guiltless of your father's death, And am most sensibly in grief for it, It shall as level to your judgment 'pear As day does to your eye. [A noise within] "Let her come in!"
(2910)	LAERTES: How now, what noise is that? [Enter OPHELIA.] 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!
(2915)	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 fine in love; and where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance³⁷⁷ of itself	³⁷⁷a piece; Ophelia's love for her father was so deep that her grief has broken her and led her to seek him in death.
(2920)	After the thing it loves. OPHELIA: [Sings.] "They bore him barefac'd on the bier Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny And in his grave rain'd many a tear." Fare you well, my dove!
(2925)	LAERTES: Hadst thou they wits and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus. OPHELIA: You must sing, " A-down, a-down," and you call him a-down-a. O how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.
(2930)	LAERTES: This nothing's more than matter. OPHELIA: There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts. LAERTES: A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted. OPHELIA: [To Claudius] There's fennel for you, and columbines³⁷⁸. There's rue³⁷⁹ for you,	³⁷⁸symbols of flattery (fennel) and ingratitude (columbines) ³⁷⁹symbol of sorrow and regret
(2935)	and here's some for me:--we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays. You may wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy. I would give you some violets³⁸⁰, but they wither'd all when my father died. They say he made a good end-- [Sings.] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,--	³⁸⁰symbols of deception (daisy) and faithfulness (violets)
(2940)	LAERTES: Thought and afflictions, passion, hell itself, She turns to favor and to prettiness. OPHELIA: [Sings.] "And will he not come again? And will he not come again? No, no, he is dead,
(2945)	Go to thy death-bed, He never will come again. His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen³⁸¹ was his pole³⁸², He is gone, he is gone,	³⁸¹pale, colorless ³⁸²head
(2950)	And we cast away moan, God ha' mercy on his soul!" And of all Christians' souls, I pray God. God b' wi' ye. [Exit.] LAERTES: Do you see this, O God? KING: Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
(2955)	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'd³⁸³, we will our kingdom give,	³⁸³at fault
(2960)	Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, To you in satisfaction; but if not, By you content to lend your patience to us, And we shall jointly labor with your soul To give it due content.
(2965)	LAERTES: Let this be so.. His means of death, his obscure funeral, No trophy, sword, nor hatchment³⁸⁴ o'er his bones, No noble rite nor formal ostentation³⁸⁵-- Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,	³⁸⁴tombstone ³⁸⁵deserved ceremony
(2970)	That I must call't in question. KING: So you shall, And where the offense is, let the great axe fall. I pray you go with me. [Exeunt.] While Hamlet deals with his impotence in avenging his father's murder, Polonius's death at Hamlet's hands shatters Ophelia's sanity and pushes Laertes to return from France to avenge the murder. Laertes's instinctive response to the loss of his father is a sharp contrast to Hamlet's excessive deliberation. Scene VI. Another room in the Castle. [Enter HORATIO and OTHERS.] HORATIO: What are they that would speak with me?
(2975)	GENTLEMAN: Sea faring men, sir. They say they have letters for you. HORATIO: Let them come in. [Exit GENTLEMAN.] I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. [Enter SAILORS.] I SAILOR: God bless you, sir.
(2980)	HORATIO: Let him bless thee too. I SAILOR: He shall, sir, and'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. HORATIO: [Reads.] "Horatio, when thou shalt have overlooked
(2985)	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 chase. Finding ourselves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valor, and in the grapple I boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship, so I
(2990)	alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy³⁸⁶, 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	³⁸⁶kindly, helpful thieves
(2995)	light for the bore³⁸⁷ 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,	³⁸⁷the hole made by a drill; words can't express the size of weight of what he has to tell
(3000)	And do't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.] Scene VII. Another room in the Castle. [Enter KING and LAERTES.] KING: Now must your conscience my acquittance seal,³⁸⁸ And you must put me in your heart for friend, Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,	³⁸⁸You must believe I am innocent.
(3005)	That he which hath your noble father slain Pursued my life. LAERTES: It well appears. But tell me Why you proceeded not against these feats, So criminal and so capital in nature,
(3010)	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 unsinow'd,³⁸⁹ But yet to me they are strong. The Queen his mother	³⁸⁹weak
(3015)	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,
(3020)	Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Work, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces; so that my arrows,
(3025)	Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, Would have reverted to my bow again, But not where I have aim'd them. LAERTES: And so have I a noble father lost; A sister driven into desperate terms,
(3030)	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: Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think That we are made of stuff so flat and dull
(3035)	That we can let our beard be shook³⁹⁰ with danger And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more. I lov'd your father, and we love ourself, And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-- [Enter a MESSENGER.] How now? What news?	³⁹⁰Pulling a man's beard was a sign of disrespect. Claudius is telling Laertes that he should not think Claudius would allow Hamlet's disrespectful and murderous behavior to go unpunished.
(3040)	MESSENGER: Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: This to your Majesty, this to the Queen. KING: From Hamlet? Who brought them? MESSENGER: Sailors, my lord, they say, I saw them not. They were given me by Claudio. He receiv'd them
(3045)	him that brought them. KING: Laertes, you shall hear them. --Leave us. [Exit MESSENGER.] [Reads] "High and mighty,You shall know I am set naked³⁹¹ on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes,	³⁹¹alone; without belongings
(3050)	when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto³⁹², recount the occasions of my sudden 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: Know you the hand?	³⁹²request to be allowed to tell my story
(3055)	KING: 'Tis Hamlet's character³⁹³: "Naked"! And in a postscript here, he says "alone." Can you devise me? LAERTES: I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come, It warms the very sickness in my heart	³⁹³handwriting ; signature
(3060)	That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, 'Thus didst thou.' KING: If it be so, Laertes-- As how should it be so? how otherwise?-- Will you be rul'd by me?
