The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble, To serve in such a difference. What devil was't Could not so mope. O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, 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 And reason panders will. Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; Ham. Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stewed 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! Ecstasy: madness Enseamed: loathsome Grained: deep-dyed Tinct: color Hoodman-blind: blind man's buff Ham. A murderer and a villain; A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, Ham. A king of shreds and patches, Enter Ghost. Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? Queen. Alas, he's mad! Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by The important acting of your dread command? Ghost. Do not forget: this visitation Ham. How is it with you, lady? Queen. Alas, how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy An: on Distemper: malady, disorder Vice: clown Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? Ham. On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares! His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, Would make them capable. upon me; [To the Ghost.] Do not lock Lest with this piteous action you convert Queen. Do you see nothing there? No, nothing but ourselves. Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he lived! Look, where he goes, even now, out at the porta!! [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, That I have uttered: bring me to the test, Effects: intended actions And do not spread the compost on the weeds, Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. And live the purer with the other half. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, To the next abstinence: the next more easy; [Pointing to Polonius I do repent: but Heaven hath pleased it so, Thus bad begins and worse remains behind. Curb: bow William Shakespeare Pursy: fat, short-breathed 53 A KING APOSTROPHIZES SLEEP1 THE speaker is King Henry IV, sick and despond ent; the place, "Westminster. The Palace"; the time, past midnight. How many thousand of my poorest subjects Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody? O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile And in the visitation of the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top, 1 From Henry IV, Part II. Cribs: huts Watch-case: sentry box |