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

[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends; 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, And hit the woundless air.-O, come away! My soul is full of discord, and dismay.

b

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Another Room in the Same.

Enter HAMLet.

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. Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body?

Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. Ros. Tell us where 'tis ; that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel.

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

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? Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? 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 gleaned, 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 thingGuil. A thing, my lord!

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Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, [Exeunt.

and all after.

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!
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, th' offender's scourge is weigh'd,
But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even,

This sudden sending him away must seem
Deliberate pause: diseases, desperate grown,
By desperate appliance are reliev'd,

a The blank was the mark aimed at.-b "Woundless," 1. e.. Invulnerable. "Replication," i. e., reply.-d "Hide fox," the juvenile sport of hide and seek.

Enter ROSENCRANTZ.

Or not at all.-How now! what hath befallen?
Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord,
We cannot get from him.
King.
But where is he?
Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your
King. Bring him before us.
[pleasure.
Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord.

Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN.
King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius?
Ham. At supper.

King. At supper! Where?

Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of palated worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat our selves 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 bath 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 bim i'the other place yourself. 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.

[Exeunt Attendants.
King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,
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,
Th' associates tend, and every thing is bent
For England.
Ham. For England?

King.

Ham.

Ay, Hamlet. Good King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub that sees them.-But, come, England!-Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. Ham. My mother: father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh; Come, for England!

for

aboard:

and

so, my

mother,

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King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night. Away, for every thing is seal'd and done, That else leans on th' affair: pray you, make haste [Exeunt Ros. and Gen And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught, (As my great power thereof may give thee sense, Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us) thou may'st not coldly see Our sovereign process, which imports at full, By letters conjuring to that effect, The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; For like the hectic in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done, Howe'er my hopes, my joys were ne'er begun. [Ent

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Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier?

Cap. 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.
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.
Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd. [ducats,
Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand
Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace,
That inward breaks, and shows no cause without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, sir. [Exit Captain.
Ros.
Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I'll be with you straight. Go a little before.
[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,

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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,

[dom,

To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on th' event,-
A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wis-
And ever three parts coward,-I do not know
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,
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,
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,

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Enter Queen, HORATIO, and a Gentleman.

Queen. I will not speak with her.

Gent. She is importunate; indeed, distract:
Her mood will needs be pitied.
Queen.

What would she have?
Gent. She speaks much of her father; says, she
hears,
[heart;
There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her
Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,
That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing,
Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;
Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures yield

them,

Indeed would make one think, there might be thought,
Though nothing sure, yet much munhappily.
Hor. 'Twere good she were spoken with, for she
may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.
Queen. Let her come in.- [Exit HORATIO
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.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA, 3 distracted. Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark? Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

Oph. How should I your true love know [Singing. From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal ° shoon.

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"A plot," i. e.. a plot of ground- Continent means here that which contains.- Enviously," i e., spitefully."To collection," i. e., to collect or draw conclusions from "In his eye," i. e., in his presence-b" Market," i. e., her speech." Aim," ie., guess.-m "Unhappily," i. e., misprofit." Such large discourse," i. e., such great power of chievously.-"Toy," i. e., trifle.-"Shoon," i. e., shoes. comprehension. "To fust," i. e., to grow mouldy.-p" Larded," i. e., garnished.-"God'ild you," i. e., God *" Craven,” i, e., cowardly. Since.

reward you.

are, but know not what we may be. God be at your | And, as the world were now but to begin, table!

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So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed. King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot 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. O! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father's death. And now, behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude!

pers,

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions. First, her father's slain;
Next, your son gone; and he most violent author
Of his own just remove: the people muddied,
Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whis-
[ greenly
For good Polonius' death, and we have done but
In hugger-mugger to inter him; poor Ophelia,
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 clouds,
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 persons to arraign
In ear and ear. O! my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering piece, in many places
Gives me superfluous death. [A noise within.'
Queen.
Alack! what noise is this?

King. Attend!

e

Where are my 'Switzers? Let them guard the door. What is the matter?

2 Enter a Gentleman, in haste. Gent. Save yourself, my lord; The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste, Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O'erbears your officers! The rabble call him, 3 king;

"Don'd," i. e., put on.-b" Dupp'd," i. e., opened."Groenly," i. e., unskilfully.-d" In bugger-mugger." i. e., secretly A murdering piece was a small piece of artillery. Switzers were royal guards.

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,
Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!" [cry.

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I pray you, give me leave.

[They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you: keep the door.-O thou vile Give me my father. [king! Quecn. Calmly, good Laertes. Laer. 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.
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,
Acts little of his will.-Tell me, Laertes,
Why thou art thus incens'd.-Let him go, Ger
Speak, man.
[trude.-

Laer. Where is my father?
King.
Queen.

Dead.

But not by him

King. Let him demand his fill. Laer. 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! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes, only I'll be reveng'd Most throughly for my father. King. Who shall stay you' Laer. My will, not all the world's: And, for my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far with little.

If

Of

King.

Good Laertes,

you desire to know the certainty

your

dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge, That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser?

Laer. None but his enemies.

King.

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Will you know them, then?

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope E And, like the kind life-rendering pelican, [arms; Repast them with my blood.

King.
Why, now you speak
Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
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.

Danes. [Within.] Let her come in.
Laer. How now! what noise is that?