(3065)	LAERTES: Ay, my lord, So you will not o'errule me to a peace. KING: To thine own peace. If he be now return'd As checking at his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it, I will work him
(3070)	To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall; And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe; But even his mother shall uncharge the practice And call it accident.
(3075)	LAERTES: My lord, I will be rul'd, The rather if you could devise it so That I might be the organ. KING: It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
(3080)	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.
(3085)	LAERTES: What part is that, my lord? KING: A very riband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears Than settled age his sables and his weeds³⁹⁴,	³⁹⁴clothing
(3090)	Importing health and graveness. Two months since Here was a gentleman of Normandy: I've seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, And they can well on horseback, but this gallant Had witchcraft in't, he grew unto his seat;
(3095)	And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, As had he been incorps'd³⁹⁵ and demi-natur'd³⁹⁶ With the brave beast. So far he topp'd my thought That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, Come short of what he did.	³⁹⁵merged into one body ³⁹⁶become half of a creature crossbred from more than one animal
(3100)	LAERTES: A Norman was't? KING: A Norman. LAERTES: Upon my life, Lamord. KING: The very same. LAERTES: I know him well. He is the brooch³⁹⁷ indeed	³⁹⁷jeweled pin
(3105)	And gem of all the nation. KING: He made confession of you; And gave you such a masterly report For art and exercise in your defense, And for your rapier most especial,
(3110)	That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed If one could match you. The scrimers³⁹⁸of their nation He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you oppos'd them. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy	³⁹⁸fencers
(3115)	That he could nothing do but wish and beg Your sudden coming o'er to play with you. Now, out of this-- LAERTES: What out of this, my lord? KING: Laertes, was your father dear to you?
(3120)	Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart? LAERTES: Why ask you this? KING: Not that I think you did not love your father; But that I know love is begun by time,
(3125)	And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it; And nothing is at a like goodness still³⁹⁹;	³⁹⁹Nothing stays the same forever
(3130)	For goodness, growing to a plurisy⁴⁰⁰, Dies in his own too much. That we would do, We should do when we would; for this "would" changes, And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents,	⁴⁰⁰excess, abundance
(3135)	And then this "should" is like a spendthrift sigh⁴⁰¹, That hurts by easing. But to the quick o' the ulcer: Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake To show yourself your indeed father's son More than in words?	⁴⁰¹A sigh was supposed to draw blood from the heart.
(3140)	LAERTES: To cut his throat i' the church. KING: No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber: Hamlet return'd shall know you are come home.
(3145)	We'll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you, bring you in fine together And wager on your heads. He, being remiss⁴⁰², Most generous, and free from all contriving,	⁴⁰²naive, not cautious
(3150)	Will not peruse⁴⁰³ the foils; so that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice, Requite him for your father. LAERTES: I will do't,	⁴⁰³study
(3155)	And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword. I bought an unction⁴⁰⁴ of a mountebank⁴⁰⁵, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples⁴⁰⁶ that have virtue	⁴⁰⁴ointment ⁴⁰⁵charlatan, quack⁴⁰⁶plants with curing powers
(3160)	Under the moon, can save the thing from death This is but scratch'd withal. I'll touch my point With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly, It may be death. KING: Let's further think of this,
(3165)	Weigh what convenience both of time and means May fit us to our shape. If this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, 'Twere better not assay'd; therefore this project Should have a back or second, that might hold
(3170)	If this did blast in proof. Soft, let me see. We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings-- I ha't! When in your motion you are hot and dry,-- As make your bouts more violent to that end,--
(3175)	And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him A chalice for the nonce⁴⁰⁷; whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, Our purpose may hold there. But stay, what noise? [Enter QUEEN.]	⁴⁰⁷moment, opportunity
(3180)	QUEEN: One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes. LAERTES: Drown'd! O, where? QUEEN: There is a willow grows askaunt⁴⁰⁸ the brook, That shows his hoary⁴⁰⁹ leaves in the glassy stream;	⁴⁰⁸beside ⁴⁰⁹gray with age
(3185)	Therewith⁴¹⁰ fantastic garlands did she make Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples⁴¹¹, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cull-cold maids do dead men's fingers call them. There, on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds	⁴¹⁰from its branches ⁴¹¹English orchids that bloom in spring
(3190)	Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke; When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, Which time she chaunted snatches of old lauds⁴¹²;	⁴¹²songs of praise
(3195)	As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element. But long it could not be Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
(3200)	To muddy death. LAERTES: Alas, then she is drown'd? QUEEN: Drown'd, drown'd. LAERTES: Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet
(3205)	It⁴¹³ is our trick; Nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will; when these⁴¹⁴ are gone, The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord, I have a speech of fire that fain would blaze, But that this folly drowns it. [Exit.]	⁴¹³weeping ⁴¹⁴referring to tears
(3210)	KING: Let's follow, Gertrude. How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I this will give it start again, Therefore let's follow. [Exeunt.] This scene points out Claudius's cunning in turning Laertes's anger toward him into a plot against Hamlet. The news of Ophelia's drowning serves as another instance of Shakespeare's interest in the theme of appearances versus reality. It poses the question of whether her madness led to an accidental death or whether her grief caused her to commit suicide. He death also reignites Laertes's rage so that Claudius worries that the plan he hatched for a duel between Laertes and Hamlet might unravel. ACT V. TOP OF PAGE Scene I. A churchyard. [Enter two CLOWNS, with spades, and mattocks] FIRST CLOWN: Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully
(3215)	seeks her own salvation? SECOND CLOWN: I tell thee she is, therefore make her grave straight. The crowner⁴¹⁵ hath sate on her, and finds it Christian burial. FIRST CLOWN: How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense? SECOND CLOWN: Why, 'tis found so.	⁴¹⁵coroner; derived from Middle English word referring to officer of the Crown
(3220)	FIRST CLOWN: It must be se offendendo;⁴¹⁶it cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches-- it is to act, to do, and to perform, argal,⁴¹⁷ she drowned herself wittingly. SECOND CLOWN: Nay, but hear you, goodman delver--	⁴¹⁶the clown mistake with phrase; a play on term se defendendo ( self defense) ⁴¹⁷another wrong term by the clown who meant ergo, "therefore"
(3225)	FIRST CLOWN: 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 he⁴¹⁸, 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 life⁴¹⁹.	⁴¹⁸he will not ⁴¹⁹reference to a suicide case often cited in British courts
(3230)	SECOND CLOWN: But is this law? FIRST CLOWN: Ay, marry, is't--crowner's quest law. 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: Why, there thou say'st, and the more pity that great folk
(3235)	should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-- Christian.Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers: they hold up Adam's profession. SECOND CLOWN: Was he a gentleman?
