The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare

Among a mineral ⚫ of metals base,

Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done.
King. O Gertrude, come away!

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! Guilden-
stern!

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Friends both, go join you with some further 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, slan-
der,-

Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank, +
Transports his poison'd shot,-may miss

name,

And hit the woundless air.-O come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay.

our

[Exeunt.

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?

Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. [Exeunt. SCENE III-Another Room in the same.

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,

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 pleasure.

King. Bring him before us,

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 politic 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 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 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 seck 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
[self;
With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thy.
The bark is ready, and the wind at help,
The associates tend, † and every thing is bent
For England.

Ham. For England? King. Ay, Hamlet. Ham. Good.

Ham. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them. But, come; for 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; and so, my mother. Come, for England. [Evil.

King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard;

Delay it not, I have him hence to-night: Away; for every thing is seal'd and done That else feans on the affair: Pray you, make [Exeunt Ros, and GUIL And, England, if my love thou hold'st at auglit, (As my great power thereof may give

baste,

sense;

thee

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

set t

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,

[Exeunt FORTINBRAS and Forces.

Enter HAMLET, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDEN-
STERN, &C.

Ham. Good Sir, whose powers are these?
Cap. They are of Norway, Sir,
Han. How purpos'd, Sir,

I pray you!

Cap. Against some part of Poland.
Ham. Woo

Commands them, Sir?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, Sir,

Or for some frontier ?

Cap. Truly to speak, Sir, and with no addi-
tion,

We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That bath in it to 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.

When honour's at the stake.

How stand I then,

That bave a father kill'd, a mother stain'd,
Excitements of my reason and my blood,
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,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,
To hide the slain ?-Oh! from this time forth
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!
[Exit.

SCENE V.-Elsinore.-A Room in the
Castle.

Enter QUEEN and HORATIO.

Queen. I will not speak with her.
Hor. She is importunate; indeed, distract;
Her mood will needs be pitied.

Queen. What would she have?

Hor. She speaks much of her father; says,

she hears,

There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and beats her heart;

doubt,

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in
[thing,
That carry but half sense: her speech is no
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 unhappily. Queen. "Twere good, she were spoken with; for she may strew

Ham. Why, then the Polack § never will de- Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds:

fend it.

Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrison'd.

Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thou-
sand decats,

Will not debate the question of this straw:
This is the imposthume of much wealth and
peace;

That inward breaks, and shows no cause with

out

Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, Sir.
Cap. God be wi' you, Sir. [Exit CAPTAIN.
Res. Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little
before.
[Exeunt Ros. and GUIL.
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spar my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed a heast, no more.
Sure he that made us with such large dis-

course, ¶

Looking before and after, gave us not
That capability and godlike reason

To fast 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,

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. Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Deni mark?

Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

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

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon? [Singing. Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this

White his shroud as the mountain snow,

Enter KING.

Queen. Alas! look here, my lord.

[Sings.

Oph. Larded all with sweet flowers;
Which bewept to the grave did go,
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

Oph. Well, God'ield || you! They say, the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when they ask you what it means, say you this:

Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine:

Then up he rose, and don'd▾ his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber door ;

Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

King. Pretty Ophelia !

Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail⚫ they cry!

Oh! this is counter, you false Danish dogs. King. The doors are broke. [Noise within. Enter LAERTES, armed; DANES following. Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all without.

Dan. No, let's come in.

Laer. I pray you, give me leave.
Dan. We will, we will.

[They retire without the door. Laer. I thank you :-keep the door.-O thou vile king,

Oph. Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an Give me my father.

end on't:

By Gis, and by Saint Charity,
Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do't, if they come to't;
By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,
You promised me to wed:
[He answers.]

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 should 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. Oh! 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;
Next, your son gone; and the most violent au-

thor

Of his own just remove: The people muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers,

For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,

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 person 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?

Queen. 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. Dead.

