him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes of his crown, Oph. What means this, my lord? means mischief. Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? Oph. I'll mark the play. Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. P. King. I do believe, you think what now you But, what we do determine, oft we break. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? But, orderly to end where I begun, — Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord. Ham. As woman's love. Enter a King and a Queen. P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' 3 orbed ground; P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o'er, ere love be done! So far from cheer, and from your former state, My operant powers their functions leave to do! Our wills, and fates, do so contráry run, light! Sport and repose lock from me, day and night! Ham. Madam, how like you this play? Ham. No, no, they do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' the world. King. What do you call the play? Ham. 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 galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung. Ham. Begin, murderer; faces, and begin. Come; The croaking raven Doth bellow for revenge. Ham. You are welcome. Guil. 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 com Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and mandment: if not, your pardon, and my return, time agreeing; Confederate season, else no creature seeing; Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, [Pours the Poison into the Sleeper's Ears. Ham. What! frighted with false fire! Hor. You might have rhymed. Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning, the recorders.4. - Come, some musick; come, For if the king like not the comedy, Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.5— Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Come, some musick. shall be the end of my business. Ham. Sir, I cannot. Guil. What, my lord? Ham. 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, Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed. Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us? Ros. My lord, you once did love me. Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers. Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you do, surely, but bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend. Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Denmark? Ham. Ay, sir, but While the grass grows,· proverb is something musty. Enter the Players, with Recorders. -the O, the recorders: Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? Guil. My lord, I cannot. Ham. I pray you. Guil. Believe me, I cannot. Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord. Ham. 'Tis as easy as lying: govern these ventages 6 with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with musick. Look you, these are the stops. you. Ham. Sir, a whole history. Guil. The king, sir, Ham. Ay, sir, what of him? 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 Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous distem- would seem to know my stops; you would pluck pered. Ham. With drink, sir? Guil. No, my lord, with choler. Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer, to signify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler. Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair. Ham. I am tame, sir: -pronounce. Guil. The queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. 1 Curse. 4 A kind of flute. 2 Slashed. 3 Pack, company. 5 Par Dieu. Do you out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me Ham. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost in | Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear shape of a camel? Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Pol. Very like a whale. Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by. They fool me to the top of my bent.7. I will come by and by. Pol. I will say so. [Exit 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 Contagion to this world: Now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege; Thanks, dear my lord. [Erit POLONIUS O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; Would quake to look on. Soft; now to my And what's in prayer, but this two-fold force, — mother. O, heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom : 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 soever she be shent, To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, To give them seals 9 never, my soul, consent! [Exit. May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence? Enter KING, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTern. Guil. Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound, We will haste us. [Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Enter POLONIUS. Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet: Behind the arras I'll convey myself, 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, In the corrupted currents of this world, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe; Enter HAMLET. [ Retires and knee's Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge. No. |