(3240)	FIRST CLOWN: He was the first that ever bore arms. SECOND CLOWN: Why, he had none. FIRST CLOWN: What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? The Scripture says Adam digg'd: could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the
(3245)	purpose, confess thyself,-- SECOND CLOWN: Go to. FIRST CLOWN: What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? SECOND CLOWN: The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.
(3250)	FIRST CLOWN: I like thy wit well, in good faith. The gallows does well; but how does it well? It does well to those that do ill. Now, thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come SECOND CLOWN: Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter?
(3255)	FIRST CLOWN: Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.⁴²⁰ SECOND CLOWN: Marry, now I can tell. FIRST CLOWN: To't. SECOND CLOWN: Mass, I cannot tell. [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance.] FIRST CLOWN: Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will	⁴²⁰Let's unburden ourselves for the day.
(3260)	not mend his pace with beating, and when you are asked this question next, say "a grave-maker:" the houses he makes last till doomsday. Go, get thee in; fetch me a sup of liquor. [Exit SECOND CLOWN.] [SECOND CLOWN digs and sings.] "In youth when I did love, did love,
(3265)	Methought it was very sweet, To contract, O, the time for, ah, my behove⁴²¹, O, methought there was nothing meet." HAMLET: Has this fellow no feeling of his business? He sings at grave-making.	⁴²¹the clown sings a jumbled version of a poem
(3270)	HORATIO: Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. HAMLET: 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. FIRST CLOWN: [Sings.] "But age, with his stealing steps Hath claw'd me in his clutch,
(3275)	And hath shipped me into the land, As if I had never been such." [Throws up a shovelful of earth with a skull in it.] HAMLET: That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the knave jowls⁴²² it to the ground, as if 'twere Cain's jawbone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate⁴²³ of a politician,	⁴²² throws ⁴²³ head or skull
(3280)	which this ass now o'erreaches, one that would circumvent God, might it not? HORATIO: It might, my lord. HAMLET: Or of a courtier, which could say "Good morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, sweet lord?" This might be my Lord Such-a-one, that
(3285)	praised my Lord Such-a-one's horse when he meant to beg it, might it not? HORATIO: Ay, my lord. HAMLET: Why, e'en so, and now my Lady Worm's, chopless,⁴²⁴ and knocked about the mazzard⁴²⁵ with a sexton's spade. Here's fine revolution,	⁴²⁴ missing the lower jawbone ⁴²⁵head
(3290)	and⁴²⁶ we had the trick⁴²⁷ to see't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding but to play at loggets⁴²⁸ with 'em? Mine ache to think on't. FIRST CLOWN: [Sings.] "A pickaxe and a spade, a spade, For and a shrouding sheet;	⁴²⁶if ⁴²⁷skill ⁴²⁸an old English game where wood pieces were tossed at a stake
(3295)	O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet." [Throws up another skull]. HAMLET: There's another. Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities⁴²⁹ now, his quillities⁴³⁰, his cases, his tenures⁴³¹, and his tricks? why does he suffer this mad knave now to knock	⁴²⁹arguments ⁴³⁰skills ⁴³¹wealth
(3300)	him about the sconce⁴³² with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine⁴³³ of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine	⁴³²head ⁴³³end
(3305)	pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures⁴³⁴?The very conveyances⁴³⁵ of his lands will scarcely lie in this box⁴³⁶,and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?	⁴³⁴legal document cut into two pairs which fit together on a serrated edge; may also be a play on the idea of teeth of the skull ⁴³⁵documents relating to transfer to prosperity ⁴³⁶the skull itself
(3310)	HORATIO: Not a jot more, my lord. HAMLET: Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? HORATIO: Ay, my lord, And of calf-skins too. HAMLET: They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow. Whose grave's this, sirrah?