Queen. But not by him.
King. Let him demand his fill.
Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be jug-

gled with:

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil!
Conscience and grace to the profoundest pit I
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 thoroughly 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.

King. Good Laertes,

If you desire to know the certainty

of 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. Will you know them then?

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope

my arms;

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
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?
Enter OPHELIA, fantastically dressed with
Straws and Flowers.

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

+ Hounds run counter when they trace the scent backwards. § Appear.

Clean, undefiled.

Artful.

It sends some precious instance of itself
After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him barefac'd on the bier :
Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny:
And in his grave rain'd many a tear ;-
Fare you well, my dove!
Leer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade
revenge,

It could not move thus.

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

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 overlooked 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 valour: and in the grapple I Laer. This nothing's more than matter. Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remem-boarded them: on the instant, they got clear brance; pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.

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

of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king Oph. There's fennel for you, and colum- have the letters I have sent; and repair thou bines :—there's rue for you; and here's some to me with as much haste as thou wouldst fly for me:-we may call it, herb of grace o'Sun- death. I have words to speak in thine ear, days:-you may wear your rue with a differ-will make thee dumb; yet are they much too ence. There's a daisy:-I would give you light for the bore of the matter. These good some violets; but they withered all, when my fellows will bring thee where I am. he made a good crantz and Guildenstern hold their course for father died:-They say, England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.

end,

For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy,—
[Sings.
Laer. Thought and affliction, passsion, hell
itself,

She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

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

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again

[Sings.

His beard was as white as snow,
All flaxen was his poll:

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

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

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
If by direct or by collateral hand

They find as touch'd, we will our kingdom
give,

Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in satisfaction; but, if not,

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

Laer. Let this be so;

His means of death, bis obscnre funeral,

Rosen

He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.
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.

[Excunt.

SCENE VII.-Another Room in the same.

Enter KING and LAERtes.

King. Now must your conscience my acquit-
tance 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 crimeful and so capital in nature,

As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things
else,
You mainly were stirr'd up.

King. Oh! for two special reasons;
Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsi-
new'd, t

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 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,
Why to a public count I might not go,

No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his Is, the great love the general gender † bear him:

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 the offence is, let the great axe fall.
I pray you, go with me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI-Another Room in the same.

Enter HORATIO, and a SERVANT.

Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Work like the spring that turneth wood to
[arrows,
stone,
Converts his gyves to graces; so that my
Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind,
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

Laer. And so have I a noble father lost;
A sister driven into desperate terms;
Whose worth, if praises may go back again,
Stood challenger on mount of all the age

Flor. What are they, that would speak with For her perfections :-But my revenge will

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Mess. 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 occasion of my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet.

Bation,

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,
That he could nothing do, but wish and beg,
Your sudden coming o'er, to play with you.
Now, out of this,-

Later. 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;

What should this mean! Are all the rest come 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 name 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,

Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him Dies in his own too-much: That we would do,

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As checking at his voyage, and that he means
No more to undertake it,-I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,
Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
Aud for his death no wind of blame shall
breathe:

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;
And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh,
That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o'the

ulcer:

Hamlet comes back; What would you under-
take,

To show yourself in deed your father's son
More than in words?

Laer. To cut his throat i'the church.
King. No place, indeed, should murder sanc-

tuarize;

Revenge should have no bonads. But, good Laertes, ber: Will you do this, keep close within your chamBut even his mother shall uncharge the practice, Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come And call it, accident.

Laer. 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,
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 ribband 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 gentlemen of Normandy ;

I have seen myself, and serv'd against the French,
And they can well on horseback: but this gal-
Jant

Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his seat;
And to such wondrous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd
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.

Laer. A Norman, was't?

King. A Norman.

Laer. Upon my life, Lamord.

• Objecting to.

home:

+ Place.

+ Science of defence, i. e. fencing. Daily experience. Extre

Not blunted as foils are.

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The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: With Glossarial Notes, a Sketch of ...