Ham. Ay, sir, but, While the grass grows, | How in my words soever she be shent, -the proverb is something musty. To give them seals § never, my soul, consent ! 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 ? Guil. O, my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly. Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? Guil. My lord, I cannot. Guil. Believe me, I cannot. Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord. Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages, with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops. Guil. But these cannot I command to any utterance of harmony; I have not the skill. Ham. 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 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 God bless you, sir! Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. Ham. Do you see yonder cloud,that's almost in shape of a camel? Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed. Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel. Pol. Very like a whale. Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by. They fool me to the top of my bentt. -I will come by and by. Pol. I will say so. [Evit POLONIUs. Ham. By and by is easily said. Leave me, friends. [Exeunt Ros. GUIL. HOR., &c. 'Tis now the very witching time of night When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out [hot blood, Contagion to this world: Now could I drink And do such business as the bitter day Would quake to look on. Soft; now to my mother. O, heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever I will speak daggers to her, but use none; [Exit. SCENE III. A Room in the same. Enter King, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN. STERN. King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with ns, [you; To let his madness range. Therefore, prepare I your commission will forthwith despatch, And he to England shall along with you; The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so near us, as doth hourly grow Out of his lanes || . Guil. We will ourselves provide: Most holy and religious fear it is, To keep those many many bodies safe, That live, and feed, upon your majesty. Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound, Are mortised and adjoin'd; which, when it For we will fetters put upon this fear, We will baste us. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDEN STERN. Enter POLONIUS. Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's Behind the arras ¶ I'll convey myself, [closet: 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 t Reproved. || Lunacies. . Tapestry. 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 offence? In the corrupted currents of this world, Offence's gilded 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 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence. What then? what rents? Try what repentance can: What can it not? Yet what can it, when one cannot repent? O wretched state! O bosom, black as death! O limed soul; that struggling to be free, Art more engaged! Help, angels, make assay! [of steel; Bow, stubborn knees! and heart, with strings Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe; All may be well! [Retires and Kneels. Enter HAMLET. Ham. 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 revenged? That would be scann'd +: A villain kills my father; and, for that, Why, this is hire and salary §, not revenge. And how his audit stands who knows, save [hent: Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid Then trip him, that his heels may kick at [Exit. The King rises and advances. King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here. Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. Ham. Mother, you have my father much Queen. Have you forgot me? No, by the rood ¶, not so: You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; [mother. And,-'would it were not so!-you are my Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that [Exit. + Should be considered. Seize him at a more horrid time. • Caught as with bird-lime. Queen. What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? Ham. Yea, this solidity and compound mass, Queen. Ah me! what act! That roars so loud, and thunders in the indext? Ham. Look here, upon this picture, and on this; The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. Here is your husband, like a mildew'd ear, Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten T on this moor? Ha! have you eyes? You cannot call it love; for, at your age, Would step from this to this? Sense**, sure, was't, all, That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, And reason panders will. ***Greasy. That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by The important acting of your dread command? O, say! Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. But, look! amazement on thy mother sits: O, step between her and her fighting soul; Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works; Speak to her, Hamlet. Ham. How is it with you, lady! Queen. Alas! how is't with you? 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 excrements, Starts up, and stands on end. O, gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look! Ham. On him! on him!-Look you, how pale he glares! [stones, His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to Would make them capable¶¶¶.-Do not look upon me; Lest, with this piteons action, you convert My father in his habit as he lived! i Index of contents prefixed to a book ¶ To grow fat. ** Sensation. Be so stupid. TT Colour. Imagination. 65 Without. +++ Mimic. The bair of animals is excrementitious; that is, without life or sensation. ¶¶¶ Intelligent. **** Actions.. tttt Perhaps. Look, where he goes, even now, out at the My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it And when you are desirous to be bless'd, SCENE I. The same. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.- Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed; Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse; And let him, for a pair of reechy || kisses, Make you to ravel all this matter out, [breats Queen. Be thou assured, if words be made of And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. Ham. I must to England; you know that? Queen. Alack, I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on. Ham. There's letters seal'd: and my two school-fellows, Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'dii,— They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery: Let it work; For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer [hard, Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go But I will delve one yard below their miues, And blow them at the moon: 0, 'tis most sweet, When in one line two crafts directly meet.This man shall set me packing. I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room :Mother, good night.-Indeed, this counsellor Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, Who was in life a foolish prating knave. Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you :Good night, mother. [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS. ACT IV. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit, O heavy deed! † Bend. Toad. A term of endearment. ** Cat. + Experiments. Blown up with his own bomb. . His liberty is full of threats to ali; This mad young man: but, so much was our love, We would not understand what was most fit; O'er whom his very madness, like some ore, Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, Ham. Safely stowed,-[Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! lord Hamlet!] But soft!-what noise? who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ham. Do not believe it. Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge!-what replication should be made by the son of a king? ed, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. Ros. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it: A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing Guil. A thing, my lord? Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after §. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another Room in the same. Enter King attended. King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose? Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen? King. At supper? Where? Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only em peror 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 service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. King. Alas, alas! Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. King. What dost thou mean by this? Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar. king. Where is Polonius? Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants. Ham. He will stay till you come. Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord?' the other place yourself. Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: When he needs what you have glean† Mine. • Company. + Mark. [Exeunt Attendants. § A sport among children. |