(3315)	FIRST CLOWN: Mine, sir. [Sings.] "O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet." HAMLET: I think it be thine indeed; for thou liest in't. FIRST CLOWN: You lie out on't, sir, and therefore 'tis not yours: for my part,
(3320)	I do not lie in't, yet it is mine. HAMLET: Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine. 'Tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest. FIRST CLOWN: 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 't will away again from me to you. HAMLET: What man dost thou dig it for?
(3325)	FIRST CLOWN: For no man, sir. HAMLET: What woman then? FIRST CLOWN: For none neither. HAMLET: Who is to be buried in't? FIRST CLOWN: One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead.
(3330)	HAMLET: How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or equivocation⁴³⁷ will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, these three years I have took note of it: the age is grown so picked⁴³⁸that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls his kibe.--How long hast thou been a grave-maker?	⁴³⁷deceit ⁴³⁸polished
(3335)	FIRST CLOWN: Of all the days i' the year, I came to't that day that our last King Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. HAMLET: How long is that since? FIRST CLOWN: Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the very day that young Hamlet was born--he that is mad, and sent
(3340)	into England. HAMLET: Ay, marry, why was he sent into England? FIRST CLOWN: Why, because he was mad. He shall recover his wits there, or if he do not, it's no great matter there. HAMLET: Why?
(3345)	FIRST CLOWN: 'Twill not be seen in him there, there the men are as mad as he. HAMLET: How came he mad? FIRST CLOWN: Very strangely, they say. HAMLET: How strangely? FIRST CLOWN: Faith, e'en with losing his wits.
(3350)	HAMLET: Upon what ground? FIRST CLOWN: Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years. HAMLET: How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot? FIRST CLOWN: Faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we have many
(3355)	pocky corses that will scarce hold the laying in,--he will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner will last you nine year. HAMLET: Why he more than another? FIRST CLOWN: Why, sir, his hide is so tann'd with his trade that he will
(3360)	keep out water a great while, and your water is a sore decayer of your whoreson dead body. Here's a skull now hath lain in the earth three-and-twenty years. HAMLET: Whose was it? FIRST CLOWN: A whoreson mad fellow's it was. Whose do you think it was?
(3365)	HAMLET: Nay, I know not. FIRST CLOWN: A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! He pour'd a flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the King's jester. HAMLET: This? [Takes the scull.]
(3370)	FIRST CLOWN: E'en that. HAMLET: 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 rises at it. Here hung those
(3375)	lips that I have kiss'd 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 chop-fallen⁴³⁹? Now, get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this	⁴³⁹(1) jawless (2) dejected
(3380)	favor she must come; make her laugh at that.--Priythee, Horatio, tell me one thing. HORATIO: What's that, my lord? HAMLET: Dost thou think Alexander looked a this fashion i' the earth? HORATIO: E'en so.
(3385)	HAMLET: And smelt so? Pah! [Puts down the skull.] HORATIO: E'en so, my lord. HAMLET: To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it stopping a bung-hole?
(3390)	HORATIO: 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. HAMLET No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam⁴⁴⁰; and why of that loam whereto he	⁴⁴⁰a muddy mix of wet clay, sand, straw, etc.
(3395)	was converted might they not stop a beer-barrel? Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. O, that that earth which kept the world in awe Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!
(3400)	But soft, but soft awhile--here comes the King. [Enter PRIESTS, &c., in procession; the corpse of OPHELIA, LAERTES, and MOURNERS following a doctor of Divinity; KING, QUEEN, their Trains, &c.] The Queen, the courtiers. Who is that they follow? And with such maimed rites?⁴⁴¹ This doth betoken The corse they follow did with desperate hand Foredo⁴⁴² it own life: 'twas of some estate.	⁴⁴¹ so little pomp or ceremony ⁴⁴²take
(3405)	Couch we⁴⁴³ a while and mark. [Retiring with HORATIO.] LAERTES: What ceremony else? HAMLET: That is Laertes, A very noble youth. Mark. LAERTES: What ceremony else?	⁴⁴³we must hide
(3410)	DOCTOR: Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful; And but that great command o'ersways the order, She should in ground unsanctified been lodg'd Till the last trumpet; for charitable prayers,
(3415)	Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her, Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants⁴⁴⁴, Her maiden strewments⁴⁴⁵, and the bringing home Of bell and burial. LAERTES: Must there no more be done?	⁴⁴⁴floral crown ⁴⁴⁵flowers that were spread on the grave of an unmarried girl
(3420)	DOCTOR: 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: Lay her i' the earth,
(3425)	And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring!--I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall my sister be When though liest howling. HAMLET: What, the fair Ophelia!
(3430)	QUEEN: Sweets⁴⁴⁶ to the sweet, farewell! [Scattering flowers.] I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife. I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave. LAERTES: O, treble woe	⁴⁴⁶blooms
(3435)	Fall ten times treble on that cursed head Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Depriv'd thee of! Hold off the earth a while, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms. [Leaps into the grave.] Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead,
(3440)	Till of this flat a mountain you have made, To o'ertop old Pelion or the skyish head Of blue Olympus⁴⁴⁷. HAMLET: [Advancing.] What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow	⁴⁴⁷Greek mountains; Olympus, the highest peak, was said to be the home of the gods
(3445)	Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane! [Leaps into the grave after LAERTES.] LAERTES: The devil take thy soul! [Grappling with him.] HAMLET: Thou pray'st not well.
