his love.

Enter PROLOGUE.

Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all.

Oph. Will be tell us what this show meant? Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him: Be not you asham'd to show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means.

Oph. You are naught, you are naught; I'll mark the play.

Pro. For us, and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a
zing?

Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord.
Ham. As woman's love.

Enter a KING and a QUEEN.

P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round

Neptune's salt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground;

And thirty dozen moons, with borrow'd sheen, [] About the world have times twelve thirties been; [hands, Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our Luite commutual in most sacred bands. P. Queen. So many journeys may the sun

and moon

Make us again count o'er, ere love be done!
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 fear too much, even as they love;
And women's fear and love hold quantity;
In seither aught, or in extremity. [know;
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you
And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so,
Where love is great, the littlest doubts are
fear;
[there.
Where little fears grow great, great love grows
P. Aing. 'Faith, I must leave thee, love, and
sbortly too;
[do;
Mr operant powers their functions leave to
And thou shalt live in this fair world behind,
Bar'd, belov'd; and, haply, one as kind
For husband shalt thou-

P. Queen. O confound the rest!
Such love must needs be treason in my breast:
In second husband let me be accurst!
Noce wed the second, but who kill'd the first.
Ham. That's wormwood.

P. Queen. The instances, ++ that second mar

A second time I kill my husband dead,
When second husband kisses me in bed.
P. King. I do believe, you think what now
But, what we do determine, oft we break.
you speak;
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.
Most necessary 'tis, that we forget
To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in passion we propose,
The violence of either grief or joy
The passion ending, doth the purpose lose.
Their own enactures with themselves destroy:
Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament;
Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident.
This world is not for aye:+ nor 'tis not strange,
That even our loves should with our fortunes
For 'tis a question left us yet to prove, [change;
Whether love lead fortune, or else fortuue love.
The great man down, you mark his favourite
flies;

The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth love on fortune tend;
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, our fates, do so contiáry run,
That our devices still are overthrown ;
Our thoughts are our's, their euds none of our

own:

So think thou wilt no second husband wed; But die thy thoughts, when thy first lord is dead.

P. Queen. Nor earth to give me food, nor heaven light I

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!
Both here and hence pursue me, lasting strife,
If, once a widow, ever I be wife!
Ham. If she should break it now,-
[TO OPHELIA.
P. King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave
me here a while;

My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with sleep.
[Steeps.

P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain; And never come mischance between us twain! [Exit.

Ham. Madam, how like yon this play? Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Ham. Oh! but she'll keep her word. King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't?

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, tour withers are unwrung.

out

Contagion to this world: Now could I drink hot 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 evet
The son of Nero enter this firm bosom:
Let me be cruel, not annatural :

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 give them seals † never, my soul, consent!
[Exit.

SCENE III-A Room in the same. Ester KING, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN

us,

STERN.

King. I like him not; nor stands it safe with
[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
Hazar: so near us, as doth hourly grow
Out of his lunes. Į

Guil. We will ourselves provide:
Most holy and religious fear it is,
To keep those many bodies safe,
That live and feed upon your majesty.

Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from 'noyauce: but much more
That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Des not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it, with it: it is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser
things

Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
Dad the king sigh, but with a general groan.
King. Arin you, I pray you, to this speedy

voyage;

For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.
Ros. Guil. We will haste us.

[ELEN ROSENCHANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.

Enter POLONIUS.

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 band 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 rests?
Try what repentance can : What can it not?
Yet what cau it, when one can not repent?
O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul! that, struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd. Help, augels, make assay !
Bow, stubborn knees! and heart, with strings of
steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe;
All may be well!

[Retires and kneels.

[ven,

closet:

Oh! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It bath the primal eldest curse upon't:
A brother's marder!-Pray can 1 not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will;
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And, like a man to double business bound,
I mind in panse where I shall first begin,
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,

Bet to confront the visage of offence 1
And what's in prayer, but this twofold force,-

[Exit.

The KING rises and advances. King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:

Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. [Exit.

SCENE IV.-Another Room in the same.

Enter QUEEN and POLONIUS. Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to him:

Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with;

And that your grace hath screen'd and stood between

Much heat and him. I'll silence me e'en here. Pray you, be round with him.

Queen. I'll warrant you;

Fear une not-withdraw, I hear him coming. [POLONIUS hides himself.

Enter HAMLET.

Ham. Now, mother; what's the matter?

Caught as with bird-lime.

+ Should be con Reward.

1 Only. Seize him at a more horrid time.

Queen. O what a rash and bloody deed is this!

Ham. A bloody deed;-almost as bad, good mother,

As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
Queen. As kill a king!

Ham. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.Thou wretched, rasb, intruding fool, farewell! [TO POLONIUS. 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,

And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff;

If damned custom have not braz'd it so,
That it be proof and bulwark against sense.
Queen. What have I done, that thou dar'st
wag thy tongue

In noise so rude against me?

Ham. 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,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: Oh! such a deed
As from the body of contraction + plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes

A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful -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 ? ¿ Ham. Look here, upon this picture; and on this;

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See, what a grace was seated on this brow,
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten and commaud;
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:

was't,

What devil

That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? §
Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight,
Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans | all,
Or but a sickly part of one true seuse
Could not so mope. ¶

O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious bell,
If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame,
When the compulsive ardour gives the charge;
Since frost itself as actively doth buru,
And reason panders will.

Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more:
Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very sonl;
And there I see such black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct. **

Ham. 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;
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears:
No more, sweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain:

A slave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent lord :-a vice ‡‡ of kings:
A cutpurse of the empire and the rule;
That from a shelf the precious diadem stołe,
And put it in his pocket!

That, laps'd 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 5 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 alarin, 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 ?

+ Sensation.

J Without.

Greasy.

The hair of animals is excrementitious, that is

without life or sensation.

Ham. On him! on him!-Look you, how pale he glares!

His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones,

Would made them capable. *-Do not look upon

me;

Lest with this piteons action, you convert My stern effects: then what I have to do Will want true colour; tears, perchance, blood.

Queen. To whom do you speak this?
Ham. Do you see nothing there?
Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see.
Ham. Nor did you nothing hear?
Queen. No, nothing, but ourselves.

Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away!

My father, in his babit as he liv'd! 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.

Ham. 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
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that flattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass but my madness speaks :
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place;
Whiles rank corruption, mining all within,
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 vir-

Hem. O throw away the worser part of it,
And live the purer with the other half.
Good night but go not to my uncle's bed;
Assane a virtue, if you have it not.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat
Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this;
That to the use of actions fair and good
He likewise gives a frock, or livery,
That aptly is put on: 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,
And either curb the devil, or throw him out
With wondrous potency. Once more, good
night!

And when you are desirous to be bless'd,
Fu blessing beg of you. For this same lord,
[Pointing to POLONIUS.
I do repent: But heaven hath pleas'd it so,-
To ponish me with this, and this with me,
That I must be their scourge and voinister.
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:
Thas bad begins, and worse remains behind.-
Bat one word more, good lady.

Queen. What shall I do?

Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,

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'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 engineer
Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go
hard,

But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: Oh! '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.

Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:

Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed: Pach wanton on your cheek; call you, mouse; **

his

And let him, for a pair of reechy ++ kisses,
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,

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
baunt, ¶
[love,
This mad young man: but, so mnch was our
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?
Queen. To draw apart the body he hath

kill'd:

O'er whom his very madness, like some ore,

Experiments. Blown up with his own