Re-enter OPHELIA, still distracted.
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 by weight,

"Trail," i. e., scent.- Hounds run counter when they trace the scent backwards.-"Unsmirched," i. e, an lied; spotless.

Till our scale turns the beam. O rose of May !
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 a fine in love; and, where 'tis fine,
It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him bare-fac'd on the bier;

1[Sings.

Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny :
And in his grave rain'd many a tear ;—

Fare you well, my love!
[venge,
Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade re-
It could not move thus.

Oph. You must sing, Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter. Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies; that's for thoughts.

Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted.

SCENE VI.-Another Room in the Same.

Enter HORATIO, and a Servant.

Hor. What are they, that would speak with me?
Serv. Sailors, sir: they say, they have letters for you.
Hor. Let them come in.-
[Exit Servant.

I do not know from what part of the world
I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.
Enter Sailors.
1 Sail. God bless you, sir.
Hor. Let him bless thee too.

1 Sail. He shall, sir, an'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.

Hor. [Reads.] "Horatio, when thou shalt have the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were over-looked this, give these fellows some means to two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike apslow of sail, we put on a compelled valor; and in pointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too the grapple I boarded them: on the instant they got clear of our ship, so I alone became their pris oner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a have sent; and repair thou to me with as much good turn for them. Let the king have the letters haste as thou would'st fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore 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." [Sings. Come, I will give you way for these your letters; And do't the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines :there's rue for you; 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 violets; but they withered all when my father died.-They say, he made a good

end,

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,- [Sings. Laer. Thought and affliction; passion, hell itself, She turns to favor, and to prettiness.

Oph.

And will he not come again?
And will he not come again?
No, no, he is dead;

Gone to his death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard 3 was white as snow,

All flaxen was his poll;

He is

gone,

he is gone,
And we cast away moan:
God ha' mercy on his soul!

And of all Christian souls! I pray God.-God be
wi' you!
[Exit OPHELIA, dancing distractedly.

Laer. Do you see this, O God?
King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
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'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,

Το

you in satisfaction; but if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labor with your soul
To give it due content.

Laer.

Let this be so:
His means of death, his obscure funeral,
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones,
No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call't in question.
King.

So you shall;

And, where th' offence is, let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.

[Exeunt.

"Fine," i. e., refined; subtilized. The wheel is the burden of a ballad. "Pansies" (Fr. pensées), thoughts."Commune with," i. e., partake of

SCENE VII.-Another Room in the Same.

Enter King and LAERTES.

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance
seal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend,
Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear,
That he, which hath your noble father slain,
Pursu'd my life.

Laer.

It well appears. But tell me,
Why you proceeded not against these feats,
So criminal and so capital in nature,
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 unsinew'd,
But yet to me they are strong. The queen, his mother,
Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue, or my plague, be it either which)
She's 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,
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,
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

The bore is the caliber of a gun.- Since.- "The general gender," i. e., the common people.- "Gyves," i. e-, fetters.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost, A sister driven into desperate terms;

1 Who was, if praises may go back again, Sole 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,

That we can let our beard be shook with danger,
And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more:
I loved your father, and we love ourself;

And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,-
How now! what news?

Mess.

Enter a Messenger.

Letters, my lord, from Hamlet. This to your majesty: this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! who brought them? Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them Of him that brought them.

King. Laertes, you shall hear them. Leave us. [Exit Messenger. [Reads.] "High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, 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? Laer. Know you the hand?

King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. "Naked," And, in a postscript here, he says, "alone:" Can you advise me?

Laer. I'm lost in it, my lord. But let him come: It warms the very sickness in my heart, That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, "Thus diddest thou."

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It falls right.

Laer.
My lord, I will be rul'd;
The rather, if you could devise it so,
That I might be the organ.
King.
You have been talk'd of since your travel much,
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.

Laer.
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 weeds,
Importing health and graveness.-Two months since,
Here was a gentleman of Normandy:

I have 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;

"Of the unworthiest siege," i. e., of the lowest rank.

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Laer. Upon my life, Lamord.

The very same.

King. Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch, indeed, 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 defence, And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed, If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you oppos'd them. This report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy, That he could nothing do, but wish and beg Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you. Now, out of this,

Laer. What out of this, my lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart?

Laer.
Why ask you this?
King. Not that I think you did not love your father,
But that I know love is begun by time;
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 still;
For goodness, growing to a pleurisy,
Dies in his own too-much. That we would do,
We should do when we would; for this "world"
changes,

And hath abatements and delays as many,
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this "should" is like a spendthrift's sigh.
That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o' the ulcer.
Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake,
To show yourself your father's son in deed,
More than in words?

Laer.
To cut his throat i' the church.
King. No place, indeed, should murder sancto-
arize;
[Les,
Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laer
Will you do this, keep close within your chamber,
Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home.
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 togethas,
And wager on your heads: he, being remiss,
Most generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse 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."

h

Laer. I will do't; And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue

"In forgery of," i. e., in imagining.— "Brooch,” i e ornament.-"Scrimers" (Fr. escrimeurs), lencers —* * h passages of proof," i. e., in daily experience. Plenaris here means superabundance-s "Remiss," i. e, incautions; not vigilant. “Peruse," i. e., examine-i "Urbated,” i. e. not blunted, as foils usually are "A pass of practice," an insidious thrust.

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