(3450)	I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat. For, though I am not splenetive⁴⁴⁸ and rash, Yet have I in me something dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear. Hold off thy hand! KING: Pluck them asunder.	⁴⁴⁸ irritable
(3455)	QUEEN: Hamlet! Hamlet! ALL: Gentlemen! HORATIO: Good my lord, be quiet. [The ATTENDANTS part them, and they come out of the grave.] HAMLET: Why, I will fight with him upon this theme Until my eyelids will no longer wag.
(3460)	QUEEN: O my son, what theme? HAMLET: I lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love Make up my sum.What wilt thou do for her? KING: O, he is mad, Laertes.
(3465)	QUEEN: For love of God, forbear him. HAMLET: 'Swounds, show me what thou't do: Woo't weep? Woo't fight? Woo't fast? Woo't tear thyself? Woo't drink up eisel? eat a crocodile? I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?
(3470)	To outface me with leaping in her grave? Be buried quick with her, and so will I: And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone⁴⁴⁹,	⁴⁴⁹the sun
(3475)	Make Ossa⁴⁵⁰ like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth, I'll rant as well as thou. QUEEN: This is mere madness: And thus a while the fit will work on him; Anon, as patient as the female dove,	⁴⁵⁰Greek mountains near Pelion and Olympus
(3480)	When that her golden couplets⁴⁵¹ are disclosed, His silence will sit drooping. HAMLET: Hear you, sir, What is the reason that you use me thus? I lov'd you ever. but it is no matter.	⁴⁵¹down-covered, baby chicks
(3485)	Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. [Exit HAMLET.] KING: I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him. [Exit HORATIO.] Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech, [To LAERTES.] We'll put the matter to the present push.--
(3490)	Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. This grave shall have a living monument. An hour of quiet shortly shall we see; Till then in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt.] As the play's concluding act, Act V's function is to draw events to a close, to answer questions of plot, and to resolve remaining issues. The first scene sets custom and Church rule against what is just. The banter between the clowns and, later, Laertes's confrontation with the funeral official explains why Ophelia is denied full burial rites though she was a pure and innocent soul. The seemingly foolish conversation of the clowns should not be discounted as simply comic relief. It points to hypocrisy of the time in which the play was written. Ophelia, as the obedient daughter, has turned away love and then lost the father she adored. Her grief equals and mimics Hamlet's. Both have murdered fathers, and both are believed to be mad. Is it appearance or reality? Hamlet has questioned on several occasions whether it is better "to be or not to be," but he has not been able to act upon those suicidal thoughts. His indecision on this matter and his inaction in carrying out his revenge have contributed to Ophelia's death. Scene II. A hall in the Castle. [Enter HAMLET and HORATIO.] HAMLET: So much for this, sir: now let me see the other--
(3495)	You do remember all the circumstance? HORATIO: Remember it, my lord! HAMLET: Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines⁴⁵² in the bilboes⁴⁵³. Rashly--	⁴⁵² rebels against authority ⁴⁵³shackles or chains
(3500)	And prais'd be rashness for it--let us know Our indiscretion sometime serves us well When our deep plots do pall⁴⁵⁴ and that should teach us There's a divinity that shapes our ends⁴⁵⁵, Rough-hew them how we will--	⁴⁵⁴weaken, amount to nothing ⁴⁵⁵determines our fate
(3505)	HORATIO: That is most certain. HAMLET: Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark Grop'd I to find out them: had my desire, Finger'd their packet; and in fine withdrew
(3510)	To mine own room again, making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio, Ah royal knavery! an exact command, Larded⁴⁵⁶ with many several sorts of reasons,	⁴⁵⁶embellished
(3515)	Importing Denmark's health and England's too, With, ho, such bugs and goblins in my life, That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off.
(3520)	HORATIO: Is't possible? HAMLET: Here's the commission: read it at more leisure. But wilt thou bear me how I did proceed? HORATIO: I beseech you. HAMLET: Being thus benetted round with villanies,
(3525)	Or I could make a prologue to my brains, They had begun the play. I sat me down; Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair. I once did hold it, as our statists⁴⁵⁷ do, A baseness⁴⁵⁸ to write fair, and labour'd much	⁴⁵⁷state officials⁴⁵⁸a skill suitable for men of low rank
(3530)	How to forget that learning; but, sir, now It did me yeoman's⁴⁵⁹ service. Wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote? HORATIO: Ay, good my lord. HAMLET: An earnest conjuration from the King,	⁴⁵⁹loyal, valiant service
(3535)	As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should still her wheaten garland wear And stand a comma 'tween their amities, And many such-like as's of great charge,
(3540)	That, on the view and knowing of these contents, Without debatement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shrivingtime⁴⁶⁰ allow'd. HORATIO: How was this seal'd?	⁴⁶⁰time for asking forgiveness
(3555)	HAMLET: Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. I had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal: Folded the writ up in the form of the other Subscrib'd it, gave't the impression, plac'd it safely,
(3550)	The changeling⁴⁶¹ never known⁴⁶². Now, the next day Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent Thou knowest already. HORATIO: So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't⁴⁶³. HAMLET: Why, man, they did make love to this employment,	⁴⁶¹exchanged letters ⁴⁶² the switch was undiscovered ⁴⁶³ go to their death
(3555)	They are not near my conscience. Their defeat Does by their own insinuation grow. 'Tis dangerous when the baser⁴⁶⁴ nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites.	⁴⁶⁴lower, unnoble
(3560)	HORATIO: Why, what a king is this! HAMLET: Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon-- He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother, Popp'd in between the election⁴⁶⁵ and my hopes; Thrown out his angle for my proper life,	⁴⁶⁵took over as King of Denmark (and robbed me of my rightful title)
(3555)	And with such coz'nage--is't not perfect conscience To quit him⁴⁶⁶ with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd To let this canker⁴⁶⁷ of our nature come In further evil? HORATIO: It must be shortly known to him from England	⁴⁶⁶will get back at him ⁴⁶⁷ something that corrupts or destroys
(3570)	What is the issue of the business there. HAMLET: It will be short; the interim is mine, And a man's life is no more⁴⁶⁸ than to say "one."⁴⁶⁹ But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself,	⁴⁶⁸killing a person can be done quickly ⁴⁶⁹completing the phrase above, life can be taken as quick as you can say "one"
(3575)	For by the image of my cause I see The portraiture of his. I'll court his favors. But sure the bravery of his grief did put me Into a towering passion. HORATIO: Peace, who comes here? [Enter OSRIC a courtier.]
(3580)	OSRIC: Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. HAMLET: I humbly thank you, sir. Dost know this water-fly? HORATIO: No, my good lord. HAMLET: 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
(3585)	his crib shall stand at the King's mess⁴⁷⁰. 'Tis a chough⁴⁷¹, but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt. OSRIC: Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. HAMLET: I will receive it with all diligence of spirit. Put your	⁴⁷⁰Osric gains entrance to the King's circle because he is wealthy, not because he is worthy. ⁴⁷¹ like a parrot, will mimic what he is told
(3590)	bonnet to his right use; 'tis for the head. OSRIC: I thank your lordship, t'is very hot. HAMLET: No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly. OSRIC: It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. HAMLET: Methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.
(3595)	OSRIC: Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry--as 'twere--I cannot tell how. My lord, his Majesty bade me signify to you that he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter-- HAMLET: I beseech you, remember. [HAMLET moves him to put on his hat.]
(3600)	OSRIC: Nay, good my lord, for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is newly come to court Laertes, believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and great showing⁴⁷²: indeed; to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry⁴⁷³; for you shall find in him the	⁴⁷²handsome appearance ⁴⁷³ model gentlemanliness
(3605)	continent of what part⁴⁷⁴ a gentleman would see. HAMLET: Sir, his definement suffers no perdition⁴⁷⁵ in you, though I know to divide him inventorially would dizzy the arithmetic of memory, and yet but yaw⁴⁷⁶ neither, in respect of his quick sail. But, in the verity of extolment⁴⁷⁷, I take him to be a soul of great	⁴⁷⁴one possessing a gentleman's demeanar ⁴⁷⁵ loss ⁴⁷⁶ nautical term, to steer off course ⁴⁷⁷ praise
(3610)	article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction⁴⁷⁸ of him, his semblable⁴⁷⁹ is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage⁴⁸⁰, nothing more. OSRIC: Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. HAMLET: The concernancy⁴⁸¹, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more	⁴⁷⁸ the very example of quality ⁴⁷⁹he is without equal (only his mirror image could be as great) ⁴⁸⁰ shadow ⁴⁸¹ "What is your point, sir?"
(3615)	rawer breath⁴⁸²? OSRIC: Sir? HORATIO: Is't not possible to understand in another tongue⁴⁸³? You will to't, sir, really. HAMLET: What imports the nomination of this gentleman?	⁴⁸²having no words to adequately describe him ⁴⁸³ "Do we speak the same language?" Horatio criticizes Osric for not understanding.
(3620)	OSRIC: Of Laertes? HORATIO: His purse is empty already: all 's golden words are spent. HAMLET: Of him, sir. OSRIC: I know you are not ignorant-- HAMLET: I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not
(3625)	much approve me. Well, sir? OSRIC: You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is-- HAMLET: I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but to know a man well were to know himself. OSRIC: I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on
(3630)	him by them, in his meed⁴⁸⁴ he's unfellowed. HAMLET: What's his weapon? OSRIC: Rapier and dagger. HAMLET: That's two of his weapon--but well. OSRIC: The King, sir, hath wager'd with him six Barbary horses,	⁴⁸⁴skill
(3635)	against the which he has impawned⁴⁸⁵, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers⁴⁸⁶, and so. Three of the carriages⁴⁸⁷, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.	⁴⁸⁵put up the prize for the bet ⁴⁸⁶ straps attached to a belt around the waist for holding swords ⁴⁸⁷gun holders
(3640)	HAMLET: What call you the carriages? HORATIO: I knew you must be edified by the margent⁴⁸⁸ ere you had done. OSRIC: The carriages, sir, are the hangers. HAMLET: 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.	⁴⁸⁸would ask for details, as in a footnote
(3645)	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 all impawned, as you call it? OSRIC: The King, sir, hath laid⁴⁸⁹, sir, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits⁴⁹⁰; he hath	⁴⁸⁹bet ⁴⁹⁰ Because of his known skill, Laertes is given a handicap and to win must have a greater margin of hits than Hamlet would need.
(3650)	laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer. HAMLET: How if I answer no? OSRIC: I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. HAMLET: Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his Majesty,
(3655)	it is the breathing time of day with me⁴⁹¹. Let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits. OSRIC: Shall I deliver you e'en so?	⁴⁹¹my time for walking and exercising
(3660)	HAMLET: To this effect, sir--after what flourish your nature will. OSRIC: I commend my duty⁴⁹² to your lordship. HAMLET: Yours. [Exit OSRIC.] He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for 's turn.	⁴⁹²accept my respect
(3665)	HORATIO: This lapwing⁴⁹³ runs away with the shell on his head. HAMLET: He did comply sir, with his dug before he suck'd it. Thus has he, and many more of the same breed that I know the drossy⁴⁹⁴ age dotes on, only got the tune of the time, and out of an habit of encounter, a kind of yesty⁴⁹⁵ collection⁴⁹⁶, which carries them through and	⁴⁹³a chick that runs around with part of the shell still on its head after it hatches. Hamlet makes fun of Osric who has been putting on and taking off his hat. ⁴⁹⁴ worthless ⁴⁹⁵trivial ⁴⁹⁶ compilation of phrases ⁴⁹⁷ well-selected
(3670)	through the most profound and winnowed⁴⁹⁷ opinions, and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. [Enter a LORD.] LORD: My lord, his Majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him that you attend him in the hall. He sends to know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you
(3675)	will take longer time. HAMLET: I am constant to my purposes, they follow the King's pleasure. If his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or whensoever, provided I be so able as now. LORD: The King and Queen and all are coming down.
(3680)	HAMLET: In happy time. LORD: The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play. HAMLET: She well instructs me. [Exit LORD.] HORATIO: You will lose, my lord.
(3685)	HAMLET: I do not think so; since he went into France I have been in continual practice. I shall win at the odds. Thou wouldst not think how ill all's here about my heart--but it is no matter. HORATIO: Nay, good my lord-- HAMLET: It is but foolery, but it is such a kind of gain-giving⁴⁹⁸ as	⁴⁹⁸trivial concern
(3690)	would perhaps trouble a woman. HORATIO: If your mind dislike any thing, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit. HAMLET: Not a whit, we defy augury. There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be
(3695)	not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come-- the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught⁴⁹⁹ he leaves, knows what is't to leave betimes⁵⁰⁰, let it be. [Enter Trumpets, Drums, and Officers with cushions, foils, daggers; KING, QUEEN, LAERTES, OSRIC, and NOBLES] KING: Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. [The KING puts LAERTES' hand into HAMLET'S.] HAMLET: Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong,	⁴⁹⁹any part ⁵⁰⁰ recognizes when he should let go
(3700)	But pardon't, as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, And you must needs have heard how I am punish'd With sore distraction what I have done That might your nature, honour, and exception
(3705)	Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet! If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away, And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
(3710)	Who does it, then? His madness. If't be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy. Sir, in this audience, Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil⁵⁰¹	⁵⁰¹my promise that I meant to do no harm
(3715)	Free me so far in your most generous thoughts That I have shot my arrow o'er the house And hurt my brother. LAERTES: I am satisfied in nature⁵⁰², Whose motive in this case should stir me most	⁵⁰²It is my personality to seek revenge.
(3720)	To my revenge, but in my terms of honor⁵⁰³ I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement Till by some elder masters of known honor I have a voice and precedent of peace To keep my name ungor'd. But till that time	⁵⁰³But as I live by a code of honor, I will hold off.
(3725)	I do receive your offer'd love like love, And will not wrong it. HAMLET: I embrace it freely; And will this brothers' wager frankly play. Give us the foils. Come on.
(3730)	LAERTES: Come, one for me. HAMLET: I'll be your foil⁵⁰⁴, Laertes; in mine ignorance Your skill shall like a star in the darkest night Stick fiery off indeed. LAERTES: You mock me, sir.	⁵⁰⁴a circle of metal protection at the held end of a sword; a play on the word's other meaning --an opposite, one who makes another seem better by the contrast of the two
(3735)	HAMLET: No, by this hand. KING: Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? HAMLET: Very well, my lord. Your Grace has laid the odds a' the weaker side.
(3740)	KING: I do not fear it; I have seen you both; But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. LAERTES: This is too heavy, let me see another. HAMLET: This likes me well. These foils have all a length? [They prepare to play.] OSRIC: Ay, my good lord.
(3745)	KING: Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire. The King shall drink to Hamlet's better breath,
(3750)	And in the cup an union⁵⁰⁵ shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups, And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer without,	⁵⁰⁵a large and precious pearl
(3755)	The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth, "Now the King drinks to Hamlet." Come, begin; And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. HAMLET: Come on, sir. LAERTES: Come, my lord. [They play and HAMLET scores a hit.]
(3760)	HAMLET: One. LAERTES: No. HAMLET: Judgment. OSRIC: A hit, a very palpable hit. LAERTES: Well, again.
(3765)	KING: Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine, Here's to thy health! Give him the cup. [Trumpets sound, and cannon shot off within.] HAMLET: I'll play this bout first; set it by a while. Come.[They play again.]Another hit; what say you? LAERTES: A touch, a touch, I do confess't.
(3770)	KING: Our son shall win. QUEEN: He's fat⁵⁰⁶, and scant of breath. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows. The Queen carouses⁵⁰⁷ to thy fortune, Hamlet. HAMLET: Good madam!	⁵⁰⁶perspiring⁵⁰⁷toasts
(3775)	KING: Gertrude, do not drink. QUEEN: I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me. KING: [Aside.] It is the poison'd cup, it is too late. HAMLET: I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. QUEEN: Come, let me wipe thy face.
(3780)	LAERTES: My lord, I'll hit him now. KING: I do not think't. LAERTES: [Aside.] And yet it is almost against my conscience. HAMLET: Come, for the third, Laertes, you so but dally. I pray you pass with your best violence:
(3785)	I am sure you make a wanton⁵⁰⁸ of me. LAERTES: Say you so? come on. [They play.] OSRIC: Nothing, neither way. LAERTES: Have at you now! [LAERTES wounds HAMLET; then, in scuffling, they change rapiers.] KING: Part them; they are incens'd.	⁵⁰⁸a small child; Hamlet implies Laertes is performing poorly to let him win
(3790)	HAMLET: Nay, come again! [HAMLET wounds LAERTES. The QUEEN falls.] OSRIC: Look to the Queen there, ho! HORATIO: They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord? OSRIC: How is't, Laertes? LAERTES: Why, as a woodcock to my own springe⁵⁰⁹, Osric:	⁵⁰⁹trap
(3795)	I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. HAMLET: How does the Queen? KING: She swoons to see them bleed. QUEEN: No, no, the drink, the drink--O my dear Hamlet!-- The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. [Dies.]
(3800)	HAMLET: O villainy!--Ho, let the door be lock'd! Treachery! Seek it out. [LAERTES falls.] LAERTES: It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain. No medicine in the world can do thee good; In thee there is not half an hour of life.
(3805)	The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated and envenom'd. The foul practice Hath turn'd itself on me. Lo here I lie, Never to rise again. Thy mother's poison'd. I can no more--the King, the King's to blame.
(3810)	HAMLET: The point envenom'd too! Then, venom, to thy work. [Wounds the KING.] ALL: Treason! treason! KING: O, yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt. HAMLET: Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,
(3815)	Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother. [KING dies.] LAERTES: He is justly serv'd, It is a poison temper'd by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet.
(3820)	Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me! [Dies.] HAMLET: Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu! You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
(3825)	That are but mutes or audience⁵¹⁰ to this act, Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, Death, Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you-- But let it be. Horatio, I am dead, Thou livest. Report me and my cause aright	⁵¹⁰those that are stunned into silence by what they have seen
(3830)	To the unsatisfied. HORATIO: Never believe it: I am more an antique Roman⁵¹¹ than a Dane. Here's yet some liquor left. HAMLET: As thou'rt a man,	⁵¹¹allusion to the Roman soldiers who would give their lives in allegiance to their Emperor. Horatio says he prefers to die with Hamlet.
(3835)	Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I'll have't. O God, 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 a while,
(3840)	And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. [A march afar off, and shot within.] What warlike noise is this? [OSRIC goes to the door and returns.] OSRIC: Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives
(3845)	This warlike volley. HAMLET: O, I die, Horatio, The potent poison quite o'er-crows⁵¹² my spirit. I cannot live to hear the news from England, But I do prophesy the election lights	⁵¹²defeats
(3850)	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: Now cracks a noble heart.--Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! [March within.]
(3855)	Why does the drum come hither? [Enter FORTINBRAS with the English AMBASSADORS, and others.] FORTINBRAS: Where is this sight? HORATIO: What is it you will see? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. FORTINBRAS: This quarry cries on havoc⁵¹³. O proud death,	⁵¹³This many dead reflects a massacre.
(3860)	What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes at a shot So bloodily hast struck? FIRST AMBASSADORS: The sight is dismal; And our affairs from England come too late.
(3865)	The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: Where should we have our thanks? HORATIO: Not from his mouth,
(3870)	Had it the ability of life to thank you: He never gave commandment for their death. But since so jump upon this bloody question, You from the Polack wars, and you from England, Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies
(3875)	High on a stage be placed to the view, And let me speak to the yet unknowing world How these things came about. So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgments, casual⁵¹⁴ slaughters,	⁵¹⁴chance, unplanned
(3880)	Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause, And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I Truly deliver. FORTINBRAS: Let us haste to hear it,
(3885)	And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune. I have some rights, of memory⁵¹⁵ in this kingdom, Which now to claim my vantage⁵¹⁶ doth invite me. HORATIO: Of that I shall have also cause to speak,	⁵¹⁵as should be remembered ⁵¹⁶position, place on the throne
(3890)	And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more⁵¹⁷. But let this same be presently perform'd Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance On plots and errors happen. FORTINBRAS: Let four captains	⁵¹⁷Hamlet's choice (as he lies dying) of Fortinbras to be king will carry much weight.
(3895)	Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, For he was likely, had he been put on⁵¹⁸, To have prov'd most royal: and, for his passage⁵¹⁹, The soldiers' music and the rite of war Speak loudly for him.	⁵¹⁸put to the test (had he been king) ⁵¹⁹funeral
(3900)	Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss⁵²⁰. Go, bid the soldiers shoot. [Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after the which a peal of ordinance is shot off.] Scene two pulls the remaining characters together for a final time, and the various plots coincide. Because the audience has been an observer to the scheme by Claudius and Laertes, tension is increased by the dramatic irony of knowing what will happen when Gertrude proposes a toast to her son. Despite his treachery, Claudius does seem to have loved Gertrude, but he is left powerless to save her without giving himself away. At play's end, nine lives have been lost (including King Hamlet's before the play began), and the underlying treachery is made known to everyone. So too are the deceptions carried out throughout the play. The question about the cost of revenge is answered: it is very high and generally sucks the avenger into behavior as treacherous as that which he wishes to avenge. For many, the issue revolves around Hamlet's nature. Did the problem become so widespread because his great intellect pushed him to weigh every thought and kept him from acting on any, or is revenge destructive under all circumstances? Considered one of the greatest dramas in the English language, Hamlet remains significant today because it presents universal themes about human nature.	⁵²⁰would be expected on the battlefield but is very wrong in this place